Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Texans for Truth Media Attention

Texans for Truth have offered $50,000 for anyone who can prove President Bush fulfilled his service requirements in the National Guard.

I don't have $50,000 but I am willing to dig behind the couch cushions and offer whatever I find to anyone who can prove that a majority of likely voters cares very much about what was done (or not done) 30 years ago.

The $50,000 offer expires September 30 and requires more proof than the fact that Bush received an honorable discharge. The time limit for the award indicates to me that they care less about finding "truth" than they do about attracting media attention. Requiring more than the honorable discharge makes as much sense as asking a job applicant to bring 4+ years of class notes, report cards, and signed notes from all of their classmates and instructors saying that he/she was in class every day to a job interview while ignoring any information about his/her job history.

Texans for Truth was founded by Glenn W. Smith who is also the Director of the Texas online activist group, DriveDemocracy.org which was initially funded by MoveOn.org.

The ad shows former Alabama Guard pilot Bob Mintz saying, "It would be impossible not to be seen in a unit of that size." Esewhere he has said, ""I cannot say he was not there," Mintz said. "Absolutely positively was not there. I cannot say that. I cannot say he didn't do his duty."

He is also author of a book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction.

According to the synopsis one of the issues he discusses is "How the reliance on manipulative advertising leads to deceit".

It appears he does know about manipulative advertising.

typoGenerator

Type in some text and typoGenerator will create, um, something.

Random Thoughts from Marybeth

After it shows the first image you can keep or change the text type, colors, and background.

Pajama Blogging

I must have missed the dress code memo. I don't own pajamas. I'm not going to go buy pajamas. Deal with it.

What's ^the Point?

Edward Mendelson's article in PC Magazine, Opinion: Bush's Exam Doc -- Real or Fake? compares a paragraph typed on an IBM Selectric Composer and the same paragraph typed in MS Word.

I'm not really sure what the article proves, if anything. He claims to prove that it demonstrates an older document can be reproduced with modern technology. Was that ever really in question? The focus of the discussions about the CBS documents is less about current technology but about what technology for producing these documents was likely to be used in the 1970s.

Yes, part of that discussion included the fact that the documents could be reproduced in Word using the default settings. (These were exact matches, not merely "similar".) If that were all there was to the argument that the documents are likely forgeries, Mr. Mendelson might have had a point.

The bigger issues are:

Would Killian or his clerk have bothered to type a memo out twice (as required by the Composer)? - Killian didn't type and there's no line with the initials of the typist. Neither of these people had anything better to do with their time than to type this on a Composer rather than a regular typewriter?

Why does a document mention an officer who had already retired? It's possible that Staudt might make a request but is it reasonable to assume that anyone would have taken action because of the request? What would you do if a former boss called you and asked for you to "sugar coat" something? Would you be willing to do something that could compromise your integrity for someone who no longer has any authority over you?

Would a National Guard office have an expensive piece of equipment like the IBM Composer? It just seems to me that spending thousands of dollars on a fancy typewriter wouldn't have been a priority during a time in which the country was fighting a war.

Where are the originals? I can show you a picture of the Mona Lisa. You can show the picture to some other people who will declare it looks like the painting. None of that means I have the original hanging on my wall.

It's really not up to us to prove the memos are fake. We didn't offer them as evidence, CBS did. It's up to them to prove they are authentic. I'm sure they'll understand if I'm not willing just to take Dan Ra^ther's word for it.

Random Bits

**Several of the search engine results that have brought visitors to my blog lately include:

Massachusetts state motto - what's up with this? The motto is "Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem". What were you expecting, "Our senators are more obnoxious than yours"?

Budweiser donkey ad/commercial - seven months after it aired during the Superbowl, people are still looking for it. I emailed them shortly after the commercial came out and asked if they planned on making wallpaper or screensavers from it. They had wallpaper of the Clydesdales but didn't have (or plan to have) any featuring the donkey. You can see the commercial online though. Go to Budweiser.com and click on "Entertainment". Then choose "TV/Radio Commercials". You will have to click through the "more commercials" menu a couple of times. The title is "Born a Donkey".

marybeth@gmail.com - I am not the marybeth you are looking for. I have a gmail account but "marybeth" wasn't available when I signed up, so I have a different address.

