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July 14th, 2008
09:09 pm
When Access Hollywood talks about the aggression of the paparazzi, I really want to kick the announcer in the balls twice- once for being a hypocrite, and a second time for being the only non-infomercial on any of my four channels right now.
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June 26th, 2008
11:05 am - And the verdict is
You can limit them, but you can't ban them
In one of the most contentious 5-4 decisions of the current court, the Supreme Court has ruled that the DC laws on handguns went too far by making it all but impossible to keep a handgun in the home and by mandating that shotguns be stored disassembled or under trigger lock.
( Article text )
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09:28 am - Commas and Clauses
The Supreme Court is set to issue a ruling on the DC gun ban today. They may finally rule on whether individuals have a constitutional right to bear arms. Don't let it go unnoticed.
( Read more... )
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June 19th, 2008
June 18th, 2008
09:21 pm - El Arroyo has crappy mexican martinis
Happy hour at El Arroyo is so disappointing that it reminds me each time why I haven't been there in nine months or so, even though it's in easy walking distance.
My mexican martini was billed as $7.25 + $1.50 for the tequila. Normally, I would let such an oddity slide, but our martinis were so disgusting we couldn't finish them- they tasted like grasss. grass that had gone bad. - so I asked, and the waiter told me that the tequila we'd chosen was the cheapest one they had, which is why it was only $1.50 on top of the $7.25
WTF?! That's bullshit. What's the $7.25 price for? Sweet n sour? Do they charge extra for offensive-tasting tequila these days?
I still can't get the taste out of my mouth. I wouldn't drink a whole one of those for free.... I wouldn't drink it if you paid me $5. It was so gross. And as a person who enjoys and savors the taste of liquor, I'm a little offended. And I can't believe I paid a dollar more for that tripe than I pay for a mexican martini at Trudy's.
El Arroyo, you fail.
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June 10th, 2008
11:18 am - For amusement purposes only
From Slate's list of campaign metaphors:
1. Eight Belles’ last race.
Two days before the Kentucky Derby, Clinton urged supporters to put their money on Eight Belles, the only filly competing. But on the day of the race, the girl horse placed second behind an inexperienced yet favored young colt named, of all things, Big Brown. Eight Belles crossed the finish line, but only after breaking both front ankles. She had to be euthanized on the track. Critics blamed the rough terrain.
Big Brown went on to win the Preakness but inexplicably faltered in the final contest, the Belmont Stakes. Trainers are still scratching their heads. Instead, the winner was a horse named Da’ Tara—although, let’s be honest, it might as well be called Grizzled Old Veteran.
(of course, we won't let that last part play out because we are a better country than that)
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June 2nd, 2008
11:59 am - Memo to everyone over 20: You are an adult now, not a child. Act like it!
A kindergarten teacher made a 5-year-old autistic boy stand at the front of the classroom and listen to the reasons each of his classmates did not like him. She then led the class of kindergarten students in a vote to decide whether he should be kicked out of class.
What a horrible person
I wonder if she goes out for cocktails with Lori Drew so they can read YM and US Weekly while playing MASH. Unless teacher is already BFF with the woman who hosted that myspace-initiated gang assault on her daughter's close "friend". They are both in Florida, after all.
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April 30th, 2008
09:57 am - The only thing holy to a prominent holy man is himself
Reverend Wright: Shut up!!! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! This isn't about you! No one wants this to be about you!
YOU are hurting someone far more important than yourself. You have taken it upon yourself to crusade at a deplorably inconvenient time against one of the most intelligent, uniting, promising politicians this nation has seen in a very long time. You are dragging him down into the muck of an issue that he has managed, despite all odds, to consistently rise above and go beyond. And what's worse, he is exactly what you should be cheering and sacrificing for, if you truly believe in what's good for your community and if you truly want the rest of the world to move beyond race.
