Sad for Sandy

We've recently found out that Sandy (if that's her real name) has a condition on her eye called Entropion eyelid.

The condition means she'll have to have surgery and we won't be able to breed her, as the condition is hereditary. However, it is completely treatable and fixable, but she will have to wear an e-collar and may require more than one operation. This could mean we get Sandy's sister, who is also named Sandy. We'll decide this weekend when we go pick her up.

A few more Sandy pictures...

Mitch Hedberg

A few years ago Nicole and I saw Mitch Hedberg perform. I thought he was really damn funny. Lots of one liners that by themselves are medium funny. But when you hear them one after another, they are hilarious. I laughed pretty hard, until I stopped. He's dead now, but his jokes will make me laugh for a long time.

I'm not good at golf, I never got good. I never got a hole in one, but I did hit a guy. And that's way more satisfying. You're supposed to yell "Fore", but I was too busy mumbling "There ain't no way that's gonna hit him." What's the par for hitting a guy? One. If you hit a guy in two, you are an asshole.

It takes forever to cook a baked potato in a conventional oven. Sometimes I'll just throw one in there, even if I don't want one. By the time it's done, who knows?

Whenever I walk people try to hand me out flyers. And when someone tries to hand me out a flyer, it's kinda like they're saying "Here, you throw this away."

People who smoke cigarettes, they say "Man, you don't know how hard it is to quit smoking." Yes, I do. It's as hard as it is to start flossing. "You seem jittery." "Yeah, I'm about to floss."

I hate turtlenecks. Wearing a turtleneck is like being strangled by a really weak guy. All day. Like, if you wear a turtleneck and a backpack, it's like a weak midget trying to bring you down.

I bought a doughnut, and they gave me a receipt. There is no need for that, man. I'll just give you the money, you give me the doughnut. End of transaction. We do not need to bring ink and paper into this. I cannot imagine a situation in which I would have to prove that I bought a doughnut. Some skeptical friend: "Hey man! Don't even act like I didn't buy that doughnut! I got the documentation right here...damn...I forgot it at home... it's in the filing cabinet...under D...for doughnut."

When you go to a restaurant on the weekends and it's busy so they start a waiting list, they say, "Dufrenes, party of two, table ready for Dufrenes, party of two." And if no one answers they'll say the name again: "Dufrenes, party of two." But then if no one answers, they'll move on to the next name. "Bush, party of three." Yeah, but what happened to the Dufrenes? No one seems to care. Who can eat at a time like this? People are missing. You people are selfish. The Dufrenes are in someone's trunk right now, with duct tape over their mouths. And they're hungry. That's a double whammy. We need help. "Bush, search party of three. You can eat once you find the Dufrenes."

"Everytime I go to a craft fair I see a jar of jelly beans that says 'Guess how many jelly beans are in the jar, and you win a prize?' C'mon man, let me just have some. I tell you what, you guess how many I want. If you said a handful, you are right."

A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer.

At the end of my letters I like to write "PS: This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated."

I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long.

I have a cheese shredder at home. That's a positive name for a cheese shredder. They don't call it by its negative name, because nobody would buy it: "sponge-ruiner."

I think they could take sesame seeds off the market, and I wouldn't even care. I can't imagine five years from now saying, "Damn, remember sesame seeds? What happened? All the buns are blank!" They're gonna have to change that McDonald's song, "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a ... bun." How does a sesame seed stick to a bun? Thats fucking magical! There's got to be some sesame seed glue out there. Either that or they're adhesive on one side. Take the sesame seed out, remove the backing, place it on the bun. Now your bun will look spectacular! What does a sesame seed grow into? I dunno, we never give them a chance. What the fuck is a sesame? It's a street. It's a way to open... shit

I got a business card, 'cause I want to win some lunches. That's what my business card says: "Mitch Hedberg, potential lunch winner." Call me some time, maybe we'll have lunch... If I'm lucky!

