Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Honey Hot Wings

I've posted this recipe before but I'm putting it on my blog again for the Carnival of the Recipes. This is one of the most requested recipes on my recipe site.

Click the recipe title for a printable version.

Honey Hot Wings

12 chicken wings*
2/3 c. flour
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 egg, well beaten
1/4 c. oil
1/2 c. hot sauce (I use Texas Pete)
1/2 c. honey

Cut each chicken wing in half. Place the chicken wings in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover and let simmer 15 minutes. Drain the chicken and set aside.

While chicken is cooking, whisk together the honey and the hot sauce to make a dipping sauce. Adjust the sauce to taste by adding more honey or hot sauce. Set aside.

(If you're making this for a party, you may want to start a day before. Prepare the recipe up to this point, then refrigerate the chicken and sauce over night. Complete just before serving.)

Mix flour and garlic salt in a plastic bag. Dip the chicken into the beaten egg and then shake them, a few at a time in the bag to coat.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Brown the coated chicken wings. Serve warm with dipping sauce.

Makes 2 dozen.

*Many groceries carry drumettes (the half of the wing that looks like a mini drumstick) in the freezer section. 24 drumettes may be substituted for the 12 wings.

Republican National Convention

The broadcast networks are giving three hours to covering the Republican National Convention just as they gave three hours to the Democrat Convention. While this is fair, I believe they have already made a mistake on choosing which hours to air. Both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani spoke last night and both speeches were deserving of coverage.

If you weren't able to watch coverage last night, read the text of the speeches or watch the videos.

John McCain's Speech

Rudy Giuliani's Speech

A USA Today article also has links to videos of the speeches. C-SPAN has live feeds from the convention along, video from last night (RealPlayer), and the schedule of speakers.

The speakers tonight will include Representative Anne Northup (KY), Elizabeth Dole, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Laura Bush.

Turtle TV

I like turtles. I can't explain why...they're not furry and cute like a kitten or a puppy, but I like them anyway. Now when I need a turtle fix I can go to Turtle TV.

They have turtle games, turtle movies, and turtle wallpaper. Make sure you visit with Granny while you're there.

Stuck at Home Mom

My van refuses to start so I'll be stuck at home for at least today. I could use this as an opportunity to get a lot of cleaning and other housework done.

Or not.

It's a rainy day, perfect for napping. If I'm feeling really energetic, I'll get up from the couch and play some computer or video games.

Hang Grandma on the Tree

If Christmas is your favorite time of the year, you can still be with your family at that time even after you die. As a Christmas ornament.

Each ornament is made with molten glass that contain a bit of cremation ash from your loved one. The ash is mixed with molten glass, re-dipped in clear glass to completely encase it. It is a hollow sphere, that comes alive when the minerals are added to produce colorful swirls.

You can also get other keepsakes, a glass horse's head, for example. I can think of a few people for whom the other end of the horse might be more appropriate.

The customer comments are interesting too. This one's my favorite.

Urgent Safeharbor Department Notice

I got an email that claimed to be from eBay saying that I needed "TO VERIFY YOUR EBAY ACCOUNT REGISTRATION INFORMATIONS". The email included a warning "If we do not receive the appropriate eBay account verification within 48 hours, then we will assume this eBay account is fraudulent and will be suspended."

Funny, thing is the URL it sends me to is http://211.202.3.208/. (See Whois.) This IP location is in Greece and the site is registered to someone in Korea...not to eBay.

I did not share my "informations" and forwarded the email to spoof@ebay.com instead.

Update: eBay replied to my email. (The reply email is in the extended entry.) They confirmed my belief that the email was not sent by them and said that they have "reported this email to the appropriate authorities." Then they went on to warn me against giving out sensitive information requested by email. No kidding. I really didn't doubt that the email was fake, I forwarded it to let them know about this attempt to get user information.

Hello,

Thank you for writing to eBay regarding the email you received.

Emails such as this, commonly referred to as "spoof" or "phished"
messages, are sent in an attempt to collect sensitive personal or
financial information from the recipients.

