You Googled Me?:  What in the heck is it with "nude Lavinia Milosovici"??

No, I wasn't Googled for this one, but dang, Notes from Atlanta got 500+ hits today from seekers looking for any variation of:

Lavinia Milosovici; Corina Ungureanu; Claudia Presecan;

and the words "nude", "naked" or "gymnast" juxtaposed in any combination with these poor Romanian athletes' names.

Egad!!! who'd have thought the "Eastern-Euro Athlete" look would be so popular!  (Yeah, I know, nude or naked is most of it, but the "Eastern-Euro Athlete" thing?!)  Maybe it's just the scandal?  Go figure...

Want to bet this makes the Google Zeitgeist list next year??

9:58:17 PM    comment []

RantsCounterRants:  A skeptical start for this New Year…

After a quiet and restful evening at home with the kids, we’re up to welcoming in a challenging New Year.  This year’s not going to be easy – indications are this household will be directly impacted by the call up of more troops.

I don’t begrudge my country and others less privileged in the world that which my family can give, but I don’t think much of waste of any kind.  Particularly when it’s waste of my family’s resources – it’s personal.

Warren Christopher says it best in NYT and with authority that’s difficult to question.  Why is Iraq and not North Korea deserving of our highest concentration of resources?  Give me a good reason other than any one that starts with “Bush says…”

If one of my family members is expected to concentrate on protecting this country, I expect they should be used most effectively.  I’m simply NOT convinced by anything I’ve seen coming out of inspections in Iraq that this is HotSpotNumeroUno.

Worse, the North Korean situation could very well have been spawned in part by U.S. companies and our relations with both Koreas.  (Note how this point has been conspicuously absent in American press until now.)  There have been implications that the North Koreans were desperate for power before they started work on restoring their nuclear program, that U.S.-led KEDO Group of companies suspended work on a power plant for NK (not clear whether there were more than one affected), exacerbating North Korea’s need for power.  What a mess – if NK is cash-poor as well, they can certainly rectify that quickly by either selling fissile material to antagonistic parties or by outright blackmailing the U.S. (which I think is highly likely).  The recent violation of the DMZ with light weapons is a direct slap in the face to U.S. foreign policy; what can be next?

With this in mind, where would you want to deploy a family member to protect our interests today?

8:04:22 PM    comment []