Silly Site and Friday Cat Blogging coming later, but those "keep as new" posts are starting to accumulate again:
• The title of this blogaround comes from a revelation in a new book by former Mexican president Vicente Fox (so expect him to be making the talk show rounds soon) that our current president, as if you couldn't guess, is not only a "windshield cowboy" (i.e., a cowboy who prefers to drive) and "the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life," but when he offered Bush a ride on a "big palomino" he recall the latter immediately "backing away" from the animal. Now, part of me is a bit surprised at this, not because of what it says about Bush's fake cowboy stuff but because a blueblood like him must surely have grown up around the horsey set (there's an equestrian centre in my neighborhood right at the exit from the highway, and I love spotting "horthies!" on my commute home), but part of me isn't that surprised because -- with the exception of cats and dogs -- Bush seems to have had a fairly negative relationship with animals during his life.
• Remember yesterday's happy dance? Well, seems the stomach bug isn't quite gone. It's very much like what Colleen says in the tragically hilarious recounting of her trip to the World's Worst Irish Pub: "So the day started out great, and we were riding the crest of success and happiness. And then were were sent crashing back to Earth, humbled and human... When you are flying high, sometimes you fly too close to the sun, and God decides to make you eat skanky food, and give you a flat tire in the middle of the highway nearly 100 miles from home to teach you a lesson about getting uppity." Well, two can play at that game -- if my stomach doesn't straighten itself out by tonight, God may not get a fast from me tomorrow, if he or she existed.
• Speaking of which, remember Ernie Chambers, the Nebraska legislator who decided to sue God to make a point about frivolous lawsuits or somesuch? Well, apparently God has responded (via Angie). This one's starting to be a lot of fun.
• Because of the aforementioned stomach probs, I didn't get to do this blogaround yesterday, when a number of momentous events occurred. The one which deserved the most coverage, in my opinion, was the Jena 6 National Day of Action. Coverage I appreciated included two outstanding comprehensive posts from Pam, here and here; a photo series from Benjamin Chaneles at Huffpo; the Virtual March by Blackamazon (although she skirts the edge of Solitarity which Steven Colbert satirized a couple days ago, it ought to be remembered that not all of us have the means to just pick up and go to every march we'd like to attend); Susie's musings on mainstream media coverage of the events; and Scout Prime's reaction to hearing Kyra Phillips report that "one family I tried to approach, the family of one of these boys that hung the nooses, two big men came out with their shotguns and told me I'd better leave." And they expect people to believe they don't know what the nooses symbolized? Yeah, right. Like Kevin says, we're far from a post-racist society. I'm amazed folks can even claim with a straight face that we are, given how in that same state of Louisiana, officials with shotguns blocked escape routes for New Orleanians because they didn't want "that kind" encroaching on lily enclaves. The Rude Pundit isn't surprised either that these backwater attitudes still exist.
• Melissa reports on another horrid and inhumane incident, this one over in Hartlepool in County Durham. This disturbs me on so many levels I can't even express it. I was raised to always call for help right away when injustice was being done; it probably came from seeing so many traffic accidents on the corner (they happened so frequently it became a neighborhood meeting place of sorts, just ask Rachael) and our family always being among the first to call 9-1-1 to report them.
• Among other things that happened yesterday was the shameful and scary "symbolic" Senate vote against freedom of speech, even though the speech was a paid-for ad. As Mark Evanier notes,
• Over at the Group News Blog, Sara Robinson has some good observations about how, whenever the US takes it upon itself to help African countries, we always seem to botch it up and make things worse. Her suggestion is along the lines of the old proverb about teaching men to fish for themselves (or, in this case, women to excel educationally) rather than feeding them fish for one day. This will go unheeded by the current people in power, one of whom can't even remember that Nelson Mandela is still alive.
• Also yesterday, the president of Iran expressed interest in visiting the WTC site, and the press smelled controversy and ratings and jumped right on it, bothering Kristin Breitweiser, who refused to play their outrage game and instead opined that "Real statesmanship would be a presidential candidate with the courage to encourage potentially dangerous, misinformed leaders like Ahmandinejad to visit Ground Zero, in the hopes that they might learn something."
• Remember how angry comics fans were over alleged remarks made by San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders around the annual Comic-Con? Well, he's back in the news, only this time it's a good thing, as he holds a press conference to talk about wrestling with his conscience over a gay marriage bill, then doing the right thing (via John at AmericaBlog). It's fascinating how thoroughly homophobes can become enlightened once they come to terms with their own child being gay. Trish passes along another wonderful example of this from a Dear Abby column, which she employs in discussing her late cousin.
