What We Don't Know About Obama

The major media has been criminally negligent during this election cycle with its fawning, sycophantic coverage of Fraudbama. Corsi writes today about some of the things we still don't know about The One.

Birthplace, religion, black liberation theology, passport, Pakistan, school expenses and records, house deal, friends, mentors and clients.

These are among the questions that despite months of campaigning for the presidency, thousands of hours in front of reporters and cameras, and hundreds of members of a massive campaign staff, the public still doesn't have fully answered about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Just four years ago, Obama essentially was an unknown state legislator who with the help of the Chicago political system took over a seat in the U.S. Senate. He stated then he was unqualified for national office, but within about two years launched his bid for the White House, knocking off one of the powerhouses of Democratic politics, Sen. Hillary Clinton, in the primaries.

The questions, then, abound as he's proposed giving the United Nations hundreds of billions of dollars, promised 95 percent of Americans a tax cut and pledged to pursue environmental campaigns even if coal companies go bankrupt as a result.

He's also stated the U.S. Supreme Court should have stepped beyond the Constitution and ventured into plans for wealth redistribution, he's told a plumber his goal is just to "spread the wealth," and his wife has said people will need to give up their piece of the pie so that others can have more.

All without answers to key questions.

Among the issues remaining to be explained fully are his acquaintances in his Chicago political career, who include:

* Antoin "Tony" Rezko, an associate of Arab-Syrian descent who was a campaign fundraiser for Obama. Obama returned an estimated $225,000 in Rezko-generated campaign contributions since Obama first ran for Illinois state senate in 1995, but Rezko also assisted when Obama bought a $4 million dream property in Hyde Park. Currently Rezko's a convicted federal felon.

* Professor Edward Said, a Muslim professor at the University of Chicago who was strongly pro-Palestinian and pro-Arab. He promoted Barack and Michelle Obama in the Chicago Arab community. He's deceased.

* Rashid Khalidi, a Muslim professor at the University of Chicago and Columbia University who was funded by Woods Fund grants approved by Obama and unrepentant terrorist William Ayers. Khalidi founded the Arab-American Action Network and is the author of several strongly pro-Paliestinian, anti-Israel books.

* Ali Abunimah, a Palestian-American Muslim journalist who promoted Obama in his writings and was editor of "The Electronic Intifada" of the Arab American Action Network. He claims Obama has modified his pro-Palestinian position.

* Nadhmi Auchi, a Muslim Iraqi billionaire who is the cousin of Saddam Hussein. He wired more than $3 million as a "loan" to Mrs. Rezko when the Obamas purchased their dream property. He's the largest private shareholder of Bank BPH in Paris and was the reputed bagman for Saddam Huseein in the "oil for fuel" U.N. scandal. He was fined $3 million and given a 15-month prison term in France for his involvement in $100 million in illegal commissions in a scandal involving French oil giant Elf Aquitane.

* Aihm Alsammarae, a Muslim Iraqi who is the former Iraqi minister of electricity. He contributed $2,500 to the Obama 2008 campaign and is a close friend of Rezko. He ran a scheme to corner the Iraqi cellular phone market and was sprung from an Iraqi prison in 2006 by a mysterious group of masked and heavily armed men who broke him out of prison. He fled to Chicago.

* Jabir Herert Huhammad, son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, now deceased. Federal prosecutors alleged that Huhammad participated with Abdelhamid Chaib and Rezko in a scheme to use money borrowed from Mutual Bank of Harvey for allegedly fraudulent real estate deals. The bank is owned by Amrish Mahajan, an Indian and CEO of the bank, which lent $3.4 million to Rezko.

* Abdelhamid "Ali" Chaib, a Muslim who is a long-time Rezko associate who ran Crucial Concessions Food Business set up by Jabir Muhammad and allegedly was involved in a $1.32 million partner scheme to securitize loans, in part to assist Jabir Herert Huhammad purchase a pizza franchise that questionably added to the Rezko-Jabir Muhammad food concessions business. Obama returned to Chaib in 2004 a $5,000 campaign contribution made in 2003 to Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate campaign after Chaib's indictment in the alleged Crucial Concessions Food fraud scheme was announced.

* Davis Miner Branhill & Galland. This was the law firm for which Obama worked starting in 1993. While there he represented "Rezmar," a community development firm owned by Tony Rezko and Dan Mahru that bilked low-income community housing projects that borrowed billions for property developments allegedly made fraudently. Eleven of the 30 alleged failed Rezmar properties were in Obama's state senate district.

Then also there are the influences on Obama's career, from the one-time writer of a sex novel, Frank Marshall Davis, to unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, with whom Obama served on boards.

This is significant since voters have only a few years of Obama's U.S. Senate record on which to judge him, and while a state legislator he voted dozens of times "present" in moves that would not reveal support for or opposition to an issue or position.

Among the subjects of those questions are:

* Frank Marshall Davis, a communist poet and journalist from Chicago who moved to Hawaii. He ghost-wrote a pornographic novel titled "Sexual Rebel: Black (Memoirs of a Gash Gourmet)." He also sold drugs from a Chicago-style hot dog stand while Obama and Obama's grandfather were present, according to allegations made by a WND private investigator hired in Hawaii. According to Obama's autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," Davis was a close confident to Obama, influencing Obama's ideas on radical racial relations. He is deceased.

* Malcom X, Stokely Carmichael and Frantz Fanon were three radical, anti-white black rage authors Obama tells readers influenced him as a youth. Black-rage attitudes developed by reading the authors influenced both Obama's decision to become a radical community organizer in Chicago and to join Rev. Jeremiah Wright's black liberation theology Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

* Saul Alinksy. Obama's first job in Chicago was to head the Alinsky-influenced Developing Community Project, Inc. Obama also participated in teaching Alinsky-methods of radical income redistribution in classroom settings. Obama's current policies of "distributing wealth" stem from anti-capitalist attitudes developed in studying Alinsky's radical works, such as his seminal book entitled "Rules for Radicals."

* Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Pastor for 20 years while Obama was a practicing member of black liberation theology at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Obama heard anti-white, black-rage theology from Wright. The first indication Obama was Christian was when he was baptized in his 30s as a member of United Church of Christ. Obama separated from the congregation after Wright became a campaign liability, although Obama has yet to reject black liberation theology.

* William Ayers and Bernardine Dorhn. Members of the SDS-affiliated radical Weather Underground in the 1960s and 1970s. Obama began his political career at Ayers' home in 1995 when running for the Illinois state senate. Obama served with Ayers on two Chicago foundations, the Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund, giving millions in grants to radicalized programs in Chicago's schools. Obama now claims to disavow Ayers' radical politicals.

* Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga. He's a Luo tribesman affiliated with Obama's father when Odinga's communist father was Kenya's first vice president after Kenyan independence and Obama's father was a Harvard-educated economist working in the Jomo Kenyatta government. Obama campaigned openly for Odinga for president in 2006 when Obama was in Kenya on a U.S. Senate "fact-finding" mission. Kenya's president Kibaki asked Obama to stop interfering with Kenyan presidential politics. Obama raised an alleged $1 million for Odinga to run for president in Kenya in December 2007, adding to the $1 million raised for Odinga's 2007 presidential campaign by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. When Odinga lost the December 2007 presidential election by approximately 233,000 votes, Odinga called for protests which led his Luo tribesmen to murder approximately 1,000 Kikuyu tribesman, displace another 350,000 Kikuyu tribesmen and destroy 800 churches, while not a single mosque was destroyed. Obama helped negotiate a settlement in which Odinga was appointed co-head-of-state and appointed prime minister to end the violence, even after it became publicly disclosed Odinga signed a letter of understanding with radical Muslims in Kenya in return for their votes.

Finally, these are the top questions about Obama that remain unanswered:

1. Why won’t Obama allow the public to see his doctor-generated, hospital-released birth certificate?

2. Was Obama born in Kenya or Hawaii, as his campaign continues to maintain?

3. Was Obama officially adopted by his Muslim stepfather when he lived in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather, from the ages of approximately 6 to 10 years old?

4. Did Obama ever renounce his U.S. passport? Has Obama ever traveled internationally on a passport other than a U.S. State Department-issued passport?

5. Did Obama travel to Pakistan as a student on a U.S. passport, or on an Indonesian passport? Why did Obama travel to Pakistan, who did he visit there and what was the purpose of the trip?

6. How did Obama pay his tuition at the exclusive high school preparatory Punahou Academy he attended in Hawaii, as well as his college tuition at Occidental in California and at Columbia at New York?

7. How did Obama pay his tuition at Harvard Law School?

8. Why will Obama release none of the school records at any of the schools he attended?

9. Obama’s school records in Indonesia show that at both the Catholic and public school he attended there he was registered as a “Muslim” and an “Indonesian Citizen.” Was Obama ever officially instructed in Islam, even in elementary school?

10.Why has Obama refused to discuss the clients he served when he worked for the law firm of Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland in Chicago?

11. Did Obama ever receive any money from the millions Rezko borrowed to redevelop the low-income housing projects in Chicago that Rezko evidently defrauded of the improvements contracted by Obama's firm?

12. Has Obama’s campaign instituted sufficient fiscal controls to determine if any credit card contributions made to his 2008 presidential campaign have come illegally from foreign sources? Have any such foreign contributions been reported to Federal Election Commission authorities and returned, as required by federal law?

13. Has Obama ever renounced black liberation theology as espoused by its chief apologist, James Cone?

14. Has Obama ever renounced Islam?

15. Why have the detailed minutes and funding activities of the Woods Fund and the Annenberg Challenge documents in which William Ayers and Barack Obama participated never been completely released to the public?

While no campaign ever will put to rest every question voters may have, these questions are significant in that the next occupant of the White House will be making decisions on the security of the nation and issues of life and death based in large part on his beliefs and life experience.

Twas the Night Before Elections

'Twas the night before elections
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out of my window
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

' On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi'
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause
And as he flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think
On this one final note-
IF YOU DON'T WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

Obama and Coal

It has finally come out that back in January, Obama said coal plants would be effectively bankrupted by his emissions cap-and-trade system, which would increase taxes on certain industry by over $1 trillion over the next ten years.

McCain is also a sponsor of cap-and-trade legislation and has campaigned on the issue, but one would suppose his plan would be far less onerous.

We are all Obama's relative's keepers

Never mind the fact that Barack "I am my brother's keeper" Obama's brother lives in a shack in Kenya, he's also got an aunt and uncle living illegally on welfare in public housing in Boston. But, his uncle has gone missing. Maybe he's riding around on the MTA.

Vote for America! Save the Republic!

Here's an email I sent to an Ohio friend on the fence because he can't stand either candidate.

After McCain won the primary this year, I swore I wasn't going to vote for him in the general election. Mostly because he had been generally fonder of picking fights with conservatives than with the lefties. I still don't trust him entirely on domestic issues, but I've come to respect him for his service and sacrifice for our country, and his opponent pushed me squarely into his corner.

There is a reason all of the enemies of the United States - including Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Hamas, Al Queda, Iran - are supporting Obama.

He is also supported by enemies within the USA, too. Obama wrote in his book that he chooses his friends carefully. Those friends include some dangerous, treasonous people.

Weird Stuff

Not just regular weird, but an Art Bell level of weird.

An opinion piece on Forbes.com:

Is Barack Obama the "promised warrior" coming to help the Hidden Imam of Shiite Muslims conquer the world?

The question has made the rounds in Iran since last month, when a pro-government Web site published a Hadith (or tradition) from a Shiite text of the 17th century. The tradition comes from Bahar al-Anvar (meaning Oceans of Light) by Mullah Majlisi, a magnum opus in 132 volumes and the basis of modern Shiite Islam.

According to the tradition, Imam Ali Ibn Abi-Talib (the prophet's cousin and son-in-law) prophesied that at the End of Times and just before the return of the Mahdi, the Ultimate Saviour, a "tall black man will assume the reins of government in the West." Commanding "the strongest army on earth," the new ruler in the West will carry "a clear sign" from the third imam, whose name was Hussein Ibn Ali. The tradition concludes: "Shiites should have no doubt that he is with us."

In a curious coincidence Obama's first and second names--Barack Hussein--mean "the blessing of Hussein" in Arabic and Persian. His family name, Obama, written in the Persian alphabet, reads O Ba Ma, which means "he is with us," the magic formula in Majlisi's tradition. ...

Transcript of Obama Discussing the Constitution and Redistributive Change

Here's the transcript from 2001.

MODERATOR: Good morning and welcome to Odyssey on WBEZ Chicago 91.5 FM and we're joined by Barack Obama who is Illinois State Senator from the 13th district and senior lecturer in the law school at the University of Chicago.

OBAMA: If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to vest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples. So that I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order and as long as I could pay for it I'd be okay.

But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society. And to that extent as radical as people tried to characterize the Warren court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as it's been interpreted, and the Warren court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. It says what the states can't do to you, it says what the federal government can't do to you, but it doesn't say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf. And that hasn't shifted. One of the I think tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributed change and in some ways we still suffer from that. ...

