In "Kerry to filibuster Alito."

Judge Alito received the highest rating ("well qualified") from the American Bar Association - twice. He has served on an appellate court for 15 years. The Third Branch, by original design, is supposed to be free of politics. Attempts to block or fillibuster an experienced and qualified candidate are a political action, and not fulfillment of a constitutional duty.

In "Herblock's History"

via Khoi Vinh's website. But don't tell anybody.

In "Curious George: Favourite Christmas Memories"

I was riding with my 11-year-old on a Monday morning back in late October when, out of nowhere, he said, "Christmas is everything kids wait for." I thought that was rather profound, so I asked him where he'd heard or read it before. He said nowhere, he had just thought of it himself at that moment, looking out the window. I thought that was cool. "It's (the White Witch) that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!" -- "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", chapter 2

In "Daws Butler - Voice Magician"

Be sure to listen to the Bob Edwards interview. So much good stuff there. Like Albert Einstein excusing himself from a meeting so he could watch "Beanie & Cecil". Truly the Golden Age.

In "Curious George: Calming Corporate IT"

Scott Berkun, who worked on the UI for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, has switched to Firefox and tells why.

In "Curious George: Don't Supersize Me"

The problem is, there is a solution ("The idea finally came to me, out there in the broiling sun, and when I gave it to my client over the phone, she gasped."). There is something that McDonalds could do on the outside of their stores to overcome the problem, but they have not done so ("Every time I drive by a McDonald’s, I look to see if they embraced my strategy or adopted any of my recommendations. Five years later, they haven’t done a thing.").

In "Robert Anton Wilson,"

In reading the article/interview, I was surprised by his religious bigotry, for one who is supposed to be so smart. To claim that all of the world's ills are owed to those of faith is insupportable by history. Even today, nearly 2/3 of scientists say they believe in God. Although they may not conduct their research or perform their duties because of their faith, they do not see science and belief in God as enemies, as Wilson does. Opinions are one thing. Re-writing history is another.

In "Vietnamese Writer Won't Be Silenced"

Re: my use of tinyurl: I tried putting the New York Times URL in my post, and Monkeyfilter rejected it. It said something like the URL was longer than 125 characters, and it would not allow the post. So I used tinyurl. In my link, I identified it as NYT (New York Times). I probably should have prefixed the other link with "NYT" too, just to help further identify it. But it was SFW; tinyurl was the only way to post; I was impressed with the (all-too-brief) NYT article; had never heard of the author; and found it all interesting. Others, obviously, can disagree.

In "Curious George: Hosting comparison"

This does not help MoneyJane, but I will comment in general. I have gone through probably 8 webhosts over the past 10 years. I run my WinNT server with The Planet / ServerMatrix and do not think I will ever leave. But you have the whole server, not shared webhost. MonkeyFilter.com lives at The Planet too. I also have a VC account, for my PHP-based sites, with TextDrive. They also run their servers at The Planet's DC in Dallas. These are shared webhosted sites and they are tops in doing services right. Plus it helps the development community. For service and bottom-line cost, these two cannot be beat.

In "Curious George: Nutritional Supplements"

Forget SideDish's 10. I'll give you 20!

In "Help a monkey out"

This is a futile attempt. Thanks to the vast left-wing conspiracy of the SCOTUS, West Hollywood will just end up confiscating Irv's and selling it to McDonalds.

In "Richard Brautigan True Stories"

Props, Chyren. It was like watermelon sugar.

In "Curious George: Bypassing the IT Guy ..."

Have your "friend" install VNC server on his computer at home, and VNC client at work. Leave the computer on at home and then VNC in from work, accessing the entire Internet via the home PC. Or you, I mean "your friend", could setup a VPN, for added security (so the home PC isn't hacked).

In "Your online entertainment haven."

Sorry. I guess I just don't know how to use the Search function. Before posting, I searched for "compfused.com" and it returned nothing. That's why I thought this was a new post.

In "Wal-Mart and Gnosticism."

I guess I wasn't smoking the same stuff as Tim and John, so this blog post made absolutely no sense to me. Let's see... promote monotheism in a polytheistic world; be persecuted and killed by the tens of thousands by a world government you have no intention of overthrowing; do not accumulate personal wealth, but rather share everything that you have with others in need; shun the physical pleasures of hedonism; and teach that everyone and anyone can have the same thing (unlike the elitism of gnosticism which SlightlyFoxed correctly identified). Oh yes. It is all so clear to me now why Christianity became so popular after 300 years and how it is so much like 21st century Wal-Mart.

In "Was the U.S. really founded as a "Christian nation"?"

Opinion, masquerading as fact. But, it is an opinion piece, after all. If you define the "Founding Fathers" as those who signed the Declaration, Articles of Confederacy and/or the Constitution, and you read the autobiographies or biographies by these men's contemporaries (not the revisionist ones of today), read the 9-volume set from James Madison (The Writings of James Madison), etc., etc. - in other words, an honest, historical perspective - I believe you would come to a different, though unpopular here, conclusion. At least she had the decency to call them the "Founding Fathers" and not the liberally correct nom du jour, "Founders".

In "Musical Signs"

THANKS for posting that. Of course, you know I will never be able to listen to that song again now without thinking of this.

In "2004: The year in photographs"

Thanks for posting this. We are used to seeing only sensational photos. While some of these were dramatic, the mundane ones reminded me of all that the Army personnel have to go through just to be prepared (the trek through Alaska, covering yourself in dirt in Germany, etc.).

In ""

As far as your question is concerned, the answer is: yes. "Quid pro quo" has been with us long before Latin was a dead language. Most political groups -- liberal, moderate or conservative -- have this expectation, and have used it as a tool of persuasion and pressure. Nothing new here.

In "On December 30, 1972 at 9:22 p.m. a plane took off from San Juan, Puerto Rico."

I meant December 31, 1972.

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