Wednesday, March 30, 2005

This Is My Einstein Whinestein

Energy is neither created, nor destroyed. That's what Mr. Einstein told us. But just like free will, it's what you do with that energy that really matters.

I was taking my Diet Dr. Pepper can to the lunch room the other day to drop it into the big plastic barrel with the can-sized hole in the top. It's the place where anyone who has an environmental bone in their body takes their cans and recycles them.

I dropped it in and turned to leave. A woman who works not far from me had just finished lunch. She approached the trash can and recycling can inches away from it, then dropped her trash, and her aluminum can in the trash. I was so angry...

Not sure if recycling instead is a good thing? Read this. You don't have to be a wacked-out tree-hugging environmentalist to realize that it just plain makes sense. In 2002, we recycled enough cans so as to save the equivalent to 15 billion barrels of crude. That's a lot of oil. And that kind of behavior can make Americans less dependent on foreign-drilled energy sources.

But back to my co-worker. She's a degreed professional who has no excuse but to know that recycling her can was wise, tossing it dumb. And the cans were right next to one another. She elected to toss it anyway. How can she have all that education and still be so stupid?

So while energy can neither be created or destroyed, it CAN be recyled and used again. We have the free will to do whatever we wish. And I wish we'd be a little smarter on things like this.

So uh...do you recycle?

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Sleazebag City

It’s Tom Delay, one of the most powerful politicians in the country. He’s elected with the help of the Christian right, to whom such things like honesty and propriety likely mean something. So what do they think of this? Click on Act Now, Without Delay. If you're reading this after 3/29, click on Archive and search for Tuesday March 29th.

The leader of the House of Representatives has been admonished three times by the House Ethics Committee just this year. Does that raise your eyebrows a bit? So who’s on the House Ethics Committee? None other than MY representative, wacked out fool Lamar Smith. I got to ruin a photo opportunity one time several years ago with Lamar Smith. He tried to lay out a lie about the Endangered Species act and I had told an Audubon Society friend about his photo-op. She showed up and questioned him where he thought there would be no questions, just an easy photo-op. He claimed that ranchers could no longer cut down cedar like the one he was standing next to.

"Yes they can" she maintained. She was right, he was wrong, and he knew it.

“Who invited you to this thing?” she said he asked her. I take some pride in having been the one!
But back to Tom Delay: He’s got a legal defense committee, on which Lamar Smith serves. Now this is the same time Lamar serves on the House Ethics Committee, which investigates Tom Delay.

‘Scuse me? I don’t smell a rat. I smell a vat of rat stew!

Born Again Christians: can you answer me why you’re not concerned with the ethics of one of your most beloved congressmen? Do you just turn off your concern about honesty when it comes to someone who’s exercising power for you in congress? That’s hypocritical, and in no small way. Jesus looked un-kindly at hypocrisy. If you really DO have ethical beliefs, I urge you to start applying them to Tom Delay. Because his ethics are at very least in question.

Monday, March 28, 2005

The Deer Wandered Out In Front Of My Truck

Boy, was I glad when I could steer out of the way and not hit him.

I've almost hit deer dozens and dozens of times. There was one time when a fawn moseyed up in front of me on a dirt road, then disappeared under my front bumper as I skidded to a dusty stop. I was driving a jacked-up truck and to my relief, and the deer re-emerged out of the dust behind me, hopping up and running off. I couldn't believe I hadn't killed him, and I may in fact have not even hurt him.

Another time I was in the passenger seat when I saw a deer off to my right running at about a 45 degree angle. Towards the car. We were going about 35 mph and he had the peddle to the deer metal himself, running about as fast as deer run. And he kept coming. Coming right towards me. Angling for the door I sat an inch away from. He got so close I could see the fear in his eyes. And then he hit and I could feel the impact on my shoulder, and hear that metal collide with flesh-n-bone. We stopped the car in time to see the deer get up, look really embarrassed like "man...what kind of idiot am I??" and then bound off over a fence onto the neighboring ranch.

Here in the Hill Country, deer are a dime a dozen. They're really a pest hereabouts, growing in such numbers that they threaten the new crops of the indigenous hardwoods trying to grow. As little red oaks struggle to get tall enough to get the light their fresh, young salad-like leaves need (you see where I'm goin' with this?), deer come along and have an afternoon snack on those tender little leaves. That happens a few times and young master red oak never gets to become a mister.

