Distracted Mind

Try a local humane society, or the [Cleveland Animal Protection League](http://www.theapl.org/). [This is a pretty good list of shelters](http://www.awagaway.com/shelters.html) and, while a shelter pup isn’t “free”, you’ll be giving a critter a good home. That’s gotta make your heart feel good.

I don’t usually take those personality test quizzes online, namely because I think they’re fairly inane, but this one was a bit intriguing. Evidently, I’m quotation marks (I’m plural?).

quotation marks You scored 53% Sociability and 76% Sophistication!

There is a lot more to you than meets the eye. You certainly get plenty of “action,” but you’d be happier if those who lusted after you were more selective. You hate being used as a general intensifier; haven’t these people ever heard of underlining? Italics? And yes, you remember the cruel words Mr. Joyce directed at you. But you let none of this get you down; those who abuse you are destined for a “special” reward, sooner or later. You feel particularly warm toward periods, commas, exclamation points, and question marks, and usually wish to have them next to you. Parenthesis can sometimes trouble you.

A little more than fifteen years before I was born, someone important left the world. John F. Kennedy was important because the public deemed him so, but he was a man with flaws and foibles. He breathed the same air that everyone else in this country breathed, he played with his children, he made mistakes. He was, whether or not some people liked it, the leader of this country and he died a violent, bloody, and very public death.

He didn’t deserve this death; he deserved to die peacefully, old and in a bed surrounded by grandchildren. Instead, his death was publicized and forever changed how this nation remembers a decade. My mother told me that she still remembers the moment she heard that Kennedy was assassinated: she was giving my brother, then still an infant, a bottle when a neighbor ran by screaming that someone had shot the President. Even though she had not been an ardent Kennedy supporter she was shocked. Everyone was, regardless of whether they had liked the guy or not. The institution of the Presidency had been violated.

Nothing was televised when Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. The papers wrote their stories, but the death wasn’t as graphic. It was tragic, but in so many ways Kennedy’s death was more personal. We still see the footage, we still see Jackie’s face as realization hit. We see the pictures of John John’s salute, and we see the children growing up without their father.

My generation will always remember where they were in September when the first plane hit, then the second plane, and then when the tower fell. My parents’ generation will forever remember when Kennedy was killed, and when the American public witnessed, first-hand, the mortality of their leadership. Kennedy deserved better, but this is what he got–a public death and a hero’s burial. On November 22, 1964, everything changed for this nation.

Going to the West Side Market is one of the many reasons why I love Cleveland. Being able to make (and eat) this stew is one of the redeeming qualities of colder Cleveland weather. It’s a variation on the lamb stew one finds all over Ireland and it will feed a family of five with some leftovers for the next day.

Bob Woodward is dead. He still has a pulse, a beating heart and a set of working lungs, but he’s flatlined on my hero life support. Woodward was once one of my heros–a man who, along with Bernstein, uncovered a scandal that took down a corrupt presidency. In my mind, he put everything on the line for a story that made history. In my mind he was Saint Woodward, patron saint of the pen. That’s all gone.

Woodward put his credibility in a shoebox and buried it in the back yard next to last year’s hamster. He’s dismissed the importance of the Valerie Plame controversy testifying that, while he heard about the whole spiel, he won’t reveal his “source”. He also didn’t say anything about how he knew classified information _because he was writing a book._ Let’s see–if someone admits a murder to you and you want to write a book about it, is it permissible to keep the information to yourself instead of alerting authorities?

I took my first journalism class during my sophomore year of high school. We learned about investigative journalism, we learned about Watergate, we watched _All the President’s Men._ Woodward and Bernstein were examples of how journalism should be done. They were examples of how you should protect sources and how you should fight for justice, not just write about the events.

Now Deepthoat’s been revealed, the whole Watergate story looks more like a swiss cheese legend with all the holes and stink in the history. It turns out that Woodward and Bernstein got lucky that _some_ of their story was true, but that they weren’t exactly examples of ethical and honest journalism.

Bob Woodward cares more about his book sales than he does about the health of our government. He cares more about getting those checks from the publisher than he does about preserving the integrity of modern journalism. He won’t lay in state in my heroes’ hall of fame–he won’t even get a pauper’s grave. There’s no burial befitting enough for one of the murderers of this profession. It’s times like this that I’m glad I got out of those hallowed halls of journalism and tumbled into the rogues’ gallery. I’m truly content and happy to be one of the [rude and lowly bloggers.](http://democracyguy.typepad.com/democracy_guy_grassroots_/2005/11/the_death_of_jo.html)

I haven’t posted since Thursday, namely because I’ve been busy with offline stuff. A toddler whose newest favorite word is “No”, visiting family and extended family in the southern portion of the state, attempting to help a NEO blogger with a blog resurrection, and working.

The thing that’s really bothering me is the part about helping that blogger. I’ll link to her site when it’s back up and running, but right now I’m pretty pissed about how her site went down and why she’s been out of commission. She was with a bad hosting company, one with which I’ve had experience, and they screwed her over, big time. I won’t point fingers, but I _will_ stress how important it is to use a reputable hosting company that comes recommended by others who have used the service for a while.

A few years back, before I started blogging, I was with a different hosting company. They’d provided pretty good service for a while, but in 2002 they started slipping. The first nail in the coffin was when they offered improvements for new customers, but they didn’t provide the same improvements for existing customers. After some “forceful” language I was able to finagle a few of those improvements, but at a slightly higher cost. That should have been the point where I parted company with this business, but I stayed and continued to recommend friends and colleagues to this business. A year passed.

