Happy New Year to everyone. Stay safe. Looking forward to a blogging good new year in 2004.

Roberto

French newspaper reporter Alain Hertoghe wrote a book critical of the French media’s coverage of the Iraq War. Alain said the French people were stunned when Iraq fell so quickly because up until the U.S. troops marched through downtown Baghdad the French media had been reporting that the U.S. was loosing the war, that Baghdad would turn into Stalingrad. He said the French were hoping those Amercian cowboys would get beaten up badly in Iraq. For Alain’s honesty, he was fired. His editor had no comment, he was on vacation. How much vacation do these French guys get?? No wonder the French economy is in the toilet, even custodians in France get five or six weeks vacation. The article says the book is doing well in Belgium, so at least that country can be salvaged.

This is probably a trial balloon, but even the fact that a prominent democrat is hinting he may mount a primary challenge to Jim McGreevey for the democrat nomination for governor in 2005 is a bit of a bomb shell. It shows the democrat power brokers (most likely Lynch and Norcross) are getting a bit nervous about the performance of our boy governor. U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D - 1st District) is being coy about it, and has given Clinton-like denials so far. Andrews is from Camden county, the base of Norcross country. Andrews ran against McGreevey in 1997 and barely lost. McGreevey then went on to loose a close election to Christie.

If you’re disappointed that you didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas, and if you’ve got a few thousand in cash lying around, the Israeli defense ministry is having it’s annual year end military surplus sale. For sale are tanks, assault helicopters and an F-16 jet. The only requirement is that you not be an enemy of Israel or belong to an organization hostile to Israel. I guess that leaves out the U.N. and France, but everyone else is free to buy. Starting bids are $50,000.

Maggie at Liquid Courage is trying to start a Howard Dean - Mad Cow Google bomb [see Mad Cow link at Liquid Courage]. I think the way these Google bombs work is you put together the phrase mad cow and a link to DeanforAmerica.com, like this: mad cow. When the Googlebot crawls your site, it will see the links and use them to rank your site and the deanforamerica.com site when someonce types in the search term “mad cow”. Google keeps their search term and ranking algorithms secret, but it is well known that they give preference to fresh content and to the number of links to a page. I’ll do my part to help Maggie since I despise “Mad Cow” Dean as much as she does.

Conservative editorial cartoonists Cox & Forkum have a good cartoon with the many faces of Howard Dean, and a Howard Dean - Mad Cow cartoon.

Another top 10 list, this time the top 10 donors to political campaigns since 1989 [link]. Who’s on the list?? The NRA?? Those evil drug companies?? Haliburton?? WRONG!!! Six of the top ten are labor unions (I’m counting the National Education Association as a union of course). Numero Uno is AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. I think these are the people who work at the NJ Division of Motor Vehicles. Add in the stinkin’ Trial Lawyers of America and you have a list dominated by left wing activist organizations.

The list for last year shows the top 9 big time donors were all democrat leaning. AFSCME, the AFT, CWA, all the big time unions. Sickening. Unions basically take money from their members through extortion and then blow the money on political spending. The members would be better off getting the money back at the end of the year.

With the new campaign finance reform rules coming into play, I think these kinds of donations are not as powerful as the “independent” expenditures by outside interest groups. Never the less, it goes to show that the big bucks in politics are not all going to the GOP.

Thanks to Robert at the Garden State blog for the kind words about DynamoBuzz. We Jersey bloggers have to stick together. And if any of you use Blogspot, drop Robert a line about how to update his template so he can have a two column layout.

I just saw this article, “The Eight Biggest Tech Flops Ever“. The top eight are (1) the PCjr (2) Go (3) Magic Cap (4) Bob (5) Iomega Clik! Drive (6) Data Play (7) Internet Appliances (8) webTV. Some of these flops must have been really brutal, because I consider myself to be tech savvy and I hadn’t heard of all of them. I remember the IBM PCjr because supposedly an IBM exec said, “If you’re going to make a cheap computer, it has to be built cheap” or something like that. The PCjr had the chiclet keyboard, a mini keyboard with keys that looked like Chiclets chewing gum pieces. I actually saw a computer running Bob. Bob was Microsoft’s GUI that would sit on top of Windows and supposedly make it easier to use a PC. It was stupid and annoying. Anyone who uses MS Office nowadays is most annoyed by the talking paper clip. That was borrowed from Bob. Imagine an entire operating system with stuff like talking paper clips and talking file cabinets and you have a good idea what Bob was like.

I would add the following as flops: (1) OS/2 (2) the Cue Cat which was a pen-like plug-in device that would allow you to scan barcodes in magazine advertisements to go directly to a website (3) Webvan, an internet service that allowed you to order groceries on-line and would deliver them free to your home with their own vans. I’d never buy a London broil or head of lettuce without looking at it first. Webvan went bankrupt after burning through something like $100 million dollars every three months.