But I must say, one of the images I've always wondered about with deer is this: they're so secretive and quiet as they move through the woods. They kinda hang together, maybe a half-dozen or more of them. I wonder sometimes if one group of deer, moving along with almost no sound, ever come across another group of nearly soundless deerfolk...and then at the last minute one sees another and nearly jumps out of their pelts shrieking in fear
"Man, you scared the hell out of me!"
"No dude, you scared me!"
"Don't you come sneaking up me like that...for all I know you couldda been a coyote!"

I imagine this scene often, to my delight. Kinda helps kill time inbetween bizarre real-life deer episodes on the highway.

Sunday, March 27, 2005

The Magic of Chickenfoot

If you read the title: The Magic of Chickenfoot, and wondered if I'd been delving into Voodoo, fear ye not. The Voodoo I do is no more than the Voodoo you do.
Sorry about that sentence. It was just too fun to pass up.

No, Chickenfoot is one of the games you can play with Dominoes. My parents taught my wife and me Chickenfoot a dozen or more years ago. And a few years after that, we introduced it to my daughter, who's now 16. She's always gotten a big kick out of it.

When we go out and visit my West Texas parents every few months, the Chickenfoot games we play are one of the few places where I see my daughter act like a 16 year-old acted when I was a kid.

Teen-oriented Television is a fabulous HOW-TO network where they are taught to be sullen, demanding and self-centered to a "T." While teenagers may or may not be able to pull off good grades, may or may not be able to make the team, may or may not have a clean room, nearly every last one of them is fully capable of believing at any given time that the universe does in fact revolve around them.

Ah, but a spirited game of Chickenfoot, wherein all that matters is getting rid of a domino that will penalize you tremendously...and the sullen teenager disappears to the other end of said universe, and is replaced by a smiling, laughing, kid.

Unlike when my daughter rides her horse or competes on her Acro-gymnastics team, my plus and minus 80 year-old parents were competing on the same playing field with her. And last night after almost 2 hours of Chickenfoot, my nearly 82 year-old dad beat us all at Chickenfoot.
Not reflected in the score though, was my win. I got to see my daughter, whose life is so very unlike that of her grandparents, share some great moments with them. And sharing those was worth a little Voodoo...even if no chickens were sacrificed in the process.

What's Missing From Republicans in the Terri Schiavo Case:

Rational Interchange

Tom Delays the arrival of rational thought concerning the Terri Schiavo case by saying things like this: "That Americans would be so barbaric as to pull a feeding tube out of a person that is lucid and starve them to death for two weeks."

What part of brain dead does Tom Delay not understand? The only way the words lucid and brain dead belong in the same sentence is if, for instance, someone said "At one time Tom Delay seemed lucid, but now he's obviously brain dead." Now that would make sense.

Here's the whole article.

Things have gotten so strange that you have to laugh. And if you want to make that easier go here where Delay is said to have claimed that Terri Schaivo is mulling over a run for the House of Representatives in '06.

I don't want you to think that I have no sympathy with Ms. Schiavo or the Schindler's. I can't fathom the hardship this has been on her parents, or for that matter Michael Schiavo. But there comes a time when you have to let go.

If, as these born again Christians believe, that there is a far better world that the good folk go to after this one's through, why in the world wouldn't they be happy that Ms. Schiavo would be going there, instead of being kept in a medically-mandated limbo in hospital hell? I believe that pulling her feeding tube is in fact the humane choice.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Have Republicans Found Their Collective Hearts?

Of course not. What they've found is yet another issue with which to frame the debate in the eyes of the American public. They're wanting to appear the kinder, gentler humanists against the Democrats--the party hoping to starve a young woman to death.

Republicans have dug deep to find previously little-used words like compassion and precious when referring to the value of human life. And in specific, the one human they're talking about is Terri Schaivo. These compassionate Republicans who find life so precious are the same folks who cut or discourage programs which benefit America's poor.

There is a disingenuousness to this whole affair that's about as angering as anything I've encountered of late. The Republican leadership continues to say one thing, do another, and at the same time, try like hell to make Democrats look bad in the process.

