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TWO FACED II

State on Verge of Greenhouse Gas Restrictions

The governor was pleased. "The success of our system will be an example for other states and nations to follow as the fight against climate change continues," he said in a statement released just after top Democratic lawmakers announced the agreement.

The deal was also seen as a rebuke to the Bush administration, which favors voluntary efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.

Why is it OK to make reduction of toxic emissions—CO2 and the like—voluntary for the polluting industries and not OK to let marriage be voluntarily regulated by the States or for whether or not to have an abortion up to the mother? There are a host of trampled personal rights that the bushers have no problem with trampling.

Oh. I see. The results are still out on global warming as well as the effects of pollution.

We cannot afford to regulate industry. The debt ridden economy will not allow it.

And so on.

TWO FACED I

I have two questions.

The first: Why is it OK for us to supply Israel with the bombs to destroy the newly rebuilt Lebanon but not OK for the Lebanese to get weapons from Syria or Iran?

Israel Says Syria, Not Just Iran, Supplied Missiles to Hezbollah

Oh. I forgot.

Hezbollah kills innocent people and has a radical (probably islamofascist) agenda. Israel never kills without god's approval. And the innocent? Oh no. Just Lebanese and Palestinian women and children.

I will cover the other question in the next post.

ITS DIRTY WORK BUT SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT

The rest of you can wait and dawdle and wait for the Feds to do something but we are taking some action.

Here is an example of how our governor and the legislature are working together.

Officials Reach California Deal to Cut Emissions

OUTAGE

I hardly ever lose my cable but today we lost it three times.

I spent a lot of time watching for the flashing green light.

Maybe it was Hurricane Ernesto.

Maybe Hurricane John which we are getting moisture from. It is hitting Puerto Vallarta as I type.

TimeWarner always blames it on the power company.

I am dubious.

What I learned is that I can easily fill in with other activities and get in all my net watch and net work despite major interruptions.

Flexibility is the key.

I am not always flexible though.

I used to experience strong anxiety whenever it went out.

I must be mellowing.

SANTA STOP

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was supposed to be

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

But, I grinched out at the last minute.

I have seen this a number of times but thought that I 'should' see it again in the context of its selection as a Best Film.

Well, no. I do not have to.

It is not a bad christmas movie. In some respects it is not a christmas movie at all.

But it still too much for me.

I liked Maureen OHara a great deal. Edmund Gwen as Kris keeps it simple. Natalie Wood as the little kid is only half intolerable.

But, no dice. And it is not the holiday season around here.

So I just sent it back and will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 based on not too unhappy memories.

I did see the original.

A side point. Name dropping and all.

Our property abuts the old Natalie Wood/Bob Wagner property.

It is now owned by Herman Wouk, the author.

Actually, I can vouch for Herman. Natalie and Bob may be just one of those real estate hypes.

For a long time, we thought their house was across the way. We still call it 'Bob and Natalie's house'.

Herman's house is 'Herman's house'.

RICH AND POOR

Todays WSJ?OTD is

"Should the widening gap between rich and poor be a significant issue in this year's elections?"

Hell, yes!

But only half of the other respondents agreed with me.

This is a traditional Republican / Democrat issue split so I am not surprised. And the WSJ has to be predominantly GOP.

I am a traditional Democrat and beyond. I believe in the minimum wage. I also think that there should be a progressive tax rate.

Those two things would support some of the disparity.

But, I am sure that most of it is outside the reach of any government.

Greed is not legislatible. But, elected office can be a bully pulpit.

LOCALS

I have lived a lot of my years in resort communities.

I grew up in the Poconos in Pennsylvania.

Glad to get out, thanks.

Boston has its own kind of tourism allure; American history with a dollop of the seaport.

For five summers we lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Actually, we were part time locals; a mid-point between tourist, summer person and full time townie.

We stayed from April until November when our no-heat, no insulation, second floor shack/house froze us out.

We never worked there. But, I maxed out my time on the road in non PTown months so I could be a near-local.

Now, we live in Palm Springs. Full time townies.

We don't see tourists as a rule. They are here. We are told that 25 or 30,000 people are here and never know it. They are absorbed into the big resorts; playin' golf.

This is a great meditation on locals in Provincetown and the snide pleasures of one-upping the day-tripper, the time sharer or the guest house habitue.

Call Me Local

This guy was a whale-boat ticket agent. You can't get much more local than that in Provincetown unless you are a fisherman or a full time drunk.

PRETTY SMART

I learned a lot about the manatee when we visited John's mom in Florida.

Some people call them a 'sea cow' but that is inapt to say the least.

The manatee does not come on in the looks department. That is true.

It is just that we are not used to seeing this kind of beauty.

Watching it swim is quite an experience. So graceful.

We saw one through a glass window. Very nice.

Now, we learn that the manatee is not a cow in other respects.

S/he is as smart as a dolphin. So smart, in fact, that they won't perform for fish like a common trick -- well, let's not disparage the more popular swimming mammalia.

Sleek? Well, No. Complex? Yes, Indeed.

In todays NYTimes

BAD HAIR DAY

Franklin got clipped Monday at the same groomer.

It must have been a bad Monday because he came home with a Bob Hope nose, drag queen eyebrows, uneven and too long belly hair on the sides and too much shave on his back legs and ass.

It took us awhile to move through our denial that this was a botched job.

A call to the groomer yesterday didn't help our confidence level any.

The cutter had a bad Monday. He seems to have a bundle of those. Monday morning flu?

Maybe we should change from Monday.

The next time out we will not get a cut. Just a bath. Let it grow out.

I worked on his eyebrows yesterday.

I did a pretty good job.

Today we are really pissed off. We remember other little slips in the past.

We are thinking that maybe we need a new groomer. Maybe we should just let his hair grow out and be a shaggy dog.

Whatever.

Time will tell.

In the mean time we are trying not to 'see' the infractions.

And most of all, not let Franklin know that he looks like Bob Hope in drag with a hairy belly and a shaved ass.

TURNAROUND

I gotta say it.

Our Governator does not look bad at this point in his administration.

That has to be because he has moved to the center, cut out the macho bullshit, and started working with the Democratic legislature.

There are some really good initiatives coming out of that cooperation.

Too bad for the Democrats this time.

Phil Angelides is a nice guy and has some solid bureaucratic experience but he doesn't seem to have a chance at the governor's seat.

I won't vote for Arnold but I sure won't be too upset when he wins.

