Nosey Online

Amid all of my Vatican watching, this graf from a piece in today's Washington Post grabbed my attention. It's about which cardinal will succeed John Paul II.

Any European candidate will probably need to demonstrate his deep concern and respect for the Third World now that about half of the voting cardinals come from outside Europe. One sure bet: The new pope won't be from the United States, which is considered both too powerful and too suspiciously modern to produce a leader who can pass muster.

The new pope won't be from the United States, which is considered both too powerful and too suspiciously modern to produce a leader who can pass muster.

Are you kidding me? I mean, come on. The powerful part I get. If anything, today's United States are becoming more like Ozzie and Harriet than the Osbournes. President Bush's Code Phrase O' the Day is "the culture of life." The U.S. Chief Executive spends his time sending smoke signals to the religious conservatives of this country. Still think they're a vocal minority? Consider the scrubbing of the nation's airwaves in the wake of Janet Jackson's Mardi Gras moment. If this nation's Catholics are too suspiciously modern, then why didn't they vote for Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey Kerry? They voted for Bush because he's a "man of his convictions," just like John Paul II.

I just want to set the record straight on that. Livin' in the free lovin' sixties we ain't.

Well, well, well. I once again greet the few people still checking up on us here at noseyonline.com. Seems that fate has thrown another interesting curveball my way. Christine’s place of employment decided to shut down their local San Diego office. She had the option of continuing to work remotely from here, but Christine’s boss decided to offer her a big promotion back in Cleveland. After discussing it for awhile, we both agreed it would be better to move back. This way, I’ll be able to quit work and go to school full time and (finally) finish my degree.

Yeah, lot’s of people go to school for seven years. They’re called doctors.

Anyway, it looks as if I’ll return to regular blogging by the end of April, which coincides with our triumphant return to Cleveland. I never really expected to work as much as I have been. It’s really taken a toll on my desire to keep this place updated regularly. A site redesign will be following shortly as well. There are more than a few ideas floating around my head as to the direction I want noseyonline to go. More later.

I've been doing a lot of reading this morning, trying to get to the bottom of something that began a few days ago. Over the weekend, I started to see some performance issues with nosey online. Since I really haven't been updating it much the last six months, it wasn't at the top of my list. But when I wanted to post something yesterday, I noticed it was taking too long to connect to either the main page or my Movable Type login screen. I contacted the support staff at my web host, Hosting Matters, to inquire about the problem. While waiting for a response, I gravitated towards the HM support forums. Turned out that a major traffic spike on one of their servers (the one mine is hosted on) was causing the tremendous slowdown.

Not long after I read that, I got a response from HM saying that everything should be returning to normal. Ok then. However, as of this morning I'm still experiencing a problem. So I start Googling around and couldn't quite find what I was looking for. Then BLAM, I see this post at Dailykos. At the same time I finally get around to reading the headlines at News.com and find this piece. So, as it seems, Captain's Quarters is hosted on the same server as mine (I wonder if the digital liberal & conservative bits that make up our respective blogs duke it out in cyberspace? I demand segregation damnit!)

So since my curiosity was sufficiently piqued, I clicked through to Captain's Quarters. It wasn't my first trip there, as I had visited last year via QandO. Needless to say, Captain Ed's website is the polar opposite of, say, Atrios or Kos. Speaking frankly, it ain't my cup of tea.

So I give his site the once over, and I happen upon this post. It's a conservative response to today's NYT piece about House Majority Leader Tom Delay. Captain Ed feels that while this type of political payola is unfortunately found on both sides of the aisle, the damn liberal media shouldn't be jumping all over Mr. Delay.

Don't get me wrong. I think the practice itself is a problem, one that we should pressure our representatives to end. It can lead to back-door corruption far too easily. However, for the Times and the Left to jump all over DeLay as unethical and singular in this practice is dishonest, ignorant, and transparently partisan.

As if this is the first time a politician was taken to task over something singularly unethical.

Cough, cough, blue dress.

