Sure wish BookMDano would get on the stick and win us a jackpot.  I could use a few million this month.  In fact, would one of y’all come by the office with a few grand — $50K would be nice — and loan it to me to be paid back when Danny does his job?

Paseo dinner at Earl’s last night was strangely quiet.  Don’t know why.  There were some long silences at the table, odd for a dozen of us rachetjaws.

Just three of us enjoyed the Pierce Brosnan-Greg Kinnear movie “Matador”.  OK.  Amusing.  Not great.

Talked briefly to Veronique Mist yesterday.  she’s on vacation out west and seems to be having a good time.  Miss her.

the lovely Juliet has a new ride, courtesy of Chris S.  Juliet’s AstroVan threw a front tire across I-35 at 65 m.p.h. and she was lucky not to roll that beast.  It’s become even more difficult to fix because the bolts on the tires are cross threaded, meaning it’s not just new tires or new lugnuts, it’s new hubs.  Meanwhile, she’s busy casting models for a new casino commercial and as busy as a one legged midget* in an ass kickin’ contest.  (*midget reference for the benefit of John X).

the political chattering class is still busy chewing over the CT defeat of Joe Lieberman.  I still think it’s less important than they make it out to be and that their conclusions about antiwar sentiment, anti-incumbent sentiment, etc., is just too much extrapolation over too little data.

Heard Robin Williams blew 20 years of sobriety and is back in rehab.  wonder if he’s at the same spa as Mel Gibson?  Wouldn’t you like to be in that group session?  Isn’t Robin W. Jewish?  That might spice things up a little.

I want to give some “props” to some fellow bloggers:  MCARP has started some really interesting threads lately about the nature of humans; John X at MindTurds started out blogging at a blazing pace; my sis, Mary E., has a thread about secrets and lies and telling the truth when it hurts that interests me; and now if I could just get Erika West at Karmic Ironies and RJ at Diatribe 101 back on their game, my days could be entirely wasted by reading the web instead of working.

Does anyone but me remember that the Israeli “offensive” started out as an effort to get some kidnapped soldiers returned?  We don’t hear much about the hostages lately.  Now, Israel seems intent on capturing and holding the southernmost 15 miles of Lebanon between the border and the Litani River.  However, they are having trouble getting three miles of territory under control.  If the fighting stopped today, Hizbullah could legitimately claim victory because they still exist and they still hold key military objectives and they still hold the hostages.  Same for Hamas in Gaza, where they are in power despite Israeli tanks and rockets.

In Afghanistan, Osama bin Laudin is still walking around and issuing videos to Al Jazeera.  He’s the big winner out of the war in Iraq so far:  his Al Qaeda ranks have swelled from about 1,000 three years ago to 10,000 today.  In Afghanistan itself, the Karzai government is barely holding Kabul while the Taliban can put together massed assaults on cities and outposts in the south and west of that country.

In England, authorities arrested 21 people who planned to blow up planes flying from Heathrow to the U.S. using liquid explosives in innocuous containers.  We are now in a “red” terror alert.  Bush uses such things for political advantage, duh.

In Iraq, authorities have a new security plan.  Turns out the “plan” is a re-run of a failure from last year: taking on Mahdi al-Sadr’s Shiite militias, this time in Baghdad instead of in smaller southern towns.  Is there any miscalculation or mistake that this administration hasn’t made in Iraq?

Personally, I’m thinking about putting together a web contest to decide who is more incompetent:  Condi Rice or Don Rumsfeld.  Dead heat at this point, if you ask me.

The GOP in OKC is in a quandary.  Mary Fallin and Mick Cornett have to pander to the farthest right to win the Aug. 25 runoff, but that’s not necessarily a good look in Nov.  Those extreme positions on abortion and stem cells and gays and that last refuge of scoundrals, patriotism, have a way of backfiring in the general election.  God help Dr. Hunter raise enough money to say effectively these emperors have no clothes.

I contacted Daria last night to get a hair appointment.  I can’t stand it any more.  The lovely Juliet finally acquiesced as long as it doesn’t get any shorter than it was last winter.

Stay tuned.