Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Misc: Funniest Site Ever!

Superman's a Dick!

Well, maybe not the funniest ever, but definitely the funniest thing I've seen since Seanbaby.com's Superfriends page.

Go now, and be sure to check out the "Seduction of the Innocent" gallery for some real hilarity.

UPDATE:Yeah, I know I said I'd follow up on all the stuff I'm so righteously angry about, but it's just more fun to try to contain your tears of laughter at work... Smile appearing...anger fading...

Oh, and thanks to Tom Tomorrow for the tip.

UPDATE TWO: Another great site here. Bill McNeal was one of the great TV characters of all time. Of all the great comedians to die too soon, Phil Hartman is the most tragic to me, since he was great and it happened through no fault of his own. Bill McNeal, The Sinatra Group on "SNL" and Troy McClure on "The Simpsons"--truly a first-ballot Hall of Fame career. Good times...

Monday, June 27, 2005

Me: I'm Back.

It's been nine days since I've been near a computer (and therfore this, or any other, blog). Since my day job and my freelance job are computer-exclusive, and I waste my free time reading blogs, that's a very good thing for my sanity. Unfortunately, for the first time ever, it seems people might actually be reading this tripe, it was bittersweet timing for a vacation, but that'e the way it goes. But in those nine days, I did come a cross a newspaper or two -- and just about everything I read was blog-worthy/fury-inducing. So there's more to come, time to sleep off twelve hours of driving...

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Economy: Pin, Meet Housing Bubble

[via Brad Delong]
The Trillion-Dollar Bet
By DAVID LEONHARDT and MOTOKO RICH

[NY Times] American homeowners have made a trillion-dollar bet that mortgage rates will remain near record lows for at least a few more years. But with some interest rates already rising, economists worry that the bet could turn bad.

The problem is that new types of mortgages that hold down monthly payments for families - helping many buy homes that they would not otherwise be able to afford - also require potentially far higher payments in future years.

The bill will soon start to come due in a serious way, as the initial period of fixed payments, typically set at artificially low rates, expires for millions of homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages. This year, only about $80 billion, or 1 percent, of mortgage debt will switch to an adjustable rate based largely on prevailing interest rates, according to an analysis by Deutsche Bank in New York. Next year, some $300 billion of mortgage debt will be similarly adjusted. But in 2007, the portion will soar, with $1 trillion of the nation's mortgage debt - or about 12 percent of it - switching to adjustable payments, according to the analysis.

What is fascinating to me, is that all these people were getting mortgages during a period of historic low rates. Therefore, obviously, an adjustable rate had no where to go but up. Now, I'm no financial genius (just ask my wife) but we bought our first house in 2001 and refinaced in 2003. At no point in those transactions did I ever consider anything but 30-year fixed mortgages even though the payments (at 5.375%) are fairly tight for us.

You'd have to be freaking crazy or expecting a windfall of new income in the future to have done otherwise. Somehow I don't see all these people having jumped up the corporate ladder in five years to handle a doubling of their mortgage payments.

On the plus side, this will be a damper on the Republicans chances of running on the economy in 2008.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Blogs: Anger Is a Gift

Unlike the Hulk, I like when Steve G.'s angry...

Oh, he's mad at Joe Biden too.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Politics: The Scream

Atrios reminds us...
a year and a half or so later it's pretty instructive to remind ourselves what constituted the worst political gaffe in the history of the universe, according to The Note fuckwads and their ilk.

So, let's listen to a rousing campaign speech, directed at a crowd of passionate supporters who had just lost, and consider why it was thought to be so offensive." [listen.]

Bush: Canning Our Salmon

[via Dave Neiwert, and blatently piggybacked] The Bush Administration has plans to ramp up offshore salmon farming in the Pacific. As you might imagine, any plan involving anything to do with the environment is bound to be bad coming from this Administration...
Bush seeks expansion of offshore fish farms
Plan stirs debate about balancing demand, environmental impact

By ROBERT McCLURE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Calling fish farming a potential boon for consumers and the economy, the Bush administration yesterday proposed to massively expand the practice to waters as far as 200 miles offshore.

Supporters in Washington, including a state senator who advocates for fish farmers, urged Congress to bless the idea. They said a likely result -- if fish-culturing methods can be perfected -- would be a cheap source of ocean-grown delights...

