day off

today I had no classes for various reasons and tried my hardest to make something constructive out of it. I worked on long-term assignments, had lunch (Japanese) with my fiancee, and went to the library.

For some reason, I have trouble staying with articles in the New Yorker, but I love the cartoons. So finding a book of just their cartoons was great. Even better was looking at the old ones. I don't get some of them [caption: are you president Cooledge?] But it is really interesting to see social change though time (the period was 1925-75). Now I wish I could compare these to the '75-00 ones. Even better would be to compare the Nixon era cartoons with the Bush era ones.

Both somehow managed to fool the American people twice, and both used wedge issues and the vaunted Southern Strategy to keep their stranglehold on power. Both are in favor of massively increasing executive power, both got themselves intwined into a war based on a lie.

Maybe Bush can go to Palistine like Nixon went to China. Maybe Bush can do something good like Nixon did like banning smoking ads and the EPA. Of course, Nixon had a liberal Democratic congress to deal with, whereas Bush has a GOP congress that just might be more conservative than he is.

Now that's a scary thought. How about something funny, yet sad? Our Quote of the Day:

"Don't answer yes" pleaded British PM Tony Blair, after Bush was asked at today's joint press conference if he viewed Blair as his poodle