I'M SO SORRY!

        You kinda noticed the lack of updates... Sorry. I have an excuse, or rather a whole slew of them. Most of them are not very good.

        First was the bar. I stopped blogging while cramming my skull full of relevant information. Then came the period of recovery.

        As soon as my brain recovered, my body took a blow as a persistent flu bug knocked me out for a week. Then weekends at the Cape with my family, job hunting and drafting my fantasy football team came into play. Oh and three dates in as many weeks with three different women.

• I rendezvoused with Margaret in NYC while traveling down to State College PA for the draft.
  
• Ashi, a graduate student in Rhode Island; we spent an afternoon in Providence.
  
• Linda whom I took out to 'Blue Man.' (Of course, the next day she sent me a 'You're nice, but not that interesting' email. I guess flying toilet paper and Captain Crunch do not a romantic evening make.)
  
  

        Sadly, a good many of my comments have fallen by the wayside. Some were overtaken by events. Others have been dealt with far better by others, like Howard Bashman's excellent attack on the egregious use of polling data by the majority in ATKINS v. VIRGINIA. The Court is supposed to be isolated from the passions of the populace! That's the way the founders designed it!

        I also was thinking of writing about how many Congressional liberals are exceptionally wealthy and relating it to an article in USA Today regarding a disturbing trend of the children of the wealthy eschewing traditional summer jobs for glamorous internships. These kids will become the next ruling class without having actually known what drudgery for an for a dollar is like. Call it cliched, but they do build character.

        Speaking of character, there was this little bit of horror that appeared in the Boston Globe. (It's at the very bottom and I read the article when it originally appeared, wiseguys!) Folks, I've read too much about my representative and the function of male member, thank you very much.

        One incident I do need to relate. Here in Boston we are extremely fortunate to be a regular port of call for the Navy. When the ships are in port the Navy lets visitors board and see what Uncle Sam uses their tax dollars for. I have toured a frigate, a cruiser and destroyers. (The line for the aircraft carrier John. F. Kennedy was too darn long.)

        This time I went to see the USS Kearsarge, a Wasp class amphibious assault ship. Now I always carry my Swiss Army knife, but I am prepared to ditch it as needed. So I come to the ship and see they have a metal detector and a warning that anything they find that violates security will be confiscated. I asked if I could check my knife. The guard was angrily adamant. Even if I voluntarily gave them the knife with no prompting, they would confiscate it. Now I remember being able to carry the knife around the Capitol dome, with the full knowledge and blessing of the security people therein. But that was long before 9/11 empowered the 'tweezer people.' Now I couldn't leave the knife in my vehicle because I did not take any vehicle down. My bike was in the shop and I didn't want to drive downtown. So I took my knife and hid it in some weeds. The guard did not want to know and I was passed through without comment.

        I could forgive the guard for being curt. Unlike the mental midgets of the airways, they were doing their jobs in a reasonable manner. I had a problem with a specific rule. So I was not going to give him any unpleasantness, even if he were not well armed and backed up by grim faced sailors toting M-16s.

        The tour was well worth the trouble. I climbed aboard an LCAC, looked at guns and other equipment and talked to sailors and marines. I especially want to thank Private Goldman (USMC) for answering my idiotic questions, especially about the grenade launchers. And I did find the discussion about whether a sniper rifle could take out windows of the planes at Logan to be fascinating.

        Oh yeah. It was a guy thing.

        Two more notes before I vanish. Despite my absence, my page has been getting regular hits. But most of them have been about 'Frontier House' or Ben Grimm's recent revelation. Go figure. But I do need to update Jewish Marvels soon.

        Also here's my fantasy team lineup- current as of this writing.