This subway arson in South Korea is awful. More than two dozen are reportedly dead, and others possibly trapped. Police have arrested a 46-year-old named Kim Dae-han in the attack. Police have said nothing about a motive.

A Google search for “Kim Dae Han” turned up a site called “Light a candle for Palestine,” on which one Kim Dae Han of Korea “lit a candle” several months ago. I don’t mean to suggest that anyone who sympathizes with Palestine is automatically a terrorist (I do, and I’m not), but the conspiracy theorist in me has to wonder… could this be the same guy, a Korean citizen who converted to Islam, and whose pro-Palestinian, anti-American, Islamist beliefs inspired him to stage a terrorist attack in South Korea, hoping it would be blamed on North Korea and thus would complicate the Great Satan’s Iraq war plans by shifting the focus from Saddam Hussein to Kim Jong-Il?

Eh, probably not. But if there is some connection, you heard it here first on BrendanLoy.com. :)

UPDATE, 11:43 PM: I should also point out that there’s probably a lot of people in Korea named Kim Dae Han. Here’s an article featuring a Kim Dae Han commenting on soccer, and here’s a story mentioning a compulsive gambler named Kim Dae Han.

My mom sends along this photo, courtesy of the new digital camera I bought her for her birthday:

That would be our front sidewalk in Newington, CT, buried in snow. Snow drifts have piled up against the bush on the left, creating a wall of the white stuff that’s higher than our fence posts. Wow! (Click here for the live webcam view.)

I’m not sure what the luminescent turquoise object in the left-middle of the photo is, but I’m guessing it’s a snow shovel or some other reflective object, reflecting the light from the camera flash. I’m also not sure what the pull red glow in the top-center is; maybe one of my parents can explain in a comment. (But, uh, apparently comment posting is “temporarily disabled.” Dammit, HaloScan! Well, I’ll be getting a new comments system soon, when I move my blog over to MoveableType.)

Anyway, nice photo!

UPDATE, 10:26 PM: More great photos from my mom’s camera!

The Reverse Cowgirl, a “porn-blogger” (I think that’s the term) who spoke at Saturday night’s blogosphere event in Chinatown, insulted me earlier this evening.

This is fine by me, in the sense that anything which brings my website 45 hits in 3 1/2 hours is fine by me. (Hey, it’s not an InstaBoost, but it’s still nice.)

However, just to respond on the merits… if I were producing “the next blogging panel with absolutely no budget,” I would ask around beforehand and see if any bloggers who were planning to attend would be willing to donate a set of speakers and the necessary wires to take the audio from inside and make it at least quasi-audible. Donate just for the night, that is. That’s all it would have taken, and I have a feeling somebody would have been more than happy to do it. Hell, I would have brought my measly computer speakers if somebody had asked me, and they would have at least been better than nothing.

As for the allegation that I am a “stink-pot redhead,” my attorney has advised me not to comment at this time.

UPDATE, 9:24 PM: Thanks to Technorati, by way of Reverse Cowgirl, I have found a couple of hitherto undiscovered links to my site: from CrazySaddam.com, from SparkyBloggerLinks, and from blo.gs (well, that last one’s just an alphabetical list).

CruftBox, homepage of Michael Pusateri, who I met at the blog event, also linked to me… but I already knew that. Check out his post, though: he’s got photos from the event, and lots of commentary.

Okay, I gotta go… I’m at Kinko’s wasting money right now, and my bus is leaving in like 10 minutes…

UPDATE, 2/18/03 12:15 AM: Another blogosphere link.

The Newington High School girls basketball team has qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 1999 — when I was a student manager of the team as a high-school senior! The Indians won their eighth game of the season Thursday, beating CCC South conference rival Platt 47-37.

Newington is now 8-11 (6-7 in the conference) with one game left. That final game is scheduled for tomorrow at archrival Southington (10-8, 6-6), weather permitting. A win over Southington would give Newington its best record since 1998, but even with a loss, the Indians would still reach the tournament. (A winning percentage of .400 is needed to qualify.)

