I've been wanting to get a USB keychain thing for a while, but never could really justify the expense, nor would I really want to carry it around on my keychain since I already have enough crap on there. But this would definitely justify a spot on the keychain. I don't have any knife or scissors on my keychain and it would be a great fit, especially with 128 MB right there too. At first, I shrugged off the idea, but as I've thought about it, I can't get over how cool this is. Not for the hardcore backpacker, this would just be a nice addition to any geek's keychain.

URL: The Register

Also, it was nice to see Kerry call Republicans "crooked liars." That's a great way to get them to vote for you. Kudos.

Apparently, Democrats are up in arms over Bush's latest ad - the first attack ad from the Republicans in this political war. They are claiming that Bush has nothing to stand on, so he's unleashing the attack ads, whereas, we all know that the Democrats never attacked Bush in the debates, speeches, and commercials during the primaries. But basically, just a few things about the ad itself.

The new ad, which will begin airing on Friday in 18 battleground states, alleges that Kerry would "raise taxes by at least $900 billion" in his first 100 days in office to pay for his health care plan.

Kerry, et al. have already denied that they plan to raise taxes by that much, rather, they'll just raise taxes for the richest to pay for new plans. But Kerry has stated that he will unveil a $900 billion health care plan AND he doesn't plan to increase the deficit. So if you're going to have $900 billion in new spending and no more deficit spending, where will the money come from? You can't get $900 billion from corporations and people in higher tax brackets - you'll have to tax everyone again.

In addition to raising taxes, the narrator warns that Kerry would weaken the Patriot Act and would "delay defending America until the United Nations approved."

A couple things here. While they claim he'll weaken the Patriot Act, we all know Kerry will just spin it as "improving" the act - which, I'm actually for. I think that the government should have the authority to arrest those they believe to be terrorists, but I also think that the Patriot Act may have gone too far. As for the "delay defending America," I completely agree with the ad. We cannot sit idly by as we wait for the UN to give the go-ahead. We cannot let terrorists continue to use foreign lands such as Iraq and Afghanistan as we wait for some procedural mumbo-jumbo to pass through the UN. We must strike first to preserve our democracy - else we end up with another 9/11 or a 3/11 as was witnessed in Spain earlier today. Kerry responded with:

"What's most interesting about this new ad is what's not in it. This president can't talk about his positive vision for America, because at each turn he has put this nation on the wrong track," Kerry said in a statement.

Of course, as all economists know and even those who don't have a degree or higher education, but you can't immediately turn an economy around. There's cycles - peaks and troughs. And it takes time to go from a trough to a peak. With recent economic data, it appears that we're finally rising out of a trough and I fear that if we were to change administrations, we'd be immediately changing directions and with increased taxes and increased spending, everything would be flipped upside down. It's just not a good idea, and even though I don't agree with everything Bush has done, on a purely economical stance, he's done a good job getting the economy turned around after 9/11 and the mess Clinton left behind.

URL: Politics News Article | Reuters.com

If you're a sports fan, you've no doubt seen Bertuzzi's blind-sided hit on Steve Moore in a Canucks/Avalanche game earlier this week. Today, Steve Bertuzzi publicly apologized and said he was sorry for what happened. But if you'll listen closely, as pointed out on ESPN Radio's Gamenight, he never fully takes responsibility. He twice says that he is sorry for "what transpired out there" and "what happened on the ice." It's as if what transpired wasn't his fault - like it was some sort of accidental hit that just turned out wrong. Why not say "I'm sorry for what I did?" Take responsibility for your actions. Acknowledge it was your fault and not some freak accident. I have no doubt that he is truly sorry for what happened, but more and more, we see people refusing to apologize, and if they do, they don't take full responsibility for what went on. A sad trend that hopefully is reversed, but most likely won't be.

URL: ESPN.com - NHL - His fate in NHL's hands, Bertuzzi apologizes

Quick wrap-up of what I heard on the radio today. John Kerry is taking a very anti-outsourcing stance to make it seem like he really cares about the American workers and he'll keep jobs here in the U.S. But the most accurate numbers we have show that about 200,000 jobs - most in the high tech sector - have been outsourced, mainly to India. Yes - that's a whole 200,000 jobs out of an American workforce of 130,000,000 - or about 15 hundreths of 1 percent. And then, on top of that, you have Clinton's labor secretary stating that if we are going to crack down on the outsourcing of a very small number of jobs to India, what happens when Honda closes their plant here in the United States? What happens when Sony leaves the U.S.? Toyota? Samsung? See where I'm going? Kerry is taking this absurd stance, but the liberal media refuses to call him on it - and we know it's too early for Bush to start the negative ads. We'll see if the general public can see through the hypocrisy.

Three nights ago, I had to turn my space heater on because it was so cold at night here in San Diego and then yesterday, out of nowhere, we get the hottest day of the year with the high in the low 80's and I had to have my fan running all day and some of the night. I love living here in San Diego, but it would be nice if the weather were more consistent. Though complaining about low 80's and mid 70's weather is kind of a moot point - I'm sure there's countless people who would just like to have 50 degree weather at this time.