Another Sister in Need of Prayer

This was Nicole Ritchie three short years ago.

















Nicole Ritchie now. This is what living in Hollywood and reading Vogue will do for you.

Katrina Redux

I'm getting angry about Katrina all over again. I watched the Discovery Channel last night and learned about Gretna for the first time. This show was particularly interesting because there was a foreign couple (Australian maybe?) that were trapped in a hotel with their three children. They observed how the police were only helping white folks. Even when they left, the woman had to put her arm out the window of the bus to show she was white so the bus would be allowed through.

I digress--back to Gretna. Apparently the Sheriff (that would be Sheriff Lee smiling at you up there to the left) in this Mississippi town stood on the Louisiana side of the bridge and barred people from crossing. What I want to know is why James Dobson isn't protesting? I'm sure those people were Christians--after all it's the Bible Belt. Why isn't the ACLU filing law suits en masse against various and sundry police departments and officers that acted illegally? Where's the NAACP in this? Am I missing something cause from where I stand it looks like The Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Civil Rights Act were used for toilet paper?!

OMG

Pray for Whitney

disGrace

I made the mistake of watching CourtTV last night. I thought I'd catch up on what's going on with the the JonBenet case. Big mistake. Nancy Grace screaming about the poor dead child's HYMEN over and over and over was not how I wanted to drift off. This is one sick chick. She lingers on the gory details with far too much enjoyment. I generally make a point of not watching when she's on and last night I remembered why. For the record, I never believed the Ramseys killed their daughter, and I'm glad more people are coming around to that conclusion--however slowly. I imagined poor Mr Ramsey, having lost his daughter and wife casually flicking channels to hear this demented cow screaming about HYMENS and forensic evidence. Jeez.

So I figure I can't be the only one who finds this chick detestable, and sure enough she has quite a fan club of haters out there:

Nancy Grace Should be Thrown Off the Air

Nancy Grace Rips Her Own Eyeballs Out

Nancy Grace v. the American Way

At least I know I'm not alone.

A Racy Twist for "Survivor"

A Racy Twist for "Survivor"
Wednesday August 23 7:21 PM ET

By Gina Serpe

Some may call it exploiting racial tensions. CBS calls it darn good television.

Jeff Probst popped in on The Early Show Wednesday morning, confirming the reports that the 20 castaways for Survivor: Cook Islands will be grouped by race, with competitors divided into four tribes consisting of whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics.

Apparently, "separate but equal" holds only the warmest of connotations for Mark Burnett. continues here . . .

What Happened to the Electric Car?

Female Muslim Preachers

The BBC has an interesting profile on female Muslim preacher Magda Amer.

Meanwhile, in Uzbekistan

BBC Podcast

Monica Whitlock investigates the massacre at Andijan, Uzbekistan, which took place when troops opened fire on a large anti-government demonstration.

George Allen's Macaca Remark

ABB has a great post about it here

Geriatric Gold

This elderly gentlemen is video blogging about his life which sounds like it's been well lived. I've become addicted to him--

Widgets

I've run across some nice widgets lately so I'll share--

As reported in Time, Meebo is one stop shopping for all your IM needs. Put it on your web page and talk with visitors.

Pandora - you tell it a song/artist you like. It then plays the full song by the artist, and then makes a "station" out of similar songs. It saves up to a 100 stations per account, and it's free to create an account. It's a great way to find new music.

Bestaudiocodes let's you pick out tunes for a playlist and put them on your website/blog. You don't have to have the video screen. If real estate if valuable just have the player bar. Lots of good current music.

PodTube v1.0 Downloads and transcodes YouTube videos for your iPod.

Pollhost - host a poll on your website or blog

Former Wal-Mart Executive Sentenced to Home Confinement

From the White Collar Crime Prof Blog

Former Wal-Mart executive Tom Coughlin, who was with the company from its founding by Sam Walton and served most recently as vice-chairman of the board of directors, received a 27-month term of home confinement after pleading guilty to defrauding the company and tax evasion. Coughlin admitted to taking gift cards for use at company stores and submitting bogus invoices to pay for personal expenses, totaling over $300,000. Wal-Mart initiated the prosecution when it turned over information to the U.S. Attorney's Office that it developed in an internal investigation. Among the items purchased with one gift card was a cooler and two cases of beer. Coughlin's salary for his last three years he worked at Wal-Mart totaled approximately $2.9 million, and when he left the company he owned almost 700,000 shares (see 2005 Proxy here), which at the current price would be worth approximately $30 million. What is missing in this type of case is an explanation for why one would put so much at risk for an amount less than the annual dividend on Coughlin's shares. . . continues here

More Anti Rice Sentiment

Lebanon Gripped by Anti-American Sentiment
by Leila Fadel

BEIRUT, Lebanon - In trendy central Beirut, a large banner looms over the now nearly empty streets of downtown: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stares intently, with piercing fangs and blood dripping from her lips. continues here

Skeleton Man Street Performer

More on Search Engines & Privacy

Search Engine Privacy

By Lauren

Greetings. Web site privacy issues in general, and search engine privacy concerns in particular, are turning into a three-ring circus of ironies. I discuss these issues until I'm figuratively blue in the face and yet it's deja vu over and...

