Mid-Week Catch As Catch Can

Michael Phelps - The longest of long drinks of water. Can he possibly not be on steroids? 5 Golds and counting . . .

I kind of hate this guy

Russia invades Georgia. The other one. But now they promise to pull out. We've all made that promise before. Can you trust a pull-out promise from a guy named Putin?

While on that topic . . .

John Edwards . . . how long is this stupidity going to last? For a long time as far as I can tell. Is anyone else intrigued by the evidentiary/pornographic possibilities raised by the fact that his mistress was a videographer? A videographer who praised Mr. Edwards for his willingness to "try new things?" There must be a video around somewhere.

Looking at my older posts, I realize that someone has hacked in and inserted a variety of typos, non-sequiturs, and overly vague and esoteric references. It's pretty frustrating.

Bloomberg News is quoting Dennis Gartman that oil will go down to $80 a barrel. Hmmmm. Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah. Right here last week.

Almost a year and a half ago T. Boone Pickens predicted $100 a barrel before any other serious players. Now he's promoting a wind based energy independence plan for the US. Sounds good to me.

T. Boone - Ahead of the Curve

What's in the head of a 5 year old boy? My son plays games in his head while sitting around the house or in the car. Asked what he was thinking about, he replied, "Pokemon, Scooby Doo, Star Wars, and Giants. All of those."

Quick Movie Reviews:

The Ruins - Not good, but not terrible. For older teenagers.

Chimps in Space - The kids loved it.

WALL - E - Great movie. We all loved it.

Back From Vacation

(Sorry for the long absence. I hope somebody still reads this.)

A week out of town and away from the tv can really reset one's perspective. For one thing, coming back and listening to the news, it seems like one long episode of News of the Weird.

First, I noticed some good news occurring.

Check this out:

Oil prices are down! Yay! We knew those oil execs would force prices lower before the fall election to help out John McCain! (No windfall profits tax for them.) I'm guessing $80/bbl by November 1st!

U.S. Military Has Fewest Iraq Deaths Since Invasion

Click Here for details.

12 American soldiers died in July in Iraq. Feels odd to be happy about that, but we all know the context. That's 12 out of 147,000. Sounds safer than commuting.

More good news . . .

Mad Men is the best show on tv, and the new season has just started. It's produced by AMC, of all things. So good luck finding it. At my house it's on Sunday night at 10:00, but we tivo everything now. We rented the first season on dvd, and actually went out late to get the rest of the disks because we were so hooked. Did I mention that everyone in the show smokes like a chimney? It is tremendous!

A Mad man and his crazy wife

Our declining civilization . . .

I can't believe what a stooopid campaign John McCain is running, and he's in a virtual tie with Barry O! Of course, we elected W twice, so I guess that's just who we really are.

Financial rumor - The price of gas has caused consumers to run up their credit card balances, causing liquidity problems for card issuers. This will result in a 2nd wave credit crisis as card banks fail, people's cards get cancelled through no fault of theirs, and they can't buy groceries. Bummerpalooza.

No brainy chick for July. I considered Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing, but a communist muslim is just too radical for me. Plus, McCain is souring me on old people.