Word on the street is that, due to a hosed budget, our state is going to increase state witholdings for the next 6 months. On the one hand, I want to see safety nets in place and social programs continue to be funded. On the other, I don't feel this is the way to do it. I'm especially chapped by the thought of a smaller paycheck, too.

I wonder if I can change my W-2 witholding status for 6 months to offset it? Do you think the voices in my head can count as dependents? If so, it's about time they started helping out around here!

Labels: misc, news

This stuff just writes itself sometimes. From BBC news: Scientologists convicted of fraud. Well color me surprised!

Unlike the US, France has always refused to recognise Scientology as a religion, arguing that it is a purely commercial operation designed to make as much money as it can at the expense of often vulnerable victims

...

In the case leading up to Tuesday's ruling, a woman said she was sold expensive life-improvement courses, vitamins and other products after taking a personality test.

A second woman alleges she was fired by her Scientologist boss after refusing to undergo testing and sign up to courses.

"Religion" my Aunt Fanny.

Labels: news

Scientology as a religion baffles me. Seemingly intelligent people join and the reasons just don't make sense. Is it the promise of fame and glory? Is it a deep and abiding love for sci-fi? Is is it the refusal to believe any other organized religion?

Okay, I'm with them on that last point...

Actually, very few recognized religions make sense to me. I count myself as an agnostic atheist (agnostheist? athenostic?) depending on my mood. At times it's a flat-out disbelief in any higher power, at others it's an uncertainty. However, my beliefs are mine, and I don't expect others to do what I do. Likewise, I don't do well with following senseless orders. Apparently, Paul Haggis agrees. After 35 years with the Cult Church of Scientology, he's finally come to his senses and decided to quit. Two of the main reasons are because Scientology refused to take a stand against homophobia and the other had to do with them forcing his wife to sever contact from her family.

Read the whole thing here.

Once you've read it, if you can enlighten me as to why people join in the first place, I'd love to hear.

Labels: news

The California Supreme Court just announced that it is upholding Prop 8, but will not invalidate the 18,000 same-sex marriages that have already taken place. This boils down to "This group of 36,000 people are okay, but no more!" In what kind of cuckooland does this make sense? Furthermore, it took them this long to reach the weakest ruling they could have mustered. How very milquetoast of them.

I'm very disappointed. I know we'll rally. I know good will ultimately prevail (right, Mom?), but I also know that good needs a swift kick in the keister to get moving. I'm tired of this back-and-forth over something that seems so simple. Once again, it's a civil rights issue, not a religious one. Even God would agree...

Labels: news

I heard this piece from BBC World Service on the way in to work. It summarizes Obama's first 100 days in 100 seconds. Look at all that has come his way in less than 3.5 months. And to think, I consider it a huge accomplishment if I just get to work on time...

Labels: misc, news

Vermont has it now, too. The state Senate overrode the governor's gay marriage veto 23-5 and the House voted 100-49. Seems a pretty large margin - and this without needing to make it a judicial measure.

The California Supreme Court decision on Prop 8 will be coming down soon. Fingers crossed.

Labels: news

Oh, come on, California! Freaking IOWA is now allowing same-sex marriage. Iowa. As in, the Midwest. And California tries to have this reputation for being progressive. Newsflash, if Iowa is repealing the ban then they have lapped us. We should be so ashamed...

To those of you in Iowa, my sincere congratulations. It's about time the Midwest offers something! ;)

Labels: news

It's no secret here that I think the Bush clan is the scourge of the earth and that their politics were waaaaaay too influenced by religion. (What's that bit about separation of church and state again?) Today Obama took a step in reversing their idiocy and lifted the ban on stem cell research, to which I give a heartfelt AMEN!

I never understood how Bush was able to finagle that crap in the first place. I mean, yes, I get that the pro-lifers were up in arms (to say nothing of their monetary influence), but let's look at the ROI for it. Take one embryo and you get stem cell research that stands to benefit all of mankind. I think even Jesus would back ya on that one, guys - with the whole "selfless giving up of his life" being his m.o. an' all... Shoot, they could hit up crazies like octomom and kill two birds with one stone. Have a surplus of embryos? Don't want to raise 14 kids? Thinking 8 babies may be a bit much? Then donate your embryos to science!