During the winter holiday break, I found the straw that broke the camel’s back. It turned out that the improvements that had supposedly been made had _never actually been made at all._ When I complained, I was fed lies and my service was interrupted. I then began to look for a new host. I asked for my URLs to be taken out of their galleries, and after three months of repeated requests, they were finally removed from only one version of the website. The whole thing was pretty ugly.

Like I said, I’m not going to point fingers… at the bad guys. Why should I give them a link? I _will_ point a finger toward the “good guys”, my current hosting provider. I use [Dreamhost](http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?tinabel) (In the interest of full disclosure, the [Dreamhost](http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?tinabel) link _is_ an affiliate link), but there are other good ones out there as well. The most important thing to remember is to take a look at reputable weblogs and websites–those that have been around for a long time. Use a contact link and ask who they use for hosting. This doesn’t apply to typepad or blogger type blogs–only to those that have their own URL (like distractedmind.com). Don’t go with the lowest price–it can be more expensive in the end in terms of support calls, downtime (time that your website is inaccessible), and loss of ad revenue or readership.

I realize that this is a little “ranty” but I’m sick of watching people getting screwed over by discount hosting companies that don’t know how to do business. Please don’t just think in terms of dollar signs. Most of the time that two dollar a month host delivers two dollars worth of service every month. You pay more for a latte. Find those exceptions, like [Dreamhost](http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?tinabel), or [Media Temple](http://www.mediatemple.net/), or [Liquid Web](http://www.liquidweb.com), all reputable hosts that have some pretty big clients. Please, for the love of god, research.

_This rant brought to you by righteous anger and too much coffee._

It’s a blustery day out there. Seems like [November remembered that it's the tenth](http://www.ssefo.com/) and decided to give us some anniversary weather. While it’s not quite cold enough to break out the leather, I’ve got my warmest sweater on and my favorite scarf wrapped around my neck. They seem to be enough to keep me toasty on the short walks I have from building to building.

Time for crappy November weather and time for food that makes it seem a little less crappy. Presenting Schwein und Apfelkraut. No, this isn’t a traditional German dish. It’s a twist on Amish cooking, with a made-up German title. The title roughly translates to “Pork and Apple-Cabbage”. It’s a one-pot meal, since, being mostly Irish, I like dishes that can be cooked using only one pot. Actually, that has less to do with being Irish and is more related to my hatred of washing dishes. It’s an easy meal that starts when you get home from work and is done about an hour or two later. Read the rest of this entry »

The NEO blogs are all talking about yesterday’s elections, and what it means for Cleveland and the surrounding area. I wish that I could be excited about the change in office, or even upset about pet issues that passed or didn’t, but I really can’t. When I see an appreciable difference in how Cleveland’s run, and by “appreciable” I mean more than just the face behind the podium, I’ll get excited. I think that the mayor’s office can’t make much of a difference without the rest of us.

Don’t get me wrong, being the mayor of a city is a big deal. I just don’t think that any one person is going to turn this city around. Jackson has the opportunity to set an example, but I’ll wait and see if he sets a better one than Jane did. Right now it’s business as usual. The sun came up today, just like it always does, and whoever is in the mayor’s seat won’t change that. Read the rest of this entry »

_*Note:* Again, an ounce of perspective is required. I realize that a caller claims to do things, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s telling the truth. I don’t know why someone would lie about something like this, but it happens. I’m not going to retract this blurb because it’s reacting to something I heard on the radio, but I will say that the proper, discerning, eye needs to be cast on it. My knee’s a little bruised from being jerked by this entry, but once something’s on the blog, you can’t take it back._

I’m listening to Jerry Springer on Air America as I type this, and a caller stated that he had been in the military and was responsible for loading weaponized white phosphorus onto airlifts from Uzbekistan that were headed toward Iraq. These were shipments of _weaponized_ white phosphorus, designed to be used as _weapons._ People are talking about this, both military and civilian. The picture is getting clearer and it’s becoming more evident that the story is the truth.

*Update:* I’ve been researching white phosphorus a bit more, and have found a few sources as to what it actually does to the human body. While the documentary that I previously linked to is horrifying, it looks like whatever had been used on those people may have been more than white phosphorus. According to the [eMedicine webpage on chemical burns](http://www.emedicine.com/plastic/topic492.htm#section~elements), white phosphorus will burn both skin and clothing and, while it can be fatal, it isn’t _always_ fatal.

This raises new questions about what was actually being used. I don’t doubt that chemical weapons are being used, but I’d like to know what is being used and what line of crap we’ll all be fed about _why_ the military is using it. Is the military using white phosphorus? According to some servicemen and servicewomen, yes. Is a new type of napalm being used? Again, people in the military are saying yes. Is a new type of chemical weapon being used? I don’t know, but I’d like to know exactly what type of atrocities are committed in our names.

As much as I love [Eric Meyer's](http://www.meyerweb.com) [WP-Gatekeeper plugin](http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/wordpress/wp-gatekeeper.html), it was keeping out legitimate commenters (because they didn’t understand that answering the question _wasn’t_ optional) as well as spammers. I have other anti-spam measures in use, so the gatekeeper, for now, is fired.