This Blog Is Full Of Crap

"November" by Tom Waits.

It's time to end the era of "Does not play well with others" and ring in a new era.

Suggestions welcome, may the best catchphrase win.

The Texans actually won one? Against Cleveland?

Well, that figures. Cleveland is traditionally the drunk retarded sister of the NFL: easy to score on.

David Carr is up to 37 sacks for the season. He's still on pace to break his old record, unless he breaks in half first.

Two bums bothering me for bus fare Downtown. Told them both I didn't have any cash and that I used passes.

"Well, you got extra passes?"
"Yeah. When I go to work."

Then some bum bitching about Whitey not hiring him for washing cars at the rental companies at the airport, bothing everyong around him.

"What time is it?"
(stops reading book) "Ten till." (starts reading book again)
"Ten till what?"
(stops reading book) "Ten till eight." (starts reading book again)

It took him two minutes to get the hint that I was more interested in the Bob Schieffer autobiography than his discovery of the concept of Daylight Savings Time.

He went back to torturing the nearest black person with his stories about Whitey being evil.

Subsitute bus driver decided to skip the stop at work despite my clanging well in advance of it, so I got a lovely walk for a block back to the office.

The only highlight of the past two days in Mass Trainsit Land is that the jury summons was accepted for going to the courthouse as well as back home. In between, I reported my lost bookmark/bus pass as lost, and they brought up a display of every farebox and route I've taken with it.

Normally, I'd be a bit creeped out, but my reaction was "COOL!"

So I'm on temp passes until they make certain that I'm not scamming them or something like that?

Right. A white guy who shaves and showers is going to scam them. Uh huh.

I'd be the first. They could bronze me and stick me on the wall.

Michelle Malkin has her new book out.

Our bookstore run was this past weekend, so it may be a few days before we hit the bookstore again.

I guess that means it's time for me to hit Amazon... okay, it's bought.

When it arrives, I'll ask the cats what they think about it.

Who cares who I think about Phil Garner's contract extension? It's time for a new feature of TBIFOC called Ask The Cats!

What do you think about Phil Garner's contract extension?

Piper: *grumble* Morgan Fucking Ensberg... *grumble*	Frisky: When's the victory rally? Can I see it from here? What? They got swept? I guess they can pass along that savings in the form of cheaper beer, right?
Nardo: Forget about baseball season... when is Lizard Season again? This cold weather is chasing away all the lizards I want to hunt!	Cali: First, Theo Epstein resigns as the Red Sox GM, and now this?!! What's baseball coming to these days?
Beezer: Mmmmm are there any yummy treats left?	Her Ladyship: Around here, the humans chase soccer balls. Sometimes they give me feathers to chase. And sometimes I chase my shadow. See it? Isn't it neat?
What does your cat think?

Thank you, kittycats.

Does your cat have an opinion on the subject? Then send the following to askthecats (at) isfullofcrap.com:

• A photo of the cat or cats in JPEG format (If you've already submitted the photo, it will be in my gallery archive and just let me know the URL of the thumbnail photo to use again)
• Their opinion, whether it pertains to the subject or not
• (optional) Your URL

And you'll see them up here with the rest of the kittycats!

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IFOC) - Rosa Parks' casket refuses to give up spot in front of Capitol Rotunda when body of former baseball manager Al Lopez is brought in for public display.

The two Hamassholes blown up today were in a car with official red Palestinian Security plates.

"Get the air freshener! Get the air freshener!"

Those license plates should be shoved up George "Those who shelter terrorists are just as guilty as the terrorists" Bush's and Condi Rice's asses if they bitch.

Mahmoud Abbas is not an ally in the War On Terrorism.

He is the enemy.

... get grabbed by Nardo!

Are the catcams admissible as evidence?

Dear Yasser,

Love,
Kofi

I have posted the rules for the 2006 Dead Pool. The goal is to finish the transition of the Dead Pool from a mostly solo running commentary to a fully collaborative commentary.

I'll also establish a weeky Caption Contest, open to players and non-players alike.

Finally, I am working on a PHP form for entering rosters and profiles, but we'll see if I get it done in time. Otherwise, I'll open up a mailbox and enter things into the database and Notebook Of Death by hand.

I thought that everybody who was on the old, shut-down servers that didn't get their DNS updated would have bitched by now, but one just wrote whining about not being able to see their site.

