Sorry for the absence of postings in the past few days. My cable went down Thursday night - and I have broadband service. That combined with the fact that I've had to work long hours the past two days has made it hard for me to coordinate times with the cable company. Anyway, I'm back up. A couple of notes: I'm looking to get off of FortuneCity, and away from these pop-up ads. If anyone knows of a good, reliable hosting service, with decent rates, let me know. I'd like it to be able to accept CGI, so I can switch over to MT, as well. With a new host will also come a domain name that makes sense, I've checked, and several are available.

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Bob Barker has done his part in controlling the pet population. It appears he had himself neutered.

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I knew someday that Valerie Bertinelli would be available.

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Mickey Kaus gets the story that homeland security is less important to our nation that protecting the jobs of incompetent federal employees.

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Early reports say that John McCain will not seek re-election in 2004. (via Zonitics). Hopefully, this is just somebody making noise, as I'd like to see him run again.

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Gail Davis reports of another Mexican dying in the Arizona desert:

The death toll for illegal entrants in the west desert area continued to creep up Tuesday with the death of a 35-year-old Mexican woman whose body was found on the Tohono O'odham Nation, according to the Arizona Daily Star. According to the Star, there have been at least 78 reported deaths so far this year.

The key word here is ILLEGAL. If she had crossed at Nogales or Agua Prieta, for example, she would likely be alive today.

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The Rocky Horror Picture Show is not the only movie that's grown into widespread audience participation. Try The Sound of Music. I may need to head out there Friday and check it out - and file a report in this space.

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Director John Frankenheimer, best known for "The Manchurian Candidate", died yesterday morning of a stroke at the age of 72.

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One of my college classmates made it. Laurie Notaro is a columnist for the Arizona Republic. However, in her most recent column, she shows just what it takes to do her job:

Well, here you have it. If there was any sort of doubt about what the qualifications were to have my job, I'll sum it up like this: Amy Fisher of the Long Island Lolita fame, has just become employed. As a newspaper columnist.

She goes on with more bitter rhetoric, but I don't blame her. She spent a small fortune to go to a top J-school (on her own nickel, I might add), and managed to work her way to her current job without leaving the town where she grew up. And she did this while keeping a marriage together. And now some famous ex-con comes along and gets her own newspaper column? It's an insult to the journalistic profession. Guess what! Her column is online! As a public service, we'll post it here. And maybe we'll follow up with future colums, since this one didn't thrill me - in other words - the column itself justifies the message Laurie is trying to convey.

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David Leibowitz is with me when he points out the commercialization of the United States flag is against the law. It might put Wal-Mart out of business, but the flag should be respected.

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I have changed my e-mail address, as the old one has been down for the last week, with no sign of coming back up. The new address is sinclair@gamebox.net.

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MedPundit reports that the Europeans have figured out that herbal preparations have some of the same risks as regular medication, and are calling for regulation of that sector. This is something we should consider in the United States, as well. MedPundit has found a place in the blogroll today!

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UPDATE on the malpractice insurance crisis I reported two days ago. MedPundit makes a stand, in response to reader mail, that the root cause is with the legal profession, and states that do not cap monetary awards

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Jean Strouse, in her editorial today, compares today's financial times to those of the 1890s, quoting J.P. Morgan:

When the late 19th-century counterparts of Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing got into trouble, the investment banker J. Pierpont Morgan took over, allegedly growling at rogue managers, "Your company belongs to my clients."

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Today's News From Denmark comes from the Fyens Stifstidende. I was able to get the whole webpage to translate at once this time. Fascinating stuff.

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I saw one of those movies today that was so bad, I just had to sit through the entire thing. The name of the movie was Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992). It was on the Sci-Fi Network today, and yes, it was a BAD movie. But it was one of those movies that kept you wondering what the HELL is going to happen NEXT? It was that strange. What's even more bizarre were the comments over on imdb.com. I didn't know that Japanese monster films had such a following, as these people seem to know who these actors ARE. My wife watched the first half of the movie, and asked the following question - "How come these monsters only seem to attack JAPAN?"

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CNN, AP and the London Times have all fallen for a Howard Stern prank caller in relation to the July 4 LAX shootings.

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UPDATE on the horrifying story of the Pakistani girl who was forced to be gang-raped by the order of a tribal council. They're after the guys that did it.

Police in Pakistan are continuing to hunt for three men wanted for carrying out the gang rape of an 18-year-old girl on the orders of a tribal council.

On Friday Pakistan's Supreme Court criticized local police, accusing them of negligence for failing to arrest the men immediately after the rape was carried out on June 22.

Human rights group Amnesty International has also condemned the rape urging Pakistani authorities to clamp down on tribal councils and prevent them from taking the law into their own hands.

In a statement released Friday the group said it was concerned at reports that such councils had frequently and illegally sentenced people to "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments."

Amnesty said that the Meerwala "trial" took place in the presence of several hundred village residents, "none of whom took any action to prevent the rape."

"Given the wide local participation, it must be assumed that local police was aware of the event as it unfolded, if not directly present during the incident," the group said.

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Was Elvis Jewish? Somebody thinks it's a possibility. (via Max Power)

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Andrew Sullivan on the 4th of July shooting at LAX:

"READ KORAN": That's the bumper sticker long affixed to Hesham Hadyat's front door - put there again the day of the killing (and then removed). He was angry that Old Glory was being flown from the apartment window above him after September 11. Employees say he was virulently anti-Israel. He went to LAX with the intent of killing - and somehow he missed the Delta counter and ended up at El Al. And we're supposed to think that "so far we have no indication of any type of prejudice against any particular organization or nationality." What planet are these FBI denialists on?

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UPDATE on the death of baseball Ted Williams. It seems that some family members will not let the man rest peacefully. According to news reports, his son wants to have his body cryogenically frozen, a story which his daughter confirms.

Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, Ted Williams's oldest child, said that Williams's son, John Henry, had approached her last year about possibly freezing the slugger's body at the Arizona-based Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which has frozen 49 bodies. Ferrell's husband, Mark, said John Henry said that Alcor would freeze Williams's head for around $50,000.

John Henry Williams ''told me we could sell Daddy's DNA,'' said Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, who is John Henry's half sister. At the time, Ferrell said she rejected the scheme.

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