How is it that every administration that a member of the Bush family is involved in commits (and gets away with) such disgusting and horrible crimes? Under the guise of security, the current White House Regime captures people but can't be bothered to get around to actually charging them with a crime. They hold them in isolation--they just "disappear", leaving frantic families wondering where they are or if they're still alive.

Or, in Maher Arar's case, they are sent to foreign countries to be tortured.

I will never be ashamed of being an American...but this is the most shameful and disgusting administration I've ever seen.

Fall term grades:

Physical Geography: A
Physical Geography Lab: A
Anthropology: A (a nice surprise as I thought I'd slipped to a B here)
Algebra: A

This, from someone who was traditionally a straight-D student in maths and sciences (in fact, it took me three tries with algebra just to get out of high school).

Whew! Now to get ready for Spring term (spring?!?), which cranks up next week.

A guy in Olympia, WA goes away on a trip. He lets a friend use his apartment while he's away. The friend invites a few more friends over. They party...and wrap the guy's entire apartment in tin foil! Even the toilet paper! Unrolled it, foiled it, then re-rolled it.

This prank gets "10's" all across the board. Originality, degree of complexity, thoroughness, the guffaw factor...there is much I can learn from Luke Trerice (if he's accepting apprentices)!

Not surprisingly, a judge has ordered that Scott Peterson's murder trial be moved from Stanislaus County (where Modesto is) because of all the pre-trial publicity. Presumably, because of this pre-trial publicity, he wouldn't get a "fair trial" in Stanislaus County.

First: Scott Peterson is largely responsible for much of the publicity surrounding this case. He's been "vilified"? He seemed to have gone out of his way to make himself look guilty. From telling a not-very-believable story at the start, to appearing to be ready to leave the country--with a new hair colour and his brother's identification--when he was arrested. Oh, and messing around with another woman, or trading in his "missing" wife's car to buy himself a new truck...Of course, I couldn't vote to convict him just because I think he's a jerk.

Second: Here's the story about the trial relocation...from the Los Angeles Times! Folks, this is at the top of their website this afternoon...just below the "major" story of the Blackhawk helicopter crash in Fallujah. Los Angeles is a little over 300 miles from Modesto, as the crow flies. This story has been all over Fox, CNN, MSNBC, you name it. I communicate daily with people all over the world, most of whom are very familiar with this case. This story is everywhere!

So tell me, where isn't there going to be a great deal of publicity? Of course, the networks had fingers crossed it would be moved to LA...that would save them so much money in terms of not having to send teams to remote locales. Alas, it looks like their choices are all in the Bay Area: Santa Clara, San Mateo or Alameda counties. Thankfully, for Laci's family, it's a reasonable distance to Modesto, so attending the trial shouldn't be too much of a hardship for them (all things considered). Hopefully, the networks have fully-staffed bureaus in San Francisco. Hotel rates around here are a real beeyotch.

Personally, I can't wait to hear what Mark Gerragos comes up with next. He's so far tried everything except space aliens abducting and killing Laci and their unborn child. Bring the trial on, already! If for no other reason, because Laci's family needs to close this chapter and really let the healing begin.

OK, here's something I totally don't get. Why is it that whenever some people complain about their work conditions, other people immediately jump down their throat with, "At least YOU have a job!" As if, because times are tough, these people aren't allowed to complain about their work environment.

As I've mentioned a few times, I was laid off my job (that on many days, absolutely sucked) in March, 2002. Even now, when I'm really scratching for money, I would never try to silence someone who complained about their boss, or that a client was being a jerk, or a co-worker was being an idiot. I mean, what, it's only okay to complain about your work environment when we're ALL fat and happy? Sorry, but that's just really fucked up.

I have a very good friend who has a job that pays very well (and they get stock options and profit sharing too, I believe). To hear some of the stories about my friend's workplace (a Very Big Company in Silicon Valley), I have to wonder if they recruit whack-jobs...or create them. Because it sounds like my friend is one of a very small group of highly-functioning people there, sometimes.

Even talking to former co-workers at my old job...they complain about the same old stupidity and shenanigans that went on when I was still at the company...yet I've never even thought that these people should just be glad they still have their jobs and should shut up.

I had a job, briefly, at a place which shall not be named at this time. In this economy, it's called a "survival job," but I defy anyone to survive in the Bay Area on a part time job that pays $8/hr. Or at least survive with anything that resembles "quality of life." And there were days when it was damn hard to be there, but I put on that "Disney" charm, and gutted it out. Sometimes I felt really horrible about myself for selling myself--in terms of my skills and experience--out for an unlivable wage. Sometimes my co-workers were difficult to deal with (and I guarantee you, they felt the same way about me...because that's just the nature of the workplace).

Sometimes the owner bitched me and my co-workers out and got hysterical about things that just didn't require a hysterical reaction. In fact, I ended up quitting because in one of her fits of fire breathing, she accused me of theft (using company computers and work time to work on my own website). It was patently FALSE and I challenged her to provide the proof to support her claim. After all, she had monitoring software in the computer that would catch me out if I really was doing my own personal stuff on it. And she had five or six cameras in that tiny shop, so just about everywhere anyone went, they were on camera. She refused to provide any proof (because she had none...because I didn't do it, duh!) and she refused to apologise to me for making such a heinous--not to mention false--accusation. So I quit. And I'm not sorry that I did, because there are certain kinds of abuse I just will not tolerate...and that no one should ever feel that they must tolerate.

