A plethora of Monday nothings.

Let me start off with this fun item, since it involves most of the copy/pasting

I need to do.

CHICAGO -- Jesse Jackson criticized Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert on Sunday, saying Gilbert sees LeBron James as a "runaway slave" and that the owner's comments after the free-agent forward decided to join the Miami Heat put the player in danger.

Shortly after James announced his decision last week, Gilbert fired off an incendiary letter to Cleveland's fans, ripping the 25-year-old and promising to deliver a title before James wins one. He called James' decision "cowardly" and later told The Associated Press he believes James quit during a handful of Cavaliers playoff games.
"He has gotten a free pass," Gilbert told the AP in a phone interview late Thursday night. "People have covered up for [James] for way too long. Tonight we saw who he really is."
Jackson said Gilbert's comments were "mean, arrogant and presumptuous."
"He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers," the reverend said in a release from his Chicago-based civil rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. "His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner-employee relationship -- between business partners -- and LeBron honored his contract."
Messages were left Sunday night seeking comment from Gilbert, the Cavaliers and James.
Jackson also called Gilbert's comments an attack on all NBA players and said the owner should face a "challenge" from the league and the players' association.
NBA spokesman Tim Frank declined comment.

I've got a more accurate term for how Gilbert and Cleveland see James, especially after his lay-down-and-die performance in the NBA semis this year. I think the Rev. Jackson might be familiar with it, too. The term? CARPETBAGGER.

Also, would Jackson had opened his yap if it would have been former owner Robert Johnson of the Bobcats complaining? Just sayin'.

Second, the second of our walks Saturday (which was begged for from 4 pm on and finally given into at 8 pm) Netted us yet another deer (right in the middle of the greenway, disappearing down the trail to Scrappy's landing) and Mr. bunny rabbit (in the back yard). Then Sunday morning was greeted with yet another deer just crossing the parking lot when we woke up. So the running total for the year is now 21 deer, 16 rabbits, 5 bats, 3 chipmunks, 3 groundhogs, 2 each of raccoons, opossums, and skunks, one black squirrel, and our famous longhorn steer (who since he's in a corral only gets counted once.

Next, got this apparently final comment from Joshua that ends the long debate back on "what government is for":

Joshua said...
I'm sorry, but it is at this point where I must opt out of this conversation. My college course load has just picked up and I just have no time to post comments anymore.Thank you for the semi-intellectual discussion (Mainly on CW Martin's part)I can only recommend that you read up more on the Theory of Evolution because I don't feel that anyone in this forum quite understands the concept. (The Anon who posted the comment about irreducible complexity definitely doesn't)It was fun even if I didn't change anyone's viewpoint. "If you could reason with religious people, there's would be no religious people" -HouseAnd finally I bid you farewell. I'll probably still check the comments for a while, but I probably won't be commenting anymore.

I know how he feels about the workload, as I've spent most of this tete-a-tete underneath all that OT. I thankfully accept his semi-compliment, though it would've meant more if it was based more on respect for my intellect and less about his more heated debate with Anon. In concluding, I have to say that anyone who can look at the irreducible complexity in nature and has any sort of common sense probably doesn't have time to waste on "understanding the concept" of evolution. If that sounds rough of me, follow the thread and see how short shrifted my personal relationship with Jesus Christ got. And I shudder to think what kind of grief Anon or I would have gotten for quoting a tv character. (probably "that does nothing to add to your point.") But it has been interesting to get a first hand look at the closed mind of a "free-thinking " atheist who isn't subject to the "brainwashing" we Christians got.

In looking over past posts tonight, I see I also left out that HC Budivelnik Kiev will not be playing in the KHL this coming season. Something about the league preferring that teams actually have an arena to play in. Kiev seems to be a bit deficient on that point.

Finally, thanks for the comment on time machine, msnkrey! These songs are like little bubbles of the best part of my life, and it makes me happy and sad at once to take them out and shine 'em up like this.

Step into my time machine, week eleven

This week, we have 11 debuts in the hot hundred (but only 2 I remember), a whopping 6 in the top 40, and 3 new top tens. Also, all the usual fun and a new feature! Let's get started.

