I was surfing the Web, as I often do, and I checked into io9 (a daily must for me). It is a science-fiction (sci-fi) site that can be hit or miss, but when it is a hit boy is it a home run. Well they recently had a little roundup of their favorite opening lines from sci-fi novels. Two opening lines I liked include:

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." — William Gibson, Neuromancer.

"Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own." — Dan Brown, Angels & Demons.

Most of the others books listed I had not heard of, much less read (and I read a lot). So I thought to myself, what are my favorite opening lines to a novel?

Below the fold are a few of my favorite, why not add a few you enjoy!

From Jake Tapper's blog, Political Punch:

After attending a banquet at King Abdullah's Beit Al Urdan palace Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, hitched a ride—literally—to the Amman airport with the King.

Abdullah drove himself—with Obama riding shotgun—from the palace to the airport in a silver Mercedes 600 series with blacked out windows.

The King—in the driver's seat—raced onto the tarmac and came to an abrupt halt, stopping on a dinar, just a few feet away from one of Senator Obama's pre-positioned secret service agents.

The Senator and the King got out of the car, spoke on the tarmac for a few minutes and then shook hands. Obama then boarded his plane, without the King, to fly to Tel Aviv.

A few thoughts and comments below the fold ....

I had not seen this posted, and it is interesting to say the least. John McCain was in St. Louis Wednesday and I am happy to say not all reporters are enamored with John McCain's press operation.

Now sit down, cause the local St. Louis Fox affiliate posted this video (under the fold) of the awkward, testy exchange between a McCain's senior press aides--Brooke Buchanan, the national press secretary, and Nicolle Wallace, the former White House communications director.

In a nutshell the media outlets were told that McCain could only be shot from the left side, not to show his scare from cancer surgery and there had to be some sort of "patriotic" image in the background. Well, they didn't like being micro managed like this.

"I think there was an attempt by somebody in your staff to take a look at the shot, and I have never, ever had anybody at any organization ..."

"Really? You've never done anything at the White House? I was at the White House for seven years and we looked at every shot," the McCain staffer pushed back. "Not at our shots," while his colleague asked Wallace, "Which White House?" She refused to answer, saying it didn't matter. He replied, "Oh yes it does!"

to a wall!

Now I am not perfect, five years ago I got a DUI. I was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. And then wrong some more! I did everything the court asked and then some. Cost me, as it should have, thousands and thousands of dollars.

Thought it was behind me.

I was going to see Batman tonight and got pulled over. 67 in a 55. Mind you pulled over by a police officer in my little town. It went down hill from there.
 

I'm a fan of Digg. I was reading through the top ranked stories the other day and came across a January 17, 2001 story from the Onion, the title being Bush: "Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over".

Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."

President-elect Bush vows that "together, we can put the triumphs of the recent past behind us."

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

You would think those are just "general" things from the Onion, a site based on satire and humor. Well normally I laugh when reading the Onion, not this time.

To me there are three things we all should do everyday. Number one is laugh. You should laugh everyday. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three you should have your emotions moved to tears.

[....]

Just think about it. If you laugh and if you think and if you cry that is a full day. That is a heck of a day. Do that seven days a week and you'll have something special.

As a huge, I mean a huge sports fan I can't believe I had never heard this quote from Jim Valvano's 1993 ESPY Speech. Can't believe it. He'd died of cancer, which he knew he had, two months later.

Towards the end they wanted to move him off the stage, you know time stuff. He says:

And that screen up there is flashing :30 seconds. Like I care about that screen right now. I have tumors all over my body and I am worried about some guy in back going :30 seconds.

Often, and I am to fault, the bad is highlighted here 24/7. There is good in this world no matter how bad it seems.

In the past couple weeks there has been a lot said here about the Olympics. Bush should do this he shouldn't do this.

Not much of a fan of George W but this is one place he is right.

In another time in my life I played a few sports on a national level. Heck, for most of my life I thought I'd play at least one of those sports for a living. Short of winning a Noble Prize for peace there is nothing, I mean nothing I'd rather do then represent the United States in the Olympics.

I personally can't think if anything cooler then walking into an Olympic stadium, holding the American flag high, and leading our delegation of athletes.

I've been wanting to write this up for a long time. Before there was a place like this there was nowhere I could offer up something as tribute to a family member.

My grandfather died 18 years ago yesterday. He was kind of a "great" man. At 15 he got accepted to the University of Illinois. My great grand mother moved with him to Champaign cause he was so young. By 20 he had graduated with his medical degree.

He did his internship at Barnes in St. Louis. After he was done he literally in one day moved home, got married, bought the office he'd practice out of for 50 years, and joined the military to fight the Germans.  

Then life got interesting ......

