What's a nice comment like you doing in a place like this? Getting more recognition, of course! If you see a great comment, send it this way--topcomments at gmail (dot) com-- by 9:45 eastern. Please include the diary you saw it in, along with a few words about why you submitted it.

As part of the Know Your McCain Project, some of my TC Diaries for the next couple of months will focus on everyone’s favorite cranky old man: John McCain. Most Americans fall into one of two categories when it comes to McSame – they know him or they like him. The goal of Know Your McCain is to increase the number of voters in the first category because, as we all know, to know McSame is to be scared shitless at the thought of him as president.

We are hearing a lot about change these days. It seems like everywhere we turn, someone is promising to change something. Or someone is wanting something changed. It has gotten so extreme that even the conservative standard-bearer is running for president as an"agent of change." (And if you believe that, I would like to talk to you about a fabulous real estate investment.)

I was thinking about change this week as I am preparing to teach a series of workshops to small business owners. One of the great challenges in growing a business is resistance to change – by employees, by owners, even by customers. Everyone wants the perceived benefits of change – improved cash flow, healthy bottom line, better working conditions, job security – it is just the actual "changiness" they resist. They don’t mind change as long as they can keep doing things the same way they have always done them.

They aren’t called "work habits" for nothing. Research on habit formation found that it isn’t necessary to try to "kill" a habit.  Concentrating on developing new habits will create new pathways in our brains that bypass those old roads. One of the ways to create new pathways is through kaizen.

This may be something of a follow-up to Emeraldmaiden’s delightful Thursday diary,but it was not my inspiration. Rather, I was inspired by an entry in the Accidental Hedonist concerning a wafer cookie in an Asian market. What made this cookie so special? The flavor was durian.

This has been a hard week for many of us who loved George Carlin. While it is sad to know he will not be around to skewer the present administration – whatever the administration at the time – his a legacy will continue to provide a much-needed perspective on life and politics.

Much of the following biographical information comes from Carlin’s web  site. One of the fun things about that site: at the bottom of the page is a running scroll with Carlin one-liners, including

• There ought to be at lease one round state.


• The only good thing to come out of religion is the music.


• Most people are not particularly good at anything.


• Those who dance are considered insane by those who don’t hear the music.

And just a reminder, tonightNBC pays tribute to the master by rebroadcasting the first SNL episode, which Carlin hosted. For those of you without access to television, in this comment in an open thread Scarce provides a set of six links to the entire SNL show.

I’m a little slow tonight because it is hard to type with a big old knife sticking out of your back. If you had any hope that the 110th Congress would do the right thing, you know how I’m feeling tonight. I try to not inject highly political diaries into Top Comments, but like many folks today, I’m too angry to think about much else.

Occasionally when someone like Chris Dodd or Dennis Kucinich would stand up and do something like filibuster a bad bill or file articles of impeachment, I would allow myself a little hope that maybe the Democrats weren’t as bad as the Republicans. And they aren’t all as bad – but quite a few of them are.

And as my dear old Dad always said, "Don’t get mad, get even."

I have spent today watching/listening to the National Conference on Media Reform, which is being carried in its entirety on Free Speech TV. It is a tremendous public service and I would strongly encourage any of you who have access to watch this Conference and support Free Speech TV. It is a national treasure. The Conference is also streaming live at the sponsors’ web site: freepress.net.

This is a great Conference, which I had the opportunity to attend last year when Bill Moyers was the keynote speaker. Tonight’s keynote is Dan Rather. I was disappointed that I was unable to attend this year, but now I think that watching it may be even better for two reasons:

1. I get to see all of the concurrent presentations, not just the ones I can physically get to. FSTV ran the break-out sessions last night, and I think they will again tonight.

2. In between sessions, I get to watch Amy Goodman interview a bunch of very interesting people.

But that’s not what I came here to talk to you about.

Whilst reading through comments today I ran across this little promo piece byKingOneEye:

I had a non RBC diary today too. (5+ / 0-)

SWINDLE: Another Day, Another Corrupt McCain Advisor

About Orson Swindle, a McCain advisor that is both a lobbyist and a 527 board member. And for extra bonus points, the 527 is corrupt and has ties to Jack Abramoff.

