"It looked good on paper!"
Via CuteOverload
Happy Birthday, Misty!
on her birthday, because she's such a princess!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuu!
You're such a shrinking violet,
And a prim princess, too!
Happy Birthday to one of the coolest broads I know.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
You know it was the '70s if there's a giant gorilla in the title sequence!
Question of the Day
I know we're all quirky, unique people here... but I also know there are quirky, unique aspects to our personalities that we may not express to others. Not because we're embarrassed by them necessarily; I like to think that they're too difficult to explain to anyone, even ourselves, so we happily accept our quirks and go on about our daily lives.
Me? I have this weird thing with white, puffy, anthropomorphic advertising characters. I've always been obsessed with advertising (The Eisner Museum is heaven on earth), especially advertising characters or "mascots," but those white, puffy ones just speak to me for some reason. I wish Sta-Puft Marshmallows actually existed so I could buy them. Come on over, I'll show you my Mister Softee bobble head. And yes, I have a Poppin' Fresh figurine. I know that the Michelin Man's real name is "Bibendum," and I've got him on a keychain. The Homestar Runner people stopped making Marshie, the Fluffy Puff Marshmallow mascot t-shirts right as I was about to buy one! Ooo! So close!
Do I understand why I'm so obsessed with these characters? Hell, no. But I do know that if you have a product, and you put a little white, puffy, marshmallow-like guy on the wrapper, I'll probably buy the damn thing. I even love the fictional character from Mr. Show, Pit-Pat!
See? He loves you!
So, what about you, Shakers? What weird quirks do you have that you can't possibly begin to explain?
Hmmmmm... Bibendum's looking a little swishy in this picture. No wonder I love the guy. Helloooo, drivers!
Power Play
A lot of south and central Florida was hit with a power outage this afternoon.
Traffic lights, air conditioners and elevators began returning to life Tuesday afternoon -- and something approaching normalcy began returning to South Florida -- after a major power outage cascaded through much of region and the state.The lights went out for about five seconds in my office, long enough to crash the computers, but either the generator kicked in or the "critical grid" that's supposed to power offices in Miami-Dade County took over because everything was back to normal in a moment. Not so outside, apparently, with traffic lights going out and the Metrorail trains standing still. But reports now say that everything is returning to normal; or what passes for normal here in Miami.
Florida Power & Light said it hoped to have most customers back in service by 5 p.m.
At one point, Miami-Dade schools briefly delayed regular dismissals, but school buses began moving shortly after 3 p.m. Police initially reported many traffic accidents, but signals later began flicking back on. Hospitals temporarily operated on backup power, but later returned to normal operations.
The authorities were quick to point out that there didn't seem to be any "criminal activity" or terrorism involved. Gee, until they mentioned it, those possibilities never entered my mind. I just assumed it was a technical glitch somewhere involving a transmission line or at one of the nuclear power plants that supplies electricity to FPL...
Or a giant metal robot.
Klaatu barada nikto!
(Cross-posted.)
Caption This Photo
"Are you looking at me?"
Kibongo, a baby crowned lemur (Propithecus verreauxi coronatus), makes its first official appearance at a zoo in Vincennes, near Paris, February 21, 2008. Kibongo, which was born December 24, 2007, belongs to the Indridae family and is considered vulnerable to extinction by conservationists. REUTERS/F-G Grandin-PZP-MNHN
Hang Ten, Dude
A month ago, after noting that I have not endorsed either of the two remaining Democratic candidates and that I plan and want to stand firmly behind either in the general election (all of which is still true), I confessed that Obama was stretching my faith to the breaking point: "I'm having a hard time getting past Obama's communication problem, and his (and his supporters') admonitions to trust him. Have faith; he knows what he's doing."
When I've gotten itchy about his supposed strategy to win the presidency by obliquely—and sometimes overtly—courting the right, I'm not only told to trust him, but also have been spoken to as though I'm an ignorant fool or an undeserving ingrate who can't appreciate the evident genius of pandering to the people who will least be inclined to support a progressive national agenda.
