...within a 5-Mile radius of my house. Including the world headquarters.

Friday Catblogging…

George, dreaming of furry women.

George, a sweet Ragdoll with a purr that’ll keep you up at night, will be 17 in March. He’s been with me all the way from North Carolina to Florida, and across the country to Seattle. Despite surgery to remove a diseased colon in September, he’s still going strong. His sister, Gracie, died at 12. I expect George, like his namesake, to live a long, full life. In fact, if you know of anyone who’s interested in remaking Oh, God! with a cat in the title role, tell ‘em to get in touch.

Oh, this made me laugh. From Sid’s Fishbowl (remembered the link this time!)

How many Bush Administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?

None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. There is no shortage of filament. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?

Sid also links to this Social Security FAQ from Fafblog (Yes! Fafblog!), but a promise I saw it first. And, he won’t tell you to scroll up a bit and see the Poxes and Boons entry.

Q: I ended up with crap stocks, and my private account went empty early. What do I do? A: You run out of money and starve. But you’ll starve in freedom, because you OWN your empty personal account, which means you OWN your starvation! Q: I feel so free and hungry! A: A wise man once said it is better to live in freedom than to die in slavery … the slavery of a secure retirement. Q: Give me liberty AND death! A: That’s the spirit! Q: Wheeee! hack hack wheeze

And, via Gadgetopia, don’t miss this collection of 404 pages (or, “page not found” messages, for the non-geek). Here’s my fav:

The page cannot be displayed – please click harder

The page you are looking for is unavailable. The web site might be experiencing difficulties, or you may not have pressed the keys or mouse buttons firmly enough.

Hitting the keyboard harder has now been proven to make the Internet work faster.  In fact you may have got this error message because you did not press firmly enough.  This is also the case with mouse buttons.  New biofeedback functionality in the later versions of Microsoft operating systems ensures that those who hit hardest get the best response.

James Wolcott notes President Bush’s bizarrely detached behavior at his press conference yesterday, mere hours after news came that a helicopter crash in Iraq had killed 31 American soldiers.

I think this is one of the things that disheartens me so much about this President. To me, from my perspective, it seems that he just has no compassion. Say what you want about Clinton, but he seemed to genuinely care about people. Was it an act? I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter. My President represents my country, and so I want him to reflect—at least in some part—my values. I want him to express some awareness about the world the way I see it. I don’t have to agree with him about everything, but I have to know that he might at least make the effort to hear my point of view if we were ever in a room together.

I don’t get any feeling from this president that he is the least bit concerned about freedom, liberty, or justice, at least not in the way I understand how these concepts are demonstrated. He seems devoid of grief, shame, or embarrassment, and that just doesn’t seem American to me.

You know, there’s one problem with using Macs: It’s easy to get lulled in to a false sense of security. I was just using a program called Taco HTML Edit, which I like because it shows a preview of my HTML page that’s updated as I change the code. About an hour into some page design, the program crashed, and of course I hadn’t saved my work. D’oh! Dumb move on my part, but I just got into the groove and didn’t think about it.

[sigh] Back to work…

I’m trying something a little different today. In between working on other things, I thought I’d pop out a few shorter blog posts about items in my current stack of Safari tabs. I know this is actually how a lot of other folks blog, but it’s a new concept for me. In the past, I’ve saved up things to link to with the idea that I’d actually write something pithy and insightful about each one. If you’ve ever visited this site, you know how well that’s turned out. So…

The first little tidbit for today is this NPR interview with The Daily Show’s Stephen Colbert. I saw Colbert perform at Second City in Chicago years ago, before he did Strangers With Candy, and well before his Daily Show appearances. He was one of those standout performers who stuck in my memory even though it would be years before I saw his face again. His Daily Show segments are some of my favorite bits on the show.

Terry’s Gross’s interview is well worth a listen, though there is an understandable caginess with all great comedians, a reluctance to dissect their humor for fear of killing it. Colbert does manage to touch on a few things about the news business that are bugaboos of mine as well and may inspire a separate post (though don’t… no, stop it… don’t hold your breath).

One of the most resonant bits of the interview for me was when Colbert told Gross that John Stewart encouraged the writers at The Daily Show to make “passionate comedic choices.” I love that phrase, because it does embody what makes the Daily Show so sharp: these are not just comedians making jokes. These are funny people with clear points of view talking about things they believe in deeply.

Here’s a couple more things you should be reading, instead of this blousy log…

• Slashdot has a book review of The Naked Corporation. The premise is pretty compelling: since companies are at constant risk of having their inner workings exposed (thanks to snazzy new internet technologies), the best defense is to… get this… actually run their businesses with, like, integrity and stuff. I’m tellin’ you, man; this transparency thing may just be our saving grace.
• Atrios links to a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed on journalistic integrity, which I won’t link to ‘cause I’m annoyed at their stupid registration page, (BugMeNot.com notwithstanding). Read the clipping at Eschaton, though, to get the flava.
• Oy. Oy, oy, oy. Iraqi Insurgency Growing Larger, More Effective. (DeLong)
• More on the picture of the crying Iraqi girl from Sid the Fish. It’s worse than we thought, and I second Sid’s sentiment. (Update: Here’s the link to Sid’s entry.)

More stuff you should be reading, if you know what’s good for you…

• Juan Cole reviews the President’s commitment to the Constitution and finds it wanting.
• I wish I could write as well as James Wolcott rambles. Here he bangs his head against the wall over Democratic jellyfish.
• Tim Dunlop catches Richard Armitage in a moment of regret.

Hey, by the way, happy Not One Damn Dime Day! Of course, I’m celebrating the spirit of Not One Damn Dime Day all year long. Dammit.

More stuff you should be reading instead of this lousy blog…

• No, you weren’t listening when I changed my answer. Sadaam was a homosexual who was planning to abort his fetus in the third trimester. Al Qaeda was coming after your Social Security benefits. Don’t you get it? (First Draft)
• Holden stays on top of the story, apparently now confirmed, that Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi “killed six men in cold blood a few days before the ‘transfer of sovereignty’ at the end of June.”
• Damn. G’wan, Senator Dodd. Tell it like it is.
• Why is this child crying?
• I need to read this article on procrastination. Later.
• Remember “You Don’t Know Jack?” Go to the Jellyvision site and click on ICI Design, then Jack Principles. These are some good tips on how to create the feeling of a conversation with your software users.