Toward the end, I was sincerely hoping her arm was going to be pulled right out of its socket. Because, it's apparent, she deserved some pain for inflicting that on the rest of us.

After watching that, the Guns-n-Roses' version is growing on me.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:12 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The Christmas season can officially start now.

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Because it's time to stop watching NBC.

Why did NBC refuse to air these ads? Well, because they include the URL of Freedom's Watch website.. Which, according to NBC, is "too political."

WASHINGTON - NBC has rejected a TV ad by Freedom's Watch, a conservative group that supports administration policy in Iraq, that asks viewers to remember and thank U.S. troops during the holiday season.

NBC said it declined to air the ad because it refers to the group's Web site, which the network said was too political, not because of the ad's message.

{...}The spot was to be part of a seven-figure campaign that includes newspaper ads and television commercials. The ads are to run on CNN and Fox News Channel and are running in various newspapers. The New York Times ran a full-page Freedom's Watch ad Friday that said "Thank You!" and depicted a soldier reading a letter. The newspaper ad also contained the Web site address.

Alan Wurtzel, NBC's head of standards and practices, said the network decided not to run the Freedom's Watch ad because the group insisted that the spot contain the URL address of its Web site.{...}

What offense is to be found on Freedom Watch's website?

{...}It also contains a welcoming message that states: "For too long, conservatives have lacked a permanent political presence to do battle with the radical special interests groups and their left-wing allies in government."

"We have a policy that prohibits acceptance of advertising that deals with issues of public controversy," Wurtzel said. "This particular ad, in and of itself, is fine. It thanks the troops for their action overseas. We asked them to eliminate a URL address where a person is asked to contact elected officials and told not to cut and run on the war on terror."{...}

{my emphasis}

To be fair, a quick Google search will show you that NBC has refused to air any number of uber-liberal Moveon-dot-org ads. Yet, curiously enough, in the course of my search, I couldn't find any mention of NBC ever saying to Move on-dot-org, as they did to Freedom's Watch, "Hey, remove the political content on your website and we'll let the ads air."

What does that tell you?

Sunday, December 9th Update: NBC caved!

WASHINGTON -- NBC reversed course Saturday and decided to air a conservative group's television ad thanking U.S. troops.

The ad, by the group Freedom's Watch, asks viewers to remember the troops during the holiday season. NBC had refused to air the ad because it guides viewers to the Freedom's Watch Web site, which NBC said was too political.

But in a statement issued Saturday evening, NBC said:

"We have reviewed and changed our ad standards guidelines and made the decision that our policy will apply to content only and not to a referenced Web site. Based on these amended standards the Freedom's Watch ad will begin to run as early as Sunday."{...}

And NBC did, indeed, run the ad this morning---with the URL present and accounted for---during Meet The Press, or so the husband, who is the one person in the Cake Eater Pad who actually watches that show, informs me.

{ht: Ace}

Posted by: Kathy at 05:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Oh, bite me.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Once again there has been a mass shooting in the United States, this time in a Nebraska shopping mall. Once again there is no national outcry for gun control.

Hmmm. Why do I get the feeling Mr. Trotta is a wee bit disappointed with this development? Maybe he's not disappointed. Maybe, just maybe, he's just reporting the facts of the situation? Could it be?

A 19-year-old man shot and killed eight people and then himself in Omaha, Nebraska, on Wednesday with a semi-automatic AK-47 that police say he stole from his stepfather.

Leading presidential candidates for the November 2008 U.S. election issued statements expressing sorrow and support for the victims. None called for tighter gun laws, which are traditionally left to state and local authorities.

The crime revived memories of a massacre in April at Virginia Tech university, where a student killed 32 people.

There has been a string of such shooting sprees in recent years, but little resonance among national politicians.

Well, that's "factual" enough, but why am I still getting a faint whiff of disappointment that a national gun control melee hasn't broken out?

The right to bear arms is fiercely defended as a U.S. constitutional right by large numbers of collectors, hunters and advocates of home security, cherished the way civil libertarians champion the right to free speech.

Yet the issue is controversial enough to draw in the Supreme Court, which said last month it would review an appeals court ruling that struck down a 31-year-old ban on private possession of handguns in Washington, D.C.