It immediately made me think of the extended New Scientist riff on nominative determinism that ran for nearly a year as part of their Feedback section. After all, what else could a person named Swindle become but a lobbyist and campaign advisor for McSame?

Cruising through the comments, as I often do, I ran into a thread about campaign buttons Kossack’s want,  which made me think about some of the campaign buttons I have seen. There are some funny one for this election cycle, particularly about McSame, but it seems that since the 1980s campaign buttons have really lacked humor.

The first campaign button I can remember was one I found in my father’s "treasure box." That was a collection of, frankly, junk he had collected that he would let me play with. In addition to the huge, ugly tie bar, some foreign money, a few marbles and some assorted game pieces, there were some campaign buttons. I remember the red white and blue JFK button and the LBJ for the USA. But the one that stands out in my memory had the name Goldwater in the center and around the edge it said: "In Your Guts You Know He’s Nuts."

I wanted to find a picture of it for this diary, without success. However, in my search I did find out that the phrase, a play on Goldwater’s slogan "In your heart you know he’s right" was coined by none other than my hero – Bill Moyers. I found out a few other things, too.

Today I was helping my husband work on my car. OK, I was sitting on the deck talking to him while he worked. Anyway, one of his co-workers, Mike,  stopped by along with Tim, a friend of his we did not know.  While Mike and my husband talked cars, Tim and I chatted about our dogs.

At one point Tim looked at the big old walnut tree on the other side of the driveway and remarked that he was surprised we would plant a walnut tree so close to our house. I explained that the tree was there long before we bought the house, but walnut trees are fairly common in this area. He replied that he thought everyone knew that walnut trees attract lightening. I didn’t, but he assured me there was a lot of research that proved it.

So I decided to find the copious body of research that supported his claim. And I found it – in the Superstitions Database. However, I also found out a lot of interesting things about lightning. Since I know some of you, like me, enjoy watching lightning storms, I thought I’d share some real facts about lightning.

Tonight’s diary was going to be more focused. Actually it was going to be on an entirely different topic. However, Mother Nature had other plans. In the past 3 hours, I have seen:

• 20 minutes of hail the size of quarters or larger


• 45 minutes of torrential rain (1+ inches)


• reports of 14 tornados within 5 miles of my house

And despite the usually stellar performance of the weather service here, there was no warning. The only heads-up I got was from my dog, who suddenly freaked out. About 20 seconds later a wall cloud descended and it started to hail. It was another 4-5 minutes before an alert was issued and another 10 minutes before the sirens sounded. By then, I had already seen one funnel cloud. Given that there was a girl killed by a tornado about 15 miles from my house last Sunday, this is turning into a really bad spring for storms.

Some day -- perhaps next Saturday -- I'll find the diary I had written for tonight. But for now, let’s talk about climate. Or, more precisely, let’s talk about ClimateCounts.

Last night Progressive Witness had a wonderful post about the Loneman School Book Drive. If you missed it, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I was particularly struck by this comment about the Indians of North America book series from Chelsea House:

While any books we send will surely be put to good use, I can think of few resources that might be more valuable to Loneman's library than this accessible, scholarly, and extensive series on Native American history and culture.

While I absolutely agree, it also made me think. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if EVERY school library had a set of these books? I am not familiar with the series (and it isn’t in my public library, either), but I will take PWs word on its quality. In my experience, quality information about Native Americans is largely missing from most of our schools.

Shall we play a game?  OK, me first.

The name of tonight’s game is: What’s Wrong With These People?

It is gardening day at the farm. Today I moved seedlings into the transplanting pots that will eventually go into the garden. Rather than using peat pots, I make my own from newspapers. They are bigger, they are free, and they – along with the compost I use for planting – fulfill my mantra: reduce, reuse, recycle. It’s fairly mindless work, and I had the television on in the background. Suddenly, an ad caught my attention. WWWTP?

I have no idea when I first saw Bill Moyers. It seems like he has always been an important part of our national discourse for me. At 73, Moyers is easily the most insightful journalist working today. Listening to him last night interview Leila Fadel, McClatchy bureau chief in Baghdad, was a striking contrast to the sockpuppet serenade last Tuesday night.  

