lost morning of buddy don: readin too minny papers

i dun wasted my mornin readin n ritin other thangs, witch i aint hardly gut time fer bloggin. so heres a few quick hits:

1. janet dagley dagley covers an event that proovs how thangs aint so partisan n bad now as they once wuz. shore, tiz sumthin when the vice presdent sez "Go fuck yourself!" on the floor of the senate, but tiz even wurser to have a duel whar the vp kills the secertary of the treashury


2. oldcatman's gut his latest up, witch its a history of the hole worl accordin to him n twill make ye laff. catch it while ye kin.


3. did ye ever take any illicit drugs? now that ye gut kids, whut are ye a'gone do? grate articull in salon eggzamines this, but ye gut to be registerd to read it n taint free tho tiz wurth it.


4. sumhow u.s. news gut all them classifide annexes frum the taguba report on abu ghraib. heres a few samples:
   

   Daily life at Abu Ghraib, the documents show, included riots, prisoner escapes, shootings, corrupt Iraqi guards, filthy conditions, sexual misbehavior, bug-infested food, prisoner beatings and humiliations, and almost-daily mortar shellings from Iraqi insurgents. Troubles inside the prison were made worse still by a military command structure that was hopelessly broken . . .
   
   Another classified annex reported that the prison complex was seriously overcrowded, with detainees often held for months without ever being interrogated. Detainees walked around in knee-deep mud, "defecating and urinating all over the compounds," said Capt. James Jones, commander of the 229th MP Battalion. "I don't know how there's not rioting every day," he testified . . .
   
   Among the more shocking exchanges revealed in the Taguba classified annexes are a series of E-mails sent by Major David Dinenna of the 320th MP Battalion. The E-mails, sent in October and November to Major William Green of the 800th MP Brigade, and copied to the higher chain of command, show a quixotic attempt to simply get the detainees at Abu Graib edible food. Dinenna pressed repeatedly for food that wouldn�t make prisoners vomit. He criticized the private food contractor for shorting the facility on hundreds of meals a day, and for providing food containing bugs, rats, and dirt.
   
   "As each day goes by tension within the prison population increases," Dinenna wrote. "...Simple fixes, food, would help tremendously." Instead of getting help, Major Green scolded him. "Who is making the charges that there is dirt, bugs or what ever in the food?," Major Green replied in an E-mail. "If it is the prisoners I would take it with a grain of salt." Dinenna shot back: "Our MPs, Medics and field surgeon can easily identify bugs, rats, and dirt, and they did." Ultimately, the food contract was not renewed, an Army spokeswoman says, although the contractor holds other contracts with the military.



5. finely, thars that leaked list of whut folks wurkin in the bush administrayshun makes, witch mane thang i wunder is why wood innybidy go thru all the grief n criticism fer purty puny wages cumpard to folks in private bizness.

pinions of buddy don: iraq is our maginot line

i reckon mos everbidy members how after the furst worl war, them french built em a perteckshun agin them germans. they figgerd ifn twuz to be a new war, them germans wood have to fite it the same ole way by linin up agin them french in thar trenches n shoot at each other till sumbidy run out of bullets. twuz usin the method of the las war to fite the nextn. mos folks probly member how them german jes went round that maginot line n tuck over the cuntry in under a cuple munths.

seems lack we're doin purty much the same thang in iraq. i aint sayin i dun cornerd the logick on thisn, but heres how it seems:

1. al qaeda attacks us usin 15 saudi arabians, 1 egyptian, 1 citizen of the united arab emirates, 1 lebanese n 1 yemeni with financin that cum mainly frum saudi arabia.


2. everbidy agrees that osama bin laden n al qaeda masterminded the plot, carrd it out, n claimed responsibilty fer it


3. we invade afghanistan to git after them taliban that wuz givin osama 'sankchewary' but we dont put in a nuff troops to git osama n fack is, fer sum reason, we delegated the job of gittin osama to them warlords, witch far as we kin tell, they hepped him git away


4. before the secunt iraq war, hans blix n scott ritter n millyuns of marchers around the worl bleeved (a) thay wuznt weppons of mass destruckshun in iraq n (b) thay wuzn no real conneckshun twixt saddam n osama (fack is, thisn has been anal-eyes'd a lot on a counta the same charges of secularism n corruption n infidel-hood wuz used by osama agin us n agin saddam as if thay wuznt much differnts twixt us n iraq under saddam, witch thay wuz a big differnts, but not to osama's logick)


5. we invade iraq, find no weppons, find no real relayshunship twixt al qaeda n saddam, witch innybidy who tuck the time to study whut osama wuz advocatin wood know that them two woodnt wurk together lessn they wuz attacked by the same enemy, witch it looks lack they been wurkin together ever since we invaded iraq


6. now our armed forces is way over-estended, much moren mr. bush wuz wurried bout durin the debates leadin to his minorty presidency (since the majority of folks ackshly voted fer gore, bush is one of them rare minorty presdents)


7. fack is, a look at the publican platform fer the eleckshun of 2000 shows that saddam wuz a target befor the attack ever tuck place. in fack, heres sum innerestin planks frum that verr platform:


1. furst, they accused the clinton admin of bein arrogant: "The arrogance, inconsistency, and unreliability of the administration's diplomacy have undermined American alliances, alienated friends, and emboldened our adversaries."


