No. Not Yet.

Look, I promise I'll finish it tonight. I did read an entire chapter last night. Honest to Godric Gryffindor!

Here's what I think is happening. I go to bed and read a chapter. Then I fall asleep. Sometime, in the middle of the night, Jo Rowling (that enchantress), sneaks into my bedroom and whisks my copy of HP&TDH away to a secret bindery, not far away. There they carefully break the binding on my book, install another sheath of papers representing another 3-4 chapters, rebind it and she sneaks it back under my bed, just seconds before the alarm goes off.

It's obviously a plot to make me look like I'm a slow reader, which I'm not. What were we talking about?

Oh, yes, they convicted Padilla of something, probably of thinking or saying evil things about Vice President Darth Voldemort or President Fake Southern Drunken Fratboy Who's Really a Spoiled-Rotten Ivy-League New England Preppie and Guard Deserting Drunken Fratboy -- and don't laugh, we're all next!

And I have one question. A half a trillion dollars, over 3,000 American military casualties and 4 years of war in two foreign nations have gotten us exactly what?

WHERE IS OSAMA MR. PRESIDENT?

Here's what I think. Every night we get close to ending the war. Then Fratboy falls asleep, and that bitch, the Veep, sneaks into his room and adds another six months of war to his presidency.

I can totally relate. I'll never finish the book. And you can

BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR THAT GEORGE W. BUSH WILL NEVER FINISH THE WAR IN IRAQ.

Note to the NSA data miners. This concludes our broadcast for today. We hope you have enjoyed our program and will join us again tomorrow. Have a pleasant evening everyone.

Baby Steps and The Big Picture

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I polished off some more of HP&TDH last night... and I'm still not finished. Most of the chapter I read involved Harry peering into something called the "Pensieve" and seeing a lifetime of someone's recollections in there (I won't tell you who but let's put it this way... somebody else died last night).

So a lot more was revealed and much of it clarifies a lot of other stuff and it's the kind of stuff that makes kids feel like shit when they find out there ain't no Sanity Clause or Ether Bunny.

And then I fell asleep.

So I'm kinda hoping to finish it off tonight (yeah, yeah, you've heard all this before).

It won't be giving away much to say that Harry is finding out "stuff" and that stuff is all part of seeing "The Big Picture." He's lost his innocence and is beginning to see life in shades of gray. Few, indeed, were those who were pure as snow or as black as night in his make-believe world. Sometimes things had to happen for the greater good, and it was a tough call, sometimes, to decide who lived and who died in the process.

The progression in the books was logical. They've gone from naivete to cynicism.

It happens to all of us. It happened to me (and far later in life than the Merry Band of Hogwartians experienced it).

This year, for example, I've had to face some hard realities about my so-called friends in public office. In order to get elected candidates on both sides of the aisle feel as though they have to kiss fundamental ass, left and right. It's tough being a centrist in a divided nation.

It's tougher being a dove in a nation of chicken-hawks, most of whom never had a gun pointing back at them when they were out hunting, or had a "Bear" (Tupelov) circling overhead while serving on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean during the heighth of the Cold War.

We are not a nation "at" war. We are a nation which needs war. We need it to feed and justify the existence of our humongous defense establishment. The Super Secret Spy programs exist solely for the purpose of justifying their own existence. Hence "data mining" or looking at billions of phone calls and e-mails (and probably blogs like this one) looking for any hint of subversive tendencies (they'll find plenty here).

There's no long-term strategic need for us to be in the Middle East. Nobody there is crying out for America (or western Europe) to save them from themselves. I've known this ever since I saw "Lawrence of Arabia" at the age of 14 and had it all explained for me in the last 15 minutes of that movie wherein Prince Faisal sells out the rest of the Middle East to the English in exchange for Saudi Arabia. When it got too hot for the Brits to handle after WWII, they dumped it on us.

We could've gotten off of oil a long time ago except for one thing. American Corporate Greed which is, was and always will be the driving factor in ALL American policy, foreign and domestic.

And if you think otherwise, then it's time for you to quit taking baby steps and to start looking at The Big Picture.

Oh No I di'nt.

No, I didn't finish HP and the DH last night. But I did read the entire chapter entitled "The Battle for Hogwarts." It's a ripping good yarn. Somebody else died. I'll read another chapter tonight.

