Res Ipsa Loquitur (phrase)- Latin, Legalese: "The Thing Speaks For Itself." . . . DREAM JOURNAL

Ever since the 21st century came in, I've been asking myself that arching policy question that haunts so many of us who grew up with Arthur C. Clarke novels and Star Trek movies: where the ____  is my hovercar?!

After paying over $30 for 10 gallons of gas, I'd like to update that question slightly.

However, I do have a source of consolation during the gas-price madness: for some reason, be it random fate or no, I have been seeing a lot less of those big minivans --you know, the ones with a back that too often resembles the posterior of the driver-- with "W '04" stickers. Maybe they're staying home because the gas costs so much. Maybe they tore off their "W" stickers in a sudden fit of rationality. Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter. What matters is that Republicans with big-tailed minivans are blowing through a whole lot more money than my liberal self with a compact car that happens to be highly-ranked by the EPA in terms of environmental friendliness. O.K., maybe that's heartless. I should probably be thinking about Katrina or something. But it's still amazingly funny.

Getting away from all that, I actually did have a dream last night. It involved G'Kar from Babylon 5, and then some guy lecturing me about Corporations, which I take. He was quoting the rather soulless laws we've learned about corporate purpose: basically, unless your order of incorporation says otherwise --like Ben and Jerry's-- your first, legally-enforceable priority is maximizing shareholder profits. If you get too, too altruistic on the company dole, they can sue you. Fun stuff. So in the dream, I was getting fed up with all this corporate rationalizing, and started caroling The International in two languages (German and Russian). At least I was on key. Then I woke up. And that's all for now.