It’s a little late to make the big push for 20,000 visits this month (looks like I’m going to fall a few hundred short), but there’s no reason why we can’t kick December off with a bang. Here’s what I’m doing to kick up the Google searches and slut myself out for trackbacks.

1- Mary Kate and Ashley (the Olsen twins) are not naked anywhere on this site (thanks for the idea, McGehee).

2- You also will not find any Paris Hilton/Glenn Reynolds sex tapes here… because they do not exist (as far as I know).

3- Bill O’Reilly is a weenie. (hey, it worked before.)

4- I’m name checking Stephen Green, Dean Esmay, Laurence Simon, and Eugene Volokh to let them know they’ve all be added to my links. Hi fellas.

5- Monday, December 1st… I’ll be blogging naked.

Thank God Almighty, supporters have started to turn on Jesse Jackson.

With roughly 100,000 Chicagoans between 16 and 24 out of work or not in school, Rainbow Push was hoping to call to action disenfranchised young people, but a group of people disenchanted with Jesse Jackson led a spirited protest that sometimes drowned out the message of more jobs.

Hundreds converged upon a frigid Federal Plaza today to hear politicians and political candidates talk passionately about creating more jobs.

“Since this is a union working town the unions need to provide job training and set up a trade school in the city of Chicago,” said Sen. James Meeks, 15th District.

However some of the speakers were quickly drowned out by boos, bullhorns, and verbal jabs from a group called VOTE, ex-offenders, community activists, church leaders, and Muslims, tired of what they call the rhetoric in the African-American community.

“We are tired of coming here to voice our opinion when we got African-American people sitting at the table and saying they represent our interests and playing this puppet game,” said one protester.

Afterwards ABC7’s Rob Johnson asked Reverend Jackson why he felt like so much verbal venom was aimed in his direction.

“They lashed out at Dr. King, they lashed out at Nelson Mandela, they lashed out at Jesus, so all of those who fight for change become the object of frustration,” said Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow-Push Coalition.

Hoo-boy.

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Yet another reason I don’t shop on Black Friday.

ORANGE CITY, Fla. - A mob of shoppers rushing for a sale on DVD players trampled the first woman in line and knocked her unconscious as they scrambled for the shelves at a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Patricia VanLester had her eye on a $29 DVD player, but when the siren blared at 6 a.m. Friday announcing the start to the post-Thanksgiving sale, the 41-year-old was knocked to the ground by the frenzy of shoppers behind her.

“She got pushed down, and they walked over her like a herd of elephants,” said VanLester’s sister, Linda Ellzey. “I told them, `Stop stepping on my sister! She’s on the ground!’”

Ellzey said some shoppers tried to help VanLester, and one employee helped Ellzey reach her sister, but most people just continued their rush for deals.

“All they cared about was a stupid DVD player,” she said Saturday.

Not to be mean or anything… but your sister was the first in line for that “stupid DVD player”. Are you absolutely positive her priorities would have been in the right place were she second in line?

Still, there’s an important lesson to be learned here: “when being trampled by rampaging Wal-Mart customers, always demand a rain check if the item in question is gone by the time you regain consciousness.”

Sorry. I just can’t let this one go.

Think it was all a photo-op? Try telling it to this soldier.

Think Bush didn’t meet any Iraqis? Ask this woman.

Think it was a self-serving trip? Looks like Dubya was serving others to me.

Think it was a cold, calculated political move? You must also think Dubya’s one hell of an actor.

If you say you support the troops, then support their commander in chief spending time with the troops. Be happy their morale was boosted on Thanksgiving.

If you can’t do that, at least have the decency to admit that you get a perverse thrill out of seeing our soldiers feel horrible, because it makes your own feelings of misery a little more palatable and justified.

You don’t have to think the President walks on water… but at least admit that this was a good thing he did.

Due to circumstances beyone anyone’s control, I’ll be filling in for Mike McCarville this afternoon from 4-6. For those outside the Oklahoma City area, you can listen online at ktok.com.

And for those interested in seeing if you can truly make your head explode, try reading this “nonpartisan” blog called What Really Happened. If it’s non-partisan, I’m Dennis Kucinich. I especially love the headline “General Tommy Franks calls for Repeal of US Constitution”. Ack.

