The people have spoken, the bastards

“Tens of thousands” turn out to protest Iraq escalation.:

 Users Paul Library Application-Support Ecto Attachments  Wp-Content Uploads 2007 01 Protest012707
“The event drew demonstrators from across the country, and many said that in addition to taking their discontent to the streets they planned to press members of Congress to oppose the war.” Nearly 70 percent of the American public opposes President Bush”s plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq.

links for 2007-01-27

statistics

statistics

Originally uploaded by paulbeard.

an amateur social scientist has tagged his garage door with some crime statistics for his census tract [sic]. not sure what it means (is that year? a month? what’s the reporting period?) but it’s plainly something he feels strongly about. 55 residential burglaries seems kind of high, but again, I have no idea if that’s over a year (1/week) or a month (2/day).
If you’re curious, you can learn about your census tract here.

A bad situation get worse – much worse

John Robb noted earlier that attacks were growing more sophisticated. What to make of this?

A Growing Military Credibility Gap? | TPMCafe:

At the very moment we are surging troops into Baghdad, who will be scattered in small outposts throughout the city and will have to rely on Iraqi soldiers to protect them, we learn belatedly that someone in Iraq is dressing up in US military uniforms, carrying US weapons, and speaking English like a gringo. You know what this means? U.S. soldiers who were already skeptical about the trustworthiness of their Iraqi counterparts will now also have to question whether the U.S. soldier coming towards them is really a U.S. soldier.

The planning evident in this operation is sophisticated and points clearly to the uncomfortable fact that someone within the Iraqi military, who was knowledgeable about the meeting, tipped off the bad guys. It could have been Iranians retaliating for the earlier U.S. attacks on Iranian diplomats inside Iraq or maybe it was someone with a militia group with a grudge to settle. Regardless, it is bad news all around.

Equally disturbing is the fact that someone in the U.S. military chain of command lied about what happened and put out false information to the press and the American people.

Until people start telling the truth, nothing will change. How many young men and women will die before that happens?

indulgences

Is buying a new diet book every January an updated form of buying indulgences?

mystic bourgeoisie: four out of ten:

The four diet books at the right are currently listed among Amazon’s top-10 bestsellers. Is it any wonder how much the rest of the world loves America? Here’s another weight-loss option to consider. Send the money you’d normally use to buy the crap that’s making you so fat to people who don’t have anything to eat.

well, the stuff I eat that’s making me fat (if I can call it that: is weighting 195 @ 6 feet tall and BMI of under 25 fat?) is good food, mostly, just too much of it.

A better idea might be to donate the cost of one of these books to the food charity of your choice. And just push back from the table a little sooner, whydontcha?

Me, I am working on the ‘eat like an ape‘ diet, at least during the day. Fruits and raw veg and simple grains.

[via]

recommended BlueTooth USB adapters?

Now that I can actually use the phone as Motorola intended, I should really get a BlueTooth adapter for my iBook (my tests have been on the iMac that came with the onboard adapter).

I bought one on eBay but the drivers are %^&* I don’t want to repeat that experience, but I wonder just how hard it is to make one of these? The drivers are important, but I get the sense they are a cheap commodity, pouring off assembly lines in China as fast as you can imagine. Once you get away from D-Link, it’s a host of off-brands I have never heard of. Any success stories out there?

Technorati Tags: