yet another power event

Another thunderstorm moves through town and another power outage - this one, for about 40 minutes. It's been an unusually wet spring here with many more storms and resultant outages than normal.

So, I'm happy to have five (5) Uninterruptable Power System (battery backup) on my various PCs (and the TiVo - which is a Linux box, after all). The problem is keeping the batteries happy. One of my PCs did its graceful shutdown within about 90 seconds of the outage, so it's time to replace that battery. Several of the others went 30 minutes or more.

Grading The Boss

Just when I think The Bush Regime can't sink any lower, comes news that (de-facto President) Dick Cheney has announced that He is immune from laws passed to harness the Executive Branch. And guess who gets to decide if that's correct? His hand-picked poolboy, Alberto Gonzalez.

Anyone want to hazard a guess how "Berto" will rule against his Boss?

I'm starting to wonder if there's any way to force a 2007 version of The Nuremberg Trials for these cretins. I'll bring the popcorn to the finale.

Meanwhile, President Quagmire's approval rating has dropped to that of Richard Nixon. I can't believe he still has ANY base, outside the Park Cities (where Radical Right Wing University .. er .. SMU .. is about to erect a monument to His greatness in the form of the Bush Pressidenshul Liberry). Those insular idiots worship His every breath (and still proudly displays those [W] stickers on their luxury SUVs). Unbelievable. They deserve a Nuremberg finale, too.

passport renewal

I noticed that my passport is due to expire in September, and after hearing the Horror Stories of lengthy delays, I decided to apply for the renewal now - in June - rather than wait until the last minute like I usually do.

I downloaded the renewal form from their website (it creates a PDF with your info, so all you have to do is sign it and attach a recent photo). The local drugstore advertised -- on their marquee -- that they'd do passport photos for $8 (actually $7.99 but I still think that's nonsense pricing) I did that last week, then mailed it.

$67.00 renewal fee
  5.38 postage (certified, return receipt)
  8.65 photo + tax
$81.03 total

12 June - mailed to Philadelphia Passport Processing
21 June - return receipt postcard arrived

Wow .. nine (9) days to even get the receipt postcard! Normally, I'd expect that (roundtrip to Philadelphia) in 5 days - maybe even 4. I'll update this blog entry again when the renewed passport arrives - probably in September.

homophobes? in TEXAS?!?

The Dallas Managed News headline reads "Leppert elected Dallas mayor" and the details are written between the lines. Several of my (Old White Christian Republican) neighbors voted for Leppert because the alternative was to vote for Ed Oakley, and they feared that Dallas would then be known as That Gay City. Unbelievable.

Certainly, Oakley had at least seven strikes against him:

1. He's gay.
2. He's a Democrat in a Red State.
3. He's gay.
4. He's spent 20 years in Dallas politics (excess experience).
5. He's gay.
6. His opponent's White Christian Republican phone banks were working overtime to instill fear - that Dallas was about to become the San Francisco of Texas.
7. He's gay.

Leppert clearly bought the race; I suspect he's simply seeking a legacy longer than that offered by his prior employer (a giant construction company). He has zero political experience and is a Loyal Bushie, so I'm expecting Absolutely Nothing from his term in office, other than to see what monument or building or bridge he wants named after himself. Political outsiders seldom (if ever) last more than one term, and start showing their frustration around Month 18 (set your clocks for January 2009 to see if I was right).

As I've babbled earlier, the Dallas Mayor's position is more ceremonial than anything else - it's really City Council Seat #15. I suspect Uncle Tom (Leppert) will find that out soon enough.

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worth noting: one of the Dallas Managed News columnists whines that they didn't submarine Oakley's chances (of course they did). Amusingly enough, the columnist doing all the whining (Jacquielynn Floyd) has zero credibility of her own. Witness the laughable "baby photo" that has accompanied her column for years -- it was taken during the Carter administration, so say my sources.

Back Yard Burgers

I think I found a fast food burger that Jill Wazabob would enjoy: Back Yard Burgers. There's only one of these QSRs in Dallas, but it's not that far from me, so I moseyed down to fetch one from their drive-thru window. In a word: yummm. Rumor has it they're about to go private (like Burger King did). No clue how that will impact their expansion.

Trivia: an old-timer told me that there was once a White Castle location (maybe more than one) in Dallas. But, it didn't do well and has been Long Gone. I suspect that's why the White Castle Wannabe (Krystal) hasn't expanded beyound its outpost in Carrollton, Texas. "Dainty burgers" just don't sell well here, except in the frozen food section of the grocery stores (microwaved Sliders just ain't the same).

Unrelated: The Political and Selective Use of Data: Cherry-Picking Climate Information in the White House is an interesting read. Naturally, it Cannot Possibly Be True because Everybody Knows™ that no one in The Bush Regime would ever Distort Information, especially about Global Warming (or what the Radical Right Republic Party prefers to call "Climate Change").

spam fighters

For the past two months or so, I've taken a far more aggressive approach to all the spam (email) I get, which accounts for about 95% of what lands in my inbox. I started marking and reporting all the spams (using SpamCop) and this has resulted in a huge reduction in what wasn't already being filtered out before.

One thing that's become apparent is that the VAST majority of this stuff comes from eastern Europe. The bulk originates from servers in Italy; Poland; Turkey; Germany; Argentina and (lately) China.

Memo to spammers: your messages are not getting through. You are wasting your money.

another winning speech by Bill Moyers

I finally got around to watching the (2 hour, including analysis) speech that Bill Moyers gave to the National Conference on Media Reform in Memphis in January 2007. This link gives you access to the transcript as well as the audio (MP3) and video (stream) .. well worth watching, if you have the cycles.

Tonight, I waddled down to the Granada theatre (south of Mockingbird) to watch PetFlix 2007 (the SPCA's 3rd annual) .. one of the workers told me that 500+ people attended, which ain't half bad. Most of the films (related to cats and dogs, natch) were entertaining, although a few missed the mark. I never was much of a film critic, so I'll wait for the inevitable "official review" in one of the newspapers (probably the Dallas Observer) later this week.

Earlier in the day (1pm?) Judy Bob came by with another can for my Award Winning Spam Collection (actually - canned meat collection would be a better descriptor, since only about 10 cans are made by Hormel - the other are .. uh .. Spam Wannabees). I simply must start documenting these .. perhaps they need a Blog Of Their Own? After making the delivery, we moseyed up to Richardson to sample the Burger Street Café, which is an upscale (?) version of the Burger Street drive-thru, which is sorta-kinda like the In-N-Out Burger chain out west (minus both the Perky Worker Bees and - thankfully - the religious overtones).