More reaction to President Bush’s visit to Baghdad… this time from the OK Democrat message board.

“Sen. Clinton is spending Thanksgiving with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. I think bush did this to steal her thunder.”

“A woman announces her intentions to visit not one but TWO hot spots and Dubya sneaks in for a quickie, in the dark on the sly.”

“While the media slavishly covers [Bush’s brief Baghdad trip] for maximum White House benefit, they conveniently forget that Clinton visited another war zone on Thanksgiving only four years ago, and he was able to travel into a war zone only five months after the US-arranged coalition secured the liberation of Kosovo. My how quickly they forget. The big difference was that Clinton was warmly received by a large contingent of troops in Kosovo, but more importantly was also warmly received by the natives prior to the event, who thanked him for their liberation.”

“The AWOL pResident is responding to a Democrat who, incidentally, put her life on the line with zero fanfare, hardly any coverage and because it was the right thing to do.
If only the rest of the Dems had half the political and human resources that she has.”

“Hillary’s reason for the trip was an honorable one; not a political one. One way I know that is that she did not dress up in military clothing.

Do you think the GWB trip was worth the money it cost us for him to only see 600 troops, fill his gut, stay 2 1/2 hours and then leave?”

“Uh Oh! He’s dressing up like a soldier again. And so brave… Sneaking into Baghdad Airport, where everyone knows that the liberated masses would love to tear him limb from limb. Where did Karl Rove scrounge up 600 soldiers to cheer this wingnut that sent them to die for his oil buddies? ”

There’s really no need for me to respond to all of this. You know the answers by now anyway.

The complaining has already started.

“He had to go because Hillary’s there..He needed another photo-op..He’s a disgrace..”

“A campaign stunt, nothing more. A pathetic hanger-on because Hillary is over there. Just nauseating.”

“This will backfire on him. Once the troops find out that he’s gone before they even knew he was there.”

“I guess Bush forgot about those troops in Afghanistan.”

“once I realized this wasn’t a joke…was that this was a reactive endeavor by Rove to try and keep his boy afloat. I don’t think Karl’s all that confident that *’s a shoe-in in 2004 anymore. Two and a half hours “in country” does not a leader make though…and I like the idea that they’re having to scramble in reaction to the public discussions surrounding their failures.”

Right. Let’s get a few things out of the way. First, this had apparently been discussed back in October, so I think it’s fair to say it wasn’t a way to detract attention from Hillary Clinton.

Second, the allegation that it was all a photo-op. I’ll actually agree to this… kind of. I don’t think it was all a photo-op, but you’d have to be pretty stupid not to see the public relations benefit in this. The real question is… who was intended to see this message?

I’ll argue that this has nothing to do with the election next year. You won’t see Bush shaking hands of soldiers in Baghdad during a campaign commercial (unless it’s one the Democrats run… kind of like the new John Kerry ad). No, this photo-op is another piece of the War on Terror. It’s our answer to the audiotapes by Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Think about it. This is the equivalent of Osama or Saddam showing up on the campus of Berkeley, a Wahabist mosque in Houston, or some similar “safe location” within the United States. Our president went into Baghdad and addressed the troops, saying

“We did not charge hundreds of miles through the heart of Iraq, pay a bitter cost of casualties, defeat a ruthless dictator and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins.

We will prevail. We will win because our cause is just. We will win because we will stay on the offensive.”

Great for the troops to hear. Even better for our enemies to hear the words of the president.

Nice job, Mr. President.

Bush, in a videotape released by the White House, was cheered by surprised troops after U.S. special envoy Paul Bremmer, head of the coalition authority in Iraq, pretended to look for someone more “senior” to read the president’s Thanksgiving proclamation. With tears clearly visible in his eyes, he said, “I was just looking for a warm meal somewhere. Thanks for inviting me to dinner.”

Let’s get this out in the open first: I’ve been known to drop the “f-bomb”. I can read the “f-word” without blushing or throwing a book out the window. I don’t use profanity when I write because I think it cheapens the message, and I don’t know who’s reading this site. But if you want to throw around the “f-word” and kids aren’t around… no problem from me. It’s your life, your language.