MODERATOR: Let's talk with Karen. Good morning, Karen, you're on Chicago Public Radio.

KAREN: Hi. The gentleman made the point that the Warren court wasn't terribly radical with economic changes. My question is, is it too late for that kind of reparative work economically and is that that the appropriate place for reparative economic work to take place – the court – or would it be legislation at this point?

OBAMA: Maybe I'm showing my bias here as a legislator as well as a law professor, but I'm not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts. The institution just isn't structured that way.

You just look at very rare examples during the desegregation era the court was willing to for example order changes that cost money to a local school district. The court was very uncomfortable with it. It was very hard to manage, it was hard to figure out. You start getting into all sorts of separation of powers issues in terms of the court monitoring or engaging in a process that essentially is administrative and takes a lot of time.

The court's just not very good at it and politically it's very hard to legitimize opinions from the court in that regard. So I think that although you can craft theoretical justifications for it legally. Any three of us sitting here could come up with a rational for bringing about economic change through the courts.

Christmas Idea

(NR)

Liberal Fascism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUEQz5dltmI

Douglass K. Daniel is an Ass and Should Be Fired Forthwith

Douglass K. Daniel is an editor for AP who devised this wretched analysis:

Palin's words carry racial tinge.

Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee "palling around" with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America?

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers' day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as "not like us" is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

Most troubling, however, is how allowing racism to creep into the discussion serves McCain's purpose so well. As the fallout from Wright's sermons showed earlier this year, forcing Obama to abandon issues to talk about race leads to unresolved arguments about America's promise to treat all people equally.

John McCain occasionally looks back on decisions with regret. He has apologized for opposing a holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. He has apologized for refusing to call for the removal of a Confederate flag from South Carolina's Capitol.

When the 2008 campaign is over McCain might regret appeals such as Palin's perhaps more so if he wins.

What a disturbing Rorschach.

Mr. Daniel is a goddam lunatic to see a racial overtone to her statement. This is the kind of mephitic commentary more appropriate for the cesspool that is DailyKos.

Blame it on Al

" The supercomputers housed in the data centres, which can be the size of football pitches, use massive amounts of electricity to ensure they do not overheat. As a result the internet is not very green. [Emphasis added.]"

Thanks for warming the planet with your nefarious invention, Al Gore.

Venting Re: Palin and Obama

Not only is Palin is far more qualified to be Vice President than that fraud is to be President, she even has better experience than he does for the highest office in the land.

McCain was right on the View, Obama chooses his words very carefully, and he purposefully chose to use that lipstick comment as a personal attack. It looks even worse given the sentence he spewed out next, that you can wrap an old fish in newspaper and it will still stink. I think he had McCain in mind.

If Palin is a pig and McCain is old fish, then Obama is a polished turd and the media are sycophantic worms deserving a new Canto dedicated to them in Dante's Inferno.

I have really grown to despise that arrogant, vainglorious man over the course of this year. This event has shown that he performs exceedingly poorly under pressure and is not a man to be trusted with the levels of power of the Presidency.

OMG PANIC!

The World Meteorological Organization has declared the first half of 2008 to be to be the coldest in the last five years.

Algore better start logging some air miles to help offset this fearful trend.

CNN - Moost Unusual?

Garfield Minus Garfield

Funny stuff...
http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

Presidential Debate Moderators

Drudge has a report:

FLASH 8/5/08 11:31:52 AM ET: Presidential debate moderators: Jim Leherer of PBS, Tom Brokaw of NBC, Gwen Ifill of PBS and Bob Scheiffer of CBS

Give me a break. These nominees aren't as bad as those creeps on MSNBC but they are still a bunch of dinosaur-media lefties. Couldn't they throw in someone to provide some balance? Brit Hume, perhaps.

New Futurama DVD

Wired.com has reviewed the next Futurama direct-to-DVD movie. Sounds raunchy:

It packs plenty of sharp, punchy one-liners and a plethora of geeky references -- and ups the ante with dirty jokes that wouldn't fly on television. "It's disturbing," said head writer and executive producer David X. Cohen of Beast With a Billion Backs. "There is certainly more of an adult theme in this film than the average Futurama episode."

Before I decide to purchase it, I think I'll check it out on Netflix to see whether Gresham's Law applies to the quality of the show's humor. Network censors were a constant source of gripes in the episode DVD commentaries, but I'll say this for them: they forced the writers to be more creative rather than shooting constantly for the easy, cheap, LCD laugh.

If Google Ruled the World

Good Google-themed photoshop contest.

Changes to eMusic Pricing

Just got this notification:

As eMusic members know, there has never been a better time to be a music fan than right now. So many amazing artists are making vital, inspiring music and it's here for you, at eMusic. In the past four years, eMusic's catalogue has exploded from 250,000 to nearly 4 million tracks covering every genre imaginable. Think of how much music that is—more than we could listen to in a lifetime, and all of it available here for less than you would pay anywhere else. That won't change, but the price of eMusic will. Effective June 17th 2008 for new subscribers the price for eMusic's Monthly Basic Plan will increase from $9.99 to $11.99 for 30 downloads. This increases the price per download to $0.40 for new members—still the best price per song going.

What it Means for You

Your price will also go up, effective July 17th 2008. But because you are a valued eMusic member, you will receive an additional 10 downloads per month. Your new “grandfather” plan means you actually pay less per download. Here's how it breaks out:

	Cost per month	# of Downloads	Cost per Download
Your Current Plan:	$9.99	40	$0.25
Your New Plan:	$11.99	50	$0.24

And on August 17, all active, grandfathered members will receive a one-time, special 10-track booster pack (good for 30 days) as our way of saying thanks for being a loyal subscriber.

Good Things to Come

We're adding thousands of new songs and artists to eMusic every day, and our editorial team will continue to guide you to the best music and audiobooks. And we will be making the eMusic website and experience friendlier, easier and more powerful in the coming months as well, including a new and improved download manager, a site redesign and many more of the features that you have asked for.

Onay Igpay Atlinay orfay ethay Oybay

I tried to teach the 4-and-a-half year old some pig latin, but he said:

It makes my head hurt and it makes the things I know go away!

News for the Boy - Major Dino Find

"SALT LAKE CITY - A newly discovered batch of well-preserved dinosaur bones, petrified trees and even freshwater clams in southeastern Utah could provide new clues about life in the region some 150 million years ago.

The Bureau of Land Management announced the find Monday, calling the quarry near Hanksville "a major dinosaur fossil discovery."

An excavation revealed at least four sauropods, which are long-necked, long-tailed plant-eating dinosaurs, and two carnivorous ones, according to the bureau. It may have also uncovered an herbivorous stegosaurus."

