there is a small thread hanging off the world

Interesting reading.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/politics/29whitehouse.html?_r=1

For the first time, the weekly Democratic address has been released as a web video. This will continue throughout his administration. The address will also continue to air on the radio.

http://www.change.gov
change_dot_gov

Headline: Florida senators balk at offshore drilling plans
Quote: "The ocean belongs to the United States of America," said Senator Pete Domenici, Republican of New Mexico.

(I think the intent was that the drilling exploration would benefit the whole country and FL would just have to deal with the drilling being 50-100 miles off its shores, but geez does he come off badly with that quote.)


Headline: Md. official defends behavior toward woman
Story: February 16, 2006

ANNAPOLIS, Md. --
William Donald Schaefer, a former governor who is now state comptroller, ogled a young woman at a Statehouse meeting. And he made no apologies about it.
"She's a pretty little girl," the 84-year-old Democrat told reporters. "The day I don't look at pretty women is the day I die."
Schaefer stared intently at the woman -- an aide to Gov. Robert Ehrlich -- as she walked away after bringing him a beverage Wednesday during a Board of Public Works meeting. Then he summoned her back, as people waiting to testify watched and waited.
The aide, looking puzzled, returned to the table, and Schaefer told her, "Walk again," and watched her as she made the second trip to the exit.
He then went into the governor's office and returned to say the woman was embarrassed by the incident.
When reporters asked him about the incident, he called their interest "dumb." He said "this little girl" ought to be "happy that I observed her going out the door."
"The one who is offended is me," he said.
Shareese DeLeaver, a spokeswoman for the Republican governor, declined to identify the aide, saying the woman did not want to talk to reporters.
Schaefer is seeking re-election as comptroller in November and has spent 51 years in public service, including eight years as governor and 16 years as Baltimore's mayor.
Odd remarks and antics by Schaefer at meetings of the Board of Public Works are commonplace. He once complained about a Spanish-speaking fast-food worker and suggested creating a public registry of people with AIDS.
He also has referred to women as "little girls" -- a term celebrated by some women who have worked for him, who say he treated them with respect. After a campaign ad in 2002 suggested he was unfair to women, some former employees held a rally and waved signs that read, "Little Girls for Schaefer."


Okay, looking is one thing, staring is another, and having her come back and walk again moves it into sexual harrassment. He took advantage of his position relative to the duties of her employment.

Lifted from siderea:

Harpers had this article in the pipeline for the forthcoming issue, which they've released on the web in advance: The Uses of Disaster: Notes on bad weather and good government. A very interesting read.

Lifted from snarkyman
These are the best pictures I've seen yet of Katrina and the aftermath.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=14ewb3ap.b147fdut&Uy=nyvoby&Ux=1

Rehnquist has died.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/03/rehnquist.obit/index.html

Even if I weren't the mailing list admin for the whole damn ISP, I run about 20 mailing lists personally. Sending email to 'mailman-owner' that says only "Please Unsubscribe me@address.com . Thank you!" isn't going to get you anything but a (canned) reply:

You should have just received a monthly notice with the name of the
mailing list and the instructions you can follow to remove yourself
from the mailing list.

If you no longer have those instructions or if you are having problems
with them, please let us know the name of the mailing list involved
and we can try to assist you.

Thank you.


Ya know, a large part of why I keep and reuse these canned replies is so they continue to be polite even when I'm in a grumpy mood. (Not that I am today, I'm just sayin'...)

And for those of you who want more stupidity in your users/customers, you should be reading customers_suck. Sometimes it's actually "customer_service_people_who_suck", but most of the time it's real facepalm material.

Ok, here's a reasonable person I thought I'd highlight. Wish more were like her! She even included the bounce message for my reference.


"I am subscribed to this list and this is an announcement - let me know
what I'm doing wrong here. Thanks!"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: listname-owner@indra.com
Date: Jun 29, 2005 7:09 AM
Subject: Fwd: blah blah
To: listmember

You are not allowed to post to this mailing list, and your message has
been automatically rejected. If you think that your messages are
being rejected in error, contact the mailing list owner at
listname-owner

I'm really sick and tired of people who complain to me about not being able to post to a mailing list I run. Actually, it's not the complaint, it's the fact that 99% of the time, they take it personally. It's usually something like "Why can't I post? I've been on this list since 1997 and I've always posted on-topic and people love me!".

