Sweet! I’m on an e-commerce kick. I also just renewed my membership in the R.E.M. Fan Club. Oh, how I relish the Christmas singles. They’ve got a nice gallery of them — I’ve got 1992’s “Where’s Captain Kirk” Vinyl 7″ and 1999’s CD with Neil Young. The News page also reveals some of the song titles from the forthcoming album. Now I just wish they’d get some decent T-shirts in the Thriftstore so I could display my fanaticism to one and all.

What a satisfying feeling. I just donated $25 to Planned Parenthood in George W. Bush’s name. Seriously. Someone came up with this great idea to show the President exactly what we think of his policies. Here’s the message I sent along (that he’ll receive): “I’m lucky to live in a country where my reproductive rights are secure–the UK. Please reconsider your position on such rights in the US. Otherwise I cannot, in good conscience, return home to a country that doesn’t allow me sovereignty over my own body.” It’s a bit clumsy, but you’re only allowed 255 characters so I had to significantly chop my first rant draft.

Some online comic sites are running an interview with Berkely Breathed (part 1, part 2). You do know who Berkely Breathed is, right? This reminds me of sophomore year of college, when Liz and I correctly identified the comic strip that “Bill the Cat” appeared in and won a gift certificate from the local radio station. (It was “Bloom County.”) Read the interview; it’s pretty good.

Regis Philbin is donating $2.75 million for a studio theater in the new Performing Arts Center his (and my) alma mater is building. Which is really generous and nice and all, but I find this quote from the chair of the theater department hilarious: “We would welcome this gift for any purpose, but to designate it for a theater that will be the home space for our lab and performance-art productions — a place for experiment and adventure in the arts — is especially appropriate.” What? Since when did Regis Philbin become “experimental” and “adventurous”? It’s not like we’re talking about Lars Von Trier here. That ass-kissing seriously pushes the boundaries of credibility.

The Observer has a good story about Planet Irish, which is apparently a student-run online community for ND students. I was actually really impressed by the site. It looks like something I would’ve made my start page.

My dad’s a big fan of Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. Apparently Cuban just got suspended for two games for rushing onto the court at the end of a Dallas-Cleveland game. The players got in a fight because the Dallas team was trying to run the score up to 100 so the home crowd would win 99-cent chalupa coupons as part of a Taco Bell promotion. How wacky is that? From the article: “Fans began chanting “Cha-lu-pa! Cha-lu-pa!” in the game’s waning seconds…” The opposing team was not amused. “It’s bigger than chalupas,” Wesley Person said. “Their coach called a play with 10 seconds left in a 20-point game. That’s disrespect.” Fair enough. I just wish I could get a damn chalupa in London.

Ironminds argues that Fred Durst should run for President in 2004. Why? Because “the nookie can be lots of things. Like Jerusalem.” Heh.

Damn. What my sister would’ve given for this domain name: lloyddobler.com. I found it while checking out this “pithy” list of great 80’s movies that I found linked on Lake Effect. Actually I watched one of them, The Breakfast Club, just this past Saturday night. (It was part of BBC2’s “I Love 1984” special.) I’m getting to love British telly, especially since they never bleep any of the curse words.

Max’s anecdote last week about students who don’t believe we landed on the moon made me laugh. That is, until I actually read about the ridiculous program Fox aired to support the conspiracy theorists. For those of you trying to debunk such, uh, bunk, Bad Astronomy refutes nearly every argument from the show. In addition, NASA themselves responded on their site saying “Yes, we did!” You know, NASA is about to finish one of the most important missions of the last 10 years, and it’s just sad that people continue to disbelieve the amazing work that they do.

Wow. I can’t believe this. Dale Earnhardt died. I’m not a fan of racing or anything (I think it’s the most boring “sport” I’ve ever seen), but this was one of the guys that even non-fans recognized. He was my uncle’s favorite racer. I hope maybe this forces NASCAR to recognize how dangerous racing is and that they need to implement more safety restrictions.