Tonight as we were celebrating my wife’s thirty-second birthday, my father-in-law, Donald, was telling us about his father. Donald said that when he was working for Amoco Mills in Nashville, Georgia, he was still living with his parents. Donald was a manager at the mill and had approximately a hundred people working for him. So my father-in-law was a man of significant responsibility at a pretty young age. Would you believe that his father still insisted that Donald always be home by midnight? Donald credits the curfew with saving him from a terrible car crash. He said that if he hadn’t had to be home by midnight, he would have been in a car that was involved in a fatal accident after midnight one night.

That’s such a poignant story. Donald had about a hundred people reporting to him at work on a daily basis, yet he had to be home by midnight. He was a superior to so many people, and his father was looking after him as if he were still sixteen. I reckon today’s psychologists would say that Donald’s father was overprotective. I think Julian just loved his son and felt responsible for him. I see Donald’s recollection as a trophy that honors his father. Donald lost his father to cancer in 2000. I lost mine to cancer in 1998.

My wife and I saw Bad Santa today. We hated it. It was just a ridiculously foul movie with no redeeming qualities. Our opinion of the movie is much lower than most.

I’m watching ABC’s Primetime right now. It’s “Pfc. Jessica Lynch: An American Story.” The fact that there were inaccuracies in the initial reports of Lynch’s rescue does not take away from the fact that her story is a remarkable one. Ms Lynch seems like a really sweet young lady and a real American. I’m so glad she survived. May America’s bounty embrace this young lady.

As of today I’m one bad dude, at least when it comes to having a mobile jukebox. My twenty-gigabyte iPod is hard-wired to my car stereo. Now I can have five thousand songs at my fingertips as I move about in metro-Atlanta traffic. A wired connection doesn’t have the distortion that’s present with wireless FM transmitters. Car Stereo Plus in Atlanta, Georgia, did the job for US$71.25.

What’s the ideal recipe for Bin Laden Kabobs? If you know, please tell me. I'm sick of hearing from this piece of shit.

I haven’t posted much lately because I’ve been writing captions for vacation photos that Becky and I took in June of this year. We took a cruise to Alaska and visited Vancouver and Victoria, BC, and Seattle, Washington. I plan to post 120 photos from the trip and have written over 8000 words to tell about the trip, though the pages may not be posted until sometime in December.

Today would have been my father’s seventy-second birthday. Daddy passed away on January 13, 2004, from cancer that settled in his liver. The origin of the cancer was unknown. Happy birthday, Dad.

Pictured above is a would-be thief in the backseat of a police car. This young low-life took off with my mother’s purse tonight at Wal-Mart in Buford, Georgia. Mama hollered and a young man gave chase before tackling the purse-snatcher in the parking lot. Three cops were on the scene pretty quickly and arrested her. She’s wearing a hat that’s turned to the side, and when she saw me with my camera, she turned her head, yelling “Boy, what the f--- are you doin’!”

I hate thieves and liars. It’s great that this one was caught and will be held responsible for trying to steal from my mother.

Former POW Jessica Lynch was honorably discharged from the Army today. Her medical discharge clears the way for her to be able to take advantage of book and movie deals regarding her ordeal in Iraq. Lynch told reporters that she expects to tell her story in a book to be published this year.

President Bush wants government to recognize marriage as something that only two members of the opposite sex can share.

I disagree with the President. I believe that government has no business selecting one sexual orientation over another as being fit for marriage. If we heterosexuals get to enjoy the bond of marriage, then gays should be able to enjoy the same bond. Gay couples, by virtue of their being gay, do not in any tangible way deprive the rest of us from our lives or liberties.

Bush encourages Americans not to ostracize gays, saying that he’s “mindful that we’re all sinners.” Government needs to keep religion separate from law. I find it difficult to trust anyone who mixes the two.

Behind the Name is RefDesk’s Site of the Day. Behind the Name is a reference for the etymologies of people’s given names. I looked up my own given name, Jaddie, and found the following description:

pronounced “JAY•dee”
Given only to males who possess superior intellect, discerning taste, stunning attractiveness, and a predisposition to spend too much time with computers.

Of course, I’m just kidding, but only a little.

