tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86944652011-11-27T20:04:18.480-05:00My thoughts, whether or not anybody caresFargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.comBlogger3681100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-19669096717831562009-03-11T07:48:00.003-05:002009-03-11T09:59:22.783-05:00

Totally true Chuck Norris fact: He is an insane person. Literally. He's touting a telecast of thousands of right-wing cells (yes, he himself uses the same word used to describe terrorist groups) ominously titled "We Surround Them." At what point should the authorities start taking this stuff seriously?The claim that Obama is doing too much too soon isn't only made by stupid people, but it's a

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-20061963111629174012009-03-11T07:38:00.004-05:002009-03-11T07:47:58.223-05:00

It became hard for me to maintain a blog during the heat of the Presidential campaign. Both the primaries and the general. This happened for two reasons. First, I was often too busy paying close attention to every up-to-the-second detail that came up. Second, every time I wanted to say anything, someone had already said it, by and large. I felt like I didn't have anything unique to

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-9545847666525485472008-09-05T08:05:00.002-05:002008-09-05T08:12:23.211-05:00

Sometimes in conversation, I instinctively nod at questions I don't know the answer to, or references I don't recognize.  When this happens, I'm stuck with a dilemma.  Do I ignore it and hope it has no more bearing on the conversation, running the risk of looking like I'm either not paying attention, or completely uninterested in the conversation?  Or do I reverse myself and inquire about the

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-79567311664442536712008-08-31T07:51:00.003-05:002008-08-31T08:06:09.430-05:00

Last night Darren, Eli and I were enjoying a drink in the basement bar of the Grasshopper when "Hook" by Blues Traveler came on. I started singing along between sips of my beer, and I noticed a pretty blonde girl around the corner of the bar who was also singing along. Before long, we noticed each other, and at that point, she busted out with a challenge."I can beat any of you at drinking a car

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-2151539723396923022008-08-12T19:51:00.002-05:002008-08-12T20:04:55.703-05:00

Today I went to the mall with my friend Darren for lunch. He went to Eddie Bauer to buy a shirt, and as we were standing up at the counter, I was talking to him about my last two blog entries, and about the quandary posed by the definition of Dr. Sam Beckett's lifetime. After about a minute, the clerk behind the register turned to me and spoke without preamble."Do you have a girlfriend?" she

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-77478702387702637912008-08-11T15:13:00.003-05:002008-08-11T15:17:24.933-05:00

*Geek Alert*In writing that last post, I recalled that Project Quantum Leap went live in 1999, according to the show's timeline. Ostensibly, Dr. Beckett can leap within his lifetime. It's an open question (so far as I know) whether the inception of Project Quantum Leap represents the end of the lifetime in which the good doctor can leap. If so, I guess the last post winds up being one level

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-52417735951831333002008-08-11T15:07:00.003-05:002008-08-11T15:13:12.662-05:00

If Dr. Sam Beckett's (de facto) mission through Project Quantum Leap is to leap "from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong," you'd think he could get a lot of mileage by leaping into Katherine Harris for the last quarter or so of the year 2000.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-21453925716326699272008-08-08T07:10:00.001-05:002008-08-08T07:12:21.155-05:00

I like to think MacGyver would have been against warrantless wiretapping.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-9347798554145719372008-01-15T14:24:00.000-05:002008-01-15T15:38:14.770-05:00

The first step is admitting that you have a problem. Or maybe that's just the first half of the first step. As I have no intention of taking the other eleven (or maybe it's eleven and a half), I guess it doesn't really matter. Fact is, I have an addiction.It's nothing illicit, this addiction. But there's a reason that people are called "news junkies" or "political junkies." I can't stop

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-39940260010398204912008-01-10T08:28:00.000-05:002008-01-10T08:36:26.426-05:00

Somebody get in touch with Rupert Holmes:WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees. Polish tabloid Super Express said the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town. "I was dumfounded. I thought I was dreaming," the husband

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-60721632636380492782008-01-09T10:31:00.001-05:002008-01-09T10:45:34.005-05:00

OK, so New Hampshire's over. I pretty much got the Repubs down, with some ordering issues in the guys past the top two. I didn't expect Huckabee to take third in a New England state, to be honest.But as y'all know by now, the big story is the Clinton victory. And I, as an Obama supporter, say good for her. Everybody ended up being wrong for a variety of reasons, but I'm not sure just saying "

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-24149049225757557932008-01-07T08:45:00.000-05:002008-01-07T09:09:15.470-05:00

Obviously, I'm an Obama supporter. I buy his schtick, regardless of how many times critics call it his "kum ba yah" strategy, or "bipartisanship for bipartisanship's sake," or the ever-more-odious "Lieberman lite." The truth is, Obama's tapped into a wellspring of support that's not delineated strictly along partisan lines in a time when hyperpartisanship rules the day.Don't get me wrong. I'm

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-22004723408312939392008-01-03T09:16:00.000-05:002008-01-03T09:38:54.566-05:00