Thursday’s win was Newington’s second victory over Platt this year. In the first game, on Newington’s home court Jan. 10, I was there as the Indians won 48-44 in vertime. The second game, on Platt’s home court, was delayed by a snowstorm from its original date of Feb. 7, so Thursday (Feb. 13) was Newington’s big day.

Platt is 4-14 overall, 2-11 in the CCC South.

Newington lost its other two games last week, at Bulkeley on Tuesday and at home versus Bristol Eastern on Friday.

CORRECTION, 2/20/02: The Newington girls last made the state tournament in 2000, my freshman year in college. They were 9-11 in the regular season that year, losing in the first round to Bristol Central, according to veteran New Britain Herald sports reporter Ken Lipshez. In order to finish with its best record since 1998, Newington would need to beat Southington and win its first-round state tournament game.

12 to 18 inches of snow expected. Check the AdollyaCam throughout the day Monday for live views.

UPDATE, 2:03 PM: “Blizzard Daniel is destined to be one of the biggest winter storms ever,” the WFSB homepage declares as of 5:00 PM Eastern time. “Here in Connecticut, the snow came down so hard, Bradley Airport shut down at 12:30. Driving conditions remain extremely dangerous.” Here are some WFSB videos of the blizzard.

Here’s a live radar view:

The Weather Channel says this storm is dumping snow on roughly one-third of the nation’s population. They’re calling it the biggest snowstorm since the Blizzard of ‘96. (WFSB called that one Blizzard Ginger.)

Here’s a photo slide show from WVIT.

Andrew and I are at the “Live from the blogosphere” event in Chinatown. Unfortunately, we can’t really hear anything, having arrived a bit late and thus gotten stuck outside. We’re listening to the live audio stream from AvantBard on my computer (actually, Becky’s computer, which she generously let me borrow for this event), but it’s still a bit hard to understand. Oh, well. I guess we can go look at some Chinese art galleries or something. :)

By the way, this post was created (and the Internet-audio listening made possible) thanks to a free wireless network that has been set up for the event. Kinda cool.

UPDATE, 8:01 PM: Bloggers are growing restless over the bad audio. Some sort of revolution may be brewing. I’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE, 8:18 PM: Disgrunted bloggers are now complaining about how high-tech events always have low-tech glitches, like forgetting to put speakers outside. They have a couple dozen chairs outside, but no way for anyone outside to hear anything.

One blogger sitting near me is thinking about leaving, and many have already done so. Michael Pusateri and I are both playing the audio stream live on our laptops, but neither of us have speakers loud enough to hear very well.

UPDATE, 8:35 PM: Michael Pusateri has the video stream going now. Meanwhile, we still can’t hear anything. In other news, I have to pee.

UPDATE, 8:45 PM: The several-minute lag between the live event and the Internet broadcast is rather amusing, especially when we can actually hear people applaud from inside, and then several minutes later, applause erupts from my computer. :)

I think the Reverse Cowgirl blogger is talking now (or rather, was talking three minutes ago) because the speaker is (was) talking about erotica.

UPDATE, 8:47 PM: It occurs to me that now I’m going to start getting Google hits resulting from searches involving the word “erotica,” which I don’t think had ever appeared on my site before. Oh, goody.

That reminds me, somebody was talking about Anna Kournikova earlier.

Let the hit parade begin. :)

UPDATE, 8:50 PM: People from the surrounding art galleries are being loud, so I can’t hear at all. Oh, and now a Ghetto Bird is going overhead.

And I still have to pee.

UPDATE, 8:53 PM: The art gallery folks are beginning to try to figure out what all these nerdy people with laptops are doing.

UPDATE, 9:03 PM: Andrew and I have to leave soon… and not only because I have to pee, but also because we have other plans.

