Michael Moore to take on health care industry. Pharmaceutical management issues "do not talk" edict to sales force and other employees. Moore representatives laugh.

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Kerry nailed the debate. AOL, CBS, Time, ABC, CNN and MSNBC online polls (for what they're worth) place Kerry over Bush by a huge margin (okay, AOL only has him up by 5%, but it's growing). Even the Fox News reaction was, "Well, Kerry did well." Ought to be some nice momentum coming off this into tomorrow's news cycle, assuming that volcano holds off a couple of days. Next up: Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards will meet Tuesday at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Update: Democratic Underground has a comprehensive listing of online polls, if you'd like to make yourself known.

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Annatopia caught ABC News posting a recap of tonight's presidential debate, already written in the past tense. While I believe that most people have already scripted this thing fairly accurately, I would have expected journalists to, you know, wait and see what actually happens. They've removed it from their site already, but Annatopia got screen shots: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3. To their credit, they did hold off on announcing a winner.

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Ripped right from The Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network

Mount St. Helens Volcanic Advisory (Alert Level Two)
Mount St. Helens Daily Update 9/29/04 5:30 PM PDT

Increased seismicity overnight prompted raising the alert level to Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2) at 10:40 A.M., PDT, this morning. Throughout the day the seismic energy level has remained at an elevated with a rate of 3-4 events per minute including an increase in the number of events between Magnitude 2 and 3. All earthquake locations are still shallow and in or below the lava dome. In addition, initial data from the GPS instrument on the lava dome that was repaired Monday morning suggest that the site moved a few inches northward Monday and Tuesday, but has since been stable. Such movement is not surprising in light of the high seismicity levels. A USGS field crew continued their deployment of GPS equipment today in order to monitor any ground movement on the lava dome, crater floor, or lower slopes of the volcano. Another gas flight this morning produced a result of no significant volcanic gas detected, as was the case on Monday. Two press conferences were held at CVO to update the media. Tomorrow's field work includes continued GPS deployments.

The current hazard outlook is unchanged from that outlined in this morning's Volcano Advisory. Updated wind forecasts from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration coupled with an eruption model indicate that the wind direction will shift from northwesterly to northeasterly tonight. Therefore any ash clouds produced tonight will drift southwestward.

If you're in the area keep this in mind. I think it's just rumbling now to make Florida feel better.

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This one's for you, G. Cubbies choke and blow 9th inning tie, lose it in the 12th. Oh, well, at least there's the Bears...

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From Richard Leiby's "Reliable Source" column:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay brought the hammer down on Doubleday for daring to send him a free copy of Kitty Kelley's Bush-whacking book, "The Family." The Texas Republican noted in a letter to John Pitts, a Doubleday marketing exec, that the book was "unfortunately delivered to my Washington office last week." He returned it c.o.d.

DeLay's letter went on: "The book would reflect poorly on its author, if in fact any reasonable person still respected her at this advanced stage of her pathological career. Instead, Mr. Pitts, it reflects poorly on the Doubleday name and everyone associated with your company. Ms. Kelley is neither journalist nor scholar. She is a junior-high gossipmonger whose writing should be passed in notes during study hall, not printed in books by the same company that published Rudyard Kipling, Booker T. Washington, and Anne Frank. Her books are malicious, dishonest, undermine political discourse, and corrupt the good name of American letters. Doubleday's disgraceful complicity in this scandalous and mendacious enterprise is disgusting, and evidence of the moral collapse of a once-great company. But perhaps I understate."

A spokesman for Doubleday, which routinely sends free books to influential politicos on both sides of the aisle, told us yesterday: "We certainly respect Mr. DeLay's right to his opinion but we are proud to publish Kitty Kelley's work." And a spokeswoman for Kelley had this to say: "Considering the many ethical inquiries surrounding Representative DeLay, we understand why he prefers not to accept anything free right now."

DeLay and "ethical" in the same sentence. Heh.

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But you gotta hear this. I found the link on yet another interesting, insightful and often funny blog.

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I know I should be angry about this latest news from the rocket scientists we elect to DC (apologies to rocket scientists everywhere for any symbolic linking), but I'm not... I'm just sad.

Sad that our political landscape has become so far removed from what is best for their constituants (not to mention what the voters actually want!) and blatantly corrupted by special interests, which only serve a very small minority of the public.

But the thing that is most staggeringly arrogant/stupid about this was from the sponsor of the bill, Indiana Representative Mark Souder, was this tidbit:

"The D.C. handgun ban has failed. It has failed miserably."

Simple enough, you might argue. Perhaps... I freely and fully admit I am in no position to debate the pros/cons & successes/failures of the current law in DC. But where I have a huge problem with Mr. Souder is this:

He offers absolutely no other solution.

Nothing.
Not a better idea.
Not a radical idea.
Not even a moronic idea.
Nothing.