"Although people who favor increased gun control in the United States are a substantial majority, those who oppose it are far more intense in their opposition and far more likely to vote on the basis of that issue alone," said Bill Galston, senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

He cited the 1994 elections when the Democrats lost control of both houses of Congress. Some political analysts attributed the rout to backlash against a Democratic-led ban on assault weapons. That law was allowed to expire 10 years later.

"I might want to qualify that judgment, but the fact that it's widely believed and that there is some basis for it is enough to determine political behavior," Galston said.

Hmmm... still that faint whiff of disappointment. Maybe he'll present the opposing side in the next little bit? Ya think?

A Pennsylvania state representative who last month helped defeat a proposal to limit hand gun purchases to one per person per month said he would support tougher sentencing laws for people who acquire and use illegal guns, but that law-abiding citizens should not have their rights infringed.

"I received thousands of e-mails with some of these gun control measures. Once again, it's the right to bear arms and many of our citizens don't want that right taken away," said Ron Marsico, chairman of the state House Judiciary Committee and a Republican.

Besides, he said, no law may have prevented the Omaha tragedy.

Wow. A bit of fairness has been introduced. A nasty mean legislator who helped defeat a measure in the Pennsylvania legislature that would have kept people to one handgun a month was quoted. Wooh. I'm impressed. Let's see how he finishes up. Who do you think he'll quote next? Someone from the NRA, perhaps?

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, disagrees. He said European countries have enacted effective gun control laws and that U.S. politicians are cowed by the gun lobby as exemplified by the National Rifle Association.

"There is the mythology advanced by the gun lobby of the Wild West and the individual frontiersman single-handedly holding off the British and the Indians and the bears simultaneously," said Helmke.

"They've got politicians nervous about anything that's even got the word gun in it."

Ah, he blew it. He went to the people responsible for the Brady Bill, who then played the stereotypical gun lobby/owner card. He might as well have said everyone wants a gun to go with their coonskin caps, because it's fashionable. And he brought up the all holy Europeans and their attitude towards gun control. Never mind the fact that while European countries have enacted strict gun control legislation, ahem, people are still being murdered in said countries. They're just being offed via knives, mostly, and other, more creative means of murder.

It's quite amazing to me that Trotta never really hits the reason why there hasn't been a revitalization of the gun control debate in the wake of the shooting in Omaha and that is, ahem, because the shooter was not right in the head. Increased gun control might have kept Hawkins from shooting shoppers and employees at Westroads, but who's to say that he wouldn't have done the same thing with a knife? Or some other deadly instrument? Yet, because the guy used an AK-47 that he stole, apparently we're supposed to be outraged enough to ban all handguns and assault rifles, despite the 2nd Amendment. That would be the logical response, evidently. That people aren't baying for Charlton Heston's blood seems inconceivable to Trotta.

I've said it before: I don't like guns. They scare the crap out of me. I've held a 9mm Glock in my cold, sweaty hands, and I did not like it one bit. Particularly after I found out that it doesn't have a safety on it. But my dislike of guns does not mean I'm going to impinge on someone else's right, by the Constitution of the United States of America, to have one. If they feel the need to defend themselves, and want a handgun to do it, so be it. If they feel they need a rifle to kill Bambi on a regular basis, well, since I'm a fan of venison, so be it. As long as they're law abiding citizens, I don't see what the problem is. Gun control laws only regulate people who purchase guns legally. It doesn't control the people who steal guns and then use them. Like Robert Hawkins. Who stole a n AK-47 and killed and wounded a goodly number of people. Trotta would seemingly have us believe that Hawkins---and all other shooters---is irrelevant, but that the bloody gun---and all other guns---are the most relevant things in the world.

I think not.

Posted by: Kathy at 02:24 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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For those of my devoted Cake Eater readers who are bakers in their off hours, are you one of those people who has to make sure every bit of batter/cookie dough is out of the bowl, in a waste-not-want-not fashion? Or do you scrape the sides and, if there's stuff left, let the dishwasher take care of it?

Posted by: Kathy at 01:10 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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A couple of interesting news items I thought I'd pass along.

It's an attack against Christmas!