I kind of like the idea of a two-party sharing of power.

The have to work together. They have all learned that in the past year.

HUSTLED

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Gus Van Zant's

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

I saw this when it came out and did not remember much of it at all. So, it is not memorable, right?

Then how do you explain its impact?

The film is a rich and bounteous gathering of images and impressions of the hustler life style in the Northwest.

It is a tale of unrequited love between two of the hustlers.

It is a meditation on life and its absurdities.

It is very complex. There is hardly any plot. I think this is why it does not stick. To get it you have to sit and experience it and you get it and then it is gone.

I liked it.

I didn't like all of it.

It was Van Zant's first film and so he threw in everything but the kitchen sink and I think that I saw that once.

There are some great ideas here.

All the sex scenes are tableaus. Not photos. The people are holding their poses. Their stuff shakes a little. Tableaux vivant!

The photo here is not a sex situation. The boys are conning the cops.

Stuff like that.

Great fun.

It gets a 5 out of Netflix5 for shear daring and the absolute originality of almost all of it.

It works.

HUSTLED

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Gus Van Zant's

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

I saw this when it came out and did not remember much of it at all. So, it is not memorable, right?

Then how do you explain its impact?

The film is a rich and bounteous gathering of images and impressions of the hustler life style in the Northwest.

It is a tale of unrequited love between two of the hustlers.

It is a meditation on life and its absurdities.

It is very complex. There is hardly any plot. I think this is why it does not stick. To get it you have to sit and experience it and you get it and then it is gone.

I liked it.

I didn't like all of it.

It was Van Zant's first film and so he threw in everything but the kitchen sink and I think that I saw that once.

There are some great ideas here.

All the sex scenes are tableaus. Not photos. The people are holding their poses. Their stuff shakes a little. Tableaux vivant!

The photo here is not a sex situation. The boys are conning the cops.

Stuff like that.

Great fun.

It gets a 5 out of Netflix5 for shear daring and the absolute originality of almost all of it.

It works.

WSJ?OTD

"When will New Orleans fully recover from Katrina?"

I said NEVER (there were a range of possibilities) and so did 64% of the respondents.

Never mind what the other 36% said.

They are probably the same ones who believed bushie yesterday when he said it would all be OK in time.

Liar.

They only spent down 44% of the money alloted.

Well, OK. It is a lot of money

It was easy to figure. 40 billion out of 100 billion.

The reason that I said NEVER is that there is no way that the political will of the city and state will resolve the many impasses.

Let's begin with the basic fact that NOLA should never, ever been built there in the first place.

Then filter in the info on the rising waters; the loss of the delta. The global warming.

But deep down, the city will not have the will to rebuild something that was rotten to begin with.

The seething corruption of the establishment and the reeling poverty of the dispossessed made the place a human sewer.

We were there some years ago and were not captivated.

Downtown, the unfinished and bankrupt hotel and casino loomed over the city scape.

Welcome to downtown. It stayed that way for many years.

To describe the French Quarter (where we stayed) as seedy is a compliment.

At night you had to 'be careful' in almost all but the most crowded neighborhoods. The cops were unreliable. So were the hoods.

And we knew about urban caution. We lived with it every day at home. But we we were nervous in New Orleans.

It was a strange place and it still is.

The question now is should it recover? And all but the most sentimental idealists will have to hit the pause button before they answer.

What makes us think that all the money dumped into this cesspit will ever get to the right places?

What makes us think that, even if it is rebuilt to an extent, it will ever be safe from the waters again?

Those dikes are still weak.

And so on.

I like the free market. I can see that some will return and set up a good safe life in places that are secure from the storms.

I think that the diaspora is really good for a lot of people; they are finding themselves.

Of course, many will fall through the cracks. Many of these are the same people who would fall through wherever they are. And dry and poor is better than wet and poor.

I am sad for all that happened and I am angry that it was so miserably managed. But I do not believe that the resolution is to rebuild the same place and way. Say half what it was.

FIRST DAY

Some of the local schools had their first day today.

Early, huh?

I saw little kids on their way with those hellishly big back packs they all have to carry now.

No lockers. A lot of homework and shit.

I always feel sadness on the first day of school.

I told a few people about it.

Someone asked if I can remember my first day. I think that I was being prompted to cough up some old baggage or something.

Yes. I do remember.

My mother took me. I would be a walker.

I think that it was OK.

I sat in the back of the room. Probably because they sat us alphabetically.

I do remember that there were a lot of kids crying.

Not me. I was probably scared though.

I don't think the sadness comes from my own experience.

Maybe my own kids.

Do I remember their first days?

Well, not individually. It is a sort of collective angst.

The end and the beginning.

But not sadness.

In some respects, we were probably happy to see them off. I mean that in a nice way.

When I reflect upon it, I think my sadness is about the beginning of the loss of innocence.

I know that a lot of little kids have already been affected in this respect. But even in these harsh times, I don't think a lot of them have had their hair mussed up too much.

I know that it is inevitable.

We all leave the garden sooner or later. We all get to be bad boys and girls. We all get hurt.

This is life on life's terms.

It ain't an easy world.

So, I am happy to see the little kids go on with their lives and, at the same time, I have this basic sadness that they will, like all of us, get toughened up by experience out of the nest.

The way of nature. The way of the world.

NEARLY RICH

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Melvin and Howard (1980)

This is the story about Melvin Dumar's fifteen minutes of fame.

He picked Howard Hughes up in the desert and was kind to him. Years later, Hughes had his mysterious henchmen leave a will at Melvin's service station leaving Melvin a lot of money.

This movie is about the period between picking Howard up and finally dealing with the fallout of the will proceedings.

This is a film about people on the edge of financial disaster. They are as close to trailer trash as you are going to see in a movie of this kind. They are treated with great love and affection by the director Johnathan Demme.

There is not a smirk or a sneer in the film.

This is good as I would have bailed.

These are the kind of people that I grew up with; my family. Struggling. Good. But way off the mark when it comes to making wise decisions.

I am not sure how they pulled this off.

I think they simply told the truth as best they could. No embellishment. No tragedy either.

It is not a sad story.

The Dummars get out of the whole enterprise with grace and dignity.

I liked it a lot. It is a small film with modest goals.

The goals are exceeded.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Yes. That is Jason Robards Junior as Hughes. He pulls a great performance out of a very small hat; maybe 15 minute, if that.

TRUST BUT VERIFY

I got queasy about my assertion that I had heard Maynard Ferguson play at the Boston Arts Festival.