That being said, what kind of teacher gives this homework assignment?

“My teacher decided that it would be best to have the students go home and say in private the phrase ‘F-U,’ 10,000 times in different dialogues and different ways and tones and stuff, so that we’d become desensitized to it and wouldn’t have to worry about it,” said Chantilly High School student Jeff Daybell.

The assignment was given in conjunction with the class reading “The Catcher In The Rye” by J.D. Salinger (one of my favorite books growing up). Yes, I read the book, read the “f-word” and still turned out to be a productive member of society. That’s not the point.

The point is why would this teacher think teenagers need to be “desensitized” to profanity? I would think (having listened to teenagers), that if anything… they could probably use some sensitivity in when that language might not be appropriate.

Fairfax County school officials said they are still investigating the incident. They have not said whether they will discipline the teacher or institute a policy change at Chantilly High School.

How about making the teacher wear a sign for the rest of the school year that says “I’m an f***ing idiot”. You know… just to help reinforce her message.

Here’s a roundup of what some college columnists think about Thanksgiving:

Nate Arthur at the University of Tennessee Daily Beacon says

Thanksgiving is a time of gross American self-satisfaction and tubbiness. When your uncle is bloated and drunk, he will lament a football loss, but maybe not the loss of life in Iraq, and not the incremental loss of any national soul or integrity we had managed to retain through sheer unaccountable luck over 230 years of handsome-sounding, improperly remembered brutality toward those who do not own land or the hierarchical privileges of history. Thanksgiving is a fine, innocuous sort of retreat. Politically, it is the ultimate holiday for well-meaning, short-sighted liberals of past centuries. But it is still a perversion, and a national day of penitence, of Sorrowgiving, has long been in order.

Dave Ring at Texas Tech’s University Daily chides us for being lazy.

But Thanksgiving? What are you going to do all day besides eat? The entire main premise of the holiday focuses on the consumption of really, really delicious food. Take that away and you are stuck with a bunch of family members arguing over a banquet of KFC and Fanta.

I make a motion to change Thanksgiving’s name to a much more appropriate title “Sloth Day.” Plain and simple. A day of eating, sitting and watching football.

I think my biggest beef with holidays in the U.S. in general is they are so superficially short. Twenty four measly hours designated as “special.” Where are the weeklong festivals of hedonism and excess? I want to have to take out a loan to celebrate a holiday.

You already have that, Dave. It’s called “college”.

Bridget Sharkey at the Daily Illini used to hate Thanksgiving.

At this point, I could go into the uglier side of Thanksgiving — yes, it gets uglier than turkey hands — I could delve into how the Pilgrims royally screwed the “Indians,” giving them smallpox and forcing them onto the most unlivable soil in the United States, but because I read American textbooks, I really do not know anything about that part of the holiday.

Never fear… Sharkey says she now knows better.

The last few years, though, I have really begun to enjoy the ugly stepsister. Perhaps it is because my mom quit making everyone say one thing they are grateful for before dinner. Perhaps it is because I now enjoy sinking my teeth into the flesh of the most bizarre looking animal on the planet. Perhaps it is because my brother is in high school and no longer has to submerge himself in the role of a religious zealot every November.

I would not go so far as to say that I learned the “real” meaning of the holiday. After all, this is the DI, not the ABC Family channel. Like any holiday, Thanksgiving has come to have a strange meaning in this country. It means orange tablecloths and uncles sleeping on the couch in front of the game. It means waiting for that one family that is always late. It means that there are cars lining every suburban road.

Okay, maybe a little fear is in order.

Anthony Freinberg, writing for the Harvad Crimson, spends most of his column celebrating his school, but still finds time to get a dig in at Thanksgiving.

After spending the first 18 years of my life in England, Thanksgiving is still a somewhat alien holiday for me. While being thankful that our lives aren’t more grim than they are seems like an excellent idea, celebrating that fact actually feels a little strange.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma State’s Rachel Richison has a different take on Thanksgiving.