Of course, they write everyone and call in and send in a ticket and pretty much every method available of requesting help when you're in a furious, chaotic tizzy.

If it's so important to them and needs to be up immediately to the point of lashing out randomly to everyone that might listen, why did they wait a few weeks to report it?

The Sneeze has been running a "magic rocks" webcam today.

I wonder if there are people writing The Sneezemaster with demands to wake up the rocks, give the rocks treats, go pet the rocks, why are the rocks sleeping all day, when are the rocks going to take a toy away, blah blah blah.

Who cares who I think about Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid ordering the Senate into a closed-door session to investigate faulty intelligence on Iraq and Plamegate? It's time for a new feature of TBIFOC called Ask The Cats!

What do you think about Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid ordering the Senate into a closed-door session to investigate faulty intelligence on Iraq and Plamegate?

Frisky: I'm glad he ordered the doors closed. I, as a kittycat who likes to sit by the door, appreciate his thoughtfulness towards the Senate kittycats who sleep by the Senate front door. But did he have to dim the lights?	Nardo: They left the back gate open, right? I hope so. How else will Ted Kennedy go out to hunt lizards?
Piper: Isn't it the start of November Sweeps? This must be terrible for CSPAN-2's ratings in such an important time!	Beezer: I love my pumpkin, and I love Harry Reid!
Bob: They'd be better off reading the books on the bed with me than doing whatever it is they're wasting their time and my momma's taxpayer dollars doing! At least if they did the reading, they'd have some idea about what the Constitution is.	Gwynnie: Closed door schmosed door. I'm open for business, boys!
Cali: I'd love to hold my own closed blinds meeting if I could. Now if I could just find that damn string to pull the blinds down.	What does your cat think?

Thank you, kittycats.

Does your cat have an opinion on the subject? Then send the following to askthecats (at) isfullofcrap.com:

• A photo of the cat or cats in JPEG format (If you've already submitted the photo, it will be in my gallery archive and just let me know the URL of the thumbnail photo to use again)
• Their opinion, whether it pertains to the subject or not
• (optional) Your URL

And you'll see them up here with the rest of the kittycats!

I think Bob did a great job with this "aftermath" photo of Nardo's encounter with the killer cat-eating pumpkin:

He's in the rocking chair right now, query-bleating at me.

No, I won't let him in on the joke. Better that he doesn't know.

The Dead Pool has a very important question that needs your brutal, honest answers.

Atlanta bitched about FEMA screwing them money-wise over two weeks ago.

It was only a matter of time before this happened: Rick Perry and Bill White are saying that FEMA is fucking Texas and Houston with budget cutbacks. They're also not handing over lists of the less civic-minded among the evacuues.

Sorta like getting a shipment of blood from the Red Cross warehouse and then being told "Um, by the way, we were kinda rushed, some of them bags have hepatitis and HIV in 'em."

When the New Orleans "disaster tourists" start getting booted out of hotels and schools, things are not going to be very pleasant Downtown. I figure I'll be even more alert for the resentful and angry among the fine folk that Ray Nagin dumped on this town.

Welcome to FEMA: Fucking Everybody, Mismanaging Assholes.

Anybody have the addresses of local FEMA officials so I can print up maps and directions to hand out when some double-displaced Orleanser junkie asks me if I know of a place they can stay?

Customer requests a reboot.

Then, they send a few emails whining that they can't ping their server.

The vehemence and rage in the emails increases by the minute.

Then, they can ping it. And they're happy with a "never mind" response.

Mind? Of course I mind when someone's being a jackass over something that's completely natural behavior for a server during a power-cycle.

I'm sure this idiot goes to hospitals to fuck comatose patients and expects them to moan his name with delight.

Nardo holds the title of Goodest Boy in the World.

You see, cats have problems with adjectives that have unusual superlative forms. Good - Better - Best makes no sense to them.

But if you use Good - Gooder - Goodest, they understand.

See? He understands.

I'm not sure why he and Piper like the chairs so much, but I guess it doesn't hurt to point cameras at them. The toycam is an obvious spot where both Piper and Nardo get some sun. All I need to do now is figure out where Frisky hangs out where it's nice and bright for the fourth camera.

Oh, and Nardo just grabbed the New Mousey if you're watching the catcams. What a good boy he is, the goodest in the world.

(Should I create a separate Catbloggers Frappr Map?)

