Wicked

Last night Laurie & I went to the opening night of Wicked in San Francisco. Very fun. It did feel a bit like the lead actress was an Orion slave girl, however.

To complete the Star Trek theme, we ran into Zachary Quinto outside - he had flown up to the opening night show to support some friends of his in the show. Really down to earth guy.

We ended the night with drinks at a club in SF, then spent the night at the Hotel Whitcomb.

Overall a success, if we did learn one valuable lesson: It's a bit too hectic to start off at work, then take the kids somewhere, then try to be at a theater on time for a play - next time, we do it on a weekend or a day off.

American Cargo Cult

Ouch.

Your opinion matters as much as anyone else's

• When a person has studied a topic, he has no more real knowledge than you do, just a hidden agenda.
  

The herd should be followed

• The contemplative lemming gets trampled

Conservatives against Republican Government

Somehow I failed to post this two years ago. Much less relevant now, but still stunning.

But compare Clinton’s 3.4 percent growth rate to the spending orgy that has dominated Washington since Bush moved into town. With Republicans in charge of both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue, spending growth has averaged 10.4 percent per year. And the GOP’s reckless record goes well beyond runaway defense costs. The federal education bureaucracy has exploded by 101 percent since Republicans started running Congress. Spending in the Justice Department over the same period has shot up 131 percent, the Commerce Department 82 percent, the Department of Health and Human Services 81 percent, the State Department 80 percent, the Department of Transportation 65 percent, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development 59 percent. Incredibly, the four bureaucracies once targeted for elimination by the GOP Congress—Commerce, Energy, Education, and Housing and Urban Development—have enjoyed spending increases of an average of 85 percent.

Question of the Day: How can your eyes see if they're made out of meat?

The twins are nearly six years old, and every night at bedtime it becomes question time. Lately, Mikaela has been obsessed with bodies and death, so a few nights ago she asked how people's eyes go away after they die - she was asking how skulls ended up with empty eye sockets. I told her that eyes are made out of meat, just like the rest of us, and that after we die animals or worms or bugs will come and eat it all up until there is nothing left but bones.

So last night her sole question was "How can your eyes see if they're made out of meat?" I laughed. I didn't show her this video.

They're made out of meat

How strangely appropriate that we are meat's dream.