words, words, words

Alberto Gonzalez has resigned. This guy was an asshole. I have been trying to avoid p0l1t1x as much as possible while I’ve been in the States since it makes me so angry. But Alberto was one of the worst of the worst.
Let’s just mention a couple of his greatest hits:

1. Support for overseas prisons.
2. Legal analyses supporting the use of torture in aforementioned overseas prisons.
3. He is a big fat liar. A number of times he has perjured himself under oath, including the Valeria Plame affair.
4. Used illegal domestic surveillance. Alberto thought it was ok to illegally spy on his fellow Americans.
5. He tried to get John Ashcroft, not exactly himself a bastion of civil liberties, to sign away more of our freedoms while he was sick in hospital.

I think we all can agree that terrorism is “bad”, but Alberto is a prime example of trying to trump the savages with our own, homegrown savagery.

Here is a list of Alberto’s words of wisdom.

I’m not sure how many times I clicked refresh the past few days, but my fingers are sore.

Roger Gracie has won the Super-Heavyweight and Open class at the 2007 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championships.

Congratulations Roger!

I am reading a book about sushi, called “The Zen of Fish“. It is really interesting, both because of the information about sushi, which fundamentally began as street food, but also about cooking science in general. For example, what cooking actually does to chemistry of food.

I remember my first piece of sashimi that really stopped me in my tracks. The book is filled with a lot of tips to help you have more of those sushi-based epiphanies.   My only warning, the book makes you really hungry.

I haven’t been getting out much. I admit it. I have been getting up at 06:00 to telecommute to London, I have a broken leg, and it is hot. I have been going to the grocery store. Usually around 11:00 in the morning. Like the Tube, the people who have the time to go shopping during business hours are either:

1. Unemployed
2. Stay-at-home parents.
3. Crazy
4. Old
5. Supermodels (few and far between)
6. Cursed
7. Enormous

There are not a lot of telecommuters…

There are a lot of people talking on their phones, loudly, as they do their shopping. It must make them feel better when they are buying their “basket of frozen loneliness”(thank you ‘ask a ninja‘).

People are really quick to talk to you about your purchases. I have actually found myself standing in a longer line at the self-checkout to avoid talking to the checkout person. I’m not even buying anything that interesting. But I don’t want to have to politely nod and smile when they ask me “So is that Ben and Jerry’s Cinnamon Bun any good?” Maybe I was in London for too long.

The monkey was said to have been well-behaved on the flight

Anytime there is a quote like that, it has to be a good story.

I have a broken leg, my wife is in South America, I have no home, and now I have a cold.

At least my truck ain’t crashed and my dog ain’t dead. Of course, I don’t have a truck or a dog…

I’ve fallen into a bad habit where I fall asleep when I start reading. I’m going to try and “break the cycle” by reading when I am most awake, as opposed to in bed falling asleep.

I just returned from Borders where I was amazed at the amount of crap that is for sale.

Judging from the bookshelves in the look-at-me section by the door, Americans are into 1.) Bounty Hunters 2.) Iraq and Islam 3.) Naval warfare and 4.) Self-Help.

Self-help has a long history in America, starting with “Poor Richard’s Almanack” so that isn’t surprising, the popularity of guns, boats and religion is no shocker; that is the core of the American trifecta. Iraq is , and will be for a looooong time, a big deal. But I’m really not sure about the Bounty Hunter books. Must be some new cultural nuance that I’m not familiar with.

I was just thinking this morning about how strange it is that humans moon each other. What does that mean? It has toe be something left over from evolution (if you believe in that balderdash) when we used to be monkeys. We had those horrible pink butts that probably were a bit intimidating. Now it’s not so bad.