I love Christmas, really, I do.

Yule Horror
by H. P. Lovecraft

There is snow on the ground,
And the valleys are cold,
And a midnight profound
Blackly squats o’er the wold;
But a light on the hilltops half-seen hints of feastings un- hallowed and old.

There is death in the clouds,
There is fear in the night,
For the dead in their shrouds
Hail the sin’s turning flight.
And chant wild in the woods as they dance round a Yule- altar fungous and white.

To no gale of Earth’s kind
Sways the forest of oak,
Where the sick boughs entwined
By mad mistletoes choke,
For these pow’rs are the pow’rs of the dark, from the graves of the lost Druid-folk.

Well, peeps, I’m putting together a list of wordpress-related resources.

Theme-Generator
WordPress Plugins for Multiple Blogger Blogs
http://lorelle.wordpress.com

For hosting, I’m looking at:

BlueHost
A Small Orange

ASO looks pretty good to me so far.

Comments from anyone, or any other links you’ve found, please comment.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has raised the white flag on his efforts to issue drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants.

 Reuters has this report, AP this one, and the NY Post chimes in here. As much as this was a New York proposal and collapse, the underlying issue is here to stay in the 2008 Presidential race.

From the AP story:

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called Spitzer’s reversal on the license issue “a good development” and said immigration is a federal issue for which his department has to “ramp up enforcement.”

“What I want to make sure is that states aren’t working at cross- purposes with us and enabling the kind of conduct we’re enforcing against,” Chertoff told The Associated Press by phone from London.

And:

The license issue has reverberated in the presidential campaign, particularly for New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was asked about Spitzer’s plan during a debate.

Clinton has been criticized by her Democratic and Republican rivals for her noncommittal answers on the subject. She has said she sympathizes with governors like Spitzer who are forced to confront the issue of immigration because the federal government has not enacted immigration reform. She has not taken a position on the actual plan offered by Spitzer.

About 70 percent of New Yorkers opposed the plan, according to a Siena College poll of 625 registered voters released Tuesday. The poll, conducted Nov. 5-8, had a sampling error margin of 3.9 percentage points.

Democrats were quick to blame hatred of immigrants for the defeat, showing just how out of touch they really are:

“This governor was not defeated by anything other than the hate in this country toward immigrants right now,” said Rep. Jose Serrano, a Bronx Democrat.

Meanwhile, the Post editorializes that Spitzer is in a free-fall. Their news story on the Spitzer retreat notes that Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is introducing a measure in Congress to prohibit all states from giving drivers’ licenses to illegals. A good thought, but one must ask where the line is, when is a license no longer just a license, but a form of universal ID. Although United States Passports do exist, to date they have only been required for overseas travel, that within Canada and Mexico, and even some of the Carribean islands, it was not required. It seems the string of state-issued licenses is the best we can do for universal ID at this time, and it seems the only way of ensuring state compliance is to tie it to the receipt of federal funds, such as was done with the legal drinking age being raised to 21 – it was a contingent requirement for receipt of federal highway funds.

I am skeptical of Chertoff – as it does not seem they are moving very fast on closing existing loopholes and enforcing the current law. Spitzer, whether he intended to or not, may have done the country a favor by bringing the issue to the front of the line in the race for the White House. Spitzer’s position is not the winning one, as evidenced by Hillary Clinton’s distance from him, and her waffling endorsement/disavowal of Spitzer’s plan. The other warning sign for the left is the 70% against in New York state – that number has to be troubling for the Dems.

The Post also has a news story on the free-fall, where they compare Spitzer’s numbers with Mario Cuomo and George Pataki over similar parts of their first terms. The direct beneficiary appears to be New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D), whose approval rating remains above 50%, while Spitzer’s re-elect number is a scant 28%.

Synopsis: Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a disillusioned writer who specializes in reviewing supposedly haunted bed-and-breakfasts. He spends his nights in hotel rooms where vicious murders occurred and feels more certain than ever that there is no afterlife, no haunts, no spectres or spooks. Then, one day while reviewing potential haunted rooms he receives a postcard for the Dolphin Hotel in New York City, reading, “Don’t go into room 1408!”

Naturally, Enslin decides to enter the haunted room against the wishes of the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson) … “I have had enough of the m*****-f***ing evil rooms in my m*****-f****** hotel!” (bet you didn’t see that one coming). Evil happenings ensue.

