Is there some worldwide shortage of hard drives that I am unaware of? Because it seems baffling to me that Apple cannot manage to get a hard disk for a 17″ Powerbook before May 16th. Yet, that is the date they are quoting me so I must be missing something.

Yeah, I was just thinking about refurbishing my PC and selling the Powerbook. Now I am no longer just thinking about it.

So this has been a rather interesting week. What should have been several days of blissful enjoyment of my brand new vehicle were filled with snot (the result of a severe head-cold), vomit, and a broken hard drive.

The hard drive went out Saturday and the repair is “on hold” pending a part. The snot stopped Monday and I started feeling better so brassguy and I went out for a meal, which is where the food poisoning stomach virus comes in. That all subsided yesterday and I am finally feeling like me again.

By the way - that new Applebee’s Steak and Shrimp Parmesan special they have right now? I’d stay as far away from that as possible. Well, it is down-right delicious!

Needless to say, I am way behind at work having been out days so don’t expect much in the way of blogging the rest of the week. In fact, let’s be honest, there ain’t gonna be much blogging at all for the next week because my schedule is about to get a little crazy.

First, my parents are coming back into town next Wednesday to drive my Jeep Wrangler (my Dad bought it off me) back to Texas. We are all then heading up to brassguy’s parents’ house to celebrate my birthday (NOTE: gay Republican parents of gay Republican son spend gay Republican son’s birthday with gay Republican son’s partner’s Republican parents - make a liberal say that 5 times fast). Afterward, I am coming home on Friday to a job interview that afternoon. And somewhere in there I have to pick up my Powerbook, if Apple actually manages to get it fixed in a reasonable amount of time. So, posting is going to be sporadic at best.

So, there you have it. Grossed out and suffering from TMI Syndrome, you have been filled with enough useless information to hold you over until things calm down again. Don’t you feel loved?

**UPDATE** 5:47 PM

Well, as you can see from the edits above, we now have a new diagnosis since brassguy did not have the shrimp and he is throwing up his guts now. Looks like a stomach virus with a bad sense of timing.

What a relief. I just could not fathom a law conceived of nothing more than pure ignorance becoming law in Texas.

HOUSTON — Leading Republicans in Texas are distancing themselves from a proposal to make the state the only one to prohibit gays and lesbians from being foster parents. It appears the plan will die without becoming law.

The Texas House approved the plan last week, despite concerns that as many as 3,000 children could be removed from their homes. But amid a groundswell of anger and criticism, conservatives backed away from the proposal Friday. GOP leaders, including Gov. Rick Perry, said the proposal is so flawed it could endanger a broader initiative to overhaul the Texas Child Protective Services agency.

[...]

Among Republican lawmakers, Perry’s response was seen as a message to back off. And a key state senator leading the reform effort said Friday that she plans to “resist” the amendment containing the ban on gay foster parents. Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, said that because a similar plan was declared unconstitutional in Arkansas, she feared that the Child Protective Services overhaul would be stalled by legal challenges.

Every now and then common sense prevails over ignorance; just not often enough.

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days but I have been sick AND my Powerbook hard drive crashed Saturday morning. I hope to be back up and back to regular blogging later in the week.

Now this is just stupid.

The Texas House of Representatives passed a bill banning homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals from being foster parents.

If the bill gains approval from the Texas Senate, the state will be allowed to investigate the backgrounds of current foster parents and remove children living in non-heterosexual households.

All future foster parents will be required to disclose their sexual preference on an application form, a legislative aide said.

When a loving couple, regardless of sexual orientation, open their homes to provide for children that would otherwise be wards of the state, that couple is doing both the state and the children a service. You cannot convince me that it is better for these children to be wards of the state than it is to be in a loving home with people that have been vetted using the same process as heterosexual couples.

“In an already over-burdened foster care system, the effect of reducing the pool of foster parents does nothing to protect Texas children,” it added.

Obviously a gay witch hunt is more important than the welfare of children.

As if banning gays from being future foster parents wasn’t enough, the idea of investigating existing foster parents, simply to ferret out the gay ones for no other reason is repugnant. I can only hope the Senate in my home state is wise enough to vote this down. I cannot believe this to be the will of the people of Texas.

The Democrats don’t appear to like John Bolton.

WASHINGTON - The White House accused Senate Democrats on Wednesday of trumping up “unsubstantiated accusations” against John Bolton in a bid to derail his nomination to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

In a setback to President Bush, Republicans on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday were forced to delay a vote on the nomination to examine new allegations against Bolton of abusive conduct.

“I think what you have are Democratic members of the committee who continue to bring up unsubstantiated accusations. These allegations are unfounded,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Well, I don’t know if they are unsubstantiated or not, but I think the ultimate end-game of the Democrats is fairly obvious.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada has said Democrats were considering filibustering the nomination, which would require a 60-vote majority nearly impossible to attain in the divided chamber.

Gee, I would never have guessed. One thing is certain - if they can’t stop Bolton, the far-left will absolutely lose their minds. All the more reason to hope that John Bolton becomes US Ambassador to Dysfunction Juntion…er…I mean the UN.

**UPDATE** 2:26 PM

Why we need John Bolton.

You gotta love this guy.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the nation’s policy on preventing illegal immigration is too lax, telling a group of newspaper publishers the United States needs to “close the borders.”

Schwarzenegger said, “This is a very important debate. I think it’s necessary that we solve the problems rather than try to run the other way.”

“Close the borders in California and all across Mexico and in the United States,” Schwarzenegger said Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Newspaper Association of America. “Because I think it is just unfair to have all those people coming across, have the borders open the way it is, and have this kind of lax situation.”

The Republican governor also suggested exploring several policy proposals aimed at addressing the immigration crisis, including President Bush’s proposed guest worker program and legislation sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to pave the way for undocumented workers already living in the United States to attain legal status.

“This is a very important debate. I think it’s necessary that we solve the problems rather than try to run the other way. It’s a hot issue,” Schwarzenegger said.

And the typical California Democrat response?

In a statement, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said Schwarzenegger’s comments reflected badly on the state’s “productive” relationship with Mexico.

“The Governor should ratchet down his rhetoric and retreat from this narrow-minded approach to immigration policy,” Nunez said. “Closing our borders to commerce and culture is an idea that comes from political extremists, not rational policy-makers.”

Productive relationship? Are you kidding me? I don’t call the Mexican government encouraging illegal aliens to come into this country productive, I consider it criminal.

It does appear though that Arnold has backtracked a bit on the use of the word “close.” I don’t have a link to a source, but a news spot on the radio this morning said a spokesman released a statement explaining that the Governor meant to say “secure” not “close.” I’d say closing it is the best way to secure it, but that’s just me.

Rob @ Say Anything has kindly invited myself along with several other folks to guest blog for him while he is out of town on business today and tomorrow. I will be cross-posting some entires but will mostly be blogging there until Thursday night. Drop by and say hi!

After watching the news tonight, I realize just how many of those images of Oklahoma City I had blocked from my mind. Never forget.

Leave your caption contest entries in the comments! The winner gets a $25 dollar Amazon gift certificate or a $25 dollar PayPal “donation,” winner’s choice. The winner will be announced tomorrow Sunday Tuesday.

**UPDATE** 7:23 AM 4/19/2005

And the winner is…everyone! They were all funny and I just don’t have the heart to only have one winner so everyone that made an entry gets their choice of a $25 Amazon GC or PayPal donation. Send me an email letting me know which you would prefer. If you choose the Amazon GC, also send me your full name and email address; for PayPal, the link for the donation.