Out of eleven debuts, including one by the Jackson 5, the two I actually remember are the awesome live Show Me The Way from Frampton Comes Alive at 94, and the nifty Johnny Rivers cover of Help Me Rhonda at 85. Our next stops are the week's big movers, with James Taylor making the big jump for the second straight week with How Sweet It Is going up 25 to 43. Last week's "almost but not quite" I'll Play For You by Seals and Crofts, plummets 42 spots to 77 for the biggest drop.

The top 40 is joined by 6 songs. Aerosmith climbs its way in at 40, up 6 spots (a movement shared by four out of the six) with Sweet Emotion; Freddy Fender breaks the surface at 39 with Wasted Days and Wasted Nights; the Rolling Stones climb in with a terrible song that I listened to when it debuted and thought it was not worth mentioning. But here it is at 38, the appropriately named I Don't Know Why. Michael Jackson precedes his brothers into the 40 at 36 (up 7) with a song that was catchy but apparently (to me) not very memorable, Just A Little Bit Of You. Same comment for the Commodores with Slippery When Wet, which was their second chart hit and first to crack the top twenty, at 35. Finally, a song I mentioned a couple weeks back when it first hit the hot 100, Tony Orlando and Dawn's Morning Beautiful, jumps 12 to land in the 40 at 30.

This week's almost but not quite is Hey You by Bachman-Turner-Overdrive. It peaked at 16 last week and now slips to 23. The tidbit on this one is that at the time reports said that it was directed by Randy Bachman at former Guess Who bandmate Burton Cummings (You realize now/You should have tried now, /oooh/The music's gone now/You lost it somehow). just like Silly Love Songs was McCartney's answer to John Lennon's opinion of his songwriting. Boys, play nice!

Three go into the top ten, three drop out. Falling to 13 is Major Harris' Love Won't Let Me Wait; at 17, Jessie Coulter's I'm Not Lisa; and at 24 Linda Ronstadt's former top dog When Will I Be Loved.

This week's look at the tops of other decades takes us into the "4's". 1994 this week saw Ace of Base on top with Don't Turn Around in pop, while the modern rock chart was topped by Toad The Wet Sprocket with Fall Down, a very good tune reminiscent of the Eagles. 1984 saw the start of Prince's 4 week run with When Doves Cry; 1974 was the Hues Corporation's Rock The Boat; the incomparable Frankie Valli (whom we'll see in a few minutes) and the Four Seasons were on top this week in 1964 with Rag Doll; and in 1954, the top song this week was a sweet little number, Little Things Mean A Lot. It was recorded by Kitty Kallen, who'd had ten top tens from 1943-5 with Jimmy Dorsey's and Harry James' bands, including Wayne Newton's later signature Besame Mucho. But at the top of her fame,( which was enough that she has three imposters, one of which died and everyone thought it was her) she lost her voice for an extended period and was just starting to come back nine years later when she had this, the biggest hit of her career.

The top ten leads off with a medley by Gladys Knight and The Pips, The Way We Were/Try To Remember, which featured a lot of spoken lyrics. They moved up 1 to get there. Up 3 to #9 is ,despite "official" billing on other songs, the first truly solo Frankie Valli single ever released, Swearin' To God. Leaping six to take home the number 8 spot is 10cc with the heavily overdubbed I'm Not In Love. Michael Murphy drops 4 to 7th with Wildfire; Olivia Newton-John's Please Mister Please climbs 2 to number 6. Magic climbs 1 to # 5 for Pilot...

We interrupt for yet another new feature. Starting this week, I'll count down the top100 of my humongous 1226-song list of my favorite songs of the seventies, 5 at a time. Numbers 100 and 99 are both by Canadian acts, both hit 8 on the billboard charts and 1 on the Canadian, and while one followed a Charlie Pride song on that chart at 1, the other preceded a Charlie Pride song. (wow, huh?) 100 is the Stampeders' Sweet City Woman, 99 is Anne Murray with Snowbird. We jump to 1978 for the number 98 song, Boston's Don't Look Back; KC and the Sunshine Band's Keep It Coming Love is 97, and Dream Weaver (inspired when Gary Wright got some religious literature from George Harrison) is the 96th best song for me. For me, these songs bring back the almost interminable (it seemed )wait for Boston's second album; hearing KC and the guys on the Midnight Special; and the long hot summer when Dream Weaver came out. Now, on with the countdown.

