Never, ever, EVER forget.

Yep. I called it. A sick fuck, a serial molester...
...but not Jon-Benet's killer.

This guy John Mark Karr who has confessed to the Jon-Benet Ramsey killing is awfully suspicious but for the opposite reason people on the news are talking about. It is clear that Karr is a serial child molester. It is clear that Karr has some very sick obsessions. What is not clear is that Karr is a murderer. I suspect we will get a big surprise when the DNA results come out, and Karr is shown up as a wannabe. We all want to see closure of this mystery. But I doubt Karr will provide that closure.

I was right, dammit. Thankfully he's not going away scot free because he's got a big fat warrant against him in Sonoma County. The one he was fleeing when he took off for Thailand. Hopefully this sumbitch will be in big boy prison for a long long time after the Sonoma County DA gets done with him. And hopefully someone in the joint will shank him just like Jeffrey Dahmer got shanked.

Yeah, I know, really weird coming from a liberal. But anyone who would actually molest a kid is beneath contempt. There were too many people who were falsely accused back in the '80s Satanic Panic to where I want to see a real live molester go free. If this guy is the kind of sick fuck he seems like, then yeah, lock the mofo up and throw away the key.

Fully booked...but at what cost?

Today I bought the last of the books I need for Fall 2006 semester at Woodbury University. I was able to cut a lot of my costs through buying most of the books at Half.Com, but I still went into debt at a sick-making amount.

Eight books for four classes. $260.12, including shipping. The books for Stats for Behavioral Science, First Semester, don't even show up on the Woodbury/eFollett website, so I can't figure out an accurate total from there. However, the books for only 3 out of my four classes, if purchased there, totaled over $270 without factoring in the tax and the shipping. And that's buying them used. If I bought the books new, I'm sure they would be easily $350 or more.

One of my books is one I am buying as an "International Edition." I was unaware of such things but after doing some digging at eBay looking for a bargain on the last damn book I needed I found the book for less than used price by buying as an "International Edition." And it looked like it would be a new book, not a used book.

Apparently the big market for these "International Editions" is India, with something like 100 languages spoken in the various provinces of the subcontinent but English is the language of academia, business and the burgeoning tech sector. Michelle Singletary of NPR and The Washington Post estimates that an "International Edition" book can cost as little as 10% of the new price. Even British students can and do buy these books and save themselves a bundle on the price of books. Obviously this shows that textbooks can and should be much cheaper than they are.

The textbook producers, of course, want to make selling these "International Editions" illegal in the US. This brings to mind the situation when "Parallel Imports" of records was made illegal in the late 1980s by congresscritters deep in the RIAA's pockets. The move destroyed a whole sector of record importers like Jem/Passport. It also affected independent music because the same importers were also selling the music of domestic indie labels like SST Records. New distribution channels sprung up to "route around the damage" but it set back indie music a few years. The eruption of alternative music in Seattle, where indie labels had different arrangements for distribution, obscured the fact that the same scene had been going on for years in SoCal, and that really nothing new was going on in the Pacific Northwest that hadn't started here first. But I digress, as I often do.

And of course, the same congresscritters who slop at the RIAA's trough are also getting slopped by the small cartel of academic publishers who charge exorbitant prices to US college students. Thomson Learning, Pearson, McGraw Hill and a handful of smaller firms basically have the market cornered. Could it be that this is what is preventing national action on this fleecing of college students, a market that can afford the fleecing the least what with student loans and other expenses of college?

Here are some resources on the problem and the "International edition" solution.

Textbook inflation in general:
Michelle Singletary: College's Budget Busters
Ripoff 101: State PIRG's Higher Education Project (PDF)

International edition books are legal (for now at least):
Disjointed.Org
Google Answers: Selling International Edition books

UPDATE 8/30: I had to buy ANOTHER fucking book. It only cost $30 but still, it really stinks. I hate it when Profs spring a book on you as a surprise. Dammit.

Rejuveniles in the pre-apocalyptic zone: Is anyone surprised?

Today someone basically gave a name to people like me. I'm a "Rejuvenile." w00h00. Someone's got my number. Someone's been watching me for the past 30 some-odd years. Yeah, Chris Noxon, preach on. You're preaching to the choir here.