And, yes, if you hadn't already figured it out, I'm being sarcastic. Billy Bob O'Reilly can go ahead and bite me if he's got a problem with my attitude.

Now for the Silly Germans. Apparently, a Berlin hairdresser found the plans for the Bundesbank's sooper sekrit safety vault---and included in the package were all the safety precautions the bank had in place---in a garbage can outside her shop.

The mind reels with the possibilities, doesn't it, my devoted Cake Eater readers?

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Gunman kills at least 8 at Omaha Mall.

OMAHA, Neb. - A man with a rifle opened fire at a busy shopping mall Wednesday, killing eight people before taking his own life. Five more people were wounded, two critically.

Shoppers and employees ran screaming through the mall and barricaded themselves in dressing rooms after hearing gunfire. The gunman was found dead on the third floor of the Von Maur department store in the Westroads Mall, in a prosperous neighborhood on the city's west side.

{...}Sgt. Teresa Negron said the gunman killed eight people, then apparently killed himself. His name was not immediately released, and authorities gave no motive for the attack and did not know whether he said anything during the rampage.{...}

Holy Shit, my devoted Cake Eater Readers. HOLY SHIT!

A gunman shot up Westroads? Good God. I'm just stunned.

And I cannot even begin to tell you how pissed off I am at the mainstream media right now. I was practicing a little radio silence earlier, to get some work done, and I missed this story as it broke. But there hasn't been ONE GODDAMNED WORD about this on either Brit Hume's or Wolf Blitzer's respective programs. But there's been plenty about Mike Huckabee's Willie Horton moment. Never mind that the AP has, as part of its "slideshow", no less than four maps showing just where Omaha resides in flyover land. Because, apparently, everyone in New York needed a little geography lesson. I just want to know what happened, people. Give me some freakin' video!

I don't know how many times I've been to Westroads. Thousands, probably. But not as many times as I've been to The Center or Crossroads---my mother's chosen malls. She hates Westroads; it's "too big and too far out." Westroads was the mall when I was growing up. And it had an entire store devoted to "Hello Kitty" merchandise...it was cool. I haven't been there in years---I don't go to Omaha to shop---but damn. I feel as if a big chunk of my childhood has been attacked.

The family that still lives there is ok. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.

UPDATE: It appears as if one of my sister-in-laws was caught up in the melee at Westroads yesterday. Apparently, she'd just entered Younkers (or Yoinkers in Cake Eater Lingo, because I hate that department store), with my four-year-old nephew in tow, when someone came flying by her and told her to get out because someone was shooting in the mall. She turned to leave, but apparently, the nephew didn't want to have anything to do with leaving and was not cooperative, dragging his feet the entire way. Fortunately, the sister-in-law is bigger than the four-year-old (not by much though! she's tiny!) and won the argument with brute force. They got out and are fine, if not a little shook-up.

Posted by: Kathy at 05:23 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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For the love of Christ...

{ht: wwtdd}

Posted by: Kathy at 12:41 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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If you're in the market for a sweet, custom built rig that's just perfect for all things gaming/multimedia this holiday season, may I be so bold as to direct you here?

They're having a sale. And I know for a fact that they do excellent work. *

They also sell gift certificates, if you'd like to protect your friends and family from future hard-drive crashes.

Yeah, BMCS is the husband's shop, but they really do good work for a fair price. Just compare their prices with Geek Squad. And know that they won't go nuclear on your machine with the system restores if they don't absolutely have to---like Geek Squad does.

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Steve-o thinks it's this one. Furthermore, he thinks it's the "greatest play in American Sports history."

While undoubtedly impressive, I think it's this one.

I remember watching this game, and being stunned, much like everyone else, that Flutie managed to get that pass off, let alone that he got it to the receiver---and that Phelan managed, somehow, to actually catch it.

What I also remember is Vinny Testaverde's soul-wrenching expression of pure stunned, gaping-mouthed disbelief at the outcome, which, before that pass, had been pretty much in his favor (not only game-wise, but Heisman Trophy-wise, as well), but unfortunately, I couldn't find a video which covered that particular moment in time.