I'm not really in any place to be playing the prediction game in a serious way, which is why I don't put money into such things as those Intrade prediction markets, fascinating though they may be. Still, I have my hypotheses about how things will turn out tonight in the Hawkeye State, and I'm gonna man up and share them with you, dear readers, and let my powers of prediction be judged by

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-91797896976708515372008-01-03T08:34:00.000-05:002008-01-03T09:03:54.381-05:00

A new year is upon us, and with it, new hope. At least, that's the toast that I drank in Philadelphia early Tuesday morning. Hope for the world, for the country, for myself. Hope that this year will be better than the last. I don't want for hope. So what of it?Well, I know the quote is a cliche by now, but Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." I've believed in that

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-9648315383189291252007-10-09T13:31:00.000-05:002007-10-09T13:32:01.731-05:00

Saw the Foo Fighters show in Wilkes-Barre, PA last night. They rocked ass. If you get a chance to see them, do. It's well worth it.That is all.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-8572110962939385232007-08-22T14:19:00.000-05:002007-08-22T13:45:56.069-05:00

----------------Now playing: Ben Folds - The Last Polkavia FoxyTunes In a recent ghost-written essay for the journal Foreign Affairs, Rudy Giuliani said the following:"America must remember one of the lessons of the Vietnam War. … Many historians today believe that by about 1972 we and our South Vietnamese partners had succeeded in defeating the Vietcong insurgency and in setting South Vietnam

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-45668277075874688242007-08-08T14:54:00.000-05:002007-08-08T13:54:20.153-05:00

I wrote a post about my self-identification with an atheist/agnostic worldview, but I realize now that I didn't really get into any specifics about why I identify with that particular philosophy. What I'll attempt to do now is to fill in at least a few of the blanks.The Early YearsMy extended family, on both sides, is quite religious. When young, living with both of my parents in California, I

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-45943350105608898702007-05-02T23:09:00.000-05:002008-12-09T19:03:55.683-05:00

5/1/2007:Breakfast: Sesame seed bagel w/ cream cheese, green tea w/ honey and lemon juiceLunch: 3 soft tacos with shredded beef and cheese (had to try the new Qdoba Grill near work), glass of lemonade.Dinner: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich5/2/2007:Breakfast: Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on English muffin, green tea w/ honey and lemon juiceLunch: Late breakfast, so I just had some snacks at

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-76719217492064420322007-05-01T09:01:00.002-05:002007-05-01T09:06:39.166-05:00

Lt. Wayne Adkins, an atheist, was offended at a General's use of the phrase "no atheists in foxholes." He submitted a complaint, and the official response has been pretty revealing: It's OK to discriminate against atheists. The claim is that since atheism isn't a religion, that atheists aren't protected against discrimination on the basis of their being atheists.As Adkins points out, this is

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-10721731793342734322007-05-01T09:01:00.001-05:002007-05-01T09:01:50.481-05:00

Forgot to do this last night:April 30, 2007Breakfast: Sesame seed bagel w/ cream cheese, 16 oz. orange juice, green tea w/ honey and lemon juiceLunch: Coffee cake and some Wheat Thins (I had a meeting that ran over lunch, as I do every Monday), and a couple of cans of Diet Coke Plus.Dinner: Polpette Rustica (Meatball) sandwich on whole grain bread, little bag of baby carrotsFargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-33384990604537823602007-04-29T22:02:00.000-05:002007-04-29T22:04:38.448-05:00

Breakfast: Turkey bacon, egg, and cheese on a toasted bagel (Steve made breakfast)Lunch/dinner: Turkey, bacon and cheddar sandwich from Cosi with kettle chips. I was gonna wait until I got home from tutoring, but my co-workers suggested it and I had an hour off.Also, in between breakfast and lunch/dinner, I had a 24 oz. coffee from Wawa (I have to get one when I'm near that place), and a big

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-55786596889383425502007-04-29T12:30:00.000-05:002007-04-29T12:32:13.080-05:00

Saturday's food: Too much. All around. I hadn't really thought through the ramifications of trying to limit my intake, but then going to Steve's for wings and beer. Anyway, I don't need reader scorn to know that I ate & drank too much yesterday, so I'll get back to this feature later today, for today's stats.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-45772712611341477782007-04-28T01:13:00.000-05:002007-04-28T01:15:09.803-05:00

Way past bedtime now, so here goes:Lunch (I woke up too late for breakfast): Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.Dinner: Buffalo Blue sandwich from Cosi, with kettle chips, a side order of chicken noodle soup, and a 16 oz. mixture of lemonade and raspberry iced tea.That's all for now. G'nite.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-35161050084542955592007-04-27T00:23:00.000-05:002007-04-27T11:51:20.988-05:00

OK, not much time/will to post, so here's the vitals:April 26, 2007Breakfast: Bacon, egg and cheese on a poppy seed bagel (Yeah, I know, but it was so damn good yesterday), large green tea with honey and lemon juice, 16 oz. Apple juice.Lunch: One (1) slice of pepperoni pizza, small hot chocolate, one (1) Reese's Peanut Butter Cup with caramel (verdict: not so much)Dinner: One (1) Yuengling, One (

