53 Brentwood Blog

Monday, May 31, 2004

Memorial Day

THE AMERICANS LIE in well-tended graves in France, Italy, Belgium, England, the Philippines and other places where they fell between 1941 and 1945...

Shortly after the Madrid train bombings two months ago, a tape was disseminated with the words of one of the strange legionaries in the current terror war against civilian populations. "You love life," said the voice on the tape. "We love death." It was meant as a sort of gibe, implying weakness on the part of those in the West who are unwilling to immolate themselves in some sacred cause.

Most of the American war dead, in foreign soil and in their own country, would have acknowledged that they loved life, but perhaps not life without liberty or the respect of others who answered the country's call. No suicide warriors here, simply people who put themselves in peril when they thought it right and necessary.

In one cemetery in Italy near the seacoast lie the remains of 7,862 Americans who died in combat in that country. Their graves are visited each year by 200,000 people, very few of them from the United States.

The cemetery's gardener stopped his work on the graves and remarked to the reporter: "They have been buried here so long, they are Italians now."

"You love life." A true enough accusation. Many have loved it enough to die for it.

Monday, May 31, 2004
2004 The Washington Post Company

Saturday, May 29, 2004

Well well well, if I were the pizza cop, I would be more cautious than others (see below) to trust the fingerprints on the pizza crust….


Three highly skilled FBI fingerprint experts declared this year that Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield's fingerprint matched a partial print found on a bag in Madrid that contained explosive detonators. U.S. officials called it "absolutely incontrovertible" and a "bingo match." Mayfield was promptly taken into custody as a material witness. Last week the FBI admitted that it goofed; the print actually belongs to Ouhnane Daoud, an Algerian.
Fingerprint evidence has long been considered an infallible form of proof, powerful enough to support a criminal conviction even without any other evidence. But when three top experts manage to blow such an important identification, our longstanding faith in fingerprints must be questioned. … In fact, the science of fingerprinting is surprisingly underdeveloped.

By Jennifer L. Mnookin
Saturday, May 29
The Washington Post Company

Thursday, May 27, 2004

When will they name Giulio to be the leader for this cause? I could just see him wandering around Italy with a badge and a gun. The badge, of course, wouldn't be a normal police shield, it would be a metal pizza badge.

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Last month the UN conducted a worldwide survey.


The only question asked was: "Would you please give
your honest opinion about solutions to the food
shortage in the rest of the world?"



The survey was a huge failure......


In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant.


In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest"
meant.


In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage"
meant.


In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant.


In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution"
meant.


In South America they didn't know what "please"
meant.


And in the USA they didn't know what "the rest of
the world
" meant.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Laugh And The World Laughs With You, Snore And You Sleep Alone.

I really like it, good job M!

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Tic-Tac Blue

Tell me what you think. (You can click on the comments and post 1)

Went with Tic-Tac as I was having problems with Minima.

If you click on our names on the side it will bring up your Blogger Profile. Currently I am the only one with a profile. To create one just go to your Dashboard (the main page after you login) on the right side is a link to "edit profile", click it and edit it.

Also, we now have titles for each post. Which will show up in the Recently category on the side bar.

Maiko, why do you have 2 profiles for this blog? One is "maiko_yoda" and the other is "Maiko Y. Callister" and both have the same yahoo email address.

Under construction

This site will be going through some odd paces in the next few hours.

Comments are currently only open to the 53 gang.

Friday, May 21, 2004

Oh I also forgot to congratulate Ann on Graduating Law School.

Ann has a birthday, graduates from college, and in 2 weeks gets married.

Wow. That's a lot of presents. (From other people of course :)

buon compleanno, Ann Marie!!!

Tanti auguri a te,
Tanti auguri a te,
Tanti auguri Ann Marie,
Tanti auguri a te !!!

With the music is more fun.

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Happy Birthday Ann Marie!

