Just trussssssst ussssss

Big Telecom keeps arguing that Net Neutrality is unnecessary because they can be trusted to be honest brokers. (a) If they're not intending to be sleazebags, why do the regulations worry them? (b) Surprising no one, they prove themselves to be sleazebags.

Can we get some rational rules in here already?

Boy, we really know how to run a war!

You know things are looking up when the Iraqi president thinks his best approach to the ongoing civil war in his country is to consult with Iran about solutions. Didn't we want to help unify the region?

Inspired (in that sorrowfully amusing way)

What if FDR had run WWII like W has run the last six years? See the brief newsreel coverage.

(referral lost!)

Newt sees the light?

It's striking to hear Gingrich speaking lines from the reality-based community, but all it makes me do is wait for the other shoe to drop. Maybe he's placing himself as the one Republican who sees the emperor's lack of clothes; maybe this is a sign of the end-times. Either way, there's more to it.

The more things change...

How many wars are we going to fight in which most of the opposing weapons (not to mention training) were supplied by us? You'd think once or twice and we'd raise our standards for national stability before selling big heaps of arms, etc. But nah (profits, man! profits!). Heck, now we just ignore our missing weapons and blame Iran for arming the insurgents...

History will judge them harshly

Enough Democrats caved to allow Bush's overhaul of FISA, in effect giving him the wiretapping powers he'd already been stealing, and then some. We're well down the slippery slope to totalitarianism, or at least to the point where no one will understand the horror value of Minority Report...

(via Medley)

Update: for the record, here are the Senate traitors too. Some help, the majority has been...

I think I'm in leef!

The cuteness of the puppy, it burns!

Adventures in produce V: Something new every time

We were headed to the shore with some friends when this batch arrived, so they went right into the back of the car and were much appreciated by the group:


More lettuce (only partially shown), snap beans, a bag of potatoes,
and lemon cucumbers (old hat now).


Whole beets (eaten grilled with goat cheese crumbles), the best green peppers ever, and some sweeter peppers whose name I don't know (and which we haven't tried yet).


Lots more corn (grilled in the husk, mmmm), a few onions, and our fruit share
was a heap of wonderful peaches, almost too ripe to travel . . .

We've already gotten the next load (I'm a bit behind with uploading), so maybe I'll post them next week. But first, the eating!!

Poem of the day

On my old street, a neighbor down the block had planted a young redwood tree out front, in the tiny strip of sidewalk on the narrow, narrow street of century-old houses. The neighbors who lived there long before me shook their heads at his folly, the tree already well beyond the top of the house, top out of sight above any of its neighbors. Thus, this poem captures a personal musing of my own, although much more lyrically than I (or any of the worried neighbors) would have managed...

Tree

It is foolish
to let a young redwood
grow next to a house.

Even in this
one lifetime
you will have to choose.

That great calm being,
this clutter of soup pots and books -

Already the branch-tips brush at the window.
Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.

- Jane Hirshfield

(via whiskey river)

Credit where credit is due

I find it nearly impossible to watch Bill O'Reilly's show because the out-shouting and ridiculousness gets my blood pressure up so high I can barely tease out the actual content. But I must give kudos to Senator (and Presidential wanna-be) Chris Dodd for not backing down from the heckling and holding O'Reilly accountable for his misleading attacks on the dailyKos website, as well as for his own history of outrageous and derogatory remarks. I wouldn't have had the stomach to do it myself.

Topical quote of the day

A country that can’t keep its bridges from collapsing is not going to be running the world very much longer.

Jonathan Schwarz @ This Modern World

(via Medley)

Our nation is run by simpletons

The departure of half of the Iraqi government called "discouraging" by Secretary of Defense...

...the Bush administration may have misjudged the difficulty of achieving reconciliation among Iraq’s sectarian factions.

Ya' think??

Privacy is just one perk

Perhaps it's because I'm engrossed in a Robert Ludlum book, but this retractable hotel doorknob seems like a pretty good idea to me. Make your position clear to housekeeping, make the lives of assassins more difficult -- what could possibly go wrong?

