The time I had wanted to use to do a bit of blogging tonight went down the rat hole of running “Mr. Snowblower” (6 ½ inches of snow in farookin’ April!), shoveling a ton of wet snow from the deck, and writing a six page mondo-snotty missive to the dumbshits at Shittybank who screwed up my fancy-schmancy Master Card Account, which I might add, bears the imprimatur of the American Bar Association. These form letter sending, incompetent buffoons have been screwing around with my cruller for quite some time now, and I finally have had it. If any of you are solicited by Shittybank to obtain one of its credit cards, do yourself a huge favor. RUN AWAY!!!

Given the current speculation about Saddam’s whereabouts in this world or possibly the next, I think that my post from February of this year about Saddam’s phone call seems particularly timely. I can tell you that it passed my “laugh-to-yourself-while-writing-test” in spades.

It’s a chilly, rainy and generally unpleasant day today. It, therefore, seems like a good time to add some links to the bloglist from among those that I bookmarked and have been reading regularly for a while. As was the case the last time I did this, I do not believe that any of these folks need any introduction from me, but for those few out there who may not be familiar with them, here goes:

Da Goddess. A California nurse who covers all the bases from serious, thoughtful and sensitive, to hilarious, sarcastic and sexy. Besides, she is one of Rita’s cyber buddies. What’s not to like?

Mean Mr. Mustard. A Berkeley student who, by virtue of his take on things, probably is not on the “A” List of hot tub party guests. At some point, we may have to form up a Special Operations Group to rescue this guy and bring him to the Right Coast.

Curmudgeonly & Skeptical. A mixture of images and writing that is wickedly funny and which most certainly is not one of Ted Kennedy’s or Michael Moore’s “daily reads,” but it is definitely one of mine.

Power Line. A blog that is maintained by three attorneys, two from Minnesota and one from Maryland, who call themselves “Hindrocket,” “The Big Trunk,” and “Deacon.” In addition to the regular posts, which are first-class, the site also provides links to some of the authors’ articles, published by the Claremont Institute, concerning legal and social issues. Good stuff.

P.S. If William at Phact Patterns decides to begin blogging again, I will gladly return him to the list.

We no longer have any cause to be concerned about the possible mistreatment of American POWs by the Iraqis. Al Sharpton met with Mohammed Aldouri, Iraq’s Ambassador to the United Nations, to stress the importance of Iraq’s compliance with international law. Sharpton told reporters that Aldouri assured him that “our appeal would be communicated and that he would make clear we do not want to see POWs’ lives risked.”

It seems the Ambassador has had a busy week. On Wednesday he was visited by Jesse Jackson.

And to think I had been worried that Iraq would not comply with international law. What would we ever do without these men?

Today the UPS guy delivered this really cool lid I ordered about a week ago. I learned about it from my friends Rick and Amy, a military family, over at Ground Plums & Gun Smoke. You can order one here.

For those of you who think we should still be counting chads in Florida, you can order a “My President is Al Gore” hat here (It’s cheaper!). You’re sure to be a hit when the Dixie Chicks come to your town. And, you can learn about getting some electroshock therapy here.

Just so you know, I have no connection whatsoever with the hat seller or anyone who makes his or her living shooting electro-juice through someone’s cruller.