The email you reported was not sent by eBay. We have reported this email
to the appropriate authorities.

In the future, be very cautious of any email that asks you to submit
information such as your credit card number or your email password. eBay
will never ask you for sensitive personal information such as passwords,
bank account or credit card numbers, Personal Identification Numbers
(PINs), or Social Security Numbers in an email. If you ever need to
provide sensitive information to us, please open a new Web browser, type
www.ebay.com into your browser address field, and click on the "site
map" link located at the top the page to access the eBay page you need.

If you have any doubt about whether an email message is from eBay,
please forward it immediately to spoof@ebay.com. Do not respond to it or
click any of the links. Do not remove the original subject line or
change the email in any way when you forward it to us.

If you have already entered sensitive financial information or your
password into a Web site based on a request from a spoofed email, you
should take immediate action to protect your identity and all of your
online accounts. We have developed an eBay Help page with valuable
information regarding the steps you should take to protect yourself.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/isgw-account-theft-reporting.html

To review eBay's new tutorial about Spoof Emails, please see the
following Web page:

http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/

Once again, thank you for alerting us to the spoof email you received.
Your efforts help us ensure that eBay remains a safe and vibrant online
marketplace.

Regards,

Ian
eBay SafeHarbor
Investigations Team
______________________________
eBay
Your Personal Trading Community (tm)

*******************************************

Important: eBay will not ask you for sensitive personal information
(such as your password, credit card and bank account numbers, Social
Security numbers, etc.) in an email. Learn more account protection tips
at:

http://www.pages.ebay.com/help/account_protection.html
_____________________________________________

For our latest announcements, please check:

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Kentucky State Fair

We went to the fair yesterday. You can read my husband's comments about it here.

For Conor and Emma, the highlight was getting to climb on a tank.

For me, the highlight was the cotton candy and funnel cake. (See extended entry for a funnel cake recipe.)

Funnel Cake

1 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1 egg
powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar
vegetable oil for frying
1/2" spout funnel

Heat about 1" of oil in a 12" skillet to 375 degrees. Mix flour, milk, baking powder, salt, and egg with a fork. Hold finger over the spout of the funnel and pour 1/4 cup of batter into the funnel. Hold over hot oil, remove finger from spout, and let batter pour into the oil while moving the funnel in a 6" spiral pattern. Fry until golden brown, turning once. Drain well on paper towels and sprinkle with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar. Repeat with the remaining batter. Serve hot.

Vanity and Search Engines

For a while now Google has been my default search engine. I have the Google toolbar and use it frequently. Now I'm considering changing that habit. It's not because of something Google has done. It's an ego thing.

When I do a search for "marybeth" on AlltheWeb or MSN my blog is the first result. Not so with Google. It's obvious to me that these other two SEs have keen insight that Google lacks.

Not really. What is happening is that AlltheWeb and MSN are giving weight to frequency of the term (each "Posted by marybeth") on my blog while Google appears to give more weight to the title and URL and possibly the position of the text on the page.

Since Google presumably looks at the anchor text of incoming links to the site, then those with the keyword in the title or URL would be given more weight for that term. But I don't think that is a very big factor. About a week ago I temporarily changed my blog title to "Random Thoughts From Somewhere Near Cambodia". (Hey, if Kerry could claim to be in or near Cambodia when he was 50 miles away, I can claim to be near there even though I'm in Kentucky. I look at the big picture - on an astronomical scale, I'm near Cambodia.) As far as I know, no one changed their links to me to reflect this title change yet in a Google search for "near Cambodia" my blog shows up on the front page. I'm making a change in the title again to test how important it is to Google.

Which makes for better search results? I've reviewed enough sites for JoeAnt to know that a keyword in the URL, title, or repeated in the text has little to do with the quality of the site's content. For some things (not a vanity search, though), using a human-edited directory may give the best results. Sites are listed by topic which isn't necessarily the same as by keyword. You know that the site was reviewed and considered to have some merit before being added.

