HoustonWade.com - News and opinion that matters to you.

So here we have it, my first page in almost 4 months. Man, what a lazy summer I had, huh? Well enough
of that; now it is time to procrastinate from doing homework by making my dumpy blog.

In other news: I am hoping to soon make some much needed improvements to the format of my site. You
know, little things like produce an RSS feed that actually works and construct buttons links with my
headlines that will automatically connect the stories below. These things take time (and a level of
programming skill that I seem not to yet possess) so let's all be patient. I am also going to make a
CafePress page that is going to have bitchin' HoustonWade.com gear, hats, T-shirts, stickers, thongs, etc...

One more thing; do any of you have awesome Photoshop skills and want to make me a groovy new logo
that doesn't look as though a 5 year old on an Apple II created it? You would be my hero if you did that for
me!

Enjoy today's page!

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Excerpt:

Police said today they found the bodies of 65 men who had been tortured, shot and dumped,
most around Baghdad, while car bombs and mortar attacks killed at least 39 people and
wounded dozens more.

Great. I thought it was too much when only 30 or so tortured and murdered bodies were found daily in
Baghdad. A nice 100+% increase in activity.... Add to this the fact that we have lost control of the Anbar
Province in Iraq to al Qaeda and that our military commanders say that they have been beaten "militarily
as well as politically" just goes to show that we are not going to win this war and that Bush is a fuck-up.

I have a challenge for you conservative readers:

Name one thing since coming into office that Bush has not fucked up. The only thing I can think of is his
signing legislation to make the Northwest Hawaiian Islands a national park. Other than that, every decision
he has made has been the wrong one. I dare you to prove me wrong.

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NATO failed yesterday to find the urgent reinforcements that its top generals have demanded
to strengthen operations against the Taleban in Afghanistan.

Despite the recent pressure on Nato governments to reinforce alliance troops fighting in the
south of the country, officials admitted that there had been no formal offers in response to an
appeal from the alliance’s military and political chiefs to produce another 2,500 troops, as well
as helicopters and transport aircraft.

Good thing we "won" that war 4 years ago, huh? I would sure hate to see a resurgence of al Qaeda or
anything. Our leaders are complete tools. It is going to take 25 years to undo just a fraction of the wrongs
this administration has committed.

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Tech-savvy armchair sleuths around the world are having a field day discovering military
secrets in China.

Three times in the past few months, they've stumbled across unusual military installations using
Internet programs that allow those online to view satellite and aerial images of the world.

In the most recent find, users spotted an underwater submarine tunnel off China's Hainan
Island. They've also found a mock-up of a Taiwanese air base in China's western desert. In a
bizarre discovery, a computer technician in Germany noticed a huge and startlingly accurate
terrain model in northwest China that replicates a sensitive border area with India.

Groovy. Recently, I have been using Google Earth to learn about every island on the planet--And I mean
every single island. I pretty much have Indonesia and the Philippines to go and that should be a bitch as
about 90% of the islands found on Earth reside right in those two locations.

All the 9/11 conspiracy believers are doing exactly what Bush did before he invaded Iraq; cherry-picked
evidence and twisted the facts to fit their cause. When science and mathematical logic is at play these
"believers" are harder to convince than a Baptist arguing about creationism. My
911physics.houstonwade.com page is still under construction so please be patient.

I just ordered this book today and hopefully I will have a review for you in a few days. Groovy.

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Excerpt:

Arctic sea ice in winter is melting far faster than before, two new NASA studies reported
Wednesday, a new and alarming trend that researchers say threatens the ocean's delicate
ecosystem.

Scientists point to the sudden and rapid melting as a sure sign of man-made global warming.

"It has never occurred before in the past," said NASA senior research scientist Josefino
Comiso in a phone interview. "It is alarming... This winter ice provides the kind of evidence that
it is indeed associated with the greenhouse effect."