In England, Smokey the Bear is not the forest fire prevention representative. They have Smackie the Frog. It's just like a bear, but it's a frog. I think that's a better system, I think we should adopt it, because bears can be mean, but frogs are always cool. Never has there been a frog hoppin' towards me and I thought, 'Man, I better play dead! Here comes that frog!'

I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too.

I don't know how to fix a car. If my car breaks down, and the gas tank does not say "E", I'm fucked.

I saw a commercial for an above-ground pool. It was thirty seconds long. You know why? Because that's the maximum amount of time you can depict yourself having fun in an above-ground pool.

I bought myself a parrot; the parrot talked, but it did not say "I'm hungry," so it died.

My friend asked me if I wanted a frozen banana, but I said "No...but I want a regular banana later, so yeah."

On a traffic light red means stop, yellow means slow down, and green means go. But on a banana it's the opposite. Green means hold on, yellow means go ahead and red means "Where the fuck did you get that banana at?"

I opened up a yogurt, and underneath the lid it said "please try again" because they were having a contest I was unaware of. But I thought I might have opened the yogurt wrong. Or maybe Yoplait was trying to inspire me. Come on Mitchel, don't give up, please try again! A message of inspiration from your friends at Yoplait. Fruit on Bottom, Hope on top.

I can't tell you what hotel I'm staying at, but there are two trees involved. Let's call this hotel "something Tree." So they had a meeting. It was quite short. "How about tree?" "No." "Double-tree?" "Hell, yeah!" Meeting adjourned!

I met the girl who works at the Doubletree front desk; she gave me her phone number. It's zero. I tried to call her from here, some other woman answered. I said, "You sound older!"

I order the club sandwich all the time, but I'm not even a member, man. I don't know how I get away with it.

You know, there's a fishing show on TV. They catch the fish, but they let it go. They don't want to eat the fish, but they do want to make it late for something.

If you find yourself lost in the woods, fuck it, build a house. "Well, I was lost, but now I live here. I have severely improved my predicament.

I bought a house, it's a two-bedroom house. But I think it's up to me how many bedrooms there are, don't you? Fuck you, real estate lady, this bedroom has an oven in it. This bedroom has a lot of people sitting around watching TV. This bedroom is over in that guy's house. "Sir, you've got one of my bedrooms, are you aware? Don't decorate it.

Mr. Pibb is a replica of Dr Pepper, but it's a bullshit replica, 'cause the dude didn't even get his degree. Why'd you have to drop out and start makin' pop so soon.

I saw on HBO, they were advertising this boxing match. They said "It's a fight to the finish." That's a good place to end.

New Puppy

Soon, she'll be ours!!!

Name TBD. I'm voting for "Sandra Bullock"... but we'd call her Sandy. Nicole has some other names in mind.

Bill Maher

Sometimes Bill Maher comes off a little rough. A little hard. But he and his guests have some really good quotes on his show.

Bill Maher: New Rule: Stop whining about the French. It takes a lot of guts to stand up to the Bush administration and that's more than I can say about the Democrats!

Bill Maher: We're not running our country down when we criticize it. We're trying to make it better.

Howard Dean: I think the problem with the country is that we operate on a sickness model, not a wellness model. Basically, we treat people who become ill. What we don't do is do a very good job in keeping them healthy in the first place.

Al Franken: I love this "culture of life" stuff that comes out of the Christian right. But do you hear anything about the genocide that's going on in Darfur?

Andrew Sullivan: The "culture of life," I might say, is a phrase invented by the last Pope. And what it meant was, you're opposed to death, in the death penalty, in war, in euthanasia and abortion. The Republicans decide, "Oh, we're a cafeteria. We'll take the abortion and euthanasia but we will launch wars" and we will - I mean, George Bush has signed more death warrants than any other human being in this country.

