And it's been like that for weeks

It's more revealing to take them both

• 

  My Liberal Identity:

  You are a Peace Patroller, also known as an anti-war liberal or hippie. You believe in putting an end to American imperial conquest, stopping wars that have already been lost, and supporting our troops by bringing them home.

  Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com




• 

  My Conservative Identity:

  You are a Free Marketeer, also known as a fiscal conservative. You believe in free-market capitalism, tax cuts, and protecting your hard-earned cash from pick-pocketing liberal socialists.

  Take the quiz at www.FightLiberals.com

Unless of course they impeach the bastard

Added a javascript "thingy" (a technical term, and since it's javascript, case-sensitive) on the right-column as a handy (or depressing) reminder of how much longer America--indeed the world--must remain in this hell-on-earth known as the Bush Administration. Gotta hold on for the sake of the kids, I keep telling myself.

The beast is still alive

...really.

Quote of the Day

From the NY Times:
"If you let someone talk for more than seven seconds on your show without interruption, then you are a failure." - Joe Scarborough

It's gonna be Chief Justice Dread Pirate Roberts to you, pal

Image found here, who in turn credited there.

Reality TV

Maybe some of those 51% have finally realized that the Republican tribe must be voted off before their "steady leadership in times of change" does the rest of us in.

Moments in time

(The beast apologizes to those readers who think this post might somehow be inappropriate given the awful events taking place this week.)

Yesterday afternoon I was at home by myself. I had taken the day off from work, and had just returned home after dropping Ms. Beast off at the office. Despite the urging from Governor Easley for North Carolina motorists to conserve gasoline in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Beast and I had traveled Thursday to Charlotte to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary a few days early by attending a pre-season football game between the Carolina Panthers and Ms. Beast's beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. We had hired an adult babysitter to stay at the house overnight to watch the girls.

Precious Little Beastie #2 was still at day care, and I was waiting for the school bus to drop off Precious Little Beastie #1 -- now a second grader -- at the corner nearest the house. At about 4:15pm I left the house and began walking towards the bus stop. It was a sunny day, warm but not overly humid. I had walked only a short distance towards the bus stop when I first heard then saw the school bus arrive. The doors opened and PLB #1 stepped out. She was about 50 yards away from me, so I waved to get her attention. She saw me and waved back. She was wearing her school uniform: a white cotton shirt under a navy blue pleated dress, with white socks and black shoes. She was also wearing her pink backpack over both shoulders. She began to run along the edge of the street up the slight hill towards me, her backpack bouncing rhythmically on her back. I stopped to watch her approach.

At that moment, my mind recalled another time, over five years earlier, in January, 2000. It was two weeks after we had closed on the house. There had been a storm the night before and about five inches of snow had fallen. We were new to North Carolina and had been led not to expect much of a winter in Rocky Mount, so the snow was a surprise to us. I stayed home from work that day, and was standing in front of the house taking photographs of the house and yard while the snowfall was still fresh. Ms. Beast was clearing snow off the deck behind the house. PLB #1 was helping her mom using a broom whose handle I'd shortened for her. She was two weeks shy of her second birthday. As I was walking out near the edge of the street, she came out to see what I was doing. I took a snapshot of her at the edge of the driveway holding her broom. In it you could see her reddened cheeks, breathless smile, and faintly detect behind her the trails of footprints we had left in the driveway leading back to the house.

As I watched her running towards me from the bus stop, she seems to become that nearly two-year-old girl again. In the 20 seconds it took for her to reach me, as she came closer I watched her grow older -- through preschool, and grade school to her present age. When she was only a few steps away from me, she suddenly became a woman. But before I could fully comprehend what was happening, she was beside me. I picked her up and hugged her, circling as I held her, with tears welling in my eyes.

(The beast has no travel plans for the weekend.)

Let the gouging begin

Here's what you'd have to pay this week--so far--to put a tiger in your tank at the gas station closest to the beast's office (per gallon of regular unleaded):

Monday 8/29
8:00am -- $2.589
5:00pm -- $2.589

Tuesday 8/30
12:00pm -- $2.589
5:00pm -- $2.699

Wednesday 8/31
8:00am -- $2.799
12:00pm -- $2.999

Happy motoring.

Blue bayou

The reports and video the beast has read and seen so far suggest that while both widespread and severe, the epic deluge predicted by the we're-more-hurricane-central-than-anyone-else cable news channels from Hurricane Katrina as it roared by New Orleans and into Mississippi didn't quite come about. Hard to believe just yet. Either that, or reports from the truly devastated areas have yet to come in because it would too risky to send the thrill-seeking journalists covering the storm into such places. As far as I know, Geraldo didn't get "taken out" by any covert debris while staggering around in a wind gust, either. One could only hope. But the beast also knows from personal experience that it's the day after the hurricane when the worst flooding occurs, as water from higher ground collects in lower-lying areas.

UPDATE: Just watched CNN's Jeanne Meserve's report on Aaron Brooks' program. The video footage of Ward 9 was terrible to behold. Brooks also cited some early reports of 55 deaths from the storm.

Katrina and the Waves

Best of luck New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama. You sure won't be walkin' on sunshine anytime soon.