Time for some mental floss

Quite amused by this random simile generator -- I found myself making sense of even some of the oddest of them.

(via Twists and Turns)

In no way endearing!

Hillary Clinton hints that she would invite Colin Powell back to serve in her administration! Didn't he already sell the country out in order to satisfy the Bushies? I don't think he has any credibility left, at home or abroad. For whose benefit is Ms. Clinton emitting this drivel?

About time!

A group of scientists who specialize in adolescent sexual health have written a letter to Nancy Pelosi protesting Congress's (inexplicable) decision to *increase* funding for abstinence-only educational programs in the face of near-uniform evidence that they don't work and may put students at risk.

(via Echidne)

Poem of the day

Dancing in the Waiting Room

All our living
is in waiting.
In these moments
we find our myriad selves
anxious, hopeful, trembling,
wishful, fearful, impatient.
All our dancing shadows
are there
flitting in the half light
of unreason
crowding together
in fevers of movement
never still, never one.

Then a voice says 'Next'
and a new dance
begins.

by Angus Macmillan

(via Mind Hacks)

To each his own, I guess

On the side of a bus this morning:

Relentless pursuit of eye care

Sounds a little aggressive to me . . .

Auditory head-pats

Having a tough time with all the holiday obligations and over-work? Perhaps you need a little dose of purring cat. There there....

(via Cute Overload)

Another bit on parenting and the construction of gender

Really, everything I worry about and object to can be boiled down to this:

I don’t have a problem with baby dolls or with vehicles, but I do have a problem with proscriptive identities.

It's the layers of assumptions, projections, and raised eyebrows. Give me a break. (But really, read the whole post too.)

(blog found via Bitch, Ph.D.)

On giving thanks

Obviously I was away for the holiday. Just bumped across this poem which seems apt for the season, so a belated offering to all . . .

(via Parent Dish)

A new kind of cold

Soldiers who were injured during their second tours of duty (and thus, you know, couldn't complete them because of all the healing and physical therapy) are being asked to return part of their re-enlistment bonuses. As though they had slacked on their obligations. (More typical is that the VA slacks on its obligations...) Galling.

Fending off the idiots

I haven't been thrilled with every aspect of Harry Reid's leadership in the Senate, especially when it comes to holding the line on Iraq funding/deadlines, but he seems like a master of procedural tricks, including this plan to avoid a Thanksgiving recess and thus prevent Bush from sneaking another crappy candidate into office via recess appointment. The real shame here is that the Bushies have so little respect for the Constitution and its instructions that they try to work around Congress at every turn, but at least Reid isn't sitting still for it.

Some kind of company

Talking Points Memo takes a look at Rudy Guiliani's choice of friends and advisors, and finds plenty to wonder about. (That's even without the scary neocon warmongers. whee!)

Respecting the men on the ground

Well, that recurrent phrase is about to be tested, as Pentagon leaders push back politically against Cheney and the right-wing nutter set...

The Pentagon has launched a preventive strike against a target that military chiefs presumably regard as one of the most active current threats to U.S. and world security—namely, the office of the vice president of the United States. Thrusting back hard against Vice President Dick Cheney’s warmongering, the head of U.S. forces in the Mideast declared that an attack on Iran "is not in the offing," and more or less urged the vice president and his political allies to shut up.

May cooler heads prevail in this diplomatic nightmare!

(via Follow Me Here)

Sharing our wall with others

The quilt that had hung on our bedroom wall for the last year and a half or so has spent the last six weeks in Ohio at an exhibit of modern quiltwork. Sort of a pain to take it down, package it, and send it (insured!), so we may not do it again, but appreciate the work and the artist, so glad to have given both a little exposure as part of this show. Some nice pictures of the overall installation (and varied pieces) at the above link.

I may be off my dot, but I want a proper coffee...

Apparently a recent survey has ranked major cities by (caffienated) coffee consumption. Nobody's likely to be surprised that Seattle tops the list, but the notion that both New York and Philadelphia are among the lowest consumption did raise my eyebrows, given the ubiquity of coffee cups among commuters and the like. I guess the nation at large has shot up its consumption past my ability to judge, or maybe we East Coasters are decaf sippers.

(indirectly via Follow Me Here)

That other thing...