2. they gut on clinton fer not bleevin ahmad chalabi n his Iraqi National Congress, witch seems lack chalabi wuznt the bes guy to do bizness with now.


3. they claimed rite in thar platform that removal of saddam hussein wuz essenchul fer middle east peace, only they had em a differnt plan fer goin after it compard to the one they used: "A new Republican administration will patiently rebuild an international coalition opposed to Saddam Hussein and committed to joint action. We will insist that Iraq comply fully with its disarmament commitments. We will maintain the sanctions on the Iraqi regime while seeking to alleviate the suffering of innocent Iraqi people. We will react forcefully and unequivocally to any evidence of reconstituted Iraqi capabilities for producing weapons of mass destruction."


4. they claimd twuz clintons fault fer us not bein lacked by folks in the middle east n fer high gas prices. but then thar's this note frum Reuters on 4/20/2004: "Arabs in the Middle East hate the United States more than ever. . . ‘Today there is hatred of the Americans like never before in the region,’ [Mubarak, Egyptian presdint] said."


5. them publicans also sed they wood respeck the intelligents servuses: "Nor should the intelligence community be made the scapegoat for political misjudgments. A Republican administration working with the Congress will respect the needs and quiet sacrifices of these public servants as it strengthens America’s intelligence and counter-intelligence capabilities and reorients them toward the dangers of the future." i reckon they dint cunsidder ms plame part of that servus. also, dont this make it hard to use that senate report to claim twuz all the fault of the cia?


6. they accused clinton of over-extendin the troops by how he wuz deployin em, witch thatn seems hard to bleeve in this age of callin up retired reserves, stop-loss orders, servus extensions, back to back tours, cuts in benefits, attempted lowerin of combat pay, shortage of gear, etc. but here's whut it sez rite in thar platform: "When presidents fail to make hard choices, those who serve must make them instead. Soldiers must choose whether to stay with their families or to stay in the armed forces at all. Sending our military on vague, aimless, and endless missions rapidly saps morale. Even the highest morale is eventually undermined by back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment, inadequate training, and rapidly declining readiness."


8. now our military is over-extended to whar twood be hard to know whut to do ifn north korea wuz to invade south korea or ifn india n pakistan gut into it, or ifn mainland china deecided to take taiwan.


9. mos importunt, with our forces hunkerd down in thar maginot line of iraq, al qaeda (the real enemies) is wurkin with iraqis who hate us. thar gittin recruits frum all over. sum of em mite be attackin us in iraq, even though it seems we aint capchurin much in the way of forn prisoners, the insurgency is biggern we thought twuz, closer to 20,000 than to 5,000


10. meanwhile, our ports n other infrastruckchur is so badly perteckted that we git them warnins that thar bout to attack us only we dont know whar, when, how. wurst, we don't seem to know or wonta know the real reason why. fer all we know, they could try to disrupt our eleckshuns!

aint it nice to know we gut us a plan in place fer how we kin cancel them eleckshuns, jes in case? corse, we wont have to wurry bout that, will we? we gut our troops dug in along the maginot line of the 'central frunt' of terror. aint no way our enemies could git past em, huh?

pinions of buddy don: favert sangle malts

cums a time when ye orta name yer favert sangle malts, witch me n miz bd has been testin as minny of em as we could since eric over frum straight white guy hepped us git started. up to now, i aint cum rite out n pickt no faverts, tho i dun blogd on the subeck minny a time:

furst taste of sangle malt -- talisker
short ledaig revu
bowmore revu
linkwood revu
pitcher of ardbeg
stakin out keens steakhouse
the keens scotch tastin
notes n obsruvayshuns on the keens scotch tastin

so the time has cum to make a list of our faverts, witch me n miz bd couldnt settle on jes one.

furst it mite hep ye ifn i splaind whut we lacks in our sangle malts. mayhap on a counta how we gut to lackin em together, me n miz bd has purt near the eggzack same taste, so i'm a'speakin on behalf of bofus. as them lanks splains, we gut started with talisker 15 year. tiz frum the isle of skye n i reckon it dun set the taste of whut we figgerd sangle malt orta be lack. tiz a peaty one with a hint of iodine, dee liteful flaver n smoky afterbite. tiz the one that gut us to fall in luv with sangle malt scotch, witch miz bd never much keerd fer whisky till now.

innywho, we lacked thatn so much that we wood buy us a differnt bottle mos ever weekend n sampull it n compar notes n all till we had tried, either at home or out at sum place lack keens steakhouse a slew of em. tiz one of the add vantages of livin near 'the city,' witch thats whut folks roun here calls man hattan.

so heres a list of everone we had the good fortchun to try:

1. Aberlour 10 Years Old
2. Aberlour 15 Years Old
3. Ardbeg Aged 10 Years
4. The Balvenie Aged 15 Years Single Barrell
5. The Balvenie Aged 15 Years Cask Strength
6. Bowmore 12 Years Old
7. Bowmore 15 Years Old
8. Bowmore 17 Years Old
9. Bunnahabhain Aged 12 Years
10. Craggenmore 12 Years Old
11. Dalwhinnie 15 Years Old
12. Glenfarclas 17 Years Old
13. Glenfiddich Special Reserve
14. Glenfiddich 18 Years Old
15. Glen Garioch 10 Years Old
16. Glenkinchie 10 Years Old
17. The Glenlivet Aged 12 Years
18. The Glenlivet 18 Years Old
19. Glenmorangie 12 Years Old
20. Glenmorangie 18 Years Old
21. Highland Park Aged 18 Years
22. Isle of Jura Aged 36 Years
23. Lagavulin Aged 16 Years
24. Laphroig 10 Years Old
25. Lafroig Aged 15 yers
26. Ledaig Aged 15 Years
27. Signatory Decanter Collection Linkwood 1987
28. Macallan 12 Years Old
29. Macallan 18 Years Old
30. Speyburn 10 Years Old
31. Talisker 10 Years Ole
32. Tobermory Aged 10 Years
33. Mackillop's Choice: Inverleven Aged 13 Years

corse thays a few others we mite coulda tride along the way, but thems the ones i kin be shore bout. innywho, our taste runs to the peatier ones in the bunch. we dont much lack em sweet, n we lack em to have sum care ackter to em. so we aint all that crazy bout macallan 12 or the glenlivet 12 even ifn thar worl famus n sum of the mos poplar. we have a sentimentul attachment to glenkinchie 10 on a counta tiz a edinburgh lowland malt, witch we gut marrd in edinburgh n tiz the mos magickull place i ever been. so now that ye herd bout our taste, heres the list of our faverts.

oh, furst thays a nuther thang i should mentchun, witch tiz this here book name of The Whiskey Bible 2004 by a feller name of Jim Murray. it gives ye a lil ratin of mos every whisky ye kin magine, over 2,000 of em. so i'm a'gone quote his ratins on each of our faverts, witch we dont always agree with him. one thang that sprizes me is how minny times he ranks the 10 year over the 15 or 18 of a given scotch. far as we kin tell, hes purt accurate. his rankins is based on four thangs he rates on a scale of up to 25 fer the bes. the four thangs is (1) nose, (2) taste, (3) finish, n (4) balance. ye add em up to git yer ratin. he dont rank nun of em a purrfeck 100.

1. Lagavulin Aged 16 Years — we aint had thisn cept at the tastin at keens n then one evenin after we had visited the payshunt, but twuz lack drankin liquid relaxayshun with a hint of happiness blended in, as close to purrfeck as we thank ye kin git, jes bout. Jim Murrays ratins: 88 = 23 (nose) + 22 (taste) + 21 (finish) + 22 (balance)


2. Laphroig 10 Years Old — thisns the best bargun we dun found of all of em. we gut our las bottle fer $27.99 over at warehouse wines n spirits, witch thats down in the village on broadway twixt 7th n 8th streets. tiz peaty. tiz lack medicine. seems almost lack it has time-released taste budlets in it sum kinda way whar hours later ye git a hint of that speshul taste. Jim Murrays ratins: 90 = 24 (nose) + 23 (taste) + 21 (finish) + 22 (balance)


3. Glenmorangie 18 Years Old — miz bd won a bottle of thisn at the sangle malt scotch tastin at keens steakhouse, witch we aint opened that bottle yet n mite never doot on a counta tiz wurth $100, but we did have it at the tastin n twuz amazin. taint as peaty as we generly lack, but it has such a complex amalgamayshun of tastes, such sublty n balance that tiz hard to dee scribe. twuz the kind whar after ye had ye a sip, ye wood have that kinda taste in yer mouth whar ye wonta git a nuther sip n try to figger how it duz its magick, witch we aint figgerd it out yet. Jim Murray's ratins: 87 = 23 (nose) + 22 (taste) + 21 (finish) + 21 (balance)


4. Talisker 10 Years Old -- thisns still a sentimentull favert on a counta it bein the furstn we tride. tiz practicully purrfeck. taint so eggspensive lack #3 or #1, but it never fails to satisfy. thang i lack bes bout it is how whenever miz bd has her a lil, she gits to wontin to pick on a guitar, witch it has the same effeck on me. Jim Murray's ratins: 86 = 22 (nose) + 22 (taste) + 21 (finish) + 22 (balance)


5. Ledaig Aged 15 Years -- ledaigs a nuther that seems near purrfeck to me in nose n taste n finish n balance, but bes thang bout thisn is the effeck it has, witch quick as we have us sum, seems lack me n miz bd gits to sparkin. nuff sed. Jim Murray's ratins: 90 = 23 (nose) + 23 (taste) + 22 (finish) + 22 (balance)

thays a passel of otherns thats wonderful n fack is, aint a one of em bad. in the bargun makes, thars glen garioch 10 n speyburn 10 n bowmore 12, witch thays all ok. bes bargun of all is the laphroig 10. we had sum of the isle of jura aged 36 years at keens with our irish friend n twuz probably the bes of em all, but a bottle costs a few hunderd dollars, so it dont make the list. heres sum otherns thats verr fine: ardbeg 10 year (verr peaty), glenmorangie 10 (second bes bargun), n glenfiddich speshul reserve (thurd bes bargun).