Just because you’ve fallen victim to the trend of taking your life for granted does not mean it’s too late to change. You can start off from here. Starting now, be thankful for your friends and your professors who are dedicated to your education, and do it consistently. You’re lucky to be at Oklahoma State University, and you should be proud.

Have a great break, and this Thanksgiving remember to take a minute between turkey binges and be thankful for the life you are privileged to live.

Actually being thankful for something without being sarcastic or cynical? No digs at American Imperialism or unjust wars or ignoring the social problems that make America a “Big, Bad, Place”? No mention of Big Brother Bush?

How very provincial of you, Rachel. And how very thankful you’ve made me that common sense can still be found on college campuses.

Kinda birthday, anyway. The birth of “The Show” is tomorrow (or Friday, depending on if you want to go by the day when I was hired, or the day the show started).

I’m still having fun, still having a good time… but I wonder if that comes through enough. I had an email from a listener today who gently chided me for being so cynical all the time. I don’t want that to be the case.

At the end of the day, in order for the show to be successful, the show has to be entertaining. I think too often I get caught up in the serious topics and don’t take time to be silly, to goof around, to laugh.

So, look for a little more laughter in the weeks and months to come. That doesn’t mean we won’t be having spirited debate, and it doesn’t mean we’ll be ignoring the big stories. Beginning next Monday, I’m pleased to announce that state GOP chair Gary Jones and state Democratic Party chair Jay Parmley will be joining me for a weekly segment.

Since it’s been a year, let me throw this out: what do you like and dislike about my portion of the program? Too much opinion? Too many interviews? Too serious? Not enough talk? Let me know what you’d like to hear more of, or less of in the mornings.

One more thing, and this is the most important thing: Thanks. I really appreciate you sharing your morning with me.

just like the ones I used to know…

Michele’s taking suggestions for politically correct Christmas songs, poems, titles, etc.. Here’s my contribution (it references one of those politically correct weenies who posts on her site).

Silent night, secular night
All is calm, no Christmas lights
there’s no virgin Mother and Child
no Holy infant so tender and mild
Finn sleeps in earthly intolerance
Finn sleeps in earthly intolerance.

Silent night, secular night,
Do-gooders quake at the sight.
Glories stream from studios afar,
Clay Aiken hosts sing Alleluia;
a disposable pop star is born;
a disposable pop star is born.

Silent night, secular night,
Son of Man, thinks he knows what is right.
Ignorance streams from thy bony face,
With no hope of redeeming grace,
Jesus, look at this clown;
Jesus, please smote this clown.

The best line (dreamed up by Lesley) has to be, however:

In the meadow we can build a snowperson,
Then pretend that he or she is a member of the clergy from the religion of your choice or, if you prefer, a justice of the peace.

He or she’ll say: Are you married?
We’ll say: No person,
Because marriage is a paternalistic construct
Designed to suppress women

It works even better when you sing it.

College professors take cover. Administrators beware. The revolution on our college campuses is underway.

Of course, I’m talking about the Republican Revolution. This week has seen a number of different stories highlighting the fact that conservatives on campus now “empowered” to speak out against the bias, the lack of academic freedom, the hate that is spewed towards those of a different ideology. In the past seven days we’ve seen:

- the scandal at the University of Tennessee. What started as a routine column by a conservative columnist in the student newspaper has escalated to racial slurs, death threats, and an administration crackdown on a conservative-led petition drive.

The reaction to this has been typical. The student who made the statement “if you see one of those ragheads, shoot him right in the f***ing face” is apparently not going to be disciplined (by the student government board anyway). The administration has yet to take any official stance.

- the “coming out party” for Penn State conservatives.

Toby Eberhart, chairman of the Penn State Young Americans for Freedom and a resident assistant in Leete Hall, said he was sick of the “blatant discrimination” against conservatives.

He added his experience as an RA has shown him the “left-leaning” discrimination by residence life. He said he was unhappy about having to promote National Coming Out Day through fliers and Stall Stories, but could not publicize the conservative rally through the same means.

Of course, gay rights groups complained about conservatives co-opting the phrase “coming out”.