How much more beating into our brain are we going to need before our elected officials wake up to this?
This summer while I was down visiting family in California my brother and I were discussing Al Gore's "an
Inconvenient Truth" and he asked me a question I hadn't really thought about: "Do they have any plans
about San Onofre?" I had no response. What the hell are they going to do when sea levels rise, rather
rapidly, 20 feet or more and swamp nuclear plants like San Onofre?

We need to start having contingency plans for this stuff now. One would think all the rich people with their
fancy waterfront homes would be paying attention. What happens when 90% of one's wealth is tied up in
land and then that land no longer exists? Where do the refugees go? What about places like California's
Central Valley that provide some 20% of all of our food and one day we find it sitting under 30 feet of
water?

I personally think that we may have gone past the point of no return and that we need to start planning for
our future now. What if peak oil and global flooding take place at the same time? How screwed are we
then?

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A new and lucrative literary prize has just been started, with some unusual credentials for the
winner: The book must be unpublished and the author must not have an agent.

The Sobol Award offers $100,000 for the best unreleased, agentless novel, with prizes of
$25,000 and $10,000 for the runners-up and $1,000 each to seven others. The award was
created by Sobol Literary Enterprises, a for-profit venture started by technology entrepreneur
Gur Shomron, as "a venue to discover talented, unknown fiction writers and help them get the
recognition they deserve."

I will make sure I submit my manuscript whenever--you know, I get around to actually having a manuscript...

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Excerpt:

Democrats from New York and New Jersey asked on Wednesday for an investigation that could
lead to criminal charges against former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christie
Whitman for breathing problems suffered by thousands after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Whitman told The Associated Press that she and the EPA "agreed then and I reiterate now that
the air on the WTC site was not clean — the consequence of millions of tons of burned debris
from the most horrific attack in our nation's history.

The New York Times had an editorial this past week that stated that 7 in 10 ground zero workers, have a
debilitating respiratory illness. I just hope that these heroes can get compensation for their sacrifice and
commitment.

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The widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan won state approval Wednesday to place a Wiccan
religious symbol on his memorial plaque, something the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
had refused.

"I'm honored and ecstatic. I've been waiting a year for this," Roberta Stewart said from her
home in Fernley, about 30 miles east of Reno.

Sgt. Patrick Stewart, 34, was killed in Afghanistan last September when a rocket-propelled
grenade struck his helicopter. Four others also died. Stewart was posthumously awarded the
Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

He was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does
not recognize and therefore prohibits on veterans' headstones in national cemeteries.

What freedoms are we fighting for in Afghanistan and Iraq if religion is not among them? Our federal
government needs to pull its head out of its ass. Granted, Wicca is a retarded religion but it isn't any
dumber than any other unprovable belief out there.

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Former Gov. Ann Richards, who opened the doors of state government to women and
minorities and won national celebrity with her lively humor and Texas twang, died Wednesday
night at her home. She was 73.

She had battled esophageal cancer, which was diagnosed in March. Her four adult children
spent the day with her, said Cathy Bonner, a longtime family friend and family spokeswoman.

"The greatest part of my life was the opportunity to be in public service," Ann Richards said
after leaving office. The second woman to serve as governor of Texas, Ms. Richards broke
tradition by pressing for more diversity within state agencies and pursued a progressive
agenda that emphasized ethics, the environment and insurance reform...

...Ms. Richards questioned his lack of political experience, and Mr. Bush labeled her as a
career politician and challenged her stewardship as governor, criticizing the size of the state
budget and her administration's performance fighting crime.

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Two weeks after telling police that her son had been snatched from his crib, Melinda Duckett
found herself reeling in an interview with CNN’s famously prosecutorial Nancy Grace. Before it
was over, Grace was pounding her desk and loudly demanding to know: “Where were you? Why
aren’t you telling us where you were that day?”

A day after the taping, Duckett, 21, shot herself to death, deepening the mystery of what
happened to the boy.