For search engines, it's not so much which is better, it's recognizing that different engines will give different results. Relying too much on just one search engine would be like having cable TV and only watching one station. If you're in the habit of using only one search engine, try a new one. Try a directory too.

JoeAnt is always looking for more volunteer editors. If you have a favorite subject and know a lot of good Web sites that you don't see listed in our directory, consider signing up to be an editor.

If you're a blogger and you sign up for a category other than Computers (where Blogs are a subtopic) and you would like to have your blog listed you can post in the JoeAnt forum (put "MB- blog listing" in the title) or send me a message through the editor message system and I'll list your blog for you. Who knows, you may end up getting the Blog of the Month listing.

Popular Isn't the Same as Cool

Ann Althouse has a blog post about a NYT article on celebrities and politics. Her post ends with the question, "does the near-unanimity of celebrity endorsement for anti-Bush create a deep-seated feeling that all the cool people are on the left?".

I guess it depends on how you define "cool". Is coolness determined by who has the most CD or movie ticket sales? Is it a popularity contest? Does being more popular with younger people make a celebrity cooler than one who is liked by older people? Are rock musicians cooler than country musicians?

For me, neither success at one's job nor popularity indicates coolness. (If being good at your job made you cool, then in high school only the A students would be cool.) The people I've known who I would consider cool were well liked but not necessarily the most popular. Coolness isn't based on their talents, it's whether or not they are enjoyable to be with.

Rock may be considered cooler than country music but does that make rock musicians cooler than country musicians? I'm generalizing here and it may have as much to do with how the stations cover the artists but when I watch shows on MTV, VH1, or CMT about different artists, it seems as though the country stars are more willing to spend time with their fans and to give the fans more credit for their success than the rock stars do. That's cool.

So, is Alec Baldwin cooler than Stephen Baldwin? Is Bruce Springsteen cooler than Alice Cooper? I liked Alec Baldwin in Hunt for Red October and I've seen a couple other movies he's been in. I don't think I've ever seen anything his brother has been in. I enjoy more Springsteen songs than I do Cooper ones although I've bought records by both. I haven't met any of these people. The only way I have to judge their personalities instead of their job performance is by interviews I've read or seen on TV. Going by that makes me think that Alice Cooper is intelligent, funny, and doesn't seem to take himself too seriously. Again, that's cool.

Start Bidding

Just a quick visit to eBay and you too can have a Silver Star. Show it off, tell people you earned it. (It = the money you used to buy the medal.) If they ask for more information, act indignant. Tell them it's all in your military records but refuse to let anyone see all of the records.

I'm usually wary of people who act indignant when questioned about something they said or did. It makes me think they are hiding something. People who are being honest tend to be baffled as to why you would be questioning them.

Note: I'm not seriously suggesting that anyone buy a Silver Star and pretend to have earned it. Not only would it be dishonest, it would also be disrespectful to those who have been awarded this medal because they deserved it. If you earned this or any other military award, God bless you and thank you.

New Ringers

I decided it was time to change my phone ringers again so I spent the evening looking for MIDIs. I found a nice collection here that has oldies, Beatles, country music, TV themes, and bluegrass. There's another good collection with music from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, sorted alphabetically, here.

I'll use this program by Anvil Studio to shorten the songs before downloading them to my phone. I've used it before and found it to be an easy way to edit the MIDIs for length. It lets you cut off some of the music at the beginning and/or end.

I use mbuzzy to download the songs to my phone and my son's phone. You can also save pictures there to download to your phone.

It's not that I think anyone really cares that I'm changing my ringers, but if I post about it, it will be easier for me to find these links next time.

Second Carnival of the Recipes

Beth of She Who Will Be Obeyed! has posted the second Carnival of the Recipes collection.