Soaring six notches to number 4 are the Eagles with One Of These Nights; the Captain and Tenille drop out of the top spot to 3 with Love Will Keep Us Together. But it's airplay was such that on Billboard's charts it would hit number 1 a week before and stay there a week later, for a four week run. Van McCoy and his Soul City Symphony moves up 2 to 2 with The Hustle; less than a year later, he would be dead of a heart attack. And the new top dog for this week in 1975, McCartney and Wings with Listen To What The Man Says from the album Venus and Mars. That's it for this week's trip.

A typical walk part IV, no pictures

When we woke up this morning, the baby bunny and what appeared to be his slightly larger sibling were scampering out in the back yard. Right then I knew what I was in for. If you can imagine a beagle looking at you and saying, "C'mon. daddy! Let's go out and chase the bunnies! PLLLLLLEEEEEASE?" you know what I was looking at. Even as I tried to put my belt in my pants, he was standing on the bed with a paw on each shoulder as if giving advice (which of course would have been, hurry up!) After convincing him we weren't going anywhere until he got breakfast ate, we took off.

Today's route was down the plex road until reaching the fence row that leads to the middle entrance of the woods. I could see by the parked cars further down that one of "fields 15-19" were being used, and wanted to avoid the soccer crowd. As we turned into the edge of the meadow, I saw what I thought was an unusual sight - a pack of little brown butterflies on a piece of poop. I soon found that there was a little brown butterfly convention in town, as we ran across a couple hundred in the next 10 yards or so. On the grass, the dandelions, a dead bunny- there were so many Scrappy even managed to step on one (not that he'd notice).
Before you reach the woods at entrance #2, there's a gap in the fence row, and we could see that the soccer crowd were well to the south. Once we got into the woods, I decided to off-trail and wander around (mainly so's I could find a place to pee). Now there are many good things to say about Scrappy- "he's a great dog to take through the woods" is not among them. He charges onward usually with very little regard for whether dear ol' dad can fit through, beneath, or around whatever he's just went through, beneath, or around. Generally, though, he takes the following instructions well, so it's a minor inconvenience.
On the west side of the woods are the senior living apartments and medical parks that dot north Clinton between Coliseum and Washington Ctr. We were heading in that general direction when I saw two deer about 30 yards down a trail that followed the wood's edge south. As usual, Mr. Boy was oblivious and with difficulty I turned him towards them as they took off farther south. The trail became somewhat regular as we went, but I figured we'd seen the last of them. But when we reached the spot I first saw them, I saw that they had turned east towards the main trail and were again watching us. Right about then the mighty hunter Doggy Nimrod finally caught their scent on the trail and we went careening south even as I watched the deer disappear towards the main trail.
By the time he hit the spot where they turned east, Scrappy overran the scent and began circling aimlessly even as I tried to convince him which way they went. Seeings as we were far enough south they wouldn't exit the woods for running into the soccer crowd, I thought we might have a slight chance of seeing them again once we hit the main trail. But they must have veered south and headed for the ravine, and by the time we made it, I was ready to be done. We took the dirt trail back to the addition, which had been blocked near the entrance by a fallen tree when last we went that way a week or two ago. It had been cleared, which was a good thing , because just then a gnat decided my eye would make a good funeral home. Oh, and we also saw Mr. chipmunk on the way out. Of course, as usual, that "we" was just me.

I thought about calling this random thoughts..

