What Chris Rose said (again)

Amen!

New Year'sin New Orleans Update: On the drive from Houston to New Orleans, we mostly saw the damage that Hurricane Rita did to southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. By the time we got in range of New Orleans, the sun had gone down. We did have a great meal at Arnaud's, although there were a few hiccups because of the lack of staff. Today we will explore uptown and I will try to file a report at a later date.

For more on our dinner at Arnaud's, read my report here.

Merry Christmas!

irregular posting should resume not too long after the New Year...

Possible special feature: eye witness report on what New Year's Eve in New Orleans is like...

Ah, the glory days of Intelligent Design...

Everything made so much more sense back then...

You see, it's so much easier when the conclusion is pre-ordained...

We WILL have Mardi Gras!

So says Chris Rose...

Iraq... what have we bought for our 200 billion

To mark what it called the "1000 Days" of the Iraq war, the London daily The Independent offered extensive coverage today, featuring a by-the-numbers approach.

Here are some of their calculations:

$204.4 billion: The cost to the U.S of the war so far.

2,339: Allied troops killed

15,955: US troops wounded in action

98: U.K troops killed

30,000 : Estimated Iraqi civilian deaths

0: Number of WMDs found

66: Journalists killed in Iraq.

63: Journalists killed during Vietnam war

8: per cent of Iraqi children suffering acute malnutrition

53,470: Iraqi insurgents killed

67: per cent Iraqis who feel less secure because of occupation

$343: Average monthly salary for an Iraqi soldier. Average monthly salary for an American soldier in Iraq: $4,160.75

5: foreign civilians kidnapped per month

47: per cent Iraqis who never have enough electricity

20: casualties per month from unexploded mines

25-40: per cent Estimated unemployment rate, Nov 2005

251: Foreigners kidnapped

70: per cent of Iraqi's whose sewage system rarely works

183,000: British and American troops are still in action in Iraq.

13,000: from other nations

90: Daily attacks by insurgents in Nov '05. In Jun '03: 8

60-80: per cent Iraqis who are "strongly opposed" to presence of coalition troops

Golden globe nominations

Read and discuss

As if we didn't know this already

Bush was interviewed on the Today show today and Brian Williams was asking him questions about the bubble that he lives in. In response to a question about whether or not he reads either Time or Newsweek Bush responded:

Williams: "You don't read the newsweeklies at all?"

Bush: "I really don't. I mean, I'm interested in the news, I'm not all that interested in the opinions."

GOOD LORD!!! We have a President who by his own words not interested in the news. How can you be President and not be interested in the news? How did we elect this guy once?

The Death of New Orleans...

What a depressing editorial in the NY times....

The hardest part to read was this paragraph:

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The price tag for protection against a Category 5 hurricane, which would involve not just stronger and higher levees but also new drainage canals and environmental restoration, would very likely run to well over $32 billion. That is a lot of money. But that starting point represents just 1.2 percent of this year's estimated $2.6 trillion in federal spending, which actually overstates the case, since the cost would be spread over many years. And it is barely one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax cuts passed just last week by the House of Representatives.

Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated as the cost of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what was the worst possible case we fought to prevent?

Losing a major American city.
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The State of Illinois has Solved the Problem of Obese Kids

See? It was nothing a little (or a lot) of beauracracy and inane regulations couldn't fix...

OK... I'm swamped with finals but...

I thought I would pass along this little tidbit about how scientists have taken a bit of embryotic rat brain tissue and taught it how to fly planes.... Terminator anyone?

Ann Coulter the Queen of civility

Ann was speaking at a university and after being heckled decided to have a question and asnwer period which she started saying.... "I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am," - Ann Coulter. Now that is CLASS.

Some of those so-called 'Christians' are literally 'whacky'

the spirit of christ be with you indeed... wasn't there something in the new testament about turning the other cheek? maybe these guys missed that part...

"Plan for Victory'

Steve Chapman carefully picks apart each Bush administration rationale for staying in Iraq...

Here's the lead:

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When President Bush went to the Naval Academy the other day, he spoke in front of a sign that could have been an answer on "Jeopardy." It had the words "Plan for Victory." The question: What did the Bush administration fail to do when it invaded Iraq?

Back then, his slogan could have been "Assume Victory." Expecting a quick and conclusive triumph, the administration blithely figured we would get out as quickly as we got in. Bad guess.
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How to spot a terrorist....

Hilarious...

The role of juries in our justice system

It is sometimes hard to believe the amount of power that our justice system places in the hands of juries. This is especially so in light of the often highly technical issues that juries are called on to decide. That having been said it is downright scary to see just who gets put on these things...

It makes you wish that attorneys could strike prospective jurors on the grounds that they have a demonstrated record of consistently making wrong decisions on the basis of bad evidence....