The YDD Annex

YDD problems

2009-11-17T23:50:00.004-06:00

The YDD site (click this post's title) is flaky tonight, apparently due to a problem with my web host. Sometimes the blog is visible; sometimes not. I'll probably move back to it as soon as I'm able, but at the moment, this is my only accessible YDD-related blog that actually works tonight. I'll write more when I know it...

UPDATE: the YDD seems to be working again.

UPDATE: My web host has scheduled maintenance this Friday Nov. 20 from 11:00am to 5:00pm CST. If anything urgent occurs to me, I'll post it here during those hours.

Preliminary Ike Post

2008-09-09T21:46:00.001-06:00

There are no Hurricane Ike-related posts yet. If I am forced to post away from home, it is much easier for me to post here than on the YDD. I'll notify you there before I begin posting here.

Temporary Comment Thread

2008-06-01T17:14:00.001-06:00

While HaloScan isn't working, please write your YDD comments on the thread to this post.

YDD Up Again For Now

2008-03-12T19:44:00.001-06:00

The YDD appears to be up again. The host is replacing a lot of hardware tonight; do not be surprised if there are more outages.

YDD Appears To Be Down Again

2008-03-12T18:51:00.003-06:00

Wednesday around 8pm CDT. Domain is found, but site never loads in the browser. No word yet from the host's status site; it says everything is OK... but Bryan's Why Now? is also not loading.

I'll keep everyone informed here. Sorry for the ongoing problems.

UPDATE: here's a bit from the notice on our host's status site:

One of our fileservers has choked under the increased load. This has wiped out a few of our content (web) servers.

They're still having to add replacement hardware for all of that which was destroyed in the great power outage a few days ago. Stay tuned. If this takes more than, say, 2 hours, I'll resume blogging here.

YDD Coming Back Online

2008-03-09T22:22:00.002-06:00

The YDD is coming online now. I'll wait a few minutes before transferring the posts below onto the YDD. Keep your fingers crossed that this does not ever, ever happen again.

Drugs In Drinking Water

2008-03-09T20:28:00.004-06:00

A lot of us are consuming them. A lot more of us don't know whether we are or are not consuming them. Houston is among the places that haven't tested for tiny amounts of prescription and other drugs in their water supply, and a lot of providers simply aren't telling their customers. Here's a report of the AP study linked above:

AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water

By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD – 9 hours ago

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.
But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.
...
Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.
...

Please read the rest of the AP article for details on how this happens. Your first guess is probably the correct one.

(Again, this will be cross-posted to the YDD when that is possible.)

Palast Tells Real Story Of Exxon Valdez

2008-03-09T20:00:00.004-06:00

And it's much nastier than the "drunken pilot" story Exxon popularized. Read of Exxon's internally acknowledged intentions of out-waiting the locals in Valdez, lawyering the Alaskans' claims until they died... which has happened now in some of the Exxon Valdez cases.

As I age, I am beginning to see that the rise of large corporations, coupled with the legal concept of "corporate personhood," is among the most pernicious things America has created in the short span of its existence. I've worked for the damned things for much of my career, including oil companies (never Exxon, but that's just by chance, and I do not see them as materially different from one another), and sometimes, when I read stories like this, I feel I have much to answer for. I know, at least, that Exxon has much to answer for.

Oh, did I mention that the story refers to (wince) McCain?

---
(To be posted on the YDD when it revives.)

Armed Cathouse

2008-03-09T18:33:00.002-06:00

Greg Palast's book, Armed Madhouse, has a section on just how the GOP is going to steal the 2008 presidential election in November. It's really pretty simple, because it consists of extensions of several techniques used to steal sElection 2000 and sElection 2004: caging, challenges and the "disappearing" of votes, not by the hundreds as we thought in 2000, but by the millions. Whose votes get "lost"? Why, of course, they're not all African Americans' votes... just most of 'em. Many of the rest are the votes of elderly Jewish voters.

Who benefits? Palast's title reflects a line from a poem by his teacher, the late Allen Ginsberg: "The soul should not die ungodly in an armed madhouse." How prophetic. But today's neocons and corporate whores are interested, not in prophets, but in profits. Spend all the money, all the efforts, all the reputation of the United States of America on endless war, unceasing for a hundred years or more as McCain instructs us, and you visit the corporate whore defense contractors in their armed cathouse. It is my opinion that America's soul should not die ungodly in the Bushists' armed cathouse.