Okay, I've created The Catbloggers Frappr Map with a certain grumpus as Patron Saint of the Catblogmap.

Piper the Angry Princess would appreciate it if people adding themselves to the map include the following in the shoutout:

• Their blog name and URL
• The cat's name
• A photo of the cat

If you've got more than one cat, feel free to post a shoutout for each.

I've also sent the password for the map to Ferdy the Conservative Cat in case he and his human pet Bruce want to sync it up with The Catblogroll somehow.

So this guy wirtes to say that his former business partner set up these special components on the server, but not that the partner is gone, he's left with a system that's breaking down more and more frequently.

He writes us, asking if there's any suggestions we have in dealing with the third-party software problem.

Mine is terse and to the point: hire a new partner to handle the technical issues you're clearly unprepared to handle.

He responds with the usual ire. They all get mad when told that it's their problem, not ours.

Like a chauffered boy who gets a resignation by his chauffer thrown in his face, he yells at the tow truck driver who's preparing to tow away his limo for being parked in the middle of the street.

"Why can't you drive me to the maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall!" he whines.
"Because it's not my job, you whiny punk," the tow truck driver says.

I remind him that he went into partnership with a technical administrator for a reason (ie. He's too stupid to fix his own technical problems he's responsible for), and now that he's gone, he needs to be replaced.

Customer whines. They all whine when told this. Where do they find someone to do that?

Well, same place you found your business partner to handle all the tech stuff, I reckon.

Then they offer to pay us for their problems to be solved.

"I'll pay you," says the rich spoiled kid to the tow truck driver. "I'll pay you to drive me around."
"No fucking way," he growls.

I point him at a popular for-hire board for administrators and drop a filter on his mail address so his further whines fall on /dev/null ears for the day.

He's been told. Whether or not he'll listen and comprehend is his own problem.

Since I'm too lazy to keep the Cats photo gallery sorted when I add the photos, instead I'm going to name the photos in a way where they'll automatically sort themselves when I use Gallery's "sort" function. (Just like I've done with the Ask The Cats and the Catmodels Gallery photos)

The subfolders will be scattered throughout the folder, but you can see those in alphabetical order on the main gallery page, I figure.

I've captioned thirty pages of photos so far. I've got 28 to go. Lots of damn cat photos.

Too many?

Nah.

The problem with putting photos in the subfolders is that I forget they're there, so I don't get inspired by them when hunting for an opinion for Ask The Cats.

I guess I need to caption and tag them all so I can just do a search and then let the results suggest a perfect scene to match a caption with.

(At home, I give each a descriptive name and then drag it into a folder specifying which cat or cats are in the photo. I've got Piper-Frisky and Frisky-Nardo and Piper-Nardo and All Three and Strangers folders for new photo sorting. I'm sure there's a better system. There always is a better system.)

Let me get this straight...

Democrats are supposed to be all about Civil Rights and fighting racism, but who's throwing Oreos at black conservative candidates and calling Michelle Malkin a race-traitor and all sort of other white-on-the-inside tropical fruits? (Is a pro-Hispanic Black a Snickers or a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup? What does a Zero Bar represent?)

Democrats are supposed to be all about demanding who "outed" Valerie Plame's identity which, based on her rank of officebound analyst, hadn't yet been taken off of CIA Top Secret classification, but who's crowing about the "secret prison system" for Al-Qaida detainees despite the fact that the existence of the prison system is classified CIA Top Secret information?

Democrats are supposed to be about demanding an open discussion on the failures in intelligence leading up to Desert Storm 2, but who demanded that the doors be shut on the Senate and the transcripts be stopped right before a vote was to be taken to set up yet another panel to discuss the exact same things? (Barbara Boxer was on a flight to New York to be on the Daily Show... how does she find out what happened in her absense?)

Marion Barry isn't the only one high on crack in Washington. At this point, the symbol of the Democrats should be a snake eating its own tail, or maybe a many-headed hydra all fighting over who gets to eat its tail.

Crazy, man. Crazy.

Matt Drudge has posted Jon Klein's letter to the CNN staff announcing Aaron Browns "resignation" from CNN:

To: All CNN Staff

From: Jon Klein

We have made some programming decisions which will impact our prime time schedule as well as our colleague Aaron Brown. Aaron will be leaving CNN and is very much looking forward to some well-deserved time off with his family.

