I can't believe it's not a democracy!

I'm taking some time off from the internets, heading down to

to points south today.  Yes, I will be hanging with some of the family, but this time they are headed to a small town a bit north of Cape May, New Jersey.  My sister-in-law's father bought a place down there a while back, but I've never been.  Although I like spending some time to myself, I thought some sun (very little apparently), seafood and salt air might do my soul some good.  We shall see.  Hope you all have a lovely extended weekend.  I'll be back Monday night, will post again no later than Tuesday. 

Woo-hoo, we're number 1:

U.S. leads world in substance abuse, WHO finds. Oh...nevermind. Then again, after over seven years with W at the helm, it should be a big fucking deal that the whole lot of us are addicts. So there.

Rest in peace, George:

George Carlin mourned as a counterculture hero.

You knew this would happen:

Militants found recruits among Guantanamo's wrongly detained. McClatchy Newspapers reports: Mohammed Naim Farouq was a thug in the lawless Zormat district of eastern Afghanistan. He ran a kidnapping and extortion racket, and he controlled his turf with a band of gunmen who rode around in trucks with AK-47 rifles. 

U.S. troops detained him in 2002, although he had no clear ties to the Taliban or al Qaida. By the time Farouq was released from Guantanamo the next year, however — after more than 12 months of what he described as abuse and humiliation at the hands of American soldiers — he'd made connections to high-level militants. 

In fact, he'd become a Taliban leader. When the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency released a stack of 20 "most wanted" playing cards in 2006 identifying militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan — with Osama bin Laden at the top — Farouq was 16 cards into the deck. 

A McClatchy investigation found that instead of confining terrorists, Guantanamo often produced more of them by rounding up common criminals, conscripts, low-level foot soldiers and men with no allegiance to radical Islam — thus inspiring a deep hatred of the United States in them — and then housing them in cells next to radical Islamists. 

Anyone surprised?

Going to south Jersey for a visit with friends

and some time in the sun (weather permitting). When I went for my annual girl visit (gynecologist), my doctor gave me a blood test (saving me a visit to the internist for an annual exam, which, she said, wasn't really necessary) to get the usual suspects (cholesterol, which is excellent, triglycerides (same), iron, etc.) but also to check my Vitamin D levels. You see, recent research suggests that Vitamin D may play a factor in preventing cancers and in improving overall health. Now Vitamin D is added to milk and other foods, but doesn't occur naturally in most foods. That said, the research tends to show that the Vitamin D we get from the sun is best. My Vitamin D levels were in the normal range but on the lower side, so my doctor basically told me to get a bit more sun this summer. So as I am lying around a pool this weekend, I will remind myself that I'm not being a big slug, I'm just following doctor's orders. Hope you all have a relaxing weekend. Take some time to soak up some Vitamin D yourselves.

Another busy fucking day, but I am beginning to see the light

at the end of the tunnel. Sadly, three of my work hours were wasted today at a diversity exercise. Wasted you say? Yes. You see, I work in an office that is without doubt one of the most diverse working environments you will find anywhere, but, nonetheless, we were compelled to attend a mandatory diversity presentation. Now you may think that I am being hyperbolic when I state that my work place is extraordinarily diverse, but given that among those present during my three-hour session were people who emigrated to the U.S. from Ghana, India, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Belarus...I could go on. Plus we had diversity in religion, age, sex and orientation covered too. Oh, and there were under 50 people present at my session.

Ok, you may think that addressing concerns about diversity and discrimination is a good thing. But this lecture/exercise/whatever didn't address discriminatory behavior or legal protections for minorities. I never attended something so worthless. Long and short, it was jam packed with bullshit psycho-babble. Here's a taste: The woman conducting this waste of time put up a slide (god I hate power point presentations) titled "Conditions for a Good Conversation." The last condition? "Have fun!" Not fucking kidding. Terms the presenter used included "diversity dynamics," "diversity maturity characteristics" (wtf?) and "relational toolkit." Hand to god.

To make this presentation even more painful, we were compelled to engage in an exercise. Namely, we were told to pick someone we didn't know well and "interview" them for a few minutes, then switch roles. Afterwards we had to introduce our putative stranger. Naturally, I interviewed my good friend Maud. I wanted to introduce Maud by simply stating, "Maud is intensely private and I respect her need for privacy," but instead we made sure to pick a few unimportant facts about each other (where we were born and raised). Pointless.

So here is a query: Why? Why do corporations do this? Part of me thinks that someone high in the food chain does it to remind us that we are serfs and they can make us do this shit. All I know is that the end result was that three hours were wasted and I had to stay at work a little later to finish something that was due today. Thanks corporate masters!

Another busy day. Fortunately it should be over soon.

Should. Hope you all had some time to play today. I'm aiming for Friday.

Although the most recent big project has been completed,

it was a busy day at work. That and the fact that we are just waiting to see what happens after tomorrow--will she or won't she?--well, nothing I've read today struck me as particularly compelling. Long and short, there isn't anything fighting its way to the front of my brain begging to be posted. I guess we are going to be in a holding period for a little while longer. Hopefully.

I won't be posting much tomorrow.

You see, for some reason my employer gave us dedicated sick days this year.  Yeah, I know, extra time off.  Not bad.  And our sick days can be used for doctor's appointments.  So tomorrow I have my ophthalmologist's exam.  My eyes will be messed up for a while because it takes me quite a while for the drops that dilate my pupils to wear off.  That means no reading for hours.  Hopefully I'll be back to surfing and posting by the early evening.  

Should be interesting to see how crowds react to W as he campaigns for McCain and the GOP:

Oil crosses $129 for first time, heads for $130. I'm thinking the crowds might be a bit thin for Mr. $4 a gallon o' gas. The crowds inside the venues, that is. I hope John "I don't know nothin' 'bout economics" McCain is asked about the rising cost of oil (and what he will do about it) through out his campaign. I'll be limited to hope, of course, as the media will no doubt focus on what Obama or his wife is wearing or something just as inane. Sigh.