‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the Bay Area, the stores were all closed, not even a boulangerie, er, boulangerea, whatever.

But things were stirring here at home of course, with pint-sized tornados bouncing around all Christmas. We had two sessions, actually, presents from grandparents and an uncle on Christmas Eve, and from Santa on Christmas morning. At left, you see one particular nephew going nuts over a stack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards brought over from Japan, shortly after his brother got a Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga to play on both their new Gamboy Advances (man, things have changed–I remember playing Pong at their age).

At right you see the elder tornado briefly glancing over the second-season DVDs for Futurama, before quickly returning to the cool new Gamboys with backlighting!!! Coooolll!!!

In the words of one nephew, this had to be the best Christmas ever! (Well, I thought it was okay, but hey, who am I to disagree? After all, I didn’t get a Gameboy myself…. I did, however, stay in synch with Christmas in Japan, and enjoyed some KFC for dinner (just me, we went eclectic). At least here in California I didn’t have to wait three hours to get some dark meat and popcorn chicken.

“Man, this was the best Xmas ever!”

A 26-year-old Gifu man who made more than half a million dollars playing the stock market earlier this month went to the observation deck of Nagoya TV Tower and threw a million yen’s worth (about $10,000) of paper money to the street below late Tuesday afternoon. The money was in one-dollar U.S. currency and old 100-yen bills. The 100 yen bills have been out of circulation for decades and is no longer legal tender; the man apparently bought them off the Internet.

“I have too much money. I don’t need it,” the man said. “I wanted to give some back to the world.” The gesture of generosity was not against the law, but police did take him in for questioning. He was able to throw most of the money through the metal grates on the tower, but left a good amount on the observation deck floor as well. About $1,000 was returned by passers-by, and the police gave it back to the man.

“The larger issue is that the seizure of Mr. Limbaugh’s private medical records without going through the process outlined by the state legislature is clearly an invasion of Mr. Limbaugh’s constitutional right to privacy.” –Roy Black, attorney for Rush Limbaugh, December 2003 (emphasis mine)

“There is no right to privacy specifically enumerated in the Constitution.”–Rush Limbaugh, June 2003, protesting court rulings which overturned sodomy laws on the grounds of privacy rights

Rush is also furiously painting all of this as a conspiracy by his political enemies to get “payback.” Despite the fact that most liberals have been earnestly wishing him well on the principle of supporting rehabilitation rather than incarceration. It’s Rush who is being hypocritical as well as relentlessly attacking his enemies and becoming spineless when it comes to principles.

Not to mention that his original slur against Eagles QB Donovan McNabb has proven to be not only racist but also wildly inaccurate, as McNabb led the Eagles to eight straight victories and a playoff berth, playing in excellent form despite his injuries. No doubt Limbaugh will try to take credit for the comeback, claiming that he lit a fire under McNabb or something equally obnoxious.

Just saw “Return of the King” tonight with my nephew Willy (his brother Sam saw the movie later today), and I agree with Willy’s assessment: it is the best of the Rings movies.

The first film was very good also, but the first and second films suffered from not having definite endings. The second film also seemed to stretch out way too long, so much so that elements of the “Two Towers” story extended into the last film, most notably the encounter with Shelob (at the end of the second novel, but shown in the middle of the last film). This prompted worries for me about the last film, as it measures three hours and nineteen minutes–but as it turns out, the time was well-spent this time.

A few things detracted from my enjoyment, such as the apparent lack of surprise by the hobbits upon finding Gandalf alive, the complete disappearance of Saruman from the story, and several rather radical changes in the story (such as with the hobbits’ return to the Shire). In some respects, the storyline was simplified to what seemed to me to be good effect. And though the film did slow down at points, it progressed more than well enough throughout most of the story to make up for that and more. The battle scenes were very well done, as was the progression of Frodo and Sam into Mordor (though I think Gollum’s reactions in his final scene were a bit off).

All in all, a very good movie series, that. I have the Special Extended DVDs for Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers, and fully expect to get the same for Return of the King. Probably some day a year or more from now, with all three DVDs, I’ll sit down and have a 12-hour-or-more marathon of all three films. Maybe.