Aaron has made enormous contributions to CNN since his groundbreaking anchoring of Sept. 11th through the war in Iraq to the Tsunami to the recent hurricanes. Outside of the big stories, on a nightly basis, Aaron has provided our audiences with insight into the events of the United States and the world with eloquence and the highest journalist integrity.

Besides his stellar work as an anchor, Aaron stands as an absolutely brilliant writer, evident by the thoughtful perspective he injects into every story he touches.

Personally, I will miss Aaron and his wicked sense of humor. We cannot thank Aaron enough for the skills and professionalism he brought to CNN. Given his respect throughout the industry, there is no question that he will be missed.

If instead of actually spending time with his family and he turns up at a bunch of fundraisers alone or ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX, can we really trust CNN or Aaron Brown to tell the truth about anything else?

Michelle Malkin has got me all hot and bothered. And for once, it's because I'm jealous of her.

That's right, folks: jealous.

This is how low the Left's political discourse has sunk: I'm a banana and a coconut and a whore and worse. Michael Steele is an Uncle Tom and a Sambo.

And don't forget terms like Oreo, Ho-Ho, Ding-Dong, Twinkie, and pretty much everything else in the Hostess line of snack foods.

But what about Jewish conservatives? I mean, there's the term "neocon" that's thrown around, but the moment it's mentioned you get ten thousand retractions and statements saying how they didn't mean "Jew" when they said "neocon," their best friend is a Jew, they married a Jew, they love Woody Allen films, and so on.

We need a food-based slur.

Bacon-wrapped Gefilte Fish is kinda inside-out.
Pork knishes might work. Nah.
Kosher Hamboy is kinda cute. Sounds like a superhero.
Oil-Schmeared Bagels makes no sense.
Twinkies of the Edlers of Zion is too long.
Matzoh Ball ... um... something something... forget it.

So, I'm looking for your suggestions.

Oh, and hurry up, because I'm getting hungry.

Have you been listening to Mikeypod on the Bayou? You should.

Every now and then, I send him an exclusive 100 word stories, although the rest of the podcast is far more interesting than my little creative outbursts.

And let's face it... the "technical difficulties" he always seems to run into are kind of amusing. Sort of like a friend setting up a mix tape for you and fiddling with all the knobs and dials.

Remember the sign on the METRO buses I noticed on the day of Rosa Parks' death?

Well, today there was a new sign:

Now instead of a black woman giving up her seat to a white Archie Bunker with a dapper cane, it's a black man in a wheelchair getting a seat from... um... er... David Bowie?

Okay, it's an improvement. And they didn't just re-use the text, because saying you'll give up your seat to someone who's already got one (albeit, with wheels attached) would be somewhat silly.

So, where are the Palestinians wasting the billions of dollars in aid that is given to them annually?

Ah, yes. Wreaths for a dead terrorist they planted in the parking lot.

But how can you blame them? After all, they give toy rifles to kids in war zones, hoping they'll get shot and make the headlines as a "human rights violation."

Mongo want these!

Somehow, these just don't seem to do it for me anymore.

The doctor was surprised at my weight loss and my following her stern warning regarding fast food, fried food, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, alcohol, etc. Also found the trick of switching bus routes to force myself into a 10 minute walk home for additional exercise to be a positive step.

As of now, I've dropped from 235 to 211, with a few jiggles and twitches of the needle on the scale. Trend is downwards.

Will get the results back Monday afternoon.

Also, the thing on my jawline is an absess, origins unknown. Could possibly be an ingrown hair or just a zit that found contaminants of mass destruction somehow. I've got some fun antibiotics to take to get it reduced and then I face the knife after I get my results.

Should the results be bad, I'll always have the option for the knife to flash a bit lower and all the way across.

Okay, so I like to use my METRO passes as bookmarks. This leads to a lost pass or two for some reason.

Anyway, I went to the Downtown Transit Center to replace my pass. I keep the serial numbers in a little notepad in my workbag so they can look them up.

They found it listed, checked my routes, and made me fill out a form.

I cam back to the DTC today and sure enough, they had my pass ready: EXPIRES DECEMBER 21 not NOVEMBER 21.

Hrm. They gave me a free month.

I turned around and pointed this out to the nice man behind the glass, and he gave me another pass after praising my honesty.

So rarely am I praised for it. Usually, I'm hated for being brutally honest about things.

Anyway, the pass works, and I have a brilliant idea for METRO now.