...but really it's not so much a random stream of thought as just one thought up in the shower, where I have neither pad, nor paper, nor a secretary to take dictation while I rinse. I've been thinking about this whole debate thing going on the last couple of weeks, and here are some things to chew on.
Joshua deadpanned one of anon's sources because he was a "young earther" as if that meant automatic discreditation because today's scientific thought discounts it. And just for the record here in this post, if you weren't there you can't prove it. I thought about that I am also a "young earther", but am I? Regard: time did not start until God had created the heavens and the earth. God is beyond and outside time. Regard: if a day is properly the interval between the earth's rotations, how is it that four days passed before the sun was created? Light was made in the physical realm first ( the big bang?) and then light and darkness were separated (the settling of energy into matter, perhaps?) and God named that day and night. The point? time does not follow the same scale on mortal and divine levels, and what scientist say took 10 billion years or what have you could easily match the speed with which God describes creation. Or it could've been done in six days. Not crucial to salvation, therefore a topic for debate with out any real chance for solution.
The early books of the Bible, especially Genesis, was a story inspired by the Holy Spirit, told to men well after the events- or passed down over the years until writing came along. Remember Homer wrote from a 700 year old passed down source, and archaeology has proved much of him as well. These were simple men whose comprehension of concepts such as General relativity and higher dimensions was, shall we say limited. So the story was told in such a way that they could understand and benefit from it. Not really dumbing it down, but relying on faith to make the transition from fact to comprehension.
God could easily be the explanation for many things to which we have or have not grasped the physics of yet. For example dark matter. You know, that stuff that has to be there in the universe and in vast quantities to make everything work the way quantum physics says it should? We cannot see it, tell what it is made of, or point it out as being here or there. But it is believed in because we can see the evidence of it. God is the same way. You know, instead of constantly denying God because of his illogic, I wish Joshua would stop and play out this scenario: if there is a God, hypothetically, and He acts in the way (plug in the religion) says He does- why does He act that way? What would be His motivations? Say to yourself, if I was an omnipotent, all-creating deity, why would I do the things I do? Not why do men do what they do- type in News of the Weird, and you will learn as I have, that man is a fairly stupid creature for all his knowledge and potential. I'd like to see Joshua spend some time doping out what he would do in the Master's shoes.
A while back, Joshua said something about God making no sense to him because why give him a mind to reason with and yet expect him to take Him on faith. But if you look back through the annals of man conceptualizing god, and it boils down to one point- mortals are created for one reason, to worship their creator. Perhaps He gave us reason because He didn't want stupid worshippers. (Of course, there goes on of my points right there.) Or perhaps He wanted worshippers competent to make a choice for Him.
Anyway, I need to add some news and some animal sightings. The news- we are at long last back to 10 hour days!!!!!!!!! Animals are a raccoon up by the office two mornings ago, and two more bunnies. Plus, Monday night we spent about 45 minutes watching at least 2 bats out the bedroom window. That was one I forgot to list, and I think that makes about 5 sightings this year.

A (not-so) typical walk part 3

So this time we take the long road to IPFW. First stop is out the Plex and onto California road.

California road is not usually this dry; it runs right along a swamp on the south.

Along the way, there was a deer across the channel from us. Of course, by the time I could react, he was a fluffy white butt flying through the brush. He was but a harbinger of what was to come- unfortunately, the wonderful pictures a good camera could take were generally lost on this one. That model again is GFM model DV150.

Rounding the curve you get your first view of the really nice foot bridge IPFW built.

About this time Mr. Bunny Rabbit made a brief appearance. Scrappy gave him little notice, because here is his favorite place: the "beach"- actually an old boat landing. Note the warning sign for the dam.

Here's the bridge from on board, with views toward Coliseum Blvd. and back towards home.

On the other side is IPFW, with its magnificent tree walk. Over a hundred different species with plaques explaining each one.

Yes, that's my thumb and not a bald midget.

About halfway down this walk (which is as far as we went) is a nice picnic area with a gazebo. Across from it is a tree-filled garden, which was full of flowers in the spring. At its edge is a mammoth Beech with all the "Joe loves Jane" carvings of the ages.

Joe Cool, college stud.

I tried desperately to capture this cute family of Momma Duck and 3 ducklings, but not much luck.

By this time, Scrappy was ready for a refreshing dip. Come to think of it, he is a ... well, never mind.

We came back a slightly different route. Across from the bridge is where the former IPFW ball diamond was before they moved to the much-better watered Carrington Field. I think it will someday be IPFW parking, but for now it's a park with a stone road down the middle. Beyond this used to be fallow field punctuated by a pond, but now the telltale signs of construction are everywhere. In the background, so's you know where we are is the Coliseum and the Holiday Inn.

And this is the hidden entrance to the IPFW woods.

Going out the south entrance, you enter "fields #s 15-19" of the Plex. Yes, there are THAT many fields.

There are three breaks in the fence row that separates these fields from the main body of the Plex. We went through the south one, only to see another deer. I managed to take the first two of several attempts to photo the deer here, thwarted time and again by this camera's far-sightedness. The deer went through to the other side, so we went through at the second break to try some more. This time he was just to our north. While he got a good look at us, Mr. Boy was as yet oblivious. We crossed back and went through the north break, this time coming out north of him. Scrappy by this time had finally picked up his scent, though he never saw him until we moved closer and he ran off to the woods. Scrappy tried to chase, but amazingly was too tired to bay at him.

