North Carolina's A.G. Roy Cooper is an idiot.

North Carolina's attorney General Roy...

Cooper is pushing for a state law that would require children to receive parental permission before creating social networking profiles, and require the Web sites to verify the parents' identity and age. For example, social networking sites would have to compare information provided by a parent with commercial databases. Sites could also force parents to submit credit cards or printed forms.

Cooper is working with law enforcement officials in other states in pressuring MySpace to use age and identity verification methods voluntarily.

Nanny state anyone?

Based on media reports, [because the media never sensationalizes stories] Cooper's office found more than 100 criminal incidents this year of adults using MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children.

Most recently, a Virginia man pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping and soliciting a 14-year old girl he met on MySpace.

You would think predators never solicited children before Myspace. Chat rooms seem to have faded so far from memory as to have never been a danger. Myspace is simply the new sharks, kidnapped children, missing pretty white girl... Give it a little while and the media will find something new to wax hysterical about.

"All we're doing is giving parents the right to make a choice whether their children can go online," Cooper told a state House committee considering the bill on parental involvement and verification.

This is the sentence that got me. Do parent's not already have the right to decide whether their children go online? He should have said "All we're doing is pandering in hopes of appearing proactive and tough on crime so we can get elected."

He said the measure would lead to "fewer children at risk, because there will be fewer children on those Web sites."

Actually, this measure will do little to protect children and go a long way to killing the targeted websites. We can cheer the demise of Myspace by whatever means, but let's not delude ourselves and think this will protect children. A new site, the mythic next "Myspace," will burst forth and suck in all the innocent children soon enough. Consider Napster. Shutting it down did nothing to stop the proliferation of music downloading. Consider porn. All the measures passed to put it behind a wall to protect children have done nothing to slow it down, decrease its prevalence on the web, or prevent children from seeing it.

From MSNBC.com MySpace: 29,000 sex offenders have profiles

Blaming the car.

A man trying to stop a friend from driving drunk after a block party was run over by the woman’s car and killed, police said.

Louis Wiederer was holding onto the driver’s side of Jesenia Vega’s car Saturday evening when she took off and dragged him, Suffolk County police said. Wiederer, 26, lost his grip and fell under the vehicle¹.

What killed this man? Was it the car owned by the woman as implied by the first sentence, or was it the woman who dragged him? As it's written it appears while the woman took off and dragged him, it was the car that actually killed him. So does this mean she will only be charged as an accessory to murder? Will the prosecutor bring charges against the car for murder? At least she, or the car, didn't "allegedly" kill him. Perhaps it was his own fault, as he shouldn't have lost his grip. It was his fault for trying to get involved and hanging onto the car. When he let go, the car, acting of it's own volition, drove over him. She should sue the dead guy for inflicting emotional damage on her fragile psyche. There she was enjoying her self and then he tries to harsh her mellow. Then gets himself killed by her car. Clearly the woman is the victim here.

Of course Steven King predicted all of this vehicular homicide. "Trucks" "Maximum Overdrive"

1 Man dies trying to prevent drunk driving

Edit: I didn't read the sub-headline closely, turns out she did "allegedly" drag & run over him.

Faith Hill and Redbook.

I forget where I first saw this picture, but Jezebel.com has a very thorough look at the manipulation done on Faith Hill's photo for the cover of Redbook. I wonder if celebrities will become more hesitant about the drastic retouching done by some editors as these before and after comparisons become more available. I don't think they did Faith any favors with their retouching and if I were her, I would be upset by all they did. She looks much healthier (and better) in the before picture.

What's in a name?

I felt like I had entered a parallel bizarro world after first reading this name. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Bates Gill.

Good night Lady Bird.

Rest in peace Lady Bird. You are missed, though your legacy remains.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Made in China

China's manufacturing and export industry has been taking a beaten, as they should, over unsafe products. As bad as the export problem is, it's even worse inside China.

...Chinese authorities released a survey taken earlier this year that showed that less than 1 percent of food sold for export—and 20 percent of the products made for the domestic market—was substandard or tainted. (Newsweek)

So call that a bit of perspective amidst the fear mongering, though you should still remain vigilant. My concern right now is for the athletes descending on Beijing in 2008 for the Olympics. They will be in the thick of the tainted goods.

If you are still unsure of the extent of Chinese recalls, consider this:

Dangerous Made-In-China Products: 2007 Timeline

U.S. orders recall of more Chinese products

Of course you could try and avoid Chinese made products, but it's going to be difficult. A one-week attempt to avoid products from [China] meets with little success.

Nascar Double Standard

So much of NASCAR business is double minded and hypocritical that this really doesn't surprise me.

The current Cup sponsor is Nextel. Sprint bought Nextel in 2005 and now they are rebranding the company as a whole. So it's no surprise they want to change their sponsorship name to the NASCAR Sprint Cup series instead of the the NASCAR Nextel Cup ¹. What is shocking is they are allowing this after throwing an absolute fit about AT&T wanting to rebrand their Cingular Cup car.