Last updated in 1993, The Chicago Manual of Style will appear in its fifteenth edition next month. The Manual is the foremost authority on the English language’s usage and style. You can read more about the new 976-page reference in this article by The Chronicle for Higher Education.

I crashed Girls Night Out last night to see Journey, REO Speedwagon, and Styx. These three bands played the Gwinnett Civic Center and the concert was my first at the new arena. My wife and some of her fellow teachers bought tickets to the show without asking us husbands if we wanted to go. One of the teachers who was supposed to attend the concert couldn’t make it because her return flight from Pittsburgh was late. When I found out that there was a ticket available, I invited myself—and I’m glad I did!

All three bands performed marvelously for over an hour each. First up was REO. There were a few more lines on the lead vocalist’s face, but he still could nail every note that he hit twenty years ago. Next was Styx. It was great to hear live big hits such as “Lady,” “Come Sail Away,” “Too Much Time On My Hands,” and “Babe.” The women in front of the stage went nuts over Styx. They probably tossed two or three dozen pairs of panties to the band. The band enjoyed the attention, hanging those souvenirs of affection between the tuning screws on their guitars. And even though Journey no longer has Steve Perry, the band’s sound is still what it was when Escape first went platinum.

Everyone had an excellent time.

Tonight we saw the movie Seabiscuit. The movie is garnering good reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, receiving a seventy-nine-percent “Fresh” rating. Becky and I went with her parents and all four of us loved the movie. The audience broke into applause twice. Seabiscuit is destined for the same ballpark as Forrest Gump and Titanic.

According to J.D. Power and Associates, a 2003 Buick is a much, much higher-quality vehicle than a 2003 Mercedes. In a list of thirty-eight automakers, Lexus, Infiniti, and Buick top the list, while Land Rover and Kia are at the bottom. Toyota ranks sixth, Chevrolet seventeeth, and Mercedes twenty-eighth.

Pfc. Jessica Lynch heads home to Palestine, West Virginia, next week. Lynch is the twenty-year-old Army supply clerk who sustained multiple injuries in a battle against Iraqi forces in March of this year. Friends and family hope the media will allow Lynch to relax and focus on rehabilitation.

On this day twenty-four years ago, my dad bought me a 1979 Yamaha YZ80 motorcycle. It was an early birthday present. Dad paid US$619 plus three percent sales tax. The equivalent bike would cost US$2949 today plus seven percent sales tax. I talked Dad into getting the bike early so that I’d still have time to ride it before school started back. I have many fond memories of riding that bike. Thank you, Dad.

McDonald’s is testing self-serve kiosks for placing orders, according to this Washington Post article. Now, all we need is the McVeggie sandwich that New York McDonald’s have been serving since 1999. The McVeggie sandwich is a fairly tasty hamburger without the dead animal in the middle. I believe McDonald’s uses a soy-based patty similar to Boca Burgers.

Reading about all of the American and British forces being killed in Iraq “after” the war is enraging. Maybe we need to redeploy.

My wife and I have been back from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest for a little over a week and I still haven’t settled in yet. It was our best vacation ever. Maybe I can post some pictures before Christmas.

Today’s RefDesk Site of the Day is The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. What a cool resource—a Cliff’s Notes for rednecks!

Becky and I saw James Camerons’s Ghosts of the Abyss tonight at the Mall of Georgia’s IMAX theater. It was a 3D IMAX movie, so we had to wear the moon glasses to take in what turned out to be a visually gratifying experience. Ghosts is a Disney documentary that shows Cameron’s crew using sophisticated technology to capture imagery of the RMS Titanic, the huge luxury liner that sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic almost a century ago. Historical reenactments were intermittently superimposed on the sunken ship to illustrate the contrast between what the ship was and what it is now. Ghosts is a good movie, though at only fifty-nine minutes, it’s a bit short.

Those low-rise jeans won’t go out of style quickly enough to suit me. Wearers of those jeans will one day look back at photos of themselves and have a good laugh or be terribly embarrassed, or both.

