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There's an insightful Slate piece about Richard Perle . "'Trust me,' Perle said when The Nation 's David Corn asked for evidence that Saddam poses an immediate threat to the United States." Trust him? The Prince of Darkness? We are in for some serious fuckage. Maybe we should do something .

I have a deadline this week. Sometimes deadlines make me depressed. In this case, I am leading a training on Thursday. Most of the actual thought has already been done, so now it's a matter of details (handouts, computer setup, choosing the best sample exercises, reserving the room, etc). I have a problem with perfectionist feelings, so that when things inevitably fall short of my ideal, the sense that I am growing old and useless is overwhelming. It fosters an urge to procrastinate, too, which might explain why I'm typing in a Blogger window rather than working on the training. I Am Trying To Kiss A Wilco Guy (scroll down; thanks to Elise for the link) describes my demographic a little too well. "Now, Wilco guys are different. Don't get carried away: don't think Cary Grant, or Chris Noth. Think bookishly handsome, well-educated semi-wimps. Wilco guys tend to be sensitive, literate, bespectacled, somewhat wan Don DeLillo readers with a bit of a grainy edge.

OK: Iraq. A non-starter ? Is it just a hoax? Maybe it's this: Just something to get people thinking that the administration is �doing something� about terrorism. Terrorism is hard to fight (ask Great Britain, India and Israel), and that's the raison d�etre (sp?) of terrorism, that it�s impossible to wage war on an enemy whose guerrilla capabilities are matched by its willingness to kill civilians in urban population centers. Which means conventional war is hopeless in the face of that kind of terror, unless you are willing to go all the way, as the Israelis are doing now. They just do what they like, fuck consequences. (And, in a cynical way, who�s to say Israel is mistaken in its strategy? Will the US, or anyone else, do *anything* to stop Israel, discourage them, even (gasp) impose sanctions on them for human rights violations? The President seems much more concerned over the baseball strike than the blood being spilled in Gaza) But the "do what we want, fuck cons

Everyone's doing it. The "movement" (can you really call a pop culture event a movement?) has come and gone. I recall reading on someone's weblog that blogs had peaked... and that was January! Yes, it's all over now, baby blue. But so what? I guess the whole thing goes the way of fads. In the 70's somebody published The Nothing Book , a hardback book with a slip-on cover, whose pages were blank. This was years before bookstores had racks of journals and blank books. It was a cool, light gift, very "yeah, get creative, man." But what the gift-recipient actually did with them is anyone's guess; I would imagine that most of the first Nothing Books were used until the experiment lost its edge, and the last 150 blank pages... remained blank. Don't get me wrong, blogs are different: the listmaker's fondness for collation is joined with the smartass' penchant for one-liners, and everyone gets his chance to crack wise, even if the aud

I was reading Kate's dad's copy of has The Bush Dyslexicon . On the surface, it sounded like one of those "wacky quotes" books, but the author, Mark Crispin Miller , makes a chilling case. "Bush," Miller said in an interview, "shows... a certain genius for evasion of a particular kind -- i.e., representing his most noxious stands as strokes of tolerance and kindness. That move is more insidious than mere evasiveness, and also requires a greater craftiness." He points out that beyond how often Bush lies, that Bush seems to understand something that lefties don't: that a teaspoon of pretense toward honesty and "plain talkin" is worth an oil tanker of perceived intelligence. Americans like him because Americans see themselves as "life-smart" but hate & shudder at the "brainy." Bush = Nixon.

I listened to and read Lessig's presentation free culture , and he's right, really right. I don't have enough $ to give my $65 this month... but next month, the EFF gets my membership.

Recent movies: :: Marathon Man , with Dustin Hoffman. I liked it. A little predictable, but the message, that to resist money and cynicsm is itself a gruelling "marathon," moved me. At the end, I found myself hoping that Dustin Hoffman would steal some of the diamonds himself, not my finest impulse, I admit. I heard Elvis Mitchell the other day, comparing Sam Mendes ( Road to Perdition ) to John Schlesinger , calling each a "Mercedes marxist" for what Mitchell sees as a patronizing attitude towards Americans. I wonder if that's true. Marathon 's class instinct is made clear when Laurence Olivier walks through the diamond district, eyeing precious stones, hoping to unload his stolen shit on some of the survivors he robbed. That section was pretty compelling.

Haven't written in a million years. What have I been doing? :: Working on my C++ homework. I need to be done by the end of November and I'm only half way done. So I'm behind :: Spending time with the kid :: Working a lot. Doing more scripting, and writing, writing, writing :: Renting a million movies. I should write about them because, oh, I don't know, why does one write anything? :: Watching in horror as Ann Coulter becomes the most celebrated author of our era. Well, not everyone likes her .

"We're actively looking for a bigger size." We like it big.

I [heart] Paul Krugman .