- Conservatives at the University of Texas have published a list of professors they say use the classroom as a “bully pulpit”. Professors on the list say it’s denying them academic freedom, it’s a form of blacklisting, it’s one step away from censorship, etc.

Those professors fail to see that on college campuses, at least, they’re not the voice of dissent. On college campuses, liberals are the ones in power. These academics are complaining about conservatives doing the same thing liberals are doing on Main Street.

There’s bad news for those professors: it’s only going to get worse. According to the Washington Post article, College Republican chapters have nearly tripled since 1999. Do the math. In 1999, the 18-year old college freshman was born in 1981, the first year of the Reagan presidency. We’re now starting to see those children of Reagan Republicans become student leaders on college campuses. They’re speaking out, and they’re leading others.

My nephew’s a freshman at the University of Oklahoma. He joined two groups in his first few weeks on campus. One was a fraternity. The other was the College Republicans. He was born in 1985, to a couple of yuppies (sorry Melissa and Glen… but you were). He’s not waiting until he’s a junior or senior to start being vocal in his political beliefs. He feels “empowered” because he sees other conservatives on campus already speaking out. There’s strength in numbers, and the number of conservative students is growing across this country.

Be afraid, egghead academics. Be very afraid.

*hat tip to instapundit, Tongue Tied, and PMSimon, respectively.*

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A couple of things to thank you for.

- We’re on pace to have our biggest month yet here at camedwards.com. Right now we’re averaging about 635 visits a day. We’re also about five thousand visitors short of hitting the 100,000 mark (not bad for eight months of blogging). I’d like you to pass the word about the site for anybody on your email lists, etc. After all, this site truly has become as much yours as mine (well… except for the name… heh). I’d really like to get that 100,000 visitor sometime before the first of December.

- We had our first 1,000 visit day last week, and surprisingly enough, it didn’t come on the day that vodkapundit linked to me. Thanks to all of you who dropped by, and hopefully you’ll be back.

As you who listen to the show know, I don’t promote this website from 6-9 a.m. (outside of giving my email address). It’s kind of an open secret for people who like listening to the show, as well as friends I’ve made from around the internet and blogosphere. It’s a lot of fun, it’s always a learning experience for me, and hopefully you get as much out of this site as I get from your feedback.

That’s my long winded way of saying blogging might be light today as I go in search of the perfect Mommymobile. It will not be an SUV, but not for environmental reasons. I just refuse to pay $10k more for the same amount of space as a minivan.

**Update**

Well, we have a new car. A Chrysler Town and Country. We ended up not trading the old car in, so we’re going to sell it ourselves. That should be an experience in and of itself.

Accused murderer Scott Eizember is in custody, thanks to a Fort Smith doctor and his gun.

Authorities with the Angelina County Sheriff’s Department say they received a 911 call at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday night. The caller said a man and woman, now identified as Dr. Samuel Peebles and his wife Suzanne, came to his residence bleeding and needing help. The couple told the man they had stopped to help a stranded motorist in Arkansas and that he had displayed a gun and forced them to drive south.

The Peebles did not know the man was Eizember.

While driving through Angelina County, the Peebles convinced Eizember to allow them to use the restroom. That’s when an altercation ensued between Dr. Peebles and Eizember at which point Eizember was shot four times. Dr. Peebles had been able to recover a handgun that was concealed in the minivan.

Eizember assaulted both Samuel and Suzanne Peebles before taking off in their van. He attempted to get help for his wounds at a grocery store, but an employee of the store called the Corrigan, Texas police department to report a man with gunshot wounds and carrying a weapon inside the store.

Authorities from Corrigan and Polk County were able to get a description of the minivan and eventually stopped Eizember, who told them he had been shot by an unknown assailant while his vehicle was stopped along the road.

Officers contacted paramedics, who treated Eizember at the scene. A pistol discovered by police was confiscated.

Two suggestions for next time, Doc. Better aim and more bullets.

Figures there were some juicy stories breaking over the weekend, as I was far away from a computer (but standing right next to a guy dressed up like Boba Fett… go figure).

First off, the Lileks response to Salam Pax’s letter to Dubya. Well, actually… here’s Salam Pax’s letter to get us started.