Yesterday while walking on the treadmill I saw Fox News’s Shepard Smith talking directly with White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. I couldn’t hear what the two were discussing, but Fleischer was smiling and looking chipper as he conversed with Smith. The caption at the bottom of the screen read “Ari Fleischer, White House Spokesman.” Fox News has been relying on Wendell Goler for White House coverage, so I don’t know if Fleischer is now working for Fox News and has replaced Goler as Fox News’s White House go-to man or if “White House Spokesman” is a moniker that is supposed to be synonymous with “White House Press Secretary.”

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer will resign his position, effective sometime in July, according to a Fox News report today. Fleischer says he wants to join the private sector. I assume that means Fleischer has a lucrative opportunity awaiting.

I hate to see Fleischer leave his current post because I enjoyed watching him give his daily White House press briefings. Fleischer’s job performance is extraordinary. He’s cool under fire, always confident with his answers, and never misses a beat. On my wife’s and my Favorites page, I named Fleischer as my most-admired person. But I’m not the only person who admires Fleischer. Fleischer has built quite a fan base while serving as press secretary. Ari Fan Club and Ari Fleischer Rules are two Web sites created by Fleischer fans. Maybe Fleischer’s leaving to write a book or to start his own talk show.

BBC News casts doubt on the Jessica Lynch rescue as we know it. Lynch can’t remember her capture and treatment, and now there appears to be evidence that contradicts what has been accepted so far as fact. This is interesting insofar as whether news has been manufactured in any way. Is the BBC News story just an attempt to discount events that make America look good, or does the story have true journalistic integrity? We may never know the truth, but I bet the coming weeks and months will bring forth new information we can use to better form our opinions on what really happened in the Lynch saga.

More importantly, Lynch is out of Iraq and back with her family. Plus, she has scholarships that’ll enable her to pursue her goal of becoming a teacher.

I earned a degree in psychology from the University of Georgia. If I were to pursue an advanced degree in psychology, I’d focus on the relationships of American husbands and wives in which one or the other recently retired. It’s an interesting dynamic—the husbands and wives have lived their relationships based on the five-day-workweek, two-day-weekend thing for multiple decades. Once one or the other retires, that mode of living is likely finished forever. Their new mode of living is simply seven straight days followed by seven more days, ad infinitum. Sunday could be the same as Monday. I believe it’d be fascinating to study the relationship dynamics involved with the adjustments the husbands and wives make at that juncture.

According to CNN.com, the ship aboard which my wife and I sailed last year, the Norwegian Sun, is in trouble for dumping forty tons of raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which connects the Pacific Ocean to Puget Sound. Norwegian Cruise Lines says that the dumping, though a violation of company policy, did not violate federal regulations that permit such dumping so long as it’s done three or more miles away from shore. I wonder how such a horrendous mess will ever be cleaned up.

Ever wonder how a squirrel knows to bury food to be consumed later? Does he learn to do this by watching his buddies or is the behavior somehow inborn? I was wondering about this today as I fed pecans to a couple of tame squirrels at my mother’s house. After the squirrels had their fill, they didn’t cut back on the begging one bit. Suprisingly, they kept right on scratching at the door to get more pecans. What did they do with those pecans? They carried them out to the treeline and buried them. And then they hustled back to the door for more pecans. Smart little critters.

A RefDesk Site of the Day a few days ago, the National Obituary Archive lets you search for just about anyone’s obituary. Strange but neat. I couldn’t find my father’s obituary by looking up “W.J. Dodd,” but I did find it by searching for “William Jackson Dodd.” Cancer claimed my father on January 13, 1998.

I still can’t believe that a rock climber cut off his own arm. How didn’t he pass out? How didn’t he bleed to death? And who hasn’t something better to do than climb rocks? Maybe Stubby learned to stay away from the things.

Do any of the Democratic presidential candidates believe they really have a decent shot of becoming president? I reckon they can all sit around the campfire, chug liquor, and hope that Dubya hits the streets of Washington wearing a frilly pink leotard and twirling a baton.

As I write this, I’m using our PowerBook in the recliner downstairs while my wife is singing along to music upstairs on the desktop Mac. She can’t sing along to that music worth a flip, but I still enjoy hearing her sing along. My grandmother couldn’t carry a tune either, at least in church, but I enjoyed hearing her do the best she could.