I try to be logical and utilize critical thinking at all costs, even if it goes against my party or my previously held beliefs. I find time to think and reflect helps in this process. I've been away from my computer and almost all news of any kind for about six days, therefore I had time to think about these statements by Maliki I heard while on vacation:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki raised the prospect on Monday of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops as part of negotiations over a new security agreement with Washington.

As I've tried to catch up on the news today I've read time and time again that Maliki doesn't really mean this, he is just being a politician. I tend to agree. But the problem is it is at this point that the Republicans stop their use of critical thinking and analysis.

Below the orange fold I highlight the simple, yet huge mistake they are making.

I won't see him until this weekend, when we head to "Corn Day" but doing a little jig for the man. Thought I might just write down a few thoughts. Oh, and yes, I live in a place where we have "Corn Day."

He went to college when he was 15. So young my great grandmother moved with him to Urbana (that would be the University of Illinois). He got his medical degree when he was 20.

The next year when he got done with his internship at Barnes in St. Louis he moved home, married my grandmother, bought the place he'd have his practice at for 50 years, and joined the military in literally a day.

That must have been one heck of a day.

I know this is talked about all the time as it relates to climate change, the war in Iraq, you name it. I want to come at it from a different angle.

Over the course of the last year or so I have become 110% addicted to BBC America. One of the best shows is Top Gear. Think three guys getting to drive the world's fastest and most expensive cars and then talking about them.

But in a few shows the three hosts are given a small sum of money to buy a junker and then complete nearly impossible tasks.

They came to the US for the first time. They started in Miami and had only $1,000 to buy a used car and drive to New Orleans. When they got to New Orleans it got interesting, and I don't mean in a good way.

This will be short, but I kept thinking somebody else would post a thread on their rally and alas it didn't happen. I got more than a little upset at Bill and Hillary during the primary (as many of us did). But I was very impressed with what she just had to say. Powerful, funny at times, respectful. If Obama keeps doing what he is doing and Hillary does as well the can of whoop ass McCain is going to get will be fun to watch.

So if you are watching Obama now start speaking what do you think?

This is emotional, so give me a little break.

I've written about Katrina here. I've bitched about the lack of coverage. Heck I've yelled about it. Now where I live is literally drowning. I don't mean from a "kind of you know like it is wet," I mean literally!

Time and time again here we talk 24/7 about who will be Obama's VP. What does McCain's medical records show? Did Hillary blow her nose on a napkin with a US flag on it (I made that one up).

I will with this first picture and an few more below (all Cedar Rapids, Iowa), hopefully let you know some bad stuff is ongoing and we could use some attention.

It would seem FISA is kind of back on our radar screen again. Much of the debate here stuns me, and not much of it positive. The biggest thing is I sense we are debating something technical, and something that most don't understand. So I want to repost what I wrote several months ago. This is why you should be pissed, cause what our government is doing is pretty darn staggering.

I wanted to take a couple minutes and attempt to add something to the FISA debate. People like Glenn Greenwald and front-pager mcjoan have done a stellar job of pulling back the multiple layers of the onion as it relates to the FISA debate and telecom immunity. They get at the core of the issues better then anybody around. A great service that the MSM can't seem to do themselves.

But I still find something lacking in their coverage, which is an actual analysis of what we know the government is doing from a technology point-of-view.

I love my cats. Oh I love them. I am pretty sure I might have lost a few dates in my life when I tell ladies I have four of them. I can even recall a date I had, things were going well enough until we got back to my house. My elder statesmen came up to sniff her leg and she kind of kicked him across the hardwood floor and into a wall.

"I am allergic she said."

"You ever do that again I might punch you in the face," was my response, only half joking. We didn't have another date.

I just know there has to be some golf fans here that need a break from talking politics.

Watching the final round of the Open with my father created some of my fondest memories. Only really secondary to the hundreds of rounds of golf we played over the years. He was over Thursday and Friday helping me around the house and sitting on the couch with him watching the first couple rounds brought back a lot of memories.

Lets talk golf below the fold ....

I first heard of Jill Bolte Taylor, a Neuroanatomist, earlier this year after a presentation she gave at TED. TED is an invite only conference that is hard to explain. But lets just say people from all over the world are doing some of the most amazing shit you can imagine in dozens of different disciplines, and many are brought here to speak.

During her presentation, which literally brought down the house she said at one point:

And in that moment my right arm went totally paralyzed by my side. And I realized, "Oh my gosh! I’m having a stroke! I’m having a stroke!" And the next thing my brain says to me is, "Wow! This is so cool. This is so cool. How many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out?"

And the story is just getting started at this point. In four hours she'd forget how to talk, walk, eat, even who she was. It took eight years to recover ..... this is her story.

I did something I am not proud of, I took in another cat the other day. She would make the fifth. I feel like I might shortly become that "guy with all the cats." You know the one the kids in the neighborhood are scared of. I'd offer up a pic, my other cats have kind of welcomed her, but she isn't much for publicity.