I spent the evening at my friend Rosie’s house, where I made the acquaintance of Percy, her chocolate lab. Percy, in a demonstration of impeccable character judgment, took an instant liking to me and he eagerly deposited his goopy tennis ball on my lap several times. He seemed a little puzzled when I wouldn’t throw it for him. I considered using my Jedi powers, but I’m actually a little hesitant to do so. Once I start using them, I may not be able to contain myself. Before long, I’d be shooting lightning out my fingertips as a means of disciplining my nurses.

As a strong supporter of DFL candidates like Tim Walz and Amy Klobuchar during the last election cycle, I’m deeply dismayed with their vote to authorize the Protect America Act (a title that is only a smidgen less cynical than the PATRIOT Act). The law grants the government the power to conduct warrantless wiretaps with almost no judicial oversight or explicit restrictions on the surveillance of domestic communications. As it’s currently worded, the law contains a gaping hole that lets the administration spy on any phone call or e-mail as long as the surveillance is “directed at a person reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States”. I read this to mean that the government can listen in when my mom calls one of my uncles in Germany. Or it can read the e-mails I send to my brother when he’s overseas.

I’m not completely surprised by Walz’s vote. He’s a Blue Dog Democrat who is trying to look tough for the conservative voters back home. Except this isn’t acting tough–it’s acting scared. Walz flinched when the administration put on its Bin Laden mask and said, “Boo!” Disappointing, but predictable. Klobuchar, however, should know better. When she took her oath as an attorney, she vowed to uphold the Constitution. Even when it’s politically inconvenient. Even when it might earn you the scorn of Fox News. Even when you’re tired and crabby and ready to go on vacation. All the time, Amy. All the time.

I know my fifty bucks doesn’t mean much, but they’re going to have to do a lot better than this if they expect me to pull out my wallet for them in the future.

A friend and I were talking last night about the stellar emergency response to the 35W bridge collapse. The crisis management protocols at the local and state level functioned just as they were supposed to. The responders on the scene were well-trained and competent. Regular citizens played an important role in rescuing survivors in the first few minutes after the collapse. I would expect nothing less from my fellow civic-minded Minnesotans. As far as disasters go, this one was relatively small in scale, but that doesn’t detract from the exemplary performance of our emergency services. And for the rest of the country, it’s a good example of careful planning put into practice.

Traffic around the Twin Cities seemed relatively light today. I didn’t experience any major delays traveling between Minneapolis and St. Paul, although officials from the Department of Transportation remarked that the real test of post-collapse traffic will come on Monday. Estimates on the time it will take to rebuild the bridge range from one to three years. One thing about the news coverage is bugging me: the 35W bridge does not connect Minneapolis and St. Paul. 35W is a north-south highway that runs through Minneapolis and several western suburbs. While the Mississippi does serve as a demarcation between Minneapolis and our fair twin city to the east, the river takes a turn north and runs through the center of Minneapolis. This happens near the spot where yesterday’s tragedy occurred. It’s a small but significant detail and it seems to have escaped much of the national media.

Some commentators are already using the bridge collapse as a touchstone for the larger issue of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. This discussion is long overdue. but it’s deeply unfortunate that it took a tragedy like this to prompt it.

A few weeks ago, I posted a link to an on-line art exhibit featuring side-by-side pictures of real-life individuals and their on-line game avatars. I made particular mention of this picture of a gamer with a disability. His name is Jason Rowe and he’s interviewed in this NPR story on people and their gaming personas.

Rowe wears a ventilator mask that reporter Ketzel Levine describes as “ominous”. Ominous? Really? These are things I find ominous: Jabba the Hutt’s laugh, Dick Cheney’s petrified scowl, anything by Nine Inch Nails, the rattling sound my van just started making. A ventilator mask? Not so much.