Just a sweeping statement saying that it has failed, so we must repeal it. But by what established standards it has failed, he apparently thinks we do not need to know. The only supporting evidence he presents is typical politician-context-warping-speak:

Citing a persistent increase in the city's high murder rates since the gun ban was enacted in 1976 -- up 72 percent while the national average has fallen 36 percent -- as proof of the failure of gun control.

Again. you might say "Makes sense! Can't argue with cold, hard statistics, now can you."
Nay nay, I can... And I will.

Much like religious zealots who conveniently warp the bible/talmud/qur'an/whatever-holy-piece-of-paper to their justify their own damnable actions, the supporters of this bill ignore common sense, mostly by quoting numbers from a 25-year-period! No one cares who died in 1984, or even 1994. They care about the here and now, and if it is being improved or not.

D.C. Deligate to the House (non-voting) Eleanor Holmes Norton assailed the "ludicrous logic . . . that gun safety laws cause murders," saying the city's homicide rate is at a 20-year low.

Other, more recent numbers, show this:

from Reuters AlertNet: "Though still fighting serious violent crime, Washington does have fewer murders than it did a decade ago -- 248 in 2003 down from 399 in 1994. So far this year there have been 149 murders, a 20 percent drop from the same point in 2003, official police statistics show."

From The Washington Post: "Repeal opponents note that D.C. homicides have fallen 24 percent this year. They also cite statistics showing that D.C. police recovered 1,385 guns from Jan. 1 to Sept. 8 and that 97 percent of the guns used in D.C. crimes come from elsewhere."

Hardly the damning indictment that Mr. Souder would like you to believe. The murders are currently dropping... how would flooding the streets with guns and ammo help that? Are the House politicians proposing to return to the wild west days of frontier justice?

Now bear in mind that according to the law as it currently stands, people in DC can still own rifles and shotguns (if they are registered with the DC police), just not handguns. Since 1976, District residents have registered more than 100,000 firearms (which is scary enough to me personally). So it is not like the citizens cannot 'protect' themselves already, if they already want to... I honestly and truly fail to see who this repeal will help, other than the much-feared NRA.

But, aside from letting Joe Next-Door-Neighbor get handguns, here is what repealing the handgun law will ALSO allow:

• semiautomatic weapons
  
• anyone younger than 18 can now own and carry any firearm
  
• gun owners no longer have to notify police if firearms are lost or stolen
  
• people could openly transport loaded, unlocked assault rifles and shotguns on city streets without a license
  
• prohibit the District from passing new laws of their own regarding gun control
  
• decriminalize possession of unregistered weapons (that should make every gangbangers' day...)
  
• firearms no longer have to be stored unloaded and disassembled or locked in the owner's house.
  

And finally, Mr. Souder gives us these thoroughly documented and convincing tidbits...

"It should make people safer."

Ummm, should?? Would you mind giving us any concrete data to back up that supposition, Mr. Souder?

"This should increase property values in Washington, D.C.," Souder asserted.

Again, ummm, should?? Again, would you mind giving us any concrete data to back up that supposition, Mr. Souder? Any studies? Any previous, recent urban examples or case studies?? Did you bother asking any DC residents which would they prefer; higher property value (which = higher property taxes, btw), or lower crime rate. Because crime rates ain't gonna go down when the bangers can outshoot the cops.

And I do not think having to put iron bars on your windows will actually make your property value go up.

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Okay, just to get all of the juices and vitriol flowing...Voter Fraud?

How about voting machines without a paper trail and a promise by their manufacturer to deliver the election to W? How about this voting machines that allow the entry of a small code so that their counted votes can be reprogrammed to deliver whatever number you like?

How about a Florida database that shows numbers of people ineligible to vote who are clearly not ineligible?

How about arresting people in parking lots for unpaid parking tickets (or whatever spurious charges) and preventing them from voting?

How about simply turning voters away from the polls in democratic districts?

Before you take up your latest propaganda soapbox, be sure your platform is not made of glass.

Vote fraud is a serious issue and seems to be a cornerstone of campaign strategy for Republicans. This does not excuse vote fraud by either party, and does not change the fact that the issues are the most important reason to vote for John Kerry.

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The whole idea of Nazi Germany has become such a historical cliche that it's actually a counter-argument against free speech at this point. Raising the specter of nascent facism is laughable in some circles. But, one last time before you write the idea off, take a second and really consider what day-to-day life was like in the last four or five months before the formal declaration of the Third Reich on March 23, 1933. From McSweeney's:

When President Bush traveled to Pittsburgh in 2002, a protester named Bill Neel who refused to move to the "designated free-speech zone"—a baseball field a third of a mile from Bush's speech—was arrested for disorderly conduct. At Neel's trial, a police detective testified that the Secret Service had told local police to keep "people that were there making a statement pretty much against the president and his views" in the free-speech zone. The judge threw out the charge, saying, "I believe this is America. Whatever happened to 'I don't agree with you, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it'?"