----

(Some version of this post will be reproduced on the YDD when it is online again.)

And... We're Off. Again.

2008-03-09T15:21:00.003-06:00

Apparently my host's MySQL server is blowing drives, so that they are having to replace the entire server. As always, I have a complete local backup of the YDD, including the pair of posts I managed to put up during the short time window in which things were working. Again, apologies. Not their fault; not my fault... but the blog is still not up. If the YDD is down for long enough, I'll resume blogging here.

Service Restored On YDD

2008-03-09T12:35:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure exactly when it came back up, but the YDD is working again, and it appears the site is complete.

Power Outage On YDD Host

2008-03-09T09:35:00.003-06:00

The YDD site is down because someone turned the power off to the hosting company's entire building (located in another state), without notifying my hosting company. It looks pretty bad as far as damage done to their servers, so it may take a few more hours for them to fix it.

If the YDD comes up displaying an earlier version, please have patience; I have a complete local copy of the blog, and will restore it to its current state from immediately before the power outage.

Back To The YDD

2007-09-11T23:04:00.000-06:00

It's time to go back to the YDD now. Thanks for following me over here; now please follow me back...

Troop Cuts In Iraq - WHEN?

2007-09-11T20:04:00.000-06:00

Via TPM, here's an AP story that caught my attention:

Officials: Bush to announce troop cut

Summary Box: Officials Say Bush Will Adopt Petraeus' Recommendations on Troop Withdrawals

The Associated Press
AP News

Sep 11, 2007 16:46 EDT

UPCOMING ADDRESS: President Bush will tell the nation this week he plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by about 30,000 by next summer, The Associated Press has learned.

CONDITIONAL CUTS: But he will condition those and further cuts on continued progress.

ENDORSEMENT: In a prime-time television address, probably Thursday, Bush will endorse the recommendations of his top general and top diplomat in Iraq.

He'll do what? when?

Next summer equals a year from now? Our armed forces will be eviscerated by then; what good will it do to withdraw troops after hundreds (thousands?) more are dead, and that much more equipment is destroyed? And... condition the cuts on continued progress? Isn't that exactly backwards? If Iraq is a quagmire, a nation in a civil war, shouldn't the lack of progress indicate a withdrawal of troops?

Welcome to Wonderland. That's most definitely the world through the looking-glass that Mr. Bush is describing.

The Real Meaning Of September 11

2007-09-11T18:31:00.000-06:00

My calendar informs me that this is Patriot Day. That must be so, because it is the birthday of Mad Kane, and I know of no greater patriot than Ms. Kane.

Have a happy one, Mad. May you live to see many more birthdays, and happier times than these.

Buy The Numbers

2007-09-11T11:18:00.000-06:00

Or don't. I don't.

Spencer Ackerman has some things to say about Petraeus's methodology, his numbers, possible reasons why those numbers differ from the GAO's, etc.

Ackerman is right to ask the questions about the numbers, but regarding the methodology, there's only one significant fact: it's a secret. That's right. Petraeus tells us, "Two US intelligence agencies recently reviewed our methodology, and they concluded that the data we produce is the most accurate and authoritative in Iraq."

OK. What methodology? Which agencies? Simple questions, right? Hard to argue that that much is a matter of national security. Why shouldn't we get to know the answers?

Government, like warfighting, is not a science in the usual sense of the term. But when they use statistical methods to gather information that supports one or another course of action in a war, the public has a right to know what those methods are, and what numbers are cranked through those methods. In that one sense, government, using statistics, is a science: one should be given enough information to reproduce the results or challenge them. That has always been the nature of science. And writers as far back as Thomas Jefferson have noticed the similarity, between science and an open society with a representative government, of openness of discussion and the requirement of reproducibility imposed on arguments. In both, you must show your work.

In this case, it's worse than that, though. Not only is Petraeus saying, "trust us," but the government whose position he is advocating... face it, his is a political errand, not a military one... has given us every reason not to trust them.