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-18680652016939433442007-04-26T07:59:00.000-05:002007-04-26T08:28:40.313-05:00

General Petraeus recently told reporters that the troop surge in Iraq is working. As evidence, he presented them with the undeniable fact that sectarian murders are down:The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, told reporters that sectarian murders in Baghdad have been reduced by about one-third since the beginning of the year."That is an important development, because sectarian

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-69663175804041643982007-04-26T07:44:00.000-05:002007-04-26T08:28:29.983-05:00

The Texas House recently voted strongly against Governor Rick Perry's attempt to make HPV vaccination mandatory for 11 and 12 year old girls in the state. The vote was 135-2 in the House, and 30-1 in the Senate. Doesn't get much stronger than that.Here's what had been at issue:He said he would sign an executive order directing the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to adopt rules

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-18137580126619925372007-04-26T07:37:00.000-05:002007-04-26T08:28:13.573-05:00

Stories like this really should surprise me, but they just don't anymore. I guess that's indicative of how bad things have gotten.The dispute is the latest and perhaps the most significant clash over the role of lawyers for the detainees. “There is no right on the part of counsel to access to detained aliens on a secure military base in a foreign country,” the Justice Department filing

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-88593563750821615142007-04-25T22:07:00.000-05:002007-04-25T22:09:30.471-05:00

OK, part 2 of my self-indulgent blogging-as-personal-accountability experiment is upon us. I don't have much to say tonight, so I'll be concise.Breakfast: Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on English muffin, 20 oz. Green tea with lemon.Snack: Bagel with Cream Cheese (office celebration of Administrative Assistants' Day), Hot Chocolate with whipped cream at the mall (Turns out this Snack was my

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-54789871342239134562007-04-25T15:12:00.000-05:002007-04-25T22:10:40.387-05:00

After Rudy Giuliani's asinine statement this morning about how 9/11 will happen again unless we elect a Republican President in 2008, Kevin Drum had a lot of criticism for what he saw as the tepid response of Hillary and Obama. I didn't feel as strongly about it as he did, and frankly, I was glad that they said something rather than being afraid to go after "America's Mayor" (Obama referred to

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-75925425725558906052007-04-25T14:53:00.000-05:002007-04-25T15:01:17.457-05:00

Via Danger Room (another blog you should probably be reading if you aren't), a story of a problem in Iraq. There's no one part that sums it up, so do yourself a favor and take 10 minutes to read it. Sometimes it helps cement how horrible it really is over there to look at some specifics. Numbers can get numbing. I guess that's why they're called numbers.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-76794036439904361432007-04-25T13:14:00.000-05:002007-04-25T13:37:48.963-05:00

Here's a few links to things that are noteworthy, but wouldn't generate a post of their own.Kevin Tillman and Jessica Lynch testified before Congress today about the falsehoods told about by the military, exaggerating the heroism of Jessica and of Kevin's brother Pat. You know, it's a sad day when the stuff that would formerly have been considered the province of conspiracy theorists turns out

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-79241780973785791632007-04-25T10:23:00.000-05:002007-04-25T10:26:54.399-05:00

I'm not always in agreement with Andrew Sullivan, but he's nothing if not thoughtful, and a wonderfully expressive writer to boot. That's why I suggest that you read his piece on Obama in full.But in case you don't, here's the gist of it:But this much we can already say: Obama brings something no one else does to this moment. By replacing one of the most globally despised and domestically

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-43210255874330225462007-04-25T09:48:00.000-05:002007-04-25T10:26:06.082-05:00

Via Andrew Sullivan, here's a link to a trailer for a movie called Taxi to the Darkside. It's about the American use of torture over the last 5 or 6 years, which is an issue about which I am very passionate. I'd seen the clips of President Bush used in the trailer before, but they still give me chills. At the very end, a man says, "If they think so very little of life, and clearly 9/11

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1875880700606593142007-04-25T07:45:00.000-05:002007-04-25T10:27:51.127-05:00

Rudy Giuliani, who is still leading in the preposterously early polling for the Republican candidacy for President in 2008, has thrown down the gauntlet:“If any Republican is elected president —- and I think obviously I would be the best at this —- we will remain on offense and will anticipate what [the terrorists] will do and try to stop them before they do it,” Giuliani said.Translation: We'll

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-6115310895244375052007-04-24T22:08:00.000-05:002008-12-09T19:03:56.471-05:00

You probably think it's horribly self-indulgent, and you're probably right. But too bad. This is the beginning of my experiment in holding myself accountable for my personal habits via blog.Here's what I had to eat today:Breakfast: Plain bagel w/ cream cheese and 24 oz. green tea, both from Dunkin' DonutsLunch: 6-inch turkey & cheese on wheat w/ mayonnaise and lettuce, Baked Lays and 20 oz.

