Synova

Okay, I decided to do it. Again. NaNoWriMo is, of course, National Novel Writing Month. Last year was a bust. The idea is to give yourself permission to write truely terrible fiction for the purpose of finishing a novel, beginning to end, or at least to get to 50,000 words just to show you can. 2,000 words a day is quite a lot but it's only 30 days so there is an end in sight. Since I'm great at starting and terrible at finishing I figure this is probably a good thing for me. But what happened last year was that I got to just over 20,000 words and decided that the story was pretty darned good after all and suddenly I wanted to *make* it good instead of just plough through. And that was that. I wasn't intending on doing it this year. But I was getting all ready to start a new project (I'm great at starting) and at the last minute decided that I might as well put off starting for a week and do the NaNoWriMo thing. So I'm making question sheets for plot and chara...

Oh my... “One CIA pilot told me that in the mid 1990s, when Clinton was president, that the lawyers began to take over. Previously, they used to take CIA planes into hangars all the time, re-spray them, and come out with a different tail number. That way none of the tracing of CIA planes I’ve been doing since 9/11 would have been possible. The idea of flying around with one tail number for three years would have been thought completely nuts,” Grey told me. “But [Clinton-era] lawyers said they needed to stay legal. They even insisted that, to comply with FAA regulations, they needed stewardesses.” Yes, stewardesses on CIA planes. Instapundit linked this (and compared it to fantasy-fiction with amorous demons. I can only say that the comparison seems appropriate.

Well, no one, of course. But George Bush is right on about this one. National security isn't about being fair, it's about being in a position of strength. Bush Sets Defense As Space Priority. I agree with this guy: The new policy was applauded by defense analyst Baker Spring of the conservative Heritage Foundation. He said that he supported the policy's rejection of international agreements or treaties, as well as its emphasis on protecting military assets and placing missile defense components in space. He also said that he liked the policy's promotion of commercial enterprises in space and its apparent recognition that private satellites will need military protection as well. This is interesting as well: A number of nations have pushed for talks to ban space weapons, and the United States has long been one of a handful of nations opposed to the idea. Although it had abstained in the past when proposals to ban space weapons came up in the United Nations, last October t...

In the interest of doing more local blogging, here is a column about the University New Mexico Law School. (via Instapundit, no less, who isn't local at all) Long story short, Christina Hoff Sommers relates her impression that at the UNM Law School Liberal Bias Rules. I can't even find pithy quotations to take from the article because it's just a list of examples of weirdness so I'd have to quote them all. I can say that after reading it I can't imagine anyone deciding to attend this school. Quite frankly, it sounds like a community college. No doubt I've just slandered some wonderful community college somewhere, but it seems to me that when a college instructor is quoted saying something truely far-out, as often as not it's someone on a community college faculty. Like the guy who said that it would be good if 80% of the population died of bird flu. I doubt that the average community college is as completely one sided as Sommers says the UNM Law ...

Tim Blair has this wonderful pictoral tribute. I'm probably the only person in the country who hasn't figured out how to effortlessly e-mail pictures so I'll attempt to post my contribution to the 300 million here. My four and my sister's two boys. My brother also has two of the cutest babies but so far we don't have a picture of all the cousins together. My brother-in-law also has a boy that is too adorable for words.

This was on my Yahoo Messenger "Inside Yahoo" when I logged in this morning. I honestly don't know what these people use for brains. Seriously. The story is basically the same as ever, U.S. troops fired at people they knew were reporters and so knew were not a threat. Thus, they committed a war crime and are guilty of murder. Witnesses testified during the weeklong inquest that Lloyd — who was driving with fellow ITN reporters from Kuwait toward Basra, Iraq — was shot in the back by Iraqi troops who overtook his car, then died after U.S. fire hit a civilian minivan being used as an ambulance and struck him in the head. Firstly, please let us realize that Lloyd, who surely did not deserve to die, was shot by *both* sides. By Saddam's forces and then by Americans. What does this tell us? Yes, children, he was smack dab in the center of a battle ground. Between the two forces who were trying to kill each other. Now comes the hubris. Walker said. "There is no doubt...

"Streisand noted that "the artist's role is to disturb,"" Oh really? Of all the emotions that an artist can envoke, "disturb" is the easiest. It's the cop out. It's the artistic angst of youth that mistakes "disturbing" for art just because it gets a reaction from your elders and lends a guilty thrill to your peers. What is the artists role? To make us think, certainly. To illuminate the world. When did art become more pure the more people it could repel? Interestingly the article describes Babs' Bush skit as only a little bit funny and too long and the audience's response as subdued.

...maybe these people should move. And I'm serious that I hate to say it. If I could move home again and make a living there I would do it. I understand the pull of geology and culture. Having to be elsewhere in order to pay the bills sucks. In any case, it is a trade-off that a whole lot of people make. A better solution would be economic development but I can't even think of what to suggest. Other than fishing or drilling for oil what is there? The same things that make groceries and gas expensive make shipping anything *out* expensive as well. But maybe someone can think of a good idea or two. Anyhow, bravo to those who have refused Citgo money. I hope someone else steps in to make up the difference. Donating insulation and building supplies doesn't sound like a bad idea either, if the homes are as flimsy as the article says. It does sound like a really horrible place to live, though. Someone please tell me the summer is glorious or the aurora or...

Geez. Is "comer" a word? It is, I looked it up. It still looks wrong though. I did have to fix the spelling so it even looks wronger. LOL. So, for those of you who aren't Norse, Late-Comer's Day is otherwise known as Columbus Day.