i need to finish 610.....and write that Alias spec....and that Farscape fic with the RB....and that Dead Zone spec...but first, a word from our sponsor.
writing this from the War Room tonight. earlier, the RB and i had the pleasure of One Eye's company at Fourbucks. if that ain't a grammatically odd sentence.
she left for work and we started working. we worked a lot. much with the productive on the campaign trail. then we made the catastrophic decision to travel to Casa de Brain Stem. it all goes downhill form there.
so now, happily reading instapundit.com, i come across this tidbit.....not actually so much a tidbit per se, but you get the idea.
Meanwhile, speaking of, you know, solutions, Jackson Diehl pointed out last week -- in a column that a lot of people, including me, missed at the time:
The Bush administration's embrace of a democratization strategy for the postwar Middle East has triggered a torrent of scorn from the region's traditional political and intellectual elites, not to mention regional experts at the State Department and CIA. Less noticed is the fact that it has also produced a flurry of political reforms, quasi-reforms and grass-roots initiatives in countries across the region.
Two days before the war began last week, the Palestinian legislative council dealt a major blow to the autocracy of Yasser Arafat, rejecting his attempt to limit the powers of a new prime minister. This happened by a democratic vote after a noisy democratic debate -- which in turn came a few days after President Bush called for a strong prime minister in a Palestinian democracy.
The next day an Egyptian court finally ended the prosecution of the country's leading pro-democracy activist, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, who had twice been sentenced to prison on trumped-up charges -- and whose last conviction prompted the Bush administration to freeze aid to Egypt. Two weeks earlier, Gamal Mubarak, would-be heir to his father, Hosni, as president, announced a plan to end trials of civilians in the security courts in which Ibrahim was sentenced, and proposed an independent national council to monitor human rights.
A week before Mubarak spoke, King Abdullah of Jordan, who has not allowed an election since taking office four years ago and who dissolved parliament in 2001, set a date for parliamentary elections. He chose June 17, thereby ensuring that as the postwar political discussion gets underway, Jordan will be able to point to its own democratic exercise.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has been urging Western journalists to take note of an "Arab Charter" floated by ruling Crown Prince Abdullah, which calls for "internal reform and enhanced political participation in the Arab states," and a related petition by 104 intellectuals calling for the direct election in Saudi Arabia of a consultative council, an independent judiciary and freedom of speech and assembly. In January, on Abdullah's order, a host of senior Saudi officials met with a visiting delegation from Human Rights Watch -- the first time a Western human rights group had been allowed to visit the country.
These aren't huge accomplishments, it's true. But they're more than the antiwar movement has managed.
democracy can be so catchy.
amusing dialogue bits that made me giggle.
Vaughn to Weiss after the latter helps Syd disobey Dad.
"Jack's going to shoot you in the face."
and....Marshall to Jack while trying to give the latter an update on a security breach in that charming way that only Marshall can manage....
"The Death Star plans are not in the main computer.
i almost snorted my coffee.
and on a sidenote, the downhill slide wasn't completely without merit. the Stem led us to a fabulous mexican food joint at Main and PCH in Huntington Beach. it's called Fred's. i had the lobster enchiladas. mmmmmmmmmm, lobster. i highly recommend Fred's as long as one doesn't mind the Tijuana-esque staircase to the entrance and the sign over said staircase on the way out that offers rooms at a reasonable rate, yeah, don't overthink that, and the ear-splitting stereo system. hey, at least the musical selection was fabulous.