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-85472209443554121092007-04-24T14:34:00.000-05:002007-04-25T22:09:30.473-05:00

I've been thinking for a while that I should get down to the nitty gritty and start losing some weight, but I've lacked the motivation. Sure, I know that fast food is no good for me, but somehow when I'm coming home after working a full day at work and tutoring for 4 hours afterwards, the convenience of McDonald's or Burger King wins out easily over waiting a half hour to go home, figure out

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-33076716411917796042007-02-14T10:00:00.000-05:002007-04-25T08:11:24.739-05:00

I stumbled across this article this morning, and it's too important not to pass on. Basically, the author, Robert Dreyfuss, considers the conventional wisdom (If we leave Iraq, it will erupt into unimaginable violence) and asks the pertinent question: how do we know?I won't belabor the point, because he says it better than I could, but the main point underpinning the whole thing is that the

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-76969245423131402202007-02-13T09:02:00.000-05:002007-04-25T08:11:14.553-05:00

While I was in China, I brought around a pen and a Moleskine notebook everywhere I went, and I wrote little notes here and there. Here's a couple of them (and I'll put up links to pictures when I get home and am able):Beijing5/29/2006 - 12:08pm - Standing on the Great Wall of China. My legs might die from the climb up.1:09pm - We made it down to the tourist area from the unimproved area where

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-33037793895882675192007-02-11T11:40:00.001-05:002007-02-11T02:40:13.133-05:00

Apparently editorializing on pictures of food is more common than I thought.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-41884390827668417582007-02-11T02:40:00.001-05:002007-02-07T12:36:35.379-05:00

Next time you're at the diner, sing your order to the waitress. Research shows it will make you laugh and she won't even notice.

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-83845675102603590762007-02-07T11:36:00.001-05:002007-02-07T12:36:35.433-05:00

If it's written on the wall at Subway, it must be true (just try to ignore the grammatical error).Fargus...Update: As I was writing that post from my phone, I couldn't expound that much. But I thought that I should say that Eli and I have engaged in a number of thought experiments about how to make the above graffiti grammatically correct. In all instances, it presupposes the existence of a

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-79654127152123767922007-02-06T15:24:00.000-05:002007-02-06T15:26:53.225-05:00

.....how cold is it?I wish there was a punchline. There's not. My office really is that cold. I wore a hooded sweatshirt to work today so that I could wear my jacket over my legs while I sit at my desk. I had a failed experiment yesterday in typing with gloves on. I've taken to going to the bathroom every once in a while just to run my hands under hot water and verify that they've still got

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-4904687049955776592007-02-05T18:17:00.000-05:002007-04-25T08:12:10.172-05:00

I don't have enough for a long post. More an observation, really.The Bush Administration has often been quoted as saying that success in Iraq is crucial to the future of our country. They're putting all their eggs in the Iraq basket in the hopes of getting people on board. It's that serious, right? If we don't achieve "victory" in Iraq, then we do so at our nation's peril. More than that, we

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-54222662381455483742007-02-02T01:18:00.001-05:002007-02-02T02:23:16.990-05:00

The diner makes my friends uncomfortable.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-81932008241030702912007-02-02T00:02:00.000-05:002007-02-02T00:03:39.489-05:00

...I'd hoped to be making. Haloscan is back, so I apologize to Johan and Lauren. Their comments were lost, but they were good, and they deserve to be added into the current Haloscan environment. If they could come back and do it, I'd love them forever. If not, I wouldn't hate them, but it's cool.

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-73560739092113746102007-02-01T21:28:00.000-05:002007-02-02T02:24:35.989-05:00

Oliver, on posting to my blog directly from my phone: That's really gay.No, my friend, you are.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-21659158461147428652007-02-01T17:21:00.001-05:002007-02-01T17:38:40.961-05:00

For those of you who never saw it, we ended up in the newspaper when we were in China.I might end up doing some posts reflecting on my trip to China soon. Stay tuned.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-45963689853267737202007-02-01T14:57:00.000-05:002007-02-01T15:14:20.821-05:00

For all of those who posted comments yesterday or today (OK, all three of you), I'm trying to figure out how to get Haloscan working. For now, just use the Blogger comments (it's subject to text verification, to prevent spam).Hopefully in a day or two your old comments will be back, and I'll be apologizing for your Blogger comments being gone.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-56356093506735709262007-02-01T13:27:00.000-05:002007-02-01T16:20:50.248-05:00

No, not those kind of surge protectors. I'm talking about President Bush's "surge" of troops to Iraq (12/1/2006):President George W. Bush admitted this morning that “mistakes have been made” in Iraq and “the responsibility rests with me” but insisted the only way out of the dire situation was to send 21,500 more troops into the country.So two months ago, the President said we needed

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-90148015066016810162007-02-01T10:41:00.000-05:002007-02-01T13:41:35.754-05:00

