Colin Powell

Colin Powell flew to Iraq to let the people know that the foreign occupying power that controls the natural resources of their sovereign and independent nation is spending all that money with only the Iraqi people's best interests at heart.

Really, Mr. Secretary? Do we have your word of honor on that?

*Sigh* That's a very clever comment. It makes me very sad to make it.

Out in the Yard

My son Walden dug a firepit in the back yard, his friends scavenged abandoned couches, and they made it quite a pleasant place for them to hang out on summer evenings.

Now, with the street in front of the house torn up, there are no cars going by, and almost no foot traffic. So the kids are using it as an extension of the house. It's really quite cozy.

I feel as though I could get used to living on a cul de sac. No wonder the things are so popular.

And I could definitely get used to having the kids hang out here. I like them.

A Serious Concern

Oregon used to have an organization called the Oregon Citizens' Alliance, which ran anti-gay ballot initiatives year after year.

Well, the OCA is still out there, but it's a spent force, hasn't had a measure on the ballot in a good long while.

Now, though, there's a Coalition to Defend Marriage or something like that which has managed to get an anti-gay measure on the ballot.

It won't matter much whether it passes.  As with the OCA's measures, it would be thrown out of court at the first challenge.

What causes me serious concern is the grim statistical fact that whenever the OCA was running one of its campaigns, incidence of violent crimes against people perceived to be gay increased dramatically.

You could pretty much count on at least one murder.

How many lives is it worth to "send a message" about the proper place of homosexuals in our society?

Kids Need Parents

Studies have shown that children are happier, healthier, get better grades, are less likely to get in trouble with the police, have fewer cavities, &c., if they have a mother and a father.

This piece of news has been widely reported.

Very widely.

Less often mentioned is the fact that children also do better if both of their parents are white.

Apparently, nobody feels a pressing need to make that fact the basis for public policy.

WMD Found in Iraq!

The Iraqi newspaper al Sabah reported on Wednesday that nuclear-tipped missiles had been found in a hidden bunker.

Matt Drudge, of course, repeated the story in his usual breathless fashion.

The report was false, and was quickly discounted.

Matt Drudge has nothing further to say on the matter.  Of course.

I finally figured Drudge out: he's the new Jeanne Dixon.  He passes on every wild tale he hears (or rather, every wild tale that reflects badly on people who are on Drudge's enemies list), and when, once in a decade, he actually relays somethign that's actually true and newsworthy, he gets credit as a great investigative journalist.

He has standards, of course.  Like the National Enquirer, he never actually makes stuff up himself.  Someone else has to make the assertion first.

Which does at least put him on a higher level of journalistic integrity than, say, the Bush Views Channel.

Actually, I just checked: not only has Drudge not posted a retraction of his report that Elvis has found WMD, he's even deleted references to it from his web site.  Tom Lehrer fans will appreciate *that* gesture.

Fair and Balanced

I feel about TV news the way I do about unproven herbal remedies: rather than having the government try to control content, we should empower the government to require clear, honest and complete labelling, and let people decide for themselves what they want to swallow.

MoveOn.org is petitioning the FCC to force Fox "News" Channel to drop the slogan "Fair and Balanced".  This is merely a political prank, of course, but it does have a serious point.

http://www.moveon.org

da Vinci Days in Corvallis

The annual da Vinci Days celebration of art and science gets a little smaller and crumbier every year.  It makes me sad, and I wonder what the problem is.
 
This year, they had a row of OSB panels set up, with simple designs painted on them, and the public was invited to add to them with brightly colored paints.  A municipal coloring book, in other words.
 
But, one of the panels wasn't bad -- it showed Nut, the Egyptian goddess of the night sky, arching over the Earth, looked kind of nice, so when I saw the sheet where you could sign up to take a panel home with you, I signed up for it.
 
And I won, and now I'm working out how to set it up in my massage studio.
 
Only thing is, somebody apparently didn't recognize the figure as representing the night sky, so her body is yellow-orange, and her stars are red, blue and yellow, which leaves her looking like a second-string superhero flying through the blue-black night.  Weird.
 
But I kind of like it.

My New T-Shirt

Actually, it's not new -- I bought a package of white T-shirts months ago.

What's new is, it has bnow been decorated with red, blue and black Sharpies, and now bears the proud political statement:

Kerry '04 -- He's not Bush!

*Shrug* That about sums it up.

It's Easy to Get Discouraged

This is not a happy time. This war stinks.

But it's the only war we've got.

It was years before I understood what that phrase means, that it wasn't just cynical nonsense.

Everybody wishes they were fighting World War II -- preferably as the Allies.

You could make a case that the current idiocy is the result of W wanting to re-enact Daddy's war (or Daddy's war as seen in Uncle Ron's movies), cramming the real 21st Century world into his fantasy template, ignoring how bad the fit was.

I feel sorry for W. I really do. It must be hell, going through life never actually accomplishing anything, wishing you could be a real aviator like Daddy, or a real businessman like Daddy, or a real politician like Daddy, or get elected President like Daddy, only to have it always go wrong somehow -- getting into flight school with Daddy's help and going through the motions until you wash out, having to be bailed out by Daddy's friends, letting Daddy's friends buy you a ceremonial seat, letting Bro's political machine steal the Presidency for you.

Honestly, it must hurt a lot. Evne those of us who have stood up on our own and lived our own lives know the feeling: the nagging suspicion that we're just playing grown-up, that the real grown-ups will notice at any moment what we're doing and step in.

I do feel sorry for W, and I shudder to think of how he may fall to pieces at any moment under the burden he carries.

Just one more reason to get him away from that big desk.