The U.S. is demanding that certain foreign flights that fly over the United States or originate in a foreign country and land here must have an armed law enforcement officer on board [link]. My problem is that in countries like Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, there is a good possibility the law enforcement officers may be Al Qaeda or sympathizers. I’d like to know what kind of screening they do before I get a warm and fuzzy feeling about this new policy.

No surprise with this report. Rainfall in New Jersey for 2003 was 57.8 inches, the fourth highest yearly total since records started being kept over 100 years ago. The highest total ever was 1996 when there was 60 inches of rain.

News of the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that just hit Iran reminded me of my experience in an earthquake. Though I’m a full blooded Jersey guy, I lived in southern California during the late 1980’s. I transfered out to LA (actually Long Beach) and stayed out on the left coast, the land of fruits and nuts, for two and a half years until my wife and I had enough and moved back to the Garden State. Five months after I move out there, they have a 6.0 earthquake. I was in my car driving to work in the morning and I had just pulled away from a stop light when my car lunged forward. I thought I had been hit from behind. I kept on moving and then felt my car shifting left to right. I thought I had a flat tire. Then I noticed that my radio was all static so I figured something big had happened.

The plant I worked at suffered minor damage. The worst thing was that a wire fell of a transformer and started a fire in a pile of wooden pallets. Most of the damage from the quake was done to older buildings in Long Beach that had not been properly modified to meet seismic building codes. A common practice for older brick structures was to drill into the stone and insert rebar (reinforcing bar) and then sealing the hole with cement.

I was home with my wife later that night when there was an aftershock and it scared the hell out of us. I rembember the glass doors on a hutch rattling real loud and stuff bouncing up and down. Our apartment complex had a small swimming pool, and it looked like a third of the water had been tossed out of it.

Many people don’t realize that there are earthquakes almost daily in southern California. Most are in the 2.5 to 3.5 range. The worst thing that happens from these mini earthquakes is that they set off all the car alarms. Towards the end of our stay in California, I remember sitting at the dinner table with my wife when I noticed the light over the table shake for a few seconds. I looked at my wife and said, “Earthquake??” and she said, “Yeah, I think so” and we went on and finished our dinner. I was starting to take earthquakes for granted, meaning I was turning into a Californian!! At that point, I knew I had to get back to my home state. Plus I was getting sick of California pizza.

I guess the Iran experience shows that living in mud huts is not a good idea when you’re located on a fault line. It’s hard feeling sorry for Iran. Like maybe if they bought one less nuclear reactor or SCUD missle they’d have money to take care of their people. But offering them aid is the right thing to do from a Christian point of view.

Last week, Howard Dean told the Boston Globe that he’s actually religious and that he prays everyday. He said that he would include references to Christ and God in many speeches during the remainder of the campaign (in particular when campaigning in the South).

So far in the campaign, Dean has barely mentioned religion. I read a lot of the left wing web logs frequented by Dean supporters, and they are down right hostile to Christians, Catholics and Jews. Secular is not the right term for them. This attempt by Dean to recast himself as religious will come across as phony to people who have been following the campaign so far. Dean is probably betting that many voters haven’t been paying attention so far to the campaign and that he has time to remake himself into a moderate.

Many people feel that this article in The New Republic jolted the Dean campaign into realizing that no candidate with Dean’s antipathy toward religion and faith could win an election. Front Page magazine has a great analysis of Dean, his religious history and his clumsy attempt at repositioning himself. And Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine accusses Dean of “religious pandering“.

Found an interesting photo gallery with black and white pictures of 1970’s and 1980’s Paterson and Totowa. I grew up in Hudson county during the same years, and the poeple, street scenes and sights could easly be in North Bergen, Hoboken, Guttenberg, West New York or Union City. And while these shots would be interesting in color, black and white just seems to be most appropriate. The storefronts, the kids hanging out, the haircuts, the diners. Some very nice photos.

While Christmas shopping last week, I stopped by the local Marshall’s. No Nordstrom’s for me, and Target is a little too ritzy. Once you peel off the stickers, who knows where you brought a gift, right?? I was looking for cheap Christmas plates to use for Christmas cookies. While browsing, I found some gourmet coffee beans on clearance. One pound in a clear zip-loc storage bag for $5.99 and it’s one of the best I’ve ever had. I’m drinking some right now. The bag says it’s Costa Rican Royal Tarrazu from a company called Unique Coffee out of Staten Island. The beans looked great, and I could see the oils from the beans sticking to the side of the bag. The coffee has lots of flavor without bitterness and it has a pleasant aftertaste. The smell while it’s brewing is stronger and better than any Starbuck’s coffee beans I’ve used.

