I got up at 2:30 to look at the Leonid meteor shower. I took out a chair and blanket and wore my winter coat. The full moon was causing trouble toward the west, and in the east there's a big security light. I found a place shaded from both, and watched as the fog slowly rose from the ground. Still, I saw a few meteors, including one magnificent one. The freeway was a continual roar, and I also could hear hunting calls (? I think. Not the usual owls I often hear, but perhaps another kind, or a night hawk) and little squeaks. I checked the wires for roof rats, but I think I was hearing mice instead.

In the end, I spent about a half-hour out. Then I was just going to read a chapter or two of THE LIST to make me sleepy. Ha. There was NO WAY I could put it down and go back to sleep. I did try at one point, but I needed to find out What Happened Next.

I'm one pound up, which is annoying after I went down earlier in the week. I've been cleaning the back room, doing some writing I need to do, started work on the Round Robin, etc.

I had my case conference about Casey today. Also, I've been Very Bad this year about my in-service hours, so I watched a video, The Color of Fear about racism. This was done in 1994 by a Chinese-American filmmaker in Berkeley, about a male-bonding weekend in Ukiah. I learned a lot about racism, though they never said what they really thought about Colin Powell. I also learned a lot about men. A woman's retreat just wouldn't have been the same at all. There were two Caucasians, two African-Americans, two Hispanics, and (the review is wrong here) two each Chinese-Americans and Japanese-Americans.

Some quotes from the movie (I'm disappointed it never made it to the PBS stable):

• You know what happens to me when I pass a Mission? [Actually, this had never dawned on me.]
• Racism is basically a white problem. [I disagree, look at Sharpton, Belefonte, Cynthia "J-E-W-S" McKinney.]
• You think you can survive without me, but you can't, man.
• ...driving through Ukiah [one of the Asians], the fear is there.
• [The most vocal white guy]We don't consider ourselves part of an ethnic group. [We own the world.]
• You have the privilege of blaming people of color for their own victimization.
• "racial prejudicious." [I just like the verbal mangling of the language here.]
• You live in a work where you come up to the spikes they lay down for you---when we colored come up to them, they're pointing right at us. [Then the white man said "maybe you're going the wrong direction."]
• You have to look at interethnic racism in the context of white supremacy.
• They pulled hard on their bootstraps and those suckers just came right off.
• What we do to each other puches us down and lifts you up and what you do to us pushes us down and lifts you up.
• They're going to think "why should we change, those rats can't even get along with each other."
• It really felt good that I wasn't treated by you the way we've treated you.

I thought what a mess "reparations" would make here. Any progress made toward a color-blind society would be wiped out in a second. In Casey's case, the adults involved are Asian, Hispanic, African-American, and Caucasian, and since we're all after the best for the child, it doesn't matter at all. Walter Williams is his usual cogent self. I also note that some blacks are suing Jesse Jackson for presuming to speak for them. I guess when the makers of "Barber Shop" stood up to his blackmail (no pun intended) it opened the gates. Andrew Sullivan talks about Condi Rice, who is MY choice for the first woman US President.

Roni won tickets for Monday night football, and since neither she nor R.J. can go, Rich and I will be there! The last time we did this, it was the day Mayor Moscone was killed. They observed a full minute of silence.

Baby Names, via Roni.

Also, the Onion has an alarming development in the War on Terror: Muslims developing Nuclear Families