This is discouraging, as another large IT project in the UK has suffered a major setback and public black eye. The first was not even released — a proposed upgrade to the NHS system to make it more publicly accessible.
Link: BBC NEWS | UK | Benefits computer failure chaos.
And these are NOTHING compared to the disaster that is the IRS database upgrade.
Need I say more?
Courtesy of Hugh MacLeod
Link: Press Release – Food Gifts Can Be Mailed To The United States.
The USPS and FDA are protecting those of us in the US from Rogers Chocolates!
It is important to note that homemade foods are exempt from this prior notice requirement and travelers bringing food items with them, for personal use into the United States are not required to file prior notice.
So, if you want to send your correspondent foodstuffs this year, you will have to prepare them yourself.
Link: AlterNet: Free Speech Online.
So, Tort Reform will benefit all Americans, right George?
Link: The Vision Thing: RSS Revisited.
RSS has reached the point for me personally, that if your site isn’t available via RSS, you’re dead to me. Seriously. There are some exceptions, but by and large, I like the self-contained nature of BlogLines and like to read through my list of 50+ feeds in a single sitting. Less browse, more peruse.
Amen, brother.
When Americans ask how our political system differs from theirs, I say that Canadians have an elected dictatorship. They seem aghast to hear the British Parliamentary system described this way, but when the governing party has a clear majority, that’s what it is.
Right now, the minority government does give the other parties some power, but Big Pauly is still the "head of the family".
Link: Yahoo! News – Hockey Night in Canada theme composer launches lawsuit against CBC.
Of course, the true Canadian National Anthem is this…Northwest Passage
Stan Rogers
Chorus:
Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.
Westward from the Davis Strait ’tis there ’twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died;
Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones.1
Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his “sea of flowers” began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.
And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.
How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again.
1 “Not until 1859 did the last search party, led by Leopold McClintock, find
the cairn containing messages confirming Franklin’s death, and skeletons of
some of the last survivors, some of whom had apparently resorted to
cannibalism. According to a note found in the cairn at Point Victory, “Sir
John Franklin died on 11th June 1847″ at a point when only 24 men had thus
far died.”
— The Franklin Expedition: 1845-1859
Samantha found this in the Best of Craigs List. I post it here, verbatim. The metaphor is fantastic.
The Country is bound for one LONG walk of shame. America, the once beautiful, is slowly making its way back to its apartment, still wearing last night’s clothes. The country has sex hair, and can taste its own breath.
Yes, there’s nothing like an election to make you feel cheap and used, and you just KNOW that W, much like the deranged Frat boy that he is, is high-fiving his buddies, retelling the story of how he fucked the country so hard, and damned if he doesn’t think that he could probably goad her into giving it up again, only next time he’ll get her so drunk and confused he’ll be able to take her in the ass.
We, the few, the proud, the 48%, sit here scratching our heads, considering our country for the naive sorority sister that it is. America, you knew better. You’ve seen him do this before. You’ve been this girl before. And you know he’s fucking Iraq right now. Doesn’t that make you feel cheap? To Give yourself up this smug idiot when you know the whole time that he’s sticking his dick where it OBVIOUSLY doesn’t belong. Do you really think what you did was safe? I mean, we know outright that you didn’t protect yourself last night.
But We have to bear in mind that last night was not a one shot job. He didn’t slip the country a good old fashioned dose of ruhypnol and let her fall unknowingly into his arms. This time around there was no rape, no theft. No my friends, we’ve been watching this for months. Convincing her that he had her best interests in mind. Convincing her naive fly-over states that they might be the next ones to be targeted by terrorists (yeah Jim-Bob, because its your fucking Walmart that Osama Bin Laden wants to blow sky high, because he “Hates Your Freedom”. Right. And on that “Hating Democracy and Freedom” point, why have none of the neutral nations been attacked? just asking. but back to extended metaphor).
You should have listened to New York America. We were the ones hit hardest by 9/11. And we could have told you, in fact DID tell you all night last night as you were eyeing him across the room not to do it, that he was a prick and a liar, and would most likely just steal from your purse to buy some coke, fuck you and leave you worse off than you already were. But like a woman with an abusive husband, America fell for the lies, fell for the promises that things are going to get better, that he only abuses us because he really loves us (and God forbid, that Jesus told him to do it). America fell for the bullshit.
And now, she’s on the way home. Sore, tired, and with considerably less self respect than she had yesterday.
I don’t know what the future holds. but after a night like last night spent with a dirty prick like Him, you have no idea what manner of political genital warts you may have contracted, no idea what might be lying latent just waiting to pop up and threaten your safety, your way of life, your well being. I mean, there are plenty of other countries out there to start a war with! and I’m willing to bet that none of those we choose will be home to Osama Bin Laden (who was that again? oh yeah, the guy we were supposed to find 4 years ago. But again, I digress.)
So, my fellow Democrats, we weep. Let’s be big about it though. It’s over. Lets get back to watching him destroy the country, the economy, our status in the world, our Constitutional rights. Because in 4 years (Provided we’re all still here) we can look all of our fellow Americans who just HAPPENED to have voted for him (because, like our slutty friends who take one night stands with abusive men, we can always forgive our fellow americans) in the face and say “Hey, I Told You So”. Cold comfort, but the asshole in me sees it as the best I can hope for right now.
And Shame on You America. You let yourself be used. Get your ass home, take a shower, and put on the hap-hap-happiest fucking face you can. Cause Tomorrow you have to face the world, and they ALL know what you did last night.
Link: Bob Shrum – Disinfopedia.
Bob Shrum is the worst thing to happen to the Democratic party since “Southern Democrats”. The party has this completely bizarre faith that this person — who is now 0 for 8 in campaigns — can lead them to the promised land.
GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF THE SAND.
Karl Rove has your number, has you cornered, and this dinosaur from the Kennedy era has got to be retired.
It’s over. The New Deal is dead. Camelot is gone. Carter is a great “statestman”. Clinton is eating fries and taking aspirin.
I vote that we send Bob Shrum somewhere where he can do a lot of good for democracy — Iraq. Then the Democrats will be able to start with a clean slate.
I keep hearing that the latest and greatest wave in technology for the home PC is the ability to have more powerful file and data search tools to help you find grandma’s picture which got stored in some oddball directory last year.
I would use these in an instant, except for two concerns.
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