Blogvoices is fantastic, but the loss of the comment counts is a big one. Not only do I want to see the counts, but I also think people are more likely to comment if there are other comments, and they might just want to read the comments – they won’t do this if they have to click on each comment link blind. So I’m almost finished with a little Cold Fusion-based comment system, which should go up later tonight or tomorrow. I’m excited and pleased.

If I take absolute pleasure in watching Tea Leoni get swallowed up by a giant, comet-caused tidal wave in Deep Impact, does that make me a bad person?

Learning biology with The Simpsons:
Homer: Marge, it’s uter-US, not uter-YOU.
(Homer, trying to convince Marge to become a surrogate mother to solve their financial problems.)

Ron wrote a great post about the recent announcement that the U.S. Postal Service may discontinue Saturday delivery. I second the notion that junk mail is a scourge that should be dealt with, both for the individual and societal good. Now if we could just do the same with spam e-mail…..

Did you know the freaky pagan origins of the word “Easter”? I certainly didn’t.

Note to freaky Pagans visiting this site: Welcome! – and no offense intended.

Couple of changes to the page: I added a permalink to each post, so you can link to any specific post if you find I’ve written something particularly trenchant that you want to share with the world. I also added a link on the left to my Amazon wish list, in case you want to buy me something. Feel free.

Interesting how they call them “faith-based programs” rather than “church-based programs.” And also interesting how public support for giving tax money to these organizations, no matter what they are called, goes down sharply the further they stray from good old USA Christianity. Hmmm.

Those Bushes are just no fun. I mean, what’s an Easter egg hunt without an AK-47 and some armor-piercing bullets? Charlton Heston will be extremely disappointed.

Spring is here, so I’m looking to refresh my Favorites list. What’s your favorite weblog (no, not your own)? Let me know by clicking on “talk back.”

If it’s mine, I thank you, and I am flattered. But clearly you need help.

Timothy McVeigh’s execution will be on closed-circuit television for families of the bomb victims to watch. I believed for a long time that all executions should be public – because I thought, perhaps naively, that forcing people to see the consequences of their decisions (in this case, allowing the state to kill people for killing people) would make them reconsider whether the death penalty was something they really wanted to get behind. But now, with Survivor and especially Series 7, I’m not so sure. Would it just be another step down the road to pop culture hell?

There’s a great scene in “Dead Man Walking” where Susan Sarandon talks to the prison nurse who attends to the “patient” being executed. The nurse talks about how grateful she is they switched from the gas chamber to lethal injection, since the former was just too hard on her. Aren’t we trying to find more “humane” ways of executing people (not a really classic humane act) so we can disassociate from our own part in the execution?