The *what* caucus?

Hey, look, a show of spine by Congressional progressives!! Indeed, if healthcare reform under Obama can't manage to provide a strong public option, then it will have to be judged as a failure. I'm glad that somebody's making that case from the inside.

Tuesday puppy

I dunno -- maybe it's the heat, or maybe my life has felt too stressful lately, but I sure appreciated this adorable corgi pup. (Glad somebody else is paper training him though! :)

For a niece (five years old!)

For Genevieve
(Five Years Old)

You clasp the little ball so tightly
One would have to break your hand
to wrest it,
As one breaks off the branch
To get the fruit . . .

And one waits . . .
A time comes
When the fruit just drops,
The time of ripeness.

And a time comes
When the world just falls,
The time of sleep.

- Simeon Dumdum, Jr.

(via whiskey river)

Ah, hindsight

There's nothing like a national emergency to make one rethink one's earlier (idiotic) high horse...

Just like real folks

Just a couple of weeks since Vermont, and already this development hardly makes a ripple. (Signed the bill without comment, no less!) Perhaps the tide has already turned.
(via Talking Points Memo)

Edit: more here.

With opponents like these...

Wow indeed. Hard to disagree, but still, that's a pretty positive assessment from somebody who worked for the Other Guy...

Monkey see...

Um, can't completely decide whether to be amused or creeped out by this hell-and-brimstone babble sermon given by a toddler. It seemed to inspire the congregation, anyway...

Extreme biking

I have to say that the degree to which this man and his bike seem like one organism is mindboggling, but one envisions years of accumulated crashes and injuries that went into such smoothness and aplomb... eep.

(via kottke)

Edit: completely unrelated: Harvard Bookstore offers bike delivery to its local customers. An excellent way to steal business back from the Amazons of the world...

(via GirlHacker)

Space station

I've never really paid attention to the International Space Station, its size, assembly, undertakings, except in the most peripheral way. Found this graphical explanation of how it came together fascinating -- like Eliot, I had no idea how big the whole thing is, let alone how many trips have gone into putting it together. Pretty spiff. (Of course, I still don't really know what they're doing up there...)

(via Follow Me Here)

These two things have nothing to do with one another

...but apparently I need to post them together. Um, trying to be productive at work, I guess.

• Hospitals can greatly reduce the spread of drug-resistant bacteria by empowering low-level staffers to make suggestions and to call higher-ups on lapses. We need to do this and more!
  (via Rebecca's Pocket)
  
  
• Fantastic: the Washington Post apparently sponsored a contest for Peeps dioramas in honor of Easter -- the entries vary from the hilarious to the dead-serious (or, as serious as one can be with Peeps). The winner totally rocks!
  (via Bitch, Ph.D.)
  

Happy Monday, all!

Friday baby-blogging, spring color edition

A color shot from that same Easter photo shoot, this one from toward the end when Speck got to exchange her formalwear for a swimsuit. She's, um, snuggling with the dog bed here (so proud).

Quote of the day

The wages of sin are death,
but after taxes are taken out,
it's just a tired feeling.

- Paula Poundstone

Daunting

I like to think of myself as environmentally conscious -- at the least, we recycle compulsively, try to buy recycled products, and make produce choices that tend toward the local, at the edges at least. Still, contemplating switching to cloth diapers (and all the additional handling) is very sobering, and somehow this graphic (especially the entries for beef!) almost makes me cry. Awareness is good, being willing to deal with some costs and inconveniences is responsible, but there are so many competing inefficiencies in every aspect of life in America that I sometimes feel that one can barely make a convincing difference, even with committed effort (and time is too often an unmeasured resource). Still, one can only try...

(via kottke)

Collective guilt

I know that the human species has driven countless others to extinction, and yet I still find it very difficult to look at these photographs of now-extinct species. I don't know whether it's just the awareness that such creatures were alive in the last century or so, or the specifics of the stories, or just the thought that nobody will ever see any of these striking animals again.

(via Follow Me Here)

Peck, peck, peck

The pure natural force of moral rightness continues to press against the wall of hatred and fear. Polls of young people show that this is the direction that history is leading us, and those who oppose equality will be less and less relevant with each passing year. Am reminded of this quote:

The avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote.

-- Kosh (from Babylon V)

Momentum may come slowly in the early days, but over time . . .

(article via Atrios; quote via Medley)

Snort

Monday giggles: Breaking: Obama puppy nominee faces uphill battle in Senate. Very apt.

Poem of the day/week

the believer considers
----------------------------------

the glorious day
the glorious vision

sometimes joy floats
on a dark sea
white flecks of foam

hopelessness was easier
the comfort of slow decay
nothing required
a calm gentility
in the gathering dust

the promise - a service
in this world and the next
all I wanted was to sleep
close my eyes a little
there is always something to do

if no one comes to the door
in the middle of the night
seeking attar of roses
will I be relieved?

we could wrap ourselves
in the beauty of it all
and disappear
a mountainside, a forest retreat
breathing prayer words
to the moon and stars

the world refuses to fail
is not past saving
the wind stirs the leaves
at my door
and pulls at my sleeve

- Kim Hodges

(via rec.arts.poems, more than a decade ago, and it's stuck with me every since)

That guy is up to something

Rafe discusses Obama's cleverness in keeping Gates on at Defense in anticipation of the major changes he wanted to institute, and notes that a lot of commenters misjudged the choice and its motivation.

Operating under the assumption that President Obama doesn’t have a plan that serves his own goals rarely leads to solid analysis.

Heh. So far, pretty clearly true.

Still crazy after all these years

Paul Krugman traces the history of craziness of the Republican party in the last few decades, and marvels that the mainstream press keeps covering the ludicrosity. I guess everybody loves a circus, but this one has consistently dragged our whole nation into its madhouse antics. Not funny.

(via Atrios)

Tomorrow's past

A neat view of Google street view, and how someday we might look back to see what our neighborhood, street, or even house interiors looked like (through the Magic of Internets).

(via kottke)