Woman sues KMart and wins

No tax on toilet paper in Pennsylvania. The woman represented herself and won $100 plus court costs.

Has it bottomed yet? Links to foreclosures

With so many foreclosures, it might make sense for people looking for a good deal to check out the houses available directly from the banks. Here are some links:

Bank of America

PNC

Countrywide

Also LoopNet (for HSBC, and others)

Also, government homes are always interesting to look through:

HUD homes

Government sales (including USDA farms & ranches)

Update

Forgot two biggies: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

How could someone do this?

Fatal Hoax

This story, which is not "breaking news," nor very current, is now being more widely published, and I cam upon it today. I am just stunned and saddened and mad that people can do such things, and then "be okay" with them. I'm talking about the woman, Ms. Drew, who did the hoax. As a parent, it just's just so so so sad to read about a young person killing herself. As a righteous moral indignant mofo, I am mad as heck that the "hoaxer" is not doing something, anything, everything, to make some amends (can't make it right, but can try). I just cannot fathom this one.

One result of China's one-child policy...

a nation of selfish "emperors" and "empresses."

Hugo Chavez: Make me President-for-Life or I'll take your stuff

Hugo Chavez, apparently in a tizzy that his efforts to change the constitution in his country to allow him to run as long as he wants, has threatened to seize the assets of those opposing his reform policies.

Nice. A pro-active redistribution of wealth, I suppose you'd call it. His defenders continue to point out that he was democratically elected as though that excuses his bullying while in office. George W. Bush was democratically elected as well (yes, yes, I've read all about Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 and it is a lot of nothin'). The point isn't that he has some kind of mandate to do what he's doing and so we should simply stand aside. It is that what you do when you are in office is more important that simply whether you got their legally.

HT: JWF

Where Not to Go For Brain Surgery

Rhode Island hospital has its third "wrong side" brain surgery

Apparently it really is brain surgery.

catching up

In between watching to little guy, here are some things I'm reading:

Astor son looted millions, according to grandson.

Redskins player Sean Taylor dies after being shot. Sounds like the guy was turning it around, too. Very sad.

Is IQ a determinant to income? Perhaps we're just obsessed with numbers.

The Year of the Ugly NFL QB

Maybe it is me, but aren't the NFL QBs a lot uglier than they used to be?

Derek Anderson, Cleveland:



Jeff Garcia, TB (never a good looking guy, but there you go):



Lost twins Joey Harrington, Atlanta & JP Losman, Buffalo:





Even the scrubs aren't much better. Here's Charlie Whitehurst, San Diego. Looks like he's very sad. Maybe because he carries around a clipboard for hundreds of thousands of dollars a year:



PSST! Jamie! *There's something on your head!*



Duuude! Kyle Orton!



Brian St. Pierre (Pittsburgh) looks like he's about to break into song. "The hills are alive! With the sound of music!"



"You vill vall down when I throw the ball against you! Vall down!"



On the other hand, Vinny looks pretty good at 63. I'm hoping he plays two more years to collect full Social Security benefits:

Military requires return of signing bonuses by wounded vets?

A bureaucracy gone mad? A little more information here, including the fact that a Congressman has put in a bill to prevent the military from requesting a return of bonuses paid, or from withholding bonuses promised but not paid because a soldier's active duty wounds prevented their committment from being fulfilled.

Update Looks like the Army is coming to its senses. No word on what happened, but at least they are moving to fix the problem.

Too much information?

New Jersey squirrels now OK to eat. This article contained this lovely paragraph:

"A blender that was used to process the tissues into usable samples was defective and was identified as the source of the lead contamination...

Eeeeach!

Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians

You know you wanna look...

Just one of several reasons I don't vote Libertarian...

Their passion is there, but their logic isn't, Part IX: Eliminating the IRS.

Torturing the innocent

Like the death penalty, torture should be avoided, if for no other reason, than the innocent are often snared in the "rush for justice." The case of Mahar Arar is no exception. I've been following this for a long time, and if there is one thing I hope we hang around Bush's neck as his "legacy" (of many honorees) this case is the one.

Whale makes it 1000 miles upriver

Ladies, please avoid the "Won't ask for directions" line...

All that damn time...

Here's kind of a cool interactive map, with commuting time & population shifts. The Day/Night population maps are cool, though I wish there were more cities represented.

Constitution suspended---just a little bit at a time...

Want to challenge your parking ticket in Boston or DC? It'll cost you a $275 non-refundable fee.

Screw that whole "right to trial" thingy.

Unintelligent design

I caught most of the NOVA program last night about the Dover, PA court case on the forced teaching of Intelligent Design in the public school. An excellent program, which goes to lengths to make sure that ID proponents have their say, although it is pretty clear that the arguments don't exactly get very far. I might have more to say on this later, but the attempts by ID backers to hide from the religious component of their theory is seriously undermined by their own actions in calling people "un-Christian" for believing in evolution.

Frankly, I've never felt that learning more about God's creation is a bad thing, even if it takes us in unexpected directions. God is bigger than anything, including the Bible.

BTW, Greg Arnig Jr. with a nice blog piece on the parallels between ID and the conservative movement in general.

Tancredo: Crazy like...a crazy guy

Rep Tancredo has long been a fear mongerer, because, apparently, "someone has to say it." His latest ad is also what I'd call a "strawman" argument. A fictionalized terror attack that only he can stop, it seems.

He forgets that Americans realize, after electing Cheney twice, that this kind of thing only grows worse, not better, when you elect a fear mongerer.

Obama gaining in Iowa?

I know this is a very long speech that Obama made in Iowa, but on this Veteran's Day it is important, I think, so critically examine who might be the next Commander-in-Chief.

Obama delivers a great, great speech, IMO. I'm tired of the canned and the shrill, the divisive and the cheerleading. Like a tough education, Obama's best speeches are ambitious affairs which halt the dumbing down of political speeches in its tracks. They tell us we can do better by showing us a better speech. Take a listen--the speech is near the bottom of this Andrew Sullivan page.

FEMA, and fake news

Apparently FEMA doesn't have enough on their hands, trying to recover from the Katrina disaster. So they put out a fake press briefing in which the audience was FEMA staffers, asking questions just like real reporters.

In their defense, the staffers were asking questions in order to "salvage" the event. [For what purpose, exactly? There was no one else there].