After wasting several hours with two technicians running me through hoops and regaling me with obscure technical jargon I am finally back on line.  No thanks to the technos (their final advice was to call McAfee for an adjustment to my firewall settings) but because Sum Gai at the provider office smelled a rat and advised me he was sending out someone to check my phone.  About an hour later (this is in Happy Camp, mind you) the Phone Gai shows up, replaces my modem and voila!  Once again it is the guy in the truck who saves the day. 

Further bonus -- the warranty on my modem was within 1 day of expiring.   

Ken, you are such a doll!

The MSM is Shocked! Shocked! that Ken Mehlman is gay.  The rest of us knew this back in 2004.

Sounds more than qualified to me.

Wyclef Jean’s candidacy for Haiti’s presidency ends before beginning

But critics say that Jean's track record at helping Haiti has been spotty at best.

US actor Sean Penn, who runs a 55,000-person tent camp for the homeless in Haiti, and others have accused Jean of misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars he raised after the earthquake for a charity he ran.

"He has been virtually silent for those of us in Haiti; he has been a non-presence," Penn told CNN in an interview earlier this month.

(Rawstory, 8/21/2010)

Robert Fisk: US troops say goodbye to Iraq

Torture. Corruption. Civil war. America has certainly left its mark

Having botched yet another baking project, I have decided to spend the day as a recluse and live vicariously through Kay Scarpetta.