Why Use Yahoo and Not Hotmail?

Ok, What is with these tech support people? Can't people make an obvious decision anymore? If these jokers worked for me and I happened to read this in prying1's blog then you bet they might not get fired but advancement would be a looong time coming. Whatever happened to 'executive decisions'? I make 'em all the time at my work and my bosses (two company owners - I'm the peon and prefer it that way.) depend on me to do so as occasion warrants. - Here is the scenario all of which on my end went through one of my Yahoo email accounts -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I get an email for a Nigerian 411 scam -

- Quote from email -
I am a business development specialist and i have engaged in the purchasing of heavy materials and machinery from any part of the world,for contract supplies(only) to some multinational companies in Europe and Africa.More to it,i was also partially or slightly invloved in the exportation of solid minerals in minimal quantity from some countries in Central Africa to some countries within the United Kingdom but due to some new strict trade policies and severe political and economical factors in some of the countres i was involved with in Africa,i have been put out of business for a while. - ... - ...
- end quote -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i have to wunder if his speiling andpunchuatshun might of had sumthin todo with looseing his busyness. - It goes on in much the same vein... - I wanted to change the word exportation in the email above to exploitation but decided not to change the body of the quote.

If you want to read the whole thing email me and I will forward it. - The deal was, I get 20% of 19 MILLION $$$'s - Whoo Hoo!

I'll be rich! Inevitably this would only cost me all I have plus all I could borrow and even all I could steal. Needless to say I did not go for it. If you want to invest let me know - I'll forward the pertinent info.

I noticed at the bottom of the letter was an email address. A bright blue link to the perpetrator of this scam. - It was a Hotmail.com address. - So I do what any semi law abiding citizen would do. I forwarded the message to abuse@hotmail.com - A short while later I get an auto response from Hotmail - Form letter. They got the message and will look at it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The same day I get another nigerian scam letter from Dr. John Smith. His real name! Wow! At first I thought he was joking but Dr. John Smith is his real name. His deal is better (I think).

- Quote - On behalf of myself and my colleagues who are ministerial official and other officers in charge of offshore remittance in this corporation, we are seeking your assistance for the transfer of Forty Two Million (US$15,000,000.00) to your account for further private investment purpose, Hence our request for your assistance. - ... - ... - End Quote -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The idiot didn't even change the number when he modified his letter. Which is it? 42 mil or 15 mil? I did not bother writing to ask. I

noticed the return address on this one was a Yahoo.com account. - Forwarded email to abuse@Yahoo.com - They responded within 8 hours. A form letter but it said appropriate action was taken. I feel satisfied. (note - As I am writing this I emailed from a dummy account to both addresses. - Response from Yahoo - Account non-existent! Mail undeliverable - Hot mail.......... No reply yet.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mind you these emails were received and forwarded on the same day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK, 2-1/2 hours after Yahoo tells me they took "appropriate action" Hotmail send me a message saying

- quote -

Thank you for writing to MSN Hotmail Technical Support.

My name is Harrison and I am writing in response to the unsolicited message that you reported. I know how important it is for you to protect your account from unsolicited messages.

I have verified that the account [michealhartrupp2000@hotmail.com] you reported is an active Hotmail account. However, we did not find enough evidence to prove that the e-mail that you received originated from this account. If you have other documentation to prove that this account is indeed sending unsolicited e-mail, please send us a copy with the full message header so we can re-evaluate your report. To do this, please refer to the Help section of your e-mail account or client to learn more about exposing the full message headers of the e-mail you are forwarding. - ... - ... -
... more about forged headers and crap unrelated to the nigerian scam letter I sent them ...
- end quote -

They got the full headers. The email address the scammer was using was at the bottom of the page. Hotmail is dealing with a scammer not a spammer. A scammer that is using a Hotmail account.

I wrote back to Hotmail - quote -

Hi Harrison, - This is the only email I received from this joker to my knowledge. - I could email him and get more on his scam for you but I should think that the body of the email with the hotmail address at the bottom should be enough to yank his account. - - I'm not sure if your terms of service allow you to go into his account and peruse his mail but certainly -[michealhartrupp2000@hotmail.com]- is up to no good and is using hotmail for nefarious purposes. - Paul -
prying1.blogspot.com - - - 6:56 AM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- end quote -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reply from Hotmail @ 15:43 hrs (8+ hours later) -

- Quote -

Hello Paul,


Thank you for writing back to MSN Hotmail Technical Support.

