This is it, the last day of eight years of Bush. And I honor him for his service to our nation; even thought he made mistakes, he still has stood up when it was right but not fun.

And today we remember Martin Luther King Jr., a black man who dream that one day his children would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Well, I think you'd be proud today, Mr. King.

And, it really is amazing, a country that 40, 60 years ago still had a lot of segregation between whites and colored people. And now, a black man becoming arguably the most powerful man in the world.. tomorrow?

It's just… blowaway amazing, really.

And I ask that God will protect President Obama, shield him from those who would harm him, give him great wisdom, and turn his heart. I think it's really great that such an event could actually be happening, with a host of supporters in the nation, but after all, he was either one of the most or the most liberal congressmen in our nation. And we will certainly see his radical views affect our nation in big ways.

But, this is just crazy. It's almost hard to believe it's happening… both for the part of life that I've paid attention to politics (or most of it), Mr. Bush has been our president. I haven't really known anything else. But now, a Democrat, a very radical one at that, a black man, and a fairly young-ish President-elect, about to take power.

Puh-retty amazing.

Not to mention how much the inauguration… like $150 million or something like that. Insane. I can understand security and safety costs, but a bunch for partying, too? (I don't actually know the breakdown). Seriously, Mr. Obama.

So, I just have to say today, wow. Like, really wow. A new year and likely enough we're about to launch into probably one of the craziest times in our history. So hold on tight and pray like crazy.

I congratulate president elect Obama on his success.

I also say to the conservatives: don't freak out. Especially not right now. We have over two months until Obama takes office, and when that time arrives, still don't freak out. Just obey your leaders and work with President Obama, and appreciate his service. And pray for him a TON. Dead serious. The Bible says to pray for your leaders, and we can especially pray for his protection. He has indeed achieved the status of being the first black person to take this office. And I might add with such overwhelming approval. I am proud that America can overcome racism in such a big way. It's radical application of overcoming evil with good.

Regarding the two months: Barack Obama has already started the transition process to the position, and we should be ready, too. One of the things that I am most troubled about is Obama's wish to make his first act as president the signing of the Freedom of Choice Act.

This will be a huge step in favor of abortion, and that's not good at all. Let us pray that such a thing will not come to pass. Let us pray hard in this time of transition, both for our new president and his policies and for our current president, who has endured great unpopularity for his consistency with what he believes and who must tie up loose ends and finish his job in a two months, that to him, may seem altogether too short.

In the tradition of Grand Stream Dreams, I bring you our very first Linkfest.

Boston.com - World Series game could be delayed for Obama pitch - You might have heard that Barack Oboma had purchased an half hour time slot on at least some networks to promote his cause. Clever of him. But possibly delay the World Series? It's only by a few minutes, I know, and I'm not a big baseball fan… but still, let's hope people get mad at him for this…

Fox News - Obama Ads Invade Video Games - Obama billboards show up in Burnout Paradise on Xbox Live… hmmm… ok… I didn't know their were ads, but hey, I suppose if they pay for them… but a little weird anyway.

Newsweek - Who Are the 10% Who Think U.S. on Right Track? - A viewpoint on who actually thinks things are good. Meh. Not extrememly persuasive.

Schlissel's blog - Some of My Best Friends Are Sarah Palin - A good post about Sarah standing on what she believes and representing us as Christians… and being us.

LA Times - Greenspace blog - Bottled water not so pure - Really? I would have never guessed…

PC World - Microsoft Sues DHL After Train Dumps 21,600 Xboxes - Ummm… ouch? Not good, DHL.

Ars Technia - Revenues rise as Google says hard times will drive business - Woot for Google! They seem to be doing pretty good as the world economy melts down… that's my kind of company. Kinda like our local banks: they are still going strong since they've invested wisely (read: with discretion… *cough* Citibank et all *cough*).

MercuryNews.com - Q&A with John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla - Pretty good interview. Nothing ugly. Lilly thinks Chrome isn't exactly competition… it's just Google helping Mozilla out with their mission: making the web a better place. I like that Firefox slogan, by the way: "Take back the Web." Pretty sick. Anyway, also some stuff on Firefox Mobile, of which alpha versions are coming soon.

Sioux City Journal.com - Senator's lawsuit against God is tossed out - This feels like it should be on the Drudge Report, but, LOL, what were you thinking?

redemption in a blog - Optimize Firefox’s memory usage by tweaking session preferences - If you're a heavy heavy tab user in Firefox, you might take a look at this if things have been slowing down.

Matasano Chargen - Detecting Anonymizing Proxies - An interesting blog post on detecting the use of a proxy server. Technical and hopefully helpful illustrations. A good read. Edit, October 24, 2008: The link is still 404, but I looked up the Google cache. No pictures, I'm afraid, but it's better than nothing.