'nuff said...

Doctor No

Waaay back at the beginning of the James Bond films was Doctor No. Didja know that DC published a Doctor No comic? I had a copy many, many moons ago. I always wondered why they didn't do comics versions of the other films. Well, here's why.

'Nuff said...

LONDON - A 22-year-old man suffered internal injuries after lighting a small firecracker he had inserted into his buttocks, paramedics said Thursday.

The incident took place Sunday, when Britain celebrated Bonfire Night, traditionally marked with fireworks to celebrate the Guy Fawkes’ gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament in the 17th century.

The man suffered burns and other unspecified internal injuries in the incident in Sunderland, 275 miles north of London.

Katherine Shenton, a spokeswoman for the North East Ambulance Service, said a caller had phoned in that the victim was bleeding after the firecracker exploded.

Several of the man’s friends recorded the incident on a mobile phone. The blurry images show a man bent over with his pants down and a white flash as the firecracker explodes.

The Times newspaper reported the man is a soldier who recently returned from Iraq.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Not gloating...

Okay, the election is over. The Democrats have won the house, while the senate, as of this writing, hangs on the outcome in Virginia. As George W. described it, the cumulative effect of it was getting a "thumpin'". Immediately, Donald Rumsfeld is gone. That's good news.

The bad news is that all this was necessary.

Look, I'm a lifelong Republican. In college I was a campaign volunteer for Gerald Ford. I've only voted for two Democratic candidates in my life. (if you want to know: Ford, Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Dole, Bush, Kerry.) I'm not happy about having to split with, and in the last two elections advocate against, my party.

As has been said before in other places, I did not leave my party, my party left me. In recent years it has been captured by ideologues, and they've taken it in directions I find dangerous and thoroughly destructive.

Maybe, just maybe, with this election things have bottomed out. I hope so.

NYC may ease rules for gender change

Hey... there's this from MSNBC:

NEW YORK - The city wants to make it easier for transgender New Yorkers to switch the sex listed on their birth certificate even without undergoing reassignment surgery, putting the city at the forefront of efforts to redefine gender.

Under present city rules, only people who can show proof of surgery qualify for getting a revised birth certificate. Even then, the only change made is the elimination of any reference to gender on the document.

The new plan, unveiled last month, would let birth records reflect the new gender. It would also allow changes for people who hadn’t had genital surgery, but could show substantial proof that they have undertaken other steps to irrevocably alter their gender-identity — like undergoing hormone therapy.

The policy change is one that advocates for New York’s sizable transgender community have requested for years, but which has taken on greater significance in a post-Sept. 11 world of increased security.

New Yorkers need to show picture ID to enter office towers, air terminals, public monuments and all sorts of government buildings. They need them to apply for a job too, or buy beer at a neighborhood deli.

The trouble comes when someone inspects those documents, and notices that a person’s listed gender doesn’t appear to match the way they look and dress.

“That can be a very dangerous situation for a transgender person,” said Cole Thaler, transgender rights attorney for the national legal aid group Lambda Legal.

'Outdated' system
Thaler said having a birth certificate with a gender that matches a person’s appearance will ease the way to getting other government records, including passports, drivers’ licenses and Social Security records.

Lorna Thorpe, Deputy Commissioner of New York’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, called the current system “outdated.”

“A lot of transgender persons use different techniques to switch genders,” she said. Some try hormones. A smaller number undergo surgery — in part because not everyone is medically capable of undergoing the procedure.

All but three states now allow people who have had a sex change to get a new birth certificate and New York City has done so since 1971. The city now issues about a dozen of the revised birth certificates a year.

Of the states that allow similar changes of birth certificates, almost all currently require proof of a gender-reassignment surgery.

Tennessee has a law expressly prohibiting a change of gender on a birth certificate. Ohio and Idaho also won’t allow the change because of court rulings or as a matter of administrative policy.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Go Vote!

I did!

Zerophilia...

I just ran across the following on IMDB... thought you might be interested...

