February 2007 Archive
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February 27, 2007
Monster Name
<=> | in: Entertainment
4 Comments --
Wow, I wish I had some legendary, enchanted yonder in mine. I got jogger-abducting.
Posted by: Janis on March 1, 2007
Ooh, I like this one better:
Cursed, Orphan-Reaping Terror from the Enchanted Sunless Earth.
I knew if I tried hard enough, I'd get an enchanted in there.
Posted by: Janis on March 1, 2007
Heh: Cheerleader-Eating, Townsfolk-Injuring Nightmare from the Abbey
Posted by: Staci on March 2, 2007
February 25, 2007
New Music
New music comes into our house fairly regularly, but sometimes it's a bit more bursty than others. In recent weeks we've had a little burst and between gift certificates, Valentine's Day, and other things acquired probably a dozen or so new cds. Some that I'll be giving a close listen to over the next little while include:- Norah Jones' Not Too Late -- Paste did a profile of her and this new album recently (can't quickly find a link - maybe it's not online yet) -- she apparently had a lot more writing input into this one than the previous albums. Lyrics from "My Dear Country":
The news men know what they know, but they, Know even less than what they say, And I don't know who I can trust, For they come what may. [...] I love the things that you've given me, I cherish you my dear country, But sometimes I don't understand, The way we play.
- Two from Harry Connick Jr.: Oh, My Nola and Chanson de Veiux Carre. The former includes a rendiition of "Yes We Can" that, while it doesn't compete with Allen Toussaint's version on Our New Orleans, is pretty good. The latter is nice and jazzy instrumental stuff.
- John Legend's Once Again. I'd been mostly neutral on whether to get any John Legend until I saw him perform at the Grammys
- Bela Fleck's The Bluegrass Sessions. I think this was from an earlier burst (a Christmas present), but it's still in rotation for me. I like it.
- Ben Folds' Rockin' the Suburbs. This has been strongly recommended to me for quite awhile, but it's taken me a long time to get past his somewhat whiny voice and give it a proper listen. It helped when TheGuy played and sang a couple of the songs for me. Much nicer.
1 Comments --
you've been pwnd by comment spam
Posted by: d on March 1, 2007
February 19, 2007
The Edwards Bloggers
This'll be somewhat cryptic for those who haven't been following along, but I don't have time to do a proper link-heavy post.There's been a lot written about the bloggers who were driven off the Edwards campaign by a bunch of screeching wingnuts. A lot. Just start googling around and you'll find stuff.
Recently, there has been the suggestion on the part of some that they should have known better, and that if you dare to say anything at all "controversial" as a blogger that, basically, you deserve whatever you get, and how could you expect anything different? Restraint is urged, y'see.
I take great exception to that. Let's not be foolish, and let's not forget the last 15 years of what has happened to our discourse. It does not matter what you write. You could be the blandest, most serious, most erudite person on the planet and the wingnuts will still find something to blow up into a screeching hissyfit to assault you with. We need only look at what they did to people like John Kerry and Al Gore -- boy scouts among boy scouts, and John Kerry a bonafide war hero, and still they screech and lie and make up crap and it doesn't matter what the truth is. (Indeed, do tell me what Shakespeare's Sister said that merited the rabid frothing at the mouth that ensued?)
So this notion that if only liberal bloggers would be "careful" and speak quietly and twist themselves into pretzels not to "offend" anyone, then everything would be ok -- that's just so much demonstrable bullshit. It doesn't matter if you're the Virgin Mary herself -- they'll turn you into the Whore of Babylon and damn the facts, not to mention the actual policy issues, at hand.
It is naive to suggest that censoring ourselves will make everything more reasonable. It won't. The Democratic party has been trying it for years and the screechers just screech louder. The screechers don't make sense. They're hypocrites. And they're wholly incoherent. But they own the media and have built an entire industry out of fomenting faux outrage and offense.
Suggesting that if only, if only, those scary angry feminists would speak more politely the hypocrites would go away and stop bothering us is beyond laughable.
