Was thinking about what I heard on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me earlier - the Journey song that became the theme song for the Chicago White Sox - after they won the world series, there were probably a ton of fans who ran out and bought it.
And then I thought no, they probably ran home and downloaded it.
And then I thought you know, I think the peer to peer sharing network thing is karmic retribution to the music industry for all those decades of fucking over the artists.
Just a glimpse into how my train of thought works.
And there's the caboose!
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Friday, October 28, 2005
Happy Fitzween
I don't feel it's Fitzmas yet. I'm hoping for more. Because I don't think Libby did it on his own.
As my friend said - one rat bastard down...
As my friend said - one rat bastard down...
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
I wish I could put this on a bumpersticker
This makes some excellent points and would probably remind some people of some of the facts they have forgotten. So, all you supporters of the Iraq war, read on:
".....
Yesterday, the President also said:
"Some have also argued that extremism has been strengthened by the actions of our coalition in Iraq, claiming that our presence in that country has somehow caused or triggered the rage of radicals. I would remind them that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001 -- and al Qaeda attacked us anyway. The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue, and it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse."
.....
let's just deal with facts and the way that they are perceived in the Arab world. America (and it various partners) were in Iraq before 9/11. We virtually occupied Kuwait militarily and had a presence in much of the Gulf region, including the Islamic epicenter Saudi Arabia, as part of our decade-long containment and confrontation with Saddam Hussein. We operated CIA paramilitaries and special operations forces throughout the Kurdish zone (Iraqi territory), collecting intelligence, fomenting coups, supporting an insurgency against Baghdad. We were bombing Iraq regularly as part of our enforcement of the southern and northern no fly zones, and we were carrying out even larger bombing campaigns to support United Nations inspections or to exact unilateral retribution. We were doggedly maintaining sanctions until Iraq cried uncle.
So yes, "the hatred of the radicals" existed before Iraq was an issue, mister President, but Iraq was an issue.
Virtually every 9/11 hijacker, virtually every suicide bomber and insurgent in Iraq today grew up in a world where the stand-off in Iraq symbolized a war with the Arab world. Load on top of that a far more consequential concern about the plight of the Palestinian people, and mix in grievances about the bombings of Afghanistan and Sudan, the notions of occupations in Somalia and Kosovo, civilian casualties always framed as America's fault, even the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
The common theme is the impunity of America and the subjugation of the Arab and Islamic (and the powerless) to the western world.
And now in societies where half of the population is under the age of 15, it is not regime change and the grand democratic experiment in Iraq that resonates: it is fighting the omnipotent.
The White House and much of Washington continues to be stuck in a post 9/11 nightmare where I believe the groupthink imagines a monumental threat to the United States and western society that just doesn't exist.
Yes, President Bush, extremism will exist after Iraq. It is made all the more potent and rewarding as we bumble about labeling it "evil" and ignoring what it feeds on.
We may fantasize about a great crusade we are embarked upon, but our greatest danger in the future is a tin ear we also have to Islam's and al Qaeda's equal fantasies. Their fantasies, and our actions, like it or not, drive the violence all around us."
Pass it on.
".....
Yesterday, the President also said:
"Some have also argued that extremism has been strengthened by the actions of our coalition in Iraq, claiming that our presence in that country has somehow caused or triggered the rage of radicals. I would remind them that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001 -- and al Qaeda attacked us anyway. The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue, and it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse."
.....
let's just deal with facts and the way that they are perceived in the Arab world. America (and it various partners) were in Iraq before 9/11. We virtually occupied Kuwait militarily and had a presence in much of the Gulf region, including the Islamic epicenter Saudi Arabia, as part of our decade-long containment and confrontation with Saddam Hussein. We operated CIA paramilitaries and special operations forces throughout the Kurdish zone (Iraqi territory), collecting intelligence, fomenting coups, supporting an insurgency against Baghdad. We were bombing Iraq regularly as part of our enforcement of the southern and northern no fly zones, and we were carrying out even larger bombing campaigns to support United Nations inspections or to exact unilateral retribution. We were doggedly maintaining sanctions until Iraq cried uncle.
So yes, "the hatred of the radicals" existed before Iraq was an issue, mister President, but Iraq was an issue.
Virtually every 9/11 hijacker, virtually every suicide bomber and insurgent in Iraq today grew up in a world where the stand-off in Iraq symbolized a war with the Arab world. Load on top of that a far more consequential concern about the plight of the Palestinian people, and mix in grievances about the bombings of Afghanistan and Sudan, the notions of occupations in Somalia and Kosovo, civilian casualties always framed as America's fault, even the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
The common theme is the impunity of America and the subjugation of the Arab and Islamic (and the powerless) to the western world.
And now in societies where half of the population is under the age of 15, it is not regime change and the grand democratic experiment in Iraq that resonates: it is fighting the omnipotent.
