Got parasites?

The fecal position



Thirsty?

By the pols for the pols in Fla.

Redistricting in Florida
-aka gerrymandering.

Stray from the Scripps

Read Florida Politics: "Five days before a critical vote on the future of its biotech research project, the county commission still lacks a consensus on how to proceed. The Scripps Research Institute warned Tuesday that it may leave Florida altogether if commissioners won't allow it to break ground immediately, despite unresolved lawsuits that could threaten the county's multimillion-dollar investment."

In the meantime, the lame duck waddles in: 'Bush has agreed to take a personal role in trying to keep a biotech park planned for northern Palm Beach County from leaving as environmentalists' opposition mounts.'"

-Scripps is supposed to create, what, something like 20 permanent jobs (and a biotech startup on every corner, of course)? How about this, instead: Fla. invests its $800 million in schools, the county sells the property for housing (which probably creates just as many if not more construction jobs) and Scripps finds some other sucker to subsidize its capital requirements. This thing makes tax money for a new ballpark in Miami look parsimonious.

Challenge the dominant paradigm

blogLinker.com - The automatic link swapper and traffic generator

They ARE serious

-As seen in the St. Petersburg Times May 19, 2005 ...

Page 2A World and Nation: Report: Iraq assessment bleaker: "The New York Times quoted one unnamed senior officer as suggesting that U.S. military involvement could last many years."

Page 10A Selective accountability: Newsweek failed to meet basic journalism standards when it printed an item based on a single anonymous source ... Newsweek made serious mistakes that can only further erode the credibility of news organizations. A veteran reporter relied on a single anonymous source when more confirmation should have been required.

-Walking their talk, again, at The Times.

Minds o' mush

"My girlfriend is doind my homework for me. She thinks I'm doing a different piece of homework that I made up but it doesn't exist and really I'm just reading grouphug."

-Looks like navel gazing to me but this cat has got it all psyched out...

Peter Brooks has a wonderful book on this subject, Troubling Confessions, in which he considers the ambivalence and indeterminacy of the truth of confessions, voluntary or otherwise. As he puts it, “How can someone make a false confession? Precisely because the false referentiality of confession may be secondary to the need to confess.” And further, that the false confession may not be a lie, “in that its definition of the truth corresponds to [an] order of desire and self-conception,”

-Uh huh. Hey, did you read the one about the guy who took a dump and tossed it in his neighbor's yard?

Worth a peek

Kitschy cool

From the Department of Oxymoronic Studies

Center Gives Fair Play To Ethics - from TBO.com: "They're not just sports headlines, they're topics for analysis at Saint Leo University's new Center for the Study of the Ethics of Business in Sport. "
-Good to see someone finally getting serious about improving U.S. math and science aptitude.

Get your grump on May 25

Smile Mania: "Q: What can help me, a coworker, a friend or family member get through the 24 hours on May 25, 2005?
A: Wearing any type of smile, especially on your face, is one. Secondly, carry a banana around with you. (a B-A-N-A-N-A? Are you crazy?) Yes and Yes. Not only is the banana the Grump Out's� official fruit, but the banana provides a nutritional, uplifting smile. (Should you begin to experience any grump withdrawal discomfort, simply turn that smiley banana upside down so it becomes a frown. Stare at the frown for a moment when no one is looking.)"
... Alternatively, throw a pain-killer party, or drop acid, turn the banana upside down and wait for it to tell you what a saccharine twit you are. I've got another idea for you and your banana that doesn't involve your face. It's guaranteed to make your co-workers smile.

Five and your finis, fool

14 state workers fired for obscene e-mails: "Children and Families, which provides protective services for children, found 11 employees forwarded some of the offensive e-mails but fired only those who had sent five or more to other employees."
-Raising the bar again, I see, at the Florida Department of Children and Families.

And they said you were bent

If Dennis Kucinich says so, please inform the Port Richey City Council at once.

Bus bench beautiful

The Pasco Times says New Port Richey wants to "design, install and maintain its own scenic benches ..."

The Pasco Times tells us today that New Port Richey city leaders were mortified to learn that pint-sized billboards, aka "bus benches," which litter the local landscape (has anyone in Pasco ever actually used one as a bench?), make too much money for private enterprise. Harrumph! Good government absolutely requires that public eyesores support worthwhile causes. City leaders shall explore other options. Former city councilman Tom Flinn's idea, for instance, to have the city "design, install and maintain its own scenic benches in downtown and elsewhere." Even better - the city might ask the county to partner up. Coming soon to Pasco County: Bus bench eco-tours.