This weekend Zach and I have been up in Maine with Tim, Morgan and Quinn. Cat was up until this morning, but left early for some social stuff at home. Today Zach and I went on a great ride, that had us going all the way around our lake. About 1/3rd of that is on regular roads, the rest is on back trails and gravel side roads. Fortunately, my brother in law had gotten me my first trail bike, so the going was easy.
This was the second day I’ve been our riding on a trail bike (well, at least since I was 13 or so),and gosh it’s a lot of fun. We rode a total of about 6 miles, but a lot of over rocks and weeds and the like, so I’d say it was equivelent to a 15 mile road bike ride.
The weather was wonderful, the company was great, and when we got back, we all jumped in the lake for about 2 hours of swimming. Deeeelish.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – President Bush (news – web sites) is disliked by more Hungarian secondary school children than former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news – web sites) and Osama bin Laden (news – web sites), according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday.
Bush also topped the list of most-liked foreigners with eight percent of the vote, ahead of Pope John Paul (news – web sites) with six percent.
The survey of 34,000 students, aged 16-18, from 655 high schools showed Adolf Hitler was the most disliked foreign personality with 25 percent of the vote, followed by Bush with 23 percent and Bin Laden with 16 percent.
Bush was even more unpopular than former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, according to the poll.
The most unpopular Hungarian was Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy followed by Viktor Orban, the leader of the right of center Fidesz opposition.
Orban was also the most popular Hungarian followed by Arpad Goncz, the former dissident who became the country’s first post-communist president.

Apparently the administration has, in the space of 3 years, made it flat out impossible to balance the budget. In fact, the GOP has succeeded in making their very own ideology unworkable.
A deep rift in the Republican Party has left Congress unable to pass a budget this year, raising the probability that, for the third time in three decades, lawmakers will not agree on a detailed blueprint for government spending and tax policy.
[…]
There are limits to the effectiveness of spending cuts. Even if Congress had eliminated every penny of the $438 billion in domestic discretionary spending this year, every education and health program, every homeland security effort, national park, interstate highway and federal prison, the government would still find itself in the red.

In her Livejournal, Lyonesse mentions that John Kerry has chosen a slogan, ‘Let America be America Again’ by Langston Hughes. I read through this poem, and it is quite intense, but only if read in the view Kerry wants it portrayed in: “This is about all that GW Bush has taken away from America”. Moving, true, but perhaps unfair to the poems’ roots.
Langston Hughes was a black poet during the great depression, writing during the time of Jim Crow and economic upheaval in the US. A reader should take into account the environment that Hughes found himself in, where the freedom and hope he longed for was simply not available to him in the US. Hughes was also active in the Communist movements, as many were during this time, though he never actually registered as such.
There are many scurrilous individuals who are taking full advantage of this link, yammering that “This proves that Kerry is a communist!” and other drivel. I’m certainly not in that camp, but I feel that any campaign slogan should be also understood in it’s original context.
I think Kerry will do fine with this as his basis, but there’s a lot of interesting details behind it. 🙂

At Intuit, I worked with a great guy named Brian Kane. About a week ago, he had a minor heart attack, and has had to have surgery. He’s posting his story on his blog now about what happened. It’s an amazing read.

I try to keep a wide perspective on the world, and I’m finding that with the current heated political environment, it pays to see what The Other Side is saying. Being honest with myself, I’d categorize myself as a moderate liberal. I don’t fall into the neat categories that most would ascribe to ‘liberal democrat’.
In keeping with my seeming category, one of my favorite folks around is Al Franken. He’s a comedian turned outspoken left wing commentator, whose intelligence and depth astounds me everytime I read his works. He won’t say anything without -really- understanding the issue, and researching it before making the comment. Seriously, read his books, he has a whole team of folks that make sure that if he says Rush Limbaugh ate peas for breakfast – in fact, yes, he did, and here’s the cites!
I wish the right were this well informed. We have people like Anne Coulter “The Democrats want Saddam back.”, Rush Limbaugh “Intellectual Left Pushes Bush Assassination Fantasies”, and Bill O’Reilley “Hillary’s true colors show through”. (note: All these quotes were taken from the respective front pages of each site).
But, it makes sense to see what the right is actually saying or thinking, because in all things, Perspective: Use it or lose it (Richard Bach).
I’ve found that Jay Redings blog is a well written, well spoken, very good indicator of where the right is now. While I rarely agree with anything posted there, I find it important to read, and sometimes comment on things I see. Naturally I expect to get… responses to my comments, and do, but it’s all part of the process. It makes me think harder about my replies and commentary, doing the research before speaking.
By the way. The left is not without it’s own strong left wing voices ” exposes Fox for what it is: partisan spin, not news.”. Where I agree in spirit with much of what these folks are saying, I can’t wholeheartedly support them and their rabid attacks on the right. Just because Karl Rove is a master of spin and takes the phrase “If it ain’t illegal, it must be okay!” to new heights doesn’t mean the other side has to adopt his tactics.
I still disagree with much of the right’s way of thinking. I still stand in my strong disapproval of GW Bush and virtually all him and his administration has done during his presidency. However, I do see where the right is coming from in it’s commentary, though I feel it is based in narrow thinking, selfish viewpoints, and potentially destructive planning, for now and future generations.
Perhaps much of this is backlash against the Clinton years, where many on the right saw the roles reversed. The hatred and viciousness directed at Clinton during that time was unparalleled, though, as in so many other issues, the sense of balance seems to have been lost, no matter who is putting the idea forward.

• I CAN go 2 days without checking email. It’s tough, but possible.
• When spam filters stop working, I get a lot of spam. And they’ve only failed part way (about 20% of the spam is getting through), but since I get upwards of 350 spams a day, getting only 20% of that in my inbox is a lot.
• Sarah, the Poi spinning goddess she is, taught me how to spin poi, thanks to Cat’s skillfull preparation of some string, handles, and a pair of tennis balls. It’s loosely related to juggling, so I understood a lot of the basics, and caught on pretty fast. It’s _FUN!_. Nice having an exercise that does something with the upper arms. 🙂
• Camper trailers rock.
• Coffee prepared in a camper trailer on a propane stove in the morning rocks.
• My family and I can in fact coexist in a close environment for several days while camping and not be at each others throats. Yay!
• Organized drumming can be wonderful, particularly with a good leader. 4-5 drummers who are in sync, paying attention, and can hold a beat can blow away a roomful of noisemakers. Couple that with a lovely fire, great dancers, and a beautiful evening, and you have some mighty nice space.

This has been a PSA.