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Don’t steal…ask for help.

Last night I learned that someone drove through our neighborhood between 1am and 3am Sunday night/Monday morning looking in people’s cars and stealing easy to grab stuff. For instance, two neighbors both had left wallets on the dashboard and are now sans wallet. One lost a camera but other obvious grabs like checkbooks and radios were left alone.

This is the first I’ve heard of any incident like this since I moved to the house in 1997. It feels like a dry run so I’ve notified the Sheriff and put the neighborhood on a property watch. I hope the crooks don’t return. I’ve got good neighbors. Several are good ol’ boys in the neighborhood would are watching now and we do live in the county.

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R.I.P. MyBlogLog

Note to self: Shall I ever own a successful web company, I will never sell to Yahoo!

Dear MyBlogLog Customer,

You have been identified as a customer of Yahoo! MyBlogLog. We will officially discontinue Yahoo! MyBlogLog effective May 24, 2011. Your agreement with Yahoo!, to the extent that it applies to the Yahoo! MyBlogLog, will terminate on May 24, 2011.

After May 24, 2011 your credit card will no longer be charged for premium services on MyBlogLog. We will refund you the unused portion of your subscription, if any. The refund will appear as a credit via the billing method we have on file for you. To make sure that your billing information is correct and up to date, visit https://billing.yahoo.com.

Questions?
If you have questions about these changes, please visit the Yahoo! MyBlogLog help pages.

We thank you for being a customer on Yahoo! MyBlogLog.

Sincerely,

The Yahoo! My BlogLog Team

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This does not make me proud

The land of the free, the promised land, the place people once longed to visit or immigrate is quickly becoming the land to stay far away.

going to the US is more unpleasant than going to Soviet era Russia or even Iran 10 years ago. Sure, you sometimes have to bribe people, but at least I’ve not had gear stolen off me during security checks or had people break my gear without at least compensating me.

And taking pictures. Well, let me put it like this: you are 20 times more likely to get hassled for whipping out your camera anywhere in the US than in, say, downtown Teheran.

I offer this as an observation from the outside. The US is isolating itself and it is becoming a very, very unpleasant place to visit. I often talk to fellow travellers and even a lot of business types in nice suits often relate how they’d rather not travel to the US if they could help it and that they’d rather work with people in Europe or Asia. I can relate to that.

[Source, Reddit, Why I stopped travelling to the US and I largely stopped doing business in the US.]

My fellow Americas. Can we please return to the pre-9/11 sensibilities we once had?

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Call to action: WordPress Developers Please Comment

Hello WordPress developers! (me included). When you make a theme, I implore you, please use a simple html comment at the top of each page to identify the template. For example: <!- – TEMPLATE: single.php – -> would allow someone unfamiliar with your theme to look in the generated source and see which template(s) are influencing the output. Yes, experienced WordPress developers should already know which files are being used but we don’t write themes only for experienced developers. And even experienced developers get stuck, tired, or would like things to be sped along and a simple comment, <!- – TEMPLATE: page.php – ->, would help tremendously. Thank you!

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The Past Clings Forever to the Future

The Past cannot be undone
And will always haunt The Future
We extol ourselves,
“Learn from the past”
While brooding with regret
Frustrated, lacking the ability to forget
The desire to move forward; hampered
By our bygone action which shackles us
Immobilized
Frozen
Unable to escape its grip
The Past is one with us
No separating from it
No forgetting
Perpetually haunted by its ghosts
When at last, you have forgiven yourself
And believe yourself to have moved on
The Past latches on like a Tigress
Pouncing upon Her prey
Not even Death provides absolution
For you take The Past to your grave
And worse
Leave some for those left behind.

The simple solution to keeping The Past at bay
Be inhuman
Never make a mistake.

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To remove any doubt, WMDs evidence was a lie

In case there is still any doubt, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi has admitted to lying about Iraqs weapons of mass destruction. As I read this and watch the video, as an American citizen I feel heavy in my chest; despite my protests at the time, I feel guilty.

The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war.

[Source, guardian.co.uk , Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war]

You should watch the video.