Zerophilia

16 Oct 2006 8:12pm EDT - By Michael Rechtshaffen

Microangelo Entertainment Gender confusion is taken to the next, angst-ridden level in "Zerophilia", a quirky romantic dramedy about a young-adult male who develops a rare biological condition that triggers a highly unusual metamorphosis. Although writer-director Martin Curland deserves full points for originality -- not to mention avoiding those broadly sophomoric or campy sci-fi pitfalls that could have easily gone with the territory -- the admittedly thought-provoking results fail to make the full-blown transition from curious concept to substantial theatrical proposition. In the end, the film, which opened Friday in New York this weekend and expands to Los Angeles and elsewhere Nov. 3, feels more like an episode of "The O.C". with a chromosomal imbalance. Taylor Handley does thoughtful, committed work as Luke, a sexually inexperienced college student who "catches" the bizarre genetic virus after an anonymous one-night stand in a camper with a British woman (voiced -- talk about your weird science -- by Kelly LeBrock). While other hapless dudes might have run the risk of contracting the usual communicable diseases, poor Luke finds himself stricken with something that no dose of penicillin could cure: The encounter has set off a genetic condition that has begun to transform his body, both anatomically and emotionally, into that of the opposite sex. Understandably concerned, Luke's best buddy Keenan (Dustin Seavey) tracks down a zerophiliac expert, the decidedly loopy Dr. Sydney Catchadourian (Gina Bellman, who memorably played the part of the decidedly loopy Jane on the original British version of "Coupling"), who, for personal reasons, pushes him to go all the way and make the final transformation from Luke to Luca (Marieh Delfino). To add to Luke/Luca's confusion, in addition to finding himself attracted to the down-to-earth Michelle (Rebecca Mozo), his burgeoning female side is also starting to develop a thing for her brooding mechanic brother, Max (Kyle Schmid). Curland's script has some interesting, gender-blending observations to make about love and sexual attraction, but the low-budget production, while effectively cast and nicely shot (by Graham Futerfas), would have benefited from a more assured directorial hand -- one that might have been willing to venture away from those primetime small-screen confines and find the courage to play out some of the subject matter's inherently darker convictions. Visit HollywoodReporter.com for more ...

Don't read this...

I've gotten flak elsewhere for linking to this blog, on the grounds that it's too political and the content will start controversy. Well, it's SUPPOSED to incite controversy. That said, though, keep the commentary HERE. Don't go off into endless back-and-forth colloquy on other boards. First of all, it uses their bandwidth instead of mine. Second, many folks there don't care about political matters, vehemently disagree with all the expressed opinions, and don't want to see the verbal foodfights.

If you're going to respond or comment, do it HERE. That's kind of why there's a comment capability here in the first place. Second, I've asked you to do any commentary here. Posting it elsewhere is just rude.

And, if you don't care for political postings, well, don't read this blog. There's non-political postings here, but for now the political ones will dominate. After the election I suspect the political ones will be, for the most part, going away.

Trust in the system...

[WARNING: This is a somewhat political post. If you don't like reading political posts, what are you doing here? More to the point, you might want to skip this posting.]

The other day I went to see the new Robin Williams movie, "Man of the Year". The basic premise is that he's a late-night comedian who runs for president, and, through a 'bug' in the computerized voting machines, wins.

Good movie. Funny movie. But that's not the point. It's not hard to figure out that the voting machine company who knows of the software flaws and tries to cover them up for it's own advantage is a thinly disguised version of Diebold. The link back there gives a pretty good description of the outstanding issues with Diebold's machines.

It's been noted in the news recently that the white house, specifically George W. Bush and Karl Rove, has been blithely confident that, despite the recent scandals and the very unfavorable polls, the Republicans are going to retain control of both the House and Senate.

From the Washington Post: Amid widespread panic in the Republican establishment about the coming midterm elections, there are two people whose confidence about GOP prospects strikes even their closest allies as almost inexplicably upbeat: President Bush and his top political adviser, Karl Rove.

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill are bracing for losses of 25 House seats or more. But party operatives say Rove is predicting that, at worst, Republicans will lose only 8 to 10 seats — shy of the 15-seat threshold that would cede control to Democrats for the first time since the 1994 elections and probably hobble the balance of Bush's second term. ...