‘1408′ did great box office this past year and I can see why. The film delivers creepiness from the very first minute that Enslin enters the room. He wanders around the room, completely let down. He exposits into his handheld recorder, remarking on the lame wallpaper, the cheap artwork, the passable drapes. When strange things start happening inside the room and he begins to doubt whether it’s an elaborate setup by the hotel management, the clock radio by the bed bursts into life, with the Carpenter’s hit, “We’ve Only Just Begun”

Before too long Enslin discovers that there are no ghosts, and no specters in the room. The reality is far worse: the room is a thing, an entity unto itself, not a collection of psychic occurrences but a thing that wants only one thing, to drive him to suicidal madness.

Some of the creepiest moments are the phone calls from a sickly-sweet female voice on the phone, which Enslin eventually realizes is the room itself communicating with him. The voice asks him repeatedly if he is ‘ready to check out’, while the room continues to torment him towards suicide.

‘1408′ delivers some impressive visuals, real scares and a great surprise, which I won’t reveal. My only real criticism of the film is that it doesn’t really describe how the room came to be so evil, how the postcard came to Enslin (was a former occupant of the room forced to write it?), and can the room be destroyed? These questions are left unanswered, sadly.

There are two endings for the film — one in which Enslin survives, and one in which he does not. I found the latter more satisfying and creepier although more of a downer. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good scare but unwilling to put up with a lot of gore, as the film doesn’t feature much gore.

Update – the Pens have confirmed the recall and the demotion of Kennedy, and they have also sent down defenseman Alain Nasreddine, although he has until noon tomorrow to clear waivers.  These moves leave the Pens with 22 players filling 23 roster slots. 

The Times-Leader reports that the Penguins have called up right-handed defenseman Kris Letang from their affiliate Wilkes Barre-Scranton of the AHL.

Letang was expected to make the Penguins roster straight out of camp, but he was in the final cuts. He started the 2006-2007 season on the roster, getting two goals in 7 games before being sent back to Val d’Or of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He had 14 goals and 38 assists in 40 games for Val d’Or, and had 12 goals and 19 assists in 19 playoff games for them.

Before the call up, there were no right-handed shots on the Pens blue-line. The question is, who gets sent down and/or waived to free the roster spot? The lone player not subject to waivers is forward Tyler Kennedy, who was recalled on October 27th, and has played in six games, netting a goal on his first shot, but a healthy scratch for several games as well.

Official Statement (PDF)

With much fuller background courtesy of Erick @ Redstate, Fred Thompson has secured the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee.  Erick’s post in particular addresses some of the background surrounding the jockeying by other campaigns trying to derail the endorsement.

Erick notes the importance of the endorsement as an outside-the-beltway organization:

The NRLC endorsement is, in fact, one of the very few endorsements a candidate will get that cannot be characterized as “inside the beltway,” despite what some of the other campaigns would have you believe. NRLC has been successful because it is a very grassroots organization and its endorsements are made based on the grassroots leadership in each of the 50 states, not from a small group sitting inside the beltway.

In addressing Fred’s recent MTP appearance, Erick notes the following:

What about Fred’s controversial statement on the Human Life Amendment on Meet the Press? I’m told by multiple sources that Fred explicitly said he supported the party platform and would not get rid of that plank, but pointed out that even when the GOP controlled both houses of Congress and the White House there were not enough votes to pass the HLA and he’d rather spend his four years working to end abortion through means that would be successful, e.g. originalist judicial appointments and pro-life executive appointments and policies.

Just after the endorsement today, Fred’s campaign released a statement that said, in part, “While Fred supports the long term objective of the Human LIfe Amendment, the votes are simply not there in Congress, nor were they there when we controlled both houses of Congress. For instance, in the Senate, we are presently at least 25 votes short, with passage in the House even more difficult. The quickest way to reverse Roe v. Wade is to appoint judges who will interpret the Constitution according to its actual text. Fred would appoint those kinds of judges.”

Last Place in the Atlantic was on the line… win and the Pens put themselves three up on New Jersey, lose and the Devils jumped the Pens, leaving the Pens in last by a point.

The Pens spotted the Devils two goals in the first, then clawed their way back with one in the 2nd and one in the third to tie it at 2-2, but allowed the deciding goal with five minutes to go in regulation on a 3 on 2 rush by the Devils after Georges Laraque sent a blind pass out from behind the Devils net – sending Jersey away as no Pen was near the pass. It didn’t matter that the tide in the game had turned towards Pittsburgh’s direction, one mistake was enough for the Devils to get the two points.

Crosby extended his point streak to 17 games, extending his career long, and Malkin extended his to 11 games, although his 9 game assist streak was snapped. The loss tonight was their fourth straight, and sixth in seven games.

