Liberal Coalition Top TenWeek of 4/23 thru 4/29/06It's a nice change to have only one Bloglines section left to read this morning - my fellow Liberal Coalition members' posts. I've changed my sidebar again as Guy Andrew Hall of Rook's Rant will be taking a break from blogging for awhile, so he moves into my LC Inactive category. On the plus side, Keith at Invisible Library has moved back to WordPress where his blog actually has a working RSS feed, albeit a partial one instead of a full, but at least it's something; had he had a working feed previously (pretty much the only way I read blogs now, given my lack of time) I would have publicized his blog move sooner. Anyway, here's what else caught my eye this past week: • Bora/Coturnix at Science and Politics has an exhaustive list of responses to a poorly-thought-out anti-atheist rant in Raw Story. • Bryant at Make Me A Commentator! hates it as much as I do when comic book characters' deaths are marketed as selling points. Over a decade ago I coined the phrase "Bulked-Up, Evil and Talking" to describe this habit, after what was done to the Teen Titans character Jericho (my favorite at the time) prior to killing him off (and as much as I like the mutually-blogrolled Marv I've never quite forgiven him for that). • Chris at LeftyBrown's Corner finds it a wee bit suspicious that Republicans are weeping over the cost of gasoline in an election year. Similarly, Horatio at Dodecahedron is confused about how oil companies are making out like bandits when the cost of their commodity should have meant their profit margin would go down. Ah, youthful naivete, if we could bottle it we'd all be as rich as oil companies. For his part, John at archy suggests the folks attending this conference might have done better to videoconference or something similar which might have saved fuel. And Jude at Iddybud says, if we're addicted to oil, where's our rehab program? (By the way, be sure not to miss Jude's Jesus Beneath the Fold - a Koufax '06 nominee as far as I'm concerned!) • Echidne of the Snakes is amazed at what patriarchy hath wrought in the Satmar Lubovitch community. As I used to say about these folks even back in high school, after I escaped from yeshiva, there but for the grace of G-d go I... In a related post, Jeff at Speedkill assures us implicitly that this is satire, but I think he's just jealous because he can't draw. (He also takes a peek inside The Empty Tomb.) • Jane Hamsher reminds us that the Firedoglake Sunday Book Salon opens today at 5 PM Eastern, when the blogosphere will be talking about itself again. • Natalie at All Facts and Opinions isn't buying the Lennon media stunt, but she still believes in his message, and so do I. • Catchy Pseudonym at Scrutiny Hooligans looks forward to what Cloudsat and Calipso will tell us about the Earth's atmosphere. • And to wrap things up, congratulations to Scott at ...You Are A Tree on his fourth blogiversary! Now I'm off to watch Colbert's triumph so I can agree even more with what Christy Hardin Smith says here.
Post It NotesA few links to recommend before I get to the Liberal Coalition blogaround and then, later this afternoon, to watching our DVR'ed Colbert WHPCA dinner speech which everyone and their blogger has already reviewed: • First I just wanted to say RIP John Kenneth Galbraith. I dimly recall he was the commencement speaker at my college graduation, and I say "dimly" because I had a raging fever and mononucleosis at the time so I don't remember too much. • The latest culture war is another much-ado-about-nothing, exactly as the folks in power planned, dividing and conquering while they're busy doing things the media chooses not to notice because they're so busy talking about this nonsense. As Justin puts it, "¿Francis Scott Qué es el problema?" Amanda says our current anthem isn't all that anyway and she much prefers this one, as do I. Abdul-Halim at Planet Grenada, who repros the lyrics to Nuestro Himno, thinks this one might be a nice alternative as well, but it still has that pesky "G" word in it, doesn't it? And both Arthur and Lis present the Yiddishe version, nu? Meanwhile, Teresa tells us of her day in old English. I'm pleased that I actually understood most of it; my favorite phrase was "hwyth muchel Ibuprofennea." • Speaking of dividing and conquering, Ampersand presents an interesting gathering of viewpoints in response to Blac(k)ademic's post Gender Does Not Trump Race. My feeling on this is, identity politics are good when they unite people with shared experience in a cooperative model as part of an effort to make this world better, and bad when they lead to a competitive attitude that mostly benefits the people with societal power who are only too happy to sit back while those they disdain fight amongst themselves. In other words, I agree with KC Sheehan as as well as with nubian's conclusions, with one exception: one of the first things I learned when I became a feminist was that cooperation is not only the way many women are socialized but it has a much greater chance for long-time success (and survival) than competition. And that was at the time of "second-wave feminism." • A couple interesting pieces in CorrenteWire from a few days back, but I'm only just caught up in my blog-reading/skimming so it's taken me awhile. Sarah stirs up a bit of a tempest with this anti-drug post, which I think might have worked better if she'd just stuck to her lack of sympathy for celebrity drug-users. And chicago dyke tells uf a truly frightening new insurance policy aimed at churchgoers. She believes this is a sign that "With increasing speed, we are becoming a theocracy." I'm not sure that this isn't just another case of exploiting and capitalizing on religion as a gimmick; as a rule corporations tend to worship Mammon above all other gods. • Richard at PopPolitics has a nice little riff on stereotypes of women in sports. • Rosie's on The View because BabaWawa asked. • Soj announces her return to America at both her blogs. I'm guessing the latter will be undergoing a name change soon... • Lastly, meet the Smuggys!
Silly Site o' the DayFinally watched the fourth Harry Potter movie, but declined to check out Stephen Colbert's bit at the White House Correspondents' Dinner because I knew I couldn't deal with Voldemort and Bush in the same evening. Robin DVR'ed it, though, so I'll catch up on it later. Meantime, might as well go with the crowd and recommend C For Cookie, a brilliant YouTube presentation via Xeni at BoingBoing.
