Free Republic

I was able to import all of my vital files (tens of thousands of saved emails going bavk to 1998), address book, and settings from OE. There are a few new things to learn and different ways of doing things, but in general it was a smooth transition. My old junk mail filter rules didn't come through, but Thunderbird has better tools for dealing with junk mail than Outlook Express and I'll be getting up to speed on using them shortly. Hopefully I won't find a reason to go back.

Firefox/Thunderbird sound good. Is it possible to import the address book and saved messages from Outlook Express into Thunderbird? I would hate to have to start from scratch.

Well, for what it is worth ($0.01), here is my theory:

Who knew about these memos? Only Killian and his secretary, Marian Carr Knox. She claims she has accurate memory of what they contained, contacts someone in the Democrat Party, and then she and a young Democrat operative set out to "reconstruct" the memos. She remembers enough to get a lot of things right, but slips on some details, like the fact of Staudt's retirement 18 months before he was "exerting pressure". The young operative is too young to realize, and Knox is too old to realize, that typing these documents on Microsoft Word is going to be a dead give-away. Then the young operative starts shopping the story around, complete with "documents". Dan Rather thinks he hits paydirt because he believes he got the documents from Killian's secretary, the only person besides Killian who could know about them. That's why he stuck with the story. What I don't know is whether Rather knew the documents were "reconstructed" and went ahead anyway, or just held on to belief in their authenticity because he wanted the story to be true.

As far as the "sweet little old lady" theory goes, I know some 86 year old ladies who are sweet as honey and others who are nasty as vipers. I think we have a viper here, who is mixing fact and hangar gossip and dislike of Bush and an 86 year old's memory from 30 years ago to come up with recollections of memos that are part fact and part fiction.

How about this: "Senator Kerry, is that your final answer, or do you want to use your lifeline and call your political advisors?"

Yeah, just wait until all those illegal immigrants -- excuse me, undocumented workers -- vote on Election Day. Then Bush will get his comeuppance!

As far as I am concerned, when Star Trek: Deep Space 9 went off the air, TV was over. Turn off your TV, check FR for interesting news stories, then go for a walk, ride your bike, take a swim, play tennis, talk to your spouse/kids, read a book.

For what it's worth, here is a copy of an email I just sent to Sean Hannity:

Dear Mr. Hannity,

I am a long-time fan of both your radio and TV shows. I am writing this to you instead of to your management at Fox News because I thought what I have to say might strike a sympathetic chord with you.

There was a recent story in the news about the endorsement of John Kerry by many corporate CEOs, among them (apparently) Peter Chernin of News Corp., the parent company of Fox News. While it is fine for an individual to support any candidate according to his or her conscience, I believe it is inappropriate for the CEO of any company to endorse a particular candidate as CEO. This is especially the case for a news organization, where this behavior leads to an appearance of bias.

There is very little that I can personally do about this, except for one thing: I will not be watching Fox News again until the day after the election. This is unfortunate, because in the past I have relied upon Fox News to report fairly both sides of the issues of the day. I particularly enjoyed watching your program, Hannity and Colmes. I hope I will enjoy it again after the election.

Sincerely,
G*** B***
Delmar, NY

What should be his punishment?

One hour of community service for every hour people worldwide have spent and will spend getting rid of his viruses. I just had to reformat C: drive and reinstall everything on the computer my son brought back from college because Netsky was so firmly embedded in so many places on it. Maybe John Edwards can gin up a class action suit to garnish his wages for the next 10,000 years?

I felt the same way as you do back in the day, and I used to give many $100s per year out of payroll deduction. Then one year two things happened.

First, I saw a picture in our company newsletter of the local United Way chapter president shaking hands with the local manager of the division where I worked. The accompanying article gave the manager great credit for the new record-setting level of contribution. I'm sure it looked good to upper company management. This same manager was not shy about telling us that the minute we were no longer needed, we would be out the street. The light finally dawned that the manager was using my money to make himself look good. And United Way treated the incoming money like the government treats incoming tax revenue: as their right. Except for the yearly article in the company newsletter, the employees were never individually thanked for their contributions.

