] TOKYO, Aug. 19 - Miyoko Watai, the freshly minted fiancée
] of Bobby Fischer, the imprisoned American chess master,
] admitted Thursday that he might be using her as "a pawn"
] in an effort to counter the Japanese authorities' opening
] move.
]
] "I could be a sacrifice pawn," conceded Ms. Watai, 59,
] the acting president of the Japan Chess Association. She
] had put on an orange flowered print dress to meet
] reporters and explain Tuesday's sudden faxed statement
] that she and Mr. Fischer, 61, were in love and wanted to
] marry.
]
] "But in chess there is such a thing as pawn promotion,
] where a pawn can become a queen," said Ms. Watai, four
] times women's chess champion in Japan. Breaking into a
] smile, she vowed: "Bobby-san is my king, and I will
] become his queen. We want to win the game by joining
] hands."

Bobby Fischer is a pretty twisted human being. He renounces America, denies the Holocaust, and pledges (HEIL!) his loyalty to Germany all before deciding to marry an exceptionally diluted Japanese woman.

Sounds like there's needs to be a new "Search" for Bobby Fischer.

-janelane

Chess Is Her Passion and, She Declares, So Is Bobby-San

] BRIELLE, New Jersey (AP) -- An 8-year-old girl who
] suffers from a rare digestive disorder and cannot eat
] wheat has had her first Holy Communion declared invalid
] because the wafer contained no wheat, violating Roman
] Catholic doctrine.
]
] Now, Haley Waldman's mother is pushing the Diocese of
] Trenton and the Vatican to make an exception, saying the
] girl's condition should not exclude her from the
] sacrament, which commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus
] Christ before his crucifixion. The mother believes a rice
] Communion wafer would suffice.
]
] "It's just not a viable option. How does it corrupt the
] tradition of the Last Supper? It's just rice versus
] wheat," said Elizabeth Pelly-Waldman.

This article points to one of many of my problems with organized religion. What has the content of the wafer has to do with accepting Jesus as your Savior? Why should the content of the wafer have anything to do with your acceptance into the church?

More importantly, do the church leaders honestly think that Jesus Christ would deny this little girl communion on account of a digestive order?

CNN.com - Church says girl's communion not valid - Aug 19, 2004

What follows is an excerpt from an email I received today regarding a class action suit against Paypal (the formatting errors appeared in the email). I would have copied from the website, but it is apparently not taking requests at this time.

Paypal, for those out at sea since 1999, allows you to make credit card or checking account payments over the internet.* Its a great way to pay Ebay sellers or make online donations without airing your financial information like dirty laundry.

] 3. WHAT IS THIS LAWSUIT ABOUT?
]
] In early 2002, Plaintiffs Roberta Toher and Jeffrey
] Resnick filed separate lawsuits against PayPal, Inc.
] These two cases were later consolidated into one lawsuit
] in the United States District Court for the Northern
] District of California, San Jose Division, entitled In re
] PayPal Litigation, Case No. CV 02 01227-JF (PVT). The
] lawsuit alleges that PayPal violated the federal
] Electronic Fund Transfer Act ("EFTA"), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1693
] et seq., including provisions requiring PayPal to supply
] customers with information about dispute resolution
] procedures and to follow certain procedures when
] investigating complaints of unauthorized or incorrect
] electronic fund transfers. For example, the lawsuit
] claims that PayPal did not provide account statements in
] the manner required by the EFTA. The lawsuit further
] alleges that PayPal has placed inappropriate restrictions
] or other limits on customers' accounts and engaged in
] other improper practices. Based on these practices, the
] lawsuit asserts
]
] claims under California state law
]
] w for conversion, money had and received, negligence, and
] violations of consumer protection statutes.
]
]
] PayPal does not believe that it did anything wrong. In
] fact, PayPal disputes that the EFTA, originally passed in
] 1978, applies to its business. PayPal denies any and all
] liability for the claims alleged in the lawsuit. The
] Court did not decide in favor of the Plaintiffs or
] PayPal. Instead, beginning in the fall of 2003, the
] parties began a series of settlement negotiation sessions
] mediated by United States Magistrate Judge Edward
] Infante. Eventually, in November 2003, both sides agreed
] to a settlement in principle. By settling their claims,
] both parties avoided the uncertainty and cost of a trial.
] The settlement provides money and other benefits to the
] Class. On June 11, 2004, the parties entered into a
] formal, written Settlement Agreement, which is on file
] with the Court and available on the Internet at
] https://www.paypal.com/settlement/. By entering into the
] Settlement Agreement, PayPal is not admitting any
] wrongdoing. PayPal continues to believe that it did not
] do anything wrong. The Representative Plaintiffs
] and the attorneys appointed by the Court to
] represent the Class believe that the settlement is fair
] to Class Members. By this notice, the Court is not
] expressing any view on the merits of the lawsuit.

*alright, so my laymen's definition probably sucks, but c'mon...I'm an ME for crying out loud. :-)

Paypal: Notice of Pendency of Class Action and Proposed Settlement

] BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Environmentalists are blasting a
] Bush administration proposal to lift a ban on logging in
] remote areas of national forests, saying the move ignores
] popular support for protecting forests.
]
] The plan announced Monday would allow logging by
] permitting roads to be constructed in national forests.
] Governors would have to petition the federal government
] to block road building.

