Nanny nanny boo boo
In the spirit of Talk Like Bill O'Reily Day, and Misappropriate Michael Savage's Name Day, and Poke Fun at the Cheneys Day (not to mention the "Fair and Balanced" that remains in my blog title) may I humbly suggest Donald Luskin is a Creepy Stalker Day?
Read Atrios for the low-down.
Afterthought: Is it just me or are neo-cons the most litigious bunch of sue-happy bastards you've ever heard of?
Addendum: Well, it's official, kids. Friday is, courtesy of Jesse at Pandagon, Donald Luskin Day! Plan your party now!
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
all joking aside
I really wish the best for everyone in California whose house is on fire tonight. It's really awful.
I really wish the best for everyone in California whose house is on fire tonight. It's really awful.
Oh...my...god...
Holy crap! was all I could think after reading this story at Eschaton.
Oct., 17 — A child custody dispute in Nebraska has become the subject of a civil rights protest after a judge warned a Mexican American father that his visitation rights would be severely limited if he insisted on speaking “the Hispanic language” to his 5-year-old daughter.
... Amador, who was born in Texas and speaks fluent English and Spanish, told the judge, “I don’t come to her speaking Spanish, but there are times when I try to teach her what ‘hair’ is in Spanish, what ‘hand’ is, stuff like that.”
Reagan replied that English should be the principal language, but said Amador could teach his daughter a few words.
“Are you telling me I can teach it to her but not speak it?” Amador asked.
“That’s right,” Reagan said. “The principal form of communication . . . is going to English” and not “the Hispanic language.”
“What kind of ignorant statement is that?” asked state Sen. Ernie Chambers, who filed a complaint on Amador’s behalf with the state Committee on Judicial Qualifications. “There’s no such thing as speaking Hispanic.”
Wow. If I were a cartoon character, my eyes would be goggling out of my head right now.
Holy crap! was all I could think after reading this story at Eschaton.
Oct., 17 — A child custody dispute in Nebraska has become the subject of a civil rights protest after a judge warned a Mexican American father that his visitation rights would be severely limited if he insisted on speaking “the Hispanic language” to his 5-year-old daughter.
... Amador, who was born in Texas and speaks fluent English and Spanish, told the judge, “I don’t come to her speaking Spanish, but there are times when I try to teach her what ‘hair’ is in Spanish, what ‘hand’ is, stuff like that.”
Reagan replied that English should be the principal language, but said Amador could teach his daughter a few words.
“Are you telling me I can teach it to her but not speak it?” Amador asked.
“That’s right,” Reagan said. “The principal form of communication . . . is going to English” and not “the Hispanic language.”
“What kind of ignorant statement is that?” asked state Sen. Ernie Chambers, who filed a complaint on Amador’s behalf with the state Committee on Judicial Qualifications. “There’s no such thing as speaking Hispanic.”
Wow. If I were a cartoon character, my eyes would be goggling out of my head right now.
As if we didn't know this already...
I think that's a respectable amount of geek. Just enough to be snobbish about my superior intelligence (ha-ha), but not too much to be sadly socially awkward.
| You are 53% geek | You are a geek. Good for you! Considering the endless complexity of the universe, as well as whatever discipline you happen to be most interested in, you'll never be bored as long as you have a good book store, a net connection, and thousands of dollars worth of expensive equipment. Assuming you're a technical geek, you'll be able to afford it, too. If you're not a technical geek, you're geek enough to mate with a technical geek and thereby get the needed dough. Dating tip: Don't date a geek of the same persuasion as you. You'll constantly try to out-geek the other. |
Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com
I think that's a respectable amount of geek. Just enough to be snobbish about my superior intelligence (ha-ha), but not too much to be sadly socially awkward.
Monday, October 27, 2003
Speaking of breeding grounds for terrorism...
Sometimes things the Israeli government does just makes me want to smack myself in the forehead.
Sunday's demolitions, which according to Palestinian official left at least 156 families homeless, were not the first at Netzarim junction. In October 2000, Israeli troops razed twin residential towers there that saw intensive gunfights.
But they were the largest demolition of Palestinian Authority buildings in Gaza since the start of the uprising.
