I don’t know how to post a web link but if you cut and paste this link, you won’t be sorry…it’s an article about furries..freaks who like to dress up like animals.

P.S…Our world is going to hell and I think this is proof…

http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/current/feature.html/1/index.html

jen

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Google introduced a few new features to help in your web search:

• Definitions – use “define World Wide Web” to get a definition search.
• Number – UPS tracking numbers, FedEx, patents, FAA, FCC
• Travel Conditions – use “sfo airport” and get delay and weather info.

Salon is starting a series “exploring the erosion of civil rights and personal freedom in the United States since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.” They kick it off re-covering the Miami FTAA protests (that we discussed awhile back) that seem to indicate an increased violent reaction by local police against protestors.

They were bolstered by an $8.5 million appropriation that President Bush tacked onto the $87 billion Iraq reconstruction bill to pay for FTAA security.
…
Miami Mayor Manny Diaz called the cops’ performance “a model for homeland security.”

I guess I was mistaken when I thought “Homeland Security” was about protecting the citizens of this country from foreign attacks.

The slides also identified the lime-green baseball caps donned by the legal observers who accompany most major protests. According to Rodriguez-Taseff, when the slide appeared, Fernandez said, “These are their lawyers. They’re there to antagonize police.”

A lot of this article focuses on the politicization of the police. From quotes like this it seems clear that they were certainly biased against the protestors. Pre-emptive strikes seemed to be the police’s m.o. in Miami. It’s not surprising to know this state is run by a Bush.

At that point, the police finally issued an order to disperse, but at the same time, they started closing in. Video from the scene shows people chanting, “We are dispersing. We are dispersing.” But the police wouldn’t let them.
…
Still, it could have been worse: “I talked to a couple of women who were strip-searched by male officers,” she says.

Check out this video covering a few tricks from the Japan National Yo-Yo Contest. Extreme geeks are the best geeks.

Here and here is where I’ve been running at lunch. From my apartment to the trailhead to Narragansett Ave and back makes about a three mile loop. Not bad for a fat white boy.

The bay on the east side of Newport proper has been spectacular the last couple of days as the most recent storm system has been blowing in. It opens straight onto the Atlantic, and the waves pile in creating huge, pyramid shaped waves that I understand are perfect to surf.

Becky- it looks like I’m not making a marathon this winter. Good luck with Houston, and I’m sending karma from my miles your way. And to anyone else on the porch who’s planning a long run.

Safire makes a good point today – “sauce for the Clintons is sauce for the Bushes”.

Hey, if Jank can agree with Krugman, I can agree with Safire.

Amidst the whirlwind of cruel (but funny) jokes of the Hugh Hefner roast, Dick Gregory stepped to the mic and told his story of meeting Hefner and being invited to perform at the Playboy Club. It was a revolutionary turn for black comedians to play in a club that was not a “black” club. His thanks to Hef brought a crowd that was in tears from laughter to a standing ovation in admiration for a man who has always seen beyond society’s values to a world that inteligently makes sense.

^{: Hugh M. Hefner, Dick Gregory; photo by: Marion Curtis/DMI}

While many of you BPBer’s are blessed with SO(signifigant other)s of varied fortunes, a few of you aren’t allowed to get Hef’s product delivered to your door. Of Becky’s many wonderful traits is her recognition that Playboy is about pornography the way The New Yorker is about New York. This month her acceptance blessed me with one of the best essays I’ve read in as long as I can remember. If you have the means and an accepting SO, grab a copy of the new 50th Anniversary Issue of Playboy on newsstands now. If not, here’s a scan of the essay minus the content-contributing formatting and photographs.

No love for the UN in the Iraqi Governing Council:

“One year ago, the Security Council was divided between those who wanted to appease Saddam Hussein and those who wanted to hold him accountable,” (Iraqi Ambassador to the UN) Zebari told the 15-nation council, which was sharply divided over the war.

“The UN as an organisation failed to help rescue the Iraqi people from a murderous tyranny of 35 years,” he said. “The UN must not fail the Iraqi people again.”

And let’s hear it for those champions of freedom, the French:

“The fact that the war was won doesn’t make legitimate something that was not legitimate,” France’s UN ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said after the council meeting

Ambassador Zebari’s reply wasn’t included in the article. I’m guessing it probably wasn’t printable.