By PINWHEEL Q COELECANTH.  Easy to read Web version.    Whenever I orate or soliloquize at my Inspirational Speaking Engagements, I'm often distracted by a gaggling crowd of yokels, demanding I bestow some of my incredible WISDOM on them even though 999 out of 1000 times its totally wasted and my time would be better spent reclining on the giant round bed in my tour bus while a young woman i happened upon in East Walnut Pie, Nebraska demonstrates one more time how she got her...

in an article published by the chicago sun-times on 8/8/04, writer anne gearen reports supreme court justice clarence thomas has been interviewed by white house lawyers in anticipation of his being named chief justice of the court by president bush.   here's a link Link the information comes from thomas' biographer ken foskett whose book about thomas' life (judging thomas) goes on sale this week.   according to foskett,  thomas isnt interested but could find i...

is implimentation of a cabinet level intelligence chief likely to remedy the major faults attributed  by the 911 commission to the cia?  its a question that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no.   a much more germane question--whether the commission focused sufficiently on faulty intelligence attributed to the cia but actually crafted by others--requires less speculation.  unfortunately, the answer is 'no'.  unless and until that changes, the first q...

forget amway.  cancel your upcoming pyramid scheme events.  finally there's a genuine get-real-rich-right-quick home opportunity available to everyone that isnt merely guaranteed to triple your investment...youll get triple the amount you even considered handing to your upline.   speaking of uplines, we've got the best.  st francis of assisi, amerigus vespucci, luigi davinci (leo's first cousin) and, most recently, joseph stalin.  you can be sure papa joe wouldnt si...

if you encounter a file that purports to contain images of osama bin-laden committing suicide, resist the impulse to indulge.   sophos--a leading web security vendor--issued an alert yesterday (friday july 23, 2004) after the exploit was posted to 30,000 newsgroups.  sophos' senior security analyst, chris kraft, said the message and attachment were designed to lure unsuspecting readers, causing them to unwittingly execute malicious code that m...

last may, in anticipation of the coalition's transfer of authority at the end of june, an indiana arms dealer was awarded a contract valued from $25-$35 million dollars to provide assault weapons to the iraqi police forces kiesler police supply of jefferson, indiana, had previously been awarded smaller contracts.  according to an article in the louisville ky courier-journal published may 27, 2004: A $19.9million Iraq contract awarded to Kiesler in August drew criticism from several...

an estimated 510,000 women lose their lives giving birth each year: roughly 251,000  in sub-saharan africa, 253,000 in asia,  22,000 in the caribbean and about 2,500 in all the first world countries.  maternal mortality rates rise in reverse proportion to the number of births attended by a midwife or caregiver.  in the us, europe and latin america, nearly all deliveries are assisted by a caregiver. in sub-saharan africa and asia, the percentage drops to about 58%.  ...

except for a few hours of exploring along its side of the colorado river, the only time i've spent in arizona has been transiting east to west or vice-versa on my way to somewhere else.   last time i was in the grand canyon state,  i just dropped in for about 74 minutes due to a layover in phoenix.   had i been thinking, i would have saved myself a few bucks by drinking a lot of arizona water.  i'm not totally sure there's something special in arizona water. it ...

these are the concluding paragraphs of a short essay about displaying the flag on july 4th. can you identify the author? . "I intend to perform what I believe is my patriotic duty. I can't think of a more American thing to do than raise questions — and demand truthful answers — when our leader wants to send our sons and daughters off to die in a war. . If we don't do that — the bare minimum — for those who offer to defend our country, then we have failed them and ourselves. They offer ...

maybe its just that underskull aluminum* pie pan utensil that was so kindly and permanently implanted for me by them abducting aliens but, friends, i'm beginning to get the vague impression that we been sandbagged in iraq. i don't mean the kinda sandbags used to fortify or contain floodwaters (altho i guess one of them would work too). im thinking poker. let's say...based on what you've seen, you have the winning hand. you've appeared reluctant to continue to help fund what is now a prett...

voles are little mouse-like rodents common to the wilds of north america unbeknownst to me (and possibly you or anyone else who hasnt been keeping up with cutting edge hormone research over the past 4 years), neurobiologists at emory university in atlanta have been trying to find out what makes prairie vole males such loyal mates while their close cousin male meadow voles are such...ummm....promiscous rats. according to a paper published in the current issue of nature ("Enhanced pa...

this is an article i never imagined id find myself writing in 2004. during the nearly 2 months ive been here, ive seen a number of variations on the following theme: . 'conservatives are are more responsible, less vile, more pragmatic and realistic and willing to deal with the repercussions of their beliefs' . it could as easily been a liberal claim. thats not the issue over the past 2 days, ive seen several posts about namecalling in which admittedly offensive, hurtful insulting p...

i think this one requires a preface, so please bear with me a moment. contrary to what some of you may believe--or want to believe--i don't hate george bush. hate is an emotion that should be reserved or restricted to people with whom one has a personal connection, and there are only three people who've come close to provoking hatred from me during my adult life. i don't even truly dislike him. i didn't think he was a very competent governor and i'm even less impressed by his performance in...

mention of tax loopholes and subsidies as the equivalent of social welfare programs in other blog articles seemed to elicit a chorus of denials such things exist or a condescending concurrence while dismissing any comparison as largely irrelevant. in a sense, there is no comparison. the entire cost of all us social welfare programs in 2000 was 26.4 billion dollars (including administration). estimated loss of tax revenue from just three categories of benefits extended to large corporation...