• Code every bus stop with an ID number or alpha sequence based on the cross streets. Northbound and southbound (or eastbound and westbound) get separate IDs.
• Post it on the sign.
• Accept SMS messages to the METRO Info Line at 713-635-4000 using the route number and stop ID.
• Reply with the previous bus, next bus, and the bus after that for the route number.

And don't tell me they don't have the database for it, otherwise the trip planner is run by elves and gnomes running on little treadmills.

And they certainly have IDs already for every stop. How else can they keep track of the grafitti and cracked glass they ignore for weeks on end?

Do any other transit systems have this?

No wonder why Jacques Demers always threw his eyeglasses when he was mad. He couldn't read.

Just got my six dollar check from Harris County for jury duty.

Maybe they should have spent the money on intelligence-testing their guards instead.

Paris is burning...

Arafat is dead...

Life is good.

With rapidly-growing Hispanic population in Houston along with a huge influx of African-Americans planning on permanently relocating from New Orleans, aren't you glad that local team owners are in touch with our community's needs?

"I am trying to get a team. I am trying," Alexander said. "I went to see the commissioner. I told him about my interest. I can't disclose teams, but I've been talking to people (in the NHL) and to investment bankers.

If you look at the demographic trends and say "We need an NHL franchise!" I believe you need to have a very large sock placed in your mouth while a dozen cudgel-bearing Franciscan monks bludgeon you into unconsciousness.

Yeah, blacks and Mexicans really love hockey, don't they? Why just the other day, I got a great deal on EBay for autographed Rufus Washington, Mookie Cleveland, Pancho Rodriguez, and Julio Sanchez NHL cards.

*sigh* Isn't Les Alexander the same guy who thought that bringing in Yao Ming might charge up support and revenue from Sharpstown and the Asian Community here? Les should stick to trying to sell ice cubes to Eskimos.

Let's consider the Aeros a test for hockey in the city, shall we?

Toyota Center is home to the AHL Aeros. Going into Thursday's game, the Aeros' average home attendance, 4,969, ranked 14th in the 27-team league, behind the league average of 5,028.

Aeros attendance also trailed AHL teams from cities of similar size — Chicago (8,027), Philadelphia (7,468) and Toronto (6,106) — though each competes with NBA and NHL teams.

We don't have a team yet, and the Chronicle is already making excuses for low attendance. Sound like a certain rail system that got sold to us that ended up with lower revenue and ridership numbers than projected despite every effort by METRO to conceal the bad numbers and pump up others by cutting back bus service.

Folks, if you're looking for the next major professional sport in town, it's called soccer. And if you get a Mexican League team in Reliant, you'll have bigger crowds than Texans games. In fact, Reliant was partially sold to us on soccer, just as Toyota was sold to us on an NHL franchise in the future.

Who cares who I think about the amendment to ban gay marriage in Texas? It's time for a new feature of TBIFOC called Ask The Cats!

What do you think about the amendment to ban gay marriage in Texas?

Frisky: Daddy left me a catnip mousey and all the Shiner Bock I could drink. I hope he comes back soon to make the room stop spinning.	Nardo: Will they steal my spot on the bed? The bed belongs to me! Nobody takes the bed from me! This is my bed!
Piper: Do gay married couples know to cook turkey and chicken and ham for their kittycats instead of latkes? If so, then I'm all for it.	Phoebe Louise and Penny Gayle: Everybody should just forget politics and curl up with a friend for a nap!
The Boyz: You're asking us?	Cali and Deja: If this thing passes, does this mean Cali can't eat out of my bowl anymore? If so, we're against it.?
Beezer: My person has friends who are gay and married. when she goes to their house for dinner she always brings me back tasty treats like shrimps or little bites of crab. Everyone should have friends like that.	What does your cat think?

Thank you, kittycats.

Does your cat have an opinion on the subject? Then send the following to askthecats (at) isfullofcrap.com:

• A photo of the cat or cats in JPEG format (If you've already submitted the photo, it will be in my gallery archive and just let me know the URL of the thumbnail photo to use again)
• Their opinion, whether it pertains to the subject or not
• (optional) Your URL

And you'll see them up here with the rest of the kittycats!

PARIS (IFOC) - President Jacques Chirac announces plan to launch French mission to moon, suggesting that the lack of an environment will prevent rioting Muslims from burning down the French lunar base.

