George Butler, of Pumping Iron (and Pumping Iron II) fame, has made a new documentary called Going Upriver about no other than John Kerry regarding none other than his Vietnam experiences. Now this should be interesting!
Bush confused Iraq with Afghansitan, in front of Allawi, sort of like parents mixing up their kids' names.
This site is hilarious, and includes poetry Kerry has read to deer while hunting!
We got a little quake today that I felt... my desk rocked gently for 10-15 seconds, then went away. I saw a report about a 5.9 or so out in the Central Valley...
Former head of the NSA calls the present situation in Iraq "...far graver than Vietnam. There wasn't as much at stake strategically, though in both cases we mindlessly went ahead with the war that was not constructive for US aims. But now we're in a region far more volatile, and we're in much worse shape with our allies." Reported in the Guardian.
Slate has a concise take on Kerry's nuance vs. Bush's disregard.
I found this article from the latest Harper's particularly interesting in its examination of the US's shaping of Iraq's govornment/economy. It pits the "pragmatists" versus the neoconservative "year zeroists" in a plot that reads like a fiction thriller. Sadly this is our reality.
Minette & I, joined with friends Don & Rebecca, recently did a 6-day hike in Kings Canyon National Park. It was totally gorgeous, and aside from a little thunderstorm at the start and a weird condensation problem one night, we had glorious hot days and cool, star-filled nights. The trail started at the end of the CA 180, due east of Fresno, at 5,036'. We climbed as high as 12,466'.
I've put some pictures up from my camera (Minette hasn't developed her film yet). We saw no less than 3 bears, all on the last day, and plenty of deer, a rattle snake, a marmot, some horses, and despite the ranger telling us on the outset that he "hadn't seen any" mosquitoes lately, plenty of mozzies below 7,000'.
University of Michigan professor Juan Cole has a thing or two to say about the current situation in Iraq. He claims to not want to sound cocky, but even though he does come off that way you have to admit he does have enough justification to say "I told you so!" and has many an interesting point to make.
President Bush recently disclosed his concern that many OB/GYN's across America are not able to make it with their patients.
Isn't this election campaign just a hoot? First those SBVT folks sought the truth, now Texas citizens seek it, too.
Minette and I ran off into the bear-infested wilds of Kings Canyon last week, and although we made it safely (but did have close encounters of the bear kind!) the morning after we returned I got up only to notice a strange sound, not unlike a bear snorting, coming from the office.