¶ Jonah, Mom & Dad doing well: A wonderful flood of support marks day 2, along with the surprising news that tons of people tuned into this web site to get the scoop. If I'd known that's how it was, we might've had kids years ago.

I spent last night with Erin and Jonah at Salem Memorial Hospital. I got a little sleep from about 11 PM to 2 AM, then Erin handed the munchkin to me, we dozed together for a few hours. He awoke around 5:30 AM looking for some food. It goes without saying, I suppose, back to Erin for that.

Speaking of which, the breast feeding is going well. The nurses and lactation specialists are helpful and supportive, something that can be said about the entirety of the hospital staff. Although Erin's milk probably won't arrive for another day or two (or three), Jonah's enjoying the colostrum and the closeness. We're trying to find positions comfortable for Erin where he can suckle followed by immediate sleep for both mother and baby. That's where they were when I left this morning, and it's a beautiful parting image to have in one's head.

Yesterday, we had a flood of well-wishers calling and visiting throughout the afternoon. After a big early afternoon feeding, Jonah slept through all the ruckus of people coming and going. We were given all manner of cards and gifts, and since it might be a bit before we're able to properly acknowledge them, let me say again how grateful we are to everyone for their support. We feel like we have a number of folks upon whom we could ask for assistance, and it's a very moving feeling. Thank you all so much.

We expect that Erin and Jonah will be released from the hospital later today. I will continue to post updates as time permits.

¶ Jonah Patrick Davison is born: I have never been more proud, more awestruck, or more carried away by love.

Erin woke me at 3:40 AM. She'd been up since 2 AM. I went to bed a 1:30 AM. Her mucus plug had come out, and she'd had a bloody show. Contractions—real ones, not Braxton Hicks were about 4-5 minutes apart. Baby Davison, not due until May 2, clearly another idea about the right time to emerge.

Erin and I were pretty casual about the whole thing—excited but casual if that's possible. We each took a shower and freshened up for the long day ahead. It took us a while to get everything thrown together. We checked into the Salem Memorial Hospital at 5:15 AM.

Erin's cervix was checked at 6 AM. Dilated 1 cm and 70 percent effaced. We walked around the hospital for an hour. Erin described the pain as bad menstrual cramps. Cervix check at 7 AM. Dilated 1-2 cm. The nurse could touch baby's head. We walked another hour. 8 AM check: Dilated 2-3 cm, 90 percent effaced.

And then it all slowed down. Erin's contractions were wildly irregular. Sometimes they were sharp, sometimes dull. They bounced around in intervals of 2-5 minutes with almost no discernible pattern except that the overall intensity was really picking up. Between 11 and noon, life was not much fun. Then we met Mr. Jacuzzi tub. Thank God for the Jacuzzi tub, because the water jets really helped make the contractions bearable for Erin. How bearable? Erin spent two and half hours in the Jacuzzi. Eventually, though, even the water and jets no longer masked the pain.

She went with intense labor pains for about 30 minutes after that before deciding on an epidural. She could no longer breath her way through the contractions and given her dilation, 5 cm, she faced at least several more hours of excruciating pain. If there is anything worse than not being able to help someone you love when they're in serious pain, I don't know what it is. The anesthesiologist took a little while to get there and it took a little while for the epidural to work. This was an additional 30 minutes or so of torturous pain for poor Erin, but by 4 PM the block had taken effect, and Erin was numb from the mid-tummy down (in addition to being a little loopy). But boy oh boy she felt better.

We start pushing with the contractions around 4:30 or so. The epidural made it impossible for Erin to feel anything, so we had to rely on the monitor to know when for Erin to push. It took a couple of exhausting hours of work for Erin to get fully dilated so that we could call in the OB/GYN for delivery. But she did it.

The delivery was a little rough in that, again, the epidural made it impossible for Erin to feel anything. The doctor ended up making an epistodomy and Erin had a little tearing, but neither was too severe. Then, at 7:03 PM, with an effort whose memory still brings tears to my eyes, Erin pushed our son Jonah Patrick Davison into the world. Words cannot express the emotion in my heart. I am so very grateful to God, to Erin, and to all the people who have held us in their thoughts or prayers.

Erin and I spent the next 45 minutes staring at our son while the placenta was delivered and the doctor sewed Erin up a bit. Jonah's head is a little crowned and his face a little puffy from his lengthy stay in the birth canal, but he is quite simply the most beautiful child in the world. With a thick head of hair and cute little tongue, he's amazing to behold. I will be posting a bazillion photos soon, I promise.

Erin and I spoke to our parents afterward to give them the news. I apologize to everyone else who wants and deserves a call from us on this happy occasion. Erin got about three hours of sleep last night, and I got less than that. I will be trying to get ahold of all of you shortly, but the sleep-deprivation is intense and the backlog enormous, and I hope you'll understand if it takes me a day or two.

What I can guarantee you in the meantime, however, is that some day soon we shall embark on the Jonah Patrick Davison victory tour, and you'll all be invited. For now, please forgive me, this new father must go to bed.

