"So Let it Be Written... So Let it Be Done"

The life and times of a real, down to earth, nice guy. A relocated New Englander formerly living somewhere north of Boston, but now soaking up the bright sun of southwestern Florida (aka The Gulf Coast) for over nine years. Welcome to my blog world. Please leave it as clean as it was before you came. Thanks for visiting, BTW please leave a relevant comment so I know you were here. No blog spam, please. (c) MMV-MMXIX Court Jester Productions & Bamford Communications

Friday, September 30, 2005

Heavyweight Title Fight all weekend long



If you're a baseball fan it doesn't get any better than this: After 159 games each we have Yankees v. Red Sox at Fenway for the final three. Up for grabs: The American League East Championship and possible Wild Card berth. One team definitely goes to the playoffs, both might even make it and possibly one team won't. Make no mistake, these teams respect each other but hate each other as much as the fans of each city do. They've been rivals since 1903.

Entering the weekend, the Yankees (94-65) have a one game lead in the standings over the Red Sox (93-66). Here are the scenarios, courtesy of espn.com.

Tiebreaker scenarios • Based on the outcomes of two weekend series:

AL

-- New York (94-65) at Boston (93-66)
-- Chicago (96-63) at Cleveland (93-66)

MONDAY

AL East title: Boston at New York

• If there's a three-way tie: Boston wins 2 of 3 over New York; Cleveland wins 2 of 3 over Chicago AL wild card: New York at Cleveland
• Boston sweeps New York
• Cleveland wins 1 of 3 over Chicago AL wild card: Cleveland at Boston
• Boston, Cleveland both get swept
• Boston, Cleveland both win 1 of 3 NL wild card: Houston at Philadelphia

TUESDAY

AL wild card: New York at Cleveland

• Boston wins 2 of 3 over New York; Cleveland wins 2 of 3 over Chicago; New York loses AL East tiebreaker Monday AL wild card: Cleveland at Boston
• Boston wins 2 of 3 over New York; Cleveland wins 2 of 3 over Chicago; Boston loses AL East tiebreaker to New York

NO TIEBREAKERS

• New York sweeps Boston; Cleveland wins 1 or more vs. Chicago
NY wins AL East; Cleveland wins AL wild card
• Boston wins 2 of 3 over New York; Cleveland wins 1 of 3 vs. Chicago
NY wins AL East; Boston wins AL wild card
• New York wins 2 of 3 in Boston; Cleveland sweeps Chicago
NY wins AL East; Cleveland wins AL wild card
• Boston sweeps New York; Cleveland wins at least 2 of 3 vs. Chicago
Boston wins AL East; Cleveland wins AL wild card
• Boston sweeps New York; Chicago sweeps Cleveland
Boston wins AL East; New York wins AL wild card

Of course, the scenario I'm hoping for is that the Red Sox win the AL East and Cleveland wins the Wild Card, which means the Yankees go home. Red Sox nation exorcised all of the Yankee Demons last year by winning the AL Championship Series in New York, after being down 3 games to none.

As I conclude this writing, the Red Sox have taken Round one, 5-3. See you tomorrow afternoon.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Alias: Season Five begins



"Prophet Five

In the season premiere episode, Sydney regains consciousness after the car crash and instinctively suspects the motives of the paramedics. When a man tries to inject her with a tranquilizer, she swipes his hand away and eludes the other "medics." Hiding in a cornfield, she sees Vaughn airlifted by an unmarked helicopter.

Later, as doctors evaluate Syd, she meets Gordon Dean from the Office of Special Investigations, who grills her about Vaughn's whereabouts and activities. Jack explains that Vaughn is a suspected double agent, and the car crash was actually an extraction.

A bloodied Vaughn, referred to as Mr. Michaux, is given a strip of paper with coded numbers. When Vaughn denies knowing anything about the cryptic sheet, a man named Curtis threatens to cut "the girl's finger off." Vaughn agrees to cooperate and asks for a pencil.

Before Vaughn can write, however, he asks to have his dislocated shoulder popped into place. When Curtis accommodates him, he punches Curtis and makes his escape. He contacts Sydney and asks her to trust him -- and to bring his father's watch when they rendezvous.

At APO Dixon tells a troubled Syd to give Vaughn the benefit of the doubt - as Dixon did for her years ago when he first realized that they worked for SD-6. Meanwhile, Gordon Dean instructs Marshall to pull Vaughn's files.

