The Ninth United States Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the Bush administration's request to reconsider its decision that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because of the phrase "under God."

The Justice Department now has thirty days to decide whether to appeal the ruling to the United States Supreme Court.

And though I know it will draw out my favorite troll, the Smoking Gun has posted the first amended complaint of nine additional women who claim that a Kentucky surgeon branded their uteri during gynecological surgery. You'll recall that I posted about the first suit filed against Dr. James Guiler last month.

So if Jack Russell and Great White had permission to use those pyrotechnics, why is he seeking immunity before agreeing to testify in front of the grand jury that's been convened to investigate the nightclub fire?

Too much going on. Too tired to breathe. Looking very forward to my trip to Newport Beach next week.

A Texas judge ordered a defendant's mouth to be taped shut afterhte man kept interrupting his lawyer and the judge during an aggravated assault trial.

"He was being very disruptive and he was trying to fire his second court-appointed attorney, and I informed him that when the attorney is appointed by the court, only the court can fire the attorney," Judge Jim Bob Darnell said.

"Mr. Wiley continued to interrupt him," Darnell said, referring to attorney Steve Hamilton, "so the court duct-taped his mouth until the jury came in. Then I had him removed from the courtroom."

Judge. Jim. Bob. Oh, the humanity.

And in other news, Britain's advertising watchdog has approved a Gucci ad featuring pubic hair shaved into the form of a letter "g."

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that federal racketeering and extortion laws cannot be used against anti-abortion groups for engaging in a nationwide conspiracy to shut down health clinics.

By an 8-1 vote, the high court said in an opinion by Chief Justice William Rehnquist the judgment that the anti-abortion activists had violated the racketeering laws must be reversed. Justice Joh Paul Stevens was the lone dissenter.

From Yahoo! News: The vast majority of people say they have been mentally tortured at one point in their lives by a song that keeps repeating itself over and over in their heads.

And new research shows that people most frequently plagued by this phenomenon are those with slightly neurotic tendencies, and people who enjoy and listen to music often.

Songs that topped the list as being most likely to stick around in someone's head included the Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out?" and the Chili's restaurant jingle about Baby Back Ribs.

I've waxed on rhapsodically about my Swiffer before, but it cracked me up when my sweet husband forwarded this article this morning, under the subject line "You Can't Stop It...You Can Only Hope to Contain It."

He's resisted Swiffing in the past, thinking it quite unmanly. I think he's coming around, though.

I'm definitely going on the air at 11 pm, for two hours, over at Disintegrator Internet Radio. We've also got a chat room up and running for listeners here. Feel free to tune in!

Could someone please explain to me why I'm awake this early on a Saturday? I've been up for over an hour now, and I have to stay up late tonight -- I'll be filling in for Duane in the 11 pm slot on Disintegrator Internet Radio (barring any freak technical difficulties like last time).

Maybe I'll go rustle up some breakfast.

Well, work sure gets interesting when you haven't been in the office for four days. Yesterday was all sorts of crazy, and wasn't helped by the fact that my car experienced some sort of issue on the way in to work yesterday and had to be towed to the dealership. It's apparently fixed now, but I don't necessarily trust their explanation and have asked Dave to call them back today and ask a few more pointed questions.

Anyway, I'm flying to DC this afternoon for one of those "get into town-go to dinner with the outside lawyers-back to the hotel to sleep-get up and meet with the lawyers all day-run to the airport and fly home at 5:30" kind of meetings. I was eligible for my first Continental upgrade, and didn't get it in advance, which was disappointing -- I'm hoping to be able to remedy that when I get to the airport.

The Supreme Court will consider a case regarding public access to death-scene photos of former White House counsel Vince Foster, among other cases, at its private conference this Friday.

Allan Favish, a sole practitioner in Santa Clara, CA, and a former employee of Judicial Watch, is behind the petition, which began after he invoked the Freedom of Information Act in 1997, seeking access to 150 photos of Foster after his death. Favish believes that Foster was murdered.

The Foster family and the government oppose his petitions.

A Mexican teenage who mistakenly received organs from a donor with a different blood type is not expected to survive more than a few days, according to a family friend.

The teen received a heart and lungs on February 7 at Duke University Hospital, which has accepted responsibility for the error, in which the organs, from a type-A donor, were transplanted into the type-O girl.

The first set of trials (in Texas, natch) related to Bayer's withdrawn cholesterol-lowering statin drug Baycol are about to start.

Well, Le Boss left us all voicemail last night telling us a) he wasn't going in today; b) he thought the office was open; but c) we should make a judgement about whether we thought it would be safe to drive and whether we would waste more time commuting than getting work done at home.

Since my car is still mostly buried, the street isn't really plowed, and it's STILL SNOWING, I'm here in my jammies. I'll do some actual work later. Maybe.

The first round of snow has changed over to a wetter, sleetier version for now, leaving us so far with about 18-20 inches on the ground and no end in sight. The Weather Channel is predicting upwards of two feet, with the snow continuing even into tomorrow morning.

Dave managed to get the side walk and the front walk cleared, and is starting in on the driveway. My car? HA. Lost cause. It's covered completely up to the bumper in the back, and the front hood back to the sideview mirrors is utterly buried. I'm starting to think that I may not be going to work yet again tomorrow. Our street has been marginally plowed, but conditions are just terrible. Must have tea now.