Matchbox Twenty’s new CD More Than You Think You Are is excellent. I got so sick of the Santana song ”Smooth“ featuring Matchbox Twenty lead vocalist Rob Thomas that I thought I’d never be able to stomach another of his tunes. More Than You Think You Are is more than worth a listen.

Tonight at just after eight o’clock the State Of Georgia put Carl Isaacs to death by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Center in Jackson, Georgia, which is located about one hour south of Atlanta. Isaacs helped kill six members of the Alday family in 1973. The surviving members of the Alday family had been patiently awaiting Isaacs’s execution for thirty years.

I support subjecting Isaacs to whatever penalty the survivors of the murders want, but I do question tonight’s attempt for justice. After the drugs hit Isaacs’s body, there was no more pain for him. There was nothing else for him to dread, nothing else for him to fear, nothing else for him to experience. Period. The survivors have the rest of their lives to deal with the pain caused by Isaacs and his accomplices. The survivors can’t see Isaacs hurt anymore, for Isaac’s pain is over. If Isaacs had harmed my family, I’d first want to torture him myself, but if that were impossible, I’d want Isaacs to share a cell with a series of large, strong, ugly, sadistic homosexuals—for the rest of his natural life.

I suppose the Alday survivors were seeking closure. I hope they got it.

A friend and neighbor left us today. Tom Nardone was fifty-four years old.

While riding his Sea-Doo at Lake Lanier late this afternoon, Tom had a heart attack. Tom is survived by his wife Susan and three sons. He and Susan have been an item since they were in twelfth grade.

Tom was in the printing business and shared an interest with me in typography.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tom’s sense of humor. He offered to take me out to the lake last summer to ride the Sea-Doo he’d just bought. I’d never ridden a personal watercraft, so I was delighted to go. Well, Tom let me drive but he shouldn’t have. After rapid deceleration I turned the Sea-Doo sharply without applying any throttle. We both fell off and struggled for a good five minutes to reboard the Sea-Doo. Tom managed to reboard first and had to wait a few minutes for me to figure out how to hoist myself up on the ’Doo’s rear deck. I struggled and struggled. When I finally got both feet on the boat, I somehow managed to tip us over again. Tom went flying from the Sea-Doo right along with me. So we struggled again to get ourselves back on the ’Doo. Once aboard, Tom retrieved a soggy pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket, threw the pack into a stowage compartment, and exclaimed, “Well, that does it for that pack of cigarettes!” I couldn’t catch my breath for laughing.

And Tom laughed, too. He even laughed later on when I tipped us over again and caused him to lose his prescription sunglasses. Tom wouldn’t let me pay him for his glasses, so I made him a wallpaper image (known as a desktop picture to us Mac folks) of his wife and him having fun on their Sea-Doo. After riding with Tom, Becky and I decided we had to have a water scooter, too, so we bought one and enjoyed riding with Tom and Susan until the weather became too cool for spills in the lake.

Tom always seemed to be filled with funnies. He once suggested to me that I say to my wife one evening at bedtime, “Hon, I’m going to make love tonight and I’m giving you first shot.”

I’m guessing that Stephen King’s The Stand was Tom’s favorite movie. Tom said he saw the six-hour movie over a hundred times.

Tom’s really going to be missed.

Today my in-laws struck out for Port Canaveral, Florida, to board Carnival’s Pride for a seven-day cruise vacation. Their stops will include Half Moon Cay, Bahamas; St Thomas; and St Maarten. Donald and Pevie didn’t carry even one camera. I wouldn’t give fifty cents for a cruise if I couldn’t carry a camera.

Tomorrow my wife formally receives her master’s degree in Elementary Education from Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia. Several of her family from southern Georgia drove up for commencement. Becky’s a real trooper. She earned her master’s while working as a second grade teacher at Harmony Elementary.

I got me a good wife. Not only is she a cutie-pie, she’s also accomplished in her profession.

Alabama is truly deserving of its nickname “Alabamastan” when it votes against legalizing sex toys, as its legislature did yesterday. I can’t believe we have a state in the US that’s so backwards when it comes to personal liberties. Is Alabamastan the New Old South or still just the Old Old South?

A few days ago I posted photos from the vacation my wife and I enjoyed last year. There are fourteen pages with four photos on every page except one.

