Tom Ridge Resigns - Press Conference @ 2:45 EST

Fox News has just reported that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has announced his resignation. There will be a press conference at 2:45 EST. Update: He's said his resignation is effective February 1, 2005 - sooner if a replacement is chosen and confirmed prior to that. Link.

More books to re-read

In reading through other bloggers' lists, it seems that quite a few bloggers are C.S. Lewis fans. I have a few more too, some from other's lists (*) that I didn't think about and a few others. *Walter Miller's A Canticle for Liebowitz Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars *Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (New movie out May 6, 2005), The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life the Universe and Everything, and the fourth book in the trilogy So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish. Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn *Terry Pratchett's Discworld books (love The Luggage) Michael Ende's The Neverending Story (My copy [Doubleday, 1983] is printed in red and green ink. Red for Bastian's part of the story and Green for The Neverending Story itself.) More specific from my list of authors in the post below: Katherine Kurtz's The Deryni Chronicles Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar, Vows and Honor, Halfblood Chronicles, The Mage Winds, and Bardic Voices Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, The Rowan, Freedom, Crystal, Acorna, The Ship who Sang Robert Heinlein's Time Enough for Love (Future History with Lazarus Long), The Number of the Beast, Starship Troopers, A Stranger in a Strange Land, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, etc. Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series and Xanth trilogy of 27 books (it's 3³ / three cubed) (He's started the second trilogy with book # 28 - Currant Events) Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld, Dayworld, Venus on the Half-Shell (as Kilgore Trout), A Barnstormer in Oz (Dorothy's son goes to Oz), Tarzan Alive (what Edgar Rice Burroughs got wrong) Father Andrew Greeley's Blackie Ryan novels, Nuala Anne McGrail novels, the Angel series Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series Baen Books has a free library :

Introducing the Baen Free Library by Eric Flint Baen Books is now making available — for free — a number of its titles in electronic format. We're calling it the Baen Free Library. Anyone who wishes can read these titles online — no conditions, no strings attached. (Later we may ask for an extremely simple, name & email only, registration. ) Or, if you prefer, you can download the books in one of several formats. Again, with no conditions or strings attached. (URLs to sites which offer the readers for these format are also listed. ) Why are we doing this? Well, for two reasons. The first is what you might call a "matter of principle." This all started as a byproduct of an online "virtual brawl" I got into with a number of people, some of them professional SF authors, over the issue of online piracy of copyrighted works and what to do about it. There was a school of thought, which seemed to be picking up steam, that the way to handle the problem was with handcuffs and brass knucks. Enforcement! Regulation! New regulations! Tighter regulations! All out for the campaign against piracy! No quarter! Build more prisons! Harsher sentences! Alles in ordnung!

Birthdays and Books to read again and again - Updated

Michelle Malkin notes that today is C.S. Lewis' birthday. He was born November 29th, 1898. Hugh Hewitt is asking for novels that have been read at least twice. Topping my list are those by C.S. Lewis. The Space Trilogy - Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength (I just took these three out of the library on Thursday Wednesday to re-read for the umpteenth time). We also can't omit The Chronicles of Narnia (I own the seven book series). Hugh mentions The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and I would add The Hobbit and The Father Christmas Letters (letters that Tolkien wrote from Santa to his son Christopher). In a previous posting here I highly recommend the series of historical novels by Edward Rutherfurd; Sarum, London, Russka, The Forest and Dublin. Other authors whose books I've re-read: Robert Heinlein, Phillip Jose Farmer, Father Andrew Greeley, Robert Jordan, Katherine Kurtz, Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, and Piers Anthony. Of course there are also the children's books that I've read over and over to my children (the ones that you can know by heart)... The Velveteen Rabbit, The Polar Express, Green Eggs and Ham, Mouse, Look Out!, but they aren't novels... Update: Welcome visitors from Hugh Hewitt. Please feel free to list your re-reads in the comments. Thanks Hugh! Update: I have added another post with more books to re-read.

Newsweek's Periscope on Unfit for Command

In Newsweek's Persicope section, page 9 there is a short article by Susannah Meadows about the all the political books that used to be on the front tables at the bookstores. In this article she says: "Even the conservative imprint Regenery isn't giving up yet on O'Neill's book [Unfit for Command], the now largely discredited attack on Kerry's military service. The publisher is planning to market its remaining copies as the book that brought the candidate down." (emphasis mine). Is it largely discredited because the liberals say it is? I still haven't seen any proof of its being discredited. Haven't seen Kerry's records (still hasn't signed the Form 180) proving that what John O'Neill says isn't true.

Birthdays

Today my youngest son turned Four, tomorrow my daughter turns Fourteen. They were both due somewhere between December 5th and 12th. Katie was tiny, tiny 4 pounds 10 ounces. She has a developmental delay, epilepsy, and moderate hearing and vision impairments. Just before Christmas, just after her little brother was born she had surgery for a vagus nerve implant. She's just had a change in her medication for the epilepsy too. We are hoping her epilepsy will be more controlled and that her cognition will improve with the new meds. Nicky was 6 pounds even. He was so good this morning. His present was waiting on the table and he had to wait until Mommy woke up to open it. He was thrilled to receive a Batman Monster Truck. Happy birthdays to my oldest and youngest babies.