As for the customers at that job, most of them were awesome, but a few of them were real doozies! And if it were my shop, I'd invite those doozies to take their business elsewhere, because they were customers that actually cost the shop money!

And you know what? I had every right to complain about all that now that I had when the dot-com boom was happening and we all had steady work were well-fed on big paychecks (and some on stock options--which I never got, actually) and working 60-80 hour weeks. Just like my friends and co-workers have a right to complain about what's going on at their workplace.

Sometimes, work just sucks whether the economy is booming or bleeding. And if I've stuffed my empathy in the back of the freezer when my friends could use a good kvetch session, then I'm not much of a friend.

The times, they are mucho stressful. So tonight I made my ultimate comfort food: Risotto Milanese. Risotto is actually pretty easy to make--you just have to stand and stir for what starts to feel like an eternity (but it's only about 20 minutes). Luckily, I had a few precious saffron threads left in the pantry, and, funds being tight, I have a stash of rice (including a box of Abrorio that I was very happy to find) that I'm making my way through.

I ate two bowls of it, and I still have a vat of it left! I'll freeze some of it to have once school cranks up again (or...dare I hope...have it to take to work).

Pete Rose now admits that he gambled on baseball. I've been a fan of Rose for a long, long time, but I'm finding the timing of this admission a little tough to take.

In his autobiography, Pete Rose: My Story (1989), he denied betting on baseball. Now, in his new book, My Prison Without Bars, he says he did it. But never AGAINST his team...as if that somehow makes it all right (or at least less wrong). Understandably, baseball historian Roger Kahn (who co-wrote Pete Rose: My Story with Rose), is feeling like he was made a fool of by Rose. Kahn says he "must have asked Pete 20 times, 'Did you bet on baseball?' He would look at me, blink his eyes and say, 'I didn't bet baseball. I have too much respect for the game.' "

Rose indicates that he's wanted to come clean for years but couldn't find anyone to confess to that could "help" him. I'm guessing that by the word "help" he means "get (him) reinstated in baseball". And, to be honest, that's not the reason I was hoping to hear from him. I wish it didn't bother me so much that his apparently sole reason (or at least his main reason) for admitting to gambling is so that he can be reinstated...incidentally, he has one more shot at the Hall of Fame (at least on the writers' ballots) and that's in December 2005. But it does bother me.

I guess something else that bothers me is that he pretty much DID admit to it when he accepted his lifetime ban in 1989. Given that he has steadfastly denied gambling in the nearly 15 years since his ban, why would he have accepted such a punishment if they didn't have the goods on him? If the reason that he didn't admit to gambling was because he thought they'd ban him for life...well when they did ban him for life, why not just admit to it then? Why would anyone want to carry around that karmic burden for fifteen years?

And that's what it really comes down to, IMO. Pete Rose could have simply admitted to gambling, apologised to MLB and to the players and to the fans for gambling--and for lying about it for so long--and then he could have just said, "hey, I'd love to be reinstated back into baseball, but I'm just saying all of this now so I can put it all behind me. If they reinstate me, I'd be delighted because I feel I have something positive to contribute to baseball, but if they don't, I'll move on with my life."

Instead, he seems to be complaining that once he confessed to Commissioner Bud Selig, he thought he'd be reinstated, "within a reasonable period." He complains that he was told that if he would just admit betting on baseball then "all would be forgiven". But does he reject forgiveness, if that forgiveness doesn't come bundled with reinstatement (or at least reinstatement before the December 2005 HOF balloting)?

I've long called for Rose's reinstatement: To be quite honest, I've thought for a long time that the punishment was a bit too severe for the crime. I've talked to some baseball fans over the years who are very passionate about this and say that if Major League Baseball reinstates Pete Rose, they'll never watch another game. I try to think, given my passion for hockey, "what if they caught Wayne Gretzky betting on hockey, would I support a lifetime ban against him?" and I keep coming back to, "No". (And I don't particularly like Gretzky!) I think banning Rose from baseball for five or ten years would have gotten the message across (provided that ban came with an admission of betting on baseball). Then, let him back in and if he bets again, make it a lifetime ban.

Still, that said, I am greatly disappointed in his attitude at this point. I wish I could afford a copy of his book when it comes out this week, so I can see if he really is a bit more contrite and a little less, "baseball owes me" about the situation than recent interviews (and his book title, for that matter) indicate.

Aye! WetCanvas is down for a few days while they get it set for a re-launch! It's one of the best online communities going...and I'm missing it already.

Of course, maybe this means I'll actually get more work done. ;-)

Can't wait to see the "new" site!

It's been cold around here lately! (And this is coming from someone who doesn't get cold...) The report says it's 45 out now, but it feels colder than that to me. There's another freeze advisory out for the area, too. Crikey, if it's gonna be this cold, then it should just snow so at least it would be cold AND interesting!

The last couple of nights, it's gotten to the point where I've shut off the bedroom and, to the extent I can, the bathroom (the furkids litter box lives in the bathroom, so I can't cut off their access to it). And Simon and I have been kipping on the couch, much to Billie's displeasure.

But it just makes more sense to try to keep just the one room reasonably comfortable for sleeping. Speaking of which, I'm going to turn up the heat just a bit and try to take the chill off the living room before we retire for the night. (And have another cup of tea...)