Things on my mind today.

1. Went to a renaissance fair this weekend. Pretty neat. Not that I've ever been to one, but in some ways it felt like a Star Trek convention. It required a certain amount of belief. I could really see the same person going to both. One week someone might want to dress up as a Klingon and the next week, put on the chain mail and pretend to be a gallant knight. The Elizabethan English was neat. What I noticed was that renaissance times had to have been very violent. They were selling all kinds of weapons, spears, maces, swords, and even magic wands. Everybody should try it sometime.

2. A year after Katrina, time for a photo op. I guess it should have been very predictable, which parts of the city would get up and running and which wouldn't. It all goes back to the same thing again. $$$$. Bush's friends made out well again. Feds sign contract with company to remove trash at $23 per unit. Bush friends sub out to company at $8 per unit, who then sub out to another company at $7 per unit, where it eventually becomes the property of a New Jersey company who was going to do the project all along at $3 per unit. The American way of doing business is all about fleecing the tax payer again. Second thought on Katrina, right after the storm, people were thinking, there is no way Bush and the Republicans ever win an election in Louisiana in the next twenty years. At this point at least 100,000 Louisiana voters have been displaced and may never return. Need to guess how many of those probably would have voted democrat?

3. Wifey's getting big.

Water Balloons

It's been a crazy few weeks at work. It's August and every week someone is on vacation and we're covering for other people. The only one not going anyplace is me. That's in large part because new house means no travel money and because I'm saving vacation time for baby duty.

But today we get out a little early. It's office picnic time. And somehow our office has gotten associated with the waterballoons each year. It looks pretty sunny outside right now, but if you get drenched in cold water today, it's not my fault. Really.

Why Iraq is not in Civil War

Have you put any thought into why Bush refuses to acknowledge that Iraq has declined into a state of civil war? There are a couple reasons. First, he claims that this venture is a part of the War on Terrorism. It's not a War on Terrorists if its just Iraqis fighting for self determination. He needs to pretend that the terrorists were all in Iraq before the US got there. But there is another reason. If this were truly a civil war- a fight among people of one nation to determine their own future, the US would have no justification to be there. Why should we interfere with a country with internal issues? World View over truth. Not the way we should be doing things.

Best line I've heard in a while.

It may get tough for your wife, but the last month of her pregnancy will probably be the toughest six months of your life.

Hitting the Sweet Spot

Three of his coworkers have four year old boys. All of them are just getting rid of excess baby items and graduating to little boy things. Baby stuff is being tossed in the garage or disposed of. Fortunately, there's someone in the office who just brought a new house even though he has a new kid on the way. His cash is low and he's willing and able to take lots of baby stuff from people. He's already gotten a jogger stroller and a really nice crib and changing table due to his coworkers generosity.

There's also a coworker who had a little girl in January. There is lots of wisdom pouring forth from his coworkers and he really appreciates it. If only his coworkers had girls or if he was expecting a boy, there probably could have been even more stuff.

Some thoughts on the news.

My eighty six year old grandmother flew from Illinois back to Los Angeles yesterday under the latest security directives. On dropping my grandma off at the airport my Aunt had to explain to her that she could not carry her ever present thermos full of tea. Her handbag was searched and the eye drops that she carried were taken away by the TSA agents. She endured a bad flight on her first leg to Chicago and barely made her connecting flight, being the last person to enter the plane before it left the gate. She finally arrived in LA around eleven last night, just as four other late flights were arriving. With all those late planes arriving together it took nearly an hour before her she found her luggage at the baggage claim.

She was one of many to suffer bad travel experiences yesterday, but on some level still thankful because there were terrorist plots and things could have been much worse.

You've all heard the news by now. Over 30 terrorists were arrested in Britain plotting to use liquid explosives hidden in sports drinks and flashbulbs from instant cameras to assemble bombs on airplanes and take down several flights from England to the United States. Thankfully the British security forces were doing their job.

What really fascinates me about this news is that once again, the actual facts of what happened immediately get spun in this country for political gain. Republiskunks pat themselves on the back because they believe they have demonstrated how their war on terror is working. Demosquids say this shows how the war on terror is creating more terrorists and that we would be much safer if we actually had a war on terror and not a civil war in Iraq disguised as a War on Terror.

It's like the first thing out of anybody's mouth is recharacterizing of the facts to fit some notion of world view and ideological purity. Each side seems to be taking credit or pushing blame. It's a dirty dirty game.

But I'm starting to realize that the Republiskunks will always win at this game. Damn the inconvenient fact that there were no WMDs in Iraq. Damn the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. They can create their own reality and make everyone swallow the cool aid and believe it. Ideology outweighs truth.

Republiskunks are the true post modernists.

Taking one in the eye.

No one has had their eyes probed more that an optometrist. No one has had their teeth looked at more than a dentist. That's because as they are going through their training they use each other as lab rats and practice their new skills on each other.

So maybe Wifey is sick of it already. The other day, I was off from work and went downtown to take her out to lunch. As I stopped by the office I found myself suddenly volunteered to have a tech learn a new procedure by jabbing me in the eye under the tuteledge and watchful eyes of Wifey. Maybe Wifey needed a birds eye perspective in order to best teach her young apprentice, or maybe she just didn't want to get something poked in her eye. I'm still trying to figure it out.

New Home keeping me busy.

There's a lot of great things that come from owning your home, but moving certainly isn't one of them. We've been spending counntless hours packing and moving and unpacking. Makes for less blogging. I've been making all kinds of decisions around the house. Hopefully, it'll all work out. The previous owners did a lot of great things around the house. Kitchen is newly remodled as is the Master Bathroom. The closet organizers are awesome. But there are still some things to figure out. They seem to have had at least two phone lines and three cable lines. They left a nice audio system mounted in the familyroom but there are about 20 cables sticking out of the wall and no labels. It'll be an adventure to use that system. And there are multiple issues in the yard as well. Should work out at some point, but there's a lot to do before we'll really be settled.