My name is Divino. I have read the e-mail exchanges you have had with Harrison
and from what I understand you were reporting about the unsolicited e-mail message you received.

We have investigated the account you have reported and we found that the X-Originating IP of the mail you have sent us did not match. It is possible that it was forged or tampered with. If you have any other documentation from this sender, please send it to us immediately with complete message headers.

Hotmail firmly enforces its Terms of Use (TOU) including our anti-spam stance. You can review our TOU at:
http://privacy.msn.com/tou/default.asp

We are very sorry if we were not able to take action against this person because we need sufficient evidence to justify our actions. I appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter.


Thank you very much.


Divino T.
MSN Hotmail Technical Support

- end quote -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
prying1 sez:

My FINAL reply: - quote -

OK - If you want to allow an obvious crook to continue
using hotmail then fine - I sent a similar email to
abuse at Yahoo and they YANKED the jerks account toot
sweet!. - Who cares where he originated the blasted
email - He want victims to use his Hotmail address
because he knows you will let him! - Paul -

- end quote -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will continue to forward scams to Hotmail in hopes that Harrison and Divino don't get them... But I'm not gonna continue this endless diatribe with these boys. Let Mr. Micheal Hartrupp continue his scam through Hotmail.com. He knows he has the support! (smiley face here)

Why They Write Science Fiction!

I've been reading a bit of science fiction lately. I came across a set of books I got years ago and never got around to reading. It is a collection of short stories and novellas plus some that was selected by the members of The Science Fiction Writers of America. They had each member submit the titles they liked best excluding their own and tallied up the winners to put in an anthology. It is a 3 book collection called "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame".

Of course Asimov, Bradbury, Pohl, Heinlein, and a myriad of authors are represented.

Some favorite stories are, The Roads Must Roll (Heinlein), The Time Machine (H.G.Wells), The Midas Plague (Pohl), and too many more to name. Especially for a four fingered typist...

While reading a bit it finally came to me what it is that draws writers into Science Fiction as a favored genre. It is simply this. Lawsuits...

You know at the start of novels where it tells you that no one on earth was the model for the characters inside the book. Imagine this court scene:

Lawyer, "Your Honor, we will prove that my client Mr. Smith was slandered by this so called author. He was called a lying, unethical, crook and this has had an adverse effect on his business. He was called a pimping whoremonger and this has had an adverse effect on his family life. He was called an immature mamma's boy with apron strings tied to his wrists and this has had an adverse effect on his psyche.

Judge: Ok, I perused the book and am wondering where you find all of these accusations in it?

Lawyer, "Your Honor, You can read, starting on page 12, about the slimesided Arcturian gizzlewop named Rejrindul Azurkod and we intend to show how the author cleverly used this character to cause harm to my client.

Judge: (slams gavel) "Get out of my court!" (slams gavel again) "Now!!!" (Judge mumbles a bit, then barks) "Next case..."

Delete Button Does Not Delete!

On occasion I wheel and deal at a computer swap meet. I'll pick up hard drives real cheap there. Of course I'm taking a chance when I pick up a drive off the ground or a blanket that when I get it home it will not work. Last meet I got a 80 gig hard drive for $3.00. It works, whoohoo!

When I plugged the drive in I was able to set it up as a 'd' drive and accessed all the info on it. It had belonged to someone that had set it up as a 'C' drive with WinXP.

WinXP has now got it set up so that you cannot just simply transfer the drive from one machine to another. To get it to work as a 'C' drive I had to reformat it and reload Windows. This of course wiped out all the previous information. Or did it?

The info stored on a hard disk is simply magnetic bits that are pointed north or south, on or off, yes or no, 1 or 0. Deleting files or even formatting a hard drive does not remove all the information stored on it. It simply removes the pointers that tells the reading heads where to go to find the requested info. As a result sensitive information like banking and financial records can still be accessed with the proper software. I have read that even writing over the previous file doesn't quite do the trick. A ghost image of the file can remain and a real pro can find and reconstruct the info.

