With a cameo appearance by Mr. Pointy

Here's someone with a bit too much time on their hands. They've written a story, Good Slaying. It's a mash-up of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Good Eats. I had no idea that Buffy/Whatever crossovers were so popular, since I hardly ever see fan fiction; here's a bunch of them, from Lost, to Harry Potter, to (of course) Firefly and Serenity.

People I Don't Want to Talk To

Just got a call from "The Friends of John Kerry," asking for money. The conversation went something like this:

I asked, "Why would I want to give money to John Kerry? He completely blew the last election. If he hadn't allowed himself to be reamed by Bush and Rove, this country would be in a much better place than we are now, and we're stuck with two and a half more years of Bush as a result."

"Well, sir, this contribution wouldn't go to him, it would go to issues he supports, such as [laundry list of issues I also support]."

"That's fine, but if I want to support those issues, and I do, I'll give money to people or organizations that can affect them directly, and not to a bloviating Senate windbag that suffers from the delusion that he can ever again be a plausible candidate for President. He couldn't beat the most incompetent incumbent President in all of American history. Why would I want to waste my money on Kerry or anything he directs?"

It didn't go well from there. Thinking about it later, I realized that pretty much all I'm interested in is removing Republicans from power. And that means that I want to support winners, and people who I believe can win on the issues I care about. The Republicans have shown themselves to be ruthless and amoral in grabbing and holding power, and in an environment like that, the good guys can't afford the kind of forebearance we've shown in the past. So, for Kerry, no do-overs. He had his shot, and he blew it. Next! Find me a leader, and one who can win.

Update: I would like to revise and extend my remarks. I'm willing to make a provisional exception to my "no do-overs" rule for Al Gore. Pretty much everything he's said in public since his loss to Bush has been on target. Were he to choose to run again, and were he to run a campaign that avoided the pitfalls of his 2000 campaign, he would have my strong support.

The Size Of Our World

This is cool. It's a presumably-to-scale rendered 3-D representation of Earth to the other smaller planets in our Solar System; those planets to the larger planets; all planets to the Sun; and the Sun to really big stars. Check it out.

(Via Paul Music.)