Silly Site o' the DayWell, last night's Dr. Who wasn't as stupendous as others have been trailing, particularly since I guessed the ending about 10 minutes into it, but it was a good episode anyway. The season presently being aired on SciFi (the 2005 series) really is like an extended Mary Sue story, isn't it? Anyway, some enterprising YouTuber took scenes from that season and set them to the opening music of the old A-Team TV series, and darned if it doesn't work pretty well. Except the A-Team was so not Mary Sue-ish. Even with Dwight Shultz. Via Budgie, whom I'll be seeing at the Bristol International Comic Expo in two short weeks, along with lots of Dr. Who-related folks, at least one of whom I know personally.
Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)Enjoy the open window while you can, kits...  ...our allergies have finally gotten the better of us and we'll be hermetically sealed for the weekend...
Silly Site o' the DayTwo weeks from today we'll be in England. I'm trying to get myself in the mood by watching things like a cool animated short called Airport (via Cory at BoingBoing).
QuickiesCongratulations, Wil! Kyle + Rosemary looks like a fun little show, and it's great to see another successful female animator. Congratulations, Katie! Tons smarter than I'll ever be. You can listen to Neil Young's new anti-war album via the link from Tom Tomorrow's site. Look, literary snake oil! Let's rub it all over ourselves! What Arthur said. You have a problem with someone's points of view, critique those, not his or her appearance. David Byrne ruminates on the price of petrol in Brighton (and how dependent on black gold most Americans don't realize they are). I get the feeling we won't be renting (or as they say "hiring") a car when we're there in a couple weeks. Retardo Montalban may be a silly pseudonym, but his post at Sadly, No! on Francis Fukiyama's remarks on how to manufacture an enemy, and rumination on what purposes it serves, is deadly serious. I had a feeling from the beginning that this "yearly Kos" convention thing would be too inside'ish for my tastes even if I did want to go to Vegas in June (and who in their right mind does?). But you know, skippy did coin that phrase, so please stop fighting, kids.
Just CauseContinuing to clear my in-box: Cynthia Samuels writes to advise of an upcoming piece in Ms. Magazine: "It’s about Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and the women in the Marianas islands, whose miserable working conditions are not regulated because Abramoff lobbied DeLay who has prevented the regulation. It’s an amazing story – apparently these women are victims of a bait-and-switch 'I’ll get you a good job in Saipan' (a U.S. territory) that ends up in a sweatshop with perpetual debt to those who provided transit. If they resist and are fired, there is nowhere to turn but prostitution. If they get pregnant, they’re basically forced to have abortions since they can’t afford to go home and can’t keep the jobs if they’re pregnant. Those aren’t circumstances you’d think a conservative would countenance." I would imagine this is rather a no-brainer for ultra-righties, though - slave labor leading to prostitution adn forced abortion, or forced childbirth but the kid's not our problem because they're fur'ners? Seems any greed-loving conservative would choose the first one as that lines his pockets more, and he won't really worry that much about controlling women from other countries unless it involves cutting off US aid to those countries which would presumably line his pockets. (Incidentally, I should thank the folks at Altercation for leading Cynthia here; I wish Eric Alterman would get his own RSS feed on the MSNBC blog - Keith Olbermann too! - but until then I'm glad I can read him at the Huffington Post.) Aside from the New Orleans-based Supergirl pages Robin donated to a Katrina relief auction last October, I wasn't aware of any other comic-based relief efforts until Thom "Kneon" Pratt emailed to direct me to the mention in his blog that he colored several pages of post of a Katrina relief comic called Tempest. I thank Thom for this, and wish I still had time to keep up with both comics news sites and blog reading (not that I'm doing all that well with the latter of late)... Yesterday I expressed surprise to Robin that my sexism-in-baseball post got so few comments and my jargon post so many, and he reminded me that blogosphereic meta-posts (posts about posting) always tend to garner a greater response than anything else. Well, who am I to disappoint? Following up on that post, Justin from Vast Left has, as he puts it, "taken up the charge" and volunteered to update and post new entries to the " Kossary," which appears to be the best way that even those of us who no longer link to Daily Kos have to explain the jargon used by the left side of the blogosphere. As a fairly new blogger Justin has far more energy than I do, so I'm very pleased someone so enthusiastic will be follow through with this. I've always looked at blogs as first and foremost amazing communication tools, and every time we use unexplained in-jokes, jargon and shorthand we end up communicating that much less, so I hope others will start embedding links to the Kossary every time they choose to employ these abbreviations.
Silly Site o' the DayAgain via my cousin Marc, who's promised me the state quarters I'm still missing (FL, MN, OR and WV) next time we get together (maybe when my parents get back to NJ this weekend, doubtless lugging a bunch of Nevada state quarters with them), you too can put mumbly, garbly words in the President's mouth via the George W Bush Speechwriter. I dunno, shouldn't it be called the Speechwriter 2000, or 2006 or something? Seems to me it should have some kind of futuristic-sounding number at the end of it... or maybe be powered by hydrogen or something...
Administrative (Assistant) MattersYeah, nobody at work even wished me a happy Secretaries Day, much less bought me lunch or even a lousy bouquet. Over 25 years as a secretary and every year (at least in this job) I feel more and more devalued. Onward with the link dump: • Please be advised that both Natalie Bennett's Philobiblon and Tild~'s site have moved away from Blogger, and adjust yon blogrolls accordingly. • Lis Riba celebrated her fourth blogiversary on Monday - congrats, Lis! • Barbara has a great post up about humor and politics, one of my favorite subjcts lo these many years now, as I've mentioned previously. • eRobin introduces us to some neighborhood foxes. • Both Colleen Doran and Tom Tomorrow have thoughts about the latest plagiarism scandal. • Alas, the aforementioned Colleen won't be able to make it to the Toronto Comicon this coming weekend, but Heidi (who will be there) reports on one of the cooler signings going on in conjunction with the event - Amanda Conner (a doll and a half), Becky Cloonan (whom I've met and who is extremely nifty) and Gail Simone (a long-time email correspondent of mine who's currently writing the book my husband is inking)! • Lastly, another no-show to report, this time for the National Media Panel on Blogs. Both Pam and John have declined to sit on the panel; Pam explains why. Ah, my boss finally has time for me (although not to wish me a happy Secretaries Day or anything), I'd best shuffle off...