What's real unfortunate here, Captain, is that it's taken so long for Delay to get into the national spotlight. See, the thing is, most of us over here on the Left think that Delay is involved in a plurality (as opposed to a singular event) of hanky panky. The latest gross misuse of his stature came about vis-à-vis the Terri Schiavo case, and his lovely vieled threat aimed at the US Judiciary.

It's not just one singular thing. It's just one more incident in a long line of abuses of power. So much for that Contract with America, eh?

These days, it’s hard to imagine Democrats blocking a stage play, let alone a Presidential nomination. With the power stacked Conservative-style in all three branches (yes, try as you might to dissuade the American public of that fact, Mr. Delay, the judiciary is becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the GOP as well), it would take a lot to stop Bush’s governmental nominees. At first blush, Democratic opposition to any of the President’s appointments might look like sour grapes. But from Condi Rice, to Alberto Gonzales, right on up to John Bolton, there are very apparent issues with the choices.

With Condi, it was the fact that 9/11 happened on her watch. Mr. Gonzales found the “loop hole” allowing torture of prisoners. John R. Bolton appears to be just the guy to represent the United States on the world stage. He fits right in with the Presidential modus operandi, which is, making claims about things that aren’t true. Call it the Weapons of Mass Destruction that Could Club. After all, it was John Bolton who suggested that Cuba should be the next target after the axis of evil. From his remarks to The Heritage Foundation, May 6th 2002:

Here is what we now know: The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states. We are concerned that such technology could support BW programs in those states.

Except, not really. From the September 18th 2004 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle:

The Bush administration, using stringent standards adopted after the failure to find banned weapons in Iraq, has conducted a new assessment of Cuba's biological weapons capabilities and concluded that it is no longer clear that Cuba has an active, offensive bio-weapons program, according to administration officials.

What’s the big deal you say? Well if I went through life making claims that didn’t turn out to be true, then you’d say I was a blowhard. Somehow, just because they’re on Bush’s team, the Right wants to give a pass on everything,

So yes, the Left has problems with Bush’s appointees, especially when claims like this get challenged. Maybe, just maybe, there is more to it than just “Screw Bush.” I, for one, would like to have people I can trust sitting at the adult’s table.

While reading the editorial in the April 18th issue of The Nation (subscription only), I learned that W.'s Granpappy Prescott Bush was "Planned Parenthood's best friend in the Senate." Also, Bush I was pro-choice up until he became Reagan's running mate. So it begs the question, how could the proverbial apples fall so far from the tree? To me, at least, the answer is obvious. Without the religious minority, both Bush brothers are unelectable on the national stage. Jeb's latest shameful attempt at appeasement, vis-à-vis the Schiavo mess, was as preposterous as it was unrealistic. Hopefully this county will come to its senses before ’08.

But let’s just think about the next presidential election for a moment. When was the last time that we had an election where the sitting vice-president wasn’t going to go after the top spot? This will give both sides of the fence a fresh start. While I believe that the Democrat's horse race will be similar to ’04, it will be a whole new experience for the Grand Old Party. Does anyone honestly think that fiscal conservatives will sit another one out? The overplayed hand of the Shrill Republican Schiavo Saviors that brought Tom DeLay out from under his rock will have dire consequences. How can a man like John McCain sit back while watching the faces of his party share airtime with the likes of Randall Terry?

The media had a fun time watching the foibles of the Democratic Party unfurl during the primary season and continue on right through to the bitter end. But for my dollar, a fiscal/social conservative catfight beats a Dean Scream™ anyday.

So I’m going to have a two-column layout as opposed to three. Me thinks that it will make the site less busy. Also, when I was designing the latest iteration, I went too light in color. Nosey Online is going to be a little starker in contrast. And I haven’t decided to continue using Movable Type as my content management system either. One thing that really bothers me is the lack of really good integration with Mozilla / Firefox. The lack of a true word processor-type interface bugs that crap out of me as well. When I really want to post something of consequence, I’m always writing in Word and doing the ol’ cut and paste routine.

Boring.

So if anyone has a suggestion, I’d be much obliged.

