] She said her manager was standing in another room and she
] asked him if that meant for her to go back to work or go
] home. The manager told her to go back to work, but he
] came back a few minutes later and said, "I reckon you're
] fired. You could either work for him or John Kerry,"
] Gobbell said.

[ There are a few interesting things about this story, not the least of which is, of course, the fundamental issue of firing someone purely based on their political leanings.

As the story reveals further down, after hearing about the incident, John Kerry hired the woman : "He'd read the part where Phil said I could either work for him or work for John Kerry. He said, 'you let him know you're working for me as of today.' I was just so shocked." This is pretty obviously a total PR move, since it's not clear what skills she can bring to the campaign, but you couldn't buy a better story if you tried.

One other compelling bit is that it seems that the story was broken, and almost completely carried, by a single member of the DialyKOS community, in their diary (personal blog). If you were looking for compelling evidence of a benefit of distributed media, seems like this could be it. -k]

Bumper Sticker Insubordination - A Kerry fan gets fired, and then hired, for her politics. By Timothy Noah

] We produce super-quality limited edition watches in
] outragous designs never made before.
]
] Combining 70's style with future modern day concepts.

[ I love japan. -k]

Pimp Watches - 70's Style vs Future Concepts

] A growing number of doctors and pharmacists are now
] refusing to dispense it, on the grounds that it is
] actually a form of abortion.

[ Jesus christ. I fucking hate people sometimes. -k]

BBC NEWS | Americas | Pill propelled into abortion debate

] Multiple divorces are also unexpectedly common among born
] again Christians. Barna's figures show that nearly
] one-quarter of the married born agains (23%) get divorced
] two or more times ... Bible scholars and teachers point out
] that Jesus taught that divorce was a sin unless adultery was
] involved

So why isn't anyone pushing a Constitutional Amendment against divorce?

Born Again Christians Just As Likely to Divorce As Are Non-Christians

] "By coordinating the accelerated timing of these
] dispositive motions while it continues to block critical
] discovery, IBM would achieve what this court's Amended
] Scheduling Order -- over IBM's stringent objection --
] refused to allow IBM to do: force adjudication of this
] case without adequate opportunity for SCO to develop its
] proof," the filing states. "IBM's coordinated motions
] would thus nullify the Amended Scheduling Order."

[ Please, PLEASE, kill SCO soon. If they hadn't said categorically that they *had*, as in, already could prove, hundreds of instances of (C) violation, then i'd be more sympathetic. But they fucking made that up. Crimony. -k]

SCO Stalls for Time

Okay I've been a fan of this show since the very first episode. Love it love it love it. The writing is top notch and the premiss is that Grim Reapers are real. They exist on this earth to reap the souls of those who have died... But they still have to have day jobs.

It's been nominated for two emmys unfortunately neither are for writing or lead actress (ellen muth is cool: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0616091/)

[ Yeah, the box set of the first season was recently acquired here at chez biltmore. Back when we had showtime, i watched a few eps, and i loved what i saw. I've been watching them in order now and they're every bit as good as I thought. -k]

Showtime - Dead Like Me - About the Show, Characters, Episode Guide, and Downloads

For the second time this year, I'm being forced to change hosts for my personal domain. I've normally hosted my stuff on various friend's machines, however I'm strongly considering abandoning that strategy. I need stability.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good host? My bandwidth usage is not that heavy. PHP, SSL-IMAP, and (https) Webmail are must-haves. TLS capable SMTP that supports SMTP-AUTH for relaying would be nice. There should be 500mb-1G storage, but be under $10/mo.

[ I usually reccomend Dreamhost, though they're not my current host. Everyone i know that's used them has had good things to say though. -k]

Reliable and cheap web/mail hosting

] "Capsula Mundi is planted in the earth like a seed. Above
] it, to signal the presence of occupied space, is a
] shallow concave circle dug out of the ground. In the
] center of which, a tree is planted, the essence of it
] chosen in life by the dead one, the care of this tree is
] the responsibility of everyone. The aim is ecological
] burial, literally a more natural way to decay.
]
]
] The cemetery will, then, acquire a new look. No longer
] the overpopulated urban environment with congested
] architecture, it will be a natural one in contact with
] the earth, enveloping expansive areas, entire hills
] consecrated to the cult of the dead. Summarizing, it is a
] different landscape devoted to the worship of our
] ancestry: a sacred forest."

[ Ever since i read Chapterhouse:Dune, in which one of the BG sisters is buried upright and a tree planted above her, I've wanted to be buried this way. What better memorial than a tree? -k]

Boing Boing: Tree of death

] Amendment supporters contend the flag deserves special
] protection as an important national symbol, while
] opponents, including Kerry, have argued that flag
] desecration can be punished under criminal statutes
] without tampering with the Constitution.

[ This is ridiculous. Why should any of this shit be *illegal* in the first fucking place? What country is this, honestly? Burning a flag is one of the most serious commentaries we can make about the activity of our government. I thought the ability to stand up and say, categorically, "My government is wrong." was somehow important to the American ideal.

How is it that people so easily miss the point. These people don't respect the ideal the flag represents. It is an important symbol, but holding up as something it's not is just wrong. It reduces the flag to a marketing tool, a button or a poster, a fucking blind to hide all the greed and authoritarianism behind. That's a desecration. 150 million tattered nylon flags or faded vinyl stickers on SUV's driven by thoughtless drones who think patriotism has more to do with prominently displaying the symbol than living the ideal. That's a desecration. Proposing this measure now, purposefully exploiting that false patriotism and jingoistic war mentality... unrepentantly using the symbol for private gain... it's ugly. It's a desecration.

A certain amount of flag waving is unavoidable, of course, on both sides, but this focus on the object itself just continues to baffle me. -k]

Kerry, Edwards and Daschle May Face Vote on Flag (washingtonpost.com)

] Sixteen months after the war's supposed end, Iraq's
] insurgency is spreading. Each successful demand by
] kidnappers has spawned more hostage-takings%u2014to make
] Philippine troops go home, to stop Turkish truckers from
] hauling supplies into Iraq, to extort fat ransom payments
] from Kuwaitis. The few relief groups that remain in Iraq
] are talking seriously about leaving. U.S. forces have
] effectively ceded entire cities to the insurgents, and
] much of the country elsewhere is a battleground. Last
] week the total number of U.S. war dead in Iraq passed the
] 1,000 mark, reaching 1,007 by the end of Saturday.

[ And also :

"Another ominous sign is the growing number of towns that U.S. troops simply avoid. A senior Defense official objects to calling them "no-go areas." "We could go into them any time we wanted," he argues. The preferred term is "insurgent enclaves." They're spreading. Counterinsurgency experts call it the "inkblot strategy": take control of several towns or villages and expand outward until the areas merge. The first city lost to the insurgents was Fallujah, in April. Now the list includes the Sunni Triangle cities of Ar Ramadi, Baqubah and Samarra, where power shifted back and forth between the insurgents and American-backed leaders last week. "There is no security force there [in Fallujah], no local government," says a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad. "We would get attacked constantly. Forget about it." "

Awesome. -k]

MSNBC - It's Worse Than You Think