¶ Say hullo to Braxton Hicks: Couldn't, shouldn't, wouldn't. Can't, won't, don't. Isn't, aren't....ain't?

Erin had her latest OB/GYN appointment today. Her cervix has not begun moving down and forward, but Braxton Hicks contractions—occasional, mild, painfree tightening of the uterine muscles—started yesterday. The Braxton Hicks contractions don't signal that labor is imminent, but many medical professionals believe that they are part of prelabor and help prepare the cervix for effacement and dilation. We're taking the Braxton Hicks contractions as a good sign that Erin's body is giving baby notice to vacate the premises.

Erin's added about 35 lbs. during pregnancy. How much of this is baby, we don't know, but the doctor estimated the kid's weight at around 7 lbs. 12 oz. That's just a ballpark figure, because there's no way to tell how much weight is actually amniotic fluid. Speaking of which, did you know that the baby drinks amniotic fluid in utero? Count me among the surprised when this was mentioned during childbirth class a few weeks ago. What a remarkable life support system the female body is.

Anyway, everything continues to go great. Baby Davison's head is still down. Heartbeat is around 136 BPM. Due date is a week away. Stay tuned.

¶ Coming out of the closet: Truth is that it isn't that tough to assemble a closet organizing system but it ain't very quick either.

My goodness, I have no idea how far I would've gotten in assembling the Mill's Pride closet organizing system without Dave's help, but I can tell you this: It wouldn't have been very far. As was, we spent a good 10 hours at it and didn't finish. None of it was difficult as long as we stayed with the directions (which we did). The drawer assembly took a good long time, though, and we had four of them to do. In the end, I think the drawers turned out really well, so no complaints there.

The side shelving was more of an adventure. Dave brought his stud finder and other than consistently lighting up whenever we waved the thing around either of us, it proved terribly inaccurate. The wall mounting brackets are supposed to be held up by screws that go into studs. Other than the brackets in the corner where we knew a stud had to be, we couldn't locate any other beams in the walls. I think the weight on the shelving will still be distributed evenly enough that it won't matter that the brackets are only secured by screws into sheetrock, but I'm no structural engineer. It's a SWAG.

Compounding this problem was finding studs for the main assembly that held the drawers. It was supposed to mounted to the wall, then the side mounting brackets on the left help support the above-mentioned shelving. Since we were again unable to find any studs other than ourselves, we had some side-to-side sway issues. At one point this resulted in a couple of shelves falling—with my deftly catching them point first into the hand. It's not a remodeling project until there's blood spilled or glass cracked, I always say. Nobody died so Davison's first law of remodeling thankfully went unbroken.

We called it quits a little after midnight. Even though we didn't complete the project, I'm in great shape to have it finished shortly and, as always, very thankful for Dave's help.

¶ Empty tomb, full womb: We celebrate Easter at my parents' place. Erin continues playing minivan to the kid.

Happy Easter weekend to everyone! The Davisons got together at my parents' place for brunch. We spent the afternoon bantering back and forth about this topic or that. My family is pretty goofy, so as usual a good time was had by all. Bret and I ended up crawling around the attic and fiddling with some house wiring. Didn't really solve that much, but it was fun. As a bonus, the activity also kept us from passing out on the sofa after lunch. (Although perhaps that's more of a Thanksgiving tradition.)

Erin's at 38 weeks now. As I've said, she'll keep working at school until baby comes or until she feels like bailing on the scene. We've got money saved for any time she wants to stop, but I think she's worried that she'll get bored if she stops too soon and baby doesn't show up for a few weeks. She might be right about that. Other than not sleeping for more than 3 hours at a time, she continues to do well health-wise, and knowing her she'll keep teaching as long as she feels capable. Hopefully not longer than that, though.

I think it was Saturday that I met a new neighbor of ours, Dan Kaplan. He's also a work-at-home web guy and a bit of basketball player. We're hoping to hoop it up in the not-too-distant future. I'm hoping I don't embarrass myself. If I play well, I'll be sure to mention it. If you don't hear anything further on the subject, you can assume I tanked. Actually, you can probably already assume that I will. I'm pretty out of shape, and he's a long-distance runner. Doesn't bode well.

¶ Our Stolen Future reviewed: Forget the future. How am I going to get back the time I spent reading this book?

Have you ever read a book that was annoying yet important? I just finished Our Stolen Future, a "scientific detective story," about how all the chemicals we're pumping into ourselves and our environment is a Really Bad Thing™ and should be stopped. Despite a solid albeit short introduction by former veep Al Gore, I hereby object to any book in which the authors insist upon referring to themselves in the third-person. Here's an example of just how grating this is:

...Colborn had plowed through more than two thousand scientific papers and five hundred government documents. She felt like a beagle following its nose. She wasn't sure where she was headed, but propelled by her curiosity and intuition, she was hot on the trail....