When Sydney arrives in Rome, Vaughn explains that his real name is Andre Michaux and his father was a mathematician involved with a top-secret project called "Prophet Five." He gleaned this info seven years ago from a woman named Renee Rienne and has been working with her since.

They meet James Lehman, a friend of Vaughn's father. Lehman explains that brilliant scientists and linguists were recruited for Prophet Five in the 70's and were asked to break the code of a 500 year-old document on advanced genetics. After this group succeeded, its members were systematically murdered. As precaution, Vaughn's father changed his identity, as did Lehman. He warns that the murderers are relentless. He tells them the location of a book containing more Prophet Five intel.

In Cape Town, South Africa, Sydney and Vaughn, posing as a French couple attending a party at a mansion, try unsuccessfully to steal the book from the home's vault. As they run towards a cliff, Sydney receives a phone call from her doctor, who tells her that she's pregnant. Sydney shares the good news with Vaughn, who has a muted reaction. They jump.

Meanwhile, Sloane combs through medical journals in jail, desperately trying to find a cure for Nadia, who is still in a coma after being subjected to Rambaldi's device. He denies knowing anything about Vaughn's treachery to Jack, but says that Renee Rienne, an ex-CIA agent, could be a possible lead.

As Sydney and Vaughn sit in a car waiting for Lehman, they talk about her pregnancy. Vaughn says his initial hesitation was because of the complicated world they live in, but he can't wait to be a father. Seeing Lehman in the distance, Vaughn jumps out. Suddenly another car drives by -- Gordon Dean steps out and fires at Lehman and Vaughn. They drop in a hail of bullets.

Waiting in the ICU, Syd tells Jack she's going to stand by Vaughn. As Jack reprimands her, Sydney reveals her pregnancy. Jack softens. Later, he goes to APO and instructs the team to research Prophet Five and retrieve the records in Cape Town.

Later, as Syd watches over Vaughn, he flat-lines. Syd is frantic as the doctors work on him to no avail. He slips away.

After Vaughn's funeral, Syd travels to shady London bar, where she speaks to the bartender. After an initial denial, the bartender admits she's Renee Rienne.

oOo

I just finished watching the season premiere and copied the blurb about it from abc.com. I have to say that it left me with more questions than answers - what any good show should do to draw you in. Is Vaughn really dead? Sure looked convincing, but I'm skeptical. Michael Vartan's name was in the opening credits as a regular cast member. Mia Maestro's (plays Sydney's sister Maria) name was not. Her story line was left hanging at the end of Season Four. I hope they didn't write either charachter out of the scripts, but we will see. All of the other main charachters are back for this season. There were also a few new names listed as regular cast members whom I did not recognize, who are obviously new charachters this season.

I have to say I'm skeptical how this season's storylines will play out, similar to the way I felt watching the last episode of Season Two and the first several episodes of Season Three. Last year, when I was new to the show, I had no such worries because my expectations were minimal. But I have faith that all will make sense as the season unfolds in the coming weeks. ABC also must be confident in the shows ability to carry good ratings because of the new, more competetive, time slot (last season Alias was on Wednesdays at 9).

I am glad however that they are incorporating Jennifer Garner's real life pregnancy into the story. This week I noticed lots of waist up shots for Garner and how her mid section was discreetly covered in the distance shots. They started filming the new season in July and Garner is due for real in November.

This has been one of the better and most original shows on television in the last four years. It must be to have my ensorsement because it is the only show I watch with out fail. Other than that, my fare is usually movies or sports.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Road Trips or Errands?



On several occasions I've been asked to go on work related business trips. Usually these amount to me driving somewhere to drop something off/pick something up or buy something. I hadn't been on any such errands in a while, but over the last two and a half weeks I've gone on two such trips. On the 16th of September I found myself driving to Hingham, which is south of Boston and today I drove to Clinton, which is in central MA. On other occasions I've also had to drive to Leominster, which is realtively close to Clinton.

