Roscoe's Public Notes

Are you sick and tired of trying to convince a jar of pickles to yodel using melodious mind bullets and sheer force of will? So were we. At last, the Electronic Yodelling Pickle that you have always hoped for! Each 6-1/2″ long plastic pickle yodels its little heart out at the push of a button. Batteries included.

Purchase a new PC or motherboard soon, and the chances are good that it will come with two built-in network interfaces — either two Ethernet jacks or one Ethernet and one Wi-Fi. Tossing in a second adapter is an inexpensive way for the manufacturer to add another bullet point to the product description — but what exactly are you supposed to do with it? If you are running Linux, you have several alternatives. …

John Bolton, America’s ex-ambassador to the United Nations, has called for US air strikes on Iranian camps where insurgents are trained for war in Iraq.

Mr Bolton said that striking Iran would represent a major step towards victory in Iraq. While he acknowledged that the risk of a hostile Iranian response harming American’s overseas interests existed, he said the damage inflicted by Tehran would be “far higher” if Washington took no action.

“This is a case where the use of military force against a training camp to show the Iranians we’re not going to tolerate this is really the most prudent thing to do,” he said. “Then the ball would be in Iran’s court to draw the appropriate lesson to stop harming our troops.” …

Why is John McCain pandering to a rabidly racist Mexican-American group with an open agenda to turn the Western states of the US into “Aztlan?” McCain to attend La Raza’s annual conference.

A Florida teacher has been fired because — I kid you not — he’s been accused of wizardry. When Tim sent me the article, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scream. In a nutshell, this guy performed a magic trick with a toothpick in front of a middle school class and he got fired for it.

I first have to laugh that someone is dumb enough to believe this guy performed an actual feat of magic and not simple sleight of hand. I also find it funny that their school board had the stones to actually list this, on record, as a reason for his termination. This makes the Kansas state board of ed look progressive. …

[Mike is right: this is "beyond ridiculous." -R]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Pentagon warned Tuesday the US Army will not be able to pay its soldiers beyond June 15 unless Congress acts soon on a stalled request from the administration for war funding.

It was the latest salvo in a long-running impasse between the Democratic-controlled Congress and the administration over a 108-billion dollar request to fund US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2008 fiscal year.

The pay crunch would be eased if Congress authorized funds to be moved from other accounts to pay soldiers, but the Pentagon is pressing for approval of the full budget request. …

[This Democrat Congress and its anti-military stance in a time of war is disgusting beyond belief. Reid, Pelosi and their ilk should be jailed for what they're doing and for what they're failing to do. -R]