Similar incidents have occurred at Bush appearances around the country. At a Florida rally in 2001, three demonstrators were arrested for holding up signs outside of the designated zone; the next year, seven protesters were arrested outside of a rally at the University of South Florida. At a St. Louis event in 2003, a woman and her 5-year-old daughter who protested outside of the approved area were detained by police and taken away in separate vehicles. This year, a West Virginia couple wearing anti-Bush T-shirts was detained by the Secret Service at a July 4 rally, and on September 17, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq was arrested and charged with trespassing at a Laura Bush appearance.

When seven AIDS activists were ejected from a Bush event in Washington, D.C., on September 9, the Secret Service told journalists that if they approached the demonstrators, they would not be allowed to re-enter the event. One agent told a reporter who was prevented from returning to the speech that there was a "different set of rules" for journalists who did not talk to the activists.

Brett Bursey, who held up a "No War for Oil" sign amidst hundreds of Bush supporters at a 2002 appearance by the president in Columbia, South Carolina, was arrested by a police officer who told him that "it's the content of your sign that's the problem." He was charged with trespassing; when that charge was dropped because Bursey was on public property at the time of his arrest, the Justice Department charged Bursey with "entering a restricted area around the President of the United States." He faced six months in jail; in January, he was convicted and fined $500. The federal magistrate, Bristow Marchant, denied Bursey's request for a jury trial, and later ruled that the protester had not been unreasonably singled out among the Bush supporters by police—although other people were there, he said, they did not refuse to leave, as Bursey did.

In a May 2003 terrorist advisory, the Homeland Security Department told local law-enforcement agencies to pay special attention to anyone who "expressed dislike of attitudes and decisions of the U.S. government." In April of that year, after the federally funded California Anti-Terrorism Task Force fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters at the Port of Oakland, a spokesman for the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center said that "if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that's being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that protest. You can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act."

Secret Service agent Brian Marr told NPR that the agency creates free-speech zones because "these individuals may be so involved with trying to shout their support or nonsupport that inadvertently they may walk out into the motorcade route and be injured ... we want to be sure that they are able to go home at the end of the evening and not be injured in any way." The ACLU is suing the Secret Service for suppressing protest at Bush events in Arizona, California, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, Texas, and elsewhere.

(Sources: James Bovard, "Free-Speech Zone," The American Conservative, December 15, 2003. See article at: amconmag.com. Jonathan M. Katz, "Thou Dost Protest Too Much," Slate, September 21, 2004. See article at: slate.com. Dana Milbank, "Secret Service Not Coddling Hecklers," Washington Post, September 10, 2004. See article at: washingtonpost.com.)

Also, here's the press release from the ACLU regarding their Secret Service lawsuit. By the way, did you know you can become a card-carrying member of the ACLU for $20?

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So, I had bronchitis and yesterday I heard the word Asthma. I am suspiciously looking for a cause. We live and eat clean: no smoking, not much drinking, lots of organic, whole foods. There is no lung disease propensity in my family. Our home is full of large windows with lots of tall plants, many of which are the kinds NASA recommended for cleaning the air.

To make things very suspicious, my very healthy 3-year-old appears to be getting it too, at the same time. She has been coughing for weeks. There is nothing more alarming than having to buy a rescue inhaler complete with mask delivery system for your toddler. It is heartbreaking to have to teach her grandparents how to use it. My husband is now also strangely suffering from more than seasonal rhinitis. Other people I know have had a concurrent increase this year in "allergies," respiratory infections, sinus headaches and coughing.

Recently we all went to the park; a place with lots of really large trees. It was a nice day; breezy, 76 degrees, clear skies, high barometer, VFR flying weather. The air was, however, white and hazy. I have not seen a clear day all spring/summer (I can't remember any ozone action days declared this summer). I have not seen a clear day anywhere, for a long time. We live in the woods. Literally, in the woods. Lush plants and trees everywhere; the air ought to be pretty filtered. I found myself staring surprised at the sky; the air wasn't really white, it was brown. I was suddenly reminded of driving into Boulder, CO from the south. As you approached, you saw a brown cloud hovering over the city, bad news where the air is already thin.

I took a moment to inventory the trees. There was some crown dieback on more than just the older trees. Crown dieback implies some heavy stress on a tree, like you get from pollution. Even the middle-aged cottonwoods far from any soil compaction and de-icing salt runoff were a bit sickly. Young trees were universally suffering, and I know our local park district waters and cares for them.

We also live close to Lake Michigan, really close. This may be part of the problem. Anyone who flies can tell you how a body of water with a shoreline bluff will have an updraft of air, nice for lift. We live sandwiched between a westward prevailing wind and an eastward updraft. As a result, we are getting a pretty heavy dose of pollution. I know this pollution is everywhere; the Ozark Mountains were hazy in July. The entirety of Illinois has been hazy. Wisconsin has been hazy. If I drive westward, it's still hazy. I am a sky watcher, and I know this is new. Did every power plant and manufacturer turn off the air cleaning gear as soon as the environmental protection laws were made voluntary? Our county and the surrounding ones require emissions tests on vehicles, so this isn't necessarily the source of the all the problems (and wouldn't explain the haze in rural areas). I suppose I can just sit back and blame it on more fat-ass housewives hauling nothing but themselves around all day in an SUV. There are these bumper stickers you can get to slap on these offenders that say "Your Breathing Means Nothing to Me."