Anyway, what made the trip to Hingham interesting was that my directions from Mapquest left me in a residential neighborhood on a dead end street. I found the place I needed to be, which I passed while following the directions. I was only about two miles away. To get there I drove I-93, which used to go through downtown Boston aboveground. Thanks to the Big Dig, I-93 now goes under downtown Boston. Not quite as scenic now and not nearly as enjoyable. What made the trip memorable is that on the day I went it was rainy and I had to sit in traffic on the highway for 45 minutes. Turns out a 20 foot section of I-93 was flooded with about 14 inches of water on both sides of the highway, probably due to a nearby water main break. Have I mentioned how much I hate sitting in traffic?

Today's trip was uneventful until I arrived in Clinton. Trying to find the factory was not fun. My directions were ok from Mapquest but trying to follow the streets in my map book was horrible. Understand that Clinton is a hole in the wall small Massachusetts town and there were maps of four towns on the same page in my book, making the print very small. I must have pulled to the side of the road at least 10 times comparing street signs to my map book to make sure I was on the right track.

I arrived at my destination and met with the person I needed to see. While walking on the catwalk above the factory floor I commented to him that the layout was nice & clean. He said the building was new and they had been there for about a year. All in all I like going on these little errands. They nicely break up the everyday routine.

Shortly after I got back to Tyngsboro, where my company is located, I was called into the clean room to repair a leak in one of the hoses connected to the mold on the machine that we were running. Turns out the hose was fine but one of the brass fittings got bent and cracked. The spray that came out of that crack was much like the pinhole leaks you sometimes get in old copper pipe plumbing.

We use a combination of water and glycol to heat up/cool off the molds. All told this issue shut down production for about 90 minutes so that I could take the mold out of the machine and clean it up. Once resumed, the rest of the day was uneventful.

For perspective on the part we made today: The mould clamps at 7 tons of pressure, which is about 52 kiloNewtons (I think that's correct.) One shot yields two pieces. Total shot weight is 1.8 grams. Total part weight is .2 grams. It's really hard to comprehend how small these parts are until you see them up close. And when you look at them under a microscope at 10x or 40x it's astounding to see the detail.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Bookstores are dangerous places...



....at least they are for me.

Last week I went into Barnes and Noble for the specific reason of using up a store credit I'd had. I used it to buy a Christmas present for my daughter. (I'm trying to get ahead of the game this year, for once...) I ended up spending more on myself than I did for her. While there I saw a book on the discount rack that I had read about a year ago which was really good. I thought to myself that my dad might like to read it someday but I didn't buy it.

This past weekend when I went to my parent's house, I discovered that my dad had just bought the newest book from that same author.

So tonight I went back to the scene of the crime to see if they had any of that book left that I had seen last week.

They did.

So I bought it for him as a Christmas present. I also picked up something for one of my sisters. Plus more books for me. More to add to my already large reading list.

Problem is that I'm trying to adhere to a budget, and don't really have extra cash kicking around.

Oh well, now I've to figure out what programs to cut from the budget to pay for hurricane damage. Or maybe I could spend less on the war in Iraq.

Or maybe I'll just adjust my own budget.... or avoid going to bookstores for awhile.

---

Just as we were finishing today's production run at work, a core pin got crunched in the mold. This is bad, but not entirely unexpected. The last time this happened was a little more than a year ago.

This particular part we make is molded with the machine in a vertical position. The parts are hollow on the inside, so two thin core pins must be set carefully inside the mold to make this happen. For this part, the two halves of the mold clamp together using 171 kiloNewtons of pressure, or 17.2 tons. So not only did the core pin break, but also the two halves of the mold cavity now need to be sent out for repair. A bit pf perspective on these parts: Each time the mold closes and opens, one shot is produced. One shot contains two parts and weighs 3.6 grams. Each individual part weighs about 1.2 grams.

The good news is this: Today was the last day we were scheduled to make this part for a while. Considering the volume of this part we make each year for our customer, our success rate of not crunching these tiny core pins is remarkable.

Monday, September 26, 2005

I'm baaaaack



So, you might be wondering where I've been for the past few weeks and why I haven't posted anything during that time. Well, it's been a case of pure laziness, plus reading and posting comments to other people's blogs. I can't say that I've been working hard, because I haven't. Which is not to say I haven't been busy at work, because I have. My job has it's moments where it is hectic as you like and other moments when things are running very smoothly.