I hate to wake you up from that dream you are having, the one in which you are a superhero bringing democracy and freedom to underdeveloped, oppressed countries. But you really need to check things out in one of the countries you have recently bombed to freedom. Georgie, I am kind of worried that things are going a bit bad in Iraq and you don’t seem to care that much. You might want it to appear as if things are going well and sign Iraq off as a job well done, but I am afraid this is not the case.

Listen, habibi, it is not over yet. Let me explain this in simple terms. You have spilled a glass full of tomato juice on an already dirty carpet and now you have to clean up the whole room. Not all of the mess is your fault but you volunteered to clean it up. I bet if someone had explained it to you like that you would have been less hasty going on our Rambo-in-Baghdad trip.

To tell you the truth, I am glad that someone is doing the cleaning up, and thank you for getting rid of that scary guy with the hideous moustache that we had for president. But I have to say that the advertisements you were dropping from your B52s before the bombs fell promised a much more efficient and speedy service.

And here’s a portion of Lileks response.

I know you’re the famous giggly blogger who gave us all a riveting view of the inner circle before the war, and thus know more about the situation than I do. Granted. But there’s a picture on the front page of my local paper today: third Minnesotan killed in Iraq. He died doing what you never had the stones to do: pick up a rifle and face the Ba’athists. You owe him.

Gotta agree with Lileks on this. As he says:

But let me quote from a Guardian story on your life:

“Like all Iraqis, Salam was familiar with the dangers. At least four of his relatives had gone missing. In the past year, for no apparent reason, one of his friends was summarily executed, shot in the head as he sat in his car, and two others were arrested; one was later freed and another, a close friend, has never returned.”

The rug was soaked before we got there, friend. Cut the clever café pose; drop the sneer. That “Rambo” crap is old. Iraq needs grown-ups. Be one.

Yep. Iraq (and the world) needs all the grownups we can get. But Salam Pax isn’t in the business of being a grownup. He’s in the business now of selling books and newspapers… and controversy like this is money in the bank.

Now… second juicy story. The issues committee at the University of Tennessee is being blasted by critics; first for bias in selecting guest speakers… and now for racist comments and death threats against the columnist who dared question committee members.

Let me pose this question: if a conservative made the comment that “if you see one of those ragheads, shoot him right in the f***ing face”… what would happen to said conservative? Removed from his office? Sentenced to “diversity training”? Expelled from school? None of those things seem out of the realm of reason.

So why isn’t Justin Rubinstein going to face any punishment at all? Odd, isn’t it?

As promised…

- if you could go back to college, what would you major in this time (or if you haven’t gone to college, what would you major in this time)?

Without a doubt I’d go back and study archaeology. I always thought it would be a fantastic career, and spending a few days at a dig site only reinforced that belief. By the way, no matter what… do not major in journalism. There is no need.

- what was your favorite year of high school?

Senior year. My sophomore and part of my junior year were spent mostly away from my high school. I was dating a girl that went to another school, and I just didn’t have much to do with my classmates. The second half of my junior year changed that, and by the time I was a senior I was fairly entrenched in the social life and made some friends that have stayed with me ever since.

- do you remember your first date?

Yep. Eighth grade. I went to St. James, she went to St. Phillip Neri. We met at a Catholic grade school track meet, and that weekend I took her to see “Empire of the Sun”. We didn’t click, and in fact never really talked to her much after that, despite the fact that we both ended up in the same high school for a couple of years. Last I heard she had become a stripper (although I think she might be doing something else by now).

- do you remember the reason for your first “break up”?
Sadly, it was a case of “better offer-itis”, and one of the few times in life I was the “dumper” and not the “dumpee”.

- have you ever contacted an “ex” years after the break up?
No. I’ve thought about it, but it just never seemed like a good idea. Plus, it would have violated the restraining order.

Kidding!

Whew. Glad the weekend is over.

Dallas was fun. I went to my first ever comics convention. Didn’t take the kids, didn’t take the wife… just went to do some serious shopping. I bought a ton of pop culture stuff for Elaine’s Christmas, and managed to find some cool items for Harrison as well. I also ran into two guys from high school (one graduated before me, one after) and that was neat as well.

