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Oy. I can feel myself getting a little anxious again, with the July 4th threat focus and ongoing economic doldrums. (The economy...how bad can it get? Hopefully not as bad as all that.) I'll probably have a bit less of an immediate, personal stake tied up in how both of those things turn out than I imagine, but I can feel my free floating anxiety/neuroses trying to latch on.

Bush isn't helping. He had his moment, the world's eyes were on him, and he just shoves Arafat into that big old "leaders the USA (currently) finds unacceptable" bin. We're acting like such wannabe Caesers, thinking we can appoint the govenors of the little regions beneath us. Jeez-o-man, we got gall. He gets points for point to a future for a nation of Palestine, but...man. Why the hell is the world looking to us anyway? Where is Europe in all this? For crying out loud, we got a not-too-bright oilman who didn't even win the popular vote at the helm...look elsewhere people! We'll try to distract him with some drilling in Alaska, you go lead the world!

Sometimes I want to change my name and ditch that whole "Israel" thing. I just want to avoid that karmic link. Roihl is a pretty cool name. Uncommon, too, I'd be one of like 5 or 6 in the country. kroihl.com. Hrrm.

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Link of the Moment
Salon had a cool piece in praise of Pac-Man. I always thought that the overall look and sound of that game have held up really well over the years, not to mention the gameplay (I think the secret is the surprisingly complex behavior of the ghosts). The image to the left is a tiling Pac-Man wallpaper I made at tilemachine, one of a series of classic-game-themed graphics...you can right click and set it as your wallpaper if you're feeling masochistic.

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Quote of the Moment

The Vatican came down with a new ruling: no surrogate mothers. Good thing they didn't make this rule before Jesus was born.