Federal employees gathered up a female Mallard and her 11 ducklings from a nest by the entrance to the Treasury Building and moved them to a park. There was no violence, no guns, no assault troops; they picked up the ducks and moved them to a safer location with a creek to swim in and tourists to feed them.

North Korea May Have Tested Missile – “North Korea apparently test fired a missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday…”

May? Apparently? We have billions of dollars of assets watching North Korea. We have satellites over head, fixed installations in South Korea, ships off the coasts, aircraft flying by: there is no “may” or “apparently” about it, we detected the missile being launched and tracked it until it landed in the Sea of Japan. We have been watching North Korea closely for half a century and even have people who speak the language and know the culture in the Defense and State Departments.

If the North Koreans could afford microwave popcorn, it would be spontaneously cooking in people’s cupboards from all of the radars in China, South Korea, Japan, and US facilities that are aimed at the country.

The murder of doctors, the Elian Gonzalez story, the 2000 election debacle, four major hurricanes in one year, the Terri Schiavo case, main street gunfighting, and now, the attempt to force a 13-year-old to have a baby.

As a Floridian I would really like to have this state ignored for a decade or so. I think it would be wonderful if people at least had to wait until a late-night comedian said something after “In Florida” before they started laughing.

Our legislature only meets for 60 days a year, but they always manage to do something that guarantees us a place on Comedy Central for several weeks. It is really depressing.

You know that Joe Scarborourgh was my Congressman, but at the same time I had a member in the Florida House who claimed to “channel” the ghost of John Wayne, and my state Senator was remanded to a state mental institution: Republicans all.

Last night was Walpurgisnacht for all the Germanic and Baltic peoples, Beltane for the Celts, and the midpoint between the equinox and the solstice.

This year it is the Orthodox Easter and, of course, the international Labor Day. The US uses the first Monday in September to separate Labor Day from its “Socialist” roots.

See the problem is people just don’t believe that Bush has found a solution to a problem created by that “Commie Cripple”. If they would just believe and clap their hands, Bush could save them.

Karen at Dark Bilious Vapors has discovered: Finally some Average Sensible Americans Speak Up.

James Klurfeld (NY Newsday) has an article based on his correspondence with a real person with real knowledge and experience in retirement programs. Go and read what a gentleman who spent his working life as one of those boring fact-based actuaries at an insurance company has to say after looking at Bush’s program.

Or, close your eyes, believe, and clap: it will take the edge off the cold, dark, and hunger of your retirement under the Bush plan.

It struck me that there is a major flaw in the system used to select people for public office. Elections are well and good for the final stage of the process, but the steps leading up to that point have a glaring omission: there’s no objective proof that a politician can walk and chew gum.

For all other forms of public employment there is a series of published requirements and tests to prove an individual can do the job before that person ever gets to the final selection process. The applicant has to provide proof of education and experience related to the job, and then take one or more tests before being placed on an eligibility list. Even the military in times of drafts requires that people pass tests to actually be inducted into service.

For a politician, everything is popularity. There are no hard requirements and no background checks before you participate. At most you have to prove you live in a certain area and are of a certain age.

I’m not saying that we should be requiring degrees in certain disciplines before someone can run for office, but it wouldn’t be excessive to require all elected officials prove they are of average intelligence, are literate, can accurately use mathematics through and including algebra, in other words, that they can pass the standardized testing for a high school sophomore.

Specifically, they should be able to balance a checkbook, complete an IRS form 1040 using a supplied W-2 form and family information, and create a family budget from supplied data. These are things that voters have to do, so it should be shown that elected officials understand what “real life” is all about.

I’m not requiring them to figure out which is the “best” credit card offer, whether to buy or lease a car, whether to buy the extended warranty, or any of the other truly complicated decisions people face every day, just the basics.

It is my belief that if politicians had these basic skills, and understood that the voters had these skills, there wouldn’t be “60-city tours” trying to sell people “Tinker Bell” solutions.