The question is whether this is a case of justified confidence — based on Bush's and Rove's electoral record and knowledge of the money, technology and other assets at their command — or of self-delusion. Even many Republicans suspect the latter. Three GOP strategists with close ties to the White House flatly predicted the loss of the House, though they would not do so on the record for fear of offending senior Bush aides.

Hubris? Refusal to face the likely reality? Or, possibly, do they know something about the upcoming results of the election in advance? Do they have good reason for their confidence? In ordinary times I'd consider the possibility of massive election-rigging in the U.S. to be ludicrous; but this administration has shown their willingness to violate accepted standards, any laws that get in their way, and even ignore the constitution when it's to their benefit. They've even got a history of suspicious election results.

It's a more-than-scary thought. I hope I'm wrong.

Nostalgia

I'm just sitting here, missing the days when I lived in central Florida. Yes, it gets hot and sticky in the summer, and you've got bugs, snakes, and (depending on where you live) alligators to deal with, but it was just about never boring.

Pretty much each weekend the first order of business was to decide on what to do. Visit a theme park? Which one? You had three from Disney (plus their water parks), Universal, Sea World, Cypress Gardens (pictured above), Boardwalk and Baseball (gone now), or Busch Gardens.

Shopping? Aside from the usual malls you had the Belz Factory Outlets, Flea World (don't ask!) and downtown Winter Park (comfortable AND Swank!).

Sightseeing places galore. Where to begin? Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (Where they launched the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft from)? Kennedy Space Center (launching point for Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and forthcoming Orion missions)? If you're not into space, there's things like Bok Tower Gardens, Wekiva Springs, Lake Eola Park. Beaches? Daytona, Cocoa Beach (don't forget to visit Ron-Jon's Surf Shop), Melbourne Beach, Vero Beach, etc.

The east coast gets much of the beachgoing visitors, and has the best surf, but the west coast has the better water. You're in the Gulf of Mexico, and the water is warm and crystal-clear. It makes for a much more relaxing day than on the eastern shore. It's all in what kind of experience you prefer. Mu favorite beach was Indian Rocks Beach, on the west coast, a bit north of Tampa. Friendly, not over-developed, and all-in-all a comfy place to spend time.

There's so much more down there that I couldn't begin to list it all. I liked the climate, the people (who, oddly enough, were almost all from the north), and the whole central Florida lifestyle.

Why'd I leave? My job went north, and I followed. Silly me. My first winter in Milwaukee we had a week of below -20 weather. You can imagine I was missing Christmas lights under the palm trees.

Bloody good fun...

There's a couple of books and a new TV series I'd like to recommend. The books are "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" and "Dearly Devoted Dexter", both by Jeff Lindsay. The series is Showtime's "Dexter".

It's kind of hard to describe the premise, at least in any way that will make sense. Short version, Dexter is a forensic specialist for the Miami-Dade Police, specializing in blood-splatter evidence. In his spare time he's a serial killer. He has a speciality there, as well. He only preys on "bad people" -- basically other serial killers.

It is kind of a "guilty pleasure" rooting for a serial killer, somewhat akin to a Hitchcock movie with their morally flawed protagonists. This takes that concept, though, and pushes it to it's limits.

Dexter seems a nice enough guy, until you realize that his nice-guy facade is just that, a facade. It's all posturing to convince folks that he's just a regular guy. Inside, well, he'd argue that he has no emotions or feelings for anyone or anything. In reality, though, he's got a lot more there than he'd ever be willing to admit.

This is somewhat of a genre cross. Dexter is simultaneously a thriller and black comedy, with a few horror elements thrown into the mix. If that's not your thing, you might want to skip it. Otherwise, go read the books, watch the show.

Apropos of nothing...

Things have been a bit worked up the past few days, so here are some pretty pictures of EXPO 67.

More angst later.

- Kim

Terrible swift sword...

