Linkmeister

Hard to believe

It seems impossible, but the military men who hold power in Myanmar have confiscated aid meant for the country's people.

To date, Myanmar has allowed 11 airborne deliveries of aid, which experts say is a fraction of the relief needed if the scale of the disaster is even close to what the Burmese government has claimed. And much of that has come from the United Nations World Food Program, which said on Friday that the aid it had delivered — and intended to distribute to hard-hit regions along the coast — had been seized. “All the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated,” said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program in Bangkok.

I recently read David Maraniss's wonderful biography of Roberto Clemente, who died in a plane crash while trying to get aid to Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. One of the reasons he decided to personally ferry the goods to that country was that he'd been told that Somoza's government was diverting the aid coming in to its supporters, and he thought that his stature in Latin America was such that the dictator wouldn't dare interfere if he went along.

Eerily familiar circumstances, no?

Lost, Season Four, Episode 11

Locke is enlightened as to the whereabouts of Jacob’s cabin, and life aboard the freighter becomes perilous.

Ryan's post.

A letter

Dear Hawai'i State Tax Collector,

You've had a check for my 2007 income tax payment since April 22 of this year.

Have you so little need for revenue that you've put it in a desk drawer?

Sincerely,
Linkmeister

I don't think so

Right. I'll get right on this.

From: UNITED BANK FOR AFRICA
Subject: Hawaiian Telcom Systems (Update Your Account)

Dear Hawaiian Telcom Webmail Subscriber,

This is to formally notify you that we are presently working on the
Hawaiian,and this can close your webmail account with Hawaiians
(Hawaiian Telcom Systems ) completely.

To avoid this, please send your Hawaiiantel.net
Surname:
Password:
to Hawaiian (Hawaiian Telcom Systems) customer care email
address at Yahoomail: hawaiiantel_customerservice@yahoo.com

Please do this,so your Hawaiian Telcom Webmail Account can be
protected from beingclose from spam/phishing emails.

Your immediate response is highly needed

Regards,
Hawaiian Telcom Systems.

Even as screwed up as HawaiianTel has been after its purchase by the Carlyle Group, I doubt that they'd receive their customer service mail at Yahoo. And if you're trying to get something out of me, the United Bank of Africa is probably not the best mail address to use.

Not a shining moment for cable TV

I attempted to watch the Dodgers-Mets game yesterday, a game which featured a steal of home by the Mets' 42-year-old Moises Alou and an inside-the-park home run by the Dodgers' 22-year-old Blake DeWitt. Unfortunately, I couldn't see either event.

Oceanic Cable has two Fox Sports channels as part of its basic package: Fox Sports West and Fox Prime Ticket. Angels' baseball games are on FSN (channel 226) and Dodgers' games on FSNPT (channel 228). Yesterday the cable company fouled up big time: at 4:00pm I tuned in to FSNPT to see the start of the Dodgers game and instead saw the 7th inning of the Royals-Angels game from Fox Kansas City. Weird, I thought, so I switched to FSNW and got -- the Royals-Angels game. On the FSNKC feed I got the Royals' broadcasters; on the FSNW feed I got the Angels' broadcasters.

Now that was disconcerting.

And it didn't get corrected, at least through 10:00pm last night. This morning it has the correct feed again.

Who's getting rich here?

We're headed down to the dentist to see whether the teeth which had root canals recently should be protected with fillings or crowns. The morbid question then arose: what happens to the gold resulting from melting crowns upon cremation? I picture funeral directors pouring ash through sieves; the 21st-century equivalent of prospecting by panning.

If regular old burial is chosen, I suggested, 3 million years from now when archaeologists find and excavate Bush-era cemeteries they'll conclude that ours was a very affluent society, assuming gold retains its intrinsic value.

Update: Fillings.

Overthrow this

Airplane wasn't the only band advocating revolution back in the 1960s, although these guys weren't quite as vehement about it.

Your taxes pay so these guys needn't

Man, these clowns have no conscience. Back in March the Boston Globe reported that KBR was avoiding paying Social Security and Medicare taxes by creating shell companies offshore. Now the Globe reports that another defense contractor, MPRI, is doing the same thing.

Apparently, this is just fine with the lobbying group which represents government contractors:

But the business community has begun to defend the practice.

"There is nothing wrong with tax avoidance, particularly for work that is done outside the United States," said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president of the Professional Services Council, a trade association of companies that perform government work.

Well, no, Mr. Chvotkin, except when the firm in question deliberately sets up a shell company offshore for the sole purpose of avoiding those taxes.

In 2004, MPRI joined with KBR and two other federal contractors to form Civilian Police International, a joint venture that successfully bid on a $1.6 billion State Department contract to deploy US peacekeepers around the world.

Three months after winning the contract, MPRI formed CPI Police Services Ltd. in the Cayman Islands. More than 200 Americans, mostly retired police officers, work in Kosovo and Afghanistan in full-time posts under the State Department contract, according to State Department officials.

The timing's a tad suspicious, wouldn't you say?

h/t Think Progress

An omission

After using an Amazon gift certificate to acquire The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac I have concluded that I've been vastly underrating Stevie Nicks as a songwriter.

One of the nice things about getting older is that all your favorite musical acts or their labels have issued "Greatest Hits" compilations, which is useful if you never bought their entire catalogue the first time around. Sure you miss some wonderful album tracks, but you can always go back and buy them one at a time from iTunes if you're so inclined.

Re-bandage day!

I took Tigger down to the vet for a new bandage today, and this time I took the camera with me.