Hey-at least they evacuated the surrounding area first, which seems unusual for the Israeli government. But what, pray tell, do they think will become of the 156 homeless families? Do they think the young men (and women) in those families are unlikely to join up with Hamas and try to kill the people they would see as making them homeless and ruining their lives? What are they going to do for those homeless families to keep this from happening?
It's like the Israeli government is reading How Not to Make Friends or Influence People.
Story via Cursor.
Sometimes things the Israeli government does just makes me want to smack myself in the forehead.
Sunday's demolitions, which according to Palestinian official left at least 156 families homeless, were not the first at Netzarim junction. In October 2000, Israeli troops razed twin residential towers there that saw intensive gunfights.
But they were the largest demolition of Palestinian Authority buildings in Gaza since the start of the uprising.
Hey-at least they evacuated the surrounding area first, which seems unusual for the Israeli government. But what, pray tell, do they think will become of the 156 homeless families? Do they think the young men (and women) in those families are unlikely to join up with Hamas and try to kill the people they would see as making them homeless and ruining their lives? What are they going to do for those homeless families to keep this from happening?
It's like the Israeli government is reading How Not to Make Friends or Influence People.
Story via Cursor.
more taking the quotes off of "terrorist hotbed"
It seems more and more that Iraq is worse now than it was before we liberated it. Somebody forgot to tell these guys the war in Iraq is over.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. general said there were signs foreign fighters were behind four suicide bombings that killed 35 people and wounded 230 Monday in Baghdad's bloodiest day since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was overthrown.
..."It's in the national interest of the United States that a peaceful Iraq emerge and we will stay the course in order to achieve this objective," Bush said after a meeting at the White House with the U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.
Well, yes, now that we've created complete chaos and unrest that we don't have the manpower to quell, now it's in the national interest of the United States that a peaceful Iraq emerge.
(Additional thought...a peaceful Iraq? We're the ones that made it war-torn in the first place!)
On top of the usual mangling and bumbling of the United States, the terrorists involved here choose to start this bombing campaign on the first day of Ramadan. Imagine how much worse the national trauma of September 11th had been if it had happened on Christmas.
Asshats on all sides.
And who suffers? The normal Iraqi who's just trying to live, as usual.
It seems more and more that Iraq is worse now than it was before we liberated it. Somebody forgot to tell these guys the war in Iraq is over.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. general said there were signs foreign fighters were behind four suicide bombings that killed 35 people and wounded 230 Monday in Baghdad's bloodiest day since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was overthrown.
..."It's in the national interest of the United States that a peaceful Iraq emerge and we will stay the course in order to achieve this objective," Bush said after a meeting at the White House with the U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.
Well, yes, now that we've created complete chaos and unrest that we don't have the manpower to quell, now it's in the national interest of the United States that a peaceful Iraq emerge.
(Additional thought...a peaceful Iraq? We're the ones that made it war-torn in the first place!)
On top of the usual mangling and bumbling of the United States, the terrorists involved here choose to start this bombing campaign on the first day of Ramadan. Imagine how much worse the national trauma of September 11th had been if it had happened on Christmas.
Asshats on all sides.
And who suffers? The normal Iraqi who's just trying to live, as usual.
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Double Standard!
I dare anybody to explain this situation to me in a way that makes sense without using the word "race." Please.
Shoshana Johnson, a soldier from the exact same unit as America's sweetheart Jessica Lynch, who was also wounded in combat, is recieving a drastically lower amount of disability payment than Lynch is.
a few days ago, military brass informed her that [johsnon] would receive a 30 percent disability benefit for her injuries. lynch, who is white, was discharged in august and will receive an 80 percent disability benefit.
the difference amounts to $600 or $700 a month in payments, and that is causing johnson and her family to speak out.
Johnson is black, Lynch is white.
Makes you go Hmmmmmm...
Via skippy the bush kangaroo, who did in fact coin the term blogtopia.
I dare anybody to explain this situation to me in a way that makes sense without using the word "race." Please.
Shoshana Johnson, a soldier from the exact same unit as America's sweetheart Jessica Lynch, who was also wounded in combat, is recieving a drastically lower amount of disability payment than Lynch is.
a few days ago, military brass informed her that [johsnon] would receive a 30 percent disability benefit for her injuries. lynch, who is white, was discharged in august and will receive an 80 percent disability benefit.
the difference amounts to $600 or $700 a month in payments, and that is causing johnson and her family to speak out.