I urge you: Do it by the numbers, but don't buy the numbers being sold by the Bush administration through Gen. Petraeus. Are they right? wrong? Who knows! But absent our ability to confirm them independently, they have the same credibility as, say, lumber companies' position papers regarding forest conservation, oil companies' statements about global warming, etc. Purchase your numbers only from a reputable source, and check them yourself if possible.

Krugman Snarks

2007-09-11T09:28:00.000-06:00

... on TPMCafe. Here's a sample:

There’s only one word to describe Jon Chait’s book: shrill. I mean, how can Chait say that “American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists”? The cocktail-party circuit knows better.

Read the rest. Hey, if we can get straight news from Jon Stewart, why should Krugman not be a funny man when he chooses?

The MoveOn Ad

2007-09-11T08:44:00.000-06:00

According to TPM Election Central, the MoveOn ad (note: .pdf) that refers to Gen. Petraeus as "General Betray-us" has upset GOPers so much that they are attempting a House resolution condemning it. As one who has himself used the "Betray-us" pun... condemning Bush, not Petraeus... I feel a need to respond.

Is Gen. Petraeus a traitor? Of course not. His judgment in this matter is execrable, but I have no sense whatsoever that his is a willful act against the interest of the U.S., or any sort of aid and comfort to our enemies. That's simple BS. If you want arguably traitorous actions, look to the good General's boss, the one occupying the Oval Office.

Is Petraeus lying? I don't think so. He is probably seriously misguided himself, and he is being the "good soldier" in following what I am certain are Bush's orders to say what he said.

Is the ad tasteless? IMHO, yes, it is.

Does anyone saying anything critical of any public figure deserve a congressional resolution of condemnation? HELL, NO! Have the bastards never heard of free speech? Oh, right... many of them view the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as "quaint."

Count me as a constitutional fundamentalist if you will, but I don't think the GOP believes in fundamental American values anymore... you know, the ones embedded in that "scrap of paper," as Bush is reported to have called it.

Home Away From Home

2007-09-11T08:39:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the YDD-in-exile; thanks for making the trip. I presume that jdw (head honcho at my hosting company) is sleeping off the overnighter he pulled to move the service, physically, to a new location... a truly herculean task. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to restart the FTP and SFTP services on which I depend to post the YDD. So I'll be here at the YDD Annex until I can post the YDD.

You could say I'm fighting blog problems here so I won't have to fight them at home...

Delay in YDD Availability; Savage's Cheney Project

2007-09-10T23:07:00.001-06:00

Not surprisingly, it's taking my host longer to complete the transition to the new facilities than was anticipated... such things always contain unexpected obstacles. But based on the status site, they are making good progress.

While you wait, you may want to read a post at TPMCafe's Table for One by Charlie Savage called The Cheney Project, which gives some background on the breadth of scope and length of time (three decades!) over which Cheney's pursuit of, let's face it, a totalitarian American government has been in the works. I'll write on the subject later today (Tuesday) once the YDD site is reactivated.

----------

Well, this isn't fun. It's Tuesday morning, 7:40am CT, and the YDD just became visible, but I can't post to it yet. I'll try again in an hour or so. Apologies to all 2 of you who looked for me; thanks for the thought.

Scheduled YDD Outage Monday 9/10

2007-09-10T16:45:00.000-06:00

The YDD is unavailable while the host physically relocates servers to a new datacenter. The scheduled outage is in progress at about 6:00pm CDT and should be completed by sometime this evening.

Temporary Comments 200712

2007-07-26T14:26:00.000-06:00

Please use this thread if HaloScan comments are not working on the YDD site. It's probably worthwhile to name or describe the YDD post you are referring to. Remember to enter the word verification below before you publish.

Temporary Comment Thread

2006-12-11T23:14:00.000-06:00

Use the comment thread to this post while HaloScan is down on the YDD, or while the YDD itself is not visible on the internet.

Last known outages of the YDD:
* July 17, 2007, 7:54am CT. Host's network provider had major power failure. Recovery is in progress as I write this. There may be additional problems later this morning depending on results of filesystem checks.
* May 1, 2007, 1:28am CT. Host is having upstream network provider problems. Expect matters to be resolved by morning, if not sooner. (Issue resolved about 2:00am.)

