We had a phase back a couple months ago where it was unusually hot -- got up well into the 90s Fahrenheit -- but today we have a high of 60°F. And a steady drizzle.

Read it all. And weep.

(If Em were around, he'd no doubt gloat at my son's choice of ball club.)

This coming from a man who wishes to be "Hitler tenfold":

I am still the Hitler of our time. This Hitler has only one objective - justice for his own people, sovereignty for his own people, recognition of the independence of his people and their right to their own resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold. Ten times Hitler, that is what we stand for.

Worth listening to, all the way to the end.

I think it's worth noting that the second song you hear in the background happens to be an old Anglican hymn that is traditionally used at Remembrance Day and Anzac Day memorials, along with military funerals:

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea—
Come, Friend of sinners, and thus bide with me.

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

"Abide with me", Henry F. Lyte

Rest in peace, Maj. Rogers.

In our church's newspaper, there is a blurb (annoyingly without names or references) reporting about a 35-year-old woman in Munich who was pregnant with her first child.

The British Home Office and the Dutch equivalent seem to think gays aren't persecuted in Iran.

Nevermind that homosexuality is punishable with the death penalty in Iran, and executions are still routine. Including that of the boyfriend of the gay man in question. But no, he's in no danger when he gets sent there! Pshaw!

I'm sick of the bashing of "asylum seekers" and "illegal immigrants". It's like Prohibition. Why criminalize something that ought to be a self-evident right, particularly when cases like this one are frequent? Immigration law that is designed to simply keep people out is inherently unjust and nonsensical -- but most people don't think about it because they've never been confronted by it. So it continues.

(Hat tip to Jeremiah again.)

Punt.
Punt.
Punt.
Punt.
Punt.
Punt.
Downs.
Half.

Then a third quarter that went the same way.

Then 14 points in 2 1/2 minutes. And an INT. And a recovered kick. It was like Sean Taylor really was suddenly intervening in the game.

And then Todd Collins, who has been nearly flawless in his rebirth as the Redskins starter QB, makes a mistake beyond all mistakes -- lobbing that pass where Moss had given up -- and it turns into an INT returned for a TD.

And then another INT returned for a TD in the closing minutes. Unbelievable. Hard to imagine Collins doing that.

The Seahawks proved they were the better team through three quarters -- their defensive line and linebacker corps just crushed the Redskins O-line -- while Collins played well, in spite of the pressure. Which made those two major mistakes that much more jarring. And the end of the rally that much more crushing.

Sigh. Better luck next year. But an exciting game nonetheless.

And my lungs, too.

Had a nasty cold the past week that just won't go away. Probably got a nasty case of bronchitis. Feel like total donkeybongles, too. Keep getting migraines on top of it all, just to make things interesting.

Bleah.

Great thing about having kids in kindergarden: all the interesting bugs that they bring back home with them. :-p

So even though my parents arrived yesterday, I mainly am lying around in bed feeling miserable. Sigh. (Have to drag myself to the doctor this afternoon. Not looking forward to the trip.)

The article is to weep.

I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody “Monsterpiece Theater.” Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, “That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — “so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.”

The funny (not ha-ha funny but why-why funny) thing is that recently iTunes began offering free Sesame Street clips for download. I was delighted by this and downloaded some...and was annoyed and flabbergasted at how utterly lobotomized the clips were. They were singularly unfunny, unentertaining, blatantly paranoid about offending anyone.

Jim Henson must be spinning in his grave.

I can see it now. Parents buying Sesame Street: Old School and showing it to their kids should be locked up for child abuse. (Count me in. I'm a-gonna "abuse" my kids that way, sho' nuff.)

The other thought that occurred to me: Al-Qaeda doesn't need to terrorize us. We're doing a fine job ourselves.

...

Addendum
BoE showed me this in our local (German) paper. When I read the article I assumed it was another story that had been distorted or misrepresented or perhaps even a bad joke (it happens sometimes in reports about America and other places). But I went on Google and found out that the article didn't even come close to the bitter, sad reality.

Israeli neo-Nazis arrested for attacking religious Jews, gays, etc. in Israel.

Truth continues to body-slam fiction into next week.

Thankfully, my parents weren't on this bridge. Though I used to drive across it all the time, and so do my parents.

Hope SW, Jane, Helix, Alan and all the others in MN and their loved ones are OK.

Update OK, after knee-jerk posting here after reading my e-mail but before reading Multiply, I now see SW already posted about this.

I practically grew up on the campus of Virginia Tech. My dad was a cadet there for a year; both parents were grad students there (as a result I spent much of my early childhood in the university library); my mom worked there for several years; I studied there a year myself. Of all the places where I have lived, Blacksburg is the one I consider to be "home", even though I haven't really lived there since I was small (though I lived in the vicinity until I was 12 and was in a dorm when 18).

When I went to Tech, I went to classes in Norris; I had friends who lived in West AJ.

Blacksburg is an idyllic place. It is quiet, up in the mountains, with a couple nice lakes and lots of hiking trails nearby. Nice people, too. Great place to raise your kids. I'll always fondly remember it.

That something as monstrous as the outright cold-blooded murder of (as of now, according to CNN) over 30 people could happen in a place like Blacksburg is almost unimaginable to me. Seeing the campus I know like the back of my hand even now on German TV with policemen carrying around bloodied bodies is surreal to the point of making me nauseated.

Needless to say, my mom called earlier and is in tears. Just total shock and disbelief. The worst school shooting in US history, possibly the worst mass shooting in US history, period. In Blacksburg, of all places.