Those of you who know me know that The Dark Tower by Stephen King is one of my obsessions. The series consists of seven books, published between 1982 (as a novel) and 2004:The GunslingerThe Drawing of the ThreeThe Waste LandsWizard and GlassWolves of the CallaSong of SusannahThe Dark TowerI started reading this series in 1992, right after The Waste Lands came out in paperback. I remember it

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-63079365397269588842007-02-01T09:26:00.000-05:002007-02-01T13:43:51.611-05:00

Al Gore was recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian member of Parliament. Boerge Brende, the man who nominated Gore, cited Gore's extensive environmental work, including last year's Oscar-nominated documentary An Inconvenient Truth."A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference," Conservative Member of Parliament

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-11964868240930725682007-01-31T23:54:00.000-05:002007-02-01T10:10:39.211-05:00

Nothing formal's been announced yet, but MSNBC's reporting that Al Franken has decided to run for the United States Senate.A lot of folks over at TPMCafe were debating whether or not this was a good idea, and whether or not Franken actually stands a chance at winning the election. Personally, I really like the guy. I've got one of his books up on the shelf (Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-16776840980987283542007-01-31T14:15:00.000-05:002007-02-01T16:03:49.749-05:00

Through Decision '08, the only conservative blog I can bring myself to read anymore, I found this incomprehensible criticism of some statements that Hillary Clinton recently made (I apologize for the length of the excerpt, but there's really not that much content to cut. Just tough it out):In essence, Senator Clinton declared: The war in Iraq is Bush's mess, and it is his job to clean it up

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-50204305949966682822007-01-31T12:18:00.000-05:002007-02-01T10:11:51.882-05:00

Last night I got home from work around 5:00, and my roommate Jason told me that he and Darren were going to the movies at 5:40, and that I was welcome to go along."What are you going to see?" I asked."Epic Movie," he said. I groaned. "Well, you don't have to go if you don't want to," he said."No, I don't have anything better to do. I'll go. I'll just bring a book along."At this point I should

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-79292779763845359172007-01-03T20:14:00.000-05:002007-01-03T20:21:39.502-05:00

Wii had our first Wii-Wii-lated casualty tonight. Is it going to get annoying if I keep typing "Wii" for every "we" and "re-"? I don't Wii-ly care.Jason and I were playing Wii Sports tonight. For those of you who aren't in the know about these things, the Wii is the next-generation Nintendo console, played with wireless motion-sensing controllers. So when you're bowling, for instance, you

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-50636190943148692622006-12-30T10:32:00.000-05:002008-12-09T19:03:56.809-05:00

I've posted about my religious beliefs before, so my reaction to this story should surprise absolutely nobody:Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-11018345066722258162006-12-30T10:00:00.000-05:002008-12-09T19:03:57.172-05:00

Last night Darren and I walked over to the diner to meet Oliver and Eli, who had been drinking. Oliver called me up and told me that we should be loud and make a scene as we walked in. You know, just be in an argument over something. And given the news that we'd just received, and the images playing incessantly on the TV in the diner, it was easy to decide that that scene would be about.Our "

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-16259262716555042802006-12-27T14:56:00.000-05:002006-12-30T10:52:10.566-05:00

When I read Republicans seriously entertaining the notion of the nomination of Rudy Giuliani for President in '08, much less the notion of his standing a snowball's chance in hell of winning, this is all I can think of:Because that's all Rudy Giuliani is. He's a symbol. A symbol of 9/11, which God's Own Party would love to continue exploiting. And a symbol of...well, come to think of it,

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1165417250339567862006-12-06T09:52:00.000-05:002006-12-06T10:00:50.363-05:00

I haven't posted in a long time, and I'm sorry for that. Just thought I'd toss this up there. Here's an e-mail I sent to both of my senators, Lautenberg and Menendez, about 2 months ago:Senator Lautenberg,I would like to know how you justify, in good conscience, voting in favor of a bill that grants the President the sole power to "interpret" the Geneva Conventions, denies the Courts the rights

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1158782631748780842006-09-20T14:58:00.001-05:002006-09-20T15:03:51.750-05:00

I was reading an interview with John Mayer on CNN.com, I believe, and it was a pretty neat article. He's interested in doing stand-up comedy and sneaker design, of all things, but he doesn't want to do it based on his success as a musician. He wants to earn those things, which is extra cool in my book. When asked if he was thinking about acting, he said that if he did, he'd want to do four

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1158243617889838882006-09-14T09:01:00.000-05:002006-09-14T09:22:11.610-05:00

I often hear two statements bandied about that are taken by most as equivalent. They are:Everyone has the right to his/her own opinion.Everyone's opinion is as valid as everyone else's. The first is something with which I strongly agree. The second is something with which I couldn't disagree more.Let me explain.I don't think I have to spend too many words to let you all know why I think that

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1158241839172490012006-09-14T07:57:00.000-05:002006-09-14T08:50:39.290-05:00

My last post was a setup for this one. I hope you've had time to absorb it a bit.With this post, I wanted to outline my own religious views, as they've been shaping up for the past few years. It's something that I've been quite up front with myself about, and increasingly so with people outside of the online arena, but because of the associations most people have with the words involved, I've