I've been reading (and seeing) the weirdest possible defence of the house leadership in the past day or so. It basically goes that others knew about it too, otherwise how did they leak it? Therefore it's all their fault for not leaking it earlier, putting the kids at risk.

Um...

First of all, that "George Soros funded" organization that sat on it 'till five weeks before the election? They turned what they had over to the FBI back in July. Dick Morris? Anyone noticed that Bill Clinton fired him in 1996? That'd be, oh, roughly a decade ago. And Bill Clinton himself? What's his connection to the Foley transcripts again?

Oh, and don't forget the Drudge-reported story that the whole thing was a prank gotten out of hand. Give me a fucking break. This has got to be a new frontier in desperation:

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX THU OCT 5 2006 22:01:25 ET XXXXX
CLAIM: FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE CHATS WERE PAGE 'PRANK GONE AWRY'
**Update**

According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal.

According to one Oklahoma source who knows the former page very well, Edmund, a conservative Republican, said he goaded an unwitting Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos. The prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats.

The primary source, an ally of Edmund, adamantly proclaims that the former page is not a homosexual. The prank scenario was confirmed by a second associate of Edmund. Both are fearful that their political careers will be affected if they are publicly brought into the investigation.

The prank scenario only applies to the Edmund IM sessions and does not necessarily apply to any other exchanges between the former congressman and others.

The news come on the heels that Edmund has hired former Timothy McVeigh criminal attorney, Stephen Jones.

Late Thursday, Jones strongly denied the exchanges with Foley were a prank by the former page. Jones said, "There is not any aspect of this matter that is a practical joke nor should anyone treat it that way."

But those close to Jordan Edmund stand by their accounts of what Jordan told them.

As noted in the last two paragraphs above, the "prank" story has been refuted by the ex-page in question. Doesn't seem to satisfy the ever-partisan Drudge, though.

Okay, so the leadership has taken the position that the best defence is the proverbial good offense. Pure bullshit, but I suppose it's the best they can do, given the facts of the case. Even so, where exactly would this excuse them for burying the reports and pretending nothing was going on?

It's yet another attempt at cynically manipulating the public through misdirection and lies. This time (for once!) it doesn't seem to be working.

On their way to a much warmer place...

I haven't written much on the whole Mark Foley scandal. What's to be said? He used his position to proposition teenage boys, had cybersex with some, met at least one for drinks and 'whatever', and it's still unknown whether he actually engaged in sexual relations with any pages.

Yeah, Foley is gay. So what? That, as a factor, is akin with the Catholic Church blasting gay priests for the church's pedophilia scandals. Makes a great red herring, helps turn the inattentive against gays, and has absolutely nothing to do with the case at hand.

My personal take on Foley and his acts: This man is slime. As an adult with a position of authority, he abused his position to proposition (and more?) teens for sex. His position implicitly put pressure on them to go along, or (at the very least) to shut up about it. We now hear that his activities have been going on for years.

The house Republican leaderships has been denying any and all knowledge of this -- taking the "nobody told us" route -- even though there's been a real laughable lack of anything like "getting their stories straight". Unfortunately for Denny Hastert (R - IL, and incidentally Speaker) there's three members to date who've 'flipped' on him. Every man for himself, I guess.

Now, Foley's former chief of staff (who, until today worked in the same role for Tom Reynolds) has gone public. Well, that puts the lie to that one. Lots of speculation out there that Dennis Hastert is toast. Of course, he's denying that he was ever told. Who's telling the truth? I dunno, though I have some strong suspicions. Things are happening fast, and I'm pretty sure truth will out, probably very soon.

How dumb do they think we are? The leadership has known for a long time about Foley and his extracurricular activities, but chose to do nothing. It's not that there was nothing to find. It's not that there was no basis to pry. Foley has been considered "creepy" by the pages for years, and every new class of pages has been warned about him. Seemingly EVERYONE involved with the house has known about this -- EXCEPT the republican leadership. Why didn't they know?

Simple.

THEY DIDN'T WANT TO.

Once ABC got hold of the story with the 'suggestive' emails, it took them a loooong time to find the damning IM's. Umm, it took at least 24 hours. So, what it basically comes down to is that the leadership could have know all about it with a minimum of effort, roughly equivalent to opening their eyes.