I think I smell a great ad campaign...

Labels: news

As I write, the California Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on Prop 8. There are three areas that are to be covered: (1) Is Proposition 8 invalid because it constitutes a revision of, rather than an amendment to, the California Constitution? (2) Does Proposition 8 violate the separation of powers doctrine under the California Constitution? (3) If Proposition 8 is not unconstitutional, what is its effect, if any, on the marriages of same-sex couples performed before the adoption of Proposition 8?

I'm listening to the arguments and sending out hope. There is no doubt in my mind that this is all far from over. Regardless of the ruling, I'm sure the opposite side will try, try again.

So I hope. Not necessarily for marriage (I think that's a personal choice whether you're gay, straight, or other), but for equality for ALL.

Labels: news

Baby Einstein, Barney, Blues Clues... these all scare me (that image of Michael Jackson in a Barney suit pretty much sums up my oog fator). Plunking my kid down in front of the TV is one thing. Rationalizing it as educational always seemed a stretch. Especially when babies are, well, babies. Does your baby really gain anything from watching insipid programming, or is it more for a momentary respite for you? I mean, let's call it for what it is. You don't *really* think that your baby is learning from a giant, purple dinosaur, do you?

Now there is a study that proves what I always suspected. In fact, the researcher's exact words were that so-called educational DVDs are "just wasted time." Don't get me wrong, I know that you'd feel better sitting the baby down in front of Baby Einstein over porn or UFC, just so you could grab 10 minutes for yourself. But for my money, the best education you can give your baby comes from interacting with him. Throw down a woobie, grab some toys and play with your kid. Sure, it may be at the expense of you showering, but he doesn't care if your hair looks like gods revenge. He just wants time with Mama.

Labels: news

I'm a little late on this news, but have you heard about Alfie Patten? He's the 13-year-old British kid who became a father earlier this month. A dad. At 13. His girlfriend is 15, but jeezy creezy. At thirteen I was so socially awkward that I wasn't even at the hand holding phase, yet here's this kid who has not only become a father, but is asking for a paternity test!

poll by twiigs.com

Labels: news

I remember as a kid asking my dad if he thought there was such a thing as aliens. He said it was his belief that the universe seemed an awfully big place for our planet to have its only inhabitants. I'm inclined to agree and it seems NASA is on the same page. What I've never understood, however, is NASA's approach to finding other lifeforms.

We have all kinds of rovers, probes and orbiting paraphernalia reporting back and everyone gets all atwitter if there are any "signs of life." What the heck do we know about life on other planets? Just because there is ancient evidence of water doesn't mean squat (other than the fact that there once was water on the planet). What if the alternate lifeforms were/are allergic to water? What if our definition of water is the lifeform? What if our water is a portal to other universes? It's a very Earth-centric point of view. Kind of like having a Miss Universe pageant - has Miss Vega ever entered?

Finally, scientists are asking these questions. If they had just come to me first, this would have been so much easier. For a bunch of eggheads, they sure are dumb...


Apropos of none of this, Wednesday is the last day to vote for this blog. Remember you can vote once per day, so keep it up - this is the home stretch! Bean's so excited that you've been voting that he had to bite his hand (and mine).

(I guess you could say he's my little green man. How's that for a tie-in?)

Labels: news

Whenever there's something hot in the news, I'm at a crossroads: do I follow the story and keep abreast of pop culture, or do I take a contrarian stance and purposely not follow along? Such is my dilemma with Nadya Suleman. The woman is clearly disturbed, and following along isn't too far off from paying a penny to watch the lunatics at Bedlam. However, you'd need to crawl under a rock to not be bombarded with stories about her.

On the one hand, I'm pretty torqued off that I'm paying for her irresponsibility. On the other, my contribution to her litter is like a fart in a windstorm. Her's is a very touchy subject, because it's a slippery slope. Do you have any right tell people how many children they can have (I'm looking at you, Duggar family)? Can you mandate that, before undergoing IVF, she must first have a partner in all of this? Could you withhold financial assistance after X number of children?