Link to rest of story.

Shocking

Dominion Virginia Power wants to hike electricity rates by 18 percent.

That would be the largest one-time rate increase for the utility since the 1970s, although Dominion customers would still pay less, on average, than many electric customers in Maryland.

That last part doesn't make me feel any better. Besides, Viriginia seems headed toward the same sort of burdensome regulatory and taxation policies that make things more expensive in Mary-Land.

In Demand: Google Tasks

Google's Calendar is very handy, I've now got most of the office using it, and the wife, too!

The next thing Google needs to release is a Google Tasks application. Some bloggers think it is already in development but there is no official word yet, that I am aware of.

In the meantime, I think I will set up a Google spreadsheet for my burgeoning task list.

Cool Stuff?

1.New GMail features, and more info.

2.Google Charts.

3. Facebook hacks and tips.

News for the Boy

Last week I read an article to my 4 1/2 year old son about the effect of the China earthquake on a panda conservation facility. Apparently they've since airlifted several pandas to Beijing...
Saw this photo in Yahoo!News earlier:

Daycare Notes

5/23/08

My note to providers:

[Baby Girl] is feeling a bit silly today.

Daycare note to us:

Mom/Dad, My world is full of fun, it's all about me : )
Ms. [A.] said I was growing up much too fast. : )
It was a "me me me" day : ) all about me.

5/27/08

My note to providers:

[Baby Girl] ha lots of hugs this morning.

Daycare note to us:

Mom/Dad, my day was full of fun. Playing outside, slide, playing inside the house, cooking : ) my day with lots of love.
[Baby Girl] was very loving all day. Sweet, sweet girl.

5/29/08
[Baby Girl] has been teething so she's been grouchy the last few days. On the 28th, she was having a rough morning and I couldn't pry her precious Pinky away from her when it was time to leave for daycare. Pinky is a plush and soft pink puppy with floppy ears that I got for her in the hospital the day she was born, it has become her favorite stuffed animal. At night when I ask her if she is ready to go lay down, she walks to her crib, points inside it, and says "Pinky!"
Unfortunately, we forgot Pinky when we went home at the end of the day. She asked for it several times at bedtime, but was very, very tired so didn't last too long before fading out.

My note to provider:

She is better this morning than yesterday, but she missed her Pinky last night!

I tried to sneak it out to the car after I dropped her off, but she saw it.

Note from daycare:

Storytime, singing songs, ouside play, writing on blacktop with chalk, play with parachute and ball game and a tent game. She had a very happy day!

Poor Hillary

Questions

Why is that whenever I run a disk cleanup in Windows I have to sit there and wait seemingly forever for it to calculate how much free space I could free up if I zipped files when in fact I don't want to zip files?

I read in a computer column about a way to turn this off, but it didn't work.

With all these gigabyte memory drives why would someone want to zip files (besides prepping for email)? Oh, maybe so that Vista will work, but no Vista for me, thanks.

And, one time when I did try and zip a bunch of big files, the "compressed" file was even larger than what I started with. What's up with that?

Handy Seinfeld Quote

You really need some help. A regular psychiatrist couldn't even help you. You need to go to, like, Vienna or something. You know what I mean? You need to get involved at the university level, like where Freud studied, and have all those people looking at you and checking up on you. That's the kind of help you need. Not the once-a-week for eighty bucks, no. You need a team. A team of psychiatrists working around the clock, thinking about you, having conferences, observing you like the way they did with the elephant man. That's what I'm talking about, because that's the only way you're going to get better.

Source.

My name is Paco. My name is Paco.

Ever since she read this story, my wife has been trying to teach our noisy conure that his name is Paco and he is from Peru!

Seriously?!

I find this very hard to believe.


Shaken Republicans look to McCain as savior

"I think that we're going to do a lot better than people think," Boehner said.

"John McCain appeals to almost all Republicans."

Google thinks I am Indian

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

I keep getting this blogger tip when I post something. I never paid it any attention until just now.

Blog in your native Indic script
Convert English characters to Indic script as you type! Learn more about transliteration on Blogger.

Daycare Notes - Not Ready to Be Back

Our daycare for Baby Girl takes their vacation week in the spring, instead of around Christmas time. Before the vacation, we never had any troubles with the drop off, but afterwards, she had a re-adjustment period.

On the first day back, she walked over to a corner and cried:

I wasn't ready to be back, but after I saw all my friends, and Ms. A. gave me some of her love, I was ok :) We had a wonderful day, sotry time was fun with Ms. S and my friends. :)

Daycare Notes

This was from some day last week:

Dad Mom, Ms. A. said my [favorite] word is "No No" :)
But "Thank you" is also big. :)
I am growing up fast. I like playing with my friends. Outside all day: riding, pushing climbing, running, jumping, that's funny! :)

I am thankful I don't have to ride the Metro everyday

Harris Teeter in Adams Morgan

Wow, it finally opened. This has been a decade in the making and it is good for the neighborhood. I hope the Dorchester Market continues to thrive, the owner and employees were always very friendly and seemed like good people. Love the art deco store logo (see pic in the link above).

The Libraries of Alexandria

The Libraries of Alexandria (Virginia) have gone interactive. I've been dropping by 2 of the local branches about twice a week for the past month, so it is odd that I am learning about this feature from a blog and not from a flier or poster or pamphlet from the library system.

It's about time

Blogger now enables scheduled posting. I guess I haven't really had a need for this feature, but I did notice that it wasn't previously available.

Music Search Engine

My wife forwarded a link for SeeqPod, a search engine for music. Put in a band and it scours the web for music files, information, and YouTube links featuring your artist. Pretty handy at pulling stuff from a variety of sources. It will use the available links to create play lists that you can save. Didn't try that out yet. I'll check it out again next time I am looking for something specific. The only complaint I have initially is that only 6 search results are displayed on the first search page. I like to be able to see more than that off the bat, I have google set to show 50 results at a time, for one reason, it is a better gauge of whether my query is pulling useful information. Another complaint is that there were no results for my search for "Wred Fright"!

Questions

Why is it that, in the mid-Atlantic region anyway, the manhole covers in the streets are almost alway in the part of the road where you have to either drive over them and wear out your shocks, or to avoid them, steer wildly in your lane? Why can't they put them more in the center of the lanes?

Also, and equally as annoying, how can I get Microsoft Internet Explorer to *stop* asking permission before I copy from or paste into a web page?