(via boing boing)

Wafts of optimism

Another sneaky procedural move by Democratic legislative leaders, this time on an actual bill that is likely to have widespread support, once the trivial GOP filibuster in the Senate is bypassed. You wouldn't want too much reform on Capitol Hill, would you?

It's only Tuesday...

The fundamental problem with this week is that I'm doing way too much of this, and not nearly enough of this. I mean, really, stop the train . . .

It's my station, I can lie if I want to!

Fox news (successfully) asserts the absence of law requiring that news be truthful -- let their viewers beware!!!

When kittens go wrong

This cute orange bobblehead becomes... a cat-o-pottomus. Or at least a large and somewhat baffling mop of fur... Cute, or terrifying??

Contempt

Tony Auth pens one of those in-a-nutshell visuals that distill some 6 years of arrogant and heedless power-mongering into a concise image. Sigh.

Friday silliness

Ever have cardboard tube "sword" battles with your siblings (or maybe college roomates)? Turns out there's a whole organization devoted to the sport, and of course public contests of skill and strength. One can only hope this inspired notion spreads eastward . . .

(via GirlHacker)

Today's crankies

It's not enough that we ship our troops to police a civil war, leave their families to make do, and bring them home with physical and spiritual injuries; now we are charging them for equipment that got destroyed on the job (where "on the job" means "during a war," right?)... insane.

Meanwhile, on the home front, the Airline Pilots Security Alliance notes that none of its security recommendations, all of which were aimed at real vulnerabilities, have been taken, while the TSA busies itself confiscating your toothpaste and peering into your loafers...
(via boing boing)

Modern hotties

A different take on the "Sexiest man alive" contest is provided by AfterElton.com, a gay voters' ranking of the hotties in the public eye (modeled on AfterEllen, in which lesbians offered a Top 100 list different from those chosen by Maxim). Quite a bit of eye candy there, a lot of faces from recent hit TV, and a few surprises of the Nice Guy variety. Looking at the selection, however, I suspect that Clooney's position near the bottom of the list might reflect a certain age bias among the selectors . . .

(via Medley)

"President's war on work"

We've been in the midst of a class war for some time now, and kudos to Edwards that he found a way to make that clear to the average listener and a program of tax reform that might have a fighting chance.

Quote of the day

Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life. This life in the present. Let a man have thought what he will of Nature in the house, she will still be novel outdoors. I keep out of doors for the sake of the mineral, vegetable, and animal in me.

Henry David Thoreau
Journal entry, November 4, 1852

Shameless

Don't like how things are going, even though it's your guys making the mess? Just relabel the offenders as Democrats and whoosh! problem solved (or, at least, buck passed)...

It's amazing that Fox can keep a license.

Get a move on!

I swear, I go away for a few days' (much-needed) vacation, and I return to find that we're still in the midst of a Constitutional crisis. What have all the rest of you been up to in my absence?! Sigh.

Two interesting bits on feminism

Actually, they're about/by men who are (pro-)feminist. Both longish but worth reading all the way through.

1. The first is about the dual need to support women's battles against patriarchy (and make a difference wherever possible) while simultaneously handling the mix of emotions that comes from hearing stories that cast men as haters. It's noteworthy not only for showing equal attention to both types of problems, but for understanding that injecting "this bums me out" into every feminist conversation is entirely unhelpful and can derail necessary conversations of a different type. I applaud the author for helping create a "feminist ally" community where such discussions can productively take place.
   (via Medley)
   
   
2. The second is less about that particular struggle than about how we teach college students to think about consent. In particular, I agree that just teaching "how not to be raped" is sadly lacking, and "how not to be a rapist" is a critical component as well. Even more helpful is his argument that

   The opposite of rape is not consent. The opposite of rape is enthusiasm.

   That certainly reframes the situation where pushing and pushing (against silence or denial) can be seen as an ok form of behavior between partners, not to mention taking advantage of silent or unconscious individuals. Useful thoughts.

I'm out of here for a long weekend, so you'll have to make do without me until Wednesday. cheers!

Brilliant!

Somebody finds a way to replicate the joy of sliding down a wood floor in your socks -- by making a sort of boot that lets you skate on carpet! Makes me wish that my house didn't shift from wood to carpet every ten feet or so...

