John Darnielle, aka ” The Mountain Goats, ” has been one of my favorite songwriters for many, many years. My first exposure to him was back in 1995 (or was it 1996), with “Song for an Old Friend” on a Pottery Records seven-inch. More recently, “Pigs That Ran Straightaway Into the Water, Triumph of” from the Moutain Goats’ “We Shall All Be Healed” LP is slowly making its way up my iPod’s Top 25 most-played list, even beating out tracks by The Arcade Fire (which I’ve played about 5,000 times so far).

I came across a site today that contains the lyrics to all the songs John has ever written. Apparently, there are 449 total. I probably have about two thirds of them on my iPod. Check out the complete list here.

I’ve never been a fan of Hillary Clinton’s. Remember back when she had a southern accent (”I’m like Tammy Wynette, I stand by my man”), but quickly lost it when she moved into the White House? There’s a meme among the wingnuts that Hillary is a pinko-commie-liberal. Oh, if only that was the case, boys. I’d take a pinko-commie any day over the unprincipled, waffling, triangulating junior Senator “from” New York.

Hillary Clinton is doing her best impression of Margaret Thatcher — she merges heartless cynicism with an ice queen interpretation of the word “tough” — and though she may believe that will cut it in the general election, I hope my fellow Democrats have the stones not to elect her. The election is still two years out, yet the media trumpets her front runner status as a done deal. Screw that. We need a candidate to annhilate her in the primaries. Personally, I think it may be Al Gore, but who knows — maybe Mark Warner can do it if Gore doesn’t enter the race?

Cenk Uygur over at Huffington Post has a pretty good argument against Hillary and her definition of “running to the center.” Let’s hope more Dem’s join the cause.

According to Ain’t It Cool, Jane Espenson, perhaps one of the best writers on Joss Whedon’s three television shows (”Angel,” “Buffy,” and “Firefly”) will be writing an episode of “Battlestar Galactica” in season three. This is really exciting news — Jane is one of the many great “Buffy” writers whose contributions to the show were often misattributed to its creator. Jane’s writing tends towards quippy and funny, so I’m interested to see just how that will translate to BSG’s darker universe.

If you’ve read Alberic Heresies #1, you may already be aware of Jane’s huge influence on my writing. I can’t wait to see what she does on my favorite show.