A "Rejuvenile" is a person who's supposedly too old for things like toys, comic books, anime, cartoons, fantasy, and so forth, yet doggedly pursues them anyway. A "Rejuvenile" drives around in a cute little car like a Mini or a New Beetle or a Fit or rides a Vespa. A "Rejuvenile" bakes cupcakes or goes to a hip bakery to get them, and washes them down with Producer's Dairy chocolate milk...the stuff with Hopalong Cassidy still emblazoned on the carton. Don't look for it locally here in LA...you have to go to Fresno to find it. A "Rejuvenile" doesn't get together with buddies from the Alma Mater to play nine holes at Riviera, he gets together with his friends and plays kickball.

Is anyone surprised by this?

It seems like the "Rejuvenile" thing got mainstream in the wake of 9/11. I haven't heard official figures but the estimates were that 110,000 to 130,000 people attended San Diego Comic-Con this year. Last year's confirmed total was 104,000 people. It's not just the geeks and the Otakus that have rejoined the ranks of the "Rejuvenile." It's parents with kids and the whole family Cosplays.

What exists for those who are adults in this day and age?

As I wrote to the author of the book Rejuvenile as a response to a post on his blog:

No, I think that people are embracing a second childhood because the terrain of adulthood in the Third Millenium is a scary freaking place, and death is as real and palpable as the images burnt in our brains by the TV news on 9/11/2001 and 8/29/2005. (Hurricane Katrina is the second date for those for whom that date is not burnt into their cerebrums.)

The world is a more dangerous, scary place than it ever has been. Who the hell wants to be an ADULT now? People are looking for comfort wherever they can find it. What's more comfortable than eating cereal out of a box on Saturday Morning in your footies at ungodly-o-clock? What's more comfortable than a chocolate cupcake with rainbow jimmies? What's more comfortable than a pair of Vans' Off-The-Wall skater shoes, jam shorts and a faded old Led Zep T-Shirt?

We are becoming Rejuvenile because we crave what we lost as adults, and what recent history has taken from us. We are becoming Rejuvenile because death indeed lives on our shoulders now. For all of us, not just for Don Juan and Carlos Castaneda.

I am a geek, so much so that my identity online is "Ms. Geek" So many of the current Rejuvenile trends can be traced back to geek/nerd/Otaku tastemaker roots. And before this, to the Fandom that helped make Star Trek an institution and Sci-Fi reading material for a whole generation. Geeks and Otaku and Fannish Folk have always been the disaffected, the ones for whom the "mundane world" seemed colorless and a living tomb. None of us wanted to grow up because dammit, the grown-up world was screwed up. That's what it seemed like from the perspective of someone whose formative years were bookended by Vietnam and the rise of Reagan. And the truth of the matter is that aside from a brief shining moment of Clintonian optimism as the dot-com boom galloped and freedom seemed to be on the move in places like Russia and Eastern Europe, it's gotten worse and worse and worse.

People don't leave Mom and Dad's house because they want to stay there forever, unless you are an Italian male. People live under Mom and Dad's roof here in the States because they can't afford to strike out on their own.

People collect comics and lunchboxes and toys because it's a cheaper thing to collect than antiques and Expressionist paintings. The Rejuvenile lifestyle is not cheap-cheap unless you do things yourself and resist the temptation to blow money on that DVD box set or that Parks Sabers Luke Skywalker replica lightsabre, but it's a more econo lifestyle than others. Bling bling? Ka-ching. It's indulgences that people with lowered expectations and living with the reality of downward mobility can afford.

We know we're mortal. We know it will all be over someday. We dread the end but we dread the period before the end the most: the "assisted living facilities" and worse; the very real possibility of dirt poverty at one's twilight years, of cat food in a Single Room Occupancy hotel room. We know we're going to die and we know we are probably going to have a crappy old age. So why not postpone it all? Why not just cut out the boring, drudgy "adult" years and be a kid until our bodies don't allow us to anymore?