I am going to have to invest in some air quality tests (I suspect there's some tree climbing in my future). Heavy-duty air cleaners are probably in order, too. If I can find an increased incidence/prevalence of respiratory disease, my family may simply be the latest victims of unsound environmental policy. I know I'm not the only one noticing a problem; several states are adopting the first rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Just a side-note: the senate has considered taking this right away from the states.

The president argued, as he cut the EPA regulations on air pollution, that it would save jobs. Hey, maybe he's right. My and my daughter's diminished lung capacity is keeping some doctors and nurses employed. I am sure that if more people had to buy the $650.00 of care/respiratory drugs/gear that we did this week, that would put someone to work. My entire family's respiratory bill in the next year will probably top $6K, which more than offsets any tax cuts we might see from this administration. In the mean time, plug in a compact florescent and recycle something for my kid.

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I heard recently that our illustrious leader has started to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The justification being that oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has come to a stop due to recent hurricanes. This changes the supply/demand equation and keeps gas prices steady if not slightly lower.

Anyone else see a coincidence in timing here? Five weeks before the presidential elections and now we pull resources from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He didn't want to tap it when gas prices were well over $2.00 a gallon a year or two ago but now it is needed? Seems questionable to me.

I tried doing some research to back this post but cannot find much regarding anything recent on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Anyone want to help and either support or refute this claim?

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Wow! Something that causes me more agitation than blind Bush supporters: polls! I have been particularly baffled by how two (or ten) separate polls in a given state, with apparently the same margin for error, are yielding such varied results.

Some states are clearly going to vote for the candidate of their majority party regardless of any issue, and their polls don't fluctuate much from election to election. We're unlikely to be surprised by Montana, for instance. On the other side, D.C. is fixedly and obviously bent on changing the guard. On the other hand, battleground states are a different story. Here, learning who has the electoral margin is pretty much up to who you ask.

Some polls fluctuate from others by as much as 14 points. How can we look at any of them as definitive? Turns out we can't. I was perusing The Island of Balta and something started to become evident: some polls aren't objective. In fact, we may be unsuspectingly following the influence of a number of heavily partisan sources.

Some of these sources hide their agenda a little, while others go a long way to make themselves sound non-partisan when they aren't. For example, a rather generically-named "Opinion Dynamics 2" turns out to be Fox News. When I hear "CNN Poll," at least I can feel like there's no attempt to hide the source. I already know that CNN is most concerned about keeping their access to the White House, so they will lean towards whomever is in power.

In examining some of the poll questions, I find that many are worded in a partisan way, a.k.a. push-polling.

I suppose one could go crazy tracking the polls. I'll just stick to some of the old favorites, like the presidential approval rating. Oh wait, the approval rating ranges from 45%-51%, depending on who you ask. Worse, these polls include anyone who says "somewhat approve" as a Bush supporter! Real, staunch supporters make up only about a third of the population. By the way, the 45% comes from American Research Group, and implies the lowest approval rating Bush has had in months. The only thing that seems to be common to all these polls is that Bush's approval rating is dropping.

So, what is our next yardstick? Access to a candidate? Their willingness to actually approach the electorate and hear their concerns? The issues, and a sudden awareness among the electorate of their lack of prevalence in the news? Bah.

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The new Hitchhiker's Guide episodes recently produced by the BBC are now available online. Real or WMP required. Don't forget your towel.

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The warden and I signed up for our first ISP sometime circa 1993-94 with a local Chicago-based dial-up called MCSNet. The owner, Karl Denninger, was a prick, and the price was a wee bit more than AOL, but the quality of the service (uptime, speed, no random disconnects, etc) was far superior to anything else going. And they were one of the very few local options in Chicago.

Over the years, MCS was bought out by Winstar. Winstar was bought out by Mindspring, and finally, Mindspring 'merged' with Earthlink. Since we still use Earthlink today as our ISP, we have, in theory, been with the same company for over 10 years (even I am surprised by that one). Hell, our original email address, supin@mcs.com, is even still valid too! (but we have not checked it for about 5+ years, so don't waste your time sending us anything)

Earthlink has always been reliable for what I want in an ISP, with practically no downtime for unlimited, always-on connection. But sexy they have never been. Which is why I was very surprised when I saw this announcement from them, regarding EarthLink SIPshare: SIP-based P2P Content Sharing Prototype.

