No use in letting some Prophet of Doom...

...get reelected.

Photoblog

Bush accepted most of the 9/11 commission's report today, 11 days after he said it would need a lot of study and take time to implement. Is that a flip, or a flop? :)

Kerry is releasing a book length detailed plan of what he intends to do after being elected. Hey, Kerry and Edwards wrote a book and George dreams about reading one. :)

The Reps were quick to jump on the fact that Kerry has gotten minimum poll bounce in the first polls since the convention. A Newsweek poll has him bouncing 4 or 5 percent. I told you it wouldn't be much. They commented that it's the lowest bounce of any candidate. Well spinmeisters, it's the earliest that a VP has ever been picked as well. It actually seems to show that the convention bounce is really the bounce from picking the VP.

Another day of rehab...they up the requirements every Monday. A little faster, a little longer. So far it's been the best exercise experience I've ever had. I'll be up to walking 20 minutes a day tomorrow. My weight is hovering just above 300, I'm down 45 pounds from my peak (there, I said it). In fact, the other day I weighed myself naked (you're welcome for the mental picture) and I was under 300. I've got some private and public goals. the next number is 275, at 250 I want to go skydiving. The next memorable weight is 230, that's what I was in the 80's. Then it's 210. If I hit that and I'm a little "flappy", I'm gonna get the tummy tuck. I think I'll probably be a little flappy, but if I can get down that far I want to LOOK like I got down that far. I haven't weighed below 200 since 9th grade, except for a brief time in college.

Work was nominal.

Music today: Me First and the Gimme Gimme's "Are A Drag" / Garrison Starr's "Eighteen Over Me" / The Sharks' "Live at the Empire Rock Club"

Happy "Gulf of Tonkin" anniversary everybody. I'm sure there's lots of parties today. :) NPR had a great report with Walter Cronkite that had original White House tapes of conversations between Johnson and Robert McNamara. Turns out the "torpedo" that was fired by the Cong was never really confirmed. So it looks like a whale may have been the catalyst for the Vietnam war.

Another comment on NPR about deceased Philosophy professor Sidney Morgenbesser. Attending a speech on language, the speaker says (paraphrasing) "In language, two wrongs can make a right, but never have two rights made a wrong". Sydney, in the back, mumbles "...yeah, yeah". You can search NPR, use keyword obituary.

And finally, a little thing that hit me tonight called.....

The Aeronautic Design Theory of Musician Interaction

Airplanes...gotta love 'em. Most old designs made them fly real safe and real steady. Some manuverability, I mean, they could turn pretty quick but not on a dime. Then they got fancy. They started, after computers came into the mix, doing something called fly-by-wire. A lot more control, very fast and precise. To take advantage of the control, they started making the airplanes more UNstable. Theory being that the more unstable something is, the quicker they can control it. Balance a pencil on the end of your index finger and look how fast you have to move to keep it on there.

I believe that most creative bands are essentially unstable, or have an element (member) that is unstable. They can still function without that X factor, but for true high performance there is usually that unstable element. I was thinking about the lead singer for my former employer The Sharks. Sam had talent and charisma with a capital K. That "It" factor they talk about, he's got it and he knows how to use it. But he's MIA right now. The band would still like to go out occasionally, but Sam's off the map somewhere. I hope that whatever's up with him, he comes back and we can see those guys together again. They're a lot of fun. Every other band I've ever been involved with that's had any success at all has had this element. I don't mean to pick on Sammy, he's just the one I was listening to tonight when this popped into my head.

Later dudes