Johnson is black, Lynch is white.
Makes you go Hmmmmmm...
Via skippy the bush kangaroo, who did in fact coin the term blogtopia.
What the hell is wrong with humanity?
Sometimes I wonder if my misanthropy is really that misguided.
Soon after discovering a new species of extremely rare bird in Venezuela, we promptly killed them all by constructing a dam and flooding their only known habitat.
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Naturalists celebrated the discovery of a new species of bird -- a blue-flecked, seed-eating finch -- in Venezuela, but they mourned that a state electricity company destroyed its only known habitat to make way for a dam.
As a species, we sure have stacked up alot of bad karma.
Sometimes I wonder if my misanthropy is really that misguided.
Soon after discovering a new species of extremely rare bird in Venezuela, we promptly killed them all by constructing a dam and flooding their only known habitat.
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Naturalists celebrated the discovery of a new species of bird -- a blue-flecked, seed-eating finch -- in Venezuela, but they mourned that a state electricity company destroyed its only known habitat to make way for a dam.
As a species, we sure have stacked up alot of bad karma.
She should have got the kind that comes with a lock and key...
Now they're expelling students for what they write in their diary...their diary.
Rachel wrote the story in her personal journal and was showing it to a classmate. Her art teacher noticed, confiscated it and turned it over to school officials the next day.
"It was a story about a girl who falls asleep in class, dreams she kills her math teacher, then wakes up and nothing happens," she said.
Rachel was suspended her for 10 days for "inappropriate writings that describe the threat of bodily harm toward a school employee," school system spokeswoman Susan Hale told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and she was expelled after a hearing her father described as a travesty.
I am willing to bet that every last one of us wrote about horrible things in their high school diaries. I would understand if they brought in this kid's father to discuss it or something, but to expel her? Who is that helping? Also, her diary has not yet been returned. What does that teach this girl? What lesson is she supposed to learn from this experience? That even her private thoughts are subject to punishment?
Now they're expelling students for what they write in their diary...their diary.
Rachel wrote the story in her personal journal and was showing it to a classmate. Her art teacher noticed, confiscated it and turned it over to school officials the next day.
"It was a story about a girl who falls asleep in class, dreams she kills her math teacher, then wakes up and nothing happens," she said.
Rachel was suspended her for 10 days for "inappropriate writings that describe the threat of bodily harm toward a school employee," school system spokeswoman Susan Hale told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and she was expelled after a hearing her father described as a travesty.
I am willing to bet that every last one of us wrote about horrible things in their high school diaries. I would understand if they brought in this kid's father to discuss it or something, but to expel her? Who is that helping? Also, her diary has not yet been returned. What does that teach this girl? What lesson is she supposed to learn from this experience? That even her private thoughts are subject to punishment?
Friday, October 17, 2003
Friday, October 10, 2003
Girls Kick Ass, both the t-shirt and the Nobel Prize Committee say so...
Hey, cool! An Iranian lawyer named Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize. This sounds like a good thing to me.
OSLO, Oct. 10 — Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for her work defending human rights in an award aimed at inspiring democratic reform across the Muslim world.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Ebadi, one of Iran's first woman judges before the Islamic revolution forced her to step down, for work focused on the rights of women and children.
Via Rittenhouse Review. I was not awake, but I did hear it there first.
Hey, cool! An Iranian lawyer named Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize. This sounds like a good thing to me.
OSLO, Oct. 10 — Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for her work defending human rights in an award aimed at inspiring democratic reform across the Muslim world.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Ebadi, one of Iran's first woman judges before the Islamic revolution forced her to step down, for work focused on the rights of women and children.
Via Rittenhouse Review. I was not awake, but I did hear it there first.
Check it out...
A few sites on the links pages have updated.
The Islamic Center of New Mexico website has a nice new look.
And the Bitter Shack of Resentmant has made the big move to Typepad. Go Read! it here.
Also added a bunch of new links. Why are you still here? Go Read!
A few sites on the links pages have updated.
The Islamic Center of New Mexico website has a nice new look.