He is YOUR PARISHIONER. He is YOUR FRIEND. And, and I only say this because it is apparently so damned important to you, he is YOUR RACE. When pressured to reject you, he refused, and he stood up for you and made excuses for some of the horribly inflammatory and ignorant things you'd said. And now that he's said, in so many widely televised and constantly quoted words, that he could no more reject you than he could reject the whole of the black community, YOU have made it so that not rejecting you is political suicide, and by extension, you've fed the fires of anyone who might turn around and say, "Well, he said that Wright was the same as the black community, so when he finally rejected Wright, that was him rejecting the black community." And then, right then, he loses his grip on the black vote, even as your words are stripping him of the working class white vote he has been fighting so hard to earn.
How selfish and narcissistic are you? This crusade of yours is not yours, and it is not new. The myth of the government introducing AIDS and crack to control the black population are so long proven false, so outdated and so recycled that you may as well be carrying around a copy of Catcher in the Rye and dissecting the pyramids on the backs of dollar bills. Any valid fights you have are already being fought by other prominent black reverends who are not sabotaging the first liberal black candidate with a real shot at the office.
Nothing you have to say has not been said before- by many more people far crazier and far more violent than you- and nothing you are doing, none of this grandstanding, power-grabbing, fighting for the spotlight under the guise of a moral fervor, is something that hasn't already been done by the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons of the world.
But you're not content to let it go. You got your poor little feelings hurt when your star congregant said he didn't agree 100% with your more radical spoutings, and now you're fighting back. And you're too smart to admit that you're fighting for yourself and your own reputation, so instead, you've donned the mantle of Warrior for the Black People and Champion of the Oppressed Minority, and you blow feverishly on the dying coals of the vicious Racism That Was, while Obama and the majority of the country pour water on the flames.
Didn't you pay attention to the Sean Bell reaction? No one wants riots and firey pulpit speeches on racism anymore. They want the inattention that allows for real legislative changes. They want an end to the hate and divisiveness you are feeding. This country wants race dropped as a sermon issue in favor of actual institutional and procedural change- the kind of change that only comes as we move past the animosity, past the hatred and accusations and race-based attacks. Racism has caused some horrible crashes in the highway of progression, and your rubbernecking is only slowing the traffic.
Don't hurt Obama. He is the one with the actual promise and power to change the way this country discusses and deals with the one issue that is nearest and dearest to your own heart. He is the one who could sit down with a born-bred-and-raised racist and build with him a true sense of comradery and natural understanding. And those increments are what we need. It's that sense of mutual values and empathy that really gives rise to the attitudinal changes that break down de facto and subconscious racism. And you are getting in the way. You are ruining everything.
And why? Because you want your fifteen minutes, and by God, you're going to take them! You've got your eyes on the pundit prizes: the book deals, the clips on "crossfire" and cable "news" shows, the quotes on every race issue from now until the end of time, maybe a newspaper column, maybe some high-dollar guest speaker opportunities. You're the bull in the china store, and all the plates have "O '08" on their surfaces, but you don't care because all you want to see on the surface of things is your own angry reflection.
It's time for you to sit down, shut up, and let yourself fade into the background the way the past is supposed to.
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April 25th, 2008
11:51 am - The terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad primary process
Lately, pundits and Obama supporters alike have been squawking and screaming for Clinton to drop out. They point at Obama's leading margin- a margin that simply does not and absolutely will not deliver him the number of pledged delegates that the party decided a long time ago was necessary to consider the contest won- as evidence that Clinton has somehow "already lost" an election in which seven states and two territories have not even begun the voting process.
In addition to that, the screams express that Clinton has had the audacity tarnished their golden boy with- and this is the shocker- a determined campaign.
Of course, if she would just not campaign- if she would just ignore the 45%-50% of the party that really wants her to be the nominee- if she would have just ended this whole thing early on, he'd still be unvetted, unscathed, still shiny and new.
But the voting isn't over, and THAT IS NOT CLINTON'S FAULT! If the Democrats had really decided that they wanted her to quit, she wouldn't be winning states anymore, but she is, and the reason she is is that half of the party would prefer to see her as the nominee.