Well, the first mad cow disease case has been reported in the U.S., and Japan, within hours, slammed the doors and immediately instituted an effective ban of U.S. beef imports–not a small deal as Japan is America’s biggest importer “by value”–meaning that expensive beef products are more often imported. Most of that is likely for restaurants, because U.S. beef is for darned sure not prominently featured in Japanese supermarkets.

The supermarkets I have shopped at over the years feature Japanese beef, with Aussie beef coming in second. American beef, when it shows up, is usually a lower-grade and therefore no threat to domestic beef. This echoes the rice market, which, when forced to import rice several years ago due to a poor domestic crop, made certain that almost every bag of cheap, high-quality American rice sold in the country was mixed with a low-quality Thai rice (with some Thai commentators reporting that it was animal-feed quality), a long-grained version very much disliked in Japan–needless to say, Japanese consumers didn’t like it.

The closure of such imports is likely to last for a while, and may very well be as much motivated by protectionism as by health; a single case of mad cow disease was found in Canada in May, and though the U.S. has started lifting imports, Japan is keeping its market shut tight–even to the point of threatening reprisals against countries who do not provide guarantees that Canadian beef isn’t coming through them.

The problem with Japan’s attitude is that it is hardly one to throw stones: Japan has had nine cases of the disease in a bit more than two years, and not all at once, and has handled its own house very sloppily. The first case was on September 10, 2001 (the day before the 9/11 attacks). The most recent cases have been in the past few months. Furthermore, Japan’s handling of the disease outbreak has been dismal. European experts hired by the Japanese government in 1998 warned Japan that its beef industry regulations were insufficient before the first case was reported; the government not only ignored the warning, but it also quashed the publication of the warning.

When the first outbreak did occur, not only did the Japanese government fail to adequately warn people about the dangers, not only did they refuse to ban MBM (meat and bone meal) feed that is a likely cause of the disease until fully a month later, but–get this–they actually allowed the diseased cow to be sent to a plant to be converted into MBM!

When I heard that, I decided I would not eat any more domestic beef in Japan–a decision well-founded, it seems, from Japan’s unsurprisingly consistently botched handling and continuing outbreaks of the disease. Since U.S. beef in supermarkets is rare and not very good, I usually get Aussie stuff (McDonald’s in Japan also uses Aussie beef).

So it is a bit much for Japan to be so drastic with other countries when a single case is reported–especially since the U.S. has not used MBM produced from cow offal in feeding cattle for some time. I would expect the ban to be continued for quite some time, no matter what the determination in the case.

Cute little buggers, they are. Click on the image below to see a larger close-up of the furry little backyard interloper.

In the past, when I visited home in California, lodging was a bit of a problem. I either had a couch or a playroom to sleep in, and in either case, I would have to sleep and wake by the use of the rooms. The playroom was my usual choice, but early every morning, my two beloved nephews would come charging into the room at full blast, each morning forgetting that I was sleeping there. Such are the vagaries of travel!

But from last year, I started sleeping in the driveway. Well, not just in the driveway.

My folks got a small mobile home for traveling up north every year, and now when I visit, it becomes kind of a temporary apartment for me. A conversion job, the “rig” as we call it has a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, with electricity and television. The bed is the best feature, a shortened queen-size bed, surprisingly large for such a small vehicle, and quite comfy even in winter nights (though admittedly, bay area nights are not really so cold).

And to complete the convenience, a WiFi setup in the house even allows me broadband access out here in the driveway–from where I have been writing my blogs nearly every day for the past ten days. With all that, including a fridge, microwave, and the ability to play the DVDs I ordered from Amazon on my laptop, one might guess I spend a lot of time at home in the driveway. But then, that’s not exactly the reason I flew all the way from Japan!

Still, it is quite nice having a private room, at least. Where the rig comes in just as handy is the 49ers game. In a week, the Niners play their last game of the season at home against Seattle, and as my father has season’s tickets and it’s the only game I’m in town for, I get the very nice treat of going to the game.