When I've wondered, as a result of, for example, Obama's vote to confirm Condi Rice as Secretary of State, his endorsement of Joe Lieberman, his support of McCain's immigration plan, or his opposition to impeachment, whether he's really progressive, I'm told to trust him—and that Hillary's done stupid shit, too, which, believe me, I know, but that doesn't actually tell me anything about Obama.
When my spidey-sense starts tingling at the use of framing that alienates progressives, of right-wing talking points, of the favorable invocation of ideological opponents despite assertions he doesn't like their policies, and of calls for reconciliation without balance, I'm told to trust him, and my concerns about his rhetoric's misalignment with liberalism dismissed as preposterous: But of course he's a liberal!
So why is he telling me that he isn't?"Oh, he's liberal," he said. "He's liberal. Let me tell you something. There's nothing liberal about wanting to reduce money in politics that is common sense. There's nothing liberal about wanting to make sure [our soldiers] are treated properly when they come home."
MSNBC's FirstRead says Obama was "defending" the liberal label, which is clearly not what he was doing. [Hint: when someone says "A is not B" where B is considered something good (universal health care) then a reverse transitive principle takes hold (emotional, not logical) that says, "if A is not something good than A is something bad."] He was running from the liberal label just like Democrats have been doing for years, and—not to put too fine a point on it—just like they have been running from actual liberalism, too.
Continuing on his riff: "There's nothing liberal about wanting to make sure that everybody has healthcare, but we are spending more on healthcare in this country than any other advanced country. We got more uninsured. There's nothing liberal about saying that doesn't make sense, and we should so something smarter with our health care system. Don't let them run that okie doke on you!"
Frustratingly, Obama's statements aren't even accurate. While taking money out of politics, supporting the troops with more than bumperstickers, and universal healthcare might indeed be common sense ideas, they are also currently liberal ideas. "That's not liberal—that's common sense" undermines liberalism and undermines the credibility, integrity, and decency of liberals who have fought long and hard for these ideas while conservatives fought against them every step of the way—liberals who, by the way, aren't afraid to say they're liberals. And, as Chris Bowers (who supports Obama) points out: "When the good ideas behind liberalism, like universal health care, are denied from liberalism, what it really seems to do it make liberalism or progressivism some sort of fringe extreme where even universal health care isn't good enough health care. Rather than making liberalism mainstream, is denies liberals any credit for having good ideas, and pushes them further to the fringe."
What I find most disappointing about Obama's decision to distance himself from liberalism is the fact that he is better positioned than any Democrat in recent memory to reclaim that label by wearing it proudly. He's got an excited, passionate, invigorated movement behind him, including many young people who are just defining their adult politics, and he's the leading Democratic contender in an election year where the outgoing Republican president has abysmal approval ratings and the presumed Republican nominee is the consummate Beltway insider, a party hack who's trying to be more conservative rather than more moderate, and is old enough to be Obama's father. Conservatism is associated with corruption, cronyism, incompetence, and failure, its reputation torn to such tatters that conservatives have (hilariously) tried to rescue it by claiming that their Golden Boy Bush was never really a conservative.
Obama should be surfing a wave of liberal ascendance, but instead he's paddling away toward still waters. It's a profoundly disheartening missed opportunity for liberalism.
And for all the talk of transcendent unity, I feel more alienated from the Democrats than I ever have in my life.
[H/T Tom Watson.]
Our Mom Sucks
Our mom totally sucks. That stupid carrier she puts us in sucks. The car sucks. Cold winter weather sucks. That shitty Smith CD she plays in the car sucks. The vet sucks. Shots suck. Deworming stuff sucks. Everything sucks. We hate the world.
Oh, we're home! Yay! Let's play fetch! Pet us! Look how cute we are, rolling around on the carpet! Scratch our bellies! Wheeeeeeeee!
