Fishing

If my buddies and I had existed in a time before Safeway and before 9000 sushi restaurants in the US, we may not have starved, but we certainly never would have tasted seafood. My kid and wife should be very thankful that they need not rely on my angling abilities to feed them. Every couple of years we forget how frustrating it was last time we tried to catch fish. We convince ourselves that we are now smarter, or maybe fish have gotten dumber. We convince ourselves, we just had the wrong bait last time, or just bad luck. So yesterday we spent four hours at San Pablo dam, poles dangling in the water, drinking beer (at least we got that much done.), and throwing bait into the water without ever getting a nibble. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. We suck. Not all people had such crappy luck. As we were in the baitshop, we saw a three year old with a 12 inch trout in his net. At least someone can claim to be a fisherman.

obfuscate

Not just a piece of vocabulary for your momentary freerice break. It's also what Junior's latest statement was all about. Oil prices are high. Selling off public resources to oil companies in Alaska and off the California coast aren't going to change those oil prices any time in the near future or ever. It would take years to develop those resources, and there's not enough to make a serious dent in feeding our serious addiction issue.

So why?
1. One last present to Dick, Daddy and all his other oil buddies.
2. One last screw you to our over extended planet.
2. One last attempt to make the demoquids look bad. He's the sensitive one for trying to do something, while those heartless demosquids are keeping your gas prices over $4 a gallon.

Lame duck has been sitting around for a while, but each statement just makes him lamer and lamer.

It was only fair.

I was watching one of those political pundit shows over the weekend and the recent Supreme Court ruling concerning that offshore prison/torture vehicle came up. Suprising to me, half the talking heads thought it was an awful 5-4 decision. I'm not sure how essentially half the people and all these courts could see this as a bad decision.

I understand that these are the the worst of the worst. These people allegedly spent their every breathing moment working towards the destruction of the American way of life. Lock em up and throw away the key.

I also understand that these guys weren't Americans entitled to protection of the U.S. Constitution. Although they had been removed from their home countries and deposited in a legal no man's land thousands of miles away, they aren't really entitlted to a jury of a trial of their peers.

But the idea behind this is still innocent until proven guilty. or at least a fair chance to defend oneself from charges. Just because they are allegedly enemy combatants does not mean anything goes. Despite every fabricate argument to the contrary, the Geneva Convention does apply. And something just seems downright unAmerican about people being locked up by our government for 6 years without any chance to even know the charges against them. How long can we keep them? According to Bush, as long as this war goes on, or something close to forever.

I think the Supreme Court tried to give the executive branch as much leeway as they could. For six years, Junior has kept up this funny business of torturing and setting up stacked predetermined proceedings that gave new bounce to the term kangaroo court. But it was dragging on. And it was time to recognize that something needed to be done.

If this was a bad decision, the court was pushed to it. They were forced to give some semblance of an ability to contest incarceration, because no one else was going to do it. One of those things, where only time will tell.

Plugging a book

My college roomate, Dave, had his first novel released in the last few days. It's called Superpowers. I'm probably going to go by the bookstore and pick it up today. It involves super powered people who live in Madison, so I'm sure most of it is about me.

Game night.

So I made it to my first post baby baseball game last night. I think it's my first game in two or three years. I got to watch the Yankees beat the A's. Sadly enough there probably were more Yankee fans than A's fans last night. It's like they have a Yankee Stadium West. They've been struggling a little, but it was good to see A-Rod and Mariano do their thing.

But the star of the night was Chen Ming Wang. He alone, probably added a thousand people to the crowd. Our seats were surrounded by some Taiwanese student association or something. I saw next to an old Taiwanese guy who spend part of the game trashing some of the players to his wife. Pretty funny.

So I was putting the NBA game on TIVO. I was hoping to make it home without knowing the score, but for some reason, the people who run the stadium think everyone wants to know the score and get updated. I don't think they should do that. Most people who want instant scores can get them on their own these days.

So being out, left my wife in charge of the kid and it wasn't the easiest night ever. We'll tell you about it when you're older little one, when we really want to embarrass you, but no reason to make that story public.

More commute thoughts.

I filled my gas tank for the first time in 3 weeks this morning, meaning, I've actually saved about one tank of gas since using a biking/public transportation commute. It's not a bad thing. I get a little reading done. I get a little exercise done. I'm rewarding myself on saving that first gas tank by going to the Yankees game tonight. They're in town to play the A's. That tank of gas costs about the same as a field level ticket these days. The NBA finals game will have to wait on Tivo.

Though on Friday, the public commute thing didn't turn out to be the best experience. Someone got struck by a train about two stops south of where I catch the train. The 7th this year. We're quickly set to break last year's mark of 8. There was an investigation that left commuters stranded for at least an hour and a half, much longer in some cases.

The police naturally have to investigate, but unless someone sees someone else push someone in front, I'm sure they end of declaring most of these suicide attempts. That's sad. People shouldn't feel they need to take their lives and if they do, I can't see the train as being the best way. Yes, a train has a lot of momentum. But really, I think the death would occur through dismemberment as a body is crushed on the rails. Does anybody really want to suffer that way?

I'm a little ahead on my goal to save 3 tanks of gas this summer. Maybe I'll get to 4.

New Tune

My name is Jordan!
I'm a big girl now.
My name is Jordan!
I make the whole world bounce.
My name is Jordan!
I'm over two feet tall.
My name is Jordan!
I dunk the basketball.
My name is Jordan!
Don't forget my name!

For some reason, the little tyke has really been bouncing to this song recently.