60% of the time, the problem is that they're trying to post from an address that's not subscribed to the list. The lists have been set member-only for years, so maybe they've forgotten just *why* they get zero spam from my lists. All they have to do is let me know, and I can add an additional approved address for them to use for posting.

29% of the time, they're posting in HTML only to a list that is set to strip attachments. If the message went through it would be empty, so it gets bounced to them as "content type explicitly not allowed". Naturally, this is another opportunity for them to take the bounce personally and think they're being censored.

But what really irritates me is the almost constant tendancy to take the bounce personally! It's just software, people - it's not out to get you, it's just doing what it's told.

Yahoo is now using something called "Web Beacons" to track Yahoo Group users around the net and see what you're doing and where you
are going - similar to cookies. Yahoo is recording every website and every group you visit. If you would like to opt out of their tracking system, here's how to do it:

Go here:
<http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy>

In the column on the left side, under the title of "Special Topics", click "cookies".

At the bottom of this new page you will see a link that says "Click here." Click that.

On that new page click the phrase "web beacon". That will bring you to a paragraph entitled "Outside the Yahoo Network."

In this section you'll see a little "click here to opt out" link. Click it.

Then STOP. What would normally be a confirmation button on the next page will opt you back in.

Is anyone else alarmed that Jeb Bush is in Asia with Colin Powell, part of the US envoy to the tsunami-ravaged area? A sudden light went on in my head when I read that bit of news: George can't run again, Cheney's health isn't up to it, and there's no current obvious Republican candidate.

I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of Jeb in the next few years, and then he'll run for president in 2008.

Oy.

dsrtao and I have been talking about making a donation to the disaster relief. We have been quite unhappy with the recent confirmation that many charities spend too much money on fundraising, so we're picky about where our money goes. He did some research and came up with the following, which I thought others might be interested in:

www.jdc.org -- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee -- has established a special fund for tsunami relief. Forbes rated JDC as 99% efficient in raising funds -- less than 1% of money raised goes to raising more money, and 92% overall -- 92 cents of every dollar goes directly to relief efforts.

If you'd prefer a non-religious organization, I think Direct Relief International is the most efficient.
http://www.directrelief.org
They are also 99% efficient in raising funds.

One of my friends (cvirtue?) mentioned a while back that none of the money for the "Support Our Troops" car magnets actually went to support our troops, which is something that bothered me too. Well, an article in my local paper today says that if you buy one for $2 at Bed, Bath & Beyond or AutoZone, 50% of the money actually goes directly to the USO. Hurrah!

jiveturkey talks about his oh so special encounter with the President.

According to webster.com, there's the following definition:

politics - 1 a : the art or science of government b : the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy c : the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government

It's (c) that I really have a problem with. I don't like it, I don't enjoy it, and I wish I knew how we could get people in place for (a) and (b) above without it. I especially don't like politicking - to engage in often partisan political discussion or activity. Unfortunately, I know I'm really in for a lot of it this year.

Having said that, two things struck me today as worth sharing. I'm going to be merciful and post them here rather than forward them to people in email. :)

First, I saw this a couple of days ago, but I like that cvirtue has made this her .sig file. I think I may copy that use.

* * *

We can start a social experiment. Let's see how far we can get this to go!
Tell the pollsters, when they ask, "If the election was held tomorrow,
would you vote for Bush or Kerry?" -- your answer should be "I'd rather
vote for a rabid weasel than for Bush."
Do it. Spread the meme. I want to hear it come out of the mouth of a TV
newscaster on Fox News or CNN. Or on NPR. Or on Saturday Night Live.

* * *

Second, I enjoyed this list, though 5 through 2 are funnier than #1.


topfive.com presents:

April 6, 2004
The Top 5 John Kerry Campaign Slogans We'd Like to See


5> Hey, Florida, Get Your Shit Together This Time, Okay?

4> It's the *Hair*, Stupid!

3> Kerry: Pronouncing "Inaugural" and "Nuclear" Correctly Since
the Age of 6

2> Undefeated Versus Pretzels

and Topfive.com's Number 1 John
Kerry Campaign Slogan We'd Like to See...

1> Kerry On, My Wayward Country