June 20, 2003: Joan Lowery Nixon died this past weekend, and Sara Ann Freed died earlier last week. These were two of the first people I met in the world of mystery writers and publishing, and they were also two of the nicest. It's hard to believe they're gone.

June 25, 2003: We went to Houston last night to a book signing by Christopher Moore. He's a very funny guy in person, and of course his books are hilarious. His new one is FLUKE: I KNOW WHY THE WINGED WHALE SINGS. Turns out he's a fan of Joe Lansdale.

June 19, 2003: The amazing and blatant hypocrisy of George W. Bush never fails to amaze me. Now he's calling people who question the existence of WMD "revisionist historians," as if he had never mentioned WMD, never used them as justification for the war with Iraq, never even thought about them much. He and all his supporters are saying, "Hey, Saddam was a bad guy, and we got him. Aren't you glad?" Sure, Saddam was bad, but so are plenty of others, including some members of the "Coalition of the Willing." We don't go after them. We went after Saddam because he was supposed to be a clear and present danger to the security of this country. All I'm asking is that the president not lie to me, or send Colin Powell to the U.N. to lie even more. But that's too much to ask.

June 17, 2003: We had to go to Angela's today because her car needed to go to the shop. We left one of our cars with her and came home. About an hour after we got back, Angela called. Her car was ready. We should've taken one car and waited. But then how were we to know that?

I read yesterday that one poll shows that 1/3 of Americans believe that we've located Saddam's WDM. And 22% believe that Saddam used WDM against us in the war. So I give up. The nation is full of ignorant ostriches who blindly love Dub and don't care about the facts.

June 12, 2003: Tomorrow we're heading for a visit with Judy's mom and with the Mexia High School Class of 1959. The class gets together every year at this time, but it seems to me that interest is waning. Lots of people have said they wouldn't be there this year, and I suspect that the turn-out will be the worst ever. Even the guy who urged the yearly meeting isn't going to come. What does that tell us? I'll be there, though, and it will be good to see some of the old gang again. And "old" is the right word. How could it be that we graduated 44 years ago? It seems impossible, but there it is. Good grief.

June 9, 2003: Can it have been five days since I posted? Doesn't seem like it. The Repubs are spinning like crazy on the WMD issue these days, but here's a thought: What if they know exactly where the WMD are hidden out and are just waiting until the Demo outcry reaches a peak of frenzy to spring it on them? That would be a stroke of genius. Somehow I don't think that's the case, but it's an interesting idea.

June 4, 2003: Today is my 38th wedding anniversary. Judy and I got married in Thornton, Texas, and honeymooned in Colorado Springs. It was the first time that I'd ever been out of the state, if you don't count a day trip across the border into Mexico when I was a kid. These days, most kids have travelled more than that by the time they're out of kindergarten. Anyway, we had a wonderful time, so it was a good start to the marriage. Now that we've lasted this long, maybe we'll make it for a few more years.

June 3, 2003: Went to the dentist yesterday to have a lost filling replaced. I thought this morning that the problem was solved, but now it's later in the day, and I'm not so sure. I may have to get a crown. I'd really hate that. I'm hoping that I just need one more day of recovery and that by tomorrow all will be well.

June 2, 2003: Rush Limbaugh is spinning the WMD stories like mad today, which must mean there's something to all the criticism. Either that, or he really hates it that the stories are getting some traction and maybe tarnishing Dub a little. Dub is such a moron that he declared two trailers "weapons of mass destruction" the other day Poland. How does the press (and everyone else) let him get away with such lies?

May 31, 2003: Saw THE ITALIAN JOB yesterday. Hokum, but high-grade hokum. Very Hollywood, very slick. Check your brain at the door. I'm not a fan of Marky Mark, and I'd rather have seen someone else in the lead role. Everyone else was fine. I need to see the original version again to compare them.

May 29, 2003: Ray Eubanks again. I would never have gone to school if it hadn't been for Ray. He lived about two blocks from me, and when I wouldn't go to first grade, my mother arranged for him to walk by the house every morning and get me. So I walked to school with him for a good long time. We were walking together the day my grandfather (my father's father) died. His house was separated from ours by one other house, so we had to pass it every day. In fact, we walked along his curved driveway nearly every time. I remember seeing his body (it was covered with a sheet, but I knew what it was) being put into the hearse. At the time, I didn't think that much of it. I knew he'd been very sick, and now he was dead. No big deal. At the age of six, what did I know about death?

May 28, 2003: I was thinking about Ray Eubanks today. I don't know how memory works for other people, but I don't seem able to remember long uninterrupted stretches of the past. I just remember vivid moments. One of those is of sitting beside Ray in church. I don't know how old we were, but it's about my first memory of being allowed to sit with someone other than my own family. One of the songs was "Since Jesus Came into my Heart," and I was amazed that Ray knew it by memory. I was impressed by his singing of the high part on "floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea billows roll," mainly because I didn't know what a sea billow was, and I doubt that Ray did, either.

Ray was my age, or a little older. He's been dead now for ten or fifteen years.

May 25, 2003: Last night we watched OUR TOWN on Showtime. I first read the play more than 40 years ago, and I thought it was great. It's probably one of the things that made me want to be a writer. I later taught the play to the students at Corsicana High School, but after that I didn't read it again. I was amazed at how well I remembered it, considering that I can hardly remember a book I read two weeks ago. I was also amazed to recall how deeply I felt the play when I was just a kid. Sometimes I don't think my understanding has deepened at all over the years. Anyway, it was great to see a performance of it and to find out that it still had the power to affect me and make me think again those old thoughts.

May 24, 2003: We saw THE MATRIX RELOADED yesterday. It occurred to me after the movie that I didn't have a clue as to what was going on during the "philosophical discussions." Obviously I'm not as deeply into this stuff as a lot of people are. I do, however, understand Neo's decision at the end to save Carrie-Ann Moss instead of the entire human race. Given a choice between the human race and Carrie-Ann Moss in a leather suit, I know I'd do the same thing.

May 22, 2003: I guess the latest move in Iraq is the change from "We're going to let them form their own democratic government with a few months," or words to that effect, to "We're going to become an occupying power, stay for a zillion years, sell their oil, and hear the lamentation of their women." But people still think George W. Bush has never told a lie.

May 19, 2003: Well, let's see. I thought that by now Iraq was supposed to be moving right along toward democracy, its people having greeted us as liberators. Instead, we're starting to talk about shooting to kill the looters. Instead of getting better, the looting's getting worse, or, as Rummy would put it, more untidy. And al-Qaeda terrorists seem to be striking again, though they're supposed to be "marginalized." Of course we're going to find them and give them a sample of American justice, according to George W. Bush. We can't find Osama bin Laden, we can't find the anthrax killer, and we can't even find Saddam. So how are we going to find these terrorists? Maybe Dub can spot them as he flies a jet over Saudi Arabia.

May 15, 2003: It's looking more and more as if there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Here's a quote. "In his dramatic presentation to the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 6, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States 'knew' that Baghdad had dispersed rocket launchers and warheads containing biological warfare agents to locations in western Iraq." Well, if they had 'em, why not use 'em? And if they had 'em, where the hell are they? We were lied to, pure and simple. And the scary thing is that Dub is going to get away with it. Nobody has the guts to call him on it.

May 12, 2003: I spent Mother's Day weekend in Mexia and Thornton. On Saturday I went to the memorial service for Louise Carr and saw several members of the Carr family whom I hadn't seen since my college days: Aletha, John Wesley, and Judy. Joe Carr was there, of course, but I see him and his wife (Judy Kennedy) every now and then in Austin. I also saw Nancy Ann Dillard for the first time since she graduated. I recognized her immediately, even though that's been nearly 50 years.

On Sunday I mowed the yard for Judy's mother. Angela and Allen drove up for lunch, and we had a nice little family gathering.

