People are more opposed to fur than leather because it's easier to pick on rich ladies than biker gangs.

Awkward Christmas photos.

I will not turn on the heat. I will not turn on the heat. I will not turn on the heat.

Facebook made the new "Timeline" interface available today. It goes into effect for everyone on the 22nd but we can set it up before then if we want. I messed with it a little and can't figure out some features. A picture of my VW chassis sitting in my garage somehow gets tagged as happening at a shoe store in Peoria. I'm real sure I've never been to that shoe store, never mind worked on my car there. But despite my best efforts I can't figure out how to undo that tag.
It could be worse. It is, after all, just a shoe store.

One unnamed retired Pentagon official says he doesn't think the drone the Iranian's are showing off is real. He says the rivets wouldn't be visible on a stealth craft, the color is wrong, and their drape hiding the underside obscures what would be convincing evidence - the surface with all the technology.
Another expert says the Iranians exploited a well-known weakness in the drone's technology. By jamming the remote navigation they fooled the onboard GPS system into thinking that Iran was its home base and it "returned" there.
I don't want to think we're that stupid or that they're that good. I sure hope it's a fake.
But if it is, why did the President ask them to return it?
Are we trying to trick them into thinking they've tricked us?

According to all the major news outlets a Census Dept. study shows one half of all Americans are either living in poverty or are officially in the "low income" category. That's unbelievable on the face of it. Either we need to redraw the line or somebody can't count. I'd argue that anyone with the money for a smart phone or a flat screen TV isn't poor, and that's a lot more than half the population. I am NOT saying we should be anything but compassionate and caring toward those who are legitimately poor, but we've lost track of what's essential. Get rid of those false necessities and the amount of money required for the real basics of life would, I suspect, be a lot lower.
[Tonight I read that some reporters are as bad at math as I am, and the rest are lemmings.]

This headline from today's CNN.com is typical of those that appeared on several major news sites and was also reported on NPR:
"Survey: 1 in 3 women affected by partner's violent behavior."
This is from another study done by the govt., in this case the CDC. And again I found the statistic unbelievable. Turns out I was right.
How many people will read that headline and take it at face value? How many will read the article carefully and discover that "stalking" falls under the CDC's definition of "violent behavior?" If you heard the NPR story this afternoon, as I did, no mention was made of that rather soft definition of violence.
And who decides what constitutes stalking? She broke up with her boyfriend and he called every day for a week trying to win her back. Stalking?
"More than one in three women reported experiencing multiple forms of rape, stalking or physical violence."
I am NOT saying we should be anything but 100% intolerant of physical violence against anyone. But the question, "Have you ever experienced...," when it includes stalking, makes the survey meaningless.
I would answer "yes" to a question about having been stalked (scary story) but certainly don't consider myself the object of violence.

To quote MNF, "C'mon, man!"