Why? Why didn't they want to know?

Politics. Purely politics. Under the Rovian system, you do anything to win. Anything. Whatever it takes. Ethics and morals have a completely different meaning than in the 'real world'. If it helps you to win, it's by definition 'good'. If it hurts your electoral efforts, it's by definition 'bad'.

So, stories of a pedasterist congressman reach the speaker. The congressman is from the speaker's party, so exposure of the congressman is 'bad'. (And if the congressman had been a Democrat, then exposure would have been 'good'.)

The short version is that Hastert (and the rest of the so-called leadership) blew off the danger to the pages, because doing something about Foley would have had a 'bad' effect politically. In their warped system of ethics, they did precisely the correct thing.

In the real world it's the kids that are important. You've got a pedasterist after their butts (literally!) and the top priority is to STOP HIM before he can do any more harm. It's not Hastert's concern, though. The scandal, now, that is a problem.

Priorities.

The ironic thing is that, if when he'd been put on notice that there was a problem, he'd done something about it, there wouldn't be a problem today. The scandal would have been long-since over, and there wouldn't be anything to distract the public from the was and terror.

Instead the house Republican Party is imploding, rumor has it that Dennis Hastert may be out as speaker as early as tomorrow (and, possibly, out of the house entirely) and there's speculation his won't be the only head to roll.

And, with everything going on, has anyone been doing anything to help the kids? At the end of the day, that's what this is supposed to be about.

"FoleyGate"

I'm sure I'll write much more about this, but here's a possible ultimate in cynical behavior.

Sheesh.

Those sons-of-bitches in Washington...

Jeezus! For THIS we've been at war for five years?

- Kim

Some adult language...

Um, yeah. Last week was eventful, and provided a LOT of reasons for a complete change of government in the US. At the presidential level, there's not going to be any change for two-and-a-half years. Not much to be done there but grit our teeth and bear it. At the congressional level, in about five weeks it is time to "throw the bums out".

I've attached a cartoon on the subject from Erin Lindsay's comic strip, "Venus Envy". She says it one hell of a lot better than I ever could.

What the hell happened to the country I grew up in? How has the public managed to let themselves be stampeded into giving up over two centuries of hard-won freedoms in just a few short years?

An act of provocation that succeeded beyond its wildest aspirations, a lot of big lies and a slew of smaller ones, and people hand over the keys to their lives. IF (and its a huge IF) the terrorist threat is ever totally eliminated, do you really think this government will return the power they've taken? Return to us the liberties we've docilely handed over to our masters?

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK THE AL QAIDA BOMBERS WERE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH? You think it was about killing a few thousand New Yorkers? Destroying some expensive real estate?

Bullshit. The goal -- the ultimate goal of ALL terrorism -- was to create a political change. They wanted to change us into something that would help them in their battle against western civilization.

Ya think they succeeded?

Have they changed us? Changed our government, our society into something that wont -- can't -- effectively oppose them?

How do you fight fascists? By becoming fascist? I don't think so. The changes we've made in our government -- in our society -- by surrendering our liberty don't do a blessed thing to make us safer.

It's claims to the contrary, the government hasn't stopped or prevented a single terrorist attack in the US. The power the bastards in Washington have grabbed isn't about making us safer. It was never about making us safer. The purpose of unfettered power isn't safety. The purpose of unfettered power IS power.

Back in the saddle again...

I'm posting again. Can you tell its election season?

Actually, I've been planning to resume for a while, but between one thing and another, well, you get the idea. *sighs* On the good side, I'm feeling much better now. Seriously.

No, really.

Okay, I spent about a week in the hospital last month. Congestive heart failure. Not fun, especially when they were trying to purge the excess fluid from my system and overdid it a bit, and my blood pressure kept crashing. Not a bit fun.

Ah well, I'm back now, and mad as hell. More follows...

A cry for help...

Gosh, I can't think of what to say.

Literally.