thems my pinions at the moment but since thays hunderds we aint tride yet, tiz lackly thays a'gone change.

ye mite could hep by sharin yer idees, so why dont ye let yer pinions on sangle malt be known -- make a comment n tell us witchns ye lack the bes.

quick notes of buddy don: trial lawyers to farmasuiticulls to sangle malt

twuz innerestin to here how them publicans wuz attackin john edwards on a counta his bein a trial lawyer with lil eggsperients. tiz a shockin thang to say for the party of lincoln.

wood thar be a invesitgayshun ifn the dimcrats wuz in cuntrol of congress?

academicks, NIH, n small biotechs duz the research . . . thar profits is 17% but spendin on research aint but 11% while marketin n administrashun is 36%. mayhap thats why we passd a medicare bill to hep these folks.

whars the gratest good for the gratest number, health or wealth?

furst twuz them bitter-enders. then twuz forn fiters befor it turnt out not to be em. now tiz sunnis n larger than we had thunk?

ifn yer afraid of ghosts, dont go to the hell bus.

finely, ifn ye dont lack to laff, dont got to oldcatmans. speshly not now on a counta how hes rerunnin one of his classicks.

tiz fridy. i bleeve miz bd has picked out lafroig 10 year as the scotch fer the weekend. tiz a grate scotch at a fine price. tiz bettern the lafroig 15 year in my pinion. ye mite wonta try ye sum. we wuz lucky tuther day to find a new place name of warehouse wines n spirits (they aint gut no website!). they wuz sellin lafroig 10 year fer under $30, witch we dint have no choice but to buy us sum.

aint life grand?

grate job of buddy don: cumpny that sponsors volunteerin

in the countin yer blessin deparment, i gut to put my job near to top. taint everbidy that even lacks wurk n i kin be as lazy as the nextn, but ifn the wurk is good n yer cumpny treats ye rite, then seems to me lack thay aint no cumplaints. tiz a blessin ye orta count ever now n agin.

i caint mentchun witchn i wurk fer, but tiz what they call a wall street firm, witch let me jes call it bes bank. i dun wurked up n down 'the street' at severul of the wall street firms n the one i wurk at is by far the bes. fer eggzample, since wall street is a verr small worl, ye caint hep but run into folks in one place that ye wurked with in a nuther. so whenever i started wurkin at this particlar cumpny, i found thay wuz a slew of folk frum a nuther cumpny whar i wurked minny a year, witch let me call thatn hartless bank. once i gut to wurkin at bes bank, whenever i mite run into sumbidy i had met at hartless bank, twood be common fer em to say, 'Isn't this a great firm?'

but that aint all. i spoke to one tuther day, witch i had gut to know im back at tuther firm whenever he wuz jes a furst year 'associate.' he gut to talkin bout whut a grate firm tiz whar we're a'wurkin n i agreed. then he give me a eggzample bout how much they keer fer thar folk. he splaind bout how his furst year at the cumpny, he figgerd he was hedded fer a grate bonus on a counta how he had 'generated a lot of revenue.' then they cum to the annual review process n wuz he ever sprized. he wuz criticized fer treatin his folks lack dirt. message wuz how it dint matter that he generated a lot of revenue ifn he dint treat folks rite, speshly them that wuz a'wurkin fer im. he laffed bout it n pointed out how twuz eggspeckted at hartless bank. he sed his bonus wuznt whut he hoped fer, but whut impressd me wuz how he sed he figgerd twuz better to know yer wurkin at a place that keers fer the individual than to git a big bonus fer wurkin in a hartless place.

so twoodnt be much of a sprize to larn that bes bank is a big sporter of volunteerin. twuz so odd a thang that my furst year thar, i dint do much of it, figgern i had to git my wurk dun n twoodnt look good ifn i wuz off paintin skools or whatever on cumpny time. wuz i ever rong!

so i figgerd i wood volunteer agin, this time fer heppin out with the po leece athletick league summer baseball progrum. turnt out yesterday wuz the furst day n i couldnt hardly bleeve it when twuz time to walk over to the park at 9:45 AM n play with them kids till noon n then hep feed em pizza. in sted, my boss's boss saw me leevin n give me the big thumbs up. i cum back with dust on my shoes n pants n wearin the tee shirt n hat they give us. my boss laffd n ast could he git one, witch he has to volunteer to git one. i gut to wurkin at my desk, lettin tuther volunteers know they could cum git thar shurts n hats fer when twuz thar turn. my boss saw me n ast wuznt i a'gone change back into my dress shirt, witch i tole him soons i finished the email i wuz a'ritin, i wood go wash up n change. but my boss's boss cum by n sed he thought i should wear the shirt all day, witch i dint do that on a counta i had dun promissd my boss.

but i hope ye git the idee. bes bank is a grate cumpny to wurk fer n today i am a'countin my blessins fer havin such a good job.

pinions of buddy don: jurnlists should let thar pinions be known

so happens that miz bd is a jurnlist that started wurkin back in the early 1970s, whenever she wuz jes a pup. twuz her furst job but i reckun she wuz a born jurnlist. i never met nobidy in my hole life who had to know whut wuz a'goin on at inny given instunt moren she duz. ifn thars a sigh-reen a crine out in the nite, miz bd is lack as not to git up n see is it sumthin we needs to wurry bout.