I got an e-mail today from my newly favorite New Jersey Assemblywoman with an attached list of grievances against Academy Bus Lines. She asked me if I had anything I'd like to add. She must be kidding. She also advised me of the next "town hall" meeting that she's scheduled in order to have a public bitch-fest against the Poor Little Besieged Bus Company (cue the violins). I plan to attend, of course. Especially after she pointed out that over the last six years bus fares have risen 50%. I knew it was a lot, but not that much. Correspondingly, service has gotten at least twice as shitty in the same period of time.

And it seems that people on the other side of the state (towards the shore, along the Garden State Parkway route) have the same problems with Academy that those of us over on the NJ Turnpike route have.

At this point I'm urging a public boycott of Academy Bus lines.

Hump-Day. I could use a good hump right about now. Or at least a good long ... nap. At my age sleep is just as good as sex (to the best of my recollection).

I ran into an old drinking buddy of mine over at Joe.My.God yesterday. We reconnected, swapped some e-mails, and we're gonna do lunch some day next week. It'll be good to see World Famous Author Rob again.

TTFN & AMF

Bush's Brain - Potter's Finale

Rove is quitting. His legacy consists primarily of a demoralized Republican Party, the Democrats in charge of Congress, a war-weary nation with no end in sight and a drunken Frat-Boy at the helm of the ship of state.

Way to go, Karl-Baby! A grateful nation tips it's hat (and middle-fingers) to you!

Remember about a year ago a tv commercial for Disney family vacations that featured a wholesome American family (mom, dad, two kids) trying to settle down into bed for the night but the kids can't sleep because they're going on a Disney Vacation and, to quote the boy, "WE'RE TOO EXCITED!!!"

Well, I woke up around 3:30 this morning, unable to sleep because (dammit) I'm too excited.

I've been taking my time with the last Harry Potter novel. I didn't want to rush through it. I wanted to savor it.

And I did, a chapter a day. But by bedtime last night I was staring at the last 275 pages and things were starting to really heat up (after stagnating for some time while Harry, Hermione and Ron wandered aimlessly in the forest).

No spoilers here, but things have started to get very interesting and my innate nosiness is starting to win out over my self-control.

Ergo sum, my eyes flew open at 3:30 a.m. Ostensibly I had to relieve myself, but I know better than that. I can almost always sleep the whole night through without the need to get up and take a mid-sleep whizz. Even my urologist is in awe of my prostate.

So I read for an hour or so and knocked off another 100 pages.

It's a little after 1:00 p.m. eastern now and I'm practically dozing off at my desk. Yet all I can think of is "can I finish it tonight?"

I can hardly wait to find out if Lord VoldeRove gets magically whacked in the end!

TGI Friggs Day

Friday was named after some Germanic goddess of beauty ("Frigg" or "Friya"). Personally, I prefer the Russian or Portuguese way of referring to it (the "fifth day" in Russian, "sixth" in Portuguese. Apparently that depends on when (and if) you observe the Sabbath.

What's special about this Friday is:

a) there were no traffic catastrophes on the NJTurnpike on the inbound commute this morning (however, the day is young).

b) The Simpons Movie opened at midnight last night.

I won't be able to see it until Sunday (Sontag), though. Tomorrow I'm dragging my sorry ass out of bed to travel into Manhattan (which I'm really getting tired of doing) to see...

"Xanadu" the musical.

Based on one of the worst movies I ever saw, one which nearly ruined (well, it probably DID ruin) Olivia Newton-John's career when it bombed at the B.O. back in 1981. It also had the distinction of being Gene Kelly's last film.

However, according to everyone, it has become the hottest gay ticket on B'way this season, and many of my gay friends are PEA-GREEN with Envy!

Then, tomorrow night, I'm in Philly to attend a fundraiser for the upcoming Philadelphia Roundup in October.

Actually the event in Philly promises to be even gayer than the audience for Xanadu. It's a drag show entitled "Caftanistan". Since I'll be at the Roundup I thought it might be nice to attend one of the fundraisers for it.

So, tomorrow morning I drag myself out of bed, do my chores, take a train to Manhattan, see "Xanadu" (fortunately it's short - 90 minutes), catch a train BACK to Princeton, do some more chores then drive to Philly in time to catch the show at the Shakespeare Festival.

So maybe I'll see "The Simpsons Movie" on Sunday.

Or maybe I'll just spend the entire day in bed.... finishing the Harry Potter novel.

I am seriously behind in my entertainment.