I've had weeks when I felt better, but then, that's not altogether unprecedented. Day after tomorrow (Monday) I've got more heart surgery, but again that's hardly novel either (note the use of the term "more" surgery). Even ranting about Little George doesn't excite me much right now.

*Sighs.*

Oh, and I don't "do" April Fools Day. It's always struck me as an excuse for wanton cruelty. Yes, some things are at least relatively harmless ("Do you have Prince Albert in a can?), but most are designed to find humor in building up a persons expectations and then dashing them. Oh joy. What fun.

BTW, the image is copyright and TM Studio Ghibli, from the excellent film "My Neighbor Totoro". It's now out on DVD -- Buy it. It's well worth it.

I guess I could ask for a bit of help. There's a piece of music I've been looking to identify for years. I don't have a clip of it to post here. If I did, I guess I'd know what it is and not have to ask. It's used (or was when last I visited) in the film in the French pavillion at Epcot. It's used in the film "Beauty and the Beast" in the opening under the narration. And in the Woody Allen / Peter Sellers version of Casino Royale, it's played onscreen by David Niven (at the piano). I've long suspected it's by DeBussy, and it's identified as such in Casino Royale. I've looked and listened for years, and never been able to identify it. Sad, really, since it's obviously something famous, and my cultural education seems to be lacking. Anyone able to help?

Piper's been hard at work on the new server. We fimnally (!!!) recieved the final missing parts yesterday, and today she got the furschlugginer thing built. Next we (read: Piper) get to install the OS, software, and test the heck out of it. Then we migrate the Site and bring it up. I figger at the current rate we'll have everything in place by roughly, oh, 2055.

While I'm writing this, we've been watching SVU on the DVR. Would that sentence make a lick of sense to anyone from, say, 1995? Even 2000? For that matter, try explaining "blog" to someone from "2000". I'd be happy to try -- anyone got a spare time machine available?

What the heck did we all do before we had computers at home? (This question doesn't apply to anyone born after, oh, 1975.) How'd we fill the time? I was never a particularly heavy TV viewer, but I did one heck of a lot of reading. Books. On paper. I still read things on paper. The New York Daily News. Magazines. A few books that aren't available in any other form. The rest is either on the computer or, more likely, on my PDA. It's just so convienent carrying a whole stack of books in something the size of a slim paperback.

Power grab...

I grew up in the era of LBJ and Tricky Dick. If either one of them had tried to arrogate this much power, well, there'd be holy hell to pay. I hope there will be now. I don't care if it's Little George or President Hillary or anyone in between, NO president should have that much power. They talk about the "slippery slope? I fear we're well down it and teetering at the falling-off point.

Click This!

Just a few things I've run across that you might find of interest...

If you like all things Disney but are a bit lost with all the changes they're going through, these links might give you a bit of perspective.

It's not that I've lost my interest in politics. Here's one site I check out every day. WARNING: It's a liberal Democratic site, so persons who aren't might risk seeing something that doesn't conform to their worldview. Okay, okay. But keep in mind I'm a conservative Republican. So think just how disgusted I've gotta be with whats going on to faithfully follow TPM.

BTW, ya see the Donald over there? It's copyright and TM 2006 by Disney. Just giving them their props. Speaking of ducks (we were, weren't we?) who do you consider the best "duck" artist? The acknowledged master is, of course, Carl Barks, the "good duck man". Some prefer Keno Don Rosa, the spiritual successor of Carl Barks. Others prefer other artists (well, duuh!). There's too many to list here. Who's your favorite?

G'night, all!

Nothing Much...

I'm still generally feeling better than I was before the defibrillater/pacemaker was installed. There's been good days and bad days, of course, but all-in-all the good days have been more common this month.

This isn't to say I'm feeling anything like I did before the heart attack. I get up to do stuff at 10 in the morning, and by 2 PM I'm just about ready to nap for the rest of the day. *sighs* Oh, well. I do what I can.

