Danielle won free tickets to last nights baseball game as one of the prizes for the summer reading program at the library.  She decided that I should be the one to take her to the game.  This was the first time either of us have been to the new stadium (I can’t remember if she ever went to a game at the old Busch Stadium).

The Cardinals didn’t give us much to cheer about, but I think she had fun just being at the game.  At least we got to see one Cardinal homerun before we had to leave (it was a school night after all).

1. Bullroarer (Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust)
2. Touch and Go (The Cars - The Cars Greatest Hits)
3. Nobody Knows (The Rainmakers - The Rainmakers)
4. House We Used to Live In (The Smithereens - Green  Thoughts)
5. Not Like You (The Bangles - Different Light)
6. Walk Together, Rock Together (7 Seconds - Live One Plus One)
7. Where The Streets Have No Name (U2 - Joshua Tree)
8. Pulling Mussels From The Shell (Squeeze - Singles 45’s And Under)
9. Under The Bridge (Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
10. Regret (New Order - Republic)

• Me: How was school today?
• Justin: Pretty good.
• Me: Mom said you’ve been playing basketball at recess.
• Justin: Yeah, I was on one team, but I stopped playing with them,
• Justin: But then I was conscripted onto another team
• Me: Conscripted?  Where did you learn that word.
• Justin: Civilization.

I went through part of  Brother Mike’s music collection to see if he had copies of any of the music I had lost (we collected a lot of the same types of music in the early 90’s).  He had joked that he had picked up some of the albums at a party  in Columbia in the early 90’s.  It turns out that at least some of the albums I thought I had lost WERE in his collection, clearly marked with my initials.  On a couple he said, “That’s not yours.  Oh crap.”

The biggest find — New Order - Substance - Disk 1.  I’ve been looking for that one at Slackers, etc. and never could find it.  I also found the Mighty Lemon Drops CD I was looking for.  I think I will have to make time to dig through the rest of his collection to see what other lost gems might have accidentally ended up in his collection instead of mine.

Side note - I am up to 743 songs on my iPod and still have close to a Gig of free space left.  Have I mentioned how much I love this thing.

1. Wasting Time (The Judybats - Pain Makes You Beautiful)
2. World In My Eyes (Depeche Mode - Violator)
3. Return Post (The Bangles - Different Light)
4. Boss of Me (They Might Be Giants - Dial a Song)
5. Junior College Philosophy (Finns - Juco)
6. The Statue Got Me High (They Might Be Giants - Dial a Song)
7. Suarve and Suffocated (Ned’s Atomic Dustbin - Are You Normal?)
8. Let It Go (Finns - Juco)
9. Sometimes (Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust)
10. Sin (Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine)

Missouri’s Roy Blunt has been voted one of the most corrupt legislators -

In 2003, Rep. Blunt divorced his wife of 31 years to marry Philip Morris (now Altria) lobbyist Abigail Perlman. Before it was known publicly that Rep. Blunt and Ms. Perlman were dating – and only hours after Rep. Blunt assumed the role of Majority Whip – he tried to secretly insert a provision into Homeland Security legislation that would have benefitted Philip Morris, at the expense of competitors. Notably, Altria is Rep. Blunt’s largest campaign contributor, having donated more than $270,000 to political committees tied to him.

In 2003, Rep. Blunt helped his son, Andrew Blunt, by inserting a provision into the $79 billion emergency appropriation for the war in Iraq to benefit U.S. shippers like United Parcel Service, Inc. and FedEx Corp. Andrew Blunt lobbies on behalf of UPS in Missouri, and UPS and FedEx have contributed at least $58,000 to Rep. Blunt since 2001.

By pushing for legislation that would benefit Philip Morris and UPS, and, as a consequence, his then-girlfriend and his son, Rep. Blunt may have violated federal law and House rules.

Family connections have also helped Rep. Blunt’s son, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, who received campaign contributions from nearly three dozen influential Missouri lobbyists and lawyers when he ran for governor of Missouri in 2004, half of whom had provided financial support to his father. In addition, in 2000, when Matt Blunt was running for Secretary of State, Rep. Blunt was involved in an apparent scheme to funnel money through a local party committee into Matt Blunt’s campaign committee.

Yup, we sure have some winner representatives here in Missouri.  Frankly I’m surprised that we only had one on the top 20 list.  I guess Akin is so much of a unmotivated-in-the-box-thinking-rubber-stamper, that the only way he could make the list is by following Bush and the rest of his party.  I knew I didn’t like Matt Blunt as governor, but until now I only suspected that his dad was a slime-bag.

hat tip - Ed Brayton

Arrrgghhh, I should ‘a been know ‘n that today be talk like a pirate day.

Arrrgghhh, with a14/9 degree drop ‘n the low and high tempARRture from the previous day, who’d be ARRRguing that pirates reduce global wARRRRming now?