Thief's Den

Saddam's Stroke

UPDATE: Apparently this is his lawyers talking. Nevermind. Probably pure bullplop.

One Hand Clapping reports that Saddam Hussein has suffered a severe stroke.

If he is going to croak, let it be now. Let's see the cable news channels forced to run retrospectives of Saddam's Tyranny while clowns like this say the only thing we have to fear is the man largely responsible for ending this tyranny.

Yeah, they'll all scream conspiracy. Reality is more like it.

Expanding to Serve You Better

Greetings.

Work seems to have slowed down this week. I'll have some time to post and clean the Den this weekend.

I still have not solved the porno spam problem. Comments on all entries will be temporarily closed until further notice. Anything earth-shattering, please e-mail me.

TD Radio: On The Edge

TD Radio's Playlist this week:

Apologies for the lack of blogging. But many things are in motion right now, very important things that will have a big impact on my life. Things that I just can't control. (This is one of those times when I hate blogging anonymously.)

It feels like I'm on a ride I just can't stop. I'm on the edge and trying not to let go.

So blogging will be light for the foreseeable future.

"We have searched every square inch of this blog, and all we have found is porno, PORNO, PORNO!!!

God-f***ing dammit, now I'm getting mad.

MT-Blacklist hasn't stopped the flood. 414 porno spams today.

Installed MT-Close2. All entries will be closed to comments after 30 days.

If this doesn't work, I'm going to MT 3.0 and requiring TypeKey authentication.

"Daaaaaa Bears. Mike Ditka. Daaaaaa Senate."

The Hill Reports...

In the wake of Steve Rauschenberger’s withdrawal from the Illinois Senate race, former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka has surfaced as a favorite of many Hill and state Republicans, according to interviews with GOP members and staff in Illinois and Washington.

The Super Bowl-winning coach and Hall-of-Fame player is a Chicago icon whose name identification and stature would make him a well-known, if inexperienced, candidate in the race to replace Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R), who is stepping down at the end of this legislative session.

Ditka has not made a public statement about his candidacy, but Republicans on the Hill and in Illinois said they would be eager for him to enter the race.

“If Ditka ran, Democrats would claim to vote for Obama and then secretly vote for Ditka,” said Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) “It would immediately put Chicago in play.”

Kirk said Ditka could campaign with his former players in minority areas, like Chicago’s South Side, that other Republican candidates could not previously touch.

"OK, just Ditka vs. Barack Obama and the entire Illinois Democratic Machine, with Michael Moore filling in at Wide End. I think it'd be a little tough for Ditka under these circumstances. Ditka 88%, Democrats 12%."

All together now...

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Bears!"

"You Can't Kill It."

The fine folks at AngryAlien are back.

Fittingly, with a parody of the classic sci-fi horror film Alien.

In 30 Seconds.

Re-enacted by Bunnies. And a robot bunny. And assorted other animals with bunny ears tied to them.

Welcome To The Machine

Fear strikes again at modern childhood, enabled once again by technology.

Wednesday July 7, 10:03 PM

School to put electronic tags on students to monitor safety

A primary school in Wakayama Prefecture will provide electronic tags on students' belongings that will help parents and teachers monitor their safety on the way to and from school, a local bureau of the telecommunications ministry said Wednesday.
The tags -- similar to those used for merchandise at retailers and wholesalers for inventory control -- will be attached to students' school bags or nameplates, while tag readers will be installed at the school gate and locations the parents and teachers think could be dangerous.

"...Where have you been?
It's alright, we know where you've been..."

Via Fark.

Die, Spammer, Die

I checked the Den today, and I found 1,403 porno spams in my comments.

So I got pissed. Deleted them all.

And Installed MT Blacklist.

Oh, and to the asshat who spammed me (yes, I traced your IP address. New Jersey, is it?): Don't ever show your ass in DC, buddy. I mean it.

One Subject To Rule Them All

SDB writes, in response to a question from Ireland as to why Congressional bills are loaded with riders:

That's something which happens in both chambers. It isn't unique to the Senate. It happens all the time, on nearly every major bill. I guess the only answer to that question, in general, is the famous one: "Men who love sausage or the law should not watch either one being made."

I would say that the answer is probably that our tradition is that giving the Speaker that power to decide what is or is not relevant is dangerous, since he might use that power to the advantage of his own party. Not giving the Speaker of the House (or the President pro-tem of the Senate) that power means you get sausage bills, but the alternative is concentrating too much unchecked power in one place. We Americans generally believe that concentrated and unchecked power will always be abused, eventually, by someone. Sausage bills are a lesser evil.

