yeah, whatever. i can't even believe that i ever liked this guy (it was his baseball days, btw).

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it's scary, even in jail.

crowded Norfolk jail is at the breaking point:

The jail population Tuesday morning was 1,887, slightly down from Monday’s record high of 1,915, Sheriff Robert J. McCabe said. Its rated capacity is 833 inmates.

The crowding stresses the food budget, equipment and staff, as well as inmates, McCabe said. Acts of violence have increased 15 percent during the past six months, he said. “You’ve got people climbing over each other to get to the bathroom,” he said. That can spark something in a block of 50, 60 people.”

McCabe said that on Monday deputies escorted a new inmate to a cell block and the inmates threatened to beat him up if they had to take another. He was placed in the block and attacked, McCabe said.

the overcrowding in our jail is causing more violence within the jail. the increased jail population is from more violence in the city. comparing this year's crime stats to last year's, homicide is up 67.4%, agg. assault increased 49.7%, and burglary is up 18.4%.

i wonder how many of those stuffed in there were convicted of petty drug offenses.

Labels: crime and social justice

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[quiz] What Color Should Your Eyes Be?: Your Eyes Should Be Brown

Your eyes reflect: Depth and wisdom
What's hidden behind your eyes: A tender heart

Labels: quiz

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thanks Gov. Warner.

Labels: crime and social justice

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Stuffed:: animal
Armstrong:: neil
Bruise:: tender
Content:: book
Musical:: lyrics
Assistance:: help
Scrambling:: to get to the top
Battle:: ax
Extended:: arm
Discount:: store

Labels: free association

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report here.

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[quiz] What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?: You Are Mashed Potatoes

Oridnary, comforting, and more than a little predictable
You're the glue that holds everyone together.

Labels: quiz

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i came across the Table of Condiments. thought i'd share.

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and on the marquee for a church!



you're welcome.

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about the fact that there was a nearly 50-degree plunge in the mercury. it's just that it happened in one day.

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a list of past LOTW [permapost]:

soyouwanna [first]
postsecret
the money shirt
worldometers
US Mayor's Report on Hunger and Homelessness, 2005
my favorite word
75 Fun Ways To Order A Pizza
2006 Sick Day Calendar
did you know?
On This Day
oxymoronlist
this date in history: #1 song
Keep-It-Clean Plan
George Bush's 50 greatest accomplishments
Cannot find server
vinegar uses & tips
bad fads
spoiled movies
google calendar
102 Movies You Must See
ghetto america
stuck in the 80s
did you know?
LoveFilm's cryptic film titles
50 worse things to happen in music
50 awesome dead rock stars
the way i see it
18 Tricks to Teach Your Body
TeeVeePedia
Internet Wayback Machine
not-to-do list
10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed
Rules That Guys Wish Women Knew
10 things more scary than terrorists
Famous Firsts in Music
Hidden Litter
Five 'mannish' female celebs
know your limits
nobody's watching
Hollywood Disasters
Top 15 Strangest Coincidences
the greatest comedies of all time
25 Differences Between Star Wars and Star Trek
What Your Congressman Won't Tell You
10 biggest spin-off bombs
group hug
list of unusual deaths
25 Songs With a Secret
Phobia List
2007 Hurricane Season
Genealogy of Pop & Rock Music
Things I've learned on movies and TV
Top 15 Manipulated Photographs
20 Things About Nothing
Politically Incorrect Adverts
10 accidental inventions

Labels: link of the week

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earthling is first found in print in 1593.

the earliest known appearance of the word HELLO in print is in a letter written by Thomas Edison dated August 15, 1877.

'ough' has many pronunciations: cough, hiccough sought through enough thorough

Labels: three things

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[quiz] Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?: Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

that surprised me a little. :-)

[quiz] Left brain vs right-brain? my results:

Your Brain Usage Profile:

    Auditory : 46%
    Visual : 53%
    Left : 60%
    Right : 40%

Jessica, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant and show a preference for visual learning, although not extreme in either characteristic. You probably tend to do most things in moderation, but not always.