Before we had the rig, we would have to drive to the game like everyone else, going early to get a parking space, trudging in to the stadium early to wait for the game–and when the game even seemed to be winding down, rush out ahead of time to beat the inevitable traffic jam to the freeway.

With the rig, however, we come in early to get the parking–and then we lay back in the heated space, eating lunch and watching the other games on the satellite TV. When the game is over, we can sit and wait until the game is over, go back to the rig, lay back, and much and watch TV some more while the traffic jam subsides, then just roll on out of the stadium when the coast is clear. Beats the heck out of tailgate parties, even.

I had forgotten how many of these guys there were around. Living in Japan, I never see squirrels, so I had kind of forgotten–but back here at home in the bay area, I am reminded all the time of the little critters and their antics. They tend to live in the large oaks that populate the area, skittering across telephone and power lines. Most of them the brown kind, pictured above right, but a percent of them jet black.

I took a recent walk over to the Stanford Shopping Center (Sigona’s fruits and See’s candies, if you must know), and was surprised by the new development. The first thing I noticed was that the vast, open fields along the banks of the San Fransquito Creek are now no longer open–a rather sizable housing project (see photo at left) has taken over the fields. Disappointing in many ways–I recall vividly riding my bicycle through the fields on my way to a part-time job I held at Green Library in high school, watching dozens of ground squirrels dart across my path every time I rode along the path to Sand Hill Road.

I have to wonder if the squirrels are still under the new homes, burrowing under the area as they have for decades despite endless attempts by the university to plow them under.

A lot of new construction there–a new retirement project is under construction now, apparently funded by Hyatt (the hotel people), units that will without doubt go for an incredibly high asking price.

Well, that’s just about par with the shopping center they’re being built across from. I didn’t check, but I’m fairly sure that McDonald’s is still in there, despite the center’s longstanding attempts to plow them under just like the squirrels. Mickey Dee’s doesn’t quite mesh well with Neiman-Marcus and Bloomingdale’s, I guess.

The walk back home was nice, and I will always have a soft spot for this neighborhood. From the air, it is a small carpet of green in an otherwise urban/suburban forest, so central to so much but at the same time as bucolic as you can get so close to the El Camino Real. Of course, when I grew up here, it was mostly retired seniors, but since the dotcom boom it has mostly been taken over by wealthy couples, and the houses almost all remodeled or rebuilt from the smaller suburban units to larger, plush homes.

Still, a very nice area, and I am glad to be back to visit, glad to be able to come back as often as I do.

Recent rulings made at the circuit level have been reassuring for those who treasure civil liberties, and the rights of individuals and states. The most resounding judgments have been those that reinforce 6th Amendment rights to legal representation, as well as a host of other constitutional protections. The 2nd circuit ruled that the U.S. must protect and uphold these rights for citizens held in the U.S., while the 9th circuit ruled that those held outside of the U.S.–at Gitmo in Cuba, most notably–must also be accorded those rights. The Bush administration, meanwhile, is still arguing “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges” and trying to say that as long as we are “at war” (a permanent state by their definition) that some of our most prized freedoms must be abridged. The courts, it seems, beg to differ. The big question will come when, inevitably, the Supreme Court will rule on the matter (or do the equivalent by not hearing the cases).

Meanwhile, other encouraging judgments have been forthcoming. The D.C. appellate court ruled that the RIAA can’t act as its own arm of the judicial system and subpoena private Internet access records from ISPs. The 9th circuit ruled, at long last, that the federal government may not prosecute people on drug charges for marijuana marijuana if the state they are in has legalized its use–one of the key issues that highlights the far right’s hypocritical stance on states’ rights.

The ardent anti-gay American Family Association has, for the past few days, been building up a petition against gay marriage. It does not make entirely clear whether it is a poll or a petition, though–its URL says “petition” and it takes email addresses as well as state and ZIP code information, but the label they gave it calls it an “online poll.” This could be seen as any one of many possible ways they might eventually weasel out of, as they have promised, presenting the results to Congress.

