Much of the press on the energy bill that swept through congress yesterday and this morning seems to focus on quixotic garbage like the FOURTEEN AND A HALF BILLION DOLLARS in tax breaks it gives to oil and gas drilling operations when, in reality, the very same bill will add a month of daylight savings time to our calendars beginning in 2007! Do you understand the magnitude of this shift?! Why, that’s a full thirty hours of daylight that will now occur on certain spring and fall evenings before our timekeeping devices reach the crucial deadline of 9:00pm!! A real revolution here, folks! The Government Works!!!

Two things.

1. Why is it that all these London bombing suspects are being rounded up as easily as herding sheep, and we still don’t have any co-conspirators from 9/11 incarcerated? I mean, that’s great news for the British, but come on!

2. A poll on CNN indicates that 45% of respondents believe NASA should end its shuttle program. Why?! I bet the number one response would be “money”, despite the fact we’re hovering around $700 billion for this Iraq war, and our defense costs are so high they now involve numbers we’re not even sure exist.

One thing I never understood is why the shuttle needs to be so fucking massive and inefficient, though. It sure seems like we could build something a lot smaller and easier to manage. The reason I don’t think it should be scrapped altogether is because that’s all we’ve got, and it’s still one of the most sophisticated spacecraft. Yet even the cost involved in a shuttle launch, with its giant transporter and fuel tanks, is miniscule compared to our defense budget. If I were doling out funds, NASA would get 70% of the entire budget, and the military would just have to trim the fat!

Right after I ranted about the wording of Bush’s “war on terror”, they’ve reconsidered. Senior officials say that it’s more than a military campaign; it’s “a global struggle against extremism”. You know what, that’s great. It’s a step in the right direction, but I have a hard time believing one assertion in this article - that this change came about because of a change in Bush’s thinking on the matter. Call me a cynic, but I have no evidence that Bush is wise in any sense of the word. Regardless, let’s hope that this change of syntax is pervasive enough to convince them to refocus the military portion of this “struggle”. We’re in the wrong country, with too large a presence. As Patrick Cockburn explains in this article, Iraq is an unwinnable war. So practice what you preach, Bush cartel. Let’s try a different approach and quit wasting money on this disaster of a military campaign.

Police have arrested four suspects in the failed London bombings.

The shuttle Discovery hit a bird during launch, but what’s the big deal? What I don’t understand is why people are concerned now, because it collided with the giant liquid fuel container that’s completely burned off and ditched from the shuttle already. If it had impacted and cracked the window of the shuttle, then I could understand the concern. Anyway, here’s a picture of it.

Chicago may get a new skyscraper, which would be higher than the Sears tower by 8 feet. However, the spire at the top would bring it to a staggering 2000 feet! At least in the drawing, it looks like it would be really impressive.

Last night in Cleveland we were hit by a pretty fierce storm. I had the pleasure of driving, during rush hour, in the torrential rain. It didn’t seem so bad traveling at 30 mph, but then again, that was down in the ‘burbs. Up on the lake, strong winds were slamming against the shore. At Burke Lakefront Airport, planes were flipped over and tossed into eachother. The damage is estimated in the millions! I even heard that some concrete slabs that faced the lake had been lifted, flipped, and then smashed - right outside the Channel 3 building. Here’s some pictures of the damage.

A man was found wandering naked in Alabama, searching for the home of Forrest Gump. He was also eating corn right off the stalk, and couldn’t remember where he left his clothes. Amazing!

Hey peoples. Yesterday I took the day off work as an old friend of mine dropped by for a visit. It’s so damn hot that, even with a good plan in mind, leaving the house doesn’t seem wise. I think today is supposed to be the hottest day so far this summer, but thankfully it’s supposed to cool down tomorrow. Even 85 with low humidity would seem like winter had arrived!

After the spirited comment-slinging that BWIII and I engaged in, I think this story sums up the whole situation as one big loss for every American. The cost of the Iraq war may exceed $700 billion dollars. Even if our occupation was worthwhile, this would be an awfully high figure - but given that it wasn’t justified in the first place, that really hurts. Even freedom-loving Lance Armstrong said in an interview that the worst part about this conflict is the cost, and although I’m not wearing his trendy silicon bracelet, I agree.

The space shuttle Discovery is set to launch in about 45 minutes from right now. Which means, you’re likely reading this after the launch. Which, in turn, makes this paragraph and its associated story pretty much worthless. So, in lieu of this situation, I present you with some eerie radio waves from Saturn. Although it sounds like a Scooby-Doo villain to me, these sounds might be common for Saturn to emit. Hm.