George Carlin: [about the Bush-Kerry Debate] Finally someone stood up to the little oil pimp. This guy who somehow has managed to combine Yale intellectualism with the American cowboy myth and be completely inauthentic in both roles. That's what I see in Bush. He's an empty suit.

Tucker Carlson: I mean, look, no matter how you feel about Bush, watching him speak is difficult. It's like - it's like watching a drunk man cross an icy street.


Bill Maher: If I just sit here every Friday night and spout Bush administration talking points, that's not information or entertainment, it's Fox News!

Bill Maher: New rule: After the plane lands, airlines must stop saying, "Thank you for choosing us." There is no choosing anymore. I took the only flight that left within eight hours of when I wanted to go by the only other airline that went there. Choosing! Nobody chooses Southwest. Southwest chooses you! If I need to be in Spokane, Washington, by tomorrow morning, I either take the flight I'm given or I mail myself in a FedEx box!

Bill Maher: [to Richard Perle] I think you guys might have been right about the big picture, and I'm not above saying, you know what, maybe I was wrong. Okay. But on the other half of it, why the incompetence? Why was this war conducted so badly from the beginning? And you have to admit that cost lives. And my theory is because Republicans are sentimentalists. Because you guys have such rose-colored glasses about America that you thought as soon as we showed up in Iraq, they'd be going, 'Freedom! Americans!' And that's why we didn't need armor on the tanks because they'd be giving us flowers and chocolates and nylons.

Kevin Costner: You know, the great thing about Vietnam, if you can find one great thing about Vietnam, was that we have Vietnam to look back on. Vietnam serves a purpose. We have this gigantic window into our past history and why we find ourselves where we're at. That's the only good I can see that that war ever did for us. And we've ignored the lesson.
Bill Maher: The key lesson to me of Vietnam is that you cannot outlast insurgents in their own country. This idea that when Bush says, "Well, we can't say we're going to pull out in six months because they'll only have to wait six months and a day." They'll wait a hundred years if they have to!
Gen. Wesley Clark: Bill, the key lesson - the key lesson of Vietnam is that you've got to have a strategy that has a chance of success before you commit the lives of the men and women in uniform.

George Galloway: Christians believe in the Prophets, peace be upon them. Bush believes in the profits and how to get a piece of them

Bill Maher: New Rule: You can't run on a mistake. Franklin Roosevelt didn't run for re-election claiming Pearl Harbor was his finest hour. Abe Lincoln was a great president, but the high point of his second term wasn't theater security. 9/11 wasn't a triumph of the human spirit. It was a fuck-up by a guy on vacation.

Could the Democrats lose again?

Hilary has a lot of good qualities... no doubt. But I don't think she has enough great qualities that would allow her to be the first female President. When I think of Hilary, I think she is okay... and that is kinda what I hear from a lot of other people. You're not going to break any barriers being "okay" or "good". If she were a guy, she'd be much more likely to win Presidency, but she isn't.

Obama has a lot of good qualities too. Even great qualities. I really like this guy. But his lack of experience make it really hard for me to believe that he can break through the racial barriers that still exist all over this country. Maybe if he were white, his name didn't rhyme with a terrorist he'd have a chance. But I doubt anybody would have voted for Adam Hidler in 1948, and I don't think Americans are ready for this guy yet.

I think these are two great candidates that due to circumstances beyond their control, they are nearly unelectable. Any candidate the Democrats nominate should easily win after what we have put up with for the last 6 years. Bush has destroyed the Republican party's reputation. It should be a landslide victory for Democrats in 2008. But with candidates that people may want to vote for, but can't... the Democrats will give away the election once again.

However, if these two team up... maybe that would do it?

3 Elections in 2008

California State Sen. Ron Calderon is proposing Californians have 3 elections in 2008. Currently California opens the polls 2x, once in June and again in November. Senator Calderon thinks that waiting until June for California to have it's primary is too late, and not giving Californian enough of a voice since so many other states have already had their primaries.