Yes, all the long months of fighting, of bitterness, building resentment, threats of abdication and open wounds are a bad thing for the Democrats- very bad. But it is not Clinton's fault. It is a consequence of the Democratic primary system, and, like it or not, it has helped the Democrats to shoot themselves in the foot in more elections than it has helped them to win.
Yes, the Republicans also have a drawn-out primary system, but in recent elections, the Republican party has figured out how to quickly coalesce around an "acceptable" candidate, rather than fighting long and hard over whose ideal choice is best-suited to the job, so it hasn't hurt them as much.
If the Democratic party really wants to use the primaries to unify itself around a candidate, these are the things that need to change:
1. The primary system is way too long.
Once upon a time, the voting happened at the convention, so it didn't matter when the states' individual primaries were held, so long as the delegates had the time to trek to Washington. In the days of up-to-the-minute results, everybody is busy looking around at what the other states are doing and trying to narrow the field early and often. As a result, late states often don't get a choice on the ballot. They get to say whether they're for the remaining choice or "uncommitted", and that's all. They're disenfranchised by their own party, and if they fight back, well, you know what's happened to Michigan and Florida. It's lose-lose.
All the states should get to vote. That should be obvious. And the only way to get that to happen is to hold all the primaries in a very short span- on the same day or in the same week, just like the actual election. The convention can be held the week following the final vote count. Everybody gets to vote for their favorite candidate. Every candidate gets a chance in every state. The winner is the winner, and no politicking, last-minute strategy changes or mid-process campaign shake-ups will be necessary. Everyone can run a positive campaign if they so choose, and everyone agrees that the winner is the winner, period. (except in a run-off, for which other guidance can be provided). An option for those who argue for the value of narrowing the field, people could vote on a first-through-fifth choice basis (ie- I want Edwards first, Obama Second, Clinton third), with different percentages of their vote allocated to each individual in case of a runoff between first-choice winners. This isn't a perfect plan, but it's better than a war of attrition.
2. It's time to retire the delegate system
We no longer need to send our trusty representatives to Washington on horseback so they can vote at the convention. Everyone in the world knows what percentage of what state has voted which way as soon as it's tallied. It should be automatic and electronic. No one should have to worry that a "pledged" delegate will not vote for the pledged party, and removing the people from this equation is the best way to ensure that. Superdelegates might be a good thing to keep around in the case of a runoff or other contested situation, but on the whole, everything should be settled as soon as the last vote is tallied.
3. Caucuses are the worst thing ever
Caucuses are the least democratic system of voting I've ever been exposed to. It's inherently biased to require that everyone be at a certain place at a certain time, navigate the chaos that is a roomful of caucus voters, stand in line an unreasonable amount of time, and sign a sheet of paper that they might run out of and that is certainly NOT an anonymous ballot. On top of that, supporters of either side are tasked with watching the administrators to make sure that no one cheats- that all the papers are picked up, all the delegate volunteers are accurately counted, that their own leader calls the party with the results, and so on. It's a clusterfuck, and nothing about it in any way reflects the virtues of accessible, anonymous, credible voting that democratic processes depend on for validity. Caucuses should be abolished and replaced with actual primaries where people can actually participate in a fair and democratic voting process.
So let's fix it. Let's change the primary system.
Then we can think about dealing with the pundits.
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March 7th, 2008
11:42 am - My Caucus was in the Times!
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: March 6, 2008 [truncated to that part that talks about my precinct]
....That was truly unfair. People who never knew these caucuses existed before this week did the best they could under ridiculous circumstances, including an innovative rule that no one is in charge when the event begins.
“The secretary is the first precinct captain who manages to take a leadership role. It’s a little ambiguous to be totally honest,” said Alexander Baugh, a graduate student and an Obama captain at Mathews Elementary School in Austin.
