October 4, 2003: Is this a great country or what? The right wingers are vociferously supporting a huge budget deficit, a sex addict, and drug abuser. It doesn't get any better than this.

October 2, 2003: Well, it's really been a while, hasn't it? What's brought me out of my self-imposed exile? Rush Limbaugh. Old El-Rushbo, as he likes to call himself, has stepped in it with both feet. First his comments about Donovan McNabb, and now his apparent drug habit. All within a few days. Wow.

The racism first. Anybody who listens to Rush knows he's made racist remarks in the past, telling one caller to "take the bone out of your nose and call me back." He uses fake dialect ("Let me ax you something) and so on. But so what? Certain black sports figures make racist remarks all the time, and nobody fires them. What about Barry Bonds' comments on breaking Ruth's homerun record? What about nearly anything Charles Barkley says? Rush is an idiot, so why pick on him?

As for the drugs, well, if this is true, the Rush is a bigger hypocrite than I thought. And I thought he was a big one. He's always been a hardliner when it comes to drugs. If he's a user, then he should have kept his fat yap shut. If it's true and they can make a criminal case against him, then he should get off the radio and live in his Florida mansion (if he gets probation; otherwise, make him do hard time with a big black cellmate named Bubba).

August 17, 2003: I've registered to be a "Reader Reviewer" at the New York Times site. Now I, too, can be powerful and influential!

August 16, 2003: Judy and I both thought OPEN RANGE was terrific. Of course I'm a sucker for
westerns, and there are all too few of them these days. That may be
changing, as we saw the previews for THE MISSING (Boy, does Tommy Lee Jones
look rugged) and for THE ALAMO. Both of them look darned good, but I'm
afraid to get my hopes too high for THE ALAMO. But I digress. Some
reviewers have criticized OPEN RANGE for bad dialogue, but I didn't seen a
bad line in it. Some awkwardness maybe in the love scenes, but that was
about it. And Costner isn't afraid to take his time setting things up and
letting the story play out at its own pace without juicing it up. I like
movies that move that way if they don't bore me, and this one didn't bore me
at all. Robert Duvall was, as usual, really good, and Michael Jeter has the
Gabby Hayes part down pat. Too bad he died soon after the movie was
finished.

August 7, 2003: I have to go to the dentist this afternoon and get a tooth crowned. All the hard stuff has been done, so this part shouldn't be too bad.

I see that Arnie is running for Gov. of California. That's it. I give up. I mean, what are his qualifications? And aren't many of his supporters the same ones who were, only a few weeks ago, calling for Hollywood stars to sit down and shut up? Of course we all knew they meant "Hollywood stars who don't agree with us," but they didn't say that. Hypocrisy rears its head again. I think I'll just try not to care any more. The Republicans are going to redistrict Texas and take over California, so they'll own the world. I might as well get used to it.

August 6, 2003: Seems as if it's getting to be longer and longer between postings here. I guess I'll have to either do better or give up. We're going to the ArmadilloCon on Friday, so it's likely that I won't be posting there. I'd post more, but I have nothing to say. I lead a very boring life.

Yesterday the Fabulous G-Strings practiced at the college. Rochelle sounds great, and her song should bring the house down. We don't have to worry about the other songs since that one's so strong.

July 27, 2003: Tomorrow I'll be 62 years old. Old enough to collect Social Security. Now that's a scary thought. Today I was looking at birthday photos dating back to 1941. How did that little blonde-headed kid get to be an old man? And how did it happen so soon? Most of the photos are of my and my father, with whom I shared the birthday. He looks so young in the early ones that it's hard to believe he's been dead for nearly 7 years now. Time goes by way too fast, folks, and we don't even know it.

July 25, 2003: No doubt my millions of readers have been scratching their heads and asking themselves, "Where's Bill's Blog." Well, I have the answer. It's right here, but it hasn't been here lately because my computer suffered a horrible crash, probably brought on by a lightning strike that fried my cable modem. It took quite a while to get things straightened out, but now all is well, at least for the time being.

July 7, 2003: Last Thursday, we saw LEGALLY BLONDE 2: RED, WHITE, AND BLONDE, which killed whatever brain cells I had remaining after seeing CHARLIE'S ANGELS 2: FULL THROTTLE. I guess I'll never learn.

We visited my brother and Judy's mother on the 4th. Also drove over to Waco to see Billy Lee and Charlotte Laughlin, friends from the old HPU days in Brownwood. They hadn't changed a bit, and it was great to see them and have a visit.

July 2, 2003: For a while I thought maybe Donald Rumsfeld had a glimmering of intelligence. Now I realize he's just another dangerous nut.

Yesterday he compared the "messy" situation in Iraq to the one in the American colonies after the revolution. You might have thought the press corps would have jumped up as one and shouted, "False analogy!" But as far as I can determine, nobody did. Maybe the press corps is as ignorant as Rummy.

History isn't my strong suit, but I thought that the situation in America was that the colonists had just driven out what they considered to be an occupying force and overthrown a dictatorial rule. In Iraq, America IS the occupying force, and it's imposing a dictatorial rule.

Americans were trying to put together a democratic form of government to replace the one that had been imposed on them from outside. Paul Bremer said a couple of days ago, "We will impose our will on them." That's the kind of thing that's always exemplified democracy to me, all right. And just to prove that wasn't a fluke, he cancelled the scheduled free elections. Next he appointed mayors and governors of his own choosing. All of us English majors will remember "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," in which we learned that the colonial governors appointed by the crown were the most hated men in the colonies.

You might think that Donald Rumsfeld would know some of that history, or that maybe somebody in the press corps would. To show my restraint, I'm not going to make the obvious remark about what happens to people who fail to learn from history. Or then again, maybe I will make it.

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.