News: There's just no way to classify these.

Dear Leader's Sex Life Laid Bare

There are 2,000 girls employed in the dictator's [Kim Jong Il of North Korea - ed.] "pleasure groups". Each "pleasure group" is composed of three teams - a "satisfaction team", which performs sexual services; a "happiness team," which provides massage and a "dancing and singing team".

These teams, recruited from girls' high schools, undergo a six-month training course before they are assigned to one of the dictator's 32 villas and palaces until the age of 25.

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Phelps seeks to erect anti-gay marker. The marker will read: MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22.

Apparently, court rulings have made it nearly impossible for the city to deny Phelps the right to erect the marker in a city park, since a 10 Commandments marker is already there and a judge has allowed it as long as "no prejudicial bias" is directed at any monument donated to the park.

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Woman convicted in Son's Suicide. This is a strange case; apparently, her son was driven to suicide by teasing because his clothes were filthy and smelly; his mother was charged with failing to contribute to her son's hygiene. The house was apparently ankle-deep in filth and unwashed laundry.

What makes this stand out to me is that I'm reminded of the case of Marcus Wayman. Wayman killed himself because the arresting officers told him that either he tell his parents he was gay-- or they would. Apparently, the arresting officer came to the conclusion that Wayman was gay because he was arrested for being out after curfew and had condoms in his pocket. There is no evidence that Wayman really was gay. To date, no charges have been filed against the arresting officers and a civil suit resulted in no penalties or finding of fault.

I don't get it. A mother who can't keep her house clean is liable for her son's "despondent" nature, but an irrational cop with a big mouth who caused an equally horrific moment by abusing his badge walks away. How does that work?

Physical Therapy, Day Eight.

This morning, the alarm went off at 5:30 and I was up and out the door in ten minutes. Having my gym bag and my work bag already packed, the laptop and the cell phone already charged, and breakfast and lunch already assembled in the 'fridge made it easy to just go. Except that I forgot to have my morning drug regimen together-- the anti-inflammatories and collagen-building aminos, as well as my usual multi-vitamin. Another thing for the checklist.

I made it to the pool on time and was in and going shortly thereafter. At first, I thought I was gonna wimp out at three hundred meters, but I pushed through it and managed to get to 600, what I did last time. I took a few deep breaths and decided to go for 700. Then, "What the Hell," and did another 50, crawl. The pool was significantly less crowded than last time.

I dressed quickly, in a bit of a daze, the dizziness threatening constantly. The nausea came back-- I hadn't felt it on Monday-- but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been. I got into the car and drove home. I got back with ten minutes to spare until my bus came, so I made a batch of coffee and by the time I had gotten down to the bus stop I was feeling much better. So much so that I opened up the laptop and shredded through a thousand words in the half-hour the commute takes. ( Spoiler Space )

And there was this magnificent rainbow this morning! The sun was coming up over the Cascade ridge to the east, just above the horizon, and the rays struck this squall coming over Puget Sound to the west, and the resulting rainbow stretched from West Seattle to Queen Anne, over the whole Sound like something out of a Bible story. The colors were sharply defined, very crisp, and the whole arch was there. There was even a second, surrounding arch, although it was much dimmer. The squall broke south as we drove north, the rainbow fading as if someone were slowly pulling a curtain away to reveal the Olympic mountain range glowing in the morning light.

The weather is gray and ugly now, typical Seattle. But for a moment there, we had hope for a nicer day.