Critics answered that the aquaculture build-up is a get-rich-quick scheme destined to leave taxpayers subsidizing an industry that would pollute the ocean, serve up substandard fish and, ultimately, center its economic activity in Third World nations.

[...] "We can create new jobs. This is going to generate more money for coastal communities and the economy of the United States," said Susan Buchanan of the National Marine Fisheries Service, which wants to promote and regulate aquaculture from 3 to 200 miles offshore. Waters closer to shore are regulated by states.

Ooh, if you combine the Bush Administration's reputaion on environmental issues with their trank record of job creation -- I'm sold! This won't net (pun intended, sorry) any jobs, it will put traditional fisherman out of business, and these nasty-ass fish farms will be manned by a relative few "attendants." And any money generated will surely be funneled off to some giant agri-corporation thousands of miles away from the Pacific Northwest, rather than lavished upon the soon to be decimated fishing villages.
As this country's wild fish runs have been harvested to excess, federal fisheries authorities increasingly have viewed fish farming as the way out of a difficult dilemma.

At current consumption rates, the nation's annual seafood needs are expected to increase by one-third, to 8 million metric tons, by 2025.

"If we can't get our act together, we're going to keep importing seafood," said Michael Rubino, manager of aquaculture programs for the Fisheries Service. "Nutritionists are asking us to eat twice as much seafood. ... How do we do that? That's a challenge for us."

Yeah, jackass, it's a particular challenge since another federal agency (EPA) is warning not to eat more than a serving of many wild fish a month. Nineteen states have issued consumption warnings for ALL inland lakes and rivers (link). And farmed fish is many, many times as contaminated as wild fish, it's just under the FDA's jurisdiction (and unregulated) instead of the EPA. You can be sure this clown Rubino is fresh from Van de Kamps or some giant fish industry lobbying group, where he will promptly return when Bush's term is up or this plan starts making his former (and future) employer rich, whichever comes first
"Any time you have a confined feedlot operation, you're going to have disease and pathogens and parasites, so you're always medicating for your weakest animal -- whereas in nature, that animal would die and become part of the food chain," said Anne Mosness... Mosness, who fished for salmon in Alaska for 28 years, worries that producing enough salmon in fish farms will give politicians an excuse to discontinue environmental-protection efforts designed to make Northwest rivers more welcoming to salmon.

What? The Bush Administration deliberately undermine environmental practices to benefit big business? I'm shocked you would even think such a thing!

But all of that is not even the worst part (to me). This is:
[Neiwert]: As it happens, those antibiotics are spread openly to the open sea, since some 75 percent of it, spread into the pens, actually escapes. This introduces into the wild marine environment new strains of resistant diseases that can devastate whole populations, both farmed and wild.

That's not all they're spreading into the wild. The salmon pens are also spreading sea lice and other diseases to wild salmon.

And then there are the farmed salmon themselves, which often escape, usually in larger numbers than the industry will admit. These are Atlantic salmon, an alien species. They are also notoriously aggressive toward the salmonids of other species -- that is, they selectively pursue and eat them. (This is probably why, in the Atlantic, there is only one species of salmon, compared to the five species that naturally prowl the Pacific.) And, in the wild, these Atlantic salmon have begun to breed and displace the wild Pacific salmon stocks.

Nature is tricky and delicate and really shouldn't be messed with. Did you ever learn about salmon in school? How they swim out to the ocean and return hundreds of miles upriver to the spot where they were born to spawn? It's incredible stuff. Well kiss it all goodbye for the short-term needs of a voracious country and the greed of industry. There's no way to anticipate the damage this could do until it's too late, and the people making these plans know that, they just don't fucking care. In twenty years will we have only Atlantic salmon in the Pacific as well? Here in the Great Lakes region, there is a constant struggle to contain/repel alien species that enter the lake system and literally wipe out native species. How many times has somebody's brilliant short-term idea wreaked ecological havoc?

I love salmon. It's a relatively newly acquired taste for me, and I consider it a treat, so I'm willing to pay a bit of a premium for quality. I realize populations and demands are growing, and expense is an issue. Solutions need to be found. But I don't trust the Bush EPA, FDA or industry to come up with a good long-term strategy any further than I could throw them into a PCB-ridden river.