And the Bitter Shack of Resentmant has made the big move to Typepad. Go Read! it here.
Also added a bunch of new links. Why are you still here? Go Read!
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Blame it on all the cilantro
Maybe it's too early to say, but it looks like even more horrified Californians will be fleeing to Santa Fe.
Please, check your Hummers and cigars at the border.
And as a warning, we make real Mexican food here.
Maybe it's too early to say, but it looks like even more horrified Californians will be fleeing to Santa Fe.
Please, check your Hummers and cigars at the border.
And as a warning, we make real Mexican food here.
Saturday, October 04, 2003
When I read this article, I wanted to cry.
This is so, so, so sad. The restaurant that was targeted by an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber in Haifa was apparently a symbol of Arab-Jewish unity.
Oct. 4, 2003 | HAIFA, Israel (AP) -- The bustling seaside Maxim restaurant is a mirror of one of Israel's few mixed Arab-Jewish cities. Jewish pro soccer players hang out here. Many of the diners are Arabs. For four decades the business has been owned by two families -- one Arab, one Jewish.
... At Haifa's Rambam Hospital distraught Arabs and Jews filled a narrow corridor waiting for information about injured relatives and friends who worked at the restaurant.
One of them, an Arab woman named Odet Najar, 28, waited for news about her cousin, Sharbe Matar, 23, a waiter. "Everybody was together there, Jews and Arabs; we went to the restaurant a lot," she said, in fluent Hebrew.
I sincerely hope they rebuild as soon as possible and continue to live together in peace. It really sucks that there are people involved in this conflict that would rather fight than live together. This story seems to re-iterate the point that this is not a war between Israelis and Palestinians, it is a war between Israelis and Palestinians who want peace and Israelis and Palestinians who don't want peace.
One thing about this story stuck out to me especially, though.
About a fifth of Israel's 6.6 million people are Arabs, a minority made up of those Arabs who were not forced out or did not flee the war surrounding Israel's 1948 creation. They have strong family ties with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza but enjoy Israeli citizenship.
Maybe I'm just horribly naive. Maybe there is something about this that I'm not getting. But, why don't all Palestinians enjoy the type of life Israeli Arabs do? Life in the occupied territories really is harsh and hopeless. Improving living conditions there would probably improve the situation as a whole.
At least it seems that way to me. But what do I know?
This is so, so, so sad. The restaurant that was targeted by an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber in Haifa was apparently a symbol of Arab-Jewish unity.
Oct. 4, 2003 | HAIFA, Israel (AP) -- The bustling seaside Maxim restaurant is a mirror of one of Israel's few mixed Arab-Jewish cities. Jewish pro soccer players hang out here. Many of the diners are Arabs. For four decades the business has been owned by two families -- one Arab, one Jewish.
... At Haifa's Rambam Hospital distraught Arabs and Jews filled a narrow corridor waiting for information about injured relatives and friends who worked at the restaurant.
One of them, an Arab woman named Odet Najar, 28, waited for news about her cousin, Sharbe Matar, 23, a waiter. "Everybody was together there, Jews and Arabs; we went to the restaurant a lot," she said, in fluent Hebrew.
I sincerely hope they rebuild as soon as possible and continue to live together in peace. It really sucks that there are people involved in this conflict that would rather fight than live together. This story seems to re-iterate the point that this is not a war between Israelis and Palestinians, it is a war between Israelis and Palestinians who want peace and Israelis and Palestinians who don't want peace.
One thing about this story stuck out to me especially, though.
About a fifth of Israel's 6.6 million people are Arabs, a minority made up of those Arabs who were not forced out or did not flee the war surrounding Israel's 1948 creation. They have strong family ties with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza but enjoy Israeli citizenship.
Maybe I'm just horribly naive. Maybe there is something about this that I'm not getting. But, why don't all Palestinians enjoy the type of life Israeli Arabs do? Life in the occupied territories really is harsh and hopeless. Improving living conditions there would probably improve the situation as a whole.
At least it seems that way to me. But what do I know?
Thursday, October 02, 2003
Poor Conservatives...
Arnold admits to sexual transgression, sort of.
Rush resigns from ESPN in both drug as well as race-related scandal.