Slipping Another Few Feet Off That PedestalRobin and I were briefly tuned to a Mets game on Sunday when we heard broadcaster Keith Hernandez, one of my all-time favorite players, apologize for having said something inappropriate the previous day. From context we not only got that the apology seemed contractually obligated, but what it was about - he had questioned the appearance of a "girl" (by which I'm assuming he meant "woman") in a dugout during a game. At the time I looked everywhere online for a news item about it, to no avail. Well, as you can see, there are plenty of items now, and it's worse than I'd initially suspected. "I won't say that women belong in the kitchen, but they don't belong in the dugout," followed by "You know I am only teasing. I love you gals out there — always have"? Aside from the point that, considering the persistent rumors of Hernandez' closeted homosexuality, he probably shouldn't push that astoundingly patronizing "always have" bit, did it not occur to him that attitudes like this are the reason Kelly Calabrese is the only woman on any MLB trainer team (and there are only two on minor-league teams). And when MLB even pays lip service of women they're solely in the role of consumers, not truly active participants in the game. According to the just-out 2005 Racial and Gender Report Card (PDF), women are fairly well involved in Major League Baseball on the executive level, but seriously, don't even think about women as players any time soon (I was so sure, when I was younger, that this would happen during my lifetime!); in fact, the same report card gives MLB an A grade or better in categories including players, coaches and managers! Hint: if there are no women in those positions, that score should be a C- at best, folks. To be fair, most categories that are broken out by race and gender give gender equity grades of C or worse. And of course there are still no women umpires in the majors, and as of last year women broadcasters amounted to a whopping 2%. Too busy hiring rumored-closeted-gays, I guess. Update: Once again, the Onion brings the giggles.
YAAFH! (Yet Another Acronym From Hell)So I not-so-facetiously suggested, as a response to Jane Hamsher's query on how bloggers can make our writing more accessible to new readers by surmounting the shorthand and in-jokes into which we sometimes slip, that perhaps someone create a Wikipedia "political blogger translation site" wherein writers can explain phrases like "Steno Sue" and "Holden gets a pony" and made-up compound wordlets like MoDo and WaPo and SoCo (no wait, that last one is an in-joke for Robin) and, whenever they feel they absolutely must employ these alienating terms, embed links in them to take perplexed readers right to the Wiki site, and I'm still waiting for it. [ Update: In the comments, sngrfxz points to the Kossary, but I think when even the title of your Wikipedia entry is an in-joke you have a ways to go...] In fact, I think we fogies need such sites for non-political stuff too. After all, there's one for leetspeak. And I've seen the acronym "BFF" about six times in the last week and couldn't figure it out at all. Ben Folds Five? Binary File Format? Bush Family Fortunes? British Forces Foundation? Best Foam Fabricators? Brussels Fashion Fairs? Nope, turns out it's something simultaneously more innocuous and more insidious. According to current teenspeak (which appears to be a different animal altogether than leetspeak), BFF stands for Best Friends Forever. How this slipped into adult jargon is anyone's guess - maybe it's a South Park thing, which puts me at the same disadvantage that I had after I stopped watching Jerry Seinfeld and people had to explain to me references like "not that there's anything wrong with that." Sometimes it seems like I'm in that Star Trek episode "Darmok" where I'm speaking from one frame of ref and everyone else has a different one and we're all creating our own Towers of Babel. Unlike the writer of the article Elaine discusses here, I don't view this at all as some sort of "death of civilization" marker - it's just so much jargon. At the same time, I hate feeling stupid, and that's how unexplained jargon makes me feel. I know I'm not owed an explanation, and thank goodness it's easy enough to figure these things out via a short Google search, but I dunno, part of me doesn't want to have to go out of my way just to understand blog posts by folks on my regular reading rotation. (Ironically, the BFF citing that broke the camel's back for me was by Jane Hamsher.)
Silly Site o' the DayIt's all piling up (via MemeMachineGo), and I have a feeling it's going to continue to pile up for the next two weeks and I won't be able to truly relax until we're safely in Bristol...
Maintenance NotesAstarte has announced she'll be shutting down Utopian Hell (only leaving it up as central repository for the No-Ads blog ring) to buddy up with roomie Scotia (aka Aurora from Iconochron) in the new blog Hellbound Angels, which has been duly added to the Dynamic Duos section of this blog's sidebar. (Leaving that section and sidling into Group Blogs is Blog of a Bookslut, which is a 3-person endeavor now with the additino of Jordan Davis.)
Silly Site o' the DayThe pollen count is high again here in the NYC-Westchester County area. For the past few days I've had a low-level intermittent headache somewhere between my left eye and left ear (I'm fairly sure it's an inner-ear thing), yesterday I could barely walk a few feet outdoors without my back seizing up in excruciating pain, I was bone-tired last night, and this morning the outer layer of skin peeled off about a third of the area of my left palm. I have the weirdest-ass allergy symptoms I've ever heard of (the palm-skin thing has been with me for years, I also get little tiny blisters there which itch like mad), and I'm still clueless as to what this set of symptoms actually constitutes and specifically what they're a reaction to.
Bloggered Up AgainSayeth Blogger, they "will be down on April 24 2006 from 4 pm PDT to 4:45 pm PDT due to planned maintenance. We’re sorry about the one-two unplanned/planned outage punch today, but we need to do some database maintenance... Be assured that when Blogger.com comes back, it will be shinier and happier than ever." Minor annoyance at best; it's not as if I don't have things to do other than blogging. Like catching up on comics and magazines and, um, other people's blogs...
 Via the Generator Blog again, it's the Famous Logo generator. The one above is obviously the Harry Potter font, which is a reminder to myself to watch the damn DVD of the fourth movie that's been sitting in our living room for at least a month. The site also generates logos using fonts from Monsters Inc., Star Wars and a few places that aren't movies.