I don't see how this fixes any problems. What keeps other states from moving their primaries to January? If the problem is that the states with later primaries don't influence which candidates will ultimately run for president, then perhaps the primary should be a nationwide election? Or let the Democrats and Republicans do an online poll? Who knows, maybe these aren't the solutions, but I don't think moving the primary solves the problem either. The problem as I see it is that too few states are having too much influence because the current system begins to weed out candidates as soon as the primaries begin. Where a more liberal candidate would do well in California, he may not do as well in Iowa. This candidate is down in the primaries, gets less funding because nobody wants to fund a loser, and therefore is out of the competition before April.

I may not have an answer (yet), but I contend that spending the money for a 3rd election is not the best answer for this problem. I think California will always have a lot of pull in politics due to the large number of people that live here, and the large number economy of our state. If this is not enough, then perhaps the legislature should find a way to allow it's elections to be moved from June to February as well. June elections already have incredibly low voter turnouts and certainly having 3 elections will further decrease the % of people voting / election. I think our politicians should be interested in increasing voter turn out, not decreasing it.

As of now, my suggestion is to have a nationwide primary and California's other voting needs should coincide with these dates.

Long time no Post

Just got this from my friend Phil, it was too funny not to post.


Otherwise, desk is done and in the office. Made a jewelry box for my mom that I am pretty proud of, no pictures along the way, but the final product looked a little something like this



Now I am working on a wine buffet side board cabinet thing. It will be darkly stained mahagony 6' x 38" x 22". Should be done this week.

State of the Union tonight, with any luck, I might even make a post about it as I try to return to the blogiscube.

Finishing the Desk

After much debate, sample stains and discussion, Nicole and I decided on a wipe on poly finish with no stain for our desk. The maple did not take the stain the way Nicole would have liked, but I think the desk still looks pretty good, although since the color is wrong, we must paint our office... again... The pictures below show the desk (disassembled) in middle of the finishing process.

Desk top


Drawers and keyboard face


Some pictures show the figure of the maple better than others, but you get the idea.

Keyboard tray


Did you notice my new work bench under the desk drawers? Took some time to make a new bench while deciding how to finish this desk. It is awesome (if I do say so myself). A true wood working bench, with tool tray in the back and underneath the top, giant 18" wide tail vise (no front vise yet) and holes for bench dogs. It's made from beech and maple with a 3" thick top and 5" skirt. Eventually I will add some drawers, but in order to start the finishing on the desk I had to stop creating dust from cutting wood.

Halloween at work

My friend Trish and I dressed up at work for Halloween. Everyone we told about our costume thought in was a little inapporpriate for work. I had wanted to dress up as this for years, but I couldn't get Nicole to go along with me.



Trish did a great job. Her make up looked gruesome, it was awesome!



In case you can't tell who we are,



Trish was Nicole Simpson and I was the Juice! We won the costume contest at work and got our picture on the company internal webpage.

Thanks to Trish for playing along... probably against her better judgement!

Jaime's Wedding

Congratulations Jaime!

2 weeks ago my cousin Jaime got married. It was a beautiful wedding in Minnesota.



Everyone was all smiles that weekend.

My wife-



My brother-



My cousing Jessica-



The parents, Mark & Joey-



We all wish Jaime & Matt a lifetime of love, laughter and happiness,

Making a Desk

One of my hobies is wood- working. Currenlty I am making a new desk out of maple.

First, I started making the top, cut 6 boards to a~ 6" wide by 60" long, joined them together with glue and biscuits. Once this dried, I joined another 4" wide board to cap the edges, also joined with glue and biscuits. Even with the biscuits, the maple boards were not completely flat, so I spent a lot of time with my bench plane leveling everything out, then many more hours sanding to 300 grit.





Once the top was done, I made the legs and the skirt. The skirt is 6" tall, and sized so that the top will overhang by ~1". The legs were made by staking 3 boards 3" wide by 1" thick to make a 3x3 leg. The leg was then cut to expose a tenon which will be acepted by the skirt, and all corners were chamfered.