As the weather changes from summer heat to winter chills, the lizards are all scurrying away to their nice warm hidey-holes.

With the lizards gone, Nardo has nothing to hunt.

So CT Yankee sent Nardo a gift:

That's right. A catnip gecko.

His name is "Mister Lizard."

Nardo thinks he's fun to play with, even if he doesn't wriggle or ooze lizard guts.

And I'm sure my wife won't mind Mister Lizard showing up in the laundry pile. She thanks you, and I'm sure Nardo would thank you if he'd take a break from playing with Mister Lizard.

Friday Ark is today while Carnival of the Cats is this Sunday. Oh, and don't forget to add yourself to The Catblogger Map if you're catblogging so we know where you are.

Dave of Israellycool opens up his latest podcast with a fun jab at yours truly for an observation I made in my Ten And Only Ten Post.

Oh, and I may have a change for the list. Podictionary needs to slip in there somewhere, and it's looking like CDogg, Lou, and Nardo may be slipping out of the list.

Also, I was looking at phones yesterday and saw the LG VX9800 clamshell phone. Very interesting stuff, and you use chips to store MP3s and such.

A Hannukah present for myself, perhaps?

Yesterday, a 13 year-old was shot when he was waving his toy gun around a group of IDF soldiers and they didn't take any chances.

Today, protestors at the Separation Barrier put their kids in front of soldiers so they could play with toys and the media could photograph them:

How fun, eh? If you're going to go with Human Shields, I guess making them little enough to carry around and stack up makes sense.

However, about those toys...

That's right. Your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a child with a very realistic-looking gun. If I didn't tell you that was a toy, you would think that was a real gun. Or you'd think, "Damn that thing looks real, but it's got to be a toy, right?"

When a soldier sees that pointed at them, they don't have time to second-guess.

So the day after a 13 year-old got killed after waving a realistic-looking toy gun around soldiers, Separation Barrier protestors are intentionally giving kids realistic-looking toy guns in places where there is a large police and IDF presence.

Sick. Depraved. Insane. A cancer in the bowels of Civilization, a tumor of madness upon the mind of mankind.

If a soldier had shot this kid, Reuters and AP would have reported it as "Zionazi Stormtrooper Murders Child Playing With Toys."

Here's another at Occupied Temple Mount:

Sick. Sick sick sick.

Kroger sells pies and cakes. Since Thanksgiving is coming up, they've added pumpkin pies to their slate of pies.

They sell cake and pie by the slice, too. It's great for when you want just a slice of cake or pie, but don't want to pig out.

They sell slices and pieces of pie and cake of every sort... but pumpkin pie.

I find that inconvenient and annoying.

It's been a quiet day today, so I'm thinking back on the week.

The most unusual incident was someone from Turkey complaining that his system as shut down.

It turns out that he hadn't paid his bill, and he couldn't pay it because it was some kind of holiday in Turkey that made it impossible for him to pay his bill.

Well, besides the fact that customers are usually given a week or more of a grace period after the first warning, this has got me wondering if he's utterly full of crap about the holiday thing.

Could a society survive having its financial institutions shut down for extended periods of time for political or religious holidays?

If it's just the practice of the financial institution, why on earth would a professional put his money in such a place where he can't get to it when he needs it?

And if someone's going to be putting their money into such a bank where it cannot be accessed on commonly-accepted days in that society, why is he risking his company's assets (ie web server) by having them located in a country that doesn't particularly give a damn about his "special situation" instead of within his own country where they might udnerstand such an excuse for non-payment?

Then I thought about the recent cases of the Egyptian, Libyan, and Chinese bloggers being arrested or shut down for speaking their views.

Are they taking the risk to locate their sites here so they're protected from their own country's dictatorships, lack of freedoms, etc and so forth?

Or are their own socieities too technically incompetent and disorganized to support the business of large-scale, low-cost web hosting?

The United Nations wasted millions of dollars on hats, t-shirts, posters, and flags for the disengagement from Gaza instead of, say, basic social services.

Thankfully, the Palestinians are putting some of the flags to good use:

There's a lot of leftover flags in the warehouses, Palestinians.

What does Piper think of the gecko toy?

Not much, really. She sniffed it and looked at me wonder what the big deal was.

She rarely plays with a sack-toy on demand. Unless she's already playing with something and you toss a toy to her in mid-wrestle.

