December 7, 2002: Pearl Harbor Day. I was a little over four months old when the surprise attack occurred, so naturally I don't remember a thing about it. I do remember the war, though.

I love the little dances that go on when someone is fired in Washington. Of course Bush didn't appear in public yesterday to answer any questions about the firing of his two big eco guns. And of course he'd never admit that his eco policies are flawed. But if they were any good, would his top guns have been fired? Now that he has to think about re-election, maybe Dub will try to do something about the economy. Or maybe he's still hoping the war will divert attention from it.

December 6, 2002: In a brief respite from the "All Iraq, all the time" blather of the Bush administration, the Treasury Secretary and another big economic honcho announced their resignations today, one coming within an hour of the other. Ari Fleischer told the press that "they resigned, and that's all I'll ever say about that." In other words, "Move along, asshats. Nothing to see here. Move along." Another coincidence was the fact that the unemployment rate spiked up to 6%, the highest in 9 years. Of course nothing like that ever happened on the watch of that lucky S.O.B. Bill Clinton, which must gall Dub in the extreme.

December 4, 2002: We went to hear Leon Hale at the ACC Foundation's annual Christmas banquet last night. He read "The Chamber of Commerce Bull," which was pretty funny, and told a few funny stories. He got a very good reception. The silent auction and the regular auction made some money for the Foundation, too.

Very rainy and dark and gloomy today. Not the kind of day to make anyone feel good, except maybe someone longing for London in the winter.

December 3, 2002: What I don't understand today (I'm constantly in the dark, it seems) is why Dub doesn't just go ahead and bomb the hell out of Iraq. I mean, it's clear tht he's just itching to do it and that the UN inspections, no matter what they find, aren't going to stop him. So what's he waiting for?

Drudge revisited John Kerry's hair today. He's not paying as much as Drudge said at first. Gee, nothing like a newsy retraction like that to get the day off to a great start.

December 2, 2002: OK, I'm back. What? You didn't even know I was gone? Oh, well. We had a nice Thanksgiving with my daughter. We picked up Judy's mother and brought her here, and our son came in from Austin. He carved the turkey. I'm not competent in that area, so I have no idea where he learned. We took Judy's mom home on Friday, and I met with some of my high school classmates on Saturday. It's always great to see them again and to find out what's been going on in their lives.

My political comment for today has to do with John Kerry's hair. Apparently it's already become a campaign issue, and the campaign hasn't even started yet. What, I ask you, has the world come to when the fact that a guy goes to an expensive hair stylist becomes headline news. Well, it was headline news on The Drudge Report, which maybe tells us all we need to know about Drudge.