Stats update, game 18 (Only Malone, Hall, & Talbot in plus territory, but Scuderi, Laraque, and Kennedy are now Even)
Name GP G A P +- PIM
Crosby 18 10 17 27 -2 18
Malkin 18 7 18 25 -2 16
Gonchar 18 4 12 16 -4 26
Sykora 18 7 5 12 -6 6
Talbot 18 4 4 8 +3 10
Whitney 14 3 4 7 -3 2
Recchi 18 2 5 7 -2 12
Roberts 17 1 6 7 -3 12
Malone 18 4 4 8 +1 38
Hall 17 2 3 5 +1 9
Christensen 16 2 1 3 -7 4
Orpik 18 0 3 3 -3 19
Staal 18 1 1 2 -8 9
Laraque 10 0 2 2 E 9
Armstrong 14 1 0 1 -5 4
Kennedy 6 1 0 1 E 2
Scuderi 18 0 1 1 E 6
Sydor 18 0 1 1 -7 11
Ruutu 10 0 1 1 -1 10
Eaton 18 0 1 1 -1 2
Nasreddine 4 0 0 0 -2 2
Fleury 12 0 0 0 — 0
Sabourin 9 0 0 0 — 0

It should be noted that the stats above reflect the correct scoring from the first Toronto game, where Recchi was given a phantom assist at the expense of Malkin. This scoring change was made after the game, and the official NHL stats have not been corrected. Emails to the NHL and ESPN.com that same night have not been answered. As of October 31, 2007, this error has still not been corrected.

The loss dropped the Pens record to 7-10-0-1 (W-L-OTL-SOL) on the season, and leaves them 5th in the Atlantic Division, now five points behind the Flyers, and now 1 point behind of the Devils.

Great post over at LifeHacker.com detailing how to created a VNC using PC-based ‘CrossLoop’. I’m going to give this a try with my own home network. It requires that someone be on both ends of the connection, so this is probably best to use if you’re the designated ‘computer person’ in your family, and need to fix a PC remotely.

VNC using CrossLoop

Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson won his fourth race in a row, and tenth on the season, extending his point lead to 86 points over teammate Jeff Gordon with one race to go. All Johnson has to do to clinch his 2nd title in a row is finish 18th or better in Homestead. The race at Phoenix saw him take the lead for the final time from Martin Truex Jr, after Truex had stayed out on the last yellow flag while most every other driver, including Johnson, pitted. Truex could not hold off Johnson, and several others, falling to the lower half of the top-10 by race’s end.

The last driver to win four in a row was Jeff Gordon in 1998, where he won six times in 7 races. Prior to that, it was Mark Martin in 1993, Bill Elliott in 1992, Harry Gant in 1991, Dale Earnhardt in 1987, Darrell Waltrip in 1981, and Cale Yarborough in 1976 as the others to win four consecutive races in the modern era. Richard Petty won 5 in a row in 1971, the last year before the modern era, and he won 10 in a row in 1967. The way Johnson’s team has been, he could very well be the driver to get 5 in a row, and no better way to clinch a title than by winning the race.

With apologies to Kope, this was one of those games. First place in the AFC North was on the line, and for a time, it looked like the Browns were going to forge a 1st place tie, but then the 2nd half had to be played…

The Steelers improbably improved to 7-2 on the season, erasing a 21-6 first half deficit en route to a 31-28 win over the Browns. The Steelers dominated in total yards, rush yards, passing yards and time of possession – 38 to 21 minutes, despite Cleveland taking almost 9 minutes to score its first touchdown of the game. Two special teams blunders – allowing a 90 yard return to the Steelers 3 yard line in the 1st quarter, and allowing a 100 yard return for a TD in the 4th quarter, along with a 2nd quarter turnover that gave the Browns the ball on the Steelers 18 yard line gave the Browns the rest of their scores. Where the Browns were pushing it into the end zone, the Steelers got Field goals in the first half.

The 2nd half was a reversal of fortune – the Browns were unable to secure a first down until their last possession, with little more than a minute to go. In the end, it took Browns place kicker Phil Dawson missing a 52 yard field goal with 6 seconds left, attempting to tie, a field goal that fell just inches short. The result leaves the Steelers two games up on the Browns, with the critical season sweep to effectively make it a three game lead.

The late result of the Colts losing to the Chargers leaves the Steelers temporarily in control of the 2nd seed in the AFC, based on conference record. The Steelers have a single conference loss, having also lost once outside the AFC, while both of Indy’s losses are in conference.