Randall and Rudy Get Offended

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• Watched The Boys from Baraka, a documentary about at-risk children from inner-city Baltimore who go to a boarding school in Kenya to help them improve themselves and get out of the dangerous atmosphere. I suppose it's reasonably compelling, but I just couldn't get myself to care so much. Call it a major flaw in my liberalness.
• I also watched a bit of the Olympics time trials in swimming. My wife used to swim competitively, so she loves it and she explained some of the technical stuff to me. It's good to learn some of the names before the real games start. One stand-out is Katie Hoff, who has just sick explosiveness down the stretch. Obviously, the big star is Michael Phelps, from Towson. I know a number of people who went to school with him or sort of know him and they all dislike him quite a bit. So there you go. I'll have some more comments on the Olympics in a month or so.
• Random Thoughts/Links:
• This is classic. Censorship, never a good thing, creates a bit of a backlash on itself.
• Not much else worth commenting on, so enjoy Bret dancing.
• Daily Rant:
• As I think about the holiday on Friday and what I may do for it, I can't help but lament (as I do every year) the loss of the best July 4th place in the world. When I was in college, you could go to the National Mall with a cooler full of booze and drink the day away until the great firework show at night. The stifling heat and humidity were non-factors in the face of a bottle of tequila and a case of beer. Around ten years or so ago, the Park Service cracked down on alcohol on the Mall. Good-bye fun. Now one would have to sit through unbearable heat and an intolerable crowd. No thanks. I'm not one for needing alcohol to have a good time, but in the face of everything else being horrible, it certainly helps even things out.