**Speaking of gmail, I wrote recently about donating some invitations to Gmail4Troops. I haven't received any requests for invitations yet. Now I don't know whether to hold onto them in case they are wanted later or to go ahead and give them away.

I didn't donate all of the invitations I had and was able to unload provide one for use by the Carnival of the Recipes. I guess I'll wait a bit longer and if I don't get any requests from Gmail4Troops, I'll pass them along to my visitors.

**I got a nice email from the people at Mozilla thanking me for a post I had made about Firefox. They asked me to add a button linking to them.

I'm pleased with their product and impressed that someone took the time to search for blog posts about it so I added this one over on the left of my page:

**I've had a few referrals through my Vote or Not post. Thank you to everyone who clicked through and entered to win the $100,000. What are the rest of you waiting for? Vote or Not.

Legionnaires

I was watching TV earlier today. There was a piece about the upcoming election and American Legion members (Chillicothe, Ohio) were interviewed. The first said he planned on voting for Bush because of what he has done in the War on Terror. The second man said he would vote for Kerry because he had been in the military.

I guess he thinks the National Guard is just some club with really cool uniforms. I bet that will come as a surprise to some of his fellow Legionnaires.

9/11/01

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.

The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is strong.

A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.

Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature. And we responded with the best of America -- with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.

Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response plans. Our military is powerful, and it's prepared. Our emergency teams are working in New York City and Washington, D.C. to help with local rescue efforts.

Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured, and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks.

The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening for essential personnel tonight, and will be open for business tomorrow. Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business, as well.

The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I've directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

I appreciate so very much the members of Congress who have joined me in strongly condemning these attacks. And on behalf of the American people, I thank the many world leaders who have called to offer their condolences and assistance.

America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world, and we stand together to win the war against terrorism. Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me."

This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.

Thank you. Good night, and God bless America.

Shaping the News

Recent articles I've seen about poll results have titles saying that Bush has a "slim lead" or is ahead "by a nose". (Whose nose, Jimmy Durante's? Steve Martin's character in Roxanne?) If you read past the headlines, you find Bush has a substantial lead.

In August articles had headlines such as Kerry leads in key states or Kerry leads Bush in Ohio. Reading further into those articles, you find that Kerry's lead was statistically insignificant.

So, a virtual tie means the Democrat is ahead in the polls while a double or near double-digit lead for the Republican is "slim".

Bias - A preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment.

Not being able to report a Kerry lead recently must be the reason for the 30 Nations Pick Kerry poll articles we've read. What's next? I'm expecting Kerry leads in polls (with the poll limited to his campaign staff and workers).

Medals

A new ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has a film clip from 1971 which shows a man throwing his military medals at the U.S. Capitol. (You can view the ad, Medals, online at the site.)

Over the image, a narrator says, "Symbols, like the heroes they represent, are meant to be respected. Some didn’t share that respect and turned their backs on their brothers."

The ad is directed at John Kerry, but the man shown in the clip, Frank Norton, "is infuriated that the anti-Kerry group is using his image, captured during a 1971 Vietnam Veterans Against the War demonstration, to represent vets who betrayed their military comrades. "

Norton, however, said he and other vets threw their medals away as a patriotic protest.

"We weren’t trashing our medals," he said. "Those things were symbolic of everything we had done, not only for our country, but for our brothers in arms over there.

"We said, ‘We’re going to give them back to our government, because we don’t think this is a just war.’ "

That's the thing with symbols, it's not just you who gets to decide what it means. When you take a symbol that has traditionally meant one thing (patriotism, pride in an achievement) and you decide to redefine its meaning, you can't get mad at everyone else who holds to the old symbolism.

Norton’s lawyer, Ricardo Teamor of Cleveland, said he sent an e-mail to the swift-boat Web site, saying the ad defames Norton and demanding that the group stop airing it.