Second, about the same time it came out in the news how much salary the national president of United Way was making and his lavish United Way paid lifestyle. That did it. I called personnel and told them to change my percentage level of contribution -- to zero.

After that, on several occasions one of my fellow employees was designated the United Way booster and came to talk to me about contributing again. The harder the person would press, the more I would hammer on points 1 and 2. They finally stopped asking.

I don't work for that company anymore, but I wasn't fired because I didn't contribute to United Way. It was all a stupid game and management didn't really care one way or the other about any particular individual employee contribution. It was only for yearly PR purposes.

I used to work with Dr. David Giri on Electromagnetic Pulse testing (EMP) back in the day.

This comes close to the stupidest thing I ever heard. Nobody can convince me that the world isn't full of morons.

Here is the title of the exact same story as listed on Yahoo news: "AP poll: Kerry solidifies base". Gotta love it.

This works better without cleaned-up English, straight from the heart and mind of the writer.

Fox broadcast network did not carry it, only Fox News cable channel.

The Story of Bonnie and Clyde
by Bonnie Parker (1934)

You've read the story of Jesse James--
Of how he lived and died;
If you're still in need
Of something to read
Here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang.
I'm sure you all have read
How they rob and steal
And those who squeal
Are usually found dying or dead.

There's lots of untruths to these write-ups;
They're not so ruthless as that;
Their nature is raw;
They hate the law--
The stool pigeons, spotters, and rats.

They call them cold-blooded killers;
They say they are heartless and mean;
But I say this with pride,
That I once knew Clyde
When he was honest and upright and clean.

But the laws fooled around,
Kept taking him down
And locking him up in a cell,
Till he said to me,
"I'll never be free,
So I'll meet a few of them in hell."

The road was so dimly lighted;
There were no highway signs to guide;
But they made up their minds
If all roads were blind,
They wouldn't give up till they died.

The road gets dimmer and dimmer;
Sometimes you can hardly see;
But it's fight, man to man,
And do all you can,
For they know they can never be free.

From heart-break some people have suffered;
From weariness some people have died;
But take it all in all,
Our troubles are small
Till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.

If a policeman is killed in Dallas,
And they have no clue or guide;
If they can't find a fiend,
They just wipe their slate clean
And hang it on Bonnie and Clyde.

There's two crimes committed in America
Not accredited to the Barrow mob;
They had no hand
In the kidnap demand,
Nor the Kansas City Depot job.

A newsboy once said to his buddy:
"I wish old Clyde would get jumped;
In these awful hard times
We'd make a few dimes
If five or six cops would get bumped."

The police haven't got the report yet,
But Clyde called me up today;
He said, "Don't start any fights--
We aren't working nights--
We're joining the NRA."

From Irving to West Dallas viaduct
Is known as the Great Divide,
Where the women are kin,
And the men are men,
And they won't "stool" on Bonnie and Clyde.

If they try to act like citizens
And rent them a nice little flat,
About the third night
They're invited to fight
By a sub-gun's rat-tat-tat.

They don't think they're too smart or desperate,
They know that the law always wins;
They've been shot at before,
But they do not ignore
That death is the wages of sin.

Some day they'll go down together;
They'll bury them side by side;
To few it'll be grief--
To the law a relief--
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.

I heard that Chalabi, threatened with having to wear women's underwear on his head and a maxi-pad, is spilling his guts.

A possible alternative explanation: Railroads in big cities often have problems with JDs messing around with the tracks, putting debris on them, etc. It could have been set up by the railroad to warn of something like that and then forgotten.

I'm reading Angels & Demons and although it has a major physics or logic error every 10 pages or so, it's quite a page turner. I assume all of his other "research" is just as questionable. When he reflects on all his technical errors I'm sure he cries all the way to the bank.

FWIW: I've heard horror stories from people who used to live in the former Soviet Bloc about re-use of needles without sterilization out of a combination of ignorance and lack of resources.

Dick Morris knows the price of every political position and the value of none, having apparently no core beliefs of his own. But I'll give him this: He is the ultimate political tactician and strategist.