Outage at the YDD

2006-09-21T07:34:00.000-06:00

It's Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006, and the regular YDD site (click the title of this post) is down, along with Bryan's Why Now, the News Writer's What It Is Today, and everyone else who shares that web host. If it doesn't come back up within a day, please look for me here.

Update: it looks like Blogger has a scheduled outage this afternoon at 4PM (what time zone??). And I have a scheduled outage right now; I'm a bit under the weather. Apparently this is just not my day to blog. I'll see you when I can.

Second update, 11:31am CT: my regular host is experiencing a DDoS attack directed against its DNS servers, hence the total invisibility of my domain. They're working on it.

Third update: the YDD site seems to be working again. If it vanishes again, please check here. Thanks for your patience.

Temporary Comment Thread

2006-01-10T11:21:00.000-06:00

Use the comment thread to this post while HaloScan is down on the YDD.

Back To The YDD

2005-09-26T09:37:00.000-06:00

The YDD Annex is closed for now. Please visit the main Yellow Doggerel Democrat site for further posts. I will leave the Hurricane Rita posts up here rather than moving them to the main YDD site, but I will close comments on them to reduce comment spam. I hope to see y'all on the main site!

"Gee, but it's great to be back home..." (Simon and Garfunkel)

Blog maintenance etc.

2005-09-25T22:39:00.000-06:00

The Yellow Doggerel Democrat site is almost ready to go again. I have never been one to release something until I had tested it at least a bit... "thoroughly" is usually out of the question in the real world, because of pressure from people who never tapped code in their lives, but I have the luxury on my own site of taking my time. Tomorrow (at least) I'll still be posting here. If I'm satisfied with the result, specifically, with the stability of my host's changes, I'll move back in. It's a bit like returning home after a hurricane evacuation: you may want to push on the beams a bit to make sure it doesn't topple over easily.

Today we entertained three "evacuees": Catherine and her cats Lotus and Mitchell. The power (and hence the air conditioning) was out at their house until late afternoon, and it was an unseasonably hot day... 98°F was the prediction. We all had a delightful visit. Stella cooked up some curried rice and vegetables with medallions of Quorn veggie roast; it was well beyond delicious. Lotus and Mitchell were very polite guests, though Mitchell, always a skittish kit, attempted an escape over the permanent shower curtain to... well, you'll have to ask him where he thought he was going; we stopped him before he landed in the tub. Many of you have seen pictures of Lotus; she is as affectionate and playful as she is beautiful. I entertained at the piano... once I got the piano set up and all the plugs in the right place again. That sucker is heavy: I don't know if it actually weighs more than the harpsichord, but the harpsichord is mostly air, and the digital piano... you get the idea.

One wishes there were more time for such visits; it's a shame it takes a hurricane to get us all together.

Bloglines On Possible FEC Blog Regulations

2005-09-25T19:02:00.000-06:00

You knew I had to post something political sooner or later... in this case, political but not partisan. Well, not too partisan...

Mark Fletcher, founder etc. etc. of Bloglines, the aggregator service I occasionally use, just testified before the Committee on House Administration about the FEC's review of whether or under what circumstances blogs should fall under campaign finance regulation. What he says is short and sensible; here's an excerpt:

We urge Congress and the FEC to ensure that the Internet, particularly blog activity, remains free from campaign finance regulation. While regulation of campaign financing plays an important role in maintaining public confidence in our political system, we believe the significant public policy interests in encouraging the Internet as a forum for free or low-cost speech and open information exchange should stand paramount.

Linking to campaign websites, quoting from or republishing campaign materials and even providing a link for donations to a candidate, if done without compensation, should not result in a blog being deemed to have made a contribution to a campaign or trigger reporting requirements.

Blogs permit the expression of and access to a diversity of political opinions and other information on a scale never before seen. This speech must remain free and not be discouraged by burdensome regulation. As such, it should be explicit that the activities of bloggers are covered by the press exemption of Sections 100.73 and 100.132.

Just so. My feelings about campaign finance regulations have always been mixed, in part because it is clear that the party of wealth will never allow a legal distinction between spending and speech. Of course the purported equivalency (most conservatives reference Buckley v. Valeo) is absurd; speech is speech and spending is spending. But as long as the alleged equivalency is made, there will be attempts to abuse the regulations to favor one party and suppress another. Guess which is which.