The AFA is a Christian fundamentalist “pro-family” organization; one look at their main page clearly demonstrates their biases (“Help Save Marriage!” “Stop Democratic Filibusters of Pres. Bush’s Judicial Nominees!”). They put up the poll obviously in hopes of getting their own faithful to tilt the results of the poll–initial results ran over 80% against gay marriage. This was their vision as they promised that “results of this poll will be presented to Congress.” They even set up the poll to split the pro-gay-marriage vote–you have three answers to choose from, (1) against gay marriage, (2) for gay marriage, or (3) for civil unions. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the intent of that is to make the anti- vote look the largest they can make it.

But word has gotten out, and from early yesterday, the general public started voting. The stats went from 83-14-3, to 74-22-4, to 61-33-6… As of last night, the results were 46-46-8, but when my dad voted just a few minutes ago, the results were 44-48-8, now clearly in favor of gay marriage even if you count out the civil union votes, as the AFA likely intended to do. 146,000 votes had been cast against, 162,000 for, and civil unions got 26,000.

So the question is, what will the AFA do? The initial expectation would have been for AFA members and friends only to vote, or for the vote to be close enough so they could skew the numbers in their favor without looking too ridiculous. But now that’s not an option–the numbers can’t be in any way spun in their direction, and they made the promise to bring the results to D.C. Well, we can hardly expect a fundie group to go to Congress and say, most Americans want gay marriage legalized. Will they simply ignore the poll? Try to claim it was hijacked? They can’t just keep it up and wait for numbers to go their way, it’s heading in the opposite direction. In fact, the numbers are visibly changing–I renewed the results page and found that in five minutes, the “for” vote advanced by 0.05%, while the “against” vote decreased by 0.06%. At that rate, the “for” votes will increase by a whole percentage point every one hour and forty minutes, as the “against” votes will fall at the same rate. By midnight tonight, the numbers could even be 36-56-8, which makes you wonder how long the AFA will hold the door open.

In any case, if you read this on the 19th of December or within a few days, the poll may still be open–go ahead and cast your vote. I would advise you to use a real email account and submit your real name and location, but make the email address an alternate account you don’t use much–they claim you won’t be spammed, but in the same disclaimer they say you will be sent “updates on matters of importance,” a.k.a. “spam.”

This one showed up on the doorstep last night. A real nice one.

Clark has it right.

Bush is getting so much credit for Saddam’s capture–predictable, as we tend to react generally to events–but there is a whole backstory that people are missing here, as evident as it may be.

Think about it this way. You work for an auto manufacturer. Your boss tells you, “in order to keep this company alive, we need the best steel for the best price. I want you to go out there and land the best deal you can.” So out you go, you stake out the market, you put in your bids, you try your best–but you come up empty. You need to succeed somehow. Though the best thing would be to work harder, improve your contacts, and strive even more to get that deal, instead you let it slide, and go after the best tin deal you can put together. And even that’s hard for you–you sweat, you try, you spend most of the company’s money, you even sacrifice your firm’s good name in the industry. And at the end, you get the deal, meager as it may be, useless at it might wind up being for the company. But you ride back in the factory gates on a big pile of tin, waving the contract like a trophy. You get cheers from the workers, because you look like you did the job.

That’s where Bush is right now. Saddam is the contract he’s waving around. (Though Bush doesn’t even have the pile of tin tied down yet, just the vague hope it will come in.)

However, it is not long before the boss walks up, figures out it’s tin, and shouts, “I told you to buy steel!”

Someone needs to shout this at Bush right about now. Clark is doing it, though perhaps not many are hearing it. He notes that Saddam was not the goal, bin Laden and al Qaeda were. But Bush could not deliver. “Instead, he executed a bait-and-switch. He took the priority off Osama bin Laden. He shifted the spotlight onto Saddam Hussein.”

So we have our tin-pot dictator. Too bad it won’t build us any cars. The question is, will the people be able to tell tin from steel amongst all the hoopla?

