I'm embarrassed. I appear to have this psychosomatic ailment - leisure sickness.

The capture of the Ace of Diamonds - Abid Hamad Mahmud, one of Saddam's top aides, - has led to new reports that U.S. Forces may have killed Saddam Hussein & at least one of his sons.

More on Orrin Hatch being hoist with his own petard - Wired News.

Edge.org is the website of a group of scientists previously known as The Reality Club. Several scientists whose work we like are involved in this, including Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley, Daniel C. Dennett, and Richard Dawkins. They are the kind of scientists who move the human race forward with few people ever knowing about it.

New Russian Space tourism for only $20 million - Tourist-Class Soyuz Seats Open for International Space Station Trip
.

Orrin Hatch pt.2 - If you'll recall, the other day Senator Hatch suggested that the computers of people who download copyrighted material illegally should be remotely destroyed. It appears that Sen. Hatch's website site may have been made with unlicensed software. Oh my...

Ann Coulter pulls no punches and her latest comes out next week - TREASON: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.

I may have discovered the greatest fansite of all time, just in time for the movie - The Hulk Library.

These Russian lesbian teenage pop stars, t.A.T.u., are a perfect example - who knew?

I mentioned the Lycos 50 yesterday as a place to check up on pop culture. Similar places are Google Zeitgeist, and Yahoo Buzz. I am essentially a misanthrope, but I've got to know what's going on.

I usually go to the Lycos50 for pop culture info & instead I found a new science history story - The Seashell on the Mountaintop: A Story of Science, Sainthood, and the Humble Genius Who Discovered a New History of the Earth by Alan Cutler. Nicolaus Steno (1638-1686) was the founder of geology and a scientific groundbreaker who was not supressed by the Church. We'll have to get this one.

Not to be outdone, the Red Chinese (I miss that) are preparing to send up astronauts (scroll down to June 16).

We're sending out new Mars probes!

Orrin Hatch, with whom I occasionally agree, seems to have completely lost it - "The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet." Oh my...

Missed yesterday - I had managed twelve straight. Better at least. I did "work" from 6:45am til almost 10pm yesterday, so I have a decent excuse.

These NASA guys have provided us with a list of cool robot projects. (/.)

Hypocrites everywhere - Massachusetts liberals, who pay lip-service (& checks) to environmental causes, are up in arms against a wind farm - in Nantucket Sound, which separates Cape Cod from Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. NIMBY. (Of course, this is from the NYT, so caveat emptor). (/.)

My dad came to visit today. I got to use a chainsaw on our fallen trees, probably the next best thing to an M-16. I cooked these 3" thick steaks he brought from Bannister's in Oxford, AL and we ate Pecan Pie. Plus, we got to hear my dad tell several great stories (so I come by it naturally).

Virginia Postrel in Wired - The Aesthetic Imperative: Why the creative shall inherit the economy.

NASA Targets Dec. 18 for Shuttle Launch Under New Rules - space.com.

160,000-year-old Fossilized Skulls From Ethiopia Are Oldest Modern Humans
- sciencedaily.com.

"Fighting squirrels is a very big part of what we do." - from Dave Barry.

David Brinkley is dead. There are very few like him.

CRL says to check out libertarian radio guy Neil Boortz.

This is a skunk. That is my driveway.
He's one of at least two skunks & two opossums who've dropped by in recent days. The food was theoretically for the feral cat who's probably our babies' daddy. We call him BD. The skunk's name, btw, is Mr. Pitch (from MST3K-521).

I've been reviewing and taking notes from the science fiction writers' guide - Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction. One of the authors, Cory Doctorow, has written some short stories (1, 2) I've enjoyed. He writes on a group blog - Boing Boing.

While we may be unhappy with the French (okay, we've always hated the French), the demand for stinky, raw-milk cheese remains high. (from Arts & Letters Daily).

A comforting article - British Scientist Puts Odds for Apocalypse at 50-50. The stuff of scary sci-fi ...