More here, and John Cole chimes in here.

Politics: It's Official--The Senate is Screwed

[via The Carpetbagger] Another one of Bush's judicial nominees was quietly confirmed today. You might remember from back a few weeks ago (back when people were paying attention to this topic) that one of the judges Bush nominated for a lifetime appointment was a guy who had illegally practiced law without a license? "Surely the Dems could get a few Republicans to join and reject that nomination," you probably thought.

Well, you'd be wrong.
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed one of its former lawyers, Thomas S. Griffith, to sit on the U.S. Appeals Court, the sixth judge it has elevated to the federal appellate court in the last month.

If this is the result of the much vaunted "compromise on the filibuster" what the hell did we gain?
Let's not lose sight of some of the details here. Griffith practiced law without a license in Utah for nearly five years, lost his D.C. law license, and passed up 10 opportunities to take the Utah bar exam. (Practicing law without a license is illegal.) Better yet, the American Bar Association gave Griffith the lowest possible passing grade for a judicial nominee. Just last fall, Pat Leahy saw this nomination going nowhere.

"This is a man who practiced law in two states in violation of the laws — what a fine, fine standard the White House has" for judicial nominees, Leahy said. "In my state he would be prosecuted. I've never seen anything so unbelievable."

Not only did the "Compromise" specifically let Bush's three most odious nominees get votes to be confirmed, everyone else is waltzing up for their lifetime appointments as well. This guy Griffith was clearly a candidate for at least a Dem "Nay" sweep. He practiced law illegally in DC and Utah fer crissakes!! He should have been disbarred if not prosecuted. Yet this is the kind of guy Bush sees fit to nominate, and he easily passes with 73 votes. 20 of them from Democrats!

Send all those goddamn clowns in the Senate home. Just have Bush draw up whatever he wants on the White House stationary and just make it official himself. Save us the tax money wasted on this chamber of fucking idiot rubber stamps.

Monday, June 13, 2005

War: Will the House of Cards Fall?

Digby has a great post up about the rationale for the Iraq War and the Downing Street Memo. It's too good to excerpt, so go read the whole thing. Particulary good is his reprinting of a post of his from 2002, that was just dead-on-balls accurate.

Will our media make up for their role in this fiasco? Or will they continue to be accessories to the crime? I honestly believe they will let it fade away, I have no faith in them at all. Bastards.

Politics: The New Harry S. Truman

"My view is that Fox News is a propaganda outlet of the Republican Party and that I don't comment on Fox News."

Kick ass. That was Howard Dean's response when asked to comment on Darth Cheney's interview that will air on Hannity tonite. from the interview, here's some of Cheney's side of the mouth crap:
[link] "Howard Dean is "over the top," Vice President Dick Cheney says, calling the Democrats' chairman "not the kind of individual you want to have representing your political party."

"I've never been able to understand his appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does. He's never won anything, as best I can tell," Cheney said in an interview to be aired Monday on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes."

Nah. Never won anything...from Howard Dean's bio:
Dean was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1983 to 1985. He was elected lieutenant governor of Vermont in 1986 and was reelected in 1988 and 1990. He became governor upon the death of Governor Richard A. Snelling on August 14, 1991. Elected to a full term in November 1992, he was reelected in November 1994, November 1996, November 1998, and November 2000. A past chairman of the National Governors Association, the Democratic Governors' Association, and the New England Governors' Conference, he also served on the National Education Goals Panel and was co-chair of NGA's Task Force on Health Care.

And that's from his Governor's bio, so it doesn't mention that he won his post as DNC chair as well.
...Dean said Saturday that positive responses from influential supporters have reinforced his determination to keep talking tough.

"People want us to fight," Dean told the national party's executive committee. "We are here to fight."

Addressing Iowa party activists later Saturday in Des Moines, he added: "We need to be blunt and clear about the things we're going to fight for. I'm tired of lying down in front of the Republican machine. We need to stand up for what we believe in."

I hear ya Howard. Go sign the "Howard Dean Speaks for Me" petition here.

Oh, and the Harry Truman part? Well as Truman famously said, "I don't give 'em hell, I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." Dean is taking up that task nicely.