<=> | in: Weblogs & Citizen Writing
6 Comments --
Blog posts are a public utterance, and in the political realm, public utterances will be used against you, whether you're liberal or conservative.
And of course you're right that even if you try to be careful about everything you say and never offend anyone, your enemies will still twist your words, quote you out of context, and smear you in any way possible.
The right wing has an entire industry built around whipping people up into a frenzy based on mischaracterizations of their positions.
That, to me, is a separate issue from the basic idea that we are all accountable for the things that we say. I read the excerpts from the blogs in question, and the things the bloggers wrote are not the kinds of things you write if you want a job in politics, especially at the highest levels.
Posted by: Rafe on February 19, 2007
the things the bloggers wrote are not the kinds of things you write if you want a job in politics, especially at the highest levels.
There are multiple things at work here:
1) what they wrote (and I still haven't seen what Melissa said that was worth all the hysteria)
2) whether what they wrote disqualifies them from life in politics
3) whether what they wrote should disqualify them from life in politics
4) whether the standards of 2 and 3 are applied to everyone by everyone (hint: no), or just to certain classes of people (liberals, women, liberal women, etc.)
5) whether what they wrote was poor form or poor substance or neither
5a) whether a focus on form over substance does anyone anywhere any good (except for those seeking to avoid discussion of the substance, of course)and on and on.
I maintain that there are double standards at work - that there are those with jobs and high positions in politics today who are vastly more offensive in word and deed and more deserving of opprobrium than these two individuals, and that hand-wringing over what is and is not offensive to the TakingOffenseForFunAndProfit Industry misses the boat entirely.
Posted by: Medley on February 19, 2007
... the things the bloggers wrote are not the kinds of things you write if you want a job in politics, especially at the highest levels.
That's funny, speaking their minds bluntly and loudly doesn't seem to have kept Donahue and Malkin from careers in politics.
Posted by: Janis on February 19, 2007
I can't begin to tell you how much this whole thing pissed me off. I wrote a long letter to the Edwards campaign too, telling them off for not fucking shining a spotlight on the crazed hysteria of Donohue et al. He (Edwards) has the means and wherewithal to show up Donohue for the fucking hypocrit he is, and instead he (Edwards) slouched off the subject after they (McEwan/Marcotte) resigned. It goes beyond appalling me that they didn't issue a stiff objection to the tactics and stunts the pair received. Death threats delivered personally to them? The fucking FBI should be crawling all the fuck over this.
What do I hear? Nothing. Just the chirping of yet more insane wingnuts. I tell you.
Posted by: Anonymous on February 20, 2007
Oh, hey that was me. Forgot about this being wordpress instead of blogger.
Posted by: BEG on February 20, 2007
You know, there's another issue with this, and it reminds me of what Bill Clinton once said about people: they'd rather have someone in charge who is strong and wrong than someone who is weak and right.
Edwards is -- obviously -- the sort of man who caves when confronted by violent extremists.
Someone like that isn't qualified to be president. It's that simple.
Posted by: Janis on February 21, 2007
February 15, 2007
Distracted and Cold
I am hugely distracted by something right now, so not many spare cycles for ye olde bloggity-blogge. A couple of things, though... just to blather away for a bit..First, Divinest Sense is covering the absurdity that is our descent into another senseless war. See here and here. It's truly frightening and I really can't think about it for very long without wanting to stab forks into my eyeballs. I just can't believe that we'd let it happen again. What is the matter with us? You're all reading Digby every day aren't you? Just do it - don't make me hyperlink to every single excellent post over there.
Ok. Then there's the matter of the 2008 election. Yes. 2008. I know - it's only February of 2007, but the Presidential madness seems to have started in earnest. Again, forks into eyeballs. The most "interesting" thing about all the yammering is the horrible horrible media coverage and insta-biases in play. Just read the Daily Howler (and Digby) every day. You'll never read a newspaper or watch a television news show the same way again.
I have a fun new Poker show I've been watching: Poker After Dark - it's on NBC late night. It's amusing and they tend to show most of the hands, not just the dramatic ones -- so it gives one a much better sense of the pace of the game.
