Vote for my Mom.... no seriously, help strategically vote for my Mom. Please vote for her and pass it on if you feel so inclined. I've also lost around 25 pounds and could stand to lose 20 or so more. So, yeah... read and heed please. kthanx

Hello everyone,

Most of you know that I'm a contestant on Atlanta's version of the Biggest Loser contest. Well, we've been at it for six weeks now and we have six more to go. I'm still safe and have lost nearly 20 lbs! I'm asking you to vote for Cheryl this week so that she can possibly avoid elimination from the game (link below). This is a strategic move on my part and I would greatly appreciate your vote for Cheryl. You can vote once today and once tomorrow by 10am (eastern time).

Thank you for your support during this process. It's been a great adventure for me and I'm getting healthier and stronger each day. I went to the doctor on Tuesday and my blood pressure is also down along with my weight.

If I end up in the bottom two after next weigh-in and require your vote, you'll be hearing from me. Until then, thanks for all of your support. It is greatly appreciated!

http://www.11alive.com/life/contests/atlantas_biggest_loser/

My best friends Phil and Janelle had a baby girl, Audrey Diana, on Tuesday afternoon. She weighs 9 lbs 6 oz, so she's pretty big. I haven't gotten to hold her yet because they kept her in the nursery overnight and yesterday I wasn't feeling well. Hopefully today. I am officially "Uncle Brendo." Phil and Janelle even gave me a shirt to wear in the waiting room. Huge congrats to them and a hearty welcome to little Audrey.

I think today was one of our lazier days, with breakfast at 8 o'clock. We ate at the hotel, as always. This was our nicest hotel, but we weren't crazy about the experience.

At 3 in the morning (I had only been asleep a couple hours), the fire alarm went off and was ringing for a long time. I was so tired that I was panicking and couldn't believe how slow I was to evacuate the room because I needed to not just get dressed, but also put in my contacts. The alarm went off when I was almost done dressing, but Ric says that we're always supposed to evacuate no matter what, so we went down to the lobby using the stairs. We got down there and were told it was a false alarm. Great. Now that I've had a heart attack due to how loud that siren was, I'm supposed to go to sleep again? It took me an hour to fall asleep, and it took Ric two or more. So we were pretty sleepy even though we got to sleep in.

At breakfast, everyone kept taking up all the eggs and toast, and I don't think there were any cornflakes, so I ate a couple of croissants and tried to be watchful for toast. We were carb machines on that trip. Anyway, we took off and headed into Dublin, which is a pretty city. One thing that stood out was the increase in colorful doors:

We picked up a local guide who had us drive around town while she told us all about the area, from Irish jokes to where James Joyce lived to which building was owned by Bono and the Edge. We also heard all about Guinness. Guinness is more of a part of Dublin than I had realized. Not only do the Irish drink half of its product, but they also benefited from the Guinness family, who spent a lot of money on Dublin's structures. Here's a common sight from the bus:

Dublin has a very large park called Phoenix Park running through the middle of the city, and once inside, it's hard to imagine the bustle that's going on outside. Inside the park are homes for the President of Ireland and the U.S. Ambassador (because the U.S. was one of the first to recognize the Republic as an independent country), a large monument to the Duke of Wellington, and the Zoological Gardens. The President's home bears a striking resemblance to the White House, because it was made by the same architect. I wasn't able to get a photo. Here is one of the more impressive structures in the park, the Papal Cross, which we got to stretch our legs to see:

After we had made our way all around the city (actually, the more I think about it, I think I might like to go back and explore this city one day), we dropped off the people who didn't want to go to Glendalough and took off to the mountains outside Dublin in Wicklow county. It was a very scenic drive, and on it, our tour guide told us the depressing stories of the loss of Ireland's innocence, with the scandals in politics and in the church that have happened in its more recent history. She did at least lighten the mood with a few more jokes about an Irishman and his wife.

We arrived to Wicklow county to visit the monastic site of Glendalough, which was once an important place of pilgrimage long ago. Now there are only remnants, which are set amid some of the most beautiful country I've seen. Our guide told us about the site and led us through various structures, and then we were set free to roam for a while. We instantly headed for the lake:

The walk to the lake was beautiful. There were trees covered in moss, trees with bark that looked like silver, and flowing grass and streams and rivers. It's the kind of stuff Tolkien would best praise. I made sure to snag a couple of rocks from the shores of the lake for me and my dad. We explored with the Canadian girls and took a lot of photos with each other. I just couldn't get over how beautiful it was out there, and unfortunately, photos can't even show it all properly. Here's one of Ric and me with the Glendalough lookout tower behind us:

We wandered as long as we could. I tramped through mud and tall grass, admired rocks and moss, and wished I could have stayed for an entire vacation there. Here's a shot of some of the graves:

Finally, we had to leave, although we did so incredibly reluctantly. Back in the bus we went, and at least we had a wonderful day of weather to admire:

We got back to Dublin in the early afternoon and were dropped off to roam around for a while. Ric and I had lunch at the Blarney Inn, a place with a lot of friendly service and a sign that says "If you are grouchy or just plain mean, there will be a E10 charge for putting up with you." I had fresh mussels from the Irish coast and Ric had fish and chips. It was a gooood meal. We then wandered along Nassau street and looked for souvenirs and interesting places to see that were close to our stop (we forgot to bring our map with us from the bus). Ric bought some Irish pub song music from a nearby shop, and I got a few trinkets from a Kilkenny department store. The hustle and bustle of the city was a bit much for a tired Ric, so we headed over to Trinity College to relax. We sat on a bench facing a field and watched the college life for a while until it was time to go.

Back at the hotel, we were on our own for the night, but unfortunately, we had been so tired out from everything that we both fell asleep for a few hours and woke up around 9 or 10 at night. We went downstairs to check and see when we needed to be up the next morning, then headed back up, got ready for bed, and hit the sheets. Pathetic, I know.

The most liberal member of the Senate.
The most liberal person to ever run for president.

Conservatives love to roll out the superlatives when discussing Democratic candidates. I have also heard the absolute claims that no president has ever raised taxes during a war or during a time of economic crisis.

