I'm Gina Smith

My favorite lyrics of the year. Poetry. Bright Eyes.

The song is by Bright Eyes, with Emmylou Harris singing backup. The song is gorgeous, the lyrics are intense. Hard to imagine a young guy like this (22?) capable of such depth. Makes me think of a young Dylan or Morrison.

Lyrics below.

if you walk away i'll walk away
first tell me which road you will take
i don't want to risk our paths crossing some day
so you walk that way, i'll walk this way

and the future hangs over our heads
and it moves with each current event
until it falls all around like a cold, steady rain
just stay in when it's looking this way

and the moons laying low in the sky
forcing everything metal to shine
and the sidewalk holds diamonds
like the jewelry store case
you walk that way, i'll walk this way

and laura's asleep in my bed
as i'm leaving she wakes up and says
i dreamed you were carried away
on the crest of a wave
baby don't go away, come here

and there's kids playing guns in the street
and one's pointing his tree branch at me
so i put my hands up
i say enough is enough
if you walk i'll walk you
and he shot me dead

i found a liquid cure for my landlocked blues
it will pass away like a slow parade
it's leaving but i don't know how soon

and the world's got me dizzy again
you'd think after 22 years i'd be used to the spin
and it only feels worse when i stay in one place
so i'm always pacing around or walking away

i keep drinking the ink from my pen
and i'm balancing history books up on my head
but it all boils down to one beautiful phrase
if you love something give it away

a good woman will pick you apart
a box full of suggestions for your possible heart
but you may be offended and you may be afraid
don't walk away, don't walk away

we made love on the living room floor
with the noise in the background from the televised war
and in the deafening pleasure
i thought i heard someone say
if we walk away they'll walk away

but greed is a bottomless pit
and our freedom's a joke we're just taking a piss
and the whole world must watch the sad comic display
if you're still free start running away
cause we're coming for you

i've grown tired of holding this pose
i feel more like a stranger each time i come home
so i'm making a deal with the devils of fame
saying let me walk away, please

you'll be free, child, once you have died
from the shackles of language and measurable time
and then we can trade places, play musical grace
till then walk away, walk away, walk away, walk away

so i'm out that door
putting on my shoes
i just want to make
a clean escape
i'm leaving but i don't know where to.

Bennazir Bhutto Assassinated.

Sad news. Excerpted from the Associated Press.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at the end of a campaign rally, aides said.

"The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred," Bhutto's lawyer Babar Awan said.

A party security adviser said Bhutto was shot in neck and chest as she got into her vehicle to leave the rally in Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad. A gunman then blew himself up.

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack.

Her supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf.

Some smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit, others burst into tears. One man with a flag of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party tied around his head was beating his chest.

In Washington, the State Department said it was seeking confirmation of Bhutto's condition.

"Certainly, we condemn the attack on this rally," deputy spokesman Tom Casey said. "It demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy."

The United States has for months been encouraging Musharraf to reach an accommodation with the opposition, particularly Bhutto, who was seen as having a wide base of support in Pakistan. Her party had been widely expected to do well in parliamentary elections set for next month.

At least 20 others were killed in the blast that took place as Bhutto left the rally where she addressed thousands of supporters in her campaign for Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.

Bhutto served twice as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile Oct. 18.

On the same day, her homecoming parade in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, killing more than 140 people. On that occasion she narrowly escaped injury.

Bennazir Bhutto Assassinated.

Sad news. Excerpted from the Associated Press.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at the end of a campaign rally, aides said.

"The surgeons confirmed that she has been martyred," Bhutto's lawyer Babar Awan said.

A party security adviser said Bhutto was shot in neck and chest as she got into her vehicle to leave the rally in Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad. A gunman then blew himself up.

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack.

Her supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf.

Some smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit, others burst into tears. One man with a flag of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party tied around his head was beating his chest.

In Washington, the State Department said it was seeking confirmation of Bhutto's condition.

"Certainly, we condemn the attack on this rally," deputy spokesman Tom Casey said. "It demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy."

The United States has for months been encouraging Musharraf to reach an accommodation with the opposition, particularly Bhutto, who was seen as having a wide base of support in Pakistan. Her party had been widely expected to do well in parliamentary elections set for next month.

At least 20 others were killed in the blast that took place as Bhutto left the rally where she addressed thousands of supporters in her campaign for Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.

Bhutto served twice as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile Oct. 18.

On the same day, her homecoming parade in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, killing more than 140 people. On that occasion she narrowly escaped injury.

Barron Hilton donates 97 percent of fortune to the poor. (Reuters)

A biography apparently reveals he is "embarrassed" about Paris Hilton's behavior and thinks it has "sullied the family name." From Reuters, excerpt below.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. hotel heiress Paris Hilton's potential inheritance dramatically diminished after her grandfather Barron Hilton announced plans on Wednesday to donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion (1.16 billion pounds) fortune to charity.

That wealth includes $1.2 billion Barron Hilton stands to earn from both the recent sale of Hilton Hotels Corp. -- started by his father Conrad in 1919 when he bought a small hotel in Cisco, Texas -- and pending sale of the world's biggest casino company, Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

That money will be placed in a charitable trust that will eventually benefit the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, raising its total value to about $4.5 billion, the foundation said in a statement.

Barron Hilton, chairman of the foundation, intends "to contribute 97 percent of his entire net worth, estimated today at $2.3 billion, including the created trusts, at whatever value it is at the time of his passing," the foundation said.

Paris Hilton was not immediately available for comment on her grandfather's plans for his fortune.

Jerry Oppenheimer, who profiled the Hilton family in his 2006 book "House of Hilton," has said Barron Hilton is embarrassed by the behaviour of his socialite granddaughter Paris and believes it has sullied the family name.