The clip lasts for a second or two and Mr. Norton isn't identified in it.
Without this complaint, most of us would never have heard of him.

Carnival of the Recipes: Week Four

This week's Carnival of the Recipes is being hosted by Dave of The Glittering Eye.

Go for the recipes but take some time to read some of his other posts, there's some good stuff there.

Recipe List:
How to make some real chili
Mikes Vert Mont Banana Bread
Don Papa's Sweet Chipotle Chili and Tequila Sauce
Spicy Beef in Lettuce Wraps
The Yarnot Family Sloppy Joes
Tasty Gila River Fry Bread
Grilled Eggplant
Grilled Portabello Mushrooms
Gingerbread Pancakes
Chicken Saltimbocca
Finally the Beef Stroganoff Recipe
Eggrolls
Quick Pork Tenderloin Roast
Buttermilk Chicken
Chicken Saltimbocca
Stuffed 'Shrooms
Dropped Chocolate Pie
End-of-the-Paycheck Pasta Salad
Bleu Cheese Dressing
Baked Spaghetti
Cherry and Pineapple Dessert
Low Fat Baja Turkey Burgers
Neiman Marcus Cake

Vote or Not

Register to vote, win $100,000. Vote or Not is an idea from the same team who made Hot or Not and is open to all registered voters in the U.S. It doesn't matter to them who you vote for, just that you have registered to vote.

You can only enter once but the person who refers the winner can also win $100,000...so please go to Vote or Not and give us both a chance at the prize money!

Russians Rounded Up the Families of Beslan Terrorists

Yesterday, I heard a report on NPR that one of the actions Russia took during the terrorist attack on the school in Beslan was to take relatives of the terrorists into protective custody. The information was being provided by Kim Murphy of the L.A. Times so I looked up her report in the paper.

Officially, the Russian government says the seizures were meant to protect the families. A statement from operations headquarters in the northern Caucasus said Russian forces obtained intelligence that rebel leaders planned to kill several of their own relatives and then accuse Russian law enforcement bodies of murdering them.

The headquarters staff also said there was evidence that "spontaneous groups" were being formed in various areas of Chechnya to "vent their anger" at relatives of the rebel leaders, presumably over the events in Beslan.

The tone of the interview and comments in the article made by the relatives of the terrorists indicate that no one believes they were taken into custody for their protection but rather in an effort to pressure the terrorists.

In the NPR interview, Ms. Murphy said that witnesses from the school reported that the terrorists were divided. One group was sympathetic to the hostages and did not appear to be happy with what was going on. These people were killed by the other terrorists.

If they will kill members of their group, is it out of the question for them to kill relatives if they could blame it on Russia? Many Websites and articles about Chechnya make it a point to say that most Chechnens are opposed to terrorism, so would it be unthinkable for some of them to take actions against these relatives?

"My brother would rather kill all of us than give us over to the Russians."

Ms. Murphy reports that some of the relatives were abused while in custody (two out of the 40 taken). While this may be considered evidence that they weren't taken away just for their protection, we only have their statements that the injuries took place while they were in custody and not during attempts to resist arrest.

Another arguement that it wasn't for the relatives' protection is that the children were taken along with the adults. I guess it would have been better to leave small children home alone for a few days.

Maskhadov's family members said they met many members of Basayev's family for the first time. "There was a big elderly man I was talking to there," Semiyev said. "We were trying to track down his relationship to Basayev. It turned out Basayev's aunt was married to him or something. We got lost in the family tree. But it was interesting after all this time to get to know them. We even hugged each other when we left."

Sounds brutal, doesn't it? Somehow an enforced family reunion doesn't compare with a mother having to choose which child to take and which to leave behind with the terrorists. That woman was reunited with the child she had to leave behind. Hundreds of others will forever be missing from any future family reunions.

If the Russians were using this to pressure the terrorists, it doesn't appear that the terrorists cared much about the fate of their relatives. All of the relatives were released on Saturday after the seige ended.

In another time and place I would condemn the taking of families but because of the family clan structure of Muslim terrorists, I'm not as willing to assume innocence. I just wish it had been more effective.

