SPITBULL

This link is to a list of non-governmental charities that are doing immediate tsunami relief work. (At the Catholic Relief Services website listed, it took just a few seconds to make a specifically designated contribution for tsunami relief with a credit card. The other websites listed are undoubtedly the same.)

I tossed some money to the American Red Cross tonight (Amazon makes it very easy) and did so with a small amount of self-disgust. At least now I know the death toll that gets me to open up the wallet. From now on my guidelines will be “earlier” and “more.” It’s not for the dead we send the money, of course – it’s for those whose lives have been scoured down to the bone, but you can’t help but think that your contribution somehow mitigates the awful numbers. It doesn’t. And if your money makes its way to a small village, and ends up as a box of clean underwear and toothpaste and batteries and aspirin dropped in the lap of a man who watched his entire family scraped off the face of the earth and swallowed by the brutal, implacable and mindless hand of nature, well, know that it probably won’t make much difference. It can’t. But someone has to get him clean underwear and aspirin. You there, with the drawers full of Jockeys and Bayer: cough up.

(1) microwaves are your friend
(2) big is better
(3) work fast
(4) drink first (it hardly could have made things worse)

Well, I’ve got a friend
Who lives across town
Every year when christmas rolls around
He gives me my christmas presents in a paper sack
Two hours later he wants it back
He’s an indian giver!

No one pays these weblog writers for the very good reason that their services aren't worth that much, and neither are those of the professional pundit class. (Keep in mind that pundits are incredibly shiftless creatures; most consider looking a word up in the dictionary "research". ...)

an ideal platform for advancing debate and forcing news media to be more responsive. You don't even have to suck up to anyone on the local alternative weekly flyer editorial board (a hairy Lesbian, some angry black guy, and a dishevelled, brooding asshole with 15 Kerry stickers on the back of his 1995 Geo Metro).

Those two rituals — accusing others of being a disappointment and wrestling — are traditions of Festivus as explained on the show by the character Frank Costanza. On that episode he tells Kramer that he invented the holiday when his children were young and he found himself in a department store tug of war with another Christmas shopper over a doll. "I realized there had to be a better way," Frank says.

So he coined the slogan "A Festivus for the rest of us" and formulated the other rules: the holiday occurs on Dec. 23, features a bare aluminum pole instead of a tree and does not end until the head of the family is wrestled to the floor and pinned.

Although Festivus will symbolize nothing in particular, it will give friends and family an additional opportunity to get together, once the weather gets nice. Airing of grievances is recommended prior to consumption of alcoholic beverages, including the ceremonial sip of Miller Genuine Draft. Suggested feats of strength include a friendly thumb wrestling tournament. CRYES proposes expanding the celebration into a full day of activities, adding such events as offspring achievement comparisons, sports team bashing and tire rotation relay races.

I was a little disappointed with 2003's third place performance too but I figured that after a full four years of President Bush's personal jihad against Mother Earth, 2004 would come storming back with a vengeance...but fourth place?!?!? Come on people! Let's get our heads in the game!

"It was perhaps a senior moment," said elector Michael Meuers, 60, a Bemidji marketing consultant for a health care firm, the second-youngest member of the Minnesota delegation to the Electoral College.

... for bluenoses in search of that elusive high only a strained drug war analogy can provide, heroin’s clearly all the rage.

Apparently Hugh is "on vacation". The Department of Homeland Security is raising the Hewitt Threat Level with the upcoming first anniversary of the attack. The city of Boulder is all but evacuated, with every available tree hugger deployed to the foothills to wrap their arms around anything organic. The 12th Mountain Expeditionary Unit has been shipped out to the Rockies to make sure that the Hewitts aren't holed up in a cave outside the Vail Ski Resort. Complaints have been filed both by the Abominable Snowman, and a contingent of Dockers-wearing accountants, all of whom were detained at the New Mexico/Colorado border until it could be confirmed that they were, in fact, not Hugh Hewitt. No comment yet from the ACLU.

In the deserts of the heart.
Let the healing fountain start.

Sure, we may be shunned by fancy “Weblog Awards.” Sure, we may not even be nominated for such coveted prizes. Sure, we may be as popular as Denny Terrio, whilom host of “Dance Fever.” Sure, we may be as big as Danny Devito. Sure, we may…

Hold on a second, dear reader: Somewhere in the midst of that last paragraph we lost our train of thought. Oh yeah, we remember what we wanted to say: We suck.

“The Hatemonger’s Quarterly” is the Lamborghini of “weblogs.” It’s the beluga caviar of the Internet. It’s the kind of “website” men want to be, and women want to be with.

Since 1995, 10 studies have reported on whether lower sodium diets produce health benefits. All 10 studies indicate that, among the general population, lower sodium diets don’t produce health benefits. In fact, not a single study has ever shown improved health outcomes for broad populations on reduced sodium diets.

Just last week, in fact, a coalition of six Canadian medical groups rejected a recommendation for universal salt restriction, choosing instead to make lifestyle recommendations for reducing blood pressure such as exercising, eating a balanced diet, and stress management.

But because the [National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine] panel didn’t think that singling out African-Americans was an effective public health strategy, it decided to “overcompensate” and make the recommendation for the general population ¯ thereby shifting the burden to the food industry to reduce salt content in foods. African Americans, then, couldn’t help but eat less salt.

Wow, this will be like watching a couple of concert pianists blunder into a mosh pit. I wonder how long they will be able to stand it.

The real Richard Posner is one of the preeminent legal minds of our time, so he can hardly be responsible for this. For one thing, parody of this quality is pretty difficult to write and I don’t think he has the time to devote to the task.

There is a clear liberal/conservative divide in technology usage. You can find the data at any weblog with a public sitemeter, and the stats seem to hold true across the board. Liberals are more likely to use non-Microsoft products and [sic] conservatives.

Draw your own conclusions.

It's free, it's very good, it's fast, it's open source and no commercial corporation has control over it. Plus, it pisses off microsoft, one of the biggest republican donors.

Mathis, the Times spokeswoman, said the deal still makes sense as negotiated because the company's costs are rising. "Not only is there general inflation, but there is every reason to believe that we are facing rapidly rising prices, particularly for the interiors," she said, adding, "Our package was similar to incentives offered to other builders."

Green.
Seven? Green.
Eleven? Green.
Twenty-three? Green.
Forty-one? Purple and green.

Well, nine is green too. And it's not a prime.