It would have been the summer of 1956 or 57.

Sure enough, Ferguson had started his own band by 1957 and was a star with Stan Kenton (his childhood dream) in 1950.

He would have been 22.

A prodigy.

I have thought a lot about him. I am surprised at how some people get under your skin like this.

A puzzle.

It has to have a spiritual component.

METHOD ACTING

When I was a young man, perhaps even in high school, much was made of

The Scientific Method

It was taught as a basic truth of adult life.

Period.

There was no nonsense about it. It was a precept that we were made to believe in.

Another period.

Just to review:

The scientific method is the process by which scientists, collectively and over time, endeavor to construct an accurate (that is, reliable, consistent and non-arbitrary) representation of the world.

Recognizing that personal and cultural beliefs influence both our perceptions and our interpretations of natural phenomena, we aim through the use of standard procedures and criteria to minimize those influences when developing a theory.

As a famous scientist once said, "Smart people (like smart lawyers) can come up with very good explanations for mistaken points of view."

In summary, the scientific method attempts to minimize the influence of bias or prejudice in the experimenter when testing an hypothesis or a theory.

The scientific method has four steps

Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena.

Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. In physics, the hypothesis often takes the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation.

Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations.

Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments.

So, where does the Scientific Method stand today?

I never hear it mentioned!

I am out of touch.

Is it taught?

Is it referred to?

Does anyone give a shit?

Look, there has been religious and other mumbo jumbo for ever.

Today, though, it seems absolutely fashionable to rely only on the intuition or received 'knowledge'.

Nothing is questioned.

I used to have a friend; a buddy in my first job. He was actually a mentor.

We worked in an Engineering Department of a large company.

Yes, me.

When people asserted a position on a certain question he would always ask for their fact base.

Then, he would ask if the facts given or alluded to were from a 'competent authority'.

Somewhere in there he would work in The Scientific Method.

It would drive people fucking nuts.

But he was right.

Most people were flying by the seat of someone else's pants; not even their own.

Or they were making it up as they went along.

I don't know why or how all this came to mind but I googled 'scientific method' and came up with a lot of hits.

So it must be alive and well. Or maybe these are the archives. The old musty records of a used-to-be world where science was honored.

BOUNTEOUS

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

There have been four versions of this story.

This is the one with Charles Laughton as Captain Bly, Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian, the First Officer, and Franchot Tone as Ensign Byam.

The film is captivating and this with 1935 film acting and technology.

Once again, genuine action comes across as more heart-pounding than the concocted electronic stuff. These guys are sailing a ship.

I enjoyed it for the most part.

There are a few heavy handedly sentimental moments during the happy period on Tahiti that take away from the main thrust but maybe we all needed a vacation from the tough times on the ship.

It's a gotta be 5 out of Netflix5.

Imagine, they went over budget at two million dollars. Well, there is inflation to take into account; 1,358 %!

So.

that would be 27,160,000 dollars today. I guess they didn't have big star budgets or catering services then.

ALL BUTCHED UP

From Guystwogether

MAY NARD

When I wrote about Maynard Ferguson's death, I searched for a tape that I could link to but came up empty handed.

Now, Crooks and Liars (who has a great daily concert tape) has done for me what I could not do for myself.

Ferguson plays 'Round Midnight

Now you can hear what we can't hear anymore.

I had forgotten that he was Stan Kenton's lead trumpet.

EARP REDUX

Today's NYTimes Best Film was John Ford's

My Darling Clementine (1946)

It is the gunfight at the OK Coral all over again.

Many consider it Ford's best western (not the motel of the same name).

It is enjoyable; there is no doubt.

It has all the Ford players including Walter Brennan and Ward Bond. Henry Fonda is Wyatt Earp and Victor Mature is Doc Holliday.

It is almost all played at night or dawn or twilight. I think think this is a unique approach. There are lots of shadows and 'fun with light'.

The milieu is also more (although not truly) realistic. There are beards and dirt and you can smell reek of unwashed bodies.

There is loud, raucous, drunken laughter in the background all the time except at day and when there is some serious tension.

Ford was a ground breaker in this regard.

And it is all filmed in Monument Valley; Ford's trademark location. They camped out on location and lived rough like the people that they played.

The title is a bit of a puzzle. Earp's new girlfriend and Holliday's old girlfriend (the same woman) is Clementine but she is pretty insipid and certainly not in the center of things.

In any case, the romantic angle doesn't get in the way too much and it is an enjoyable visit to Tombstone.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Actually, no. I didn't really enjoy it that much. It will be a 3.

FESTED

John is attending the

Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films and Film Market.

The largest Festival and Market for short films in North America, Palm Springs ShortFest features over 350 new shorts from around the world for an audience of more than 20,000 film enthusiasts, along with seminars, panel discussions, master classes and in-person tributes. 5000 films were entered.

The jury selected films are shown in blocks of 1-2 hours. Similarity of theme is at least attempted. There might be as many as four or five in one block.

John will see most of them.

I used to go. I even enjoyed it.

But then, after the initial blush, the realities of marathon film watching came to the fore.

It is hard work. I just couldn't do it.

It is very hard to select when and where to go to see the 'best' on offer. I was constantly behind.

My eyeballs and brain can only take so much. I started to forget what I had seen before.

Whiteout.

Then there is the crowd factor.

OK.

I admit to a bit of agoraphobia. But you gotta admit that the agora is not all that happy a place sometimes.

There are lines in the agora.

People are rude.

Some people walk all over your boundaries. Sometimes, it is like sitting next to a 'talker' on an airplane. There is no defense.

No book, no crossword, no laptop will stop them.

And so on.

There are just too goddam many people.

So I quit.

I was fested out.

That is not to say that the experience cannot be rewarding. John will see a lot of short films that I wish I could have seen.

It is just that my balance went to 'tilt'. The cost/value relationship bonked.

There is a sizable representation of gay films in every festival here. After all, 'the gays' take up as much as 40% of the population, at least in Palm Springs.

Missing them is somewhat irksome as well. But the turnout for the gay films is even larger than for the other blocks.

Have you ever been in a densely concentrated batallion of faggots?

Take my word. It is not liberating.

So, I will stay home with Franklin and enjoy not cooking dinner each night.

We will miss John but he will be here in the mornings and sometimes during the days.

We will get fleeting glances of him as he runs off to the next showing.

And then, it will be over for another year. Wednesday.