Liberal Coalition Top TenWeek of 4/16 thru 4/22/06Brr, even Blogger is a bit frozen this afternoon, as it's stalling and stuttering as it tries to upload posts onto the system. Oh well, I'm sure my weekly review of fellow Liberal Coalition members' posts which I found noteworthy will get posted sooner or later: • Steve at Yellow Doggerel Democrat warns about plans for a mandatory website rating system. I don't get it, doesn't the "I confirm I'm over 18 years old" clicky thing at page entrances work any more? • Uptown Ruler at Scrutiny Hooligans says something doesn't add up in the news items about the Houstonians stopped in PA with a half million bucks in their truck. I'll say! • Norbizness at Happy Furry Puppy Story Time doesn't like the comic strip Day By Day. I don't like DBD's message either, any more than I like other right-wingnut-drawn strips like Mallard Fillmore or BC, but most of the "mutated" strips he repros here aren't about Chris Muir's supposed wrongheadedness but about his drawing style! Which I think is about as lame as saying "Michael Moore is fat" or "Rush Limbaugh is fat." There's nothing wrong with Muir's craftsmanship at all. And frankly, I agree with the sentiment expressed in this strip, and so does Steve Gilliard of The News Blog - more people from all parts of the political spectrum should be publicly outraged at how Fran O'Brien's Steak House is being treated. On a lighter note, Norbizness tries his hand at Hardy Boys fiction. • Speaking of Steve Gilliard, I found his reproing of the Daily News editorial under his header Four years of stagnation interesting, but disagree with that paper that "It is an accident of history that Silverstein leased the WTC from the Port Authority just before 9/11..." I'm no conspiracy theorist, but "accident" my sweet patootie. Steve also has interesting things to say about US professional soccer (which I've been guilty of mocking as well, not realizing that we're actually getting to be good at it) and how The Simpsons has influenced how we think of nuclear power. • Natalie Davis at All Facts and Opinions is thrilled, as are many of us, that Neil Young is bringing out a new anti-war album, but mistakenly directs people to the blog about the album by saying it's his blog which, of course, it isn't. Blogs are being used by many famous folks' People as just another PR tool, so don't go to the site in question expecting to read anything from Young himself. • Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof takes a look at antimatter-powered spaceships. Once again, Gene Was Right! • Speaking of Star Trek, at least tangentially, Michael at Musing's Musings reports on the indictment of former Republican governor George Ryan. Update: Sorry, confused George with Jack - thanks, upyernoz! • Kathy at Liberty Street adds a cogent update to the latest Malkinsmear, about how a Fox so-called reporter tried to heap insult onto injury with leading questions that were repeatedly rebuffed by her interview subject. • Jeff at Speedkill doesn't get why anyone would find Carlos Mencia funny. Me neither. Isn't this the kind of "comedy" dissected by Norman Lear via Archie Bunker over 30 years ago? • Athenae isn't the First Draft member in the LC, but I still loved her passing along a post about changes at the Daily Planet. I'm such a geek. • Jane at Firedoglake asks, "How do we balance accessibility with the shared shorthand we use to communicate with the rest of the blogosphere?" As someone who questions the need for that shorthand in the first place, might I suggest not using it in the first place? Or, short of that, having a central repository where people could post all our little "inside baseball" lingo so every time we feel the desperate need to use an expression that will mean absolutely nothing to anyone outside our little clique we can link to it somewhere so new readers will know what we're talking about? Gee, it's a shame that kind of repository doesn't exist. • In a completely unrelated story, the Farmer at farm runoff goes fishing. • Also unrelated, Bora/Coturnix at Science and Politics digs for more pyramid stories. • Lastly, Alex at Sooner Thought appears to consider it not fair for a Baptist college to have rules about certain extracurricular activities. Afraid I have to disagree again; you go to a college like that, you decide to pose nude, you take the consequences. Gosh, I'm ornery this afternoon. Must be the cold. Back to the Yankees game...
Silly Site o' the DayHappy St. George's Day! Here in Bronkers we're celebrating by having typical English weather - dank, dank, and more dank. I feel much more like going back into the bedroom where the space heater is (no radiator heat this weekend, for whatever reason) and curling up with Datsa and my unread comics box than blogging, but I'm fairly behind in the latter so I'm prepared to soldier through for awhile. In the meantime, maybe I can warm myself with a made-to-order romance story, care of the Romance Story Generator (via, of course, the Generator Blog). According to my randomizer, my chosen fantasy "story takes place in a city-state on a barren world of forbidden magic. In it, an unhappy shaman is in love with a demonologist with a heart of gold. It seems a nun will bring them even closer together." I can hardly wait!
Silly Site o' the DayIcky rainy drowsy weekend, the perfect time to catch up on bloggy stuff (and sleep) whilst Robin works (or sleeps). I notice that sign generator fans (and creators!) have started visiting and commenting, so maybe I'll keep linking to stuff like that for awhile - here, again from the Generator Blog, is the Movie Marquee generator! 
This was mine. Give me a break, I just woke up...
Silly Site o' the DayYay, another new-t0-the-US Dr. Who episode tonight! Meanwhile in Britain, they're up to the 10th Doctor, but y'all can meet him right now by playing the Beeb's SoDocWho game (yes, based on this) featuring the first nine Doctors... Via Budgie.
Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)Hey, what's that sound? A pigeon??? An actual BIRD landed on the AC right outside THIS VERY WINDOW???  Maybe it'll come back! Maybe it'll land again, and we can somehow reach through the closed window and grab it! Yeah, I'm sure it'll return!!!
Why is This Considered "News?"Liz at Blondesense found a goodie so bizarre I didn't even want to wait until tomorrow to make it a Silly Site. According to an article in Yahoo News (you know, as opposed to Yahoo Tinfoil-Hat-Wacko-of-the-Day), a Frenchman associated with the Exopolitics Institute - so you *heheh* know it's *snort* real! - says a fragment of the comet 73P Schwassman-Wachmann "is highly likely to impact the Earth on or around May 25, 2006. How does he know this? Glad you asked. Comet Schwassman-Wachmann follows a five-year orbit that crosses the solar system's ecliptic plane. It has followed its five year orbit intact for centuries; but, in 1995, mysteriously fragmented. According to Julien, this is the same year that a crop circle appeared showing the inner solar system with the Earth missing from its orbit. He argues the "Missing Earth" crop circle was a message from higher intelligences warning humanity of the consequences of its destructive nuclear policies. He links this crop circle to May 25, 2006, and identifies the comet Schwassmann-Wachman as the subject of higher intelligence communications.
