A week in the sun and rain.
I've just returned home after spending 3 days on the north shore of Lake Superior and then 2 days by a lake in southern Minnesota. The north was full of friends and water and just hanging about. The south was full of my parents and their friends and hanging about.
The friends had lots of great food, weed and lazy hanging about on rocks with the most spectacular views our state can provide. My parents provided free food, early bed times and bigoted neighbors.
I think the north wins every time.
Dude, I am so baked
Ok, ok, ok, so this weeks episode of Weeds had the best ending to a 30 minute show ever. Not only that, but the guy who plays the medicinal marijuana doctor, Craig X, is also the shows marijuana consultant. Now there is a career my high school guidance counselor forgot to tell me about.
Weeds airs Mondays on Showtime or anytime at all via BitTorrent.
Reading Rainbow
I'm franticly trying to finish Blow the House Down. The Hennepin County Library puts a 20 day limit on new and heavily requested books. I need to return this tomorrow. In the mean time I received the One Percent Doctrine last Thursday and have already burned the first 5 days off my 20 day limit. It is a losing battle.
I saw Robert Baer, the author of Blow the House Down, on Charlie Rose and the Daily Show and he made the claim that the book was originally written as non-fiction. When he submitted the book for clearance from the CIA they told him no way. Now Baer claims that he changed a few of the people and a couple of locations and resubmitted the book as fiction. This time the CIA cleared it with no problems.
Now I don't want to give away any of the plot but I am highly skeptical of this claim. If this were true then the entire Washington staff of the CIA (pre 9/11) should be locked up for negligence. I bet you will want to read this book now.
If The Straight Jacket Fits
I usually try out at least one new comic title each month. The new comic usually has a 50/50 chance of actually becoming a monthly purchase. Many of the comics that I buy each month are in short series so they end after a 4 or 12 issue run. About twice a year I find a comic that I love and read over and over. This year it is the Escapists by Brian K. Vaughan.
The story is about the discovery of father's comic collection by his son Max. Max's life is forever changed and he lives his life through this comic world and finally buys the rights to the long forgotten superhero, the Escapist. The story continues jumping back and forth between the Escapist and the creation of the comic and crazy marketing schemes.
The Escapists from Dark Horse Comics is a mini series of 6 comics.
Gimme Gimme Gimme more McKinley
Sarah from Atlanta wrote to tell me about this fantastic site. mckinleydeath.com It is a wealth of goodness. Damn those anarchists were nothing like the smelly punk rock versions that hang out and pan-handle around the library. These folks got things done.
It's funny because it is the great grandchildren of these anarchists who scare the bejesus out of Cyber-Capitalism. It isn't Islamic Jihad that will bring the internet down, but anti-globalization hacker groups. For more on this subject visit Tom over at Curly Tales of War Pigs.
Sweet Late Summertime
The summer is flying by, faster than I can remember. If you haven't started on your tan you better get going or you will be a whitey for another 9 months.
Me, I've been working some, relaxin' a lot. Mainly I've been spending my time reading. The Robert Baer book "Blow the House Down" is my current and if you enjoyed George Clooney's character in Syriana you will enjoy this book. He's a washed up CIA agent in the middle east who gets sucked into a personal hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Robert Baer was a real CIA agent stations in the middle east but this is fiction. But it seems so real.
I've also been reading "The Life of William McKinley and Complete Story of His Assassination" by Marshall Everett. This was written in 1901 shortly after his assassination and death.
This book is notable for a number of reasons, Mr. Everett was a good friend of McKinley so it is rather slanted in McKinley's favor. There is a great chapter on anarchism and another chapter just on Emma Goldman. The final chapter gives some predictions about Teddy Roosevelt that prove to be way off.
My favorite bit is in the beginning of the book. There is a list of Notable Assassinations and Attempts of Recent Times. This was not a good time to be in politics. The assassination list goes on for 3 pages and only covers about 25 years.