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1158176150205572112006-09-13T10:35:00.000-05:002006-09-13T14:35:50.486-05:00

Most people, when they hear the word "atheist," have a definite picture that forms in their minds. The picture is what more nuanced people would probably call a "militant atheist," and more likely than not, that person is probably tearing up a bible, or maybe spitting on a crucifix.But atheism is a much more subtle beast than that, and comes in more varieties than most people realize. I'm gonna

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1158001300418038292006-09-11T13:51:00.000-05:002006-09-11T14:01:40.436-05:00

Yesterday afternoon, my roommate Jason came downstairs with a proposition."Hey, Fargus, you wanna go to London?"Without hesitation, I replied, "Yes. When?""Um, I was sort of just kidding," Jason replied, a bit taken aback at how quickly I answered. "Delta's running a special deal where tickets from JFK to London-Gatwick are only $99 each way.""I say again, yes. When are we going?" I stared

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1157861748846317912006-09-09T23:10:00.000-05:002006-09-09T23:15:48.860-05:00

Tonight I'm at Darren's, and I finished the bottle of Captain Morgan's rum that I started last night. Our lives aren't very exciting when they consist of drinking some rum and playing bad video games, but don't judge me. The video games may be bad, but Ryan got them for free.We spent a little bit of time abusing a service that was instituted for a noble purpose. The concept of internet relay

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1157724994894876622006-09-08T08:44:00.000-05:002006-09-14T08:53:15.750-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted (8 days shy of three months, to be exact). I'm not quite ready to get back to where I was before, where I was posting exclusively about political things, and a couple of times a day. I don't think I'll ever want to go back to exactly that.Instead, I'd like to have more of a mishmash of topics in here. Anecdotes, stories from my youth, political postings

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1150472239664217142006-06-16T10:35:00.000-05:002006-06-16T10:38:30.963-05:00

I'm just trying out the new Flock web browser, that integrates photo uploading and blogging using my existing accounts. Seems pretty badass. Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1150460632409116652006-06-16T07:21:00.000-05:002006-06-16T07:30:02.690-05:00

I guess it's not true that the wedding I'm going to in 8 days is my first singing gig, but it certainly feels like it. I sang a lot in high school and college, but those were for audiences made up of Billy and Susie's parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles. I didn't know Billy and Susie, let alone their families, so those kinds of engagements weren't very difficult. I only had to worry

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1150224707080129302006-06-13T13:49:00.000-05:002006-06-13T13:51:47.096-05:00

I don't know what all I want to put up about my recent trip to China on here. Maybe some reflections, maybe a transcription of some of my travel journal, I don't know. But for now, I'll just give you one of my favorite pictures from one of my favorite stops on the trip: The Great Wall (I'm the one furthest to the right).Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1150221234653743762006-06-13T08:44:00.000-05:002006-06-13T12:53:54.730-05:00

You all know these wackos. They're the ones who've gotten an undue amount of press because of their picketing of soldiers' funerals. The membership of the Westboro Baptist Church is under 100 people, and most of those are members of the family of Fred Phelps, the church's founder.This group of lunatics has absolutely no association with any mainstream church, and the main thrust of their

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1149731264131212552006-06-07T20:42:00.000-05:002006-06-07T20:47:44.196-05:00

I don't understand why we translate country names. I'm in China, and here they call their country "Zhong guo."So where did we get China from? And if we are going to get into the business of translating the country's name, couldn't we realize that this one actually means something? It means "Middle Country" or "Middle Kingdom." So whose job was it to come up with "China," and where did he or

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1148303629091620492006-05-22T08:11:00.000-05:002006-05-22T08:13:50.186-05:00

So as many of you know, I'm headed off to China on Thursday for about two and a half weeks. I'm really excited and nervous about it, having never been that far away from home, or for that long.It should be a lot of fun. Nick arrives the day after we do, and we're meeting him at the base of the big obelisk in the middle of Tiananmen Square. Just thinking about that makes me excited.And no, not

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1145449574466148042006-04-19T07:25:00.000-05:002006-04-19T07:26:14.476-05:00

...that Subway should be forced to change the name of its "Veggie Delight" sandwich, due to the extremely misleading nature of the second part of the name.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1144504626298087302006-04-06T21:55:00.000-05:002006-04-08T08:57:11.266-05:00

Last night I went to see Thank You for Smoking with my friends Jason and Dave, and it was amazing. Funny, relevant, well-written, tasteful, all of the above. It's not in wide release, so you've got to search a little bit to find it, but do yourself a favor and seek it out. It's well worth it.Fargus...Tags: Movies, Thank+You+for+Smoking

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1144332950786743832006-04-06T09:10:00.000-05:002006-04-06T09:16:56.643-05:00

There's not much to say about this:The Senate Democratic leadership says it has found a wedge issue to strengthen the party’s position on abortion rights, which top strategists think has become a liability in recent years. The wedge is legislation expanding access to contraceptives and sex education, which polls show a majority of Americans support but which Democrats are betting will be