Next step was to start the drawers. Since I was running low on maple, and had some extra poplar, the drawers are made of poplar, but will have a maple face. The drawers are constructed with blind dovetails and a 1/4 inch dado to accept the bottom panel.



Still to come will be the keyboard drawer, front panels for drawers, dividers that will hold the drawers slides, final assembly, lots of sanding, staining and finnishing. Hopefully 2 more weeks and it'll be upstairs in the office.

Indecent Propositions

Well, Angelides is not looking good, but what about all that other stuff on the ballot. The propositions most people don't read about until they are in the voting booth. To get the full description of each proposition, go to http://www.smartvoter.org/2006/11/07/ca/state/prop/

In numerical order, here is how I will vote on the propositions that will be on California's ballot next month :

Proposition 1A: Yes. Forces gas taxes to go toward road work. I think the tax revenues collected from gas sales should go to road construction. That was the original intent. If more money is needed elsewhere, than there should be another proposition to raise money for that.

Proposition 1B: No. I don't think borrowing over $19 Billion for road work is a good idea. This will result in $32 billion future generations will have to repay. Of course transportation is important, and I think 1A needs to work before borrowing that much money.

Proposition 1C: I want to say no. 1C is asking for $2.9 billion to fund lower income housing. As much as I want to help senior citizens and the poor, I don't think borrowing $3 billion will make a difference in housing prices for enough people to make a difference. A select few will get improved housing. But, there are some good groups backing this (Habitat for Humanity, and others). It also claims to help battered woman and kids... so I may end up saying yes.

Proposition 1D: Yes. $10.4 Billion is a lot of money, but this will build 6,500 new class room for k-12 and 3,000 for community college. Repair another 31,000 class rooms. It is supported by both Schwarzenegger and Angelides. Basically 1D aims to make the classrooms earthquake safe and add new class rooms.

Proposition 1E: No. This proposition is to protect us from floods. Basically I can't find anybody to tell me why we need to borrow $4.1 billion for flood prevention. We live in the desert.

Proposition 83: Yes. This proposition should put more GPS locators on sexual offenders, keeps them further from schools, and requires more treatment for those offenders who show mental defect.

Proposition 84: Yes. This proposition provides funds to purchase and improve natural areas, improve drinking water, flood control, and funds for state and local parks. Again, $5.4 billion is a big pill to swallow, but environmental protection and safe water is worth a lot.

Proposition 85: No. This proposition seeks to requires minors to get parental permission for abortion. "No law can mandate family communication", and I don't think this law will protect or help anybody, it will only open the door to banning all abortions.

Proposition 86: No. 86 is another tax on cigarettes. The easiest way to pass legislation is to help the most people while hurting the fewest. But this is not always fair, and breeds discrimination. Furthermore, I think this legislation is deceitful. It claims to fund anit-smoking programs, but less than 10% goes toward helping smokers quit or keeping kids from smoking. Hospitals get almost 40%. I'm sure hospitals need more money, but to only charge the smokers for everyone's hospitals seems biased to me. Smokers already get charged more for insurance.

Proposition 87: Yes. I believe we need to find alternative energy sources. Even if this does mean a short term increase in fuel costs, everyone must know we need to find other fuels. California has always been a leader in clean air technology, it doesn't make sense that we should not stop trying to find alternative fuels now that gas prices are too high.

Proposition 88: No. This proposition taxes real estate $50 / year for schools. I think one proposition per ballot per idea. They got me for 1D, and that is more money that this is. However, I see specific reasons and goals from 1D. I don't think proposition 88 is specific enough with how that money is used to be effective.

Proposition 89: No. Prop 89 takes tax payers money to pay for campaigns. I agree it is terrible that big business has so much affect on campaigns, but there are other things I would rather my tax dollars go toward than TV commercials, signs, junk mail and phone calls from candidates I may or may not agree with.