Emphasis mine, it should go without saying. Here's the crop circle to which he's referring:
Naturally, the folks at that website (click the picture to get there) come up with completely different dates. Nonetheless, I feel like there are just so many retorts and so little time... eenie, meenie - ah, got one. Good job we're travelling to and from England before all this goes down!
Best Laid PlansIt's actually just another link dump - a gathering of blog posts I found good reading and worth mentioning and passing on here - but it's also an admission of defeat of sorts. The two things I was mentioning in my last post that I hoped wouldn't happen (the uncompensated property management job and the uncompensated personal assistant job) have both kept recurring in a big way today, and have left me totally drained. Part of it is physical (one building problem is the lack of properly working AC today) but most of it is emotional, which feeds into my physical well-being and perpetuates the cycle of despair, and when I think I could have been interviewing for a potential "dream job" right at this moment if a coworker hadn't suddenly decided to take a vacation day-- damn, there goes my blood pressure again. Deep breaths, this too shall pass, sit back and think of England... Anyway, here's some good reading from some wonderful women: Don't get Teresa angry. You wouldn't like her when she's angry. Actually, I adore her like this, and she's not angry so much as incredulous that one of the 20 worst agents would keep digging herself in deeper and deeper. Spread the word, this woman of which she writes sounds like a real wingding. I love this cool bit of pop culture history from Colleen. I have five posts bookmarked from Heidi, so I feel like just sending you there to read her entier blog, but I wanted to note these specific entries anyway: * Musings on intellectual curiosity* She's going to be a guest at the Toronto Comicon's Women of Comics symposium* The Graphic Novel Quorum at the 2006 Women Writers Conference in Kentucky this weekend * The detailed FoL Empowerment Fund, and more about women in nerditry It's all Heidi so it's all good. Xeni at BoingBoing talks about " stupid crap that female tech writers have to put up with." Sounds familiar... Lastly, Carla's son is becoming a master debater, and I give much applause to August Pollak (okay, one guy) and his cartoon Self-Martyr Magazine. Yes, Virginia, there is a difference between censorship and editing, and there's no such thing as an inherent right to be published on demand.
Silly Site o' the DayA rare "free day" with both my boss (the CEO) and my de facto other boss (the COO) out of the office. A little light data entry to do for the Controller, a little filing, and if I'm lucky not that much to follow up on for the boss' wife in my uncompensated capacity of personal assistant, or for our tenants in my uncompensated capacity of property manager. Maybe I can even go out for lunch today, and buy that new food bowl for the only-too-well-compensated cats-- damn, I spoke too soon; between starting and finishing this post I've had to deal with two tenant items... But hey, it's going to be near 80 degrees today, ice cream weather! Speaking of which, Ben & Jerry's is having a contest where you can create a B&J flavor and submit it by the end of July for one of five chances at a 4 day/3 night trip for two in October to visit their Waterbury plant (and I imagine Vermont in October is pretty neat) and participate in their "Flavor Finals" showdown event, where the Grand Prize winner will be determined by a special panel of judges; and said GP winner gets their flavor delivered in bulk to their local B&J shop for an ice cream party for themselves and 19 other folks (although they don't pay for transportation to and from the shop, and by the time that party rolls around it'll probably be winter and ice cream in winter is probably a waste). Anyway, the reason I mention it is I'll be entering my flavor today, care of the Flavor Generator found by the Generator Blog.
A Neighborly MilestoneHappy birthday, Keith! We may be in different ZIP codes now but I'll always think of you as my neighbor.
Silly Site o' the DayWell, on the one hand, the cough is back (whether from coworker contagion or allergies I can't yet tell), and I've had to cancel a planned interview for a job which might have really suited me because a coworker suddenly decided she might want to take that day as a vacation day (and she has seniority, but I don't think it was deliberate sabotage because she's now offered to give me her haircutting appointment for tomorrow), and now my boss will be back from his business trip a day earlier than planned so my second choice of date is scuttled, and I've pretty much had to tell every recruiter who's called to please bear me in mind for interviews towards the end of May at the earliest. On the other hand, my morning commute has gotten a lot more colorful as the trees finally begin to fill in, and even the view from my office is becoming more pleasant as the landscaping my boss had planned starts to take shape. And we're going to England in a little over three weeks! So I refuse to be all gloomy. Here's a pretty little Fairy Berry vignette, courtesy of Desi (one of my guest bloggers during my England holiday!).
Because He Desperately Needs the Hits...
A Couple of DavidsCleaning out my in-box, I have personal requests from Davids both Honig and Fineg, who I'm pretty sure are different people, to publicize their stuff, forthwith: David Honig is the cartoonist behind the blog Hypnocrites, and wants folks to know he was so encouraged by what Stephanie McMillan was able to accomplish for the women of South Dakota that he's attempting the same. Check out his SD abortion cartoon and related merchandise, proceeds from which will go to the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families. David Fineg runs the Ten Cups Golf Center in San Antonio, and has "developed a line of clothing for women dedicated to the empowerment of women. Breast cancer research, the battered women’s shelter, and the campaign to elect the first woman president, are the three recipients of the proceeds from the sale of the clothing." Looks like it only goes up to 2XL, though, so women my size or larger need not bother, particularly at those prices... Update: Okay, apparently the David Fineg thing wasn't a personal request, it was a spammed mass email. Flea responds here.