This is dippy enough writing without the fact that Colborn is one of the authors. I'm not sure if it sounds any less dumb if you substitute "I" for "she" in the above quote, but at least it rings a little more true. But enough with my complaints about the quality of the text. Suffice to say, it's not well-written.

What is more important is that the book details the harmful effects of pollution and of some pharmaceutical wrong turns (Thalidomide, anyone?). Skim, scan, or search, you'll find plenty worthwhile. I can't suggest you read it thoroughly, however. Even I couldn't stomach that. Perhaps a better bet altogether would be the Our Stolen Future web site. Surely those responsible for the web content don't also refer to themselves in the third person. (If you email and tell me I'm wrong, I'm not listening. La-La-La-La.)

One of several things you can take away from Our Stolen Future (besides a distaste for poor creative writing skills) is an awareness of how we are impacted by pollutants and pills. Interestingly, problems of this nature do not usually manifest themselves in the form of cancer (though they certainly can). More often, the first evidence that something is amiss shows up in reproductive systems or in offspring. To take that one step further, that human male sperm counts have dropped by 50 percent since the 1930s should be a very clear warning sign.

Yet I find myself reluctant to join the bandwagon. Erin and I regularly eat organic, we don't throw chemicals on the lawn to keep it green, we only eat hormone-free meats (at home; on the road we're dopes). So it's not like I'm rejecting the authors' suggestions or conclusions outright. I just prefer my evidence to be incontrovertible and to be presented on a compelling intellectual plane. Right though it may be, I don't think Our Stolen Future meets those burdens. It's not a bad work—well, some of it is—and I buy a lot of the science behind it. It just didn't resonate with me in the way I'd hoped. Maybe it will with you.

¶ It's soccer, baby: Ty's kicking it down at the park; baby's kicking it down in the womb.

I resumed soccer kick arounds at Bush Park on Tuesday, after a long cold lonely winter of very little exercise. A played decently for a guy who's pudgy from laying off since last October. I desperately needed to restart my exercise program, and April through October, these twice a week soccer get-together form the backbone. I'm planning on playing some summer soccer on weekends with Dennis' coed team in Portland. I'm sure all that plus taking care of Baby Davison will be sufficient on the exercise side of things.

Speaking of Baby Davison, we had the latest OB/GYN check-up today, and things continue to go well. The cervix is starting to soften and efface, but the doctor thinks we're probably at least a week or two out from birth. That makes sense given that Baby's 37 weeks along. Baby has a heart rate of 128 BPM. Doc said that "sounds like a boy" but admitted that was really insufficient evidence to draw any conclusions. We're aiming for "healthy" and will be happy with boy or girl. For those wondering, most people have told us they think it will be a girl; Erin has no innate "mother's intuition" on the matter either way. (It goes without saying that when I have a gut feeling about something it's usually indigestion, so I have no clue here.)

For someone carrying a baby almost 38 weeks old, Erin continues to bear the burden well. Indeed, if this is a period of "confinement" we should all be so lucky. She's still maintaining a full workload at school, and exercising by walking the track with friends several times a week. Her weight is up 32 lbs. from where she started, which is right on track. She continues to look fantastic, too.

The plan is for Erin to work as long as she feels capable. Given her strength and constitution, I wouldn't be surprised if that meant right up until the day of delivery. Nonetheless if she feels the need to bail early or if the kid arrives before we anticipate, we've got money stashed for those possibilities. Once Baby Davison is on scene, Erin's school year is over other than to visit her classes once, kid in tow, to show off the child. After a long winter of little exercise, I'm looking forward to a long summer busy with activity.

¶ The tax man cometh: Bring him on.

Am I the only guy in America who doesn't mind paying for social services? Education, law enforcement, libraries, environmental regulation, business regulation, even the military...I'm happy to pay taxes to fund them all. I swear these rabid anti-tax idealogues need to have a few police/fire/ambulance emergencies where nobody responds. I'll bet they'd sing a different tune then. We're all in this together, guys, whether you like it or not.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society." While my agreement with his statement should not be construed as a belief that all is well in the world of government, I do agree. Oregon needs to close the tax loopholes in its tax system—the state gives away more in tax breaks than it now receives in tax revenue—and use the money to fund social services at their minimum level. As it stands we're over $1 billion short. We're looking a little uncivilized at present.

It's even worse, if that's possible, on the federal level. We need first and foremost to get George Bush out of office. What kind of "conservative" runs a deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars? $724 billion in tax cuts? Even $350 billion is a travesty that imperils Society Security and future economic growth. One must confront the sad fact that this administration among its numerous other faults carries the baggage of a Clintonesque, Alice in Wonderland approach to the meaning of words. No "conservative," compassionate or otherwise, would do what George Bush has done to education, the economy, the budget, the states, and so forth. Here's how a real fiscal conservative would manage things. If he gets into office, I'm gonna feel even better about paying my share. I think we all will.

¶ The Matrix is Reloaded: The first nice thing I can say about Arena League Football is that they showed The Matrix Reloaded trailer at halftime yesterday. In a word: Whoa.

