life's small victories

Well, I still haven't found the software for my colour printer (although I've found everything else that goes with it, including the packet of photo paper). And first I couldn't find the programs for the scanner, because of course I never installed that either when I got the new PC. FInally found the SW and installed it, but now the Sw can't find the scanner. The PC can, so I end up scanning the pages I needed to send to the lawyer as JPEGs instead of text. Only then, after scanning four of the six pages, I discoverd that all but the first had come out blank. Late, late, late. No time to fix. Have to make photocopies and drive them over at lunchtime.

Go to take my shower. For the n x 10th time, one of the cats pushes the bathroom dorr open while I'm, well, busy. Fed up, I look at the latch and start to pull the plate off the doorframe. With some repositioning, a little filing, this ought to be easy to fix. I match up the door against the hole in the doorframe. Then it hits me; this is going to be even easier than I thought. The MORON who put the door in (this house is full of "user improvements" and much of the downstairs apartment is an afterthought from several years after the house was built), the total FOOL who put the door in... put the latch assembly in the door the wrong way around. Pull four screws, remove the handles, pull out the latch assembly, turn it around, put it back, put the handles back on, rescrew. I now have a bathroom door that latches. I (and, more importantly, my guests and visitors) will no longer be interrupted in our private business by cats coming in to pass a few remarks, ask for more water, or chase a moth.

It's the little victories in life that are sometimes the sweetest.

Not justice, just the law...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Monday to free a Texas man who has served more than six years in prison for stealing a calculator from a Wal-Mart, even though state prosecutors admitted his crime called for a maximum of two years behind bars.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices said simple claims of injustice or "actual innocence" were usually not the basis for appeals in federal courts. To win in a federal court, defendants must show a "constitutional error" in the handling of their cases, they said.

But the three dissenters criticized their colleagues for ignoring "simple justice" in favor of procedural technicalities.

The high court reversed the orders that had freed Michael Haley, and it sent his case back to Texas for other judges to consider whether his mistaken prison sentence was his lawyer's fault.

from the LA Times

once again, our Saudi friends show their colours

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia vowed on Tuesday to strike with an iron fist against militants who staged an unprecedented attack on a Saudi energy site this week and said it was making every effort to protect foreigners.

``The Saudi leadership and people affirm their determination to strike with an iron fist in fighting this deviant group in order to uproot this wicked disease from the body of our nation,'' Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told a news conference.

while, at the other end of the street

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- Commenting on the May 1 killing of seven Westerners -- including two Americans -- in the port city of Yanbu to a group of Saudi officials, clerics and members of the royal family, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz claimed "the Zionist hands" were to blame for the terrorist attacks.

The crown prince's remarks were televised live on Saudi television and carried on al-Jazeera, the Qatari-based Arab satellite network. Speaking from the royal court of al-Salam palace in Jeddah, the crown prince lectured his audience for several minutes, saying the kingdom was targeted by terrorists who get support from Israel.

With allies like these, do we need enemies? President Walken, it's time to start attacking the terrorists *inside* Qumar...

*sigh*

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) told a prominent Jewish group yesterday that the "security of Israel is paramount" and pledged that as president he would never push Israel into peace agreements against its interest.

from the Washington Post

The actual quote from Kerry was

"As president, my promise to the people of Israel is this: I will never force Israel to make concessions that cost or compromise any of Israel's security," Kerry said. "The security of Israel is paramount. . . . We will also never expect Israel to negotiate peace without a credible [Palestinian] partner. And it is up to the United States in my judgment to do a better job of helping the Arab world to help that partner to evolve and to develop."

(They don't have the full speech on his website yet, so I can't tell what was omitted by the Post reporter.)

So, again, no matter what concessions or compromises Israel refuses to make, we're going to back them. And we wonder why we have no credibility in the Arab world? Senator, I'm still going to vote for you, but I'm very disappointed.

just for the record

I hate the fact that Yahoo overloads and shuts down just at the time of day that I have free time to read newsgroups. I mean, obviously it's because everyone else on the East Coast is having lunch and going to Yahoo, who are presumably so woefully incapable of dealing with their own popularity that they crash, but still...