As a lover of constitutional law (though not a lawyer), I'd just like to point out that certain state governments have tackled the same problem in an entirely different way, and with some effect: through the use of "one-subject" rules.


Red=States with Constitutionally-Mandated One-Subject Rules

One-subject rules are pretty much self-explanatory: No bill enacted by a legislature can deal with more than one subject, with the subject specified in the bill's title. (For example, a bill about establishing a tax on liquor would be acceptable, whereas a bill about establishing taxes on liquor AND building a new state highway wouldn't. It's not a hard and fast rule, and it requires a bit of creative interpretation (e.g. a bill stating that the new state highway will be paid for with money earned from liquor taxes would probably be OK).Texas' rule, as far as I can tell, is pretty typical - "No bill, (except general appropriation bills, which may embrace the various subjects and accounts, for and on account of which moneys are appropriated) shall contain more than one subject." The stated purpose of this rule is that "a legislative proposal should stand on its own merits and not be combined with unrelated proposals to generate broader support." If a bill violates the one-subject rule, it can be challenged by legislators, and is also considered grounds for state courts to strike down bills encompassing more than one subject. The best-known case of the latter was in 1995, when the Ohio Supreme Court threw out the state's recently-enacted voucher program on the grounds that it violated that state's one-subject rule. (In this case, the program was attached to the state's annual appropriations bill, most likely because the state was under a court order to fix Cleveland's underperfoming schools ASAP.) The trick, as with any rule designed to restrain a mischevous government, is that the rule must be enforced by someone.

I'm guessing that a Federal one-subject rule would not be a bad thing at all, if it would put a dent in the problem of Congress passing those monstrous "omnibus bills" that spend billions of taxpayer (read: OUR) money while no one even has time to read them before they pass...

Only In Kenya!

From the same memetic orifice that brought you Badger Badger Badger...

Only In Kenya!

I could not stop laughing. (Partially because Kenya was the first country I ever represented in Model United Nations and I've never quite lost that soft spot for them.)

Oh, if only they had had Flash Cartoons back in 1994.

Props to Jonah G. in the Corner...

TD Radio: A Fifth of ROCK YOUR WORLD!

I have returned. With a new hard drive on my laptop, plus an external USB Hard Drive. Managed to save all of my personal files and MP3's.

And now I see Michele has put the radio back up and is looking for good solid metal. I may not have much, but what I do have is now on TD Radio, along with a good selection of classic rock. (If the metal were shots, the classic rock would be the chasers.)

In fact, that's a good name for this list: A Fifth of ROCK YOUR WORLD!

Cheers!

The Best Of Thief's Den

While I'm on hiatus, here's the best of the last 6 months from the archives of the Den.

And a special welcome to visitors from the Underblog. Please feel free to poke around. It ain't much, but it's home.

Not Quite Clear On The Concept: If your blog is not being read, it's your own fault.

It's Deja Vu All Over Again: My take on Air America.

Mullah Krekar's Got a Squeeze Box: Mix one part Islamic Fundamentalist with one part sexy Islamic Apostate. Garnish with a parody of The Who.

Why (Some) Iraqis Hate Us: The "American Face" of the Occupation was not the problem.

Air Force Humor (True Story): From my dad's days at Kunsan AB in Korea. Phantoms, blown tires, incompetent commanders, and sex toys are all involved.

Out, Out, Damn Spam!: Comment Spam in Iambic Pentameter.

The Illiberal 9th Circuit: Majority Rule for me, but not for thee.

Saaaaaadam Was....Comfortably Numb: Ex-tyrant+Prog Rock=WTF

Blogging Hiatus

Greetings.

As you know, I have not posted any new entries, nor have I updated the radio.

But that's kinda hard to do when the hard disk with all of my blogging programs and MP3 files went belly up. Apparently I'm not the only one with this exact problem. Looks like Dell is buying crappy hard drives. Ah well. At least their tech support people know their stuff. (P.S. Mad Props to Fergie in the Phillipines for the 2+ hours of help... yes, Dell's outsourced their support. Go Globalization.)

New HD drive should be here today. I am currently attempting to get the thing to boot up one last time so I can at least save all my personal files to an external drive.

We shall see what happens. After that, I'm heading out for the 4th of July weekend to Gettysburg, PA. Most enjoyable. Bringing this for bedtime reading.

Regular posting (hopefully) to resume next week.