If you click on these and really squint, you can see the deer left of the nearest goal in the first picture and galloping between the leftmost and center goals in the right-hand picture.
Finally we head home, and as we cross into the addition we run into a cat that actually runs from Scrappy and Scrappy actually tries to chase- both very unusual occurances.
So when you factor in the post this morning and the chipmunk at IPFW I failed to mentioned, we are now up to 17 deer sightings, 11 bunnies, and 2 chipmunks for the year.

Step into my time machine, week ten

Before we step in, two things. Last night's walk we spotted yet another deer, and Monday on the way into work saw another in the same spot. Also, a garter snake on this morning's walk.

Second, The big sighting on this morning's walk was the car sitting upside down just down the street. The driver was a young black man in cornrows, and he apparently had another couple of young men, one white, one black, with him. He had to have sped around the curve in front of our house, blew off the curve following it, bashed the tree on the passenger side corner and flipped- I assume the curb put him airborne before he hit the tree. He allegedly told first responders he "just looked up and saw the tree". I saw no evidence that said tree lept in front of him. After the wrecker finally got him tipped upright, the cops cuffed him and took him downtown, I didn't hear the charge. He didn't look intoxicated, just not real bright.

OK, on to the countdown. Kind of a ho-hum week, with only three of the 12 new debuts making a dent in my mind despite debuts by such acts as the Temptations, 3 Dog Night, and the Stylistics, and only three top 40 debuts. However, out of that three top 100 newbies is one who comes in in the top 40. The other two new chart hits that I knew were Neil Sedaka's That's When The Music Takes Me at 77 and Earth Wind and Fire's second chart hit, That's The Way Of The World at 69. Also, our big jumpers and droppers were in the nether reaches as well. James Taylor hops up 24 with How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) at 68, and Chicago's Old Days has gotten old enough to drop 47 spots to 74.

The top 40 newbies start out with Everytime You Touch Me (I Get High) by Charlie Rich at 40, then comes Ringo Starr with It's All Down To Goodnight Vienna at 37. In the interests of drumming up a little suspense, we'll cut in here with the almost but not quite salute. This week, Seals and Crofts hold at 35 with I'll Play For You, a song that really has grown on me over the years. This was not a song that I was able to find a ton of interesting tidbits on, but I did learn that among the musicians on the song were the future nucleus of Toto, David Paich and Mike Porcaro. Interestingly, the Billboard chart (which adds airplay to sales) had this song peaking at 18 this week. This can only mean that Seals and Crofts fans are cheap bastards, or else that Jim and Dash's Baha'i faith led a lot of their fans to share. Or not.

Now we come to that high debut, making its first appearance all the way up at 33. That would be Elton John with Someone Saved My Life Tonight. We have 2 top 10 debuts, so 2 drop out. That would be thank God I'm A Country Boy dropping to 21 and Alice Cooper's Only Women, which peeked in last week and now falls to 20.

Let's do our tour of other years before hitting the top ten; this week we hit the 3's. Seeings as I never know any of the 90's top hits, I'm going to add the top song on the Modern Rock Charts, which at least I have a chance of knowing. Janet Jackson was top on pop this week in 1993 with That's the Way Love Goes; Porno for Pyros held the top spot on MR with Pets. In '83, Irene Cara was ending a 6-week run with Flashdance (What A Feeling); in '73 it was George Harrison with Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth); in 1963, Kyu Sakamoto was ending a 4 week run with Ue O Muite Arukō, a Japanese language song much better known by its nickname of Sukiyaki; and in 1953, my man Percy Faith and his Orchestra were ending a nine week run at the top with the Theme to Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart)-which makes the fifth song I've mentioned this week with a subtitle. What is this? Anyhow, this was another beautiful instrumental by the man that brought us to " A Summer Place" and this time I did recognize it.

Now, the top ten. Jumping 8 big notches to roost at the leadoff spot are the Eagles with One Of These Nights. Linda Ronstadt tumbles 5 to 9 with former top dog When Will I Be Loved. Number 8 is the debut for Olivia Newton-John's Please Mister Please, up 5 from 13. Batting cleanup is the falling Jessie Coulter with I'm Not Lisa; Pilot flies to 6 with Magic, up 3. Major Harris drops 2 to 5 with Love Won't Let Me Wait; Van McCoy Hustles up 3 to #4 with The Hustle; Michael Murphy finds it crowded at the top and falls to 3, down one, with Wildfire. McCartney and Wings soar 4 notches to 2 with Listen To What the Man Says. And believe it or not, we finally have our second multi-week top dog, Love Will Keep Us Together by the Captain and Tennille. See you next week and have a happy and SAFE 4th of July.

