AKA Abraham Bacoln

The Fed dropped interest rates 75 basis points but the market didn’t completely tank, Heath Ledger died, Fred Thompson dropped out of the presidential race, No Country for Old Men got eight Oscar nominations, and The “Church” of Scientology put a $5,000 bounty on the head of Anonymous.

Oh, and apparently only one member of our military died in Iraq today – bringing our total for 2008 to 27.

Part II in Scary Things Presidential Candidates Say features Mike Huckabee and what he wants to do.

I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than trying to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.

By now I guess everyone’s heard about it, which is to say I first heard about it six hours or so ago which in Internet Years means old news.

Aaaaaanyway, the Library of Congress just released at last count 3,115 photos to Flickr, which are all viewable at the Library of Congress Flickr account.

There is so much fascinating stuff there. I wish I didn’t have so much homework. I’d spend all night checking them out. Here’s to hoping you don’t have anything to do today.

… but this may be the worst thing I’ve ever heard.

“What we don’t see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be,” he [Rudy Giuliani] said at the forum, sponsored by The New York Post. “Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.”

I had the beginnings of a lucid dream last night. I don’t remember the exact circumstances and they’re not important. What’s important is that I didn’t like the situation, I was scared and angry, and I said, “Well, it’s just a dream, so let’s change it.”

It was nice, because I didn’t just turn the dream off like flipping channels on a television, but instead changed myself and used the new me to take control of the situation and modify it to my liking.

Unfortunately the realization that I had in fact successfully altered my dream took me one step too far towards conscious, and so I awoke.

But it’s a start.

So tonight I have had, in rapid succession, the following things to drink:

1. Water
2. Hot jasmine green tea
3. Red wine (tempranillo-garnacha blend from Spain)
4. Milk
5. Egg yolk
6. Orange juice
7. Hot chocolate

I know that egg yolk isn’t a proper drink but it is a liquid, so that counts, right? I mean you could drink it if you had to.

– I finally got my TN driver’s license today. Things have changed, I tell you. Last time I was at the DMV here it probably took me an hour. The DMV in NOLA was (this is no exaggeration) the worst example of bureaucratic nightmare I’ve ever experienced. However, the DMV in OR was pleasant even if they did make me take a written exam to exchange my LA license for an OR one. But today? Man, I read the list of required documentation, brought it with, and a book as well. Not only did my book stay unread, I didn’t even have a chance to finish filling out my supplemental form (Where All You Done Been Licensed In Th’ Past 10 Years’r So?) before they called my number. It was that fast. Twelve dollars and fifty cents later I was on my way out and holding a new little plastic identifier.
– I did indeed get my photo took with my beard on.
– I also, as (in my opinion) all good citizens should, told them I’m willing to let anyone who needs ’em get my hands on my organs after death, what with me not going to be using them any more.
– Except for the beard. I’d like to keep that with me should I happen to die while wearing it.
– And you know, I’ve got this ridiculous desire to eat at a Chinese buffet tonight, or in other words I’m on a quest to harm my innards, so you may not want them anyway.

What do I do? What do I do? I have to go get a new driver’s license involving an updated photo. Problem is that I’m at about three weeks’ worth of beard. I don’t want to cut it off just for my license, but I also don’t want this scruffy stage visually documented for the next several years. Ugh. I know I could wait ’till next week and it’d be a bit more beardy but I don’t like to leave things ’till the absolute last minute (just really close to the last minute).

Eh, it’s just a driver’s license picture, right?