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Quick Hits, Before I Melt

Today’s going to be a general catch-up day, I think. No one heavy topic, really. The reason behind the lack of focus, is the heat. It’s hot outside.

I’ve written about huge cold in this space in the past.  This time, it’s heat. No, not just heat. HEAT. Bigtime. Pus, humidity in the upper 80’s at least for the last week. That one fact.. the weather… relegates all other activities, purposes and goals to secondary import. Lawn needs mowing? Forget that… too hot outside… give youself sunstroke and anyway, the grass will wither under all this heat. Bits’Box needs washing, and waxing? Well, maybe washing. After all, you get to play with the water a bit while doing it. Waxing? Forget it. House needs repair? No way THAT’s gonna happen, Herman… too freakin’ hot. Picnic? Nah… it’s too…. Well, you get the idea.

So, with this forced redirection of energy, one comes into areas of one’s life that are normally not explored… One tends to curl up with a book, and in my case, an iced coffee, and my MP3 player, for example. I’ve been digging into David McCullough’s fine tome’ on John Adams, for example. (Link in the lower right column-Ed) For all it is, McCullough’s book is long and detailed in a way that most books are not, and requires rather more attention than I’m usually inclined to give such things, on more normally heated days.

To those who have asked, yes, if a book manages to make it into my right column, I’m not only reading it but enjoying it; I will not place a book there unless I I think it worth the bandwidth to place there. If it’s there, consider it a personal reccomendation of a book you need to see. I assume if you’re a regular reader to this blog, that you and I share similar interests… and thereby if I find a book of interest, that telling my readers about it is doing them a favor. I don’t get any money for such mentions. (Though I’m not above the idea; I simply haven’t had any offers, yet)

Another thing I’ve been doing is moving my big desktop back down to the Server room. The boys are getting to the age where they’re getting a bit louder in their day to day. They’re also getting more active on the computer.  Between the two of hem, they tend to make writing and daily system and website upkeep a challange. Recent events have provided me with a good deal of computer hardware, to the point where there’s a computer for the boys, one for Donna and one for me.  Alas, that takes some setup. So I’ve been doing that today. It’s a more involved process than it sounds because the server room has become a catchall in the years it was unused. It’ll take a while to whip it back into shape.

On to other random topics that have come up this week, starting with a couple of perception vs reality bits.

At some point, the Democrats are going to have to admit that their smear campaign against Karl Rove has no basis in fact. They thought they had enough to cripple a hpolitical figure that’s casued the Democrats great damage. That was the perception. The reality is becoming increasingly clear… that they had nothing, except a lot of anger to go on. The facts in the case were not on the side of the Democrats. Joe Wilson even admitted on Thurday’s Wolf Blitzer program that at the time the information came out about his wife, she wasn’t an undercover operative. Now, it seems likely this is an effort to take some of the heat off the people the investigation landed on… Judith Miller, for one. But if that’s true, what validity does the anti-Rove Lynch-mob claim now?

I’ve said this before, I’ll likely say it again; The Democrats worst nightmare is actually having the source of the leak exposed…. no matter who it was. Matt Hoy [1]has some comments to all of this, you should read.

* Oil prices are falling again. The perception was they’d go noplace but up, beacuse as well all suppsoedly know, the world is short on oil. That’s the perception. But of course the reality is different; We now have a stockpile of oil 10% larger than we had when these most recent price hikes started happening. That’s got to sink into to the speculation crowd eventually, and thereby into the prices at the pump.

* I find myself a little annoyed that Dodd Harris [2]has decided to pull the plug on his blog for reasons he doesn’t get into. He’ll be missed. PS to Dodd; If you’re looking for a place to chime in once in a while, Dodd, I could be pursuaded.

* Boom, it’s for you.
Has it occurred to anyone that the spectre of a cellphone left on a plane with a little plastic explosive, being called and exploded, becomes far more possible once the FAA starts allowing cellphone use on planes? Rather than allowing cellphones, a cellphone blocker being installed on every plane is the way to go, seems to me.  I guess the obvious gets by people.

Enough. I’ve got computers to move.