Once you unleash the monster, it's hard to control, isn't it Senator?

Breathtaking ignorance and seething rage. Always a good combination for a healthy political campaign, no?

You know, I used to laugh at those cheesy commercials advising people to buy gold to hedge against bad times. They looksed so stodgy and old and well, the ads were sort of cheap and threadbare. The whole thing supported my conventional assumptions - that precious metals are an archaic form of wealth, better used in jewelry or electronics than sitting in ingots in your safe deposit box.

But I inherited one gold coin, and held onto it because what the hell, it's kind of neat having a big hunk of gold. Now that little gold coin has doubled in value, while all those sophisticated 21st century investments have gone "poof!"

Interesting times, folks. Interesting times.

In the middle of all this financial chaos and bad news, it's nice to know human beings can still get together and do something amazing:



That's the first rocket ever to be launched in orbit by private individuals, and they did it for a fraction of the cost it takes NASA to launch something similar. Someday, these guys may really open up space to the world. Fingers crossed, anyway. I'm settling on Mars, damnit.

So everybody's panicked, the financial system is on the verge of meltdown, and come end of last week, word comes that the Administration and Secretary Paulson has a plan. The markets rejoice. We are Saved.

Then comes Monday morning, and people start saying, uh, wait a sec. Of particular note is this little gem, tucked away in the ironically titled Section Eight of the bill:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Read that again. Slowly.

700 billion dollars. Which the Secretary gets to control. With no oversight. At all.

Damn the various embed codes sprouting up all over the web, damn them all to hell. It's like the Tower of Babel out there.

Tried to go to the DNA last night. Not used to - or down with - forty minute waits to get in. Well, it was something new, I should have expected that.

You know you're working too hard when you wake up and can't remember if you are taking a nap after work, or snoozing before you have to get up and shower.

In other news, Brazilian rum is quite good.

Hmmm, maybe the rum had something to do with the earlier statement.

Took a hike last week in Samuel P. Taylor Park, in Marin. Big trees, old trees, a waterfall that turned out to be a trickle (oh yeah, it's September.) Lunch in Deadman's Gulch. I don't know if anyone else feels this, but when I get out into the woods it triggers a very innocent sense of adventure, that feeling you get when you're nine or ten and exploring the woods behind your grandparent's house. It's been so long, I'd almost forgotten it.

Fuck, now I'm getting maudlin.

OI haven't written anything overtly political for a while, but I'm in the mood to vent, so don't say I didn't warn you.

The cynical broadsides we saw in the presidential campaign yesterday have left me dumbfounded and frustrated. For those who weren't following it all, Newsweek's Andrew Romano sums it up nicely.

I honestly can't believe John McCain is the same human being who ran for president eight years ago. Back when he was the victim of slime, instead of its purveyor. Guess he looked into the abyss, or something.

But that's not the depressing part, the depressing part is, it's working. I have to admit though, at a certain point it's like watching a kid get beaten up by a bully over and over again; you feel sorry for the kid, but you begin to wonder why the victim doesn't learn how to fight back.

Okay, he's fighting back a little bit. But Obama still needs to learn the beauty of ten word answers.

Lord knows the media isn't going to be much help:

My new car - biodiesel friendly and chock full of German engineering goodness.

I hate the car buying process. That is all.