Huntsville city councilman proposes to mimic NYC smoking ban. Restaurant & bar owners are worried. If we don't like something let's make it illegal. This renewed Puritanism is the element of the Republican Party that keeps me a pro-defense libertarian.

The reports of museum looting reported from Iraq were grossly exaggerated, in fact a hoax, and were a weak attempt to tarnish the American success.washpost, wsj, national geographic.

Three more weeks of summer school & then a little vacation. Woohoo!
Today was the first day of summer football workouts. It went well.
Carry on.

I'm ambivalent about Martha Stewart's plight. I like her mainly because so many people hate her (my usual contrariness). If she's guilty of insider trading then she should be tried like anybody else, but I suspect she's being singled out. I think at first a lot of the news media vilified her, but now there seems to be a movement to rise to her defense (SaveMartha.com). Maybe they found out she was a big contributor to Democratic candidates. She appreciates the support, gracefully of course.

I also watched the first 10 minutes of Austin Powers in Goldmember. Man it was awful. As CRL said, "It was a one-movie joke".

I've watched most of a couple of relatively recent 'sword & sorcery' movies - Kull the Conqueror with Kevin Sorbo (Hercules) and The Scorpion King with Dwayne Johnson (The Rock). They were both just awful. I guess it's a little much to expect all sci-fi to be Lord of the Rings or The Matrix, but the plots to these things are so simplistic that it's almost insulting. Oh well...

The new kittens turned 8 weeks this weekend. Here's an evening shot of them with their mom, Mrs. Doyle (her namesake). The darker orange one on the right is Penn and she will go to live with our friend Rush.

A couple of weeks ago two of our favorite movies finally came out on DVD. Both are Coen Brothers' movies - Miller's Crossing, one of my top 10 favorites of all time and Barton Fink, one of CRL's favorites (of course, we both like both).

Watched the end of a Joe Don Baker movie on MST3K this morning on SciFi. Even the later ones on SciFi with Mike (which I don't like as much as the early ones with Joel) are still funnier than 99% of anything. Episode List at Satellite News.

I still love to read Dilbert. I wait about a week and then read them all at once. Geek...

The New York Times has imploded while we were away: Editors resign, following the embarrassments of Rick Bragg & Jayson Blair. Just desserts for their anti-American coverage of the War in Iraq.

I'm teaching summer school. 7:45am-3:10pm with 8 kids who could not care less about US History since Reconstruction. We're just rocking along definitions, notes and a flurry of worksheets. An extra paycheck.

I found out about this fantasy/sci-fi writer Gene Wolfe by searching Amazon & other places & I'm reading Shadow & Claw: The First Half of the Book of the New Sun: The Shadow of the Torturer/the Claw of the Conciliator. I'm really enjoying this thing. It is so different from Martin & Jordan, in that it's one point-of-view and is in distant future Urth that is more like our past. It has a dense language and philosophical speculations that have been a nice change of pace. (turns out there's a GURPS worldbook).

I also have begun reading & taking notes on books on writing - starting with: The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile.

I've started some reading this spring & I've reread George R. R. Martin's three Song of Ice & Fire books and am waiting for the fourth.

In addition to spring football & fantasy baseball, we've got a new batch of kittens who turn 8 weeks tomorrow. See them here at four weeks. We won't have any kids, so this is a cute as we'll ever get around here.

When I've been online I've spent a lot of time "worrying" (as CRL says) over my espn.com fantasy baseball team - the GateTree Mockingbirds. As of today I'm 1/2 point out of first place.

One major reason for inactivity was spring football practice at Austin High School. I've become the running back coach and will actually be paid to coach this year (my 9th year coaching, 4th getting paid for it). In the spring game my side won the game 27-19. My backs on both teams did quite well.

Ok, I haven't posted in over a month. I will make my apologies to my reader(s) by posting what we have been up to for the last several weeks and links to the cool stuff I've seen.