Ah, but maybe the American public is getting wise to this kind of manipulation. An ABC News Poll finds that 68% of Americans think removal of Ms. Schaivo's feeding tube was the right thing to do. And they thought that despite news coverage which was emotionally slanted toward the parents and away from Michael Schaivo. Just now as I type this out, Pat Boone's on Larry King weighing in on the matter. To which I respond Ain't That A Shame...

America, I gotta say: if you're looking to show some heart, go down and volunteer at an old folks home. You want to do something kind for someone in need? How about homeless children who are suffering along with their parents? Maybe you could take them some books to read, or pay for a medical visit? Besides not having a regular home life, Lord knows they're not getting the medical checkups they could use.

Deciding that a woman who's been in a vegetative state for 15 years should be the national focus of an outpouring of love, when there are millions of Americans who are fully awake, fully aware, and fully in need of so much, is testimony to how bizarre this society has become. On the up side, the ABC Poll cited above may encourage the public opinion whores deeply imbedded in the Republican leadership quit while they're behind on this fool's endeavor.

Monday, March 21, 2005

Republicans: The Party of Hypocrisy

First, an apology to you respectable Republicans. I know you're out there. I know a number of respectable Republicans. But your party leadership, and a goodly percentage of your representatives are slimes of the highest order. On 2nd thought, they're slimes of the lowest order. I wouldn't want to give them any more credit than they deserve.

My current beef--and it's an Omaha corn-fed critter of massive proportions--is the Terri Schiavo case. I'm no medical ethicist. But after 15 years of measureable un-responsiveness, it seems pretty odd to not let her go to her just rewards. Her wishes were to not be kept alive medically. Her husband wants to let her go. But her parents can't handle it.

My beef is not with her parents. As far as I'm concerned, they have the right to try whatever they want. It's our Republican government and the President that I'd like to throttle. This culture of life thing they've been tossing out in poetic terms, and whispers and seemingly heartfelt gestures is a poles-apart message than was delivered with the Shock-n-Awe. That Culture-of-life message killed as many as 100,000 Iraqis. If you have the misfortune to live in Darfur, that message-of-life thing isn't playing too well. Another place where the culture-of-life is systematically dying is here in Texas where we kill more people convicted of murder than anywhere in the US.

Ah, but that's not all. There's the little matter of a bill then Governor GW Bush signed before his late-life discovery of the culture of life. The bill allows hospitals against the will of patients' parents to disconnect life support from said patients, amongst other reasons, for the inability to pay.

That ol' Culture o' Life gives way to the Culture o' Cash on the barrelhead. And Mr. Bush, despite the Tsunami-caused great loss of life, couldn't be bothered to even appear outside of his ranch to make a statement of concern and commit to significant help after two days. Yet the potential death of ONE PERSON warranted cutting short a ranch weekend to get back to DC and sign a bill. Why? To properly exploit Terri Schiavo medical condition to the benefit of the Republican party.

But wait! There's more! The Republicans circulated a memo to themselves detailing how they can exploit the Terri Schiavo case at the Democrats' expense.

Americans: how much longer will you allow these sleazebags to continue to say one thing, and do another?

Sunday, March 20, 2005

A Hobbit That's Hard To Break


If you're thinking that the above picture is a still from the Fellowship of the Ring movie, and you expect to see hobbits racing around the porch, no. That's not Middle Earth you're seeing there. It's Vermont.

I moved into this house in Vermont about the time that the name Monica Lewinsky was first being heard on your evening news. And I moved from Vermont back to Texas 2+ years later, about the time they made Civil Unions legal in VT.

This blog has no hidden agendas or political meanings...it's just a little postcard from me to a place I really love. Vermont, this is for you: smooch!

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Horse Sense vs. the Horse

Two lights lit the arena where my 16 year-old daughter woman-handled a 1200 pound horse. The side reins she put on her helped control her, but let's face it: most of that 1200 pounds was muscle. She was more than a handful.

Most horses assume the human beasts are superior to them. Because of this, and their non-aggressive nature, few set out to actually hurt people. While many riders get hurt and frequently killed by horses, it's almost never because the horse got mad and used his far superior strength to kill. It's usually a rider mistake of timing or weight shift which leaves them on the ground, or under hoof.