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1144329530702919062006-04-06T08:04:00.000-05:002006-04-06T08:18:50.790-05:00

This issue is being hammered all over the liberal blogosphere, but I felt compelled to say something about it, because it's so representative of the vile crap that's done in politics all the time.Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) has no shame:Sitting in the oncology ward at Children’s National Medical Center on Jan. 19, retired Adm. Joe Sestak and his wife, Susan, awaited the doctors’ verdict about the

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1144294595128582202006-04-04T23:25:00.000-05:002006-04-05T22:38:21.956-05:00

A lot of things have happened since last I blogged regularly on political issues. I stopped because I got the feel that it was somewhat futile, and like I was just adding my voice to an already unnecessarily large preponderance of blogs. But I've decided to write again for me, so that's that.Here's my take on illegal immigration: If it didn't benefit the immigrants to come here illegally, they

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1144210779593239112006-04-04T21:44:00.000-05:002006-04-04T23:19:39.753-05:00

I'm not a religious man, and that's a subject I'll address in an upcoming "reflection" post. I don't have a reason to take offense to the man co-opting what I feel to be my religion, but for some reason it still turns my stomach to see the man claiming to have been doing God's work, and to get the support of the insanely un-Christian Religious Right.It's probably just the pomposity, combined

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1144200078566668872006-04-03T23:47:00.000-05:002006-04-04T20:21:18.643-05:00

Anybody know quickly how to fix the IE formatting problem that JP pointed out? I could probably figure it out, but it would take some time, and I don't feel like doing it. I feel like having it done for me.You know what? I barely even feel like searching the internet for the solution that I could probably find in ten seconds flat. I just felt like writing a post to put up a couple of

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1144121910674434842006-04-03T21:52:00.000-05:002006-04-03T22:38:34.846-05:00

This probably isn't the best place to ask about how to get readership up, since not too many people will read this, but I'll ask anyway. What should I do? For a while I was leaving trackback links all over other sites when I'd link to them. Maybe that's something that I should do again, whenever I write posts on political issues, or issues dealing with current events.But a lot of blogs have

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1144076441817272772006-04-03T09:58:00.000-05:002006-04-03T10:00:41.993-05:00

I guess this is just another example of the media loving to report on things that make it look like things are going badly in Iraq.BAGHDAD -- A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says. [...]

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1144072077035724932006-04-03T08:31:00.000-05:002006-04-03T08:47:58.133-05:00

Those of you who know me know that I'm not a huge sports fan. I don't follow any sports religiously, and in general I don't really care much about them, but for the same reasons that Josh Marshall notes, the idea of being a fan of the New York Yankees has never been even remotely appealing to me. Since I was born in the Los Angeles area, I've been a fan of the Dodgers above any other team. I

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1144038749625899432006-04-02T23:26:00.000-05:002006-04-02T23:32:29.636-05:00

I spent the night in New Haven on Saturday night, visiting with some old friends from high school. It's funny how the conversation can consist about eighty percent of sentences beginning, "Hey, remember when..." but it still doesn't get old.I had seen a few of these folks a couple of weeks ago, but my best friend from high school was there last night, and I hadn't seen him for about three years.

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1143902496021463802006-04-01T09:26:00.000-05:002006-04-01T09:41:36.086-05:00

I went out to a bar with some buddies last night to see a band play. The bassist for the band was a friend of my buddy Kevin, so that's how we knew of the gig. The place was...well, it was interesting, let's say. It was called The Rail, and only a chain link fence separated it from the nearby NJ Transit station, and the intermittent roar of the trains.The first thing I noticed when I walked in

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1143819491176242752006-03-31T10:27:00.000-05:002006-03-31T10:38:11.253-05:00

I work two jobs. One of them has very regular hours, and I even am afforded the opportunity to take every other Friday off (today is one of those Fridays). The other job is sporadic, stressful, and sometimes rewarding, and it usually has me working one job or the other every day of the week, but it pays quite well. The combination of these two jobs has taken me to the point, though, where I

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1143727956592429262006-03-30T08:48:00.000-05:002006-03-30T09:12:36.736-05:00

Don't like how the war in Iraq is going? Well, there's a simple solution to that! Don't blame the Administration who brought us there. Blame the media for not reporting what you so desperately want to be true!Snarky and sarcastic, I know. Apologies all around for that. But really, how desperate is the Republican base to absolve Bush of any responsibility in the war that he started? In the war

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1143681512226119442006-03-29T20:08:00.000-05:002006-03-29T20:18:32.253-05:00

I'm not gonna promise anything, but now that I've got a computer at home that works really well, I'd really like to get back into the blogging game. This will likely involve some kind of overhaul of the layout and such, as well as a rethinking of the overall gist of the subject material.Last time I stopped blogging regularly, it was because the subject matter got to be stressful enough to me

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1143605167755868732006-03-28T23:03:00.000-05:002006-03-28T23:06:07.770-05:00

I got a new computer today. It's a pretty big departure from my old computer in two important ways.1) It works quickly and well.2) It's a Mac.I know about all the vitriol directed toward Macs by otherwise reasonable people all over the place, and you can all save it. I like it, and I like what it can do. I like the way it looks, and I like the way it feels. I like that everything's built in.

