Exciting News for Mr. Mustard!

The DaVinci Code trailer - and...wait for it...it stars Alfred Molina!

and better news for Klund - I know how much he liked Serendipity - it seems John Cusack has a new romantic comedy on the way, with Diane Lane - Must Love Dogs.

Finally

A place Klund and Pooteewheet can feel at home - Homemakers For America. But wait - what's this?

"Are you a Homemaker?A Homemaker is any woman who makes a home."

Klund isn't eligible? Will he have to revoke his membership in NOW (and why doesn't NOW have that cool "Inc." behind their name to make them seem less radical and more important and corporate)?

"For the past four decades the National Organization for Women has presented themselves as the singular voice of women in America. Homemakers for America Inc. would like to propose that no longer be the case. To learn more about NOW's agenda click here."

That's cold - he raises four times as many children as Pooteewheet - maybe he just never cleans the house. Regardless, I guess I'll have to return his "Women of Freedom" candle. But I'm still encouraging him to sign the Fox petition:

"please join us and sign this petition that is being circulated in order to be presented to Mr. Rupert Murdock and his Fox News partners. We request that Mr. Murdock, Fox News and all local Fox affiliates throughout the nation seriously consider a joint venture in which a Fox evening news and a Fox morning news program would be broadcast on local fox affiliates throughout the United States."

Newsweek as Science Fiction

So the Newsweek Quaran story is pretty much everywhere in the news and blogs -- although I think George Galloway v. Norm Coleman is infinitely more interesting -- and rather than offer any extensive personal opinions about the pot calling the kettle black, I'm going to recommend a science fiction tie-in. If you can find a copy, read "Written In Blood" by Chris Lawson. It's a (short) story about a biologist and his daughter. While on a pilgrimage to Mecca, they meet a man who has created a virus that encodes the Koran into human DNA. This obviously presents a real problem because it basically means shedding blood can be interpreted as desecrating the Koran. It's a great twist and intellectually challenging because you do have to wonder how your average Christian would react to the Bible being encoded into human DNA - personally I think it would lead to more book burning.

You can find a copy of the story in Year's Best SF 5 (there's a good review of the collection at Sfsite.com).

Trying to Stay Up

I'm trying to stay up until my Dad pulls into town from Arizona - but I'm not having a lot of luck. It might be time to watch a movie. But until then, I thought I'd post some leftover I had sitting around, like (clickable):

Me touching big orange moose ass on the way to the Dells...are those balls?


Me hangin' in my father-in-law's new car - sweeeeeeeet... If he keeps this thing until Eryn is old enough to steal it for dates, his going to be considered a primo grandpa. He noted that this car is to me and my wife what his father's car (1940's) was to him when he was younger. Old fart.


Eryn and I celebrating Mother's Day by visiting Grandpa at the carousel at Como Park (he's a volunteer). You can tell from the picture that I'm as evil as most people suspect and the loss of my hair makes me daily more sinister. Eryn is pointing at the cowboys who are circling her Native American thoroughbred.


Eryn and I chillin' on the couch on Mother's Day at Boppa's and Manna's and watching Ice Age on their big t.v. That damn Diego - he's a treacherous bastard.

Evolution and Monticello

Looks like quite a few bloggers were talking about Monticello and the author who was asked not to talk about the content of her book. In case you came to my site searching for information, here are some other links to other bloggers posting about the issue.

• Pharyngula - U of MN Morris


• Redneck Mother


• Je Blog


• Ernest Miller


• Plan 8 From Doubter Space


• SpeakSpeak

Web Masturbation

Wow, once upon a time I was quite the angry letter writer to the MN Daily. Too bad that "senior" year lasted about two more years after this one.

Publish Date: 10/18/1990
Headline: Letters
Environmental vodka bottle

While walking around sorority and fraternity rows this weekend, it was disappointing to observe how much tissue paper and other residue was left over from the Homecoming festivities. Whole blocks looked like they had been subjected to a giant ticker-tape parade.For the past several months I have been training myself to be a more environmental citizen. Rather than just recycle the aluminum cans used in my household, I also recycle cans encountered during my travels about the Dinkytown area, twist all the tops off of cans for the metro-area hospitals' yearly collection and recycle glass and plastic. My roommate's old vodka bottle has become a water-displacer for my toilet. The lights at my apartment are always off when not in use. I try out new ideas whenever they cross my path.It is disillusioning to see that a single night can damage the environment as much as my several months of work helped it. It would be nice to see all the drive and ambition of Homecoming Week focused upon a cleanup day, maybe even just a single cleanup hour! As a Dinkytown resident, I would even bring along my trash bag to help out!