Liberal Coalition Top TenWeek of 4/9 thru 4/15/06When faced with the choice of catching up on my ironing and talking about fellow Liberal Coalition members' posts which caught my fancy this past week, there's really no choice at all: • A couple "awww"s to start with before getting to the shocks. Norbizness at Happy Furry Puppy Story Time wishes his sister a happy birthday, and the Count and Trish the Countess celebrate their anniversary! NTodd of Dohiyi Mir is also celebrating the first anniversary of his NToddcasts. Congrats to all concerned! • Alex at Sooner Thought reproes another excellent Greg Palast article, and brings us an amusing Weekly Radio Address parody about this year's taxes (remember. fellow Americans, tomorrow's filing day for most of y'all). I've just subscribed to this free weekly comedy podcast (I need something now that the Ricky Gervais show is pay-to-play!), and this week's bit is cute too: "Easter is a time for remembering the things that Jesus' killing on the cross has brought to us - the Easter Bunny, chocolate eggs, that green plastic-y stuff that pads Easter baskets..." • Andante at Collective Sigh has words of praise for a local Republican. • Bora/Coturnix at Science and Politics brings news about how starvation dieting supposedly leads to longer life. If one doesn't DIE OF STARVATION, I suppose. On a more relatable note, he laments the sudden lack of matzoh and other Passover supplies at his local markets. Don't worry, Bora, if you can't eat anything during Passover maybe you'll live longer! • Echidne of the Snakes has a problem with faith-based programs. So do I. If a faith discriminates against anyone who doesn't share its tenets, they do not deserve to receive any money from a government whose citizens are among the objects of that discrimination. • Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake reminds us about the real Newt Gingrich. • Kenneth at T. Rex has way too much fun with site visitors who've left comments, and passes along welcome news about a potential cancer cure. • Maru lets us know about a brave principal who sticks to his principles. • Michael at Musing's Musings plays some more with new terminology, this time defining and extrapolating upon the phrase persecution ninnies; he also has a nice stream of consciousness post about Holy Week. • Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof asks who readers would cast in a planned Broadway musical based on Young Frankenstein. As this in my five top favorite movies of all time, I must admit to being stumped, as I'm not that familiar with current stage stars. I just hope Gene Wilder has something to do with producing this, as the original was his baby much more than Brooks', as far as I'm concerned. (And I think Leachman should reprise Frau Blücher, she can do stage musicals just fine.) • Steve at The News Blog brings us up to date on the Myers of Keswick kitty, which apparently has been all over the mainstream media which I don't watch, so this was the first I'd heard of it. Glad it's okay now, and it reminds me that it's been way too long since Rob and I have visited that British foods specialty shop and we're well overdue for another trip down there. Also, did you know that people are getting fired for attending anti-xenophobia protests? As Steve notes, "People who go out on protest today will vote for unions tomorrow. Why? Because once you demonstrate the power of collective action in the streets, you can do it in the workplace." • Lastly, Scott at ...You Are A Tree has a drunken brush with greatness. Oh dear, does this mean I have to do my ironing now? Isn't there a baseball game on yet?
My Favorite Comedy Album, Preserved for PosterityVia Cat (whose restaurant and food reviews are a must-read!), The Firesign Theatre album Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers has made the 2005 list of announced recordings to be preserved at the Library of Congress. (Here's the entire registry.) My fondest memory of this record, aside from having it signed by all four members of the troupe, was listening to it in my old Apartment Third-Eye about 20 years ago sitting alongside the "star" of the piece, David Ossman, who was staying over for a couple of days. And who, as it turns out, shares a birthday with Robin, who is fond of saying that everything happens for a reason. Indeed it does. Hey mister, I've got a nickel, wait for meeeeee....
Tonight's Favorite Dr. Who Line
"...broken... broken... hair dryer..."
All jokes aside, Dalek was a really lovely episode. The best of the season so far.
Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)Hey Datsa, wanna go on the windowsill?  There's a good boy-- hey, what are you looking at?  Look at me again, I'm trying to take pictures here! What could possibly--  ...Ah. Okay, carry on...
Silly Site o' the Day
It's my parents' wedding anniversary, and I've found the perfect bloggie-type present for them:
Spread the Word - All Is Going According to PlanHow high must the price of oil rise before the media and the Democrats (and perhaps even actual patriotic Republicans) acknowledge that this is exactly the intention of the radical oil barons who have seized power and systematically dismantled government for the past six years in order to enrich themselves? As Greg Palast said in the article to which I've just linked again, Big Oil "don't make money from pumping more oil, but from pumping less of it. The lower the supply, the higher the price." So remember, and pass it on - whatever bullshit you hear about oil refineries and saber-rattling about Iran, it's likely a big fat lie, and certainly a smokescreen designed specifically to divert people's attention from their actual goal: to raise the profits of Big Oil. And the same must be noted about their politics in general, and why the governing of our country hasn't been a mere matter of political disagreement, traditional Repub-versus-Demo paradigms, in the last half-dozen years. These people have zero interest in governing. Everything they have done since they maneuvered their way into power has been in the service of accumulating more power and wealth for themselves and their small circle of friends, while making sure other people don't have access to that power - whether by electoral shenanigans, dividing and conquering, fearmongering, cronyism, propagandistic appeals to patriotism and religion, demonization of the opposition, enlisting willing lackies to help ramrod through questionable legislation, rewarding incompetence and hostility, culture-war diversions, or outright lies. The good news is, this kind of naked avarice never lasts. They'll wind up cannibalizing each other, or destroying themselves in any number of other ways. The bad news is their destruction of millions of other lives in the meantime.
Dear Frivolous-Lawsuit-Happy Faux Christians...You lost your right to cry "discrimination" the minute you abandoned your god's true teachings of love in favor of bigotry and hatred. You're free to believe whatever intolerant crap you want, as long as you don't foist those beliefs on people who don't share them. Once you decide to spread your poison beyond your church walls, you have infringed on other's rights to be free of that poison. You have long since lost all moral and legal standing, so kindly shut up.