Fox News reports that the Iraqi lawyer who provided information to coalition forces that enabled Pfc. Jessica Lynch’s rescue from Iraqi capture has accepted an employment offer from Washington, DC, lobbying firm The Livingston Group. Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief was also granted humanitarian parole, which means that he may live and work here in the US and eventually apply for US citizenship.

My first purchase at Apple’s new iTunes Music Store was an acoustic version of Matchbox Twenty’s “Unwell.” Apple’s new online music service allows legal downloading of music for just US$0.99 per song or US$9.99 for most albums.

The Associated Press reports that ex-POW Jessica Lynch had foot surgery yesterday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. The surgery is related to injuries Lynch sustained while in combat in Iraq. According to other reports I’ve read, Lynch will be coming home to a new car, several college scholarships, and a little loot. Bless her heart. Lynch, from the small town of Palestine, West Virginia, will turn twenty on April 26.

According to Fox News, television network NBC is pursuing rights to Lynch’s story even without the specific and personal details that only Lynch can tell. I hope Lynch holds her story for the media entity that can best relate it.

The Arts & Entertainment cable television channel will air a one-hour program tonight at 9 pm (Eastern/8 pm Central) that reports on Lynch’s rescue and the loss of Lynch’s friend and roommate Pfc. Lori Piestewa, who’s described in greater detail below.

Thousands of Iraqis protested “US occupation” in Baghdad today, crying for US forces to leave Iraq before being “expelled.”

Well, I’m sure we want to leave just as soon as we can. There’s nothing that’ll get one’s shorts in a bunch like living in one hundred-degree heat and being unable to take a daily shower. But we’ve spent the lives of over a hundred of our own people and dozens of billions of our dollars to eliminate the threat that Iraq will directly or indirectly thrust weapons of mass destruction upon our friends or ourselves, as well as to liberate you from a brutal and tyrannical dictatorship, so we’re going to stay in Iraq until our search for such weapons is over and until we finish helping you establish a democratic government that won’t pose a future threat to the rest of the world.

Until that time, how about some appreciation, a shower, something to eat, and a cup of tea? Thanks to those Iraqis who’ve already extended such hospitality to our troops.

For those Iraqis who feel you must forcibly “expel” coalition forces, I can only suggest that you take up the issue with your nearest coalition troop.

You people should notice how you aren’t getting your brains blown away when you stage a public protest. By Allah, our independent media even report your message for you all over the globe. Many of our politicians and entertainment people promote your message. Be thankful that you didn’t try to stage the same protest under your former leadership. According to thousands of reports from our independent news sources, many of you would be tortured and/or executed and the same would happen to members of your families.

The beautiful, bright light of freedom is shining upon you. Embrace it.

I’m surprised by this Washington Post report about a recent study finding that forty-two percent of Americans don’t use the Internet. Perhaps the study included only Americans living in Alabamastan.

I’m more surprised by this report claiming that Canadians have embraced broadband moreso than we Americans. According to the report, 53.6 percent of Canadians use broadband, whereas only 33.8 percent of Americans do.

I just don’t see how anyone tolerates dial-up Internet access after using a broadband or faster connection. Except for exchanging text-based, attachment-free email, dial-up is just about useless.

Becky, Becky’s grandmother, and I saw Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson’s new movie Anger Management yesterday. On a scale of one to ten, I’d give the movie a six. If one were to enjoy a couple of margaritas prior to viewing the movie, the movie would probably be a bit more enjoyable. The jokes are funny but not hilarious and there are an interminable number of gratuitous plot twists. Marisa Tomei played Linda, Dave Buznik’s (Sandler’s) girlfriend, and was the backbone of the movie.

Becky, her grandmother, and my mother saw How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days on Friday afternoon and they all said it was a cute movie. Based on the previews, you’d have to pay me to sit through that one.

On the Fox News Channel today, former Secretary of State and Curmudgeon Extraordinaire Lawrence Eagleburger says that Syria should be “slapped across the jowels” if they don’t cooperate with the US’s demand that terrorists not have safe harbor there. Mr Eagleburger is a clear and pointed speaker but would surely be a spectacular subject of a series of Saturday Night Live skits.