May 8, 2003: I was mowing the lawn this morning (one of my least favorite pastimes), and an old song kept running through my head. It was one my parents had on a 78 when I was a kid. "The Sidewalks of New York." It's about Sweet Rosie O'Grady and me and Mamie O'Rourke, who tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York. It occurred to me that I was probably the only person in the entire United States, if not the world, who was thinking about that particular song and that when my generation passed away, nobody was likely to think of it again. When kids these days are old guys mowing the lawn, I guess they'll be thinking about a song that goes, "I got a ho whose name be Sue, she can whip you ass and you ho too." Somehow it's not the same, but, hey, for all I know Sweet Rosie O'Grady was a ho.

Bill Crider

May 7, 2003: I turned in the grades today for my "distance learning" course. Two students completed all the work. Not a good percentage. Also worked on MACAVITY, producing four more mailing comments. Only six or seven to go.

As for the political world, let's see: Dub's budget director quit because he wants to run for governor of Indiana. Or so we were told. The next day it turns out that the guy is being investigated for insider trading. Hmmmm. We're told that Dub had to fly to the carrier to make his speech because it was too far from shore for him to reach it by helicopter. Turns out that it was right on shore. Ho-hum, just another routine lie for Ari Fleischer, who spins them out daily. And what about those WMDs?

May 6, 2003: Went to the DAV store and bought three LPs, two by Connie Francis and LAST DATE by Floyd Cramer. Went to Wal-Mart and bought some paving stones that I plan to put on the graves of Speedo and Jeoffry. A busy day for the old retired guy!

May 4, 2003. We're slowly recovering from the loss of Speedo, but we still keep looking for him. Sam, the youngest cat, doesn't seem to notice that anything's changed. Geri, the one we call "Baby," was with Speedo all the time. She looked for him every day and slept right beside him, as close to him as she could get. She seems a little puzzled and lost, but who knows what a cat's thinking.

April 30, 2003: I've been away for a while, but I'll try to do better.

Speedo was a gray tabby who showed up at our house late in March 1988. We didn't know where he came from, and we didn't realize how lucky we were that he'd chosen to live with us. He was one of the best cats ever. He wasn't “like a member of the family.” He was a member of the family. He eventually grew up to weigh around 18 pounds. There was a lot of him to love.

For the last couple of years, Speedo had arthritis in his spine and back legs, but being a cat of great courage and spunk, he was able to get around remarkably well. He never complained, and he seemed to be doing fine.

On Wednesday evening, April 23, Speedo went downhill suddenly and fast. By the next morning, he could hardly move, and I rushed him to the vet. The vet did a lot for him, and when I picked him up on Friday, he was almost his old self.

It didn't last. On Sunday, he went down hill just as suddenly, but even faster.

I had a dream about him last Wednesday night. I dreamed that he and I were both in the house where I grew up. Speedo was young and lithe and fast. So lithe and fast, in fact, that he ran straight up the wall, nearly to the ceiling. Then he turned and jumped to the narrow ledge that ran above the windows. He walked along it without putting a foot wrong, front or back. His head was high, his spine straight. When he reached the end of the ledge, he jumped to the bed, light as air, and purring as loud as only Speedo could purr.

Very early on Monday morning, Speedo left us. I hope that when he went from the light to the dark, he was having my dream. I hope that somewhere along the way he entered into it and that right now he’s running lithe and strong and fast and purring as loud as only Speedo can purr.

April 9, 2003: I really need to do better about this blogging. But I have so little to say. Now, however, I can admit that all my fears about the Iraq war seem to have been unjustified. Easy victory, no great loss of American lives. (Tough about those Iraqi civilians, though, not to mention a few journalists who got in the way.) Now I can start worrying about the economy again, but since Rush promises it will "explode" when we declare victory in Iraq, I guess I shouldn't worry about that, either. Except that we've won, and the market is down today. That can't be good.

April 1, 2003: It's April Fool's day, and so here I am. I guess there was not Shiite rebellion in Basra, after all. Do the Brits have control there yet? I mean, it's been a while. I guess the cakewalk never materialized. But then the radio talk show hosts are all saying now that nobody ever promised this was going to be easy. Too bad they don't post transcripts of their programs. Or, from their point of view, it's lucky they don't, because they're lying like rugs. That's fine, though. After all, they're radio talk show hosts. Natalie Mains had better keep her damned opinions to herself, or get a radio show. Then she could spout them for three hours a day to her adoring listeners like Rush does.

March 25, 2003: First we hear that there's a Shiite rebellion in Basra. Then we hear there's not. Sort of makes you wonder.

I read an interesting article that says the largest importer of Iraqi oil is, you guessed it, the U.S. I wonder what all those "Freedom" Fries idiots think of that?

March 24, 2003: It's been a while. I've been busy, and I haven't really felt like blogging. But I'm back.

I heard Rush Limbaugh crowing today that "all our reasons for this war have been totally vindicated already." Or words to that effect. Why did he say that? (1) There was an al-Qaeda training camp in northern Iraq. (2) There was a big "chemical weapons plant." Of course what Rush didn't mention is that everybody has known about that al-Qaeda camp for months, and there's no connection between it and Saddam. It's in the Kurdish-held territory. Rush knows that, but he must also know how stupid his audience is. They'll think the al-Qaeda were training in one of Saddam's palaces. The "weapons plant" was first mentioned in 1991, so I wouldn't call it a big discovery. And there were no weapons found in it, another little point Rush failed to mention. But to the Dittoheads it doesn't matter. Rush never gets it wrong, so we're totally vindicated.

March 12, 2003: Haven't blogged in a while, but today I was listening to some moronic talk show host telling me how good I had it, now that Bush has driven the market to near its five-year low. "We've in touch with ourselves. We're more real!" I guess what we really need to put us in touch with our real selves and show how we handle adversity is another Great Depression. This moron probably thinks so.

March 7, 2003: Here's my take on the whole Iraq mess. What do you do when you're faced with a massive (and record) deficit, when unemployment is rising, and when a double-dip recession is staring you in the face? You use the "Great Satan" defense, as I'm naming it in honor of the Ayatollah. You're the leader, and you have people who are likely to blame things on you, so you give them someone else to hate instead, an easily identifiable enemy, a Great Satan, who'll take their minds off the fact that gas prices are soaring, that the economy is in the tank, and that things are looking worse, not better.

It's working for Kim Jong Il in North Korea. He's just using us the way we're using Saddam.

And it's working for Dub. But I don't know how long he can keep it up.

I thought the press conference last night was a mess. First of all, he didn't call on Helen Thomas, becoming the first president to ignore her in about half a century. He didn't call on the Washington Post guy, either. When asked about a cost estimate for the war, he didn't answer, implying that he didn't know, which, of course, isn't true. I'm sure they have estimates galore. He repeated the same catch phrases over and over. (I counted four times for "If Saddam doesn't disarm, we will disarm him.") I guess his handlers pounded certain "talking points" into his head. He said at least twice, "if this war is forced on us." Nobody is forcing us into a war except George W. Bush, as I see it.

He also said that "it's up to North Korea's neighbors" to handle that situation because Kim is more of a threat to them than to us. But a part of one of their missles is in Alaska, not part of one of Saddam's. Today, one of their top guys says they're willing to "put the torch to New York." I don't recall Saddam having said anything at all like that. It would seem to me he's much more of a threat to his neighbors than to us, but Bush hasn't said it's up them to handle things.

And his "neighbors" comment caused the Japanese stock market to fall to a 20-year low this morning. Dub isn't content with destroying our economy; he's going to work on the world's. Speaking of the economy, gas prices aren't going down any time soon. They're going up. The job figures were awful this morning. I think we're in for that double dip, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Dub ramped up those terror warnings to red to take our mind off that.

As you can tell, I'm very depressed about all this, and I don't see a good result from any of it. Maybe Dub will pull it off and prove me wrong. I really, really hope so.