Proposition 90: Yes. Proposition 90 makes it harder for the government to acquire or regulate private property. It claims to stop eminent domain abuse. I have heard of some disgusting eminent domain abuse stories, and I think that the governemnt should only be allowed to acquire private property in the most dire circumstances... not just to build a large hotel or mall that would provide more tax revenues.

Would you rather:

- weigh 300 pounds or have to always wear a speedo?
- be eaten alive or drown?
- Have no car or have no hair?
- Sit on the plane next to a super fat guy or guy who won’t shut up?
- poked in the eye or kicked in the gonads?
- be invincible or turn invisible?
- be allergic to the sun or to water?
- not be able to drink beer or have an ugly girlfriend?

High Holidays

Today is Yom Kippur. I'm not fasting and I am working (not very hard), but at least we went to temple last night.

For those who don't know about Yom Kippur, below is a pretty good description taken from www.jewfaq.org

Yom Kippur is probably the most important holiday of the Jewish year. Many Jews who do not observe any other Jewish custom will refrain from work, fast and/or attend synagogue services on this day. Yom Kippur occurs on the 10th day of Tishri. The holiday is instituted at Leviticus 23:26 et seq.

The name "Yom Kippur" means "Day of Atonement," and that pretty much explains what the holiday is. It is a day set aside to "afflict the soul," to atone for the sins of the past year. In Days of Awe, I mentioned the "books" in which G-d inscribes all of our names. On Yom Kippur, the judgment entered in these books is sealed. This day is, essentially, your last appeal, your last chance to change the judgment, to demonstrate your repentance and make amends.

As I noted in Days of Awe, Yom Kippur atones only for sins between man and G-d, not for sins against another person. To atone for sins against another person, you must first seek reconciliation with that person, righting the wrongs you committed against them if possible. That must all be done before Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur is a complete Sabbath; no work can be performed on that day. It is well-known that you are supposed to refrain from eating and drinking (even water) on Yom Kippur. It is a complete, 25-hour fast beginning before sunset on the evening before Yom Kippur and ending after nightfall on the day of Yom Kippur. The Talmud also specifies additional restrictions that are less well-known: washing and bathing, anointing one's body (with cosmetics, deodorants, etc.), wearing leather shoes (Orthodox Jews routinely wear canvas sneakers under their dress clothes on Yom Kippur), and engaging in sexual relations are all prohibited on Yom Kippur.

As always, any of these restrictions can be lifted where a threat to life or health is involved. In fact, children under the age of nine and women in childbirth (from the time labor begins until three days after birth) are not permitted to fast, even if they want to. Older children and women from the third to the seventh day after childbirth are permitted to fast, but are permitted to break the fast if they feel the need to do so. People with other illnesses should consult a physician and a rabbi for advice.

Most of the holiday is spent in the synagogue, in prayer. In Orthodox synagogues, services begin early in the morning (8 or 9 AM) and continue until about 3 PM. People then usually go home for an afternoon nap and return around 5 or 6 PM for the afternoon and evening services, which continue until nightfall. The services end at nightfall, with the blowing of the tekiah gedolah, a long blast on the shofar. See Rosh Hashanah for more about the shofar and its characteristic blasts.

It is customary to wear white on the holiday, which symbolizes purity and calls to mind the promise that our sins shall be made as white as snow (Is. 1:18). Some people wear a kittel, the white robe in which the dead are buried.

Everyday should be midterm election day

Ever notice how much better things get right before elections? Gas prices go down, legislation gets past, Bush releases declassified reports telling us that the war in Iraq is making the world a more dangerous place .

What else can we expect between now and November 7th (election day)?

-Bush will talk about the war on terror. Apparently that's all Republicans need to do to scare people into voting for them. Worked in 2004, will it work again?





