| More Politics, Some of it Funny and/or Good News |
[Sep. 21st, 2008|12:36 am] |
Talking with ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) grlnamedlucifer about the VP debate craziness reminded me I need to try to keep track of the many ways Senator McCain is proving my crackpot theory right. So, here's my current list of ...
John McCain's continuing efforts to throw the 2008 Presidential Race:
- Asking Sarah Palin to be his Veep
- Confusing the SEC and the FEC
- Threatening to fire the Head of the SEC, when he can't do that
- Annoying (and possibly infuriating) Spain
- Claiming the economy is fundamentally sound in the middle of a huge economic meltdown
- Admitting his running mate is unable to debate and arranging special rules for her
- Phil Gramm
- Claiming he's not for bank regulation, when he has been for forever
- Claiming he does not want to privatize Social Security, when that has been one of his main goals for years
- This: "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
- Confusing the National Guard with the Army
- Forgetting how many houses he owns
- Lying (so many times I can't list them all)
- Running attack ads that were so vile even Karl Rove called him out on it
- Publically trashing his major backers over the financial crisis
- Claimed repeatedly last week he intends to reform the fed. Government by throwing out … well, himself.
Am I missing anything?
In other news, on Friday, one of my Republican co-workers insisted to me that a Judge who is refusing to set one of her motions for hearing must be doing it just to be mean and evil because "she is one of the newly elected Democrats." I was like, "Bzuh? She's been on the bench for years!" I was right. The Evil, Mean Judge has been on the bench since 1989. And is a Republican. That's pretty much how things are politically at work. As you can imagine, I feel a little freaked out and frightened by my co-workers these days. Mostly people don't talk about the upcoming election, but there are ugly little notes and newspapers articles left around and when they do talk about it ... oh, boy!
Also, Ahahahahaha! Gotcha, Cheney! He'll probably find some way to wiggle out of it, but it's still nice to see someone in our current government try to uphold the law.
 |
|
|
| Nightmares, Project Runway, Top Design |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|11:29 am] |
I don’t know what happened to NPR, but they’ve gone all Mr. Hyde on me. This morning I had to turn my clock radio off because they kept repeating the most offensive parts of the Palin speech on a continuous loop. Or maybe NPR hasn’t gone as Mr. Hyde as I thought and they’re subversively repeating the worst of it in order to get the sane people who want to help get this country back on its feet all riled up. I know they got me riled up.
After I turned the radio off, I went back to sleep briefly and had a horrible nightmare. In it, there were white fuzzy caterpillars all over my condo ceilings. And one of my bathrooms was completely inoperable. I wanted to spray the caterpillars to kill them, but 1) the bathtub and sink in the inoperable bathroom were overflowing and the shower curtain had fallen down and 2) I was afraid the caterpillars would fall on me and sting me. Then a sudden mutant ladybug infestation started and I woke up abruptly as I was trying to get out of there without touching a caterpillar or ladybug.
( Project Runway )
( Top Design )
|
|
|
| Wank-Style Politics |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|10:44 am] |
Does cancelling an interview and refusing to appear on a cable channel because they were Big Meanies count as a flounce? I think it counts as a minor flounce, but not a ~Grand Flounce~.
So far we have had sockpuppeting on Wikipedia , and now this flounce (and a near-miss with Snacky’s Law). I am still on the lookout for claims it was all a social experiment, the appearance of a Super Nanny, fake original artwork, soulbonding or astral plane marriages and accusations of password/identity theft.
Am I leaving anything out?
ETA:
LULZ! The Mean GirlsMedia won’t leave them alone! *Waaaah*
|
|
|
| Political Volunteering |
[Aug. 30th, 2008|07:31 pm] |
Volunteering didn't go as expected.
In fact, this whole day didn't go as expected. I had a funny I-Ching throw this morning, that didn't make much sense to me. Tonight, looking back on this day, it makes perfect sense. The throw was "Decrease." I couldn't imagine at the beginning of the day what I would lose today, but the most interesting thing is that the source I use for I-Ching interprets Decrease not so much as loss, but as the path to increase. In short, the atmosphere has to absorb water from the lakes and rivers before it can produce rain to replenish them.
So, I left my bag with my MP3 player in it in a friend's car and had to do without it at the gym this morning. That meant I couldn't drift away in my music and instead spent the hour thinking, hard. When I left the gym I forgot to get my key from the front desk. I haven't figured out how I really benefited from this, except in that I had to do a little extra walking to get the key back, so I got some more exercise.
