Say Anything Blog

If you hadn't already guessed this from some of my posts, I'm originally from Alaska. I was born and raised there, so I'm not a native of North Dakota (when we first came to North Dakota to visit we crossed the U.S./Canadian border and I told my mom "Hey look, we're in the south.").

Recently, my uncle posted some truly stunning pictures from Alaska to our family website, which have served to make me homesick.

Click here to see them.

A prison guard in Canada has been the target of disciplinary actions from his employer due to the fact that he wears a stab-proof vest while on the job.

From The Calgary Sun:

Corrections Canada won't let guards at maximum security prisons wear stab-proof vests because it sends a confrontational "signal" to prisoners. "If you have that kind of presence symbolized by (a stab-proof vest), you're sending a signal to the prisoner that you consider him to be a dangerous person," said Tim Krause.

"It interferes with what we call 'dynamic security.' We want staff to talk to prisoners, to see how they're doing."

Last month, Sun Media reported a guard at the Edmonton Institution was threatened with disciplinary action several times by prison brass for wearing a self-purchased stab-proof vest on the job.

In a way, this is kind of like the military in Iraq asking soldiers not to display the flag because it might offend some Iraqi's.

You gotta love this quote: "you're sending a signal to the prisoner that you consider him to be a dangerous person..." Well, aren't they dangerous people? Why else would they be in prison? Canada hasn't started putting nice, law-abiding people in prison, have they?

When did the self esteem of criminals become more important than the safety of law enforcement?

Kerry isn't happy with Bush's decision to stick to the June 30th deadline for handing over the control of Iraq to Iraqi's.

Yeah, big deal. What'd you expect him to say, that he respected Bush for sticking to his guns and trying to meet an expectation he set for himself?

How much would you like to bet that if Bush extended the deadline into July or August we'd be hearing from Kerry about how we're not getting any where in Iraq?

Same crap, different day.

Granted, the recent difficulties we're having in Iraq are worrisome, remember that its occuring in a small portion of the country, a portion where our troops have met with strong resistance from the beginning.

Earlier today I pointed out that the ratio of Iraqi deaths to U.S. deaths has been 5 to 1. More recent headlines have born that ratio out. With death-tolls like that, they can't keep this fight up forever.

Our soldiers will bring peace and freedom to Iraq and Iraqi's will be in charge of their own government. I have faith in our troops and our mission.

Jeff Jarvis has been busy of late defending his favorite radio personality, Howard Stern. He treats readers to daily updates regarding Stern's ongoing battles with the FCC and has even taken to calling these posts the "Daily Stern."

Here is the first sentence from today's "Daily Stern:"

Action on the Senate indecent "decency" bill could come as soon as tomorrow (conveniently, while Stern is on vaca)

Is that a typo, or did Jarvis just use the term "vaca?"

Since when do Senate comittees have to consider celebrity schedules when making decisions for legislation?

I reall like Jeff's blog, but this Stern-hero-worship thing is getting a little tired.

Not any more, if this photo from Gizmodo tells us anything:



From the look on the bride's face I gather that the cake was not her idea.

The Associated Press is currently running this headline:

20 GIs, 100 Iraqis Killed Since Weekend

While its unfortunate that anybody has to die during the ongoing liberation and reconstruction of Iraq, but the fact that its currently taking 5 Iraqi deaths in order to bring about one U.S. casualty is encouraging.

No fighting force, no matter how dedicated, can continue to fight for long at this ratio.

Troops in Iraq are being ordered to avoid displaying Old Glory so as not to offend Iraqis.

From the Washington Times via Venemous Kate:

U.S. Air Force members in Iraq are furious over a recent order to take down all American flags at Kirkuk air base to avoid offending Iraqis.
"The reason we were given is so we would not offend the Iraqi people," said Air Force Technical Sgt. Samuel D. Arbuckle. "We were told that we are not occupying this country. And apparently we are not in charge. Well, my question is this: If we are not in charge, then who is? Obviously the Iraqi people are not. The Iraqi people do not run any of these bases over here yet, and may not for quite some time."

To protest the order, members of the Kirkuk air base fire department continued to fly the Stars and Stripes every day.

"Today in a show of respect and honor especially for those who have fallen, we disobeyed the order and raised our flag, but less than an hour later we were ordered to take our flag down," Sgt. Arbuckle said Tuesday.

