Project MERCATOR
Whilst out and about last evening I had the first Guinness of the Fall, even though at home I'm still stocking Grolsch. Memorial Day and Labor Day provide bright, shiny lines for when to switch to and away from Red Stripe, but no such convenient demarcations exist for Guinness and Grolsch. Mayhap I should devise and impose some? I'll give the matter some thought and report back if I decide in the affirmative.

In any event, I'll credit the evening as a success on two counts: {a} I both enjoyed myself and, so far as I could tell, proved good company to others, thus satisfying two objectives of MERCATOR: successfully fighting my antisocial nature and putting myself in position to engender further invitations. {b} I discovered that it can be quite fun to socialize with my professors. And, truth be told, though the main object of both Friday's and yesterday's outings was to ingratiate myself to my fellow students, the more interesting conversation was to be found at the professors' end of the pushed together tables around which the eleven of us were gathered. It must also be said that I don't want to sleep with any of my professors; so, I kept an ear on the conversation at the students' end of the tables and piped in whenever it seemed to my advantage.

The Dark Bastard would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that girls only like me when they think of me as a friend-cum-eunuch, amusing and asexual. Not for nothing do I call him a bastard.

Operation AXIOM
Project MERCATOR does have its price, it must be noted. Not only does Operation ÖSTERREICH suffer, but so too does Operation AXIOM. Yesterday was Columbus Day, the five hundred seventeenth anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first landing in the New World, and I did naught to mark the occasion without which almost everything that I love would be impossible. Had the New World not been discovered when and by whom it was, there is no telling what effect that might have had upon history. Where would the world be without the beacon of the United States? Where would Holy Mother Church be without the vast populace of the continental Americas from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn? The world would be unrecognizable without the Admiral of the Ocean Sea's voyages of discovery, and it was perilously near to unforgivable of me to allow the anniversary to pass unremarked upon. Columbus Day, everyone, let's have a round of cheers.

Hip hip! Hurray!
Hip hip! Hurray!
Hip hip! Hurray!

Obamboozled
It's true, there was no quid pro quo between Presidents Obama and Medvedev over missile defense and Iran. That would imply, and quite wrongly, that the United States gave something up in order to get something from the Russian Federation. With friends like theselink. Instead, President Obama gave the Russians exactly what they wanted and they've given us less than nothing in return. Yep, no quid pro quo in sight.

When the Islamic Republic of Iran has a nuclear arsenal and uses it to destroy the State of Israel, I request each and every one of you who voted for President Obama to pause for a few moments to reflect upon the fact that you voted to stand by idly, to allow Iran to wipe Israel off the map in an atomic holocaust. You will no doubt insist that you didn't want that to happen, but the fact will remain that you voted for that very tragedy to come to pass, and I hope that knowledge will haunt you the rest of your days. Until then, I hope you're enjoying the parade of horrors.

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Less Than Jake, "Just Like Frank" from Losing Streak (T.L.A.M.)

Montag, 12 Oktober
Smash Mouth, "Beer Goggles" from Fush Yu Mang (T.L.A.M.)