Apparently, Earthlink is working on an open-source, java-based, standards-based Distributed Networking platform. Yeah, that is geek-speak to me too. But my initial impression seems to be that they are not only going to be supporting technologies similar to Limewire and BitTorrent, but actively encouraging them! These are applications and protocols that chew up bandwidth... massive bandwidth. If this is true, then either 1) bandwidth is getting much much cheaper, or more likely 2) they are trying to get their hooks into more business applications, like video conferencing and virtual collaborations. They roll it all up into a neat, squishy-feelie marketing-friendly blurb:

"EarthLink believes an open Internet is a good Internet"

Of course, my retort is... if they really feel that way, then why do they selectively censor their Usenet subscriptions? And why do they throttle my Usenet download speed?

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Send Exploding Dog a short phrase, get back a custom piece of art. They're often, but not always, amazing. Be prepared to get a completely different take on your phrase than the one in your head.

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There is no way to describe the view at the Grand Canyon, you simply have to see it. I envy everyone's first view of the canyon; the immensity of it is breathtaking, and no superlatives can accurately describe what you see. All we could say was wow. Not too original, but we fit in with many who were getting their first views at the same time. This picture (my favorite) was taken at sunset one evening of our trip, but no pictures do it justice; you simply have to experience it yourself.

We stayed in one of the Historic Cabins in the Bright Angel complex; our cabin was a mere 30 yards from the rim, when we walked out our door, we were about 20' from the trail head for the Bright Angel Trail, one of two major trails that takes you down over 4000' to the river. The cabins are "cozy and rustic", but it was a great part of our experience- you can't beat the view out of our window. The room itself is clean and well cared for, but otherwise it was a standard room.

To me, the most surprising thing about going to the Grand Canyon is how busy and commerical it is on the South Rim. There is a post office, a Bank One, and a grocery store where you can buy everything you would need to survive a week or longer in the wilderness. There are many places to stay or eat on or near the South Rim, including outside the park in the small town of Tusayan. FYI- if you decide to stay inside the park at the South Rim, make sure your room isn't "dorm style", i.e. shared bathroom facilities.

There are ample places to eat on the South Rim; all of them have good quality food and friendly, attentive staff. The Bright Angel Lodge has a dining room that is convenient to most of the lodges in the village, and it serves all meals. Portions are large and desserts are excellent. The El Tovar is another fantastic place to eat. Located inside the El Tovar Lodge, it serves all three meals and the service can't be beat. The food quality is excellent, the selections are varied and the staff is very friendly and attentive (I never had an empty water glass- a big deal to me). The prices are a bit higher than what you will encounter at the Bright Angel Lodge, but we felt it was worth it.

Finally, make sure your visit includes the following: a trip to Hopi House and Lookout Studio, a bit of hiking on the Rim Trail between Yavapi and Mather Points, watch the sunrise or sunset at Hermit's Rest or Hopi Point, take a drive down the Desert View Drive (the most scenic drive on either rim; complete with many stop off points for pictures), and if you're physically up to it, a take a hike below the rim. Just be sure to follow the hiking advice for safe hiking- the hike out is a killer!

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A year ago today, my oldest brother Mike got married to a wonderful (albeit slightly crazy) woman, Lorenza. Two months later, his Air Force Reserve unit in Milwaukee was activated to duty in Iraq (well, actually mostly Kuwait). Of course it sucks to be away from your wife/husband for any extended period, and it must especially suck be away for your anniversary. Since I am no longer in Illinois to take Lorenza out to get plastered, I tried to think of the next best thing...

So from the famous episode "The Hot Piano" and sung to the tune of the William Tell Overture, I cyber-sing!

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Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Haaappy Anniversary

Pour a cheerful toast and fill it
Happy Anniversary
But be careful you don't spill it
Happy Anniversary

Ooooo Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Haaappy Anniversary
(Fred and Wilma Talking)

Ooooo Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Haaappy Anniversary
(Fred Talking)

Happy she and happy he
They're both as happy as can be
Celebrating merrily
their happy anniversary
(Fred and Wilma Talking)

Ooooo Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Haaappy Anniversary
(Fred Talking)

Ooooo Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Haaappy Anniversary

We now state emphatically
its happy anniversary
Not another day could be
a happy anniversary

Ooooo Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Happy Anniversary
Happy (slow)
Happy (slow)
Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy (fast) Anniversary!!!

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If you feeling like sending a congrats to a complete stranger who is serving overseas, feel free!

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Half-naked chicks with knives and blood?
Oh Yeah!!

Wait, this site is supposed to be selling something?
Hmm... I musta missed it the first time...
I guess I'll have to go back and look again...
Look a little closer this time...

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Since I was an adjunct at Columbia College, one of the (very few) perks was that you could also take a class tuition-free. Something I had happily done for a couple of years. This last spring I took "Sign Language I." I did this for two reasons... first, my wife had taken a numbers of lessons from a very good teacher in Chicago (Priscilla), and has become quite fluent in Sign Language (her fourth language, btw). Secondly, hearing loss is genetic in my family, and I have it quite bad. Combine my nerve damage with tinnitus, and I am about 50% in each ear (give or take). I fully expect to be about 75-80% hearing loss someday, so I thought I should pre-emptively learn Sign Language. Makes sense, right?

