Robert Byrd delivered an absolutely blistering speech about the rush to war yesterday in the Senate, and you probably didn’t hear a thing about it from the allegedly dovish, liberal media. There are plenty of scream-out-loud lines to do around, but indulge me in quoting my current favorite: “Frankly many of the pronouncements made by this
Administration are outrageous. There is no other word.” Ahhh.

Spring training, spring cleaning: George Steinbrenner’s airing his pique on the nearest available popular Yankee. I believe I speak for all of us when I say it’s good to have a bit of normalcy around here.

Test. Test. Testtesttest. I am waaaaaaay too tired to be fussing with FTP settings, but here I go. Argh. And the longer this gets, the worse the time I’m having. And it’s certainly getting longer. Take, um, eight. (Mail’s working again.) Nine. Ten. Eleven. (And why is it I didn’t pick up supper or something before I walked into the house and found this mess?) Twelve. (Not so fast on the mail, sparky — receiving only, not sending.) Thirteen. (Okay, all email operational — and stacking up while I futz with this foolish thing.) Fourteen. Fifteen. Success!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Guess who’s changing ISPs again? Expect transient difficulty reaching this site as it skitters to a server elsewhere over the next few days.

No, I will not make bad jokes about the Dell Dude’s pot bust. I’ll let my friend Dan R. do that. Someone else will in turn have to cover the inevitable Ellen Feiss one-up.

And a chill ran up my spine and out the door (taking my skin right with it): www.copyright.org points to a Motion Picture Association of America site. That is SO not right. I wonder if the 133trz who keep hacking riaa.org know about this?

I didn’t realize that all seven astronauts on Columbia were of different faiths; this BeliefNet reportage does a lovely job with that. A quietly affecting piece. In related clippings, the Palm Beach News ran a gorgeous piece of commentary on how very unsettling it is to see engineers cry, and why Milt Heflin describing last Saturday as “a bad day” was more profound than anything written by any of the reporters to which he was speaking.

The station-wagon aspect is slightly beyond my ken, but I understand the charm of a remembered car; the only vehicle I’d be more interested in owning than my parents’ 1967 Cutlass is a version of my own dearly departed 1972 Cutlass. My brother wrecked that car over 15 years ago and I haven’t quit complaining yet. Just ask him. In fact, tell him I told you to ask him. He loves that.

Public-relations disasters like this are exactly why the Libertarian Party is a bad joke. In a city where you can get shot for Going To The Store For Milk While Black, which committee thought that handing out toy guns in front of a public school was a good idea?

“What you’ve always had on skeptics’ shows is someone who’s well-mannered, has all his ducks in a row, going up against a nut. On TV, the nut will always win. But I can promise you I’m as bum-nutty as anybody you’ve ever seen on the other side” … You know Penn Jillette’s probably being, bless him, too modest there. Should be a fun show.