The quality of Portland's annual Webvisions conference (now in its seventh year) has followed a surprisingly predictable trend over the last few years: one year it's great, the next year it sucks. Unfortunately this year, it broke that cycle.

First, I admit it. I'm a language snob. I think spelling and good grammar count and I hate it when I see words misspelled and sentences abused. I also read a lot of blogs. Unfortunately for me, the latter often fuels my hatred with regard to the former.

You may want to think twice the next time you call Aunt Millie for a friendly chat. From CNN.com today (bolding is mine):

"The government has been secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls in an effort to build a database of every call made within the country, it was reported today. President Bush said any domestic intelligence-gathering measures he's approved are lawful. 'We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans,' President Bush said."

They've probably been tracking e-mail communications for years, but what's next? Every blog post? Bush has moved well beyond King George. Now it's more like Comrade George. 

From ABCNews' The Note this morning:

"Elsewhere on morning television, Secretary Rice said that the UN Security Council is unified in its desire to take action pertaining to Iran, but not yet unified on how to take that action. Secretary Rice guaranteed that some action will be taken, but would not get into details of what that action may entail."

Would that action gain traction if it were targeted at a particular faction? Or would that just be seen as a distraction? Ultimately, the resulting action must garner some sort of satisfaction... 

Per The New York Daily News and msnbc.com's First Read: "Asked in an Oval Office interview with the German newspaper Bild to name the 'most wonderful moment' of his presidency, President Bush came up with a fish story.

'I don't know, it's hard to characterize the great moments. They've all been busy moments, by the way,' Bush said, apparently trawling his memory for good times since 2001. 'I would say the best moment was when I caught a 7-1/2-pound largemouth bass on my lake,' he said eventually."

'Nuff said. 

Well, not that it needed verifying, but now leading economic analysts are calling the GOP gas rebate plan just plain dumb.

Our little son Boo is going to be two years old this summer and Mama M and I have decided he's ready for his first overseas trip to see the grandparents. The question is, are we?

I was going to write this entry at work but decided to do it offline instead. That way I could more efficiently allocate my resources, and circle back if necessary, then baseline it at a later date.

I don't even know what that means, yet I hear many of these words every day in meetings. Is it time to draw the line on business speak?