The dreaded annual co-op meeting was last night. I was happy to see other people ask about the explosion of dogs in the last year. We're one of the only buildings in the area that allows dogs, so many of the people moving in (generally affluent Chelsea fags) have dogs, sometimes two.

I work at home, so I get to hear all of the little darlings be miserable and bark for, oh, lets say, 6 hours a day. This includes Saturdays while people are at brunch of course.

At the meeting I heard the most pathological "dog" statement of my life. One of the people admitted that he was one of the people with two dogs. He said he gets anonymous complaints under the door, and he can't respond to them. He followed this by saying he couldn't really do anything about his dogs barking, and if the neighbors found them annoying, imagine how bad it was to live with his dogs! This person needs a therapist, not pets. Who gets pets to brag about how much trouble they are?

The lovely and talented Jesse has a photo of a shop in London called "Fags and Fings".

That paragon of British Journalism, the Sun, has an article with the classy title of "Talibum Alert!" about hunky British marines being chased by men wearing makeup and perfume in the mountain villages of Afghanistan.

Marine James Fletcher, 24, of Arbroath, Scotland, said: “They were more terrifying than the enemy. They go about hand in hand, mincing round the village.

“We were pretty shocked. The Afghan soldiers with us said a lot of men in this country have the same philosophy as Ancient Greeks: ‘A woman for babies, a man for pleasure’.”

Pal Gaz Pickles, 23, from Scarborough, North Yorks, said: “I think one problem is that they don’t have women around. They are hidden up in the hills.”

The commandos came under close scrutiny from the pink parade during a mission in South Eastern Afghanistan.

They were told by Afghan soldiers that some villagers had never seen a western man before — and thought the muscle-bound marines were very hunky.

My birthday's coming up. Someone buy me the Captain Kirk chair!

Adam Ant, aka Stuart Leslie Goddard, denies charges he broke a pub window and threatened a man with a gun.

The Telegraph says:

Drinking a glass of white wine every day strengthens the lungs and may help prevent disease, according to a new study.

Researchers have found that moderate white wine drinkers have healthier lungs than teetotallers or beer and spirit drinkers.

I just took the Political Compass test:

Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -7.54

About the same as Ghandi. Here is the Libertarian Left recommended reading list.

Beware of art majors whose conceptual projects go a little too far.

The 21-year-old college student accused of putting pipe bombs in mailboxes in five states told authorities he was trying to make a "smiley face" on the map, a sheriff said today.

My friend, the fabulously exuberant Gabriella, has joined this little blog world of ours.

Welcome!

POLICE MUST NOTIFY RESIDENTS WHEN
CATHOLIC CHURCH MOVES INTO NEIGHBORHOOD
Controversial "Egan's Law" Expected to Gain Widespread Support

See it at SatireWire.

Found thanks to Flak:

Look ma, no crusts.

Sara Lee wants to take over a duty moms have carried out for kids for decades — slicing the crusts off white bread. The consumer goods giant is touting its new IronKids Crustless Bread as a fresh-from-the-oven idea, coming soon to a bakery shelf near you.

The Dutch right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn has been shot dead.

He was an odd one: openly gay, anti-immigrant right-winger. The AP story contains the execrable sentence:

Fortuyn, a former academic and columnist who led an openly gay lifestyle, had dictated debate during the campaign with verbal attacks on the country's growing Muslim population and strident criticism of the national government.

Check it out! Put an address in MapQuest and you can now get aerial photos of the area, such as... Chelsea Gardens

I just got back from lunch at The Odeon with James, Scott, and Andy -- too much wine so this won't be eloquent. Andy asked me why I started doing a blog apart from my current, more "public" web presence, and I think it's because of what David Drake referred to as "free floating rage". I started with shoulderchip rather than this page, because I had some things to say about the way the world is being run today.

A little bit of shoulderchip is about the Middle East, but a lot of it is about the theocracy that America has become. The current administration didn't even win a majority, and they're acting as if they got 90% of the vote. They don't care what people think. All they have to say is that this is a war to protect our civilization, and the sheep that pass for the media and the public say, "OK".

As Choire says -- what should we be doing? I don't post to shoulderchip that often these days, because I'm feeling pretty apathetic about changing anything. I was never a great activist, but I feel really impotent these days.

So what's the answer?

Men's Cookie exchanges -- a trend?

Wow - at the rate the world is moving, the USA will have more in common with autocracies/theocracies in the Middle East than the rest of the West:

Police back softer line on drug users

Police chiefs say they would have a better chance of winning the war on drugs if addicts were given treatment instead of punishment.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) also believes it would be better to adopt a more relaxed stance towards people caught with small amounts of cannabis.

ACPO unveiled its proposals in a report, carried out by its influential drugs committee, saying in some circumstances, treatment should be considered instead of prosecution.

Lottery officials settle Big Game dispute

New Jersey lottery officials said Monday that the person due one-third of the $331 million prize will be revealed Tuesday -- and it won't be anyone from an office pool that claimed to have the winning ticket. They ended up with $2 after a dispute that involved two lawyers and a lottery review.
...
Marquez's lawyer, Donald DiGoia, said the co-workers suspected Marquez had the winning ticket because he called in sick for three days with the flu after the April 16 drawing.

"It's a bittersweet day, to say the least," said Anthony H. Guerino, an attorney who represented 10 workers. "They've always been a spiritual group. I could see them deflate."