(via Rebecca's Pocket)

From the Department of We Learn Nothing

FEMA finds yet another way to screw Katrina survivors . . .

A twisted refrain

It's frustrating that a Democratic majority isn't enough to create change on a national level. But even more frustrating is that no argument or maneouver can even get decent factual coverage -- take this distortion as an example. It's the Republicans who are filibustering, thank you very much! eesh!!

Image of the day

The news is increasingly leaving me prostrate with anger, frustration, shame. Constitutional scoffing by those sworn to uphold its principles, the souls of our armed forces being sucked into the maelstrom of Vietnam Iraq, and all the rational counter-balances left without teeth. Somehow it all feels summarized well by this single visual, although Bitch, Ph.D., really has the links and rant to go with it . . .

Why impeaching Cheney wouldn't be wasted effort

Because he's still agitating for more war (in Iran this time), and who knows how many other evil schemes are up his sleeve...

(via Follow Me Here)

Well, this explains why they're so happy to have us there!

A soldier explains the destructive and seemingly pointless raids on Iraqi homes that they carried out on a regular basis. Yes, gentle occupiers, we . . .

Adventures in produce IV: Some summer favorites

I'm a bit behind, but here was the haul of our last produce share:


First, another head of lettuce, and one of radicchio (bleah!).


A bag of potatos! And several tomatos!!


This week's novelty grouping: dreidl-shaped summer squash, cucumbers,
dandelion greens, a sweet onion, and a "lemon cucumber."


And last, but not at all least -- fresh corn!! 12 ears!

Many good meals, including some on the grill, have come from all this -- we hope there will be even more corn (and tomatos and other favorites) in the next batch!

Turning over some rocks

Senate Republicans have been filibustering a huge number of measures, relying on media favoritism to keep their hijinks out of the public eye. Well, Harry Reid is letting some sunlight in, saying he'll keep the Senate running overnight tomorrow, if need be, to force a vote on Iraq withdrawel -- this means that the GOP will actually have to keep up a running filibuster, Mr. Smith-style, rather than relying on an invisible "hold," if they want to prevent going on the record on this bill. Spectacular.

Update: Digby notes that the last time Republicans were willing to stage an all-night obstruction was over Jim Crow laws (you know, overturning them). Will see if this rises to the same terror level...

Amazing idiots

An absurdly stupid new show idea on Fox gets Ms. Echidne to let loose some appropriate expletives. Really, there are so many ways that this is wrong, from its misconstrual of feminism to its inevitable perversion via Fox-think...

Baby boomers feeling after-effects of rock lifestyle

That is, they appear to be going deaf at an alarming rate:

About one in six boomers have hearing loss, according to the Better Hearing Institute, a nonprofit educational group. The AARP has reported that there are more people age 45 to 64 with hearing loss (10 million) than there are people over 65 with hearing loss (9 million). And more people are losing their hearing earlier in life, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, one of the National Institutes of Health.

One positive outcome of all this is that hearing aids are going more stylish than the bubble-gum-wads of yore. Sadly, I fear that the generation *after* the boomers, which pretty much grew up with headphones on, may have even starker effects; we'll have to see if they're any wiser than their parents. Earplugs, anybody?

(via Follow Me Here)

Cuteness break

Beware the wiles of the adorable daschund puppy!
You have been warned!!!!

Republicans show where they stand

The NAACP hosts a forum for Republican Presidential candidates (to match a Democratic one held previously) and only one of the candidates attends, standing in a forest of empty podiums. That's pretty much the whole story in a nutshell, and it's hard to imagine that those in attendance missed the implications for civil rights and race relations . . .

(via dailyKos)

What does progress look like?

Two takes:

1. Oliver Willis traces the citations of "progress in Iraq" over the last four years, despite, you know, any evidence of improvement there. But here comes another corner! sigh.
   (via XOverboard)
   
   
2. An article at Slate looks at this most recent that Iraq has met half of its 18 benchmarks, showing how little it took to get a "thumbs-up" (and yet how few benchmarks met even that low bar)...
   (via Talking Points Memo)

Boy, our leaders sure inspire confidence!!

Update: well this is sure to help! Iraqi parliament will take the month of August off to escape the heat...

