“I think it’s extremely important for the Democrats to win in 2004. But not at the price of their souls.”

Great, forceful stuff from George McGovern, by way of lies.com. In retrospect, would the world have been a better place if McGovern had won the election against Nixon in 1972? I think most everyone would agree on the answer to that question.

Spam, spam, spam, ham and spam

The Cloudmark Spamnet I have installed on my Outlook e-mail moves most spam out of my way before I even see it. (Between 6/26 and 7/12, it blocked 905 spam messages. That’s 53 a day.) But occasionally a few slip through, and I have to click on “block” to block them manually.

Most of the time I barely notice this activity. But sometimes, especially when they’re particularly good at constructing a “FROM:” and “SUBJECT:” line that I think might possibly be legit, I just want to reach through the computer and pound the sender’s head against a rock. Anyone else get that feeling?

Another political post no one’s probably interested in

So now George Tenet of the CIA has fallen on his sword, saying the CIA is responsible for allowing false information to be included in the President’s State of the Union address. And this morning, in a nifty bit of maneuvering, Bush now backs Tenet, so Tenet doesn’t have to actually resign.

Well played.

But will the media now start asking the real question? Which is, if Tenet wasn’t arguing hard enough to take the lies out of the speech, who was arguing to keep them in?

A godless, shiksa mystery

Have you read Melissa lately? If not, you should.

Politics has got me all stirred up today. I’m hoping that the Iraq-Niger-uranium story will continue to gain steam, but I’m not expecting much. I do get some tiny inklings, though, that the American media is finally waking up to some of these stories. If so, that’s good news.

Meanwhile, Salon basically Photoshops the word “LOSER!” in red over Howard Dean’s face, earning my scorn. The article contained the most idiotic passage I think I’ve ever seen on Salon:

“The Democrats would be much better off in that case with a blander, more faceless, less exciting Kerry, Gephardt or even Lieberman (perhaps with Edwards, Florida Sen. Bob Graham, or retired Gen. Wesley Clark as running mate) than they would be with a fiery, controversial Dean.”

Yeah. Bland, faceless and unexciting. That’s the ticket.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday. Some birthday stuff:

1. My friend Paul and I have decided that I owe my life to the fact that my mother smoked when she was pregnant with me and my brothers. We were all rather large babies, and I think had she been smoke-free when my brother Roby was born, he would have been so big she would have said “That’s it. No more.” Paul thought that maybe, a few years later, feeling pangs of emptiness, my parents would have adopted a Chinese girl and named her Kim. Thus the Blust children would have been Robert and Kim, but no Adam.

2. In talking with some friends about my birthday, and feeling ancient, I trotted out the old chestnut “Well, it’s better than the alternative.” But right after I said it I thought, “I have no idea if that’s true or not.” I told my friend Lynelle today that maybe the afterlife is great. “It better be!” she said.

3. My father named all three of us, which my mother now admits was a blessing. As I’ve already revealed on my about page, she wanted to name me Randall or Randolph so I could be called Randy. In my high school, Randy was this guy who wore his cap with the Caterpillar logo on it at all times, had his senior picture taken with his dog and his gun, and married his pregnant girlfriend before graduation. I am not a Randy. (See #14 on my “100 Things” list.)

Have some cake today, and pretend it’s my birthday cake. This is all I ask.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

I’m a little amazed at how much I enjoyed this. And I’m even more amazed that I’m glad neither James Cameron nor his sometime wife, Linda Hamilton, were involved in this installment. Cameron because he tried to make T2 into “action movie as grand opera” and thus ruined a lot of the fun of it; and Hamilton because her intensity would have been pushed aside in the unabashed popcorn avalanche that is this movie.

Nick Stahl is a great improvement over the weaselly Edward Furlong as world savior John Connor, and director Jonathan Mostow is smart enough to realize that the Terminator franchise is both a pop culture touchstone and sort of a joke at the same time. Mostow packs in the action while keeping things light otherwise, even though this is (sort of) about the End Of The World. That’s the way it should be, I think, if this series is to keep going without Batmanizing itself.

The script even throws in some minor curveballs that, again, were interesting without being too convoluted or distracting to the “blow ’em up good” aesthetic.

I’m still trying to get this straight in my head: I *liked* Terminator 3? A movie that’s basically a smeared carbon of the last one? Yes. I’m just going to have to deal with that reality, I guess.

Took the phone camera (see below) on my daily walk today. Click on the arrow to see some more images. They’re crappy quality from a technical standpoint, but I kind of like the “look.”

Yesterday I bought myself a birthday present: a Sony Ericsson T616 phone, with built-in camera. It has a calculator, calendar, voice dialing, Bluetooth connectivity, and even tiny little video games like Q*Bert. Plus about a million other features it will probably take me years to figure out.

I’ve had a cellular phone in the past, and I’ve barely used it. But I think with something this tiny and cool, I will carry it and use it. It’s seductively beautiful; if anyone ever doubted that design matters in consumer products, this thing is the proof.

Once I figure out how to transfer the pictures to my computer, I’ll post some.

Best. ‘Bring them on!’. Post. Ever.

(via Barney Gumble)