Thanks, D.Z.!

Many thanks to D.Z. Allen for his very kind online review of The Devil's Right Hand. Hope you like the next one even more.

Hillbilly Flash

I'm becoming a major fan of Tribe's flash-fiction site Flashing In the Gutters.

My own small contribution, entitled Generations , is now there, in such illustrious company as stories by Duane Swierczynski, David Terrenoire, Scott Ford, and many more.

Enjoy.

I'm So Glad We Have These People to Protect Us, Part 2

Bush Unaware of Ports Deal Before Approval

WASHINGTON - President Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates until the deal already had been approved by his administration, the White House said Wednesday.

Defending the deal anew, the administration also said that it should have briefed Congress sooner about the transaction, which has triggered a major political backlash among both Republicans and Democrats.

Jesus.

Folks, this is not, as Dubbya puts it, just "an Arab company". This is a state owned company. And the ruling family of that state was so close to Osama bin Ladin that a one proposed CIA hit on him was nixed because it would have "wiped out half the UAE's royal family," according to CIA director George Tenet.

And their defense is that President "I can keep you safer" Bush didn't KNOW about it?

Jesus.

Words Fail Me

Mudville Gazette: The Kansas preacher who tried to erect an anti-gay monument in a Boise city park says he's coming to Idaho this week to picket the funeral of a fallen soldier.

Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, says God killed Idaho National Guard Corporal Carrie French with an improvised explosive device. Phelps says God is retaliating against America for a bombing of his church six years ago.

He'll be at any funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq that he can, and there's nothing anyone can do about it

Phelps says there is no reason he is targeting French specifically. He says his church will protest any public funeral of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Olympic Moment

Bode Miller Now 0-For-4 at the Turin Olympics .

Looks like he picked the wrong week to give up drinking.

Take Me to the Mardi Gras

This article from the New Orleans Times-Picayune about the first post-Katrina Carnival actually brought tears to my eyes.

Now, I know there are people who question the propriety of having a Mardi Gras celebration after so much death and destruction, with the city still in so much pain.

Screw those people.

This quote about New Orleans resident Louise Maloney sums it up best:

When the parade season launched last weekend, with the bawdy, biting satire of Krewe du Vieux, Maloney wept as she watched the parade move past throngs of locals.

"This is what we do," she thought to herself. "We take tragedy and make it into beauty and hilarity. And we're also showing pride in being New Orleanians and expressing ourselves like never before."

People's ability to stand up, laugh defiance in the Reaper's face, and spit in his eye is one of the things that makes me proud to be human.

Laissez les bontemps roulez.