Recipe List:
Tex Mex Feast
Fruitcake
Squash Chili
Khachapuri (Georgian Cheese Bread)
Scientific Chocolate Chip Cookies
Skillet Penne with Vegetables
Roast Lamb and Vegetables
Roast Chicken With Winter Vegetables
Chicken Pot Pie
Leftover Pot Pie
Curry Chicken Soup In Bread Bowls
Ultimate Guide to Meatloaf
Hawaiian Potato Salad
Chocolate Cake
Pizza Dough
Black Walnut Baklava
Lasagna
The Queen's Cheesecake
Crunchy Tossed Salad
Italian Seafood Stew
Steak with Garlic Blue Cheese Butter
Kin's Easy as Pie Chicken Pie
Cornbread Casserole
Emeril's Remoulade
Fruit Cocktail Cake
Bread Machine Recipes
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Stuffed Pork Roast
Baked Garlic

Not Harsh Enough

Daniel Culligan, a 28-year-old Pennsylvania man, was sentenced to serve six to 23 months in jail for setting his 9-month-old kitten on fire. He "was accused of dousing his cat in lighter fluid and setting it on fire. He then threw the kitten off the deck of his apartment" because "he became frustrated when it soiled his apartment and scratched his son."

Along with jail time, Culligan was ordered to pay a $1000 fine and pay restitution to the veterinarian who euthanized the kitten. He will also have to serve 40 hours of community service and complete an anger management course.

"I thought the judge's sentence was a little bit harsh," said Ray Geary, Culligan's attorney.

Geary asked the judge to impose probation. Culligan's father called him an animal lover. In court, Culligan apologized to his family and said he wasn't a bad guy.

A little bit harsh? He's lucky I'm not able to decide what punishment he receives.

Finally

I understand why newspapers require people to register to read them online but I still find it annoying. Knight Ridder has made it a bit easier. Now you can register once and have access to all associated publications.

New Strategy

Bush Campaign Shift: Now, It's a One-Man Race - sounds like a good plan to me!

Who You Are, Not What You Are

I've written before about how I get most of my news from reading other blogs. I get a wider variety of sources and better explanations/discussions of news topics than I can from newspapers or TV news. I also read news that isn't being covered by major media.

The influence of blogs on what news is being covered and how blogs have made it more difficult for major media to ignore some stories has been a recurring theme in many blogs I read. I think there's another, more subtle, influence blogs are having in breaking down stereotypes.

The only stereotype that I feel has had any effect on the way people treat me is the assumption that because I live in Kentucky, I don't wear shoes, keep the washing machine on the front porch, just barely graduated from 6th grade...as if everyone from Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and such states live like the Beverly Hillbillies (before they moved to California.)

Blogs such as Instapundit (TN) and Ipse Dixit (KY) and other bloggers from these states can't help but make people view citizens of these states a little differently than they had before.

When you begin reading a blog post, you may not know the author's gender, race, location, education, or age. You read the thoughts of the author, the other things are irrelevant, all that matters is whether they make sense and can support their opinions with facts. I believe that this exchange of ideas without the influence of prejudice or bias will do as much or more to breakdown stereotypes of all kinds than any affirmative action program has ever done.

First Carnival of the Recipes!

I thought this was a great idea the first time I read Beth's post suggesting that bloggers post recipes and share them in a Carnival of the Recipes. I'll begin posting some of mine when my memory improves I have more time.

See the first entries at She Who Will Be Obeyed!

Recipe List:
Mexican Manicotti
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Mexican Casserole
Mushroom Pork Tenderloin
Chicken and Couscous
Four Pepper Pasta
Random Pizza
Seafood Fettuccini
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Seashell Casserole
Hot to Trot Hot Wing Recipe
One Egg Omelet
Coca-Cola Brisket
Salsa
Barbeque Sauce
Ficelle Picarde
40 Cloves and a Chicken
Oven Spiced Fries
Corn Quiche
Lime Cookies
Donna's Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
King Ranch Chicken
Pasta with Tomato, Basil and Chevre sauce
Instachicken
Baghdad Ribs

AWOL

New Way to Consume Alcohol Draws Ire

A new machine that allows bar-hoppers to inhale liquor instead of drinking it is set to make its debut in New York City tomorrow night.

There's already an effort to get it banned.

The machine combines alcohol and oxygen to create an inhalable alcoholic mist.