Arrived home last night, passed out from exhaustion about ten, and woke up this morning to young Andrew snorting and sneezing in my face. Rolled out of bed, made Andrew his breakfast, and tried to fall back asleep on the couch.

Hours later I made a not so triumphant return to the gym. I’ve kind of taken a vacation from the gym over the past few weeks, and my wife issued a not so gentle (but desperately needed) reminder that I’m getting fat… so we went to the gym together. Normally I do cardio stuff, but today I did her workout. Ouch. My respect for her has grown (if that’s even possible).

Then it was back home while she took the kids to Barnes and Noble. I got a call from Elaine about 3:15, telling me her car had died… again. This is the fourth time in the past four months that we’ve had serious problems. Tomorrow we’re going to the dealer and we’re getting a new minivan. I’m sick and tired of the hassle, and what we save in repair bills should cover the added increase in our car payment. I only wish there were a way I could set the minivan on fire, rather than trade it in.

All in all a fun weekend, a good weekend.. and most importantly an expensive weekend. I’m ready to go back to work.

I’m back from Dallas (and more on that later), but when I checked this website, I got a popup warning about the page providing potentially unsafe information to an Active X control, and the page might not be loading right because of that information being blocked.

Anybody else getting this warning, and does anybody have any clue what might be causing it? Everything seemed to be fine when I went away yesterday.

Help from computer gurus would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

**update**
I realized there was something weird with my computer when I got the warning on my desktop. Someone (I’m sure it was one of the kids) was messing with the settings. All is resolved. Yay.

I’m headed to Dallas for the weekend, so I will leave you with a “Friday Five”:

- if you could go back to college, what would you major in this time (or if you haven’t gone to college, what would you major in this time)?

- what was your favorite year of high school?

- do you remember your first date?

- do you remember the reason for your first “break up”?

- have you ever contacted an “ex” years after the break up?

Enjoy. And I’m really looking forward to some embarrassing personal stories. I’ll share mine tomorrow.

I’ve found a new blog that I like. Not “new” new. Just new to me.

It’s British, it’s funny, and it’s got pictures of the (lack of) protests going on in London.

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Tomorrow on the show, I’ll be talking with a smart, talented, funny young woman. She called in to the show today wanting to speak with the two legislators that were on talking about their opposition to the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision.

She also wants to talk about the decision… and why she and her partner should be allowed to marry.

She’ll be on from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m, and hopefully we’ll be able to take some calls on this.

‘m kind of with Joe on the issue of gay marriage, except for one thing: the slippery slope. If you can’t define marriage as the union that exists between a man and woman as husband and wife, then where do you stop it? If, as the Massachusetts Supreme Court says “the right to marry means little if it does not include the right to marry the person of one’s choice”… then who decides where this stops?

If you pressed me on it, I’d say that we’re all really ignoring the elephant in the corner: morality. It comes down to an issue of the government upholding a moral code, and if we’re going to scrap part of it… we better be able to justify why we’re not scrapping the whole thing. If, on the other hand, you want to continue to use this moral code as a basis of governing, then we need to start applying those laws fairly as well.

We talk about the “sanctity of marriage” all the while making it easier and easier to get a divorce. We talk about the importance of the family while refusing to get tough on deadbeat dads parents. We talk about making sure our children have a bright future… then give parents two week jail terms for beating their daughter until she went blind.

In short… if we’re going to start protecting family values, let’s do more than just pay it lip service.

After reading over some of the comments left here in the past few days, I just have to give a round of applause to you all. Bruce, Alfredo, Kevin, Revelator, Unixdude and any I might have forgotten… it truly is a pleasure to have you as regular readers and commentators.

Thanks.

Want to know what Iraqis are thinking? Read the walls.

Thousands of slogans in the Arabic script snake across acres of gray walls that line city squares, apartments and office buildings, a perfect canvas for the outpourings of a population intoxicated by new freedoms.

Hussein loyalists shout their yearning for the deposed dictator - “Saddam will come again” - followed by the coda on the same line from a detractor: “Through my behind!”

That might hurt. Plus, by now he’s probably pretty whiskery. But I applaud the sentiment just the same.