One sad thing is that I used to be a neat freak. Well, that's gone now, given my inbility to do more than the minimal amount of stuff around the house. (Can you say sty?) Piper and Pickles do their best to help, of course, but the bottom line is that there's lots of things I used to be able to do that I can't do any more. At one point the two of them decided to give my place a good housecleaning. I tried to help, just a bit, and within less than ten minutes I'd collapsed and wound up in the emergency room that evening (and inpatient for several days, too!).

In cooking, well, lets just say that the microwave has been my friend. And no, modern pacemakers don't freak at microwave ovens. Much. (err...) I have to worry more about things like, of all possibilities, security arches. I've been told by the doctors that, reassurances in the literature to the contrary, it would be a Bad Thing for me to dawdle in a store's security arch, and, oh yeah, don't even think about going through a metal detector. *shrugs* I'm told that I show them my "implanted device" ID card and the TSA folks will take me around the arch and do a 'pat down' search. Oh, that sounds like fun.

Enough of the 'pity party'. I'm alive and vertical, which is a whole heck of a lot better than the alternative. Piper and Pickles have been better friends than I deserve, and it's largely through their efforts I'm doing as well as I am.

Been a while...

Dang! Has it REALLY been a year-and-a-half since I've left a posting? Umm, yeah.

There's reasons. There are always reasons. It's the GOOD ones that are harder to come by.

Yeah, the '04 election was more than a bit demoralizing. It'd be even more demoralizing if I thought it was an honest result. Uh, wait, maybe the other way around. Um, let me think on this a bit.

Actually, the biggest contributor to my long silence has been my declining health. Given my heart condition, and then pneumonia, that pretty well knocked the props out from under me for quite a while. In terms of strength, I went from working on the treadmill and doing some weight training three times a week to doing them... um... never. Literally no strength available. I've had all sorts of surgical procedures (lungs scrubbed, anyone?), diagnostic procedures (if you turn out the lights I might just glow a soft green), all of which only helped modestly if at all, and as I went through this all, leaving me with no enthuseasm to do anything.

So, the past few years have had no stories, no blog posts, and darn little of anything else.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa.

About ten days ago I had another round of surgery, this one to implant a defibrillator/pacemaker into my chest. It seems to have gone well. Everything, (I keep being told) is healing nicely. Best of all, though I had been warned to not expect this, I've got a lot more energy to do things, and the motivation to make use of said energy. I s'pose it could be psychosomatic, but if it is I'll take it. It's really nice having the taste to do things again.

Beyond this post, I'm working on a petty-much-total redesign of my web site. There'll be a few new features, if anyone cares. Instead of being primarily for my readers and fasns, this version will be primarily for me. There'll still be my stories and etc, my blog will be linked in, there will be a guestbook (this time for sure!), and the links are ones I use on a quite frequent basis. The reader will be welcome to use them too, but that's not their main reason. (Hey! Look how erudite I am! Lookit alla da classy links!) They'll be there to make it easier for me to organize and use my favorites.

The 'journal' is gone forever. I'll be blogging as the whim takes me, and it'll be about whatever I'm in the mood to vent upon. I'd suspect politics are going to be a part of this, as will selected events in my life, the occasional rant, and whatever few observations I may have worth sharing.

I really don't need to worry about censoring the comments. I'm living off social security disability, and as I understand it that's not likely to change. So no boss to be looking over my shoulder for me to be telling tales out of school. Of course, there are my partners in PP&F NetWorks (Bill and Piper) who aren't necessarily happy with this philosophy, but I don't report to them, just as they don't report to me, and besides I've never actually made a nickel off the company. It's doing well, well enough to be self-sustaining, but not so well that it's providing me with the lap (or any other body parts) of luxury.

Just for the record, what I blog here is my personal opinion, and doesn't represent the views of my partners nor of PP&F NetWorks, LLC. They do represent my personal opinions, though, and despite the fact that I have no desire nor intent to defame nor libel anyone, my comments might be a bit harsh. (Darn! I miss having a moustache to twirl.)

Just remember to apply the administrations mantra. If you like what I'm doing, I dood it all myself and the credit and glory goes all to me. Iff'n you hate it, well there were many hands contributing, mistakes were made, and IT'S NOT MY FAULT!