Democrats got pretty good at using the blogosphere in 2004 to connect the rank and file to candidates' campaigns, in some cases with substantial direct participation in campaigns (e.g., Kos) and in some cases just links to campaign and party sites (e.g., the YDD). Republicans have a lot more money, but were not in my opinion as sophisticated in their use of the right blogosphere... a well-oiled message machine, but not so much an effective campaign tool... as the Democratic Party and its candidates were in using the center-left blogosphere.

The Dems' success in fundraising etc. via the blogosphere provides an irresistible temptation to executive branch Republicans to squelch speech on blogs to shut down the Dems' source of funds by claiming a violation of campaign finance laws. Ultimately, though, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and the First Amendment is part of the Constitution. Suppressing Democratic speech about fundraising is unconstitutional.

The campaign finance laws contain a journalist exception. I've often said that bloggers by and large are not journalists, but for purposes of campaign finance law, the distinction is without a difference. Bloggers intend to convey information and opinion to the public. They must be allowed to do so unfettered by restrictions intended to cover baldfaced monetary influence of campaigns by interest groups. Any regulation of such is an infringment of free speech. Period.

And now we return to my regularly scheduled Rita recovery...

The Qualm After The Storm

2005-09-24T19:31:00.000-06:00

I'm having just a bit of survivor's guilt; many, many other people were and are affected far more dramatically than we are. On the other hand, I haven't called about my late parents' mobile home near Lake Livingston, TX yet...

Nothing of ours was damaged in the storm, and it's a good thing: I am fatigued beyond belief. Most of it is stress, and the rest is moving stuff, packing stuff, securing stuff, deciding what is essential and what is not, etc., then reversing the process with whatever is left after the storm... which in this case is everything.

But this was nowhere nearly as bad as any one storm Bryan experienced in recent years. And my heart goes out to the people in Lake Charles, LA and Beaumont, TX; they're the ones who got pounded.

I'll continue to post at the YDD Annex for a few days. My web host has the complete, current YDD site up now, but I can't access FTP or even receive email. They will be history the next time I have to renew; unfortunately, I just paid for a whole year last month.
Thanks for all your kind words as Rita approached; you really helped us both.

Checking In

2005-09-24T07:05:00.000-06:00

So far, so good. Stella, Tabitha, Samantha and I are safe. Wind and rain were less than anticipated. Heaven help the people in places more directly in the path of Rita; we were mostly spared. We're staying put in Stella's apartment; there may yet be rain bands and possibly significant flooding. I'll check in again when possible.

Aside to andante: it's kitchen blogging, not bathroom blogging. :) My ancient laptop will not fit in the bathroom, and the kitchen has both a power outlet and a phone jack.

Later, folks...

Shutting down

2005-09-23T09:48:00.000-06:00

I've stowed my own computer, and am about to do the same with Stella's. I hope the bathroom closet stays dry... the computers are on a high shelf. We're almost ready for this thing, if anyone can ever be said to be ready for a storm like this. Anyway, this is mostly to say that I'll soon be limited to what I can do with my laptop.

An aside: the YDD site is completely defunct at the moment. Don't even bother visiting. And for a while, you can't even send me email. I plan to fire up the laptop when there's power and a phone connection; you can leave messages on this thread if you like.

Thanks for all the kind words and offers of assistance. We appreciate that.

After All, It IS Friday

2005-09-23T01:12:00.000-06:00

At least someone is taking it all calmly...

Signing off for tonight at least

2005-09-23T00:06:00.000-06:00

I need to shut down my main computer so I can take it to Stella's early tomorrow morning. This is my last post for tonight, and possibly for a while. I wish I had Bryan's level of experience with preparing for a hurricane, but I wouldn't like the process of acquiring that experience that he has gone through!

It's showtime...

Right Turn

2005-09-22T17:46:00.000-06:00

The 4pm CT forecast is up, and this old liberal is uncharacteristically glad to see anything make a right turn. Of course it's all tentative, and even if the new forecast is correct, we'll still get hurricane force winds. But we can handle 90-100mph, and so can our apartments.