Quote of the day

We love flattery, even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson,
writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

(via A.W.A.D.)

Just another day in the new lawless America

Bush tells Harriet Miers to ignore Congressional subpoena because of some sort of miasma of executive privilege that engulfs all his closest pets. Some note that this is obstruction, and hence a felony. Oh, if only our governmental system had checks and balances!!

(See some interesting options for a Constitutional show-down here.)

These two stories have nothing whatsoever to do with each other

1. Chertoff warns of a climate of increased threat from Al Quaeda while making no mention of the fact that we've stopped looking for Bin Laden and that he's found a new home base for his troublemaking.
   
   
2. The Washington press corp stands amusedly by while President Bush cuts the ribbon on their new briefing room but refuses to answer any questions.

Just who's running this thing

More Congressional hearings, which I'm not mentioning (although I am watching) -- an interesting exchange from today's notes that many members of the Bush Administration have some lack of clarity about their oaths of office: specifically that they swear to serve the Constitution, and not the President . . . (oh these tiny, tiny, critical distinctions!)

Pasted-on smiles

The Bag does a great job of catching an example of how the media cherry-picks images to give a misleading impression of public sentiment. Here we see the rosy-cheeked smiling crowds as the President jokes, while images from the video while he was talking about Iraq paint quite a different picture of how even inside loyalists feel about Bush leadership...

Today's gizmos

Philadelphia has been all a-flurry over new parking meter technology of the 5-10-year-old variety (you pay at the end of the row or something), but that development has nothing on the magic being tried out in Vancouver and Niagara Falls: meters that call your cell phone when your time is about to run out. Brilliant or freaky? or both?

(via GirlHacker)

Decider blog

Beautiful.
(sigh)

Ouch

Talking Points Memo does a great job of showing just what a heap of crap Tony Snow spews everyday, by intercutting his latest press briefing with the actual Congressional testimony being discussed, showing that virtually every claim by Snow is a distortion of what was said by (Republican) Senator Lugar. Wow! shameless.

It's ok if you're a Republican (installment 7429801)

The filibuster is now so common that essentially no legislation, even the most unobtrusive, can pass the Senate without a 60% supermajority of support. Where's the outrage? The firey media coverage? (The education of the public?)

Sigh.

(via Medley)

Feeling safer every day!

That is, the Bush Administration is being so careless about open posts at the Department of Homeland Security that nearly 25% of top positions currently empty and experts worried about the organization's ability to do its job. There's also discussion here about over-politicization of appointments, and we know how well that's played out in other agencies...

(via Medley)

Friday miscellania

Have been collecting links all day, but apparently not posting, so here they are in a heap...

• A new study puts an end to the image of women as chatterboxes, showing that men and women talk almost identical amounts every day. (Note that the closest thing to a source of the other belief is attributed to James Dobson!)
  
  
• Terrorism doesn't work -- it can create terror, but has essentially no effect in bringing about the purported political aims of the perpetrators. (That is, unless you count the way that Osama has pulled W's strings for several years.)
  
  
• Speaking of which, it looks like Iraqi deaths since we took over their country number close to a million by best estimates (whereas most Americans guess about 1000-fold fewer than that).
  
  
• Whitehouse spokesman summarizes their stance on the state of justice in the United States.
  
  
• A surprising number of Americans are in favor of impeachment proceedings, especially for Vice President Cheney.
  (via Atrios)
  
  
• An amusing photographic demonstration of the obscene building craze that has ahold of Dubai. It's like FutureWorld!
  (via Follow Me Here)
  
  
• Finally, a tired kitten to foreshadow my expected plans for the weekend...

Quote of the day

One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.

- Erich Fromm (1900 – 1980)

(via wood s lot)

Exceeding my capacity for schadenfreude

I think it's absurd that the US government has spent nearly $600 million on a compound in Baghdad (through a company with Cheney connections), and even more absurd that it's a compound on the scale of an imperial village (see previous here), and yet it merely makes my head hurt that the thing has been so badly built that it cannot be occupied by its intended military and diplomatic residents. Electrical fires, slowly emitted chloroform gas -- you couldn't make this stuff up!