Random Find

For some reason I was looking for info on the defunct funk band, Big Hunk o' Cheese, and found this old video from Saturday morning TV in the 70's. I remember doing a specific search for it last year after I realized it wasn't included in the School House Rock DVDs we checked out from the library for The Boy to watch, but I couldn't locate it.


and this,


wait, there's more,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt3KHH4Hh4A&feature=related

And last but not least:

Baby Girl

Baby Girl (almost a year and a half old now, but she is still my baby girl) is so sweet. When she finishes her bottle at night, I ask her if she is ready for bed she nods and says, "Yeah!" then she gets up, walks over to crib, and in mimic of me, counts to three the way I do when I prep to pick her up, and lays right down. She cries for few moments when I leave the room, but then she settles down and goes to sleep.

Moraes Watches When I Can't Bear To

Normally, I watch American Idol so that I can further appreciate Lisa de Moraes's wrap ups, but last night, I couldn't stand to even think about watching 'Broadway songs week,' so I took advantage of her column's subtitle, "We Watch So You Don't Have To".

Redesign Gmail

I only use the basics that come with Firefox, but this user-designed extension, gives Gmail a good facelift.

HT: GoogleBlogoscoped

My iPod's Moods

This morning my iPod was in a mellow, melancholy mood. I have it set for random albums. It started out with Laika's Good Looking Blues (jazzy trip-hop, Miles Davis's Bitches Brew crossed with Portishead).
Next it queued up a very mellow jazz album, Lonnie Liston Smith's Visions of a New World,

followed by Astrud Gilberto's A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness.


Now that I've returned for lunch, the iPod is kicking things up a notch with some Fugazi: End Hits.

Links for the Wife

Bret and Jemaine as Captain & Tennille.

FotC fansite: whatthefolk.net.

Yikes!

Sign in a grocery store:

Chuckles for the Boy

What a Difference a Week Makes

[Wow, I've surpassed 200 posts. Hurrah for me, and for my 1 reader, The Wife!]

Early last week I went for a longer walk than I've taken in a while, and was rather sore the next day.

I don't know if that ultimately helped strengthen muscles around my spine or not but I am much better this week. Last night I went to the park with The Boy. He and his good buddy asked me to be The Monster and chase after them, so I complied I did a little bit of running around. Expected some backlash today but I still feel okay. Went for a long walk again today during lunch and am still okay, no pain. Although, on occasion, something in my left leg was slightly out of alignment, a tendon or something in my thigh was snapping every few steps on the way back.

Dinosaur Show

Well, we decided to spring for the tickets to the Walking with the Dinosaur show coming to Baltimore at the end of this month. The reviews made it too compelling to miss. The only complaint seemed to be the volume so we'll bring some cotton in case it is too much.

The Wife found this bootleg video on YouTube of the show, and here is an official trailer:

News for the Wife

Flight of the Conchords have a motherflippin' new album and tour set for the spring.

What is Cheney looking at?

There's been lots of speculation in the blogosphere (mostly from the hate-America-type quislings) about what is in the reflection of Vice President Cheney's glasses in this photo:


Personally, I think it looks like either Chtulu:
or perhaps a pale Dr. Zoidberg:


PS. Cheney for VP in '08!

"Acknowledgement"

I tend to fall behind on non-work related emails, and even some of the lower priority work-related emails. My wife was "badgering" me for not checking out this link she sent back on March 31: The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. Good stuff.

Reminded me of this:

New Alexandria Water Taxi

The kids should like this, and we could go over and revisit The Awakening (see below) which was unearthed from Haynes Point:

New Water Taxi Begins Service Today
New Service Will Connect Old Town Alexandria and National Harbor

On April 1, the Alexandria-National Harbor Water Taxi, operated by Potomac Riverboat Company, will begin providing transportation between the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria and National Harbor. The water taxi service is one of a number of new amenities that the City of Alexandria, in partnership with the business community, has put in place to extend a warm Alexandria welcome to visitors from National Harbor. It is expected to bring hundreds of new tourists to Alexandria every day throughout the year, and will encourage National Harbor visitors to travel to Alexandria by boat, and not by car or bus—an earth-friendly strategy that benefits both the City's residents and the environment.
The Alexandria-National Harbor Water Taxi will operate seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. From April 1-4, the water taxi will depart Alexandria once each hour, on the hour, beginning at 10 a.m. and concluding at 10:00 p.m. It will depart Gaylord National Harbor once each hour, on the half hour, beginning at 10:30 a.m. and concluding at 10:30 p.m. After April 4, it will provide service every half hour from both locations from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily. A one-way fare costs $7; round-trip fare, $14.
For more information about the Alexandria-National Harbor Water Taxi, call 703.684.0580 or visit www.potomacriverboatco.com

Daycare News

Haven't entered any daycare notes in a long time. Here are a few recent ones I found around the house.

*********

April 2, 2008
Mom/Dad, my day was so good. I am moving faster and I can hold my own! :) I like playing with R*-baby and T*. Ms. S. is a good story teller. Books, building blocks, riding toys. A fun fun day. I was a Happy Camper all day.

*******
April 3, 2008

Storytime, Singing Songs, Outside Play, Legos, Housekeeping & Dress-up, Waffle blocks, V-Tech Toys, Hoppy Horse Music.

Baby Girl had a happy day : )
Have a Lovely Evening : )

********

April 4, 2008

Miss [Baby Girl] came in happy. What a beautiful little girl God gave you : ) High heel shoes, riding toys, [Baby Girl] is getting much better with her words, please help us with her words. Thank You. Have a great weekend. Love Miss A.

Korean Film

This is playing down at one of the Smithsonian museums this weekend:

I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay
(2006, 107 min., directed by Park Chan-wook, Korean with English subtitles) This whimsical tale is about love in a mental institution between a boy who thinks he's disappearing and a girl who thinks she's a robot.

Sounds interesting. Not in Netflix yet, unless the title wasn't translated.

iPod Shuffle Meme

Saw this over on NigelMoose and thought I would give it a shot. Hmmm. Don't know what to make of these results.

Instructions: Go to your music player of choice and put it on shuffle. Say the following questions aloud, and press play. Use the song title as the answer to the question. NO CHEATING.

How does the world see you?
Seekers Who Are Lovers - Cocteau Twins

Will I have a happy life?
The Maltese Melody - Bert Kaempfert

What do my friends really think of me?
Creek Bank - Mose Allison

What do people secretly think of me?
John Steed - Tahiti 80

How can I be happy?
Dizzy Miss Lizzie - The Beatles

What should I do with my life?
Shaking Through - REM

Will I ever have children?
Hoarding It for Home - Mates of State

What is some good advice for me?
Blue Hawaii - Frank Sinatra [Time to get away?]