A review of Matt Ridleys new book, Nature via Nurture, in The Guardian.

Ye Newe York Times - the Weekly Standard

The Onion - Christopher Hitchens forcibly removed from trailer park after drunken confrontation.

Weekly Standard humorist Larry Miller puts the Iraqi Museum hub bub in perspective.

This sounds like our best bet yet for privately-funded, manned space flight.
Scaled Composites, Inc. is chasing the $10 million X Prize.

A report on chemical weapons in Iraq - FoxNews, NYTimes.

"Democracy!, Whiskey!, Sexy!"
- a newly freed Iraqi with the right ideas - Najaf, Iraq - April 4, 2003.

The last couple of weeks has been quite an experience. We watched Saddam's soldiers in Baghdad & the rest of Iraq fold up like a cheap tent; We watched the Left implode as they could not not digest the success of George W. Bush, the American military & the United States; And we finally had indisputable evidence that CNN has indeed been the Compromised News Network all along.

Of course we had to watch tapes of Brit Hume and Fox News because floundering Charter Cable cannot seem to make the little blinking lights line up (or balance their books). Nonetheless this sweeping victory for the War on Terror, the Bush Doctrine, and the people of Iraq has the Leftists reeling, again.
I'll say it again - "Democracy! Whiskey! Sexy!"

There was a flurry on the web and here's a recap of what we enjoyed most:
As usual James Taranto's Best of the Web at the Wall Street Journal was invaluable, as was the Weekly/Daily Standard. NewsMax.com was usually first with the controversial (meaning bad for the Left) stories.

CRL read and recommends: The War over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission by William Kristol & Lawrence F. Kaplan to explain what's going on with the Bush Doctrine.

Others we enjoyed this week:

Victor Hansen Davis had two good columns:
4/10 - Leftists imploding, 4/11 - Unprecedented in military history.

Andrew Sullivan kept us aprised of Leftists Imploding.

Compromised News Network's mea culpa.

I have enjoyed Hugh Hewitt's columns in the Daily Standard this week:
(4/10 - Liberals imploding, 4/15 - Compromised News Network).

Corrupted News Network by Gary Aldridge in NewsMax.com.

Order your copy of the Deck of Death.

In downtown Baghdad:
On one street, a white-haired man held up a poster of Saddam and beat it with his shoe. A younger man spat on the portrait, and several others launched kicks at the face of the Iraqi president.
"Come see, this is freedom. This is the criminal, this is the infidel," he said. "This is the destiny of every traitor. He killed millions of us."
-Fox News

Sign held by two Iraqis in downtown Baghdad, 4/9/03, shown on FoxNews/SkyNews,
"Go Home Human Shields, from Iraqis".

Music to my ears - Bagpipes play as Black Watch takes Basra.

Iraqui general seeks refuge, shares info - Times Online.

How should the U.S. administrate/govern post-war Iraq?
In Policy Review, Stanley Kurtz provides a blue print for Democratic Imperialism.
By way of - Arts & Letters Daily.

Blogging has been slow & I apologize to my reader(s?).

War Coverage
I constantly check FoxNews.com because they update frequently when action is fast moving. They have video from correspondents and a pro-American attitude.

I also check the Washington Times, which has more newspaperesque stories.

I look to NewsMax.com for news/commentary on stories that FoxNews won't speculate on, like the Marine commander who was removed for not moving fast enough, should France/UN not be involved in post-war reconstruction, and polls supporting this and further military action. And of course the NewsMax.com led boycott of France.

The Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web provides links to the best and worst war coverage each weekday. The Opinion Journal page is great, of course.

The best columns on the war are consistently being published by The Weekly Standard. Matt Labash's story about being in Kuwait/Iraq with P.J. O'Rourke/Christopher Hitchens is one of the best things I've read since the war began.

I've been finding the best links on the war at Wall Street Journal - Opinion Journal.

