Patricia - meet Job.

As if it's not bad enough to lose your job as board chairman, then lose your seat altogether, be hauled before Congress, and then indicted for four felonies - Patricia Dunn has begun chemo to treat her Stage Four ovarian cancer. And there is no Stage Five.

Attention Amnesiacs

Professor Krauthammer offers a much-needed refresher course about Jihadists and Iraq. While obviously we know what has happened since the U.S. invasion, we don't know what would have happened had we not done so. But I don't think any scenario would have made us safer from those intended to do us harm. As Kenneth Pollack persuasively argued in 2002, the sanctions status quo would not hold.

Where do they get this stuff?

ABC News has just released what are proported to be IM's from former-Rep Foley that indicate he was having cybersex with a former page while awaiting an upcoming floor vote. Did his young partner - who appears to have been a willing participant - hold on to the transcript as a reminder of a many splendored night, or did he have more sinister (i.e., blackmail) intentions? Will we find out?

Vacancy

FYI - here's what happens when your Congressman resigns.

Sentence first -- verdict afterwards

So says the Alice's Queen. Mark Foley did something improper, perhaps even illegal., and he's taken responsibility. Unlike other politicians (but I digress). I think it's important to keep perspective. At least based on what we know now, he didn't rape, assault, or otherwise injure anyone. The underage pages - erroneously referred to by some as "young boys" -- were 15 and 16 years old. In many states, that's old enough to be tried as an adult for murder or to get an abortion without a parent's consent or even knowledge.

Wag the Finger

FoxNews Sunday's Chris Wallace provides some background on former president Clinton's meltdown during a recent interview:

Didn't he learn that it's not good to go on the air when you're upset?

Note to Barbara: Better Rein in Rosie....

Here's what the former "Queen of Nice" had to say on The View this morning: "Radical Christianity is as much a threat as radical Islam in a country like the United States." How will Miss Walters, one of the shows executive producers, deal with the fallout? Stay tuned....

Karl's Two Daddies?

Turns out the "Architect" has a gay dad. Can anyone explain the psychology of a person who advocates political positions and uses his power to harm a family member? (Don't even get me started on the GOP's closet case Mehlman.) Is he out for revenge, to punish his old man for breaking up the family? Or does he think he can relieve whatever misguided feelings of shame he harbors by "proving" he's a man? Whatever, I don't see why we should all suffer because Karl had an unhappy childhood. But I guess that's the history of the world....

Crikey! R.I.P.

A freak accident at sea has killed killed Australia's Steve Irwin. Sad news on this Labor Day.

Another cool productivity tool

My satisfaction with time-saving and cool applications like ClearContext has me searching for others. I've been playing with Tidy Start Menu, which does one thing very well: more easily organize my Windows Start menu. Until now, whenever I added an application, or updated a previous one, the new folders and shortcuts messed up my previous organization of links. After a significantly distracting amount of clutter had developed, I'd right click on Start/Programs/ Explore All Users and move things around. To get things right I usually had to double check the default user and administrator folders as well.

Tidy Start Memo makes the task a whole lot simpler and the results are considerably better. I like that I can choose custom icons, and the best feature is that you can delete an app by simply right-clicking on it. Download the free version and give it a try.

Admissions error?

Remember those insecure early days of Freshman/First year when you and most everyone else thought for sure the admissions office had made a mistake? Looks like the folks at Colorado State may actually have made a big blunder:

My brother is a senior at CU Boulder and works in the freshman orientation office. This week, he and his coworkers were trying to assist a young woman who was having difficulty locating a building in which she said she had been instructed to attend an orientation session. When she said the name of the building was Braiden Hall, the orientation crew told her that it sounded familiar, but that it definitely wasn't a CU building. "Let me see your acceptance letter," one person asked her. After looking at the letterhead, the mix-up became clear. "Miss, I believe you've been accepted to Colorado State. In Ft. Collins." She had been looking for the CSU Student Union. The mortified young lady's face dropped. "But I just signed a lease!" she said, then fled immediately.

Self-publishing for the masses

Have a stack of recipes you want to share? How about those short stories The New Yorker rejected? Thanks to Blurb now anyone can create a book of their own, no agent or editor needed.