Well, I will give Franken props on his guest selection.

Hearing Michael Moore and Al Franken at the same time makes me hate Al Franken somewhat less.

"We're the media elite and proud of it!"

That slogan is about as annoying as people who declare themselves "Politically incorrect and proud of it..."

Lovely... I miss G. Gordon Liddy calling in to Franken's show, but I'm here for Michael Moore.

Ugh.

Finally got tuned in. Early notes:

Grateful Dead as bumper music. I can deal with that.

Franken is recycling jokes from his appearance on The Daily Show last week.

I'll admit, I'm curious. Air America Radio, the long rumored liberal radio network, goes on the air today. I started a long rant about how sloppily their web presence seemed to be handled yesterday. I originally found this website which has a lot of information about programs, but nothing about what markets the programming would be carried in, which stations it would be broadcast on, and nothing about an internet stream. Honestly I was expecting better.

Then I found what appears to be their official site and abandoned the rant since the official site had all the information I needed. I assume that when they say "On the air Wednesday, March 31st at Noon" they mean Noon Eastern. The website claims that there will be an internet stream to listen to if no station in your market is carrying it.

The O'Franken Factor is on the air in one hour and forty-three minutes, and the website still doesn't have a link to the stream. I assume the website will change at some point between now and then, but they're quickly running out of time.

Is anybody else going to tune in? I can't imagine that anybody could hate Al Franken more than I do, but I'm curious to see what the show is like. Plus, I definitely want to hear Janeane Garafolo's show, because she's still cute.

Update: I just found a MetaFilter thread which includes a link to what will soon be the real page. Online stream in Real Audio. Yuck.

Last month I heard that Alistair Cooke signed off on the last of his Letters from America. My local NPR station plays the BBC overnight, so in the three years I've been living here I've heard the Letter from America more than a couple times. I always enjoyed those segments, but I had no idea of the history behind them.

Apparently, Alistair Cooke has been producing these weekly commentaries since 1946. Last Saturday I heard one of his older programs, the one on Nixon's downfall. I am going to miss those... It was always something nice to listen to, whether it be laying in bed unable to sleep, just getting back to town from a long road trip, cleaning up the bar after kicking out the last of the drunks, or heading home late after being the last drunk kicked out.

Last night, Alistair Cooke died at his home in New York.

It's opening day in baseball, and the Yankees are on pace to go 0-162.

"Fought Down" by Ken Layne & The Corvids has quickly become my most listened to album. As a matter of fact, I have to think pretty hard to come up with any music I've purchased in the last year or two that's earned repeated listens like Fought Down has. This album is currently getting me through a very tough NPR pledge week.

Excellent straight-up rock & roll. Go download some samples then go buy the album. I haven't talked much music on here lately because I just haven't found too much I've liked lately. This one has broken the dry spell.

So the Kansas Supreme court has ruled. In a unanimous decision, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the Kansas Liquor Control Act is non-uniform, and localities therefore have the right to exempt themselves from it and allow sales on Sundays. The State Legislature can make the act uniform and take that right away from localities, but they have not done so yet.

I now have two entries on my Kansas political enemies list. In addition to my personal state senator, Nick Jordan, Senator John Vratil of Leawood now makes the list. His idiotic quote:

Some lawmakers, including Vratil, think that if Sunday sales are allowed, retailers ought to pay more in liquor taxes to the state. Those taxes haven't been increased since 1977.

“If we're going to allow Sunday sales,” Vratil said, “we ought to get something for it.”

Sincere apologies, my leige... I had no idea we'd troubled you so. Just give us your command and we peasants will do your bidding.

Apparently Vratil has now been in politics long enough that he believes his constituents are here to do his bidding, rather than the other way around. I suggest that the residents of Leawood disabuse him of that notion this November.

Never mind the fact that Kansas tax receipts will increase, as people buying liquor on Sunday will no longer have to leave the state to do so. Vratil, you're an idiot.

So the legislature's session is coming to a close. Once it is finished, if they haven't acted to make the statute uniform, Sunday sales will go on the ballot for Shawnee in November. I'll be hitting the bars on election day and taking the drunks to the voting booth, by force if necessary.

God willing, I will buy beer on Sunday in my home town on Super Bowl Sunday next year.

Tim Couch?

No.

Just no.

I'm still on break, but I couldn't help but post this:

SVN has a new web page and apparently is back on the air. Hoorah!

The schedule is decidedly lacking in Young Pups and Science Fiction Theater (or is that Theatre?), though.

Anyway, it looks like they're back on the air, even if they don't seem to have original programming just yet...

Get to it, guys...

Since Gerg is currently on his honeymoon, my readership will be down by about 33% for the next week. I think this would be a good time to take the break I've been wanting to take for a while now.

I'll be taking a couple of weeks off. Hopefully in that time I'll figure out what it is I want to be doing with this site. Your suggestions are welcome as well... Do you want more drunken semi-political rants? Should I pull the trigger and file to run for State Senator and run the campaign from here? Should there be more depressing whining about my love life or lack thereof? Stupid contests? Expanded Young Pups section? More bad music reviews?

Honestly I don't know, and most of my posts lately have been just filler to keep the front page from going blank. I'll be back in a couple of weeks, hopefully with something a bit different. See you then.

Twenty-four hours ago I rolled out of bed, walked outside to smoke a cigarette on the tenth floor balcony overlooking the Gulf of Mexico on a gorgeous morning in Pensacola, Florida.

Today I am sitting in my cubicle with a somewhat nasty head cold and waiting to find out who I work for now.

I think I want to go back to Florida.

Oh Jesus, what did I do now... I received this email today:

Dear user, the management of Gimpysoft.com mailing system wants to let you know that,

Your e-mail account has been temporary disabled because of unauthorized access.

Further details can be obtained from attached file.

In order to read the attach you have to use the following password: 31232.

The Management,
The Gimpysoft.com team http://www.gimpysoft.com

Well, of course I immediately opened the attachment. Hopefully that will help them determine why my account was suspended.

I knew management would find out I've been using my gimpysoft.com email address for personal use. Please, everybody... Can you immediately stop sending mail to my gimpysoft.com email address. I'll have a talk with the CEO later today and see if I can smooth this over.

Hopefully things will have worked themselves out by the time I get back from Gerg's wedding this Saturday.

Between pages at around 4:00 this morning, I had a short dream that I was logged into one of the UNIX boxes at work. One of my coworkers had recently died, and it turns out that his development directories were HAUNTED!!!

Bad luck would befall any poor application developer who would enter his directory, and woe unto the unfortunate sap that would dare to VIEW HIS HAUNTED FILES!!!

Christ... I need a new career.

Well, it's pretty cool that Lord of the Rings ran the table. I missed a lot of the movies that were up for awards again this year. I did catch Lost in Translation, and was mildly upset that Bill Murray didn't get the Best Actor award, even more so because Sean Penn won, and I don't like Sean Penn.

Well, I guess Bill will have to take it next year for Lost in Translation II: Back to Japan.