Inside, hundreds and hundreds of voters were trying to squeeze into the caucus, which was held in a child-size cafeteria. There was a great deal of time to contemplate a poster listing CAFETERIA EXPECTATIONS, which were so wise I feel compelled to share a couple with you:
• Eat your own food.
• Keep hands, feet and objects to yourself.
The Mathews Elementary voters got a temporary leader, May Schmidt, who actually seemed to understand the rules. This is the only thing that spared them from the fate of the voters at a library outside of Houston, where it took two and a half hours for the would-be leaders to figure out how to open the door and let people inside.
Schmidt had made way more copies of the critical forms than she had been allotted, avoiding the fate of many, many caucuses that ran out. And she dispatched her daughter to negotiate with the janitorial staff.
“They’re opening up the gym. They don’t like it, but they’re opening,” she said. “Now if you’re Obama, hold up your hands.”
The vast majority of the room started waving, and making a hoot of victory that sounded very much like the one the Spartans used in “300.”
The Hillary people, looking a little deflated, trudged off to the gym, where they stood in line to register. Meanwhile, they got a special chair for an 87-year-old woman who had made her way to the school to caucus for Clinton, carrying her cane and a big flashlight. “I’m just about blind, so they have to help me. They’ve been real good about it,” she said cheerfully.
Am I wrong in thinking this is above and beyond the call of duty? Cheers to Obama, who is caucus king thanks to the way he has mobilized his ultra-enthusiastic supporters. But if I were a superdelegate forced to choose between two attractive candidates, I’d look for the one who won the big primaries where people were actually encouraged to vote. ...
So I feel pretty cool, having been one of the people displaced from the tiny cafeteria to the gym for caucusing goodness. She's 100% right- our process went smoothly because, and ONLY because, of the nice lady named May who had the uncoached foresight to bring extra copies of EVERYTHING, including the list of people who had voted in the primary.
Once we were in the gym, we formed three lines, and as I was signing in, we were trying to negotiate with people to search the building for more tables so that we could form more lines, and then we decided to recruit more volunteers to head the lines so everything could move faster. We spread into seven (still very long) lines of supporters, most headed by resourceful last-minute volunteers.
Overall, I have this to say: our high school Battle of the Bands, that roughly nine kids threw together in a month or so the first time around and held in the gym, that almost resulted in a riot, was better organized than the vast majority of Texas precinct caucuses. I don't know who came up with the idea to award delegates this way, but it's a stupid idea, and it's easier to screw up than to do right. It's also unfair to anyone unable to turn up at a particular location on a particular Tuesday at exactly 7:15 PM.
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February 12th, 2008
05:44 am - Misery Index?
Forbes ranked the most miserable cities in America. They based it on crime, unemployment, commute, toxic waste, weather, and possibly something I've forgotten.
Anyway, slide show here
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February 11th, 2008
03:01 pm - Hate Springs Eternal
Op-Ed Columnist
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 11, 2008
In 1956 Adlai Stevenson, running against Dwight Eisenhower, tried to make the political style of his opponent’s vice president, a man by the name of Richard Nixon, an issue. The nation, he warned, was in danger of becoming “a land of slander and scare; the land of sly innuendo, the poison pen, the anonymous phone call and hustling, pushing, shoving; the land of smash and grab and anything to win. This is Nixonland.”
The quote comes from “Nixonland,” a soon-to-be-published political history of the years from 1964 to 1972 written by Rick Perlstein, the author of “Before the Storm.” As Mr. Perlstein shows, Stevenson warned in vain: during those years America did indeed become the land of slander and scare, of the politics of hatred.
And it still is. In fact, these days even the Democratic Party seems to be turning into Nixonland.
The bitterness of the fight for the Democratic nomination is, on the face of it, bizarre. Both candidates still standing are smart and appealing. Both have progressive agendas (although I believe that Hillary Clinton is more serious about achieving universal health care, and that Barack Obama has staked out positions that will undermine his own efforts). Both have broad support among the party’s grass roots and are favorably viewed by Democratic voters.