How will I be remembered?
Nightmares - Violent Femmes [Yikes!]

What is my signature dancing song?
San Tropez - Pink Floyd [Good beach song, see answer above]

What do I think my current theme song is?
Night Shift Guru - The Cash Brothers

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Haunting - The Pogues

What song will play at my funeral?
So Long, Superman - Firewater [Ha!]

What type of men/women do you like?
Excursion Into "Oh A-Oh" - Stereolab

What is my day going to be like?
In the Wake of Adversity - Dead Can Dance [You've got that right, brother!]

It's Good to Have a Plan B

Yesterday's walk, yeah, that was a bit too much. I am paying for it today with some soreness. At least it isn't sciatic pain which is literally and figuratively a pain in the @$$. I've got my work cut out for me to get ready for a zoo trek this summer.

Maybe I'll just join these dufuses:

Pretty Big Day for eMusic

A lot of classic albums by the Rolling Stones have been added to the mostly indie-music download service.

They have the US and UK release of Out of Our Heads listed separately. The album has several overlapping tracks. With eMusic you get a limited number of downloads each month, depending on which plan you signed up for. I wonder if they count the overlapping tracks as separate downloads or not.

I have a hunch that they are counting them as separate downloads even though they are the same songs. The links for the song "Mercy Mercy" are different within each release. Caveat emptor!

Absolut-ly No!

Not that I buy much vodka, but after seeing this ad, my next bottle will be something other than Absolut:


Read the details at Michelle Malkin's blog.

My Back: an Update

I usually spend my lunch hours volunteering in a local charity thrift shop. There wasn't much to today so I went for a walk. According to YahooMaps, I traveled 0.76 miles round trip and I couldn't wait to get back to my office and sit down. It wasn't that it hurt, the pain was minimal, but I felt very uncomfortable in my lower lumbar area (see earlier post). And it was a strain to keep up my pace on the way back, which is frustrating. I am (or used to be, and hope to be again) a fast walker and would zip all around. Today I couldn't keep up with two older gentlemen strolling down the avenue.

So there will be less volunteering and more exercising for me. Need to get in shape for a trip to the zoo this summer!

Dinosaur Show

I dunno, Walking with the Dinosaurs looks pretty good. Check out this review:

Paleontologist Huxley (played by actors James Roberts and Jonathan Bliss) narrates the story, describing the dinosaurs and events as accurately as current science allows while the 15 life-size, lifelike creatures interact with each other.

The story covers nearly 200 million years of history in two acts with an intermission, using both live and recorded video. It includes explanations of how the carnivores came to walk on two legs and how the plant-eaters fended off foes. During the step back in time, viewers watch as oceans form, volcanoes erupt and a comet crashes into the Earth.

The show includes 10 species representing the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, all built to scale, such as tyrannosaurus rex, plateosaurus, liliensternus, stegosaurus, allosaurus, torosaurus and utahraptor. The largest, brachiosaurus, is 36 feet tall and 56 feet from nose to tail.

"We take the audience on a journey back in time and show how the dinosaurs might have actually looked in their prime — huge, sometimes frightening, sometimes comical monsters that fought for survival every day of their lives," says director Scott Faris. "Our dinosaurs move exactly like they are real, with all the roars, snorts and excitement that go with it. The realism is mind-blowing."

A team of 50 engineers, fabricators, skinmakers, artists, painters and animatronic experts spent a year building the $20 million production.

The question is whether it is good enough to spend at least $72 (two tickets plus Ticketmaster's gouging fee) for (primarily) a four-year-old's entertainment and a trek to Baltimore? Only 1 parental unit would probably be able to attend the show, on account of our 1-year old. But we could all head up together for a day trip.

Way to Go, Kakapo!

Over the weekend I was reading Bird: The Definitive Visual Guide (well, I was mostly looking at the pictures, but I read some parts), a hefty new book from our local library. The Boy kept dropping the book saying it was too heavy, and The Girl tried to rip out the index page. Yikes! I've since moved the $50 book to safer environs.

Despite its failure to include White-Eyed Conures, or any other conures for that matter, it is an amazing, informative book.

Scent can be a strong trigger of memory and the shiny, plastic-y smell of the pages brought me back to the days of sorting and browsing through the Safari Cards I collected as a kid; they had the same smell when first opened from their shrink wrap. By the way, I saved the Cards for my kids although if this Wikipedia entry is to be believed, some of the taxonomy information on the cards is outdated. I don't think I saved the special Jade Pendant, though. Oh, well.

Anyhoo, one part of the book I did read was about an extremely rare flightless parrot, the Kakapo.

Unlike my now-flightless white-eyed conure, the kakapo evolved on an island near New Zealand where there were no natural predators so over time it grew larger in size and lost the ability to fly. Once predators were introduced into its environment it was in big trouble. The Bird book noted that there were about 85 left in the world, and the survivors have been taken to safe locations for breeding.

I could appreciate how up-to-date the Bird book is from a news report I read today:

A species of flightless parrot edged back from extinction with the hatching of five new chicks in New Zealand in recent weeks and two more on the way, officials said Monday.The latest births of owl-like kakapos in southern New Zealand brought the population of the rare bird to just 91, said Emma Neill, a senior official of a Department of Conservation program to save the parrot.

Check out www.kakapo.net to learn more about this unusual and endangered parrot.

Fun Fact o' the Day

Former Senator Lott's real first name isn't Trent, it's Chester.

Futurama Predicted the Future

Over the weekend I re-watched the very first episode of Futurama, which originally aired on March 28, 1999 (I didn't realize I was marking the anniversary). The main character, Fry, who was accidentally frozen in suspended animation for 1,000 years, is standing in line at what he thinks is a phone booth so he can contact his last living relative. We don't even have phone booths in 2008, forget about it in the year 2999. It is New Year's Eve so naturally people are queuing up at a suicide booth.Fry manages to survive and hear a smiley-sounding recorded message, "Thanks for using Stop-N-Drop. America's favorite suicide booth since 2008."

Back to 2008, lo and behold, this article from the UK Times:
"Death for hire - suicide machine lets you push final button"

To paraphrase Futurama's Anthology of Interest II, "You've read it. You can't unread it!"

Spring 2008 Compilation

Finally. Finished burning a new compilation (my 99th since '91/'92) and making it into a list on RateYourMusic.com. The list took a while because of missing track lists in the database; had to do some research and make several additions to RYM.

Most of the songs were pulled from free compilations and tracks from eMusic. A few remaining tunes were from albums I've been listening to lately. Plus the obligatory Stereolab song, this one, Blaue Milch, newly acquired, it's an instrumental they contributed to some sort of tribute album to Peter Thomas.