Then when I arrived at the voter registration event, there was no one there. I waited from 1:30 to 2:15 and only met two other volunteers -- no one organizing the event. The other volunteers were pretty cool, though, and there's an anime con going on so I ran into some really great cos players. I gave up at 2:15 and headed home. On the way back at Mockingbird Station I came across a really nice SMU exchange student who lives across the street from me and was completely confused about the bus routes and schedules and the layout of our area. So I drew her a map and explained the bus schedule, and we rode home from the station together.
When I got home I decided not to be upset about the non-event, and instead emailed the person supposedly organizing it and said I'd be glad to help at other events or in any other way I can. She emailed back immediately, explaining that she had attempted to put an ongoing exhortation to folks to go register voters at this particular DART station, not hold an event herself. She also told me about some upcoming organized events and asked if she could pass my information along to my precinct chairman. I said yes. And I've heard back, very quickly. So, not much volunteering today, but lots in the future and having nothing has led to having a lot!
Speaking of voting, my silly poll is still going on. Please vote!
|
|
|
| Something Important for a Change |
[Aug. 28th, 2008|07:14 pm] |
Move On is hosting/promoting a voter registration drive in Dallas this weekend. I'm going to help out at Union Station, and would love to have anyone local join me, but there are also other places and times where we can help.
I'm sure there are similar events going on in other cities throughout Texas. I hope that, if you are a Texan, you will consider participating. And if you're not a Texan, please pass this info along to any Texans you may have on your flist. And of course, please consider helping out wherever you are.
Texas has long been considered a gimme for the the farthest right of the Neocons. However, the last election we held here, while a local election, went solidly Democrat. I have seen some indications that the Neocons and hatemongers don't consider Texas quite so much of a gimme anymore.
I think that if we work hard enough, we can turn things around in this state. At the very least, we can make the Thugs devote considerable resources in terms of time and money and turn this state into a battleground state. I honestly believe we can do more than that and help elect Obama and many other progressives.
Pass it on! |
|
|
| DNC, Fitness, Activities |
[Aug. 27th, 2008|02:22 pm] |
Joshua Green of The Atlantic apparently watched a completely different speech by Hillary Clinton last night than the one I saw. I am boggled by this review of her speech. I thought she was marvelous and impassioned.
I did have to laugh over Green’s description of Dennis Kucinich (a man I greatly admire) as a “meth-addled smurf.” He was bouncing around a bit.
After watching Senator Clinton’s speech I left the room my TV is in and went back in my office to goof around on the computer. I could still hear the TV and it sounded like the MSNBC folks were screaming at each other. I distinctly heard a gentleman screeching and shouting about Joe Biden. I’m kind of sorry I missed seeing it, as it sounded like the posturing before a wrestling match.
On an even more humorous note, someone playing Sims 2 Apartment Life has posted on the thesims2 comm about a very funny glitch they’ve had.
Last night my trainer took my measurements for the first time since the end of April. I’m a little disappointed that I’ve only lost 1 /2 inch from my upper arms and maybe 2 inches from my bust. But I’ve lost 3 1 /2 inches off my hips, 2 3/4 off my thighs and 5 off my waist. They got a new scale at the end of July and when I weighed on it my weight was actually up 5 pounds so I was depressed and didn’t weigh again until last night. Fortunately those 5 pounds were gone, but unfortunately that was it in terms of pounds lost. But at least I am moving in the right direction again.
More importantly, my range of motion and ability to move (especially walking) have increased exponentially over the last month. I’m hoping that and that little bit of weight loss mean my metabolism will kick up and I’ll make more progress this fall.
I need to be more active, in general, not just work out more. I’m planning on getting back into gardening this fall. I’d like to plant some rose bushes on my patio and clean up some of the junky stuff that is out there. And I need to do some weeding. But I’m looking for some other non-sedentary activities to take up, as well. I like crafting, but it’s pretty darned sedentary. Reading and movies are, as well. I’ll think of something.
|
|
|
| Political Wank |
[Feb. 11th, 2008|12:25 pm] |
So much political wank on the Huff Post this weekend!
Look on the bright side. You'll be put in charge of the Department of Cynicism.
And this article has 3179 comments (and it’s growing!), including some substantive debate, a lot of posturing, plenty of ad hominem attacks, filks of Frank Sinatra songs, conspiracy theories, profanity galore, lolcat speak, RPing, a poster who goes by the name “happy troll,” and some deliciously weird kind of religious/kind of metaphysical quasi-poetry starting on page 13.