Both are flukes, obviously. But does the fact that the Stanford band was on the field trump Flutie's mad pass throwing skillz? I don't think so.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Not here, but in Venezuela.

Betty Rojas has every reason to feel disenchanted with the government of President Hugo Chávez. A resident of the sprawling La Pedrera shanty town in the south-west of Caracas, Ms Rojas says Venezuela’s government has been slow to help after landslides last month made her home unsafe and cut off supplies of water and other services.

She now faces the prospect of eviction and a spell as a resident in a former pasta factory that has been converted into a centre for the homeless, and is bewildered by the prospect. “Nobody is providing any answers,” says Ms Rojas, a 32-year-old dressmaker.

But her disenchantment with the government will not lead her to vote on Sunday against the president’s plans to change the constitution and accelerate Venezuela’s transition towards 21st century socialism. “I voted for Chávez last time but I will not vote at all on Sunday.”

Other residents of La Pedrera are equally exasperated by official inaction and complain that lack of maintenance made disaster inevitable. Norma Valero, 40, who sells clothes on a market stall, is upset at the prospect of living in the refuge. “Chávez builds houses in Bolivia and Cuba. Why doesn’t he do something for us. We are forgotten. They move at the speed of a tortoise,” she says. But angry though she is, Ms Valero says she will abstain rather than vote against the government. “I have no time for any of them.”

{...}But it is not clear that this will be enough to defeat Mr Chávez’s project to reshape the constitution. Even in La Pedrera Mr Chávez can still count on many votes. Margarita Lopez Maya, a sociologist who has studied La Pedrera for many years and says its problems could easily have been avoided, says the unwillingness of the residents to oppose Mr Chávez is hard to believe. But for “the poor people there still really is no other option”.

{my emphasis}

There's no other option? Really? Maybe---and I would like to emphasize this is only a suggestion---you might want to ditch the victim mentality and go out and do something for yourself. Like protesting or even---gasp!---voting against constitutional reforms which would guarantee you'll never have the chance to get out of the slums you live in.

Because, if it hasn't already dawned on you, Lippy McLipster wants you to be in the slums. He wants you running to hell and back simply to obtain milk, bread and other daily necessities. Why would someone who's so fond of claiming he's fighting for social justice (!) seemingly want these things? Why, it's really quite elementary, my dear. You're easier to control that way.

UPDATE: Well, way to go Venezuela. I'm happy to be proven wrong.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Humbled by his first electoral defeat ever, President Hugo Chavez said Monday he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist state.

"I understand and accept that the proposal I made was quite profound and intense," he said after voters narrowly rejected the sweeping constitutional reforms by 51 percent to 49 percent.

Opposition activists were ecstatic as the results were announced shortly after midnight — with 88 percent of the vote counted, the trend was declared irreversible by elections council chief Tibisay Lucena.

Narrowly defeated, yes. But who the hell cares? Lippy McLipster is actually recognizing the vote and isn't claiming that the US meddled with the election as an excuse to nullify the returns. That's progress!

Of course, there are still some who aren't happy:

{...}Nelly Hernandez, a 37-year-old street vendor, cried as she wandered outside the presidential palace early Monday amid broken beer bottles as government workers took apart a stage mounted earlier for a victory fete.

"It's difficult to accept this, but Chavez has not abandoned us, he'll still be there for us," she said between sobs.{...}

{my emphasis}

No, Lippy hasn't abandoned you. As if. Sha. He needs you. After all, what's socialism without idealistic people who willingly sign up to be impoverished in the name of social justice (!)? I'm sure he'll promise you an overarching subsidy within days, just to keep you satisfied, so that you'll vote for whatever "reforms" he proposes next.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:20 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Which means there won't be any weather updates from Lileks. I shall bravely step into his wingtips and see if I can't provide that which you are undoubtedly missing.

SIGNIFICANT WINTER STORM FOR MUCH OF MINNESOTA AND WESTERN WISCONSIN TODAY INTO SUNDAY.