When I was commenting on my conservative friend* Melanie's post the other day I decided to do a little fact-checking on myself and found a table of tax rates going back to 1913. Here are the tax rates that the wealthiest Americans were required to pay during a few key years:

1929 (the year the stock market crashed): 24%
1932-1935 (during the Great Depression): 63%
1941 (the year America entered WWII): 81%
1944-1945 (the end of WWII): 94%
1952-1953 (post-war economic prosperity): 92%
1982-1986 (Reagan administration): 50%

Some of these figures may be a little surprising. I still have a hard time believing that there was a 94% tax rate on the wealthiest Americans during wartime. Surely anybody alive today would call that the worst kind of Socialism.

I'm also surprised to see how high the top tax rate was during most of Reagan's presidency. It wasn't until 1987, the very end of his time in office, that taxes were lowered to a rate more comparable to what it is now.

So what can we take away from this? For one thing, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the man your grandma voted for in four different elections, was ten times the Socialist that Barack Obama will ever be.

Second, if somebody were to actually attempt the largest tax increase in history they would have to contend with that 38% hike from 1931 to 1932.

Third, the period of history that had the highest tax rates on the wealthy coincided with a time of such tremendous economic prosperity that it is considered a golden era of American capitalism. So much for taxes on the wealthy suppressing growth.

Barack Obama wants to raise the top tax rate back to 39.6% (what it was in 2000) and cut taxes on everyone making less than $250,000 per year. What exactly is so frightening about that?

* P.S. I call Melanie my conservative friend not because she is the only conservative I know, but because she is one of the most thoughtful and well-informed conservatives I know, and that she is very good at challenging all of my views on the issues.

A lot of our fifth day of vacation was spent in travel. We arose early and I ate the usual egg, toast, and cereal, and then packed our things into the bus to head down the Scottish coast. I was unusually sleepy and actually did doze off a lot on this part of the trip, which is a shame, because the Scottish coast was beautiful. We saw some really pretty sights whenever we were awake, and finally we arrived to the harbor for our first ferry ride. I had never been on a ferry before, and expected a drab ship with seats and decks for the passengers. I also didn't really think about how big the ferry would be. It was huge. Our bus drove into one of the car decks, and we had to remember our deck and stairwell numbers as if we were at the Disneyland parking structure. When we surfaced out to the passenger area, we realized that this was a pretty awesome ferry. There were plenty of comfortable looking places to sit, an area specifically for people who wanted quiet, a separate lounge who wanted to ride luxuriously, a nail salon, two sections where one could watch movies, a fast food restaurant, a bar with a big monitor hooked up to a Wii, several coffee/snack shops, a gift shop, an arcade, an area for the kids to play, and an area for teens to get online and check their Facebook messages, as well as several internet stations. I toyed around with the idea of getting my nails done just to say that I did it, but really, I only get my nails done for things like.. my wedding. Here's a little interior shot:

We wanted to stretch our legs a bit, so we walked around the passenger area several times, then went to the small outside deck to take a few photos. It was foggy and raining, and we enjoyed it:

We settled in eventually at the movie area, where Ric listened to music and dozed while I watched Dan in Real Life. A couple of hours later, it was time for us to find our way back to the bus and we left the ferry and drove out into Northern Ireland. Our driver took us through some of the major sites of Belfast, including the usual courthouses, etc:

Then, Leena talked about the history of Ireland and about those who live in Northern Ireland who feel that all of Ireland should be independent from Britain. We drove into an area associated with those sentiments, where there were several wall murals, most of which had nothing to do with Ireland's issues:

There were a few, however, although we weren't well enough acquainted with the local history to understand what all of them were about. But when we left that area, it was pretty clearly documented:

We drove from there towards more of the downtown area, where we were let loose to roam the streets and find lunch for about an hour and a half. Ric and I kept looking and looking with no success, until we saw a sign outside a smoothie shop that said we could eat stew and bread for just a few dollars. It ended up being a great meal, and probably our cheapest on the trip. We had some extra time, so we walked along the major street, where one could see the Europa hotel and the opera house. And we made sure to make a stop in the Crown pub:

The pub was awesome, and very intricately decorated on all of the walls and ceilings. There were enclosed booths with doors for parties to sit down in privacy, which I thought was very cool. It was so busy, though, that Ric and I had to settle for a standing table, and each of us had a little bit of Guinness to celebrate that we had arrived in Ireland.

After we were finished with our quick stop in Belfast, we loaded up and drove towards Dublin. Our hotel was on the outskirts of Dublin, and we arrived there probably somewhere around 4ish. We were given an hour or so of rest, and in that time we immediately noticed a chance for free wireless and got hooked up online. I checked my email and was completely shocked to find out that one of the girls from my office gave birth seven weeks early to her baby girl on the day that we left on our trip (that morning I had told the baby not to go anywhere while I was gone!). Crazy! The family was on my mind from then on for the rest of the trip. Around 5:30, those of us who were game boarded the bus to head to Taylor's Three Rock, a thatch-roofed location where we were to enjoy a night of Irish cabaret. Honestly, I think this entertainment catered a little bit more to an older audience, but we had a nice time. There was an emcee full of corny Irish jokes about Paddy and his wife Molly, a bunch of river dance-esque dancing, music, and singing:

For dinner we both had some great Irish beef, mashed potatoes (my first Irish potatoes were straight out of a box! Booo!), and vegetables. Dessert was a yummy citrusy thing, accompanied with the best Irish coffee I've ever had. A fun time was had by all, and we returned to our hotel around 10:30. I showered and then spent most of the night catching up on the baby birth story, chatting online with Amy, and uploading photos, and probably went to bed around 1am or later.

MTV MUSIC - I Want My MTV

It's the rallying cry of a generation. I mean, how many times have you heard someone ask that question? The last time I was at my mom's house I was perusing our old VHS tapes and I came across an 8 hour tape of MTV videos my brother had recorded. Apparently there was some music video by Live that he really loved that he had seen once and then never saw again so he would just tape MTV at night in order to find it.

For the young folks, MTV used to play large blocks of music videos. In fact, in the late and wee hours, that is pretty much all they played. Crazy concept, huh? Well MTV apparently is finally listening to their original core audience and has launched a new site that features an insane amount of music videos, both new and old. You can even embed them:

Neat.

Weekends tend to disappear without me realizing it lately. I remember in the summer, Ric said that life would be slower once we got to the fall, but fall seems even busier than summer.