Scott D. McVay CLA senior

Minnesota Gas Tax

With a worst-case car that gets over 30 mpg, a twelve mile round-trip commute that I very occasionally dispose of by bicycling, and a fondness for shoveling instead of snowblowing, a new ten cent gas tax hike just doesn't concern me too much. But I have to say I'm in favor of it if it so obviously supports local theater.

"Majority Whip Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, then resorted to a half-hour filibuster, which he delivered mostly to bemused DFLers while his side of the chamber emptied out for an unsuccessful last-minute pep talk."

House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, attributed the bill mostly to "insane Democrats who got greedy, got hoggish." Reminded that his own members, including the chief proponent, Rep. Ron Erhardt, R-Edina, had made the passage possible, Sviggum said simply: "They were wrong."

Kids' book on evolution stirs censorship debate in Monticello

My friend Katie sent me the following link about our mutual home town, Monticello, MN.

With its lavish illustrations of colorful, cuddly critters, "Our Family Tree" looks like the kind of book kids keep by their bedside to read again and again.

But when its St. Paul author, Lisa Westberg Peters, planned to talk about the book in classroom appearances today and Friday at a Monticello, Minn., elementary school, educators got cold feet.

Peachy - I'm so very proud to have been their valedictorian. I'm much prouder that my daughter won't be going to school there.

Skeptics Annotated Bible

Gen. JC Christian was linking to this over at his site. It's very cool - The Skeptics Annotated Bible, Quran and Book of Mormon, with clickable categories, and commentary on the sides.

This is what you have to look forward to in Minnesota

A big thanks to Minnesota Politics for this City Pages' link about Minnetonka's International Baccalaureate Program. If you don't think Intelligent Design, (Christian only) prayer in school, The Bible as Literature course that aren't about the Bible as literature but the Bible as faith, and all that other claptrap are something the religious Right want to bring to Minnesota, you have another thing coming. It's already here.

I excerpt some of the highlights:

• The petition gives seven reasons why the program's elimination is needed, one of them being that "the International Baccalaureate rejects the Judeo-Christian values held by the majority of families in our district and instead promotes the atheistic Secular Humanist principles of multiculturalism, pacifism, one-world government, and moral relativism." [bloggers note: there are multiple cultures - how would you ever figure that out in Minnesota without stepping foot in the street? Even in Eagan I have at least three different cultures-of-origin living within 100 yards of my house. Yes, yes - I understand that's not precisely the definition you're conveying - but good luck convincing your kids of that when their education is being curtailed. Liking peace is bad? After the rapture, don't some of you believe Christ will rule over a single world government? I don't know what to say about moral relativism, I'm ambivalent.]
• Gov. Tim Pawlenty and President George Bush--two people who aren't particularly known for their anti-American, anti-Christian beliefs--have endorsed the program. [bloggers note: you do realize this means you're questioning our government on both a state and national level, specifically as regards Republicans. Vote DFL/Democrat next time, then your questioning won't be treason (to your party).]
• "My fear is that my kids are going to be taught America isn't better than any other country in the world," Borowski says. [bloggers note: if it's a self-evident fact, won't your kids figure it out for themselves? maybe it's those torture pictures or the job they get at McDonald's that are more of a problem as regards their perceptions of our country. Aren't you anti-American for suggesting pride in our country has to be inculcated in school, or at least not questioned, in order for it to be self-evident and sustainable? If you really are as Christian as you say you are, isn't God telling you how great and important the U.S. is, or at least telling your pastor/minister so he can tell you on? If you're mixing your faith and patriotism, one can be brought into question without the other?]
• The accusations are not lost on Susan Campbell, Aaron's mother. "I'm a Christian," says Campbell, "so I was very concerned about the controversy." So concerned, in fact, she asked her pastor about the program. "He's really sharp, and he said it is anti-Christian," she says, with resignation. "I guess I have to accept that as his opinion." [bloggers note: and she wouldn't want to think for herself - it's easier to accept the word of a (pseudo) authority - of course your pastor always knows best - after all, he has more education and actual breadth of learning than any other human being in the world (I have a piece of paper that says I'm ordained as well, and I can work in Biztalk, C# and SQL and I certainly don't consider myself the expert on even issues related to the later items), and at some point in his schooling/seminary work was, presumably, personally introduced to and had coffee with Jesus H. Christ himself who denounced, in no uncertain terms, with unquestionable precision, the IB program at Minnetonka High School and, of course, the ungodly, anti-American United Nations. Might I suggest giving your pastor a shove, finding a new church, and relaxing with some Caribou coffee and a copy of Lamb (the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal) while your son actually learns how to think for himself.]