Nice.

GABRIEL

Maynard Ferguson slipped away from us last weekend.

A short illness, an infection, and he was gone.

Not a bad way to go. Quick.

I always liked Ferguson's style a lot. He had a screaming trumpet that slid up and over and down again.

He was not universally appreciated. He pushed the envelope.

I saw him once at the old old 1950's Boston Arts Festival. This is even before the Newport.

I listened over the years. His sound was unmistakable.

He still toured until his illness.

Stand aside Gabriel, Maynard is comin' in.

And it is May-nard as in day-yard, no accent on either syllable.

REAL WAR

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, with the help of Teresa Wright and Dame May Whitty, play a 'typical' upper middle class family who are experiencing the first months of WWII.

They live on the front lines near a large airfield. They suffer bombardment, rationing, injury and death. Pidgeon takes part in the evacuation of Dunkirk.

The movie cleverly adds stress to the mess slowly; inexorably. The reality of the war sort of creeps up on us while we are busy doing other things.

It is a propaganda piece but does illustrate one thing. Our 'war on terror' pales in comparison to the experiences of real war. We are not even close. Not a taint. It is all wind machine.

That is not to say that people are not suffering and dying. They just (surely) not the fat assed middle classes within CONUS.

All in all, this is a pretty good film. Directed by William Wyler, it is interesting to watch the clever use of stage effects to cover almost all studio shooting.

Events occur nearby. The facades of trains seem to move (with the help of a dolly shot) and so on.

The acting is quite good and while this is melodrama, the cast does not stoop to eating the scenery.

At the time, it was the feel-good hit with tons of Academy nominations and awards.

It does not really hold up well after all that time and our awareness that even the real war was far worse than shown here.

People were terrified, acted badly, ran for cover, black-marketed, and the rest. There was real blood and terrible pain.

Nevertheless I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 for trying and for the opportunity to watch Greer Garson steal scenes from Dame May Whitty.

DO YOU FEEL A DRAFT?

Let's see.

If your back is up against the wall and you have to choose between two awful alternatives.

Which would you like in your coffee? Salt or pepper?

Bush loses Iraq or reinstitutes the draft.

Is the next step a draft?

SCHIZO

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was John Huston's

Moulin Rouge (1952)

This is the other MR; the one about Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec or José Ferrer walking on his knees. Not the one with all the inappropriate songs that Baz Luhrmann made in 2002.

The movie is split between tableau vivant renderings of the artwork with the work itself and a clunky plot with, well, José Ferrer walking around on his knees (or a double) sounding out platitudinous lines.

He also plays his own disapproving father. In the end, don't we all?

Zsa Zsa Gabor is also featured and, while her part is not major, her irritation level is. She plays a singer and it is dubbed and Zsa cannot find her mouth or her ass with both hands. She is always out of synch.

The other thing is that this is one of those films in which the 'language' decision was made the wrong way. Rather than speak in one clear language, either english or french, everyone has to speak with a 'french accent' or their idea of one.

I am sure that this is because some of the actors are french and really have french accents so they made everyone do it. So silly.

There is melodrama. Lautrec was an alcoholic on top of his physical problems (congenital bone mending problems after a fall--mom and pop were first cousins).

The best part is the painting and artwork. Did I say that? The scenery is often (but not always) done in the Lautrec style, hence inconsistent. When it was good it was very very good.

When this came out, I was a junior in high school. I am sure that we were urged to go see this film as art appreciation. There were others at this time. Leonardo, Van Gogh, others.

But, in going two ways at once—melodrama one minute, art the next—it ends up in neither camp; having no center.

Incidentally, Ferrer used a dolly to 'walk' with others and mimed the walking for his upper body. All too often it looks like he is riding on a skate-board.

A 2 out of Netflix5.

I have to admit that I skipped about ten minutes here and there. I could not bear anymore of the particular chapter.

ZINNIA ATTACK

I just was out beheading my gorgeous zinnia bed and, forgetting that this is not my time to be there, got stung on the web between my little and fourth right hand fingers.

It has been ages since I have been stung! Shit. It hurts.

In the AM, the bees own the patch. They are gone later in the hot day.

I was interrupting their work.

My zinnias are incredible. Big, colorful, bushy. They are in the space left by the grapefruit tree we had to remove.

I did have the same nasturtium roots there for years. They are a perennial here if you keep them in some shade.

Without the citrus they burnt up.

The sting isn't bad. The pain has gone out of my fingers and is creeping up to my shoulder. I can actually feel it go.

I told John that if I passed out I would call him for help.

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DECONSTRUCTING GEORGE

Monday's prez presser served to illuminate the degree to which bush is out of touch with the basic facts or intentionally denies them. So what else is new?

This is a nice job of deconstruction by Fred Kaplan in Slate

What a Moronic Press Conference

It is a good refresher course. In the midst of so much addled talk one tends to lose the thread of truth. Goebbels was right.

Actually, it is not hard to deconstruct george. He is built simply and without a lot of competence.

This is the same conference where he (I am sure) inadvertently admitted no connection between the 'war on terra' and Iraq as well as the absence of WMD.

I happened to see that portion on C-Span. I could hear Rove and the others slapping their foreheads when he said it.

Yes. I occasionally watch the unwatchable to make sure that I am still correct in my intellectual and emotional responses to this child-president.

I am suitably reinforced at each dip into the kiddy pool.

NICE

Restoring honor and dignity to the White House

Passing along the word from a "top insider," U.S. News and World Report says that the president of the United States "can't get enough of fart jokes." "He's also known to cut a few for laughs," the magazine says, "especially when greeting new young aides."

-- Tim Grieve in War Room: Salon (link right)

JUXTAPOSITION

BRITISH REALISM

We look so fucking gullible compared to the Brits. So willing to swallow the GOoPer line.

Look at this:

Tories open nine-point lead as Labour drops to 19-year low

Read down to the poll.

The results are astounding.

72%, including 65% of Labour voters, think government policy has made Britain more of a target for terrorists. Only 1% of voters believe the government's foreign policy has made Britain safer, a devastating finding given that action in Iraq and Afghanistan has been justified in part to defeat Islamist terrorism.

Here, we go along and let them run things and never question the fundamentals.

Sad, but true.

From the Political Animal/Kevin Drum link upper right

BUGGED OUT

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe / Microcosmos (1997)

This down to earth documentary gets close to the ground; so close that all we see are insects.