Judging by the recent activity in Fallujah by Iraqis, I think they're already offended. A simple flag isn't going to make much of a difference.

What a joke.

The blogoshpere's very own Scott Ott of Scrappleface was talked about on the Rush Limbaugh show.

Here's an excerpt from the show's transcript:

Have you heard of the website ScrappleFace? It's a fabulous parody website, actually created in my own image. This is EIB quality. Just to give you an example, here's a Scrappleface story. Remember, this is parody.

"In the aftermath of news that 308,000 new jobs were created in March Democrat presidential candidate John Forbes Kerry said today that corporate fat cats are padding their payrolls with unneeded workers to help George Bush win the election."

Now, doesn't that sound exactly like something you would see on a Democrat website or hear some loony liberal parrot?

"'These wealthy special interests are so desperate to give Bush some good news they've hired 308,000 people they don't need,' said Mr. Kerry. 'Some say this is an expression of hope for a better future. I think it's the worst sort of cynicism. Many of these same 308,000 will someday lose their jobs and that tragic loss must be laid at the doorstep of George W. Bush. He did nothing to stop his wealthy cronies from hiring these future unemployed people.'"

You got 'em nailed. I'm sharing this with you because this is the kind of stuff that has sprung up in the last 15 years that did not exist 15 or 16 years ago before this program existed. It just didn't happen. There is a counter to all of what you think is still the so-called partisan media mainstream bias. They're not nearly as dominant as you think. I'm not suggesting you be overconfident out there, but at the same time it certainly is no reason to panic. Some people are not happy unless they're upset about something, but don't be truly troubled by this. It's way too soon anyway.

As James Joyner from Outside the Beltway pointed out, its kind of funny that Rush would attribute the emergence of Scott's site to himself. But, we all know Rush has a huge ego so perhaps its not that surprising really.

Really, if you're not reading Scrappleface every day you should be.

With the new PC EZ Bake Oven, you can work on your computer and bake a tasty snack at the same time.



From ThinkGeek via Blackfive:

Now the computer savvy among us can relive the fun of having your very own personal mini-oven with the PC Ez-Bake oven! It fits in a 5 1/4" drive bay and plugs right into your power supply with the included Molex connector. Also included is "PC Ez-Cook", the open-source oven controller software with hundreds of easy and creative recipes for your PC Ez-Bake oven, and even a fuzzy-logic cooking control system to precisely measure the doneness of your cake, cookie, or cheese souffle. The PC Ez-Bake oven can even be used to cook your Pop Tarts, Bagel Bites, or any tiny or flat food. YUM!

In case you hadn't already figured it out, this is a prank.

Seriously though, how long until kitchen appliances like ovens and microwaves are run from a PC? Baking a cake could be as easy as following the prompts on your monitor...

Or, at least the manufacturers of Tom Bihn bags thinks so.

Take a look at the last couple of lines of this tag (found at Skeptomai via Buzzmachine) found on one of their products:



In case you don't read French, that line reads ""We are sorry that our President is an idiot. We didn't vote for him."

Classy, no?

If a company wants to make a political statement I guess that's fine, but you'd think they could at least have the cojones to say it out loud instead of sneaking the message in like this.

Update:

These bags are being used by some of our soldiers in Iraq, according to the Tom Bihn website.

I should point out that the picture shown in the post I've linked to doesn't show the bag itself, just the tag. I'm taking the author of that post's word that the bag is from Tom Bihn.

Ambulance workers in selected areas across the nation have begun using a new synthetic blood called PolyHeme in emergency situations. Predictably, this has has ticked a few people off.

From Wired News:

Thanks to an unusual loophole in the strict rules of medical ethics, hundreds of trauma patients in California, Texas and a few other states will be taking a gamble when ambulances come to scoop them up after accidents or acts of violence.

Without waiting to get consent, paramedics will inject a fake blood product into half of the eligible patients chosen to take part in a new study. The other half will get a routine treatment of transfusion with saline solution until they reach the hospital.

For now, the artificial blood, known as PolyHeme, isn't approved for general use. But it will still slip into the veins and arteries of unconscious patients who won't be able to say no.

"Emergency research in general creates a special set of circumstances," said Kelly Fryer-Edwards, a University of Washington medical ethicist whose colleagues across the country are divided over the wisdom of the blood study. "In a way, all of our usual approaches to research ethics -- to protecting human subjects, to trying to get informed consent -- just go out the window."