Your left-hemisphere dominance implies that your learning style is organized and structured, detail oriented and logical. Your visual preference, though, has you seeking stimulation and multiple data. Such an outlook can overwhelm structure and logic and create an almost continuous state of uncertainty and agitation. You may well suffer a feeling of continually trying to "catch up" with yourself.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor. You can "size up" situations and take in information rapidly. However, you must then subject that data to being classified and organized which causes you to "lose touch" with the immediacy of the problem.

and saving the best for last:

[quiz] How "Average American" Are You?: You Are 80% Average American

You are average because you don't think people should be jailed for using marijuana.
You are not average since you have (at least) a college degree.

i've always said i was average.

Labels: quiz

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as a lover of the eagles and the eagles, i am proud to share with you this post: eagles suspend terrell owens by chris uggen.

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[qiuz] Are You a Yankee or a Rebel?

i'm 58% Dixie. Right on the Mason-Dixon Line.

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walmart, the only place in town that i still find vanilla CIB, has stopped selling it. where am i to find it now?

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It’s official. Almost four months after a lawsuit was filed by ten women against the Ortho Evra birth control patch concerning the serious health risks involved, the FDA issued a serious warning yesterday to the patch’s label.

The makers of the patch, Ortho McNeil, had previously denied the accusations of serious risks such as blood clots and strokes, claiming that the potential risks in the patch and the pill were more or less the same. Yet new information has found (and added to the label) that women who use the patch will be exposed to 60 percent more estrogen than women on the pill.

article | post from feminsiting

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i talked about this same thing this past week in class. remember the topic was the war on drugs. this is an article about a new book - All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated

Criminologist Stephen Richards says, “A successful corrections system doesn’t grow. If they were correcting anybody, they’d shrink.”

By Richards’ standards, the US penal system is a massive failure. Our prisons hold a record 2.1 million men and women. That’s twice as many inmates as the prison population of the entire continent of Africa, which is three times the size of the US — and a five-fold increase from the number of inmates in US prisons 30 years ago. The US incarceration rate of 724 per 100,000 is 25% higher than that of any other nation. And the total number of people incarcerated grew 1.9% last year, bringing to 2.4 million the number of children who now have a mother or father behind bars.

... the endless — and fruitless — cycle of crime and punishment that the mandatory drug sentencing laws of the past three decades have set into motion, and their devastating effect on the very children, families, and communities that they were allegedly created to protect.

this looks like a good book.

Labels: crime and social justice

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your eyes are not deceiving you. i've been making small changes around here. just a "heads up" to the fact that more may follow.

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i hate it when actors become singers and singers become actors. why can't they just stick to one thing. It bothers me when famous people cross-over into something else.It’s happening all over the place.

examples of actors who become singers – John Travolta, Patrick Swayze, Bruce Willis, Eddie Murphy, Dennis Quaid, William Shatner, Russell Crowe, Lindsay Lohan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Hilary Duff, Bill Murray, even Steven Seagal.

and those singers who become actors – Janet Jackson , Britney Spears, Madonna, Nelly, Brandy, Ice-T, Ice Cube, Mariah Carey, Eminem, Beyoncé , Snoop Dogg, Will Smith, 50 cent, Courtney Love.

two things. i had jennifer lopez as a singer originally. then i thought she started as an actor. i removed her from the list cause i couldn't decide which came first. oh, and courtney love acting is the worst.

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[quiz] take the thinker quiz . my results: You are a Logical-Mathematical Thinker

Logical-Mathematical thinkers:
Like to understand patterns and relationships between objects or actions
Try to understand the world in terms of causes and effects
Are good at thinking critically, and solving problems creatively

Like Logical-Mathematical thinkers, Leonardo based his theories on evidence rather than speculation. Other Logical-Mathematical Thinkers include Isaac Newton, Archimedes, Albert Einstein

Careers which suit Logical-Mathematical thinkers include Physicist, Chemist, Biologist, Lawyer, Computer programmer, Engineer, Inventor

Labels: quiz

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Kansas school board approves science standards casting doubt on evolution

my comments are aligned with this quote: 'a Washington Post columnist imagined God saying to the Kansas board members: "Man, I gave you a brain. Use it, OK?"'

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as i sit waiting for election results and putting off the work i have to do, i'm checking out this site: city-data.com

here's some info from norfolk. as compared with virginia state average:

Median household income below state average.
Median house value below state average.
Unemployed percentage above state average.
Black race population percentage above state average.
Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher below state average.

yeah! and before you make fun of norfolk, check out the profile for chincoteague:

Median household income below state average.
Black race population percentage significantly below state average.
Number of college students below state average.
Percentage of population with a bachelor's degree or higher below state average.

i love that crime chart for the island. priceless.

