I'd like to thank the academy...

Hey, look, apparently, you can fool some of the people some of the time, because once again, one of my ill-conceived, sloppily-rendered bitch-and-moan sessions has been accepted into the Carnival of Liberals (No. 48). That puts me batting at something like .500-ish (that's for how often I've entered, not how often the Carnival's been published)

loonieness

You know we're in trouble when the Canadian dollar achieves parity with the U.S. dollar. If nothing else, this should be a clear sign to the average American about what a piss-poor job the Bush Administration has made of the economy.

cost analysis

So far, Dallas' share of The Cost Of War would have paid for (acccording to the site) over 18,000 teachers.

Or, more likely, 4 more high-level administrators, their staff, and some lucrative contracts (and kick-backs) for their business cronies.

farewell

Gone but not forgotten; Gabriel, AKA the Mighty Hunter, on September 21, 2007, after 16 good years. Preceded by his brother from a different mother Petronius the Arbiter (11 years gone), and survived by Mary Mary and the Royal Twins*. Cause of death unknown, but a coyote is suspected at some point before internment.

Gabe was my first pet, a classic Morris orange tabby. He was one of the sweetest, most patient cats I've ever known, and even though he'd spent over half his life making it impossible for us to own any rugs, he still easily qualified as a Good Cat. If cats go to a place after they die, Gabe's will be a Valhalla-like spot, and he'll deserve it.

* There's Harry, The Black Prince, also, but he's a dog and cat protocol prevents his mention.

zip

nothin', I got nothing. seriously, nothing.

monday at the short films

Here's a couple of fascinating videos from Al Jazeera about our "success" in the Anbar province. Seems things arent quite as rosy as we're told (except for the soldiers, for whom things have improved dramatically).


Did you find it as wierd as I did watching them talk about the now-dead Reesha? And the description of him being a "con-man" makes me wonder who really killed him.

props go to Khalid

sunday funny - late

"Eyebeam" was this terrific comic strip from the eighties,which, sadly, never really caught on in a way big enough to support its creator, Sam Hurt (fortunately for him, he was also a lawyer). But at least you can read it on line (buying the books is tricky, though).

debate! debate! debate! debate!

Never mind the usual suspects, Iraq, Health Care and Education. Go here and watch candidates answer questions from loose cannon Bill Maher.

five miles uphill in the snow

Sh3rry mailed me this, and I thought it was too true to keep to myself.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2007 when...

1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

Okay, the emoticon thing doesnt apply to me, but I'm forwarding this to everyone.

yawning is a social disease!

A susceptibility to contagious yawning may actually be a sign of a high-level of social empathy.

Although many species yawn, only some humans and possibly their close animal relatives find yawning infectious, suggesting the reason is psychological.

from the BBC

So maybe this should be part of our evaluation when choosing our politicians. Except we know they'd just get themselves Yawning Coaches, wouldnt they. So let's just keep this one under our hat (but watch for the yawns anyway).

gnawing bones

sigh...

Six years later, and we've yet another year without capturing bin Laden, just more of our continuing Orwellian war.
How much clusterfuckery does one need to see before declaring a presidency to be a complete failure? Aside from helping to make the richest 1% even richer, has Bush and his Cabal done anything to make life in this country better for anyone?

Any thing?

No, really, anything for anyone?

sunday comic

read more here (finder's fee goes to Spoonfighter)

aphorisms are inadequate

If you are a conservative when you are 25, you have no heart.

If you are a liberal when you are 35, you have no brain.*

But these days, if you are a Republican , you have neither. Or you're just not paying attention.



And if you are one of those Republicans who has connections to the Pharmaceutical industry, health insurance, Big Oil, or the military-industrial complex, and make your fortune at the expense of, and from the illness and dying of, the American people (or any other people, for that matter), then you have no soul.

* This was not Churchill, by the way.

just thinking, mk II...

An atheist is just a fundamentalist who believes in one less god than the other.

just thinking...

Maybe for the 2008 campaign, people ought to point out that the Republican Party, which talks about the virtues of "personal responsibility", is also the party that wanted to "fight them over there so we dont have to fight them over here". The same Party who gave themselves a tax break, while paying for a war on credit, and whose children will have to pay off the debt. How responsible is that?

sunday funny