On Friday, I dashed out of work to meet my sister and go to Disneyland. We had a good dinner at the Jazz Kitchen take-out place, then went into the park (what the heck - California Adventure closed at 6pm on a Friday?!) hit up the Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh, the Tiki Room, and Indiana Jones, as well as did a lot of walking around and taking in the Halloween decorations and the fireworks show. Every time we go there we try and go somewhere one of us hasn't really gone before. Jenny had only been on Indiana once and couldn't remember it. Now that she's survived, I'm trying to convince her to go on the roller coaster rides with me. We wandered around in the Disney Store, then found another place we hadn't noticed before: the foot path back to the parking structure from the tram station. The tram on Friday nights is insane. We got home around 11:30. I was planning on a short night of sleep, but my back has been acting up, so I decided to make it a long night and went straight to bed.

Saturday I got up at noon and then started working on the condo. We still had a lot of catching up to do with cleaning, including a massive mountain of laundry that needed to be put away. We worked for a few hours, then Rob and Dee showed up to give us some direction on the bathroom project, which had stalled a bit. They helped us remove the toilet and put it in the bathtub, then provided us with a lot of advice and a list of items we needed to buy. They went home to freshen up, and we met up with them an hour later to head to Pasadena. We went to a bike shop to check out some wheels for Ric, who wants to start biking for exercise, then went to a pub (can't remember the name) that was very cool and sporting all sorts of exclusive beers on tap. We tried some new flavors and some of us discovered the potency of certain drinks (a.k.a. Russian Imperial Stout). We all got home around 9:30, and Ric and I watched some 30 Rock together until I got too tired from all the good food and drink.

Sunday, we went to church and Sunday School, and in the afternoon I went out shopping for items in our bathrooms. I picked up a shower curtain set for the downstairs bathroom, and some new sheet sets for our bedroom. FYI, the cheapest deal out there is actually a great double-set of sheets at Target for $70 (when one set can cost $60 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond - which doesn't even include pillowcases). Ric and I met up at Lowe's to buy more supplies, including a wet saw for tiles, stuff to re-attach the toilet after tiling is done, and a couple little items. We went out to dinner with the Andersons at Panera to tell them all about our trip, then headed home to relax a bit. I caught up on blogs and emails and a couple of tv shows, then watched some tv with Ric while he worked on tiles. I got sleepy early (11) and headed to bed, since I've recently started a new regime of getting up early enough to eat breakfast (and do some yoga with the Fit when I'm in possession of the Wii).

Up this week: shopping, condo work, and on Thursday I'm heading out to Vancouver for a few days to visit with Erika. Apparently we're going to a concert on Halloween. Then I'll check in at the Portland Hilton (right across the river) for a Registrar conference. The cool thing about this trip is that work is paying for me to go visit my friend! I'll be staying through next Tuesday and then I'll be back at work. Movies in the queue this week: Young@Heart, finishing Fitzcarraldo, and maaaybe starting a Madness DVD.

So someone sent me this and I'm totally sucked in. Just when I finished my Rookie Challenge on The Bigs and thought I was free.

If you're not a video game geek like me and have several hours to kill, I also strongly recommend Kevin Smith's new Q&A DVD, which is really funny and is over five hours long.

This week my six year old daughter came home from school and said that a boy in her class told her that Barack Obama wants to kill babies. We explained to Emma that this was not true. No one wants to see more abortions being performed.

For too long, the Republican Party has used this issue to divide America and convince millions of people that they can never vote for a candidate who disagrees with them on this one issue. Many people have already made the case that it is possible to be pro-life and pro-Obama. Here are a few:

Frank Schaeffer - His father, Francis Schaeffer, played a big role in turning this into one of the central political and religious issues of the last three decades. Frank is still pro-life, but he supports Obama.

Douglas W. Kmiec - Kmiec worked in the Ronald Reagan White House, is a prominent Catholic and supports Barack Obama. His site lists some very important facts about abortion and the best ways to prevent it.

Nicholas P. Cafardi - A pro-life Catholic scholar who supports Obama.

Kyle Sterup - Kyle is a friend of mine from college and he is one of the most insightful Christians I know. He is pro-life and supports Obama.

So, if you like Obama but are not sure if you can vote for a candidate who wants to preserve the legality of abortion, the people I listed above (and many more) think you can. Read their words and see if you agree with them.

Here are a few observations that are shaping the way I think about this issue:

Abortion is just one issue. Even if it is a very important issue, should it override your agreement with Obama on several other issues?

I voted for George Bush in 2000 based mostly on my desire to see abortion outlawed. After eight years, two wars, a crippled economy, the erosion of our civil liberties and a drastic reduction in the public's trust of their government, abortion is still legal. How long will the Republican Party be given carte blanche by single issue voters?

The goal of the pro-life movement is to have Roe v. Wade overturned. Would that the end abortions in the United States? It would not. The issue would be left up to the states. By one estimate, only 16 states would outlaw abortion. Legal abortions would still be available to people who live in the other 34 states or who are able to travel. Let me say that again: Overturning Roe v. Wade will not end abortion in America.

Even when abortion was illegal, women still had them. These illegal back alley abortions were often unsafe and led to fatal infections.

If you really want to prevent abortions, outlawing them is not the best method. The best way to prevent abortions is to prevent unintended pregnancies. Accurate sex education and available contraceptives do more to prevent abortions than the Supreme Court ever could.

Another way to prevent abortions is to reduce poverty. Study after study has shown that economic support significantly reduces the abortion rate. Obama's plan to help our nation's uninsured get health care will do more to prevent abortions than any of George Bush's policies have.

Much is made of the late-term procedure known as the partial birth abortion. This is a very rare procedure which accounts for 0.17% of the abortions performed in the United States. As he said in the last debate, Obama is in favor of banning the procedure as long as the law includes an exception for the life and health of the mother. A ban that did not include that exception would in some cases amount to a death sentence for both mother and child.

I understand that many people on both sides of the abortion issue feel very strongly about their opinion. Both sides should bear in mind that this is a very difficult issue. There is no clear answer to the question of when life begins. Science has not provided the answer. The Bible gives no clear teaching on the question. Religious leaders are divided. Ethicists are divided. The public is divided. We should all be careful of becoming so convinced that our position is right that we are willing to demonize those who disagree with us and ignore all other issues.

I do not agree with Barack Obama on every issue, but I do believe that he is the best person to lead our nation in these difficult times. Even if you disagree with his stance on the legality of abortion, I hope you will think about the best way to reduce abortions and about all the other issues that are facing our nation.