I'm not really talking much here about Speck, our experience of pregnancy, and so forth (although there is that ticker at the bottom of the page to track how much time is left). But it is a wacky trip and worth chronicalling, so I've set up a short-term place to document each week's new symptoms and events, called Now What?! A Grumpy Guide to Pregnancy. Posting is quite intermittant -- in fact, the first few months were put up in closely spaced batches based on notes taken along the way -- but if you're curious about how things are going (or what to expect, should you try this yourself), you can see how it went for me, anyway. Not at all what I would have expected...



Update: link fixed to actually point to the blog. heh. (thanks, Jane!)

Daily Show lasers turned on Viacom

That is, another writers' strike story, but this one putting the management position into the absurdist light that it deserves. Is online content worth billions, or is it worthless? Apparently both. Watch the vid.

Depressing in several ways

I can hardly comment on this story about the religious transformation of the air force academy, but feel it should be pointed out. It's wrong on so many levels -- against the history and philosophy of our country, tending to exclude or marginalize talented recruits, and helping support the worst kind of jingoism and crusading sentiment among our soldiers stationed abroad. Just the picture of the church/chapel gives me the shivers!

Quote/aphorism of the day

Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. The monk saved the scorpion and was stung again. The other monk asked him, "Why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know its nature is to sting?"

"Because," the monk replied, "to save it is my nature."

(via whiskey river)

If we're not fixing it, you can't either!!

Volunteers trying to help with clean-up of the San Francisco oil spill are being turned away or arrested. Our country is an increasingly strange place . . .

(via Follow Me Here)

The fate of TV shows

The writers' strike has obviously already affected comedy and other topical shows, but will soon start to be noticeable in the regular TV schedule, depending on how many episodes of various programs were filmed ahead of time. Want to know when your favorites will grind to a halt? Watchers Watch provides the answers, in a convenient table. Some shows have just three or four original episodes remaining (meaning they'll close up shop in December), others have almost their entire planned season filmed (meaning they could come back just fine in late Jan.), and some which were planning a spring debut may be delayed in launching. If this strike doesn't settle soon, it could be a banner year for Netflix!

(via rc3.org)

Wordless

Beware the writer that goes on strike. It will be a time of no words . . .

(via Follow Me Here)

Demographics in action

Ampersand at Alas, a Blog offers us some looks at the make-up of the campaign staffs of the major Presidential candidates, as broken down by either gender or race. Interesting as measures of each candidate's awareness and/or comfort with a range of folks and, as Amp argues, of their likelihood of including a wide range of perspectives in their eventual administrations (especially the top positions, which are likely to go to senior campaign staffers). More grist for the mill . . .

What's it all about?

Been wondering about this writer's strike, which may soon cripple your favorite TV shows (and has immediately slain any topical humor like the Daily Show)? Here's a quick explanation that makes pretty clear why it's happening and why their demands are more than reasonable. Times have just passed by the agreements under which writers have been working for ages . . .

Hack, hack

Was out "working" the election yesterday (where the scare-quotes indicate the lameness of my presence, even for the few hours I managed), and am home sick today, trying not to cough up a lung. Meh. More later, as impulse suggests and energy allows.

Well, that's a depressing twist

At the forefront of the green movement is a transition to biofuels, which burn cleaner and remain more renewable than reliance on oil. However, it turns out that the new market for biofuels materials is creating counter-productive movements in the third world, with critical forests getting burned to clear land for the marketable plants.

We need to find a way to put international value on the maintenance of forests that our global climate depends so critically on. Otherwise, we can't blame folks for trying to make a living where they are -- but we may need to rethink our rush to biofuels to prevent more destruction!

(via kottke)

Quote of the day

This wasn’t just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it.

– Dorothy Parker

(via A Mindful Life)

Friday anticipation blogging

Too much time doing Google research on baby schwag. Anyway, had a brief period of dreading the onslaught of pink flowers/princesses or blue trucks/sports crap, and then found a couple of little clothing items that were happy and cheerful and didn't make me want to puke. So yay!



Um, is it Friday yet? Have I survived the three weeks of incessant contractor mess-making (and only incremental -- yeah, Xeno-like -- progress)? woot!! Bring on a heap of painting!!

A little fan flip-out moment

Apparently Joss Whedon has a deal with Fox for at least seven episodes of a new TV show starring Eliza Dushku! Sort of psychological and science fictiony all at once. Whoot!

Joss, on TV again! whoot some more!

(via GirlHacker)