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1142895899193069322006-03-20T18:00:00.000-05:002006-03-20T18:04:59.206-05:00

There's not enough time for me to get into the whole thing right now, even if I wanted to (which I don't). Let it be said, though, that the verdict on my Miami vacation is one thumb way up, one thumb way the hell down.

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1136378471801706892006-01-04T07:40:00.000-05:002006-01-04T07:41:11.813-05:00

I wrote this to my dad about 5 minutes ago, and I thought it would make a good blog post:The fact that everybody feels the irrational need to put a caveat on the Abramoff story is really getting to me. Every time they talk about how all of these Congressional Republicans are in it pretty deep, and that there's tangible proof of their corruption, someone has to pipe up and say something like, "

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1133496079301146742005-12-01T22:56:00.000-05:002005-12-01T23:01:19.313-05:00

I don't know if I'm going to be able to bring myself to do this more frequently now than I have been over the last couple of months (i.e. not at all), but I'm going to make the effort. I'm still intensely interested in politics, and have probably bored my poor father to tears, since I talk about nothing else, really, when I call him. Well, politics and movies. So I have a feeling that's what

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1128685154932937452005-10-07T06:22:00.000-05:002005-10-07T06:39:14.953-05:00

I had heard (along with a few of you readers, probably) that there was a poll that showed that 19% of Americans thought that they were in the top 1% of earners, and that 20% more thought that they would one day be in the top 20%. In looking up some information about it, I found that this was the specific question asked:As you may know, Al Gore has claimed that George W. Bush’s proposed tax cut

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1127846821515094722005-09-27T13:45:00.000-05:002005-09-27T13:47:01.520-05:00

I was at a meeting this morning, and it started to drag, so I began to write a sort of stream-of-consciousness to pass the time. Here it is, in all its unvarnished glory (and names have been changed): At my meeting I got bored, so I wrote the alphabet, in both upper- and lowercase letters. I enjoy my handwriting. Then I wrote the numeral "3" in two different ways. One of the numerals looked

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1127311211913612092005-09-21T08:58:00.000-05:002005-09-21T09:00:11.920-05:00

Eight Democratic governors are requesting an inquiry into the excessive profits being made by gas companies in the post-Katrina days.Good for them. There's no reason that, in the wake of a natural disaster, everybody in the country should be a little worse off economically, while Exxon and Shell post record profits.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1127132058106024342005-09-19T07:12:00.000-05:002005-09-19T07:14:18.116-05:00

Here's what Brownback said, that I was referring to in my last post: All the members of this body know a young man with Down's Syndrome named Jimmy. Maybe you've met him, even. He runs the elevator that takes the senators up and down on the Senate floors. His warm smile welcomes us every day. We're a better body for him. He told me the other day -- he frequently gives me a hug in the

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1126996844874678172005-09-17T17:38:00.000-05:002005-09-17T17:40:44.880-05:00

I just heard the most ridiculous thing in the world on the television today.Basically, Senator Brownback made the argument that because of abortion, there are less people to hug people in elevators. There were a lot more words to it, but that was the thrust of it.Fargus...

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1126526751564040232005-09-12T07:01:00.000-05:002005-09-12T07:05:51.570-05:00

I don't have much to say about this story, except that it makes me so happy to see.Boone Pickens, a Texas oil tycoon, has sponsored a flight to go through the region devastated by Hurricane Katrina and pick up the pets that were stranded. They saved about 80 animals, though they had wished to get about 200.The article concludes by saying that about 200 animals have been reunited with their

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1126494658454840912005-09-11T22:07:00.000-05:002005-09-11T22:11:16.066-05:00

I was in Williamsport over the weekend for my cousin's wedding, and it was really nice. Here's a picture that I thought was pretty cute.

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1126280491119420542005-09-09T10:29:00.000-05:002005-09-09T10:41:31.126-05:00

Right off the bat, I'm pretty firmly agnostic. By that, I mean I don't go to church, I don't have pretensions of knowing the hows, whats, and whys of the universe, and the issue of God doesn't have an effect on my daily life. I'm not atheist because as a logical thinker, I realize that I cannot logically disprove His/Her/Its existence, but neither can I logically prove His/Her/Its existence.

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8694465.post-1126061572535321102005-09-06T21:47:00.000-05:002005-09-06T21:52:52.543-05:00

OK, so I don't know if this means that I'll be writing furiously like I did there for a while, but I'm here now, and that should count for something.The big event, which allows me to be writing this right now, from my room, is that after a year and a half, I finally have a working computer again. Being able to write blog entries from home should take some of the strain off, since I keep trying

Fargus...http://www.blogger.com/profile/09101256762915012718noreply@blogger.com0