News for the Boy 3

We recently watched a DVD lecture on dinosaurs, can't remember who the paleontologist was who delivered the lecture but he was very entertaining. This guy argued that, contrary to popular belief, the dome-headed pachycephalosaurs (GIS) didn't butt heads because many had ridges and spikes around their skulls and they would run the risk of having their eyes poked out.

This new article argues that perhaps teenage pachycephalosaurs butted heads.

NyQuil

My Button

I can't get behind the Republican nominee, but I oppose his likely opponent, Barack Obama. Here is a button I could wear:

No BO in the White House!
Socialism stinks

An alternate tag line could be:

I smell a socialist!

Del Ray Blogging

I was looking for some blogs about our neighborhood, the Del Ray area of Alexandria, VA, but didn't easily find anything current.

Mydelray.net looked interesting initially, but then I noticed that it hasn't been updated in 211 days. Do'h!

The blog AlexandriaDailyPhoto had a good concept, "One year of daily photos of the colonial town of Alexandria, Virginia," but the blogger/photographer finished up her project in May of 2007. Here are her photos taken in Del Ray. Enjoy!

Any other links would be appreciated.

More Housekeeping

I added a widget down the right side of the blog to keep track of news The Boy might be interested in. So far, it is just pulling an RSS feed from a Yahoo News search for the word "dinosaurs."

The widget is courtesy of WidgetBox.com. It was fairly easy to create. And they have a gallery of other public widgets that you can subscribe to or edit.

After you either create your widget or pick one to which you would like to subscribe, you have to click on "Get Widget" to make it available for Blogger, Facebook, iGoogle, or where ever. This is where I ran into trouble. Firefox just froze up whenever I clicked on it. Had to resort to Internet Explorer to get it to work. It would have been a lot easier if they just gave you a box of the code to copy and paste.

Don't Tell the Boy This News

A live dinosaur show based on the BBC series "Walking with Dinosaurs" is coming to Baltimore, April 30 through May 4. It looks pretty neat, but $32 a ticket is pretty steep when considering taking a 4-year old. Plus the ridiculous "convenience" fee charged by those mother-less monopolists at Ticketmaster.

News for the Boy 2

"A rare wild jaguar seen and photographed in the United States by hunter Warner Glenn is bayed by hounds during a hunting trip at an unknown location in southwestern New Mexico, February 20, 2006. Glenn and other members of his hunting party caught the hounds and led them away after they cornered the jaguar. The male jaguar, which weighed around 200 pounds, left the site at a slow trot unharmed. Jaguars are extremely rare in the United States, and Glenn is believed to be the only person to have encountered and photographed one in the wild. Photograph taken February 20, 2006. (Warner Glenn/Handout/Reuters)"

(Source Link)

Google Docs Keeps Evolving

Was perusing the Google Blogger blog, noticed a typo in the "help" link, htlp.blogger.com doesn't go anywhere, not very helpful. Do'h! (Update: They have since corrected the typo'ed link.)

Anyhoo, hadn't scanned Google's list o' official blogs in a while and noticed the Google Docs Blog. Google Docs has now been integrated with Google Gadgets so you can make nifty charts from your spreadsheets, charts that you can keep track of in your blog or your Google home page. And they've opened it up so other developers can create their own data visualizations.

Here is a link to a gallery of spreadsheet gadgets.

Handy Dandy Handyman Checklist

Our handyman isn't so much. He's got ambitious plans that he rarely follows through on. Saw him twice over the weekend and these are some of the things he is going to do, or at least talked about doing:

• Finish putting in screens
• Put in a rain spout
• Dig an underground pipe to have the rain spout pour into the vacant yard to our side
• Clear out the gutters
• Seed the yard
• Clear out the trees in our other side yard and put in bricks or pavement instead
• Clear the old roots out of the front yard
  

Op/Ed of the Year

Charles Krauthammer has a brilliant op/ed analyzing the rhetorical gimmicks in Barack Obama's Big Speech on Race.

I had an additional problem with the speech. In assessing the plight of the black community, BO put a heavy part of the blame, correctly, on a history of racism, but the ranks of the black middle class have been growing, so why is it that some parts of the black community have succeeded where other parts are stagnant? His analysis should have borrowed from Bill Cosby in condemning an underclass culture that glorifies criminality and has a disastrous rate of out-of-wedlock births.

But this may have led to a discussion of the consequences of the failed welfare policies of the Democratic Party, policies that Obama's presidency would expand on.

Uh oh!

(Photo Source)

Google Blog Seach RSS

I was trying to feed a few related Google Blog Search result RSS feeds through Yahoo Pipes so that I could streamline them into 1 convenient feed, but apparently Google doesn't like that.

I tested each RSS link separately within Pipes, and they worked, but once I put two in at the same time, I got a 403 error.

Looks like someone else had this problem too.

Partial solution, use the search operand | (for "or") to combine 2 into one. Tried using a second | to squeeze in a third search term as well, but that didn't seem to work very well.

Ahh, screw it, system simplification didn't work, so might as well make it easy to see which search term is generating which results. 3 feeds it is.

Housekeeping

Deleted a link to Draft Fred Thompson! What a crushing disappointment that campaign was.

Deleted a few of the links I had posted, since I never use them from here.

Messed around with the colors. Got bored with what I had. I wish there was a way to make better use of all the empty space in blogger. the main column is too narrow. It should either be wider, or it should be easier to add a second narrow column on the left side of the page. I suppose it can be done with html programming, but I'm not interested in figuring out the coding. Maybe there is a Blogger Hacks book from O'reilly.

Deleted the text box of my old Reading List. I had it set to show 5 items, but there was no way to click on it to see other items that are in the list. So I scrapped it and replaced it with a widget from librarythingy.com.

Great, another link and password to remember!

My Back

Early in February, I experienced pain like I'd never felt before. the day of the President's annual State of the Union address, it happened that I had to do a lot of overtime at work on a project. The next day, another big project was being wrapped up, and at home, I was also absorbed in a extensive round of Sid Meier's Civilization. so there were two days I was sitting around a lot.

Late Wednesday night during that first week of February I noticed a little pain on the left side of my rear as I stood up from the computer chair. Thought, "Hmm, that's odd," and went off to bed. Thursday, the pain was bit more noticeable. By Friday, it started getting exponentially worse. I had already scheduled to take the day off to relax after the grueling week, ended up laying down most of the day to minimize the pain down my left leg. Saturday morning, it was dreadfully painful to walk. When my lovely wife asked if I thought perhaps I should see a doctor, I readily agreed! The thought was already on my mind. So I went off to a nearby clinic.

