I'm traveling this week. Three guesses where:

He nails it:

People claim to be shocked by the Bush administration's general incompetence. But disinterest in good government has long been a principle of modern conservatism. In "The Conscience of a Conservative," published in 1960, Barry Goldwater wrote that "I have little interest in streamlining government or making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size."

People claim to be shocked at the Bush administration's efforts to disenfranchise minority groups, under the pretense of combating voting fraud. But Reagan opposed the Voting Rights Act, and as late as 1980 he described it as "humiliating to the South."

Above all, people claim to be shocked by the Bush administration's authoritarianism, its disdain for the rule of law. But a full half-century has passed since The National Review proclaimed that "the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail," and dismissed as irrelevant objections that might be raised after "consulting a catalogue of the rights of American citizens, born Equal"—presumably a reference to the document known as the Constitution of the United States.

Remember: unless you're rich, white, male, and a bigot, the Greedy Old Party is against you. (If you're middle-class, white, male, and a bigot, they're also using you like cheap toilet paper.)

With record temperatures in Chicago today (now at 29°C), organizers have halted the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon:

Reports of inadequate supplies of water were frequent along the route, and many of the 36,000 runners competing stopped early.

The men's race appeared more like a track finish than the usually tactical marathon finish, with Kenyan Patrick Ivuti winning the closest race in the 30 years of the Chicago Marathon. In a photo-finish, Ivuti edged out Moroccan Jaouad Gharib by 5/100th of a second.

Both were clocked at 2 hours 11 minutes 11 seconds and appeared to break the tape at the same time. Ivuti is the fifth consecutive Kenyan to win the Chicago Marathon.

Ethiopian Berhane Adere recorded one of the greatest race comebacks, repeating as champion in 2:33:49. Adere fell behind by about 25 seconds late in the race, but managed to sprint to the finish and overtake unsuspecting Romanian Adriana Pirtea.

The Cubs, meanwhile, spent the day cooling their heels.

Cubs just got swept. Predictable. And sad. Guess I'll just work tomorrow, or wander Lakeview aimlessly with Parker.

Plus, Danielle has to return the Game 4 tickets, so I won't even get a souvenir of the post-season.

Next year, I suppose. For the 100th time.

Sheesh.

Yesterday I said that the Cubs need only win one game of the NLDS to ensure they play Game 4 (to which my friend got tickets). That's not, strictly speaking, correct, and it assumed the only way the series would end in 3 games would be if the Diamondbacks swept the Cubs. My cousin pointed out the flaw in my reasoning. It's possible (however unlikely) that the Cubs could sweep the Diamondbacks, with the same result for Sunday's game.

So, to revise and amend my comments, as long as each team wins at least one game of the next three, I'll go to Game 4 on Sunday.

My friend Danielle scored tickets to the National League Central Division Series Game #4, at Wrigley Field this Sunday.

Of course, since it's a best-of-5 series, if the Cubs get swept, there won't be a Game #4. But if they win just one game in the post-season, we're going on Sunday.

I may be getting NLDS playoff tickets...stay tuned...

With two games to go in the season, the Cubs clinched the National League Central. Now they only have to get past three markedly better teams to get to the World Series...

"Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms.... But a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot."—Robert Heinlein, Friday.

Happy primary election season!

Poor guy. I got two bits of bad news for Parker.

First, his bad butt has returned again, this time with bad, um, mouth as well. His vet suspects Crypto again, plus whatever else he may have picked up from his foraging in the yard. This time she was pretty direct in her prescription: No unsupervised, off-leash time at all, ever. So Parker will have to have walks with just me instead of going to the park or day camp for a couple of weeks. It also means that I won't just open the back door for him first thing in the morning any more.

Second, even though he's been the office puppy for more than a year now, the building manager told me yesterday Parker isn't allowed in the building any more. This surprised me, as no one has ever complained about him. We're still working this one out; I'll let you know how the appeal goes.

So, today Parker is recuperating at home, and fasting, which he doesn't mind given his morning. Tomorrow he's on rice and "sensitive stomach" dog food.