It is a non-invasive (meaning virtually no-talk) nature study; arty and whimsical rather than scientific.

Oh, I suppose we learn a few things we didn't know about insects but I don't think that is the point so much as the shear visual beauty of these largely ignored creatures.

The space of time is one day which, of course, is a lifetime to many insects.

They eat, sleep, have sex, fight, propogate, all that.

Sometimes, the technology of the lens and the actual sounds of the bugs overtakes the material.

Rather than saying 'wow' to the natural, we are admiring the work of the people making the film.

Not good. A little more invisibility is called for.

On the other hand, if there wasn't admirable work there wouldn't be much of a film.

It is an hour long which is just enough. Even at that, I was getting a little sleepy.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 just because I wanted a bit more information and less silent beauty.

Yeh, I know. That is a different film. But I bet I wouldn't have gotten sleepy before the hour was up and might even be able to hang 90 minutes. Some brain exercise please.

BILL LIVES

I had some qualms the other day when I said that I missed Bill.

He is actually right where he always was; working away for a better world.

They say that he is the most popular 'world leader'.

I don't know.

It is faint praise to say he is better than bush. They are not even in the same league.

For other Clinton worshipers, here is an article from today in the NYTimes about how he transformed welfare.

How We Ended Welfare Together

Note the generosity of spirit in this piece of work.

You can also link to the Clinton Foundation.

If you hurry, you can even sign his birthday card.

BUZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

Somehow.....

Well, not 'somehow'. I know how.

Franklin and I went out for the mail and, since he lags a bit behind, I left the front door open.

(Right, blame it on the dog).

Somehow, while the door was open, while I went out to get the mail, while the dog was slowly following me out and then back, a humming bird got into the house.

Holy Keerist.

That is the worst.

They buzz. They hover. They beat their little fucking wings.

This one had not started to assail the glass. He was in position but had not yet put on his thrusters.

This has happened before. Sometime they can be shooed out the door.

Once, we had one sit on the ledge of the skylight.

Celia, our housecleaner at the time, got a little ladder and slowly reached up and actually took the thing in her hand and then outside.

This one today would have had none of that.

No perching.

So. After I screamed, I calmly got a magazine (the latest New Yorker with a Sempé cover) and began to walk up to the bird who had, by this time, arrived at the conclusion that the vast expanse of glass in the sun-room offered the best opportunity to exit.

Good decision.

Now, I began to encourage the bird toward the double doors which I had opened while screaming.

Slowly and surely, out it went.

Gone.

You can hear them, you know. They buzz.

They are great little birds but, wow, oh shit, I really like them a lot more outdoors than inside my house.

Gotta be careful of the doors.

Victorious, I looked around for praise.

None was forthcoming.

My screaming had gotten John up from a nap and sent Franklin to his bed in our room.

The bird didn't even thank me.

Good works are best rewarded when done anonymously and without outside praise.

LEARN FROM HISTORY

I am reading Alan Furst's

The Polish Officer

Furst specializes in WWII espionage novels which instruct us deeply about that time and the resistance movements in various countries.

You can learn a lot while having a great read.

In this one, I was caught by one character's assessment of the success of the Nazi occupations.

Four horrific, yet simple, principles:

I have spent a little time ruminating about how these principles seem to be similar in many ways to the agenda of our current administration.

I don't know about the 'Direction of Labor', but I see signs of all the others creeping slowly into our national life without a whimper of complaint.

COUP

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Costa-Gavras'

Missing (1982)

with Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek.

It tells the story of one American family caught up in the American sponsored coup of Chile's Alliendé regime by right wing thugs.

This kind of thing is a staple of Republican administrations. This one happens to be Nixon.

Reagan gave us the Contras and Bush..........well, you know.

The film is quite powerful (despite Ebert's complaints) in the way that it conveys the mendacity of the USA consular / military complex and the family's determination to break through it.

Along the way we are given a devastating view of a coup in progress.

All of the actors are quite competent, even the consular weasels. I forget that Jack Lemmon was quite a serious dramatic actor. His comedy roles stand out. But, in this one, he gets to work his serious chops in a way that provides the strong center of the film.

Costa-Gavras was a specialist in the genré of political coverup films.

His masterpiece was Z but they are all good.

They are guaranteed to stoke your paranoia. Costa-Gavras leftist leanings have prompted criticism for over-enthusiastic condemnation of the establishment. But, us leftists just adore him.

You gotta be vivid to get through the brain dead coverage that most of the our own world's atrocities are filtered.

Yes. We do it too.

This earns a 5 out of Netflix5.

See it.

I MISS BILL

We forget how much!

DailyKos celebrated Bill Clintons 60th birthday with this clip of

Clinton's 'Gladiator' introduction

at the 2000 Democratic Convention.

Watch it and weep for the loss of his brand of national and world leadership.

TWISTED HERO

I didn't like today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film very much.

Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

Charles Chaplin was the star. He also directed and even composed the music for this tedious anti-hero dark comedy.

It is in the depression. He is a 'blue-beard' type killer trying to make a buck for his real family; marrying older women and knocking them off. The wife is in a wheelchair and the kid is saccharine cute.

All the widows are shrill, ugly, trolls.

I don't think this attempt to nullify the sin quite works.

I don't know why this is on the Best List.

Maybe it is his acting which is superb.

Perhaps it is because of the quality of the production which is very high.

I suspect, though, that it is an iconic niche listing. "We can't have a Best List without Chaplin" kind of thing. And the list doesn't include silents.

To tell the truth, I never liked the silent Chaplin that much and the talking one is even less appealing.

I found the whole exercise a dreary one with few laughs and a lot of yawns.

One of his women is Martha Raye whose schtick was crudity (not the salad kind). Raye was a homely woman with a very large mouth. She made the most of her defects through over the top performance.

I never cared for her very much either.

There is also some political rhetoric in here as well. Verdoux defends his behavior by pointing out that the big guys are killing on a mass scale every day.

There are even newsreels to show us that he is not as bad as Hitler or Mussolini.

It is a kind of twisted rationale and I didn't buy.

That leaves me with a 2 out of Netflix5.

It has been a while since I went that low.

And I am an easy grader.

INTERNET MIRACLE

See how commercials have changed? Build it yourself with

The Cleaning Hunk

Make that the Cleaning Hunk(s).

Good clean fun.

THE BIG SIX OH!

Happy Birthday to Bill Clinton

Still young.

TENSION

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

The More the Merrier (1943)

When I was a kid, well, still today, I thought Charles Coburn was a great comic actor.