It's called Alcohol Without Liquid -- or AWOL -- and it's already available in Europe and Asia. Its American distributor, Spirit Partners, is touting it as a low-carb, low-calorie and hangover-free alternative to drinking.

The company says AWOL sends alcohol into the bloodstream faster than drinking, resulting in a quick buzz. But it also says the level of alcohol in the body after AWOL use is lower than for traditional drinkers.

Andrew Spano, the county executive in Westchester County, New York, doesn't like it. He worries it will attract underage drinkers, and is seeking a local or statewide ban.

The use of this appears to go against any argument that people go to bars to socialize or enjoy the taste of a drink. I think the biggest change this might cause is that it would make it more likely for states to lower the legal blood alcohol levels.

I don't agree with banning it because of its potential attraction to underage drinkers for a couple of reasons. The first is, are bars going to suddenly stop asking for IDs? The machines start at just under $3000, so it's not as if your average high school student is going to rush out and get one for personal use.

Second, something shouldn't be banned because of what one person or group's opinion about it. Show me evidence of problems AWOL has caused in places that have it already and I'll agree it should be banned but don't tell me what might happen.

New Bike

Conor and his new Stingray.

Not Even In Black and White

I was looking at search terms people have used recently and saw this, "Olympic Games In Acient (sic) Greece Photos".

Photos?

Surreal Time

I was flipping through the TV channels and came across Real Time With Bill Maher (a repeat of the Aug. 13 show). Normally I would have kept going but I decided to try to watch it since Michelle Malkin was one of the guests. (I like her writing enough to have selected her blog for Blog of the Month so I wanted the chance to hear her talk. I wasn't disappointed.) The other studio guests were Rep. Rahm Emanuel and D.L. Hughley. Video guests were Gary Hart and Maureen Dowd.

I don't remember ever seeing Dowd on TV before. Does she always look and talk as though she were stoned? Her eyes looked half closed, her voice was slow and spacey, and, at least in the beginning, she didn't really answer the questions but either rephrased what she had been asked or rambled. If she's always like that, it's no wonder she chose the print media.

When they began discussing Porter Goss, the first comment Bill Maher made was about the man's name. He said it sounded like someone from Friends or The O.C. Maybe Maher would have liked it better if his name had been something more ordinary...Rahm Emanuel, for example.

I'm not making fun of Emanuel's name. Really. I didn't agree with the things he said and when he was talking about terrorist attacks in the U.S. he somehow forgot about the 1993 WTC bombing but he was there to deliver talking points for the Democrats and did that as well as could be expected.

Hughley could have contributed more by remaining silent. I'm not sure what his contribution was supposed to be unless it was to make sure that there was someone there who's a bigger ass than Maher.

Maher talked about how President Bush doesn't read newspapers. Well, you know, neither do I. The idea that newspapers are the first and best source of news strikes me as a holdover from the last century. The group seemed to agree that it was bad for the president to get news only from the people around him. I'm not sure that I see that getting news through your trusted advisors is any worse than getting it filtered through the editors of the Washington Post or any other newspaper.

Lull in Posting

I've been having lower back pain for the last several months. It's gotten worse recently so sitting in front of the computer for any length of time has become almost impossible. This has greatly reduced blogging time but I'll try to keep posting when I can.

Veterans Memorial Parkway

Oldham County Fiscal Court agreed at its meeting July 6 to support the American Legion Post 39 in La Grange in its quest to rename the Ky. 329 bypass from Ky. 22 to Interstate 71 in Crestwood the Veterans Memorial Parkway.

...Not only is the legion seeking to rename the road, Helton said, it is also planning to erect educational plaques along the road commemorating wars and campaigns in which Americans have fought. Helton said there are more than 100 such wars or campaigns.

After they decide which conflicts will be commemorated they will add two a year, one on Memorial Day and one on July 4th.

What Type of Social Entity are You?

Category X - The
Changeling

Witty, amusing and a bit weird, you're welcomed
into most social groups, even though you don't
'fit in' perfectly .