Update: Waxman to investigate, everything from the coerced labor to the resulting problems...

Speaking up for our independent nation

Olberman's latest commentary is a good one, however much he may be shouting into the wind . . .

"clinically incapable of understanding that mistakes have consequences"

That's from John Edwards' response to the appalling commutation of Libby's sentence by President Bush yesterday -- see the rest as all the Democratic candidates weigh in here. I also think it's worth noting that this move could be seen as further butt-covering (giving Libby no incentive to make a deal to keep himself out of jail, while not actually pardoning him and setting him free to air his thoughts that way) -- the proper response to such flagrant obstruction seems obvious...

Dispensable

Isn't it interesting that all the crises of conscience that trouble healthcare providers come at the expense of women? Their health, their safety, their options, in a variety of situations. I agree with the commenter who suggests requiring that emergency personnel be prepared either to do their jobs or find another provider right away -- a shrug is not acceptable health care! (And you can see how the moralistic fervor over, say, emergency contraception is bleeding ever wider into all sorts of nonsensical medical decisions...) grrrr....

(via Medley)

I leave you with two thoughts...

On the Intriguing Possibilities side, there's the idea of vertical farms, which could bring fresh produce into large cities without the need for long-distance shipping or agricultural run-off. I hope to hear more about one of these being brought into existence.

On the Goofy Bits front, apparently you can now buy Froot Loops straws, which somehow reform their cereal into a crusty cylinder for getting that cereal-flavored milk effect even when you're not eating cereal. Inspired or eeeevil?

(via boing boing)

Sleepy kitty!

Flopped in haphazard ball as only a tiny cat can do...

Adventures in produce III: More leafy novelties

Ok, finally managed to get these uploaded. Some things we've seen before, but of course a few that send us on a recipe hunt...


Cabbage, red-leaf lettuce, peas (not just tendrils!)


Cauliflower, zucchini (big ones this time)...


Swiss chard, kale, and a bunch of cilantro
We found a great recipe for "South Carolina kale" (involving tomatoes and cumin) -- mmmmm -- and other things underway.

Quote of the day (esoterica edition)

Is it a wolf I hear,
Howling his lonely communion
With the unpiloted stars,
Or merely the self-importance and servitude
In the bark of a dog?

How many millennia did it take,
Twisting and torturing
The pride from the one
To make a tool,
The other?

And how do we measure the distance from spirit to spirit?
And who do we find to blame?

from Quell's "Poems and Other Prevarications"
quoted in Altered Carbon (Richard K. Morgan)

Cynicism: Part of the problem or part of the solution?

I'm not certain of the answer, but these biting e-cards are an excellent demonstration of the form!



(via Dana Goldstein, via XOverboard)

More things I cringe to read about

1. The Senate is close to approving a national ID card, forcing it as an unfunded mandate on the states. Let your legislators know what you think of all this!
   
   
2. The Supreme Court rules that school desegregation plans are racist, or some crap like that -- so much for good-intentioned local plans involving busing and other means of integrating regional schools... Bye-bye, Brown!

Holy crap!

Mr. Smells-so-manly apparently thinks it's perfectly ok to strap a dog on top of the car for a major road-trip. Needless to say, jury-rigged wind-screen or not, the dog wasn't totally thrilled...

(via Atrios)

Wasn't there some other Republican nut who took pride in beating his daschund? Ah yes, the lovely Rev. Dobson.

Bad news round-up

A new day for abhoring the Republican jihadis and the way they have raped the Constitution and the fuctioning of this nation over the last six years...

• Dick Cheney's offics is so cavallier about classified information that most of the White House security office has quit. His being above the 3-branch division of our government is just the tip of the iceberg -- there's evidence here that our national security matters not at all to the VP.
  
  
• Republican Senators, long decriers of the evils of the filibuster, are now blocking the progress of approved legislation by putting a hold on the House-Senate conference process. And in order to block what dire legislation? Ethics reform and implementation of the 9/11 Commission report recommendations. Again, national security getting the boot (over the spectre of unionization, apparently).
  
