subject to the usual challenge about the cardinal of chad and an ohio recount, the world has a new pope. Link

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled; Here once the embattled farmers stood; And fired the shot heard round the world. The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps, And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream that seaward creeps. On this green bank, by this soft stream, We place with joy a votive stone, That memory may their deeds redeem, When, like our sires, our sons are gone. O Thou who...

so here's the deal: until he resigned last month, thomas coughlin was  wal-mart's vice-chairman and a long time board member. apparently wal-mart executives are as underpaid as anyone else in the organization because an internal audit revealed coughlin ripped off $500 grand using some kinda expense account scam.  as if poor ol tom didnt have enuff problems, last week there was an article in the wall street journal suggesting coughlin had ordered several subordina...

if the title sounds sorta familiar, there's a reason.   a post with a similar title appeared briefly in the political forum for a short time.  in that one, the 'skanks' of the national organization for women were judged in need of: a. being slapped around b. the author declaring a jihad against them for joining with their 'selfish bitch' feminist sisters to force their anti-implant beliefs on the pure flower of american womanhood.  wait..sorry, now's real c...

i really gotta wonder what was going thru former secretary of state colin powell's head last week when the commission on the intelligence capabilities of the united states regarding weapons of mass destruction delivered its report.   whether you'll admit it or not, those of you who put your faith in every claim--from anthrax-laden drones to aluminum centrifuge tubes to mobile bioweapons labs--uttered by bush, rumsfeld, cheney, rice, etc  regarding saddam hussein's arsenal of W...

while it's still somewhat premature to suggest folks are going to be staying away from the papal funeral in droves, another prominent newsmaker appears unlikely to be in attendance. unlike martin luther, mehmet ali agca wants to be there but it's highly doubtful he can free up the time...or himself.   citing 'other commitments that have me locked up here in turkey', agca said, 'by the beard of the bulgarian or east german prophet, i'd kill for a chance to say goodbye to my brother, the pope'...

someone shoulda administered the hypocratic oath to george w bush this weekend.   only a few days before he flew from texas to dc to demonstrate the depth of his commitment to getting votes from the pro-lifers, a 6month-old infant had his plug pulled--against the wishes of his mother--thanks to a law bush signed in 1999. i'm not exactly positive where crawford is in relation to houston, but--even knowing how big texas is from having driven thru there for a month one weekend--the kid ...

a.  you stay up all night with a bunch of your hypocrite associates to pass a law that violates the balance of powers. b. you vote for a law that is in direct opposition to the constitution by interfering with the rights of the several states (well actually a single state..but for the 2nd time in five years). c. you go out of your way to help enact a law that permits the federal government to impose itself into an individual family's affairs and cater to the the religious belie...

warmonger (and, please, before you start heaving invective, understand i rarely use that designation but in this case its more than appropriate) paul wolfowitz--whose brilliant  financial acumen led him to prophesy the iraq adventure he worked so hard to bring to being would practically pay for itself once the chinches started into chinchin... oops i meant once  the blizzard of iraqi oil money began drifting into huge piles so it could be shoveled up--is about to validate the peter principle bey...

i have a client who needs to relocate his website (he's switching providers).   factors of importance (in order) are: security, reliability, cost, features, user-friendliness. any recommendations?

With apologies to the group War (as well as to Larry Kuperman whose article 'CEOs: Who Needs Them'   Link   began exactly this way):  "CEO s, huh! What are they good for? Absolutely nothing!" well...it seems that may not have been totally accurate in the case of the newly former boeing ceo harry c. stonecipher. normally i'd be the last person to sympathize with a hardass professional corporate exec: 1. whose previous claim to fame had been pinkslipping 78,000 employees follo...

i don't exactly remember when i first saw the british conservative catholic organization's website--also known as 'the shocking truth'.  i can tell you within mere moments of finding it, the scales fell from my eyes (a silly place to keep the scales but quite characteristic of my pre-enlightened benighted self).  i very clearly remember the last time i saw it.  it was just a few short hours before that stalwart bastion of righteousness disappeared forever from virtuous and virtual reality.  ...

yall got no idea how badly i wish i'd not permitted myself to be distracted a few weeks ago and actually managed at that time to have checked out the grand ayatollah al-sistani's website as i'd been planning to do.  if i had, this article would have appeared sooner...and i could say proudly i'd tripped over the shia version of 'dear abby' without anyone's assistance. as it is, i forgot about it til last friday night when i was reminded (in a most delightful way) by bill maher who is cle...

if former friend doug wead had taped george w. bush stopping short of candidly admitting he never used drugs, it would be a much bigger story.  no matter how straightforward and morally valued his supporters may believe him to be, if they wouldn't happily sell the family cow for some magic beans, they either have enough magic beans already or they simply aren't that naive.    it's not that he exhibits any of the so-called telltale stoner symptoms, although his public speaki...

dunno how many of you are aware of the controversy over lavasoft's adaware suddenly developing a mysterious inability to detect the presence of whenu scumware.  mysterious not in the sense of being unexplained--it's clearly a consequence of lavasoft having decided to remove whenu from the database prior to issuing its most recent definition file on 2/5/2005--but more like that decision being seemingly unexplainable by lavasoft. as nearly as i can determine, this has b...