So this is what a rubber chicken feels like....

I'm pretty much asleep already, so take these with a nice big salt block....

Is it just me, or would it be a good thing for W to read Robert Fulghum's book All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten? Sure, it's oversimplified and, in this case, used primarily in sarcasm but there's just something about a book that relies on such subliminal religiosity and moral certitude that makes it a perfect way to put the government's current policies in perspective.

Here are the things Fulghum has learned and some, W has too:

Share Everything
Play Fair
Don't Hit People
Put Things Back Where You Found Them
Clean Up Your Own Mess
Don't Take Things That Aren't Yours
Say You're Sorry When You Hurt Someone
Wash Your Hands Before You Eat
Flush
Warm Cookies and Cold Milk Are Good For You
Have A Balanced Life-- Learn Some and Think Some and Draw and Sing and Dance and Play and Work Some
Take A Nap Every Day
When You Go Out Into the World, Watch Out For Traffic, Hold Hands, and Stick Together
Be Aware Of Wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
And then Remember the Dick and Jane books and the first word you learned- the biggest word of all- LOOK.

Another interesting news story that's flying under the radar: Bush has taken the Sudanese government off the hook, saying that despite military actions "primarily but not exclusively by the government" and a lot of instability in the country, he would not declare sanctions on Khartoum.

Not that I think what either of the (generally) two sides of the Sudanese civil war, or any side in any other situation is necessarily more or less worthy of international attention than another, but I find it interesting that W’s all of a sudden trying to make nice with a country that not only hosted Osama bin Laden for a long time, but is also an Islamic theocracy waging a formal war with Christians in the south of the country.

Bawk!