HuffPost has been known to delete posts (and frequently accused of deleting anything not pro-Obama, so who knows how long any of this will be around. I can probably dig up more. The comments to every single article about politics are pretty wanky at this point.
As amusing as I find wank, I’m a liberalish, Libertarianish independent but definitely leaning heavily towards Democrat this year and deeply concerned the wank is going to cost the Dems in November.
I’d post it all to political_wank on LJ, but I think any wank involving the presidential elections may be considered to ho-hum for that comm. Not sure, though.
ETA: Interesting (not wanky) blog post about why some Republicans may be supporting Obama.
|
|
|
| Politics, Weekend Movies, Dieting/fitness, Superbowl, Horoscope |
[Feb. 4th, 2008|12:36 pm] |
Political Stuff:
Surprises this weekend – Both Maria Shriver and my sister came out for Obama.
And then there was the news that nutjob Ann Coulter claims she’ll campaign for Hillary Clinton if McCain is nominated. McCain must have danced for joy over that announcement.
Also, this is fun to play with.
Weekend Movies:
( Tristan and Isolde )
( Ice Princess )
( Just Like Heaven )
( Charlotte Gray )
Weight Loss Update
1. Get Rich Slowly has a companion blog, which I created an LJ syndicated feed for, Get Fit Slowly.
2. I was pretty good over the weekend. I allow myself 1 day off my diet every week, and Saturday was that day. I still ate well, but I had some of these chips (they are lower in carbs and especially in sugar than most other chips, but are still partly potato chips) and dessert of fresh berries and yogurt.
3. I also cooked up several lean, low carb dishes to help get me through the week.
4. And I walked both Saturday and Sunday.
I do not own a scale and don’t believe in weighing, at least for myself. It tends to have a negative impact rather than a positive one, but I could tell my clothes were looser, and I felt better in general.
Superbowl:
I didn’t watch*, but congrats Giants fans and condolences Patriots fans.
*Of course I didn’t – the puppy bowl was on!
Horoscope
You face a day of some conflict, nevertheless the discord will prove quite useful. This is probably one of the best opportunities of recent weeks to become aware of some family matters that have been occurring behind your back for some time now. News about some past personal history may surprise you, and perhaps even upset you for a short time.
Yes, that actually is how my day is going.
And I cannot figure out why everyone wants to talk at me on and on and on and on today. STFU peoples! Gah!
|
|
|
| Poll, Mystery, Food, Cat |
[Jan. 29th, 2008|01:03 pm] |
I love that the skanks are kicking the shrubs tushie 12 - 0. Hee!
I ended up watching neither. Instead I watched an episode of Mystery/Miss Marple on DVD. I’m not crazy about Geraldine McEwan’s Miss Marple, but I like the series anyway, mainly for the background scenery (I want to go hide away in a flower-and-ivy-covered cottage in one of those villages) and some of the guest appearances. And this particular episode (The Moving Finger) hits some particularly happy buttons for me.
Our kitchen here at the office is packed with junk food – Chex Mix, crackers, homemade brownies, a huge pile of candy on the kitchen table and Cheetos, which I love. There’s also chocolate cake and cheesecake.
I’m eating a salad with grilled chicken. Last night for dinner I had a hamburger patty with cheese and a little barbecue sauce on it and some steamed broccoli (with nothing on it). I skipped breakfast this morning, but I had some cheese around 10:30ish, so I think I’m still doing okay. I’m imagining that my pants feel looser today. It’s got to be my imagination because it’s too soon for me to have lost any weight. I might have lost some water weight, though.
D Kitty decided I needed to be woken up in the middle of the night last night to pet him. But that was not all. He also decided he needed to lie on my chest. Only I was sleeping on my side and refused to turn over, so he climbed on anyway and balanced precariously until I rolled over and a pillow fell off the pillow pile and almost hit him. It was not a good night for him. When I left he was sitting on top his Kitty Condo, sulking.
|
|
|
| Today's News, Friday 5, More News & Politics, Celebrity Apprentice, Supermodel, Top Chef (Briefly) |
[Jan. 11th, 2008|10:54 am] |
Happy Friday! First, I’ll share some fun Pegasus News Items with y’all:
“Film guy John endured the on-screen Daniel Day-Lewis spittle-fest that is There Will Be Blood and survived relatively unscathed to write about it.”
And a headline:
“Celebrity Goat Milking Contest followed by Goat Creative Costume Contest
In the Cattle Arena”
I hope someone shows up dressed as Aberforth Dumbledore.
thefridayfive
Randomosity Redux!
