It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

Kerry’s acceptance speech left me fairly underwhelmed both in terms of policy and delivery. One ticky-tacky point: I actually got a little bit excited when Kerry started his riff on science, being something of a science-appreciating geek (but hardly knowledgeable about it). But then he said something along the lines of a young president said let’s go to the moon and we did; now we are exploring the stars. Really? With anything more than telescopes? Did I miss something? He followed up on this with saying that we have created a chip the size of our fingernails that can hold all the information contained in a library. Again, really? Why, then, am I still stuck with CDs that hold only 700MB?

Not all that significant in the bigger scheme of things.

would John Kerry allow this photo to be taken days before he gives his acceptance at the DNC (more here)? I don't blame him one bit for getting dressed up and having fun with NASA in Florida. I would have done the exact same thing if I were in his shoes. But as a presidential candidate, I would NOT have allowed anyone to photograph me doing it.


Kerry's Dukakis moment? 

UPDATE: A startling secret revealed here.

UPDATE II: Now this is just plain cruel!

The vaunted news agency has apparently posted a story about Teresa Heinz Kerry's DNC speech at least an hour before she actually gives it. Eagle-eyed Daily Kos found this out.

It is currently 9:32 p.m. ET. Yahoo states the Reuters piece was posted "1 hour, 15 minutes" ago.

Teresa doesn't take the stage for another hour.

Listened to Ted Kennedy's DNC speech on the way home from work on a very rainy evening. Among the other things Ted said was an invocation of the first line of the declaration of independence. I don't have the exact words, but here is a NYT summary:

Mr. Kennedy accused Mr. Bush of squandering the good will of the world after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, by embarking on a reckless, go-it-alone approach against Iraq that he said made a mockery of the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence, which calls for `a decent respect to the opinions of mankind."

My first reaction was shame at the fact that I had absolutely no recollection that the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence included such a phrase. But lo and behold, it does. But the overall tone of the sentence doesn't appear to cohere with what Ted was trying to argue.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Rather than saying that we should get the world's opinion on our side (which it probably wasn't during the American Revolution) it seems to me that it merely says that we have an obligation to inform the rest of the world concerning the reasons why we will adopt a certain course of action. But since I couldn't remember what the first sentence of the Declaration said in the first place, what do I know?

Oops, my bad. It really is just a moon. (Thanks to Instapundit for the link)

I have obviously been AWOL from the blogosphere for quite some time. Have been busy moving, teaching summer school, summering in Maine, and other assorted activities. It has been worthwhile to take a step back and ask whether the time and energy devoted to blogging is worth it. On the one hand, it has been a fascinating foray into a new information medium; I have learned much and enjoyed much. On the other hand, it does take a lot of time, time that could be spent playing with my kids, finishing my book, reading or sleeping. So, I'll continue to mull over whether to jump back in to the fray or stay away.