So what's been going on for me recently? Not much, aside from having my kids each weekend. Let me see if I can recap the major events:

Ten days ago or so I got my hair cut. Normally this is not a noteworthy event but this time I had a guy whose name was James cut my hair. This guy couldn't have been more than 22 or 23 years old. For the past 23 years or so I've been going to various unisex salons and having my hair "styled." The hairstylists have always been women. Women definitely do this job better than guys do. Just a personal opinion.

As far as I can recall, the last time a man cut my hair was when I was a young kid and went to Ray's Barbershop in downtown Burlington. Ray's was a typical old style barbershop with your typical old men working there. I believe Ray's is still in business, but I can't say for sure.

---

I managed to come up with $410 to buy that self study course I wrote about several posts ago. It came in the mail mid week last week. It should be interesting and possibly quite lucrative when I'm finished. More on this as I go through the course.

---

Last week I read an interesting article in USA Today. Basically it said that the President's approval rating is sinking. And this is supposed to be a surprise? As I've written before, King George doesn't give a care about the opinions of the American people or the world at large anymore. Curious George has no more elections left and his place in history is basically secure, for better or worse. Here's the article.

---

Friday morning's meeting at work revealed the new schedule. During the summer we worked nine hour days from Monday-Thursday and 4 hours on Friday. Starting today we now have two teams that work four ten hour days. Half of the clean room people work Monday- Thursday and the other half work Tuesday thru Friday. I'm on the Tuesday through Friday crew. As a result of the switch, I found myself with a 3 1/2 day weekend this weekend and will have three day weekends every week following for the forseeable future. No complaints here.

The only disappointing thing about the schedule was that we were going to make a part today that we haven't made in over two years (not since before I started working there). I spent a good part of last week setting up the mold for it. I briefly thought about going in today to see how the run went, but chose not to when I turned off my alarm clock this morning, deciding that more sleep was the better option. Anyway, I'll see the results of today's work when I go in tomorrow.

---

What a great Patriots game on Sunday, though not if you are a Pittsburgh fan. Statistically they kicked the Steelers butts again, though mistakes early made the game closer than it should have been. Mr. Clutch was perfect in the 4th quarter, going 12 -12 for 168 yards. Then the best kicker in the game won it with one second left. Where have we seen that before... Final score New England Patriots 23, @ Pittsburgh Steelers 20. This game could have huge playoff implications in a few months.

Will the Red Sox win the AL East, secure the AL Wild Card or go home? The Sox begin the final seven games of the regular season at home, where their record is the best in MLB. The Yankees face the last seven games on the road. The division championship should come down to this weekend's clash with the Yankees. Right now both teams are half a game behind the Indians for the wild card lead.

---

I had an interesting driving experience today. I had to pick a few things up at my parents house. On the way home, I almost ran into a woman who couldn't decide if she wanted to get off of the highway or not. We were on Route 3 North going towards New Hampshire. I was less than two miles from my apartment. I was in the slow lane, since my exit was next and coming up quickly. This woman was straddling the line between the ramp and the slow lane - doing about 35 or so, while I'm slowing down to about 55 from 75. Yes, I know that I drive too fast, but you have to on most Mass highways. If you don't you're driving dangerously, because many times cars are doing in excess of 80.

---

Something to look forward to this week: On Thursday night at 8:00 PM EDT (on ABC) the fifth season of Alias begins. This is consistently one of the best shows on television. This will be an interesting season for the main reason that Jennifer Garner is pregnant and not due until November. When she made the announcement, there was speculation on how the shows writers and executives would handle it. Would they decide to incorporate it into the storyline or would they try to hide her pregnancy on the screen as some shows have done in the past. Happily they decided to write it into the show, since it is hard to hide your star in an action packed show such as this.

---

I'm sure there were other things that were noteworthy. That is the main drawback of writing about events of the last 14 days without notes and with a poor short term memory.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Remembrance


"A Prayer for Our Nation"

Almighty God, who has given us this good land for our heritage,
we humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a
people mindful of Thy favor and be glad to do Thy will. Bless our
land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners.

Save us from violence, discord and confusion, from pride and
arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties and
fashion into one united people the multitudes brought out of
many kindreds and tongues.

Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy name we
entrust the authority of government, that there may be peace
and justice at home and that, through obedience to Thy law, we
may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the Earth. In the
time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the
day of trouble suffer not our trust in Thee to fail.