I first wrote about PolyHeme back in January, when the Grand Forks Herald ran an article on the subject. At that time, the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota was preparing to equip its trauma units with PolyHeme, but was asking for community feedback first. I'm curious as to whether or not any of the other hospitals did the same.

According to what I've heard from Minnesota, the use of PolyHeme was accepted by the public for the most part.

I'm not sure that this situation is quite as alarming as the Wired article is making it seem. In current emergency situations paramedics are using saline for blood-loss victims. Saline, as I'm sure you know, is basically water. PolyHeme would be a replacement for injecting water.

If I were in an ambulance bleeding to death I'd much rather them inject me with something like PolyHeme instead of something that amounts to water. But that's just me.

What we have to consider is that people have a basic right to dictate the type of medical treatment the receive. Now, PolyHeme could prove to be a revolutionary product that could save thousands of lives each year, but we won't know that until its tested in a real-world scenario. Unfortunately, in those real world scenarios its just not possible to obtain a release from the patient so that the experimental product can be used.

Its a tough issue, but I feel that as long as PolyHeme has been sufficiently tested in a laboratory setting and has had no indications that it will harm trauma patients, then we should let them use it.

These hospitals are trying to test a new product that could save a lot of lives. Its not like they're trying to harm anybody.

Outside the Beltway has a post today about a Supreme Court case involving a drug sniffing dog and a routine traffic stop.

From the New York Times:

When Roy Caballes was pulled over by an Illinois state trooper for speeding on a rainy night in 1998, the incident did not seem to be grist for a Supreme Court case.
But as Mr. Caballes's car was sitting beside Interstate 80 in La Salle County, another trooper arrived with a police dog. The dog sniffed around it for the presence of drugs, and marijuana was found in the trunk.

Mr. Caballes was given only a warning for speeding (he had been clocked at 71 miles an hour in a 65 m.p.h. zone), but he was in big trouble because of the marijuana, since he had prior drug-related arrests.

The 1998 arrest resulted in a conviction on marijuana-trafficking charges, a sentence of 12 years in prison and a fine of more than $250,000. Mr. Caballes appealed, contending that the trial court should have suppressed the evidence of the drugs found in the trunk and thrown out the arrest because the police had improperly widened the bounds of an ordinary traffic stop.

I could be wrong, but would a police officer even require a warrant to walk around the outside of your car with a dog? Does sniffing the air around your vehicle constitute an invasion of your privacy?

I don't think so.

Bob Dylan is now appearing in his first celebrity endorsement, and its for Victoria's Secret lingerie of all things.

From The Associated Press:

Dylan's song "Love Sick," from his Grammy-winning 1997 album "Time Out of Mind," provides the musical backdrop for the ad, which airs in 15-, 30- and 60-second versions.

It promotes a new line of lingerie, the "Angels" collection -- which explains the wings on Lima's back as she prances across a palazzo near a Venetian canal.

"It's weird," said New York disc jockey Dennis Elsas, who's played Dylan music for three decades. "I would be hesitant to say it's awful or wonderful. It's just strange."

The ads began airing a week ago, and will run for the next two weeks, said Ed Razek, chief creative officer for Victoria's Secret. The company experienced an immediate uptick in sales once the ad ran, he said.

Dylan was not a hard sell when approached about the campaign, Razek said. The company had already decided to use the song when its corporate boss, Les Wexner, suggested inviting Dylan himself.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer quickly agreed, although no one's quite sure why.

I love Bob Dylan. The fact that he's decided to start endorsing products doesn't bother me, but Victoria's Secret? That just doesn't make sense. I mean, Dylan's talented and all but he's not exactly what you'd call easy on the eyes.

Who knows, though. According to the article Victoria's Secret has seen a sales peak since the release of the commercial.

Click here to view the commercial.

Alanis Morissette, making a statement against what she's calling U.S. "censorship" stripped down to a fake body suit complete with nipples and pubic hair at a Canadian music award show.

From the Drudge Report:

Alanis Morissette poked fun at Janet Jackson's notorious breast-baring episode by stripping on stage to reveal cartoonish fake nipples and pubic hair.