Monday, May 17, 2004

I would go for Minima

Friday, May 14, 2004

New Blogger's cool, although it's pretty much the same person with different clothes on in my eyes. I think we should use Tic Tac, since my good friend Dan Cederholm designed it.

Thursday, May 13, 2004

I'm thinking of changing the template for this blog, but as I am still working on a rewrite of Jaded (that has been only taking the last 6 months to even figure out how I want it to look, let alone start it) I am thinking of using one of the Blogger Pre-Designed Templates.

Please tell me which ones you like the best and then we'll vote on the best one.

Minima.

Rounders 2

Mr. Moto

Tic Tac

This-a-way Blue

Snapshot Sable

Scribe

Personally I like Minima, Mr. Moto and Rounders 2.

Also, I will be adding the ability to comment on the posts and, most likely, the ability for everyone to upload pictures to the blog.

Please comment.

Oh and how do you like the new feel to Blogger?

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

ttc.org

ttc.org

Saturday, May 08, 2004

The Information Age according to Donald H. Rumsfeld.

"The Information Age … where people are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photos and passing them off, against the law, to the media…"

From the Senate Hearing Transcripts.

Friday, May 07, 2004

And if all, or even some, of what is said in this Editorial is true than Bush should shit-can Rumsfield out of office.

Mr. Rumsfeld's Responsibility (need registration) - Washington Post, May 6, 2004.

But that won't happen, because Loyalty to your President is more important than following the law in this administration.

Jesus fucking Christ!

"Tormenting Iraqis, in her mind, would be no different from shooting a turkey. Every season here you're hunting something. Over there, they're hunting Iraqis."

- The Daily Telegraph, Good ol' girl who enjoyed cruelty May 7, 2004.

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Michael is the #4 most common male name.
2.629% of men in the US are named Michael.
Around 3220525 US men are named Michael!

Cutillo is the #36020 most common last name.
0.0005% of last names in the US are Cutillo.
Around 1250 US last names are Cutillo!

Hey Mike, thanks for reminding us about J birthday.

Hey Jeff, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

33.. It's amazing, you don't even look 30. What's the secret??

Hey, thanks for remembering! 33 yesterday......blows my mind. I remember when I was 2 months old. I could really hold my liquor back then.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Happy Birthday Jeff.

Let’s see… this one is going to be about… yes, about scum. Better, about the Scum of the Scum.


About the Scum of the Scum.


SECRETARY OF Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday described the abuses of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison as "an exceptional, isolated" case. At best, that is only partly true. Similar mistreatment of prisoners held by U.S. military or intelligence forces abroad has been reported since the beginning of the war on terrorism. A pattern of arrogant disregard for the protections of the Geneva Conventions or any other legal procedure has been set from the top, by Mr. Rumsfeld and senior U.S. commanders.

The foundation for the crimes at Abu Ghraib was laid more than two years ago, when Mr. Rumsfeld instituted a system of holding detainees from Afghanistan not only incommunicado, without charge, and without legal process, but without any meaningful oversight mechanism at all. Brushing off his violation of the Geneva Conventions, Mr. Rumsfeld maintained that the system was necessary to extract important intelligence. But it was also an invitation to abuses -- and reports of those abuses have been appearing since at least December 2002, when a Post story reported on harsh "stress and duress" interrogation techniques bordering on physical torture
© 2004 The Washington Post Company

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Horrible Scrabble Hands

YYMQIIA

LLLJWZR

and we thought we had it hard.

Monday, May 03, 2004

The New Yorker: TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB (Disturbing)

About… intelligence and WMD.

Actually, let me rephrase it.

About… intelligence and WMD and March Madness.

Bush then turned to Tenet and said, "I've been told all this intelligence about having WMD and this is the best we've got?"
"It's a slam dunk case," Tenet replied, throwing his arms in the air.
Bush pressed him again. "George, how confident are you."
"Don't worry, it's a slam dunk case," Tenet repeated.


From "Plan of Attack" by Bob Woodward.