We love Mommy!
Clapton is Diplomat
In December, we learned that North Korea was so unimpressed with the Bush administration's inane attempts at diplomacy that they invited the New York Philharmonic instead.
It would appear that a pattern is now developing where North Korea would rather deal with musicians than heads of state. Next on the bill, Eric Clapton:
North Korean officials have invited rock guitarist Eric Clapton to play a concert in the Communist state, a diplomat at the country's embassy in London said Tuesday.I think it would be appropriate for Eric to include "Crossroads" in the set list, just as long as he turns up the distortion a bit and lets it rip.
The diplomat confirmed reports in the British media that Clapton had been officially invited to Pyongyang — the first such invitation to a Western rock star to the isolated nation.
"Eric Clapton is a well-known musician and guitarist, famous throughout the world," said the official, who declined to give his name. "It will be a good opportunity for Western music to be understood better by Koreans."
W Stands for Women
Women's lives worse than ever. That's the actual headline to an article in The Independent about the state of women's (and girls') lives in Afghanistan, six years after our war to "liberate" them.
At a White House Celebration of International Women's Day, March 12, 2004, President Bush said: "In the last two-and-a-half years, we have seen remarkable and hopeful development in world history. Just think about it: More than 50 million men, women and children have been liberated from two of the most brutal tyrannies on earth—50 million people are free. All these people are now learning the blessings of freedom."
The "blessings of freedom" are these:
Grinding poverty and the escalating war is driving an increasing number of Afghan families to sell their daughters into forced marriages.By November of 2006, there were reports out of Kabul that cases of self-immolation among Afghani women had doubled. The president has never publicly addressed the issue—and, suffice it to say, it was not mentioned when the First Lady hosted a U.S.-Afghan Women's Council Roundtable last month. In fact, aside from Mrs. Bush's casual reference to "Afghanistan's high maternal mortality rate," her remarks would leave one believing that Afghani women's lives were better, not worse than ever. There is no suggestion at all that we have made Afghanistan "one of the most dangerous places in the world to be female."
Girls as young as six are being married into a life of slavery and rape, often by multiple members of their new relatives. Banned from seeing their own parents or siblings, they are also prohibited from going to school. With little recognition of the illegality of the situation or any effective recourse, many of the victims are driven to self-immolation – burning themselves to death – or severe self-harm.
…The statistics in the report from Womankind, Afghan Women and Girls Seven Years On, make shocking reading. Violent attacks against females, usually domestic, are at epidemic proportions with 87 per cent of females complaining of such abuse – half of it sexual. More than 60 per cent of marriages are forced.
Despite a new law banning the practice, 57 per cent of brides are under the age of 16. The illiteracy rate among women is 88 per cent with just 5 per cent of girls attending secondary school.
Maternal mortality rates – one in nine women dies in childbirth – are the highest in the world alongside Sierra Leone. And 30 years of conflict have left more than one million widows with no enforceable rights, left to beg on the streets alongside an increasing number of orphans.
International Women's Day is March 8 this year, and it is an occasion which the president will certainly use, once again, to claim success on behalf of the women in Afghanistan and Iraq. This will be a lie. It is a lie every year.
It was a lie in 2002, when the "staggeringly high" maternal mortality rate in Afghanistan was first reported. It was a lie in 2003, when there came reports from Afghanistan of enforced "chastity tests" on women who merely spoke to unrelated men and imprisonment of women for "moral crimes." It was a lie in 2004, when he spoke of "the blessings of freedom." It was a lie in 2005, when it was becoming clear that Iraqi women's lives were less and less free. It was a lie in 2006, when we learned that self-immolations were increasing in Afghanistan and that large numbers of female Iraqi refugees were being sex trafficked by male family members or voluntarily turning to prostitution out of necessity for survival. It was a lie in 2007, when we learned that Iraqi women still in-country were prostituting themselves to feed their children, and we all saw a haunting image of an Afghani child bride.