Turns out, I had sciatica. I was supposed to go help some friends stuff envelopes for their wedding invitations, but there was no way I could help out. I had my appointment, got my medicine, and spent most of the day in bed. Also ended up missing a presentation I was supposed to give on Wednesday because I couldn't walk to the offices in downtown DC, and I was forced to miss CPAC for the first time in 7 years. On the following Wednesday, I made an appointment with a regular doctor who scheduled me for an MRI. Thursday morning, it felt like something clicked into place in my back and I started to feel marginally better. But the recovery was slow going, but mostly steady, at least.

Another 2 weeks went by, I was feeling somewhat better, but still limping, the doctor called back with the MRI results. Turns out I have a herniated disc. That was depressing news. Got over it after a few days.

It wouldn't have been so bad if maybe there was something that obviously caused this, but it really just crept up on me. Maybe it was a combination of Civ and OT, who knows?

Thinking back over the past few years, my left leg was always a little tight and sore when I stretched, early symptoms that I would have never noticed. So it goes.

After digesting the news about the herniated disc, I decided I shouldn't mess around with it so I got a prescription for physical therapy.

Several people told me that for them, PT was a bust and they didn't get anything out of it. That wasn't the case for me. It was worthwhile and beneficial.

The insurance approves 6 visits without another doctor referral. At that point the PT place automatically sent over the proper forms to the doctor. I tried to call my doctor to see whether I should keep going. I had no point of comparison to where I should be recovery-wise. The doctor's response was the equivalent of, "Duh! It's up to you." So that wasn't entirely helpful.

Went to a few more PT sessions before I decided I'd had enough and could just as easily do at home most of what we did in the sessions. And I couldn't shake off a nagging sense that while, yes, they were interested in my recovery, they were also very interested in having a paying-patient for as long as possible.

Record Flippin'

The Boy has been in a jazzy mood, but Baby Girl is showing a preference for exotica:

"Nope....

...nope....

..that's the one!"

Things I Learned Listening to the Big Speech

Obama can travel through time!

I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together .. .

Obama is black!

I am the son of a black man from Kenya ... .

Wow, what a long-winded speech, shy of 5,000 words. I guess that increases its Importance. I'll have to find time to finish reading it later when I get some free time. First impression, is that it was a 1 part "we should come together", 1 part socialism, and 1 part obfuscation to distance himself from his "crazy uncle," without, you know, really distancing himself from his "crazy uncle."

Obama's Big Speech

Obama was supposed to start his Big Speech on Race at 10:15. Running about a half hour behind now. Fine tuning his speech? That's already been sneaked out on the Drudge Report. Extra rehearsing? He's been giving pretty much the same speech over and over again for the past few months, perhaps he needs some extra rehearsal time for his new delivery.

While waiting for the Big Speech, check out the American Thinker blog, they found an interesting passage in one of Obama's books about his style, in particular manner of interacting with white people, Make No Sudden Moves.

News for the Boy

An extremely rare mummified Edmontosaurus was discovered in North Dakota!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Now That's Marketing!

http://producten.hema.nl/

Netflix Redesign

If you're like me and can't stand the redesigned "New Releases" page on Netflix, the old-fashioned link still works.

4-Year-Old Jazzhead

Me: Do you know who we are listening to?
The Boy: No.
Me: This is Frank Sinatra.
The Boy: Could you put on the be-bop jazz?
Me: You mean the Coltrane?
The Boy: Yes!

More Wisdom from a 4-Year-Old

"Do you know how many mountain lions there are in the wild? Two. We are running out of mountain lions. And do you know why? Because sharks and whales are coming to their terrain and eating them all up. I'm telling the truth!"

Obillary

A boy's interests

Our son's favorite toys or interests change over time.

Thomas the Train
Since he was 11 months old, Thomas the Train and co. have been among his favorite toys. At about this time, the thrift store where I volunteer gave me a box of wooden tracks. His collection steadily grew over the next 2 years. He still plays with them, but over the past 5 months, he has been more interested in the larger battery-operated versions of the trains put out by Tomy.

Bob the Builder
He got into BtB several months after Thomas. And when he was two, someone gave him a special BtB DVD that kept his interest going for several months. He only plays with these toys intermittently over the past year.

Cars the Movie
Cars has been a favorite with his whole pre-school class, at least among the boys, since shortly after the movie came out. He hasn't played with his Cars toys as much since just before Christmas. Although, most of the pictures he draws are about Lightning McQueen and Leakless racing madly in circles.

Dinosaurs
Last fall, we would hear him reciting in a low voice a history of the dinosaurs. Eventually we found out that they've been listening to a book on tape in his class. I don't know how many times they played it, but he and some of his friends had it memorized. Since then, we've checked out just about every dinosaur book in our local library, went to the see the unveiling of the newly discovered Nigersaurus at the National Geographic building, and went to see the dinosaurs at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. He is pretty much an expert at this point. One of his favorite Christmas presents was a paleontologist kit where you chisel through a chunk of rock to find the 6 dinosaurs buried within. Once retrieved, he painted them up. The dinosaur craze went pretty strong until about 2 weeks ago.

Animals
As noted above, about two weeks ago he got very interested in animals, kicked off by a few factors. First of all was Zoo Tycoon. I bought the CD-ROM game last fall with him in mind but saved it for several months, finally broke it out 3 weeks ago. It is a great game, too advanced for him to play by himself at four years of age, but it is fun to play together. We've been learning a lot about different kinds of animals and what kind of terrain and habitats they prefer. I am thankful for the Control-4 cheat key so we don't have to worry about the finances of the zoo!

The second factor was a Christmas gift I got from my folks, BBC's The Planet Earth. An amazing documentary set. My son and I have been watching an episode each week.

Another factor, I think, has been "movie night". I've done painstaking research to find decent G movies that he can watch. Three we've seen lately are adventure stories featuring house pets: Homeward Bound, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, and Napoleon.

He says he likes animals better than dinosaurs. He is working on reading through all of our library's animal books now.

Ninja Warrior
This is a fun Japanese show broadcast on one of the cable channels. Contestants have to traverse through increasingly-difficult courses and obstacles. We watch it mainly on Saturday afternoon around lunch time. Now whenever he goes to the park or plays in the yard, he does his own Ninja Warrior challenges.

Wisdom from a 4-Year-Old

Me: "Is the stairway gate closed so your sister can't get up there?"

4-Year-Old Boy: "Yes. But I can climb over it. [My 1-year old sister] can't climb over it because she doesn't have powerful arms like I do."