There is a dark reality to which the Rejuvenile lifestyle is a reaction. Does that mean it's dysfunctional? I'd say that people could choose worse and more maladaptive coping mechanisms than this.

The words of Tom Waits, in a song that could be an anthem for the Rejuvenile Nation, say it better than I ever could. Follow the link.

I tried to write something intelligent here earlier but kind of petered out.

However, I can give a gist of what I was trying to write about. Apparently older and older people are being re-activated by the armed forces to go to either Iraq or Afghanistan. Up to and including a 70-year-old dentist who just finished a hitch in Afghanistan. Ominous parallels time: during the last waning days of World War II, the Nazis pressed both the very old and the very young into service. The Russians entering Berlin were shocked to see Berlin defended by old men and apple-cheeked Hitlerjugend.

While it is highly unlikely that minors will be joining the elderly on the front lines in the Sandbox, the thought of older and older people on the front lines really makes me feel ashamed to be an American. This is not the way you honor your elders.

Of course, once they get back home, they'll find that the VA is woefully underfunded and severely challenged by the returning wounded and walking wounded.

Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.

Soy una perdidor...



George W. Bush, picture taken during today's press conference.

OK, I can't get to my Blogger beta blog again. I suppose this is why it's in beta.

19 years ago I married Richie Hass. This is the anniversary of the wedding done for legal reasons and for the benefit of my family. We usually count our anniversary from the other ceremony, the one we could invite friends to, on the 23rd.

The relationship itself is still on a good footing. Our circumstances might be challenging here and there, but because of the strength of our relationship the circumstances have never really endangered the relationship. I suppose that's quite lucky.

I'm still feeling tired. I could go back to bed but that would make my sleep-wake cycle that much worse. I think I'll just chug another Vault Zero and try to kickstart my day.

Oh yeah, one other thought: This guy John Mark Karr who has confessed to the Jon-Benet Ramsey killing is awfully suspicious but for the opposite reason people on the news are talking about. It is clear that Karr is a serial child molester. It is clear that Karr has some very sick obsessions. What is not clear is that Karr is a murderer. I suspect we will get a big surprise when the DNA results come out, and Karr is shown up as a wannabe. We all want to see closure of this mystery. But I doubt Karr will provide that closure.

Book 'em, Dan-o...

I have all but two of my books for Fall 2006. $180 all told, on a credit card. More debt, bad; almost all my books, good.

One of the books I have absolutely no info on. Gotta visit the Woodbury bookstore to take down the ISBN number on that book. Another book was over $60 on Half.eBay.Com. This is not including shipping which would prolly boost the figure to more like $70. Luckily that book I don't need until September 10th. I have more time to shop for that puppy.

Hopefully next year I will have a "Book Grant" to get my books. I will be applying for it ASAP.

Oh yeah: need to take care of some tech needs. The iBook 300MHz is displaying some oddness with regard to the AC circuitry. It takes several tries to get the AC adapter successfully plugged in and powering the lappie. It'll have to be sent to South Carolina to get the fix. Getting it fixed locally is prohibitively expensive. I also need a firewire hub and some software for the iMac I just got thanks to Tom Reed.

Hopefully I can hang on until the financial aid monies come in.

OK Blogger...can I move all my sites to the new and kewl Beta version???

I just built a new version of my blog using the new Beta of Blogger. And it's like night and day. It's got the best of a lot of features I've seen places like LiveJournal and maintains all the Blogger/Blogspot goodness that's kept me here.

Too cool for school, baby!

Update 11:15am: now I can't log into the beta. I think I might have spoken too soon. I can log into regular Blogger ok, but not the beta.

I guess that's why they call it a beta test...

25 computers in 25 years or less: what I think of PC World's list.

OK, PC World joined the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the first IBM PC (Five-slot, 5150) with their list of the 25 Greatest Personal Computers.

When you put the word "greatest" on any list, you are begging to have people take pot shots at you. So here are my shots at their list.

First off, I agree with their number one. The Apple II was the first practical personal computer. The Apple I came as a kit. The rest of them (Altair, Imsai, etc.) were basically geek toys, at a time when most geeks were either HAM Radio enthusiasts, model train buffs, electronic kit builders or in Fandom. The Apple II came into its own because it had a "killer app" -- VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program. This is what got it in the door in businesses where other less capable, more toy-like computers were stopped at the door.