Because I Have More Friends Who Care About This

than about anything I might write about my day or about politics:

The Harry Potter Goblet of Fire trailer

Izzy's

Izzy's Ice Cream - if you haven't been there and you like ice cream, you're really missing something. Izzy's is a prime example of a reason to frequently vacate Eagan in favor of areas closer to downtown. Yesterday, after Chari's 7th of May party, we went by Izzy's for dessert (the fried banana rolls and chocolate cake just weren't sufficient) and when I got to the counter, Pooteewheet pointed out that they had Guinness ice cream! This was a real poser, because I was interested in the banana ice cream (pretty much my favorite) and the coffee ice cream, with so much coffee in it that the grounds get stuck in your teeth. However, Izzy's always provides an out by giving you an Izzy on the top of your cone/cup, which is a small scoop of some other flavor (note the picture) - you can use it to either test a flavor you're unsure of or, as in my case, get at least a bite of banana ice cream to offset a craving when other options look better.

With options like Guinness ice cream, even my sweet-hating friend Danl might end up there. I was at his house yesterday too (we'd all been at Chari's party). He'd let his virus checker lapse and was immediately blessed with his very own version of W32.Sober. Basically he was getting booted from his internet connection every few minutes with a CSRSS.EXE interrupted and connection interrupted issue that kept babbling about his firewall. You know when you plug in the error message in Google and the only hits are within the last 168 hours that you've got virtual chlamydia. He had his very own little SMTP mail system running amuck. Fortunately, we found the cleaner tool (at the above link), cleaned it, renewed his viruschecking software and updated the definitions, and then moved on to a hot-seat game of War! Age of Imperialism. Eryn joined us for a while to scam some sunflower seeds, which she promptly puked up downstairs for Pooteewheet (she's had them before). This morning, however, she seems to have a fever, so maybe it presaged more viral issues.

Finally (check it out Steve, no card, just online) - Happy Mother's Day! To Pooteewheet, Ellen (Mom) and Geri (Mom-in-law) - well, and Katie and Allison and Jackie and Laurie and any other mothers I might bump into this weekend. No card for Mom. No card for the wife. But mom will get her annual gift - something that seems to be lacking from the cabin. John (Dad) assures me it's the never-used NordicTrack in our basement, but I'm pretty sure that's just for him. So, if you have any preferences, make sure they're known before I head up there, or you'll get another 100-pack of Tupperware.

35 miles

on my Trek mountain bike might almost be enough to kill me this early in the year (that's from my house, around Lake Harriet, and back). Yeah, I did 32 for the Ironman, but I took that at a nice, slow pace, whereas I hammered it a bit yesterday, in part, thanks to a woman in a purple tank near Lake Harriet who seemed to be doing a nice easy pace just a little faster than I was going, but was actually tooling along around 17-18 mph on average. If you're behind someone and they don't seem to be expending any effort at all and they're hitting 17-18 on a mountain bike, you know they're in good form. When I hit 17-18 for an extended period (when I'm not in shape), it shows - some wobbling, some visible strain in the legs, panting - all very ugly. It also didn't help that I didn't get off the bike until mile 24 for a few minutes (grabbed a DQ cone - but before you judge, I had intended to find a burrito) and that once I hit the parking lot below Fort Snelling, it's pretty much uphill for the next 6-7 miles. The area right there is beautiful, but when you're on the Mendota Bridge you can see exactly how far up you've climbed and how far you're going to climb (twice) and, unless you cherish your hill time, it's a little disheartening. When I got home I had to pop advil and tylenol and soak my legs - I don't think I've felt that close to bonking in a long time.

The good news - it's 10 miles, almost exactly, to the Nokomis coffee shop, which is where the Done by One TCBC ride starts on Saturday mornings - so if I'm capable of a 50 mile ride, I can bike there, bike 25-30 miles, and bike home, all without a car and all, presumably, by 2:00 p.m. on a Saturday at the latest. I hate driving a car to where I'm going to bike - seems like a waste of biking time. 50 miles and all of Saturday morning might seem a little excessive, but I'm hoping to do a century at some point this year (maybe Weekend on Wheels or el Tour de Tucson), so the general rule is you have to be able to do a strong half century.

Melting Pot of Blood

Finally, if you have time, Boing Boing links to a Salon article (free with a day pass) about the (religious and ethnic) divisions within Iraq called "Melting Pot of Blood", by Juan Cole - well worth reading. The accompanying AP photo ruined my morning.

