President Bush on Saturday evoked the sacrifices of the Allied campaign against Adolf Hitler in a speech pledging to stay the course in the far more contentious war in Iraq. (via: Reuters)

That makes sense. WWII was also a war in which one nation sought exclusive dominance. Wait. That doesn't work so well. ...Vietnam has some fine similarities though. Small part of a bigger fight against an abstract concept - Check. Fallback on freedom for liberated people when things don't go well - Check. Colonial blinders causing a piss poor understanding of the culture and the cause and effect of a war started by outside forces upon it - Check.

Bush shoulda made that analogy.

Urban Forage just moved into the neighborhood - On Valencia, between 16th and 17th (directly across the street from the Bombay Ice Creamery)

Unlike the location up at Fillmore and Haight, this one is a full restaurant. There's plenty of seating and the menu has been expanded to include some tasty looking cooked items.

The atmosphere is very comfy. It's everything Herbivore should be... Chill and cool and earthy.

Most importantly, the food is delicious. I had an apple ginger lemon juice to drink, a "Zen Bowl", which was made up of warm brown rice, fresh veggies, big chunks of tempeh, and a miso tahini sauce, and a Nicecream and vegan brownie sundae for desert. All of it was fabulous.

I think I have a new neighborhood go to restaurant (sorry Osha).

First Gore finally called out the Bush Administration without any trace of the up until now pussy footing.

Then Pierce called out Instapundit for refusing to discuss real political stories. While discussing real political stories.

Damn it was a good day.

watch animation again (you may need to hit refresh on your browser)

Lane and myself are thinking of moving to somewhere a bit bigger. In San Francisco that means getting a copy of your credit report to give out when you apply for a place. Looking through it is like a little scrap book.

8 years ago I bought a brand new car.

...Who knew?

One day I was driving my 82 powder blue Buick Skylark (purchased for $200 - I was ripped off) and the brakes died. Right then and there. Luckily I wasn't on the highway. I pulled it over, stopped with the parking break, cleaned out my stuff, and left it. Later the city sent me a letter. They auctioned it off. We were even for the towing fees.

In the mighty midwest you have to own a car. So I tried to buy one. Try, cause it's not so easy to get a loan without a co-signer at the ripe old age of 20. After many phone calls and even more waiting, I had a fine new black 4 door Saturn. Complete with sun roof and spoiler.

Over the course of two years, I ran that car ragged. Between road trips and the general distance of here and there in St. Louis, my 30,000 mile waranty was up in just over a year.

I haven't driven a car of any sort in 6 years... don't have a license either. I don't miss it. Occasional the commute to work and the need to leave this fine city for a place with a lot more space makes me consider. But I barely want shoes. It's a long way to come around for a car.

Start your Sunday with a little depression:

How many times were you involved in checkpoint "light-ups"?

Five times. There was [the city of] Rekha. The gentleman was driving a stolen work utility van. He didn't stop. With us being trigger happy, we didn't really give this guy much of a chance. We lit him up pretty good. Then we inspected the back of the van. We found nothing. No explosives.

[...]

Your feelings changed during the invasion. What was your state of mind before the invasion?

I was like every other troop. My president told me they got weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam threatened the free world, that he had all this might and could reach us anywhere. I just bought into the whole thing.

What changed you?

The civilian casualties taking place. That was what made the difference. That was when I changed.

From A Soldier of Conscience at Alternet.

...is the man. Today I listened to him talk for an hour or so on the benefits of Micro-Lending. He's set up something extraordinary with his Grameen Bank. The short story is the bank makes small loans to folks (95% women) under the poverty level, with no collateral. This is done in a very community oriented, empowering, and most of all, humanistic way. Not only is it widely successful for the individuals and families that get loans, but the recovery rate on over 4 billion loaned is an astonishing 99%.

As part of the talk, work gave out free copies of Dr. Yunus' book, "Banker to the Poor - Micro Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty" I can't wait to dig into it.

"The Bush administration violated two federal laws through part of its publicity campaign to promote changes in Medicare intended to help older Americans afford prescription drugs, the investigative arm of Congress said yesterday."

"The General Accounting Office concluded that the Department of Health and Human Services illegally spent federal money on what amounted to covert propaganda by producing videos about the Medicare changes that were made to look like news reports. Portions of the videos, which have been aired by 40 television stations around the country, do not make it clear that the announcers were paid by HHS and were not real reporters."

The latest update to the Pratimoksha (Via: Boing Boing) includes specific items about video games and email:

44. A bhikshu who has his private e-mail account with the result that he spends an inordinate amount of time in making unnecessary communications or communications which foster attachment commits an offence for which he must express regret.

46. A bhikshu who plays electronic games including those on the computer, commits an offence for which he must express regret.

It's a good thing my home is no monastery, or I'd have no time for anything but regret.

The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror.

A photo essay chronicling the great 2004 Blogger launch.

(Lane wanted me to tell you that Lane took some of these pictures.)

Over at Asterisk, Kieth has a list of his Top 10 MC's of all time.

Now that's a meme I can get behind - With a little adjustment.

My Greatest MC's of the Right Now:

1. Aesop Rock
2. Dose One
3. Mos Def
4. Gift of Gab
5. Lyrics Born
6. Beans
7. Eyedea
8. Azeem
9. Sole

Some is a fine word. I use it often. Ten times at current count for the front page of this here blog. My affinity comes from it's neither here nor there. Neither black nor white - Some time ago some one some how forgot to remember some thing some what similar to some where close - Just grey.

Without the gloom. Fuzz in the fuzzy wuzzy sense. Cuddly in that comfortable could be nearly anything way. ...Which is to say, left up to the imagination.

I just listened to Madeline Albright talk for an hour on the role of the United States in the world, the importance of information in democracy, and the lessons of her life.

It was amazing. Everything she said was informed, sensible, genuine, and noteworthy. She had a relaxed confidence that comes from acknowledgement of mistakes. Which is to say, wisdom.

I wish I had taken notes. All the specific things I can think to quote have become jumbled up into a general picture of Ms. Albright and a broad view of her perspective. Which is wide and not at all out for the quick win. Which is to say, nurturing.

It's a great shame that perspective does not occupy a wider part of public discourse in this day and age. One quote I do recall is "If women are going to start running this word, we've got to start interrupting".

I can't argue with that. ...Nor do I want to.

Photographs of buildings in downtown San Francisco, as seen by other buildings.

...to Sim City 4 and vegan chocolate.

I am not ashamed. For the most part.