Egg Rolls

When I'm making these for party appetizers, I will substitute won ton wrappers for egg roll wrappers. They freeze well and can be reheated on a cookie sheet in the oven. I don't recommend reheating in the microwave, it makes the wrappers chewy instead of crispy.

This recipe is good enough that it's worth spending the time to cook the meat for the filling but it's also a great way to use up leftovers (Thanksgiving turkey, for example).

Egg Rolls

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups shredded raw cabbage (I will occasionally substitute a bag of Dole cole slaw.)
1 large stalk celery, minced
1 cup shredded, cooked pork (Poultry or shrimp works well too.)
2 scallions, minced or 1 tablespoon minced onion
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
package egg roll wrappers
1 egg, slightly beaten
cooking oil

In a wok, heat the 2 tablespoons of oil, add cabbage and celery and stir-fry together for 2 minutes. Add pork, scallions, salt, pepper, and sugar. Toss well and remove from heat.

Fill wrappers, roll and seal with egg. (Place wrapper in front of you so that one corner points toward you. Put the stuffing across it, about 2/3s of the way down. Fold up the bottom corner so that the point of it touches the middle of the wrapper. Fold in the two side corners. Roll it up towards the top. Use a pastry brush to paint the top corner with beaten egg before you finish rolling it to seal the egg roll.) Place rolls on waxed paper.

Heat cooking oil in cleaned to 375 degrees. Place a few egg rolls at a time in the hot oil and cook until golden brown (4 to 5 minutes), turning often. Drain on paper towels. Serve with Mustard sauce and Sweet-and-sour sauce.

Makes 8 to 10.

Crazy Talk

The Culture Insights section of the September/October issue of Psychology Today has an article about Disney cartoons and mental illness. (At this time, this issue is not yet online.)

From dim-witte Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the "psycho" in Aladdin, Disney classics may be teaching children to laugh at and fear the mentally ill, according to a study in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

The Results section of the study says, "For example, in Beauty and the Beast, the townspeople frequently refer to the intellectuals Belle and her father, Maurice as mentally ill. Mental illness words are used to set apart and denigrate these characters, implying that to be mentally ill is to be different in a negative and inferior way."

They watched the movies, but did they actually see them? Even a child watching Beauty and the Beast can tell that it is the people who are mocking Belle and her father who have a problem. While it's obvious that Belle and Maurice are different from others in the town, it's not in a negative way.

This emotional association may result in increased fear of persons with a mental illness, increased worries of possible harm, and an increase in distancing and avoidance of contact.

All of the little girls who have dressed up as Belle for Halloween must have missed this message in the film. Maybe the message they got was that you need to look at who a person really is (Belle, her father, the Beast) instead of relying on what you hear about them.

The author of the study, Andrea Lawson, "concedes that fairy tales lack subtlety and that children don't necessarily take them to heart."

"Bambi, notes Lawson, was one of the only Disney films free of negative references toward mental illness." The message that guns are bad and hunters will kill your mother wasn't mentioned.

Love of Healing

I read the latest "Bushism" at Drumwaster's Rants

"Too many good OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their" - he paused a split second, as if searching for a word, then continued - "their love, with women all across this country," he said.

I think I understand exactly what he means. Maybe it's because Bush loves his job, he believes everyone is doing what they love. Doctors go to college and medical school because healing is their vocation. Rising medical insurance keeps the doctors from following this calling. They aren't just giving up a job, they're giving up doing what they love.

It's a good and valid point but it would be an understatement to say that the example he used wasn't the best choice.

Read more about problems with rising malpractice insurance costs in the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier series of articles.
Doctors: Rise in insurance costs forced them to cut back or quit
Did podiatrist's wrongs justify hefty malpractice lawsuit?
Illinois physicians say insurance rates are driving them out of state

Tell Me Again How You Think He's the Smart One

It's always a good day when your competition does your job for you. This is an archived copy on Diggers Realm. The original version on the Kerry Website has gone missing.

Perhaps it's in someone's pants.

The printer-friendly version even works.

