That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard! That's totally non-sequitary!

I started this a while ago but decided I better rush to finish it since the POW thing's getting played out.

As before please feel free to share if you enjoy the thing.

Apologies in advance that the voice work isn't as good as last time. :-)

That's okay Mikey. You and your brother are back with your mother and I. That makes us the richest people in Astoria.

McCain:

“I define rich in other ways besides income,” he said. “Some people are wealthy and rich in their lives and their children and their ability to educate them. Others are poor if they’re billionaires.”

It means the warranty has run out on Dungeon Master's brain.

You've probably already heard about pro-McCain conservative blogger Michael Goldfarb's stupid swipe at Obama supporters "It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement..." but I just want to add that Goldfarb has been a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and other hawkish neocon posturing around the world.

As somebody who has played games like Dungeons & Dragons off and on through his entire life I'd just like to say that our little fantasy world is fairly harmless. (Other than the calories consumed eating chips when we play.)

The fantasy world Goldfarb and his neocon buddies live in has been projected onto actual policy and resulted in the real loss of thousands of lives.

I don't think it's a question as to which group are the clueless assholes here. It ain't the guys rolling 20-sided dice.

It's teaching its son all right. And, he's teaching its son just like people teaching its children, just like a papa.

Happy birthday to Dean Jr. who turns twelve today.

At our house we have a tradition when it's one of the kid's birthdays - the 6 a.m. bagpipe procession to their bedroom. I get out my pipes (I really need to practice more) and we march into the birthday boy/ girl's room with the rest of family in tow. Our Chihuahua/ Pekingese Spike always comes in last, howling at the noise.

Did you know that John Woo and Dick Cheney considered listing bagpipe music under acceptable torture methods but even they couldn't bring themselves to be that cruel?

Dean Jr. tried to hide under his pillows but there was just no way to stop the dulcet tones of the pipe drones and chanter. When we finally dragged him out of bed and sat him down to watch a video that his sisters put together for him.

Comprised of pictures of him growing up, shots of Godzilla (his favorite movie star) and laced with music like Chicago's "You're The Inspiration" I couldn't believe that this little movie was put together by the two girls who spend the rest of the year plotting Dean Jr.'s painful demise.

In honor of his big day here's a much better piper than me playing the theme to Star Wars--

You should try talking to it. 'Cause, like, supposedly they can hear you even though it's all, like, ten-thousand leagues under the sea.

This...

Three weeks later, Mr. Bush went to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, at the invitation of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. There, he received a message from the Russian: the push to offer Ukraine and Georgia NATO membership was crossing Russia’s “red lines,” according to an administration official close to the talks.

Afterward, Mr. Bush said of Mr. Putin, “He’s been very truthful and to me, that’s the only way you can find common ground.” It was one of many moments when the United States seemed to have missed — or gambled it could manage — the depth of Russia’s anger and the resolve of the Georgian president to provoke the Russians.

...reminded me of this.

Later the transcript has Glaspie saying: "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America."

Which in turn reminded me of this...

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full-field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.

When it comes to foreign policy it's probably best to heed the advice of Jesse Jackson and "stay out of the Bushes." Their incomptence is generational. In fairness a president McCain would be just as clueless