And then there's the chain of lunacy: Nadya's clearly off her nut and I don't have the time to go into how crazy she is; her parents are culpable (yes, I can see why and how they wouldn't/couldn't put their child and grandchildren on the street, but I sure as shootin' would be A) filing for custody and B) getting my child some serious therapy if I were them); the doctor who agreed to implant so many embryos; the friend who donated the sperm... It's like a perfect storm.

Nadya is a smaller scale of what our country is going through. She was shortsighted, excessive and had complete disregard for how her actions could affect more than just herself. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Kind of like the mortgage, banking and/or auto industries...

As for me, I don't need 14 children to fill a void in my life. I'm perfectly happy with one:

Labels: news

Say you're really cheesed off at someone. To add insult to injury, said person shows no remorse. What if there was a dedicated Apology Day and that person could (or was forced to?) apologize. Would that make you feel any better? Author Tom Perrotta thinks it would. He believes that a national Grievance Day followed by a national Apology Day will make the world a better place.

Though the idea sounds lovely, I have to disagree. Already, the words "I'm sorry" have been diluted into nothingness. "I'm sorry" is used to convey everything from "Oops, I got mustard on you" to "I just ran over your grandmother." That little phrase has a whole lot of ground to cover. The same can be said of "I love you," though to a lesser degree. It's kind of like our national debt. When you've used a word (in this case "trillion") too often, it becomes irrelevant. A trillion dollars no longer seems like such a big deal.

Seems to me then that an Apology Day would be just another drop in a leaky bucket. Why bother?

Labels: misc, news

Before moving here, we heard a litany of reasons why we'd hate LA. The smog, the plastic people, the traffic... After living here 3+ years, the one thing I agree with is the traffic. It's ridiculous. The 101 is always congested. We've driven over it in the wee hours of a weeknight, only to see it backed up. Like I said - ridiculous. Thankfully, the fault seems to lie in quantity, not quality. Drivers here are no worse than the drivers I've seen in other cities.

Take, for example, the little old man I saw in an Ohio DMV. He was easily 80-years-old. I watched as he tottered up to the counter to take his visual exam. Here's pretty much how it went down:


DMV Employee (indicating)
Go ahead and press your forehead against the bar on this machine.

Little Old Man
Huh?

DMV Employee (louder)
I said, "Go ahead and press your forehead against the bar on this machine."

Little Old Man (cupping ear)
What?

DMV Employee (louder and pantomiming)
Press your forehead here!!"

Little Old Man
Oh, okay.

DMV Employee (practically shouting)
Read me the smallest line on the eye chart you can manage.

Little Old Man
"E"

DMV Employee
...
Can you read anything smaller?

Little Old Man
No.

DMV Employee
Okay.
Now we're going to test your peripheral vision. Do you see a flashing light?

Little Old Man (cupping ear)
What?

DMV Employee
DO YOU SEE A FLASHING LIGHT? LIKE, MAYBE TO YOUR LEFT? PERIPHERALLY??


The sad thing is, she ended up passing the guy. Damn near deaf and blind, and none-too-steady on his pins, yet he was still a licensed driver in the state of Ohio. I made sure I hustled my butt and got out of that office before he hit the road.

There must be an extraordinarily low bar for DMV excellence satisfaction. The BBC reported today of a woman in her late 60s who has failed the written portion of the test 771 times. If you worked in a DMV, would you even let someone take a test 771 times? The mind reels. I wouldn't make that many attempts at anything, much less something for which the 771 failures represented only the first half of the total goal. Think about her on the road practicing for the driving portion of the exam.

And then think about how driving in LA doesn't seem so bad...

Labels: misc, news

Obama sworn in as 44th president



It's about time.


Sadly, this helicopter didn't fall from the sky whilst removing Bush the Stupider from town. I suppose that as long as I don't have see his ugly mug anymore, I'm willing to not wish him dead every day. Occasionally, sure, but not every single day.

Labels: news, politics

I'm no champion of Wal-Mart, but I though this bit of news was worth sharing.

