By now, regular readers of this site might have noticed there have been some problem here. The comments section, for instance, has not been working. I've been in constant consultation with the web wizards who keep everything whirring for me. And they say that there is a technical term for what has happened to the site: it's really, really messed up. There are spam issues, internal structure issues, server issues. But here's the good news. Before all went to hell, we had scheduled a server transfer. That process is already under way. And I'm on vacation this week, at a cabin in Cape Cod with--can you believe it?--no phone line. (The real estate office down the block does have Wi-Fi, but it's--damn!--password-protected.) Thus, I did not intend to do much blogging this week. In other words, youre not missing much. But keep coming back to check on the progress of the web wizards. They vow all will be well rather soon.

As for me, all I can say is that it's really odd--see the front page of The New York Times--that a military unit had tracked Mohammed Atta prior to 9/11 and no mention of this was in the 9/11 Commission report. I can only imagine what some people will make of this. But I hope the chairmen of the commission--Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton--provide a decent explanation (or accusation).

And if anyone is wondering about my "performance" at the Payomet Theater in Truro, it went well: a sell-out crowd. I combined political humor with self-righteous outrage. It seemed to work. Here's one gag:

So Bush recently reiterated that he believes intelligence design should be taught in public schools. He says evolution is just a theory and intelligence design is just a theory. So why not teach both theories? Well, I have a theory. I believe that Bush believes in intelligence design because he knows that the only way he could have become president was...through divine intervention.

Maybe that's not as funny in print. But the crowd loved it. And they went for an old standby: I hope Dick Cheney does decide to run in the next presidential election, because I have the perfect campaign slogan for him: "Cheney in 2008--The Dick You Know!"

Okay, I'm not quitting my day job(s). But I'm trying not to work too hard this week. Today I surfed for the first time and managed to stand up on the board for approximately half a second. So it's back to the beach. Surf's up. And a nod of appreciation to the techies who are working hard to keep this site sailing smoothly and your comment section afloat.

Posted by David Corn at August 9, 2005 04:10 PM