Veteran's Day

Chris at A Large Regular has something you should read. Go do it. Now. To all who have served and are serving now in America's Armed Forces: Thank you for your service. Happy Veteran's Day.

ok now he's really dead

He's really dead this time, Yasser Arafat. The Palestinians are opting to follow the law in appointing the president for the next 60 days, at which time they will hold elections. Nice that they are opting to follow the law. May God bless his soul. He certainly needs it.

Elizabeth Edwards, our prayers are with you

Elizabeth Edwards had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Get well soon.

Yasser Arafat has died - UPDATED

George Bush was just informed by a reporter (Bill Sammon from the Washington Times) at his press conference that Yasser Arafat has died. He was asked what his reaction is. George Bush said, "God bless his soul." Right answer Mr. Bush. Update: I tried to update this at 11 cst, but then the power went out. Bill Sammon was informed by the AP that Yasser Arafat had died and asked his question of the President. Further reports have it that Yasser Arafat is in very grave condition. President Bush still had the right answer. 12:21 cst. Finally Dead at approx 3:30 am Paris Time - November 11, 2004

Change the Primary System

We need to change the primary election system. I would suggest regionalizing the primaries, set up four distinct regions in the US. Hold the primaries over four consecutive weeks in March or April. Rotate the regions on a two- year basis so that each region has a chance to be first in the Presidential election years and the off-year elections. John Kerry had the nomination before Illinois held its primary. Illinois only cemented it in.

Election Day - Final

The American people have spoken. A 3.5 million popular vote mandate. W won with over 50% of the popular vote.

Election Day (IV) - Updated

Polls close at 7:00 p.m. CST. The County says it will start uploading results at 7:30. I'll try to keep up. Update: Our precinct had 829 registered voters and 451 votes cast for a turnout of 54.4%! In our precinct: Bush/Cheney 227 50.33% Kerry/Edwards 216 47.89% 11 votes! Update (County Wide):72.2% Turnout. Bush/Cheney: 139,006 50.45% Kerry/Edwards: 134,231 48.71%

Election Day (III) - updated

At 10:30 a.m. I was the 171th precinct voter and the 255th from both precincts. There were 12 voting booths and 10 were occupied. That is the most people I have ever seen in my polling place at one time. The election judge said it was pretty slow right then, they have seen many more at one time already today. There were two men at the door to direct you to the proper precinct table. If you didn't know what precinct, they directed you to a third table to be "looked up". Since my last name can be difficult, I just showed my registration card. The two people behind me did as well. It seemed as though everyone leaving was happy to get their "Proud to Vote" sticker, in fact, as I was coming in a woman was insisting on getting her sticker. I'm in Illinois, so we know how the state (Chicago) is going to vote, but I did my part for W. Update: At the Primary there were 743 registered voters in my precinct. 134 votes were cast for a turnout of 18.03%. The other precinct had 709 registered voters at the Primary, 145 votes were cast for a turnout of 20.45%. Already at 10:30 at voter number 171 from my precinct, we were already 27% higher than the primary. As voter 255 from both precincts, we were at 91% of the Primary's total votes.

Election Day (II)

Air Raid Sirens (Tornado Sirens) just went off. First Tuesday of the month at 10 a.m. Is this going to end up scaring anybody?

Election Day (I)

My husband went and voted this morning. He was number 77 out of 2 precincts in the polling place at 6:40 am. In the Primary, we went together and were numbers 100 and 101, but I can't remember what time we went. I am going to go a little later to get a better sense of turnout in our little precinct. I think that there were about 364 registered voters in the precinct at Primary time. Update: At the Primary there were 743 registered voters in the precinct.

If you can read this

then you are much too close. You cheated to find out who Madeline Albright was...

Happy Halloween

Our village holds trick or treating from 1 pm until 5 pm on the Sunday before Halloween, or on Halloween if it falls on Sunday, like today. Our little Mickey Mouse went the rounds for an hour with his father, had a piece of candy when he got home, watched a little TV and was out like a light. He's almost four and really needed a nap. Not too many visitors today. Lots of ghouls, a tiny giraffe (15 months old), several Spidermen, various Disney Princesses and a Care Bear. I was glad to see that most the trick or treaters had at least one adult with them. Leftover candy, but all in all a nice Halloween.

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"Jumping to Conclusions" On Beltway Boys

I was watching Beltway Boys earlier and Mort and Fred were discussing Kerry and Bush's accusing each other of "jumping to conclusions". The comment made in answer to this was (paraphrased): Bush may have "jumped to conclusions" regarding WMD's, but it was based on CIA and other intelligence reports and was conventional wisdom. Kerry jumped to conclusions based on a front page story in the NY Times.