NASCAR and AT&T have been battling all season over NASCAR's refusal to allow AT&T to put its logos on Jeff Burton's car. Burton and his Richard Childress Racing team have a sponsorship agreement with Cingular, which has since been purchased by AT&T.

AT&T is re-branding the company, but NASCAR would not allow the logos to be changed, citing its agreement with Nextel. Cingular and Alltel were grandfathered into the sport when Nextel entered in 2004, but no changes are permitted to their deals and no other telecommunications companies are allowed into the sport. ²

The whole thing stinks of sour grapes on NASCAR's part. What's next? Are they going to forbid the Pepsi car from driving at the Coca-Cola 600 or the Coke family of drivers from competing at the Pepsi 400? Will Chevy's be banded from driving at the Toyota/Save Mart 350?

Tony Stewart was right at the start of season to point out the inconsistencies in NASCAR's rule enforcement. NASCAR does whatever they believe will get them the most exposure and money at the time without consideration for tradition or sportmanship. I am not surprised veiwership is down ³. The rules keep changing. The sport keeps "tweaking" and no one wants to play the guessing game anymore. In the long run though it really will not matter what the title sponsor is since everyone has taken to calling it the Cup series. Compare that designation with the Busch series. Any question about who is sponsoring the Busch series? Fan and commentator focus rests on the Cup itself now and not the sponsor.

1 Nextel Cup to be called Sprint Cup in 2008

2 NASCAR Sues AT&T for $100 Million

3 NASCAR pulling in younger TV viewers

EDIT: NASCAR certainly realized the impact switching from Winston to Nextel had on the Cup series brand. This switch to Sprint will only further dilute the Cup series brand value. Good job NASCAR. Let's see you get your premiums now. Ten dollars says the next sponsorship talks for the Cup won't be worth near the 700 million dollars Nextel paid.

Truth in Headlines

Headline: Woman arrested for not watering lawn.

What actually happened:

A widow and grandma spent the morning in jail, arrested for refusing to give a policeman her name when he tried writing her a ticket for failing to water her yard. The woman hasn't watered her lawn in more than a year, and the condition of her yard violates an Orem zoning ordinance. That's Sam Penrod reporting for KSL TV.(via Fark)

And who says yellow journalism is dead?

Gone Campin'

Well, I've farted around long enough trying to make a decision and I am going to go ahead and go camping in the mountains this weekend, so it's off with the computer and on to the R&R. Next week. And I think I'll take a day off from work.

Fireworks

We went out to the fairgrounds for the fireworks display and I dragged along my camera and tripod. I got my tripod all set up and then got to fiddlin' with my camera settings and couldn't find what I wanted. Then I didn't want to end up looking like an idiot playing with my camera when the fireworks were going off so I just put everything away. At the end of the show I figured I'd give handholding a quick try with just the auto settings. I should have done that to start with and I probably would have ended up with some really good pictures, but as it is this is the only one that I liked out of about ten. I really need to spend more time in my manual so I can actually remember the settings instead of doing them once and then forgetting them.

4th

Happy fourth of July everyone!

Candy Raid

"Hope? Are you in here?"
"Hope?"

"Kitchen!"

"Oh dear Lord, I was getting scared. Are you ok? What's going on?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Where are those little chocolate squares you keep hidden?"

"Um...I've got some stashed behind the flour. I ran into Greg Burrows at the post office this afternoon. He had an appointment and asked if you were feeling ok. Here, put these on top shelf while your rumaging in there. Sally told him you called in sick."

"Why do you buy rutabegas? No one likes these things."

"They're good for you."

"But no one likes them."

"I do. And someone stealing chocolate isn't really in a position to question my grocery purchases. Don't glare at me, what's going on?"

"I got up this morning and didn't feel like going to work. Then I felt like eating and I didn't want anything in my house. You always have tasty treats laying around and so I developed my most fiendish plan to date. I would wait until you left to run errands then pillage your house of all its tasty treats and be gone before anyone knew what happened. And now you've caught me so I have no choice but to raid you secret stash."

"Well that explains the mountain of Snickers and Milky Way wrappers."

"And you're out of Skittles."

"You didn't!"

"Fifth, I plead the fifth."

"What's going on Hope?"

"Nothing, I didn't feel like going to work and I wanted to snack. Let it go. What did Mr. Burrows say?"

"Well he asked about you and then spent ten minutes telling me how badly Sharon wants him to take her to Aspen and how he doesn't want to go. He started to tell me why he had an appointment but thank goodness the line started moving and he was next. That man has the strangest ailments."

"Most of it's in his head. He really should take her to Aspen."

"Please, she spends what money he makes at the Galleria. They can't afford Aspen. Well, he can't."

"I always thought she was nice. She made us brownies every year at finals."

"Oh come now, you don't believe she made those do you?"