What Type of Social Entity are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Book Review

The other evening I was at a bookstore. I was near the front looking at the new fiction releases. Nearby was a stack of Bill Clinton's "my Life". (I'm not implying here that I think his book is fictional, I haven't read it.)

A group of young men (late teens, early twenties) came over to the stack of books and began making fun of it and making unflattering remarks about the former president.

I want to send them a . It's good to see that they not only know how to tell jokes but recognize one when they see him...or see his book.

John Kerry for Superman

John Kerry has joined in the criticism of the president for remaining in a classroom reading with children after he learned of the 9/11 attacks. He has said:

"Had I been reading to children, and had my top aide whispered in my ear, 'America is under attack,' I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to, and I would have attended to it," Kerry said to cheers and applause.

Telling adults that you have something more important to attend to might work, but telling that to children? He either didn't spend much time with his daughters when they were young or he's forgotten what it's like. With normal kids, sitting and continuing what you're doing would end up being much quicker than the questions and chaos that would come from trying to leave early.

There is also the question of the president's security. After Columbine and other school shootings, most schools began locking all doors except for the main entrance. Staying in the classroom, whether by his choice or his security team's choice makes sense. I'm sure his schedule that morning was not secret. Keeping the president in a reasonably secure location while they made sure it was safe for him to leave would be logical. Why rush out of the classroom only to stand in the hall or another room? The country was under attack, why risk trying to move him when they didn't know whether he would be a target or not?

A good leader doesn't try to do everything by himself. He finds smart people who do their jobs well. He gives them the responsiblity and room to do those jobs. Kerry impresses me as someone who would think that only he is capable of handling a crisis and that his whole administration would crumble without his constant micro-managing imput. What does he think he could have done with those seven minutes? Not much unless he thinks he's Superman and would have reversed the Earth's rotation to go back in time to prevent the attacks. Impossible, of course, the man's ego is too huge to leave room for an alter-ego.

Two Question Poll By ITC

When the phone rings I have to race our cats to try and get there first. I don't know why they are so attracted by the ringing. They've never gotten a phone call but always seem optimistic that the next call is for them. Or maybe it's because they've never had a call that they like it.

I should have let them answer the last call. It was a poll that was being conducted by an organization called ITC.

It was a short poll. Two questions. The first asked, if I have already decided who I'm voting for, will I vote for John Kerry and John Edwards (press one) or George Bush and Dick Cheney (press two). The second question was, if you're voting for John Kerry, are you voting to support the Democratic party (press one) or voting against George Bush (press two). (I don't recall the exact wording of the questions but this was the gist of it.)

I didn't answer the second question because I hadn't indicated that I was going to vote for Kerry after the first question. The robo-caller repeated the question two more times. Maybe it thinks Kerry supporters need extra time to find the one and two on the keypad.

What I thought was interesting about this was that there was no option for voters who are neither voting for the party or against Bush but are voting because they like the candidate. Note that I said it was interesting, not surprising.

I don't know who was behind this poll but whatever data they end up with is worthless. It was an automated call and I never spoke to a real person who could confirm that I'm a registered voter. If the replies are not all from registered voters, what's the value of it?

Antiquing

Jeff and I went to Joe Ley Antiques this morning. We were there for about an hour but could have easily spent another hour or two looking at everything. (You have to appreciate a catalog that has a category for Monkey Decor.) The online catalog has only a portion of what is in the store.

I liked this. Unfortunately (?) it didn't go home with me.

RTWT

Cold Fury has one of the best posts I've read in a long time.

I'm not going to post an excerpt. It's all too good to pick just one part to quote.

(Link found via Drumwaster's Rants!)

If Only

There is an article on PrisonPlanet.com with the title Staged Capture of Bin Laden Coming Soon. According to this, not only do we have bin Laden but we have had him since "a few months before Clinton signed an executive order mandating bin Laden to be killed on sight."

It is all part of a plan for the current administration to announce his capture (and death) "right before the 2004 election."