Morissette, hosting Canada's annual music awards, said the stunt, in which she appeared in a provocative skin-hugging body-suit was intended to expose US "censorship."

The singer, renowned for her angst-ridden lyrics, told the audience at the Juno Awards in Edmonton "we live in a land where we still think the human body is beautiful and we're not afraid of the female breast."

Morissette let a dressing gown fall to the floor to reveal her "nudity" after an announcer warned : "we can't show nipples on national TV," in an obvious dig at US outrage fanned by Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the Superbowl.

"I am proud to be able to stand here and do this," Morissette said, to wild cheers from the audience at Sunday night's show.

I think these people are missing the boat.

I can't speak for everybody, but my problem with Janet's breast exposure at the Super Bowl was that I didn't have any advance notice. If I had seen a warning or something else that would clue me into the fact that there was going to be a bared breast during the broadcast I wouldn't have had a problem with it. Such a warning would have let me make certain decisions, such as whether or not to let the young children in the room watch the performance and whether or not I even wanted to watch it.

I don't want nudity to be censored from movies and shows, I just want to know when its going to occur so I can effectively monitor my child's and my own intake of content. Its my right to do so and further, I feel that this right is more important than any artist's right to be naked on television.

Anti-censorship advocates often tell us that if we don't like what's on television than we should just switch the channel. Unfortunately, its hard to do that when we don't know what's going to be on next.

Update:

Michael Williams had this to say:

It may be hard to believe, but we're not afraid of you, we just don't like you. We find your nakedness and superfluous cursing to be aesthetically unpleasing. We don't want our kids to grow up to be like you, because absent the publicity machine of the fading music industry you're a pathetic, angst-ridden loser. You've written some music some people like, and that's a nice accomplishment, but it gives you about as much moral authority to pontificate on war, censorship, and politics as Humpty (pronounced with an "umpty").

Get off your high-horse and get some perspective on life.

That about sums it up.

Kim du Toit's "roving reporter" in Iraq, Staff Martin, makes some excellent points about troop rotation and the draft:

Since there are millions more young men who reach age 18 each year than the military could absorb, the draft would have to be arbitrary, reaching perhaps only one out of every 10 eligible men. You can bet that the first thing that many of those men would do is run to a court and file a civil suit challenging the lawfulness, arbitrariness, and overall Constitutionality of their conscription. Even if the majority of the suits were dismissed, the cost of having to respond to them would be enormous both in terms of money and in terms of the armies of lawyers that the government would have to employ in order to keep ahead of them. There would also be the risk that a suit in a very liberal jurisdiction (think about the 9th Circuit here) could set a precedent by declaring the entire draft unconstitutional, requiring the Supreme Court to get involved. That cost alone would wipe out any cost savings that the draft could possibly bring to the military...

In the opinion of this NCO (and yes, I know I'm talking way above my pay grade), if we simply built the military back up to 75% of where it was during the Cold War, and eliminated our useless and wasteful bases in places where they're no longer needed, we will easily have enough personnel to conduct all of our operations without burning out the troops. The soldiers would have enough time between rotations to maintain their proficiency at places like NTC and JRTC, soldiers would have enough time to attend professional development courses that are essential to promotions, and they'd get plenty of time between rotations to spend with their families. Rotations to'the sandbox' would occur about every 3 years, meaning most soldiers serving a 4 year term would serve one, or at most, two tours, which is feasible.

I recommend that you read the whole thing.

A warrant has been issued for radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and U.S. troops have blockaded the city of Fallujah. It would appear as though a response to the recent violence in that city is nigh.

From The Associated Press:

An Iraqi judge has issued a murder arrest warrant for a radical Shiite Muslim cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, for the slaying of another Shiite leader shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of the country, coalition officials said Monday.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops on Monday sealed off the city of Fallujah west of Baghdad, where some 1,200 Marines and two battalions of Iraqi security forces were poised to launch an operation aimed at pacifying the city, one of the most violent places in the Sunni Triangle.

Explosions and gunfire could be heard coming from the center of the city. Streets on the outskirts were largely deserted.

This is the kind of resolve I like to see. With Bush sticking to his guns on the June 30th deadline for handing over government control to Iraqis, it would appear as though the military is prepared to mop up the trouble makers and those that lead them.

I've got two words to say about that: good riddance.