"Yeah. But what do you know? Spill it."

"That woman has never been able to cook. She'd drive over to Tomball and buy those at some bakery on Main Street then put 'em in her own basket."

"Really!"

"For living here all your life you sure don't seem to know what's really goin' on."

"There's lot's of stuff happening in Tomball right now. Have you gone over to that new Target?"

"Ah, about a month ago I guess."

"What would you think if I moved over there?"

"Tomball? I think it'd be a huge waste of gas. It's not far, but driving it every day would sure eat up a lot of money."

"I know, but if I moved I'd find a new job. There's got to be an opening around the hospital."

"Hope, just what are you asking me? If you want a new apartment that's one thing, but if you're wanting to start over that's something else. Here, stop eating my chocolate and peel these potatoes for me."

"It's nothing, I was just thinking."

"You don't ditch work and sit around grazing all day long for nothing. What's on your mind."

"It's nothing really." "Do you ever wonder if there is more than Waller?"

"No. I know there is more than Waller out there. I know that opportunities and adventure abound just down the road. I also know whatever I may not like about this town waits at the end of any road I take away from here. It's just wearing different clothes."

"Aren't better clothes better?"

"No, they're just different. Lots of things happen here I don't like. This is my home though. In spite of whatever bad things happen I'm where I want to be. You're grandparent's are just up the street. Carl and Sunshine and the kids are ten minutes away. James lives in the Woodlands and you are here. Why would I want to be someplace my family isn't?

I've been here for fifty years and my family fifty years before that. Friends, church, all the things I care about most live and breath and work right here. There isn't a party on Sixth Street in Austin wilder than some of the ones around here. The California stars don't get half the attention the floozies in town get. A&M and Texas don't throw any more support behind their teams than we do on Friday nights yelling for the bulldogs.

You know that. You've lived it. It seems hypocritical for you, of all people, to bemoan it."

"I'm not a cheerleader anymore mom. I haven't been one for eleven years."

"So what are you?"

"I don't know." "Do you want me to cut these?"

"Just in quarters. I'm making mashed potatoes." "You know Hope, I'm willing to bet that stack of empty candy wrappers that you're problem is you don't know. You haven't known for a long time and so you're here. Of course when you only exist, anything looks better than Waller Texas."

"When's dad getting home?"

"Same time he always does." "What do you want to do honey?"

"I want to eat your candy without playing twenty questions."

"You can't have that. You eat my candy, you answer my questions."

"And now you know why I tried to sneak your candy."

The Clearance Aisle

"Would you like another?"

"No thanks, I'll stop at two tonight. It looks like I'll be driving myself home as it is."

"Date a no show?"

"Oh, I'm sure he'll show, but I doubt I'll be here by that time."

"Well, enjoy the band at least, they're actually pretty good."

"Why do you think I've waited?"

My fourth date in as many weeks and this one can't even show up on time. No one ever told me 28 was the year you became an old maid. Mom stopped asking when I would get married six months ago. Carl and Sunshine assume I can watch the kids for them since 'I'm not seeing anyone.' Maybe I should move into Houston. Some distance would be nice and it's good to meet new people. People who don't know I farted during my fourth grade Christmas solo.

What would it accomplish in reality though? 20 miles isn't all that far. Especially when someone decides it's life or death for you to be there helping drink coffee and gossip. Pointless shit. That's all it is. This town, the family "crises." Pointless.

"If you see a paunchy redneck looking lost will you tell him I left?"

"That's half the bar Hope, can you be more specific?"

"Nah, his loss."

Keep Calm & Carry On.

The British people are once again facing the nightmare of terror. Fortunately the police responded quickly and, aided by a good measure of fortune, no one has been killed.

The situation looks oddly like 2001. A lackluster leader in the early stages of his new post confronting a terrorist attack on its home soil. This time it is the newly empowered Gordon Brown and the attack, while not as dramatic as the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, will certainly temper, if not change, the tone of Brown's new administration. Already he sounds like Bush, and I like Bush,

"We will not yield, we will not be intimidated, and we will not allow anyone to undermine our British way of life,” he (Brown) told the British Broadcasting Corp. in a TV interview. ¹

I wonder if this attack will also affect the British public's attitude towards Iraq? It is interesting to see the British authorities connecting this attack with Al Qaeda while the U.S. officials are more hesitant.

Britain’s new prime minister, Gordon Brown, said his country was dealing with terrorists associated with al-Qaida. Chertoff was less willing to make the direct link at this time.

“Certainly it seems a reasonable possibility that it’s either al-Qaida or people who are associated with al-Qaida or sympathetic to al-Qaida,” Chertoff said. “I don’t think again we can be definitive about whether this is a plot that was directed from al-Qaida central so to speak, or whether it reflects what we sometimes call homegrown terrorism.” ²

1 Fifth arrest made after Glasgow airport attack

2U.S. ‘comfortable’ with terror alert status

Keep Calm & Carry On.