-Schwarzenegger will continue to distance himself from Bush and condemn Angelides as a tax and spend liberal. He's been doing it rather succesfully the last few weeks, he's leading Angelides by double digits.

-Angelides will continue to try to equate Schwarzenegger with Bush, talk about gas prices, troops in Iraq, increasing deficit, blah blah blah. In reality, Angelides needs to change that plan, especially since Schwarzenegger is running for governor, not running for president. Angelides should stop focusing on National issues and tell us what he'll do for California.

-George Allen will admit to being racist if Jim Webb (his Democratic challenger) will admit to being sexist. Another win-win for democracy in Virginia.

My prediciton, the Democrats will take either the house, or the Senate not both. Whichever they take, Republicans will claim it is the Democrats fault in 2008 for all the impotence of the last 6+ year (obvious and safe statement since Democrats and Republicans have blamed each other for everything since the dawn of the 2 party system).

Pedal to the Metal

George Russel Weller may not be a name you recognize, but you probably heard his story. 3 years ago, when he was 86, he drove his car through a farmers market in Santa Monica California, killed 10 people and injured many others. His trial which is expected to last 6 weeks is currently underway. If proven guilty of 10 counts of vehicular manslaughter, he will face 18 years in prison.

This is a tragic case on so many levels. A man facing life in prison for something he never wanted to do, and claims he didn't know how to stop. 10 people died, 10 families suffered greatly. What is the right thing to do in this case? Would imprisoning a guilt riden Mr. Weller make the world a safer place? Don't the families of his victims deserve justice?

Upon turning 70 in California, you are required to take a vision test and a written test, but the law does not allow the DMV to force you to automatically take a driving test when you turn 70. If you have a freind or family member you suspect is a danger behind the wheel, you can inform the DMV and they will require a driving test. Many people are living longer than their driving skills are lasting. Giving up driving is giving up freedom, and nobody thinks they'll be the next Mr. Weller, so why should they be the one to stop driving?

The AARP is one of the politically strongest groups in America. They have made it very difficult to pass legislation that discriminates against older drivers. In some ways this is good, right? Discrimination is bad. And, young drivers are more likely to get into accidents than old drivers, so why pick on them?



We do pick on young drivers. They need a permit, then they can only drive with other adults in the car, no kids. They need to go to a driving school they pay higher insurance. They have the disadvantage of not having as much experience driving, and until that experience makes them better drivers, they are limitted on how and with who they can drive.

As one gets older, they have several disadvantages as drivers. Eye sight gets worse, and reaction time increases, but experience and good driving skills make up for this. But what happens when one gets much older and their bodies can't rely on their skills? Some expect Dr.'s to take care of the problem. Either recommend to the DMV that their patients can't drive, or write them notes saying they can. In my experience with my grandparents, their Dr's will write notes allowing them to drive just to keep their patients happy. If one Dr. won't write a note, they'll just find another who will. Dr.'s job is to heal people, not take away their freedom. I think patients will be bitter and lose respect for their doctor if he/she tells them they can't drive anymore.

I think we need rules that "pick on" the very old drivers that the DMV has concerns about. Not all people of an age group. Just people that can't acheive a certain level on a reflex, hearing and eye sight test. Restricting them from driving on freeways, when it's dark, how far they can go, driving by themselves. I know some of these tactics are already used for isolated cases, but not enough. Even these restrictions probably would not have prevented Mr. Weller from crashing into 10 people. But maybe if he had someone else in the car to tell him his foot was on the gas, not the brake, they would have stopped after crashing into the first car before hitting any pedestrians.

If anybody is going to decide who can drive, and who cannot, it must be the DMV. When a 87 year old man (one of my grandpa's) failed his driving test, he was able to keep his license by complaining enough. The only reason he even had to take a driving test is becuase a family member reported him to the DMV, otherwise he had several more years before they wanted to check his vision again. The man can barely standup.

