Rick Santorum, The Second

From the woman who helped deliver Florida to President George W. Bush in 2000...

Rep. Katherine Harris gives a soundbite worthy interview.

It sort of sounds like a Vatican-approved message...

Party Like It's 2005

We're nearly halfway through 2006, but I've just heard Beck's Guero CD from 2005, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to get it!

I've been a Beck fan since "Loser," but this latest CD didn't catch my interest too much because of the CD prior.

The sound is more of a Spanish (hence the title) Odelay, but I spent last night and today listening to the white boy and remembered what attracted me to the man's music so many years ago.

It's a tad opposite of Tom Petty's latest, which seems uneven to me. Wildflowers was a much better solo project for the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Famer. He's still got it, but not like he used to.

I Hear English Again

I returned from Montreal, Canada, Monday night. The trip went well, minus the culmination of a crazy, stressed week at work that reared its ugly head as a major headache for the first two days in this French bastion in North America.

It ruined my first day, where we visited Old Montreal and the famed cathedral, L'Oratoire, which had a Spanish Communist feel about it.

The second day included a 4-hour bike ride along the canal, locks and park that shorten the route for pleasure boats along the St. Lawrence Seaway.

I had expected more of a cultural scene, but it turns out Montreal has more of a night life, and I'm not complaining.

I'm rushing this in as I head off to bed, so now to a few sites...

L'Oratoire, a cathedral with a dome to rival St. Peter's by Brunelleschi



Biosphere, thankfully minus Pauly Shore



Cubist condos, each cube is a separate room



The Saint Lawrence Seaway, seen from Lachine



Sitting where Fidel Castro sat, right beside Jimmy Carter, notably, and according to the tour guide of the Notre Dame

To the Airport, Again

Only a month after returning from Provincetown, Boston, it's off to Montreal - way too early Friday morning.

Right Path, Wrong Perspective?

I was awaken at 6 a.m. this morning by the ringing of my phone. I answered it, half asleep, only because I was expecting a completely different phone call for a completely different situation.

The person on the other line one was fondly referred to as "dad" or "father," but not so anymore. And the call went a long way to reinforcing the change in his title to "Jeff."

I wrote him a letter at the beginning of the new year to try and put him and I on the same page. It went on about his parenting skills, about who I am and what I'm doing, and it certainly didn't sit well with him. Which is fine. Like I said, same page only.

It was met with awkward conversation afterwards, one awkward face-to-face, along with his new wife and children, and pretty much silence, again.

Until today.

I'm going down the wrong path, in the wrong direction, he said. Destined to Hell. He wasn't happy that I'd turned away from my confirmation in the Baptist church - which I remember nothing about; I consider my confirmation in the Methodist church. He confused agnostic and atheist. He wants to know if I want him to come to Philly to take me away from it all.

He hasn't slept well in many nights after recently browsing through my blog and Web site.

If each year my situation, my success, my happiness, my friends, my outlook improves, how can this be wrong? I've not sold my soul to the devil. I'm able to overcome what problems come my way. The sun is shining brighter than it ever has, then how wrong can this be?

Do I attend church, pray, etc. etc.? No. But I have a different take on religion, and unlike him, I don't read every word in the Bible as literal, which he apparently does. Adam & Eve, flood and all.

So after many a good day, this man, this person who is supposed to be a shining beacon of hope, has ruined my day. It's 10:38 p.m. now, and I'm tired as hell because my sleep was interrupted by 20 minutes of debate about who I am. I was unmotivated at the gym because of being tired, and I wasn't quick in getting to work. I'm also tired here today, which in my job can lead to 17,000 copies of an error to be archived for as long as the Montgomery County Historical Society has a copy filed away on hold.

Thanks Jeffrey. Amen.

Sun, Sand Sites

The new tradition here seems to be the beach on Sunday. Provincetown seems to have awakened the beach bum in us, so after the three of us hit the beach 4 days while on Cape Cod, each Sunday since has taken us to Sandy Hook.

I have some color to myself now. Actually, a lot of color, and sun-bleached hair. My god, what's happening to me?

Did the clothing optional thing today, which I didn't do last week. Probably a good idea as the sites were an improvement on the Sunday prior.

It wasn't for that long, as lines are kind of sexy, so I'm keeping mine.