Meanwhile, I’m waiting with bated breath to see if InstaPundit will link to my live blogging from Live from the Blogosphere. (Got that?) I e-mailed him a half-hour ago or so, and he’s posted a few things in last 10 or 15 minutes… no link to my site yet…

Andrew was just joking with somebody that the non-blogger, Chinese-art-gallery crowd here is hippie-ish enough that he’d feel more comfortable wearing a “no war against Iraq” shirt. Hmm… can you say “clash of civilizations”?

UPDATE, 9:04 PM: My site stats show that Glenn Reynolds (the InstaPundit guy) checked his e-mail and followed the link to my site 16 minutes ago… but still no link. So I guess he’s not planning on linking to me. Oh, well.

I still have to pee.

UPDATE, 2/17/03, 9:13 PM: My response to Reverse Cowgirl.

And again, hahahahaha:

In other news, I saw an anti-war activist on CNN this evening saying that in a potential war with Iraq, he expects the first two days of American bombing to kill ten thousand Iraqi civilians. TEN THOUSAND! Are these people for real?!?! Yeah, America is going to kill ten thousand civilians, just for fun, because that’s how we are. We do that sort of thing all the time. Uh-huh.

(While we’re on the subject, have the people who routinely call America “imperialist” really thought about what that would mean?)

No matter how much my heart is not really in this war, it’s hard to take the antiwar movement seriously when it’s being run by buffoons and closet Stalinists.

Some antiwar protesters are at least funny:

Again, hahahahaha.

But seriously, people, think about this. Here’s an article that perfectly crystallizes my opinion about the present U.N. debate:

In November the Security Council passed Resolution 1441, which demanded that Saddam Hussein comply “immediately” with the 16 preceding resolutions, declared it his “final opportunity” to do so, and promised “serious consequences” if he failed to do so.

The French…are sticking to the position that 1441 doesn’t mean what it says. Presented with ample evidence that Iraq has fallen short of the full compliance the U.N. demanded, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin made news excuses for delay: “The option of inspections has not been taken to the end.” Never mind that Resolution 1441 plainly and repeatedly states that compliance must be “immediate.”

Did you hear that, antiwar protesters who supported Resolution 1441 because you thought it would bring about peace? Iraq was supposed to comply fully and immediately. It HASN’T. So it’s fine to be antiwar, but if you’re antiwar and you supported Resolution 1441, then you are a hypocrite.

Okay, before I go, here’s one more laugh for y’all, courtesy of InstaPundit. It’s labeled as a photo of “Hans Blix on the job.”

Hahahahaha.

Fifty-five years ago today, Harry Truman was president of the United States, Czechoslovakia was two weeks away from becoming communist, Israel was three months away from becoming a country… and my Dad was born.

Hehe.

Above: Old Man’s Beard.

If 50 means you’ve offically entered middle age, does 55 mean you’re more than halfway through middle age? In which case, doesn’t that just make you old? :)

Just kidding… I love you, Dad! :) Happy Birthday!

Today’s milestone birthday means my Dad is now eligible to retire from the state with full pension whenever he wants (because he has 25+ years of service). Woohoo!

Also… Happy Valentine’s Day!

Well, USC has picked its keynote speaker for this year’s commencement ceremony: Brown University president Ruth Simmons, the first black president of an Ivy League university.

Yeah, I never heard of her either.

But that’s not surprising. USC is in the midst of a solid streak of never-head-of-’em graduation speakers. The last two: David Halberstam in 2002, and Barry Munitz in 2001. (”Who?” you ask. Exactly.)

It didn’t used to be this way: we had Michael Eisner in 2000, Warren Christopher in 1999, Bill Cosby in 1998, and Jack Kemp in 1997.

Oh, well. Dr. Simmons doesn’t sound so bad. Here’s a Newsweek profile of her, and here’s a Newsweek news article about her. And here’s the Brown University press release from when she was elected president. Oh, and here’s the Brown Daily Herald article (cached by Google) from when she was elected.