As the dad of the 16 year-old that was woman-handling the hooved beast, I was not having a good time. A thunderstorm brewed on the southern horizon and the lightning was getting closer, the thunder louder. This mare was a thoroughbred, a thoroughly spooky one at that. Thousands of years ago, horses learned to survive by bolting at the earliest possible sign of danger. This horse was in touch with her roots, because she was trying to spook at every shadow, anything which might conceivably be cause for fear.

My daughter wasn't actually up to par either. She hopped in the local lake yesterday right at the place where someone had kindly placed a beer bottle. A broken one.

Y'know, there are few I like less than litterbugs. But that subset of person who would break a beer bottle and toss in in the water where people swim...yeah, I'd like to bury them up to their necks in dirt, smear honey all over their heads, then dig up a fire ant mound, depositing a good portion of it on his head.

So as my daughter tried to keep this strapping sixteen-hand mare controlled, she was doing it with a big slash on the ball of her foot. She'd planned on spending about 45 minutes working the horse, but after nearly being bucked off, the daughter decided the horse required some further schooling. And as an aside, you should understand that you don't know pleasure 'til as a parent of a 16 year-old you watch a horse try to buck your kid off. Yessiree.

As little fun as it was for her, my daughter knew she had to work the mare. Had to tire her out and let that mare know that her being tempermental wasn't going to cause an early end to the workout. Horses are dumb as mud but if they figure out that bad behavior will cause you to give up quickly, bad behavior is what you'll get every time. My daughter's ability to endure her spooky recklessness outlasted her ability to dish it out. My daughter as much as said "You wanna mess with me? You don't know who you're messing with."

Eventually, the horse believed her. The thunderstorm petered out, spread easterly and was breaking up as the horse was cooled down and put away. We drove back home, me happy she was in one piece, and her disappointed in the horse.

But I have to admit that I also was happy she had a tenacious streak half a mile wide. I just wish she'd use it on the horse more often than she used it on me.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

I Love This Time Of Year

Ah...there's nothing like this time of year! The leaves are turning golden, then brown. And on the windy days they fall off the trees in droves, and are blown down the street. No, I'm not smoking the wacky tobacky. This is the unusual way we do springtime in Texas.

Here's the deal: live oak trees are evergreen, but they actually lose their leaves so they can replace them with new ones. And the time they do it is right about the time everything else is beginning to green up. So all winter long when the red oaks and pecans and sycamores and sumacs are nekkid, live oaks are covered with their dark green leaves. But around the ides of March they turn yellow-to brown, and then drop, all within a week or two.

You don't have to tell me we do things strangely in Texas. We're known to create odd Presidents as well...

Saturday, March 12, 2005

War of Words

I'm reading What's the Matter With Kansas right now (quite worth the read) and as do most books, it causes me to think in slightly different terms than I would without getting so intimate with someone else's views.

Something Thomas Frank hasn't yet said, but due to his book my mind has thought is this--The Republicans have waged a very successful war of words. They've changed the playing field from the actual: the results...and instead cause us all to compete on the field of the theoretical: what sounds good in your head.

By that I mean that Republican leadership has become masters at creating batches of pretty words which tug at heart strings and create the warm-n-fuzzies, but then that leadership often does actions which are polar opposites to those pretty words.

That's why the party which extols the virtues of looking after those who can't look after themselves have nonetheless abandoned the young through cuts in medical programs for the poor, cuts in Head Start, and other programs which are sure to only hurt the poor.

As a measure of how conservative these times are, it feels almost radical for me to offer up the obvious by saying that it's the poor which need the helping hand. The rich have proven that they can look after themselves quite well, than you.

Further, what's so bizarre on this new playing field is that a record that at very best could be called piss-poor is enough to get GW Bush re-elected. That's because he didn't run on his actual record. Instead, he ran on what's come to be called by detractors as the God/Guns/Gays platform. It's a fable told from the Republican point of view, and goes something like this:

1. Unlike Democrats, we believe in God, and are in fact guided by the hand of him.
2. Democrats want to take your guns away!
3. Democrats want to turn your kids gay by giving gay people rights they don't now have.

These arguments are designed to appeal to an irrational side of you that doesn't closely examine anything for facts, but instead recoils in fear. And that's the name of the game. They don't want you to see the miserable job creation numbers, or the exploding deficit, or what we're doing to the environment, or what the rest of the civilized world thinks of us. They want you to think that Democrats are Godless gays who want to keep you from being able to defend your home.

