A Crusty Old Man Farts

• Some days I simply itch to write, but I don't have the time. I go up the stairs to my office, and immediately the monkeys downstairs begin screeching.

• I was speaking on the phone last night with a friend and the topic of homeschooling came up. You see, I probably need to homeschool my children, at least my oldest, but I am so damned unorganized I wonder sometimes how I could possibly give her a quality education. Not to mention the additional work of caring for a newborn.

  (Why does it sound so much like I'm making excuses?)

  So after saying Goodbye, I went upstairs to my office only to read an article by Orson Scott Card (a local sci-fi writer of some fame) about how of all the college students he teaches, the homeschooled students are the best and broadest thinkers. He goes on to rail against the miserable public education system, with which I sympathize as I am married to a public educator and hear about the stinking guts of the monster ad nauseum.

• I am well into Vonnegut's Palm Sunday and am thoroughly enjoying myself. More than I have reading most anything recently. What an excellent writer. If an occasional coarseness or granddaddy-of-a-cussword bothers you, then save Mr. Vonnegut Jr. for another time in your life.

• Speaking of books, I bought Tolkien's newest release, The Children of Húrin, from that Great Monstrosity Barnes & Noble. I haven't yet read it due to my Vonnegut reading, but the book sits on my end table and occasionally catches my eye. Sweet.

• Why the uproar on the Supreme Court's decision to uphold W's making late-term abortions illegal? Do these people understand what kind of abortion we're speaking of (not that there's good abortion)? Do they think they can maintain any moral credibility when they embrace late-term abortion (delivering half the baby before killing him or her - basically, infanticide) and then express loathing for the twisted souls of people like Cho?

  Speaking of liberal Democrats, in the political climate we find ourselves, any Democrat running and nominated as the party's candidate who was also pro-life would win the presidency without so much as a whimper.

  Then again, with the Republican Yahoos who have popped up so far, they will anyway.