Ignoring a Threat Doesn't Mean It's Not There

He (Kerry) called the president's coalition in Iraq "the phoniest thing I ever heard" and played up the money spent on Iraq that could have gone to domestic needs.

"This president rushed to war without a plan to win the peace, and he's cost all of you $200 billion that could have gone to schools, could have gone to health care, could have gone to prescription drugs, could have gone to our Social Security," he said.

To suggest we should have spent this money on domestic causes while ignoring a real threat seems short-sighted to me and makes as much sense as it would have for a Florida resident to go out shopping for new lawn furniture last week.

MSNBC and, um, Sewage

Slow progress with Iraq reconstruction headlines a MSNBC article.

At least MSNBC is admitting there's progress. In the title anyway.

It doesn't sound good, "...the stuff (raw sewage) has been pouring into Iraq's main waterway since the U.S. military action to oust Saddam Hussein last year."

I question how efficient the sewage treatment was before last year. An Islam Online article from 2002 states, Treatment plants were targeted during the first Gulf War and chlorine was banned by the Security Council under the dual-use regulation. "According to UNICEF, 'access to safe water in urban areas has dropped to 94 % from 100 %, while the drop at rural levels was more drastic from 71% to 41%. Up to 250-300 tons of solid untreated raw sewerage is discharged directly into rivers each day. Only 25% of the population are served by piped sewerage systems. Power cuts of up to 12 hours a day have also severely disrupted services.'”

An August article in Water and Waste Water News discusses the work being done and it does sound as though progress is being made.

Points such as "Repaired hundreds of breaks in Iraq’s critical and long neglected water network, significantly increasing water flow." increase my skepticism that all was perfect before the invasion.

According to USAID, "The mechanical and electrical equipment from all three plants has suffered from looting, a lack of spare parts, and no preventative maintenance over the past two decades. The capacity of the sewage plants has been severely reduced by these factors resulting in untreated raw sewage flowing directly into the Tigris River which endangers the health of Baghdad residents and downstream populations. "

The goal is "to return essential services to Iraq, USAID is rehabilitating the Kerkh plant facilities to restore it to its original design capacity."

So, the problem was there to some extent before we got their the first time. I wonder if they ever operated at "design capacity".

Go Cards! Go Marybeth!

The Louisville Cardinals football team beat the UK Wildcats 28 to 0.

Some other good news, for me anyway, is that my efforts to move up in Google's search results for "marybeth" are succeeding. (See here, here, and here.) Since August 29, my blog has moved up from 92nd to 9th in that search. I think the biggest influence on this was the change in my title to include "marybeth" but I also want to thank fellow bloggers who linked to me using "marybeth" as the anchor text.

Update: And now it's down to 32nd.

Final (maybe) Update (9/10): Now I'm up to fifth! That's a nice improvement over 92nd. No more updates (unless I hit #1), even I'm tired of the topic by now.

Wimping Out on Truth

I usually try to avoid reading opinion pieces in The Courier-Journal, not so hard to do since we dropped our subscription to the newspaper a couple of years ago.

Opinion pages in general bother me. I would like to see a byline attached or, if it's a group effort, all the names of the editors who hold that opinion. The way it is now strikes me as being akin to anonymous commenters in blogs. Let's call it wimping out on opinion.

Opinion sections which promote a strong bias, to either the right or the left without some counter balance, are troubling. Consider today's editorial:

This week's Republican gathering was a convention of anger.

But it was not a righteous anger directed toward a great injustice, with an aim of correcting a terrible wrong.

It was simply the result of a contemptible calculation by President Bush's campaign to seek political gain by expressing hatred of his opponents, while attacking their loyalty, and by suggesting that only Republicans are committed to protecting the country.

The Republicans' keynote speaker, Sen. Zell Miller, an apostate Democrat, virtually accused the Democratic ticket of treason for seeking to defeat Mr. Bush. (To be charitable, Sen. Miller increasingly seems unbalanced, and was so out of control after his speech that he said he wanted to challenge an interviewer to a duel.)

New York Gov. George Pataki placed blame for the 9/11 attacks on the Clinton administration for not anticipating them. (Gov. Pataki and Mr. Bush didn't provide warnings either.)

