Big day here today, as our very first-ever hate crime trial begins. Dwight DeLee is accused of murdering LaTeisha Green (nee Moses Green) back in November. It’s apparently the first murder trial for a hate crime involving a transgender person in New York state and, if found guilty, DeLee would be just the second person in the US convicted of a hate crime in the murder of a transgender person. LaTeisha would have celebrated her 23rd birthday last Saturday.
Speaking of hate, all those grumpy old Republican white men in the US Senate can start taking their official cracks at Sonia Sotomayor beginning today. Her confirmation is pretty much a done deal, but they have to show their “base” how tough they are first (and hopefully show the rest of us just how racist they are in the process).
The town water department has been going around painting all the fire hydrants, changing them from yellow to red. I don’t know if they just had some extra red paint lying around, or if some town genius had an epiphany. Back in the olden days, the firetrucks were red, but then some study cam out saying that yellow was more visible than red, so they changed ’em to yellow. But later on, they found that, while yellow might technically be more visible, the color red draws people’s attention much more quickly. So, back to red they went. As for fire hydrants, I dunno; maybe they just didn’t want them blending in with all that yellow snow.
Been feeling the urge to build a new computer lately – especially since my aging 2.4 Ghz P4 desktop with a mere gig of RAM (which was pretty hot back in October of 2003, when I put it together) is having a tough time transcoding video while running my media server). Plus, it can’t put out 1920 x 1080, so I can’t quite take advantage of my monitor. But, since I tend to use my aging laptop more than I use my aging desktop anyway, I decided I’d try and squeeze a little more life out of the old one. So I’m bumping up the processor to a 3 gig one (my mobo doesn’t support a dual core one, sadly), adding a couple more gigs of RAM, and a getting a new video card (not exactly a screamer, but it ought to do a bit better than what’s in there now). Hopefully that’ll help.
Oh well, running late for my appointment with destiny.
I need to do the same. AMD’s FX-51 was top of the line 6 years ago but the games are starting to stutter a bit. I added RAM and a 7800GS about 2 years ago but it’s time to build a new one. I may start with this or this.
Ooh, that PC-P80 is awful purdy.
Linda the penguin has split up two male penguins who lived as a nesting couple for six years at the San Francisco Zoo, caretakers said.
Male penguins Harry and Pepper had been so content together they were allowed to incubate and hatch an egg laid by another Magellanic penguin last year, zookeeper Anthony Brown said.
“Of all of the parents that year, they were the best. They took very good care of their chick,” Brown told the San Francisco Examiner in a story published Saturday.
Enter the widow Linda, who began courting Harry in her partner’s old burrow shortly after his death this past winter, Brown said.
“To be completely anthropomorphizing, Linda seems conniving,” Brown said. “She’s got her plan. I don’t think she was wanting to be a single girl for too long.”
Though Harry and Linda have been nesting in recent months, molting season in late summer tends to reshuffle couples, KTVU-TV reported Sunday.
“It’ll be interesting to see if Harry spends any of that time with Pepper,” Brown said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”
:penguin: :penguin: :penguin:
The NY Times writes about the strains and misteps that led to Palins resignation including an “emergency” need for her hairdresser to help with thinning hair and her charming of
Darth VaderDick Chaney.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/us/politics/13palin.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Aint it tho’.
My pal Seth used to take care of these uptown hightone :penguin: :penguin: :penguin: but now is on the shark and ray detail, not to mention the two-headed gopher snake. I’ll be grilling him about this tonight.
Do you think Harry the penguin found one of those Jeezus will make you straight programs? What about this “penguins mate for life” stuff. Perhaps Harry is a Republican penguin and those moral rectitude escapes him.
OK, it’s safe to go out, thanks to Sens. Brownback and Landrieu who have introduced a bill (modeled on one that Gov. Jindel wrote) which will outlaw the creation of mermaids, centaurs and the like while preserving the right for humans to have heart valves made from pigs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/13/brownback-and-landrieu-in_n_230762.html
Perhaps these geniuses would be better served if they stopped trying to substitute creationism for biology, thus alleviating these fears with a little science.
Hey, they have a wide stance penguin cam. That must be for the Republican penguins.
African penguins mate for life. Africa has penguins?
Senator Whitehouse at the Sotomayor hearing talks about the accusation of liberal judicial activism:
For all the talk of “modesty” and “restraint,” the right wing Justices of the Court have a striking record of ignoring precedent, overturning congressional statutes, limiting constitutional protections, and discovering new constitutional rights: the infamous Ledbetter decision, for instance; the Louisville and Seattle integration cases; the first limitation on Roe v. Wade that outright disregards the woman’s health and safety; and the DC Heller decision, discovering a constitutional right to own guns that the Court had not previously noticed in 220 years. Some “balls and strikes.” Over and over, news reporting discusses “fundamental changes in the law” wrought by the Roberts Court’s right wing flank. The Roberts Court has not kept the promises of modesty or humility made when President Bush nominated Justices Roberts and Alito.
So, Judge Sotomayor, I’d like to avoid codewords, and look for a simple pledge from you during these hearings: that you will respect the role of Congress as representatives of the American people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/13/whitehouse-roberts-court_n_230715.html
Chris Matthews was “having that kind of feeling again” listening to Sotomayor’s opening statement.
I had a kind of tingling feeling listening to “Big Al” Franken speak for the first time.
David Brooks gets that tingling feeling whenever Mitch McConnell massages his inner thigh.
PJ, you are bad. :rofl2:
Monday afternoon, the Associated Press published a story based on unnamed official sources, backing up other reports that the CIA program in dispute involved targeting Qaeda leaders for assassination.
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/07/report-cia-plan-to-seize-kill-al-qaeda-chiefs-at-heart-of-congress-controversy/
A thousand pardons, I meant to post something about this earlier today and forgot. A reminder that HBO is premiering the documentary “Teddy: In His Own Words” tonight at 9 PM Eastern and Pacific. It’s on again Wednesday night on HBO2 if you can’t tune in tonight, and it should make its way to On-Demand eventually.
If you, like me, suffered through the blathering of those racist Repigs today during the opening round of the Sotomayor inquisition, this should hopefully cleanse your mental palate. At least until tomorrow.
OKat,
Still photog for NPR sounded strange.
Hope the guys are OK.