whenever she wuz a'gettin her start as a jurnlist, she had lots of thangs to larn, witch she dun her larnin on the job, ritin with a byline at the age of 18 n larnin everthang by doon it. thangs she thought wuz sacred included (1) havin at lease three sorces fer inny claim, (2) keepin yer own bias outta the story, (3) puttin the parts that could be cut off frum the story near the end, (4) makin shore ye give credit to yer sorces or tuther articulls on the same subjects, (5) unnerstandin whut the publisher or editor in chief is willin to print n (6) not stealin copyrited material in genrul (witch thats the main crime of the blogosphere far as i kind see).

innywho, she sorta gut herself outta the strate jurnlist biz whenever she figgerd that item number 2 wuznt truly possbull. ye kin pertend ye aint thar, that all yer doon is presentin the unvarnisht facks, but ye caint git away frum whut ye bleeve is importunt. mos of all, ye caint publish innythang that goes agin whut yer publisher or editor in chief allows. after all, thar the boss.

ye mite member bout how friedrich nietzsche rote bout how thay aint no facks, jes interpretayshuns. tiz as close to a fack as yer lackly to git. miz bd larnd thatn without readin no nietzsche, though i reckon she's read her share over the years. point is, she cum to realize that no matter how ye wonta package it, yer news is a'gonna be biased sumhow, furst by whut ye see but mosly by whut yer publisher/editor in chief is a'gone allow ye to print.

i mentchun all that on a counta the fuss n fite that's a'ragin on mainstreet over that movie by michael moore name of fahrenheit 911. thays a slew of folks upset on a counta how tiz a documentry but it dont seem to be showin bof sides of the issues. sides that, michael moore aint made no secret bout his pinions. ye mite nitpick sum of the thangs he puts in thar or how he edits em or whutever, but hes honest as they cum bout his pinions n intentchuns.

n thats a good thang. tiz one of them odd moments whar even ifn ye dont lack whut he sez, ye orta add mire how he sez it. sides that, twoodnt be much of a sprize ifn younger folks gits eggcited by the potentchul of digital fotos n movies.

tuther thang i lacked bout it (still ignorin whut is sez bout our times fer the moment, witch i found that innerestin n wurth seein) is how it dint have to play the npr game of bof sides now. have ye noticed that whenever thars a npr story, ye git one side n then they find sumbidy to state tuthern. that means that ifn ye gut a new report on sum topick, say human effecks on global warmin, in sted of jes givin ye the ackshul news, witch thats the new infermayshun, ye also git sumbidy on tuther side sayin how the news aint rite or the worl aint changin or even ifn its changin, it aint human activty thats changin it or even ifn tiz human activty, tiz too late to stop thangs now, so we mites well go on a doon jes whut we been a'doin all along: usin up the worls store of fossil fuels as quick as we kin.

so that mane thang i lacked bout the movie, in a dishun to folks talkin bout the topicks it razed, is how tiz a sign of thangs to cum, when folks shows us thangs the corpert news -- n dont kid yerself, tiz a fack that four largest media congomerts cuntrols most of the news ye git in amurka, witch thays disney, time warner, viacom n vivendi universal -- innywho, i lack it that in the movie we gut to see thangs thats been missin from the corpert news.

n why is that? tiz on a counta whut miz bd larnt way back whenever she wuz a startin out: aint no point in ritin sumthin that the publisher or editor in chief wont print. period. dont matter bout yer own pallticks, yer own bias. ifn it dont agree with whut the owners wonts to publish, ye wont see yer wurds printed in thar paper or shown on thar news program. period.

tiz also profitabull to show thangs the corpert news wonts to keep hid: fahrenheit 911 near dubled its recurd brakin take frum the furst week (scroll down to michael moores furst blog entry). n once ye dun sumthin lack that, even ifn the corpert media tride to censor yer movie, they gut to git in on the ack once ye becum the big story.

astonishment of buddy don: thangs that make ye wunder

ye wunder how folks kin git to thankin sum of the thangs they do, witch heres a few that make me scratch my hed:

1. If you want a single number that tells the story, it's the percentage of adults who have jobs. When Mr. Bush took office, that number stood at 64.4. By last August it had fallen to 62.2 percent. In June, the number was 62.3. (Krugman)


2. Compare the following: Republicans in the House took more than 140 hours of testimony to investigate whether the Clinton White House misused its holiday card database but less than five hours of testimony regarding how the Bush administration treated Iraqi detainees. (Waxman)


3. Until now the record for mathematical lunacy by a legislative body has been held by the Indiana House of Representatives, which in 1897 decreed by a vote of 67 to 0 that pi -- the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter -- would no longer be 3.14159 but instead be 3.2. Indiana schoolchildren momentarily rejoiced over this simplification of their lives. But the Indiana Senate, composed of cooler heads, referred the bill to the Committee for Temperance, and it eventually died.
   