The Meta-Blog Post to End All Meta-Blog Posts
Silly Site o' the DayWell, my remarks here and elsewhere about the proposed Friends of Lulu fund seem to have ruffled a few feathers. But I stand by them - a 501(c)3 corporation has a legal obligation to its members and to the public to display transparency in all monetary matters (past and present) and, based on my personal experience, I retain the right to be skeptical for the time being, while at the same time sincerely hoping that the idea of the fund (which is a worthy and much-needed one) morphs into a smoothly-working reality. [Oh, and while I think it's brave of any woman to come forward and relate a traumatic experience such as Taki Soma describes, having a double-x chromosome does not impart to me any special knowledge about her incident that I didn't already discuss and encourage others to publicize back in January when she was still anonymous. And some shift definitely needs to take place to change a system in which a man can get away with harassing or assaulting a woman and then, even if his victim comes forward, if his identity is made public he can add insult to injury and sue for defamation... but I haven't a clue as to how that system can change. But I digress.] Might as well go for broke, then. Here's a very scatalogical look at superheroes in the bathroom. Blame Ann Bartow. We may not have a terribly active comments section (reflective, no doubt, of my frequent lack of hyper-activity on this blog) but we few sure are rabble-rousers, aren't we? And with that...  ...I'm outta here!
Reasons I'm Not Discussing Taki SomaGo here for the details. I have nothing to say about this that hasn't been said better by others for a number of reasons: 1. I have never heard of Taki Soma. 2. If Soma and knowledgeable lawyers can't figure out the next steps to take now, one more blog comment certainly can't. 3. I have not been involved in Friends of Lulu in at least two years. 4. One reason I'm no longer involved has to do with past misuse of funds; while I have been informed that said situation has since been corrected, and admittedly the misuse must have happened at least a half-decade ago by people who are currently not in charge, I admit to being "once bitten, twice shy" when it comes to fund donations, so I'm taking a wait-and-see stance. That said, I wish all involved the best of luck, and I certainly believe more light needs to be shone on these situations to prevent their recurrence and to make harassers accountable. Update: Heidi weighs in.
Silly Site o' the DayMy boss is home sick so it would be a perfect blog-catch-up day, except that Bloglines doesn't want to load for me. So since I can't get to my Silly Site bookmarks I'll instead pass one along from my cousin Marc, which I think I've also seen on a few blogs - the Kitty Authentication test! Or should that be called, the Kitty awwww-thentication test?
On ImmigrationMy mother's parents were immigrants.
My father is an immigrant.
My husband is an immigrant.
So you'll forgive me if I don't see immigration as an inherently evil thing.
Liberal Coalition Top TenWeek of 4/2 thru 4/8/06
Sunday Reading GoodnessOkay yeah, it's just a link dump. But there are some real gems here: Heidi MacDonald wonders about the difference in coverage between comic books and comic strips. Kalinara ponders another dichotomy, the ol' virgin/whore dilemma in comics. I'm hoping the character of Cassie Sandsmark continues to be sexually active with no negative consequences, as befits the daughter of Zeus. After all, Greek gods and goddesses and godlings were all a bit randy, weren't they? (Erm, perhaps I should ask Echidne about that...) Ragnall hosts the Twelfth Carnival of Feminists as the Green Lantern character Star Sapphire. By the way, a word of advice to anyone talking about art that perpetuates the male gaze - identify the artist. His name will usually be found in the comic book's credit box. Poses don't exist in a vacuum - someone had to draw them, and that's where the problem lies. Support more artists who don't cater to the male gaze and/or fetishes, and your comics will look better. Soj in Romania has some great advice for travelers abroad. The towel isn't just for space hitchhikers! Stephanie McMillan's cartoon sold for $2201! Teresa Nielsen-Hayden brings us the life and times of young Porco Bruno. Hank Magitz speaks of inter-sect squabbling among the Jews in northwest Jersey. Sounds like an uber-Orthodox vs. Conservative kinda thing. I think this happens in more places than folks suspect. The hyper-religious Jews are primarily interested in keeping their community close-knit and closed, the not-so-strict Jews are primarily interested in growth through raising capital. If I were still observant I'd be interested in a shul that welcomes everyone (including gentiles married to Jews, gays, non-believers curious about Judaism) and cares more about people than money, which I guess would probably make me Reformed but there's still that money thing. Feh - God is everywhere, I might as well worship at home. Lastly, eRobin has been collecting a few samizdat Tahoe ads - I'd love to see all of the ones I've seen so far listed in one place!
Silly Site o' the DaySee, when you've spent all day kind of weary (thanks in part to the dank weather, in which I actually went out for a bit and had to brush ice from my car's front windshield) and never quite catch up with blog-reading or comics-reading or anything else, the thing you don't want to do is have a dream about how Mom and Dad have decided to move into a huge-ass fantasy apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan that only exists on TV and, well, in dreams, and how they've made room for you and your husband to move in with them and there's something wrong that you can't put your finger on (because you're not dreaming lucidly) until your husband points out that there's no way in heck that you're both going to live with your parents, even rent-free, because you have a perfectly nice apartment about 10 miles north of there. And your mom is crushed but you stay overnight and offer to help out anyway, and you wind up splitting your time between blogging about the whole thing (because even in your dream you can't escape blogging!) and being in the kitchen making way too many things out of ground beef with her, a friend, and "Grandma" (my boss' mother-in-law who's kind of adopted the office). And you wake up more exhausted than ever, not wanting to see ground meat for a long, long time and entirely unsure of how you feel about blogging at this exact moment. Maybe I'll stick to movies today. Here's the trailer for the Worst Greatest Piece of Crap Film Ever (via Hanan but it's made the viral rounds). No, it's not Snakes on a Plane. Or Ground Meat in the Kitchen, either.
Silly Site o' the DayCatch-up day, I hope. Doing my checkbook now, will go out shortly to run errands, then home to finally redo my six filing cabinet drawers, as we've moved things around a bit in the computer room and, well, the drawers were overdue for reorganization anyway. I expect to catch up on blog-reading as well, although if I keep adding folks (welcome to the blogroll, Justin!) I don't see how I'm ever going to be able to do that. Maybe I need more sugar-highs in my diet; can I get them from playing this sugar game (via Cory at Boing Boing - not concidentally, the sound I'd probably make if I went on too many sugar highs)?
Belated Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)I don't care what you say...  ...ironing a kitty is just wrong...