March 5, 2003: You know you're thinking too much about Iraq when you wake up in the morning and the first thought that pops into your head is: "How long has it been since Dub mentioned the Iraq and al-Qaida connection?" The answer seems to be that he hasn't mentioned it since Colin Powell tried it out on the UN and pretty much got laughed at around the world. The connection was so tenuous that nobody believed in it, mainly because (in my humble opinion) it never existed. So Dub has finally dropped it. I guess his propaganda team now thinks the idea is firmly implanted in people's minds, so they don't need to tell that lie, er, make that excuse any longer. Dub's latest line seems to be that we're going to commit a huge war of agression to bring democracy to the Middle East. Yes, that's what America has always been about: forcing our form of government on everybody else because it's good for them.

March 1, 2003: We saw DAREDEVIL yesterday. It was OK, but Ben Affleck isn't much as an action hero. I'm sure I missed many of the little in-jokes for the comics fanboys, too. Maybe HULK will be better.

February 27, 2003: We went to Dallas last week to DFW Con, a small regional SF convention. We had a good time, though there weren't too many people there that we knew. We left just in time to avoid the ice storm.

Mr. Rogers has died, and there's all kinds of advice about how to help your kids deal with it. What about helping me deal with it. Sure, I'm an Old Guy, but my kids grew up with Mr. Rogers, and I watched, too. Maybe Old Guys are supposed to be able to deal with death. Well, I don't like it much, and I don't like dealing with it. Mr. Rogers is in a better neighborhood now, I guess, but that doesn't make me feel a whole lot better.

February 19, 2003: I had to go to Wal-Mart's today, so I turned on the car radio, and there was Rush Limbaugh. El Rushbo assured me and his other billions of listeners that Dub "knows a lot more than he's telling" about the Iraq situation. If so, I wonder why all the secrecy. Why can't he just clue us in? Then everyone would be on his side.

The Maharushie also informed me that the reason Germany and France are against the war is that they both have "dirty hands" and are guilty of supplying Iraq with the means to create weapons of mass destruction. It's times like that when I'd like to have old Rush in the same room so I could ask who sold him all those biological weapons we're so worried about. Ronnie and George the First, I believe. With Rummy's able assistance, of course.

February 19, 2003: I've decided about another thing that worries me about Dub's administration, and that's the total lack of diplomacy. I wasn't all that fond of George the First, but at least when he went to war, he could build a coalition. Dub and his crew are so arrogant that they can't. The First sent James Baker all over the world for meetings. Dub makes a phone call, and it's not working. We've been able to bribe some nations into a coalition, but look who they are: Bulgaria, Hungary, Spain, Denmark, etc. Not exaclty powerhouses, and most of them won't contribute a single soldier. None of them will contribute a cent to rebuilding Iraq. And now Turkey wants a bigger bribe. I think very little thinking and planning went into building a coalition, and I think people who say Dub and his gang are arrogant and condescending are right. Sure, we're the most powerful nation on earth, but we don't have to go around telling everyone that we are and that they'd better shape up. That's no way to win allies.

February 17, 2003: On Thursday we're heading for ConDFW, a small regional SF convention in its second year. We'll get to see some friends, but we probably won't sell any books there. It'll be nice to have a little road trip, however.

February 15, 2003: Headline and first paragraph from Washington Times article today:

Bin Laden son, al Qaeda terrorists spotted in Iran
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

U.S. intelligence agencies say Osama bin Laden's oldest son, Sad, is in Iran along with other senior al Qaeda terrorists, as Iranian military forces have been placed on their highest state of alert in anticipation of a U.S. attack on Iraq, according to intelligence officials.

So tell me again. We're attacking Iraq because there's a connection with al-Qaeda, right?

February 15, 2003: My blog is never listed under "blogs of note" on blogger's homepage. Conspiracy? I report, you decide.

February 15, 2003: Well, I was right. George W. didn't hold a press conference about the latest terror threat, but then you can't blame him since it turned out to be based on a lie that our "intelligence" services believed and didn't even try to corroborate. He hasn't held any press conferences about the U.N.'s latest little rebellion against the U.S., either. He gives "addresses," where he reads things written for him by others, but there's never any give and take. Wonder why? And I wonder how long it will be before he blames the world's distaste for him on Bill Clinton?

February 14, 2003: Here's another completely unbiased report. But first this word from ABC News:

>>The officials said that a claim made by a captured al Qaeda member that Washington, New York or Florida would be hit by a "dirty bomb" sometime this week had proven to be a product of his imagination.

The informant described a detailed plan that an al Qaeda cell operating in either Virginia or Detroit had developed a way to slip past airport scanners with dirty bombs encased in shoes, suitcases, or laptops, sources told ABCNEWS. The informant reportedly cited specific targets of government buildings and Christian or clerical centers.

"This piece of that puzzle turns out to be fabricated and therefore the reason for a lot of the alarm, particularly in Washington this week, has been dissipated after they found out that this information was not true," said Vince Cannistraro, former CIA counter-terrorism chief and ABCNEWS consultant. It was only after the threat level was elevated to orange — meaning high — last week, that the informant was subjected to a polygraph test by the FBI, officials told ABCNEWS.>>>

Now of course they aren't going to back off the warning because that would make them look like the idiots they are. And this is the kind of "intelligence" that's going to get us into a war! I can't believe it. In fact, I'm almost embarrassed for the country. Anyone who thinks Osama bin Laden didn't win hasn't taken a look around lately. People are running around like Chicken Little, looking for the sky to fall and thinking that a sheet of plastic and some duct tape will save them. Whole cities are in full panic mode, aided and abetted by the wonderful deparment of Homeland Insecurity. It's just pitiful.

And speaking of "intelligence," how about this bit:

>>On Tuesday, George Tenet, the CIA director, told the armed services committee panel that the agency had provided the UN inspectors with all the information it had on "high" and "moderate" interest locations inside Iraq – those sites where there was a possibility of finding banned weapons. But Mr Tenet later told a different panel that he had been mistaken and that there were in fact "a handful" of locations the UN inspectors may not have known about.

Senator Levin, from Michigan, responded by saying the CIA director had not been telling the truth. Citing a number of classified letters he had obtained from the agency, he said it was clear the CIA had not shared information with the inspectors about a "large number of sites of significant value".>>>

Gee, can you believe that the CIA would lie? Damn right they would, and I'm starting to remember the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, based on an incident that we now know never occurred. And then there was those troops that George the First said were massed on the border of Kuwait and that nobody could ever find on the satellite photos. As I say, we're going to war on the basis of lies and falsified "intelligence," and nobody seems to care.

February 12, 2003: It's hard to write this, as I am huddled in my office with plastic duct-taped over the windows, and it's crowded with the three-day's supply of food, water, and Energizers.

Here's my latest theory: I'd give heavy odds that any other president within the last 40 years would have held a press conference today to respond to the latest bin Laden threat. I'll also give even heavier odds that George W. Bush won't hold a press conference. Why? I think there are two possibilities:

A. He doesn't want to reveal his fiendishly clever plan to trick bin Laden the way he tricked the liberals with Colin Powell.

B. He would look like a doofus.

Guess which one I think is more likely?

If he did hold a press conference and if I were a reporter, here's what I'd ask:

1. If you'd gotten Osama bin Laden dead or alive as you promised, we wouldn't be huddled in our offices, would we?

2. If you'd gotten Osama bin Laden dead or alive as you promised, Saddam wouldn't have anyone to give his alleged weapons to, would he?

3. Why are you afraid to say the name "Osama bin Laden"?

4. Wouldn't you call it stretching a point to say that a tape denouncing Saddam Hussein as an infidel proves that he and bin Laden are plotting against the U.S. together?

I'd probably never get to question 2, since, as we all know, it's treasonous to question the president about such things. It was fine to question Bill Clinton about anything and everything, but it's unAmerican to question Dub.

February 10, 2003: I hear that one of Bush's staff called the French "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." That's so good I'm almost willing to go over to the Bushies. But not quite.

One of my problems with the Iraq war is that I don't trust my own government. That NASA lie I mentioned the other day is just one tiny example, a small lie, but a bald-faced one, and the truth would have been better.