He shines here playing cupid in a mid WWII romantic comedy with Joel McCrae and Jean Arthur. The three are 'room-mates'. You had to be there.

It is a WWII based plot, so you have to get with the times to understand the humor and the sexual tension.

I suspect it would work even if you weren't there, but not as cleanly.

The times were high speed war effort. The sexual tension in many of these romantic comedies were around whether to do it before you were married or not.

In this one, there is clearly not even a thought of undocumented sex.

A lot of the comic repercussions depend on this.

You won't see a remake. Current audiences would find it naive and puritanical.

Nevertheless, in the 'getting to know you' half of the film, McCrae and Arthur make an art of foreplay with their clothes on. It is way sexy. Hot.

He, especially, is all hands all the time and just so, so cool about it; a digital ballet.

The direction by George Stevens, at times, just borders on the slapstick but that is fine too.

And Coburn is at the center of it all; turning the dials and ringing the bells. He is the man behind the curtain making sure that the lovebirds fly away together.

It is a solid 4 out of Netflix5 if you get the setting; maybe a 3 if you don't or don't want to.

Joel McCrae had two careers. The first was as a lanky, slightly awkward (in a sexy way) leading man in romantic comedies. The second, and longer, career was in westerns.

He beefed up a bit in later life but never lost the sparkle of his leading man days. It was an attractive and unique combination that made the oater of the month or year very special when you saw it.

He has 92 credits at IMDb and earned every one of them as far as I can tell.

Today, I couldn't even Google a photo of him off a DVD or VHS cover. He has no bio on Wikipedia. But I remember Joel.

IN THE VANGUARD

I have never really been a 'fashion forward' kind of guy.

Well, not really!

Now, I find myself thrust into the forefront of a new fashion initiative.

Throw Your Tweezers Away

The bushy eyebrow will be no problem for me.

I have the goods.

There was a time, when I was even endowed with one long brow, extending from one side to the other.

In a foolish surrender to the forces of convention, I tweezed the center of this massive brow for many years and, sadly, I must report that no bush grows on that site anymore.

Over tweezed.

So, if this trend catches on and grows to the one-eyebrow stage, I am fucked.

But for now, I stand ready to bush out.

Age has helped this wonderful asset become even more fecund.

As many may know, (particularly virile) men tend to get a lot of facial hair as they age; ears, nose, brow.

So, now, I can grow a deep and lush brow in just a week or two.

I not only tweeze, I have to cut!

I am ready.

Bring on the fashionistas!

I will quit cutting and mowing and plucking and, thus, be right in step.

I will not even need those gunky gels and other chemicals shown.

I will be brow-natural!

OLDIE

Like most good things, this video ages well. And it is Lewis Black who doesn't age at all.

Cheney and the Quail

MISS UNIVERSE

How Miss France Lost the Miss Universe Contest

SUCCESS

Here is my man Jack Cafferty on defining success in Iraq:

Cafferty: Success in Iraq

The rundown of the history is mind boggling when you see it all in one space.

FALLING IN

I trimmed the roses today.

I let them go during the high heat so that they won't be encouraged to grow much and get leggy.

But, we are into cool nights now. Back to the 30 degree gradient.

And, what is more, the roses are coming alive with buds.

So, they got a good pruning and we will get our second season out of them.

I will feed them next week.

The cool nights are also cooling the pool off so I am adding solar heat hours.

We had a very prolonged hot July and now we are having an unusually cool August with no humidity at all.

What a treat. A gift.

Can autumn be far behind?

BIKE BURN

It was good to be back on the bike this morning.

I had only gotten to ride on it once since it got its upgrades.

After the first one, I checked the tire pressure and realized it was way under gassed.

So today, we set out on the 'all uphill' route; fully pumped.

Of course, it is not all uphill. But the down comes way at the end and the first 3/4 is all upgrade.

I got a muscle burn!

This is unusual. I have to work hard to get a good workout; the price of a low resting heartrate.

Maybe being off for a week. Maybe the hill. Maybe the new equipment.

Dunno, but an easy burn is hard to come by.

Not today.

MY CONSTELLATION

When I was in 8th grade, our teacher Mr. Ravelli (I had a crush) took us all out on a starwatch.

We had to get a star-map. One of those circular things that revolve within an outer square.

Like most kids, I had learned to see the dippers (no ursas for us) but that was about it.

Mr. Ravelli broke us in on Orion.

We saw his shoulders; one sparkly gold. There was his belt and sword and some of us could see his dog.

As it turned out, since there were only three people who showed up that night (two girls who also had a crush on Mr. R), that was the last time we looked at stars. We were left with the star maps; a problem to be solved on our own time.

I never went back to the star map and never learned any other constellations.

So, today I am a three constellation guy but I favor, above all, the warrior Orion.

We get stars heavy duty here in the desert. No humidity blocking, even with light pollution.

So I really notice my man, the big O.

He isn't a steady partner. He has been gone for awhile; about 6 months.

But this morning, as I went to get the paper, I looked up in the east and there he was.

He always comes back.

A constant companion.

This is one of the many signs of 'autumn'.

The big guy is back for about six months (I watch in the evenings in late winter) and then will take his show on the road for another 6.

Welcome back pard!

You still give me a bit of a thrill. My one and only.

Forget the dippy bears.

BOOK REPORT

I have been reading feverishly of late; so fast a pace that I have failed to file my regular book report.

I hope that the teacher will not be annoyed at my tardiness.

My non-fiction of the month was

Prince of the Marshes: Rory Stewart

This the same guy who wrote the book about walking across Afghanistan

The Places In Between which I enjoyed immensely.

I still think about it.

I suppose that I will be thinking about this one for a long time too.

It is about Stewart's one year tour in Iraq as a member of the 'governate' which means the transition team for two Iraqi provinces.

Like the former book, it is in the form of a diary. You sort of experience it as he does and get to put the pieces together yourself.

Stewart is great at pointing, framing, describing and then letting it go so that you get the picture and also get the point.

It is a nice way of introducing us to the ambiguity and chaos of the situation in Iraq back then (2003) and, worse, now.

You see in microcosm the same picture of trying to (incompetently) place a western format on an ancient culture that still harbors grudges, seeks revenge, and wields religious dogma as a fearsome weapon.

At the same time it is warm and funny and puts a human face (and sometimes two-faces) on the headlines we have become so used to.