[FOLLOW-UP]: Since I never put together the post I had planned about the whole Dean comments flap, I thought I'd just quickly tack this on here. This was my initial response to Dean's comments on Meet the Press (which I started watching, but never finished), posted as a comment at Steve Gilliard's blog:
I've seen it described that Dean was referring to Republican leadership/elite being the guys who never worked a full day.

Not in the context of that 'graph.

Dean fucked up. He was making fun of the other side/scoring points with audience and using too broad a brush. Nothing new there, and I am a HUGE Dean fan, but this is classic stuff from him.

He could have made the exact same point even more biting (rather than more delicately) if he clarified evenslightly who he was talkng about.

No need to insult the millions of hard-working folks who are Republicans simply out of ignorance. Howard's been trying to reach them for years, and this was a bone-headed way to do it.

That was before all the prominent Dems (Edwards, Biden, Pelosi...) threw Dean under the bus in order to kiss ass to the likes of Russert & Co. Fuck you guys. Howard Dean is speaking his mind and telling the truth. At the end of the day, everyone will know where Dean stands which is more than I can say about any of you or the Democratic Party as a whole. You might take a lesson from that, you insecure, scared, kiss-ups. Howard Dean is the changing of the guard, and you clowns are crapping your pants over it, and it's starting to soak through that we can all see it now.

Here are the links I was going to reference. Steve G here and here.; Salon here; Jann Wenner here.; The Rude Pundit blocks for Dean here; And Ezra has a good response to Matt Y's good point.

BS: Zoo-illogical Gardens

[via The Carpetbagger] When the blue states get smart and secede, I hereby nominate Tulsa, Oklahoma the capitol of the left-behind "Jesusland"...
Biblical account of creation to go on display at Tulsa Zoo [link]

TULSA (AP) — The Tulsa Zoo will add a display featuring the biblical account of creation following complaints to a city board about other displays with religious significance, including a Hindu elephant statue.

The Tulsa Park and Recreation Board voted 3-1 Tuesday in favor of a display depicting the account in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh...

Does the Tulsa Zoo have room for the full-scale Noah's Ark that it will require to tell the full story of all the animals...
[...]"I see this as a big victory," said Dan Hicks, the Tulsa resident who approached the Tulsa Zoo with the idea for the exhibit. "It's a matter of fairness. To not include the creationist view would be discrimination."

No, jackass, to "not include the creationist view" is common sense and probably (hopefully) consistent with the Mission of the zoo to remain educational and based on some semblance of science. And, I love the fact that your name is "Hicks."
Tulsa Zoo exhibit curator Kathleen Buck-Miser estimated it would take about six months to research and organize the creationist exhibit. She expressed qualms about the zoo delving into theological debate.

"I'm afraid we are going in the wrong direction," she said.

Zoo officials argued that the zoo, as a scientific institution, does not advocate religion and that displays like the elephant statue are meant to show the animal's image among cultures. The same exhibit includes the Republican Party's elephant symbol.

Board member Dale McNamara, who voted against the proposal, said the zoo is dedicated to animals and science, not religious beliefs.

"I do not like the idea of scripture at the zoo," she said.

So, one religious jerkoff starts a movement, and since this is Oklahoma, he rapidly has hundreds of wingnut signatures on a petition, and the zoo is forced by the cowardly city council to oblige these fools. Aargh.

Misc: The Secret Life of Bees

Went looking for info on the bees buzzing around my front porch and back deck. Turns out they are carpenter bees. The males are the ones that hover around and annoy you, but they can't sting. The females can, but never do, because they're too busy in the neat little half-inch holes they've drilled all over my fascia boards. It seems they are merely a nuisance and not a structural threat. Now that I know they won't sting my daughter, and they are not social (ie: the four or five I see, are the only ones there) and pose no threat to my house, I just have to decide how long I can put up with the sawdust on my deck and their nasty shit streaks on my trim...

Oh, and in my search I found this great site. Extremely informative, and pretty entertainingly written. I now know more about bees, ants and squirrels than I ever need too. And I was afraid to even check out the rat or roach pages. If you live in South Jersey, they should be your exterminator.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Misc: Barbara Walters, STFU

[via Steve G.] Apparently Barbara Walters has a bug up her ass about public breastfeeding...
[NY Times link] The calls for a "nurse-in" began on the Internet mere moments after Barbara Walters uttered a negative remark about public breast-feeding on her ABC talk show, "The View."