A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OVER THE SOUTHERN ROCKIES WILL CONTINUE
TO STRENGTHEN BEFORE LIFTING NORTHEAST OVER THE MIDWEST TODAY. THE
LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IS FORECAST TO PASS JUST SOUTH OF MINNESOTA
AND WESTERN WISCONSIN. A LARGE AREA OF SNOW IS BEGINNING TO
OVERSPREAD THE REGION THIS MORNING...ENTERING SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA AROUND DAYBREAK AND REACHING CENTRAL MINNESOTA AND WESTERN WISCONSIN BY LATE MORNING. THE HEAVIEST PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO OCCUR FROM MIDDAY THROUGH EARLY EVENING. VISIBILITIES WILL FREQUENTLY BE A HALF MILE OR LESS. THERE WILL ALSO BE A BRISK EAST-SOUTHEAST WIND DURING THE DAY.

WARMER AIR ALOFT WILL SPREAD INTO FAR SOUTHERN MINNESOTA AND
PORTIONS OF WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN...FROM DURAND TO EAU CLAIRE
DURING THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING HOURS. THIS WILL CHANGE THE SNOW
TO SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN...ALONG AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM
REDWOOD FALLS THROUGH THE SOUTHERN SUBURBS OF THE TWIN CITIES TO
EAU CLAIRE. SLEET COULD SPREAD ACROSS THE REST OF THE TWIN CITIES
METROPOLITAN AREA DURING SATURDAY EVENING...AS WELL AS THROUGH
MENOMONIE AND CHIPPEWA FALLS IN WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN.

AS THE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM MOVES AWAY FROM THE REGION
TONIGHT...PRECIPITATION ACROSS THE ENTIRE AREA IS EXPECTED TO
TRANSITION INTO A LIGHT FREEZING DRIZZLE AND LIGHT SNOW SCENARIO
AS DRIER AIR ALOFT WORKS INTO THE SYSTEM. THIS TRANSITION WOULD
BEGIN THIS EVENING ACROSS WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA AND WORK EASTWARD INTO WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN BY EARLY SUNDAY MORNING.

SNOWFALL TOTALS FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT ARE FORECAST TO RANGE FROM 3 TO 6 INCHES ACROSS FAR SOUTHERN MINNESOTA NEAR THE IOWA BORDER. SOME LIGHT ICE ACCUMULATION WILL BE POSSIBLE MAKING TRAVEL ESPECIALLY HAZARDOUS IN THIS AREA. AROUND 10 INCHES OF SNOW IS FORECAST FROM REDWOOD FALLS THROUGH THE TWIN CITIES TO EAU CLAIRE. SHOULD SLEET TAKE LONGER TO MOVE IN...SNOW AMOUNTS COULD EXCEED 10 OR EVEN 12 INCHES. ABOUT A FOOT OF SNOW IS EXPECTED FROM WILLMAR THROUGH MORA AND CAMBRIDGE...ON EAST TO LADYSMITH. 9 TO 12 INCHES OF SNOW IS FORECAST FOR THE MORRIS...ALEXANDRIA AND LITTLE FALLS AREAS. A RUMBLE OF THUNDER IS NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION FROM FAIRMONT TO THE TWIN CITIES TO RED WING LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY THIS
EVENING.

ANOTHER ASPECT OF THIS WINTER STORM WILL BE GUSTY WINDS. WINDS
WILL RANGE FROM 15 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 30 MPH FROM THE
EAST OR EAST-SOUTHEAST TODAY AND THIS EVENING. WINDS WILL SHIFT
TO THE NORTH AND NORTHWEST TONIGHT AND CONTINUE FOR MUCH OF THE DAY ON SUNDAY. THIS WILL CAUSE SOME BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW ALONG WITH REDUCED VISIBILITY.

INTENSE SNOWFALL WILL LEAD TO REDUCED VISIBILITY AND RAPID
ACCUMULATIONS CAUSING HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE TRAVEL CONDITIONS. AREAS WHERE SNOW TURNS TO SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN WILL BE ESPECIALLY HAZARDOUS DUE TO POTENTIAL ICE ACCUMULATIONS.

Interesting. It seems as if the NWS finally chipped out for some punctuation lessons for its meterologists, but that they're not wholly sticking.

And, yes, at 9:43 am CST, it's already snowing. Good times! Good Times!

Now you'll excuse me while I go and make sure the snowblower will start up. Keep your fingers crossed.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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