  
• Going a bit farther back, the Republican Congress allowed hunting of endangered animals outside the US, and now the NRA is arguing that polar bears are doomed anyway, so why not enjoy the hunting while it lasts? I guess they're not worried about either climate change or our national legacy to our grandchildren...

These stories make more than my head hurt.

The power of free time

Some wacky kids have turned their entire apartment into a huge Rube Goldberg device, utilizing everything from the kitchen tap to a pair of cell phones (the latter of which vibrates to start the next action). Mesmerizing . . .

(via boing boing)

Quote of the day

For those who have come to grow, the whole world is a garden. For those who have come to learn, the whole world is a university. For those who have come to know God, the whole world is a prayer mat.

– M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

(via A Mindful Life)

Another reason not to flee to the suburbs

Just being around folks of different races makes them seem less "other" -- from infants on up. Some scientists have argued that such "tribal" biases are innate, but this evidence supports the (really, more logical) explanation that we learn to define what's normal by what we spend time with. Fight on, crazy liberal multiculturalists! Perhaps some day nobody will understand what a test like this one was intended to reveal...

Questions I would never have thought to ask

Luckily there are sociologists of the modern age. A study of social networking sites claims that the MySpace/Facebook division corresponds to the class division in our society, with high achievers, military officers, and other hegemonic elites on the latter, and outcasts, grunts, and other less priviledged groups favoring the former. A fascinating dichotomy, and one which indicates how organic the growth of social networks can be.

Why do they even bother reporting this stuff

A scary incidence of deja vu: military lackeys have been giving the exact same forecast for Iraq (cutting back by fall, starting to pull out next spring) every year. Does anybody have the nerve (or intelligence) to call them on this crap? Or is everybody just keeping their fingers in their ears (LALALALALALLA!) all the time now?

Friday fun bits

Just a few amusements for your weekend...

• Here's something you might have wondered about: a comparison of how fast food looks in ads versus in real life.
  (via boing boing)
  
  
• Here's something I bet you never wondered: how to use your (analog) watch and the sun to find North.
  (via GirlHacker)
  
  
• Here's an amusing take on wireless two-way communications, based on a set-up you may have used as a kid...
  (via boing boing)
  
  
• Here's a guy who will write a song on any theme you suggest -- the Tetris one is among the great ones highlighted there.
  (via kottke)
  
  
• Need to show up for a videoconference but really want to stay in your pajamas? Here's an upper-half suit for just that eventuality!
  
  
• Speaking of disguises, here's a poodle outfit for (misunderstood) dobermans.
  (via Cute Overload)

Finally, here's a quote to cap it all off:

Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that’s not true. Some smaller countries are neutral.

– Robert Orben

(via A Mindful Life)

Kitty toes!

This photo captures what I hope to get out of the coming weekend . . . (the snoozing, that is, not my own pink toes!)

The fourth branch

Good to see that Rahm Emmanuel has a sense of humor, even if I'd prefer that Cheney's notion that his office is a fourth branch of government (somehow spanning executive and legislative) were a joke . . .

(via Medley)

Running (from?) the numbers

I knew Bush's approval ratings were down, but 26% is pretty impressive. (Heh, it's more like 6% among Democrats.)

(via Talking Points Memo)

More arguments against paranoia

That is, concerns about antibacterial soaps and other products that have taken over supermarket shelves in the last five or so years. Basically, the residues they leave behind create a perfect selective-pressure environment for the generation of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, which could become a nightmare for us a few years down the road. I've been worrying about this for some time, but it's good to see a major publication raise the alarm...

(via boing boing)

Wow, just wow

Bush is the king of verbal missteps, but I can't think of any way to read this that isn't jaw-droppingly offensive.

(via XOverboard)

Gratuitous cat photo

I just need a little kitteny cuteness today . . .


Pixel lounging in the front window.

Image of the day

Atrios:

This guy informed us that 2007 will likely be "make or break" time in Iraq. I'm sure come Dec. 2007 we will discover that Iraq remains in a quantum superposition of make and break in perpetuity.

I find myself torn between heh and sigh...