   What brings this episode to mind is that the U.S. House of Representatives is about to consider a bill that, if passed, could cause the mathematical lunacy record to move east from Indiana. First, the bill decrees that a coveted form of corporate pay -- stock options -- be counted as an expense when these go to the chief executive and the other four highest-paid officers in a company, but be disregarded as an expense when they are issued to other employees in the company. Second, the bill says that when a company is calculating the expense of the options issued to the mighty five, it shall assume that stock prices never fluctuate. (Buffet)


4. Increasingly, states across the country are making correctional facilities a higher spending priority than public and secondary education, according to the Justice Policy Institute . . .
   
   . . . Virginia, which is 12th among the states in per capita income, ranks third among all the states in spending on corrections, and 43rd in state spending on public education. While the state government in Virginia spends upward of $70,000 per year to incarcerate each child in a juvenile prison, it contributes only about $3,400 to provide for the education of that same child . . . (Andrew Block and Virginia Weisz)

should we ask 'is our children is learning'? (Bush)

but we kin remain optimistick since thays folks that still keers bout whuts rite n whuts rong, so we kin all have fun a'scratchin our heds n wundering bout who tiz thats supplyin us with these leaks (William Greider):

• Who gave the Justice Department's "torture" memorandum to the Washington Post?


• Who provided the International Red Cross's letter of complaints on prisoner abuses to the Wall Street Journal?


• Who confirmed for the New York Times that Iyad Allawi, the newly appointed Prime Minister of Iraq, had supervised the CIA's terrorist bombing campaign in Baghdad a decade ago?


• Who informed U.S. News & World Report that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld had authorized the holding of a "ghost prisoner" in violation of international law?


• Who--someone close to the President?--leaked the "torture" memo written by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales?

corse, thays that movie everbidys talking bout, witch ye kin tell witch side yer own by whuther ye lack it:

1. 'In wake of the president idling in "Fahrenheit 9/11," the White House image-makers have guarded against a recurrence.'When word of the second terror-jet smashing into the World Trade Center was whispered into the ear of the U.S. President of the targeted superpower, the Commander-in-Chief maintained his seat and schedule for seven blissfully uninterrupted minutes - seven minutes!
   
   The matter commanding the president's slavish attention? Listening to third graders while awaiting his turn to read at an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla. (Les Payne, NY Newsday)


2. The white-hot success of "Fahrenheit," plus cheap digital equipment, Internet-based communities and increasingly mean-spirited political advertising, means we can expect more quick-response films on hot issues, and ever cleverer strategies to make us watch. Independent documentaries, with their ring of honesty, have now been flagged a potential political tool for strategists of all kinds. Some will have more resources than others.
   
   Just as Matt Drudge personalized the shift in journalism with digital technology, Michael Moore and the flurry of political documentaries that his success has brought into the light draw attention to longer-term changes in film and video. We'll have much more to see, and more places to see it, but we'll still only have two eyes and 24 hours to see with. As for attitude, we ain't seen nothin' yet. (Pat Auferheide, NY Newsday)


3. Fahrenheit 9/11 made me angrier than any movie I've ever seen. It was a good anger, hard, clean and righteous, and I enjoyed it so much that I went back three days later to experience it again. Took two of my sons and two of their friends so they could become angry, too . . .
   
   . . . After all, if smugness was one of liberalism's most glaring flaws from the 1960s to the doorstep of the Reagan revolution, one of the least attractive characteristics of conservatism from that era forward has been its perpetual anger. Meaning its capacity to feel put upon, to work itself into a froth of righteous indignation, demonizing the opposition such that "liberal" becomes not a competing political philosophy but a curse word. (Leonard Pitts, Jr., Philadelphia Inquirer)


4. The most effective segments, at least for their emotional impact, involve mothers. First we see a mother in Iraq who lost family members in a U.S. bombing attack. Then we meet a mother in Michigan whose soldier son was killed in Iraq.
   
   Moore intercuts interviews with wounded soldiers - some with no hands, others with no legs, all of them in pain - with shots of Bush joking at a formal dinner, calling the well-to-do crowd "the haves and have-mores."
   
   He juxtaposes interviews with soldiers questioning their presence in Iraq with clips from a seminar helping defense contractors get a share of the Iraqi pie. "There are billions and billions of dollars to be made," they are reminded.
   
   And he returns to his home in Flint, Mich., a manufacturing ghost town where 50 percent are unemployed, to show how Marine recruiters target poor neighborhoods to entice youths simply looking for a paycheck. Then he stands outside the U.S. Capitol with brochures and a clipboard, asking members of Congress to enlist their sons and daughters; only one of the nation's 535 senators and representatives has a child serving in Iraq, according to Moore. (Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

me n miz bd gut to see the movie tuther day down at the lowes on 19th n broadway whar it gut a standin ovayshun. i couldnt git up on a counta havin the popcorn n dranks in my lap, but everbidy else did. corse, tiz in chelsea in man hattan, jes north of greenwich village, witch them folks votes lack crazy.

pinions of buddy don: enigma of wurk

lack everybidy in the usa jes bout, i plan to do my best to enjoy this last day befor i gut to go back to wurk. tiz a puzzle, wurk. i luv my job, lack the folks i wurk with, lack the cumpny, lack the locayshun, lack the pay. so why is it i hate to thank bout goin back to wurk? why duz it feel lack i gut a death sentence on me frum all the dred of goin back in?