Why are the Bushes’ income taxes public knowledge? This Washington Post article explains what our President and First Lady face in terms of federal income taxes. I wish I were in their bracket. I understand that the President’s salary is a matter of public record, but I didn’t think his earnings from the private sector were a public matter, unless, of course, such disclosure is required by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Rescued POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch gets to fly home tomorrow. Her family and a friend will accompany her on the long flight home.

Rescued POW Jessica Lynch was much more fortunate than her friend and former roommate Lori Ann Piestewa. Pfc. Piestewa’s body was found, along with eight others, at a small burial site near the hospital where Lynch was rescued. A Fox News article reports that Piestewa was a twenty-three-year-old single mother of a four-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl. Piestewa was also a Hopi Indian and the first servicewoman killed in the war.

I don’t understand why Piestewa was in Iraq. What did the Army think of Piestewa’s being a single mother of two young children? Wasn’t there someone else the Army could have deployed? I’m only guessing that Piestewa’s two children will be cared for by other members of the Hopi Tribe. Damn. How many other single-parent coalition troops are in Iraq?

I could be wrong but, according to the reports I’ve read, we may have killed and injured more of our troops than Iraqi fighters did. This is embarrassing. Obviously, avoidance of such so called “friendly-fire” incidents should be a bigger part of future US military training.

Lee Boyd Malvo, the teen boy who, with accomplice John Allen Muhammad, shot and killed thirteen people and injured others last October, says he’d do it all over again, according to this Washington Post article.

My wife and father-in-law say Malvo is an excellent candidate for the death penalty. Well, certainly he is. But wouldn’t it be too simple to put Malvo on a table and give him an injection that allows him to enter an eternal slumber? Malvo probably doesn’t believe his life is worth living, anyway, especially now that he’s admitted to multiple aggravated murders. Surely there’s a more appropriate punishment. I’m sure Hannibal Lecter could provide some suggestions. I know I could.

Becky and I wish her late grandfather a peaceful eighty-fifth birthday. Julian Baldree was a wonderful human being. He passed away July 19, 2000, in his Nashville, Georgia, home and his family is still grieving. Julian’s grandson Curry wrote a wonderful poem about his grandfather.

Doctors now say that Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the POW who was rescued from a hospital near Nasiriyah, Iraq, was indeed shot. Lynch’s family is flying today from West Virginia to Germany to see their daughter. Doctors say Lynch is in good spirits.

Fox News posted an article on the Iraqi lawyer who informed US Marines about Pfc. Jessica Lynch’s whereabouts and mistreatment. Who says all lawyers are weasels? There’s a link to another article in yesterday’s random bit below.

Fox News’s chipper demeanor is getting on my nerves. Fox’s talking heads are talking about people who don’t even know each other killing one another. The killing isn’t inherently wrong, in my opinion, but it’s definitely nasty business. War isn’t football.

I miss CNN’s Bernard Shaw, the anchor who delivered all of my Desert Storm coverage.

Becky and I saw the new thriller Phone Booth tonight. It was pretty good; I’ll give it a seven out of ten. I know a couple of folks I’d like to put in that booth. The opening of this movie was delayed because of the beltway sniper killings that happened last fall.

Fox News reports that Jessica Lynch, the POW rescued by US Special Operation forces in a hospital near Nasiriyah, Iraq, on April 1, fired upon and shot several Iraqi soldiers as they attacked her in the ambush that led to her capture. Good for her!

Multiple post-secondary educational institutions are offering Pfc. Lynch full scholarships. Lynch says she joined the Army to be able to pay for college so that she could become a kindergarten teacher.

Lynch is scheduled for transfer to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, as soon as possible. Lynch is from Palestine, West Virginia, so maybe she’ll get to see her family soon. Lynch has already given her grandmother a request for some mashed potatoes and gravy.

Update: Pfc. Lynch apparently wasn’t shot or stabbed, but she did suffer two broken legs, a broken arm, and, according to her father, she hadn’t eaten in eight days. Lynch had her first surgery today, on her back. Prior to the surgery Lynch reported having no feeling in her feet. Hopefully, the Lynches will have better news to report tomorrow.

