The BRAC Commission has decided to close Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Wow, this is brilliant. "Asset rental": for a 5% fee, this place will swear up and down that you have a bank accounting containing the full 100%. Mortgage fraud convictions forthcoming, no doubt. Morons.

Sometimes I wonder if you can tell I grew up listening to tapes of old Abbott & Costello and Burns & Allen shows. A friend at the dojo, who has a rather, um, vigorous speed of training, no matter what speed you go for, said something about "...my year of not hitting people." I said, "Oh? Let me know when you start." (As a postscript, I believe this past year has been the year of not hitting people, which...well, maybe he meant something different by it than I interpreted.)

Not that I've been watching the news, but apparently they're talking up Hurricane Katrina:

"So, imagine you're the poor person who decides not to evacuate: Your house will disintegrate around you. The best you'll be able to do is hang on to a light pole, and while you're hanging on, the fire ants from all the mounds -- of which there is two per yard on average -- will clamber up that same pole. And, eventually, the fire ants will win."