Wal-Mart announced that sometime in 2009, it will begin offering customers a new discount item... Wal-Mart's own brand of wine.

The world's largest retail chain is rumored to be teaming up with Ernest & Julio Gallo Winery of California to produce the spirits at an affordable price -- in the $2 to $5 range.

Wine connoisseurs may not be inclined to put a bottle of the Wal-Mart brand into their shopping carts, but "There is a market for inexpensive wine," said Kathy Micken, Professor of Marketing at University of Arkansas, Bentonville. "However, branding will be very important."

Customer surveys were conducted to determine the most attractive name for the Wal-Mart wine brand. The top surveyed names in order of popularity were:

• Chateau Traileur Parc


• White Trashfindel


• Big Red Gulp


• World Championship Riesling


• NASCARbernet


• Chef Boyardeaux


• Peanut Noir


• I Can't Believe It's Not Vinegar


• Grape Expectations


• Nasti Spumante

The beauty of Wal-Mart wine is that it can be served with either white meat (possum) or red meat (squirrel).

P.S. Don't bother writing back that this is a hoax. I know possum is not a white meat.

Even better than Two Buck Chuck!!

(Thanks to Mom for sending this. I can always use a good chuckle.)

Labels: misc, news

Several news sources are talking about some really serious stuff. Namely, the return of man fur. Thick, tufty mats of chest hair. I am no fan of it, but then again, certain "lifestyle choices" have exempted me from even needing to think about it. (Thank. God.) It seems that manscaping is out and au naturel is in.

Alec Baldwin's rug of love would once again be seen as desirable:


But this guy is probably still out of luck in the sexy department:


Now, here's my question: if it's sexy again for men to be hairy, then will Brazilians fall out of favor for women, or will the double standard persist? If you're going to say the economy is the reason for no more chest waxing, then wouldn't the same crappy economy affect women, too?

Labels: news

Larry Flynt is requesting a $5 billion bailout. For real. According to him, "People are too depressed to be sexually active... Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex." Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis went on to say, "the US government should actively support the adult industry's survival and growth, just as it feels the need to support any other industry cherished by the American people."

Excuse me, did he say CHERISHED?? I'm curious. If Hustler can actually get a government bailout, which industry would be next? And if Flynt is correct in his assertion that we need sex more than cars, does that path not seem to turn the wrong direction? Don't get me wrong, I think sex is a very necessary aspect of human life. According to Maslow's 5 basic needs sex is right up there with breathing (and pooping). Look at Catholic priests - they don't get any and they're totally wackadoo. However, dontcha think stuff like food, clothing and shelter are a little more important to our country? Do you think it's right that nookie should get a handout over national healthcare?

I'm just sayin'...

Labels: news

Well, the obvious reason is it's a cold weather sport. Cold weather and I get along not one bit. In fact, I think it only took me 15 minutes to acclimate to California temps. Having spent far too much of my life near Cleveland (and never having enjoyed the 6 months of snow per year or the sub-zero days), I never again want to hear the words "lake effect snow." The only thing I find the least bit redeeming about skiing is the lodge. Sitting around drinking warm adult beverages in front of a roaring fire is more my speed.

And then you read stories like this. Hanging upside down from a lift with your pants around your knees, your bits exposed to the cold and an enlarged image of your bare rear on the BBC website - these would be more reasons to never ski. It reminds me of the old joke about the skier who needed to pee. Really, is it any wonder why I don't bother with the white stuff?

My sweetie says this post should have been written thusly:

Why I don't ski

The End.

Labels: misc, news

The Chinese dairy scandal is, to my way of thinking, a snapshot of all that is wrong with industry. Avarice... deceit... death. And then, to top it all off, they had the unmitigated gall to send an apology by texting people. Are they kidding???? This is what you'd expect from someone who'd just given you a paper cut, for crying out loud, not from huge corporations who have CAUSED THE ILLNESS OR DEATH OF YOUR BABY.

Trials have begun and I have no sympathy for any of the defendants. None. In fact, one defendant lost the use of his legs (not sure if this means they're broken or he's paralyzed) after a botched suicide attempt. I'm actually glad the attempt failed. I think he should be held accountable for this atrocity and not get to take the quick/easy way out. It's part of what got him into this mess in the first place!

