I imagine Senator Dodd is feeling pretty great now. It's rare that politics provides an opportunity for one man to stand up and fight for a just cause, and win. Senator Dodd was able to filibuster retroactive immunity for the phone companies.

Despite retroactive immunity appearing to be a violation of the ex post facto clause in Article I of our Constitution most of the Senate was ready to pass it. Thanks to Senator Dodd's leadership on this we've won one battle in the war to preserve our nation's Constitution.

Something I regret not doing when I was younger is chasing after the things that I thought mattered. I either let my interest wane, or listened to the tut-tutting of others that said it was a waste of time.

I'm reading a book that examines the Interactive Fiction (IF) medium called Twisty Little Passages. Interactive Fiction is the dressed up word for text adventures. I feel as though hours of my youth spent playing these has been vindicated. I should have pushed for it to be considered Summer Reading.

...works of acknowledged literary quality, such as Robert Pinksky's Mindwheel and Brian Moriarty's Trinity...

It's neat to see a classic Infocom text adventure right alongside work created by a former US poet laureate. Moriarty's Trinity was the first time I ever came across a Klein bottle and the word perambulator.

The House of Representatives found time to give Jesus a shout out for bringing us Christmas. My two favorite parts of the resolution:

(1) recognizes the Christian faith as one of the great religions of the world;

I'm glad they cleared this up. They're a little late to the party though. I was sold on this years ago when I discovered Christianity gave us Ludwig Wittgenstein. Ludwig was a ninja with math and philosophy.

(4) acknowledges and supports the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States and in the formation of the western civilization;

Let's get busy then and see this through. I want a resolution acknowledging the role played by the Renaissance in Western civilization. While we're at it lets give a shout out to the Golden Age of Islam since they preserved math and science for us during the dark ages. They even added new stuff like the Scientific Method and optics before they gave it back! How cool is that? I think that deserves a resolution.

I'm writing my letter to Congresswoman Johnson right now. I imagine she'll be receptive since she sponsored the resolution acknowledging the coolness of Islam and Ramadan

A friend of mine from Huntspatch is coincidentally staying at a hostel two blocks from my hotel in San Francisco. It's been years and she's still as beautiful and wonderful as ever. We shared sushi and walked around this glorious, crazy city. I'm still bathed in enthusiasm after we talked about the magic of words and manifesting your will and the rejuvenation of travel. I feel as though a fog has lifted off my spirit.

I wish Julie were here. I wish she could see me now as I see myself, in full bloom. Or maybe she already does and I refuse to believe it. I wish the darkness didn't build up inside me till my broken spirit limps into her arms looking for salvation. I wish she could've seen my friend tonight. My friend has that magic that rubs off on people who endure the South but learn to leave before that magic becomes a crushing burden. I wish I hadn't seen so much of the world alone. All that beauty and passion is an untranslatable phrase locked in my head. But if Julie had been with me she'd know it the way I do. Right now she's half a world away in Taiwan having her own adventures.

I did go through two bottles of wine with a couple co-workers at dinner earlier tonight. I blame the wine for my conversation with the exotic dancer on the street corner who told me how good I looked and that it's okay to take girls to her club. But the rest of the night was all real.