Arena league football isn't my cup of tea, and I wouldn't have been switching back and forth between it and the Masters if they hadn't shown the American television premiere of The Matrix Reloaded at halftime of whatever meaningless game they were televising. That trailer is now available online at WhatisTheMatrix.com or at Apple.com/trailers.

As many of you know, I consider The Matrix to be one of the greatest science fiction films of all-time. How eagerly do I await the sequel? It's right up there with Two Towers or The Empire Strikes Back. I am happy to report (in case you don't have a broadband connection or didn't for what reason I can't imagine tune into Arena League Football) that the Reloaded trailer is awesome, and my expectations for the film are very high. I see no reason why the Matrix trilogy (The Matrix Revolutions is due later this year) can't be one of the all-time great movie sagas. Yes, I am stoked!

Others coming this summer that I think will be worth the admission price: X2 (the X-men sequel), Bruce Almighty (a Jim Carrey comedy), Finding Nemo (Pixar's latest), and maybe The Hulk. Terminator 3 could be OK, but I'm reserving the judgment. Latest trailer makes it look like a rehash of T2.

If there's another movie you're looking forward to this summer, LMK.

¶ Baby crib shop 'til you drop: Some of us remember when "Made in America" wasn't considered a warning label. Or a bad Whoopi Goldberg/Ted Danson comedy.

Erin and I were at Baby Depot for four solid hours. I kid you not. We found a crib we liked (C&T's Silver model in a pecan finish), and we registered for some other baby stuff. Prior to this we visited and registered at Toys R Us, a process thankfully made shorter because Erin, Liz, and my mom had visited and done some registration work last week. The kid is gonna have some nifty stuff.

The crib selection process was lengthy mainly because we were uneducated and acquired a lot of our knowledge in the store kicking the tires as it were. We looked a variety of models from different manufacturers. In our opinion, the American-made cribs were inferior in quality of workmanship, materials and design. Although some of the higher end American-made brands were OK on the workmanship and materials fronts (meaning we found their construction to be sturdy), I don't think I would recommend them. I would definitely stay away from the low-end American stuff. Not that they're dangerous necessarily. I just don't think they'll hold up very well over time given their construction and materials. (Delta seemed to me to be a big offender in this respect.)

Where the American brands really got hammered, though, was design. (Apple Computer needs to come out with a baby crib.) C&T has a drawer underneath their cribs (which none of the American brands had). This should prove to be highly convenient storage. C&T uses wing nuts to adjust the height of the crib so you don't need any tools to change the bed around as your kid grows. The American brands make you use a screw driver or a wrench. C&T has recessed rail hardware which presents a cleaner design aesthetic as opposed to the American brands which simply slap the ugly hardware on the wood for all to see. (This "hidden hardware" technique is present in European cabinetry design as well.) It may prove safer for baby to have inset hardware on the crib, but I think it's a marginal consideration. Add it all up, though, and we think the American-made cribs are left in the dust by any of the C&T cribs. If I remember I will do an MTV style Baby Davison's crib video for ya all once we have everything at home and set up. Somebody remind me.

Speaking of Baby Davison, the kid is 37 weeks now. All the squirming has moved Erin's belly button off center, which is pretty funny if you ask me. (Erin thinks so too, and she's the final arbiter of what baby-related events are or aren't funny. You don't see me lined up to give birth, so "funny" ain't my call.) Erin's now up 4 to 5 times per night, mostly thanks to baby's pressure on the bladder. For the most part she's been able to get right back to sleep, a fantastic talent to have and one which I hope I acquire soon because there's no question that the kid will be waking me up too.

¶ Bye Bye Miss American Pie: I was a lonely teenage bronkin buck with a pink carnation and a pick up truck, but I knew I was out of luck...

Nothing bums me out more than something I've come to rely upon not working. Zephyr crashed over the weekend, and I am very sorry to say that it's not the new computer's fault. If it were I could just return it. Unfortunately I've got bad RAM (from Zeke) and the G3/300 PowerLogix accelerator is screwy. Presently I've neither the RAM nor the speed to run Digital Performer, my music recording software. This is likely the same issue that forced Zeke from the stage, but in that respect what's done is done. Zeke had a lot of wear and tear from previous ownership anyway. I don't feel badly about acquiring Zephyr.

However, I feel awful about not having a music recording studio. I was planning on getting a new Power Mac, true, but not until this autumn or winter. There are way too many expenses on the radar right now to push that forward, so unless I can find a way to fix what I've got, it's going to be a tuneless summer. That's epitome of despondency for me. I'm sure my spirits will rally tomorrow because I'm buoyant by nature and easily distracted. (Is that a coin? Oooh, shiny!) Today, I'm mopey.

¶ True Majority? I hope so: Ben & Jerry's killed Rain Forest Crunch, my favorite flavor. I'm giving them one more chance.