And it will be a lie this year, too.
Women's lives worse than ever. We did that. Our president won't tell the truth about it. We have ruined millions of women's and little girls' lives—and he will tell us, on March 8, that we have set them free.
[Via Memeorandum.]
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Mr. Bill: What is your life in six words?
My six-word autobio: "Born; the rest is a mystery."
Thank FSM for Nerdz
Earlier today, I came across a Reuters article, by way of ThinkProgress, where someone at General Motors had some interesting comments about global warming:
General Motors Corp Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has defended remarks he made dismissing global warming as a "total crock of shit," saying his views had no bearing on GM's commitment to build environmentally friendly vehicles.On his company's blog, Bob Lutz responded to his critics by trying to show them what the big picture is, according to him:
Lutz, GM's outspoken product development chief, has been under fire from Internet bloggers since last month when he was quoted as making the remark to reporters in Texas.
Instead of simply assailing me for expressing what I think, they should be looking at the big picture. What they should be doing, in earnest, is forming opinions not about me but about GM, and what this company is doing that is — and will continue to be — hugely beneficial to the very causes they so enthusiastically claim to support.I'm not going to go so far as to say, "too little too late," because we really do need this research to continue. However, I will go so far as to say that we should have, and could have, reached some of these goals well before 2008. I flat out refuse to believe otherwise.
General Motors is dedicated to the removal of cars and trucks from the environmental equation, period. And, believe it or don’t: So am I! It’s the right thing to do, for us, for you and, yes, for the planet. My goal is to take the automotive industry out of the debate entirely. GM is working on just that – and we’re going to keep working on it — via E85, hybrids, hydrogen and fuel cells, and the electrification of the automobile.
But, the fact of the matter is that we were simply let down by people who cared more about the greed-green than the enviro-green. Radix malorum est cupiditas, baby.
As you might recall, an energy bill was passed recently to, among other things, increase fuel efficiency standards to 35 mpg by the year 2020. As you might also recall, my underwhelmed response was something along the lines of:
Big. Fucking. Deal.
Since the government, car companies, and oil companies could give a rat's ass about fuel efficiency and alternative energy, it's left to the nerds to take us into new territory, and FSM bless 'em for it. There are two cars that caught my attention recently: The Tesla all-electric car and the gas-electric hybrid Gattica-like contraption from Aptera.
The Tesla Roadster is a sports car that is fully electric. Among its claims to fame are the ability to drive about 200-300 miles between charges, and an insane amount of torque to achieve 0 to 60 in under 4 seconds (yikes!). And just where does the Roadster store all of that charged energy? In a shitload of batteries:
In place of an internal combustion engine, the Tesla Roadster sports a bank of batteries -- the Energy Storage System (ESS). In developing a power source befitting such a high-performance car, Tesla went with technology proven in the laptop computer field -- rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The Roadster contains 6,831 of them. They weigh about 1,000 pounds in total, and Tesla claims that they provide "four to five times the energy-density stores of other batteries" [ref]. The batteries fit into 11 sectors with 621 batteries each. A separate computer processor controls each sector to make sure all of the charging and discharging is handled smoothly.
The initial prototype of the Aptera achieved 230 mpg, a number that is 195 mpg over the projected standard outlined in President Bush's recent energy bill. As of now, the developers still have more time to work out the kinks and improve its efficiency -- AC expects the Aptera to be ready for Californians in late 2008.So, while Bush and his company cronies hash out the details on how to get 35 mpg by the year 2020, we already have individuals who have taken it upon themselves to help nudge the country forward in the year 2008 - people who actually did something about our oil dependence instead of just standing at a podium once a year to remind everyone about it.
Imagine that.
Emma Throws Her Weight Around
I have serious Emmalove.
And not just a little Emmalove, either, but Emmalove in enormous quantities. Such Emmalove that I can barely think about, no less watch, Emma as Karen in Love Actually fiercely resisting crumbling as Joni Mitchell sings "Both Sides Now" without blubbing effusively.
