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.…
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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…
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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…
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The recaplet by the wonderful Miss Alli is up for the most recent episode of TAR8: Television Without Pity | Season 8 Episode 5 The race heads out of New Orleans to Panama, where for the entire first half of the episode, absolutely nothing occurs to affect anyone’s placement that is the result of anything other than pure luck. Finally, after several bunches and unbunches that have nothing to do with anyone’s performance, there is one significant decision in the form of both the Paolos (in first place) and the Gaghans (in last place) deciding it is most advantageous to…
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Candidates Who Play Anti-Gay Card … might not be doing as well in the next election cycle as they expect: Here’s a press release from Ron Grignol, the Republican challenger for a House seat in the 43rd District in southeastern Fairfax near Fort Belvoir: Del. Mark Sickles, a Democrat, “sent a mail piece deliberately misleading the voters” by showing Sickles cradling a toddler in his arms. “The problem is Mark Sickles does not have a child or a family.” Grignol notes in the release that he indeed has children, which he says helps him understand how to improve schools, while…
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The happy news just keeps coming. Are things finally starting to unravel at the White House? Are they completely dysfunctional now? Are the more principled, more reality-based members of Congress finally realizing there’s no profit in supporting a morally bankrupt White House? Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of unprincipled lying pocket-lining bastards. First, a selection from the Washington Post’s “20 most emailed articles” for today: Bush Aides Brace For Charges Vice President For Torture Harriet Miers Withdraws Nomination In Ottawa, Rice Seeks To Temper Bitterness About Bush Policies What Rice Can’t See Grand Jury Hears Summary of Case…
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I was up reading last night around 11pm when all of a sudden, somebody started firing off Roman candles, fireworks, and maybe guns. What the? Then I realized. The Sox must have won the series. Meh – I’ll never be a Chicago sports fan.
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Okay, so Harriet Miers has resigned. And now Charles Krauthammer is going to be insufferable to his friends and enemies, because he correctly called dibs on how the White House could “gracefully” get out of the nomination Nina Totenberg called a “disaster.” Nina dished some dirt; apparently in the WH coaching sessions for Miers, they couldn’t even get her to speak up loud enough to be heard; let alone get her to answer questions in a manner that would reassure Senate Judicial committee members as to her fitness. A previous story filed by Ms. Totenberg had detailed that “she’d flunked…
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For about a week and a half we’ve been trying to make our schedules mesh with Steve and Ruth’s so we could all see Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I heard an interview yesterday on the BBC World Service program that WBEZ now runs at the time I have lunch… I’ve learned all kinds of odd and interesting things in the weeks since the program change, and now I’ve learned that in Portland (in Dorset, England) it’s such bad luck to say “rabbit” that advertisements and posters for the film had to be modified. Locals prefer the term…
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False alarm. That doesn’t mean this issue won’t bust out again later. In a manner of speaking, that is. We haven’t heard the last of this.