I have to say it is very sweet of Bill Clinton not to mention that bin Laden was captured during his presidency. But, that is so like him...not wanting to be in the spotlight, not wanting to get credit for a major accomplishment.

The article also says, "It's important to note that by blowing the whistle on this, it may cause them to change the script and not announce the capture of bin Laden."

So, if bin Laden is captured, it proves we've had him for years and if he's not captured, that also means we have him?

What's My Line?

According to this, my ideal job is trained assassin.

It said my husband's ideal job is "Office numpty".

Testing Meme Propagation In Blogspace: Add Your Blog!

This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs (and aggregation sites) are most influential in the propagation of memes. The dataset from this experiment will be public, and can be located via Google (or Technorati) by doing a search for the GUID for this meme (below).

The original posting for this experiment is located at: Minding the Planet (Permalink: http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2004/08/a_sonar_ping_of.html) --- results and commentary will appear there in the future.

Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate -- the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.

The GUID for this experiment is: as098398298250swg9e98929872525389t9987898tq98wteqtgaq62010920352598gawst
(this GUID enables anyone to easily search Google or other search engines for all blogs that participate in this experiment, once they have indexed the sites that participate). Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post (see URL above). (Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.)

INSTRUCTIONS

To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and then answer the questions below, substituting your own information, below, where appropriate. Other than answering the questions below, please do not alter the information, layout or format of this post in order to preserve the integrity of the data in this experiment (this will make it easier for searchers and automated bots to find and analyze the results later).

REQUIRED FIELDS (Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers)

(1) I found this experiment at URL: http://www.jeffdoolittle.com/archives/000356.php

(2) I found it via "Newsreader Software" or "Browsing the Web" or "Searching the Web" or "An E-Mail Message": Browsing the Web

(3) I posted this experiment at URL: http://www.findercreations.us/randomthoughts/

(4) I posted this on date (day/month/year): 03/08/2004

(5) I posted this at time (24 hour time): 01:38:08

(6) My posting location is (city, state, country): Louisville, Kentucky, USA

OPTIONAL SURVEY FIELDS (Replace the answers below with your own answers):

(7) My blog is hosted by: Self-hosted

(8) My age is: 44

(9) My gender is: Female

(10) My occupation is: Mom

(11) I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: none

(12) I use the following software to post to my blog: Movable Type

(13) I have been blogging since (day, month, year): 23/04/2002

(14) My web browser is: IE and Firefox

(15) My operating system is: Windows 98 and Windows XP

Not a Mother's Day Present

Planned Parenthood has an online store where people can purchase t-shirts to show support of the organization. A new shirt has been added to the collection.

The T-shirt delivers a message that is intended to confront and subvert the sense of shame surrounding abortion that has been so deliberately created by the anti-choice movement. "I had an abortion" is a statement that breaks a silence, and not a cavalier declaration.

Other examples of how seriously they take their mission include condom lollypops (scroll down) and chocolates shaped like birth control pill packs. Oh, wait, that's not cavalier, they're just marketing to children.

The anti-choice movement never yields in publicly discussing abortion. As part of their rhetoric, many anti-choice activists declare that they had abortions. Their motive is to place a scarlet letter in our minds and then to re-criminalize abortion; ours is to spark discussion and cast off shame.

I don't see the logic here. Are they saying that discussing abortion is okay as long as you're for it?

Women who have abortions are the same women who have children, and they make both of those decisions with thought and heart and moral deliberation.

I can think of one obvious difference between them, the women who have children are mothers. It's hard to take their statement that abortion is a moral decision seriously when one reason they give for an early rather than later abortion is, "They also cost less." (The other reason was safety.)

Anti-choice forces have never worked harder to shame women into silence about the realities of their lives. It is our duty to empower women who wish to share their experience with the venues to do so — free from the stigma, prejudice, and censorship others wish to impose.

I'm even more confused. How can it be prejudice (An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts) if, as they stated above, "many anti-choice activists declare that they had abortions"?

If this becomes popular maybe they could expand the line and sell an "I had a Vasectomy" t-shirt. It could become the must-have shirt for men going to single's bars.