“Nancy Grace and the others, they just bashed her to the end,” Duckett’s grandfather Bill
Eubank said Tuesday. “She wasn’t one anyone ever would have thought of to do something like
this. She and that baby just loved each other, couldn’t get away from each other. She wouldn’t
hurt a bug.”

Way to go, Nancy. How does it feel to harp on a poor woman who has just lost her child to the point where
she kills herself? I hope that fat contract at CNN fills the void where your soul should be.

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Excerpt:

El Niño, a warming of equatorial waters in the Pacific Ocean that wreaks havoc with world
weather conditions, has formed and will last into 2007, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration reported Wednesday.

Great, the winter snow pack in the Northwest is going to suck. La Niña is waaaaaay better for winter snow
up there.

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Police in Lawrence arrested two people following the discovery of more than $1 million in
cocaine in a rental van. Investigators found even more cocaine in a Methuen home along with
$120,000.

Workers at a car rental agency found the drugs inside two liquor boxes in the back of the van
on Tuesday morning. The cocaine was covered in transmission fluid to mask the scent.

The van was rented to 30-year-old Nicole Paquette of Haverhill. A detective posed as a car
rental employee, called Paquette and told her to come pick up the boxes.

Which leads me to other drug-related news...

Crack house busted in my upscale hometown of Bainbridge Island,
WA!! Take that you snobby, nuevo riche pains in the ass

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Excerpt:

Police seized heroin, cocaine and weapons in a raid on a Lynwood Center Road home Friday,
breaking up a suspected crack cocaine manufacturing operation.

Two Bainbridge residents, a 53-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman, were arrested and
booked into the county jail on suspicion of possession with intent to deliver controlled
substances. A 33-year-old Bainbridge man also was arrested at the home on an outstanding
felony drug warrant.

Police served a narcotics search warrant on the residence in the 5000 block of Lynwood Center
Road at 3 p.m. Friday.

A semi-automatic rifle and a handgun also were seized, as well as drug paraphernalia. Evidence
suggested that the suspects were manufacturing crack cocaine in the kitchen of the house.

HA HA! Why anyone would turn a house that is probably worth a cool $1 million into a crack kitchen beats
me. It seems to me that one could lower their overhead by at least half and do it in Pouslbo instead.

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Meet the girls of Craigslist. The nine women pictured in the mug shots on the following pages
were arrested last week in a Pennsylvania sting targeting alleged prostitutes advertising their
services via the online classifieds site. The Bensalem Township Police Department's two-day
operation targeted Craigslist because it "blatantly allows prostitutes to post advertisements
with explicit solicitations for sex for money,"

Crime doesn't pay--and if you answered any of these adds and got one of these "lookers" you shouldn't
pay either. Hey, here's some advice, if you are going to pay for sex it should at least be with someone who
doesn't resemble what's leftover at last call. If you are going to pay for it you might as well go top shelf.

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The saucy goings on were made even more interesting by father Carmelo's age - he is 70 years
old - and is said to have been sleeping with both sister De Sousa and the other woman for
several months.

At the court hearing Sister De Sousa also claimed to have had two abortions as a result of
having unprotected sex with Father Carmelo and also showed several love letters from him.

Why can't our priests be more like the Italians and sleep around with women instead of 10 year old boys?

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With real estate markets slowing and mortgage rates well above levels of recent years, times
are getting tougher for homeowners - the number of homes entering into some stage of
foreclosure is surging, according to a survey released Wednesday.

In August, 115,292 properties entered into foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac, an online
marketplace for foreclosure sales. That was 24 percent above the level in July and 53 percent
higher than a year earlier.

California foreclosures are increasing at an even faster annual rate, up 160 percent since last
year to 12,506. And the formerly red-hot Nevada market recorded a spike of 24 percent
compared with July and a whopping 255 percent increase from August 2005.

Orange County, CA is where it is going to start. The average wage there is about $50k while the average
home price is almost $700k. There is no way an economy can support these inflated prices.