The White House and much of Washington continues to be stuck in a post 9/11 nightmare where I believe the groupthink imagines a monumental threat to the United States and western society that just doesn't exist.
Yes, President Bush, extremism will exist after Iraq. It is made all the more potent and rewarding as we bumble about labeling it "evil" and ignoring what it feeds on.
We may fantasize about a great crusade we are embarked upon, but our greatest danger in the future is a tin ear we also have to Islam's and al Qaeda's equal fantasies. Their fantasies, and our actions, like it or not, drive the violence all around us."
Pass it on.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
We're done!!!!
*Dance about, clap hands with glee*
Not only did we finish getting the last of our crap out of the old house last night at midnight thirty, but I get home and get to take a luxurious shower whilst my husband tells me that 50% of people polled think that if Bush lied about the reasons for war in Iraq that he should be impeached. And yes, before you ask, there WERE republicans that were asked. 20% of them said yes. *grin*
Now I just have to figure out our budget and try to get rid of a few bills. *sigh*
Not only did we finish getting the last of our crap out of the old house last night at midnight thirty, but I get home and get to take a luxurious shower whilst my husband tells me that 50% of people polled think that if Bush lied about the reasons for war in Iraq that he should be impeached. And yes, before you ask, there WERE republicans that were asked. 20% of them said yes. *grin*
Now I just have to figure out our budget and try to get rid of a few bills. *sigh*
Monday, October 10, 2005
News update!
Jeremy must be part cat, because I think he just used up one of his nine lives.
He's at home. From the ICU. He's got a broken wrist, and has to go to the neurologist to check him out because of the brain swelling. He said he has a killer headache, but otherwise seems in good shape.
Fucking amazing.
And I don't have to beat the shit out of him for riding in the back of a truck, either - he was sitting on the side chatting while the truck was idling; the driver didn't realize he was sitting there and floored it, which of course sent Jeremy flying.
I feel much better now.
He's at home. From the ICU. He's got a broken wrist, and has to go to the neurologist to check him out because of the brain swelling. He said he has a killer headache, but otherwise seems in good shape.
Fucking amazing.
And I don't have to beat the shit out of him for riding in the back of a truck, either - he was sitting on the side chatting while the truck was idling; the driver didn't realize he was sitting there and floored it, which of course sent Jeremy flying.
I feel much better now.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Saturday, October 08, 2005
*sorta collapses into bed*
Did I mention I had a really bizarre dream night before last that I seduced Mel Gibson & he fell for me? 'Course, I was way hotter in my dream than I am in real life at the moment. I looked like my 19 yr old self. Ironically, when I was 19, I had a mental impression of my body that I was fat & unattractive. Now that I'm 30, every time I look in the mirror I am shocked that I don't look like the 20 yr old that the inside of my head still expects to see... I look more like the mental impression of myself that I had when I was 19. What a gyp.
Anyway, today was interesting. Stayed up way too fricking late reading comics, news, setting up NewsFire, etc. last night. M woke me up around 6 or 7... I think I managed to get both of them back to sleep at about 10. We were all originally going out to dinner to celebrate my dad's 85th birthday, but Sue's husband Jim (who also just had a birthday) was sick and so they couldn't go, and mom said she had too many papers to grade, and it's parents' weekend at FSU and there's a football game, so it would be hell at any restaurant, etc. - so J says he wants to go cook dinner for dad instead.
Some of J's boss's family lives in New Hampshire, and he'd given us homemade dark maple syrup (damn, is it good), so J made a pecan crusted pork loin that had been brined in Strongbow cider & maple syrup. Black eyed peas, greens, dad made cornbread (yes, we asked the birthday boy to make the cornbread - nobody else's is as good), J & I made this absofuckinglutely DIVINE salad - roma tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, shallots, roasted garlic clove antipasto, some sweet onion, lemon juice, and salt/pepper/spices - I'm drooling just thinking of it. Italian creme cake for dessert (dad really liked it; I was proud of picking out something different for him this year rather than a german chocolate cake like always - this might even become a new favorite!) and then we got out the music.
It was a wonderful evening. M was dancing to Tom T. Hall, Boots Randolph, the Louvin Brothers, Dylan (played Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre for mom, who laughed out loud at it), Marty Robbins... J sat down with dad and played him some great music, which I loved to see.
