Rachel breaks more news...Keith's funny stuff is usually funnier.(Sorry DKos purists, I still wish MTP had Oddball, or at least Pop-up Video) But I also have a soft spot for Williams from TDS.

Taking a couple of steps back to the DVR conversation... I'm thinking of getting one. I have no cable and would prefer not adding a monthly expense. Any recommendations?

I finally found the mash note Casper wrote to Emmett after he and David visited us earlier this summer: [link]

adorable. and she is going to kill you when she gets older.

and she is going to kill you when she gets older.

Be careful, I still remember the picture with the skulls.

I liked Peter Jennings before 9/11, but his work at actually anchoring coverage made him my news god.

I have my own particular Katrina slant, because one part of my responsibilities for 14 years was nuclear emergency communications. I know the responsibilities of the federal, state and local officials. FEMA has overall responsibility for any major disaster and could and did withhold disaster preparation funding from agencies that did not fall in line. Any disaster planning done by the states and counties would assume that FEMA was going to swoop in and coordinate and get outside assistance. Then Bush and his cronies appoint more cronies with no experience and, as a result, many of the experienced FEMA people leave, because of the strains of knowing they're not going to be promoted, working for idiots and watching the agency they've spent 20 years building be packed up in a handbasket and aimed straight at hell. Then Katrina hits and the agencies expected FEMA to fulfill its long-time role. Instead, they get, "Haven't you heard of self-reliance? Why can't you take care of yourselves? Well, maybe they could have if they had been told that FEMA was abrogating its traditional responsibilities. Made of fail the size of Everest.

I want to celebrate by buying a MacBook, but even I recognize the irony inherent in that choice.

Take the money you'd use to pay debt, save it until you have enough, then buy the MacBook for cash.

We watch both Keith and Rachel (and we call them by their first names). I prefer Rachel but wish she'd go back to the Rachel who'd all but start drooling at the word "infrastructure." I fear that Keith is about a year or two away from believing his own press releases -- and that way lies doom.

adorable. and she is going to kill you when she gets older.

Seriously!

Taking a couple of steps back to the DVR conversation... I'm thinking of getting one. I have no cable and would prefer not adding a monthly expense. Any recommendations?

Is there anything other than (a) from the cable company (b) Tivo (c) have Gud make you one? I don't know.

I'm interested in the Tivo discussion also. They upgraded my original 80-hr. Tivo to a 2-channel Tivo for free when something died inside the box, then I added extra memory. It was great for about 3 months. Then Comcast switched to digital AND did something else to all the regular channels above 32. Now the only thing I can do is watch TV in real time through the Tivo and I had to hire guy to get THAT hooked up), and watch the 300 hours of stuff the Tivo grabbed during the 3 months that it worked. It sucks.

Any Bay Areaistas know anyone who would know how to hook all my stuff up so it actually works? I hear The Geek Squad is a big rip off.

I want to celebrate by buying a MacBook, but even I recognize the irony inherent in that choice.

Take the money you'd use to pay debt, save it until you have enough, then buy the MacBook for cash.

That's probably what I'm going to do, although I also need to build up my emergency fund enough to calm my paranoiac mind.