What type of degree did host alex trebek earn at University of Ottawa? (asked with five different phrasings.)
Philosophy.

my girlfriend sprained her ankle
Sorry to hear about it. Hope she recovers.

who s ted kaczynski
A mathematical genius.

who has more red bool cells?!woman or man!?
What’s a “bool”?

What carpenter tool is spelled the same way forwards and backwords?
Oh Come On! Was this an “NPR Weekedn Edition” Word Quiz or something? You can’t just google up answers — that’s cheating!

pronounce disheveled
I just did. Unfortunately I don’t have the technology to provide you the file to hear me doing so.

byrd alabama popular vote 1960 new york times
Seriously, although Harry Byrd received Alabama’s electoral votes, I do not believe he received a single popular vote. The voter in Alabama and Mississippi had on the ballot a choice between “Democrat: Kennedy – Johnson”, “Republican: Nixon – Lodge”, and “Uncommitted Democratic Slate”. Or at least so is my understanding. I know Mississippi had it that way. The last slate won, and Alabama’s and Mississippi’s delegates then tried to sway the election to Harry Byrd in a historical footnote that has some resonance in that it’s a bump on the way to the transformation of the “Solid South” from Democratic to Republican control.

congressman ciro rodriguez picture with the taliban
Nasty election campaign if indeed such a thing was used. What — is this the new way of opposition research? Try googling “Ciro Rodriguez sex with corpse” next time… maybe your victory will be by a larger margin.

prescott bush blames catholics senate race loss
Yes. Prescott Bush, in his 1950 run for the Senate seat from Connecticut, lost because of a last-minute attack by his opponent over his support for Planned Parenthood — and the Catholic Church policy is against Planned Parenthood.

southern democrats who turned against their party s wet catholic nominee and voted for the republican in 1938
Wrong year. 1928. I’ve covered that one already.

paul hackett shirtless
Sigh. Probably looks better than his political opponent. Either one.

character descriptions in the tales of two cities
I’m not going to do your homework for you.

Why did president bush fall in disfavor with the american republic regarding the port dubai?
He fell in disfavor with the American Republic long before the Port Dubai Deal. Something to do with the word “Republic” and the tango between “Republic” and “Empire” that is always going on with the nation at large.

deadhead sticker
I saw one on a Cadillac the other day.

internaional events that happened when george h w bush was in office
Hm. Soviet Union fell. Gorbachev tried to stop it. Yeltsin jumped atop a tank, which was the last time he showed any type of Stamina. Meanwhile, in the Middle East…

william seward
Good man.

gordon pross
I’ll have the word on his latest election campaign as soon as it comes down the pack. You know, he emailed me once. Corrected a typo.

read write think vinn diagram
I assume “think” would be in the middle?

dead stuffed birds
I saw a dead stuffed bird in the spot (in front of the fur shop) where the PETA type folks protest every Saturday. I didn’t know its significance.

is patrick quinn the third a member of skull and bones
As near as I can tell, yes. But don’t quote me on that just yet.

but it is difficult to tell what the context here could possibly be. Frankly, even if you knew the context the photograph still doesn’t make any sense.

We may not know which of the deadly strains of the bird flu will eventually hit the U.S. But Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is offering a rather specific warning about how to prepare for the disease. He urges Americans to buy extra cans of tuna and powdered milk and stash them under the bed to get ready.

Thank you to the Rick Emerson Show, 12-3 on “Johnson 970” here in Portland, Oregon, for some insight into Mike Leavitt’s proposal on how to prepare for the Avian Flu. It’s good to have the Rick Emerson Show back on the air, or I would not have had this insight into the levers of control in our government.

Mike Leavitt is a former Governor of Utah (The first incarnation of The Rick Emerson Show — or perhaps it’s best to say the embryonic form of The Rick Emerson Show– had Rick broadcasting from Salt Lake, so that would be how he knows Leavitt), and therein lies your hint.

Back in 1998 and 1999, the Art Bell Show had an advertiser selling a years’ worth of supplies to prepare yourself for the ensuing Y2K Crisis. The Y2K Frightenees being a Secular version of a Millenial Cult — as though the “experts” wouldn’t get to work and return everything back to normal if everything went awry. In one version of the ad, Art Bell made the comment “The Company is located in Utah, and that should tell you something.”

Subtle enough, but it must have left any number of Insomniacs and Paranoids confused. So, in a later version of the ad, Art Bell made the comment, “Located in Utah, and the Mormons know how to prepare!”

So, basically our nation’s Health and Human Services Secretary is giving advice working off habits formed by an understanding that there will be a one-year fight between Satan where you will need one year’s supply of tuna under your bed. Perhaps Satan will come in through the guise of those Birds that are expected to attack and infect us sometime in the near future.

(Do I need to provide a disclaimer that, while I find the religion — as I do all or most religions — a bit nutty, I’ve never personally known a Mormon I didn’t respect? Okay, there it is — whether I need to provide it or not.)