Mr. Weller told police (sarcastically) that he lucked out the last time he went to the DMV becuase they didn't make him take a driving test. If they did, would those 10 people still be alive? My guess is no, becuase even if he failed the test, the DMV is afraid to piss off senior citizens, and the legislature can't get a bill into law without the support of the AARP.

How many times do 10 people need to die before the DMV changes it's policy about elderly drivers? For me, once is too many.

Clinton's interview with Chris Wallace on Fox has been all over the news. Personally, I think it was a great interview for Bill. He showed that Democrats still have balls, and pointed out the media biases toward this right wing conservative agenda being pushed down our throat. Guaranteed that next time Rice is interviewed, she will be getting asked why haven't they got Bin Laden and why aren't they doing more about it? I think Clinton also did a great job in pointing out the hypocrisy in his critics who demonize him now for not doing enough to kill Bin Laden.

Can you imagine Bush facing such an interview? He would crumble under the pressure. George never would have even shown up. The interview was another reminder of how bad Bush is compared to his predecessors. Whatever criticism you give Clinton for that interview, I still think he did a heck of a job.

I don't know if Clinton would have debated Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but I know I would be embarrassed for America if Bush accepted that challenge. I think that Clinton would have done a decent job debating Mahmoud. Certainly he would not have arrived under false pretenses like his Fox interview. Even though he was prepared for an attack, I think he would have done better if had been invited to a debate than an interview about the Clinton Global Initiative, that has already raised over $7 Billion this year.

I hope that we don't have to wait too long to see Barack Obama running for President. Being half black and half white is definitely going to be an obstacle for him, even in today's "modern society". However, just having up in the running will raise the bar for the rest of the candidates. Barack has the intelligence you don't expect from a President anymore, with a speaking ability that Reagan would have envied.

Chewey Update

During the camping trip, the fate of Chewey (white plastic rat with red eyes) was revealed to me. As you'll recall from scare number 5's post, Nicole got home before I did and Chewey was not where I left him when I returned. The result was "best scare yet" per Nicole's own admission. This is what happened.

Nicole was going to throw something away in the trash, which is located underneath the kitchen sink. This happened to be Chewey's hideout. When she opened the cupboard door, and saw Chewey staring at her with his devil red eyes! She dropped what she was holding, jumped high in the air and screamed! She landed about 3 feet further back from Chewey, who was still staring at her. He was waiting for Nicole to make the first move. At this point, Nicole was fairly certain that he was fake, but she couldn't take any chances. So she picked up one of the pieces of trash she had dropped and threw it at Chewey to make sure he didn't move. After a several minute long stare down, the tension was broken when Nicole mustered up all her bravery and reached out to pick him up.

The rest of the story has yet to be revealed. There is a very good chance that Chewey is no longer with us, but Nicole will not confirm nor deny these allegations.

Scaring my wife - Act 6

Scare #6 - We got Worms

The basic setup- Nicole and I went camping this weekend to Lake Casitas. While I was loading the car with our camping gear, I placed a few fake worms in her bag.

The action - After the arrive at camp rituals of setting up the tent, inflating the air matress, taking out the sleeping bags, etc., Nicole needed to change her clothes or do something that required her to reach deep down inside her duffle bag. Since we had to work on Friday, and traffic was pretty bad driving through LA, we didn't arrive to our campiste until after sunset. So Nicole is reaching into her duffle bag with only the light of a nearby lantern that barely lets her see what she is doing. Nicole is feeling around until she comes across something slimy. Something a little gooey. Nicole pulled out the worm and did not have the slightest hint of being scared. I take some credit for this. Her training has paid off, and she has elevated her fear handling ability to an admirable level. She admitted that at first she was afraid that she left some candy in her bag, but this isn't quite the type of fear I was looking for.

This did prompt Nicole to share with me the fate of Chewey, who you might remember from scare number 5. I will save that story for another post, it will be a good one.

Happy Rosh Hashanah