The trick is to sneak the camera out and snap photos. Then she'll tone things down or look up and burble or chirp a question.

The red glare of the autofocus/redeye unit usually distracts her.

UNESCO just named Mikis "Jews are the root of all evil" Theodorakis the International Music Prize for 2005.

UNESCO's definition of the prize:

Initiated in 1975 by Lord Yehudi Menuhin, the prestigious IMC UNESCO International Music Prize was established to honour musicians or musical institutions whose activities have contributed to the enrichment and development of music and have served peace, understanding between peoples, international cooperation and other purposes proclaimed by the United Nations.

Here's the anthem of the P.L.O., written and scored by Mikis Theodorakis.

My country , my country

My country , the land of my grand fathers

My country , my country

My country , my nation , the nation of eternity

With my determine , my fire and the volcano of my revenge

The longing of my blood to my land and home

I have climbed the mountains and fought the wars

I have conquered the impossible , and crossed the boarders

My country , my country , the nation of eternity

With the resolve of the winds and the fire of the guns

And the determination of my nation in the land of struggle

Palestine is my home , Palestine is my fire , Palestine is my revenge

and the land of eternal

My country , my country , the nation of eternity

I swear under the shade of the flag

To my land and nation , and the fire of pain

I will live as a guerrilla , I will go on as guerrilla,

I will expire as guerrilla until I will be back

My country , my country , the nation of eternity

The underlined words or phrases demonstrate the opposite of peace and understanding and international cooperation, so we are left to assume that Mikis has embraced those "other purposes proclaimed by the United Nations" in this work...

And what's the number one purpose of the United Nations? The destruction of Israel, of course.

Dear Yasser,

Love,
Kofi

I did my usual route home today. I thought about stopping by Cabo's, but I'll save that for Wednesday before the METRO thingy at 6:00PM. (I might even blog it)

Anyway, I got on at Preston, and a horrifyingly rancid bum got on and plopped down in the set of benches at the back end of the train. He started yammering and singing in a mix of French and English, and I thought "Shit... one of Nagin's."

Sure enough, he started growling at the person in front of him, bitching about the Social Security office and directions and the folks who pointed him in the wrong direction.

And then he swigged from a really nasty bottle of schnapps in a Spec's bag.

And here I am, thinking "Hey, asshole, the Social Security office is stumbling distance from Specs just a block to the West of the train line. Go screw yourself."

He continued bitching about wanting to go back to New Orleans, he was yanked off of the roof against his will and sent to Georgia, and then he was sent here, and...

Wait. Didn't Atlanta's mayor bitch about FEMA not reimbursing them for Katrina-related expenses?

He bitched more, drank more on our World Class street-level bus-on-rails. They had given him tokens to get around, but lousy directions, blah blah blah, he wanted to get rescued from Houston back to New Orleans, he thought he was going home when they moved him from Georgia, blah blah blah..

I'd have sat and listened more, but even with my antibiotic-deadended senses, the man totally reeked.

How much of New Orleans' bum population that had been shipped to Atlanta has been quietly re-shipped here?

There's a commercial on right now for MasterCard where a bunch of cartoon spokesmen for various food products are sitting around the dinner table having dinner.

They are:
Jolly Green Giant
Vlassic Pickle Stork
Charlie the Starkist Tuna
Mister Peanut from Planters
Morton Salt Girl
Pillsbury Dough Boy
Grotons Fisherman

Mister Clean is in the kitchen, doing dishes.

Okay, so all these people have something to do with dinner. I get it. They cooperate and come together for dinner.

But then, there's also Count Chocula sitting at the dinner table.

What the hell does Count Chocula have to do with dinner? Since when have you pulled up to the dinner table and demanded chocolate cereal along with your Jolly Green Giant vegetables or Vlassic pickles?

Last night I took an Atlantic Salmon cutlet that I'd bought at Krogers and tossed it on the grill. You'd think I'd celebrate losting the twenty-odd pounds with a steak, but I've decided that 200 is the goal that I'll reward with a good KC strip steak.

Nothing wrong with salmon. Salmon's good.

I'd smothered it with cheap Honey Barbecue sauce I'd picked up from store or another for a day or two, and it came out great. Although the next time, I'll probably mix the BBQ sauce with orange juice to thin it out a tad.

The usual skewers, accompanied by corn I'd shucked and smothered with a mix of omega-3 butter-substitute, parmesan cheese, and blackened seasoning. Instead of wrapping them back up in the husks, I used foil this time.

