Late last night, while we were all in bed...

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

Wildfires are sweeping through southern California again this year. This time seems a little worse than last years. My brother and his family decided this would be a great time to visit friends in San Francisco (their house is just inside the voluntary evacuation zone -- see the map below). My sister, who lives much closer to downtown and the ocean, is staying put and keeping the windows closed.

The local PBS station in San Diego has a really good google-mashup that shows the affected area. Red shaded areas are mandatory evacuation, yellow is voluntary.

If you're like me, you're wondering what these fires looks like from space.

Why does the smoke blow towards the ocean, when the prevailing trade-winds are the opposite direction? It's the Santa Anna Winds, apparently. Also, "fire creates its own wind". Which is just not sporting.

We've Had 8 Years Of This

There's an op-ed in today's NY Times about a compromise in the works to increase spending for Abstinence Education to coax Republicans into overriding Bush's veto on the S-Chip bill.

Despite the fact that abstinence education is demonstrably a complete disaster, achieving the exact opposite of its goals, it's still the darling of the conservatives. And, instead of gutting the program, its getting a budget increase (to $200 million) in order to pass a law to give more uninsured children access to health-care.

In the larger picture of the federal government it's a small thing, but it demonstrates pretty clearly that there are no solutions forthcoming to health-care, the Iraq war, global climate change, public education, and nearly any other national issue that you can think.

There's a large element of our government (especially notable among -- though not exclusive to -- Republicans) that appears to be operating in a fantasy world. Perhaps these people, tired of seeing well-intentioned policies turn to rot and destruction, decided the solution was to ignore the outcomes of their policies altogether. Or maybe these people are just completely screwy.

The threat to America's future is not from extremist terrorists, nor from growing economies in Asia and India. The danger is that our government is failing us now, building a domestic policy crisis (involving education, health-care, bankruptcy, the justice system, immigration, pollution, and inflation) that could destroy the prosperity and promise of our country.

Reader Poll: Do you find this funny?

Do you find this video funny?



I thought it was absolutely hilarious. I still think it's hilarious. I tried to describe it to Nelly and I couldn't quite justify why I thought it was so funny. So I am curious how my vast and varied readership might react.

Since I am posting you-tube videos. I think this clip from 30 Rock is ridiculous.



Do the crab! Fight the worm!

Haircut Hazards

It's happened again. Once more I have walked into a hair salon and thrown myself upon the mercy of a strange woman with scissors. It worked pretty well last time. (Yes, I did go four months between haircuts)

I went back to the Russian Hair Salon & Hittery, but I couldn't remember the name of the woman who cut my hair last time. So I just went and saw a new random Russian woman.

I explicitly told the woman I liked my hair long. That I was enjoying the long hair and didn't want to cut off too much. And then she proceeded to chop away all my hair!

This is not the first time this has happened to me. And I have decided it's because I cannot see very well without my glasses. And so the stylist pretty much gets to do whatever she wants and I can't complain because I cannot see! Which explains why I go so rarely. Getting my hair cut is too risky!

I desperately need an aide. Maybe I could hire an intern or something.

The Games Wii Play

Since I got the Wii (and I bought a bunch of controllers -- Wii party anyone?) I have found that despite having been around for a year or so, there aren't a lot of games I am really interested in playing on the Wii.

My first purchase was Madden 08. Which is a good game and it makes pretty good use of the motion controls. However, and this has been true since Madden '04, it's not really a revolution.

So far the best game I have for the Wii is "Wii Sports" which comes with it. Although it's too easy. I need to get Nelly playing more so we can go head-to-head.

(I'm making a new "Wii" tag for my blog. Huzzah.)