Grouchy Old Cripple
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The Los Angeles suburbs in the northwest portion of the county are engulfed in a massive wildfire that has consumed 17,000 acres and as of this writing is just 5% contained. Unfortunately, wildfires are extremely common here and homeowners with common sense have followed the mandatory brush clearance orders leading to a surprisingly small number […]

“Typhoon Longwang likely to disturb golden week” — Shenzhen Daily
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H/t: Catallarchy

Back in March Independent Sources commented on Major League Baseball’s consistent unwillingness to tackle steroid abuse in “5 Strikes and You’re Out!” More recently we wrote about Rafael Palmiro in “Hall of Fame Hypocrite.”
Even with those two posts, the player’s union appears unwilling to adopt a realistic steroid policy. Finally, they are being called out […]

Iranians staged a protest of the European Union’s criticizing Iran for its nuclear program:
During the protest, organized by the hardline Basij militia, British and U.S. flags were burned. Groups of protesters hurled stones, tomatoes and smoke bombs into the walled compound and some tried to push past police to reach the [British] embassy’s main gate.
Independent […]

Not satisfied with the “President doesn’t like minorities” theory, race card conspiracy theorists are moving it up a notch from the merely surreal into the absolutely bizarre. From BlackAmericaWeb.com we read:
Are we sure the levee that broke and caused New Orleans to flood was breached as the result of a natural disaster?
Was that storm — […]

“Cell mate, soul mate, what’s real the difference anyway?”
There is now a dating service for hooking up lonely men with women who are serving time in jail. The site appears legitimate as it has links to the department of corrections to verify that the woman you are corresponding with really is a criminal and not […]

First, he killed his wife and unborn child.
Second, he hijacks the trendy wristband fad.
Now this: Scott Peterson Wants Laci’s Life Insurance
This guy is really starting to get on my nerves.

Groups representing 80,000 flight attendants are calling for a boycott of Disney’s Jodie Foster movie “Flightplan.”
… According to (spokeswoman Corey) Caldwell, all of this (positive portrayal elsewhere in the film) is overshadowed by the fact that one of the flight attendants turns out to be a terrorist.
… “We have faced misconceptions for 75 years,” Caldwell […]

“Rapes, killings hit Katrina refugees in New Orleans” - Reuters headline, September 3d
“Reports of rapes and killings at the Superdome now appear to be unfounded.” - Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times
Oops. Which story will people remember months from now — the now-discredited “bodies are stacked in the Superdome freezer,” or the month-late retraction? […]

Mickey Kaus on TimesSelect — the NYT new subscription wall for its columnists:
Why does China have to spend millions on new repressive opinion-blocking technologies and new complicated anti-speech rules when it could just adopt TimesSelect across the board and accomplish the same thing more efficiently and with less controversy?… The NYT might even lease its […]

Lindsay Lohan’s breasts have the been topic of numerous articles, blogs and photos. Most recently with the Sun piece that Lindsay is gaining weight because she wants her boobs back. [h/t: Jossip]
With all of the stories (including this one about Disney’s digital manipulation of Ms. Lohan’s breasts), it has gotten more than a little […]

Patrick Ruffini :: September Straw Poll: Tag the Vote
Patrick Ruffini has a new poll going for 2008 and as a twist allows you to see how others with similar political priorities have voted. He wisely takes the term “tags” and applies it to his polling thereby immediately attracting the Technorati and Flickr crowds. It makes […]

Out of all these (seven) requests (from Senator Boxer’s office) for the federal government to do its job, during both the Clinton and Bush Administrations, the only thing that the FTC did was find evidence of “redlining.” But, even then, they did not do anything about it, saying it wasn’t illegal.
- from Senator Barbara […]

From the Riverside Press-Enterprise:
Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer knew she had achieved a new status when she was the question to an answer on the “Jeopardy!” game show, she told The Women’s Democratic Club in Riverside.
The answer: This woman received the third-highest vote total of any candidate for all of the November 2004 elections. […]