If it weren’t for these hearings I wouldn’t give a tin fig for who didn’t do what when and where. September Eleventh was the bright red gash that separated the Now from the La-la Then, and we’ve been living in the hot spiky Now ever since. I am interested in the Now and the What Next. I don’t have much patience for people who believe that the salvation of Western Civilization depends on hiking the marginal tax rates to pre-2002 levels. But if you want to play Eight Years vs. Eight Months, fine. Just remember that before 9/11, the skies over Afghanistan were clear. After 9/11, they thrummed with the sound of B-52s until the job was done.

No small distinction.
---Lileks.

Read the whole thing, of course.

The two yoyo pounds up again. We ate late on Wednesday which may have something to do with it. Nothing else has advanced... the back room is a little cleaner, but Easter may be too ambitious. No knitting this week, and only a little work on the round robin. I did get three bags of clothes out to be picked up for the Children's Home.

Yesterday the rain fell, so I had to scrap my plans to take Casey to the new Water Intake (trust me, this should be good!) and Discovery Park, and we went to the library instead. The kid got to play on the computer. Then it took me one hour and ten minutes to get home. Argh.

We went to pick up some of the close caches today. The first, Hobbit's Habitat, is at Rossmoor Bar, south of the River. I located the first part, and then we walked around in circles till we got to the second one. It's on a "shelf" inside a hollow tree. Sailor went to visit the hobbit.

Then we went to another along the River, much harder terrain and walking, lots of deer trails but nothing going quite where we wanted. We spent a lot of time in an old quarry while the cache was a few feet away but up the hill. Rich finally found this one.

There were two along a bike trail. One of them was exposed and Rich thought it was a dead diaper so didn't look carefully. We rehid it under a pile of rocks, which cachers should recognize. I'd put a watch on it, but Groundspeak has halved the number of caches we can watch for free, and I'm still reducing my list. I was into the 90s! I had no idea!!

Finally, one called "Mutt and Jeff" which is a small Altoids tin on a large Altoids billboard in Fair Oaks. The F.O. chickens were out in force and had a lot to say about us. I rather imagine, when Rich stepped up on the billboard post, the passing drivers may have had some comments as well!

I have read about half the books I had last year by this time. Gee, could it be geocaching??

An old joke. It still applies! Musil also writes about the polls.

Cartoon.

James Taranto:

There have been two utterly humorless presidents in our memory: Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. According to the WSJ/Federalist Society Survey on Presidents, they were the worst two presidents since Warren G. Harding. Perhaps that wasn't a coincidence. If John Kerry showed any sign of having a sense of humor, we'd be a lot less uneasy about the idea of him in the White House.

Daniel Henniger damns Kerry with faint praise... though I thought about the Mass that at a ski resort they're used to ski clothing at Mass. They probably disapprove of his stands on abortion, more than of his choice of clothing. I hadn't realized he was 15 minutes late. "Do you know who I am??" I suppose the "SoB" Secret Service guys were along, too.

The John Kerry Spendometer

More on Kerry and assassination plots.

Mickey Kaus:

It's a good sign when your ex-girlfriends like you, no? Well, if you go to Fundrace.org and punch in the name of the actress Morgan Fairchild, who once dated John Kerry, you'll discover she gave money to ... Dean! .. Gephardt! ... Edwards! ... everyone except Kerry! ... [Thanks to reader M.V.]

Nick Schulz, With Friends Like These.

Kerry voted against the Laci and Connor law, though I don't see that it will get him into all that much trouble... except in the south, in the midwest, and the people of Modesto.

Well, he's back. His vacation had a couple of gaffes, but his poll numbers stopped sliding. Now that people can see him and hear him again, let's see.