Barron Hilton, who is 80, has not commented on Oppenheimer's remarks.

The foundation supports projects that provide clean water in Africa, education for blind children, and housing for the mentally ill. Its aims, based on Conrad Hilton's will, are "to relieve the suffering, the distressed and the destitute."

Merry Christmas. Are you unAmerican if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior?

Alarming story in the Washington Post today ...

   Congress's Bullying Pulpit
    By Sally Quinn
    The Washington Post

    Sunday 23 December 2007

    As a child, I went to a small school in rural Alabama near an Army post where my father was stationed. It was a very Christian town, and our teacher was "born again."

    This was decades ago, but I remember clearly how she used to tell us that we must accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior. Then she would ask for hands to see who had. By age 11 I had become a nonbeliever. My father was in the Army and had fought in World War II and Korea; I concluded quickly that no loving God could have allowed those atrocities to be committed.

    But we had all seen our teacher, when crossed, call an unlucky member of our class up to the front of the room, make the student lie down on her desk and be paddled. The humiliation was worse than the pain. So, when she called on us to admit that we had accepted Jesus as our savior, I dutifully raised my hand.

    Thank goodness, those days are over, you might be thinking. Nothing like that could happen in this country today.

    Well, think again. It happened this month, right here in Washington.

    On Dec. 11, H.R. 847 was passed in the House of Representatives. Just listen to what our lawmakers have resolved:

"Whereas Christmas, a holiday of great significance to Americans," it begins, "is celebrated annually by Christians throughout the United States...." It goes on to state, among other things, that "Christianity [is] the religion of over three-fourths of the American population," that "American Christians observe Christmas, the holiday celebrating the birth of their savior, Jesus Christ," and that "Christmas is celebrated as a recognition of God's redemption, mercy, and Grace."

"Now, therefore be it Resolved, that the House of Representatives ... expresses continued support for Christians in the United States ... acknowledges and supports the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States ... rejects bigotry and persecution directed against Christians, both in the United States and worldwide; and expresses its deepest respect to American Christians."

    For brevity, I have omitted the resolution's references to Christianity around the world.

    This resolution passed with 195 Democratic yea votes, 177 Republican yeas and nine Democratic nays. No Republicans voted against it. Ten House members voted "present." Forty were not there, including the bill's sponsor, Rep. Steve King of Iowa.

    Among those voting for the resolution was a Jewish member of Congress who has asked me not to print his name. He was outraged and appalled by the bill, he told me. But he was also afraid. He thought it would hurt him with his mostly Christian constituency if he voted against it. He told some of his colleagues about his anguish. They advised him not to be stupid. It would be better for him politically if he voted for it.

    It's possible that the 10 who voted "present" also had problems with the bill but decided it was safer not to vote against it. One could also assume that some of those who were absent were not there so as not to have to deal with the problem.

    Earlier this year the House also passed resolutions honoring Islamic and Indian holidays but nothing that so equated a single faith with America and Americans.

    How could this happen, in what will soon be 2008, in a pluralistic, multicultural, multireligious society, a society based on the concepts of religious freedom and separation of church and state? What were they thinking?

    This resolution was as anti-American as anything Congress has ever passed. It disenfranchised and marginalized millions and millions of men and women, reducing them to second-class citizens.

    How about this next time around: "Whereas all holidays have great significance to some Americans, be it resolved that the House of Representatives expresses its deepest respect to Americans of all faiths and non-faith alike."

Wild holiday children, my present to you, and pagans.

Yes, we'll be ripping up presents under a Christmas tree tomorrow California style. My little boy is going to be going wild in about six hours, meaning I should go to bed.

However, I know there is an ongoing controversy regarding pagan traditions in Christmas, and I found a great website that wraps it all up quite nicely. Excuse the pun.

And happy holidays, readers. If you didn't check out the last post -- with the optical illusion -- do me a favor and check it out. It's my holiday present to you.

The coolest optical illusion I have ever seen.

Thanks to Steve Wozniak for the link. Wild.

Check this optical illusion out.

How could her managers let Jamie Lynn Spears get pregnant?

This is a career-killer, for sure. Yikes.

Joel Siegel's advice for cancer survivors.

Joel Siegel, Good Morning America's late movie critic, was always a kind and caring guy to be around. I enjoyed working with him and never realized how serious his cancer diagnosis was at the time, 1997-ish. He made light of it; always focused on others.

So I wasn't surprised to find he left a wonderful column behind -- click here to read it -- advice for cancer patients.

p.s. Joel died, after a ten-year battle with colon cancer, in June 07.

The fastest human calculator does it again!

LONDON (AFP) - The world's fastest human calculator on Tuesday broke his own record for working out a 200-digit number using nothing but brain power to produce the answer in just over 70 seconds. Alexis Lemaire, a 27-year-old Frenchman, correctly calculated the 13th root of a random 200-digit number from a possible 393 trillion answers.

The so-called 'mathlete' produced the answer of 2,407,899,893,032,210 in 70.2 seconds, beating his previous record of 72.4 seconds, at London's Science Museum.

A computer was used to produce a random 200-digit number before he sat down to calculate the answer in his head.

The museum's curator of mathematics, Jane Wess, said: "He sat down and it was all very quiet -- and all of a sudden he amazingly just cracked it.

"I believe that it is the highest sum calculated mentally.

"He seems to have a large memory and he's made this his life's ambition. It's quite remarkable to see it happen. A very small number of people have this extraordinary ability; nowadays there is only a handful."

Lemaire, who attends the University of Reims in northern France, began demonstrating his prowess by finding the 13th root of a random 100-digit number but gave up trying to improve his performance when he calculated an answer in under four seconds in 2004.

Like an athlete, he trains his brain daily for the far harder task of finding the 13th root of 200-digit numbers.