There was a bit of a debate on the Reason Magazine “Hit and Run” blog as to whether Scott Adams, cartoonist behind Dilbert, is a Libertarian or not. This was based on Scott Adams’s posting of a Political Positioning survey, and possibly some cartoons as well.

My answer is, sure, why not? Case in point, from about a month ago:

My question is: (1) Does Scott Adams believe what he drew here? Or, to what degree does Scott Adams believe what he drew?

I used to think I was a cynic. I have since realized that I have a few ideals, and am therefore not a cynic. The answer to the question “To what degree do I believe what Scott Adams drew here?” is not much?

To Scott Adams’s credit, everybody knows what it means when someone says that they are working in “Dilbertville”, and Dilbert makes excellent office satire. And to its credit, the next day Dilbert returned to its credible office satire, and all was well in Dilbertville once again.

Let’s pretend that we have a President who robs a bank, and then unloads a machine gun full of bullets on the pedesterians outside the bank as he makes his get-away back to the Oval Office, killing a half dozen people and wounding a half dozen more.

Let’s say that a Senator from the other party, maybe someone from Wisconsin, says something on a Sunday Morning Chattering Political-oriented television show something to the effect of “The President done bad here.”

Now, in this hypothetical situation, let’s say another Senator, let’s call him Bill Frist, gives the response of “I hope Iran isn’t watching this. This lack of support for our commander in chief is sending a terrible signal toward our enemies.”

What am I supposed to do, in this hypothetical situation, with Bill Frist’s comments?

Perhaps you heard the exciting news that Bill Frist placed first in an informal poll of 2008 presidential hopefuls at a Republican conference Saturday night in Tennessee. Wow. This does wonders to his campaign. The way I see it, Bill Frist is now in fourth place in the Republican Nomination process for their Republican Nominee two years hence… behind George Allen… behind John McCain… behind Mitt Romney.

The latest New York Times Magazine has a cover story on who would be right now the Second Place in the Democratic Party’s Nominating Process, two years out… and Boy Oh Boy I can see that the nation is gripped by this nominating process!!

Okay, so I read through about a third of the piece on Virginia Governor Mark Warner, before stopping myself because of its lack of any information I care to know. He seems to have some assets (and keep in mind, I’m not ever going to vote for or otherwise more nebulously “Support” someone based on how I perceive everyone else might vote), and some detractions. But I stopped myself when the article ran down the list of why every other Democratic nominee can’t win… (after I pondered the description of Al Sharpton as a prototype “African American protest candidate”, making me wonder if it’s possible to have an African American candidate that is not the “African American protest candidate” — are we waiting for Barack Obama to fill that void?)

and that the populist Russ Feingold has currency mostly as a protest candidate.

Sigh. Am I doomed to root for the candidate the Establishment deems the “protest candidate” of the lot… in perpetuity? What makes Feingold merely and impossibly nothing but a “Protest Candidate”?

He’s in the news today for calling for the Censure of President Bush for his illegal and unconstitutional wire-tapping. Political, ain’t it? This week, we watched a con take place where the Congress decided to back-track and sanction what was a usurption of powers by the President. That was a con-act. And to say it was apparently is to “protest”, and thus marginilize yourself to that… as you wait for the real actors to jump onto the stage..

I note the comment on this web-based video promo for the return of the Rick Emerson Show from an ignorant one, name of sphereboy What is this crap?

AND… on this blog’s list of “50 things every Portlander MUST do”:

3. Wonder aloud about who Rick Emerson is, what he does exactly and why everyone you know loves him.

I’m more of a Tim Riley fan myself. But I guess saying that is like voting for a vice president. In the second hour, he’s competing against Keith Olbermann’s daily appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, so I guess if he goes in a direction in the second hour I care not for I can just switch back and forth for a while.

I notice that everyone connected with the show tells us it’ll be broadcast on a CBS affiliate as opposed to that Conglomerate whose name escapes me right now owned by Viacom which is connected with CBS which also runs the “Jack” station, which took over an affiliate in Seattle at the same time the Corporate Conglomerate I will call Enterscum brought in a “Charlie” station, which knocked the station that broadcast Rick Emerson.

Ah well. That’s show business for you. All Hail the … Verion #5.

I have been informed that Dwight D. Eisenhower would not have been the chosen Leader of the United States after the overthrow of President Henry Wallace in 1945. Who would it be then?

I believe the USA, during a really bad war with the Germans, would not have gone for the Germanic name to be appointed as your Presidential What-if. I remember there was a bit of controversy when Eisenhower was promoted over a whole raft of Full-Colonels in the Regular Army but since the next REALLY GOOD MAN in line right behind him at that time was named Krueger, General Marshall went ahead and appointed Ike to the European job and shipped Krueger out to the Pacific to work with/for MacArthur.