My heart goes out to those affected by this. Only the education and action of the public will be able to slow the tide of malfeasance, both industrial and political. To encapsulate it, I quote the bumper sticker that reads, "If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention."

Labels: misc, news, please try again

According to my grandfather, the definition of a good Catholic is an Episcopalian. He knows from whence he speaks - he converted to Catholicism to marry my grandmother. I guess what he means by this is if you want a religion that takes things too far, then the Episcopal church is for you. At least that's what makes the most sense given this New York Times story.

According to the news, some Episcopalians are still cheesed off by the ordination of a gay bishop five years ago. In fact, it's such an affront that they are petitioning to sever from the Episcopal Church and form a new denomination within the Anglican Communion. Heaven forbid that their religion be cheapened by acknowledging gays and lesbians as humans. (This from a group whose leaders are called primates... but I guess that's more an insult to monkeys and apes.) This is just one more reason why religion and spirituality are like chalk and cheese.

Happily, not all Episcopalians share this view.

Jim Naughton, canon for communications and advancement in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, and a liberal who frequently blogs on Anglican affairs, said he doubted that a rival Anglican province could grow much larger.

"I think this organization does not have much of a future because there are already a lot of churches in the United States for people who don't want to worship with gays and lesbians," he said. "That's not a market niche that is underserved."

And you wonder still why I don't go to church.

Labels: misc, news

You know that saying "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves the world blind and toothless?" I generally agree; all it does is perpetuate the very crime you're trying to cease. Kind of like capital punishment or telling your kid "I told you not to fucking cuss!"

Anyway, a court in Iran has ordered that a man be blinded. I was intrigued. Even though the article's title "Court orders Iranian man blinded" left little to the imagination, I didn't think it would so closely follow the saying. Turns out, that's exactly the case. A man threw acid onto a woman's face for refusing his marriage proposal. She needed reconstructive surgery to repair her face, but surgeons were unable to save her sight. (Sidebar: a general rule of thumb is that blinding and disfiguring your intended paramour is not the way to get her to say yes.) For this horrific crime, the courts have ruled that he, too, shall be blinded by acid.

Under normal circumstances, I'd think this was an ineffective ruling, but something about this seems just. I don't know what punishment would suit the crime more, and I'm tired of reading story after story about women abused and treated like so much chattel. This still isn't right, but some how, some way, it kind of is, ya know?

Labels: misc, news

Remember my post about our national debt? (See Why not call it a froufrillion?) Today's wire has news that the Fed is going to pump another $800 billion into the flagging economy - that's in addition to the $700 billion package they recently approved. If you'll recall, our country was approximately $10 trillion in debt a month ago. With this latest stimulus package, we've now tacked on another $1.5 trillion to that.

One. Point. Five. TRILLION. Dollars.

In one month. That's what? Fifty billion per day? It's staggering. I mean, the number has truly lost all meaning. When you begin talking about trillions of dollars like they're nothing, then we might as well implement the word froufrillion. Soon we'll just start using Monopoly money (not that our actual currency holds much more value) and dispensing with all pretext of it being worth anything.

It's a dangerous path to follow. You can see how Zimbabwe ended up with a $100 billion banknote that could only buy you three eggs. We're not too far behind. Obama's making a big deal of his plans to fix the economy, but is it already too broken?

Labels: news

I don't know if you've ever seen the commercials for Chemistry.com, but some of them feature gays who have been denied by eHarmony. The founder of eHarmony is a bigot Christian who doesn't think gays deserve to find love can be measured by their super-secret compatibility guide. (He's right - we aren't generally compatible with heterosexuals.) Anyway, in 2005 a gay man decided to call eHarmony out on it and filed suit.

And he won.

But if you ask me, it's a shallow victory. First, it took 3 years to reach a decision. Second, after all that time, he'll only receive $5,000. Third, gays still won't be able to use eHarmony. Instead, they are making a separate site for queers.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: SEPARATE IS NEVER EQUAL. It's just Jim Crow for gays and love.

Sigh.

