I thought I wasn't going to write anything about Saddam Hussein's execution, because I didn't know what I could say that hasn't already been said. But it's been three weeks since I wrote anything here, and I'm at a loss for subject matter, and somebody sent me a link to this excellent satire by Jerry Ghinelli, and I just had to share. The execution story is chapter 11 of his ongoing story of the French invasion of the USA. At some point, I need to read the first ten chapters. But first, as long as I'm here, I might as well throw in some personal thoughts to keep this from being just a link repeat.

With Christmas two weeks away, and me still undecided about what some people need/want for Christmas, I suppose it's silly to be thinking about political elections in 2007 and 2008. But it's important to remember that there's less time than one might think, because the November choices will be no-brainers. The May primaries are when I actually have to make a choice. Fortunately, the choices in both years just got much easier with announcements in the last few days.

There's been a lot of hysterical ranting recently about something inaccurately called the North American Union, brought to my attention by a loyal reader. There seems to be a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about what's really been proposed, and the conspiracy freaks are too busy frothing at the mouth about secret meetings, black helicopters, etc. to take a breath and digest what it really is. I haven't quite figured it out myself, but if Lou Dobbs and the John Birch Society are both against it, it can't be all bad.

The war on spam threatens to be as endless and futile as the war on terror. A recent CNN/Reuters report claims that 9 out of 10 email messages are spam. I've recently been forced to fortify my own defenses, both on this site and on my email server, so I guess it's a good time for a combination of ranting and geekspeak about the issue.

The entire long Thanksgiving weekend was blessed with beautiful weather, and I was able to maintain tradition with a Thanksgiving day hunt. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to cut anybody's clothes off (a tradition which has probably never been explained here, since it dates back to the pre-blog era), but other traditions were appropriately honored. And I managed to continue my amazing feats of manual dexterity, with not just two flasks, but three.

After a couple of weeks with nothing to say, maybe "double your pleasure" refers to the fact that I actually managed to write two posts in one day. Or, maybe it refers to the fact that today was doubly delightful as it was a wonderful hunting day following a night of delightful election news. But, since I try to segregate the topics here, and I've already fulfilled the daily political quota, we'll skip that. But there were other factors that doubled today's fun.

After six years of trying, it looks like George Bush and his administration finally proved that P. T. Barnum was wrong when he said "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." The Bush Gang just kept trying to find the limits of the American people's stupidity, and for a long time it looked like Barnum was correct in his assumption that it was limitless. But finally, enough of the morons began to realize that they'd been had.

I know it's been quiet here lately. Fortunately, that doesn't mean I haven't been having fun. Unfortuntately, it doesn't mean I've been having so much fun I haven't had time to write about it. It just means that most of the fun has been the usual routine that's been described here before. Today was about the same, with the exception of one minor loss.

Ahh, 'tis early October, that wonderful overlap of summer and fall, with cool, misty mornings and warm, sunny afternoons. This time of year, a weekday presents the opportunity to enjoy the sunrise on horseback with friends and a flask of Bourbon, and later stroll across campus eating an ice cream cone and enjoy the view of the students enjoying the warm weather. Yes, hunt season has begun. Actually, it began Saturday, but it was raining when I woke up at 5:00 AM, so I went back to bed rather than heeding the advice of a weather girl who promised it would end before daylight. A tragic mistake for which I was suitably scolded, but today made up for it.

Before even getting out of bed this morning, I was assaulted by the nauseating strains of "Have you Forgotten?" from my clock radio. My first thought was "God-DAMN! Even those Republican assholes at Clear Channel are gonna have to give up on the warmongering sometime." Then I realized it was "in honor" of the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11. Throughout the day, news media and conversations were full of people reminiscing about when, where, and how they heard about the attacks. It's going to compete with my generation's memories of hearing about the assassinations of President Kennedy (PA announcement in my first-grade classroom) and John Lennon (I don't remember, so maybe 9/11 really is bigger). So I might as well play along.