create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Egad. My world map wasn’t even worth posting. This, of course, makes me want to travel more.

It’s pissed me off quite a bit to see Dean suddenly become “unhip”. When people should have executed a backlash against the media that painted Dean into an “angry” box, they instead skritched a wooly ear and followed right along. The Black Commentator says it better:

Dean was stripped of half his popular support in the space of two weeks in January while John Kerry

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Two Things

Posted in: Our Wacky Government by Cat on January 28, 2004

This is a year of turmoil and terror in the Democratic Party: Their likely presidential nominee battered, bloodied, and ridiculed even before the general election has begun…

Rarely, in contemporary American politics, has a prospective Democratic presidential standard-bearer emerged successfully from his early primaries burdened by so many deep public doubts about his character within his own party.

Did the yell really do that much damage? No, because this quote is from a 1992 article about Bill Clinton.

Two things to remember as so many folks hang their heads about the “end of Howard Dean”:

1. He has the most delegates.

2. It isn’t necessary to win New Hampshire.

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Reading

Posted in: Site Updates by Cat on January 28, 2004

I read in fits and starts. There are times when all I want to do is settle into a comfy corner and read the day away, but sometimes weeks can go by when I’m burned out on the pages. The latter is a source of considerable frustration.

I realized as a teenager that there were more books I wanted to read than was possible in my lifetime. That was my first brush with my own mortality–the frustration that there were things hidden in books that I would never know, taunting me beyond the wall of time. This led to two reading decisions:

1. If it doesn’t grab me by page 100, I won’t bother finishing it;
2. Fiction is a waste of time.

That last one I don’t always stick to, of course–there are times when I crave a good spooky story, and there are writers of fiction who simply must be read. Nonetheless, I had to make an assessment of what books are worth that precious investment of finite life, and I decided that I get more out of non-fiction.

My point, and I do have one, is that there’s now a “reading” section over to the right. I’m not an Amazon affiliate, but you may occasionally see an affiliate link. This is because I got lazy and pasted in the link I got by searching with Andre’s Nutshell toolbar. That doesn’t bother me, and I’m pretty sure Andre wouldn’t mind either.

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Community Involvement Saves Turtles

Posted in: A Better World by Cat on January 27, 2004

Think you can’t make a difference? What about saving an entire species?

Hawskbill sea turtles, killed for food and its beautiful shell (used to make fashion accessories), has made a dramatic comeback thanks to careful planning and the involvement of the local community in protecting the eggs and the animals.

These are the kinds of stories that give me hope for this benighted human race.

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And I thought Lieberman was the stealth Republican

Posted in: Our Wacky Government by Cat on January 27, 2004

File under: Very Damned Disturbing. Apparently Al Sharpton, The Candidate Who Makes Debates Fun™, was getting advice from the other side.

Which of course makes me wonder: who else is on the wrong payroll?

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Gone Phishin’

Posted in: Useful by Cat on January 26, 2004

Nope, not talking about the band. “Phishing” is a type of scam where personal information is requested via an official-looking email. For example, you may get an email from eBay saying they need you to update your address, and won’t you just click this link and sign in? What they really want is your password–which they get when you click on a spoofed link and enter it.

Enter Anti-Phishing.org, dedicated to tracking and stopping this type of scam. Here you can report incidents as well as checking to see what scams are going around at the moment.

Personally, I never click the link in such an email. I’ll go to my account in another browser window, just to make sure there’s really nothing going on. That’s right, these scams look so official that even I double-check. I wish Anti-Phishing.org success.

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Use Yahoo? Tired of diet ads?

Posted in: Useful by Cat on January 26, 2004

Paul over at Big Fat Blog points out the key to stopping diet ads: a sex change. Changing your sex to anything but “female” in your Yahoo! profile will stop the barrage of weight-loss hucksterism. I’ve tested it–I changed mine to “no answer”–and it works. I guess fat really is a feminist issue.

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Top Censored Stories of 2003

Posted in: Our Wacky Government by Cat on January 25, 2004

For your perusal from Project Censored are the The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003. I have to admit that I consider myself to be pretty connected, but most of these flew under my radar as well. My biggest surprise: # 4 Rumsfeld’s Plan to Provoke Terrorists.

The team of covert counter-intelligence agents will be responsible for secret missions designed to target terrorist leaders. The secret missions are designed to “stimulate reactions” among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to “counterattack” by U.S. forces.

Bring ‘em on, indeed.

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How We Tax

Posted in: Portland by Cat on January 25, 2004

Curious about how your state taxes, and how it stacks up in terms of fairness and management? Governing.com’s Performance Project rates all fifty states, and includes a straightforward explanation of how your state has historically collected taxes. Here’s the scoop for Oregon, and darned tootin’ we don’t like sales tax.

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