It's gotten cold here recently and we had some sleety snow the other night. Schools have been shut down most of the week, which is wreaking havoc with people's schedules. One fun part is that the kitties are more affectionate. The downside is that they become complete bed hogs trying to stay warm. The other night somehow their blanket ended up solely on my side of the bed, and I had 30 pounds (that's 2 kitties worth) of immovable cat weighing down the comforter all night. When they don't want to move they really don't want to move. But they're so sweet, it's hard to be mad at them.
Speaking of cats, one is mournfully dying of thirst right now.. I'm being summoned away from the keyboard. Maybe some more blogging energy soon.. hard to say...
<=> | in: Journalling
February 7, 2007
Fed Up with MovableType
So I've just about had it with MovableType. This site has been upgraded to the latest shiny version, and it is just not enough better for me to remain "loyal."First, it's still very slow and clunky feeling.
Second, it keeps deleting comments that aren't junk! The comment management interface is better than previously, but still not great -- and several times now it has moved comments to junk that I did not place in the junk folder. I don't mean that it filtered inappropriately - I mean that comments that were existing happily for many days or weeks end up in the junk folder. What a pain.
So - if your comment disappears, sorry about that, it's not intentional on my part.
I'm pretty sick of the clunkiness of the interface all-around, though, and this is the last straw. I'll be moving this site to WordPress sometime in the future. ATQ is already there. The only thing stopping me right now (apart from utter lack of time) is that I haven't found a "theme" I like and I'm not really keen on having to design my own.
*grump*
<=> | in: Technology
3 Comments --
gah! sounds like a major pain.
good luck with the transition -- I know that such projects can feel like more bother than reward (look! days spent to be back where I was!). but sounds like it will be worth it.
we'll be watching to see what look you end up with!
:)Posted by: acm on February 7, 2007
I looooove WP :-)
There's tonnes of themes out there, though. There's got to be something you'd like...only thing is, if you go for the free wordpress.org site, you're limited to the themes they offer (or, is that what you meant?)Posted by: BEG on February 7, 2007
Yah, there are a lot more Wordpress themes out there than there used to be. I just started using the Akismet plug-in to catch comment spam, and it works great so far.
Posted by: JenB on February 7, 2007
February 4, 2007
Pithy Miss Manners
In a recent Miss Manners column:Dear Miss Manners:Awesome.
What has become of the polite habit of RSVPing? It seems half the world totally ignores one's request. What is one to do?
Entertain the other half.
<=> | in: General Musings
1 Comments --
Bwaaahahahahahahahaha!
Posted by: JenB on February 6, 2007
Classy Family Through and Through
I was cleaning out some stuff and came across this snippet of an article from last fall. Doro Bush (Dubya's little sister) has written a book about her father. Lois Romano of the Post wrote it up. I found this little anecdote at the end pretty telling. First, for what it says about Doro and what kind of person her parents raised (as if Dubya wasn't enough of a bad example), and then for what it says about Romano for finding such behavior "hilarious."Koch doesn't offer any new insights into the 2000 electoral drama between her brother, George W. Bush, and Al Gore. But she reveals one hilarious story about joining protesters in front of the vice president's mansion, disguising herself in dark glasses and scarf. She said her ex-husband met her at the site where she was "standing in the freezing cold, yelling very creative and very adult chants such as 'Get Out of Cheney's House!' and 'Sore Loserman!' "Mmmm. Classy.
<=> | in: Republicans
February 3, 2007
Snarky Back Section Journalist
Ever since we bought our house, I have been obsessed with reading the weekly Real Estate section in the Post - and (in stark contrast to the political reporting therein) I've learned a lot over the years from doing so. This morning, while skimming it over breakfast, I read an article about a rental-unit CEO who is trying to be more environmentally- and carbon-conscious in his company's business practices.Oakwood's chief executive, Howard Ruby, became an environmental evangelist after a cruise last year off the Norwegian coast where he saw the effects of warming temperatures on polar bears. His ship should have been dodging ice floes, but he saw open water everywhere. Just 500 miles from the North Pole, "there were no ice floes," he said. With no ice, the polar bears have nothing to support their offshore fishing expeditions and are now in danger. "They're dying fast," he said.Whatever it takes to get people to act. It's why I think the work Al Gore is doing is so powerful - if you can find a way to connect with people and explain how interconnected things are, then maybe there's a chance that we can fix some of this stuff.
