I still haven't read any of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest), but, what with the 23 December release of the U.S. movie adaptation of the first book, directed by David Fincher (Alien 3, se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin ( Read more... )

EDITED on Friday, 18 August 2006 / 0814 EDT: to add a wee bit of context in the opening sentence.
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Last Friday, 11 August -- the day after air travel in and between the U.S. and the UK was thrown into chaos by the banning of all aerosols, atomizers and liquids (including gels) ( Read more... )

Yesterday (Wednesday, 24 May), one of National Public Radio's (NPR's) hourly newscasts (I think it was the one that aired at 11:00 a.m. EDT) played a clip from a speech that the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, gave on Tuesday, 23 May, discussing DHS's preparedness plans for the 2006 hurricane season. The clip ( Read more... )

Somewhere, George Orwell is saying, "See? I told you so," as he dourly takes another drink.

On 22 July 2005, in a tragic case of mistaken identity, a special team of London's Metropolitan Police ("Met" for short), pumped seven bullets into the head (seven to the head, one to the shoulder) of a Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, on ( Read more... )

Last Saturday, 3 September, doghousereilly linked to an article on BoingBoing which pointed out that an Army Times story published on 2 September referred to some of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans as "insurgents" because they committed violence against the troops sent to aid and relocate them. Xeni Jardin, the technology correspondent for NPR ( Read more... )

Here's Paul Krugman's editorial from the Friday, 2 September 2005 New York Times, commenting on the federal government's lackluster and wholly inadequate response to the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast region of the U.S., particularly the travesty of "relief" tendered to New Orleans. Behind the cut.

( This is what we get from a C.E.O. president?? )