So, the question is, what to do with old unneeded hard drives to protect yourself from any hanky panky with the info on it. One solution that is quick and easy is to smash it with a hammer making sure all the platters inside get damaged. But suppose the computer you use at work is about to go down the hall to someone else. Perhaps the laptop you use is about to be transferred to another department. They might be a tad upset if the hard drive has major dents in it.

I came across this page from Brown University that gives some tips and links to software (Some Free!!! Whoohoo again!) that solves this problem. I see some in the list for Mac and Unix. (which reminds me of the time my buddy Mike asked another computer nut if he liked Unix. The man replied, "No! I prefer women...")

I will suggest you be careful if you download and use any of these programs. It appears that some of them are designed to wipe out the whole disk only and not selected freespace, files or folders.

One of my favorite lines from a book

As I'm sitting here at the computer I have a stupid fly buzzing about the room.

On occasion it gets nearby and I swing at it. - I miss... -

On occasion it lands on the monitor screen. I swing at it. - I miss... -

Kung Fu practictioner I'm not...

But this reminded me of one of my favorite lines from a book. - Art Linkletter's Kid's Say the Darndest Things. (Not to be confused with Bill Cosby's book by the same title.) This is not verbatim but it is pretty close.

Scenario: Art Linkletter has very young school children sitting in chairs and is asking them questions about life and love.

Art: "How did you get that bump on your head?"
kid: "I was killing flies."
Art: "You were killing flies with your forehead?"
kid: "No, I was using a hammer."

NARAL Tells Lies in Anti - John Roberts Commercials

Opposed to bombing abortion clinics? Well then you should be pushing your elected officials to support John Roberts as Supreme Court Justice. You should also be pushing for NARAL to back off on their adverts that portray Roberts as a man who supports the criminal/terrorist activity of bombing abortion clinics.

Factcheck.org has the real scoop on what NARAL is up to. The pro-abortion group's commercial shows a bombing scene that happened 7 years after the legal brief they misquote as Roberts endorsing murder. The legal brief was supporting states laws and simply said there was no need for federal interdiction. - The Supreme Court agreed 6 to 3...

prying1 sez - It amazes me that a group that endorses ripping babies from the safety of their mothers wombs uses an obvious lie about murder like this and expects to get away with it. - Anyone who supports NARAL after this has no excuse. Bearing false witness is still in the 10 Commandments even if the Commandments are not on the walls of our courts. Duplicity always ends up with a spotlight shining on it. If you stand with NARAL the spotlight will also be shining on you!

How to Fix a Computer!

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted a blog. Thanks to AubreyJ for the push to get back into blogging.

Lately I have been dealing with some changes with my computer system. Funny how much time it can take to get your system just the way you like it and then you find you have to upgrade. I went from XP home edition to the Pro in order to get my cable system working and found all kinds of glitches through the process. Got it going pretty good. Almost satisfied. Too close to very good. Almost happy. Now I have placed another computer close by so my wife can play games and IM her friends while I list items on eBay and blog. Family time is different these days from the way Ozzie and Harriet lived.

Lot of fun getting the 2 machines in sync. Wifey-poo doesn't get to do much game playing or IM'ing. I spend half my time getting her computer the way I like it. The other half is spent getting the new gliches out of my computer.

Two major problems with getting the systems to network. That is, I now have two computers. The machines would see each other. They could see through the wire to the router and beyond. I would try to connect to the internet on either machine and both would recognize everything up to the router. They would collect my IP address and stop. They would not connect to my Internet Service Provider. I could not get anywhere near Google, that is, the center of the known internet universe. I was stuck in the real world. Unless I separated them and connected each to the internet one at a time.

Fine if I didn't mind spending the rest of my life switching wires. - I did mind.

In trying to fix it I would get a message that the primary machine's administrator had to set up the connection. It didn't care that I am the administrator on both machines. Neither machine wanted to admit to being the primary one. Plus the message gave no clue as to how the administrator (read - ME - ) was to fix it once he figured out which was the primary. Back and forth from one desk to the other with a pile of books to go around each time. Got a bit of exercise. About 3-4 days worth of exercise.