Watching Bill Moyers makes it obvious why the ABC bloviators don’t deserve to be called journalist. Journalism was once an honorable profession, and Moyers is one of our few remaining examples of why that was true. The fact that he was removed from PBS by the politicians that have worked to destroy this nation demonstrates how fearful they are of real journalism. According to Moyers, "what is important for the journalist is not how close you are to power, but how close you are to reality."

So let's spend a few minutes with a real journalist....

Eight years ago, Rear Admiral Jack Buffington,  chairman of the Federal Facilities Council, conducted a study for the National Research Council on the condition of public buildings. Published by the National Academy of Sciences, .the research found that many agencies are responsible for more buildings than they need to support their missions. In addition, as buildings age, maintenance needs increase, but funding for maintenance does not.

Buffington's 10-person research team was charged with developing a methodology that facilities managers could use to formulate maintenance budgets. However, they found that so little data was available that formulating a methodology was impossible. They recommended instituting methods and strategies that would provide useful data for developing a methodology.

At that time, Admiral Buffington said that, "most Americans would be appalled if they knew the condition of public buildings they paid more than 300 billion dollars to build, but this substantial portfolio of public assets is deteriorating rapidly." Would anyone like to put money on the status of that project – or the buildings – today?

I loved the television series Connections. Narrated by science historian James Burke, this BBC series took an interdisciplinary approach to the history of science and invention, demonstrating how various discoveries, scientific achievements, and historical world events built off one another in an interconnected way to bring about particular aspects of modern technology. Burke's impeccable narration and dry humor, the historical reenactments, intricate working models, and location shots were inspiring.

Burke also produced and narrated The Day the Universe Changed, a BBC documentary television series originally broadcast in 1985.The series' primary focus is on the effect of advances in science and technology on western philosophy. To illustrate this idea, James Burke tells the various stories of important scientific discoveries and technological advances and how they fundamentally altered how western civilization perceives the world. The series runs in roughly chronological order, from around the beginning of the Middle Ages to the present.

Tonight marks the end of Sunshine Week 2008, which was March 16-22.  What did you do to celebrate? Since you are Top Comments afficionados, I’m sure you celebrated, because to celebrate Sunshine Week requires:

that you do something to engage in a discussion about the importance of open government. It could be a large public forum or a classroom discussion, an article or series of articles about access to important information, or an editorial. The extent to which you participate is up to you.

Participation is not about how much you do; it's about doing it.

Spring is sprung! Now that we have officially sprung forward and tornados have begun erupting across the south, Spring is here!

Of course, if you had been with me in the Mississippi Delta last week when it snowed 23 inches, you might be skeptical. Not me. I just got my notification from Stark Brothers that my plants have been shipped. And Stark Brothers understands planting time.

While I was on the road last week, my friends Saul and Jesus were working in my garden. I have had raised beds for 20 years and those are still fairly easy possible for me to maintain. But this year I have decided to greatly expand my garden, and expansion is hard work.

It’s not that I mind hard work. I wore out 3 pick axes putting in my raised beds. But that was then. Now that COPD has claimed a substantial portion of my oxygen supply, cutting trees and digging rocks must be left to the boys. They are always good to help, but the promise of future strawberry shortcakes was a powerful lure, too.

I’m a major Antiques Roadshow fan. I’ve loved it since I first saw it on BBC more than a decade ago. It has aired in the United Kingdom for 30 years. Currently, it airs on some, but not all, PBS stations in the U.S. The format has remained virtually unchanged from the pilot program: a brief introduction to the location du jour followed by appraisals of a variety of items.

According to the official BBC Cult website

The Antiques Roadshow is believed to be like the Ravens at the Tower of London, if the show ever comes to an end, then the BBC will come crashing to the ground.

The American version of Antiques Roadshow started on PBS in 1996. While it follows the same format, there are some differences. The appraisers on the British version are more complimentary of the antiques and more sympathetic to the owners, while the American version seems to focus more on the valuation.  The BBC Roadshow has also spawned versions in Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, and Australia.