So about tonight's debate between Obama and Clinton in Texas, can I just say if anything would push me into the arms of John McCain, it is that sort of weak crap, and second, I think Hillary failed to win which is to say Barack won, and thus it looks to me as if it will be McCain vs Obama come November.  Steven Green did a great job of drunkblogging: "Once again, Clinton is asked if she really thinks Obama is unqualified to act as CinC. And once again, she's dodging the question. There's blood in the water, all right - and it's hers. My prediction: Obama will win Ohio and get as-good-as-a-draw or better in Texas. This race is over."  I agree.  Hic. 

I would write about the hypocrisy of Hillary and Barack talking about poor downtrodden Americans, but Victor David Hanson already did: Ivy League Populism.  "In these gloom-and-doom narratives by the well off, we less fortunate Americans are doing almost everything right, but still are not living as well as we deserve to be. And the common culprit is a government that is not doing enough good for us, and corporations that do too much bad to us."  This rings so true for me - I am becoming a Republican in my old age!  Who would have thought? 

Did you ever wonder if Star Wars would work?  Looks like it does; the Navy shot a wayward satellite out of the sky before it could land.  "The missile hit the satellite about three minutes after launch as the spacecraft, roughly the size of a school bus, traveled in polar orbit at more than 17,000 mph."  That's pretty fast for a school bus :)  [ Update: LGF links a YouTube movie showing the hit.  Wow. ] 

I love Scott Adams, author of Dilbert, and I love his blog.  But he sometimes misfires badly, usually in connection with politics, which he over-simplifies to the point of absurdity.  Consider Making Decisions, in which he writes "Take the war in Iraq as an example for this method of decision making... I do know for certain that fewer American soldiers would be targets if they left."  Now how does he know that?  We were all targets on 9/11, and could be again if we're not careful. 

Velonews' headlines aptly summarize the Tour of California thus far: Astana's Levi Leipheimer takes the lead after third stage of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California, and The Tour of California heads south as the podium battle narrows.  There are now five riders with a chance to win, four of them excellent time trialers: Levi, Fabian Cancellara (13s), David Millar (20s), and Dave Zabriske (21s).  Yeah, I'd say the Solvang time trial tomorrow will be decisive, which is why I'm planning to be there :) 

I took the picture at right last year as Levi won the Solvang TT and went on to win the TOC (click pic to enlarge).  I predict the same things will happen again.  Stay tuned!

Speaking of the TOC, here's a great story from a guy who temporarily donated his wheel to help Bobby Julich finish stage 2.  That's really cool.  [ thanks, Adam, for the email link ]. 

One more cycling note: here's an article on Slowtwitch about CSC's camp in Agoura Hills.  "Bjarne Riis said this was the best Winter camp his team had ever had. Better than Solvang? Yes. Better than the South of France and Mallorca and all of that? Yes, the best. Very good climbs."  Bet your ass - that's my daily stomping ground.  Where else would you live? 

Liron Shapira is someone I've never physically met; we've exchanged a lot of email over the years, and linked each other's blogs.  I think he was fifteen when we started, and now he's teaching a course at Berkeley called X-treme Thinking.  Very cool; reading the course notes, it seems like a class I would like to take.  Check it out. 

Brad Feld thinks the momentum behind software patent reform is building.  That would be nice. 

Joel Spolsky: Why the Microsoft Office file formats are so complicated.  There are some good reasons, as Joel notes, but also some bad ones; a result of the fact that Microsoft hires smart but inexperienced programmers.  I believe Joel was one of them himself :)