Every time I post something even vaguely political here, I get angry rebuttals and insults from a couple of folks, often the same couple of folks. A regular is someone named Hank Cox, and the following is quite typical of how it goes…

I am not surprised that you linked to electoral-vote.com since that's another socialist (i.e., liberal) website run by another one of your Anti-American defeatists. I wouldn't trust a comma on that Obama Osama loving site. If you are as fair minded as some claim, why did not you link to election projection, which is run by a good, God-fearing American who also lists and analyzes the polls? Could it be that you do not live in the reality-based community of your mind and think you can trick Republicans into the same kind of defeatist mindset you favor for Iraq, making us believe we cannot win?

Actually, election projection is another decent tracker of electoral votes. At this moment, they figure Barack Obama with 349 electoral votes and John McCain with 189. The "socialist" site you abhor has Obama at 317 and McCain at 194.

The BBC is running a three-part interview with Miriam Marx entitled "Groucho Was My Father." You should be able to listen to Part One at this link. If it doesn't work, try looking around on this page for a link that will play through your browser.

Part Two airs this Sunday and shortly after it does, Part One may disappear from the website and be replaced by Part Two. I'll link to Part Two once I know it's up but in the meantime, you might want to listen to Part One before it goes away. And yes, that's our pal Frank Ferrante doing the Groucho impression. Who better?

Hey, guess what I did last evening! Along with my friends Earl and Denise, I went to see Lewis Black discuss and sign his new book, Me of Little Faith. There was a long interview that proved once again that Mr. Black is very funny and very perceptive…and nowhere near as angry as some think. The discussion was conducted by Time Magazine columnist Joel Stein, who was a very good foil for Black, setting 'em up so Lew could knock 'em down, and occasionally convulsing the interviewee.

The chat was primarily about theology, which is the subject of Black's book. In it, he criticizes some of the more eccentric and/or destructive practices of all the major religions except Islam. As Black explained, he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in hiding. Otherwise, it's a series of short essays by a man who says he could never get any of the faiths to work for him but learned to live a happy, moral life without them. I'll write more about it as soon as I finish reading it.

Here's a link to the Amazon page where you can order the book. And even if you don't want to, you should go there because they have three short promotional videos up that you'll want to watch.

Wanna read a spirited debate about the rights of the detainees in Guantanamo and the recent Supreme Court decision about those rights? Okay, start by reading this.

Then read this.

Then read this.

Then, finally for now, read this. There may be more chapters to follow but that should be about as much as anyone can handle.

A lot of people have come to believe that this is what the Iraq War has all been about…helping Big Oil make bigger profits. I don't believe that's the only thing it's been about but America oughta be angrier than it is that it's even been about that at all.

Oh, well. At least we got the guys who were responsible for 9/11 and we improved America's moral standing in the world.

On April 24 on this blog, I posted the following…

I don't understand it. My car isn't running any better with the $4.00 gas in it than it did with the $3.00 gas in it.

Maybe I'll have better luck in June with the $5.00 gas.

Sure enough…it's June, I'm paying more than $5.00 a gallon for gas…and my car isn't running any better.

Why are we getting so fat as a people? Well, one reason is that our food is becoming most available to us in huge portion sizes.

The new issue of Written By, the magazine of the Writers Guild of America, is out now and it's devoted largely to the writing of cartoons. There are in-depth pieces on Matt Groening (who did the cover), Brad Bird, Seth MacFarlane, strikes and troubles of the past…and even an introductory overview article by me. A few excerpts from the issue, not including my piece, are on the magazine's website. Look for it at your local newsstand.

Here's a remarkable photo of the Barack Obama/Al Gore campaign rally the other day. It's a 360° photo, meaning you can move the picture all around with your cursor. Forget the politics a moment and just enjoy the visual.

I spent a few hours yesterday over on two soundstages at Universal Studios that were far from the recent fire. I was watching people there film portions of the finale to Land of the Lost, a forthcoming movie starring Will Ferrell in a remake/update of the classic Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday morn series of the same name. It'll be a big (maybe the big) Summer release next year ('09) and while I'm not supposed to divulge what I saw, I don't think they'll be too upset if I tell you it looked terrific. Remind me, when we get closer to the release and things aren't so hush-hush, to tell a great story about something one of the special effects guys told me.

A few hours earlier, I was in Beverly Hills for a meeting and I ducked into one of my favorite pizza places (this one) for a quick slice. This was before I realized that when I got to the set, they'd be serving pizza for dinner. Anyway, I'm in the pizza place in Beverly Hills and the fellow ahead of me looks at a wall of celebrity photos, points to one of Christopher Walken and asks, "Does he come in here?" The guy behind the counter says, "Occasionally." The customer says, "Then I want a slice of pizza with more cow bell!"

The guy behind the counter — who apparently had never seen this sketch (with Will Ferrell, oddly enough) — turns to the guy making the pizzas and says, "Hey, we got cowbell?" The guy making pizzas answers, "No."

The customer — not one to give up on a lame joke just because nobody gets it — announces, "Guys, I gotta have more cowbell." The man behind the counter gives him a look and says, "I told you…we don't have cowbell. We have pepperoni. We have sausage. We have pineapple…"

"All right, all right," the customer says. Then he points to a picture on the wall of Jack Nicholson and says, "I'll have a chicken salad sandwich…"

He didn't get a laugh with that, either. When I left with my order, he was still working the wall…

If you're going to keep track of possible electoral vote scenarios this fall, you'll want to bookmark this site which does a great job of following polls and showing you how everyone's doing. The caution is that they take even a one-point lead (in a poll with a margin of error greater than that) as significant.

For instance, at this moment (it could change within the hour), they have Obama at 317 and McCain at 221. Since you need 270 to win, that sounds like a landslide for Obama…but take a closer look. They have Virginia as "barely Democratic" and they award Obama its 13 electoral votes. Why? Because the Rasmussen Poll has Obama at 45% and McCain at 44%. The margin of error in this poll is 4.5% so a one point lead is meaningless. (Then again, Rasmussen is the poll most Republicans love. When all others have Democrats ahead, Rasmussen often favors the G.O.P., at least when it's far enough from election day that they won't be proven instantly wrong.)

Or take Nevada. The site gives its 5 electoral votes to McCain since McCain is at 44% and Obama's at 42% in a Mason-Dixon poll with a 3 point margin o' error. Obama gets Missouri's 11 and Ohio's 20 though he's one point ahead there while McCain gets North Carolina's 15 due to being two points ahead. And all of this is going by only one poll per state…the most recent one, even if one the day before said something very different.

Bottom line: Use it but click through on the swing states and look at all the polls for a given state and at the trends. In much of the country, it is already over: McCain ain't gonna win California or New York. Obama ain't gonna win Texas or Utah. And an awful lot of states could go either way.