Digby unmasked

I think Digby at Hullabaloo is one of the best analysts and writers in the blogosphere, and ever since Medley raised the question, I've suspected that the person behind the pseudonym might be a woman. Well, a major award drew her out of the woodwork, and it was worth the wait -- she speaks to the democratizing effect of the Internet on political discourse and its potential for changing the way people get involved, from investigative journalism to opinionizing and activism. Inspiring and eloquent, as ever.

(via Medley)

Update: Here's a quote from the midst of the description of the world of bloggers (the whole transcript is now online here), which captures Digby's power of getting to the point:

We may argue about tactics and strategy or the extent to which we are partisans vs ideologues--and believe me, we do. But there is no disagreement among us that the modern conservative movement Of Newt and Grover and Karl and Rush has proven to be a dangerous cultural and political cancer on the body politic.

Indeed it has. Thank goodness the Honorable Opposition has some voices such as this one. (I hope you already watched the speech linked above!)

Call in the tea-leaf readers!

Here's one I don't know what to make of: Bloomberg leaves GOP. Just shaking off an increasingly extremist party, or preparing to throw a major wrench into next year's Presidential possibilities? Only The Shadow knows...

Paula's House of peacefulness

Another brief photo essay that takes you out of your head and into the natural world...
Thanks.

More evidence that feminism's job is done

This spiffy new movement for the surrendered wife. Because too much thought just ruins a girl's looks...

(via Pandagon)

This crazy modern world

How likely is it that you'd stop into a Starbucks and then notice the woman who had stolen your identity in the line behind you? It must have been very gratifying for this victim to make the snag, but there's no getting back the months of her life she spent trying to salvage her reputation, credit, and other parts of her world, and the punishment was less than satisfying as well... (it's hard not to think that hot pokers should be involved)

(via kottke)

One of many reasons that I'm blogging less

My dread about the fate of our democracy is at a steady high. My head is already flat from all the head-banging, and sometimes I don't want to bring everybody else down...

(via Talking Points Memo)

Quote of the day

Do not commit the error, common among the young, of assuming that if you cannot save the whole of mankind, you have failed.

- Jan de Hartog,
playwright and novelist (1914-2002)

(via A.W.A.D.)

Nimrods don't make me feel safer

Yeah, because this lady's sippy cup was a threat to our nation (but note that the veritable flotilla of cups and bottles of another family were just good old-fashioned Americana). Makes me want to bite them all...

How's that port security coming?

Several things

Theme-schmeme, I say! Here are some pithy bits I've collected, that might be worth your perusal:

• Atrios offers another installment of simple answers to simple questions. Sigh.
  
  
• Security expert Bruce Schneier points out that our media assist would-be terrorists by making the most of every half-conceived scheme and barely detectable threat, helping us with real dangers not at all.
  
  
• The Carpetbagger notes that "jobs Americans won't do" includes not only near-slave labor but working for the Republican Party. How apt.
  (via Atrios)
  
  
• Digby recaps some evidence that our current politics seems to be defined by male panic, adding some recent bits to the galling stew. We do live in very strange times...
  (via Medley)

Science meets goofiness

Voila! the Pac-Man skull.
I'm a little ashamed of how much this amuses me...

Cat bends space and time

Or at least, cat does the near-impossible in terms of squishing self. Most amusing (and a little mind-bending). I prefer not to think how s/he learned this trick...

(via Medley)

Adventures in produce II: More spring veggies

Our second batch came in late last week -- thanks to Sid for picking up the crate while we were hiding in the shade of Cape Cod. A couple repeat entries, plus some new stuff. (We also got some strawberries, which were granted to Sid as partial repayment for his efforts.) It feels like we can eat the produce at the rate that we receive it, although it is likely to lead to more frequent (and more adventurous) midweek cooking...


A couple of nice lettuces: red leaf and one whose name I've forgotten.


The first, tiny, zucchini of the year, along with another batch of scallions
(this time round and white, rather than long and purple-tinged).


Another batch of pea tendrils, along with a simple head of broccoli
(which I've just learned that I don't know how to spell).


This week's novelty: kohlrabi.
I know my mom made this once years back, but I have no idea what to expect.

