There’s nothing quite like running in a mid-summer Houston downpour. Imagine being in a shower. Not one of those wimpy low-flow shower head tree-hugging showers. Think of a mid-1960’s vintage, single story motel along the Gulf Coast type shower. One of the showers that had handles long before the ADA mandated that hotels have some rooms with accessible showers. A shower that’ll blow not only the dirt and sweat off of your carcass, but will also scrub your soul clean from mortal sins.

That’s what a south Texas thunderstorm feels like, and that’s where I ran this afternoon.

So tonight was Missy’s evening to host Bunko for a bunch of women from the church. For those who aren’t of the United Methodist persuasion, that translates into a bunch of women sitting around drinking wine and rolling dice. Talibaptist they ain’t.

It also means that the kid and I were personas non gratas in the house for a while. So, like any good dad, I trucked the kid over to the local Wings ‘n’ Things for a little bit of root beer and big screen football.

(Oh, by the way – there’s another Jank due sometime around Leap Day 2004. I’m pumped, and Missy will be as soon as she stops feeling nauseous.)

For today, we’re profiling Brooke Adams

Decent platform: Governor Adams will set California on a new course – one in which people will be entrusted to spend their own money, protect their own interests, and lead their own lives, for better or worse, with neither help nor hindrance of a bloated government never envisioned by the rugged individuals who settled here 150 years ago to be all things to all people. Together, we will prevail.

Congrats to Brooke, and good luck to all! And here’s hearty thanks to the folks in California for keeping the Texas Legislature out of the news…

I was overwhelmed and saddened to read this article at Patriotic America that proves inconclusively that my liberal friends (heck, my wife is a liberal!) love Hitler more than W.

The relatively scientific poll also demonstrates liberal support for former German Nazi leader, Adolph Hitler, with his Presidential support figures topping that of even the current President, George W. Bush.

I even thought to question the premise and statistics stated, but the author of this piece spelled out the truth for me.

Our patriotic statisticians have concluded that the poll is valid, statistically significant, and representative of the general liberal population.

Fair and Balanced, even to Microsoft :

Turns out the Blaster Worm was pretty much contained before it became an issue. I do appreciate the way that MS doesn’t put a time limit on providing patches to the various versions of Windows. One of my gripes with the Anti-Virus folks stems from the fact that I’m pretty much locked into droping $30/year or more per machine to ensure that I remain virus free.

Ok, they turn Iodine 139 into Iodine 138, and cut the halflife from millions of years to tens of minutes. In any case, where else are you going to find an article featuring sentences such as:

“ionized the gold to form a plasma and then accelerated the electrons in the plasma to relativistic energies. When the electrons struck the solid gold of the target they emitted gamma-rays as bremsstrahlung radiation”

Heh, Heh – he said “Bremsstrahlung”

This Austin Chronicle article reminded me that we’ve got a vote coming up on September 13 (more on that later) on 22 propositions, including the hotly debated Proposition 12. Proposition 12 is about “tort reform” and would limit the amount of money that judges and juries can award a plaintiff for “noneconomic damages” — like pain and suffering — in a civil action, singling out lawsuits against doctors and “health care providers.”

An article at MSNBC describes a road campaign by Attorney General Ashcroft to get support for destroying our privacy. This is another prime example of the rejection by the GOP of one of the pillars of Conservativism: less government.