Well, after the initial euphora of the first few weeks wore off, I realized that... well, I suck at languages. Sucked in Spanish in high school, and didn't do much better here. I do know the alphabet and a handfull of other sign, but my recognition and comprehension is pathetically slow.

So apart from being incredibly narcissistic, why am I posting this? I came across this Science Article from Reuters about a very unique situation in Nicaragua. Many years ago, a group of deaf children were thrown together in a school in without any type of teaching... and ended up inventing their own sign language from scratch! With now a second generation learning, it has continued to evolve even today, and surprisingly, it is the kids who lead the evolution of the words and phrases.
Honestly, it is very interesting. Read it for more details.

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If you have not heard or read about the Crisis in Sudan please look here. Colin Powell has said that what is happening in Sudan is genocide. I am not a fan of President Bush, his cabinet or his administration in general but Colin Powel is one person with whom I have a great deal of respect. Even the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has information about the situation in Sudan. The United Nations suppressed its own report on the horrors of Sudan civil war.

How many hundreds of billions of dollars are we spending in Iraq? Is it as simple as the necessity to feed the monstrous SUVs that many Americans have grown accustomed to? Am I being too simplistic? What happened to helping our fellow man?

This story has made me ashamed to be a part of the wealthiest country on the face of the earth knowing we choose to do nothing. I am still trying to figure out what I can do as an individual. Better believe voting in another month and a half is one of them. Hope everyone else does, too.

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For a change of pace, and a break from politics, I thought I would offer up my first travel review for your enjoyment. So, now that I am back from the land of hedonism and greed, here's a bit of what you can expect if you plan on traveling there.

First, let me start by saying that this was my first trip to Vegas. We stayed the first few days at the Venetian. There is a lot of hype surrounding this hotel; it is supposed to be one of the nicest on the strip, and it comes with rates to match. So we had pretty high expectations regarding the quality of our stay. Here are my impressions…

First, the positive… the room sizes in their regular suites are pretty amazing; I think our room may have been larger than our first apartment. The hotel itself is ornate, large, and heavily theme oriented, but done (for Vegas) in a tasteful way. The Grand Canal area, which consists of various shops and restaurants, is a beautiful replication of the canals of Venice. If gambling is your thing, the casino is large and offers a variety of gaming options. Finally, it is also home to the Canyon Ranch Spa, branches of both the Guggenheim and Madam Tussaud’s, and a number of large, celebrity-chef owned restaurants. For those who can’t seem to pull their kiesters off of the stools at the slot machines, there is an affordable food court right off the casino floor, which offers a variety of snacky foods & sandwiches all at reasonable prices. If you crave a bit more to eat, but still can’t leave the casino excitement you can eat at the Grand Lux Cafe, a sister property to the Cheesecake Factory (one of my favorites). We liked eating here for the convenience, and because we didn’t have to fight for reservations to one of the big name restaurants.

Ok, so now the bad…The room, while large, wasn't in the best condition. It had clearly seen some better days and required some major maintenance (our bathroom faucet was broken on one sink, and the ceiling was clearly water damaged. The drywall tape was peeling off.) Another disappointment is that nothing, and I mean nothing, comes with the room rate. I guess I expected that since I would be gambling (read: giving) my cash back to the hotel, they could at least provide me with a coffee pot in the room. The shops in the Grand Canal are clearly geared toward someone with a large bankroll, and weren't places we would even consider shopping (although I have always wanted a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes, but I digress). It cost us just shy of $10 one night to get two ice cream cones at Häagen Dazs. A bit steep, even for a food court in a mall. The hotel’s staff was not friendly or helpful, unless you were gambling a lot of money or getting married. Finally, most of the table games have large minimum bets. Since we are not avid gamblers, it was pretty hard to accept that everything had at least a $10 minimum bet (except the slot machines). Great if you came to gamble hundreds of dollars away, bad if you just want a taste of the Vegas lifestyle.

Final verdict: not worth the money. Stay at the Hard Rock Hotel instead, which is where we spent our final night in Vegas (more on that soon).

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The Smoking Gun, what a great site. Everyone should sign up for their newsletter, cause you get tidbits like this, about "Dick Cheney's Youthful Indiscretions."

I have two thoughts on this:

First, why is Cheney open and forthcoming about his "scrapes with the law" in his past, and Bush is not?

Second, if Kerry's war record when he was a young kid pertinent to his ability to lead, should not this be as well?

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John Kerry's recent editorial must have cut some ice with the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. They're permitting it to be known that their survey places Kerry slightly ahead of Bush in both votes and popularity. It's still a close race, but to have such a right-wing publication voice these results is a pretty good sign.

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The Washington Post says recent CBS national guard memos may have been faxed into the network from a Kinko's in Abilene, Texas.