I can't wait to take a dip in the Mediterranean from a beach in Spain. Barcelona in just about a month!!

The Cingular sensation only good for itself

My bi-monthly column for The Times Herald, August 5

I had to figuratively wipe the slate clean for this week’s column.

Originally, I was expressing disdain for the 15 minutes of fame being doled out to only semi-entertaining Americans performing for “has been” entertainers.

I had filled out more than a page on my yellow writing tablet and started my first typed draft. This version made it the whole way to the newspaper office before I checked my other e-mail to find out the wonderful world of wireless was just dying to ruin my mostly comfortable air conditioned morning at home.

Either the heat will kill you or your electric bill will. I don’t know which I prefer, but I certainly could live without the humming of those things.

This past month, I took the leap afforded me by Washington, D.C., and left Cingular Wireless, with number in tow.

The exact date and time of freedom occurred during the daylight hours of July 16, 2006, while I was preparing for a day on the beaches of Cape Cod.

I had been sucked in to Cingular when it bought AT&T Wireless, my provider — happily — since 2000.

I have trouble remembering anything good about my time with Cingular, which is now the cause for a class action lawsuit.

Disgruntled customers, current and former, like myself, should visit www.consumerwatchdog.org/ and sign up for information regarding the suit and whether you’ll ever benefit from it.

I’ve been saying Cingular bought all of AT&T Wireless’ customers and left all the good aspects of the service to be longed for, while adding the bad things about AT&T Wireless to the bad in Cingular.

But I kept an uncharacteristically optimistic outlook on it all.

When I officially became a Cingular customer, the trouble began. I was forced into it because my uninsured AT&T Wireless phone was broken, and I couldn’t buy a new Cingular phone to work with my old AT&T Wireless account. Nor could an AT&T phone be gotten through any means by which I would ever buy such an item. I was directed to try eBay.

So I bought a new Cingular phone at full price only to be forced into a two-year contract, on top of the one I was already halfway through.

After much discussion with Cingular’s “customer service” representatives, I managed to get my contract adjusted to just one year, which ended — you guessed it — July 15, 2006.

But, Aug. 3, 2006, I’m told by Cingular I’ll be assessed a $150 early termination fee. Thanks for your six years of business, the company seems to be saying.

Thanks for bringing in two additional lines of service — for which I had to deal with all the changeover problems again because we were all on a family plan. A partner and a best friend, how’s that for family in the 21st century!

Thanks for the thousands of dollars in business!

I returned the thanks by taking my business to T-Mobile.

The lesson not to be learned is that, at some point, business doesn’t become successful because it’s good at what it does. It’s successful because it sells something everyone wants and what once were six successful choices are now four choices raking in millions in profits for just existing.

I sometimes wander through the land of conspiracy theory — it’s really quite pleasing from time to time — which exists solely because of exceedingly coincidental random events.

And one must wonder, with all the broken promises from many a behemoth merger requiring federal approval, what does the government get in return?

In the case of Cingular buying AT&T Wireless and then SBC — part owner in Cingular — buying the original AT&T, with thousands of jobs being axed in both mergers, what did the government get to allow this racket to be approved “for the benefit of the people”?

Ah, the secretive federal eavesdropping program comes to mind.

The next step? The new AT&T, quite successful, wants to buy Bell South, also successful, which will eliminate thousands of more jobs and continue to consolidate the wealth among fewer.

Don’t believe the hype … and remember the promises next time you foot the bill for a pad of pink slips.

Not incidently after this column was started, the one-and-a-half days of e-mail led Cingular to admit and correct their latest error.

How Ugly They Fall

I'm indulging in other people's low points. It's a sign of the times today...

Celebrity Mug Shots.

Enjoy!

Additional Proof that Sen. Rick Santorum is an Idiot

The Pennsylvania Republican seeking re-election this year has stooped to a new low.

How could he get any lower, one asks?

He's incorrectly linked his opponent, Democratic candidate Bob Casey Jr. to Al-Jazzeera. The problem, it's not the Arab news network, which Santorum's party has somehow linked to terrorist. The group for Bob Casey Jr. is Al-Jazzeerah, a U.S. group that aims to promote cultural understanding.

Santorum went as far as to talk about it the "The O'Reilly Factor" and refuses to apologize for the statement.

More here: On The Campaign Trail