One thing that really angers me -- CEOs getting paid millions and millions and millions of dollars while their companies are collapsing and their workers are losing their jobs.

If you have lots, lots, lots more money to spend, why don't you participate in the Gumball Rally, a cross-country road race for the exuberantly wealthy?

Highlights from SF Chronicle article:

• The event, inspired by the classic Burt Reynolds road flick "Cannonball Run, " is not for the faint of heart, shallow of pocket or early to bed. First-time gumballers pay about $12,000, which includes breakfast, dinner and lodging, but doesn't cover gas, speeding tickets, bail or beverages.


• Driving the Ferraris, Porsches, Aston Martins, Morgans, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Jaguars, a Koenigsegg (one of the world's fastest cars) and vintage muscle cars were a motley mix of British royalty, tipsy bon vivants, models, corporate chieftains and the simply motor-obsessed.


• Outside Las Vegas last year, one gumballer did doughnuts, hitting a Ferrari 360 Spyder, which hit a Porsche 911, which hit an Audi RS4. The drivers hired a helicopter to take them to the Playboy mansion. On another rally, a socialite was caught speeding, topless, on the French autoroute. Exceeding 150 mph is not uncommon; tickets are plastered on the windshield like badges of honor.


• Abi, who describes himself as a retired soccer player in his early 30s, attended last year's rally from New York to Los Angeles. He and his buddy drove a Dodge Viper, which reached speeds of 165 mph, he said. A Ferrari F50 clocked 209 mph, he added. "My co-driver got arrested going 158 mph in Tennessee," Abi said. "He was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail. I couldn't stop laughing." They got 28 tickets in six days, he said.
  

Have some extra money? Why not buy a talking doll of the Iraqi Information Minister?

From an editorial that appeared on the Web site of the London-based, Saudi-owned media organization Dar Al-Hayat.com. I found it on CNN:

Frankly, I missed Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf. He is the only Iraqi official who I think deserves full amnesty on all his previous crimes, because of his cuteness when he was lying in the face of the disaster. But where is Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf? Where are Saddam and his sons? Where is Tarek Aziz? Where is the rest of the gang?

I heard that al-Sahhaf has been captured, and then he issued a statement denying it, and declaring that he was the one who actually captured the Americans. Then I heard that when Saddam's statue was destroyed in Baghdad, al-Sahhaf made a statement to say that the statue was for one of Saddam's doubles.

Here's a new high-risk way to stop a bank robbery: make fun of the bank robber and say the bank is out of money.

Back from my trip to Baltimore -> New Haven -> Boston. I had a great time, but I am pretty worn out! I'm 95% sure that I'll be going to Johns Hopkins next year.

From Time Magazine this week:

President Bush visited the Marines at Camp Lejeune last week. He also visited the Coast Guard. The week before, he visited the Army; before that, the Navy. The speeches were pretty much the same: Saddam's finished, victory is assured, hurrah for our courageous troops. Cheerleading is a plausible presidential function, I suppose, but an odd thing has happened to Bush as the war has progressed. He has not grown in stature or gravitas, as wartime leaders usually do; he may have diminished. He seems imprisoned in a bleak, hortatory rhetoric of simple sentences and simpler ideas. Freedom good. Tyranny bad. We Tarzan, world Jane.

An Iraqi man provided critical information that allowed US Special Forces to rescue Pfc. Jessica Lynch. What an inspirational story.