My rainy day craft box

 Thailand's prime minister defends use of force against Red Shirt protesters.

It really is a shame that the term "Red Shirt" has such unfortunate connotations in English.

Oregon man police apprehend a man because the think he might commit a crime.

Police can come to your home and apprehend you without a warrant if they think you might be thinking about possibly committing a crime. Think about that for a moment.

At least in The Minority Report the guy they were chasing was a Scientologist.

It's hard for me not to talk about the murder of abortion provider George Tiller. He operated out of the part of Kansas where I grew up. Indeed, it came as quite a surprise to me a few years ago when I started to learn that our local abortion doctor was in fact famous all over the country. I've driven by his clinic, seen the protestors outside. In the late 80's and early 90's he was easily our most talked-about and notorious local celebrity.

I've gone from one extreme to the other about abortion over the years and I've done so more than once. This makes me have to face that all over again. What I've come to is that I can't condone what Dr. Tiller did for a living. It was wrong. I think he profiteered on people who were in misery and despair, and although I'm reluctant to speculate on such things, I think he probably has a lot to answer for in the next world.

But I don't feel good about what happened. His murder just feels like a sad, wretched inevitability that has not made the world a better place. Nobody has "won" and nothing has changed.

In case you haven't heard, there's rioting in London.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: I hate protest rallies. Rallies like this one always end the same way with the police looking like fascist stormtroopers and the protestors looking like savages out to destroy for destruction's own sake. Sooner or later mob rule takes over, people forget what they're even protesting about, and it becomes just an excuse to get in a fight or to break something. Protests rallies are pretty much the entire tragedy of the human race played out in microcosm. And the sad thing is, if I was a professional on welfare, having to make my house payment on credit cards I'd probably want to smash something too. But I'm sure that for every person there with legitimate anger there's at least one more there just wanting to lash against authority because it's there and because they can.

Oh and the slogan "abolish money!" Yeah, that's real brilliant. You may as well be shouting "abolish oxygen!" Because you know, our dependency on it is pretty oppressive.

Walgreens to give free healthcare to the jobless and uninsured.

While on one hand I'm delighted to see my former employer doing this, I really have to wonder how they can afford it when they've had to cut positions and hours at both the store and corporate levels.

Since I was stuck in the office with a trainee for most of yesterday and since the office TV always plays news channels I got to watch pretty much the entire inauguration all day. I've got to admit I normally don't go in for those kind of things, even for presidents I like, but this was pretty snazzy. Of course, we can't just have a nice party day without someone somewhere finding something to get upset about.

There are actually people (Fox News's Glenn Beck among them,) who took umbrage at the elderly African American reverend who gave the closing prayer for doing the little rhyme about how now "black don't have to step back, brown can stick around, yellow can be mellow, the red man can get ahead, man, and white can do what's right." Apparently that's racist against white people and furthering divisions Obama said he'd get rid of. Funny, I thought it was a veteran of the Civil Rights movement talking about how his dreams of unity from many decades ago had come true. People love to read things that aren't there; people who, if they can't find a legitimate reason to be unhappy about something will just make one up.

And then people are mocking Obama because he tripped over a line in the oath of office. What actually happened was that the guy reading the oath to him screwed it up, Obama tried to get him back on track, and wound up with them both getting turned around. I've spent my share of time on the stage and can attest that you can be the best actor in the world, but if the other person on stage screws up you can STILL wind up turned around all to hell and back.

I recognize that a lot of people are just waiting for Obama to fail. But seriously, you'll get your chance. Getting your panties moist over insignificant word slips during a pompous ceremony just makes you look petty.

My mom told me a funny story this morning. Apparently she was arguing circles around one of my aunts who is anti-Obama. My aunt quoted my late grandfather who apparently once said that "if a black man ever becomes president the white man will be scrubbing the black man's floors and cleaning his toilets." My mom said "if he wants me to come scrub floors and clean toilets in the white house, sign me up! Those people make a lot of money!" That shut her right up.

Sign me up too. I don't know what kind of money a white house janitor makes, but I'm sure it can't be shabby. They've got to be out-earning me, at any rate.

Right now they're televising the President & friends attending the national prayer service at the cathedral in Washington. I'm sure the atheist bloggers must be creaming their jeans over that one.

Just this morning it clicked with me that the presidential inauguration is tomorrow. It just kind of snuck up on me. Hear about a thing so much and it just fades into the background. It doesn't interest me though. I'm more interested in what presidents do once they're in office than their investitures. I'm much more excited about the premier of Lost on Wednesday.

MLK day so the building is deserted.  A nice bit of quiet before I have to sit with my new trainee all day tomorrow. I hate training people, but thankfully I just have the one day of it. Still, it makes for a long day.

2nd in command of al-Qaeda insults Barack Obama.

I'm sure this won't faze the WorldNetDaily-reading far right conspiracy nuts who are convinced he's an al-Qaeda sleeper-agent, however. Clearly this is just an act to throw us off the scent and their ridiculously circuitous plan to control America with a Muslim president will soon be one quarter of the way complete!

Last night I went to bed high on Obama's victory, had dreams of women engaged in sapphic breast fights, and woke up with a sore throat.

I didn't expect Obama to win by the landslide that he did. It was amazing. But I really want to give my respect to John McCain for the beautiful, classy concession speech that he gave. I've believed in John McCain for as long as I've known who he was. This year I felt that he betrayed me. Last night I watched him become the man I admired again. I hope he stays that way, that he will be willing to help Obama lead this country and that Obama will be willing to let him.

I believe Obama is a good man. History was made last night. I hope he will be worthy of the honor he has received, that he will be the man to meet the colossal challenges he will inherit.

News has just come down that Prop 8 has passed in California. Now I have been saying this all morning so I apologize if you're hearing it again, but it is a message that I feel cannot be stressed enough:

All that the passing of Prop 8 means is that we still have more work to do!

Part of what supposedly makes America great is that we do not rest secure in our victories. We're always on to the next challenge, the next obstacle to overcome. Even if everything about the new administration fails the fact still stands that last night we proved that paradigms can be shattered. So let them have their Prop 8 while it lasts. It's only a matter of time now.

( And now if you're tired of the soap box you can read about that weird booby dream I had last night. )