Microsoft shuts down Santa for talking dirty

Automated program asked kids what they wanted for Christmas

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. quickly shut down Santa Claus’ Web privileges after it found out the automated elf it created for kids to instant message with was talking naughty, not nice.

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The holiday cheer soured this week when a reader of a United Kingdom-based technology news site, The Register, reported that a chat between Santa and his underage nieces about eating pizza prompted Santa to bring up oral sex.

One of the publication’s writers replicated the chat Monday. After declining the writer’s repeated invitations to eat pizza, a frustrated Santa burst out with, “You want me to eat what?!? It’s fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else.”

The exchange ended with the writer and Santa calling each other “dirty bastard.”

Residents: Menorah Dwarfs Christmas Tree Wed Dec 5, 2007 11:08 PM EST Associated Press

LONG BEACH — Residents don't want to have themselves a merry little Christmas tree. They want a big one. When city officials planted a 7-foot-tall Christmas tree next to a 20-foot-tall menorah in the plaza in front of City Hall, some residents barked. They telephoned City Hall, wrote letters and testified at a public hearing that the tiny tree in the shadow of the huge Hanukkah symbol was an insult to the Christian community.

"What's up with the giant menorah and the Charlie Brown Christmas tree?" resident Rick Hoffman asked.

City Manager Edwin Eaton said he had looked far and wide — all the way to Canada — for a bigger tree but couldn't find one.

"This year is going to be kind of a 'bah, humbug,' Christmas," Eaton had said.

But on Wednesday the city of about 35,000 residents 25 miles southeast of midtown Manhattan found a tree to match the 20-foot menorah: a 20-foot blue spruce.

The old tree, a Bacheri spruce, was pruned of its lights, was dug up and was taken to a mall.

A lighting ceremony for the new tree is scheduled for Friday. Merry Christmas, Long Beach.

p.s.: Happy Hannukah.

Sad news from the world of poker:

Poker Player Reese Dies at 56

By RYAN NAKASHIMA – 12 hours ago

LAS VEGAS (AP) — David "Chip" Reese, a card star who won one of the biggest cash games in the world and three World Series of Poker championships, has died. He was 56.

Reese died in his sleep and was found by his son early Tuesday morning at his Las Vegas home after suffering from symptoms of pneumonia, said poker great Doyle Brunson, his longtime friend.

"I knew him for 35 years, I never saw him get mad or raise his voice," Brunson said. "He had the most even disposition of anyone I've ever met. He's certainly the best poker player that ever lived."

After attending Dartmouth College, Reese was on his way to Stanford business school in the early 1970s when he stopped by a Las Vegas poker room and won big, said World Series of Poker media director Nolan Dalla.

"He just accidentally stumbled into Las Vegas and never left," Dalla said.

I recall a story about Reese involving Orel Hershiser, the hall of fame baseball pitcher. Hershiser wanted to improve his poker game, and Reese's son was a high school baseball pitcher who wanted to improve his skills. So Reese made Hershiser a deal, offering poker lessons in exchange for pitching lessons for his son.

In 2006, Reese won the first ever $50,000 HORSE tournament. I watched about six hours or so of the heads-up battle between him and Andy Bloch, for whom I was rooting because he is a friend of a friend.

One of the things that struck me was that Reese's family was there, at the event, rooting him on, including his teenage son. You don't often see children of poker players rooting their parents on (actually, you never do), and that says something about the kind of person that Reese must have been.

Bush Says Iran Still a Danger Despite Report on Weapons

By BRIAN KNOWLTON

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — President Bush said today that a new intelligence finding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003 had not altered his sense that Iran remained a danger.

The world needed to view the report as “a warning signal,” not grounds for reassurance, he said, and the United States would not renounce the option of a military response.

A "warning signal"? A military response? Are we going to attack them for stopping their nuclear weapons program?

Right-wing National Review spin on the NIE on Iran:

Revisionism and The Iranian Non-Bomb [Victor Davis Hanson]

The latest news from Iran about the supposed abandonment in 2003 of the effort to produce a Bomb — if even remotely accurate — presents somewhat of a dilemma for liberal Democrats.

You gotta' see it to believe it...Karl Rove blamed Democrats for the Iraq war. Even Ari Fleischer, Bush's press secretary, disagrees. Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen calls Rove on his baloney, and Chris Wallace demonstrates once again that Fox News channel is propaganda.

...but Jennifer Love Hewitt is right.

Iran has no nuke program, U.S. intel says

The consensus view of 16 agencies is that the nation halted its weapons project in 2003 because it feared international sanctions.

By Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

10:01 AM PST, December 3, 2007

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON -- U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the threat of international sanctions has worked in compelling the Islamic republic to back away from its pursuit of the bomb.

These judgments were among the key findings of a long-awaited intelligence report in which U.S. spy agencies retreated from earlier assessments that were more hard-line in their view of Iran's nuclear ambitions and intentions.

The document, and the nuanced tone it strikes toward Iran, is likely to generate fierce new debate within the U.S. government, challenging the positions of officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, who have urged taking a hard line against Tehran.

One of the few truly bright things the FOX Sports announcers said today was that Lofa Tatupu must be invisible. His new best friend, AJ Feeley, threw him 3 interceptions on the afternoon, including a game winner.

Here's the pass on it's way:

Lofa makes the grab:

Now he's running it back? Oh my god just take a knee young man!

Lofa's my hero, but it's always amazing to me how many times picks are returned when they shouldn't be. Case in point: Marlon McCree.

Fortunately, the Seahawks won.

8-4 -- I'll take it, though they should be 10-2. (Well, actually, they should have lost today's game...)