Who knew? Now I'll never watch "The Fireman's Ball" again without thinking of Steve Martin and Dan Ackroyd. Well, maybe just Steve Martin, as Dan Ackroyddoesn't seem to be doing anything particularly funny of late. Looks like "Sergeant Bilko" was the end of his career in comedy.  ¶ 22:35

  More gloom from Germany, illustrating once again that you should be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.  ¶ 06:08

  It just takes the breath away:

"I must tell you that I do not support the Visa Waiver Program at all."

OK, I can understand that position. It's a security vulnerability, right?

No.

"'I think it's discriminatory,' said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. 'I think it was brought out here today that you have no Caribbean countries, you have no African countries in this program. And so I don't know what the criteria are. I don't know how you rate all of the other countries.'"

Of course it's discriminatory, and the terms by which it discriminates were set out by Congress in section 217(c)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act:

"(2) QUALIFICATIONS.-Except as provided in subsection (g)(4), a country may not be designated as a pilot program country unless the following requirements are met:
(A) LOW NONIMMIGRANT VISA REFUSAL RATE FOR PREVIOUS 2-YEAR PERIOD.-The average number of refusals of nonimmigrant visitor visas for nationals of that country during the two previous full fiscal years was less than 2.0 percent of the total number of nonimmigrant visitor visas for nationals of that country which were granted or refused during those years.
(B) LOW NONIMMIGRANT VISA REFUSAL RATE FOR EACH OF 2 PREVIOUS YEARS.-The average number of refusals of nonimmigrant visitor visas for nationals of that country during either of such two previous full fiscal years was less than 2.5 percent of the total number of nonimmigrant visitor visas for nationals of that country which were granted or refused during that year.
(C) MACHINE READABLE PASSPORT PROGRAM.-The government of the country certifies that it has or is in the process of developing a program to issue machine-readable passports to its citizens.
(D) LAW ENFORCEMENT INTERESTS.-The Attorney General determines that the United States law enforcement interests would not be compromised by the designation of the country."


Now that doesn't seem so unreasonable, does it?   ¶ 05:58

  And they say romance is dead.  ¶ 08:10

  There's a feeling of unease inside the Beltway, a sense of impending doom almost upon us. I refer of course to the ominously-named "Brood X" of cicadas that are due to infest the area within the next few weeks. The very idea of hordes of insects covering every surface and buzzing at 90 decibels is pretty nasty. Some people are looking forward to the event as one of nature's oddities. Others aren't exactly enthralled by the thought of such an overwhelming number of bugs.

But it's important to keep things in perspective. It could be a lot worse.  ¶ 21:26

  For the record, he said it at least three times that I counted, but I didn't get that Carveyesque vibe after all. Maybe it's because he didn't do the hand movements with it.   ¶ 21:42

  Just when I was beginning to feel irresponsible, something else comes along to remind me why I generally ignore the news now. Unless the Post has discovered the secrets of time travel, it's just flat out wrong to write an article about something that hasn't happened yet in the past tense. Yes, I know they've got to get tomorrow's papers to print tonight, but part of me is really hoping the President puts something dramatic and completely unexpected in his speech this evening. "Dewey Defeats Truman" anyone?

I used to be a news junkie, but then burnt out on it. After September 11th, though, the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on until I went to bed, like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. But after about a year I stopped, because I just couldn't take the relentless negativity any more. It's not so much a matter of bias so much as the complete lack of perspective. Trying to find out what's happening in the world from a TV newscast is like trying to read a novel through a microscope. Sure, you'll see all sorts of details, but they don't add up to a coherent whole.

Uh oh, it's starting.   ¶ 20:31

  If the President mentions the words "stay the course" in his speech tonight, I'm going to have flashbacks of Dana Carvey's impressions of the President's father.  ¶ 20:12

  The Easter Vigil Mass at the Cathedral is always something to behold, both solemn and joyful. The light of candles dispels the darkness, and 1200 candles lit from a single flame makes for rather a lot of light. There were a lot of people baptized and confirmed into the Church as well, so that it sounded like most of the existing saints were named at some point during the Mass. And it is a small world after all, or maybe just a small city, since there was a familiar name during all of it. But luckily they didn't sing that song, but the choir closed with my favorite Easter hymn. It sounds great when the choir does it, although somehow I always get the notes in the "Alleiuas" confused with the "Tra-la-la-la-las" in "Deck the Halls". Some things are best left to the professionals.   ¶ 21:28

  "It’s Warholian: in the future, all conflicts will be Vietnam for 15 minutes."

Or maybe all conflicts longer than 15 minutes will be Vietnam?
  ¶ 08:22