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the poll at the pilot today is asking who you voted for today for governor. at 2:45 this afternoon, these were the results:

Kaine 42.96%
Kilgore 42.5%         Total: 3068 votes

i've yet to come across anyone who did vote today. well, except me. it will be an exciting night to see how it turns out.

update 7:05 pm: the polls are closed. a look at the pilot's poll page:

Kaine 41.92%
Kilgore 45.13%         Total: 4261 votes

don't hate me for saying this, but i am hoping there are democrats, perhaps poor with no home computer, or perhaps with a social life, who voted but are not voicing their opinions on some stupid poll.

update 11:00 pm: kaine wins.

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oh, what will tomorrow bring?

Virginia Governor's Race Tightest In Years

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Henry David Thoreau: 'Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.'

especially after we were with fancy people saturday night.

Labels: quotes

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because it is so, here's some quizzes.

[quiz] At What Price Would You Sell Out? On Average, You Would Sell Out For $1,114,241

[quiz] Who Were You In High School?: All American Kid

Popular but not plastic. Athletic but not a jock. Smart but not a brain.
You were well rounded and well liked in high school.

[quiz] What Cute Animal Are You?: You Are A Duckling

The cutest of the cute, these baby ducks are often spotted in the spring following closely behind their mother. As a duckling you will grow up quickly, becoming one of the adult ducks seen commonly in ponds and streams. Playful and timid, charming and vulnerable, ducklings are nature's very definition of innocence.

Labels: quiz

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Deeper and deeper:: in debt
Can’t help :: falling in love
Devil’s advocate:: argue
Superpower:: scary
Threatening:: music
Played:: and won.
War:: and peace
Violate:: destroy
Invest:: money
Choke:: to death             [lunanina]

Labels: free association

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what are the chances that virginia will elect another democratic governer?

the virginian-pilot poll for today:

Which candidate do you intend to vote for as Virginia's next governor?

Timothy M. Kaine 42.9%
Jerry W. Kilgore 44.91%

Total: 1247 votes

looks close. i know who i'm voting for...

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the scoop: Owens suspended by the Eagles . i'm upset that i won't be able to watch the philadelphia game vs. the redskins tomorrow night. it's an important game. and if the redskins win, i may not be able to go back to work.

update 11/07: i know, they lost. i went to work anyway. but now T.O. has been really suspended. as in, he's not playing this season at all.

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with this being the topic in both of my classes this week, it has been on my mind.

i've written about the war on drugs before and our obsession with war and fighting.

but the war on drugs is the most absurd. because it's a failing war. it always has been. it's been thirty years and the war has had no significant impact on the the use of drugs. and everyone knows it.

politicians bring it up every election year. americans are scared, as they rightly should be, of drugs and violence. we continue to fight 'the war' because it makes citizens feel better to think that something is being done. done to protect them and their neighborhoods. but fighting a war on drugs is fighting each other. fighting american citizens.

and there's a price. over 2 million people incarcerated, with a disproportionate number of those in prison being minority. and poor.

and though i refrain from voicing my true opinions in class (or at least make it absolutely clear that it is my opinion only when i do), i will express it here. the war on drugs is dumb. i'm in favor of reducing drug use and the amount of drugs in the country, but current methods do not work. sending a drug dealer to prison is not going to cut down on the drug problem. someone else will just step up and take over his job.jailing people for posessing even small amounts of drugs will not make a difference. we've seen this to be true. and it's taking up valuable prison space that we need for violent offenders. not to mention the amount of drugs in prison. if we can't keep drugs out of prison, how do we expect to keep them out of the country? we need a new strategy. maybe education and treatment.

and another thing. we keep pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into this war, but how do we even define victory?

lastly, i recently discovered this new blog posting about our wars 'waged in vain' that may be interesting. i guess i'm done now.

Labels: crime and social justice

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[quiz] What religion do you fit in with?: You fit in with: Atheism

Your ideals mostly resemble those of an Atheist. You have very little faith and you are very focused on intellectual endeavors. You value objective proof over intuition or subjective thoughts. You enjoy talking about ideas and tend to have a lot of in depth conversations with people.

60% scientific.
80% reason-oriented.

what is so wrong with thinking intellectually? and on a related note, check out this humorous poster:



[via j-walkblog] updated to remove ugly chart.

Labels: quiz

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