And Plamegate shows no signs of disappearing.
Sometimes that's just how the cookie crumbles.
Speaking of, now we know why the cookie crumbles as well.
Arnold admits to sexual transgression, sort of.
Rush resigns from ESPN in both drug as well as race-related scandal.
And Plamegate shows no signs of disappearing.
Sometimes that's just how the cookie crumbles.
Speaking of, now we know why the cookie crumbles as well.
There's nothing wrong with being a shameless link-whore.
Open Source Politics has gained a bazillion more readers this week. Yay us!
So, what are you waiting for...go read!
Robert Novak is a coward, The CIA's Patriotic Math, A Matter of Trust, I Have A Little List ... are all about everybody's favorite new scandal, the Valerie Plame situation.
There's also the Ben Franklin True Patriot Act Action Alert, Pie In the Sky, The Politics of Power, Asbestos Legislation #1 and #2, and the Florida Political Breakdown.
Oh yeah, and I wrote one, too.
Go read!
Open Source Politics has gained a bazillion more readers this week. Yay us!
So, what are you waiting for...go read!
Robert Novak is a coward, The CIA's Patriotic Math, A Matter of Trust, I Have A Little List ... are all about everybody's favorite new scandal, the Valerie Plame situation.
There's also the Ben Franklin True Patriot Act Action Alert, Pie In the Sky, The Politics of Power, Asbestos Legislation #1 and #2, and the Florida Political Breakdown.
Oh yeah, and I wrote one, too.
Go read!
What the hell is wrong with this country?
I finally just finished watching the insanely depressing Lost in La Mancha, about genius auteur Terry Gilliam's efforts to make a film called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Gilliam's production collapses in 6 days, for a variety of reasons. He only had a 32 million dollar budget to start with.
For fuck's sake, someone spent 54 million dollars on Gigli. And that got made without a hitch. What sort of culturally bankrupt assholes are we in this country when we spend that kind of money of "It's turkey time, gobble gobble," and Terry Gilliam can't get what looked like a seriously brilliant film get made?
What the hell is wrong with you, Hollywood executives? Terminator 3 got $170,000,000, Battlefield Earth got $73,000,000, Rollerball got $70,000,000, and the eye-bleedingly awful Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (although it was better than the first one, which is not saying much) got $90,000,000. Worst of all, I think, is that Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle not only set the cause of women's equality back twenty years, but it cost $120,000,000 dollars to make.
I think this is the reason the terrorists hate us.
What could Terry Gilliam do with the budget of some of these films? For 5 million he made Time Bandits. For 15 million he made Brazil. For 29 million he made 12 Monkeys.
Imagine The Man Who Killed Don Quixote with a budget of 170 million dollars instead of the film that gave Arnold Schwarzenegger the chance to stick a woman's head in a toilet.
Hollywood Movie Executives, you should all be ashamed of yourselves.
Okay, rant over.
I finally just finished watching the insanely depressing Lost in La Mancha, about genius auteur Terry Gilliam's efforts to make a film called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Gilliam's production collapses in 6 days, for a variety of reasons. He only had a 32 million dollar budget to start with.
For fuck's sake, someone spent 54 million dollars on Gigli. And that got made without a hitch. What sort of culturally bankrupt assholes are we in this country when we spend that kind of money of "It's turkey time, gobble gobble," and Terry Gilliam can't get what looked like a seriously brilliant film get made?
What the hell is wrong with you, Hollywood executives? Terminator 3 got $170,000,000, Battlefield Earth got $73,000,000, Rollerball got $70,000,000, and the eye-bleedingly awful Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (although it was better than the first one, which is not saying much) got $90,000,000. Worst of all, I think, is that Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle not only set the cause of women's equality back twenty years, but it cost $120,000,000 dollars to make.
I think this is the reason the terrorists hate us.
What could Terry Gilliam do with the budget of some of these films? For 5 million he made Time Bandits. For 15 million he made Brazil. For 29 million he made 12 Monkeys.
Imagine The Man Who Killed Don Quixote with a budget of 170 million dollars instead of the film that gave Arnold Schwarzenegger the chance to stick a woman's head in a toilet.
Hollywood Movie Executives, you should all be ashamed of yourselves.
Okay, rant over.
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