Second:

Strongest housing market in the country slowing to crawl

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The Puget Sound area's housing market is still stronger than most in the country, but signs of
slowing are clear.

For the third month in a row, median home prices were nearly flat — up just 0.5 percent in
August compared with July in King County, 1.5 percent in Snohomish County and 0.2 percent in
Pierce County, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Kitsap County prices slipped 0.2 percent, said the MLS, which tracks home sales in 17 counties
in Western and Central Washington.

Pop. I have a bet with my friend Rebecca for $10 that within ten years median house prices will drop
nation-wide. She says it's impossible. We'll see who wins.

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The world has tapped only 18 percent of the global supply of crude, a Saudi oil executive said
Wednesday, challenging the notion that supplies are petering out.

Abdallah Jum'ah, president and CEO of the state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known better as
Aramco, said the world has the potential of 4.5 trillion barrels in reserves, enough to power the
globe at current levels of consumption for another 140 years.

Many experts estimate that the planet's recoverable oil resource is at least 3 trillion barrels and
potentially more than 4 trillion barrels. If global consumption rises about 2 percent a year from
today's levels of about 85 million barrels a day, the low end of that range would be enough to
last only until roughly 2070.

If we have so much oil then why are prices so high? Unless they have artificially been inflated... What's
this? The price of crude is collapsing!?!?!

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After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Gary Weddle followed the news so closely he forgot to
shave. After a week he decided not to shave until Osama bin Laden was caught or killed.

Nor has Weddle, 46, who expected the al Qaeda leader to be caught within a month or so,
trimmed his facial hair in the succeeding five years as he went from substitute teacher to
science instructor at Ephrata Middle School.

At the start of each school year he gives students a brief explanation of his beard, which
stretches more than a foot and has started turning gray.

This is what my roommate looked like last Spring.

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British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's comic creation Borat Sagdiyev has caused so much
outrage in Kazakhstan with his new movie, President George W. Bush will address the issue
when he meets the Kazakh leader. Bush is set to hold talks with Nursultan Nazarbayev over oil
supply - and disgusted Kazakhs have demanded action over Borat: Cultural Learnings Of
America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan.

The trouble started when Borat hosted the MTV Video Music Awards last year and publicly
ridiculed Kazakhstan. The country's foreign ministry threatened to sue, and Cohen - in
character - said it was a good idea, and praised his homeland's recent progress. He joked,
"Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats and
age of consent has been raised to eight years old."

How can you hate this guy?

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It sounds unbelievable. But it’s true. And thousands of
people are making a beeline for the village of Kampung Paya
here to see it for themselves.

The trunk of a pinang (betel nut) tree has sprouted a human-
like face.

The curves on the five-metre high tree clearly resemble
human eyes, teeth and a nose.

The unexplained phenomenon has resulted in the villagers
there naming it the "ghost tree".

Villager Zainol Nayan, 54, who lives near the tree, said he
spotted the curves emerging on the tree about a month ago,
but the much clearer human-like face only became obvious
last Friday.

"Since then, villagers have gathered around the tree to see
for themselves and the news spread like wildfire, attracting
outsiders."

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Excerpt:

A trenchcoat-clad gunman turned a college cafeteria into a combat zone Wednesday with a
commando-style assault that left the suspect and a young woman dead.

The man, dressed in black and sporting a Mohawk haircut, burst into Dawson College in
downtown Montreal early in the afternoon and went on a shooting rampage that injured 20
people and caused widespread panic.

What's up with Canada lately? First it was those weirdo Islamic terrorists that had some beef with the
Canadian government and now this. Canada, I'm sorry but I think UnitedStatesSyndrome is contagious.

How is that for my first page in almost 4 months? Well, I am still working on my
911physics.houstonwade.com page and hopefully I will have that up and running soon.

I am more than 3 weeks into my last semester of school and am already for it to all be over. Then again I
just think about December when I will be the proud owner of a couple degrees and a buttload of minors.

Look out world, soon I will have the motivation to make this crap and actually get paid to do it!