Saturday, April 28th, 2007                    Happy Birthday, Gail

Success has a thousand fathers. Failure is an orphan. 

“I remember watching and thinking, ‘As if you needed me to say ‘slam dunk’ to convince you to go to war with Iraq,’ ”
Medal of Freedom winner George Tenet 

Friday, April 27th, 2007

This story is entirely too ironic and entirely too sad! 
And...if it's true, it's entirely eerie!

Dr. Richards "was thrown from his motorcycle after he tried, without success, to avoid hitting a cat that had run into the road."

Thursday, April 26th, 2007

"By now, the logic is almost automatic. A shooter takes innocent lives, and someone says that if the victims had been armed, this wouldn’t have happened. The only solution to a gun in the wrong hands, it seems, is a gun in the hands of everyone. That’s the state of the debate over gun control today."
Today's NYT Editorial

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

"A society works best when people want to do what they have to do."
Erich Fromm (1900-1980)

"President Bush was sitting warily in his chair, pursing his lips as if he had just eaten a bad radish, as a reporter asked about the performance of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in recent congressional testimony concerning the firing of U.S. attorneys. Bush responded blandly that his attorney general had given 'a very candid assessment and answered, as honestly as he could, every question he could possibly answer...in a way that increased my confidence in his ability to do the job.'
Now, say what you like about Gonzales, but only a visitor from another planet would describe as 'very candid' the responses of a man who, by one count, repeated 64 times during his testimony the phrase 'I don't know' and similar variants."
David Ignatius

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic.

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.

When the facts change, so does my mind.


William Gladstone (1809-1898), who served four (non-consecutive) terms as England's Prime Minister between 1868 and 1894. 

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

Dunblane, the place where Thomas Hamilton
Walked into a school and went made with a gun
He fired off round indiscriminately
He fired at children as young as three.

Brave teachers with their backs erect.
Tried to shield the children from the threat
But still he fired one after another.
At teacher and child, at sister and brother.

When he had finished this terrible sin.
Then he turned the gun on him.
Sixteen children lie dead on the floor.
Such a terrible sight not seen before.

The country in mourning, hid it's face.
No reporters, non of the usual disgrace.
For the sake of the poor families, we stayed away.
Floral tributes poured in on that fateful day.

This government promised a full review
To ban all guns would be the right thing to do.
But when it came to it. The gun lobby won.
Will the next Dunblane be with at 2.2 hand gun. 

James Adams 

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007                  Erf Day!

"He went zero to 100 with me. I've never had anyone be so rude!"
Laurie David

Saturday, April 21st, 2007

While I am certainly not glad that a Blue Angels pilot has been killed, I gotta say that I am among the (perhaps) minority of individuals who wish that they would go out of business. For years, the Blue Angels, have performed in (well, really above) San Francisco in October, at about the same time as the annual Blues Festival there. I consider their performance to be a glorification of war and one that unnecessarily endangers the local population and upsets the animals. I would not object so much if the display were conducted in a remote setting...like a desert. 

Friday, April 20th, 2007    The 8th Anniversary of the Shootings at Columbine High School, Colorado

Today, Pope Benedict 2⁴, in a bold illustration of the Church's modernity and of his relevance to our times, authorized the publication of a document, called

And so, Limbo (dangerously overcrowded) has been shuttered...poopcanned, if you will, and its occupants, many still in Huggies, have been packed off to Heaven! And anyway, declared the Pontiff, who is infallible in such matters, Limbo (derived from the Latin, meaning 'border' or 'edge') was 'only a theological hypothesis' and 'never a defined truth of faith'.
"The conclusion of this study is that there are theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in Revelation."

Thursday, April 19th, 2007              The 12th Anniversary of the Bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City 

"...came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch."  Gonzales v. Gonzales:

The President "was pleased with the attorney general's testimony today and continues to have full confidence in him."
White House Spokesperson Dana Perino

From a transcript of today's hearings:

GONZALES: I prepare for every hearing, Senator.
SPECTER: Do you prepare for all your press conferences? Were you prepared for the press conference where you said there weren't any discussions involving you?
GONZALES: Senator, I've already said that I misspoke. It was my mistake.
SPECTER: I'm asking you, were you prepared? You interjected that you're always prepared. Were you prepared for that press conference?
GONZALES: Senator, I didn't say that I was always prepared. I said I prepared for every hearing.
SPECTER: Well, and I'm asking you, do you prepare for your press conferences?
GONZALES: Senator, we do take time to try to prepare for the press conference.
SPECTER: And were you prepared when you said you weren't involved in any deliberations?
GONZALES: Senator, I've already conceded that I misspoke at that press conference. There was nothing intentional. And the truth of the matter is, Senator, I...
SPECTER: Let's -- let's move on. I don't think you're going to win a debate about your preparation, frankly.

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007                 The 101st Anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
Sinclair Lewis, (1885-1951)

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007

"Gun crime is rare in Britain, and handguns are completely illegal. The ban is so strictly enforced that Britain's Olympic pistol shooting team is barred from practicing in its own country. Britain's 46 homicides involving firearms was the lowest total since the late 1980s. New York City, with 8 million people compared to 53 million in England and Wales, recorded at least 579 homicides last year."
Paisley Dodds, Associated Press

Monday, April 16th, 2007

Sunday, April 15th, 2007   The 60th Anniversary of the Racial Integration of Major League Baseball

"To appreciate how far the nation has come, propelled by what began 60 years ago today, consider not the invectives that Robinson heard from opponents' dugouts and fans, but the way he had been praised!

"Dusky Jack Robinson," as the Los Angeles Times called him, alerting readers to the race of UCLA's four-sport star, ran with a football "like it was a watermelon and the guy who owned it was after him with a shotgun."

George Will