See, I issued that retroactive apology yesterday afternoon because I was in a room full of lower-middle & working class American women, all of whom were voting for Bush, so that (and the polls) indicated what was about to ensue. (Well, my parents voted for Bush too, but at least I understand their reasons for doing so, even if I can't exactly agree. :::Reference here the ?Disraeli? quote about how if one is not a liberal when young, one has no heart, and if not a conservative when old, one has no head:::)

Okay, I just tried to locate that exact quote and failed, but liked this one anyway: Once at a social gathering, Gladstone said to Disraeli, "I predict, Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease." Disraeli replied, "That all depends, sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."

I have at least two friends who previously told me they were thinking of emigrating to NZ--Peter Jackson has a lot to answer for!--if Kerry didn't win, so now I get to try and come up with reasons to make them stay here in the US. At least neither of them are gay, which would make the argument that much more difficult now.

And on a completely ephemeral/Thanks To Our Hulky Friends In the North tangent--Ernst, thanks again for the geek quiz! I only scored in the 'casual geek' category (dang...I lost, like, 300+ points in the 'non-geek' criteria! Who knew?), but I respectfully submit the argument that I deserve at least another 50 pts. for immediately noticing that they misspelled both "Tolkien" and "Gaiman"!