Gentle Reader -- You are welcome to peruse my web-based journal. I assure you that my contributions to this medium will be both infrequent and inconsequential. Read on!

ALL OF THE TIME?

I was travelling on the day of the London bombings (down to DC and back for another job interview) -- everything was remarkably normal. Not to downplay the tragedy of the situation -- or rather, specifically to downplay it -- everyone treated the subject as a matter of introductory small talk in my interviews: "Oh did you come down from Boston? Not such a good day to travel, is it?"

I remember someone, sometime said:

"We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance."

Well, that seems like just what is happening, and I think it's exactly right and proper. Everyone decries the current craptacular state of our news industry, particularly the 24-hour news channels -- I particularly like the "Where the White Women At?" satire -- but when Al-Qaeda finds itself competing with the Laci Petersons and the Jackos and the Missing Princesses in Aruba of the world, they really have lost. We will certainly continue to pay attention to terrorism, of course, and it makes good TV, but only in its turn.

This is bad news, of course, for those whose main qualification for holding onto power is the ability to terrorize the public with the terror of impending terrorism. Not to be condescending, or anything.

Speaking of Dear Leader's weird facial expressions, did anyone see him standing behind Tony Blair while the latter was addressing the world about the bombings? Was he sucking on a lemon? Trying not to laugh out loud?

I'm having trouble posting pictures again, but it can be found here. This isn't the best picture of what I'm talking about -- I'll have to look for more. posted by Carlton at 11:45 AM

TRUE DAT

Kevin Drum sez:

As near as I can tell, there are now more people dedicated to making the internet unusable than there are people who actually use the internet. But it was nice while it lasted.

I've had a particularly troublesome round of computer viruses lately, beginning with "Antivirus Gold" and ending with a slew of extremely persistent bugs that came in on its coattails. A combo of Adaware, McAfee, HiJack This!, Killbox and a new one on me called "Clamwin" (no realtionship to Scientology, I hope) seems to have done the trick. My old computer is a pile of crap, though. Perhaps a new one is in order?

Yeah, there's a lot to be said about how a good thing doesn't last very long until it's perverted into a bad thing, blah blah blah fishcakes. Most of the scams used on the Internet are just souped-up versions of ones that used to be used through direct mail or door-to-door methods. Now, though because it costs them nothing to send out a million emails at once . . .et cetera, et cetera. Those Nigerians sure are persistent, however. I give them that. They may be crooks, and have bad grammar, but they aren't lazy. posted by Carlton at 11:16 AM

GREETINGS, CITIZEN!

Well, I haven't had a whole lot of blogging time in the past few weeks (boo hoo for all concerned, I know). Here's a few items on the list of things that are going on:

1. Got married, had honeymoon, came back to Boston, started new job at Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. Shortly thereafter, had party for Boston people that involved, as the result of a lost bet, Carlton singing "All Shook Up" to the assembled worthies. (To rave reviews, naturally.)

2. Been fighting with the wife. What do newlyweds fight about? Tom Cruise, of course. Her position: fanatically anti-Cruise. Mine: Cruise is making an ass of himself, may be experiencing some kind of psychotic episode, is doing his career and Katie's career no favors, BUT -- sci-fi lover that I am, I wanted to see War of the Worlds. The wife, overreacting as usual, accuses me of embracing Scientology in all of its pseudo-religious quackery.

(2A. By the way, my prediction about the Tom/Katie Affair is that they will get married, he will get crazier and crazier, and then he will KILL her in a fit of psychotic, thetan-induced rage. Wouldn't that be a story? Not that I want Miss Holmes to die -- she's mighty cute -- but it's where I see this train heading. You read it here first, folks.)

3. Saw War of the Worlds, which was good! I read a review in which it was described as a "high-tech 1950s science fiction movie," which is about right. My one quibble is the "Signs" effect: these super advanced aliens fall for that? But you know, this doesn't bother me too much -- they are aliens, after all, so they are allowed to act in ways that don't make sense to us.

And, let's see what's breaking on the national stage:

1. If the President makes a speech in the forest, and nobody watches, is it still a lie? (Fave line from that story: "The speech drew the smallest TV audience in the history of his presidency.")

2. So, looks like our boy Karl may have committed perjury by telling the grand jury that he wasn't the Valerie Plame leaker when he actually WAS the Valerie Plame leaker. Oops. Perhaps, as Bush himself has done so often during his time in office, Rove merely "misspoke."

3. Anything else? I guess we're finally going to have this abortion thing out in the Senate. That's good -- I'm sure that most deliberative of bodies will handle this sensitive issue in a judicious and thoughtful manner.

4. Some more predictions: Iraq will collapse into civil war before the 2006 elections. As Pres. Bush continues to insist that we will "win" if we just "stay the course," any Republican who wants to run for President will have to demonstrate how different he is from Bush in order to have even a chance. And Bill Frist, just so you know, doesn't have one. And Tom Cruise kills Katie Holmes. posted by Carlton at 7:38 PM