Rumors fly about the New Hampshire primary results, tabulated by Diebold machines from paper ballots. There are calls for a recount, but there are said to be issues with the ballot chain of custody which might make a recount worse than meaningless.

The results don't match the exit polls, which is a big problem. It was results not matching the exit polls that set of the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine. Of course, when that happened in Ohio, Bush apologists claimed that people just lied to exit pollers.

It's already been admitted that one town "mistakenly" reported zero votes for Ron Paul when the actual count was 31.

According to this AP report, Huckabee says he stands by belief from fifteen years ago that AIDS patients should be quarantined. (Though he declined to call it that, there's no other word for what he advocated.) He also stands by previous statements that homosexuality is "an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle."

In honor of Barack Obama's victory in Iowa, a photo from my last trip to Japan. Did you know that "Obama (小浜市, Obama-shi) is a city located in Wakasa Area of Fukui Prefecture," on the main island of Honshu, Japan?

I was going to make a joke about "O'bama" being a good Irish name - well, the Universe beat me to it. Seems his great-great-great-great grandfather was "Joseph Kearney, a well-to-do shoemaker from Moneygall, County Offaly, Ireland".

I am reminded of Bill Murry's speach from Stripes:

exercise: asking each other "deep" questions, recording only the answers. From Karla:

something that I can't touch...something beyond the senses but I can still feel it

I was a bunch of bouncing balls in a toystore with laughing children

inspire, affect, travel, see lots of new things, feel lots of new things, novelties

to hell and back to heaven to the spirit world to france and germany and england and ireland and antarctica, the whole globe, the core of the earth, a black hole...turkey, close to the Muslim world...

don juan...the oldest person on earth right now...somebody who's lived a thousand lives

Revised as a pseudo-poem:

it's something I can't touch but can still feel
it once was a big basket of children's play balls, big and bouncy and rainbow-hued
it inspires, it affects, it travels - it's been to
to hell and back
to heaven to the spirit world
to france and germany and england and ireland and antarctica,
over the whole globe, to the core of the earth, to a black hole
it's older than anyone
it's lived a thousand lives

It turns out that not only is Ron Paul disconnected from consensual reality on abortion, evolution, and the separation of church and state, he's also a racist dingbat. phenry at DailyKos provides the evidence, from a 1992 article from the Ron Paul Political Report entitled "LOS ANGELES RACIAL TERRORISM":

Many more are going to have difficultly avoiding the belief that our country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists -- and they can be identified by the color of their skin. This conclusion may not be entirely fair, but it is, for many, entirely unavoidable.

Indeed, it is shocking to consider the uniformity of opinion among blacks in this country. Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty, and the end of welfare and affirmative action.... Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the "criminal justice system," I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal. [emphasis added -tms]

In a 2001 interview, Paul claimed this and similarly racist articles (such as one where he claimed that it's ok to try young teens as juveniles, except for black teens who should be tried as adults) were written by a staffer - a laughable defense. This wasn't a slick glossy mag where he just served as an "adviser" or something, it was an eight-page 'zine that he published under his own name. Even if we grant the fantasy that someone else wrote it, that would mean that Paul was irresponsible enough to let it go out under his name, demonstrating such rank incompetence that he shouldn't be allowed to hold any position of public trust.

Really, it's time for folks to get over their crush on Paul. Yes, he's the only Republican talking sense on war, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Kids, it has been noted, say the darnedest things.

Monday night, went up to York, to Mike and Cat's new house, for their New Year's party. First time I'd seen their great, big, spanking new house. First time I'd seen their two and a half year old daughter Rosie since they moved - even then, it had been a few months before that. Last I saw her, she wasn't really talking, but now she's doing sentences.

So I'm looking at my best friend, his lovely and brilliant wife, their beautiful little girl, their nice house...definitely the sort of thing that makes a single guy contemplate his life. Especially this being the first holiday season in several years where I wasn't involved with someone. Not complaining about my life, mind you - just prompted thought about different paths, different choices, trade-offs, freedom versus connection.

What happens in a state where ordinary people are able to carry guns? Mayhem? No. What you tend to see are under-reported incidents like this.

Charlie Merrell was in a checkout lane at an Indianapolis IGA Supermarket, when a masked man jumped over a counter and pointed a gun at an employee. Merrell drew his own handgun (for which he had a permit), ordered the robber to drop his weapon, and held him until police arrived.

If the robber had shot a bunch of people, this would be all over the news. (In this case, the robber's gun wasn't loaded.) But an incident like this gets little coverage; this imbalance is part of why so many otherwise rational people have such fear of citizens carrying guns.

Well, plans with Jill fell through. So here I am at Leadbetter's; Ken G. Shorts playing, Fons and the very cute Bonnie behind the bar, me sitting here drinking and singing along and writing a bit. Talked a bit to a big-haired lady who sat down next to me with her boyfriend, who was wearing a Redskins jacket...turns out that in her job as a hair salon manager, she's travels the world, Bangkok, Madrid, Japan. heading to Beijing next year. Who'd have thought that a career in hair cutting would lead to world travel?

Hanging out at Joe Squared tonight...got a little writing done toward the book, a little more writing about the life of the Buddha as I sit here drinking beer and sneaking glances at the pretty women (the pretty *young* women, sigh...) and watching old Superfriends cartoons on the TV above the bar.

Tomorrow night I'm supposed to go down and hang out with Jill; Sunday, family holiday party at Jeff and Cindy's. Monday, the great renovation project at my Secret World Headquarters is set to resume (with luck I'll have some of the wall treatment work done by them - yesterday I drove home from Home Depot with three big 4' by 8' sheets of tileboard strapped to the roof rack).