ON THE CONTRARY, IN MY OWN CASE, PLENTY. ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING WHERE THIS IS LIKELY TO BE THE LAST SUCH POSTING FOR AWHILE, what with my annual visit to the Minnesota State Fair, followed by a family reunion on the Labour Day long weekend, preoccupying my time over the next fortnight or so.

In any event, don't worry much about me; on the other hand, I'd appreciate a donation to the Virtual Tip Jar and/or some purchases from the online-shopping area off to the left-hand side of the page. After all, disability benefit only goes so far every month, and besides, I'm deemed too mentally unstable to find traditional income.

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AND YOU THOUGHT JOHN McCAIN WAS THE MASTER OF FLIP-FLOPPING EXTRAORDINAIRE: It turns out that the Russian military has been caught doing some flip-flopping of its own in calculating the number of Georgian civilians killed in the recent South Ossetian campaign.

Initially estimating where some 1,600 had been killed by Russian crack troops, they have since revised the figure downward to an "official" estimate of 133, mostly in and around Josef Stalin's old hometown of Gori (remember, Stalin was an ethnic Georgian).

Human-rights groups, for their part, contend that the actual number of Georgian casualties in South Ossetia numbers still lower; though not specific, the BBC notes where they will only say that "dozens" were thus slaughtered.

Still, though, official Russian propaganda claims the casualties, regardless of the body count you believe and trust, were "byproducts of Georgian genocide;" however, isn't this nothing less than Russian projection for the likelihood of their having set up the Georgians, with the Tbilisi regime having received aid and comfort from the aforementioned McCain?

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THIS MAY OR MAY NOT EXACTLY BE APROPOS THE PRECEDING; however, an editorial in this week's number of the Jewish weekly gazetta Forward, entitled "Terrorism and the Lone Gunman," is worth sharing for reasons as will become evident as you read it:

Hossam Dwayyat, 31, a Palestinian construction worker from East Jerusalem, went on a rampage July 2 and drove his bulldozer into a bus and several cars, killing three Israeli women and wounding dozens more before he was shot dead. Police quickly determined that he had acted alone and had no links to terrorist organizations. Rather, he had a criminal record for drug abuse, and friends said he was despondent over a failed romance. Still, the incident was ruled terrorism, though foreign critics questioned the term. A weeks-long debate ensued over whether to demolish the home of the terrorist's family as a deterrent. One expert, former Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy, confidently stated that the incident was "sporadic" and would "not inspire copycat attacks."

Three weeks later, on July 22, there was a copycat attack. East Jerusalem construction worker Ghassan Abu Tir, 22, drove his bulldozer into several vehicles, injuring some two dozen Israelis before he was shot dead. Like Dwayyat, he had no known links to terrorist organizations. His father blamed the act on confused identity as an East Jerusalem Arab with no clear nationality, Palestinian or Israeli. A search of his home turned up Islamic extremist literature, confirming authorities' belief that he acted from terrorist motives.

Five days later, on July 27, unemployed Tennessee truck driver Jim D. Adkisson, 58, allegedly entered a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville and opened fire with a shotgun, killing two persons and wounding six. A note found in his truck reportedly said he hated "the liberal movement" and its social teachings. He also complained about his inability to find a job and his loss of food stamps. News reports said a search of his home turned up books by Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity, conservative talk show hosts known for their slashing verbal attacks on liberals. Following his arrest, according to a police affidavit, Adkisson told officers that "because he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement … he would then target those that had voted them into office."

On August 13, an Arkansas man successfully tracked down a liberal movement leader, and killed him. The alleged shooter, Timothy Dale Johnson, 50, lost his job in a Target store and promptly drove 50 miles to the Little Rock headquarters of the Arkansas state Democratic Party, where he asked for the state chairman, Bill Gwatney. He then barged into Gwatney's office and shot him dead. Johnson was later killed in a shootout with police. News reports consistently describe both Adkisson and Johnson as "lone gunmen."