Here's another example: Tom DeLay sent out a letter over his signature that called union leaders "scum-sucking pigs." OK, so that's an exaggeration. What he said was, "the big labor bosses are willing to harm freedom-loving workers, the war effort and the economy to acquire more power." To his great surprise, union leaders were a tad chapped, so now his office says that he didn't send the letter, or if he did, he didn't read it, or if he did, he didn't sign it, or if he did, he doesn't believe it. And he's still holding those weekly staff meetings with the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and the Tooth Fairy.

And: "Read my lips: No new taxes."

Not to mention: "I never had sex with that woman."

And finally: Richard Nixon.

February 9, 2003: Here's why I still don't get the whole war with Iraq thing:

We’re told that we’re attacking Iraq because Saddam Hussein is a bad guy. But the way I understand the conditions George Bush has imposed, if Saddam had given up all his “weapons of mass destruction,” he could have kept right on killing people in his palaces, in his homes, and in the streets, just as long as he does it with a shotgun, rifle, handgun, grenade, knife, what have you. If the Kurds bothered him, he could bomb the heck out of them with conventional bombs. So we’re not attacking him because he’s a bad guy.

We’re told that we’re attacking Iraq because Saddam Hussein has a huge, powerful army, because he has nuclear weapons and the deliver systems for them, because he’s been threatening us and neighboring countries, and because he’s a real looney tune. No, wait, that’s North Korea. Granted that Saddam is a looney tune, his raggedy army is only 1/5 the size it was during the Gulf War days, and it was pitiful then. Until George Bush said he was going to take him out, Saddam hadn’t threatened us or anybody else. And if he does have nuclear weapons, he doesn’t have the delivery systems. So those reasons don’t hold up.

We’re told that we’re attacking Iraq because there’s an al-Qaeda connection. Well, there seems to be some suspicion, if not direct proof, that an al-Qaeda member went to Iraq for medical treatment after being wounded in Afghanistan. So what? About 15 members of Osama bin Laden’s family live in Houston. Is Houston next on the list? And recently when a federal grand jury in New York subpoenaed a woman to testify about her husband, a suspected al-Qaeda member, what government spirited her out of the county? Iraq? No, Saudi Arabia. And tell me again how many of those 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq? None? Right. And they were from? Saudi Arabia. Now here’s something I read on ABCnews.com on Sunday morning (2/9):

“If there is a war with Iraq, Qatar is where U.S. Central Command will be located.
“But at least one member of the royal family is known to have regularly provided safe haven for numerous al Qaeda operatives, including bin Laden.”

If we’re going to attack the country with solid, confirmed al-Qaeda connections, it sure isn’t Iraq. Are we a bunch of hypocrites, or what?

February 8, 2003: Speaking of gas prices, as I was last time, I figure that by the end of this month we'll be paying $2.00 a gallon for gasoline. If that happens, it can't be good for the economy. People will quit spending money on other things, consumer spending will fall, and the market will go down even more. It's no wonder I think Dub is a dud.

February 6, 2003: The other day I was filling up my car and thinking about the high price of gas. I can remember when it was anywhere from 20 to 25 cents a gallon. Of course there were times when I didn't have the 25 cents. I remember Bob Tyus' old '40 Chevy (a car that's played a cameo role in a couple of my short stories). He used to hit the dashboard with the heel of his hand, and if the fuel gauge needle would bounce, there was enough gas to keep us going for another hour or so. There were times when we'd put together all the money we had and buy gas, and more than once all the money we had was under a quarter. We probably held out ten cents to buy a couple of cokes at the Dairy Queen.

February 5, 2002: So here's one thing Colin Powell said: "Iraq is working on developing missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometers — about 620 miles — or more, putting Russia and other nations beyond Iraq's immediate neighbors in potential danger." All I'm asking is for someone to tell me how this is a threat to the U.S.

February 5, 2003: Didn't I read that Blogger now has over 1,000,000 subscribers? That means there's a chance in a million that someone will actually read this. And since I haven't ever told anyone I'm blogging, that means that no one will ever see this except by accident. So why am I writing it? Damned if I know.

February 4, 2003: Now we learn that Dub's killer budget doesn't include the cost of war with Iraq. And yet people talk about what a wonderful guy he is.

The nation grieves and anguishes for days over the seven astronauts killed in the Columbia accident, but nobody seems to care that war with Iraq is going to kill thousands, or maybe tens of thousands of men, women and children who have nothing to do with Saddam's alleged weaponry. Does that strike anyone besides me as odd?

February 3, 2003: Dub's budget is a killer, with massive deficits. Yahoo News says, "The president blamed the deficits 'on a recession and a war we did not choose.'" Which war is he talking about here? Iraq. He darn sure chose that one!

February 1, 2003: More mundane stuff: we saw CHICAGO yesterday and really enjoyed it. The director should certainly be up for an Oscar, and I'd say the same for Catherine Zeta-Jones. I've never been too impressed with her acting before, but she was great in this, and her songs and dances were zowie. Rene Zellwegger and Richard Gere were also good, and Queen Latifah was terrific in her big number. Probably the most entertaining movie I've seen in a long time.

February 1, 2003: The space shuttle blow-up is the big news today, of course. What a thing to happen, and probably for no good reason. The space program that could put a man on the moon 34 years ago now can't even fly safely. Which proves something or other. Of course there will be all kinds of out-cry about the disaster, and people won't look back to the first days of flight, when no doubt many people were killed. There's risk involved, and we have to realize that. I hope research doesn't stall again because of this.

January 29, 2003: OK, so I watched the State of the Union Address. Sheer torture. Nothing but the same half-baked half-truths surrounded by sound bites and empty rhetoric. The Smirking Chimp strikes again. With a leader like him, who needs enemies? We're doomed.

January 27, 2003: Best Super Bowl commercial: Ozzy's kids morph into the Osmonds. Best Super Bowl vocal performance: The Dixie Chicks. As for the football game: You mean there was a football game?

This is my daughter Angela's 34th birthday. I remember vividly the day she was born, the day we took her home from the hospital, and many of the other details. It's hard for me to believe that 34 years have passed and that instead of being a 27-year old happy-go-lucky guy, I'm a 61-year-old fart. Wow. I don't even want to think about it.

January 23, 2003: So George Bush appointed a guy who said that AIDS was "a gay plague" to his AIDS advisory board. Supposedly, he's now withdrawing, though he earlier accepted the appointment. Here's the latest news: "White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites), while neither confirming nor denying the withdrawal, issued a stern rebuke of Thacker's statements. 'The views that he holds are far, far removed from what the president believes,' Fleischer said. 'The president has a total opposite view. ... The president's view is that people with AIDS need to be treated with care, compassion.'" I'm not there, so I can't ask Ari the one question I'd like to have an answer to, which is this: If the president really has that view, why did he appoint Thacker in the first place? I wonder why none of the reporters there thought to ask that one?

January 22, 2003: Can it really havee been more than a week since I wrote? I'm getting really lazy, I guess. I'm inspired this morning by the Drudge Report, in which Drudge is attacking John Edwards for chewing gum. Yes, it's come to this. First it was Kerry's hair, and now it's chewing gum. I can't believe it. Is there no depths to which Drudge will not sink? Apparently not.

January 14, 2003: OK, so it's been a week since I wrote anything here. If anyone were reading it, I'd be worried. I've about given up on the world anyhow after reading about the Knight-Ridder poll in which people were asked how many Iraqis were involved in the World Trade Center disaster. 33% either didn't know or chose not to answer. About 50% said one or more Iraqis were involved. So it's no wonder that George W. Bush is so successful. Repeat your lies long enough and you confuse everyone. And the people are too lazy to read a newspaper or think. Karl Rove is laughing his ass off as we go to war.

As for North Korea, it seems that Dub is now saying we'll give 'em whatever they need: oil, you name it. But we're not "negotiating" or offering them a "reward." I'd like to know what the hell we're doing, then. I repeat: I don't get it.

January 7, 2003: OK, so now the government admits that story about the five guys was a hoax. How much longer are we going to get front-page stories like that one before people get sick of the sham? Can't anyone see through this? And hasn't Dub heard of the Little Boy Who Cried Wolf? Before long, nobody is going to believe any story that's printed because none of the ones so far have been true. How long will they keep trying to scare us this way? They've already taken away so many rights with the Homeland Security Act that there aren't enough left to bother with. We're living under the most repressive government in U.S. history, but no one seems to mind. Except me.

january 5, 2003: A few days ago, newspapers were full of the story of the five terrorists who crossed over into the U.S. from Canada. Their photos were run on all TV newscasts, and the word was out that Dub had a posse going after them. Then, today, we get this, from the Toronto Globe: "But yesterday, the FBI admitted that the most important ingredient in the story -- that is, the proof -- is nowhere to be found: 'There is no border-crossing information that would say they're here,' FBI spokesman Ed Cogswell said. 'And to say they came in from Canada is pure speculation.'" In other words, another Bush Lie, a total hoax on the American people to scare us, to stir things up, to create fear. How long will we let Dub get away with this lying and fear-mongering? Why can't people see this for what it is? As always, I just don't get it!

January 4, 2003: So here we are, four days into the New Year. War with Iraq is looking more likely than ever. So it must be that George W. (Dub) Bush has presented the nation with proof that Iraq is a tremendous threat to the United States and possesses weapons of mass destruction, right? Heck, no. And not so long ago I posted here that he'd promised to share with the U.N. inspectors some of our proof that those weapons existed, since the inspectors can't find any of them. But has he shared that proof? Apparently not, since there still haven't been any weapons found. Has Dub proved a connection between Iraq and al-Qaida? No, again. Because there doesn't seem to be one. Has he shown that Iraq is a threat to anyone, much less the U.S.? Nope. North Korea is threatening everybody around, but we're not going to war with North Korea. Maybe Dub is scared of North Korea. Maybe we only pick on the little guys. Frankly, all this makes me sick. How can anyone support Dub? Don't ask me. I just don't get it.

January 1, 2003: Happy New Year to all!

I don't see the Kingston Trio in concert often. I saw them twice in 1959, once in 1960, and once in 1988. On December 30 in Austin I saw them again, in the same building where I saw them perform in 1959. The Austin Symphony did six quick numbers to open the show, and after an intermission the KT came out. They got quite an ovation, because the auditorium was packed. I'd estimate around 3000, but it could have been more (or maybe less, but I doubt it). The audience was predominantly older, but there were a lot of youngsters there, too.

The opening number was "Hard Ain't it Hard," always one of my favorites, and a rousing way to open the show. I thought it sounded great, but I wasn't completely won over until the second number, "New York Girls." I hadn't been expecting that one (it wasn't listed on the program), and it knocked me out. The energy and verve and harmony put to rest any doubts I might have had. I knew this was going to be a great show.

"Chilly Winds" was next, introduced with some nice words about John Stewart, and Bob Shane sounded great, better even than I expected. His voice seemed as strong as ever. Maybe he can go on singing until he's 100.

"Greenback Dollar" got a funny introduction by George Grove, and the song was well received. Obviously a lot of people remembered it.

I'd never heard the Trio do "Jamaica Farewell" on stage, and the audience was invited to sing along on the chorus. Many joined in. Bob sang the verses with feeling.

Bobby Haworth did the lead on "M.T.A.," and I should mention that not only did he shound good but that he plays the heck out of the tenor. Everybody remembered this one.

George's solo was "A Very Good Year." You have to have confidence and a fine voice to do a solo of a song that's associated with both Bob Shane and Frank Sinatra, but George carried it off.

Then we got Bobby's saw solo, "America." Say what you will about saw solos, but I for one enjoyed the heck out of it. So did everyone else, judging from the applause.

Bobby's vocal solo was "One More Town," and he nailed it. I've liked this song since I first heard it, and this rendition is right up there with the best.

Then came "Scotch and Soda." What can you say? Sure, I've heard it a few times (not nearly as many as Bob Shane has sung it, I'm sure), but it's still a great number and he still has the voice for it. This one got applause before he even started to sing.

So did the next one, "Tom Dooley," another one that needs no comment. Did I mind hearing it again? Of course not. This is the song that itroduced me to the KT all those years ago, and I like it even now.

"Worried Man" has been one of my favorites, maybe my overall KT favorite, since I first heard it. This version wasn't quite as great as the original, but it was fun. Bob broke a string on this one.

Bob introduced "Where Have all the Flowers Gone" briefly with the story of how the Trio got the song, and then the guys sang a really powerful version. My sister, who had never seen the group in person and who owns none of the albums, said that she "teared up" during this one. She's not a fan. She just went because she gave me and my wife tickets for Christmas, but she was affected by this performance. As who wouldn't be? You can call the KT a nostalgia group if you want to, but to me it's three guys singing timeless songs, and when they can do them like this, I don't see a thing to complain about.

"I'm Going Home" was next, and the voices were so strong and the harmony was so good on this one that I was practically levitating off the seat. The standing ovation wasn't a cliche. It was deserved.

The encore was "The Reverend Mr. Black." This was never one of my favorites, but hearing the power and the harmonies on the chorus in an actual performance was like hearing a whole new song. I'm pretty sure I was levitating on this one, which got another standing O.

So did I like the show? You bet. So did my wife and my sister, neither of whom was there to recapture lost youth or relive the dead past, blah blah blah, because the KT wasn't really a part of their past or their youth. They were still affected by the music.

I should mention that the orchestra didn't interfere at all. I hardly noticed it for the most part. The world's largest back-up group is about what it amounted to.

Let the nay-sayers say their nays. I say go to a performance. Listen to the music. Maybe it will lift your spirits the way it lifted mine, my wife's, and my sister's.

December 26, 2002: So here's what I'm wondering about on this day after Christmas. North Korea is ramping up its nuclear facilty that can create plutonium, and its ramping up its rhetoric, too. Seems to me that North Korea is a lot more dangerous to the U.S. than Iraq and is blatantly doing what Iraq is merely accused without proof of doing. So what's happening? Is Bush calling for regime change? Not a bit of it. He's off on vacation and not calling for anything. As usual, I don't get it.

December 25, 2002: Merry Christmas to all! I got a lot of nice gifts from Santa, and from my family as well. My son took some of my rapidly deteriorating cassette tapes, cleaned them up and burned them onto CDs. Some of the stuff is very hard to find these days, like the two Billy Ward and the Dominoes tapes from Holland, so I was glad to get it. He also fixed up my Kingston Trio STEREO CONCERT PLUS tape, and it sounds great. I got some DVDs, too, and lots of other great stuff, including a book from my daughter. The book allows me to generate Shakespearean insults. Maybe I can use it somehow in a novel.

December 22, 2002: We were told of Laura Higgins' murder last night. She's the youngest daughter of Marjorie and Roy Powell, two members of our Sunday School class, and she was found shot to death at a warehouse owned by Perry Homes. She was a model-home decorator for Perry and had gone by to check on a piece of furniture. Her purse, keys, and cell phone were taken. I don't know how parents ever recover from something like that, and my sister, whose daughter was murdered, certainly never will. I have no idea why someone would have been hanging around the warehouse, but my theory is that he's the kind of guy the death penalty was meant for. I hope they catch him soon.

December 19, 2002: Since I can't call in and get the talk show hosts on the phone, this is were I can express my opinions. I guess it's nice to be able to do that.

Sean Hannity is a guy who drives me nuts. Yesterday he was screaming about the Trent Lott situation by saying "Why isn't anyone asking Bill Clinton these questions?" Well, Sean, nobody is asking Clinton because he didn't make the comments that Lott made. The first think you learn in debate class is how morally bankrupt and intellectually dishonest it is to switch the topic of debate. Sure, we could ask the questions of all 50 senators and all the hundreds of congressmen, and even of the members of the Supreme Court, the president's cabinet, and on and on and on. But they didn't make the comments. Trent Lott did.