Opening help windows, going in circles with the troubleshooters, clicking on little boxes that I hoped to hell would not cause my motherboards to fry, wondering how I got to the last page where I changed settings and just closed, wondering if I'd ever find my way back to correct my blunders, Googling questions in the hopes that I would get a clue from someone else's ghost of misery past...

It was all worth it. Now I'm a bit puffed up with pride and a lot of joy because I did it and I did not need to pay big bucks for some computer geek to pretend that he knew what he was doing while he changed back all the system settings I had changed.

So now, this paragraph is for that frustrated someone who finds themselves in a similar situation. You have Googled a question and for reasons only God knows this blog came near the top. You are asking, "What did he do to fix it?" "Come'on" you say, "Tell me!" - - - Well, what I did was go up to each machine on or around the 3rd or 4th day of this nonsense and found them both working.

That's it! I have discovered the secret that I'm willing to bet every computer geek has known for years... HOW TO FIX YOUR COMPUTER by PRYING1 - chapter 1 - Walk away and come back later! - chapter 2 - Blog and boast about it.

The Muslim mind is on fire

Hat tip to Hugh Hewett on this one - The Muslim mind is on fire

Youssef M. Ibrahim - a former New York Times reporter wrote a piece concerning the Jihadists and their murdering of Muslums. He is not in favor of it. I'm certain that Youssef is now concerned for his life and it will serve the world well if we pray for him and against his enemies.
A couple quotes from the article -

The latest reliable report confirms that on average 33 Iraqis die every day, executed by Iraqis and foreign jihadis and suicide bombers, not by US or British soldiers. In fact, fewer than ever US or British soldiers are dying since the invasion more than two years ago. Instead, we now watch on television hundreds of innocent Iraqis lying without limbs, bleeding in the streets dead or wounded for life. If this is jihad someone got his religious education completely upside down.

~~~~~~~~~~

Do the cowardly jihadis who recruit suicide bombers really think that they will force the US Army and British troops out of Iraq by killing hundreds of innocent Iraqis? US troops now have bases and operate in Iraq but also from Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.

~~~~~~~~~~

What is more important to remember is this: When the West did unite after World War II to beat communism, the long Cold War began without pity. They took no prisoners. They all stood together, from the United States to Norway, from Britain to Spain, from Belgium to Switzerland. And they did bring down the biggest empire. Communism collapsed.

I fear those naiveÃe Muslims who think that they are beating the West have now achieved their worst crime of all. The West is now going to war against not only Muslims, but also, sadly, Islam as a religion.

In this new cold and hot war, car bombs and suicide bombers here and there will be no match for the arsenal that those Westerners are putting together - an arsenal of laws, intelligence pooling, surveillance by satellites, armies of special forces and indeed, allies inside the Arab world who are tired of having their lives disrupted by demented so-called jihadis or those bearded preachers who, under the guise of preaching, do little to teach and much to ignite the fire, those who know little about Islam and nothing about humanity.

prying1 sez: I think that the link to this article should be spread around Please consider an email to friends and neighbors. NOT the link to this blog post. The link to the article...
-
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050726-073844-6818r
-
It really needs to get into the Muslum community. I have been saying it for quite a while now. The Muslum community must stand up and be counted as against the murderous thugs that are killing their own. I can say it is wrong all day and night but until the terrorists see that they will no longer be accepted, hidden and harbored in ANY Muslum place of worship they will continue their Godless acts. Until Muslums see thay are not alone in standing against the hijackers of their religion they will not stand up.

At a Liberal Recruiting Station

"I'd like to sign up for the war."

"Fine just fill out this form. You can use this pen and that table over there."

"Thank you. Hmmm, hmm, hmmmm, hm..."

"No humming please!" People will think you are glad to be here.

"Sorry. Hey this form puts me in the enemies army."

"Of course it does. We have too many on our side so all new recruits are being sent to their side.

"What the???

It's the only fair way to fight a war! Sign at the bottom. Our lawyers will take it from here.

TaxPayer $$$ Down the Drain!

Nothing new in this post's title but this time it is big bucks going to criminals. I caught wind of this one from a news blurb on TV concerning Donald Trump before the U.S. Senate. Although Trump is not my favorite person in the world I will say he is right on concerning this one. I'm talking about the renovation of the United Nations building in New York, NY.