Vice President Dick Cheney said Mr. Bush "will never seek a permission slip to defend the American people." No one, and certainly not Sen. John Kerry, has said he would act in the nation's defense only with the approval of foreign leaders.

Part of the idea, of course, was to allow President Bush, in his prime-time acceptance speech, to appear moderate by comparison. It's a once-every-four-years thing.

But if Mr. Bush himself was short on vitriol, he was even shorter on truthfulness and accountability.

He persisted in the fiction that the misguided and bungled war in Iraq is part of a "whatever it takes" struggle against terrorism. He portrayed the legitimate war in Afghanistan as a clear success, even though al-Qaida and the Taliban are regrouping as the President's gaze is fixed on Iraq.

Curiously, he made no mention of Osama bin Laden or of why he hasn't been killed or captured. He said nothing about the menacing nuclear weapons programs of Iran and North Korea.

Nor did the President lay forth a strategy to overcome the leading domestic threat to the future of America's children: the massive deficit triggered by Mr. Bush's high-end tax cuts and failure to rein in federal spending. Indeed, he offered instead expensive new programs that would make a liberal blush.

But the lingering impression is not of the President or of his speech. It is of all that anger and vile oratory that preceded him.

Four years ago, Mr. Bush vowed to be a "uniter, not a divider." But his handlers have decided that if creating false camps of patriotic and disloyal Americans helps them politically, then division it will be.

And, sadly, that seems to be just fine with the President.

This doesn't describe the convention that I watched. They are right about there being anger, but the anger I see is from the liberal media and others on the left who can't stand to see the Bush campaign succeeding where the Kerry campaign is failing.

What hatred? Time after time, speakers said that Kerry's service in Vietnam was admirable. Disputing how honorable his actions after he returned home isn't hatred toward the man himself. Questioning whether his actions as a protestor, as lt. governor, and as a senator indicate how he would do as president isn't hatred any more than asking someone interviewing for a job about his past employment is a sign of hatred.

I don't remember anyone saying that only Republicans can protect our country. Republicans were stating our belief that George W. Bush will do a better job than John Kerry. There's a difference and it's sad that this editor can't see it.

"To be charitable, Sen. Miller increasingly seems unbalanced...." If that's "charity", heaven help us if they decide to say something mean.

I liked it when the vice-president repeated that George Bush will never seek a permission slip. The editor's opinion is that Kerry would not seek approval of foreign leaders. Is this the same Kerry who said, "I’d like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.”?

I don't agree that the war in Iraq was either misguided or bungled. Were there things that could have been done better? Of course, but could someone else, acting with the same knowledge, have done better? I doubt it.

When the president said, "Our strategy is succeeding. Four years ago, Afghanistan was the home base of al-Qaida...Today, the government of a free Afghanistan is fighting terror...", the editor interprets this as Bush saying the war was a clear success. Well, yes, so far it has been but "success" isn't a synonym for "end" which seems to be what the editor is implying.

"But the lingering impression is not of the President or of his speech." No, the lingering impression is going to be one of old media trying to force it's ideology on the public through half-truths and outright lies.

And, sadly, that seems to be just fine with the editor.

Allez Cuisine!

The Carnival of the Recipes is up at She Who Will Be Obeyed!

Recipe List:
Sausage Cheese Cups
Cherry Crunch
Fruit Cobbler
Coca-Cola Brisket
Oreo White Chocolate Mousse "Cheesecake"
Sour Creme Poundcake
Kate’s Chocolate Cake
Gingerbread Pancakes
Frittata
Sausage Gravy and Biscuits
Rules for making great biscuits
Sauteed Mushrooms
Mushroom Ragu
Stuffed Mushrooms
Tropical Chicken Teriyaki
Roast Turkey
Mexican Chicken Chowder
Garlic Chicken in a Bag
Honey Hot Wings
Tater Tot Casserole
Hotter than Hell Barbeque Sauce
Hot Dogs and Sauce
Boiled Peanuts
Cajun Gumbo
Manhattan Clam Chowder
Dad's Salad
Toad in a Hole
Moussaka
Tripe
Salmon Fantasia
Tortellini
Black Bean Chili

By Any Other Name

I've read more than a few blog posts complaining about the media calling the terrorist who held school children in Russia hostage Chechen separatists, hostage-takers, rebels, or militants. (Here and here, for example.)