Looks like another classic sci-fi film is going to get a makeover. When Worlds Collide was first done on the silver screen in 1951; a telling of the 1932 novel of the same name. I first discovered this tome in my high school library. It instantly became one of my favorites. The genre of science fiction had already seized my interest, but this novel propelled me onwards toward Bradbury and Asimov. Another of my high school book obsessions was Whitley Strieber & James Kunetka’s Warday. You can’t even find that book anywhere these days.

So it makes me happy to see some of my favorite stories getting a modern spin on the big screen. (The Martian Chronicles, please…)

By the way, if any of you enjoy sci-fi, my latest discovery is Allen Steele. I first read Coyote back when it came out at the end of 2003. Coyote Rising almost missed my radar because of the move to San Diego, but it sits on my nightstand on its way to a second read-through. I haven’t had a chance to read any of his other work, but the two Coyote books are written with a leftward tilt. Read the reviews and you’ll see what I mean.

I wanted to talk about this today, but I'm tired. Visit eRobin's lovely site and you'll get the lowdown.

Via TPM, we have this editorial at the Louisville Courier-Journal. At what point does it stop being a liberal comspiracy to take down DeLay?

Comments Justin? After all, it's your paper.

Britney Britney Britney Britney Britney Britney Britney Britney Britney Britney Britney Britney Britney Pregnancy Pregnancy Pregnancy Pregnancy Pregnancy Pregnancy Pregnancy Pregnancy Pregnancy Pregnancy

NEW YORK - With Britney Spears and her husband, Kevin Federline, making headlines with the news that she’s pregnant, UPN has announced a May 17 premiere for the couple’s reality show.

The premiere will be a special one-hour episode (9 p.m. ET), UPN announced Wednesday. The series, not yet titled, will follow their courtship, engagement and wedding through private home videos, mostly shot by the couple with their own camera.

Ugh. Go away. You suck, no one cares. $5 says they film the birth and she's in Playboy one year later.

Can we please stop using the term "gay lifestyle?" I heard someone on the radio, who is sympathetic to gay rights, make the statement that he "didn't understand their opposition to the gay lifestyle." That's like as if I said, "geeze, I don't understand the beachfront property owner's opposition to the nudist lifestyle."

Lifestyle denotes a choice, which being gay ain't.

Rep. Henry Hyde says he's stepping down at the end of his current term. While I have nothing personal against the man, and I wish him no ill will, it's about time. So many others in the "Clinton Impeachment Waste of Taxpayer Money" have moved on to greener pastures. But Henry Hyde has overstayed his welcome. So here's to you Mr. Hyde.

And some words of wisdom, proving it was all about politics, not about the nation.

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, February 12) -- Relief and concern. Satisfaction and disappointment. Expressions of faith in the constitutional process. Those were just a few of the sentiments expressed by Washington's political class after the Senate voted Friday to acquit President Bill Clinton on two impeachment charges. Here is a sampling of comments:

[...]

Chief House Manager Henry Hyde (R-Illinois):

"I have no regrets. We fulfilled our oath of office to discharge our duty according to the Constitution; and when elected officials do that, democracy works."

"I want to give my deepest, heartfelt thanks to the House managers for their heroic sacrifice. No one will know what they have gone through during this process."

"We weren't happy because we were circumscribed by (the Senate's) rules. On the other hand, that was alien territory for us. The Senate did its best to accommodate us within the parameters of their way of doing things. We could have had a better trial, we should have had a better trial, but there were so many pressures. Frankly, I'm satisfied."

"I don't think indicting (Clinton) after what we've all been through is going to be helpful to the country."

"I had a breakfast with (former President) Ronald Reagan, and we talked about it. He thought it would not be good to have a president, a former president, in prison. Frankly, that prospect is off-putting to me, too."

"I wouldn't tell Mr. Starr what to do, but I think we should put as much of this on the shelf as we can. I don't think he should proceed (with an indictment)."

Yeah, you embarrassed the country enough. And for all the conservative apologists out there, give me a break, it was only a BJ.