Attention John McCain and Sarah Palin:

I've been hearing a lot from you about Real America^TM--the people and communities that you seem to believe represent true American values (as opposed to the millions of people who live in concentrated areas like New York City or San Francisco).

I would like to tell you about where I come from.

I was born and raised in Nebraska, and spent my formative years in a town of less than 25,000 people.

My father grew up on a farm, and some of my relatives still carry on that family tradition.

As I was growing up I spent my summers working for local farmers, ridding their soy bean fields of weeds.

My midwestern parents instilled in me a value for hard work and for helping out those who need it.

I was raised in a Christian church and from about the time I was able to read, I was reading the bible.

I left Nebraska to live in Missouri, in a town of 17,000. It's the largest town for 90 miles. I teach special education in a public school. Most of my students come from rural, low-income, or uneducated families.

My meager teacher's salary supports my wife and two children. We don't have many fancy things, but we are happy.

By any standards you may choose, I think I qualify as a Real American^TM.

I believe in universal health care. I believe that health care is a right, and in a nation as prosperous as ours there is no excuse for any citizen to not have access to adequate health care.

I believe that people who have been blessed with plenty should be called on to help those who have been blessed with little. I don't care if you call this Socialism or class warfare--where I come from people help people who are less fortunate than themselves.

I'm opposed to war for too many reasons to explain here. I think that our soldiers have fought too long for a cause that was unjust to begin with, and it's long past time for them to come home.

I oppose abortion. I also recognize that if the practice is outlawed (which is unlikely even if we continue to elect Republican presidents), abortions will continue to happen. I believe the most effective way to stop abortion is to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

I also believe there are is no Real America^TM. Whether we were born in the Midwest, the East Coast, the West Coast, or in the Panama Canal Zone, so long as we pledge allegiance to the United States we are all equally real Americans, who faithfully carry on the values instilled in us by our parents, regardless of point of origin.

If you claim to represent only a portion of our nation, then you will represent none of it.

On the 4th day of our journeys, we got to have a bit of what Leena called a "lie-in", which only means that we got to sleep an hour later than the day before, so breakfast was at 7 (more cereal, toast, and eggs). We loaded up the bus and noticed it was a rather nice day outside. We traveled away from the weather the majority of the time on our trip, and today was no exception. There were mostly blue skies and only some cool winds in the shady places.

Today's outing was a day trip to Edinburgh. On the way out of Glasgow, we hit a bit of traffic, and had time to notice things, such as sheep who were given a little higher marks of dye than usual, which ended up turning all of their wool pink:

We made it to Edinburgh and our local guide, Bob, jumped on the bus to give us a driving tour. Bob was very friendly and funny, and he was wearing the military tartan, but not a kilt. He explained that not all clans wore kilts. In fact, kilts were only worn by highlanders, and Edinburgh is not highlander country. So, he wore pants and a vest with the plaid, but said he had never worn a kilt. Good to know! We traveled around the old and new parts of the town and learned all about the town's history and character. We saw Candle Shop Row, the famous place where a dog had been buried in a church cemetery (there's a story about a loyal dog who slept on his master's grave for many years, so they buried him near his master), the home of Robert Louis Stevenson, the medical school where many pioneers in medical science were educated, tons of beautiful buildings, a palace, a castle, and Holyrood House (where we got out to take photos):

We learned about how Edinburgh was once built with very light colored stones, but this area was coal country back in the day, and all of the smoke from coal-burning fires turned the porous stones very dark. Apparently, some places have tried to clean the stones, but discovered that the cleaning removed a protective layer in the stones, and the damp weather led to some greenish growth on the buildings. Bob preferred the dirty stones. To get an idea of how many chimney one sees around these parts, here's a quick picture from the bus:

Once we were fully debriefed on this pleasant little city, we were set free to do as we like for the day. Ric and I headed for the records building to get their website info so Ric can do more heritage research. We then crossed the North Bridge into old town Edinburgh and walked up the street to see St. Giles, the church of John Knox (leader of the protestant reformation). Went inside and had a nice chat with the lady we paid for photography privileges, then roamed around the church and admired all of the stories on its stained glass windows. Here's the church from the outside:

We continued on, doing a little bit of shopping along the way for family gifts. I saw a shop that said one could see tartans being weaved inside. It looked small, but when we walked in, it turned out that we were in a giant store, and several stairways later, we saw life-sized dioramas of how weaving developed, and eventually got to see the machines in action:

The store was amazing, having every souvenir, china, jewelry, clothing, accessories, food, and even an opportunity to pose in traditional Scottish outfits. I think it would have been funny if we had done this, but time and money weren't to be wasted. We had a quick lunch upstairs in the cafe; Ric ate his staple fish and chips, and I had a tomato-mozzarella panini. The shop was right near Edinburgh Castle, which was our actual destination. We waited in a long line to pay, then got to wander around. It was too big for the amount of time we had, but we managed to see a lot while we were there, the highlights being the extensive maze of rooms filled with life-sized dioramas depicting the history of the royal honors (crown, scepter, and sword) and the actual honors themselves (which couldn't be photographed), a really fascinating and touching hall filled with memorials to Scottish people who died in WWI (I wish I had photos, but they weren't allowed) that contained many stained glass windows with images of battle scenes and hospitals, and the great hall that was filled with a variety of weapons (where we heard a talk about what fighting was like at the time of Robert Bruce from a very thickly accented and lively guy). Here's one of the parts of that great hall:

We were running low on time, so we headed downhill and took a bridge down towards the newer part of town, and I was searching for a place to get a good view of Edinburgh Castle, because I loved its structure so much. We eventually found a decent spot (I wish the photo got it better, but I love how it's hard to tell where the volcanic rock ends and the castle begins):

Finally, it was time to bid Edinburgh farewell, which I believe most of us did very reluctantly. Our bus drove us into downtown Scotland, where we had a driving view of the city and had a chance to pop into the luxurious city hall. Unfortunately, it was starting to rain a bit, so our group opted to go back to the hotel, where we had dinner at the restaurant, and Ric and I sat with the same Canadian couple. For dinner, there was the hottest soup I've ever been served, some fish served with vegetables, and dessert was a chocolate fondant, which was basically like a hollowed out muffin filled with a rich chocolate pudding. It was so incredibly rich that I had a sugar crash while we were sitting around talking, and almost felt like I had been drinking alcohol.