In violation of numerous United Nations resolutions, beginning with treaties that ended the Gulf War in 1991 and ending with UN Resolution 1441, Saddam Hussein posseses chemical and biological weapons and has been attempting to acquire nuclear weapons. For years he has supported anti-western terrorists. It does not take a genius to figure out that he could easily provide terrorists with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) to use against the US and other nations. After the terrorists attacks of 9/11/01 the U.S. must take this threat seriously, and prevent it from happening. We must not simply wait and react to the next vicious attack. When you add this to the terror he has visited upon his own people for almost 30 years, this is not a difficult decision. Although no one sane desires war, a nation must be willing to go to war or submit to tyrrany. Some countries have decided that doing business with Hussein is the best way to avoid confronting him, no matter the danger he poses to the rest of the world. The U.S., led by President Bush, has shown uncommon resolve and is now bringing Hussein's reign of terror to an end. I will be watching on Fox News.

Dr. Steven Pinker, from the Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (and our favorite scientist), spoke to the President's Council on Bioethics about Human Nature and Its Future.

Daniel Dennett rips ideological scientists a new one(scientifically).

Not surprising. Anti-American idiots in California.

Talk about alternative energy sources - Electricity from cow manure. (more)

They're trying to change our college hometown (Tuscaloosa) yet again...good luck.

War on Terror update:
Terrorists are targeting Pearl Harbor.
Al-Qaeda military chief captured. more.

From the "You can't make this up dept.":
Human shields fear for safety; Many are leaving Iraq.

Segway hasn't quite changed the world. I still want one.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is rocking along. - CNN Money

In 1968 Robert Conquest upset the west by showing the Soviet Union was an evil murdering empire. The Left loudly denounced him. He was right (of course).

We recently got Daniel C. Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Amazon called it "One of the best descriptions of the nature and implications of Darwinian evolution ever written." Matt Ridley (author of Genome) reviews Dennett's new book - Freedom Evolves.

BarBQ in a southern culture mag. Description of Dreamland sparked my memory..

Article in The Washington Times about The Three Stooges. Nyuck, nyck.

Susan Lee explains the difference between conservatism and libertarianism in the Wall Street Journal.

NASA engineer's email warned of 'catastrophic' failure with tires on Columbia.

Larry Miller is a funny guy who's actually not a commie - in The Weekly Standard.

Residents challenge D.C.'s gun ban. - Wash Times

Armed Cuban border guards in Key West. - (from Dave Barry)

Happy 92nd President Reagan. Even the intelligentsia is beginning to recognize his greatness.

I ask again, "Is Europe still relevant?" - Anti-Americanism Moves to W. Europe's Political Mainstream.

Cyberpunk money, but from France?

Is Europe still relevant? - NATO rift.

Dude, you got busted.

Computers printed on paper in Business 2.0.

From the Blowing Things Up Dept.: Simultaneous Strategic Bombing Strike at Strategy Page. (from my friend Carey)

Cyberpunk invisibility cloaks.

Now Tuscaloosa will seem completely different when I visit.- CNN. (from Jeff R.)

Article on Space Shuttle tiles & insulation. - Wash Post.

It appears that Saddam's head bodyguard is in Israel revealing WoMD secrets - Herald Sun.

Great column on Columbia at GlennReynolds.com.

Space exploration continues; Russian cargo rocket blasts off for space station. - MercuryNews

"NASA chiefs 'repeatedly ignored' safety warnings" - Don Nelson, retired mission operations evaluator, in UK's Observer.

Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart this morning over Texas.

Tardblog. True, but not for the faint-hearted.

Richard Dawkins almost makes genetics entertaining.

For anyone who has had to sit through this sort of thing: If the Gettysburg address were butchered on PowerPoint.

Art historians continue to argue over Leonardo da Vinci.

At the UN, on Weds., Colin Powell will reveal intelligence info that clearly demonstrates Iraqis hiding weapons. - MSNBC