"The U.S. Congress has agreed to loan the United Nations the $1.2 billion at a 5.54 percent interest rate, to be repaid over 30 years. But some lawmakers have had second thoughts over mismanagement of the $67 billion oil-for-food plan for Iraq." - SOME LAWMAKERS??? I want to see the list of those with second thoughts. Better yet, the list of those without second thoughts. -prying1- -

A US News article says concerning Trump's meeting with the Senate, "Reality television star Donald Trump told the U.S. Senate on Thursday the United Nations should be fired over its handling of a $1.2 billion plan to renovate the world body's New York headquarters. Trump...predicted the renovation would run far over budget because U.N. managers were incompetent.

He insisted he could do the job for half the U.N. estimate, but then admitted he had no plans to bid for the job.

"If you don't know what you are doing it can be fraught with cost overruns, et cetera, et cetera," he told a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee looking into the project, known as the U.N. Capital Master Plan."

U.N. CAPITAL MASTER PLAN??? Who thought up that name? Sounds like something from the Third Reich. -prying1-

So? Do they really need renovation? - The review found that maintenance could not keep pace with structural repairs required for major plumbing leaks, rusting rail supports, soaked roofing material and the original, 50-year-old electrical wiring. And the Headquarters buildings no longer comply with current fire safety codes and environmental standards. There was for example, no sprinkler system in the high-rise building and asbestos were present. Handicapped accessibility standards and security requirements were also not being met. Finally, the buildings were extremely energy-inefficient.

prying1 sez:
I suggest that they just tear down the building and move the organization to some desert someplace. As long as it is not in Australia. Australia doesn't need a new batch of criminal immigration like they had during their penal colony days... - They can hire Sheriff Joe Arpaio (of Arizona) to design a tent city. Dig an amphitheater pit big enough for the members to sit around the edges and Secretary-General Kofi Annan can lead meetings from the bottom of it. It will work real well unless the members keep kicking sand in thereby burying Kofi... - So it goes if that happens.

Can Software Kill?

I receive email newsletters from eWeek.com - A technology based company that has articles that are usually above me. I read the headlines and occasionally see a teaser that makes me think, "I can understand this!"

This week the title, "Hardening Expectations for Software Quality" caught my eye. The reason being, I am continually amazed at the size programs have grown to. To download a simple plugin today took 25 megabytes. That is 5 megabytes more than my first hard drive held. I remember reading how the early computer whizzes at MIT worked hard to streamline programs because they were working with 64k. Nowadays a computer programmer sees the code won't work he just DX's it with a 'rem' command and leaves it in the middle of the software program. Who cares if it takes a bit of space. Plenty more where that came from. To hell with those on dialup.

Well back to the title of this posting. Well, pretty soon anyway. The article mentioned Solidware Technologies that has presented software to find bugs in software. (Free 60 day trial/download for you programming geeks!) in their advert it said, "making software safer - Ouch! There were 428 fatalities between 1985 and 2003 caused by software bugs*** (and these are just the ones we know about)." ... *** 2004 Baseline study, Can Software Kill? - end quote -

NOW ON TO THE TITLE OF THIS POST! - With this I had to run a Google search. - "Can Software Kill?" - (with quotes) - 573 hits with most leading to links to the following link -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TechNewsWorld - 4-13-04 - Software can kill you. Don't think so? Talk to the family members of 21 deceased patients treated at the National Cancer Institute in Panama in November 2000. The cancer patients died after being overdosed by a Cobalt-60 radiotherapy machine. The technicians who entered patient and medication data into the software that guided that machine will stand trial starting May18th in Panama City on charges of second-degree murder.
&
According to published reports, Ferrari's North America division recalled 353 cars in 1999 because of a software programming error. Some Ferrari 360 Modena and 360 Modena F1 models manufactured in the previous year contained a glitch in the electronic instrument module that prevented a warning light from illuminating if a problem was detected with a car's brake system.
&
But it's not just in cars that buggy software is threatening life and limb. Computer programming is now embedded in much of the equipment and appliances that permeate homes, schools and the workplace, making software quality a major issue. Most software releases are far from perfect, and software industry analysts admit there is little difference in the quality control applied to industrial programming and retail products.
- end quotes -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

prying1 sez: While I don't think it is yet time to put on white robes, drag out the old "END OF THE WORLD" signs and give up our day jobs, I do think that supporting companies like Solidware Technologies would be a good thing. If you know anyone who deals in programming and works with chip design send them the link. Who knows. Some day it might save a life. Besides, they get to play with it for 60 days for free.

