John proposes that we unplug from the internet tomorrow as a way to commemorate 9/11. I think it’s a great idea and I’m going to give it a try. I honestly don’t think that I’ve unplugged successfully for an entire day other than when I’ve been out of town (like in the searing desert of Las Vegas recently). I think I’m going to keep the TV off too.

It’ll be an interesting experiment.

Word of the Day

prosaic

“Adam’s weblog writing is prosaic.”

I don’t hate the President. I loathe him. “Hate” might be reserved for people like Karl Rove, John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. It was really they who took advantage of a freaked-out country to push through their scary neocon agenda. Bush was just along for the ride, as usual.

If we can’t get rid of these guys next year, after all that’s happened, we’ll be in permanent trouble.

Cognitive Dissonance Quote of the Week

“Men shouldn’t feel like fags just because they want to have nice-looking bodies…Gay people are fighting the same kind of stereotyping that bodybuilders are: People have certain misconceptions about them just as they do about us. Well, I have absolutely no hang-ups about the fag business…”

-California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Oui Magazine, 1977 (by way of The Smoking Gun by way of John)

“Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?” Campaign Award

An Army of One – U.S. Army

“Sarge, I’d love to follow your orders, but I’m an ARMY OF ONE!”

Oliver

I don’t know Dean Allen. I don’t know his dog Oliver either, although I’ve fallen in love with him because of the many amazing photographs Dean has published on his site. And when I read tonight of Oliver’s life-threatening illness, my heart was absolutely in my throat.

Oliver’s OK. I breathe a sigh of relief, and marvel again at what the internet can do.

OK so let me get this straight. I’m a little thick sometimes, so it takes a while for me to understand stuff. The President said last night, among other things ($87 billion ring a bell?) that Iraq is now the “central front” on the war on terror. A country that was doing absolutely nothing to threaten us, that had no ties to Al-Qaida and no “weapons of mass destruction” to give to anyone; a country that we invaded without provocation, and now are struggling to contain/rebuild, is the central front on the war on terror?

I guess the war must be going pretty well then.

Medieval Word of the Day

flagon

Banana

At the same trip to Borders I wrote about below, I came upon a book by a person I’d never heard of, Banana Yoshimoto. I’ve decided that “Banana Yoshimoto” has surpassed “Babe Didrickson Zaharias” as my favorite name of all time.

One thing I didn’t mention about the Vegas trip was, my brother and sister-in-law wore words mean things shirts at one point, much to my embarrassment/pleasure. My friend Paul also bought one. It’s a trend sweeping the nation! I would think it was a cute picture, if it wasn’t of me.