We decided to shake off the sleepiness and go for a walk so we could actually see a bit more of Glasgow. We walked over to the river Clyde and admired the arch that ran across the bridge there, walked along the river for a while, and went by the visitor's center (I think that's what it was), which looks inspired by the Sydney opera house. It was a nice, crisp walk, and it felt good to be outside at night, since most of our nights were spent inside thus far. Here's a shot of the bridge:

Back at the hotel, I showered and then tried to journal for a while while watching The Full Monty, and eventually decided that I needed to go to bed early for once (10:30), since we had an early morning the next day.

Robert Reich on the government bailing out financial institutions and (possibly) General Motors:

Pardon me for asking, but if a company is too big to fail, maybe -- just maybe -- it's too big, period.

We used to have public policies to prevent companies from getting too big. Does anyone remember antitrust laws? Somewhere along the line policymakers decided that antitrust would only be used where there was evidence a company had so much market power it could keep prices higher than otherwise.

We seem to have forgotten that the original purpose of antitrust law was also to prevent companies from becoming too powerful. Too powerful in that so many other companies depended on them, so many jobs turned on them and so many consumers or investors or depositors needed them, that the economy as a whole would be endangered if they failed. Too powerful in that they could wield inordinate political influence of a sort that might gain them extra favors from Washington.

Since Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy is actually being released, is there a chance that we may actually see Duke Nukem Forever released someday?

We had another breakfast of cereal and toast on Sunday, re-loaded all of our things into the bus, and headed out into the northern English countryside. Here's my last look at Leeds:

We drove for some time and the land started to change. We saw more and more hills, more interesting trees, and plenty of stone walls, which I love. A view from the bus:

The roads started getting more bumpy and had a lot of dips. We had a quick stop in a town called Settle, where I got some tic tacs and took a Dramamine to help settle my stomach. After a while, we made it to the lake district, and to Windermere ("mere" means lake). While some of our fellow tourists opted out and took the bus, a bunch of us went on a private tour of the lake and traveled to the other end of it. It was crisp, cool, and windy, but a beautiful day. Ric and I chose to stay up top on the boat so as to fully experience the ride, but most of our group went down into the enclosed area. By the end, my hands were numb, but I had plenty of great photos!

From there, we drove on through the amazing landscapes and even passed by Wordsworth's old house. It had rained a lot the day before and a lot of the fields were filled with water, and several rivers had broken their banks. While most of our group slept, I took photo after photo of the view from the bus:

Eventually we crossed into Scotland, where the first town we saw was Gretna Green. Young English couples used to elope there because they could marry by declaration in Scotland, so they would go to the first town, declare themselves married, then return to England, where the marriage was recognized as lawful. There were a bunch of little shops there, where we shuffled around a bit. We couldn't find much to eat that we liked, except ice cream. I chose honeycomb, which was incredibly tasty. We bought souvenirs for the family and some candy for the road, some of which was just like a favorite candy I always buy at places like Olvera Street, but just slightly different. I wish I had bought more! Outside the shopping area were some fields and some Highland Cattle, which we could take photos of but not get too close, since there was an electric fence:

We traveled onward into Scotland and reached our hotel in Glasgow. We all had a little bit of time to rest in our rooms. Ric and I watched The Simpsons and we had better TV choices there, so I watched a pleasant little Rita Hayworth movie called The Lady in Question. When it was time for those of us going to the traditional Scottish night of entertainment to leave, we all loaded back on the bus and drove out to Stirling. We stopped for some photos of Stirling castle:

Then we drove up to the Robert Bruce monument that celebrates the Battle at Bannockburn. On our way in, we were escorted by a bagpipe player. I could post a million photos, but I'll spare you. There was a large structure showing a Scottish flag, to commemorate when Bruce raised the Scottish colors, and there was a large statue of Bruce himself on his horse. Here's the bagpipe player:

We proceeded to the hotel where our night of entertainment was held, and had a great time. There was a welcome with bagpipes, the ceremony of the haggis (which included an Irish whiskey toast and reading of Burns' poetry about the food):

..more recitation of Burns material, and Scottish dancing (sorry for the poor photo - I didn't have the best seat when it came to lighting):

Overall, we had a lot of fun and also got to know a Canadian couple, the wife of which reminded us a lot of Ric's aunt K. Dinner included soup, haggis, pasta (for me), and chicken/ham (for Ric), and for dessert I had a citrusy torte.

We got back around 10:30. Ric went right to bed. I showered, then watched some of The Secretary while starting a journal of our travels, since we finally got to a hotel that had a pad of paper in the room. I went to bed around 12:30, I think.

Japan + Segway + chimp = awesome

Yes, we took the obligatory pumpkin patch pictures with Eden over the weekend. And yes, she was in a costume--an elephant, to be precise. Hope you like the pictures!

LAist: Elliot Smith and the Big Nothing

Five years ago today, on October 21, 2003, Elliott Smith died. The intentions behind his death still not been confirmed, but some time that day, Elliott met the Big Nothing.

I am still saddened to see that the facts surrounding Elliot's death are still sketchy. That has to be rough for his family. In honor of his memory, I've been listening to his posthumous release, New Moon, which gives a good retrospective of his work. Here's to you, Eliot.

Nerd that I am, I actually have a Wishlist search set up on my TiVo for Ginger Roger movies, which is why I come up with some odd ones people might not expect. Well, Roberta isn't so odd. In fact, it actually stars Fred Astaire as well, but the couple is somehow cast in this movie as the supporting cast. I guess this has happened before, but here it is a little more noticeable because the main story isn't as good. The story begins as Astaire's crew of musicians arrives to Paris only to find that the job they came for is no longer available because the club owner thought he was getting a group of (American) Indians to play music for him, and instead got Indianians. They seek help in two places. The first is at a dress shop, belonging to one of the Indianians' aunt. She's a famous designer of dresses. The second is to visit a friend (Rogers) of one of the bandmates (Astaire) who is posing as a foreigner named Comtesse Shwarenka so she comes across as more exotic and can book shows.

At the dress shop, our protagonist John's famous dressmaking aunt, Roberta, welcomes the band, and they meet up with the "Comtesse" who helps them book a job at a club. Meanwhile, John is falling in love with his aunt's assistant, Stephanie, played by Irene Dunne. Stephanie is actually a deposed Russian princess, although she never gets around to letting that information be known to John. When Aunt Roberta passes away and leaves the business in John's hands, he partners with Stephanie. All is well until John's old fiancee shows up, having heard of his recent financial success. Between both of their pasts, a lot of obstacles get in the way of the couple ending up happily ever after, but we all know that it will end happily ever after.