The protest, inspired by similar events organized by a growing group of unlikely activists nationwide in the last year, brought about 200 women to ABC's headquarters yesterday. They stood nursing their babies in the unmistakably public venue of Columbus Avenue and West 67th Street. They held signs reading, "Shame on View," and "Babies are born to be breastfed." Ms. Walters, who remarked a few weeks ago on the show that the sight of a woman breast-feeding on an airplane next to her had made her uncomfortable...

Get over yourself you uptight jerk. My daughter still nurses and she's two and a half! I hope that gives you a freaking heart attack when you see it! Before I even mention the overwhelming medical benefits of breastfeeding, I need to point out that breastfeeding your baby during takeoff and landing is the best thing you can do on a flight to relieve the baby's discomfort from cabin pressure changes. Babies can't fucking chew gum or pop their ears like you, Barbara. Would you rather the baby scream uncontrollably for two hours because her ears hurt? Would that be more "comfortable" for you, bitch? Because it's fucking painful for the baby, who has no choice in the matter, and less pleasant for everyone else on the flight. I guess moms with babies should just keep their asses at home and avoid inconveniencing you.
But the rally at ABC is only the most visible example of a recent wave of "lactivism." Prodded by mothers who say they are tired of being asked to adjourn to the bathroom while nursing in a public space, six states have recently passed laws giving a woman the right to breast-feed wherever she "is otherwise authorized to be."

An Ohio bill saying a woman is "entitled to breast-feed her baby in any place of public accommodation" passed last month over the objection of one representative who wanted to exempt businesses from liability for accidents caused by "spillage."

Timeout. "Accidents caused by spillage?" Are you fucking kidding me? Does this jackass think breasts are like a firehose, shooting milk all over the room? Is that business exempt from liability if a customer slips on spilled soda? How much do you want to bet this uptight asshole is a Republican?
Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, held a nurse-in on the Capitol's Cannon Terrace last month as she reintroduced federal legislation to amend the Civil Rights Act to protect women from employment discrimination for using a breast pump or feeding their babies during breaks.

Nursing mothers are pressuring businesses, too. Burger King has declared that mothers are welcome to nurse. Starbucks - the target of a letter-writing campaign that asked "What's more natural than coffee and milk?" - has, too.

The moves come as the number of American mothers who choose to breast-feed has climbed to about 70 percent in 2003, the last year for which information was available, from about 50 percent in 1990. Many otherwise apolitical women say they found themselves unexpectedly transformed into lactivists after fielding a nasty comment or being asked to stop nursing in public.

"We're all told that breast-feeding is the best, healthiest thing you can do for your child, and then we're made to feel ashamed to do it without being locked in our homes."

But Ms. Walters is not the only one who might prefer not to be confronted with breast-feeding at close quarters. Legislators, business owners and family members are debating how to reconcile the health benefits of nursing with the prevailing cultural squeamishness toward nursing in public.

Read that last sentence again, please. Now, I ask you, "What the hell is wrong with this country?" This is one of the most natural processes of life. That such a stigma has been attached to it that any woman should ever feel guilty or uncomfortable about feeding her baby is a-fucking-trocious.
The American Academy of Pediatrics urges women to feed their babies only breast milk for the first six months, and continue breast-feeding for at least an additional six months. If its recommendations were followed, the group estimates that Americans would save $3.6 billion in annual health care costs because breast-fed babies tend to require less medical care. But while more women are breast-feeding for the first few weeks, fewer than one-third are still nursing after six months. Some doctors attribute the decline to self-consciousness and the difficulties of finding spaces where nursing seems acceptable.

"To many mothers, breast-feeding runs up against sexual attitudes toward the breast," said Dr. Lawrence Gartner, who leads the academy's research on breast-feeding. "That reduces the prevalence of breast-feeding, which is a bad situation because duration of breast-feeding is an important factor in children's health."

This is just more of the same old uptight with anything that can be remotely linked to sex crap coming from small-minded, self-important assholes. That, and an agenda of making sure women remain second-class citizens relegated to child-rearin' back at home. No jobs, no independence, keep your ass barefoot and pregnant and back at home in the kitchen and have dinner ready when the Sexist Asshole comes home.