So, yeah, I didn't exactly need another reason to love her, but that's the thing about a woman like Emma—she'll just keep giving you reasons, anyway: When her co-star in the upcoming remake of Brideshead Revisited, Hayley Atwell, was told by the producers to lose weight for the role, Emma was not pleased.
Says Atwell: "I went round to Emma's one night and she was getting very angry that I wasn't eating all the food she was giving me. I told her why and she hit the roof." The no-nonsense Thompson was so outraged that she called the producers the next day and threatened to resign from the film if they forced Atwell to lose weight. Faced with Thompson - a two-times Oscar winner - on the warpath, Miramax Films swiftly relented.Oh, Emma. Swoon.
Kate Winslet, for whom I also have massive adoration, has often spoken of Emma having been an important mentor to her:
''She set an incredible example for me when I was very young,'' says Winslet. Thompson imparted two crucial notes of caution. '''As much as you might be tempted, you need to remember that it's very important not to work sometimes,''' remembers Winslet. ''And she also told me, 'If you ever lose weight, I will never f---ing talk to you again.'''Maurinsky once said: "Tim Gunn should be given as a graduation gift to every high school senior, to help guide them through life. The world would be a better place." I'm going to go ahead and politely suggest to the universe that we should each get an Emma, too.
Emma of Arc.
"Confident Decision-Making in Situations That Can Be Quite Complex"
Yet another reason to be amazed that there are actually people who will argue with a straight face that feminists have to search out things about which to be angry: The most basic fundamental principle of equality—that women's bodies are their own, not community property—continues to elude lots of men all over the world:
[T]he Australian Football League has been forced to hire a swag of actors and a film crew to make an interactive DVD to … improve players' respect for women. Respect and responsibility program co-ordinator Melanie Heenan says it's to "prompt confident decision-making in situations that can be quite complex".Oh, the complexity!
…We haven't seen the whole script yet, but three draft questions have come out. In one, a mate's girlfriend calls a player into her room under the mistaken impression he is her boyfriend. "Do you: (a) go and hop into bed and pretend to be him or (b) do you walk away?" is the choice offered in this very complex situation. In another, a player is with a girl who is under the influence: "Do you: (a) get her some water, (b) call her a taxi or (c) take her back to your place for sex?" The next scenario is: "The player's mate and his girlfriend are having sex. You can see them. Do you: (a) watch or (b) not watch?"
That these are considered complex ethical questions is just completely insane to me. It's like being asked: "You see your friend Todd walking down the street toward you. Do you: (a) say hello or (b) hit him in the head with a shovel?" Hmm…complex! If only there were a DVD to help me be confident in my decision-making!
We have really and truly failed when "to assume or not to assume identity of friend to fuck his girlfriend without her consent" is a serious moral dilemma.
Meanwhile, in further evidence of our collective failure, 600 people viewed video of a gang rape uploaded to YouTube before it was finally pulled: "In a three minute clip, a group of teenagers drugged and raped a 25-year-old mother. Her children, aged two and four, can be heard crying in the background."
I despair for the world sometimes. I really do.
of Hobbit homes
"All Hobbits had originally lived in holes in the ground, or so they believed, and in such dwellings they still felt most at home..."--J. R. R. Tolkien, page 8, The Ring Sets Out
A family in Wales has built a "Low Impact Woodland Home" and an entire community is also planned.
WANT.
Women Aren't Funny
Especially not Tina Fey: "The post-strike return of NBC's 'Saturday Night Live' [hosted by former SNL head writer and cast member Fey] scored the show's highest overnight rating in two years…up 36% from the show's pre-strike average this season."
(Somebody wake up Christopher Hitchens and give him the news.)
Okay, Now I'm Pissed
Update: Muuuuch better. Howard Wolfson has strongly denied that this came from the campaign.