There are several musical pieces in the movie. A clever little performance shows Astaire's band posing with white gloves on as the keys of an organ, and Astaire plays the keys while they sing their respective notes. It's clever, but not amazing. Irene Dunne has a nice solo. Astaire and Rogers have a few dances together. The first couple are okay, but the final performance is the best, as it should be. The movie is also full of fashion, including an actual fashion show as things were done in the old days.

This movie was mostly underwhelming, but did find a certain sense of charm. I guess I thought it would be more flashy based on its description, but it actually moves slowly despite some of the expensive shows. Overall, I'm glad I saw it just so I can cross it off the Astaire/Rogers list, but probably wouldn't watch it again.

We woke up at 5am on Saturday with no idea of what was in store for us. We didn't know what our group would be like and we weren't even totally sure where we were visiting that day, except that we would end up in Leeds at the end of the day. We got down to our first breakfast at 6am. There was a choice of cereal, toast, rolls, and possibly a couple of other generic continental breakfast items, and of course we had coffee to get us going. We looked around the room and were relieved to see that there were actually more people our age than we had hoped for - a few couples and a set of friends. The rest seemed mostly older, except there was actually a family with two young girls, which surprised us. All of us gathered in the lobby, then ventured out into the cold morning, where I started to doubt my decision to only bring a light jacket on the trip.

We loaded into our bus, and I discovered that my carry-on was too fat to store in the overhead compartment (which is smaller than that of a plane, where it fit nicely) and had to store it under my seat, although it didn't fully fit there either, so I kind of had it under my feet. Yay. Here's a photo of what life was like in the bus:

We set off through London past Hyde park to pick up more fellow tourists at another location, and then we were off, out of London, north into the English countryside. An hour or two later, we made it to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the home of William Shakespeare. We were set free to roam the small town, which I found quite charming. We got a couple of items in the shops, had the photos in front of Shakespeare's house (thatched roof included), then ventured off the touristy shopping street to go to the river (that's what "Avon" means). Here's the little harbor, where we watched geese being fed, said hi to a dog on a boat, and admired some Shakespearean statues:

We found a quiet path alongside the river and passed by the old site where plays had been performed, then saw the more modern site. There was a lot of construction going on and it looks like they have a lot of plans to expand. We ran into a whole bunch of geese along the river, saw some rowboats that were all named after female Shakespearean characters, and then ventured on to the church where Shakespeare was buried. It had a lovely cemetery and grounds, and was very nice inside as well. For a couple of pounds each, we were allowed in to take photos of the burial site:

Eventually, we had to go, but I really enjoyed our quiet walk on a windy but not-too-cold day, with just a few sprinkles coming down. We walked back up the shopping street, boarded the bus, and proceeded on a longer journey to York. We stopped after an hour or so to eat at a convenience stop. Ric and I had Wimpy's, which was the worst fast food chicken and fries a person can eat. You may read these entries and think we didn't try a lot of the local foods, but most convenience stops only have pre-packaged sandwiches, most of which are filled with combinations of cheese, mayonnaise, and ham (which I don't eat). So sometimes, we just had to have fast food. And anyway, Wimpy's was sort of like discovering what English fast food can be. Ric actually pulled the skin off of a piece of fried chicken, and a gush of grease came out. We pretty much didn't eat after that. From the stop, we went on and passed by a lot of English countryside - the flat kind. It's a lot of flat green fields, and a lot of dense, voluminous trees. Somewhere along the line that day is when we passed the area of Nottingham, so I was able to get an idea of what Robin Hood's Sherwood forest was supposed to look like. Here's what we saw most of the time:

We finally made it to York around 2ish in the afternoon. Our tour guide, Leena, gave us a walking tour of York, from the medieval wall surrounding the city to Yorkminster (giant church) to the Shambles, which is a busy shopping street now but was once where a lot of animals were slaughtered by butchers. We were told about how real estate was steep in those days and was only based on the area of land being purchased, so people would buy a small piece of land, then build the next story higher and also extend it out into the street more. Here's an example of how the teetering buildings once looked:

After the walking tour, we were free to roam. Ric and I walked down Shambles street for a while, grabbed a few souvenirs for family, went through a little outdoor market, and then headed to Yorkminster. We went inside and found out that there was a mass in session, so we couldn't go in all the way. We took some photos of what we could see and admired the music from the mass. We found out one could go into a museum below the church, to see the crypts and treasury and such, so we did that. It followed all of the history of the church and the area of York, showing us things that were discovered from different periods of history. It was interesting to see the variety of artifacts. Here's a picture of Yorkminster from the outside. No single photo could capture the whole thing:

After visiting the church, we went on a hike along one of the city walls, trying to get to a good place to have a photo of the church. Unfortunately, time was running short, and while we were able to see a lot of the town, we didn't get the photo I was looking for. That's okay. I loved the walls themselves. We found our way back to the meeting place, walked through York back to our bus, and drove on towards Leeds, where we arrived sometime in the early evening. We all had time to settle in our rooms for a while. Ours was comfortable, and gave us an idea of the local brew from our window:

Ric took note of the brew and made sure to sample it during dinner, which was in the hotel restaurant. We met a couple from Australia who were on their first big vacation. They had just done an enormous tour of Europe. Most of the people on our tour seemed to be from Australia, and most of them seemed to be vacationing for a couple of months in all sorts of locales before and after our tour. We also met a couple from Arizona, who live near where Ric's brother used to live. They were one of the couples who are our age. Dinner was a buffet. I tried the mystery meat and wasn't sure what it was, along with some potatoes. Ric was safe with salmon. For dessert, I could have adventurously chosen pudding, but was advised against it by someone else who had already tried it, and so went with a nice plain piece of cake. It was pouring rain in Leeds that night and was actually kind of cold, so we opted out of wandering the town. It seemed like the area we were in was rather industrial anyway, so it probably would have been a long walk to entertainment.

I had a good shower and settled in to watch some tv before bed. Before dinner I watched some of a kids game show that ran a lot like Legends of the Hidden Temple, but was more pagan-like and more outdoors. I also watched a bit of The X Factor, which I totally got hooked on over the length of the trip. I'll have to go do some searches online to see how the contestants are performing! Most nights I went to bed around midnight, so I'm assuming I did that on this day. Ric passed out as soon as we hit the hotel room.