The Bossman called around nine last night to let me know that the office was going to be closed today, and I just woke up after hearing a train go by. I was very surprised that the trains are running at all, and was pretty amazed to see how deep the snow is and that it's still snowing. We're going to need to get out there soon with the new snowblower (which we've dubbed Kermit, since he's green) and start clearing out the parking area and driveway. It doesn't appear that the plows have gone by this morning, but I've seen a few brave souls driving up the little hill out in front of our house.

Now, time for tea and some breakfast. If the office is closed, does that mean that I need to be actually doing work at home, or is it permissible for me to watch TLC and Judge Judy all day?

ADDENDUM: Sadly, Kermit is a lemon. Despite the valiant efforts of the Texas-based Sears Rapid Response Team to help us get him started with advice over the phone, it's apparent to them and to us that we're not going to be using a new snowblower today. Since my car is nearly covered to the doors at this point, I think we're going to be a) shoveling and b) paying lots of money for someone to plow out the driveway.

They've also just upped the forecast to THIRTY INCHES. That's two and a half feet. Of snow. I wonder if I'm even going to be able to get to work tomorrow!

SnowCam is enabled over there on the right. Nothing's happening yet, but the sky sure is foreboding. I'm going to take a nap now.

Oh, and yes, the house across the street is bright purple. The cam doesn't really do the color justice. It's a good landmark when we're trying to give people directions to our house, though.

It's not snowing here yet. We're heading out to buy a snowblower.

I'm an apparently intelligent, liberal, tight as fuck, relatively well adjusted human being!
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Well, we just had a meal with about the worst service I've ever received in my life. In a restaurant with about twenty-five tables, total, there was one waiter and one busperson.

It took nearly two and a half hours for us to be served a simple appetizer and an entree each. I had to ask three times for a beverage, which arrived just before my entree. Dave got his iced tea during his entree, after a second request, without any sweetener in the tea or offered. Water was refilled only once, during the entree, and three parties who arrived well after us were served entrees before us. Horrible. The appetizer was tasty, but the entree was mediocre and tepid. We definitely won't be going back to 77 Walnut in Montclair.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has accused Pharmacia, GlaxoSmithKline and Aventis of bribing healthcare providers to entice them to prescribe the companies' products, and has filed charges against the first two for consumer fraud, commercial bribery and making false statements; a "pre-litigation notice" was sent to Aventis warning them of future charges.

Spitzer alleges that the companies are inflating their AWP (average wholesale price) which is reported to Medicare and Medicaid programs, and that the physicians are pocketing the spread between this inflated price reimbursed by the state and federal governments and the actual price charged to the doctors and pharmacists.

I had no idea that the Strawbridge's store in Center City Philly was such a hotbed. Ew. Ew ew ew.

There's no day but today... You are Rent,
the modern remake of La Boheme. You show
the life of artists in New York "at the
end of the Millennium." You're depressing,
you make people uncomfortable, and your music
is amazing.


What Musical are You?
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Dear Whoever is in Charge of the Weather:

Like the sun, hate the cold. And enough with the damn snow already, please?

Love, Heather

I had a good day yesterday. Our refrigerator finally arrived -- never underestimate the power of appliance lust -- and I received a pretty stellar performance review. My company has this giant bell curve of ratings, where almost everyone falls under the heading of "valued performer." There is a "needs development" designation on the low end, and an "outstanding contributor" designation on the high end, which is given to only about ten people in the home office (175 people) and is voted on by the Executive Committee.

I received the outstanding designation.

I was shocked, mostly because we had been told that it was unlikely that anyone in the legal department would even be able to get the rating this year, because we've hired so many people and the caliber is so high, but apparently my hard work in 2002 did not go unnoticed.

I'm really happy, and very proud of myself.

Nothing to see here. Sorry. I guess I'll be back when I feel like I have something to say.

So yesterday started with me getting online and seeing "NASA Loses Contact with Shuttle Columbia," and it all devolved from there. I yelled to Dave, we flipped on CNN, and watched the coverage until we had to leave to go to a christening (with a stop at Sears to order our refrigerator). Since the baptism was in Brooklyn, we took the Holland in and cut across to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

Dave had forgotten until we were almost there that I haven't been to Ground Zero since 9/11. It's not that I haven't wanted to go; at the beginning, I was really too emotional to feel like I was ready, and then as time went on, and as the site became more and more of a construction site, I just felt silly at wanting to make a pilgrimage.

I wasn't prepared for how overwhelming it was to drive by. It wasn't just the big hole in the ground, and I don't think it was even the hole in the ground that was the hardest...it was the dented, empty, scarred, boarded buildings, the buildings that I was used to seeing bustling and lit-up and filled with people, that brought tears to my eyes. I don't know what I expected to feel, finally being there. I felt ashamed that I hadn't visited the site sooner, I felt empty that those buildings which I had chided as soulless and ugly every time we passed them were just missing, I felt lost, like I would never be able to get my bearings in southern Manhattan again.

As we drove back from a lovely, warm, laughter-filled party past the site again last night, I tried not to cry. It didn't work.

And as the church bells down the block rang out with "America the Beautiful" and "Amazing Grace" this morning, the tears came again.

I worry about our future. I worry about what kind of world my children are going to grow up in. I wish for comfort and peace and a respite from all of this grieving.

It's amazing how quickly you can be taken back to a day 17 years ago...the same sadness, feeling ill, hoping against hope for some miracle of survival. What a terrible, terrible tragedy.