Silly Site o' the DayI've been so swamped with wrok and pulled-every-which-way this week that I decided to do something a lot of potential employers ask about during the initial interview. I'm chronicling my "typical day." No such animal actually exists at this job as concerns specifics but, in terms of general demands and expectations, I'm actually finding today is pretty typical. So far I've found myself in damned-if-I-do-and-damned-if-I-don't situations no less than three times, and performed a fair amount of servant/maid, personal assistant, property management and secretarial tasks (remember, I'm only being paid to do the last). I'm just now taking my lunch break, after being able to get to the bathroom no earlier than 1:40 PM (that's a full 5 break-less hours at coworkers' beck and call). And this is a light day compared with the rest of the week! I'm glad I'm keeping track, just rereading it all is exhausting. Who has time for the Top 10 Free Time-Wasting Sites on the Net (via Augie)? Perhaps only students...
Silly Site o' the DayCongratulations to all the 2005 Koufax Award winners, particularly my fellow Liberal Coalition member Echidne in the category of Most Deserving of Wider Recognition; as someone who's followed the goddess for awhile now I agree with the voters that she most certainly deserves to be recognized far and wide!! I'm also thrilled that Shakespeare's Sister won for Best Group Blog - I adore Melissa (I really want to meet her and Mr. Shakes!), and think she's done a superb job taking her blog from a solo to a group effort. Light blogging continues while I get through a heavy workload at the office. I think I'll link to this Quail Hunting game (via Coturnix) before the reference becomes too obscure...
Silly Site o' the DayGah. I don't want to hear this any more! I have tons of work to get through today, and if I read one more speculative post about either Jill Carroll or Cynthia McKinney... I swear I'm this close to defenestration. And I'm not talking about right-wing blogs, because I don't read right-wing blogs. We weren't there, either held captive in Iraq or in the corridors of Congress, so we cannot yet know the full story of what happened in either case. I wish bloggers would curb this obsession they seem to have to fill every waking hour with "new content" to the point where they wind up being the written equivalent of a 24-hour cable "news" network to justify their ad revenues instead of a hobby, done for the love of it, that allows citizen journalists to communicate with each other. At times like this I just want to escape, so it's a good thing Cory at BoingBoing has led me to a fantasy novel generator.
Liberal Coalition Top TenWeek of 3/26 thru 4/1/06Great and relaxing afternoon in Manhattan; a few snapshots to follow, probably tomorrow. Way too mellow to want to do anything much beyond look at Liberal Coalition members' posts that I liked from this past week: • Andante at Collective Sigh examines options for retraining workers, particularly in the economically sucky manufacturing sector. • This past week was National Sleep Awareness Week - hope you tuned into Bora's Circadiana for some choice posts! • I loved Bryant's April Fool's post - the musical version of Make Me A Commentator!!, complete with the entire cast of the blog! • Echidne of the Snakes tries to come to terms with her grief over losing her beloved canine companion, and notes a weird trend in the news about celebrities giving birth. • Horatio at Dodecahedron notices a bit of current slang that I haven't heard at all yet, but then I'm fairly well out of touch... • Jeff at Speedkill lives up to his blog's name by inviting us to take a brain speed test. Warning: Chances are you'll need to update Shockwave first, which means you'll have to close all your browser windows so it installs correctly and I wasn't prepared to do that. I'm sure it's a fine test. • Jude at Iddybud has a must-read post up about poverty. • Keith at Invisible Library recommends we keep our eyes on Georgia as the next battleground Bible-thumping state. • Maru at WTF Is It Now?? reports on the newest archaeological find, Ajax's palace, and the latest must-read tome, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (which, you know, they should use as a textbook in Georgia, I think). • Steve Gilliard deals with his kitchen being remodeled. I guess we lucked out, nothing in our apartment really needed much updating when we rented it, and we've made minor alterations (like replacing blinds and putting up curtains) ourselves. Lastly, I wanted to note that Steve also has a very good post today about the Cynthia McKinney matter, which I didn't want to wait until next week to plug.
Maintenance NotesPlease note new URLs for Feministing and Frank Paynter (whose new blog takes the place of Sandhill Trek).
Silly Site o' the DayForgot to spring forward to Daylight Saving Time, so I guess it's a good job we have a few machines that change our clocks automatically as a reminder. Still, I feel a little like a zombie squirrel (via Susie). Hoping a morning shower clears out the cobwebs, then we're off to the Big Apple Con to watch the Miller/Adams show and do a bit of Manhattan shopping-and-sushi. Couldn't ask for a better day for it! The weekly Liberal Coalition blogaround will probably be up tonight.
Estrogen Month ResultsAs mentioned in previous posts, this was a rather truncated Estrogen Month compared with last year, due to many factors (among them the lack of an energizing impetus the way Kevin Drum's posts about women bloggers got under a lot of skins in '05; my lingering-cough illness and subsequent medicinal regimens which are finally over; the Koufax voting and other pressing concerns on the part of many bloggers). But I have kept true to the spirit of the month by shifting four women bloggers from my "in waiting" bookmarks to my official sidebar blogroll: • Bitch | Lab (suggested by Lis Riba) • Cruella (suggested by Lesley) • Grace Davis (suggested by Roxanne) All three of these worthy ladies have now moved onto the News+VIews Gals portion of my ever-growing sidebar. But there's one more: • The last choice is my vote. Stephanie McMillan set the imaginations of both the political and comics blogosphere on fire this past couple weeks with her "Call Bill" cartoon. And it doesn't stop there - she's received permission from both Planned Parenthood MN/ND/SD and Cangleska (serving the Oglala Sioux) to donate proceeds to them from her two current fundraisers involving this cartoon: auctioning off the original art on eBay (wow, the highest bid is $711 now!) and selling affordable framed prints of it. But I like her for more than her activism; the writing on her blog is equally powerful and energetic. Welcome Stephanie to the Kultcha Gals section of the blogroll!
Silly Sites o' the DayWhite Rabbits, happy Amy's birthday (she's 8 by our counting), and happy April Fool's Day! I hope to be adding relevant silly sites to this post throughout the day (as well as announcing the new Estrogen Month additions to my blogroll), so please check back and please send me any links you'd like to publicize! Here are a few to get you started: Bunny Sites:• Bunny Brokeback Mountain (via Desi), Angry Alien's most recent bunny-parody-in-30-seconds
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