I have also consumed some fiction. I continue to read the Richard Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell. There are 25!

All depict real battles in the early 19th Century British Army. Sharpe is a rougish character, an officer up from the ranks (rare) who has a key role to play in and around all of these battles.

Histroically accurate to a gnat's eyelash (except for Sharpe), these novels come from an imaginative mind and a talented hand. The battle scenes are incredibly detailed. One does not realize how much is being learned about history and life in that time while in the process of saving the Empire in India and the whole shebang in the long war with Napoleon.

Great stuff. Somewhat addictive.

I have a pact with myself. I will read a 'Sharpe' after reading another book.

I am still working my way through Moby Dick which is long on whaling lore and a bit short on story but I knew this when I started.

It is part of a larger effort to read all of Melville. All.

In contrast, while I was away, I went back to an old favorite, William Gibson, the cyberpunk writer and read Count Zero.

I enjoyed it so much that I am now going to have to get out all the old ones and re-read them.

RETURN

It is odd.

Or maybe not.

I was away four days and didn't do much.

But yesterday was like walking under water. Slo-mo.

Today, everything is too high speed.

I felt behind all morning.

But, I have found the magic remedy.

I just stopped everything, cancelled today's movie, and took a nap.

Voilà!

The world has slowed down and it does not feel like I am walking underwater.

MIXING IT UP

Some info on why you should not worry too much about on-flight liquids. Not impossible but............

Better killing through chemistry

Making a quantity of TATP sufficient to bring down an airplane is not quite as simple as ducking into the toilet and mixing two harmless liquids together.

First, you've got to get adequately concentrated hydrogen peroxide. This is hard to come by, so a large quantity of the three per cent solution sold in pharmacies might have to be concentrated by boiling off the water. Only this is risky, and can lead to mission failure by means of burning down your makeshift lab before a single infidel has been harmed.

But let's assume that you can obtain it in the required concentration, or cook it from a dilute solution without ruining your operation. Fine. The remaining ingredients, acetone and sulfuric acid, are far easier to obtain, and we can assume that you've got them on hand.

Now for the fun part. Take your hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and sulfuric acid, measure them very carefully, and put them into drinks bottles for convenient smuggling onto a plane. It's all right to mix the peroxide and acetone in one container, so long as it remains cool. Don't forget to bring several frozen gel-packs (preferably in a Styrofoam chiller deceptively marked "perishable foods"), a thermometer, a large beaker, a stirring rod, and a medicine dropper. You're going to need them.

It's best to fly first class and order Champagne. The bucket full of ice water, which the airline ought to supply, might possibly be adequate - especially if you have those cold gel-packs handy to supplement the ice, and the Styrofoam chiller handy for insulation - to get you through the cookery without starting a fire in the lavvie.

Easy does it
Once the plane is over the ocean, very discreetly bring all of your gear into the toilet. You might need to make several trips to avoid drawing attention. Once your kit is in place, put a beaker containing the peroxide / acetone mixture into the ice water bath (Champagne bucket), and start adding the acid, drop by drop, while stirring constantly. Watch the reaction temperature carefully. The mixture will heat, and if it gets too hot, you'll end up with a weak explosive. In fact, if it gets really hot, you'll get a premature explosion possibly sufficient to kill you, but probably no one else.

After a few hours - assuming, by some miracle, that the fumes haven't overcome you or alerted passengers or the flight crew to your activities - you'll have a quantity of TATP with which to carry out your mission. Now all you need to do is dry it for an hour or two.

The genius of this scheme is that TATP is relatively easy to detonate. But you must make enough of it to crash the plane, and you must make it with care to assure potency. One needs quality stuff to commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale," as Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson put it. While it's true that a slapdash concoction will explode, it's unlikely to do more than blow out a few windows. At best, an infidel or two might be killed by the blast, and one or two others by flying debris as the cabin suddenly depressurizes, but that's about all you're likely to manage under the most favorable conditions possible.

The full article is at

Mass murder in the skies: was the plot feasible?

I AM BACK

I had a wonderful time.

I did nothing.

It was a lot like our stays in P-town. Sit on the deck and watch the world go by. Hang out on the beach. Read. Walking instead of biking. Silence.

My room overlooked the bay and directly ahead way away was San Diego.

I walked the two mile island road each day and hung out at the boat ramp--just across the street--a lot.

A lot to see.

Many boaters (hmmmm), pelicans, gulls, dogs walking, dog walkers, fishermen, and just up the way a beach where I learned that 'boarders' look quite wonderful on a firm young man. Wet.

I had thought them frumpy.

It is bikini or nothing here. For the most, or least, part.

I saw a seal moopchig his way around in the boat ramp area yesterday. He would swim and jump between snacks of fishermen leftovers.

Arf Arf.

A great time and I got a wonderful reception when I came home at 8AM this morning. Even John was glad to see me.

HERE I GO

I am off to Shelter Island off San Diego.

Four days of water, gulls, pelicans, boats, coolness (70s in the day—60s at night), salt air, all that.

I will be back Thursday mid day.

My plans are to do nothing.

We will see how that turns out.

I will be staying just up island, beyond the pier, at the elbow.

M IS FOR THE MILLION THINGS SHE GAVE ME

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Louis Malle's

La Souffle au coeur / Murmur of the Heart (1971)

This wonderful family picture is all French in that it deals with incest and keeps it very light and, indeed, nice!

It is a great film to watch. The family is charming and the mother is wonderful—Lea Massari.

The central character is her 15 year old son who is just on the cusp of adulthood.

The films skips and hops through a year in the family's life. It is frothy and funny, and yet, dead serious at the same time. A balance that Malle is quite good at maintaining.

It is a classic and this restoration is perfect in every way.

This gets a 5 out of Netflix5.

MORE INCOMPETENCE

The ineptitude and hypocrisy of the bushers is endless

Bureaucracy impedes bomb-detection work

There is a machine that will detect gels and liquids. They had the research on home made bombs that can be set off ten years ago.

But, no. It is the Democrats that are soft on terrorism. The shits.

Incidentally, this is main line reporting. AP. Good!

ANNIE HALL II

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Woody Allen's

Manhattan (1979)

It is his second 'serious' film after Annie Hall and is one of his best.

The story takes place against a background of 'all' the NYC locations you ever thought of; or didn't. Beautifully done.

The music behind it is all Gershwin.

The ending with Allen, the actor, is one of the most affecting.

Yes, the jokes are there. The same kind of narcissism. The people drift in a sea of dissatisfaction.