I see in the papers today that Hans Blix is asking the U.S. to give him the evidence that Dub claims to have about weapons in Iraq. Dub's message is, "We know they have the weapons, but you can't find them. Therefore we know they're lying. But we're not going to show you any proof they have the weapons, and we're not gonna tell you where they are." You'd think he'd at least say, "You're getting warm." Or maybe "You're getting cold."

December 17, 2002: Once again it's a while between postings here. Not much of interest going on in my life, and the political world mostly just makes me sick. Looks like lots of Bush appointees are abandoning the ship lately, not that I blame them. Why hang around that guy? And of course old Dub is busily appointing perjurers to all kinds of high positions. Thank God we all know that "character counts." People used to say that Reagan was the "Teflon president," but he's not a patch on Dub.

December 13, 2002: Friday the 13th. Oh, boy. The news today is typical. CNN reports the the administration is "downplaying" yesterday's front page report that Iraq gave nerve gas to the al-Qaida. In fact, there's no evidence at all. The report is not credible, in spite of the news yesterday that it was. This is typical of the Bushies. First they give you the Big Lie. It hits the front page. A day or two later they retract it, mainly because there's no evidence at all to support it, but it's already established as fact in the spongey brains of the talk-show crowd, hosts and listeners alike. Limbaugh will probably repeat it as fact for the next ten years.

December 11, 2002: So it's been a while since I posted. So what?

I love it when politicians put their feet in their mouths, and the latest is Trent Lott. It was bad enough that he said it once, and the Republican spinners immediately started in about how "it was said in the heat of the moment, just a tribute to a fine old fella, nothing more." But of course Lott had said it before, more than 20 years before, and in almost exactly the same words. Which would indicate to me (if to no one else) that he really meant it and that he really meant it exactly the way it sounded. But the talk-radio blatherers will spin out of it in some ridiculous way that only the talk-radio audience would believe.

And speaking of the talk-radio blatherers, one of the Houston ones was talking yesterday about sending a letter to the "Hollywood left," advising them never to write open letters to the president again. After all, the "Hollywood left" is composed of morons, as we all know. I suppose the Hollywood right, on the other hand, is composed of geniuses who should be president, like Ronald Reagan. And nobody seems to want ask what the difference is between actors and radio-talkshow hosts, who all proclaim that they're just entertainers, as Limbaugh does again and again, yet who seem to think that their opinions on everything are not only right but the only opinions that anyone should ever hear. What they are is hypocrites of the first water.

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.

November 27, 2002: Today is my brother's birthday. Happy birthday, Bob!

Whatever happened to freedom of speech? Well, maybe other countries aren't supposed to have it. In Canada someone calls George W. Bush a moron and is forced to resign. In Britain a comic advertisement is suppressed because it makes fun of Dub. Of course it's OK to make fun of Osama bin Laden, but not of the Great Leader of the Free World. I suspect that it won't be too long before this country has no freedom of speech, either. Too bad.

November 25, 2002: On Friday afternoon, Dub apparently relaxed the pollution restrictions on industry. This really hacks me because of the serious controls the government tried to put on drivers in Houston and the eight surrounding counties by lowering the speed limit to 55. This, in spite of the fact that all evidence pointed to the fact that reducing speeds would have no effect at all, since the studies the government was using were hopelessly out of date. Another example of how the Bush Administration slaps the little guy while the Big Dogs dance on.

And we also heard about the Saudis, who got a virtual free pass in the 9/11 investigations, though it now appears that some of them were funneling money to the hijackers. Yet we're going to war with Iraq, a country that didn't support the 9/11 hijackers and has never threatened of attacked us. Can anyone explain this to me so that it makes sense?

November 24, 2020: We picked up Judy's mother on Saturday. She'll stay with us until next Friday, when we'll take her home. We'll have Thanksgiving dinner at Angela's house, and Allen will come in from Austin to join us.

Today on Meet the Press, Sen. Richard Shelby, an eight-year veteran of the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned Americans to expect another major attack from al-Qaida terrorists. So what did we accomplish in Afghanistan? We spent billions, and this is the result? Another major attack? We could have spent nothing and achieved the same result. But everyone thinks George W. is so wonderful, no one will have the guts to question this. And after the Big Brother computer starts functioning, nobody will ever question anything again. If they do, they'll just be disappeared.

November 21, 2002: I'm not exactly a whiz at getting this thing updated every day, am I? Well, who cares? Nobody reads it but me, and that's the way it should be.

My latest venture is editing. Five Star Books seems to need a few good editors, and I'm now free-lancing for them. Mostly all I do is copy-edit, which in some cases, not to name any names, is a lot harder than it should be. Some of these people could profit from a good grammar course, or they could if they'd listen and put the principles into practice.

Beautiful weather in Alvin this week, California weather. Would that it could be this way all year 'round instead of only a few days a year.

November 18, 2002: We're back from a weekend at Austin, where I was one of the featured authors at the Texas Book Festival. We went to the coffee at the Governor's Mansion on Saturday morning, but the gov wasn't there. The docents gave us a nice tour of the ground floor of the place, though, and we had a very good breakfast on the grounds. My panel was on Sunday afternoon, and it was a good one. The audience seemed to have a good time. Judy ditched the panel so she could hear Fannie Flagg and Ethan Hawke. She's seen me often, and Fannie is probably funnier than I am, while Ethan is unquestionably younger and more handsome. So I didn't blame her.

November 14, 2002: George W. Bush doesn't hold press conferences, so people aren't treated as often as they should be to his mangling of the English language. But his mangled English isn't why he doesn't hold press conferences. My suspicion is that he would appear so clueless as to amaze even his ardent supporters.

Now and then, however, Dub does say something. For example, yesterday he talked about the new Osama bin Laden tape. I didn't get to see all his remarks, since they weren't all shown on TV, but not once did I hear him utter the words "Osama bin Laden." He didn't utter even part of the name. It's as if bin Laden no longer exists for him in his little "All Saddam, all the time" world. Here we have bin Laden making actual threats, and he's a man who's attacked us already, but Dub is going after Saddam, who's never attacked or even threatened us. I still don't get it.

November 3, 2002: I'm so old that I can remember when President Bush said that Osama bin Laden was The Evil One. Now Dub doesn't hate Osama any more, or I guess that's the case, since he never even mentions him. I think that he should, and I think that he should refer to him as The (Former) Evil One. Maybe Osama will be so chapped that he'll off Saddam in order to regain his position.

November 12, 2002: Another trip to Texas A&M today to deliver some boxes to the Cushing Library. They now have plenty of stuff from me, including most of my manuscripts and galleys.

And Osama bin Laden has a new videotape out. I thought that guy was dead and that we'd won the war against al Qaida. Maybe I was mistaken. I remember that at one time Dub said bin Laden was his #1 priority, but that was before he was shocked -- shocked! -- to discover that there was a maniac dictator in Iraq. So now bin Laden is the forgotten man, and Saddam is our real enemy. I still haven't figured out how we got from the one to the other. I can't figure out why there's never any mention of bin Laden any more. I can't figure out why nobody even mentions Afghanistan. Obviously, I'm clueless. Thank God that Dub knows all the answers. I just wish he'd let the public in on them, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.

November 11, 2002: The Supreme Court is getting older, which means that Dub could appoint as many as three justices during his second term. If that doesn't scare you, you just can't be scared. If, or I suppose when, it happens, we might as well get ready for a court a lot like the one that tried the Salem Witches 210 years ago. Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards weren't on that court, but their spirits will be hovering over the one Bush appoints, for sure.

November 9, 2002: OK, so Dub has his UN resolution, and now it's pretty clear that we'll be at war with Iraq within weeks, probably before Christmas. (Peace on Earth, Good will toward men.) But today there's a headline saying that al Qaida is planning major attacks around the world. I thought al Qaida was the enemy, but instead we're going to war with Iraq, which, as far as anyone knows has no connection with al Qaida. We were supposed to be fighting the terrorists, but I read yesterday that the war in Afghanistan is not going well and that al Qaida and Taliban fighters are adapting to U.S. tactics far better than the U.S. is adapting to theirs. But nobody even seems to remember Afghanistan these days. Certainly not George W. Bush. Why? I don't have a clue, and Dub sure isn't going to tell us. He's the Big Dog now.

