For your reading pleasure, "pretty girl" Ann Coulter's article on the DNC that USA Today passed up. Proceed only if you have a strong stomach.

As usual, Coulter presents the worst of conservatism, wasting time calling democratic women ugly*, hybrid cars "dinky", and the speakers "nuts." Why make real criticism when you can name-call!?

I totally agree with USA Today's decision in not printing this unprofessional, petty, vapid piece of pseudo-journalism.

-Tina

*For the record, I know plenty of cute democrats. Anyone seen Maggie Schutz or Chris Heinz?

[ At various times in my life, i've been considered among my peer group as the undisputed king of fury, the one guy who could always be counted on to erupt in rage, sometimes at the merest of proddings. These days, i feel like i'm a great deal more centered, less prone to anger and generally more accepting of the world at large. Yet, if there's one creature on this earth who can bring back the old me - the racing pulse and steaming forehead, the expletives and anger and, i can't deny it, a little dose of what may be pure, unfiltered hate - it's Ann Coulter. My dad has always advised me to "Suffer fools gladly." It's good advice, and i do my best to comply with it, but what about evil? Ann ejects the kind of rubbish that only serves to evoke more of the same with the opposite slant, bases her words on some brand of perverted faith which apparently construes "fact" as an intolerable concession to the heathens she opposes.

She has as much right as the next person to open her mouth and spew forth whatever hateful bile comes naturally to her warped mind, but I long for the day when everyone on the planet stops paying attention to her, so she can retire to some happy bastion of ultra-conservative values where she can cook, clean and raise children, follow her husbands orders, revel in the surveillance and jackbooted Order... let her bask in the warm glow of American thermonuclear supremacy, and wrap herself in false Christianity and our sullied flag whenever it gets a little chilly. -k]

[edit: I think i've said all i can about Ms. Coulter. From now on i think i'll try to take my own advice and ignore her very existence. -k]

Ann Coulter's USA Today Column

] The project is an organized sampling of the world. There
] is a confluence within 49 miles (79 km) of you if you're
] on the surface of Earth. We've discounted confluences in
] the oceans and some near the poles, but there are still
] 12,888 to be found.
]
] You're invited to help by photographing any one of these
] places. Read the Information pages, and contact us if you
] have questions.

[ What a cool idea! -k

Just for fun, i thought i'd note that the one closest to where I grew up is at 42°N 74°W -- within a few miles of Kingston. How bout you all?]

the Degree Confluence Project

] Recently I was bemoaning the lack of innovation in
] government. However, the Engineering Department of the
] City of the Victoria have shown me up. They've found an
] inventive use for those ubiquitous traffic control boxes
] you see on lamp and traffic light posts. In high
] pedestrian traffic areas, they've pasted neighbourhood
] maps on them. The maps wrap around three sides of the
] box, identifying areas of interest (as well as,
] interestingly, the city's URL).
]
]
] What a great idea. Not only do they use existing visual
] real estate (avoiding the need for other street-level
] maps), but it's a really cheap, low-tech solution to
] graffiti.

[ Good call. All cities should do this. It's cheap, easy and useful. -k]

Darren Barefoot - Miscellanist

] Want to help fight terrorism? Want to be able to stop and
] detain suspicious characters? Or do you just want to ride
] your horse on ten miles of trails normally closed to the
] public? Then you might want to join the George Bush
] Intercontinental (IAH) Airport Rangers program. That's
] right. Just fill out a form and undergo a background
] check, and you too can become a front-line fighter as
] Houston's airport tries to keep our nation safe and
] secure. No experience necessary. You don't even have to
] be a US citizen.
]
]
] No; it's not a joke. The Airport Rangers program is
] intended to promote both security and community
] participation, according to the official description.
] It's a volunteer mounted patrol that rides the horses
] along the pristine wooded trails that form the perimeter
] of the 11,000-acre airport.

[ Give. Me. A. Fucking. Break. That's simply astounding. I mean really. Wow. -k]

The Houston Airport Rangers | The Register

[ To watch later... -k]

The Lord Of The Rings Movie - Available Now!

] Vitagenex patches are unlike any other patch technology
] currently sold. While other patches placed on the skin
] deliver substances into the body, LifeWave patches are
] not transdermal patches. Instead this technology is
] entirely new and unique. LifeWave patches do not put any
] substances into the body. Instead the safe natural
] biological substances contained within the patches are
] used to create specific biosignals that modulate the
] body's natural magnetic field in order to enhance
] certain specific biological reactions that are already
] naturally taking place.

