~ with the price of 'soothing and cooling' aloe gel at an exorbitant $5.99, even for the store brand, it would cheaper to purchase sunblock in advance and avoid the sunburn all together. at these prices, it looks like we will be stuck with treatment of the medicinal properties of water and air.

~ john edwards has a toothy smile, we are agreed, but can we lay off the condescending predictions that all southerners are going to swoon and rise for this guy just because he has an accent, as though we can not study speeches and debates before making a decision? who are the southerners who voted for clinton? were they all transplants from up north? where will these characterizations lead? that every woman will vote for hillary clinton and elizabeth dole, even if they were opponents? or that every black person would vote for al sharpton and vernon robinson, the latter billing himself as the ‘black jesse helms’? maybe this is all true, and southerners will vote for someone who is ‘one of us’, after all many of them were duped by a 'texan' from connecticut, if so, this country, tragically, is more of a cartoon than we had feared.

~ concerning iraq’s new national security laws, from the washington post:

The country’s human rights minister, Baktiar Amin, compared the new Iraqi law to the U.S.A. Patriot Act, the U.S. law enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that gives broader powers to law enforcement authorities in pursuit of suspected terrorists.

christ, is that really something about which to brag? or is mr. amin rubbing the patriot act in our face? could law be any more martial than it is when enforced by 130,000 foreign troops? if so, well done!

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