They were the best of POTUS, they were the worst...

Siena College has released its annual poll of a bevy of eggheads as to who were the best and worst presidents in US history. Of course, I know better and am going to point out some of the goofs these esteemed scholars made.

(Pictured, FDR and Buhannan.)

First, let's look at the categories. The first is background (family, experience). According to the Eggheads, a man like Adams (either one) scores higher (being from an elite family) than, say, Obama (who was raised by a single parent) or Lincoln (who, OMG, had to work for a living). Another dubious category is called Luck. They also included categories for Executive and Judicial Appointments. Finally, they asked them how they would rank the guys straight up and included this total. So, according to this category the top 5 were Lincoln (who finished 3rd), FDR (1st), Washington (4th), T.R. (2nd), and Jefferson (5th). My question is, if you have this category, why do you need the others?

Ok, now lets go category-by -category. Family background shows us that the most privileged of Presidents were Jefferson, JQ Adams, Madison, Adams #1, and FDR, while the poor turds at the bottom of the family bowl were Harding, Andy Johnson, Chet Arthur, Filmore, and Benjamin Harrison. Outside of the fact that Johnson, Harding, and Filmore are in most of the bottom 5 because they just sucked, I have to say that having been to Harrison's home and museum, I fail to see the logic here.

They gave reluctant kudos in party leadership to Reagan (5th) and LBJ (3rd), Communication to Reagan (again, 5th), and LBJ on ability to suck-up in congress (1st). Outside of the usuals, Jimmy Carter picked up a 5th from bottom in party leadership and handling congress, and GW Bush makes one of his 12 bottom 5's in Communicating. Clinton made #3 in handling the economy ( because "it's the economy, stupid" is catchier than "whip inflation now"). Not so surprisingly, Carter and GW Bush both took bottom 5's here. However, I think Hoover's dead last in this category is misinformed. He was just the guy in the chair when the house of cards collapsed. Perhaps in reference to this inequity, he also got a dead-last in Luck. Amusingly, this is the one case you can make for WH Harrison getting any ranking (seeings as he didn't even get the chair warm before he died) and HE comes in second-last. Who were the luckiest Presidents? Washington, TR, Reagan(?), Andy Jackson, and FDR. OK, now Reagan got shot at by one guy who hit him; Jackson got shot at by hundreds of Indians and they all missed. But Ron is luckier. Go figure.

I'm skipping the appointments for two reasons. WH Harrison doesn't live long enough to appoint anyone, and still manages to beat out at least 5 people on each category (OK, I can see where Grant (4th worst), GW Bush (3rd worst), and Harding (dead last) beat him out, but, c'mon...) Also, of course Washington got #1- look at who he had to pick from compared to these days.

Integrity was an easy call on the good side- Lincoln, Washington, the Adams family, and Madison. I'm sure it galled them that they couldn't find a spot for Nixon at the bottom of this list, but they made up for it by putting him dead last on Intelligence. Read any of the man's books and you'll agree that they totally discredited themselves here. Ditto for Hoover at 4th.

Overall ability was well done with Lincoln, FDR, TR, Washington and Jefferson; GW Bush at 4th from the bottom is a bit of a stretch (but not much of one). Woodrow Wilson got his one top 5 in Imagination ( a good pick) and Harding got dead last- I guess banging your mistress in the Oval Office broom closet would rank him higher on risk taking than imagination or intelligence).

As nice as they were to LBJ on other categories ( top 5s in Party Leadership, Handling Congress, Court Appts., and Domestic Accomplishments) I was shocked to see him take the booby prize in Executive Ability (where Obama should be keeping him company soon). They actually ranked WH Harrison here. On what, extrapolated data?

Anyway, they came out, as I said before, with FDR, TR, Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson at the top, Andy Johnson, Buchanan, Harding, Pierce, and GW Bush at the bottom. I've always thought Johnson got a slightly bad rap here; I think Buchanan was far and away the worst. I'll have to see if I can find the list I made when they did this last year and post it someday.