November 7, 2002: What really scares me about the big Republican victory is that now George W. will get all his judicial appointees confirmed. I think we're in for The Great Repression and that civil liberties will be lessened. The funny thing is that many people who voted for the Repubs would be horrified if you told them that they were contributing to the repression of freedom. Why, they believe in freedom. They're the ones who want to keep the government out of the people's personal lives. Yeah. Right. So why do they want to tell us what we can read, what we can see at the movies, what we can watch on TV? They actually want the government to rule our lives, but of course they'd never say so.

November 5, 2002: Well, the Republicans have won a huge victory, so I suppose the stock market will zoom, Iraq will get bombed back to the stone age, and all will be right with the world. I'm completely at a loss to explain George W. Bush's appeal. He can't speak English, he's a doofus most of the time, and yet people love him. Some say it's his "character," which seems to mean that no matter how nutsy he is, at least he's not boinking interns in the Oval Office. I suppose that now his slate of judges will be appointed, and we'll see how much that changes things for the better. I suspect it will change things for the worse, but I seem to be in a minority, which is where I find myself most of the time.

The heat pump finally got fixed this morning. Just a sticky valve, so not an unbearable expense. The valve is old, so I just hope it keeps on working.

November 2, 2002: There seems to be something wrong with the heat pump. Naturally, since it's Saturday, there's no one to call about checking it. But we won't have much cold weather for a while, so that's not really a problem. Paying for whatever has to be done, now, that would be a problem. Maybe it will start working again. You never can tell.

One of the cats, Sam, has been roaming around the neighborhood too much. We're trying to get him to stay in the house more. He really doesn't like it, or at least he doesn't until he calms down. After he's run for door to door to door and howled for a while, he usually settles down to sleep. This morning he bedded down in the sink.

October 29, 2002: It's finally stopped raining. I was beginning to wonder if it ever would. Not that I'm complaining. We can use the rain, and there was no flooding to speak of here in Alvin. Some places in Houston weren't so lucky.

Maybe the rain is just another sign of the Endtimes. After all, Jackass: the Movie was #1 at the box office last weekend. Somewhere the Four Horsemen are saddling up.

Other signs: Consumer confidence is at a ten-year low. The crime and murder rate is up for the first time in two years. (How is Rush Limbaugh going to blame these things on Bill Clinton, I wonder?)

And, of course, it's been revealed that the U.S. has been secretly working on all sorts of chemical and biological weapons in possible violation of numerous treaties. Now, after we finish bombing Iraq, North Korea, and Russia, we'll have to bomb ourselves!

October 27, 2002: Sam is staying in again today. He tried to climb the dining room shutters, and it took him a while to settle down, but he eventually went to sleep in the den. He woke up while Judy was reading the paper and roamed around and howled a little. Then he went back to sleep in the den. Maybe he'll learn that he has to stay in instead of going out to rove over the neighborhood.

Now that the sniper has been caught, the papers are moving on to other sensations. I didn't see many articles this morning, and not one of those I saw told about the number of times the sniper was stopped at roadblocks during his little spree. A British paper puts the number at ten. The TV footage of the S.W.A.T. team descending on the hapless illegals who used the wrong pay phone shows the sniper's car in the background. He was there watching it all, I suppose.

Uh-oh. Looks like the Rooskies used poison gas on their own people in their big hostage crisis. Now we'll have to go to war with them. Well, not until after we get Iraq. And North Korea. Wait a minute. We're not going to war with North ("Axis of Evil") Korea. Why not? I guess because they didn't try to kill Dub's daddy. (And while we're on that topic, where's the hard evidence that Iraq or Saddam ever actually did that? Probably in the same place all the hard evidence about the Iraq/al-Qaida connection is.)

October 26, 2002: It's been raining here since Monday, and the weather guys say it will continue through Thursday. We're going to need swim fins just to get the newspaper in the mornings.

We're trying to force our youngest cat, Sam, to say in the house more. He likes to wander the neighborhood and visit in other houses. We're the ones paying the annual vet bill of nearly 70 bucks, so we feel Sam should stay with us. He doesn't see it that way.

October 24, 2002: My latest moronic episode: Yesterday Judy was playing bridge in Pearland, so I decided to sneak off to Mervyn's to buy her birthday present. It was raining when I got to the mall, and the wind was blowing up a storm. When I opened the car door, the wind blew it out of my hand. I made a grab for the handle and caught it just in time. Then I grabbed my umbrella and dashed for the store. It was only when I got inside that I realized I'd left the keys in the car. There hadn't been any tell-tale "ding-ding-ding," so I hadn't left them in the steering column, but they weren't in my pocket. I also didn't have the little clicker that unlocked the door because it bork years ago. What if I'd locked the door? Well, I had. I could see the keys lying on the seat, but I couldn't get in. I went to the store and got the nice woman at the "Guest Services" counter to call Mall Security. They came and spent a half hour with a Slim Jim, but they couldn't open the door. I didn't have a cell phone, so I went into the mall and called the auto club. They sent out a guy who arrived about 40 minutes later. He tired for 20 minutes, but he couldn't open the door. He called in, and the service said they'd send another guy. He arrived about 40 minutes after that, and he couldn't open the door at first. However, he had a different device to try, and it worked. After only two or three wasted hours, I started home. What an experience.

October 22, 2002: Actually I have an excuse for not having posted for so long. Judy and I were in Austin at the Bouchercon, where I was Fan Guest of Honor and where we won the Anthony Award for "best short story," the story being "Choclolate Moose," which appeared in Death Dines at 8:30. And is that a long sentence, or what? We naturally had a great time and there were plenty of highlights. Here are a few of them, none of which I am making up:

1. Hearing John Apostolou's superb performance on the duck call in the hotel lobby.

2. Witnessing the spectacle of Bruce Taylor's abject begging as he tried to buy John's wife's duck call. She finally just gave it to him.

3. Hearing Ed Hoch's duck call from the 7th floor balcony in response to John's duck call.

4. Winning (along with Judy) the Anthony Award for best short story. We were very surprised.

5. Hearing Bob Randisi sing harmony with a country band.

6. Learning that Gary Warren Niebuhr once sang "Muskrat Love" in a boy band.

7. Being interviewed by Joe Lansdale.

8. Seeing Elmer Kelton enjoying himself so much at a mystery convention.

9. Going to Rudy's Barbecue with Scott Cupp, Judy, Thom Walls, Bryan Barrett, and Steve Mertz. At Rudy's you get your food in crates and eat if off butcher paper.

10. Being the Fan Guest of Honor and basking in the adulation of thousands.

11. Attending the shortest Bouchercon banquet in recorded history.

I guess eleven is enough or maybe one too many, but there were other highlights as well. I'd corresponded with Fender Tucker, but I'd never met him. I wanted to see the guy who was crazy enough to reprint all the works of Harry Stephen Keeler and bind the individual books in his kitchen, using an iron and a glue gun. He's also publishing The Boucher Chronicles, for which every mystery reader should be grateful.

October 16, 2002: Around 1976, I met Katherine Anne Porter. Someone asked me about that today, and I guess I might as well set my memories down somewhere. The college where I was teaching (Howard Payne University) invited her to come for a symposium and her birthday. She was born in Indian Creek Texas, which no longer really exists but which was near Brownwood, where I was teaching. Porter was around 80 at the time. When I was introduced to her in a motel room as "Dr. Crider," she said, "Oh, Dr. Crider, the pains start right at my wrist and go all the way up my arm!" I explained I wasn't that kind of doctor. Later, my wife and I sat next to her at the big birthday banquet in her honor. She wore a white wedding dress that she'd bought in Mexico when she lived there back in the '20s or '30s, and she also wore a huge emerald brooch, which my wife noticed right away. When she asked about it, Porter said that she made a bundle from Ship of Fools and "Some people buy boats. I bought emeralds." That made perfect sense to my wife. Porter had been to Texas since WWII, so she went with several faculty members (not me, unfortunately) to the cemetery where her parents were buried and had a picnic. Later two of the faculty members visted her in Maryland. We'd heard a rumor that she'd bought a wooden casket in Mexico and that she kept it in her house. I told one of the women to find out. So when Porter was asleep, they snooped in the closest. Sure enough, they found the casket, covered with a sheet. They threw back the sheet and took a picture, which I kept in the lit. book I taught from. I guess it's still there, but the book's in storage. She was invited to appear on stage for the graduation exercises and assumed that she was to hand out the diplomas. She got tired about halfway through and had to sit down, but about half the graduates got their diplomas from her instead of the president. All in all, it was an interesting weekend.