Labels: misc, news

Remind me again why we should bail out the big 3 auto makers? Yes, I realize they're huge employers and shutting them down would result in loads of unemployed workers in not only the auto industry but through the ripple effect in secondary industries, too. I also realize that Detroit is becoming a ghost town and this wouldn't help.

But.

On Thursday the CEOs from Ford, GM and Chrysler arrived in Washington DC to plead their cases. They all wanted to stress how very desperate they are to get their hands on billions of dollars of aid. This is after the $25 billion they already received. After acknowledging that they lose hundreds of millions of dollars PER DAY.

And yet those rat bastard CEOs had the audacity to fly to DC on three separate private jets. To now turn around and shake that tin cup takes an unbelievable set of balls. I say those fuckers get nothing in the way of salaries or bonuses and they need to personally kick in towards saving the companies that they helped ruin. Oh, and stop making gas guzzlers, dumbasses.

Labels: misc, news

First of all, I'd rather worship at the Sisters of Saint Sealy on Sundays. Having said that, here's one tiny reason why. A priest in South Carolina is telling his parishioners not to take communion if they voted for Obama. But wait! The reason why is even better! It's because Barack "Who's Sane" Obama supports abortion and and having voted for him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil." So church goers beware - your MORTAL SOUL MAY BE IN DANGER if you voted the wrong way.

I could probably make this stuff up, but why waste the brain power when the Catholics do it for me?

Labels: news

By now you've heard about Prop 8 and its outcome. While the passage of it saddens me almost beyond compare, the aftermath's galvanizing effects hearten me. I know I live in a very liberal city and in a very gay neighborhood within. The day-to-day of this existence means I am often taken aback at the outright hatred perfect strangers spew at me via ridiculous ballot measures, legislation and politics in general. Proposition 8, however, seems to be a little different. From the anti-prop 8 rallies all over the state (and beyond), to national TV personalities taking a stand, it's nice to see people getting good and pissed about this. Keith Olbermann made a 6-minute speech tonight about Prop 8 that simultaneously made me want to cry and to hunt him down and plant a big, slobbery kiss on his mug. I know this is sort of long, but seriously, take a look (or you can read it here).


To my mind, this is a case of rights gone wrong and the continuation of painting us as lesser citizens, and it makes me want to scream. My thoughts can be summed up best by a sign seen at one of the rallies:

Do I get to vote on your marriage?

I mean, if you're going to legislate me to death, can I please return the favor?

Labels: news, politics

I read this on the BBC this morning. Apparently, there is a sign in Wales that needed the English translated into Welsh. What the council received was (they thought) the translation. However, what the email really said was "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated." And, given the directional arrow, I guess you need to send the translation request to the residential site at your left.


Now I wish my out of office reply could be as funny. Instead it says something along the lines of "Left to have a baby. Back sometime in the future." Maybe I should have it translated into Welsh...

Labels: misc, news

Guess what happens on November 4th? Well, in my world (where I'm Empress and things run very well, thankyouverymuch) we will not only have a new Democratic president, but the state of California will also soundly defeat Prop 8. I was reading a blog this morning that summed up the reasons for defeating it quite eloquently and succinctly:

This is not what America is all about. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, what is more free than letting people marry who they love and what is more brave than accepting someone despite his or her differences? Who I marry doesn't diminish who you marry in any way, shape or form.

(from Dorothy Surrenders)

This election season (like the one 4 years ago) has me a little worried. I mean, if America is content with this complete apathy and hatred, why do I persist in living here? (Aside from the whole "because you don't speak French, stupid" part.) I was reading the Huffington Post last night and saw an article written by Alan Cumming. Alan is why I'm staying. If people like us don't stay, then the rednecked idjits win. Not only that, he's fighting to come in to this country and be part of the solution. Here are a few parts I liked:

Now I understand that election stump speeches are partly about trying to make people feel better/confident/happy/deluded but I am really shocked that a political party in a country that so trumpets its democracy and freedom is offering its voters such a shoddy product, and WORSE, they are still buying it!! (I thank you, my fellow Americans!)