• Have I mentioned lately how much I miss working in Manhattan? The Mike Wieringo Irish wake charity event is one reason. Val D'Orazio covers it. Val's also the newest responder to my "Assemble the Squad" challenge, but I'd expect an ex-editor to notice art more than the average reviewer, as that was once part of her job.
• Snopes is being all coy and like that in insisting that the emoticon isn't really only 25 years old, just its use online. Split hairs, why don'tcha? Some of us were using smileys way back in the days of zines and apas. (Damn it, now I have that Pearly Spencer song stuck in my head again, only with the lyrics "the days of zines and apas"...)
• That Pearly Spencer ref must have caught Robin's eye. It's so hard to catch his eye with a blogaround, but I keep trying. HEY ROBIN, read this post from Stephen Fry about his love for all things electronic! It's Fry, it's bright shiny stuff, it's right up your alley. Yeah, I know, you've probably already read it...
• The new network TV season begins next week, which means Lance begins live-blogging. Given his astuteness over all things Ugly Betty, I wish that were the show he'd chosen, but he's going to try live-blogging Heroes instead, which I guess means I have to watch it now to join in on the fun.
• Some interesting news on the public transit front, as Lindsay reports that NYC subway stations are finally getting wired for cell phone use. Not the tunnels, just the stations, but it's a great idea and should help make those areas a lot safer during the wee hours. And Ginger reports on plans for Park(ing) Day El-Lay, part of International Park(ing) Day.
Well, that's it for now, so let me leave you with a bit of tinfoil-hat numerical stuff from Becky at Preemptive Karma. Batten down those hatches, and have an easy fast if that's the way you're going tonight and tomorrow...
• The title of this blogaround comes from a revelation in a new book by former Mexican president Vicente Fox (so expect him to be making the talk show rounds soon) that our current president, as if you couldn't guess, is not only a "windshield cowboy" (i.e., a cowboy who prefers to drive) and "the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life," but when he offered Bush a ride on a "big palomino" he recall the latter immediately "backing away" from the animal. Now, part of me is a bit surprised at this, not because of what it says about Bush's fake cowboy stuff but because a blueblood like him must surely have grown up around the horsey set (there's an equestrian centre in my neighborhood right at the exit from the highway, and I love spotting "horthies!" on my commute home), but part of me isn't that surprised because -- with the exception of cats and dogs -- Bush seems to have had a fairly negative relationship with animals during his life.
• Remember yesterday's happy dance? Well, seems the stomach bug isn't quite gone. It's very much like what Colleen says in the tragically hilarious recounting of her trip to the World's Worst Irish Pub: "So the day started out great, and we were riding the crest of success and happiness. And then were were sent crashing back to Earth, humbled and human... When you are flying high, sometimes you fly too close to the sun, and God decides to make you eat skanky food, and give you a flat tire in the middle of the highway nearly 100 miles from home to teach you a lesson about getting uppity." Well, two can play at that game -- if my stomach doesn't straighten itself out by tonight, God may not get a fast from me tomorrow, if he or she existed.
• Speaking of which, remember Ernie Chambers, the Nebraska legislator who decided to sue God to make a point about frivolous lawsuits or somesuch? Well, apparently God has responded (via Angie). This one's starting to be a lot of fun.
• Because of the aforementioned stomach probs, I didn't get to do this blogaround yesterday, when a number of momentous events occurred. The one which deserved the most coverage, in my opinion, was the Jena 6 National Day of Action. Coverage I appreciated included two outstanding comprehensive posts from Pam, here and here; a photo series from Benjamin Chaneles at Huffpo; the Virtual March by Blackamazon (although she skirts the edge of Solitarity which Steven Colbert satirized a couple days ago, it ought to be remembered that not all of us have the means to just pick up and go to every march we'd like to attend); Susie's musings on mainstream media coverage of the events; and Scout Prime's reaction to hearing Kyra Phillips report that "one family I tried to approach, the family of one of these boys that hung the nooses, two big men came out with their shotguns and told me I'd better leave." And they expect people to believe they don't know what the nooses symbolized? Yeah, right. Like Kevin says, we're far from a post-racist society. I'm amazed folks can even claim with a straight face that we are, given how in that same state of Louisiana, officials with shotguns blocked escape routes for New Orleanians because they didn't want "that kind" encroaching on lily enclaves. The Rude Pundit isn't surprised either that these backwater attitudes still exist.