Good stuff. Even with the temperature slipping, I can still grill, but we'll see if I keep up the healthy grilling in January.

I really don't want to go back to prepared frozen meals for our convenience's sake. I'll slice up peppers for hummus dipping or salads or topping steamed brown rice if need be.

Sometimes you just have to wonder...

A man accused by witnesses of saying his cat's behavior led him to kill another man has been convicted of first-degree murder.

Some of the testimony "was bizarre, but I definitely thought it was convincing," he said, adding that defense lawyers would not have swayed him had they claimed Butsch was insane.

Prosecution witnesses, many of them drug users with criminal records, testified that Butsch said he relied on Sam, his cat, to determine who was good and who deserved to die. When Sam refused to go near the sleeping Vavricka, Butsch shot him with a .22-caliber pistol, they said.

But who cares what I think about it? It's time for a new feature of TBIFOC called Ask The Cats!

Who is good and who deserves to die?

Nardo: This shark deserves to die, because he ate all the lizards!	Frisky: If you don't take this stupid hat off of me, you're gonna die, Daddy.
Piper: Hi, Daddy. Thanks for giving me a few minutes of your valuable time. Now that the fat mean one is gone, we really need to do something about those two stupid orange ones...	Fuzz: Any human who does not find our species irresistably adorable does not deserve to share our oxygen.
Tripper: I keep an eye out for potential candidates. That guy walking a dog looks good.	Tiger: My momma deserves to die for holding me, laughing at me, and using that damn flashy thing. But then she gives me treats and ham, so it's really a toss-up sometimes.
Her Ladyship: See how my eyes are closed? I can't even look at a sick creep like that.	What does your cat think?

Thank you, kittycats.

Does your cat have an opinion on the subject? Then send the following to askthecats (at) isfullofcrap.com:

• A photo of the cat or cats in JPEG format (If you've already submitted the photo, it will be in my gallery archive and just let me know the URL of the thumbnail photo to use again)
• Their opinion, whether it pertains to the subject or not
• (optional) Your URL

And you'll see them up here with the rest of the kittycats!

I have just one word to say: yuck.

Q: How do you make the Houston Texans appear to suck less?

A: Let NFL Europe run their training camps here so the Texans look awesome by comparison.

So, how long before Oliver Luck tries to float a bond issue for dedicated practice facilities and make a case for turning the Astrodome into the riverwalk hotel concept for NFL Europe?

Don't get me wrong... I like Luby's Cafeteria, even if I'm supposed to be eating healthy and Luby's offers the opposite of healthy in comfort food.

However, when I want to backslide on my dietary obligations, liver and onions at Luby's is hard to beat. (I'd go with their fish, but their fish is somewhat questionable in origin and preparation.)

Whatever the entree, just gotta get it with a side of corn and green beans and melon all with a nice healthy iced tea.

Maybe I'll twist Deskmerc's arm tomorrow at lunchtime and convince him we need to do a Luby's run for old time's sake. Or... wait... Tuesday... gotta head back to the doctor's office Monday afternoon and a full Luby's run might not work out.

Back on October 23rd, I scoffed at Achmed Queri's claim that Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade was going to disarm and join the Fateh-lead PA security forces.

Al Aqsa publicly scoffed at the wild claim, and today Al Aqsa is showing is true colors:

"We affirm our support and backing for the positions of the Iranian president toward the Zionist state which, by God's will, will cease to exist," said the leaflet. "Recognizing Israel's right to exist means underestimating the Palestinian people, who are making daily sacrifices to liberate Palestine and Jerusalem."

The Fatah group also hailed Ahamdinejad's appeal to the Palestinians to unite their ranks so they would be able to destroy Israel.

The denials came fast and furious as the PA worked hard to keep the smokescreen pumping away:

Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah told the Jerusalem Post that the leaflet does not reflect the stance of the PA or its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas. "We strongly condemn the leaflet," said one official. "We believe it does not even reflect the position of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades."

The PA is now in the process of incorporating hundreds of gunmen from the Aksa Martyrs Brigades into the PA security forces. Last month the PA cabinet decided to set up five training camps in the West Bank to prepare the gunmen for their new missions. The PA's plan is supported by both the US and Israel.

And when these Al-Aqsa killers moonlight in sniper and suicide missions