i never could figger thatn. thang is, evertime i cum back to wurk frum a vacayshun, it feels lack cummin home n i luv it. but this evenin, long bout time me n miz bd has had a lil scotch n dun planned dinner, the dredll set in . . .

corse, wurk is a blessin, not a curse, witch i am verr thankful fer havin my job . . . ye caint cumplain when yer one of the lucky ones, witch i am bout as lucky as they git.

but it feels lack when yer in thurd grade n tiz sundy evenin n yer mamas yellin bout do yer homewurk.

return of buddy don: back frum a long vacayshun

howdy. this hyars buddy don at long last. sorry i ben away so long. taint eggzackly my fault on a counta how i aint a real person, perzackly, n problem is the author, witch hes the one a'makin me up. he acks lack i aint nuthin but a lil figment of his imaginayshun, but to me thangs is differnt. whenever i git to ritin, i turn real.

problem is, the authors on vacayshun n fer that lame reason, i caint hardly git im to let my fangers touch the keybird. but i reminded him bout how tiz the 4th of july, indeependents day of the usa, witch thats the day we celebrate the idee of a cuntry that bleeves everbidys gut a rite to life, liberty n the pursoot of happiness. i tole the author he wuz deprivin me of all three of em on a counta how thonly life i gut is whut i kin say in this hyar blog.

me n miz bd dun been to virginny fer a nite n then on to tennessee, whar we saw one of the nex generayshun gittin hitched. twuz outdoors n the rain quit long a nuff fer everythang to be lack in a story book.

we wonted to hike in the smokies but twuz rainin the days we wooda had time. twuz nice to see oak ridge n the campus at utk, to see the fambly n git cawt up on a few thangs.

i wuz verr sprized whenever i cum home n checked my stats. i had the biggest day ever n twuz when i had dun lef fer vacayshun n couldnt git near no keybird. reckon i should leeve more often?

innywho, me n miz bd has had us a wunderful vacayshun n today we plan on celebraytin a cuple birthdays, witch the one blongs to the usa n tuther blongs to our son-in-law.

lanks of buddy don: nuther blog ye mite wonta check

thays this blog name of Attu Sees Orange, witch ifn ye gut orange blood on a counta them vols, ye mite be whar ye caint resist lookin, even ifn it dont have nuthin to do with them vols. his blog is mosly dee voted to the weerd thangs of this worl, witch buddy don is honerd to be amung em. tiz a verr orange site.

wanderins of buddy don: goin back to ole virginny

aint hardly nuthin in life bettern that feelin ye git whenever ye walk outta wurk on the last day befor ye go on vacayshun. i gut it las nite n so far, it lingers on. me n miz bd is bout to git in a rental car n drive south till we git to a nice place in ole virginny whar we kin rest n relacks, speshly ifn we kin find a place thats gut a j'accusey, witch thatll git yer mussels unraveled purty good.

then tiz on to tennessee whar we's a'gone see a weddin n climb a mountin. aint life grand?

lanks of buddy don: cuple blogs that lanked to me

i wood lack to innerduce a cuple blogs that wuz kind a nuff to lank to me, witch the furstn is a blog name of Geekman. i recummend ye make yer way over thar. thays lots of good stuff, speshly ifn yer innerested in cumputers n linux. the geek also innerduced me to a nuther fine blog name of Winning Argument. tiz wurth a long surf thru. finely, thanks to the geek, i gut a nuther lank from The Presurfer. ye kin find all kinda thangs thar, includin whar ye kin git a runnin kilt.

good stuff!

vacayshun of buddy don: alreddy thar in my mind

i gut to go wurk today, but aint nobidy specktin much outta me on a counta tiz that last day at wurk befor startin a vacayshun, witch i wont be back at wurk till july 6 or 7, dependin on sum volunteer wurk that mite keep me out on july 6. so i feel lazy alreddy, witch reminds me of kramer in seinfeld whar he sed bout a vacayshun, 'i'm alreddy there in my mind.' i bet my boss will say that line to me n dependin on whuther alreddy thar myself, i mite agree with him. i mite jes stare off into space n ast him later did he say innythang. but i will be gone alreddy by then . . .

. . . back to tennessee!

wurk of buddy don: migrayshuns

i gut to be at wurk this mornin at 6 am on a counta how we're gittin reddy to migrate our folks frum usin offus XP to offus 2003, witch that manely means they git a new email app. thays a heap of wurk in migrayshuns, witch i used to thank they wuz whut happend when yer reglar methods dint wurk no more. corse after years of life supportin computer users, i figgerd out that migrayshuns is whut we're always wurkin on.

taint only at wurk that we keep a'movin to better thangs: i lack to live my life lack tiz one long migrayshun frum whar i am now to whar i wonta go, witch i lack nietzsche's idee that ye orta make yer presunt self an embarrassment to yer futchur self.

taint any easier than tiz to cunvints all yer users that changin software agin is a good idee. lots of em dont git it till ye splain how the vendor wont support the old vershuns of the product.

tiz a grate marketin strategy. magine ifn auto cumpnies used it. ye mite git a note in the mail sayin the new release of the ford or chevy is out, so ye orta rush out n git ye one, speshly since they wont be supportin the older models no more, meanin that ifn they brake, yer on yer own. ye mite pull into the garage a'claimin yer cars makin a funny sound n have the mechanick say, 'sorry, we no longer support the 1998 and earlier releases of the car.'