After dinner and dessert, while J & dad were listening to music in the living room, I actually remembered to take the compost can out for dad - however, either the liner of this can is leaking, or something had slipped between the liner and the can, because when I lifted it out it was positively COATED in eggs and maggots. EEEEEWWWW. Fortunately I'm not squeamish, so I picked up the handles and was taking it outside when one of the handles came off and the can crashed to the floor. It remained upright, so there wasn't rotten produce to clean up - but a whole lot of maggots had gotten shaken loose onto the floor. EEEEEWWWWW So I'm now trying to figure out a way to get maggots off a linoleum floor. It's a bamboo green color, and mom couldn't see the maggots, so I was trying to get them up - let me tell you, best method I found: broom and dustpan. Maggots are kinda cylindrical, so they roll into the dustpan like little squirmy rice grains. (Once they were in the dustpan mom could definitely see them, and was massively grossed out.) Mom jokes about it being an ending to a wonderful evening - and then the phone rings.
It's the 2nd grade teacher at mom's school (who, btw, was MY second grade teacher, and whose birthday is the same day as mine) who mom (indeed, my entire family) has been friends with for years. I'm in the living room, and I hear mom say in that voice that is not like any other, "Oh My God... Oh My God..." So I drift towards her to make sure she's okay and to find out what's up.
Most of you probably don't know this, but I used to tutor children. Math and science, mostly. Jeremy was a kid I tutored in science - he was smart, could be a sweetie, could also be somewhat ignorant - came from a conservative family, I think - anyway, not Nobel Peace Prize brilliant here, but definitely had potential. Lazy and disorganized, so I kinda identified with him. ;) He was a ninth grader this year. He was riding in the back or on the side of a pickup truck, and fell out - he has massive brain damage and they're not sure if he's going to survive.
I used to think I was cold & unfeeling. I've never had anybody REALLY close to me die - kids I'd gone to school with, friends of my parents, my ex-husband's grandmother... and while it was sad, I never really felt deeply touched. First time I saw my dad cry was pretty rough... and when Daniel's dad died in a car accident I felt awful for Daniel, but didn't really know his dad... but none of it was personal. Perhaps it's because I'm now a mother; I have a son. I knew Jeremy's mom. I'd kidded her about keeping Jeremy on his toes with his homework, prodding him to be organized... I'd chatted with Jeremy and two girls he hung out with/dated, and gotten an interesting glimpse into the life of a young adult... I can't imagine what his mother is going through right now, but in some ways, I can...
And after leaving my parents' house, both J & I admitted to having premonitions that dad won't make it to his next birthday... hell, I had the feeling he wouldn't make it to tomorrow morning. I hope we're wrong on that one.
So, off to soothe my son back to sleep for the 2nd or 3rd time tonight... having a stuffed up nose sucks, poor guy.
Anyway, today was interesting. Stayed up way too fricking late reading comics, news, setting up NewsFire, etc. last night. M woke me up around 6 or 7... I think I managed to get both of them back to sleep at about 10. We were all originally going out to dinner to celebrate my dad's 85th birthday, but Sue's husband Jim (who also just had a birthday) was sick and so they couldn't go, and mom said she had too many papers to grade, and it's parents' weekend at FSU and there's a football game, so it would be hell at any restaurant, etc. - so J says he wants to go cook dinner for dad instead.
Some of J's boss's family lives in New Hampshire, and he'd given us homemade dark maple syrup (damn, is it good), so J made a pecan crusted pork loin that had been brined in Strongbow cider & maple syrup. Black eyed peas, greens, dad made cornbread (yes, we asked the birthday boy to make the cornbread - nobody else's is as good), J & I made this absofuckinglutely DIVINE salad - roma tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, shallots, roasted garlic clove antipasto, some sweet onion, lemon juice, and salt/pepper/spices - I'm drooling just thinking of it. Italian creme cake for dessert (dad really liked it; I was proud of picking out something different for him this year rather than a german chocolate cake like always - this might even become a new favorite!) and then we got out the music.
It was a wonderful evening. M was dancing to Tom T. Hall, Boots Randolph, the Louvin Brothers, Dylan (played Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre for mom, who laughed out loud at it), Marty Robbins... J sat down with dad and played him some great music, which I loved to see.
After dinner and dessert, while J & dad were listening to music in the living room, I actually remembered to take the compost can out for dad - however, either the liner of this can is leaking, or something had slipped between the liner and the can, because when I lifted it out it was positively COATED in eggs and maggots. EEEEEWWWW. Fortunately I'm not squeamish, so I picked up the handles and was taking it outside when one of the handles came off and the can crashed to the floor. It remained upright, so there wasn't rotten produce to clean up - but a whole lot of maggots had gotten shaken loose onto the floor. EEEEEWWWWW So I'm now trying to figure out a way to get maggots off a linoleum floor. It's a bamboo green color, and mom couldn't see the maggots, so I was trying to get them up - let me tell you, best method I found: broom and dustpan. Maggots are kinda cylindrical, so they roll into the dustpan like little squirmy rice grains. (Once they were in the dustpan mom could definitely see them, and was massively grossed out.) Mom jokes about it being an ending to a wonderful evening - and then the phone rings.