He decided to do something about it: Oakwood is investing $2 million in environmentally friendly washers and dryers, toilets and shower heads, roofing materials, hot water systems, air-conditioning units, fluorescent lighting and other small things around the buildings that will add up to a lot, he said.
But, the reason I'm blogging this is because I read the article through to the end and the writer clearly had some snarky fun. Here is the closing graf:
Not all of Oakwood's residents are so enthusiastic. At least three tenants who were interviewed, all of whom declined to give their names, questioned the program. One woman at Oakwood Crystal City thought the money saved from the lower bills should be applied to reducing rents; a woman at Oakwood Falls Church didn't buy the global warming concept, and a woman at Oakwood Rosslyn said she thought the planet was destined to incinerate for religious reasons.Doomed to incinerate for religious reasons! What a positive Christ-like attitude! And such fine stewardship of God's creation! (I'd bet good money that women self-identifies as some flavor of Christian.) Anyway, I got a little chuckle out of it.
*wanders off muttering* Incinerating for religious reasons! What a world-view...
<=> | in: Energy & Environment / Religion & Politics
1 Comments --
It would be kind of interesting to know what people think of the environmentally-conscious appliances. I worked on a study once to see what residents on an army base thought of new water-saving toilets that had just been installed. They were less than impressed, mostly because they didn't know how to use them properly so they were not getting good results (and yes, I'm purposely being vague as to what the problem was. You haven't lived until you've called people on the phone to ask them about their toilets.)
Posted by: Katxena on February 5, 2007
February 1, 2007
Bad JuJu
I should be working tonight - but I can't. My neck and shoulders are all scrunched up. I can only type here intermittently and because I'm sitting in a recliner with the laptop propped on a throw pillow. Not going to subject myself to sitting up at my desk. Oh well.I sent an email earlier today. It said:
Uhh -- January's over?!?!It said some other things, too. I do try not to annoy my friends with such vacuity in email. In instant messages, sure, but not email. Heh. But seriously, 2007 is 1/12th of the way finished, people! How did that happen? I mean - I can point to each week this month and explain why it just flew by for me, but still. I'm not ready, I'm not ready! Lots of stuff going on out there that I wish I had time to weblog about properly. Some quick highlights -- well, lowlights really:
Sh*T!
- Molly Ivins died. I'm so very, very sad about this. Various tributes have been posted around the web from colleagues, friends, and fans.
- Glenn Grennwald has an excellent post up about Our Little Churchills. Read the whole thing.
But Churchill would have recoiled -- he did recoil -- at their argument that criticism of the Leader and the war are improper and hurts the war effort. Churchill repeatedly made the opposite argument -- that one of the strengths of democracies is that leaders are held to account for their decisions and that those decisions are subject to intense and vigorous debate, especially in war. In January, 1942, Britian had suffered a series of defeats and failures (which Churchill candidly acknowledged and for which he took responsibility), and he therefore addressed the House of Commons and insisted that a public debate be held in order to determine whether he still had the confidence of the House of Commons in his conduct of the war.
- The crazies in the White House and their worshippers in that diehard 28% are trying to provoke a war with Iran. They are certifiable.
If this country allows the Bush administration to run their game again and start yet another war, we'd better get ready to see our lives change in some fundamental ways. The world will not forgive us --- and we shouldn't forgive ourselves. This is very, very serious.
The Democrats need to stand up and do something, not just issue tut-tutting resolutions of "concern."
<=> | in: Civil Rights & Feminism / Democrats / Federal Politics / Foreign Policy / Journalling
That sounds like you.
I'm K.A.T.X.E.N.A.: Knavish, Abhorrent, Townsfolk-Xecuting, Explorer-Nabbing Abomination
Posted by: Katxena on February 28, 2007