Douglas spin

Current Vermont Governor, Jim Douglas (Republican) has taken to saying the he has "received more votes than any other person in Vermont history".

Why that's amazing; he must be amazing!

Almost as amazing as saying the Vermont's population has increased over the years.

Ah, the joy of spin.

Douglas is an astute politician and certainly knows that he has been elected for one reason only: Vermont liberals (Democrats, Progressives and others) have been beating each other up enough that he slips in.

A win is indeed a win - however let's be honest about it, shall we?

translation for "it's not stimulus, it's just spending"

"it doesn't stimulate *me* and my BFFs"

translation for "it's full of pork"

"it's full of *your* pork"

Where are the photos of the takedown?

It's interesting; the video of the shoes being thrown at Bush clearly shows photographers snapping shots of the takedown of the thrower (they were in a press room after all) - although I can't find a single one of those photos to confirm or deny the stories that the thrower was injured somewhat severely during the takedown. Methinks there was some over-compensation; he fired *both* shoes!

And why the postponement of his court appearance?

Personally, while I don't condone an actual physical attack, I'll be making the same gesture.

Update: Danziger weighs in.

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

A fantastic book; highly recommended. Tight writing, extremely engaging, great character development. And bone deep. I suppose I'll see the movie too now; I really hope they did it justice.

Terry Pratchett's "Turntables of the Night"

A fairly early short story by Terry Pratchett, renowned author of the Discworld series among others. The man is amazing; one of the most talented authors of this era.

Tor is publishing free Sci-Fi e-books

Register at the new Tor site, sign up for their email list and you'll get an email every few weeks for a new free e-book (PDF, mobi, etc) download (free of DRM too) - check it out!

I'm a free agent!

Well, after just over 8 years at JDK, I'm a free agent again! It's a scary time to be without the (small) bit of certainty a "full-time" job brings, though I have to say I'm excited too - onward!

I can't wait for the election to be over

Why? Because that's when the real work begins - and either way, we've got a LOT of work to do.

liberals conservatives and independents (oh my!)

conservatives believe they're right and this means anything they do is not only right, but required. nothing gets in the way of their actions, not even info to the contrary.

liberals believe they're right and so they need to convince you of that. nothing gets in the way of their arguments, not even a failure to sway you.

independents are the poor saps in the middle, hoping the radicals will stop screaming at each other enough so we can all have a productive conversation.