It's time to get the discussion back into the realm of the actual. When you hear people spouting out about gay marriage, why not chime in with "I don't give a damn what people want to do with their private lives...but I'm all worked up about whether or not my child is going to have a job once he gets out of college!" Take the debate to the areas that really matter and the Republicans, with their awful record in those areas, will lose pitifully.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

There's something happening here...what it is ain't exactly clear...

It's an interesting, if troubling, read. But read it you should. Penned by Congressman John Conyers out of Michigan, he's talking about what he fears is going on with our Democracy.

Many Americans think the different viewpoints of Republicans and the Democrats as simply a different perspective on how to manifest our Democracy. And I think that evaluation was, at one time, quite correct.

Times have changed.

We now have a government actively working towards lessening the rights and abilities of its most vulnerable taxpayers to resolve financial problems. Yesterday's passage of the bankruptcy bill is tilted towards money and away from the little guy.

This article points out that half of people declaring bankruptcy is due to overwhelming medical bills. While the inadequacy of our health care system makes people choose between health insurance and their children's needs, that fact isn't even as bad as the picture actually gets. Having insurance is by no means the fix for medical problems. How could that be? Because as the same article points out, 68% of those who file for bankruptcy because of health expenses actually have health insurance!

There's something very, very wrong going on here.

Mr. Bush calls himself a compassionate conservative, yet someone with compassion would be coming somehow--any way possible--to the aid of families destroyed by medical bills. But instead of doing so, Mr. Bush supported the bankruptcy bill. He's also on a 60-day stump to turn the tide around in his (thus far) losing battle to destroy Social Security.

While Social Security does need to be fixed, keep in mind: it won't quite be able to meet all its obligations (drumroll please) 37 years from now! I'm all about fixing problems...but good God a'mighty! What about the families who are being destroyed right now? Mr. Bush: where is your compassionate conservatism?

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

John Gibson: One of the Absolute Best at Being Bad

You don't know John Gibson? He's labored in semi-obscurity on Fox News in the shadow of shadowy character Bill O'Reilly. You can find a bio of Mr. Gibson on the Fox News web site here. The smiling picture makes him look friendly enough, but as your mama told you, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

Why do I have such a beef with John Gibson? He wrote this piece about the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena. Ms Sgrena, as you probably know, spent weeks as a captive of Iraqi insurgents, was finally released to Italian authorities, and nearly killed at an American checkpoint near Baghdad airport. What we don't know is exactly what happened at the shooting. An American spokesman says one thing, and she says quite another.

So, how do we arrive at the truth? Investigations are conducted to ascertain all the facts and to go over all the evidence carefully. At the end of that investigation, a report is published detailing exactly what happened. Usually at that point blame is assigned-- if it's possible to determine where blame lies.

Ah, but John Gibson doesn't need an investigation. He already knows that the Americans are telling the truth, and Ms. Sgrena is lying.

Not so fast! One thing I can determine right here and now and without further investigation: John Gibson doesn't know squat. He thinks what he wants to think, and that's damned well good enough for him. And while everyone has a right to his opinion, Gibson expresses his as a journalist. He should know that kind of behavior is irresponsible, and actual journalists don't behave that way.

I've grown weary of alleged journalists acting like they know what they don't, spreading lies, and making journalism look worse in the process. I'm also tired of taking this stuff lying down. Here's what I wrote to him:

Mr. Gibson—
You’re speculating on what happened to Ms. Sgrena at almost every turn, including the most important one: whether or not her car tried to speed through a checkpoint. Your Fox News bio strongly suggests you’re a journalist. Your posting on Ms. Sgrena however, proves you’re not one.
The most disgusting thing about this whole deal--other than the tragic death--is your absolute, complete and utter rush to embrace the truth as you want it to be. If facts emerge which disprove your assumptions (and here’s a tip for Mr. Journalist: when you have to use the word assumptions, you’re not being a journalist) will you re-publish an apology?
Hell freezes over…when?

Anyone care to guess whether or not he's responded? You're pretty sharp! No response yet...and I'm not holding my breath. The stupid thing is, it's possible that everything he reported as fact will be proven to have happened. But that's why investigations are conducted. That in no way would absolve him for his completely unjournalistic column.

