xmascard 02: credits

• What another year...
• The recently begun perpetual War on Terrorism turned into a war on freedom and the right to privacy in a free and open society and into an excuse to continue oppression in many parts of the world with slightly shifted rhetoric. Total Information Awareness is only one part of this rightwing agenda that again served up Saddam as a target to provide cover. Why is waving the flag always so effective?
• Compassionate conservatism, an oxymoron introduced by (someone behind) George W. Bush, sort of like "killing you with kindness"... except literal rather than figurative.
• The Worry image from The Nation is a morphing of George W. Bush with Alfred E. Neuman, the official mascot of the American satirical humor Mad Magazine famous for his motto: "What, Me Worry?" and less so for many longer quotes.  [Mad Magazine is the longest running humor magazine in the states, born the same year as bob.]
• An international chemistry related meeting in Orlando finally brings bob and ani to town. A full day together at Epcot Center on the weekend and a few hours for bob at the Kennedy Space Center while ani was hard at work. The most incredible thing there is the Saturn moon rocket left over from the Apollo moon program. Lying there in its separated stages in an enormous hanger. That alone was worth the trip.
• 
  Meanwhile the inspiration for the bears came from the Pottery Barn Kids Clancy the bear that bob took a liking to and repeatedly visited in 2002. [Made by "Gotta Getta Gund", the world's most huggable stuffed bears and other animals since 1898.] Unfortunately more and more people in the world can only dream of owning a stuffed bear.