To Boldly Go
I understand the need for caution and safety, but for Pete's sake, when will the shuttle fleet be back in service? Hyperlink!

Happy Birthday!
Fifty-five years ago today, Mao Zedong told a massive crowd in Beijing that "China has stood up" after a century of imperial decline, Western predation, anarchic warlordism, and Japanese occupation. With those words, the People's Republic of China was founded. Today, China has the worlds largest population, at over 1,300,000,000*, and the world's third largest economy. The Chinese Communist Party jealously guards all political power, and, always mindful that political power flows from the barrel of a gun (Guster?), the absolute loyalty of the People's Liberation Army. happy birthday, you Red bastards, and here's to a bright (and one day democratic) future.

"Four three two one,
When at the barrel of a gun
Keep my head way down
Stay in I'll stay out.
Half dead half numb
She's enough to make me warm,
It's all so safe and sound."
--Guster, "Barrel of a Gun" from Lost and Gone Forever


*1,300,000,000 people. The equivalent of the entire population of the United States could die tomorrow and China would still have 1,000,000,000 people. ONE. BILLION. PEOPLE. Man, that's nuts.

Snapshot in Time
Guster, Keep It Together
Letters to Cleo, Go!
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Have a Ball
They Might Be Giants, Factory Showroom
MxPx, The Ever Passing Moment

On Thursday, Flogging Molly is going to rock the State Theatre in Detroit, and while there I'll pick up the new album Within a Mile of Home.

Cool!

H-A-N
Have a hit by an armored personnel carrier night.