• Melissa reports on another horrid and inhumane incident, this one over in Hartlepool in County Durham. This disturbs me on so many levels I can't even express it. I was raised to always call for help right away when injustice was being done; it probably came from seeing so many traffic accidents on the corner (they happened so frequently it became a neighborhood meeting place of sorts, just ask Rachael) and our family always being among the first to call 9-1-1 to report them.
• Among other things that happened yesterday was the shameful and scary "symbolic" Senate vote against freedom of speech, even though the speech was a paid-for ad. As Mark Evanier notes,
...the Senate (or the House or any government institution) has no business voting en masse -- and using the bully pulpit that we entrust to them -- to criticize how Americans exercise their Freedom of Speech. Everyone can all say whatever they want on their own time but it isn't the job of our deliberative bodies to pass judgment on how tasteful or accurate a political ad may be.Read his other reasons why this was so wrong. Then read Avedon's post where she's spitting nails over the high-pocracy. Then check out Joe Sudbay's fury at Bush's bait-and-switch when he just happened to (uh-huh) address this at his news conference. Then you'll be ready to read Keith Olbermann's special comment from last night about the needful separation of politics and the military. (Keith's return to form from his recent emergency appendectomy was, for me, the other big event yesterday.) Lastly, check out Unconfirmed Source's turnabout-as-fair-play.
Secondly, the whole thing's a cheap political stunt. You introduce a resolution like this to try and put your opponents on the spot and force them to vote. If they vote to condemn it, they pretty much have to condemn the whole thing, including portions with which they might agree had those sentiments been more graciously expressed. If they don't vote to condemn it, then their opponents will try to hold them as responsible for it as if they'd written it themselves...which is another distortion of reality. Just because you don't condemn something doesn't mean you agree with every word of it. It's all a trick to move the debate off of whatever legitimate issues the ad raises and make it instead about the manners and ethics of people you're running against.
• Over at the Group News Blog, Sara Robinson has some good observations about how, whenever the US takes it upon itself to help African countries, we always seem to botch it up and make things worse. Her suggestion is along the lines of the old proverb about teaching men to fish for themselves (or, in this case, women to excel educationally) rather than feeding them fish for one day. This will go unheeded by the current people in power, one of whom can't even remember that Nelson Mandela is still alive.
• Also yesterday, the president of Iran expressed interest in visiting the WTC site, and the press smelled controversy and ratings and jumped right on it, bothering Kristin Breitweiser, who refused to play their outrage game and instead opined that "Real statesmanship would be a presidential candidate with the courage to encourage potentially dangerous, misinformed leaders like Ahmandinejad to visit Ground Zero, in the hopes that they might learn something."
• Remember how angry comics fans were over alleged remarks made by San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders around the annual Comic-Con? Well, he's back in the news, only this time it's a good thing, as he holds a press conference to talk about wrestling with his conscience over a gay marriage bill, then doing the right thing (via John at AmericaBlog). It's fascinating how thoroughly homophobes can become enlightened once they come to terms with their own child being gay. Trish passes along another wonderful example of this from a Dear Abby column, which she employs in discussing her late cousin.
• Have I mentioned lately how much I miss working in Manhattan? The Mike Wieringo Irish wake charity event is one reason. Val D'Orazio covers it. Val's also the newest responder to my "Assemble the Squad" challenge, but I'd expect an ex-editor to notice art more than the average reviewer, as that was once part of her job.
• Snopes is being all coy and like that in insisting that the emoticon isn't really only 25 years old, just its use online. Split hairs, why don'tcha? Some of us were using smileys way back in the days of zines and apas. (Damn it, now I have that Pearly Spencer song stuck in my head again, only with the lyrics "the days of zines and apas"...)
• That Pearly Spencer ref must have caught Robin's eye. It's so hard to catch his eye with a blogaround, but I keep trying. HEY ROBIN, read this post from Stephen Fry about his love for all things electronic! It's Fry, it's bright shiny stuff, it's right up your alley. Yeah, I know, you've probably already read it...
• The new network TV season begins next week, which means Lance begins live-blogging. Given his astuteness over all things Ugly Betty, I wish that were the show he'd chosen, but he's going to try live-blogging Heroes instead, which I guess means I have to watch it now to join in on the fun.
• Some interesting news on the public transit front, as Lindsay reports that NYC subway stations are finally getting wired for cell phone use. Not the tunnels, just the stations, but it's a great idea and should help make those areas a lot safer during the wee hours. And Ginger reports on plans for Park(ing) Day El-Lay, part of International Park(ing) Day.
Well, that's it for now, so let me leave you with a bit of tinfoil-hat numerical stuff from Becky at Preemptive Karma. Batten down those hatches, and have an easy fast if that's the way you're going tonight and tomorrow...
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