What is your favourite fruit?
Pears
What is the last book you read?
I am in the middle of reading Odd Thomas
Do you like any of your school photos?
My senior year high school choir photo was decent. But that was a long time ago. I look at them all with amusement now.
Do you ever blowdry your armpits to get the deodorant to dry quicker?
Hahahaha! I’ve never heard of such a thing!
What was the last film you watched?
Hostage, reviewed here.
Oh, Roseanne! You quit being relevant several years ago. Why are people in the entertainment industry with “Rose” as part of their name so yucky?
And a column I enjoyed a lot:
Phone-People vs E-people
I’m an E-person. My family members (especially my sister) are phone people. So this column really resonated with me. My favorite quote about phones:
“They are the electronic equivalent of a toddler, pulling at your skirt while you are in the middle of something, saying, "mommymommymommymommyNOWmommywant mommyNOW."
Another thing of note – Ms. Crittenden says that once it’s possible to order pizza online, she will likely do so. A few commenters clue her in that it’s possible to do so already. I order from Papa John’s online every once in a while myself. Mmmmm, pizza!
Last night’s TV:
( Celebrity Apprentice [Yes, I am watching. Go on and laugh, but it’s actually interesting.] )
( Make Me a Supermodel )
The ads for Top Chef Chicago are getting me really excited. W00t!
ETA
More ( Celebrity Apprentice Thoughts )
|
|
|
| Politics, Feminism, Princess Tutu and Sandra Lee |
[Jan. 9th, 2008|02:05 pm] |
How's that for a subject line?
Bad phrase of the week: “I’m caveating everything today...”
Heard on the Diane Rehm Show this morning.
Also heard on the Diane Rehm Show:
“Barama is new, he’s fresh...”
I’m sure he is. Who the heck is he?
I was going to write about Princess Tutu today, but I find myself increasingly drawn to writing about women’s issues instead. Or in addition, or maybe they even go together.
On the good side, there’s Senator Clinton’s win in New Hampshire as well as the shaming of the pollsters.
On the bad side, someone linked me to this op/ed piece about a hideous op/ed piece from Forbes, Don’t Marry Career Women (Link is to the op/ed piece about the op/ed piece, not the op/ed piece itself – how’s that for confusing? Sorry!)
Back on the good side, the imdb reports that PBS will air The Complete Jane Austen on Masterpiece Theater, premiering January 13th.
So, do I have to struggle to somehow make Princess Tutu relevant to women’s issues? Because on the surface, before you watch it, it appears to be a fairly traditional fluffy-girly anime with lots of ballet. ( And yet, ... )
And finally, I’m going to briefly discuss one other woman I was re-introduced to over the holidays. I’ve scoffed as much as anyone over Sandra Lee’s show on the Food Network and mocked her in my head more times than I care to remember. I admit that upfront. A little over a week ago I watched her “Chefography” on Food Network. While I still think the food prepared on Semi-Homemade is unhealthy, after watching that show I have much more sympathy for her than I ever thought I would have, and I can even understand why and how she came up with the concept. Just as she did, I started cooking the family meals when I was 12, but I at least had a little guidance and direction and my parents, though almost completely absent as parents, were foodies and cooks themselves and had taught me how to prepare food. Ms. Lee did not have that advantage. She had, at that time, been ripped away from the only person who tried to parent her and forced to become a parent herself to her siblings. That she arrived at using prepared shortcuts to make meals appealing to her younger siblings isn’t surprising. The rest of her teenage years were focused on abandonment, loneliness and self-sufficiency. It was hard for me to watch, but I’m glad I did and I can’t snark on her anymore after doing so.
|
|
|
| Cat, 60 Minutes, Weekend Movies & Reality TV Roundup |
[Jan. 7th, 2008|11:44 am] |
I have a pair of jeans with a drawstring that I’ve worn many times. Guess cat didn’t notice them until this morning when I was getting dressed. He took one look, thought TOY!!! and was on his hind legs batting at my drawstrings in the blink of an eye. I couldn’t tell him to get down. All I could do was laugh. It was a fun start to Monday morning.
Okay, reality check here - was it just me, or did Andy Rooney come off sounding like he was trying to get away with being a racist prick by tossing out a bunch of names, including his own (and note to Mr. Rooney -- I think both our Presidents named Andrew sometimes went by “Andy”), to obscure the fact that he can’t envision a person with a (non white anglo-saxon protestant) name such as Barack Obama as President? If it’s not just me and that’s really what he was doing, I hope someone calls him out on it.