I just started reading Michael Moore’s new book, “Dude, Where’s My Country?” Moore has been called a liar and irrelevant, and the media has skewered him–so why is he #1 on the NYT Bestseller list for five weeks? Same reason why the Dixie Chicks are selling music like hotcakes–the “liberal media” made it clear that celebrities who speak out against Bush are losers, but they somehow manage, despite this pervasive media image, to become more popular than ever before.

The book begins with seven questions for George W. Bush (rhetorical, we must assume–as if Bush would ever address them), and the first of those is highly relevant to the theme of Moore’s upcoming movie, Farenheit 911 (reported subtitle: “The Temperature at Which Freedom Burns”). The question pertains to the ties between the Bush and bin Laden families. Essentially, how bin Laden’s family was deeply involved in W. Bush’s early, heavily subsidized (and ultimately failed) business career, as well as Bush Sr.’s Carlyle Group; how neither Bush ever voiced disapproval of the bin Ladens’ association with their brother Osama, nor acknowledgment that the bin Laden family still supports and finances Osama, despite conservative claims to the contrary.

Which brings us to today’s news. So many people are so excited that we caught Saddam… but, if you recall, he was never really the center show in this particular circus. Osama bin Laden is, and was. Or, more precisely, al Qaeda. Which bin Laden has been running, with help from his family, which has been in bed with Bush… and since Osama is not easy to catch, Saddam made a much better target.

The problem is, Saddam was never actually a threat to us. No WMD, no army capable of doing much harm–he was contained. So, we caught him–great. Problem is, it was never that relevant, and now we have spent hundreds of billions, alienated half the world or more, lost hundreds of our own soldiers and killed thousands of Iraqi civilians, and are still sinking in the quagmire–and in the meantime, the Taliban is gaining ground in Afghanistan, Osama is still on the loose, and al Qaeda is still out there, just as ready to strike….

Are we really in better shape than we were a year ago?

That answer, at least, is clear: hell, no.

Capturing one old man cost far too much and was not even relevant to the danger we wanted to fight. In a few days or weeks, even those presently enamored will wake up to this fact. And as we rub our eyes and refocus on what should have been the main point, Moore’s questions will have even more relevance. Why did Bush have all those ties to bin Laden? The answers will lead to a better understanding of why we’re in our present mess. Hint: it beings with “O” and ends with “L”. Three letters.

Take your time.

Here are some images from the celebration in Iraq:

Can you tell which one is the “real” one, which demonstrates how thousands of Iraqis are celebrating Saddam’s downfall? Well, both or neither may be. The one on the left is from April, during the staged statue-toppling event, where the U.S. press willingly went along with a U.S. military event where crowds of Iraqis came to watch the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein. We found out only later that there were just dozens, not hundreds or thousands, of Iraqis gathered, that it was U.S. soldiers, and not Iraqis, who pulled down the statue, and that the few Iraqis who were pictured were actually members of a group the U.S. military had brought in themselves. But the press obligingly took photos close-in and upward to make it appear as if there were far more people than there really were.

The photo on the right, meanwhile, was from today’s “massive” celebrations–and the look of them was very, very close to the staged photos taken some time back. Not that I doubt that there are Iraqis who are celebrating, but the question becomes how many and who. Looking at newspapers, I have noticed that the photos accompanying almost every story are of the same group of a dozen or so Communist Party Iraqis celebrating, taken from different angles (see photo at right).

A few other photos have been taken and published, if you look for them; here are a few. Look closely and see if you don’t see a striking similarity between them:

Pretty much every image I have seen so far is of just a few people at a time. I have not seen a single photo of an actual crowd. And yet the vivid impression that the press has been giving is one of thousands of Iraqis parading through the streets, a scene repeated throughout Iraq.

So forgive me for being a bit skeptical, as we have seen this before.

As a footnote, the Dow and NASDAQ are not seeing the huge boosts the press has been predicting, and it is only a matter of time before the next few soldiers get killed and the daily grind in that regard continues.

I really had had no idea how slow DSL in the U.S. was until coming back here and checking it out. Normal plans provide only a half-megabit to 1.5 Mb service for $27 (2900 yen) per month; the cheapest “expert” package is for 6 Mb, and costs $99 (about 11,000 yen) per month. These prices do not include the extra charges and fees for starting up an account.

