Big Engineering-Ramses II moves upon the earth again

Amazing, wonderful stuff. more later....

Saving an ancient pharaoh...

The pharaoh moves...

Of Frat Boys, Fart Jokes, and the Oval Office

I believe that the end is near for President Bush, at least in terms of his ability to govern, or command much respect. It's amazing. The media, formerly so awed by the faux cowboy, is now doing its best to make sure that we know exactly what kind of yahoo he is.

He tells fart jokes. Not only that, he will coupé le fromage in front of new presidential aides. (scroll down to "Animal House in the West Wing".)

I can't even begin to defend that. You got gas, you hold it, or you apologize for its unintended release. You don't deliberately try to engender a toxic waste release.

I fear for my country. Consider this quotation from H.L Mencken from 1920: "As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

Sweat, Heat, and Hope

Ah, the end of summer. Well, of course, we're talking about Tampa Florida. Here, summer lasts approximately 11 3/4 months out of the year. Here we are talking about one of the consistently top ranked sweatiest cities in America. The humidity is just overwhelming. I swear, there are days I wish I had scuba gear, just to go out to work. The heat, the humidity; it's oppressive.

But hope springs eternal. Here it is near the end of August, and you can tell that the season is about to change, as infintesimally as it does in Tampa. As overwhelming as summer is here, it also bears a certain sharpness. The combination of heat and humidity drives right through you.

But when the season starts to change, it's not quite so sharp. It starts moderating, even if only a little bit. And I first felt that last night, and again, in the middle of the day with it just wasn't quite as unbearable.

No matter how less unbearable it gets, it's never really not summer. The change of season is not in the gaudy fashion of the Midwest; it's fall when it's no longer consistently in the 90's.

And what was all this for?

Oh my. Where to begin?

Well, I suppose I could start with a blistering stream of profanity and obscenity, but I don't suppose that would do any good.

President Bush, today, in his press conference said that 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq. I'll repeat that. He said that 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq.

What the holy moley, sons of a so and so were these administration dorks saying for years to the run-up to the Iraq war?

We had to invade Iraq, because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and because there was definite linkage between him and the terrorists who committed the World Trade Center attack.

You'll see from the link the reference to Cheney, speaking on Meet the Press. Oh yes, he and Rice and Rumsfeld, among others, all put forth a drumbeat that we had to go to Iraq. We had to defuse the fangs of the weapons of mass destruction. We had to avenge 9/11.

I'm sorry. This would be funny if it weren't so tragic. Since the war began, 2605 American lives have been lost in Iraq. Since Bush's vain glorious proclamation of "Mission Accomplished" was uttered 2468 lives have been lost, American lives. Of course this does not even take into consideration the lives of Iraqis lost.

So now, of course, we're in Iraq forever, or at least not until Bush leaves office. How many more good lives thrown away after other good lives lost?

Texas gave us at George W. Bush. Texas also gave us Jane Russell and Cyd Charisse. There is balance in the universe.