A Rational Animal

Health and Welfare, Props and ThanksAugust 26, IST 22:2634 PM

Getting Back on the Horse

 

As is probably grossly evident, it’s been (with one important exception) a profoundly shitty year around here.  I swear, I feel like fucking Punxsutawney Phil on a brilliantly sunny day - "OMG!  There’s my shadow!  Run!  Hide!" - I don’t dare poke my head out, for fear that yet another Really Bad Thing will blast me in a drive-by.  Puts a damper on the blogging, I gotta tell ya.

The next two weeks are going to be a fucking nightmare.  Away from home, stuck involuntarily in a shithole fundy Republican-run town, life in suspended animation.  In theory, that should make for good blogging conditions; in practice, maybe not so much, since my current environment seems to have forced my brain into suspended animation, as well.  Amazing, the anesthetizing effect these idiots can have on you.

So I’ve begun updating the blogroll - at least then you can read folks who make sense, which is not guaranteed in these quarters for the time being.  (Still working on it; if I’ve promised you a link and it’s not there yet, never fear - it’s forthcoming.)  Pay particular attention to Mikey and Righteous Bubba, whose genius I discovered courtesy of Da Boyz at S,N! (or, rather, courtesy of their Comments section).  If you’re unfamiliar with their respective oeuvres, I suggest starting off with a comment thread from today; scroll down until you reach the Bear/Puma Rap between the two.  (Yes, I know it’s confusing, what with other comments interspersed, but it’s worth the effort.  Steve, you especially will appreciate this.)  Seriously, though, the commenters at S,N! are some of the smartest and funniest in the blogosphere - and none of this "Fitz!" crap, either.  Sometimes I go there purely because I need a laugh, and it rarely disappoints.

In other news, Maru has renovated her digs - she’s got a sleek, elegant new look to go with the snark.  Contributing bloggers Undie Lib (heh) and JasonC now appear on the sidebar, too.  (Note to divageek:  What’s your URL, woman?)

Finally, I’ve got half a dozen posts in the pipeline, in various stages of undress.  If I can ever get them decently attired, maybe they’ll put in an appearance.  Or maybe I’ll just let them run around starkers, risking lewd-conduct arrests . . . .

Comments (4)
Health and Welfare 21:2602 PM

Grief

 

It’s a strange thing.  It steals silently up behind you, and before you even know it’s there, you’re enveloped in its dark and heavy cloak.

Strange, too, that you can grieve for something you only knew you had when you realized that it was lost; for something that you hadn’t tried to possess; for something that you know wasn’t meant to be.

And so it isn’t.

And I’m shocked to find that it still breaks my heart. 

Comments (2)
Rethuggery, SCLM StupidityAugust 15, IST 21:1559 PM

Fred Hiatt Channels Karl Rove

 

Worried that WaPo won’t provide its daily dose of wankery without Karl Rove in the White House?

Fear not, for I bring you tidings of great . . . erm . . . jackassery, maybe?

This is actually a few days old, but sadly, I’ve been too busy to post.  I did, however, have the presence of mind to grab a couple quick screencaps.  From the main page of Sunday’s WaPo:

 

Yeah, ut’s a thumb; click on it to see it at normal size.  Pay particular attention to the caption underneath the first full hed, center column.  I’ll wait. 

Uh-huh.  That’s it.  Yep.

"White House used terror threat to resurrect Cold War-era wiretap powers over Democrat objections."

"Democrat objections???"

Freddie, boy, what the fuck is that?  I mean, I realize you’ve been a sell-out for, oh, like forever, but on the fucking front page?

No, Freddie, it’s not because you didn’t have the space.  That’s called "kerning," and your copy folks know how to use it.   So you could’ve said, oh, say, "Democratic objections" - as in, you know, the actual name of the party.  If the "-ic" was too much for your pearl-clutching little self to handle, you could’ve said, say, "Democrats’ objections." 

But you know what, Freddie?  None of that matters.  I’m not fucking impressed.  Because on the jump page, you got it right:

 

Exact same goddamn caption. Repeat after me:  Exact same goddamn caption.  With one glaring exception:  "Democratic" is spelled correctly, Freddie.

So again, I ask:  What the fuck is this?  

I know the answer, of course:  It’s your regular Sunday Valentine to Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al. 

I await with bated breath* your display of even-handed objectivity, iin which you caption a Sunday front-page hed with a reference to the "Repubs."

*Not so much.  I’d prefer to live a little while longer. 

Comments (3)
Spineless DemsAugust 12, IST 21:1243 PM

Cowards

 

Presented without comment:

Senate

House 

You know what to do. 

 

Comments (4)
War Criminals, Spineless Dems, Rethuggery, Health and WelfareAugust 07, IST 09:739 AM

Storm Clouds

 

They seem to be everywhere right now:  in my life, in the country’s life, in that of the entire planet.

Apologies to all who’ve visited over the last two or three weeks.  After my father’s death, of course, I had to do the things that attend a death in today’s society:  beginning the task of sorting through his belongings; writing his obituary; picking up his ashes from the funeral home; fulfiling certain traditional obligations.  In the middle of all of this (unsurprisingly, I suppose), my autoimmune disease decided that it was time for an exacerbation, which has turned out to be the worst one I’ve had in recent memory.  Life ground to a halt.

I’m slowly (but surely, I think) on the mend - in part because I’m now at Home #2, and getting a little R-and-R.  The shot above was taken from the deck here the day after Dad’s death, but we’ve gotten the same wave of storms every day since, including a spectacular lightning show last night.   Unfortunately, it’s haying season, and this puts me in a position I don’t think I’ve ever occupied before:  praying for no rain.  In a desert climate like this, you learn not to argue with rain whenever or however it wants to make an appearance.  But after a solid month of daily storms (and the loss of the last cut of hay about six weeks ago, again, to too much moisture), I’m literally praying for a three- or four-day window of bone-dry weather.

It seems like a metaphor for our times, with storm clouds amassed in every direction, and drenching us on a daily basis.  We were talking this morning over coffee about the FISA fiasco - neither of us thinks that we’re going to get our country back absent a major societal upheaval.  Once our "leaders" give away our most fundamental rights, it’s nearly impossible to get them back.  I mean, does anyone really think that Hillary, if she wins, is going to give back the FISA expansion - or the gutting of habeas corpus, or any of the myriad other thefts of constitutional protections that this pack of criminals has wrought?  (Or any of the other candidates, for that matter?)

I didn’t think so. 

So while I’m happy to be feeling a little better personally, I increasingly despair for my country.  Strike that - for the world.  Because what our "leaders" do in our name affects the entire planet.

Which is another reason I continue to insist that impeachment, trial, and conviction are the moral imperatives of our time.  Our obligations now go far beyond the U.S. - certainly beyond parochial worries about keeping certain Democrats in office.  We now owe the world an enormous moral debt - one whose tally climbs every hour.  And we can only begin to repay the smallest, most superficial part of that debt once we take these first necessary legal steps.  It’s how we show the world that we recognize the tragedy and obscenity of what this nation has wrought - and it’s the precondition to regaining the tiniest, most fundamental bit of moral authority as a nation.

[Sigh . . . .]  You’re right.  I’m not holding out hope, either. 

Comments (2)