I believe in line with your What-if that someone of the type you mentioned would have been chosen but that man would habe been General George Marshall, who had every attribute needed for any high office up to and including President, AND, he did not have a Germanic name as so many of our high-ranking Army/Navy Officers did at that time. Believe me, that was an important thing, then.

Bah De Bah Bah. Somehow my idea of the collisions of that nebulous “Powers that Be” brokering in our real onto Ike — a man for both political parties who’d see the construction of the war machine through– as they would in the alternate history under considerably different circumstances has been destroyed. Ah well. Live and Learn. All hail, quote-in-quote “President” George Marshall, I guess.

Update: On second thought, this would work out okay. You know… the “Marshall Plan”? The idea is that the alter-reality will work out to a point where it will easily converge back into our own reality, so our reality in 2006 would be identical in both.

South Dakota state SenatorBILL NAPOLI describes what the exceptions are to to the Abortion ban: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

Virginal Religious Rape victims, and the Rape has to be of the Worst Possible Sort. And this worst possible rape has to involve sodomy. Got that? The state, I suppose, gets to decide whether you are religious or not. And my guess is in the deep red states, religious is defined by how committed you are to various brands of Christianity. You had to have been really raped… there are degrees of rape in consideration here. First Degree Rape, Second Degree Rape, Third Degree Rape. Somewhere along the line, Sodomy is in the picture… you got it up the ASS. Got that? Didn’t get it up the Ass — Nope, sorry, no Abortion. You have to be a Virgin. (Perhaps we can extend Rick Santorum’s “Ring Thing” Virgin Pledge for High School Students on into adulthood, to tell the Virgins from the non-Virgins?) So, non-virgins (re: Sluts… asking for it, really) who have been raped in the worst possible way… nope, not in the Exception.

Hm. This is insanity. I almost wish they’d could just go ahead and go to that Alan Keyes-position of “Nope. No Exceptions. Life. Sacred. Raped? Not sacrifing the fetus for the Rape Victim. Sory. No Exceptions.”

Though even Alan Keyes… Okay. This I heard somewhere or other, and other people who heard it can probably tell me where. You’re in a burning building. You have the opportunity to rescue one or the other: a 2-month old baby, or 5 petri-dishes. I guess if you rescue the 5 petri dishes, you are rescuing 5 human lives instead of just one if you choose the baby, right? RIGHT??? Even Alan Keyes would probably choose the born baby here.

In 2003, Multnomah County made national news for including the fictional Star Trek language Klingon on a list of 55 tongues the county was prepared to translate for mental-health patients.

And that provides fodder for the latest “Ted Wheeler for County Commissioner” ad. “Common Sense for —-” has to be the most common, tedious and vague campaign slogan — and goshdarnedit if Ted Wheeler isn’t going to battle away the Uncommon Sense and tear of his opponent — the “Klingon Translator” miscue being overshadowed in Linn’s tenure by the more hard-to-get-into-the-picture “Hey! Let’s marry some gay people!” tact.

The problem with the “Klingon Translator” story is it’s too damned easy. It’s in the vein of the story of the woman who sued McDonalds for scalding hot coffee. In the popular imagination of the incident, we imagine the litiguous society out of control. Nevermind the details.

79 year old Stella Liebeck suffered third degree burns on her groin and inner thighs while trying to add sugar to her coffee at a McDonalds drive through. Third degree burns are the most serious kind of burn. McDonalds knew it had a problem. There were at least 700 previous cases of scalding coffee incidents at McDonalds before Liebeck’s case. McDonalds had settled many claim before but refused Liebeck’s request for $20,000 compensation, forcing the case into court. Lawyers found that McDonalds makes its coffee 30-50 degrees hotter than other restaurants, about 190 degrees. Doctors testified that it only takes 2-7 seconds to cause a third degree burn at 190 degrees. McDonalds knew its coffee was exceptionally hot but testified that they had never consulted with burn specialist. The Shriner Burn Institute had previously warned McDonalds not to serve coffee above 130 degrees. And so the jury came back with a decision- $160,000 for compensatory damages. But because McDonalds was guilty of “willful, reckless, malicious or wanton conduct” punitive damages were also applied. The jury set the award at $2.7 million. The judge then reduced the fine to less than half a million. Ms. Liebeck then settled with McDonalds for a sum reported to be much less than a half million dollars. McDonald’s coffee is now sold at the same temperature as most other restaurants.

The Klingon Translator story has a similar effect. It’s a little too easily sensationalized for its own good. In the end, our would-be-hired Klingon Translator, a man who regularly sang at “Klingon Karaoke ” at Bodacious Classics, would have tossed out his irregular, rarely needed service for free. For Mental Patients, mind you. Give me enough time and I will find you a case where a mentally deeply troubled individual refuses to speak, and internalized, any other language except that stupid science fiction language made real — Klingon.

So Ted Wheeler is a demagogue. Screw him. Re-elect Dianne Linn. If nothing else, she stuck her neck out for Gay marriage.