KRAD's Inaccurate Guide to Life

Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson of Slate.com have put together 100 days of President Obama's Facebook news feed.

Among my favorite entries:

Barack Obama deleted the group Guantanamo Bay Detainees 4EVA.
(Khalid Sheikh Mohammed likes this.)

Joe Biden completed the quiz Which sexy man are you? with the result "Joe Biden."

Hillary Clinton added Egypt, Israel, Switzerland, the Palestinian Territories, Belgium, China, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, and 37 others to the Places I've Been application.

10 million people left the group Likely Republican Voters.

Barack Obama deleted "prosecuting torturers" from Interests. [followed immediately by:]
Barack Obama added "prosecuting torturers" to Interests.

Arlen Specter joined the group Democrats.


Go check it out! Thanks to hughcasey for the link.

The mutiny on the HMS Bounty broke out (1789)

IMPEACHMENT IN BRITAIN

Although Britain has seen fewer than 70 impeachments, and no one has been impeached since Lord Melville was charged and acquitted in 1806, Parliament still retains the power to impeach MPs and Lords. The two houses can prosecute for any crime they like--exercising, in the words of Erskine May, "the functions of a high court of justice and of a jury." The procedure is complex, and varies depending on whether the accused is a Commoner or a Peer. In essence, the Commons determines if an impeachment is warranted, and prepares and prosecutes the case. The Lords question the accused, summon witnesses, and adjudicate. It is for the Commons to demand judgment be passed, or to pardon the accused (the sovereign has no right of pardon in such cases). A number of recent reports into parliamentary privilege have called for impeachment to be abandoned, claiming that in the modern political culture it is effectively obsolete. Yet, in 2004, 11 MPs expressed an intention to impeach Tony Blair for taking Britain to war against Iraq. These MPs would have had to persuade the Commons the Blair had a case to answer--a task that failed the last time it was attempted, when some MPs tried to impeach the foreign secretary, Palmerston, in 1848 over an alleged secret treaty with Russia.


Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.
Peter De Vries (1910-93)

Feast day of St. Peter the Martyr, patron saint of midwives and inquisitors

WILDERNESS AREAS

Therer are 662 Wilderness Areas in the U.S. coveri9ng 107,463,608 acres (an area larger than California). The 1964 Wilderness Act gave Congress the authority to designate and protect these unique areas "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain...."


Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into.
Don Marquis (1878-1937)

If you would like an autographed copy of one my books, but can't get to a convention that I'm attending, I'm now making it easy on you. You can get any of the books listed below just by buying them from me via PayPal (payments would go to keith@decandido.net) at cover price or less (see list below), and I'll send the book(s) to you. I'm not charging for shipping within the United States. If you're overseas, send me the book price, and I'll bill you after I ship them for the shipping cost.

If you want the book inscribed, please tell me who to inscribe it to -- and if you don't want it inscribed (or don't want it autographed) let me know. You also need to provide a shipping address, obviously....

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If you have any questions, post 'em here. (And yes, I know I owe two of you books, and they will go out soon, but the cash flow has been poor of late, even with the Census job.)

Well, that icon probably won't be seen again for a while, if ever....

terri_osborne and I are no longer a couple. We will continue to share the apartment (not to mention custody of Marcus and Aoki), but as roommates and friends, not boyfriend/girlfriend or affianced.

The reasons for this are many and varied, and mostly relate to the personal compulsions I've been fighting for the past year-plus.

We may try again down the line if and when we're both more together (she's got her own issues, which my issues were exacerbating), and we remain friends (in fact, the friendship has been doing a lot better than the couplehood of late), and you'll probably still see us at some conventions together.

But we are no longer an item, as the tabloids say....

I'm not at all happy about this, but I'm also fully aware of why this is the right move for both of us.

Thanks for listening.

I've been given the okay to say what it's for, at least....

Last year, Moonstone Books published Tales of Zorro, which had 17 stories of the legendary swashbuckler from 19th-century Alta California by a bunch of cool writers (among them, buddies Robin Wayne Bailey, Max Allan Collins, Greg Cox, A.C. Crispin, Peter David, Robert Greenberger, C.J. Henderson, Nancy Holder, Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin, and Jeff Mariotte).

It did so well that editor Richard Dean Starr has invited a whole 'nother group of writers (such as, well, me) to contribute to More Tales of Zorro. Due out later this year, also from Moonstone, it will include the story that jumped out and wrote itself down yesterday, which is entitled "Letter from Guadalajara."

I'll say more once Zorro Productions approves the story.