It all comes together beautifully.

I loved it then and I loved it now.

A 5 out of Netflix 5.

Not enough is said about Allens cinematic choices.

The first and foremost are his choices for cinematographer.

This film absolutely depends on the loving photography of Manhattan settings.

There are wonderful night shots of the skyline; intimate closeups taking places in favorite stores; museum walks; long, long tracking shots of couples walking and talking (around corners and into doorways; there are doorways and walls and apartments. All of this is beautifully composed, lit and shot.

This time it is all by Gordon Willis who worked on many Allen films.

All of Allen's movies are full bore filmsand can be watched over and over.

I forgot to say that this has a lot of bit parts of well known people.

It is the film where Wally Shawn comes on as an ex-husband and Woody refers to him as the homunculus.

If nothing else, Allen's films can send us to the dictionary.

SEEING THE LIGHT

I picked up the 'new' bike last night.

It shines.

There are excessively white sidewalls on the tires (with those little mold nibs all around), the chain does not make a noise anymore, the bell (with an American flag on it) rings different but good, and the lights are really beyond flashlights—all LED and slick to put on and take off.

The seat is padded on the ass which is good and has a hole in the center to prevent prostate damage (for men only). I pointed out that I had no prostate and he said that it would be good for me anyway, smiling slyly.

This morning, while it was dark, I went out to see the new lights.

The headlight is 'blue' like the new auto headlights that are too bright and that I despise.

I am sure, though, that my bike light is not too bright. I am the same as the auto drivers who think the same of their high intensity halogens.

The tail light has three positions: ON—no blinking, ON—blinking and ON—blinking up and down across three ranks of lights.

The tail also has a mix of white and read lights and a reflector.

I can't decide what array I am going to put on.

In a week it will all be normal but, right now, it is a cool ride.

ITS A DEAL!

As predicted. One month to beat the shit out of Lebanon with us providing the armament. Then, a brokered deal. A chance to put bushie in for a peacemaker award.

The only problem is that he didn't make the peace nor did he broker it.

He is on vacation.

And it is not a deal. It is just a headline.

Security Council OKs Mideast Peace Deal

It only cost hundreds of Lebanese civilian lives and a ruined infrastructure.

Terror.

What was that about the war on terror? Whose terror are we talking about?

WORTH KEEPING

Dance, Monkeys, Dance

......................Ernie Cline, slam poet.

FRAMING

The GOoPers are addicted to message points--the drumbeat party line--and 'framing'; the use of sometimes paradoxical words to describe a policy that would be unpopular if widely understood.

The new kid on the block is "islamic fascism".

Bush said it yesterday and now that awful Santorum said it today.

I grew up with the original Fascism and it didn't involve religious extremists.

This is all buzz.

Of course, in less than 24 hours, many Muslims have registered this and have objected to the term as a broad brush smear.

The adjective 'fascist' has become an epithet and now seems destined to have no meaning at all except for all the other wink-wink nudge-nudge code words these bastards use instead of plain speech.

Mussolini invented Fascism and it spread around the Axis during WWII.

That was it.

BUMPER STICKERS

My friend Alan sent me this. I picked out my 'best' list from it.

These bumper stickers were compiled by Jerry Paull, a former
Methodist minister in Lakeside, Ohio, who writes: The following
actual bumper stickers are now on cars. I didn't write any of them.
I'm only the messenger. If they make you laugh, good. If they make
you cry, good. If they make you angry, that's good too. If you don't want to read them, hit the delete button.

IF YOU SUPPORTED BUSH, A YELLOW RIBBON WON'T MAKE UP FOR IT

OF COURSE IT HURTS. YOU'RE GETTING SCREWED BY AN ELEPHANT

WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?

IF YOU SUPPORT BUSH'S WAR, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? SHUT UP AND SHIP OUT

FEEL SAFER NOW?

*I'D RATHER HAVE A PRESIDENT WHO SCREWED HIS INTERN THAN ONE WHO SCREWED HIS COUNTRY

IS IT 2008 YET?

*DISSENT IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF PATRIOTISM -- Thomas Jefferson

DON'T BLAME ME. I VOTED AGAINST BUSH -- TWICE!

ANNOY A CONSERVATIVE: THINK FOR YOURSELF

VISUALIZE IMPEACHMENT

STOP MAD COWBOY DISEASE

GEORGE W. BUSH: MAKING TERRORISTS FASTER THAN HE CAN KILL THEM

KEEP YOUR THEOCRACY OFF MY DEMOCRACY

DEMOCRATS ARE SEXY. WHOEVER HEARD OF A GOOD PIECE OF ELEPHANT?

STEM CELL RESEARCH IS PRO LIFE

*THE LAST TIME RELIGION CONTROLLED POLITICS, PEOPLE GOT BURNED AT THE STAKE

I'LL GIVE UP MY CHOICE WHEN JOHN ROBERTS GETS PREGNANT

HOW ON EARTH CAN 59,411,287 PEOPLE BE SO DUMB?

SAME OLD SAME OLD

The 10-Year-Old Terrorist Plot
Security experts knew of this kind of plan, and have been urging carry-on restrictions, since before 9/11. Why is TSA so late?
By Susan Trento and Joseph Trento, SUSAN and JOSEPH TRENTO are the authors of the upcoming "Unsafe at Any Altitude: Failed Terrorism Investigations, Scapegoating 9/11, and the Shocking Truth about Aviation Security Today."

OVERHAUL

My bike has been losing its slick for some time.

I lost a handlebar grip. It had been loose for a long time.

'Someone' (probably the gardeners moving it around) broke the top off the bell.

Some 'other one' swiped my tail light.

The headlight had been off for awhile. It had lost its 'gimp' that is like a shim that goes between the light grip and the bar.

The tires are three years old and are way checked. No flats, but losing air faster and faster between fillups.

What else? They never fixed my loose chain the last time that I took it in for a tune up.

So, yesterday, into the shop and new grips--foam for comfort; a new bell with an American flag on it (gettin' with the program); a new head light and tail light--glorified flashlights but very high tech--the tail light is all LED; new tires and tubes (also whitewall for cool as this is a Schwinn Airstream repro); Slime™ in the tires (green --well slime -- that slows a puncture); a tightened or new chain and, last but not least, a new new seat. I had the original one replaced last tune-up and it and my business could not get along.

So I will be ready when I return from San Diego.

I will have the best new/old bike in PS.