The Trash-80 Model I is on the list too even though it was not a very capable machine. It was the first personal computer I spent quality time with, although I never had one. In fact, although my first encounter with a PC was in 1978, it took me 9 frustrating years to have a computer of my very own. Which turned out to be an IBM PC 5150 that my uncle didn't want to move to his new office because it was broken. "Fix it and it's yours." He threw in a brand new Tandon amber-screen monochrome monitor. What a guy. A PC for $200 in 1987 dollars. SCORE! W00t! The tough little guy wound up getting a replacement power supply, a serial mouse, a hard drive, a 1200Kbps modem, an Epson 9 pin dot matrix printer, a Hercules Monographic Card (Graphics! Yes!) and lots of time on BBSes. It eventually got passed on to a battered women's shelter eight (yes eight) years later.

My first experience in geek lust was for the Macintosh, though. Somehow the world of DOS and GEM and all the kludgy ways you did graphics in DOS-land was pretty grim compared to the effortless nature of graphics and sound on Mac. It took me until 1995 to have a Mac of my own, and to compensate I began to collect vintage Macs. I have a ton of them that I am going to clear out in the not too distant future because I know now I don't have the time or the skills to get them in fully functional order. I'm going to pare down to just the ones I know I will have some use for. The rest go out the door. I have to get a handle on this clutter and this is the only way.

The one Mac that should have been in the top 5 but wasn't was the Mac that saved Apple: the Rev A iMac. The Bondi Blue gem that looked like nothing that had existed up until the time, was often imitated, surpassed only by each further iteration of iMac. I am the proud owner of a Lime Rev D 333MHz and an Indigo 500MHz 2001 edition. I mean, I liked iLuxo when it came out. It was striking and beautiful and a wonderful re-imagination of the concept. Even iMac was an evolution and not a revolution: it owed its "DNA" to first the original Mac, then the other all-in-one Macs that followed, from the sublime to the ridiculous. They tip their hat to the "gumdrop" iMac in the honorable mention list, but it deserves better.

They also missed the iBook/MacBook completely. OMGWTFBBQ? O RLY? YA, RLY. The PowerBook made an appearance with the PB100, but that was it. They honored the eMate but not the "Clamshell" iBook, a real masterpiece of form and function which was "nigh invulnerable" ala The Tick. (A necessity for a computer designed for K-12 students) The "Clamshell" had two drawbacks: its weight and the intricate way the innards were engineered to protect them from harm. You would think the second drawback wouldn't be a drawback: again, designed to take punishment. However, it makes the machine a nightmare to work on, a fact revealed when I went looking for someone to upgrade the one I got from my Aunt Karen after she "upgraded" to a Sony VAIO laptop. I found intrepid souls willing to take the machine on, but they are in South Carolina. The work was done with the help of FedEx and DHL.

Not to make this article too Mac-centric, I will turn my attention to an entry I largely agree with, but only have little quibbles about. The Thinkpad, at least while it was still an IBM product (yeah, I know that Lenovo was one of the companies they outsourced manufacture to a few years before Lenovo bought the Thinkpad and other Think* lines from IBM, but hear me out...) was the Ne Plus Ultra of x86 notebooks. Built like tanks but often light enough to forget you have one in your backpack, they just plain rocked. The story of the Thinkpad is pretty neat, here's the link.

Anyway, the initial release Thinkpad, the 700, made it on the list. While it's a good choice, I can think of a better choice and a best choice. Here's what I wrote about the choice on Slashdot.

The 600 series Thinkpad, released at the height of the Dot-Com Boom, has got to be the epitome of Thinkpad-dom. It was light, (5 pounds!) it was versatile, it could run as a "3 spindle machine" (HD, Optical and Floppy) if you put the Floppy Drive in an external case that connected to a proprietary connector by a cable. During the Dot-Com Boom, the 600 series Thinkpad was a status symbol. It was the laptop the Big Dogs carried, unless they were Mac fans in which case they'd have a "Wallstreet" PowerBook.