Google Earth

Gotta wonder if Google is gonna take over planet earth - It seems like they continually come up with something new that leaves others in the dust.

This time it is Google Earth. - A hat tip to Homemade Tutorials for this link - Quite a nice site and worthy of a visit.

Now what is Google Earth? - A map of the planet that allows you to fly about and pull in close ups of areas of interest. A way to locate banks, schools, churches, fire stations, stores and even volcanoes. Aren't as many of those around but just in case you want to check you neighborhood...

You must have Windows 2000 or XP and cable/broadband to use this program. Quite a wonderful experience to type in the address and watch the planet rotate and then pull in for a close up (if available) - Find your house - Check your church parking lot and see if the pastors car was there when they took the pic. Find the nearest volcano and see if it is far enough away or if you should move...

For a bit more info before downloading check out Homemade Tutorials blog - To see what Google's advert click here - To jump in with both feet click on this link - Google Earth Download - Have a good trip! -

Does Spam Cop Work?

I have recently started a new email address and am already getting spam on it.

In times past I have checked the headers located the offending ISP and emailed the webmaster of the company it was sent from/through. This is a tedious process.

I was thinking of signing up with SpamCop for their free service. It appears that through using their service the amount of spam can decrease and if the spammers figure out you are a trouble maker they might drop your address from their lists.

Anyone reading this ever use SpamCop? Could you leave a few lines concerning your experience? Is there any downside to using their services? Besides time that is...
Does it work with email services like Yahoo and Gmail?

Are These People Sick or What?

Thanks to Very Small Doses for the heads up on this one -

You missed the party!

Well, Maybe you didn't miss much.

NARAL, a national 'rip unborn babies from the wombs of their mothers' organization has an affiliate in Washington-state that thought it cute to have a 'Screw Abstinence Party'.

Complete with:
Toys in Babeland - Seattle's sleaze-free, sex-positive purveyors of adult toys offer tips on "Sexy Safer Sex."
AND
'Sex in Seattle' & 'Pork Filled Players' - Two of Seattle theatre's hottest sketch comedy groups perform a sex ed class for adults.

How old are these people that they need instructions on using sex toys and sex education classes.

Well apparently they had to be over 21 because it was held at some dive in Seattle.


From the event advert: "All funds raised at Screw Abstinence will assist NARAL Pro-Choice Washington in our work to secure comprehensive and medically-accurate sex education, as well as guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I still cannot understand why ripping babies from mothers wombs is so important to these people. - Don't get me wrong. I am not in favor of strictly outlawing all abortions. I think it should be a states issue as opposed to being something forced on the country by the supreme court.

I especially feel that advancing other alternatives is much more important than filling trash sacks with babies. So why is it these people feel it is more important to fill trash sacks with babies instead of advancing alternatives?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Even some lefties at The Stranger.com think it is in poor taste (warning - bad language in article) and sets back the agenda.

Some from the right think it is a good idea for the left to stage events like this:

- quote from the Stranger -

"I love it when they do this," says Republican Party State Chair Chris Vance. "It's just another example of the liberal-left marginalizing itself. They forget who they're trying to target: suburban parents. And suburban parents are very worried about [premarital sex]." - end quote -

As a right-winger (I don't spit tobaccy juice, burn crosses nor wear swastikas) I am saddened that some in this country have had their consciences burned to the point that they cannot see that nonsense like this is not a good thing. Absolutely nothing redeeming in actions like this. The national NARAL should have given this chapter the boot when this 'party' was first advertised using the NARAL name. Perhaps not doing so shows an insight into the national mentality of groups like this.

One article I read said at least 100 people got advance tickets. Wonder how many of them will get abortions soon after they "Screw Abstinence"?

Gotta Love It! U.S. Wins Cold War!!!

Proof the United States has won the cold war!

A hat tip to Tomorrows Trends.

