There was an article in Salon about the filibuster thing that said that the President of the Senate could declare that the filibuster was unconstitutional and there was nothing that could be done about it.

Or that was the gist. Let me go find the article.

It's here.

Headline from my company's news archives:

VIRTUAL REALITY; LACK OF FUNDING

Does anyone here watch Without a Trace? 'Cause I'm dying to discuss the stupidness of last night's episode.

OMGWTF. That was so very very bad.

Um, what Nutty said.

I agree with Nutty and Fred Pete. Not even Bush's toadies on the SCt. are going to like this one.

Survivor!!! Well, first, WHY did scary-eye Ian invite Tom along? He should have known it would piss Katie off. And why did whiny baby Katie feel as if she deserved to go along? She is a liar and has no real loyalty plus she is TERRIBLE in the challenges, doesn't even try. If Katie or Jen win, I will be very very pissed.

Cute: Blogopoly.

And a cautionary tale:

Don't put your iPod through the washing machine. And if for some reason you do, don't try to fix it with a screwdriver.

That's the advice of fire investigators probing a small explosion that burned a hole in the bed of a Melbourne teenager who tried to perform emergency surgery on his ailing mp3 player.

The boy was treated by paramedics at his Bayswater home for breathing difficulties after ingesting fumes emitted by the device as he pulled it apart in his suburban bedroom about 7.30pm on Wednesday.

Country Fire Authority spokesman Peter Philp said the leaky iPod had been taken away for testing by CFA investigators.

"His mother did the washing and the iPod was in the clothing so it went through the washing machine," Mr Philp said.

"It wasn't working, the young fella tried to undo it or fix it with a screwdriver and at that stage there was an explosion, or more of a pop.

"It was more smoke than fire but it did leave a burn mark on the cover."

Metropolitan Ambulance spokeswoman Lirije Memishi said it was unclear what the teenager had ingested.

"We treated him on the scene for minor breathing difficulties but he was fine and then we scooted out and helped save the rest of Melbourne," she said.

SURVIVOR! Loved that episode so much. I've never seen one with more scheming and less power imbalance. OMG so many things to say, and I'm leaving the computer soon. First, I think Caryn's move at council was the most brilliant move she could make a that point-- the vote hinged on katie's loyalty to Ian, and all she needed was to destroy it-- she almost succeeded. I'm not sure, however, why Jenn voted for her-- maybe there's a numbers game I'm missing.

And Ian was really stupid to take Tom along-- I was convinced that he was a genius because he already KNEW not to leave the three girls on the island, and so did Tom. So why did he do that? Is it because there might be a second car reward and under those circumstances Tom strongarmed him into bringing him along?

Speaking of, Tom's strongarming was so great! I couldn't believe he could bring that!

Katie I could sort of understand about being mad at Ian, honestly. They both know at a certain point they would turn on each other-- even if they go to the final two they still have to argue for themselves-- but she does deserve the expectation that he will take her along on the reward. Being picked last for Dodgeball by your best friend still hurts even if you suck at Dodgeball.

But Katie might not have been stupid to vote out Caryn if she believes in Ian now, which she really should. I don't think he'll ever vote Katie out because that brings up a Sue Hawk situation-- he would lose final two against Tom. But now that Katie has Ian's undying loyalty she at least makes final two.

"We treated him on the scene for minor breathing difficulties but he was fine and then we scooted out and helped save the rest of Melbourne," she said.

And they left a silver bullet on the bedside table, while everyone around them said, "Who were those masked paramedics?"

Survivor: I spent the whole episode waiting for Tom to turn on Ian. He kept watching him make tactical mistakes, sometimes right in front of him (cf. Caryn), and I could see him grinding his teeth. From the look on his face, it seemed to me he knew Ian's snubbing Katie was a mistake too. I was pretty surprised that Tom never tried to whip up a secret deal with Caryn and Jenn to get rid of both Ian and Katie; but then, I was also pretty surprised when Tom whipped out the threatening posture to keep Katie in line. That could easily backfire on him yet.

I think Jen has pulled off a pretty good imitation of Amber so far, but she'll have to dance pretty well to make it any further.

Anyway, entertaining machinations. Lots of reversals and ambiguities. Even a pretty cool immunity challenge. We figured out that the puzzle's chief difficulty lay in there being 2 stars and 2 sets of stripes, each pair of which is easily confused.

Survivor:

Jenn voted for Caryn? Huh. I think Katie did the best thing she could have done - Tom was right that if one of them left, the other would try to screw her over. Whichever guy was left, Tom as it turned out, either of them are a real possibility for a run on immunities all the way to the end. So while she had a shot at winning or being number two with Jenn or Caryn, no way would she get taken into final two by Tom.

Ian is losing the mental game , I think. He's still dominating physically, but you can see he's starting to make stupid mistakes. Killer Fatigue (tmTAR) raising its ugly head.

Here's what I was thinking last night though when I couldn't sleep. Ian and Tom might just do best to take each other into final two after all. Because that is one bitter, vindictive jury building up. And we've seen in the past that those people don't vote for the people who beat them. I have a feeling that in an F2 with either Tom or Ian, but not both, neither of them has a chance in hell of winning.