There is only one Kinko's in Abilene, and it is 21 miles from the Baird, Tex., home of retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, who has been named by several news outlets as a possible source for the documents.

These memos, if authentic, raise additional issues with Bush's service history beyond the already-numerous other questions (Did Lieutenant Bush refuse a direct order from his commanding officer? Did Lieutenant Bush ever take a physical he was required and ordered to take? Why is there a year-long gap in his service in 1972-1973?). The president has yet to offer conclusive evidence that he ever fulfilled his service obligations.

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So, in my desperate urge to think of anything but bombs, Dubya and the weak economy, I went a-huntin' humor. I found one site that made my night. Of course the title caught my bleary eye: My Neighbors Are Hoors. In reading the title, I enjoy a moment down memory lane thinking of the weird and often terrifying neighbors I endured as an apartment dweller. My new roommate: "Are those men, in armor, fighting with broadswords?" Me, unconcerned: "Yah, don't make eye contact." Then the word "hoors" dawns on me. These are Scottish hoors. I'm hooked. My problem? I cannot read a single entry without enlisting a truly scandalous accent.

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There's a movement afoot to generate public interest in holding the Bush administration accountable for their many and varied failures, lies and crimes. I'm a cynic: I believe there's no way Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Rice, Feith et. al. will ever be indicted for a thing, forced to turn from their pillaging or taken to task for tilting so many of America's social mechanisms toward radical right-wing conservatism. They will go home, re-assume control of their portfolios and do whatever it is they do with that much money and covert power.

But, I also believe the only way to begin to address this is to try, so go take a look.

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Ah, the 'smoking' memos that will prove Bush the draft-dodger he is... Now, I admit that I did not see the 60 minutes piece (don't care). Nor have I ever seen copies of said memos (don't care). Nor am I an expert on old IBM typewriters (really don't care).

But I am fairly knowledgable about typography. I mean, I have taught college-level classes in it, after all. And it is hard to find a graphic designer who is not a type geek to some degree.

In response to the outcry over the authenticity of the memos, I came across Power Line: The sixty-first minute. And you know what?

They are right.

Every issue they raise; from the kerning to the margins to the typeface itself can be somewhat passed off. Maaaybe a typewriter had that typeface. Maaaybe the return spacing was the exact same as MS Word's default. It is even possible to have some kerning done on an old typewriter (trust me, it is possible... not plausible, but still possible).

Individually, each could be written off fairly easily.
But collectively? They scream fraud.

But IMO, the truly damning part is... the superscript.

It was impossible to superscript a "TH" that way back in the early 70s.
Flat-out impossible.

Later, when some of the typewriters had the psuedo-computers on them (you know, the ones with the tiny LED screen that showed you 15 characters before it actually typed them), they could do special characters like the superscript TH or © or ™. But not back in those days.

Thus, the smoking guns has now backfired, badly... It will be interesting to see who is responsible (if we ever find out, and I ain't holding my breath), and if the origins came from the Kerry camp itself.

[As an amusing aside, it is interesting to see the GOP puppets to do their own flip-flop because of this. Wait, check that... it isn't amusing. It's pathetic.]

Dan Rather is probably the most recognizable (and therefore, most trustworthy to most lemming Americans) newsman in the states today (dareisay, the world?). The fact that he, and his team, did NOT do basic, basic verification and fact-checking on this is astounding.
Staggering.
On a jaw-dropping level.

This is what is has come down to... it is official. National news is now all about the ratings. Screw investigations. The hell with analysis. Fuck the truth. We need ad revenue... how can we bump up our market share by 0.1????

I am sure it started a long time before him, but it seems like Limbaugh popularized 'being shrill' vs. 'being right' in the early 90s. He heavily influenced the elections in 1994 that way, even though he was wrong and out of context nearly every time. Unfortunately, since he had been so obnoxiously sucessful, that attitude has taken over more and more of the corporate face of infotainment news (TV, radio, newspapers) until that is all we all left with now... all surface, no substance. When you can't tell an Entertainment Tonight piece from a 60 Minutes piece, well...

[GAH! I was halfway joking about ET vs. 60, but I just looked at the stories on the 60 minutes site: 1) story about a football coach, 2) a story about a former football player, 3) Jeopardy, 4) porn industry, 5) golf prodigy... this is NEWS? Two months before an election, no less.]

It did not really register that much with me when Rob wrote this post a couple of weeks ago, but it does now. It leaves me with a single question... in an age where most professions are either being phased out, or being asked to do more and more, why does it seem like almost all journalists/reporters no longer do anything but transcribe?

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This started as a response in the comments section to Ruth's post below, but as I was typing, I realized it had outgrown just a mere comment...

I, too, have family in Iraq. A brother, who after 6 years of full-time services in the Air Force, has been in the Reserves for about 10 years now. He got activated last Thanksgiving (just a couple of months after he got married, incidentally) for a year initially, and recently got re-activated for another year. Who knows if that may also get extended again.

