What says Halloween more than a custom modded PC made with a REAL pumpkin. Crazy, I know, but cool.

• Pumpkin PC

Harriet Meyers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court yesterday, but you'd never know it to look at the news feeds. I actually had to search to find any word of her today. Apparently Mrs. Miers has already faded into history. The withdrawl was a big victory for Conservative Republicans who were shocked to find out that controling the House, Senate, and the White House was not enough to merit a stronger candidate. In fact the nomination was so "stealth" that it seemed neither the Republican Majority nor the Democratic Minority knew what to make of her. The end result was both sides at the same time attacking and defending her with pauses for confused contemplation. But the nomination was actually a watershed moment for me. It was her nomination that I realized that solution to "legislating from the bench" and the need for "judicial restraint" was not going found where most were looking for it: a Supreme Court nomination. A supreme court nomination. A nomination that would upset the balance — or maintain it. As long as the nominee ends up being who everyone thinks they will be — perceptions which have turned out wrong on many occasions. No, the problem will not be solved by "a" or even several nominations. The problem can only be truely stemmed by something stronger: a constitutional ammendment. We actually need three. Three seperate ammendments to steer this country back to the greatness it once held and guard to it's path in the future. But more on that later…

• Miers Withdraws Nomination

No not that kind of idol, the other one. This starts of good… and then it gets GREAT! And somewhere a communist ruler is crying. Ah the power of the Internet / Information / Ideas / Music / or somethin' like that.

• Chinese Idol Video

Thanks Sarah UPDATE: Warning, while this is quite entertaining, it will have you singing the Back Street Boys for the rest of the day.

"DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A Turkish court fined 20 people for using the letters Q and W on placards at a Kurdish new year celebration, under a law banning characters not used in the Turkish alphabet, rights campaigners said Tuesday…" Yeah, I know, it's too weird for words. Who bans letters? It's like… I don't know, I'm not sure how to describe it… it's bizzare.

• Court enforces letter of the law

Forgot to post this yesterday… Everybody's seen stars and angels on top of Christmas trees but how many people have Gingerbread Man Ski Jumpers?!

So I was eating with some friends yesterday and somehow the show Empty Nest came up. After some straining and a few hints from my friends, I was able to pull the face of the main character and his gold retriever from the dark recesses of my brain. I didn't really recall much else about the show — I don't think I actually watched it very often. But I was struck by the fact that it was a show that I probably would have NEVER watched if Tivo was invented, you know, back in the day. Think about it. Before Tivo, you watched whatever happened to be on at the time when you decided it was a good time to "veg" in front of the TV… And if you parents didn't happen to think that cable was worth the bread… well then your choices were extremely limited. Now that I reflect back on THAT we actually almost had a TV for every channel. We had 3 TVs and 4 channels. PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC… (I can hear the gasps out there… FOUR CHANNELS????) Well we did get FOX but only on Mom's TV in her room, which meant we usually couldn't use that TV anytime anything worth watch was on. Technology is changing our lives and most of the time we barely notice. Tivo, 24 hour news channels, MTV2, ESPN6… how does Empty Nest survive with all of that? It doesn't. Then again, we do have a show called "Good Eats" on the FOOD network and one called "Emergency Vets" on a network devoted completely to Animals, so maybe the Golden Girl spin-off would thrive here. Ok thrive is pretty strong, we'll go with survive… On late night… And while were on the subject, I'd like to give a shout out to the DIY network since I worked with them on a project last week… great people to work with. Top notch. :D

The newly crafted Iraqi Constitution passes with an overwhelming vote of 79%! Voter turnout was also up from the last election with 25% more people voting in the constitutional referendum than in the elections for the provisional government. This is historic stuff man! Could this be progress it Iraq?… nah I'm sure it's a faze, I'm sure it'll pass, I'm sure nothing positive will come of all this democracy spreading around.

• Iraq Constitution Passes in Referendum

GM Roper of GM's Corner sent me a nice note… well… it was a while back — but I've been busy alright!? Anyway, I finally got a chance to return the favor and check out his site and -well- it definately looks nicer than mine, so don't look at it for too long. Remember our site's upgrade is only -176 days away… and that's like really close. GM's site is definately right leaning so you lefties have been warned… Here's a sample from today. I found it pretty funny, but then I live in the South… Question: How do you tell the difference between Democrats, Republicans and Southern Republicans? The answer can be found by posing the following situation: You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, an Islamic Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you. You are carrying a Glock cal .40, and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family. What do you do? Read more

Here are some pretty cool pics from Iraq… minus the blood and gore and the spins and slants on the progress over there.

• Until Then

Thanks Sarah

Some cool new bikes from Yamaha including a hybrid. Too bad their just prototypes — for now.

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