Supporters of each candidate should have no trouble rallying behind the other if he or she gets the nod.
Why, then, is there so much venom out there?
( Read more... )
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February 1st, 2008
04:53 am
My best friend is leaving in the morning, and she might not be coming home.
I'm both sad for myself and jealous of the great adventures she's sure to have. Mostly, I know she's going to have a badass time.
Good luck, Tess. I love you :)
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November 15th, 2007
07:51 pm - Just sayin...
The Onion a month ago: ( Not-So-Horrible Thing Happens In Iraq )
"We see before us the promise of a new Iraq, one that is only marginally devastating or even, God willing, just temporarily horrific," Gates said. "A couple more days like this and I don't see any reason why our troops won't be able to come home slightly earlier than never."
The New York Times today: ( Fewer Iraq Roadside Bombs, U.S. Says )
Security operations in Baghdad had been “very successful in bringing down levels of violence, so it is now extremely important that the political process move forward in conditions of better security to afford Iraqis the chance to build a strong and stable nation,” Mr. Crocker told Reuters.
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November 6th, 2007
01:02 pm - From Time.com
Trying to keep the kids safe, however, is daunting. "We are doing the best we can," Bevan says. "But it isn't easy. Peanuts are everywhere."
Context...
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October 26th, 2007
12:36 pm - Rainbow Diet?
I think I am going to do this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johannaonvideo/1030461590/in/set-72157601261171755/
The jist- she ate in order of the visible light spectrum (ROYGBIV), each day eating only things that color
Maybe next week... except Sundays are not red, they're yellow. I guess I could start Friday. ( I guess that would go like this. )
Anybody else want to play?
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October 12th, 2007
03:25 pm - BABY!
Or I guess I should say "Baby part 2"; my yet-to-be-named nephew and second godchild was born today at 1:25 PM EDT. He's healthy and doing well :)
I will post more once I've gotten hold of my brother and/or sister-in-law to get details (and by details, I obviously mean pictures).
Yay for babies!
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October 4th, 2007
02:53 am
Robbie (my middle brother) is coming up this weekend and staying with me Friday night. I'm trying to figure out what fun things I should do with him while he's here. He's also asking to meet Will, so I told him we'd see about that.
My new job is going pretty well so far-knock on wood- though I have to drive to get there :( Not working downtown is directly related to not going to the gym, so I am still building motivation to go even though I can't walk from work anymore. (That's my cop-out way of saying it's been a couple of weeks :P)
Otherwise, things are normal, life is fine today, and I'm starting to relax again- just a little.
Happy Wednesday
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September 22nd, 2007
11:16 pm - FYI
Tutoring geometry is a lot more fun than studying it
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September 4th, 2007
04:54 pm - Public Update
- I'm looking for a new job; my internship, though extended again and again, did not turn into a permanent gig, so I am currently temping and searching for a new job. I do have a few irons in the fire, so hopefully there will be news on this front soon
- I have a new boyfriend; his name is Will, and he's fantastic. Everyone seems to like him, and he's fitting in well. It's very strange for me to suddenly be in a relationship, but I'm not the least bit uneasy about it.
- My half brother is going through chemo, and they are expecting a second child next month, so I've been trying to keep up with them and be as supportive as I can from this distance. He's likely going to be fine, but chemo's a rocky process, so keep them in your thoughts
- Johnny has started at A&M, and Robbie is transferring to Texas State, which will officially make my parents empty nesters; let's hope they don't party too hard or for too many nights in a row
- I'm still living downtown, finally getting into my neighborhood and all the cool stuff in walking distance of my apartment, and I love it, even though my friends are all migrating north to the arboretum area (notable exception: Miss Mandy is moving into my neighborhood- literally around the corner- hooray!)
- Dreida's still living with my parents. I used the two weeks they were in Costa Rica as a bit of a trial run for bringing her back, but she was so unbelievably unhappy with my gone-12-hours-a-day schedule and the general lack of activity now that I live alone that it's going to be a while before she can live with me again.
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