One of my husband's employees is originally from Russia. He has other names for these terrorists...but none that I would repeat in polite company.

Attack just this year include:
February 6 - a bomb on a Moscow subway kills 30 to 41 people (reports vary) and injures at least 92.
May 9 - a bomb in a Grozny stadium kills at least 24 people including President Akhmad Kadyrov who was trying to control separatist violence.
June 22 - at least 92 people are killed by gunmen in Ingushetia.
August 24 - two passenger aircraft crash killing 89 people.
August 31 - a female suicide bomber outside a Moscow subway stop kills 9 other people and injures at least 51 others.
September 1-3 - school children, parents, and teachers are held hostage. At this point, 150 are estimated dead with hundreds more hospitalized.

In 2003, over 200 people were killed and hundreds more wounded.

The recent attack on the school is not unusual, many of their acts of terrorism over the last few years have been directed at "soft" targets including at least three hospitals, a couple of shopping centers, apartment buildings, a theater, a religious (Muslim) festival, a rock festival, along with attacks on trains, subways, and the streets.

Don't think Chechnya is only Russia's problem. Five of the nineteen terrorists who hijacked the American aircraft on September 11 had previously fought in Chechnya. Reports suggest that Al-Qaeda still sends members to Chechnya for training and also tries to recruit non-Arabs from the area to avoid detection through racial profiling.

Convention, Day Four

President George W. Bush was smart, funny, believable, and likable.

John Kerry's response demonstrated that he knows how to count to four but not to five. (And manages to look like an ass doing it.) I can't find the text of it online yet...does this mean that the media didn't think much of it either?

Oh, yeah, and the Republican balloon drop worked. If you were watching CNN at the end of the Democratic Convention, you would have seen convention producer Don Mischer shouting and using profanity when most of the balloons didn't drop.

"Stephen Jewett, a DNC official involved in podium operations, said there was no malfunction with the balloons. They were timed to come down slowly, 'for a longer ending, which was nice.'"

Sad when you feel you have to lie about something as relatively insignificant as a staging malfunction. I guess some habits are hard to break.

"Marybeth" Ranking

See here and here for background on my vanity search and experiment to see what influences Google search result rankings.

I just did another Google seach for "marybeth" and found that I moved up from 92nd to 25th in the results. Still not as good as the SE love coming from AlltheWeb (1st result) and MSN (also 1st), but much better than before.

What Sword Would You Use?

Bastard Sword, although used by many europeans in
medievil times this sword was more of a
collecters sword and was less used for fighting
and more used for looking at, and would only be
used by great warriors or lords/kings. (Please
Vote)


What sword would you use (info and pics on swords as well)
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Nice, simple lines because there's no reason one can't be chic while killing people.

Found via Paul.

Man of a Thousand Faces

Duane posts in The Forest For The Trees with the source for Cheney's line in a speech last night saying, 'Senator Kerry began his political career by saying he would like to see our troops deployed "only at the directive of the United Nations.'"

He found the source for the information in an interview in the Harvard Crimson where Kerry said, "'I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.'"

Go read the rest. I'll wait....

Duane ends his post with:

Some people will claim that Kerry at 26 is not the same man as Kerry today. I would tend to agree. Kerry today is more nuanced, more polished and more "selective" in his delivery. The ideas are the same, only the delivery has changed.

It seems to me that Kerry chose to present his persona as The Vietnam Vet instead of The Senator. In essence, he's running as that 26-year-old man so when people respond to him as such, he has no one to blame but himself...although I'm sure he'll find a way to blame his campaign staff instead.

Not that he's happy when people question his senate career. Or talk about him being lieutenant governor. Notice how his bio on the waffles site doesn't mention who was governor at the time?