Is it wrong that I kind of wanted to punch Mr. Rooney in the face last night?
Weekend Movies:
( Now and Then )
( Hostage )
Reality TV Roundup:
It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted about what I’ve been watching. Might as well play catchup! Some of this concerns my reactions to a few shows that have been over for a while.
( Survivor China )
( ANTM and AMSM )
( The Amazing Race )
I almost got worked up last night over having too many shows to watch, then I realized Food Network was going to repeat ICA, so I could watch Battali and Jamie Oliver probably 15 times or more over the next week, so I gleefully settled in for the two hour cheesefest that was
( American Gladiators )
( Project Runway )
I think this is long enough for now. I still need to write my review of Princess Tutu and a course by course review of the meal peach1250 and I had at Abacus, but I’ll save those til tomorrow.
ETA a Quiz swiped from beeej:
86% Hillary Clinton
86% Barack Obama
85% Chris Dodd
83% John Edwards
81% Joe Biden
72% Mike Gravel
71% Bill Richardson
69% Dennis Kucinich
62% Rudy Giuliani
47% John McCain
42% Mitt Romney
42% Tom Tancredo
35% Ron Paul
34% Mike Huckabee
26% Fred Thompson
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz
Yep, that's quite accurate. Though I consider myself a left-leaning Libertarian, I am exactly torn between Obama and Clinton at this point. Can we have both?
|
|
|
| Sketchy Notes I Made While Listening to NPR Today, Movie, Dirty Sexy Money |
[Nov. 1st, 2007|03:02 pm] |
The Second Hour of the Diane Rhem Show:
So, I’m listening to Fresh Voices on NPR and a lawyer who is representing people at Guantanamo is being interviewed.
Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side by Clyde Stafford Smith.
According to Smith, we offered a bounty for people to turn their friends and neighbors in. A bounty that amounted to huge sums of money. We rounded up everyone who was turned in on this flimsy testimony, tortured used “enhanced interrogation techniques” on them to get a confession and shipped them off to Guantanamo. And continued using “enhanced interrogation techniques.
We even torture the prisoner by force feeding them.
We’ve let several Taliban members go, but keep people who have no connection to any terrorist organization.
95% were turned in by Pakistanis and other Northern Alliance citizens in order to receive the cash bounty.
Next, There’s the government’s lead counsel (Captain Pat McCarthy) on trying to rebut all of this. Apparently there is a West Point study that contradicts the Denver (?) Denbo (?) Study. He claims only a small number of rewards were paid. But he’s saying “um” more than anything else.
2 hours of outside recreation a day? The ability to talk to their fellow detainees? Robust social interaction? 3 meals a day totaling “up to” 5,000 calories. Prayer beads, prayer rugs, Korans, uninterrupted prayer time?
He claims he doesn’t have a clue what the United Nations is calling torture.
Claims there have been 1100 lawyers visits this year and 900 the year before. Over 500 media visits this year and around 1,000 last year. Then he rambles on about court cases.
I’m not sure I believe him, but I think there must be some documentable truth to what he’s saying.
++++++
Think: Interview with Jim Lehrer.
Jim Lehrer wrote Viva Max. I didn’t realize that. I haven’t read the book but the movie is hilarious. His new book is called Eureka. Interesting conversation regarding closed-endedness of finished novel vs. open-endedness of news stories. He says he never worries about the way his novels might affect the way people think of him as a journalist/anchor person. He seems to be really able to compartmentalize his writing.
Day to Day has an interview with Ashley Gilbertson, whose latest book, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War sounds like something everyone should have a look at. He his time in Iraq, the problems he had with actually getting involved in the fighting rather than just photographing it and his post traumatic stress disorder. His current work sounds very poignant – he is photographing the bedrooms of young soldiers who have been sent to the war in Iraq.
+++++
Movies:
Last night’s scary movie was ( An American Haunting )
Also on last’s night’s agenda – ( Dirty Sexy Money )
|
|
|
| News, Politics, Anti-War Stuff |
[Oct. 11th, 2007|02:29 pm] |
Thanks to maddiec24’s comment I realize not everyone had heard today’s news from/about Jmmy Carter. So, there’s a link.
Speaking of politics and the anti-war movement, I’ve been horribly remiss in not linking you all to John Cusack’s blog. He put up a new post yesterday, Part II of his conversation with Naomi Klein about her book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and the Blackwater Scandal.
Part I
Part II
There’s also a link to the video of the conversation and a longer transcript.
Go! Read!
|
|
|