The tendrils, zucchini, and scallions have already vanished into another spectacular quiche, which, with salad, makes a great dinner. Not sure yet what the kohlrabi will go into; perhaps a stir-fry with the broccoli. Also fun was that I noticed this time there were flowers on the pea tendrils -- pretty purple ones. I guess that the peas must be on the way. Anyway, a single one teased out looks a little like the flourish at the bottom of some Elizabethan stationery...

Speaking of snark...

Tom Tomorrow does an excellent job of capturing the Justice Department amnesia on display in the hearings of the last few weeks. They seem to have forgotten just about everything they ever touched or did. Embarassing to watch...

Snark of the day

Too lovely: the chairman of the Connecticut for Lieberman party calls on Joe to resign after recent remarks about Iran. Lieberman's fatuous power-chasing knows no bounds...

Maybe a majority *can* acheive a few good things

The Dems plan to fast-track a bill to remedy the hole in labor law revealed (created?) by the recent Supreme Court ruling in Ledbetter (see prev. here). I think support for this is pretty broad, as the ruling seemed nearly inconceivable to reasonable folks of many stripes...

Good news, bad news

One step forward, two steps back, more head-banging all around...

Good news

A US Circuit Court ruled that the Bushies can't continue military detention of a US resident that they haven't yet charged (although, you know, they've had him in jail for six years now -- a lot longer than his master's degree would have taken). I'm sure there will be more appeals, but at least a ray of sanity in this ongoing madness.

Bad news

A Democratic majority was supposed to make some kind of difference in national law-making, yes? Apparently no change in backing for abstinence-only sex "education" programs beloved of the right . . . Amazing.

(via Medley)

Compelling glimpse

Time Magazine offers a photo essay called What the World Eats: each is a picture of an individual family surrounded by the groceries and other stuff they'd eat during an average week. Fascinating range of places, packaging, foods, scale. You'll end up looking at every one.

(via kottke)

Quote of the day

Problems that remain persistently insolvable should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.

- Alan Watts

(via whiskey river)

Issues jumble

What on earth does party affiliation even mean anymore? I mean, if Democrats are introducing ridiculous bills like this, I have to say that generic anti-incumbency is sounding better and better...

Yeah, we're sure making things better

You know things are going well in Iraq (just like Mr. President says) when the college students there figure that staying in their country is a death sentence.

They said would leave their country feeling betrayed, by the debilitating violence that has killed scores of professors and friends, by the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalism and by the Americans, who they say cracked open their country, releasing spasms of violence without protecting the moderate institutions that could have been a bulwark against extremism.

I'd have to call that a vote -- with their feet -- of no confidence . . .
Sigh.

Say it loud

I didn't realize this, but Justice Ginsburg hasn't just been writing dissents in the recent Supreme Court mysogyny rulings; she's actually been giving rare oral dissents, speaking for the minority on the degree to which they think the majority ruling is misguided (and, specifically, putting politics above the law). Hear hear.

(via Medley)

Building a better... cow

Apparently a chance gene mutation discovered in a cow in New Zealand has led to the breeding of a strain of lowfat milk-producing dairy cattle. This offers an "all-natural" alternative to the current process for removing the fat, which should make the organicizers happy. (But can the calves drink it??) There are also changes in the types of fat in the milk that give the butter derived from it some appealing qualities, such as being spreadable right from the fridge -- expect that to appear on your shelves in a couple of years!

(via PhillyFuture)

Don't let life pass you by

A columnist reflects on how quickly our life plans can change, and reminds us that the time to do the things we love, to risk change in hope for something better, is always now.

I doubt that she was thinking, when she turned her head and saw the truck coming, "Well, there goes that trip to Greece." But I thought that, later. I thought that the overlooked corollary to "it's never too late" is "it's never too early."

The day after Jeanne Steager died, I went into Mr. Stern's office and quit my job. I was out of there in an hour; I was back home for lunch. It's never too early. Plans are just guesses.
. . .
When you're young you think that life stretches out indefinitely and you can take this crap for another decade. And the lesson of Jeanne Steager is, No, you bloody well can't. Life is of varying lengths, and actuarial tables are only averages, and sometimes you gotta close your eyes and jump. Even if it's scary; especially if it's scary.

A good reminder.

(via This Modern World)

Daily snark

At the expense of Fred Thompson this time, and rightly so...