Leisure Lad on Nutrition:

In a new low in compulsive overeating, I had slices of deli cheese with mayonnaise and mustard between them. Though perhaps that is the South Beach Diet, or something. So either I am eating whatever I find or a brilliant nutritionist.

From Liesure Lad

My drinking was like a poem-- I went from jocose to amorous then to bellicose, then lachrymose and finally comatose.

"An NPR Investigation Shows" ...

The oil spill in the Gulf has done more than cause the U.S. voter to rethink "Drill Baby, Drill." It has allowed public radio's NPR to slide into the ranks of major news outlets in the United States.

NPR's ascendancy dovetails with the widespread firing of seasoned reporters in major newspapers across the nation. NPR has the resources to actually investigate, as well as report. And this oil spill crisis has shown that.

The information that oil rig workers were held for nineteen hours, before being allowed to see their families, and asked to sign liability release documents came from an NPR report. Critical information, that.

So all the worry about the Fox echo chamber are a little misplaced. There is now a strong voice on the left. Hooray.

Love Those Goldman Sachs Photos!

It's great vindication to see fabulously wealthy people cringe. Goldman Sachs executives are being grilled and made to cower for stealing from their clients and the American taxpayer. We love it!

My favorite part is the dim realization - I always loved dim realizations - on the part of Goldman Sachs executives that this nightmare isn't over. The American people want blood and they can see it in the eyes of the electronic lynching mob. And we can tell every time we see one of those pictures!

I can't be the only person daydreaming about throwing things, messy suit-ruining things, at Goldman Sachs executives. Maybe an attack with Silly String would be just the thing.

We may be losing our homes, going to food banks, making our children's clothing out of curtains, but we have the satisfaction of seeing the powerful grovel. And there promises to be much more. Hooray!

Truth on Danziger Bridge

Mainstream media is now reporting the massacre by police officers one week after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans. The story was originally reported by the Workers Daily, the Communist newspaper. For years, this story sat there, ignored by media outlets because two of the eyewitness reporters were Communist.

So while we are all clucking about the tragedy, let's remember to hold the media accountable as well.

Karzai's Conundrum

Afghanistan leader Karzai has threatened to join the Taliban if everybody doesn't get off his back about corruption and voter fraud. Nobody believes him, of course, because even he knows the Taliban would kill him in a New York minute if they get near him.

Karzai is in the very uncomfortable situation of needing all these foreigners in his country in order to have a country at all. There's no question that he needs them to restore order, establish infrastructure, etc. He can't muster the resources on his own to do any of it.

But guess what? We also need him. That's what he's saying with his rants. We do need him. So stop dropping in with demands and thinly veiled insults about integrity. He's getting sick of it. That's all he's saying.

The Editor of Russian Newsweek Should Take His Clothes Off More Often

Hey, Mikhail Fishman looks pretty good without clothes. As editor of the Russian Newsweek, you normally wouldn't expect videos of yourself doing cocaine with hookers to be all over the Internet. But the critics of the current regime in Moscow are experiencing this all the time these days.

But maybe "hey I'm naked and on YouTube because I criticized the Russian President" should become a trend. Of course they are being set up. You'd expect that, seeing what's happening to the other guys, they'd be a little more careful. Alas, that is not to be.

The best inoculation for this is indifference. So what? He did a little recreational use of drugs and cavorted with hookers. Be more careful next time, Mikhail. Better yet, get a girlfriend.

I believe the Mikhail Fishman could really make something of this incident. He should go to popular magazines and offer to pose half-dressed for the cover. Maybe start a web site for his fans, or a Facebook page. The sky is the limit and we are allowed to define ourselves in the digital media age.

I guess the final roundup is that hookers and cocaine isn't that shocking anymore, not with the Vatican accused of covering up for child-molesting priests. And Mikhail Fishman still looks good without clothes.

James Sikes and the Toyota Media Machine

One tactic to gain control of public opinion is to flood the search engines with your side of events. It helps if you have Internet sites that are large with many links to them, i.e., a lot of weight in the Google search engine algorithm. Like Toyota.

A concerted media campaign is underway to discredit James Sikes' claims of a runaway Toyota. Let's take a look at what popped up for the search term "James Sikes" over the last 24 hours and landed on the first page of Google results for "James Sikes."

Prius Chat Forums are saying that James Sikes' claims "are more fiction than fact." The home page is covered with stories accusing James Sikes of lying, deliberately trying to wear down his brakes to overheat them, and videos purporting to show James Sikes had to be lying. This web page is a an orchestrated effort of a team of people to get a message out into the public: don't believe James Sikes. There are articles, graphics, several videos professionally done, online chat groups, listservs, and even more. It had to take at least twenty people to put this message together on that web page. And the messages are all the same.

Toyotapedia.com has an article calling James Sikes' runaway Toyota story a hoax complete with a Fox news clip.

Of course others have joined in attacking Mr. Sikes, well before the NTSB has finished their review. Not that they are so impartial in the Toyota matter anyway.

Runaway Toyota Prius - I Believe James Sikes

The executives of Toyota announced that no problems were found in the Toyota driven by James Sikes that accelerated uncontrollably on a California highway. And you believe that, right?

Please remember another man was in prison for killing someone while driving a Toyota that accelerated on its own and would not be stopped. No one believed him, either.

But I especially love the attack mode that the PR flacks at Toyota used to discredit Mr. Sikes and restore the credibility of the Toyota brand. As if we, the American car-buying public, will believe two days of tests by Toyota engineers now. Of course, the Toyota brand is the point of all this Johnny-come-lately concern from Toyota executives. They probably fired the guy who told them about this problem years ago. They weren't worried until the American public found out. And somehow attacking the guy driving the runaway car is supposed to make us feel better. It doesn't. Mr Sikes still has more credibility.

I can't tell you how happy I am that I didn't buy a Toyota Prius now. I'm a sketchy driver under the best of conditions. Having to worry about a runaway car would be too much stress for me. Not to mention the others on the road.

EVIDENCE of Failed Trash Pick Ups in Columbia Heights in DC

Grrrrrr. For months I have been battling the garbage truck guys to pick up all my trash. They refuse, unless I am standing there on the back deck watching them. They pick up one trash can and that's it. The rest they knock over on to the backyard. See photos.

When will this city take trash pick up seriously? There are so many rat holes in my backyard I am frightened to go back into it.