Contrast that with Japan, where the old 1.5-8-12 Mb plan layout is now outdated. When I went to sign up for my new service, I had a choice between the 26 Mb and 40 Mb plans, both priced at 3828 yen ($35) per month. There is a 4000 yen ($37) initial fee, but you also get 3 months free service under the current promotion, and such promotions are common.

But if that is not enough, then you might be eligible for a fiber optic account (100 Mb, about $100 per month) or, in more limited areas, vDSL, which has near-lossless 24 Mb service (I don’t know the cost off-hand).

You know the news, of course, unless you’ve been hiding in a “spider-hole” in Iraq. Bush is presently on the air, doing his expected crowing over this PR boon. The question is, what impact will it have? Bush just announced that, now that Saddam is in custody, the Baathist uprising is over, and there is no hope for their return to power. That, of course, is just slightly jumping the gun. While Saddam may have been moving from location to location, it is highly unlikely that he was frequenting some command and control center and leading the struggle personally; and it is dangerous to assume that Saddam is necessary to any uprising, as if there is no other leader the Baathists could follow, or that if they do maintain such intense loyalty to Saddam and not just their own power structure, or that the imprisonment of Saddam might not prompt them to step up their attacks.

There is a settling that will occur. Bush now has Saddam as a plaything and can do what he wants with him, parading him out before tribunals, stringing out trials until the next election, or, if he prefers, forcing a quick trial and execution. But then there is the bloodshed in Iraq, and if our soldiers continue to die, Bush could find Saddam to be, well, irrelevant. Saddam’s capture will definitely give Bush a short-term boost, but the benefit will only be maintained if–as we all certainly hope–this somehow stops the Baathist attacks, settles the question of WMDs, and allows Iraq to stabilize so we can stop spending so much money and bring our troops home. But if Saddam stays silent, the WMD, if any, stay missing, and the attacks continue, then capturing Saddam may be just as relevant to the war in Iraq as ESPN’s firing Rush Limbaugh was relevant to the NFL.

And that brings us back to a larger topic, which is the relevance of Iraq to America; was it really necessary to go in there in the first place? Was this not, as Wesley Clark has suggested, a side-show to the “war on terror”? But then again, we have all known from the start that the “war on terror” is one of those Orwellian endless wars; we can never hope to get rid of terrorists, alas.

The best we can hope for now is that Iraq settles down and we stop losing so many of our people, that we stop killing others. I am not one to wish for calamity for the sake of bringing down a politician I hate; I would rather see Bush re-elected than have Iraq go on as it is (as intensely painful as four more years of Bush might be). But experience has taught me to be a bit cautious about celebrating a victory when only a superficial goal has been achieved. The mission has still not been accomplished quite yet.

He was not exactly Thomas Jefferson, but he did have an illegitimate child by a black woman. No, I’m not talking about Bill Clinton, I’m talking about Strom Thurmond. Apparently, about 79 years ago or so, Strom, then about 21, had a bit of a thing with the family maid. About a quarter of a century after that, Thurmond reportedly took legal responsibility for his child, giving her financial support since 1941–though publicly, he revealed nothing.

Apparently, Thurmond was not segregationist about everything, like DNA and stuff.

Nobody needs to tell me that PowerPoint can make you dumb. I teach the darn program to my students, and the first thing I point out to them is how dull, insipid and meaningless those presentations can be if you allow yourself to get boxed in by their style. I don’t even teach the templates or ready-made slides, rather I make them begin with blank presentations and slides upon which they much build it all themselves, which helps to foster creativity and diversity in their projects. I also carefully monitor their subject matter, letting them know that not every subject is helped out by a slide show.

While I did not suspect that Bill Gates’ bloated program was responsible for the destruction of the space shuttle, I must say I am not too surprised.

Coming back to the U.S. just now, I was of course concerned about the flu, and figured it might not be a bad idea to get shots. Yeah, right–if you’re able. Pretty much every last person in the U.S. seems determined to get shots right now, and few if any physicians have any vaccine left. Meanwhile, the media is whipping the public into a frenzy about how many people have the flu and are dying from it. We love to frighten ourselves, don’t we?

