Pre-debate hijinks by the other side (who else?)

At about 8:00 tonight my neighbor from across the street, Liz, who's about 7 months pregnant, knocked on our front door. I had just finished putting the kids to bed and rushed down to open the door.

"You won't believe what just happened," she said. "I saw the whole thing. Someone pulled up in front of your house in a red car, got out, took the [Kerry-Edwards] sign from your front yard, and drove off."

The balls! I stepped out onto the porch and sure enough, the sign was gone! Those damn Bushies! If only I'd been sitting on the porch with a shotgun, I could've exercised my second amendment right to defend my property with force of arms. As it was, I'm out 5 bucks or whatever I paid the Kerry campaign for it. Damn hooligans. I'm gonna smoke 'em out.

At least they didn't slash my tires, which happened to someone on the other side.

It's always the same!

The major news outlets always, every time, say that "neither man appeared to deliver a knock-out blow" after a presidential debate. They never say one side did better, because they don't want to piss off the other side. This has been going on at least since Dukakis-Bush in '88. I wish the news media would have the balls to say that someone won.

Jet's OK, but they aren't The Faces

I never knew how great this band was until NPR did a retrospective this morning. Rod Stewart has been on my permanent "Do Not Listen" list since about 1983. If a Rod Stewart song comes on the radio, I'm obliged to hit the scan button within 3 nanoseconds--2 if it's "Maggie May". But when I heard the clips this morning, I felt like I'd stumbled upon a great discovery. These guys rocked and had a hell of a time doing it, which is what it's all about! Go listen at npr.org (scroll to the very last story)

Which brings me to Jet, who I like just fine, but I've always thought they sound like a cross between AC/DC and Badfinger. My 7-year-old son loves Jet, and he loves AC/DC too except that CD is on the top shelf until he turns, I don't know, 16 or 30. I'm in favor of music that kicks ass, but I don't want to have to explain the lyrics to "Give the Dog a Bone" which is a male sexual power fantasy with graphic imagery about giving head and what not.

Maybe Badfinger should be the next acquisition in the Denneen CD collection.

Documents Reveal Gaps In Bush's Service As President

Finally, someone is reporting the truth!

Rocklin said the documents indicate that Bush used his family's political connections to obtain his job in the executive branch.

The Oracle speaks: Red Sox to beat Yankees this year

Baseball fans are a superstitious group, so I thought I'd check with the free I-Ching oracle to confirm my hunch that this is indeed the year for the Sox. You might not think a free online oracle would be authoritative, but who can argue with results like these?

"Is this the year for the Red Sox?"

"Enthusiasm"
Enormous creative energy is unleashed by enthusiasm. This energy is like powerful music which inspires great numbers of people, loosening old constraints and generating new opportunities....When a crowd is "charged", the singer scales new heights, and life becomes its own reward. For who is not in awe of thunder? And who would fail to fill his or her lungs in the aftermath of a cleansing rain?

"Are we going to beat the dreaded Yankees?"

"Affluence"
Supreme success!...When power is wielded with grace and dignity, there is supreme success and great abundance!

"How are the Yankees going to do in the postseason?"

"Diverging Interests"
An image of estrangement is indicated here. When brothers and sisters marry, they grow apart, since their allegiances now lie with new families. Though they will remain close enough to successfully deal with problems and share minor interests, they will be unable to undertake any great projects together...Divergent natures and interests do bring opposition into the world of human affairs. And when opposition drifts into alienation and enmity, no good results.

If you have any doubts, go see for yourself.

I'm okay, you're okay

I wish I could be half as funny as the guy who writes I'm okay, you're okay.

My miscast vote for Bush

Today I voted for George W. Bush for President.

It was only the larger-than-life potato cannon ballot at the corn maze so fortunately it didn't count any more than a real Florida ballot with a hanging chad. But it was disconcerting nonetheless. My errant shot could just as easily have punched out the chad of the Socialist or Libertarian candidate and I would have shrugged it off, but casting a vote for Bush was just downright disturbing! My other 2 spuds smashed harmlessly against a non-voting part of the ballot so there was some destructive emotional release, but I still don't feel quite right about it. I hope I get it right in November.

Why these Red Sox are different

"Then the Sox dodged danger in the 12th when the Orioles loaded the bases with one out against Leskanic. When Leskanic got Jay Gibbons to roll a grounder toward first, Mientkiewicz started a sensational double play by throwing home to Varitek, who then fired to second baseman Pokey Reese covering first to extricate the Sox from the threat." The Boston Globe

Defense wins championships.

So cool, yet so frightening

Amazon's new A9 search tool has an absolutely cool interface. Your text and image searches show up side by side, and you can turn various panels on and off like books of course, and movies, etc. It's fast, works like a charm in Mozilla Firefox, and has all sorts of personalization possibilities I haven't even explored yet.

The bad news? You sign in with your Amazon.com password. I know, privacy on the net is fiction, but this is just so blatant in the way it ties your search behavior to your purchase profile. Everyone else does this with tracking cookies of course, but this just seems so explicit. I guess that's a good thing to be above-board about it. But will I ever get used to it?

They won't take this page down, will they?

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. The Washington Post points out that the State Department web site has a page showing where al Qaeda is hiding around the world. It was posted shortly after 9/11. Guess who's NOT on the list? Iraq!!!

How long until the page gets vaporized, or better yet, altered ever-so-slightly by some Orwellian worker at the Ministry of Information? Look carefully at http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/terrornet/12.htm

It's not required to hold office, either.

A firm grasp of reality is not required to vote, which really should come as no surprise after the 2000 election.

two studies in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island found that patients at dementia clinics turned out in higher numbers than the general population.

The campaigns aren't having any luck polling this group to see where they stand.

Education funding cuts in red states only?

Massachusetts school funding is in bad shape. Federal money is leaving the state in huge amounts. Even though nationally Title 1 funding has increased, the biggest and poorest districts in Mass are seeing cuts of 10 to 20%.

My theory: It's a red state/blue state thing. Any state in the Democrats' column gets cut, while Republican states get a boost. And of course the all-important "swing" or "in-play" states get the biggest slice of pie.

Am I right? Someday when I have time I'll have to crunch through the state-by-state, year-by-year Title 1 Excel files posted on the Department of Ed web site.

Condi as Smokey the Bear

While Colin Powell reassured us that the mushroom cloud above North Korea did not result from a nuclear explosion, Condi Rice put her big brain to work and came up with an explanation:

Ms. Rice said it was possible that the fire seen Thursday - the South Korean press described it as a mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke that extended two miles across - might have been a forest fire.

See The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Diplomacy: Kerry Says Bush Has Ignored North Korean Threat