If you think President Bush's budget is as out of whack as I think it is, a non-profit organization called True Majority will let you fax your senators and representatives on their dime. This group was founded by Ben Cohen, activist and co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. I'm still stewing over the death of Rain Forest Crunch, my favorite flavor, but I guess I'll have to let it go (or to compartmentalize). True Majority looks very promising to me.

The gist of the movement is that if we take just 15 percent of the military budget and apply it to social programs, we can have a better society and a better world. Think free ice cream for everybody. Maybe even Rain Forest Crunch. I think they're right, and that it's something worth getting excited about. If you do too, it only takes about 2 minutes to send a fax using this free service. I recommend it. (Shout out to Liz for bringing True Majority to my attention.)

¶ Greetings Mr. or Ms. Tin horn Dictator!: A quick little Risk-like role-play, starring you as El Comandante. The world awaits your roll of the dice.

Imagine for a moment that you're a third-world tin-horn dictator and that you are, like everyone else on the globe, watching today's scenes of the US military trooping through Baghdad. It took the US less than four weeks and 100 casualties to depose Saddam Hussein. The technological superiority of the US armed forces was such that this was by-and-large a turkey shoot, whereby we killed thousands of Iraqis without, in most battles, suffering any deaths ourselves. If there was any doubt left over from the first Gulf War that we are the preeminent military power in the history of the world, it's gone now.

So you, Mr. or Ms. Tin horn Dictator (may I call you Dick?), have control of an army that's probably not even half the size that Saddam's was. You don't have the technological sophistication of Iraq, or even necessarily the oil money he had to keep the economy propped up. How do you hold onto power in the face of George Bush's stated and now proven first strike doctrine? If your first thought wasn't "acquire weapons of mass destruction" you're not long for the throne. Because what every other two-bit penny-ante Saddam-wannabe in the world now knows is that you must have weapons of mass destruction—preferably nuclear—to counter US conventional forces. As a bonus, once you acquire them, you'll gain a measure of respect in the world community that far exceeds what you deserve on the basis of your government or economic power (for example North Korea and Pakistan).

So, no, I don't think today's toppling of the Iraqi government has made the world a safer place. There are any number of crucial questions left on the table by members of the Bush Administration, who seem to have read too many Tom Clancy novels. Foremost among these is probably though not necessarily: Who will we attack next?

[BTW, has anyone else noticed that no chemical weapons or weapons of mass destruction were used against US forces? I don't believe that Iraq was in compliance with UN resolutions—Saddam is or was too much of a snake in the grass for that—but golly, what if they were and the whole pretext for our invasion turned out to be false? I suppose it's too late now to tiptoe back out of Iraq, whisper "sorry, our bad" and quietly close the door behind us.]

¶ Same old, same old: Ty's wrong: Home Depot is a lot more than I thought it was cracked up to be. Props to Dave.

It was June of last year when I first visited Lowe's Home Improvement. I liked their clean, uncluttered aisles, bright lights, wide selection (particularly on the high end), and convenient automotive access. I said, and I quote, "...I can't think of a reason to shop at Home Depot again." I visited Home Depot yesterday for the first time in over a year, and it turns out that I'm a complete ninny. There are plenty of good reasons to shop at Home Depot, most notably their Mills Pride line of cabinetry and close organizers. They also carry a variety of tools and items not found at Lowe's. In my limited comparison shopping those items that both stores carry, Home Depot has at lower prices.

It continues to be true that Lowe's maintains all the advantages they had a year or so ago. But I was dead wrong about there being no reason to check out Home Depot as an alternative. It's very much a viable option, and I'll be surprised indeed if we don't buy our nursery closet organizer and bathroom cabinetry from them. (Thanks to Dave for the heads-up on the Mills Pride product line.)

¶ All my friends know the low rider: Low rider is a real goer. Low rider is the one to meet. Baby Davison is a little higher.

Erin is in tip-top shape and so is baby. No problems whatsoever. We did learn at today's appointment that baby has not dropped. (Apparently, baby's just a low rider.) Also, the kid is not likely to be leaving Erin's womb any time soon. The cervix is not dilated at all and has not moved down into the necessary position for birth, so although it's possible that Baby Davison could be born healthy at any time, it's highly unlikely that it'll be soon. I knew the cervix thinned and stretched for birth; I didn't know that it changed position prior to the event. Human beings are pretty cool machines. This pregnancy/birth process is fascinating.

Thanks to Liz for this link to an excellent commentary, The Reason Why, by former Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern. It is illuminating, though unsurprising, that many major newspapers have refused to run McGovern's editorial. Worried, unhappy people tend to spend less money.

That's not the non sequitur many may think it is.

¶ Not far from the tree: "His body language bellows his uninterest, his distraction, his uneasiness, his callousness; and he tends to blurt out all or part of what he's really thinking, even as he's trying to lie about it (a linguistic struggle that intensifies his incoherence)" (Miller 3).