The 600 series was the first to have official instructions on the IBM website on how to install Linux. (Red Hat, for the curious.) There was always a problem with the quirky sound chip, and it took IBM years to put out a driver (F/OSS, to their credit) for the MWave modem chip. Red Hat actually "certified" the 600 series Thinkpad, in spite of those problems.

The 600 "DNA" was transfered to the T series of Thinkpads, a series still in continued manufacture by Lenovo. Whether the T60 is a worthy member of the line is something the jury's still out on, but the T4x series remain classics.

Yes, the 700C was first. The 701C with its "butterfly keyboard" had more panache, and might have been a better choice for the Thinkpad niche. But the 600 series would have been the best choice of all, because it's the beginning of a continuum of perhaps the "best of the best" of the whole line.

It's getting late (or early, whatever...) so I'd better wrap this up with my additional OMGWTFBBQ what were they thinking? list.

1.) MIA: the White Box/Frankenbox/Homebuilt PC Compatible. It wasn't IBM or Apple or Compaq or Commodore or even Dell who opened PCs to the Great Unwashed. No, it was the shop around the corner run usually by a Mom and Pop of Asian extraction who could put together a computer for you from mostly Taiwanese and Chinese parts. And if you were sufficiently geeky or had geeky friends, you bought your parts from said Mom and Pop and did it yourself.

The advent of this new era of "homebrew" computers didn't come on all at once. It was an extension of the upgrade trade. Just as you can go into a shop specializing in Volkswagen aftermarket parts and build yourself an entire old-school Beetle, eventually it got to the point where you could build the whole thing out of aftermarket upgrade parts.

Microsoft has a major hate going for the screwdriver shops and for computer fairs/swapmeets. Their BSA goon squad is not primarily geared towards stamping out "piracy" among either casual users or in offices...this "piracy" has helped gain Microsoft their Goliath-like market share of both operating systems and Office suites. And they haven't even made a dent in places in the Third World where less-than-legal copies of their software glut the market. But the biggest target for the BSA is the Mom and Pop screwdriver shop.

The screwdriver shops have fought back, after a fashion, by going online. NewEgg, the mecca for gaming geeks looking to trick out their systems, started off as a screwdriver shop. So did PC Club. These big operators now can go toe to toe with Microsoft and get the special rates the big manufacturers get on OEM copies of Windows XP they provide with systems. But the little guys are getting busted again and again, sometimes for specious, questionable reasons. Hence the screwdriver shops are closing down left and right, and the once mighty computer fairs are shutting down.

However, as the screwdriver shop fades into history, something the homebuilt computer is not bloody likely to do until and unless really onerous, legally mandated DRM finishes the job, we must acknowledge its contributions to the universalizing of the x86-based PC of these humble entrepreneurs. Screwdrivers high! Salute!

2.) Where's the Osborne? Putting the Kaypro into the article and not Osborne is like putting the cart before the horse. Osborne got there first. The luggable never would have had its moment in the sun had it not been for little Osz. Yeah, Osborne stole its idea from Xerox PARC. So did everyone else. Next!

3.) The MITS Altair 8800 was NOT a personal computer. It was a GEEK TOY. A personal computer allows you to do useful things. The Altair just sat and flashed lights and beeped. Period. End of line.

4.) VAIO. Good god, man, Toshiba was there first with the Libretto in 1996, and there have been more stylish little lappies before and since. Sony is NOT a PC company and never should have become one. They also spoiled their home electronics line, which was the envy of every other manufacturer by buying first CBS Record Group, then Columbia Tri-Star Pictures, then the Bertlesmann Group, then MGM Pictures. Sony became Big Media and they acquired an endless thirst for DRM everywhere like the rest of Big Media. The desire for more DRM everywhere has led to the scuttling of promising technologies like MiniDisc, and has made the geek community more suspicious about new Sony technologies like Blu-Ray.