Image, Michael Yon (U.S. Army): "A soldier comforts a child mortally wounded in a car bomb blast in Mosul, Iraq, one of 15 Iraqis injured on Monday in a combined suicide bomb attack."
(clickable to story at Yahoo)

I think this means...

that Minnesotans aren't praying hard enough, although I'm sure the NDP people would argue we're being ignored because of some of us support gay marriage or something. Today is the National Day of Prayer (no, I'm not going to link to them - if you really want to visit them, you'll have to look them up yourself - but here's some information from Norwegianity) and it seems that the national site is having problems - I quote from the Minnesota site below. Note that the Bible-reading marathon ended yesterday, so if you're still reading, quit it.

Remember the good old days when Jesse Ventura simply ignored this crap as opposed to having it condoned by Tim Pawlenty and Mary Kiffmeyer.

ALL EVENTS
This year, all National Day of Prayer events in Minnesota are listed on the National website: Click here to find events!
PLEASE PRAY FIRST!
The National website is suffering many difficulties.You may not be able to see all Minnesota events.Please try again soon if you have problems.

I know some people read my blog

that don't normally peruse the blogs at large - so if that's you, this story is for you in case you miss it elsewhere (courtesy of Eschaton, Blah3 and DailyKos - DailyKos has expanded their posting to include video and commentary). Those bloggers are right - remove their tax-exempt status - if they want to pimp politics, there are other jobs.

Baptist church kicks out all Democrats
"One of the local women who got excommunicated said on TV that it was like a cult. Another man who got excommunicated said that the rest of the congregation stood up and applauded as the Democrats were told to leave."

Interesting Papal Trivia

As I understand it, Ratzinger was not the Cardinals’ first choice. That was, interestingly, Cardinal Hans Grapje.Grapje was raised in a Catholic school in The Hague and, as a Young man,aspired to become a priest, but was drafted into the Army during WWII and spent two years co-piloting bombers until his aircraft was shot down in 1943 and he lost his left arm. Captain Grapje spent the rest of the war as a chaplain, giving spiritual aid to soldiers, both Allied and enemy. After the war, he became a priest, serving as a missionary in Africa, piloting his own plane (in spite of his handicap) to villages across the continent. In 1997, Father Grapje was serving in Zimbabwe when an explosion in a silver mine caused a cave-in. Archbishop Grapje went down into the mine to administer last rights to those too severely injured to move. Another shaft collapsed, and he was buried for three days, suffering multiple injuries, including the loss of his right eye. The high silver content in the mine’s air gave him purpura, a life-long condition characterized by purplish skin blotches. Although Cardinal Grapje devoted his life to the service of God as a scholar, mentor, and holy man, church leaders felt that he should never ascend to the Papacy. They felt that the Church would never accept a one-eyed, one-armed, flying purple Papal leader.

Pilfered verbatim, and with much appreciation for cheering me up this evening, from Norwegianity who, in turn, pilfered from Denny from CR.

I'm Very Proud

Eryn recently came upstairs from the laundry room (and hence the beer fridge) clutching a Summit Extra Pale Ale - she handed it to me at the kitchen table, with a big grin on her face, and announced...

"Eryn's hand cold like Daddy's beer."

Vacation in the Dells, Vacation in the Dells, Hi Ho...

We had a mini-vacation this weekend at Great Wolf Lodge in the Dells and our friends Dan and Katie (and their son, Conner) went with us. We drove the kids, as we had a portable DVD player to keep them distracted with Dora and The Wiggles, which was only an issue whenever a pungent smell drifted toward the front of the car. Mostly it was idyllic, involving sharing crackers and fruit snacks, sleeping a lot, and some very messy taffy. Highlights were the snow storm on the way (which was like little stinging pellets of styrofoam - below you can see the top of Eryn's head as she sprints for Mom after checking out the orange moose - as you can see, it wasn't bothering Dan so much), Eryn crawling up on the bridge under the big bucket (last time she was afraid of it - this time she was only afraid of the kid who kept trying to pour cold water on her), the frightening new water slide (for the adults, not the 1-2 year olds) called The Howlin' Tornado that wasn't there last time (58' drop - way more frightening than a floom), Conner coming down the a big, slower, floom with his Dad, Conner seemingly deciding the hot tub was really his favorite place, breakfast at Denny's (not the chain, a local place), seeing downtown "The Dells" for the first time (even if it was closed - we had no idea all that crap was there last time we visited), and several hours of running around Wiley's Woods shooting balls at each other.


The tube from inside:

The tube from outside (we were staying behind it to the right, you could see it from our room)

Why Christy could be my ex-wife - because her ex...

• likes the same movies as me
• shows up at Coldstone at the same time as me
• owns rental property within two houses of me
• tried to buy the house for sale two down from my house
• likes British women (like me)
• has been hit numerous times by Christy, like me

...scary