Want proof the cold war is over and the U.S. won. Here it is. NASA is being sued by a Russian astrologer!

ANANOVA has the story about:
~~~~~~~ quote ~~~~~~~
A Russian astrologer is suing NASA after claiming the probe they smashed into a comet meant she had to rewrite all her horoscopes.

Marina Bai wants 170,000 (prying1 asks: US$$$??? Rupees??? Pesos??? original text does not specify) in damages after Nasa's Deep Impact probe crashed into the Tempel 1 comet.

She said the collision will change the orbit of the comet and therefore affect the night skyscape, and she will be unable to read horoscopes properly without lots of extra research.

She said: "It is obvious that elements of the comet's orbit, and correspondingly the ephemeris, will change after the explosion. This will interfere with my astrology work and distort my horoscopes."

Moscow district court officials have said preparations for the case are underway, but that no date has yet been set for a hearing.
~~~~~~~ end quote ~~~~~~~

prying1 sez:
We have managed to export silly lawsuits to Russia and now they will never be able to go back to the old communist system.

Was Darwin Christian?

Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologist - Owner and Proprietor of a wonderful blog, Another Man's Meat has a post on Darwin. Was he a Christian or not? - Phil has a can of worms with the lid off and some of the worms are climbing over the side. - Go check out Phil's site and leave a comment on his post. You might want to dig back into his archives and see some other excellent writings. Plan on being amazed and amused for a while and don't forget to bookmark his site.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I thought I'd bring my comment on his post over to my blog in hopes of getting another can of worms open and watching the worms crawl out. -

~~~~~~~~~~~

Simple logic settles the question, "Is there a God or not?"... And the answer still involves a decision by each human on earth.

Does God exist, yes or no?

If the answer is no then all other discussion and contemplation on the subject is foolishness.

If the answer is yes then a life without discussion and contemplation on the subject is foolishness.

Is this something that should be answered with the throw of dice or cutting a deck of cards?

I'd say it is more foolish to run with the assumption the answer is no than to utilize more logic with the yes answer.

Such as, to ask: "If God exists does He concern himself with the affairs of men..."

Blogger Supplies

Not sure how many have missed this one. I might be the only one but I doubt it. Google has a few blogger items in their supply store. How can anyone REALLY blog without wearing a t-shirt with the blogger logo on it? Their Ringnecked T has a brown neck trim so you can blog for a week without concerning yourself with friends and neighbors seeing the ring around the collar. You can sleep in it with your head on the keyboard.

Actually I think that wearing a blogger t shirt might help start conversations so you can direct people to your blog. Might be worth a try to get readers. Seems to me though that if we are advertising for Google and Blogger they ought to pay us to wear the stuff...

Who-Hoo! It works!!!

Ever have one of those computer problems that just defies all the verbiage you can throw at Google? For 18 days I've been trying to figure out how to get my computer to look at my new ISP and get the IP address. I had to log on with my older dial-up service. I even went so far as to put a new operating system on some reformatted/used hard drives. I'm working with an emachine and Windows XP here.

I didn't want to load a new system onto my regular hard drive because it was my only connection with my computer. Plus I was fearful of losing all the stuff I have on it. So what I was doing was loading a copy of WinXP onto (5-6) old spare hard drives I have laying around. These drives are from 1.2 gigs to 2.5 gigs. After loading WinXP on them and making them the master drive the computer would not boot. When I worked around that with CD's and floppies and got the machine going I kept getting messages that I was running out of space on the drives. My video card would not register so I was stuck with default settings AND none of these drives would connect to the ISP.

I finally broke down and went against everything my Scottish blood says to do. I went out and paid for a new, in the box, hard drive. 40 gigs for $70+ dollars. - With it I was able to set up the boot partition, load XP and still have room to load video drivers and my ISP provided programs.

Who Hoo! It works!!! AND my original drive works well as a D: drive so I still have all my old programs. What an ordeal!

One really good thing is I got it working just in time for my nap!

Book Review - Lizzie Borden, The Untold Story

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
And when she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

'Lizzie Borden, The Untold Story' by Edward D. Radin