This is inspiring news after having one of our Black Hawk helicopters and an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet shot down yesterday. Central Command says that six people were on the helicopter while the Pentagon says that seven soldiers were killed in the downing. The fate of the pilot of the fighter jet is unknown. A search and rescue mission is underway to find him.

There’s quite an interesting story about the Iraqi lawyer who tipped off the Marines about Lynch’s whereabouts and mistreatment. He had to return to the hospital where Lynch was held to gather intelligence to help with her rescue.

Greg Lynch, Sr, father of rescued nineteen-year-old former POW Jessica Lynch, says he and his family are going to have “one heck of a shindig” when his daughter returns home. According to either CNBC or CSPAN, this marks the first successful POW rescue since World War II. Multiple news sources say that Pfc. Lynch joined the Army so she could become a kindergarten teacher. President Bush referred to Lynch’s rescue as “great.” Maybe he can and will offer Lynch a free education at the American university of her choice.

At the hospital where Lynch was rescued, US soldiers found remains from eleven other coalition soldiers. Lynch was lucky to have been rescued. She reportedly has two broken legs, a broken arm, and multiple bullet and stab wounds. As I write this, Lynch is in Germany receiving medical treatment. Let’s hope that we soon hear that she’s going to be alright.

This USA Today article reports on the personal toll the war is taking on President Bush. Apparently, it’s not as easy for Bush to send troops into battle as most Democrats would have the world believe.

Fox News, CNN, and The Washington Post report that we killed seven Iraqi women and children today when they failed to stop their van at a US military checkpoint in southern Iraq. Reportedly, we motioned for the Iraqis to stop and they didn’t. Then we fired warning shots into the air and that, too, failed to stop the Iraqis from approaching the checkpoint. Then we fired a shot into their vehicle’s engine. That, too, failed to halt the Iraqis’ approach. Then things got ugly and seven of the Iraqis who failed to heed the directives of US soldiers are now dead.

There were four people in the van who were uninjured. Today’s killings come on the heels of a March 29 car-bombing in which an Iraqi soldier dressed as a civilian blew up himself and four soldiers from the US Army’s Third Infantry Division.

Multiple reports fail to assert whether the vehicle contained explosives. I understand that it didn’t make any difference at the time we killed those people, but it’d make me sleep a little better if I knew we averted a tragedy by engaging in such action. If the driver of the vehicle was simply scared and her fear disabled her decision-making abilities, it’s terribly depressing to think that we killed those people when we really didn’t have to. But, again, it didn’t make any difference at the time when those soldiers had to make a decision.

The US Navy offers one heck of an online photo gallery that offers a slew of images captured during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The images are downloadable in high-resolution format, which means that you can generate high-quality 8 x 10 prints if you have a good photo printer. (Any Epson photo printer offers excellent output so long as photographic media and appropriate color profiles are used.)

I think Saddam is dead. His administration keeps releasing tapes but has not included anything in the tapes to indicate that the footage is fresh, at least nothing that’s indisputably authentic. All Saddam has to do to let the world know that he’s not taking a dirt nap is hold a current newspaper while being filmed.

CNN reports that some of our soldiers are keeping daily Web logs, stating that some of these Web sites sometimes beat local news sources for breaking war developments. How cool!

In its report CNN links to several of the soldiers’ sites. I wonder how many of Saddam’s thugs keep Web logs. I hope it isn’t too long before Saddam has no thugs and that there’s no Saddam.

Fox News reported early this morning that our Tomahawk Cruise Missiles cost US$1.4 million apiece. According to this US Navy Fact File, each Tomahawk costs US$600,000. When I heard that we launched a “double-digit” number of these missiles at “targets of opportunity,” I was curious about how much money we fired through the air. The number of missiles fired in the first strike of Operation Iraqi Freedom is guessed to be thirteen, so, according to the Navy’s Fact File, we fired US$7.8 million at Iraq’s leadership. At this rate it isn’t going to take long to spend the US$100 billion the White House has suggested this war will cost. I’m not complaining—I support making our nation safer by disarming Iraq, but I am conscious about how much money is being spent.

As of twelve hours after the strike, the bomb damage assessment is still undetermined.