In lighter news, Dave Letterman and Oprah Winfrey seem to be overcoming their long, simmering feud–all Dave’s fault, you gotta admit. I recall one bit many years back when Oprah was losing weight in which Dave introduced a gag game called “pin the tail on the Oprah” which presented an ever-increasing challenge as the ‘target’ diminished. More recently, Dave has targeted “O” Magazine, as well as Oprah’s “former husband,” Dr. Phil.

But now, though few take seriously Dave’s proposed “Super Bowl of Love” in which Dr. Phil would counsel Dave before Oprah came on stage and the “love would explode.” But Oprah, more reasonably, wants Dave to come as a guest on her show (she has, after all, already done his). Dave, very seldom a guest on someone else’s show, is not too hot on the idea, saying, “here’s what would happen: I would go on the Oprah show and I would break down and sob like a little girl.” So time will tell.

That didn’t stop Julia Roberts from getting the best of Dave. Having gotten “deeply” married herself, she both congratulated Dave on his new son, and teased him endlessly about not marrying “the mother,” as she was then referred to, Roberts noting how inappropriate that sounded. Dave, trying to change the subject, asked Julia how her married life was going. ““You know,” she replied. “You’re married . . . oh wait, no you’re not.”

Finally, Josh Marshall points out how completely hollow Bush’s promises to crack down on Halliburton’s overcharging are. “If there’s an overcharge, like we think there is, we expect that money be repaid,” he told reporters. Like he cracked down on Enron? Let’s see, Ken Lay, Bush’s biggest donor, still has his stolen billions, and the shareholders are still out in the cold.

But Bush is serious this time! “[The Pentagon’s] investigation will lay the facts out for everybody to see,” he said. Just like John Ashcroft’s investigation into the treasonous Valerie Plame affair? Marshall is perhaps the only American journalist who is pointing out that a senior White House official is boasting about having buried that investigation.

Despite his current promises to clean things up, there are a few things you can be assured of: Halliburton is doing far worse than is being revealed, Bush’s “investigation” will be weak and ineffective, and the press will dutifully forget all about this in a week.

And Marshall points out how this playing: Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz gutted Congress’ plans to oversee fraud in the use of the $87 billion Bush demanded for his failure of a war. So if things like overcharging occur with this new cash deluge, we won’t know about it, thanks to the Bush administration.

Par for the course.

Speaking of being nibbled to death by ducks… Having returned to the U.S. and seeing more closely the reporting and discussion of events, I see that although there is a blizzard of political outrages committed by Bush, it seems that the American people have become inured to it all–or maybe just the Democrats aren’t nearly as skilled at making political hay out of them as the Republicans were at blowing their opponents’ peccadilloes way out of proportion. Remember when, six years ago, Republicans were furious over Al Gore’s phone calls? Gore was accused of making phone calls from his office phone as opposed to a private phone to raise “hard money” instead of “soft money,” as a few ten thousands of dollars were put into DNC accounts that were federally controlled as opposed to not–about as innocuous and hair-splitting a scandal as you can imagine, but there were Congressional hearings and an official investigation that got down to the bottom of it (Gore was in bounds on that, as he raised soft money only from that phone line). And whenever Janet Reno didn’t vociferously prosecute the case to the likings of the Republican attack dogs, they called for her resignation.

Compare that with today, when a senior White House official–most likely Karl Rove–used a similar White House phone to commit a serious federal felony by revealing the identity of a CIA operative as an act of political retribution. When Ashcroft was given the investigation, the GOP claimed no conflict of interest (though Rove got Ashcroft his job), and, as expected, has completely buried the investigation; a senior White House official has told the Financial Times of London that “We have let the earth-movers roll in over this one.” And they did–how often do you see that story on the news? We’re all hearing about Halliburton overcharging today, but how many Senate investigations are there looking into the fact that Cheney’s own company got the juiciest non-bid contracts?