Attributed to George Washington

---

I'd be remiss if I didn't write a blurb about this being the 4th anniversary of the terror attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the field in western Pennsylvania where the plane crashed that was headed for some other location in Washington DC. Even though I don't personally know anyone who died or whose family was affected by that tragedy, it still is impotant to remember all of those people. Most of them, I'd imagine, died without knowing what was happening or why.

At church this morning, we sang patriotic songs and they showed a powerpoint presentation of pictures of the events of that day. My pastor opened his sermon quoting the above prayer which I think is still relevant today. I thought it would be good to share it with you all.

It brought me near to tears thinking about all of those families who, for the past four years, have been living without fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, etc., thanks to those wonderful terrorists. It reminded me of how thankful I am for my family and friends.

I'd like to think the unity we all felt as Americans after that day is still alive and well, but overall I just don't see it. Sadly, I think we've all gone back to that pre-9/11 self-centeredness, myself included. Will we ever truly learn from history? Probably not.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

One of my favorite places



Today my kids and I went down to my parent's house so that I could help my dad close his swimming pool for the season. That was the task for the afternoon, though. It is quite depressing to close the pool because that means summer, my favorite season, is coming to an end.

In the morning, we all went here. This place is huge. Four times a year (usually March, May, September and November) this internet company opens the doors of its warehouse to the general public. Since this company is located in Peabody, Massachusetts, it's not too far away from me. They have shelves and shelves of books, plus bargain and discount tables full of wonderful stuff. In addition to the books, you can find t-shirts, neckties, framed art, cds, cassette tapes, dvds, video cassettes, toys and much more. They have a tv/video area for the little kids who are too small to walk around the warehouse.

The only bummer is that there are no shopping carts to use. So it doesn't take long for your load to become heavy. They do have lots of empty boxes, though, which anyone can use. The first time I went I had no plan and spent a fortune. Now that I'm a veteran of many such sales, I go to their website a few days before and plan out what I want and where it is before I go, so I can adhere to (more of) a budget and save time looking because items are not kept in order by author or title. Usually I find a few interesting titles just walking around that weren't on my list. Today was no different.

These sales usually run from 7 AM to 4 PM. You should see the number of people who line up to get in the door promptly at 7:00 to be the first to look thru the bargain tables. Surprisingly, I've seen tour buses from all over the eastern US come to these sales. I think the farthest was from Ohio or possibly Michigan, but I don't remember.

I've added a search link box to the right so that anyone can go back there after this post has been archived.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL???



I've been waiting for tonight since the NFL released the 2005 schedule in April. Title defense II begins in about 75 minutes for my three time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. The opponent: The Oakland Raiders. The venue: Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, MA. The Pats are 24-3 including playoffs since the Razor opened in 2002 and have won 20 straight home games. My prediction for tonight, Patriots 31, Raiders 17. The game will be close thru the first half, then the Pats will put the game away in the 2nd half. {9/9 1:00 AM ed. note: @ NE 30, Oak 20. The game played out pretty much as I expected.}

With the NFL season beginning tonight, here are my 2005 predictions with regular season record in parenthesis:

AFC East: New England Patriots (13-3)
AFC North: Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4)
AFC South: Indianapolis Colts (13-3)
AFC West: San Diego Chargers (11-5)
Wild Cards: New York Jets (10-6), Jacksonville Jaguars (10-6)
AFC Champion: New England over Indianapolis

NFC East: Philadelphia Eagles (12-4)
NFC North: Minnesota Vikings (10-6)
NFC South: Carolina Panthers (11-5)
NFC West: Arizona Cardinals (9-7)
Wild Cards: Atlanta Falcons (10-6), Green Bay Packers (9-7)
NFC Champion: Atlanta Falcons over Philadelphia Eagles

Super Bowl XL Champion: New England Patriots

The Patriots beat Indy because Peyton Manning can't win in Foxboro. He's 0-7 at New England entering the 2005 season. Atlanta beats Philly because Michael Vick is improved and T.O. is too much of a distraction. I'm not a homer picking the Pats to win it all again. You have to pick the champs until someone beats the champs.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

What we actually did



My kids and I actually stuck with the plan except for we only went swimming on Saturday for about twenty minutes. The air and water temps were too chilly to enjoy it.
Sunday we did not make it to church because I went to bed too late on Sat. nite and got up too late on Sun. AM. We still visited my parents for dinner. Steak tips on the grill is pretty hard to pass up.
I actually ended up leaving here for the X's on Monday by 4:15 and it was more like 4:45 before we really got going. I needed to get gas and passed a station at $3.01/gal. My favorite station is usually cheaper but he was at $3.09/gal. So I turned around and went back to the cheaper place. Gas is gas after all, so why should I pay more if I don't have to...