So why? Is loyalty the value that Republicans vaunt above all others? Above common sense? Are the right of America all colluding in a giant version of the Emperor's New Clothes?

and

I actually have so much sympathy right now for the hundreds of Republicans out there somewhere - well intentioned, well-informed, prepared, lucid for goodness' sake - who must be utterly furious that they were overlooked for the VP post. Imagine being a doctor and thinking you're about to be made a partner in the practice and then the receptionist who's a big fan of Grey's Anatomy gets it over you and we're beginning to understand how those poor people must be feeling.

(from Why Is America So Content With Mediocrity?)

So for now, I wait. I spread the word, I challenge viewpoints, I blog, and I vote. Do you?

Labels: misc, news

You all know about Sarah Palin being investigated for abusing her power as governor, right? If not here's the gist in a nutshell: Palin's sister was fighting for custody with her ex (Mike Wooten), who happened to be a state trooper. I guess since blood's thicker than water, Sarah used her office to put pressure on her former brother-in-law's boss (Walter Monegan) to fire Wooten. But Monegan wasn't playing ball and said the trooper had done nothing wrong. So Palin fired the boss instead.

Take THAT!

Understandably, Monegan is crying foul. Palin is responding, saying his dismissal wasn't for that reason, it was because of a "budgetary dispute." My Aunt Fannie it is.

Anyway, since this is all over the interweb, it's making the McCain camp hurry up and conduct its own investigation - you know, since they're so unbiased an' all. Here's the part you've been waiting for and I know will just be shocked to read:

"The McCain campaign on Thursday issued its own report, written by its staff, stating that the Alaska governor was not guilty of any wrongdoing."

[Sniff, sniff] Smell that? That's the unmistakable aroma of bullshit, right there.

.....

In considerably more uplifting news, Connecticut has just joined Massachusetts and California in legalizing gay marriage. In its ruling, the State Supreme Court said:

"To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others. The guarantee of equal protection under the law, and our obligation to uphold that command, forbids us from doing so. In accordance with these state constitutional requirements, same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry."

Welcome to the party, Connecticut. As for the rest of the country, what's taking you so long?

And, if you haven't already decided to do so (and you live in California), then Vote NO on Prop 8. You may or may not agree with gay marriage, but it's not fair to anyone to just take away rights.

.....

Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes I'm still pregnant.

Labels: anticipating, news, politics

There's a debt clock/ticker in New York that was erected in 1989 to display our national debt. At the time, it had more than enough room to display the then-current amount of $2.7 trillion. Problem is, we've maxed out the space. We're now more than 10 trillion dollars in debt. To accommodate the need for more debt, the sign makers are adding two extra digits. Provided that first digit can go from 1-9, then it means the new ticker will be able to display almost a quadrillion dollars of debt - that's fifteen zeros. At some point the numbers become meaningless. I mean, seriously, what's another hundred trillion or so amongst friends? (Or as McCain calls us, "his fellow prisoners." Reminds me of debtors' prisons.)

Now, just to put this in a little perspective - and because you know I have to point this stuff out - Reagan, Bush the Elder and Bush the Stupider have *increased* the debt to GDP ratio by 44.4% since 1981. Clinton managed to chip away 8.8% of that before Dubya undid all his work and then some. (Granted, this is only an estimate, since Bush the Stupider still has a little bit more time to wreak havoc.) With the bailout package and the horrific state of the economy, I wonder just how high all of these numbers will climb?

Labels: misc, news, politics

Do I post about Sarah Palin (again) and how Tina Fey perfectly captured her once again? ("Can I call you Joe, 'cause I practiced some zingers calling you Joe..." "Wait - we're not doing the talent segment?"), or do I talk about how I'm still pregnant and oh so ready to not be?

If I go the Palin route, I can mention my sweetie's suggestion. She thinks that replacing "maverick" with "asshat" every time the word is uttered would make for much more entertaining television.

If I go the pregnancy route, then all you get is talk of me wondering how the hell I get this baby out of my belly, which would sound like the anti-Austin Powers.

Either way, it kinda sucks to be you, since you got all the way to this point of the post without getting anything worthwhile. Good thing this was brief.

Labels: anticipating, news