I found a Tarrazu coffee website run by a Costa Rican coffee grower and he’s got a coffee blog with posts in English and Spanish. The grower was also featured on the Smell the Coffee site.

Earlier this month, NJ governor Jim McGreevey became the first governor to endorse Howard Dean for the democrat nomination for president. Matt at the Untelevised.Org blog makes the point that McGreevey needs to attach himself to Dean more than Dean needs McGreevey. Given that our boy governor has job approval ratings in the 30’s right now, even after the dems took control of the NJ legislature in November, he could use any positive news he can get. Better a story about endorsing Dean than another story about property taxes, DYFS, the bear hunt, auto insurance, the budget deficit, the NJ college reallignment plan, Peter Harvey, billboard-gate, Roger Chugh, the NJ state police (did I miss anything??) The best that Dean can hope for is that other democrat governors follow McGreevey into early endorsements. Howie baby, give Gray Davis a call. Though he’s not governor anymore he could use some good press clippings too.

I updated the baby blog with five new pictures. Check it out. Liliana turned 3 months old on December 18th. She’s been a real joy so far. A little fidgety at times, but lot’s better than my son who was a colic baby. He’d cry for hours at a time. A lot of people thought we were crazy for having a third child, but I don’t regret it at all. Kids are fun, they keep you young.

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures of my new daughter, Liliana. I’m updating the HTML and will have all the pages in later tonight.

While you’re waiting, here’s one of her pictures from about three weeks ago. I should have warned you to sit down before looking BECAUSE SHE’S SO DAMN CUTE!! That is not a wig, she has lots of hair. I saw a six month old baby in Target yesterday whose head looked like a peach. Liliana was only 10 weeks old in this picture, but you could give her pigtails.

A fellow New Jersey-based R.P.I. alum, Dave Aiello, runs a whole bunch of websites and weblogs. His home base is CTDATA which is a blog for his computer consulting business, Chatham Township Data Corp. Dave also runs the site for the Rensselaer Club of New Jersey, RCNJ, a hockey officiating blog, AAHArefs and Operation Gadget, a blog dedicated to the latest in electronic gizmos. Operation Gadget was written up in the U.S. 1 Newspaper, a Princeton area local distribution weekly paper. Check out his blogs.

Operation Gadget had a post about my latest obsession, the iPod. Apple sold almost 1 million iPods in FY 2003. A link from AppleInsider.com said Apple is testing a low cost iPod that might debut in early 2004. The low end iPod is 10GB at $299, and rumor has it that they’re testing 2GB and 4GB versions with a few less features that may retail for under $200.

Finally, I get a chance to sit down and catch up on what’s going on in the outside world. I don’t think I’ve watched any TV or had time to read a newspaper the last two days. We spent Christmas eve at a friend’s house in Wayne. The rain on Wednesday was monsoon-like. A trip that normally takes about an hour took almost an hour and forty five minutes. Dinner was great, but as always we end up staying later than planned, so I pulled up into my drive way at about 15 minutes past midnight. My kids were so exhausted that they slept until 8:45 on Christmas morning!! My daughter’s favorite present was a Strawberry Shortcake doll. My daughter is a gift unwrapping machine. She unwrapped her own presents and the baby’s presents plus the shared presents while my son was only about two thirds through his gifts. When my son unwrapped some new Playstation games he went right down to the TV and started playing even though he wasn’t done unwrapping. My mom, dad and younger brother came down from North Jersey in the afternoon for dinner. I cooked the free turkey I had gotten at Thanksgiving along with the normal side dishes. My wife makes cranberry and orange relish in a food processor, but my family is old fashioned, they must have cranberry sauce out of a can and it must be sliced, not scooped with a spoon. Everyone had fun.

This afternoon I had to do only one return and pick up a sweater for my baby daughter. While Woodbridge Mall wasn’t too crowded, for some reason the traffic was horrendous. Route 1 from Woodbridge Mall past Menlo Park Mall is a rotten stretch of road.

Now back to normal, though I’m off work until January 5th. Should give me some time to do some serious quality blogging.

Townhall.com has a bunch of good Christmas stuff today.

• Rebecca Hagelin explains in a few paragraphs the meaning of Christmas to christians in an article “Why Christmas?
• Mark Alexander details the history of Christmas in America, “Christmas Alone..“. The ending paragraph has the bible verse from the book of Luke that Charlie Brown read in his classic Christmas special. I wonder if the TV networks in current times would allow that much biblical verse into a new show??
• Bill Murchison has a piece “Christmas has Come” noting that christians have done some bad over the centuries but much good. This good-deeds/bad-deeds quandry is a reason that Christ was sent to save us.
• Linda Chavez talks about how “The birth of a child changed the world“.

Once again, Merry Christmas to all! Enjoy the holiday.