It's not surprising he chose the Vietnam vet image. Compared to the rest of his career, that was a time when he had the most attention. He was a darling of the media. He had senators fawning over him when he testified before the Committee on Foreign Relations. It was a golden time for him.

What a rude surprise it must have been for him to find that the vets he slandered are now home and have a voice with which to defend themselves. It was so much easier to call them names behind their backs.

Kerry tries to be a man of a thousand faces, something different for everyone. Unfortunately for him, he's the opposite of Lon Chaney (the original man of a thousand faces). Where Chaney covered a nice face with scarey make up, Kerry puts on a nice (nice being relative here) face to hide his not-so-nice past.

At Home

Only stuck at home for one more day. The service center called about my van and said it should be ready by this evening.

While I will frequently choose doing nothing over going out to do something, it's not as fun to be lazy when I don't have the option of going anywhere.

**

My husband claims to have little interest in politics but has been watching much of the Republican National Convention with me. I don't think it's been too painful for him. He liked Zell Miller's speech last night enough so that he joked that it made him want to move to Georgia.

I wonder if I can pretend I thought he was serious and start planning a move. Any move in a southern direction is a good idea to me.

After the RNC on C-SPAN, they take calls from viewers. I need to remember to change the channel next time before this segment starts. I'm tired of hearing the Kerry supporters call in and begin with the statement that George Bush lied and then go on to repeat the rhetoric of the left full of accusations that have been disproved weeks ago. I suppose fact checking isn't a skill parrots possess.

Not that all of his supporters' calls are like that nor are all of the Bush supporters calling in with wonderful, lucid arguments as to why they support him. It just seems that most of the Bush supporters say why they support the President while most of the Kerry supporters say why they don't support the President. Aren't they able to give a reason why they support Kerry? Or do they only support him because he's not Bush?

Pixar Anti-PR

I was looking at my stats and saw that someone (using IE 5.23, Macintosh MacPPC, IP 138.72.18 on Sep 01 2004 11:12:56 am) from Pixar.com found this post while searching for "Republicans are losers".

I assume this was not someone who works in their public relations department.

Gmail4Troops

I got a free Gmail account through Blogger. A link showed up on it recently offering seven Gmail invitations for me to send to friends. We'll pretend that I have that many friends if they want. I found a better use for them anyway.

I read about Gmail4Troops from a post on Arguing With Signposts. I followed the link and decided to donate a few Gmail invitations.

The invitations go to troops (you probably guessed that from the site's title). These email accounts have enough space to allow family and friends to send mail, photos, and videos without the service person having to delete old emails and photos to make room for the new ones.

Check out the site to donate or request invitations.

Vanity Search Continued

Two days ago, I wrote about doing vanity searches on Google, AlltheWeb, and MSN.

As of the time of this posting, I was still the first result for AlltheWeb and MSN. AlltheWeb showed my "...From Marybeth" title while MSN still shows the "...near Cambodia" one.

Not much ego stroking from Google though. My blog currently comes up as the 92nd result for "marybeth". I made the mistake of not looking very deep into the results before beginning this experiment so I don't know how much of a change that is or if it has changed at all. It does show my new title. Maybe I should talk about myself in the third person...or rather, maybe Marybeth should talk about...um, maybe not.

I want to thank John Ray of Dissecting Leftism for linking to me using "Marybeth" as the anchor text in an Elsewhere post. I got a link and found another good blog to add to my blogroll (double bonus!).

Wictory Wednesday

Tonight's Republican National Convention speakers include Mitch McConnell (Senator from Kentucky and husband of the next speaker), Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, Michael Reagan, Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA), Lynne Cheney, and Vice President Dick Cheney.

There will be a tribute to President Ronald Reagan but because it's before the keynote speaker, I don't know if it will be televised on broadcast TV. It should be on C-SPAN. Check their site for the live Webcast.

Music will be by Brooks & Dunn.

The deadline for donating to the Bush/Cheney campaign has passed but you can still donate to the Republican National Committee and you can still volunteer to work for the campaign.

Volunteer or donate to the Republican National Committee.