It's the 2nd grade teacher at mom's school (who, btw, was MY second grade teacher, and whose birthday is the same day as mine) who mom (indeed, my entire family) has been friends with for years. I'm in the living room, and I hear mom say in that voice that is not like any other, "Oh My God... Oh My God..." So I drift towards her to make sure she's okay and to find out what's up.
Most of you probably don't know this, but I used to tutor children. Math and science, mostly. Jeremy was a kid I tutored in science - he was smart, could be a sweetie, could also be somewhat ignorant - came from a conservative family, I think - anyway, not Nobel Peace Prize brilliant here, but definitely had potential. Lazy and disorganized, so I kinda identified with him. ;) He was a ninth grader this year. He was riding in the back or on the side of a pickup truck, and fell out - he has massive brain damage and they're not sure if he's going to survive.
I used to think I was cold & unfeeling. I've never had anybody REALLY close to me die - kids I'd gone to school with, friends of my parents, my ex-husband's grandmother... and while it was sad, I never really felt deeply touched. First time I saw my dad cry was pretty rough... and when Daniel's dad died in a car accident I felt awful for Daniel, but didn't really know his dad... but none of it was personal. Perhaps it's because I'm now a mother; I have a son. I knew Jeremy's mom. I'd kidded her about keeping Jeremy on his toes with his homework, prodding him to be organized... I'd chatted with Jeremy and two girls he hung out with/dated, and gotten an interesting glimpse into the life of a young adult... I can't imagine what his mother is going through right now, but in some ways, I can...
And after leaving my parents' house, both J & I admitted to having premonitions that dad won't make it to his next birthday... hell, I had the feeling he wouldn't make it to tomorrow morning. I hope we're wrong on that one.
So, off to soothe my son back to sleep for the 2nd or 3rd time tonight... having a stuffed up nose sucks, poor guy.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Monday, October 03, 2005
people are so frustrating
Creationists VS Evolutionists - stupid argument; one does not negate the other (unless you read the bible literally, which I think is goofy)
Pro-life VS Pro-choice - again, stupid argument; I think once the egg is fertilized it is a potential human life, and I'm loathe to knowingly disturb it or negatively influence its odds of survival - however, having learned something from history, I know that making abortion illegal will not help reduce the number of abortions, but instead will result in higher # of womens' deaths - so why don't all you people screaming on one side or another put even HALF that much energy into improving birth control and education? You are never, NEVER going to get everybody to agree on one side or the other, so let's just make it a moot point by attempting to insure that there are no unwanted pregnancies in the first place, hrm?
War on Drugs - dammit, don't any of these people read history books? Remember what happened with Prohibition? An underground black market was created and organized crime took strong root across America. If drugs were legalized, then a good chunk of the money and violence would be removed from the equation - nhow often do you see people killing each other over cigarettes? (to use another addictive drug as an example). You could ensure quality product (eliminating overdoses due to misdosing, poisoning, etc.) and could collect tax on the sale of the drugs to use for education and drug abuse counseling. Making drugs legal would probably cut the population in our prisons in half.
So tired... falling asleep sitting up reading/typing.
Pro-life VS Pro-choice - again, stupid argument; I think once the egg is fertilized it is a potential human life, and I'm loathe to knowingly disturb it or negatively influence its odds of survival - however, having learned something from history, I know that making abortion illegal will not help reduce the number of abortions, but instead will result in higher # of womens' deaths - so why don't all you people screaming on one side or another put even HALF that much energy into improving birth control and education? You are never, NEVER going to get everybody to agree on one side or the other, so let's just make it a moot point by attempting to insure that there are no unwanted pregnancies in the first place, hrm?
War on Drugs - dammit, don't any of these people read history books? Remember what happened with Prohibition? An underground black market was created and organized crime took strong root across America. If drugs were legalized, then a good chunk of the money and violence would be removed from the equation - nhow often do you see people killing each other over cigarettes? (to use another addictive drug as an example). You could ensure quality product (eliminating overdoses due to misdosing, poisoning, etc.) and could collect tax on the sale of the drugs to use for education and drug abuse counseling. Making drugs legal would probably cut the population in our prisons in half.
So tired... falling asleep sitting up reading/typing.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
You know you're a homeowner when...
you spend an hour or two taking off and replacing the faucets that connect to the washing machine.
We've gotten SO much done today, it's wonderful. The utility room is almost completely set up, the den is half done, the bedroom is half done, the kids' bedroom is 3/4 done, the playroom is half done... I'm going to sit at my desk and put things away in it while listening to Says You, and then it's bathtime, then bedtime!
We've gotten SO much done today, it's wonderful. The utility room is almost completely set up, the den is half done, the bedroom is half done, the kids' bedroom is 3/4 done, the playroom is half done... I'm going to sit at my desk and put things away in it while listening to Says You, and then it's bathtime, then bedtime!
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