----

Those chickens at work I mentioned a few posts ago were abandoned. The people we thought owned them did not. All but one chicken was taken away by animal control. The remaining chicken has found a home walking around the building. One of these days one of the coyotes rumored to live in the woods nearby will have a nice meal...

----

Today was a lousy day at work. Machine problems harpooned the day's production schedule. It felt like a Monday. Is the weekend here yet???

Friday, September 02, 2005

Holiday weekend plans



Labor Day weekend is here, the unofficial end to summer, even though we have three weeks left. Here's what I'll be doing:

Friday evening: The X drops off the kids for the duration of the weekend around 6:15, before she heads off to work. If they haven't had supper yet, we'll do that. If they have, then they'll watch television while I eat. Then we'll sit down to watch a movie of my son's choosing. Then the kids will go to bed and I'll watch somethng else while a) surfing the net and b) trying to organize some stuff.

Saturday: We'll do the errands in the morning - go to the recycling center, the post office and the grocery store. In the afternoon, we'll go swimming in the pool since this will be the best swimming day of the weekend. In the evening we'll have supper and then it will be my daughter's turn to pick a movie. After the kids go to bed I'll putter around the apartment, doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Sunday: In the morning we'll go to church and after we'll drive to my parent's house for the afternoon which will include Sunday dinner and maybe if a swim in their pool if the weather is warm enough. Just some quality time with the family. In the evening we'll come back to the apartment and have a light supper. Then it's my turn to pick a movie for the kids. More of the same for me after the kids go to bed.

Monday: No concrete plans except for I'll drive them back to their mom's house at 4:00 PM. Much will depend on the weather for the day's activities. If it's hot we'll go swimming, if it's cooler I'll take the kids to the playground. At some point in the day, they'll want to play the boardgame PayDay. Once I am back home I'll probably relax and watch some television or maybe a DVD.

Of course all of these plans could change without prior notice.

Sure it's not very exciting but it looks like a great weekend anyway. If for no other reason then I'll spend it with my kids.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Who is to blame... I'll tell you.



Tonight I passed a gas station where the price was $3.09 9/10 per gallon. This was in Billerica, Massachusetts. Here in lovely Nashua, New Hampshire there was a station at $2.99 9/10. That's better but not by much. Gas prices are horrendous. Highest in American history. So the questions are: Who is to blame and what is he doing about it?

The answers are DUBYA and NOTHING.

On Tuesday gas prices were 50 cents per gallon lower. I'll bet that's a record for the largest hike in the span of three days here in the USA. But George W. Bushwhacker doesn't do anything about it. Does he buy his own gas right now? No. King George doesn't give a rats poop about this because he has no more elections to deal with, so he really doesn't have to be accountable for it because his legacy is set for better or worse. Now he says don't buy gas if you don't need it. Who doesn't need gas? He's always wanted to tear through Alaska, ruining that state's wonderful wildlife to drill for oil that MIGHT be there? Now he has an excuse if he wants it.

Would John Kerry have been perfect as president? No. Better? Absolutely. But before you call me a democratic homer, I'd blame Kerry for this mess too if he were in Curious George's shoes.

Some people voted for Georgie-boy because he's a Christian. I say so what? Doesn't change the fact that he's as sharp as a marble. John Kerry claimed to be a Christian too, albeit Catholic. I'm a Christian too, but no way was I going to vote for Bushy on that fact alone as some Americans did. That would have been stupid. In fact, I'm proud to say I have never voted for a Bush. I said five years ago that Dubya reminded me of a deer caught in the headlights. He's done everything to reinforce that opinion. Some things never change.

Since I could rant for a long time (and have for too long already) on the ineffectiveness of the current administration and since I need to go to bed, in closing I'll just say this:

Thanks to all of you who voted for this idiot again and making us all suffer until 2008. The old adage applies here, "Be careful for what you wish for, because you may get it."