October 15, 2002: You'd think I'd do better on this thing. I can't seem to get things down every day as I'd like to.

I'm interested in the sniper situation in the D.C. area. George Bush finally mentioned the sniper yesterday after only two weeks. I guess the NRA told him it would be OK. What he said was this: "Any time anybody is randomly shooting, randomly killing, randomly taking life, it's cold-blooded murder." You can't tell me this guy's not a genius!

You have to wonder a couple of things at least: why does the sniper take the weekends off? Is he a football fan? And will he shoot someone today? This is pretty damned scary.

October 8, 2002: Judy and I saw Bubba Ho-Tep last night. It's based on a Joe Lansdale story, one that has, according to two people I talked to last week, "the nastiest opening sentence" they ever read. (For the morbidly curious, here it is: "Elvis dreamed he had his dick out, checking to see if the bump on the head
of it had filled with pus again.") The movie script is faithful to the story, which may be why it doesn't have a distributor yet. It's vulgar, hilarious, and even touching. Bruce Campbell is great is Elvis, and Ossie Davis is terrific as John F. Kennedy. I don't know who played the evil mummy. Anyway, Joe was there, and he was in fine fettle. YOu can't blame him. It must be great to sit in a theater with 499 other people who are laughing, yelling, and cheering at lines you wrote.

And another thing: You can read about an actor having a "cult following," but until you see it for yourself, it's hard to believe just what that means. Bruce Campbell is huge with a certain crowd. He did a book signing at the theater, and we got there about an hour after it started. The line was at least a block and a half long. It was still almost that long two hours later when the movie was supposed to start. He agreed to introduce the movie and then go back out to continue signing. He did about 15 minutes of stand-up before the movie and was very witty and articulate, so his book might be pretty good.

October 5, 2002: On Thursday evening, Judy and I went to the Greek Festival in Houston at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral. It's the festival's 36th year, but our first time to attend. Mostly, we ate: pastitsio, spanakopita, tiropita, keftedes, salata, but we also saw the colorful folk dancers and toured the crowded gift shop. All in all, it was fun.

The stock market continues to plummet, and Bush continues to beat his little war drum. Now some experts are forecasting a huge October crash. I hope they're wrong. I'm getting really depressed about teh whole thing. And i still can't figure out how we got from Point A to Point B in the war situation. When did Osama bin Laden cease to be The Evil One and/or morph into Saddam Hussein. First we were going to get Osama, dead or alive. He's probably dead, but no one knows for sure, and he seems to have been pretty much forgotten, just as Afghanistan has. The job there is half done, if that, and yet Dub is all over Saddam. We have to get him. Why? No one will say anything except that he's a danger to us. Why? Well, he just is. He's never made any threats against the U.S., he certainly has given no more aid and comfort to the terrorists than Saudi Arabia has, and yet we have to kill him. Maybe this will all work out, but I know for sure I'll never vote for a Republican as long as I live. No matter how scummy the Democrats might be, they can't match this.

October 1, 2002: What the hell is up with the Turks? First they say they've caught two guys with 33 pounds of weapons-grade uranium. Then they say, well, uh, it was only 5 ounces. How do you make a mistake like that? But wait, there's more. Now they say, well, er, it wasn't even uranium. And I thought the U.S. cops were morons. Maybe the Turk cops smoke ganja.

September 26, 2002: Tomorrow Judy and I are heading to Ft. Worth for the Ft. Worth Book and Paper Show. I'm supposed to be signing A Knife in the Back, but I would easily wind up buying more books than I sign. I keep telling myself that I should turn down these signings, but it's not easy to do. The organizer of this one is the president of the North Texas Booksellers Assn., so that means at least my books will be there and available.

The market has been up for two days in a row now. I'd like to think that it's past the bottom, but I'm still worried about it. Dub still won't talk about it. The war is the only thing on his mind right now.

September 24, 2002: Here's the latest propaganda from the DemocRATS. Seems the DEMONcrats just can't admit that George W. Bush, Our Great President, is the best thing ever to happen to this country. Why can't the stupid LIEberals just give up? We know it's all Bill Clinton's fault!

BUSH-CHENEY: THE FIRST 20 MONTHS

Inauguration Day Now
Dow Jones 10.587 7.986 Down 32.5%
Unemployment Rate 4.2 5.7 Up 36%
Budget 281b Surplus 157b Deficit
Jobs 111.7 million 109.6 million Loss of 2 Million

September 23, 2002: I'm getting really worried about the stock market. Just when you think it can't go any lower, it goes lower. And George W. Bush doesn't seem to notice. He hasn't mentioned the economy in months. All he can do is beat his little war drum and try to get the country into a fight with Iraq, which, as far as I know hasn't ever, not even once, threatened to attack the U.S. If he's worried about nuclear bombs, what about North Korea, Pakistan, and India? They've got 'em and they've threatened to use 'em. But apparently that doesn't bother Dub. He has a one-track mind, and Iraq is on the track. Now Condi Rice is saying we'll rebuild the country and convert it to democracy. Does she have any idea what it would cost to run the economy, feed and clothe the population, and defend them from their enemies for the next thirty or forty years? Maybe. But she doesn't seem to care any more than Dub cares about the economy. The only people worried about the economy are folks like me, recently retired and watching their life savings draining away day by day. What a sorry state of affairs.

September 20, 2002: Went to see The Four Feathers yesterday and was mildly disappointed. I guess I'd been expecting a rousing adventure movie, in the vein of the original. But maybe nobody knows how to make adventure movies these days. For whatever reason, the movie wasn't rousing (at least to me), and why, oh, why does everyone these days seem afraid of color? Even the scenes filmed in the full sun of the desert looked as if they'd been shot inside a curtained room. What's up with that? Are people afraid of real color? I know they don't shoot in Technicolor any more, but surely they can find some film stock that will present something resembling actuality. Sure they can. The Scorpion King had real color. Maybe "serious" directors are the ones who don't want to use vibrant colors. They'd detract from the film's high motives. Gimme a break.

September 18, 2002: Obviously I do this blogging for my own entertainment. Which explains why it doesn't exactly have any focal point. It's just sort of a rambling experssion of what I'm thinking about. And today, I'm thinking about fingernail clippers.

When I went off to college in 1959, my mother gave me a fingernail clipper. It was in a leather case, and it had been a gift from Red Arrow Freight Lines. The Red Arrow logo was on the case. My father worked for Red Arrow, managing the Mexia, Texas, office for many years. That's why we had the clippers in the first place. And I still have them. The leather case is worn out, and you can't see the logo very well. In fact, I took the clippers out of the case and put it aside some years ago. But I use the clippers all the time, just as I've been doing for the last 43 years. What kind of person uses the same pair of fingernail clippers for 43 years? I don't know, but that's the kind of person I am.

September 17, 2002: The birthday party for Judy's mother was a big success. Probably 100 people showed up, and we got some good photos. I managed to catch a cold, so I'm not feeling too well. Should be OK by tomorrow thought.

The geniuses who gave us the 55 mph speed limit in Harris and surrounding counties have finally figured out that they Wrong. Now they're proposing that the speed limits be raised to 65 mph. It really won't matter. When we came back yesterday, there was no one on the highway driving less than 70, and most were going a lot faster than that. So 65 or 55, the real average speed will be around 75.