I'm pro-gun, all the way. I support a citizen's right to purchase, keep and sell firearms. Unfortunately, pro-gun advocates like myself also have to accept the fact that our right to keep and bear arms also extends to some real morons.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Police said some friends of the woman's boyfriend took a gun over to the couple's apartment late Thursday.

When Roxanne Perez saw the .357-caliber pistol, she told her boyfriend she didn't want the weapon in their home, so he hid it inside the oven without Perez's knowledge.

When Perez later went to cook some food in the oven, the gun went off, wounding her in the hip.

Hopefully this guy's girlfriend will now leave him before he has a chance to procreate with her and pass his stupidity on to another generation, if he hasn't already.

Berry's World has an excellent post up today about the situation with The Daily Kos, which I found via Instapundit.

In that post, I found this comment which seemed a bit odd to me:

I'm a big fan of free speech, and I'm not a fan of attempting to harm someone's livelihood simply because they have said something that I find objectionable. I didn't like it when it happened to the Dixie Chicks, I didn't like it when it happened to Rush Limbaugh, and I don't like it now that it's happening to The Daily Kos.

What is it exactly that the author doesn't like?

People like Rush Limbaugh and Kos live in the world of opinion. Its a world that can turn on you quickly. If you make a statement that is viewed as being outrageous or controversial you're going to lose some readers/listeners. Honestly, I don't see what the problem is with that. If people want to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh because they viewed his comments on ESPN as being racist, then so be it. Its their decision. Personally, I thought his comments were right on target and not racist at all, but to each their own.

The same goes for Kos. He said some things that offended a lot of people and because of it he might lose some readership. Its really not that surprising and I don't see anything to "not like" about it.

Now, the Dixie Chicks are a little bit different matter, but I still didn't have a problem with people choosing to stop listening to their music. Isn't that a citizen's right? Is it so wrong for a citizen to stop purchasing products from an artist he or she doesn't agree with politically?

When Ms. Maines made her comments about the President she thrust herself into the arena of public opinion. Like I said before, that's a world that can turn on you in a matter of minutes.

Some doctors are apparently fed up with the hassle of filling out insurance forms and have decided to simply take cash in exchange for their services.

From the Associated Press:

Most people are content with monthly premiums and $10 copays; nine out of 10 doctors contract with managed-care companies. But cash-only medicine is becoming an increasingly attractive option for doctors frustrated by red tape and for the 43 million Americans who lack health insurance.

"It's a terrible indictment of the collapsing health care system," said Arthur Caplan, chairman of the medical ethics department at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. "Insurance and managed care were supposed to streamline -- instead what they've done is add so much paperwork and bureaucracy they're driving some doctors out."

When O'Brien leaves the exam room, he writes a check for $50 and he's done -- no forms, no ID numbers, no copayments.

I wonder how wide-spread this practice actually is? Last time I checked my hospital accepted cash if that's how you wanted to pay, so I'm assuming that the new trend the article is pointing out is doctors who don't take patients with insurance. Can there really be that many doctors out there who have enough cash patients to make a living?

I'm no fan of insurance companies. It costs me upward of $80/month just to cover myself with health insurance through my employer. Then, if I should dare to actually use my insurance, there's 25 hoops I have to jump through and it still costs me money on top of that. It would be nice to just write a check for the medical services and be done with it.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure that's a wise way to go. The man in the article who wrote a check for $50.00 for his exam must not have children. Anybody who has ever had a flu bug make its way through their children knows that paying $50.00/doctor visit just isn't acceptable.

So while some people may enjoy not having to deal with insurance companies, they are a necessary evil for most of us.

If you've shopped at Wal-Mart recently and used your credit or debit card, you may want to take a minute to glance at your statements.

From Yahoo News:

A computer hardware problem caused more than 800,000 credit and debit card transactions to be double- or triple-billed last week at Wal-Mart stores nationwide, according to officials at First Data Corp., which handled the electronic payments.

The excess Visa and Mastercard charges, which occurred Wednesday and were posted on Thursday, have been reversed, First Data spokeswoman Staci Busby said Sunday.

Busby said the problem showed up on reports the company generates for quality control purposes. She said it's unclear how many customers were affected, and that she had no other details about the hardware problem.

"Anyone who conducted a transaction with a Visa or Mastercard on March 31 should check their statements," Busby said.

Well, that should be worth a few lawsuits.