As I suggested, maybe it’s because there is such a hailstorm of such kinds of things, and President “I’m-not-a-divider” Bush has so polarized the nation that his supporters are unwilling to even glance askance at Bush’s glaring failures and corruption. The Taliban is beginning to take Afghanistan back. (Remember when we thought we’d won that war?) Over the span of a few days, our forces killed 15 children in that country–which, even under the same unintentional circumstances, we would have called a war crime if Hussein had been responsible, not us. The endless lies about Iraq, and the inept mishandling of the war there. The hiding of the dead and wounded. The attacks on those same soldiers’ pay and benefits, even as Bush serves them fake turkey, and then claims that their lives are paying for the right to give the contracts to companies like Halliburton. Does anyone even remember Ken Lay and Enron? The burying of the 9/11 investigation? Cheney’s energy commission reports? Bush’s ties to the bin Laden family, and the administration’s rush to allow bin Laden’s family to flee the U.S. in the days after 9/11?

These are just a few of the scandals, and only the ones during his administration–let’s not even get into the AWOL, drug use, lying under oath as governor of Texas and all that. The point is, how come suddenly it is perfectly kosher for the president to commit all kinds of blatant misdeeds, and somehow it’s not really an issue? We hear about these things sometimes, but not nearly as often as before, and nothing ever comes of them.

One thing is for certain–if we do, for whatever reason, decide to ignore all of this, and re-elect Bush based on the fiction his administration is painting, we will get exactly what we deserve.

So I departed Tokyo perhaps just in time–the weather had just started to take a rather gloomy twist, dark, cold, and rainy, rather miserable weather. Still, I had a good departure schedule–I got a flight leaving at 7:30 pm, as opposed to one leaving at perhaps 3:00 pm or so, giving me a lot more time to sleep, get ready, and get in to the airport.

At the airport, I was surprised to meet Kate, a teacher at my school, lining up for the same flight; while she was just connecting through San Francisco instead of staying like I am, and had a much better seat way farther up the aisle (despite getting her ticket a month after me and arriving at the airport later–she is, as she pointed out, much cuter than I am), we still were able to chat for some time, a very agreeable way to spend time waiting for the boarding and later the luggage claim.

Unfortunately, the flight could have been better. As is usual with United, the service is very good, but I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep on flights. It also does not help that I always get seated behind someone who, for the entire flight, has their seat reclined all the way back into my face (being disgruntled, I always do a check about the cabin and find that only 20% of people seem to have their seats reclined at any given time–but I always get the 20%), and the lady sitting in the seat next to me was leaning way over the armrest, with her feet put up on top of the seat in front of her. So despite having the aisle seat, I was more than a bit crowded in than is usual even for Economy class.

But I did get here, and that’s the whole point of the exercise, so mission accomplished. I napped for three hours in the afternoon, but am still dead tired and ready to fall asleep at 9:30 PST…. I’ll post pictures later, but I have a nice “room,” so to speak–a kind of mobile-home rig, smallish, that my folks use to travel in. You know, a mini-kitchen, bathroom, not-too-small-bed, all on wheels. This will also serve as a great pre- and post-game vehicle when my father and I go to the 49’ers/Seattle game on the 27th, the last game of the season. But for now, it is a nice little private apartment in the driveway–and I really have to use the bed. More later.

I am posting in advance for the day, and may post again before the day is out, depending on how I feel when I arrive. I am going home for my usual two-and-a-half-week vacation, to enjoy Christmas at home with the family, relax and regenerate as much as I can, and do a bit of shopping.

I’ll be posting during that time, giving you a look at the San Francisco Bay Area (south bay, really, near Palo Alto), a peek at Christmas festivities at the homestead, and if I’m lucky, photos from the final 49’ers game of the season. If I’m even more lucky, then when I return, I will have all-new DSL with IP Telephony, which I’ll report on as soon as it gets going (9 yen per minute to the U.S., free unlimited telephone calls to any KDDi/IP Telephone subscriber in Japan). But it may be as much as a week late after I return, in which case I’ll be relegated to dial-up status for that time. One can hope…