Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Tonight I watched one of the most incredible Mariners games in recent history, with the M’s crushing the Angels 11-3 on a grand slam by Ichiro in his first game of 2009, alongside Griffey’s first homer at home for Seattle since 1999. It was one of those thoroughly satisfying wins in every way, with a very close game that the M’s led throughout, capped by a 7-run 7th where they simply romped.

Meanwhile, the Blazers were pounding the Nuggets to wrap up their first playoff season in many years, clinching home court in the first round of the playoffs to boot.

It’s starting to feel a lot like 2001. This could be a very good year for more reasons than I’ve already compiled.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Wanted to make the official announcement that Emily has chosen to return to Princeton University for two more years of academic rigor. We will become New Jersey residents sometime late this summer.

Many more plans to be announced as they develop, but at least we have a framework and a destination at this point. The decision to stay stateside means we will indeed be making our summer roadtrip (2009 Sunset to Sunrise Summer Sojourn OR 2009 National Parks and Baseball Parks Tour). Coming this summer to a city near you – details to follow pending Emily announcing an actual quit date from her job.

Given the aggregate concentration of friends in states bordering New Jersey (I guess Maryland doesn’t technically border NJ, but it might as well), this decision generally seems to maximize proximity to those we have spent much of the last seven years living apart from. This is probably the most exciting part of the decision, especially since the ground we inhabit won’t be quite as new as originally anticipated. Proximity to Waffle House is also maximized, which isn’t really the #2 positive factor; it only seems that way.

Thanks to everyone for your support and interest in this lengthy decision-making process. We will be seeing a good number of you (most?) over the next few months!

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Statistics, 2002-2008
Domestic US Deaths by Firearm Homicide: over 80,000
Domestic US Deaths by Terrorism: 0

While people enjoy citing the fact that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed under the US Constitution (conveniently dropping the reference to the purpose being a well-armed militia that could actually stand up to the US standing army), no one really likes to mention that there are other rights enumerated in this document. For example, rights against unwarranted search and seizure (even before boarding a plane!). Or, say, the right to not be deprived of life or liberty without due process.

A story recently ran on CNN that said people were actually turning against further restrictions on firearms rather than towards them in the wake of recent upticks in mass-homicides by firearm. I guess people think they can fight gun violence with their own guns and we can turn every subway and mall into the OK Corral. Those were the days.

And even the idiots answering these surveys and fomenting public perception in America know that you can’t fight terrorism with terrorism. Or can you? That certainly seems to be the consensus method picked – seizing and torturing individuals while bombing their society into submission. For the purpose of intimidating all those who might oppose. Hm.

It’s not news to observe that people have been willing to hand their rights over to the fist of fascism as soon as the specter of terrorism is raised once, despite no renewal of the allegedly infinite threat in the last 7.5 years. What is news is that people react utterly irrationally to legitimate threats of violence, such as ubiquitous and seemingly surging shootings.

A while back, I suggested that we start referring to all quantities of deaths in terms of the unit of measure “September 11ths”. Since September 11th, we’ve seen 26 September 11ths worth of shooting deaths. When are we going to wake up to just how profound the real threats are in our society while clearing the smoke and smashing the mirrors?

We have nothing to fear but all this idiocy and obliviousness.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.

Read Duck and Cover at the Blue Pyramid.