UPDATE, 02/15/03: My cousin Alexis, a Smith College student presently studying in Scotland, made the following comment in my guestbook:

Hey buddy….I’ve got a bone to pick with you Cuz!!! Ruth Simmons is the most intellegent woman I have ever met in my life. She is an amazing public speaker and you should be extremely greatful that she decided to grace your little graduation with her talents and person. I have had the priviledge of speaking with her personally and I can tell you that she is one amazing person, much better then Bill Cosby I would bet! Before she had the well deserved and long overdue pleasure of becoming the first African American president of an “Ivy” college, she was the president of another equally prestigious college….SMITH (ya dope!!) You’d better do better with your journalistic research before you go insulting you cousins or other family members!! :)

Okay, okay, I surrender. (I’ve been taking lessons from Jacques Chirac.) I’m sure Dr. Simmons is an amazing person, and will be a great speaker at my graduation. I was, frankly, just cranky when I posted this, and thus was being rather snide for no good reason. Anyway, celebrity isn’t everything — four years in L.A. hasn’t made me that shallow. So yeah, woohoo, go Dr. Simmons.

Now, Alexis, while you’re over on that side of the Atlantic, will you tell those Europeans to get over themselves? :)

Check this out. Soon, liberals everywhere will be digging up evidence of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney’s corporate ties to duct tape manufacturers. :)

As Noah’s Flood descends upon Los Angeles, this seems an appropriate time to recall my past musings on umbrella Marxism and the strange, mysterious phenomenon called “rain.”

My mother, Leanna Loomer, turns… uh… well, I won’t mention her age, since I guess that’s considered rude. If she wants to mention it, she can leave a comment. :) But today is her birthday, anyway. And that means this is one of four days every year when she is the same age as my Dad. (Dad’s birthday is Friday.)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

The Iraqi dictator doesn’t stand a chance against the fierce kitten-soldier.

Click here for more photos!

Webcam view from my house in Newington this morning:

Click here for a live view.

UPDATE: Here’s another webcam view, eight hours later. Note how the heavy snow during the day completely covered up the stray branches on the nearby bush. Also note the substantial accumulation on the fence posts:

And here’s a webcam view from the very moment my dad’s car was pulling into the driveway!

UPDATE: The snow melts…

The Newington High School girls basketball team, of which I was the student manager from 1997 to 1999, is one win away from qualifying for the state tournament. It would be the first time the Indians (7-9 overall, 5-5 CCC South) have reached the tournament since I was still in high school, in 1999. (A .400 winning percentage — 8-12 — is necessary to qualify for the tournament.)

Newington can qualify for states by winning Friday at Platt (4-10, 2-8 CCC South), the second-worst team in the conference. The Indians achieved their seventh win Tuesday by winning at Maloney (2-12, 0-8 CCC South), the conference’s worst team, 50-35 on Tuesday.

In its previous game against Platt, Newington won in overtime, 48-44, on its home floor Jan. 10. I was at that game.

If the Indians don’t beat Platt, they will have three more chances for that crucial eighth win: at Bulkeley (11-5, 8-2 CCC South) next Tuesday, at home against Bristol Eastern (10-6, 8-2 CCC South) next Friday, and at archrival Southington (7-7, 5-5 CCC South) on Tuesday, Feb. 18, which will be Southington’s Senior Night. Clearly, this Friday should be Newington’s best chance.

Newington used to be a Connecticut powerhouse, finishing as state runner-up in 1993 and reaching the state quarterfinals — and cracking the Top 5 in the polls — as recently as 1997. But these have been tough times for the Indians, who finished 1-19 last year.

The Newington boys team, meanwhile, is 11-3 and ranked #18 in the state. But as a former manager, my emotional connection to the girls’ team is much stronger, hence blogging about them in detail. :)