From Salon: Unsafe in any

From Salon: Unsafe in any state. Ralph Nader's campaign is reckless, its justifications specious and its consequences possibly irreparable. But it does allow fundamentalist leftists to keep living in their dream world. Also recommended: Inside Nader's stock portfolio .

Today is a very important

Today is a very important day.

Not because it's the birthday of John Cleese, Roy Lichtenstein, Scott Weiland, Veronica Hart, Dylan Thomas, Walt Kuhn, Theodore Roosevelt, Niccolo Paganini, Sylvia Plath, Leif Ericson, Enid Bagnold, Jane Alexander, Emily Post, Captain James Cook, Frederick De Cordova, Carrie Snodgrass, Nanette Fabray, Teresa Wright, Ralph Kiner, Bill George, Oliver Tambo, Floyd Cramer, H.R. Haldeman, Ruby Dee, or Warren Christopher.

Not because it's the anniversary of the day the City of Philadelphia founded (1762), treaty of Fontainebleau signed, Walt Disney debuted on TV, largest tuna caught (1496 lbs.), oil discovered in US (Titusville, PA), NYC Subway opened (1904), Baby carriage patented, term "jazz" 1st used in print (1916), 1st Federalist Paper published (1787), Rebel Without a Cause premiered, Ivan the Great died (1505), Apollo 12 landed on the moon, Macys opened, 1st Quakers hanged (Boston; 1659), The Mouse That Roared premiered, Congo changed its name to Zaire (1971), French invaded Austrian Netherlands (1792), UK Parliament agreed to apply to join EEC (1971), Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall arrested for fraud (NYC; 1871), Michael Servetus burned at the stake for blasphemy (1553), Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to Louis XIV for 2.5 million livres (1662), UK annexed Griqualand, South Africa, a diamond producing region (1871), or Gladys Knight & the Pips' Midnight Train to Georgia reached No. 1 (1973).

Not even because it's National Potato Day, American Beer Day, Feast of the Lord of Misrule, Navy Day, Angam Day (Nauru), St. Vincent Independence Day, Naming Day (Zaire),
Turkmenistan Independence Day, St. Frumentius' Day (patron of Ethiopia), National Day (Grenadines), or Swamp Buggy Race Day.

Not even because it's Good Bear Day (although that might be enough under other circumstances).

If you thought that "Boxers

If you thought that "Boxers or Briefs?" was a stupid question, now it's Leather or Lace?

We've been living in Sonoma

We've been living in Sonoma County for almost a year now. I really like it here; I'm glad that I started the process to get us to move. It's been good for Sean, and I think that it's been good for Dori, too. But every now and then, I'm freshly reminded how terrific it is here, and that I could appreciate it a bit more.

Today, I was driving down the freeway, going to Santa Rosa on some errands. It rained this morning, and it had cleared a bit by the time I got in the car. Off to the right, I saw the huge field of Chardonnay grapevines that I always do, stretching away from the freeway and washing up to the hills. But today, it was different. Today, fall had arrived, and the fields were golden and red and brown and yellow with the color of the turned leaves. The vines have begun to shed their leaves in preparation for the winter, and the long rows between the vines were carpeted with the fallen leaves. In the soft light from the overcast sky, the rows seemed to glow. In the distance, the clouds had come down to meet the hills, partially shrouding them from view.

It was very beautiful.

I've been working hard this year; I'm grateful for the amount of work that's come my way. I'm also aware that I've lived through a spring and summer here that was devoted mainly to typing at a computer, rather than appreciating and enjoying this place that the work has bought for me. That's going to change.

Lately, this weblog has been

Lately, this weblog has been almost entirely about Babylon 5 and politics. Therefore, you should have seen this one coming: Doyle for Congress.

RIP, Mrs. Zeldman. Jeffrey, take

RIP, Mrs. Zeldman. Jeffrey, take care of yourself.

From ZDNet: Girl Geeks If

From ZDNet: Girl Geeks

If there are 5 million information technology jobs in the u.s., and roughly 4.5 million qualified professionals, it doesn't take an economist to figure out that the industry is short a half-million warm bodies.


Kristine Hanna, cofounder, president and chief executive of GirlGeeks, knows just where to find those bodies.

Dubya, quoted in Bushism of

Dubya, quoted in Bushism of the Day, in response to a question posed by an eighth-grader concerning abortion:

"It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet."--Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000

How any intelligent person could be planning to vote for this doofus is beyond me. It's clear that he can't reason; when faced by a question, he simply reaches into his list of pre-programmed answers, grabs one that he thinks might be appropriate, and blurts it out. Then he follows it with his trademark smirk, as if to say "Don't you find my stupidity endearing? Yep, I'm real folks."

So you would like to

So you would like to vote for Nader, but you don't want to see Bush win as a result? Read Nader's Traders to see how you can achieve both goals.

For those of you following

For those of you following the saga of our kitchen cabinets, they were replaced yesterday... finally.

Michael Kinsley on George W.

Michael Kinsley on George W. and the stupidity issue. And in a similar vein, Salon on It's the stupidity, stupid.

Vote Ficus 2000 for Congress!

Vote Ficus 2000 for Congress!

Next time, maybe I'll run

Next time, maybe I'll run for President. It would be a cool thing to put on my resume, wouldn't it? In this snippet from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it's clear that other people have had the same idea.

You gotta love write-in presidential candidates. Take convicted felon Martin McNally of Illinois, who is seeking the presidency "so he can pardon himself" if he wins. Then there's Bruce Muckian of Washington state, who's running not because he's "interested in the job," but because he "thinks it's a good way to raise money for a family trip to Ireland." And don't forget Florida's Thomas Wells, who says he's "seeking office after God directly spoke to him in his bedroom and commanded him to do so." Most write-in candidates for President don't have "coherent policy positions on issues or enjoy widespread name recognition, but they certainly add color to a sometimes staid campaign." The Federal Election Commission says that more than 200 individuals "submitted statements of candidacy this year." All one must do to qualify is file "two forms" that cost nothing. FEC spokeswoman Karen Huff: "It really is that easy to call yourself an `official' candidate for President." Clifford Catton of New York is running because "postal employees have been stealing my mail since 1981." And from Virginia's Randy Owens: "I was always told that I could be anything that I wanted to be, and right now I want to be President." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/13)

Oops: Ad agency goofs on

Oops:
Ad agency goofs on campaign billboard.