Wheee...

I've been getting this message when I try to sign in on AIM:

"Your buddy list cannot been found, but has not been lost."

which should read

"Hope cannot be found, but has not been lost." -- Well, not quite.

Ah-- (it's finally working now that I've rebooted) --at least it won't be long before I'll be able to have simple programs work and not have to reload webpages and map layers for 5 minutes (literally) to get everything to work. :-)

I've been going through some old clippings and just had to post something before I had to toss it due to space concerns. A piece from the April 8, 2003 Washington Post mentions the 87th birthday party for former Minnesota Senator and 1968 presidential candidate Gene McCarthy (no-- not Joe "Red Scare" McCarthy). I haven't checked if WP still has the article archived, but here's a Guardian article about the same event. The best part of both is what the anti-Vietnam War candidate is quoted as saying (remember, this is before the US went into Iraq):

"The Vietnam thing lasted 20 years before it became a real war. This [Iraq] just sort of developed from young Bush's plans. My feeling is it won't last long. It's a bit like one of those Roman wars where a general got an army together and went to Africa......
.....I don't hold him responsible. I don't think Bush understands what he's saying. He just keeps talking, hoping inspiration will occur somewhere along the way.....
......[He is especially appalled by Bush's constant invocation of religion,] "but you forgive him because you don't think he understands it, anyway.....
......You know, the worst person to elect as president is a state governor. They've inflicted capital punishment so they're not afraid of death, They've sent out the National Guard. Clinton ran the presidency as though it was a governorship, and so did Jimmy Carter. Former vice-presidents are almost as bad, because they've been destroyed by their old job. I'd only elect senators and college professors. And newspaper men."

McCarthy was all three (Senator, college professor, and newspaper man), so these quotes need to be taken with a grain (?) of salt. But I urge you to look at the Guardian article that puts them in much better perspective than I can. (That was also where the second bracketed phrase is from)

Whether or not they are accurate, it still is refreshing to hear a strong and candid statement from this side of the debate.

From the AP Wire:

Hobe Sound, Florida
Motorcyclist Christopher Jude Doyle, 44, died after striking a cow that had wandered onto Interstate 95 through a hole cut in a fence. The cow also died. Florida fences on grazing land have been cut in recent years by people trying to reach psychedelic mushrooms that grow around cow manure.
(Washington Post summaries 050603)

It speaks for itself.

I saw this on the back of a WMATA truck involved in construction at the Tenleytown Metro:

WMATA EMERGENGY VEHICLE
DO NOT TICKET

oops.

Oy--

Watching a little (4") teddy bear marching band in full parade regalia playing "the Happy Organ" as they are followed out of my office by a good portion of my monthly income.

My brain is a strange place and I'm getting a new computer, but I can still feel a twinge of pain.

Interesting quote:

There are only two kinds of politics. They are not radical and reactionary or conservative and liberal. Or even Democratic and Republican. There are only the politics of fear and the politics of trust. One says, You are encircled by monstrous dangers. Give us power over your freedom so we may protect you. The other says: The world is a baffling and hazardous place, but it can be shaped to the will of men.

-- Edmund S. Muskie, November 2, 1970 (Senator from Maine)
From the Edmund S. Muskie Foundation website

One of my mother's (first grade) students was so proud of himself last week....

His parents had recently bought a portion of a local restaurant and had let him help out the night before.

"What did you do?" my mother asked.

He stood up very tall and declared, "I was busting tables!"


I just love 6 year-olds.....