De nigger woman is de mule uh de world

I keep running across this theme lately. It seems black women are generally catching hell where ever I look--

Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tub find out. Maybe it's some place off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don't know nothin’ but we see. So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so far as Ah can see.

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston

Stephanie's Journal
Sharon's Muse
Expat Jane
Rachel's Place

Landis Loses Title

The BBC reports that his team, Phonak, has sacked him and it only seems a matter of time before the International Cycling Union (UCI) announces that Landis will lose his Tour title.

Inside a Drugs Test

I just thought this was funny as hell. Check out photo number 4.

Ideas for Using the Web to Get a Book Published

From The Information Literacy Land of Confusion

Ideas for Using the Web to Get a Book Published

By Michael

I was talking to one of my colleagues today at the library. She was telling me about a relative who has written a manuscript but is having trouble finding a publisher. Apparently, there are thousands of want-to-be writers out there and getting attention is hard. continues . . .

A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749

The New York Times writes about Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old Georgia widow who was identified, despite a random anonymizing number, within AOL’s accidentally released search history ....

Buried in a list of 20 million Web search queries collected by AOL and recently released on the Internet is user No. 4417749. The number was assigned by the company to protect the searcher’s anonymity, but it was not much of a shield.

Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times

Thelma Arnold’s identity was betrayed by AOL records of her Web searches, like ones for her dog, Dudley, who clearly has a problem.

Condoleeza Rice under racist attack by Palestinian media

via Stephanie's Journal

I just saw an interesting thread on the ‘Net about how the Palestinian media have been using racially charged images and words to describe and vilify Condoleeza Rice. Although I have issues with her political stances, the use of racist imagery is appalling. The Palestinian media refer to rice as a “raven,” “the Black Spinster,” (wow, what does her marital status have to do with anything?!) “the Black Lady,” and doing damage to the view of “Black Americans.” Rice may be a lot of things but to summarize her because of her “race” like this is horrible. I can’t imagine any white world leader being attacked and caricatured because of her/his race. . . continues here

Children arrested, DNA tested, interrogated and locked up... for playing in a tree

To the 12-year-old friends planning to build themselves a den, the cherry tree seemed an inviting source of material.

But the afternoon adventure turned into a frightening ordeal for Sam Cannon, Amy Higgins and Katy Smith after they climbed into the 20ft tree - then found themselves hauled into a police station and locked in cells for up to two hours.

Their shoes were removed and mugshots, DNA samples and mouth swabs were taken.

story continues here . . .

Custom Ketchup Labels

From the Pittsurgh Tribune:
Capitalizing on the 130th anniversary of its most famous product, the H.J. Heinz Co. has created a special Web site allowing consumers to create their own ketchup bottle labels. At myheinz.com, users can show off their wit, be sentimental or use any wording for a unique tag to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, weddings or any special occasion.

“We realized our consumers have really enjoyed the many witty phrases and catchy quips that appeared on the Heinz keystone-shaped labels in recent years,” said Wendy Joyce, senior brand manager for Heinz ketchup. “Now, we’re giving consumers a chance to create their own, one-of-a-kind phrase on Heinz bottles for a unique and surprising way to say something special.” (PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW)

Writely and Google Spreadsheet Invitation

Have you been waiting to sign up? Your wait is over--

http://www.webprohost.nl/

Kompetenzkompetenz

From A Fistful of Euros

Kompetenzkompetenz

by Alex Harrowell

The Onion: Bush Grants Self Permission to Grant More Power to Self. Funny, but also the best definition of the Kompetenzkompetenz I'v ever seen.

When Families Kill

From A Few Euros More

Denmark - Jyllands-Posten

Honour killing trial in Denmark

The newspaper comments on the sentence passed by a court in Denmark in the trial of a so-called "honour killing". This is the first time in the history of northern Europe that an entire family has been found guilty. The jury considered it proven that the father had ordered the murder of his 18-year-old daughter after she married the man of her own choosing, and that subsequently all nine defendants had together planned and committed the murder. "In this way, the family will be seen not as a family of honour, but as a group of cowards who talk about honour and shame while trying to deny any involvement in the deed that was supposed to save the family's honour. The sentence is a clear message that we won't accept parallel societies with their own rules… The case also serves as a warning to a society that ignores people in need because of a misguided political correctness and the fear of dealing with the crazy rules of foreign societies regarding honour and shame."

U.S. Army "redefines quality"

U.S. Army "redefines quality"

By Sedulia on War, conflict

Stephen Green, the U.S. soldier who allegedly raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killed her, her little sister, and her parents, had not graduated from high school and had several arrests. He would not have been allowed as a recruit under pre- Iraq war standards.

A reporter asked the U.S. army spokesman if there had been a decline in the quality of U.S. army recruits since the standards were changed.

"We have redefined quality," the spokesman said.

--National Public Radio interview broadcast 15 July 2006