Everytime I turn around the Shrub is giving me another reason to hate his guts. I'm beginning to think that people who want to vote for him must care about absolutely nothing except prayer in schools and gay marriage. With the gay marriage amendment getting buried, it'll probably only become more of a sore spot for the upcoming election.

As an aside, I saw an interesting thing on expatriots last night on PBS. Apparently, there's several million American's living overseas that could be voting. There's a major drive in several countries from "both" parties to bring in voters.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the segment was when they interviewed a guy that had been living in London for 30 years. He said that, never, ever had he been accosted on the street about U.S. foreign policy until a couple of weeks ago. Thus, for those of us that will be travelling to covertly hostile countries soon, I propose wearing T-shirts with some of the following sayings:

"Kerry + Edwards = Hedgehog"
"I couldn't care less about gay marriage"
"Get rid of the religion in the religious right"

CNN.com - Bush plan drops logging ban for national forests - Jul 13, 2004

] MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Mexico's attorney
] general said on Monday he had had a microchip inserted
] under the skin of one of his arms to give him access to a
] new crime database and also enable him to be traced if he
] is ever abducted.

Egads! The government is fully encouraged to implant a microchip over my cold, lifeless body, but not sooner, and certainly not by my request.

CNN.com - Mexico attorney general gets microchip implant - Jul 13, 2004

] The NAACP received a letter from the White House three
] weeks ago declining the invitation because of scheduling
] conflicts and thanking them for understanding.
]
] The letter was signed by presidential scheduler Melissa
] Bennett.

I hope to God the African-American voters don't turn the other cheek.

I like the last paragraph best:

"White House spokesman Jim Morrell said Wednesday that the president has spoken about "equal opportunity and equal rights for all Americans" in many public places."

i.e. words /= actions

CNN.com - Bush declines NAACP invitation - Jul 8, 2004

Kerry + Edwards = Hedgehog?

CNN.com - Kerry names Edwards his running mate - Jul 6, 2004

] The Hubble Space Telescope has looked deep into the
] cosmic abyss and created a unique baby picture of the
] universe. Until now, images returned by Hubble showed
] galaxies as they appeared when they were cosmic
] youngsters. The new images reveal the galaxies as
] toddlers, in the midst of a period of rapid developmental
] changes.

It's interesting to hear about the Hubble after so many years of it not being in the news.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Where Time Began

] The students huddled over laptops at a Los Angeles-area
] college have paid nearly $4,000 to attend "Hacker
] College," a computer boot camp designed to show how
] people will try to break into network systems -- and how
] they will succeed.
]
] "It's an amazing thing how insecure the big corporations
] are," Echemendia said during a break in the weeklong
] seminar. "It's just amazing how easy it is."
]
] ...
] "What we attempt to do in our classes is teach how the
] hackers think," said Dave Kaufman, president of Intense
] School. The only way to keep hackers out of major corporate
] systems, he said, is to know how they will be attacked
] in the first place.

Yes! Somewhere there is a chorus of angels singing their hearts out. "Se-cur-ri-ty, se-cur-ri-ty, hallowed be thy name."

CNN.com - School teaches students 'ethical hacking' - Jun 28, 2004

] BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's interim prime minister said
] Tuesday the fledgling government "is currently
] negotiating" with coalition authorities for the handover
] of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to its custody.
] ...
] "Definitely, we'll be trying our best to get custody of
] Saddam and the other criminals. We have so far some
] definite promises from the coalition that this would be
] the case," said Allawi.
]
] He said he was told of the promises by coalition
] authorities in Baghdad, but said details are being worked
] out "within the U.S. administration."
] ...
] Pentagon officials responded that U.S. forces will hold
] Saddam and thousands of Iraqi detainees before and after
] the transfer of power to the Iraqi government on June 30.
]
] Officials said they were not aware of any immediate plans
] calling for the United States to hand over Saddam or any
] of the detainees until details of that transfer are
] worked out.
] ...
] Saddam was captured by U.S. troops December 13 near his
] ancestral home of Tikrit, where he was hiding in a
] "spider hole." U.S. officials have described Saddam as
] being less than cooperative during his interrogations.
]
] At this time, no charges have been filed against him.

The Geneva Convention stipulates that that "[p]risoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities," (Article 118, http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/91.htm). However, it does not then go onto to define "active hostilities". Thus, until the daily carbombings which protest our occupation and could be construed as "active hostilities" cease, the Iraqi POWs could be conceivably detained indefinitely. Worse, since the probability that every act of resistance against the US is halted when US occupation ends is infinitesimal, and the forseeable longevity of our occupation is infinite, it appears we have a probability of 1 : infinitesimal*infinite that the POWs will ever be repatriated.

From Bush's perspective, this has got to be even better than the loop hole that kept the Pledge of Allegiance in schools.

CNN.com - Allawi: Iraq negotiating for Saddam - Jun 15, 2004