I finished The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder by Mark Crispin Miller, perhaps one of the most important books published about George W. Bush. While Miller, a media professor at New York University, finds humor in rehashing the numerous misstatements made by Dubya ("I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family" being one example of hundreds), this is a serious work.

Undeniably, the book argues the Bush is illiterate, undereducated, and oblivious:

...When he [George W. Bush] tries for a grammatical arrangement more complex than see-Dick-run, Bush often breaks down in mid-effort, having just...forgotten how he started out, and where he ought to go.

I felt like their decision was not a fair decision at the time, and I felt like they had rewritten a law and—you know, so therefore.

As it dictates the endless parataxis of his sentences, so does the president's amnesia often have him flailing in supreme rhetorical confusion, blurting out disjointed bits of prose until some propaganda tag in pops into his head, which then gives him something clear to say, repeatedly" (Miller 260-261).

Dubya's issues run a lot deeper than problems with syntax, and indeed, the portrait that emerges is almost Nixonian in its darkness. It is very clear that Bush is not even close to being the sunny person his media spinmeisters make him out to be.

The Bush Dyslexicon is also about the impact of television on the electoral process and the media complicity in helping the rich remain rich and the powerful remain powerful. It's sobering in that respect, because what we've witnessed is the co-opting of the fourth estate. What was once considered an independent part of the checks and balances system of US government is now nothing more than a ratings lap dog. It is not an improvement.

Finally, and chillingly, this pre-September 11^th work warns of the malcontents who run the Republican Party.

...[It is] a GOP that is not only dominated by the super-rich (who also own much of the Democratic Party) but managed by a host of vengeful ultrarightists whose alliance is peculiar to this time and place: Nixon men still seething over Watergate; military men still smoldering over Vietnam; Southerners still livid over the desegregation of the schools, the end of lynch law, the extension of the franchise, and the burning of Atlanta; Christian Fundamentalists still steaming over rock 'n' roll, the Scopes trial, and modernity in general; Catholics fuming over Roe v. Wade. The whole enterprise is funded, and its larger moves dictated, by the corporate network of big oil and petrochemicals, "defense," tobacco, pharmaceuticals, insurance, pesticides, and automotives, among other industries, their top brass and top shareholders are all still smarting at the heavy hand of "regulation"—as if there were a lot of that in the United States.

Each of those angry factions is forced forward by a toxic memory, or illusion, of defeat. What has now made them all especially dangerous, however, is a victory: the fall of Soviet communism. We cannot afford to underestimate the trauma—or ignore the consequences—of that disappearance. On the one hand, the whole huge bureaucracy of national security is still in place, but lacks a global enemy to justify its appetite. That system needs a state of war—just like its Soviet counterpart (which was finally ruined by the cost of that requirement). And yet the need is not only material but psychological. For as long as Stalin's empire shared the planet with us, the wildest of our citizens—and not just grassroots kooks but many high-and-mighty maniacs—were suitably preoccupied by that external threat. Although they did great harm to the Republic in pursuit of their apparent mission ("McCarthyism," the war in Vietnam, the Watergate conspiracies, and Iran-Contra being only the most infamous examples), the patriots never went so far as to subvert our democratic institutions openly. Fixated on the dictatorial Other, American extremists by and large respected the legality and peacefulness of our elections, ritually proclaiming them as blessed examples to the wider world.

But all that changed with the collapse of communism" (Miller 262-263).

Miller's Afterword has worse things to say about the media and TV media in particular. I don't think he's wrong about any of it. The Bush Dyslexicon should be essential reading for every American citizen, preferably before the next election.

¶ I was dreamin' when I wrote this: If U didn't come 2 party, don't bother knockin' on my door. I got a lion in my pocket and baby he's ready 2 roar.

Our neighbors Brian and Debbie throw one heckuva party. They were celebrating their birthdays last night and issued invites to friends and neighbors. Do you know how many years it's been since I did jello shooters? Probably the same number of years its been since I went to a kegger. Both those counters now reset to zero.

In the din of all the Pink Floyd music and the chatter of the assemblage, Brian and I went mano-a-mano over the chess board. This was a rematch of my Halloween Party victory, though to be fair Brian had a few beers in him when we sat at the table in October. This time around he was (more) sober, so my victory that much sweeter. I played Black defensively, and, like last time, he came out with guns blazing. He plays not so much to win as to crush, and after I was able to parry his initial thrusts, my more solid development left him in a precarious position. Hopefully I was as graceful in victory as Brian was in defeat. Hopefully it means I'm getting better at chess.

Thanks to Brian and Debbie for the great party. It was da bomb.

¶ Resolved, I have 3 main points: Specifically: I knew old school debate fairly well; there is a new school of hit-or-miss debate in town; and not one person I met was as verbally inept as President Bush. Rejoice, rejoice, you have no choice.