VAIO sucked before Sony became a content owner, though. They were prissy little things made to look good but not to last. They are almost as fragile as Dell's low-end line but sold at premium prices. At least when Apple makes a computer some call...um..."Metrosexual" they build it well, although some would say that this fact about Apple is changing thanks to explodey batteries, short-happy power supplies, and humming, mooing, and roasty-hot MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

I guess the rest of the list I can take or leave. And PC World came up with another list of the 25 worst tech products earlier this year that I cannot disagree with at all. They hit some of the real howlers, although they missed a few things here and there. (Road Apples, anyone?)

Wow, this article turned out huge. And it's almost freaking One AM. I'd better just end this article before this turns into an all-nighter. I'm sure I will do enough of those this school year, thankyouverymuch.

Two words for Joe: Buh-bye!



I am damn glad that the Democratic Party seems to be uniting around Ned Lamont. My biggest fear for Connecticut was that the DLC Dems would rally around Lieberman if he lost by a hair and decided to run as an indie. However, they seem to have backed away from Lieberman too. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a major DLC-ite, has come out in support of Lamont, as has Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Jeff Greenfield of CNN has astutely pointed out that there were more reasons to not support Lieberman than just his support for the Iraq War and the growing power of the Executive branch over the Legislative and Judiciary branches of government. He rightly pointed out that Lieberman's strong Orthodox Jewish faith made him very susceptible to going along with Religious Right stances on issues like the Terri Schiavo case. Never mind the truth about the Religious Right: their support for Jews and Israel and yadda yadda is only because the Book of Revelation says that there will be 144,000 Jewish converts to Christianity, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes, evangelizing the heathen during the End Times. Of course after that mass conversion it's back to "turn or burn" for the remaining Jews. But that's a detail the Religious Right tends to keep from their "beloved Jewish friends."

Greenfield has also mentioned that Lieberman has been soft on Civil Rights, and a critic of Affirmative Action. He also supports school vouchers, something that could have major Church/State repercussions and which in all the places tried seems to attract a certain type of huckster to the places that have tried them, the kind who doesn't care about students but cares a lot about the voucher money. In Milwaukee, WI, where there was a voucher program for students at the worst-performaing public schools, there have been fake voucher schools busted which are staffed by unqualified "teachers" and which have "curricula" which consist of playing board games and watching movies.

There are other reasons Greenfield didn't cover. Lieberman is a major crusader for censorship of media. He is one of the bluest of bluenoses. He has publically railed against the evils of movies, TV and videogames, and would like to see official censorship of media for violence and sexual content.

In short, Lieberman really does belong in the Republican Party. And now he has his chance to be a GOP tool. By running as an independent, Lieberman will peel off the more conservative Dems and make it that much harder for the legitimate Democratic nominee to win against Republican Alan Schlesinger, unless Lieberman also peels off support from Schlesinger as well. Basically the Republicans have two horses in the race, three if you count Diana Urban who is also running as an independent Republican candidate. The Dems have but one horse in the race: Ned Lamont. Hopefully Lamont will win. If not, then the Lieberman who returns to the Senate will be a radicalized Lieberman without any desire to vote Democratic, and further into the GOP column in all but name. Lieberman needs to be beaten like a big bass drum. Bye bye Joe, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Blogosphere: We need Kos like we need a hole in the head.

Ever since the primary, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, aka Kos, has been talking down the chances of one Phil Angelides for Governor. He was pro Westly during the primary and now he seems to be happy to talk down Angelides' chances at every turn.



We don't need your pessimism, Kos.

This is my official resignation from Daily Kos, a move which I have been pondering for months. I post as "MamasGun" on Daily Kos.

For the past couple of months, I have been cut off from my Trusted User status on Daily Kos, just in time for a big wave of troll diaries and pie fighting over the Lamont/Lieberman primary. I thought this was an accident of the new website interface, which is a ponderous monstrosity that uses tons and tons of AJAX. When Google does AJAX, they do it with grace and in a way that doesn't weigh down FireFox. However, when Kos does AJAX, it becomes a crashy thing that crashes FireFox quite often.

However, I am not so sure now that it was an accident that left me without my "Mojo." Since I have yet to get my "Mojo" back after two months of losing it, never mind that I have had many double-digit rated posts in the past two months, I am beginning to suspect that I had my Trusted User status taken away from me by Kos himself because I had the guts to call him on first his support for Westly in the primary and then his consistent anti-Angelides tone since the primary.