"We've been very clear that we're not aware of it," he added. "Obviously the campaign didn't sanction it, and don't know anything about it."Well, I don't know how clear they were, when I read in a couple of reputable places (i.e., not Drudge) that the campaign had issued no denial, hence the existence of this post. But this makes me feel a lot better.
I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a Hillary supporter, even if the racist crap coming from her campaign turns my stomach. The sexist crap coming from Obama's--and from Obama himself--has so far made it a draw, as far as I'm concerned. I think both candidates should absolutely have their feet held to the fire when they blatantly try to get bigotry working in their favor, but I suspect that if I waited for a candidate who wouldn't pull shit like that, I'd die without ever voting again.
But now I read that a photo of Barack Obama in traditional Somali dress, which is making the rounds and fanning the "OMG, he's a secret Muslim!!11!" fire, might have been circulated by the Clinton campaign.
And if it was, let me be the first to offer a hearty FUCK YOU, CLINTON CAMPAIGN.
Obama's campaign manager responded,
On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either party in this election.If the Clinton campaign is indeed responsible for this photo being sent around, then I couldn't agree more. Now, the original source for this was freakin' Drudge, so it should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. But since the Clinton campaign's response does not even deny that they're behind it, I'm having trouble believing that they're not. The response, from campaign manager Maggie Williams, goes like this:
Enough.And you know, I would be fine with that, if they weren't the ones who sent the photo out. No, a photo of him in the traditional dress of another country should not be considered divisive -- and if it's Republicans, i.e., the ones really pushing the secret Muslim meme, behind the distribution of the photo, then I think the Obama camp would do well to say exactly the same thing.
If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.
This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry.
We will not be distracted.
But... the Clinton camp doesn't deny the charge that they sent the photo out. Why wouldn't they start by doing that, if it was Republicans behind this? The only thing I can think, as a goddamned Clinton supporter, is that they did it, and now they're trying to act like they're the ones taking the high road, while Obama's making a mountain out of a molehill. Which is beyond the fucking pale.
I mean, there's one other possibility here -- the Clinton folks didn't send out the picture, but Obama's reacting as if they did, since it's still Hillary he has to beat right now, not McCain. But if that were the case, why the hell wouldn't the Clinton campaign explicitly deny any involvement?
I don't want to believe they did it, but it sure looks as if they did. And I don't even have words for how I feel about that; "disgusted" is nowhere near strong enough.
As Jeff said a while back, if Obama can only win by stirring up sexist sentiment, then he doesn't deserve to win. Same absolutely goes for Clinton, vis a vis racist sentiment. I realize she's only got one shot left, and the odds aren't good, and up until yesterday, at least, I was hoping for a miracle in Ohio and Texas more than anyone. But if she can't win without blatantly trying to capitalize on racism and xenophobia, then she does not deserve to win.
If they weren't behind this, then the Clinton campaign needs to issue a denial tout de suite. But the problem is, they don't need me to tell them that. The fact that there's been a response and it did not include a denial makes my heart sink. I voted for her, and I've contributed to her campaign, but I do not want her to win this way. In a sick way, I guess this makes me feel better about the fact that she probably won't.
Happy Blogiversary...
...to The Carpetbagger Report, celebrating five years of carpetbaggeriffic reporting!
In Which I Am the Best Strategist the GOP Ever Had
Top Republican strategists are working on plans to protect the GOP from charges of racism or sexism in the general election, as they prepare for a presidential campaign against the first ever African-American or female Democratic nominee.Screw those old skool "Top Republican strategists" and just follow my fool-proof plan for avoiding charges of racism and sexism:
Step One: Don't be racist.
Step Two: Don't be sexist.
That will be one million dollars, please—or 10% of whatever you've paid Karl Rove over the last 8 years, whichever is less.
Actually, strike that. I'll waive my fee. A campaign season without race- or gender-baiting would be reward enough for services rendered.
Something tells me I ought not put a downpayment on a yacht just yet...
