I'm already looking forward to a new bridge (well, old bridge fixed) over the Minnesota River that will be open by 2010.

Always looking for new routes and exciting places to visit without a car! Where is it? Old Cedar Ave is just below 77 here. They are going to replace a bridge that has been closed for the past 5 years.

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Quick roundup - saw Tropic Thunder last night and laughed my fool ass off. Incredibly funny.

daddYman passed a great NY Times article about Jon Stewart to me. Well worth reading.

TO the former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, Mr. Stewart serves as “the citizens’ surrogate,” penetrating “the insiders’ cult of American presidential politics.” He’s the Jersey Boy and ardent Mets fan as Mr. Common Sense, pointing to the disconnect between reality and what politicians and the news media describe as reality, channeling the audience’s id and articulating its bewilderment and indignation. He’s the guy willing to say the emperor has no clothes, to wonder why in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “It’s 3 a.m.” ad no one picks up the phone in the White House before six rings, to ask why a preinvasion meeting in March 2003 between President Bush and his allies took all of an hour — the “time it takes LensCrafters to make you a pair of bifocals” to discuss “a war that could destroy the global order.”

And James tipped me off to this excellent opinion piece on why McCain's similarities to Bush in terms of intellectual rigor are insanely frightening.

One after another, McCain's answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has -- virtually none.

Where are John McCain's writings exploring the vexing moral issues of our time? Where are his position papers setting forth his careful consideration of foreign policy, the welfare state, education, America's moral responsibility in the world, etc., etc., etc.?

I'm so sick and tired of hearing that Obama has no substance. The man wrote 2 books himself - as opposed to McCain who had a few more books ghost written for him. He has an entire web site full of policy positions and statements (as does McCain - though McCain has been skimping out on areas I worry about, like tech) and generally offers more substantive responses to questions than his opponent.

He has plenty of substance. And I like a lot of it. Let's put McCain and Obama in a room and shower them with questions about the Constitution and see what happens.

Earlier this summer, I got a new lens and camera I have long saved for. What better way to test them out than to set the dogs of summer free?

I am just finishing watching the film Rendition, which is one of those movies that are not allowed to be made in countries like China and Iran - where the point of the movie is to say that the government is pursuing an unjust and reprehensible policy. It was definitely a downer, but very well done.

You should put it in your Netflix Queue or rent it or whatever. This is one of those movies that needs to be widely seen.

It is a reminder of why citizens must always demand their government be accountable. Sadly, I suspect the only people who have watched it are those who already understand why an accountable government is so important and why it is so important to start reversing the last eight years before we start fixing the anti-democratic measures Clinton stuck us with.

Photos from the boating trip on Bass Lake with Garbe. Both of these photos are credited to Michelle.

I'm trying to get through more photos before the fall season saps my time and energy.

The first two are from early 2007 when Michelle and I visited her parents. There are two others at end of this gallery. Pokey is cute.

I also have a couple of Buster and Bitzi.

Last photos from our vacation to Portland and Seattle this summer - the good climbing photos.

Just finished You Suck: A Love Story by a favorite author of mine, Christopher Moore. This was a follow up to his Bloodsucking Fiends which I also liked. However, Michelle found his other books to be much better.

I particularly loved this book as portions are written from the perspective of a high school angsty goth teen in San Fran (via diary entries). Witness:

OMFG-W00T! I have failed, left my duty undone, like so much dog poop on the gloaming sidewalk of the tragedy that is my life. Even as I sit here at the Metreon Starbucks, writing, the froth slaves seem to move like silver-eyed zombies and my nonfat, soy, Ameretto Mochaccino has gone as bitter snake bile.

It gets better.

I have posted the first (and worst) rock climbing photos from our pacific northwest vacation. The photos from Leavenworth (which I'm working on) are better. I blogged about the trip here.

The photo of Michelle was taken by Ildiko, I think - I was belaying at the time.

Google is going to add the Twin Cities to its transit integration on google maps. I used google maps in Portland when planning trips on the buses and it was incredibly helpful.

Now if we can just get Google to help with Minnesota's total and blatant lack of ability/interest to use modern technology to allow citizens to know what is happening at all levels of government. Every try to get a transcript from a court case? Or follow hearings in the Leg without going there? It is much more difficult than it should be. Government is failing to offer citizens access to the information we need to be informed.