Do two isolated cases, three weeks apart, constitute a criminal pattern? If the attackers appeared intent on killing a particular class of victim, but have no links to an organized group, is it terrorism? If the attacker had literature at home, demonizing the victim group and urging action, did the authors incite the attacks?

Israeli authorities are clear on the answers. American authorities don't seem to have figured out the questions yet.

Points no doubt worth pondering. And making you wonder what sort of interesting times we are living in.

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WITH NEW POLLS IN SOME INSTANCES SUGGESTING A SLIGHT TREND FOR McCAIN OVER OBAMA IN THE PRESIDENTIAL INDECISION heading into the conventions, perhaps it was all the more important @ this time to give John McCain a taste of his own medicine--as in "swift-boating" him for once.

Especially so by repeating charges made by Jerome "Swift Boat" Corsi earlier in the year about McCain having the endorsement of al-Qaeda and his fortune having connexions to Known and Notorious Criminal Syndicates, among other juicy claims as deserve timely notice. Yes, the same Jerome Corsi who's behind the now-discredited smears against Obama, in case you didn't know.

And taking him to task for having so many houses while so many of the working-class Americans seeing McCain as their Shining Knight and Saviour (or so Fox Prolefeed expects them to accept without question or reservation) are facing serious problems with their mortgages, in some cases owing more on their mortgage than the true value of their homes.

So what stands in the way?

"Money is the root of all evil."
Why not invest yours in United States Savings Bonds?

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BRITISH GLAM-ROCK ICON GARY GLITTER, HAVING JUST BEEN RELEASED FROM A VIETNAMESE PRISON WHERE HE WAS SERVING TIME for Indecent Sexual Liberties with a Minor, was spotted @ Bangkok's Don Muang Airport after arriving there on a flight from Hanoi--and missing a connecting flight that was to return him to London.

Seems Mr. Glitter's excuse is that he "complained of a heart attack" to the extent that he missed the connexion.

How do we know he isn't faking it to avoid further action back in his native Great Britain?

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SOMETHING WORTH THINKING ABOUT IN THE DEBATE ON HOW BEST TO SAVE MEDICARE AND MEDICAID: Conducting careful and @ once cautious analyses on what would be the most cost-efficent (as opposed to merely the cheapest per se) option to the Good Taxpayers on how best to handle Medicare and Medicaid, in line with the prevailing view that low taxes=jobs=social stability, from these such:

1. Maintaining the status quo.
2. Transferring Medicare and Medicaid to the several states, aided and abetted by generous "block grants" to (in theory) allow them to develop such programmes for providing health-care services to the poor and vulnerable based on local customs and experience.
3. Essentially converting Medicare and Medicaid into vendor-pay plans to allow the Lower Classes "healthy and empowering access to the free market" when it comes to health-care coverage from private-sector insurers and Medical Savings Plan providers (howbeit subject to checks and balances to avoid undue and unreasonable exploitation of those so expected to be"empowered" by "freedom of choice").

All the while consciously aware of the need to "generate taxpayer value"--as in "Which among these options will actually return the most to taxpayers for the least amount of money?" (Which conservatives want to base on what will translate into a net dividend on "share capital," as in taxes--preferably on a "guaranteed" basis, to be loaded onto special-issue Wally World debit cards ISSUED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, or so labelled--all the while expecting the Good Taxpayers to have reckless and utter disregard for practicality or utility while expected to "do their part for their economy" via reckless and wasteful shopping sprees @ Wally World, to be declared an Essential and Protected Company in the National Interest @ the expense of small business in articular.)

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ANYWAY, AS I SAID EARLIER, THE STATE FAIR AND FAMILY REUNION WILL PREOCCUPY MY TIME BY AND LARGE over the next fortnight, thus precluding any serious and regular blogging activity in the interim. Sooooo....

more cat pictures