One last thing: I'm going to take this opportunity to suggest that you write letters of complaint when you see stupid errors like this one. Don't let them get away with this stuff without you giving them a piece of your mind. And fear not. If you're on my blog, that means you have plenty of mind to give...so don't worry about being left with too little!

Monday, March 07, 2005

My Bumper Sticker

I was in Austin a few months ago. I saw one of those old style "head" shops where hippies and ne'er-do-wells go for pipes and rolling papers and assorted drug paraphenalia. I had my mission too, and though I was euphoric, it had nothing to do with drugs. I was going to buy a bumper sticker.

These folks probably offer up five hundred different wacked-out bumper stickers. Speaking of which, if you find yourself wanting to make a statement this place has some great ones. But back to my story...this head shop in Austin has probably five hundred, three-quarters of which are political, nine-tenths of which could be called liberal.

I probably spent 45 minutes or more looking for just the right one to stick on the back on my pickup...and what did I end up with:
WHY IS THERE ALWAYS MONEY FOR WAR,
BUT NOT EDUCATION?
Is that not a fine question? We've borrowed almost 200 billion dollars to fight a totally unnecessary war in Iraq, but our kids' futures--besides being on loan because we had to borrow for war--aren't worth investing in by way of their education. There's never enough money for education, is there? They put students in trailers because they can't afford the school we ought to build them. Their books are old because we can't afford new books. Teachers are under-paid, so the best ones tend to find careers that pay enough to live on.

But somehow, some way we find money enough to send our boys and girls to the other end of the world to fight and die. And at very great expense. Methinks our priorities are screwed up. And methinks this education president isn't one.

Friday, March 04, 2005

What is this, Seattle?

I bought this pretty snazzy bike a couple of weeks ago. And so we've had rain almost every day since I got it. I look at the forecast for the next week and most days have at least a 30% chance of rain. And I'm thinkin', this is Texas. Texas.

C'mon. Cactus. Heat. Dry, blue skies. Where are they? I've been assuaging my frustration by saying that "at least that means we'll have a great spring for flowers." Bluebonnets are the state flower and here is what they look like on a good year. Bluebonnets are fabulous all by themselves, but when they're mixed with Indian Paintbrush, they're hard to beat.

I was telling the weatherman at the station where I work that we need a new weather device. Something to measure how murky and moist the weather is. I suggested we call it the
Seattle-ometer
or perhaps it should be called the
Drear-ometer
Maybe something needs to address the bad-hair-day nature of murkey weather. The graphic icons on one end of the scale show fluffy, flowing hair, and on the other someone obviously experiencing a bad hair day. It would do me no good. I've been experiencing a bad hair decade...

Thursday, March 03, 2005

That Ol' March To Freedom

I keep on hearing that Democrats are on the wrong side of the March To Freedom. Mmm...The March To Freedom. What the hell is that anyway? Since when have speech writers' snappy turn of phrase played such a role in political discourse in America?

I saw some guy posting on a TV talk group where I go and regarding the changes in Lebannon, he said with standard issue neo con bravado that Democrats were simply on the wrong side of the March to Freedom. I replied that this Democrat supports anybody anywhere who wants to make their country freer. And I followed that by asking which Democrats where are doing what to prevent freedom from coming to Lebannon?? The response was pretty amazing. It's in the next paragraph.



Looking for the next paragraph? Well, that was his response. In other words, this semi-mindless droid figured that if there was possibly some positive by-product of Bush's war on Iraq, that Democrats would naturally oppose it--that wrong side of freedom line. And while there is reason for concern about developments in Lebannon (inertia is safe, change is dangerous), I don't see Democrats stepping up and saying that the Lebanese don't deserve whatever freedom they can attain. So this guy was generating something out of nothing.

That's what's called the "disinformation business," a business at which those on the right have excelled so mightily. I for one am quite tired of it. And when I see lies, that's what I'm going to call them. When I see disinformatioin, I'm going to ask for proof. An un-inquisitive media has allowed this particular group of Republicans (the Bush administration and its supporters) far too close to free rein in Washington. And that's how they get away with saying so many things which are just one true fact away from being impressive. If the facts actually backed up what they said, I'd be impressed. It's just that lack of fact problem that hampers their March Towards Honesty...