In Russia, the murder of a notorious spammer was widely applauded by the media and the public. Wow, they sure do hate their spam. Due to the fact that a lot of murder cases go unsolved in Moscow, this case is expected to just fade away without anyone caring. I suppose you really can’t blame them for turning a blind eye. It’s a lot easier to get away with spamming in Russia, as it’s nearly legal, and this guy really annoyed a lot of people.

Finally, something useful made from spam. Spamusement is a site that makes cartoons based on the subjects of spam emails.

Cleveland is actually experimenting with wind power, and is having a test turbine constructed right now. I’m not sure where Ev is, but if he ever comes out of hiding long enough to read this blog, then he’ll be glad to hear this. Frankly, I think we should use the whole area along Burke and beyond - all the way to Brathenal - for wind turbines. Then again, I think they look cool, too.

Wouldn’t it be nice to get unbiased, legitimate news from your own country, instead of having to read other countries’ news to find out what’s really going on? Take today for example, with the topic of Guantanamo Bay. Here in America, all we hear about from CNN is that the Pentagon released 8 prisoners. There wasn’t even a mention of controversy in the article. Then let’s look on the BBC’s website, amongst the top stories on their ‘Americas’ page. What’s this? 52 prisoners at Guantanamo are on a hunger strike in protest of their treatment and detention! Why the fuck shouldn’t we know about that?

I don’t know how many times I have to bitch about this, but when are we as humans going to stop using the phrase “fighting terrorism”? You cannot fight terrorism. It is a tactic, not a group of people. It may be universally known as a futile tactic, (and truthfully, I don’t understand why those that carry out such acts see them as productive) but nevertheless, you can’t fight it. What you can do is talk and reason with people, or you can fight an actual group of people, or you can change your own practices and/or ideologies to appease the concerns of people that so violently oppose you. Nowhere in the world are we fighting an organized group of extremists right now. We are simply inciting more violence by continuing to attack persons who don’t want us controlling them. It’s so simple to understand, yet even our leadership in this country fails to see why the “insurgents” never stop growing in number, and why they won’t just come around to our way of thinking. How can they be so dense?

And now, out of paranoia and fear, New York police are going to randomly search train passengers. You can refuse search, but you will not ride the train. The ACLU was all over this, alleging that racial profiling would be prevalent, and that our rights are being violated. They’re right… I’m sure both of those things will happen. However, once again everyone is missing the point. We wouldn’t need to take such absurd, invasive precautions if we weren’t fighting a pointless war that’s pissing off a huge portion of the world! End the war and quit being the world police, and then let’s see how many people are pissed off at us! If you need evidence that such a practice would work, take a look north OR south of the USA.

Busy day at work! Let’s see here…

More bombings in London. I don’t think they went off as planned.

They found the guy who tossed a grenade at Bush.

A huge shark was caught, but failed to win a competition because they arrived late.

They pulled Grand Theft Auto San Andreas from the shelves for its hidden nudie content. Damn, I was thinking about getting it, too.

Scotty died.

The Peter Griffin picture was indeed a hoax.

Get your own lightsaber!

If you can swear on the Bible in court, can you swear on the Koran? This is exactly the kind of debate I expect to crop up in this country right now. Anti-Muslim sentiment is more prevalent than ever, and the Christian right is searching for any means of making Christianity mandatory. Considering how they’re already getting requests to allow scriptures such as the Book of Wicca, I think it’d be funny if every courthouse in America was expected to have a copy of every religion and cult’s scripture on hand.

The Wisdom of Ann Coulter. She’s the poster child for uninformed, bigoted morons everywhere. And man, do I ever stress the word uninformed. I cannot believe the mistruths that spew from this witch’s mouth. For such a prominent figure, you’d think that fewer people would stand behind someone with so little credibility. Alas, anyone who was ever in a classroom knows someone like her, and you also know she’s got to be the hero of every one of those idiots.

Here in Cleveland, we like our beaches full of sewage. Not just a little sewage, either. Millions of gallons of the stuff. And we don’t want it checked or regulated - hell no - we like it unrestricted, because that’s when you get the good stuff.

You’ve seen Google Earth, now check out Google Moon. Oh yeah, make sure you zoom in all the way!

What would America be like if the South won the Civil War?