so ye gut to keep buyin. software is kindly lack the dope of the bizness worl. ye gut to have yer nex fix jes to keep up with yer competishun. i wonta kindly keep up with my crew, so i lack to cum in early whenever a migrayshun is startin. tiz bout my only chants to see the certificayshun process frum start to finish. after that, bein a manjer, i jes manage the folks doin the wurk, more or less, witch that manely means keepin outta thar way n makin shore they have the time n tools to do whut needs to be dun.

routine of buddy don: back to the grind

tiz back to the reglar grind this mornin, witch that means bein back in the offus after a week away. i gut plenty to ketch up on, probly jes a nuff to keep me real busy till tiz time to go away agin, this time on a real vacayshun, witch we leeve out on thursdy to see sumbidy git marrd n then tiz a lil stroll thru the smokies n mayhap as much as a week in tennessee, mayhap not.

so i probly wont hardly git goin up in here befor we gut to go away agin. im hopin to blot frum the rode, but that aint tested yet. mane thang i need to do is git back to ritin chapturs on that novel, life n pinions of buddy don, hillbilly.

wanderins of buddy don: she's at the ole homeplace

aint nuthin lack bein back in yer own home agin.

wanderins of buddy don: goin home

i caint cumplain inny bout this trip on a counta how i met n broke bred with a slew of folk that wurks together with the huge support team heppin our firm. i sumtimes tuck folks to lunch in shifts, larnt the short way to wurk, showed a few blue blackberry tricks to folks, that kinda thang. miz bd gut time with sum of her fambly.

now tiz time to drive back to new jersey, witch we used to do such drives in a sangle stretch, but i reckun we'll stop along the way. tiz a indulgents ye give yerself whenever ye start gittin a lil older. ye git to whar ye realize taint wurth the money ye save to risk noddin off at the wheel. so ye stop even when ye wish ye could git home faster.

aint nuthin lack goin home to the cumferts of yer own life. twill be so nice to sleep in our own bed agin!

wandering of buddy don: last day in mason

yesterdy wuz a hard day on a counta how i half to drive frum whar im stayin to mason, witch tiz about 40 miles. i lef out at 6:37 AM yesterdy, but i dint git to the offus till near 9 am. turns out thay wuz a cuple acksidents on the innerstate.

i half to add mitt i dun been spoilt by havin the good public transport we gut in the nyc metropoltun area. i pay $65 pre-tax fer a munthly bus pass that takes keer of jes bout all the travel i ever do in a munth. i ketch the bus a block frum my frunt door, show em that pass, git a seat n read till we git thar. then tiz a lil walk to wurk.

now i know thays a slew of folk -- most of em, i reckun -- that dont lack publick transportayshun. they thank taint as easy as ridin in yer own car. but when ye add up all the costs n speshly the fack that ye git to wurk jes bout wore plum out frum fitin traffick, ye kin see whar tiz a good thang to shar yer rides with the genrul publick. thays sum that claims taint safe, but when ye figger thays moren 3,000,000 folks ridin the subways n trains n buses ever day in nyc but almost never no truble fer all them folks, tiz a hole lot safern drivin in a car whar thays minny more acksidents.

innywho, todays my last day a'visitin them good folks that ansers the fones n listens to our users cumplain. they gut em over 100 folks to handle calls frum jes our cumpny -- takes up a hole big ole floor. corse, they gut sum tuff jobs lack havin to support the blue blackberry without havin but one fer 23 folks to share, that kinda thang, but they study hard n keep all thar notes on thar internal websites n frum all that, they do a fine job.

the plan is to start drivin back to new jersey in the mornin, witch i hope to make a lil note befor leevin out, but ifn i caint, i drop ye a line frum new jersey.

wanderins of buddy don: mason, ohio

i spent the day yesterdy in mason, ohio, whar thay gut em a huge call center. i wuz visitin sum of the folk that heps our users in new york n i must say, i wuz verr impressd by the size n scope of the organizayshun. the folks that takes keer of our calls takes keer of calls frum all over. i reckon tiz the way of the worl, but whenever i ast sum of the folks on the desk bout whut they figgerd wood hep em most in doin a good job, furst thang one fella sed wuz twood hep to be able to go to new york n meet the users thats a'callin em all the time. as it happens, thats the mane reason i cum to ohio, to meet the folks on the desk face to face. thays magic in meetin sumbidy in person that ye dont git over a fone.

but they gut em a grate place n they been doin a eggzellent job fer us.

wanderins of buddy don: beavercreek, ohio

mayhap the most amazin thang bout this place is how one of the prime time channels on tv las nite tuck everthang off ceptn a deescripshun of the weather, witch they gut em sum amazin weather here that could be rite dangerous.

tiz near time fer me to leave out frum here sos i kin drive to mason, ohio, witch thats whar we keep the hep desk folks, witch we calls our bunch 'the pod.' so im fixin to meet me sum podlings that i dun met over the fone. should be rite innerestin. thays a grate bunch of folk over the fone n i bet thar even better in person.