A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Karen Armstrong

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

This was easily the most difficult poem for all of us to write. We were to creat an illogical world. I don't think any of us created a world that was illogical enough. At any rate. Here's my attempt.

Someday I'll be big enough

"I can't hold this thing up forever," Dad says,
already losing his grip on the moon,
his fingers digging deeper into the dust,
searching for a hold.

"I almost have it," the boy says.
"There it is." The boy grasps a purple plastic case.
The makeup inside rattles,
causing clouds to gather and a thunderstorm to begin to form,
rumbling around his waist.

"What were you doing with your sister's makeup anyway?" the father asks,
gently putting the moon back in place.
He claps his hands and
wipes them on his pants.
The dust falls, filling in a small lake.

"Someday I'll be big enough to touch the moon."
The boy clutches the box to his chest,
hops on a passing cloud and calls,
"Sissy! I found it."
As he rides the cloud
he smells the rain coming,
the smell of clean and dirty mixed together
makes him grin.

His sister appears tiptoeing
along a ridge of mountains.
Her little feet crush aspen and pine,
and send boulders crashing down the slopes.
She snatches a handful of the broken trees and
pops them into her mouth.
The taste of pine and squirrel,
bluebird and spiders,
and a hundred other natural things
tickle her tongue.

"Sorry I lost it," he says.
His sister stops, grins,
takes the box from her brother,
and playfully knocks him off his cloud.

Well, our first week back has been a real kicker. Every time I come back from a trip to Europe, I want to turn around and go straight back. Vacation is such a fun way of life, especially when someone is figuring out all of the details for you. I love seeing places that are older, with a lot more history, heritage, and greenery. I kept feeling on Monday like I should be getting back onto our tour bus to go see more parts of the world. And I kept feeling like so many of the things I do here seem so boring or like a waste of time. Trips like these always make me re-think my priorities and ways of life. I'm still figuring out what things I might want to change. For one, I think I have too many blogs on my reader. It was really great to step away from the internet for a spell. I don't want to rid myself of it completely, but maybe I just don't really need to know about which movies might have scripts being written, or which celebrity wore something ugly, or what so-and-so thought of the most recent episode of The Office.

Monday I ran around doing errands. I went back to exchange some pounds for dollars, which was sad, because the recent bank dealings did not benefit us at all. That's why we actually spent the majority of our money while we were there. I went grocery shopping to stock up on things. I uploaded the last couple days of highlights to Facebook. Did some laundry. I knew it would take too much time to re-cap the trip at work, so I went to the track at five to catch up with Amy and Ruth. So much happened while we were gone, the highlight being that one of our office girls prematurely had her baby. I was so upset that I couldn't be there to visit her in the hospital, but glad that the seven-week-early delivery went well. Tuesday, I did more laundry and worked more on photos, went to the post office to pick up all of our mail, etc., then went off to see Antony and the Johnsons at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with Brendan, which was really nice. I finally went back to work on Wednesday (Ric went straight back on Monday), where I was sure they had pulled a prank on me while I was gone, since I'm always part of the office pranks. Sure enough, when I got there, my office was completely empty, and all of my things had been moved to a tiny student worker cubicle. Cute! Funny thing is that I totally could have worked there with no complaints. Ric and I have spent the last few days trying to catch up with laundry, finances, mail, and more.

This weekend I wanted to have some fun but get some things accomplished. On Friday night, we went out with the Agadonis and their friend Ian to see Appaloosa. On Saturday, I worked on finances and dishes, made a long preparation-time Welsh stew, then went to see The Nightmare Before Christmas at the El Capitan with my sister (sorry folks, it was only playing for 6 days this year, and I didn't have enough time to coordinate an outing). Sunday, we went to church and started something new - we went to regular service, then to an actual Sunday School class, or I think they call those Adult Bible Communities (ABCs) at church. It's for newly married couples. I'm hesitant to get involved but know it's something I should do. I'm really uneasy, especially since my history at this church is long, and there aren't always pleasant memories, and seeing some of these people bring up the past for me. We'll see how it goes. We visited with Liz and Emily, then went to get some gas and lunch at Pick Up Stix, and then home to relax for a bit. Time got away from me for a while there, but I finally started getting productive in the late afternoon, playing for an hour or so on the piano, then painting trim around the upstairs hallway and kitchen for a couple of hours while listening to The Island of Dr. Moreau. Ric and I watched The Simpsons and last week's House together, then called it a night.

Up this week: I still need to put away a lot of laundry. Tonight I'm going to go see our friend's preemie at the NICU, tomorrow's shopping night, Wednesday's movie night with the Aagadonis, Thursday is Ghostbusters on the Fox, and I might be going to Disneyland to see the Halloween decor on Friday. If I can squeeze it in, I really want to catch Journey to the Center of the Earth at the cheap theater.

I'll start things off with the easiest day to recap, especially since all of my photos are on the camera, at home. The first day of our trip involved a lot of travel, albeit easy travel. The only bad thing about seeing the world is that it takes so long to get there. My sister laughed when I told her our flight length, since she's used to visiting her boyfriend in Japan, but to a guy with a short attention span and a girl with an easily-sore body, it was long to us. That being said, things went faster than I thought they would.

We packed up our things, the cat, and the cat's things, and drove over to Ric's parents' house on Thursday afternoon, picking up some drive-thru food on the way. I always think it's funny when we're in the drive thru with a cat in the car. Pip was a little scared, probably because the last time we took him anywhere, it was the vet, and we all know he doesn't like the vet. We let him out at the in-laws' place and said our goodbyes, transferred our luggage to the FIL's car, and all of us took off for LAX and got there in good time.

I always talk to Amy about how much I love changes in technology and how they make our lives easier, especially when it involves less face-to-face action with service people. I love etickets. I had a printed barcode that I scanned, we confirmed our info, and we even scanned our passports. We dropped off our checked luggage without having to scan it, went through the shortest LAX scanning line I've ever seen for our carry-ons without getting stopped for anything, and made our way to our gate with waaay too much time to spare. I listened to the Immortal Beloved soundtrack while reading some of Atlas Shrugged, then switched gears when a funny little situation involving a lawyer sitting near us and an older lady who wanted to pay him to use his laptop to find herself a flight from London to Rome. That kept me entertained until it was time to board.

