Welcome ... and welcome back! This is Nuketown's RADIATIONS newsletter, resurrected phoenix-like from the ashes of the old web site. Much as changed since the last edition of RADIATIONS went out. Nuketown has been overhauled and rebuilt, providing the site with a wealth of new tools, such as the ability to post comments to any story on the site and a new notification tool to let you know when stories and comments have been posted.

And I'm a dad again -- my son Lucas was born in June, and is now a very happy 4 month old.

And then there's RADIATIONS itself. The engine driving the newsletter has changed, and its now an integral part of the site. If you setup an account with Nuketown (yes, you can now do that) you can manage your subscriptions through your account page. If not, you can change your subscription options (including dropping the newsletter all together) by visting the link at the bottom of this newsletter.

Reason nicely sums up my choices in the Pennsylvania senate race. On the right, we have staunch anti-individualist and neocon statist Rick Santorum who's foresaken almost every principle of small government Republicanism in a mad rush for power and glory. On the left, we have Bob Casey Jr., son of the former governor, who's attack ads sound more like those of a Texas Republican going after illegal Central and South American aliens. This thinly-veiled xenophobia is unsettling, particularly from a Democrat (but hey, Democrats have shown they can play to whatever bizarre mutated monstrocity we're calling "the middle" these days). His message is mixed in with the more traditional big government, pro-union message that you'd expect from a Pennsylvania Democrat.

Slow and steady wins the race, or so they tell me. I'm at 212 lbs now, down from a starting weight of 224. The promised land of wearing pants 36 waist has been reached, though my old 36 jeans remain a little tight. I expect they'll be just fine once I hit 208.

With the election season now in full force (I know this because I've started to receive phone calls from the myriad political groups and candidates) I'm going to spending more time blogging about politics, mostly in my home state of Pennsylvania, but occasionally on the national level as well. Politics and scifi don't often mesh, and I know many of the folks coming to Nuketown aren't here for that reason.

Fear not gentle readers -- the home page will not be turned into an endless stream of political diatribes. I intend to keep those posts confined to my personal Nuketown blog, with only the occasional scifi-related post percolating to the home page. Those of you who receive notifications will get updates about these posts, but even then, you shouldn't be expecting a blizzard of content. If you are interested in my political rantings, you can find them by going to the new "Politics" category.