As always, if it works out that way, our fortune is still someone else's misfortune, and my thoughts and prayers are with everyone who gets the brunt of this storm. I just hope it stops shifting to the right before it reaches a point which would affect New Orleans.

Household Triage

2005-09-22T15:40:00.000-06:00

Consider all of your household possessions. Which ones could you bear never to see again? That is what I'm going through at the moment. Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands (a million?) Houston and coastal residents already evacuated, and a comparable number of those of us who are staying... it's a staggering amount of stuff to be decided upon. In my instance, I'm moving my essentials to Stella's place. I don't know if my criteria are interesting, but here they are, more or less:

* If it's huge but valuable, protect it and leave it. Both harpsichords and the digital piano are in their cases, on their stands and away from windows. It's the best I can do. I used my oldest working computer (vintage 1992) as a weight to stabilize the piano stand.

* If it is personally valuable, easily portable and irreplaceable, take it. A few photos are in that category; most of them, though, I'm wrapping thoroughly and stashing in closets. Recent photos, of course, are backed up on CDs; I'm taking those. My late father's paintings of course go with me, however inconvenient they may be.

* Take the main computer, well-wrapped in plastic. Take every backup CD for the past year. Wrap but do not take monitors, printers, routers, keyboards, mice, etc. Take the DSL modem because it cannot be bought at most computer stores. Take the laptop because it is small. Unplug everything else.

* Take a few CDs, almost at random, to listen to during the storm. Over the years I've collected too many of them; there's no way to sort through them all without making agonizing decisions.

* Books are like CDs, though I will take a few quasi-rare items. But mostly I'll take what I plan to read, and hope for the best for the rest.

And now I must return to my household triage. With luck, I'll post a couple more self-obsessed posts today and maybe even tomorrow before I have to shut down.

YDD Site Is Screwed Up

2005-09-22T13:45:00.000-06:00

The main YDD site is screwed up. My host apparently reloaded some earlier snapshot of the site, but their FTP is rejecting connections, so I can't fix it. Please stick with the YDD Annex until explicit further notice.

Update: my email through my host is not working either. Apologies.

Scary Stuff

2005-09-22T08:13:00.000-06:00

Well, that's not an auspicious beginning. I tried to post this on the YDD; they seem to have already shut down the server that hosts my site. So I'm posting it here. Please forgive some of the disconnected references...

I admit it: I'm frightened, for all of us. As of 4 AM CT, Rita seems to be taking better aim at us, though there is still some uncertainty. I don't even know if that's good or bad, i.e., whether it's enough to place us on the "good" side of the storm... right now it looks like a direct hit. But when I read a headline like
Many evacuation routes turn into parking lots, I have to wonder if our decision to stay is any worse than a decision to try to evacuate would have been.

A few practical matters. I may switch to the YDD Annex (see link at top of column) sometime soon; please bookmark it now. My host is a local company, and I assume they will go down during the storm. I also assume our own power and/or telephone service will vanish at some point. I'm taking my laptop to Stella's in case I'm able to blog, but for the worst part of the storm, likely Friday into Saturday, we will probably sit it out in the windowless bathroom of her apartment... no blogging from there. At some point in the next few hours, I'll shut down my main computer and move it to what I hope is a more likely dry location, so this may be the last YDD post for a while.

My thanks to all of you loyal readers who have offered good wishes and assistance. If Stella and I, and of course Tabitha and Samantha, are still alive after the storm, I look forward to resuming posting and discussing life, the universe and everything. If not, so long, and thanks for all the fish. We intend to survive this. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Testing before the storm

2005-09-22T07:55:00.000-06:00

This is just a test post to see if I can post here remotely while I'm not at home during Hurricane Rita. If this had been a real post, you would have been directed to call your local FEMA office...

(For some reason, posts are being shown in a crazy order, and with Pacific time zone. No time to fix it now. Scroll down if necessary.)

Why an Annex

2004-12-02T16:24:00.000-06:00

Once in a while, I need a Blogger blog on which to test things, so that I can answer people's questions. This is that blog. Someday, I may use it for other purposes.

I do a lot of my blogging at the Yellow Doggerel Democrat. Occasionally I post at The Liberal Coalition.