July 25

Al Gore says he was coached or got help from Johnny Carson with jokes while he was vice President. Carson did help David Letterman with jokes, but I don't know about helping Al Gore. Maybe Carson helped him invent the Internet, too.

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Temperatures reached 100 here in Wisconsin yesterday. God invented air conditioning for a reason, I suppose, but people put up with heat before this. Have we all become so wimpy that we can't anymore? I know I don't want to think about sweating through the night, and having central air was sort of a status symbol to strive for and finally achieve. Maybe that's why people from the Middle-East are so pissed off at us. We have the air conditioning, and they have the dang desert air to contend with.

July 28

NASA has grounded the Space Shuttle indefinitely until they figure out why foam pieces keep coming off the rocket booster and risk damaging the shuttle. In the words to the head of the program, "We thought we had it fixed. We were wrong."

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I have tried to remain a big supporter of NASA. I applied to be that Teacher in Space when the Challenger shuttle exploded on take off. I don't know what the heck I was thinking, but it would have been a hoot to take the ultimate field trip.

Still, right now, NASA should have a station on the Moon. We should have landed on Mars already. Instead we're still operating a fancy truck service that now has had too many flats to be dependable. NASA, like the democratic party, has lost its way and its soul.

July 29

Senate Majority leader Bill Frist announced his candidacy for President today. There was no fanfare, no photo ops with his wife and family. He did it from the Senate Floor when he announced his support for expanded stem cell research. It was the first rift in the GOP conservative base. The strong religious pro-life right is adamantly opposed to the research and will look for other candidates to take up their cause in exchange for their support.

These kinds of rifts will occur more often as the Bush administration draws nears the end of its term. The Bush team is already a lame duck, and certainly the lame part.

As the GOP continues to implode, the Democrats have to find a way to hold together and not feed upon itself.

July 30

Maybe some people realize that Bush is a lame duck. Maybe some don't. Men and women remain in danger because of some of his lame decisions, though.