Or have a bunch of full-time nannies and wet nurses raise your kids like Barbara Walters probably did.

WTF?: "Sir, could you please remove the hockey mask?"

"Ah, never mind... Welcome to the United States, go right ahead..."

This story is freaking preposterous:
Man With Stained Chain saw Let in to U.S.
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press Writer
BOSTON Jun 7, 2005 — On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres. Then they let him into the United States.

The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton's kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.

Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect [in Canada] because of a history of violence between him and his neighbors, and [through no help from our crack Federal gov't] he was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month.

At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country?

Unless Jason and Leatherface are Arabs, the teens at Crystal Lake'll be screwed again this summer. Feel safe now? What a fucking joke this whole "national security" crap is.
Bill Anthony, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the Canada-born Despres could not be detained because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen and was not wanted on any criminal charges on the day in question.

[...] "Nobody asked us to detain him," Anthony said. "Being bizarre is not a reason to keep somebody out of this country or lock them up. … We are governed by laws and regulations, and he did not violate any regulations."

Anthony conceded it "sounds stupid" that a man wielding what appeared to be a bloody chain saw could not be detained. But he added: "Our people don't have a crime lab up there. They can't look at a chain saw and decide if it's blood or rust or red paint."

Bizarre? That's putting it mildly. Take a look at his freaking mugshot! [no, seriously, look] I mean, come on, if that guy wasn't chopping people up it'd be news! And no crime labs? How about eyes and fucking brains? Jesus. As far as the "we're a country of laws and due process" line of bullshit. Tell it to the US citizens with brown skin and beards swept up in the "War on Terrorist-Resembling People"

Monday, June 06, 2005

Religion: Everybody Shut Up!

[via John Cole]:
NEWARK, N.J.—A public school prohibited a second grader from singing a religious song at a talent show, prompting a lawsuit Friday alleging violation of the girl’s constitutional rights.

A federal judge declined an emergency request to compel Frenchtown Elementary School to allow 8-year-old Olivia Turton to sing “Awesome God” at the Friday night show, but allowed the lawsuit to go forward. School officials in the western New Jersey community had said the performance would be inappropriate at a school event.

The girl was told May 10 that she could not sing the song. Her mother, Maryann Turton, protested at a school board meeting that night. She was told three days later by Joyce Brennan, the school superintendent and principal, that the religious content made it inappropriate at school, according to the lawsuit filed by the child’s parents Friday morning.

I hate this crap. No, not the religious song, the fact that everything has to be a fucking federal case. People on the right neeed to stop trying to shoehorn God into public school, and people on the left need to lighten the fuck up when it's just a kid singing a song.

If the school assigned the chorus that song, that's a problem. If a student were to lead a prayer from the stage, that would probably still be a problem. But this? Gimme a break.

I suppose there might be a slippery slope argument where a bunch of religious students would all pick hymns and hijack a public school talent show, but until that's the case, STFU.

Same goes for the valedictorian who wanted to thank Jesus Christ in her speech [link]. Fine. Her speech was submitted, the content was pretty benign, in my opinion, and the school should back off. Every freaking athlete who wins anything starts out by "thanking my Lord Jesus Christ," so, I don't think this is going to have a dramatic impact on anyone.

Lighten up and/or shut up, people.

Friday, June 03, 2005

Me: Outta Here.

I'm off for the weekend. Off to where there's no internet, no blogs, no work and no stress. Nothing but sand, cherry pie and water way to cold to swim in.

Go read Ezra, he's on fire right now. Great threads here and here, and good stuff in between.

The Carpetbagger had some good stuff happening the other day: Bad newshere and something on the Smithsonian's sell-out to anti-evolution idiocy here.

John Cole's off for the weekend as well, but he had a fiesty week too.

And please go check out BlondeSense. They've been by here, so I want to return the favor...

A good week around here, I can confirm four actual readers!

Adios!

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Misc: Who Cares?

I guess I'm just not old enough or something, but I just don't care about the unmasking of 'Deep Throat.' It's a trivia question answered at this point, and nothing more. Seven of the ten stories in my salon.com email were about Deep Throat this morning. Ugh.