It’s interesting to note that the Tomahawks travel at approximately 550mph, so given that at least one of the missiles was fired from the Red Sea and therefore had to travel across Saudi Arabia and most of Iraq, the missile was in the air for more than an hour. The missiles, fired from both US Navy destroyers and submarines, hit their target within about ten seconds of each other. Were I a maniacal dictator of a third-world country, this would be enough evidence of precise coordination and military might to make me throw in the towel.

Happy eighty-eighth birthday to my late grandmother, Rutha Mae Tribble. I really miss her.

Bless her heart! Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart was able to reunite with her parents yesterday after being abducted eight months ago.

The wearer of the “Give Peace A Chance” T-shirt who was arrested at a New York shopping mall for refusing to either remove the T-shirt or leave the mall has had his charge dropped. As it turns out, the sixty-one year-old man is a lawyer with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. He’s also a former Peace Corps volunteer.

My question remains unanswered, which is, Is it lawful to wear an anti-war T-shirt at a public mall that’s privately owned even if the mall’s security personnel demand that the wearer remove the shirt? The events thus far seem to say that it may be unlawful to wear such a shirt at such a mall, and also that it isn’t a good idea for mall management to pursue prosecution. Surely this issue can be made unambiguous.

Yesterday in an Albany, New York, suburb, a sixty-one-year-old man was arrested at a mall because he refused to either remove his “Give Peace A Chance” T-shirt or leave the mall. (Full story.) According to the police chief of the jurisdiction in question, it was lawful to arrest the man because the mall is private property and the man refused to leave after being asked to do so.

This situation begs for a legal opinion. It would seem that if the mall is indeed private property—private in the same sense that one’s home is one’s private property—the mall would have the right to force the man to leave. But does this encroach upon the man’s First Amendment rights?

It seems so natural to assume that one could wear a “Give Peace A Chance” T-shirt or a “Vaporize Saddam” T-shirt if one desired to do so at any mall open to the general public.

My opinion is that if the mall is private property in the same sense that my home is private property, I support the mall’s legal ability to force the man to either remove the shirt or leave the mall. But the mall exercised very poor judgment by doing so. Maybe the next million-person war-protest rally can take place near or around that mall.

Neal Boortz reported a witty quote by US Secretary of State Colin Powell: “This exchange takes place at a recent news conference. A reporter, said to be Iraqi, asks Powell if it is true that only thirteen percent of young Americans can locate Iraq on a map. Powell says that this may, indeed, be true, but, ‘unfortunately for you, all thirteen percent are Marines.’”

I wish I could have seen this exchange. Maybe one of the news channels will air it.

The Times Of India is reporting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has offered Saddam Hussein political asylum.

It’s been said that the wheel that squeaks the most gets the most oil, and I think North Korea’s leader is squeaking as loudly as he can so he can receive even more US financial aid.

If I were Saddam Hussein, I believe I’d advise Kim Jong Il to pipe it down a notch or two because I’d expect the US to demonstrate to Il its might and fury by using me as an example.

Mister Rogers succumbed to stomach cancer early today at his Pittsburgh home. Fred McFeely Rogers was 74. What a loss.

Who the heck are these teachers who are criticizing their students’ parents for taking part in the war against Iraq? These teachers should be reprimanded for their unprofessional behavior—and should be terminated if they commit the same offense again. These teachers should have spent more time watching Mister Rogers.

Holy Cow! My wife and I just learned that we’re going to go backstage with Bon Jovi later today! Bon Jovi is our all-time favorite band and we’re extremely excited about the possibility of meeting these guys.

When the Mac OS is your computing platform of choice, you have the privilege of associating with the best human beings on Earth, and this is how my wife and I gained Bon Jovi backstage passes. We’re delirious with joy!

MSNBC offers the full text of an email Laurel Clark, a Columbia astronaut, sent to friends and loved ones the day before the tragedy.

Here’s a photo chronology of a woman who is (or was) addicted to drugs. This would make an effective anti-drug poster. (Thanks, Boortz, for the link.)

It’s a sad day for America and Israel, especially for NASA and the family and friends of the seven astronauts who were lost during Space Shuttle Columbia’s descent over north-central Texas this morning.

At least this catastrophe was likely an accident.