The Soggy Blogger
I live in a soggy city. I have a soggy blog.
I'd rather be a soggy blogger than a soggy frog.


Tuesday, July 29, 2003  

You Bet Your Life


This is the most phucked up thing I've read in a long time. ...Which, given the current political climate in this country, is saying a lot:
Pentagon Prepares a Futures Market on Terror Attacks

By CARL HULSE



WASHINGTON, July 28 — The Pentagon office that proposed spying electronically on Americans to monitor potential terrorists has a new experiment. It is an online futures trading market, disclosed today by critics, in which anonymous speculators would bet on forecasting terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups.


Traders bullish on a biological attack on Israel or bearish on the chances of a North Korean missile strike would have the opportunity to bet on the likelihood of such events on a new Internet site established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.


The Pentagon called its latest idea a new way of predicting events and part of its search for the "broadest possible set of new ways to prevent terrorist attacks." Two Democratic senators who reported the plan called it morally repugnant and grotesque. The senators said the program fell under the control of Adm. John M. Poindexter, President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser.


One of the two senators, Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, said the idea seemed so preposterous that he had trouble persuading people it was not a hoax. "Can you imagine," Mr. Dorgan asked, "if another country set up a betting parlor so that people could go in — and is sponsored by the government itself — people could go in and bet on the assassination of an American political figure?"


You can read more of the article here, if you are a NY Times.com registered user. If not, fire me an e-mail, and I will copy/paste it in a message back to you.

posted by Anne on 8:40 AM | link


Wednesday, July 23, 2003  

The rumors of my death...


...were probably started by me, in an attempt to make my life a bit less crazy lately. I realize that I haven't posted in, oh, a month, and that that's a capital offence here in blogworld. And I apologize -- to the two to five people who may actually still be checking this site. Mea culpa, mea culpa...

Since getting this house (we move in ten days!), lots and lots of my free time has been taken over by boxes. My mind has been taken over by boxes. In Crate & Barrel the other day, while waiting for a friend's shower gift to be packed, I was startled to realize that I had been staring longingly for at least five minutes at the wide assortment of sturdy cardboard boxes behind the counter. And coveting their neatly-organized packing stations. I think my brain is deteriorating.

Also, it's summer. This means that the kids I nanny for have been out of school, which in turn means that my work day is, generally, a full ten hours again. As a nanny, I have the anti-summer vacation. But I can't complain. I'll take a day at the beach with kids over a day in a window-less office any day.

Summer also means that I've been busy with other stuff. Over the weekend of the 4th, we took a trip to the beautiful Willamette Valley in Oregon. Good friends, wine tastings, and lovely weather, to boot. A grand time was had by all. The weather in Seattle has been lovely for months now (though a bit warm for this girl), which has made it difficult to say no to the lure of the out-of-doors. And coming up: three weddings, the new house, and, in a month or so, my first ever niece or nephew!

So no, I won't be slowing down for a while. (Mid-October, perhaps?) But I will try to post more often.

One final happy note: A new Rufus Wainwright album is being released in September! Huzzah! I have been waiting a long time for this. (If you care to, you can listen to a track here.)

posted by Anne on 9:58 AM | link


Thursday, June 26, 2003  

Ashcroft sings!


Next, on VH1 Diva's, John Ashcroft...

posted by Anne on 9:54 AM | link


Tuesday, June 24, 2003  

We did it!


Our new home:

posted by Anne on 10:40 PM | link


Monday, June 23, 2003  

The Waiting Game.


I have been absent from the blogsphere for a couple of weeks now. The kids I nanny for are on summer vacation, which means long work days for me. And all my free time has been spent house-hunting, in one manner or another.

This morning, we have put an offer on a house. After all the scrambling around we've been doing, it's a bit disconcerting (though also refreshing) to have nothing to do but wait.

p.s. When did my font change? How annoying...

posted by Anne on 10:28 AM | link
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