At the blatant and unwavering abuses of this administration, by which I mean (in this case) the Justice (amazing how quickly this has become such an extremely ironic name since Bush took office) Department headed by John Ashcroft.

“The Justice Department tipped its hand in its ongoing legal war with the ACLU over the Patriot Act. Because the matter is so sensitive, the Justice Dept is allowed to black out those passages in the ACLU’s court filings that it feels should not be publicly released.

Ostensibly, they would use their powers of censorship only to remove material that truly could jeopardize US operations. But in reality, what did they do? They blacked out a quotation from a Supreme Court decision”

more here…

Thanks to Kuri for the link.

I was just watching CNN, and there was a debate about the effects of the debunked, slanderous swift boat ads. They were discussing how these ads have had effects on the polls, and have turned a certain percentage of people against Kerry. It just floors me that the main topic isn’t that these ads are completely dishonest and slanderous. For CNN it isn’t about making sure that people know that the information is untrue.

Instead it is all about what effect these lies have had. It is insane to me that it doesn’t matter how something gets done, as long as it gets done. It doesn’t matter how you lie to the American people as long as you manipulate them into following your point of view. This isn’t the America that I grew up with, and I am completely disgusted.

I’m no expert on wine, in fact I probably don’t drink more than 2 bottles in a month when I am drinking a lot. That being said, I think this review is a safe one. Last weekend I went out an bought a couple of bottles of wine to enjoy with dinner once in a while. I bought one bottle of Jacob’s Creek wine that I know to be quite decent, and decided to get one that I hadn’t tried before. Since I don’t consider my palate to be refined enough to purchase expensive wines I generally stay in the low end of the price scale. I spent slightly more for the second bottle, a 1999 Woodbridge merlot from Robert Mondavi, than for the bottle of Jacob’s Creek.

Do not drink this wine and do not give it to others. This wine is simply disgusting, and the only way to make it bearable is to chill it as cold as you can. It leaves you with a dry stagnant flavor after you drink it, and the taste while you are drinking it is worse. The only bottle of wine I’ve had that was worse than this one was a bottle of warm Mad Dog 20/20 Blue Hawaii when I was a drunken college student. I highly recommend that you pass this one by.

Since UltraMom is derelict in her posting duties, I guess it is up to me to hold down the fort for one more day.

I remember that I used to love to listen to my Grandpa’s stories of when he was young. What life was like then: the characters that lived then, in as yet untamed, Idaho; his misadventures; the stories of his Father coming to America by way of 7 trips around the world; and his pet bat, Useless. Many of the stories were well-worn yarns that I had heard many times and wanted to hear many more, and frequently the right question would launch him into telling a tale I’d never heard before. The men in my family are known for spinning tall tales, and I’m sure that Grandpa’s stories were embellished, but really, what story isn’t better with a bit of embellishment?

My Grandpa died of cancer when I was a Freshman away at college, and I have missed him everyday since then. I have missed all the things I could have shared with him: he never met UltraGirl and I never got to tell him of my time in Japan or starting my new business. I miss all the time we could have spent together and we never got to go up to Alaska, catch some Squaws, and be hermit heroes (my Grandpa was many things, politically correct was not among them). I can’t work with him in his shop on whatever project he has going on, and I can’t listen to his wonderful stories of old.

Stories like these give us, I think, a lot of insight into life today. Maybe not in directly applicable ways all the time, but that extra knowledge gives us extra tools to deal with life. Besides that they are nearly always incredibly interesting. I bring this up because recently I have been blessed with the opportunity to hear more of these stories of the past, but this time from a completely different background. UltraGirl’s grandfather died the week before last, and her Grandmother has come to live with UltraGirl’s parents. Before the Grandfather died, they were one of 4 married couples in Yokosuka over the age of 90. UltraGrandma is 94 years old and is extremely spry. She was born in the last years of the reign of the Meiji Emperor (born in 1910), and has lived through tremendous changes in Japan. I love to hear her stories and have tons of questions, and she loves to tell them. We make a great team. I’m extremely lucky to have met UltraGrandma and I feel extremely blessed to be able to hear her stories. I hope to get some of her stories on tape … something I have always regretted not doing with Grandpa.

If you still have living grandparents, appreciate them, they are truly a treasure!

I spent nearly all of last week awake, trying to meet a hellish deadline. I met most of the deadline and got a minor extension on the part that I had only gotten the content for a day earlier.

The thing about sleep dep is it makes everything kind of interesting. My state of awareness goes through peaks and troughs. When I break through a barrier of exhaustion I feel alert and ready to go for a few hours. I feel at the top of my game, and though I’m probably not doing my best work, I feel like I am. I find that I focus the best during periods like these.

Then there are the troughs, where I drift in and out of a state of half-sleep and find myself doing “interesting” things that I hope I catch everytime. Like when I think I am plugging away, copying and pasting text into a French web page making good progress, and suddenly I’m brought to a halt when I find that I don’t really know where to take this bizarre interview with some unknown creature that I realize I have been typing into the middle of the page for what, judging by the length, must have been at least a couple of minutes…

I wish I hadn’t deleted the interview in rage and disgust, I think the mystery creature had some very interesting things to say, but I can’t remember what they were.