I ventured out to Sprague last night and again this morning to help judge at the District Speech and Debate tournament. I've done some judging every few years as the need arises, and it is, for the most part, an enjoyable experience. This go-round I was bright enough to remember to ask Jane (the tourney director) for a student to time for me because I've always had great difficulty listening, writing comments, watching the clock, and giving time signals. Being able to slough off the time keeping chores onto a student was of great assistance. Matt and Ginger, both speech and debate coaches, were also very helpful in orienting me to the new world of debate because the powers that be went and spun the roulette wheel when I wasn't looking. In other words, they don't debate like they used to when I was a kid (with baseball bats and knives).

When I was debating, we had two styles: cross examination and value (also known as L-D or Lincoln-Douglas). Students were given a resolution like "Resolved, Oregon needs a sales tax" or "Resolved, political assassinations are a legitimate tool of foreign policy" or "Resolved, the president is a nincompoop." Debaters would spend the year gathering evidence, writing affirmative and negative cases to support or deny the resolution, and present said cases and evidence at tournaments. It was a time-consuming, yet enjoyable experience. If the debate rounds themselves tended to bog down in a flood of evidence and fast talk that was just considered the perils of good research and writing. It is true, however, that sometimes, though certainly not always, the rounds became something that wasn't so much debate as they were something akin to debate.

Today's system, as I found out, is different. Oregon Public Debate, loosely based on a parliamentary style, allows no researched evidence whatsoever (other than a dictionary for defining terms). Teams are presented with three resolutions about 15 minutes before the round. The Proponents (formerly known as the Affirmative) strike one resolution, the Opponents (formerly known as the Negative) strike another, and the parties (formerly known as Prince) debate the third.

Based on my experience yesterday, I would say this makes for a good test of debating skills but by highly uninformed participants. While I'm not convinced that this is a step forward, I'm not convinced it's a step backward either. Perhaps it's a side gallop. Or maybe a pirouette. Whatever it is, it looks funny. They really need to add some more content to the process, because right now anyone who's well-read and can deliver a forceful presentation can win. That's something akin to debate as well.

So there is talk of debating a single resolution for a month, allowing evidence, then switching resolutions the next month. I can't imagine that it would hurt to try that. Watching the uninformed debate an issue can be painful.

But it's no more painful that watching the unprepared do an individual event, and I had a few of those this morning. Most students whose extemporaneous or impromptu presentations went into the crapper had the same problem: Organizational structure. To paraphrase Ginger, the right way to do this is to tell us what you're going to tell us, tell us, and tell us what you told us. Have a road map ("I have three main points...") and follow it. Students who did this today were in good shape. Those who didn't meandered about and repeated themselves frequently, not unlike what some people do on a personal web site. Not that I'd know anything about that myself.

On the brighter side, not a single individual I saw in this tournament in either speech or debate offered a tautological argument the likes of which the American public is so commonly subjected to by our president. (A tautological argument: "A is A because A is A.") That alone gives me hope, and it should give you hope too. Smarter people are on the way.

¶ Life goes on and life is good: A brief eulogy for Michael Kelly, the first US journalist killed in the war on Iraq.

Michael Kelly had the type of neoconservative political world view I loathe. He was frequently caustic when writing about political matters, leading to his 1999 dismissal from the New Republic. I thought he was wrong about any number of things, not the least of which was the Iraq war itself.

He was, however, one heckuva writer, and his editorial work on the Atlantic Monthly garnered numerous awards. In short, Kelly was extraordinarily good at what he did. Agree or disagree, you could never plausibly argue that his stuff wasn't well-written. As one might expect, my favorite columns of his were apolitical: We Americans are some kind of fat, Life goes on and life is good, A color-blind Christmas, A non-judgemental Yale?, The greediest bunch of no-talent morons ever, and It's time to answer my email.

Michael Kelly, RIP.

¶ Dem's da breaks: Baby Davison is on the move to the lower 48. Erin will be on the move to the rest room. Frequently.

Baby Davison put the head down and dropped last night. [4/8/02 UPDATE: Or not.] That means the kid is in prime birthing position and should appear in a nearby hospital labor and delivery room within four weeks. Erin and I both plan to be there when that happens. I mean, it's a can't-miss-it event, right? Especially if you're, like, tethered to the kid. But I'm planning to be there too, even if my attachment is more..uh...emotional? cerebral? telekinetic? I dunno, but it must be love.

Baby dropping also means Erin will be carrying baby lower, dealing with a squashed bladder for the next four weeks. Chance of a bathroom trip every 10 minutes? Likely. As they say in the Mafia, dem's da breaks. Actually, I don't know if that's in the Cosa Nostra phrase book or not, but if so, they probably didn't mean it in a bathroom context. It just sounded funny, like something Humphery Bogart might have said in Casablanca. Of course, there were no Mafia or Italians of any kind in Casablanca, so I have no idea where I'm going with this. My thoughts get more random when I'm happy. I'm happy an awful lot nowadays. Baby's due in a month. So if God's hitting me upside the head with a silly stick, it's a preparatory measure, I'm sure.

¶ Nursery, you are supreme: It's automatic. It's systematic. It's HYDRO-matic. Why, it's one heckuva nursery.