It seems from reading this book that everything we know about Lizzie Borden is wrong. The question is still asked at the end of the book, "Did she or didn't she?", but this book presents facts either unknown or long ignored by many Lizzie Borden storytellers.

A Mr. Edmund Pearson, whose works on the Lizzie Borden trial were considered the final word in the matter ignored much of the court testimony that exonerated Lizzie. Certain facts in the case were left out of his writings. Edward Radin goes through the court records and news articles of the time presenting much information that is missing from the poem and the story as we know it. Well written in easy to understand layman's terms I would suggest this book for any who like real crime stories...

As an aside I'll also suggest a visit to Alice Beard's website where, near the bottom of the page, she has - quote - The genealogy game of "Lizzie Borden"... The object of the genealogy game is to see if you can claim Lizzie as a distant cousin. You know, so when you're having a bad day, you can say, "Leave me alone. I've got PMS, and I'm a cousin of Lizzie Borden."... - end quote - You have to build your own genealogy list to compare with Lizzie's but this would be a great conversation stopper at parties and such... -

Condolences

Condolences to An American Housewife (Carol) who lost her husband last Thursday evening. The blogging community has quickly become family to many of us and I'm certain that just hearing this news brings heartache to many. You can leave a condolence message on Carol's Blog.

American Princess has a link to make a Paypal donation. If you can donate even a little bit it would only help. Please put some feet to your well wishes for the family and give what you can. Just mark the donation as a 'caring gift' and donate more than you can afford. The Lord will cover you on the other end.

COMPUTER DAZE!

WHY ME LORD?

Ever find yourself looking towards heaven and crying out this familiar phrase? The times I most often hear it emanate from my lips is when I'm trying to make some changes to my computer system. This time it should have been real simple. Changing my ISP from a dial up to a cable modem. Sounds simple right? Just call 'em up and have 'em do it.

That works fine for any other house on your block. Would have worked well for this house except!!! My computer was manufactured in the bowels of hell.

I'll back up a bit.

Since my recent surgery my daughter has come over to keep an eye on me. You know, make sure I don't go through the fall over and can't get up scenario. She brought her computer over and the 2 machines sit near side by side. She is not satisfied with my dialup service and has convinced me I need to upgrade services. I was ready for the change and agreed amiably. Cable comes in and with a router both computers are hooked to it. Hers works wonderfully. Mine will not. I have been through 1 week plus of hell trying to make this stupid machine work. Her still connects fine. I thought for sure I would have them both mucked up by now and I could kill them both with a hammer, but no. Just mine is the one I'm gonna get to beat mercilessly.

I can still get online through the dialup but the cable company will not issue my machine an IP address. I force fed an IP address and it worked for 2 days. But static numbers are not acceptable. They issued a new IP and my machine will not accept/read it. I'm left blowin' in the wind... Daughters computer still works fine. Worst thing is I was quickly spoiled with the speed of the cable. That is when I get it to work for an hour at a time. In a couple days my daughter will go back to her house, take her machine and really leave me in a tizzy. Good thing I'm bald so I won't be tearing my hair out.

I call up the cable company and they go through some major changes trying to find the problem. They read my daughters machine fine. Mine is there in a hazy 'Wizard of Oz', 'man behind the curtain' sort of way. I call emachines (my manufacturer). They send me to websites that tell me to try stuff I did a week ago without their help. MS/WINXP pages are only there to fill in the blank spots on the internet. Device troubleshooters take one in a circle only to say, "Don't take your paycheck to Vegas buddy, cuz you are out of luck!" I Google the problem (on my daughters machine when I can get her away from it). I get some techy geeks talking acronyms that would leave Bill Gates scratching his head. Working different wire configurations I catch and stop myself from ripping the wires out of both machines.

Worst thing is I know it is 'one setting' in the deepest recesses of my computer that needs a simple mouse click. Perhaps I could get to it with this screwdriver and putty knife.

AND through all this I have not had a smoke for I quit counting how how many days. - OK, I had to count - 19 days. - I did break down and had a stick of gum yesterday. Sort of stale. Don't know how long it had been in the drawer. I do figure that if the stress level I've gone through with this stupid computer has not driven me back to smoking then I'm pretty much in the clear on that end.

Breath Deep, Self Control, Think Happy Thoughts, and Set the Hammer Down...