I’m going to condense 4 hours worth of TV news time today into 20 seconds:

It’s the day before Thanksgiving. Lots of people in planes, trains, and automobiles. Look, rain in the East. That might slow things down a bit. Expect some delays. Be patient. And don’t joke about having any bombs in your baggage.

I’m kind of glad I did the “Thanksgiving” family travel thing last week. Today doesn’t look like a fun driving day.

International edition:

I explained to the [Mexican] President that we share a mutual concern to make sure our border is secure. One way to make sure the border is secure is to have reasonable immigration policies.

A secure border . . . right. Bush’s immigration proposals have as much to do with creating a secure border as his timber industry deregulation has to do with creating “healthy forests,” or his polluter deregulation has to do with creating “clear skies.” Just another public relations oxymoron.
This immigration policy is about one thing: cheap labor for U.S. business. Don’t let the White House speech writers trick you into believing otherwise.

It looks like my posts are about to disappear, so I guess it’s time to get back to blogging.
I got back to K-Town late Sunday night. Had a pretty good time in Wilmington, NC. The town seems like a decent place to live if you’re into smaller towns. A small port, nearby beaches, a college, lots of historic houses. One thing I noticed about it, however, was that no matter where you drive, it seems like you spend most of your time waiting at stop lights. And I’m not a fan of stop lights. And to add to the beauty of it they’ve got a bunch of cameras to nap the unsuspecting red light runner.
I went to the ocean twice. The weather cooperated in giving me a couple of 70 degree days. Not bad for mid-November. Conditions must typically not be too bad there, however. Because I saw a couple weddings on the beach. Either that or there were a couple of adventurous wedding planners.
I do have a few pictures to post later.
If you locate Wilmington on the map, you’ll note that it’s isolated in the middle of no where, I fact not lost on you when driving there and back. I can almost understand why that’s big ‘Neck Car country–because there’s nothing else there.
So what did I miss the past few days? Judging from the TV news, it’s not the routing chaos in Iraq, nor is it a bunch of hunters getting killed: it’s BasketBrawl! Interestingly, assaults like the ones Friday night go on all the time in some parts of the country, almost without notice. But include a few millionaires and locate them in a public arena that white people frequent and news anchors that know very little about sports are all over the story.
Memo to talking heads: we don’t need your talk radio brethren or sports psychologists to figure out what happened. Players possessing little self control got angry and tried to take things out on some fans. Oh, and if the brawl is as repulsive as you say, it’s interesting that you keep showing it over and over.

I’m over in Wilmington, N.C., and it’s pretty nice for mid-November. Today we toured the World War II battleship North Carolina, which is docked along the Cape Fear River. We were very fortunate to have a 80+ year old veteran crewman show us around. The guy probably knows as much about the ship as anyone alive, and you can’t beat good first-hand oral history. It was great.
I’ll likely hit the beach either tomorrow or Saturday. I haven’t seen the ocean in several years. It always makes me feel really small. Hey, there’s something to look forward to.

I’m away from Resonance world headquarters for the rest of the week, visiting relatives on the North Carolina coast. Interestingly, although I’ve lived in East Tennessee for over 20 years, I’ve never been further into the Tar Heel State than Asheville. So I’ll be seeing some new country.
I may or may not drop by here while I’m gone.
Until later.