He and I often spar over politics, mostly because he hates, no... loathes, Democrats (he loooves the term 'Slick Wille'). I personally feel a strong disgust towards the GOP. Hence, we spar.

I do admire him. First, because I never, ever would have gone (me pacificist). But more because he steadfastly supports what they they are trying to do there. Which is getting rid of an evil dictatorship that promotes terrorism as a self-serving tool. And FWIW, I do agree with him. Saddam had to go (just like Sudan's leaders, just like Pol Pot (2), just like Milosevich, and perhaps even Kissinger?).

But what I do NOT agree with are two things:

• I do not agree with is what the plan for Iraq is. As far as I can tell, our current administration does not even have one, other than 1) protect their our oil interests, 2) get re-elected to ensure #1, and 3) find Bin Laden to ensure #2. In that order.
  
• I do not agree with this administration's foreign policy. Does it even have an official one?. Whatever it is, it is causing the biggest amount of anti-American sentiment in the history of our country.

That is not something to take lightly... it will mostly likely take decades to repair the damage Cheney/Bush have done to the American public in the eyes of the rest of the world... and all to protect their own personal oil investments.

My brother sincerely feels that he is helping to make the world a safer place. For the most part, I again agree with him. It would also be nice if we, as a nation, would show such altruism all the time (or even most of the time)... not just when it involves monetary (i.e corporate) interests.

Saddam is gone.
What, specifically, are we trying to accomplish now?

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The Iraq war is a horrible thing; horrible for the brave soldiers that are sent there, often without their agreement. Horrible for the innocent Iraqis who are increasingly left to wonder if they were better off with Saddam. Torture for the families of soldiers that hear of the mortar attacks and car bombs and scramble to get a faintly reassuring word from their loved one. Shocking for the loved ones who hear that their soldier was injured and have to find a way to meet them and their new needs, overseas. Inconceivable to those that get word that their loved one is lost, forever. Hopeless to innocent civilians in Iraq, caught between insurgents and soldiers, often suffering loss of life, limb and livelihood. Disheartening to the Iraqis that will forever face the health consequences of thousands of pounds of American ordinance, exploded and not, much of it depleted uranium. Angering for the taxpayers that watch a billion dollars a week leave our indebted treasury, money that could go to better domestic security precautions and economic stimulus.

I ran across this amateur war correspondent: weary of poor reporting on the reality of life in Iraq, he went there to report for himself. Warning: nothing about his site will make you happy or proud.

The Bush administration's poor leadership has only made the situation worse. For example, they decided to disband the Iraqi national guard troops rather than enlist them in the protection of Iraq. Now, the idled troops join militias because the only thing they know about U.S. soldiers is that they're an occupying, hostile force that put them out of work. Moreover, the reinstatement of any kind of normalcy and infrastructure for the Iraqis was delayed until it became impossible; construction and rehabilitation projects have been delayed again and again for security reasons. Now, the insurgents hold everyone in Iraq hostage to violence.

Iraq has become an increasingly obvious failure, but our President refuses to acknowledge that the entire escapade was a mistake based on bad data. Instead, he continues to make any number of misleading or false statements about the now discredited link between 9/11 and Iraq.

I have family in service in Iraq. There is a good possibility that more of my family will be sent there. One of these is charged with aiding the injured there, and she is often in the line of fire. After a close call during a recent suicide bombing, in her words:

"I slept today with my flack vest on. I don't know maybe false security, but it made me feel better. I also went to evening service it put my mind at ease. God is in control and watching over me."

Note that my family member is still missing some pretty important safety gear, ordered months ago. She was deployed without the gear, even though other members of her unit have this gear sitting on a shelf stateside. Our family is constantly sending her basic supplies, because sanitation supplies, food, toilet paper, lighting, and other personal needs are not reliably met by the civilian supplier. Like the Iraqis, she has little chance to buy any supplies, they just don't exist.

One of her fellow soldiers was faced with the problem of treating a soldier who had been burned. After being hit with a mortar, this brave soldier withstood flames and drove his burning tanker into the desert as far from his convoy as he could. His only thought, while he was burning, was to save his unit in case the tanker exploded. At the same time, this medic also had to treat the attacker, a terrified Iraqi with gunshot wounds. Here were two brutally injured humans, fighting on opposite sides. The medic and nurses fought through their own prejudices, gave the best medical care they could, and merely kept their stethoscopes off of their necks to keep the Iraqi from choking them with it. There is no further word on the soldier, presumably sent to Germany, or the Iraqi. Both were badly injured.

Bottom line, this war is a horror for both sides, and neither Iraqis nor U.S. soldiers see a resolution to this conflict our leaders have handled so poorly. The administration refuses to own up to their mistakes. My only possible courses of action are to send supplies to Iraq and work to elect a new president. We must make sure that Bush's administration can't keep compounding their errors. Help defeat Bush/Carlyle/Halliburton in '04.

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