I was a day later than intended in finishing the electrical work in the nursery, but it all went as lickety-split as I anticipated once I got down to it. I've changed out dozens of electrical outlets in my time, so that was no big deal. (Apartment management turns out to have been useful after all.) I was more concerned about the nifty new light switch since it's got a microprocessor for a brain, all kinds of fancy LEDs, and God knows what else. Turned out to be even easier than the outlets. So high fives all around.

I'm not saying it's the case, but it could be—could be, mind you—that I have some type of mechanical/electrical aptitude after all. I doubt that an electrician could have done a better job with the switch and the outlets than I did. Then again, what does it say about my level of home improvement self-confidence and skill when not electrocuting myself qualifies as "aptitude"? So maybe we best forget this paragraph altogether.

We met with Melissa Beyer of Beyer Closets, a closet organizer person, in the late afternoon. We discussed various options for the maximizing the storage space available to us there. She suggested removing the closet doors, an idea that Erin and I are going to have to warm to before we go with it. Undoubtedly, getting rid of the doors offers us more storage flexibility and greater utilization of space. Those are big advantages. And it is true that the current trend in interior design is to open up closets and push belongings into view. That's not a fad of which I'm particularly fond, and we'd at least need to curtain off the closet from direct sunlight regardless. Sun fades clothes. We found about this first hand in Mountain View. While we're pondering the options, the closet company will send us some designs and costs. It'll probably run about $500 for the full meal deal, but if it works out as we hope, I can live with that. Baby stuff has to go somewhere, and it's not going in my room.

I was going to get outside and paint the exterior trim, but the forecast called for thunderstorms. Hmmm...standing on a 24' aluminum ladder in the midst of rain, thunder, and lightening...let's see...yup, there it is...number three on my list of "Really Bad Ideas." I'm gonna wait a few days until the rain disappears when I can injure myself by falling off the ladder without the threat of a lightening strike doing further damage.

¶ Investing picks and pans: Somehow April Fools' Day seems like the perfect opportunity to discuss my stock picks.

Aquila (ILA-NYSE) has tanked so hard that it's made the Titanic look buoyant by comparison. Those of you who've enjoyed this ride to the bottom with me can draw solace from this simple fact: I'm right there with ya. I started recommending ILA at $16. Then $10. Then $6. Then $2.65. Since then it's been as low as $1.07. Presently it's at $2.18. I've sold about 150 shares at a massive loss (to offset a massive capital gain from the forced sale of American Water Works stock). I still hold a couple hundred Aquila shares. Losing money turns out not to be so much fun.

If the company can get their short-term financing situation handled, I think they'll be OK. If not, then it's been good knowing ya, hello bankruptcy court. ILA's got a book value of about $12 a share, and even if that's inflated, I'm as confident as I can be, given that I've been just about totally wrong every step of the way, that ILA is worth something north of $6 a share.

Optimist that I am I think we'll see a turnaround. Bush is likely out of office in late 2004, so I'm guessing we'll see a rally after that if not a little sooner. In the long run, I think Aquila will turn out OK. It's gonna take a couple years, but I think they'll get there. If not, we'll probably know by the end of the month.

I added three stocks to our portfolio recently: Pfizer (PFE-NYSE), the world's largest pharmaceutical company; Piedmont Natural Gas (PNY-NYSE), a utility; and Sasol (SASOY-OTC), a South African oil company soon to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The first two I'm using a dividend reinvestment program (DRIP) to put money in. With Sasol, I just bought a block of shares. Pfizer and Piedmont can be considered safe, conservative, core holdings. Sasol's a little more risky, but I think there's very good upside.

These stocks join Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Fund (FAX-NYSE), Genuine Parts (GPC-NYSE), Heinz (HNZ-NYSE), MDU Resources (MDU-NYSE), Scherling Plough (SGP-NYSE), and Zweig Total Return (ZTR-NYSE) in our non-retirement portfolio. On the retirement side, we've sold out of Scudder International, a fund that's done little but disappoint since Scudder was bought out. We've switched our international monies to Fidelity Diversified International (FDIVX). We've also got Fidelity Dividend Growth (FDGFX), Fidelity Growth Company (FDGRX), Fidelity Growth and Income (FGRIX), Fidelity Low Priced Stock (FLPSX), and a little bit of Apple (AAPL-NASDAQ), the last one mainly because I'm a doofus when it comes to the company. I'm comfortable recommending all the Fidelity funds, Pfizer, Piedmont, Genuine Parts, Heinz, and MDU Resources. The others are OK and may even do very well, but they're not necessarily conservative investments.

From here on out, I'm looking to pay more heed to my own investment criteria. One would think I must have developed it for some reason. No more Aquilas for me.

[UPDATE: Actually, I looked back at my records. When I first got into Aquila, it did meet my investment criteria. It was when it subsquently went downhill that I ignored my own best advice. I did that with Apple as well, though in both cases if you look back you'll see I issued warnings too.]