What does he want to do? Does he want Arnold for four more lousy years? What is his freakin' problem?

If Kos put as much energy into cheerleading for Angelides as he does for cheerleading for Ned Lamont, Angelides would have all the "big mo" he could use. Instead, he brays, Eeyore-stylee, that Angelides doesn't have a chance against the steamroller that is Herr Ah-nuld der Gropenfuhrer.

Thing is, last time I checked, Kos is a Californian, not a Connecticut-person. What are residents of Connecticut called? Connecticut Yankees? See, I'm Californian, second generation Californian even, I don't know. Anyway, Kos is from California. The Angelides/Schwarzenegger race is in his own freaking back yard.

I don't want Ah-nuld's signature on my Masters of Social Work when I get my Masters in hopefully 3 years. I am freaking tired of his face and his attitude. I want that bastard OUT OF OFFICE. I would really like to see him drummed out of the state and sent back to Austria where he belongs with his goose-stepping Nazi-nostalgic buddies like former UN Secretary/Austrian Chancellor Kurt Waldheim.

If Angelides loses, and Ah-nuld gets 4 more years to play Fuhrer here, the best goddamn role the hack's ever gotten, then there will be more than enough blame to go around. I am not saying that Kos will be even an important person to blame for the failure: the way the campaign is going Angelides will have more than enough people on his staff to blame. But as the old '60s saying goes, you are either part of the SOLUTION or part of the PROBLEM. And Kos is part of the PROBLEM right now.

(Crossposted at Enough Is Enough 2006 and Calitics)

OK, when I started blogging back in 2003, I did it primarily to document my return to college. Now I'm going back to my roots and doing a school situation update.

1.) I might be delayed getting into the MSW program at Cal State Northridge until Fall 2008. Wonderful. The MSW program only admits new students in Fall semester. And if you are dual-enrolled in two places you can only get financial aid for one of them. So since I am not going to even contemplate an 18 unit course load in Spring 2007, the CSUN counselor suggested -- after first saying how wise it was not attempting to blitz Spring 2007 -- that I might be able to do a semester of prerequisites without first being formally admitted to the MSW program in Spring 2008, then get my formal admittance into the MSW program in Fall 2008.

2.) My Clamshell iBook is on the fritz. The AC socket seems to be getting flakey. I have to occasionally reposition it until I can get clean contact with the socket. This means one thing. I'm going to have to replace it -- either the AC socket if it can be replaced by the good folks at Wegener, or the entire freaking iBook. Besides, Woodbury has upped the requirements for on-campus computers, and although the iBook was initially "grandfathered in" because they had lower requirements when I was admitted, they really would like me to be so kind as to upgrade.

3.) I don't know which books I need yet. However, I'm going to have to get them as soon as possible when the book list is revealed.

The first situation requires patience. The second two: MONEY. Neither of which I have a lot of. Swell.

Why wasn't Mel Gibson charged with the serious charges he so richly deserved? Note: both these charges are felonies. The charges he was brought up on were misdemeanors. Yeah right.

1.) Making terrorist threats. "You motherfucker. I'm going to fuck you. I own Malibu. I will spend my own money to get even with you." This is what Mel Gibson said to the arresting officer, LA County Sheriff's Deputy James Mee. Ironically, Deputy Mee is Jewish, and so the anti-Semitic comments Gibson made could also be construed as terrorist threats against Deputy Mee.

2.) Evading arrest. As was mentioned first on TMZ.Com, this incident was recorded on the pages that were originally redacted from the police report:

As the two stood next to the hood of the patrol car, the deputy asked Gibson to get inside. Deputy Mee then walked over to the passenger door and opened it. The report says Gibson then said, "I'm not going to get in your car," and bolted to his car. The deputy quickly subdued Gibson, cuffed him and put him inside the patrol car.

If Mel Gibson wasn't Mel Gibson, if he was just a regular Joe or Jane, he might not have been able to post bail and be walking around breathing free air right now. If he was just a regular Joe or Jane of color, he would have also been at risk of almost certain death as well. This whole affair sickens me.