I have to admit that my first thought (after "so how many people got killed this time?") was "imagine what that money could have done for education."

Let me paint this scene for you. A splendid North Carolina morning, 65 degrees, sun shining, a little breeze, birdies and flowering trees all over the place. It takes about ten minutes to move forward a space in the line. And this guy not only has the engine running, but he's got a ten-year-old boy sitting in the car next to him. Neither of them can think of anything better to do than sit there burning gas and sending up emissions fumes.

Many of us grew up on the Narnia books. In The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe,  the Goddess takes the form of the White Witch, who must be vanquished by the true believers and by the crucifixion of Aslan in order to bring freedom to Narnia. C.S. Lewis was quite clear that the White Witch represented the old Goddess religion. The gentle, pious Oxford don knew that the snake in the Eden myth represented the Goddess, and once wrote that humans naturally associate "matriarchy" with "insects".

This is an idea I had as I was pumping $2.13 per gallon gas into the tank of my 1992 Paseo and thinking the moment just might be ripe for a paradigm shift.

I'm gonna keep drivin' this rusty, dented ol' bucket till the last shoelace, rubber band and duct tape that's holding it together rots. (Or till we run out of gas.) 'Cause why? 'Cause it gets 43 miles per gallon, that's why.

Like the school shooting that I was in, this one was committed with one of the last guns anyone would ban. In today's incident in Minnesota, it was a retired police officer's service gun. In "my" school shooting, it was a shotgun in a subsistence-hunting dependent area in Alaska.

Alaska gets into your soul if you live there long enough. Almost everybody I knew there called it my Alaska. My apologies if this is boring, but it addresses a few misconceptions that have been floating around.

As a former Alaskan, I'm cringing over what the next two months will bring. March and April will be the same festival of violence as they always are-- domestic assaults, casual shootings, and what's grimly termed the "Spenard divorce" or the "Kenai divorce"-- this would be the kind of divorce that's ruled on by a coroner.

According to the Leaky Cauldron:

So what's Election Reform?

So, questions:
Who is the Half-Blood Prince?
Who is going to die in Book 6?
And which political party is symbolized by the Death Eaters?

The media reports the world the way you see it. Anything that looks bad for your side is either never reported at all, or else presented in a favorable light, explained away, or quickly deleted.

The flag belongs to you. You can stick it on your vehicle, hang it in your window, fly it from the biggest, longest pole you can afford*, without worrying about whether people will misinterpret your politics.

So twice in the last two days I've not given my business to companies that mentioned the Almighty in their advertising. The first was a diner, which had a big sign out front promising fried chicken, biscuits, a salad bar, and the proprietors' absolute faith in Jesus Christ.

I also used to see these "Gentlemen's Clubs" when I lived in Alaska-- there were six in my neighborhood in Anchorage. And even though the clubs are advertised as being for "Gentlemen" they always have pictures outside of put-near naked Ladies.

Green candidated David Cobb announced yesterday that he and Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian candidate, are requesting a recount in Ohio.

This is going to cost them $110,000. Please donate if you can:
http://web.greens.org/c/cobb/supporters.cgi?function=donate

(Please recommend this diary so that people will see it and donate. I think this is our best chance for clearing up Ohio.)

Message from Cam Kerry (John's brother):

I am grateful to the many people who have contacted me to express their deep concern about questions of miscounting, fraud, vote suppression, and other problems on election day, especially in Florida and Ohio. Their concern reflects how much people care about the outcome of this election.