Okay, this is only going to be funny to fans of Stargate, but there’s this asteroid out there that has a very small chance of striking the Earth in about 30 years. What’s it called? Apophis. Fans of the show will be imagining the asteroid decked out in gold lame’ and eyeliner. I have to wonder at whoever is naming small objects in the solar system; that’s the second possible cheezy-SF reference in as many weeks. The other one was the new planet or moon or whatever that was just named “Xena.”
-
-
The Price of Loyalty – Newsweek National News – MSNBC.com This has been the Bush pattern. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill presciently says a second tax cut is unaffordable if we want to fight in Iraq—he’s fired. Bush’s economic adviser Larry Lindsey presciently says the war will cost between $100 billion and $200 billion (an underestimate)—he’s fired. Army Gen. Eric Shinseki presciently says that winning in Iraq will require several hundred thousand troops—he’s sent into early retirement. By contrast, CIA Director George Tenet, who presided over two of the greatest intelligence lapses in American history (9/11 and WMD in Iraq) and…
-
We went to see our friend Earle in this production of Beauty and the Beast last night – another fine entry in a long list of fun, great community theater productions. It always amazes me how they manage to put on a professional-caliber show on with volunteer help and donated funds. It compared pretty well with the version of Beauty and the Beast we saw at the Marriott theater previously. The woman playing Belle was especially good, as was the Beast. The only rough bits had to do with sound – body mikes not working right or issuing popping noises.…
-
-
More evidence that the wheels are starting to come off George’s little red wagon. Oh, if only someone would fix it, but that’ll have to wait until Inauguration Day 2008. Larry Wilkerson gave an amazing interview on yesterday’s Morning Edition show on National Public Radio. How did I miss this the first time? Steve Inskeep sounds both incredulous and excited. It’s about the “White House cabal” that not only manipulated the intelligence in favor of war, and ignore the intel against it. Not only that, he claims that the Vice President’s office was ultimately responsible for the relaxation of prisoner…
-
The last few weeks have flown by in a happy blur. My monkeys – in fact, I now think of them as “my beloved monkeys,” have gone to great lengths to make me comfortable. Recently, they have bought new toys and invented new games to keep me entertained and healthy. I am especially fond of “Sock Jail” and “Whack-A-Mouse,” and also now have two special sleeping beds of my very own. One of them I hated until they turned it on its side, whereby it became perfectly acceptable. The other one is a very upscale leather hammock in the monkey’s…
-
Carter: White House manipulated Iraq intel And with that look for a raft of criticism from the rabid Right. They’ll bring up embarassing items from the past and attempt to paint Carter as an irrelevant, confused old guy. Yeah, the rabbit thing was weird, but I bet Jimmy could still fix a nuclear sub in a pinch. AND he’s still doing a hell of a lot of good work for the poor and the homeless.
-
At least, not without the intervention of some air pressure. Yesterday was supposed to be a pretty routine day. David and I had planned on going to Nobu for sushi, after having been foiled earlier in the week by the unavailability of parking near the restaurant. The lot was jammed because so many dozens and dozens of baseball fans decided to go to a nearby sports-and-billiards bar. Sushi was “in the cards.” We made it happen, but not without some difficulties. As I was driving along in my usual pre-work daze, the car started to make an ominous “whumpa-whumpa” noise.…
-
Evangelicals working to break stereotypes – The Clarion-Ledger Evangelicals have been pushing President Bush, an evangelical himself, to lead the charge on reducing foreign debt owed by Third World nations and to fight poverty and AIDS in Africa. The debt-relief effort has been driven by the Rev. Rick Warren, author of the enormously popular book, The Purpose-Driven Life. Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., has been mobilizing evangelicals to work on the debt issue. Warren and others are pushing “The ONE Campaign (www.one.org),” which seeks “to make poverty history” by allowing countries with heavy debts to…
-
From Sci Fi Wire — The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel: George Takei “comes out” of the closet, but muses that it’s more like an emergence: “It’s not really coming out, which suggests opening a door and stepping through,” Takei, 68, told the magazine. “It’s more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen. And then some doors are open, and light comes in, and there are skylights, and it widens.” This is a beautiful metaphor. I also hope that there’s a large cheering crowd to welcome him; it seems…