Speaking of Neal Boortz, he links to an article about a really, really stupid anti-gun law.
The always-interesting Mark Steyn comments about Britain's National Health System and its dependence on foreign doctors.
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Some week.
Hugo Chavez has begun to re-write the Constitution of Venezuela, ensuring that his title as "President" really means "dictator for life, just like my hero, Fidel Castro".
The big news in the Philippines was related to the capsizing of a ferry. It didn't make the news here, that I can tell, because there was little or no loss of life involved.
There is an Islamist revolutionary group in the Philippines with--I am not making this up--the acronymical title of MILF. I don't recall what the letters stand for, and a Google search turns up a bunch of porn sites. (I didn't even bother to try it. If you don't believe me, go ahead and Google "MILF" and see what you get. But don't do it at work [or where kids can see] because I can guaran-god-damn-tee you that it'll be a firing offense.) My knowledge of radical politics says the title must be Militant Islamic Liberation Front, but don't quote me.
I learned of this because MILF had ambushed and killed 14 Philippine Marines; it was all over the news. Predictably, MILF blamed the Marines for the atrocity. "We tortured you and cut off your heads, but it's all your fault."
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Democrats trying to set a timetable for
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I have an enormous amount of anime to watch. I finished a buttload of downloads before I went to the Philippines but I haven't watched much of anything since June. That's going to change, but not right now.
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The suitcase which American Airlines lost contains, among other things, the passport-style photographs of my fiancee which I needed to file the application for her visa. So I have to wait until she sends me new pictures (or until AA finds my suitcase and ships it to me) in order to file the paperwork. Obviously I want to get her here as quickly as possible since I started missing her the moment our last hug was over, but the visa will take months even in the best-case scenario.
It also has my Fiero Project brag book, the colored layouts of American Dawn, and a copy of my novel Sparks of the Tempest. To say nothing of the souvenirs, a nice picture with frame that my fiancee's aunt gave me, a nice tee shirt (same source), several books including volumes 1-5 of the excellent manga series I"s, and a bunch of dirty clothes which I like, including my favorite shirt and pair of sandals. Arggh.
A tracking device which uses a cell phone and GPS receiver would be a good thing to have in your luggage, I think. Make it not-too-expensive; you could trigger it by sending an SMS text message and it would then text you with its GPS coordinates. That would be really useful and really cool, and manufactured in bulk it shouldn't cost too much. Of course, the airlines, the FCC, and the FAA would never allow it.
On an unrelated note, I was also thinking about making a Faraday cage for electronic devices so you could use them at any time during a flight. I thought of calling it the "podCage"; it would envelop an iPod with a conductive casing that would prevent the leakage of any RFI, allowing a single port to admit a headphone cord. It would be flexible and allow one to see the display and manipulate the controls. But it could work for other devices as well, not just iPods, and could even be used with digital cameras.
Of course, putting a cell phone in a Faraday cage defeats the purpose of having a cell phone in the first place.
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I managed to draw a few more pages of Megumi's Diary while on my trip, but unfortunately not as many as I'd hoped to get done.
I did manage to read several novels, including the rest of the extant "Dresden Files" books, except for the latest one, White Knight, which is only available in hardcover.
My fiancee is addicted to I"s, too. Heh.