We were flying American for the first time. I have to say I wasn't very impressed in almost every aspect. The security and airport information given to us was above average, but for everything else, it seemed to be lacking. We had very small leg space, only one bathroom for each side of the plane, some pretty scary food (which meant I gave all rolls and plain items to Ric) that left both of us hungry, and the entertainment selection was slim. In fact, unlike other flights where users can choose movies on-demand, we had to wait until the next start time of each selection. It wasn't a long wait, but it was annoying. I watched Baby Mama and August Rush, as well as a couple of episodes of The Office, which weren't new. I think if JetBlue can offer its passengers live television, then all others should follow suit. The really annoying thing was that first class and business had about five times the amount of choice in movies. We were only left with only a few movies in each genre. I'm not going to pay several hundred more dollars just for a few movies. If they're available to one class, they should be available to all. Anyway, after a bunch of watching, I just went to sleep. We left at 6pm our time and landed at 12:25 the next afternoon in London, after about 10.5 hours. It was a short distance to baggage, and we went quickly through an almost deserted passport station and didn't have to do any customs.

When we came out to the gate, our travel representative wasn't there. We waited around for about 15 minutes and finally found her, and she showed us to the area where we would wait for our shuttle. About 25 minutes later, we took off from Heathrow in a minivan towards London. We drove past a lot of industrial areas, then some trees, and into the city. We dropped off other passengers in Chelsea, so we were able to see where the stadium was there, then drove through Kensington and Camden, and made it to Islington, where our hotel was. We checked in and made it to our room, where we couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights for a few minutes. As it turns out, all of the hotels over there have you check your room card into a slot for the electricity to be activated. If you take out the key, everything turns off. I liked this feature, because it ensured we never lost our keys.

We received a letter from our touring company that told us our wake up call would be at 5:15am. What the? I thought this was supposed to be a vacation! Haha. We had to make a big mental shift for the trip, since most of our wakeup calls were 1-2 hours earlier than I usually get up for work. Since we were tired (Ric doesn't sleep well on planes, and every time he shifted around on the plane, he woke me up), we decided to get food and call it a night. We probably had dinner around five in the evening, at the hotel pub, which was made up to look more like a regular pub inside. We both had fish and chips, and I think they were the best ones we had on the whole trip.

We headed up to our room to get ready for the next day. I probably spent a good while shifting things back and forth between my suitcase and carry-on, since I would have to bring the carry-on onto the bus with me and didn't want it to be too heavy. After a good shower (wow, the water pressure in all our hotels was so great!), I got ready and went to sleep. Ric and I probably woke up ten times throughout the night, thinking it was time to get up, especially since we went to bed so early.

I like running polls on my blog, but sometimes I want to ask several questions and see how the answers relate to each other. So, I'm trying out a service that allows me to do that. I started with a short survey about health care and education. It's only 3 questions. I hope you can take a moment to complete it: http://www.polldaddy.com/s/09617AAD67FCD274/

According to my last.fm profile, I am 10 songs away from hitting my 20,000th play scrobbled on the site, so I've decided to do a spontaneous random ten to commemorate the event.

Why? Because about the only things I like better than meaningless milestones are pointless music lists.

So here we go:

Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl - U2
We're starting off with some really old U2, from way back in 1982. It's really not some of their better music, even for that time period, but it's a must-have for obsessive completionists like me. By the way, this is the studio version from their A Celebration single--not the live version on Under a Blood Red Sky.

Two-Step - Dave Matthews Band
I'm not really much of a Dave Matthews fan, but I inherited most of his music when I married Erika. If I had to pick any DMB song to listen to, though, this would be it. I like the instrumental opening that builds for a good minute and a half before the vocals come in. It really would have made a great album opener.

Fired - Ben Folds
This is kind of the opposite of the last track. I generally like Ben Folds (who my wife also turned me on to), but I'm not a big fan of this track. I don't have a particular reason--it just doesn't get me fired up (sorry) the way his other music does.

Holy Dread! - Clint Mansell
This is from the soundtrack to The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky. It's kind of a dull soundtrack, and this is track is no exception. Next, please.

Goin' Nowhere - Chris Isaak
Yet another artist I probably would never have listened to had it not been for my wife. This song is okay, but I don't love it. If iTunes doesn't start picking some of my music soon, I may have to start cheating a little bit.

Marrow - Ani DiFranco
This is better. I like Ani quite a bit, although I prefer the frenetic guitar work on her earlier albums (this track is off Revelling/Reckoning, which my wife likes way more than I do).

March for Koala - The Seatbelts
This is a song from the amazing Cowboy Bebop anime series. Every song in the show was written and performed by Yoko Kanno and her band, and there are some amazing songs of a diverse range of genres. This song, however, is just a little bit of silly incidental music. I'm beginning to fear that my 20,000th song is going to be a real let-down.

California Dreamin' - The Mamas & the Papas
This is more like it. Everyone with a pulse loves this song. Let's have more of this, iTunes randomizer.

Maria - Rage Against the Machine
*sigh* Once again, a relatively weak song by a decent band. Do you see a pattern here? Actually, I think Rage lost most of their freshness and relevance after their debut album.

And now, my 20,000th last.fm song (I'm almost afraid to look):

Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid) - Sufjan Stevens
The iTunes randomizer comes through for me in the end! This is a very beautiful song by one of my favorite songwriters of today. And it's a very appropriate song, considering our nation's current economic situation. What a gorgeous and heartbreaking song! I can't wait for Sufjan to come out with his next album.

Blogging should resume next week. Sorry, but when you get back from seeing the world, sometimes a little blog seems so dull.

I'll return with recaps of the vacation, reviews of movies, and what we're up to now that we're back. Things are busy in our future, but this week is a recuperative week. See ya!

I remember reading this Onion article when it came out eight years ago. With each intervening year, I think it has only become more poignant.

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

Here are a few key quotes:

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

"Finally, the horrific misrule of the Democrats has been brought to a close," House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert (R-IL) told reporters. "Under Bush, we can all look forward to military aggression, deregulation of dangerous, greedy industries, and the defunding of vital domestic social-service programs upon which millions depend. Mercifully, we can now say goodbye to the awful nightmare that was Clinton's America."

The only thing detracting from the humor is the fact that everything in the article is so horribly true. If anything, the author underestimated what would happen to America during the Bush administration.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Another great one from the guy who brought us "Take On Me - The Literal Version." This time we get "Head Over Heels." Man, 80's music videos were pretty crazy.