[ HA! Magnetic biosignals y'all. -k]

PRESS RELEASE: Vitagenex announces Energy Patches? Nano-technology? World records being broken!

] Harmony also will automatically change songs into an
] iPod-compatible format. But because Apple has not
] licensed its FairPlay copy-protection software to anyone,
] RealNetworks executives said its engineers had to
] re-create their own version in their labs in order to
] make the device play them back.
]
] Although the company said this action wasn't technically
] "reverse engineering," the software could trigger intense
] legal scrutiny.
]
] The license accompanying Apple's iPod says purchasers
] cannot "copy, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble,
] (or) attempt to derive the source code of" the software.

Go Real!

[ I guess now the search is on for anything at all in Real format that's interesting to listen to. -k]

RealNetworks breaks Apple's hold on iPod

] It's the economy, John Kerry.
]
] That's what delegates to the Democratic National
] Convention say their presumed presidential nominee or --
] they shudder to think -- President Bush should
] concentrate on first in 2005, an Associated Press survey
] of Democratic delegates found.
]
] Health care was the No. 2 issue, followed by the war in
] Iraq, according to the survey of some three-quarters of
] the 4,300-plus delegates.

I think this is a very serious mistake. This election is a referendum on Bush, and how his administration has handled security and foreign policy in the wake of 9/11. As long as Kerry can maintain the perception that Bush has loused things up and that he can fix it he can will the election. This is not very difficult to do in the wake of the failure to discover WMD and the difficult security situation in Iraq.

Putting out a numbered list of priorities, and putting national security in the middle of list, communicates only one thing, and that is that national security is not our top priority. This creates a fundamental weakness that will be easy for the Republicans to exploit. They can send the message that they care more about national security then the Democrats do, and if people believe that message the Republicans will win the election. A terrorist attack in this season would play right into that fissure.

Healthcare is a very serious problem in this country, but no one understands it better then the people who operate businesses. In other words, as most voters don't operate businesses they are unlikely to understand how serious the problem is. They understand 9/11. And frankly, they understand that healthcare won't help much if they are victim of an attack no matter how affordable it is.

AP Survey: Top priority of Democratic delegates? It's the economy

] The White House helped to block a Republican-brokered
] deal on Wednesday to extend several middle-class tax
] cuts, fearful of a bill that could draw Democratic votes
] and dilute a Republican campaign theme, Republican
] negotiators said.
] ...
] Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumptive
] Democratic presidential nominee, had already said he
] would retain most of Mr. Bush's middle-class tax cuts,
] and many Democratic lawmakers said they would vote for a
] modest extension of the tax cuts even if the extension
] was not paid for.
]
] "If the Democrats had been on the same side, it would
] have taken a lot of arrows out of the quiver,'' said one
] Republican staff member.

[ Awesome. Now that's playing politics.

The not-so-absurd conspiracy theory condensing around this story is that Bush just wants to push this off 'til september (when congressional recess ends), where a nice middle class tax relief story will help him more. I shrug... anything's possible, but this is still a pretty bold and ruthless move. -k]

White House Helps Block Extension of Tax Cuts

] The piece in question, "Terror in the Skies, Again?" is
] the work of Annie Jacobsen, a writer for
] WomensWallStreet.com. Jacobsen shares the account of the
] emotional meltdown she and her fellow passengers
] experienced when, aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from
] Detroit to Los Angeles, a group of Middle Eastern
] passengers proceeded to act "suspiciously." I'll invite
] you to experience "Terror" yourself, but be warned it's
] quite long. It needs to be, I suppose, since ultimately
] it's a story about nothing, puffed and aggrandized to
] appear important.
]
]
] The editors get the drama cooking with some foreboding
] music: "You are about to read an account of what
] happened," counsels a 70-word preamble. "The WWS
] Editorial Team debated long and hard about how to handle
] this information and ultimately we decided it was
] something that should be shared ... Here is Annie's
] story" [insert lower-octave piano chord here].
]
]
] What follows are six pages of the worst grade-school
] prose, spring-loaded with mindless hysterics and bigoted
] provocation.

[ A solid refutation of Ms. Jacobsen's, er, efforts. -k]

Salon.com Technology | The hysterical skies