I’d feel a little rude posting a Friday Night Fluff piece directly after a post that states the grave danger many in Texas are now facing due to Hurricane Ike. We’ll skip this feature this week and get back to you next week.

Hurricane Ike is expected to hit Texas tonight or early tomorrow as a Category 3 storm. More from CNN: 
Houston officials are telling residents to stay put because it’s not safe anymore to try to hit the road to escape Hurricane Ike.
The Category 2 storm had 105 mph winds as of 5 p.m. ET, according to the National Hurricane Center. It is expected to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday near Galveston, and by that time may have strengthened to a Category 3, forecasters say.
Ike is 900 miles wide, measuring …

No Juneteenth for Palin: Electronic Village has a letter from Gwendolyn Alexander, President of the African American Historical Society of Alaska, that explains Sarah Palin’s lack of involvement with the African American community in Alaska. Palin was the first Alaskan governor to not participate- either passively or actively- in the Juneteenth celebrations in her state.
CA’s “Green” Auto Insurance: Via EnviroWonk, news of a proposed car insurance program in California:
California’s insurance commissioner has proposed a pay-as-you-drive car insurance option that could reduce premiums as well as greenhouse gas emissions, an idea …

Cindy McCain had a prescription drug problem in the early ’90s that caused her to steal drugs from her own charity and arrange for doctors to write prescriptions for her under other people’s names. When caught, she only had to enter treatment and do community service. The DEA, who had been circling Cindy McCain with suspicions of what she was up to, largely backed off. But Tom Gosinski, an employee of that charity who was fired when he became upset at Cindy McCain’s usage of his name for her fake scripts, …

Earmark Designs 
Last featured: July 2, 2008
Earmark designs caught my eye back in January when I first saw their Contempt Collection of greeting cards featuring text like, “Thanks for Nothing” and accompanied by a clever line art of empty hands.  They held my attention with their delightful, well-designed and cohesive invitation packages.  Now I’ve rarely sent or received formal invitations to an event since Evite.com and Google Calender have taken away some of the pain of arranging things, but there’s throwback charm to doing things the pen-and-paper way for a special …