Q: Do condoms help stop HIV? McCain: "You've stumped me"

NYT blog: Mr. McCain: “You’ve stumped me...Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”

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Goosebumps

Obama's speech on race (37-minute video, with interactive transcript via NYT)

I watched every minute of it. He's an incredible orator, and given his life history and family background, it's hard not to think as you watch him speak -- he apparently wrote much of the speech himself the night before -- that he means every word he says, that's he's not bullshitting you like you'd expect from a politician eyeing the White House.

I fear for this man's life.

LOL!

#6

Home free

Just wanted to let everyone know I got home safely this afternoon. My persistence to camp out all night at O'Hare and try to keep my place on the standby list to MCO eventually paid off, so I managed to get home before my confirmed flight Saturday night to Jacksonville.

Tears in my eyes, I was never was so happy to be in Florida humidity.

Hallelujah.

Edit: I just noticed that this post and the previous post were both posted on the same day (Friday). I never would have believed that until I saw it. It feels as though 3 days have passed since I posted the previous one from a sports lounge at the old, musty Hilton attached to ORD.

Nightmare

Waited 2 hours on standby at ORD for United's last flight out to MCO for the night

Earlier, nearly lost it at an attendant, who, to talk me off the ledge, put me at the top of the standby list

But I didn't get called

Defeated, went to United "customer service" desk, where I spent the next 2 hours

Saw two pissed-off men at the front of the line almost come to blows -- they literally were nose-to-nose, F-word flying, until someone else came between them

Finally got to speak to an attendant

I apparently had become overtly agigated (became "That Guy" in line, the stereotypical short-fused person in a long line who causes an uncomfortable scene) because a second, snootier attendant asked what was going on and intervened

Yelled at him, periodically cutting him off mid-sentence when he tried to use his "blame the passenger" attitude on me

Almost came to tears when I was told there are NO flights on ANY airline to ANY airport in Florida until Saturday night, or I could wait until Sunday. Even asked about first and business classes and was willing to pay; was told there was nothing to offer even for purchase

Booked me on flight to JAX for Saturday night

Supposed to be home Thursday night

Will spend the night on a bench at ORD, holding out slim hope I can fly standby first thing Friday

This will definitely hold some weight when I finally decide whether I actually can do this new job.

Vancouver, Washington

A Crude Case for War?

"We may not know the real motivations behind the Iraq war for years, but it remains difficult to distill oil from all the possibilities. That's because our society and economy have been nursed on cheap oil, and the idea that oil security is a right as well as a necessity has become part of our foreign policy DNA, handed down from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter to George H.W. Bush. And the war and its untidy aftermath have, in fact, swelled the coffers of the world's biggest oil companies.

But it hasn't happened in the way anyone might have imagined."

Inside Beijing's shocking death camp for cats

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.

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