Eric Crouch has finally given up the dream of playing quarterback and has signed with the Chiefs to play as a defensive back.

Well, it's about time, you freakin' idiot.

Methinks this is more about the fact he's got mouths to feed and a Husker football commentator position at Omaha's Channel 7 doesn't pay nearly as well as the minimum salary for the NFL, but that's probably just me. I don't think those local car dealership endorsement deals were cutting it, either.

Crouch's head was allowed to swell to gigantic proportions as a result of his Heisman win. He honestly and truly believed he should have replaced Kurt Warner and Bret Favre on their respective teams. He'd won a Heisman, after all. They hadn't.

Idiot.

It's good to see that he's been officially humbled and that his head can return to normal size.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It's Michael Moore being shut out in the Oscar nominations.

Yeah, that Best Picture-only business really worked, didn't it, Mike?

Can't wait to read his next letter to all of his devoted fans. Heh.

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Dear God in Heaven.

To answer Michele's question: If I had a daughter, no, I would not let her even contemplate purchasing that dress for prom, let alone allow her to leave the house wearing that. In fact, I do believe the husband would lock said imaginary daughter in a closet until she came to her senses.

Any parent who buys that dress for their daughter should expect to become a grandparent nine months after prom. I hope they're ready for it.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:50 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Drew's got em all bunched up.

While I respect Drew's arguments, and question The New York Times' and Time's motives and characterizations, the fundamental point remains clear: questioning the teaching of the Theory of Evolution in schools is backdooring the teaching of Creationism. Because, after all, when one theory evaporates, something generally takes its place. What's the only other option, besides Intelligent Design, that explains it all? Mmmhmmm. You guessed it: creationism.

Darwin's Origin of Species while optimistically titled, has been presented over the years as a theory. It also happens to be a theory that cannot ever be proved until someone provides us mere human beings with an accurate timeline of just what occurred on this planet, how it happened and when it happened. I'm not saying that there aren't problems with Darwin's work: there are. However, we simply do not have an acceptable theory to replace it. It just happens to be the one that makes the most sense, hence its wide acceptance in the scientific community.

The problem occurs when creationists try to make hay with the "theory" business, knowing that no one can ever prove them wrong. This is their silver bullet that cuts right through the bullshit. And, to my mind, it's a logical fallacy that has no end. They conveniently ignore that "Creationism" is a theory as well.

This debate is about which unprovable theory should be taught in public schools.

I present, for your consideration, the game of "Which Scenario Is More Likely":

That God created everything in six days, took the seventh to kick back and slurp some brewskies. He then created man, and so he wouldn't be lonely, took one of man's ribs and created woman around it. Then he told man and woman never to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge because it was off-limits. The Devil---conveniently in the form of a serpent---tempts woman into eating the fruit. Subsequently, she lures man into eating it as well. God boots them from the Garden of Eden and sends them off into the wilderness, considerably bewildered as to why these ungrateful wretches had countermanded his order.

Or...

The Earth is one big puddle of primordial, carbon-based goo. The essential elements for life are there. Nothing happens for a long, long time. We don't know what, but something eventually sparks life. One celled creatures appear and everything evolves over millions of years. Features on everything and everyone that are useful are propagated into the next generation by means of choosy reproduction.

Now to judge which scenario is more likely, I give you Occam's Razor as your yardstick. Using Occam's Razor, which dictates that the simplest explanation is almost always the correct one, which scenario seems more likely to you? Knowing that both options seem fantastic and beggar belief?

I choose evolution.

While I don't buy it exactly as Darwin presented it, it does make sense. Technically speaking, you could probably lump me in with the Intelligent Design people. I think God was the spark to the goo.

And I'm Catholic. I am a direct beneficiary of this "give them a choice" business that creationists are trying to install as the standard, because it was what I was taught in the Catholic schools I attended. Darwinism was a "theory." We were supposed to believe in creationism, but just to make sure we had all the options, Darwinism was presented in the course materials. It was confusing, to say the least. What earns you brownie points with the priest does not earn you the same number of points with your science teacher. I can tell you from experience that we all pretty much leaned toward Evolution at the end of those science classes and you would have had to have been a nitwit to think otherwise. We just kept our mouths shut in religion class when the subject was raised.

If you want your kids to learn about creationism, fine. Great. That's wonderful. Just don't insist they learn it in the public schools. It's disingenuous in the extreme to think that Darwinism is so easily discounted simply because it's a "theory." You're simply going to have to do more work than that to disprove it. The genie's out of the bottle: just try and shove that beast back in. It won't work.

This move is intellectually dishonest in that it claims to be honest. It claims to offer "choice" for students. Until someone comes up with something better, well, there shouldn't be any choice on this one because one version of our origins relies upon God and the other relies upon empirical evidence and more than a bit of educated guessing. God---anyone's God---does not belong in a public school that is paid for by everyone, even people who don't believe in God, or people who believe in a different God. Church and State are separated in this country for a friggin' reason and this is the way it should remain. If you really want your children to learn creationism in school, well, might I suggest that you enroll your child in a parochial school? I would recommend the same thing if you want your child to pray in school.

There is simply no room to maneuver on anything religious based in the public school system, because if you start letting religion in, where does it stop? Where is that line drawn? We Americans have this lovely habit of assuming everyone is a Christian. While Jews share the same story of creationism with Christians, what about the Hindus? What about the Muslims? What about the Bhuddists? And so on and so forth. If a strictly Christian version of creationism was eventually put into place, well, whose version of the Bible would be used to teach this theory? The Evangelicals? Or the Catholics?

This country was founded by Christians who had been persecuted for their religious beliefs by other Christians. Once you bring religion into it, it's darned hard to get it out again.

UPDATE Drew comments further in the comments section and over at his blog. Go Read. I comment further as well, in the nifty comments section right below!

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Our benevolent Munuvian dictator asks:

When they make MuNu: The Movie, who will play you? And feel free to make nominations for the other Munus.

Hmmm.

I have no idea who would play me. And I'm not making any suggestions, either, lest it come back and bite me on the behind.

Rocket Jones has suggested Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall for our beloved Llamas.

Personally, I think Lenny and Squiggy would better suit Steve and Rob. The symmetry is just too perfect and overwhelming to ignore.

As far as any other suggestions I might have, well...Tom Amandes would work perfectly for Random Pensees. I'm getting a Carrie-Anne Moss-in-a-catsuit vibe for Sadie.Harrison Ford, of course, for Dr. Rusty. Because you know he's all about fighting the powers that be! And, of course, Dennis Quaid for John L. Because Texans should play Texans.

UPDATE: Oh, dear. The boys appear to be undecided about who should play me. Robbo apparently wants Helen Hunt. Steve thinks otherwise. Of course, this is only if I'm reading all that "ontological crisis of the space-time continuum" business correctly. And we know that I might not be: I'm stupid like that.

Hmmmm.

Super sekrit message to Robbo: Helen Hunt???? I can't tell if this is payback or a compliment.

UPDATE DEUX: Sadie, very kindly, says I "{...}have a Kristen Davis thing going on." WOOHOO!

She also has an interesting suggestion for the Llamas. (Snort)

John L. over at Texas Best Grok, working upon my suggestion that Texans should play Texans has a poll up as to just which Texan should play him. He likes the Texan suggestion, but dislikes my choice of Dennis Quaid. Go on over and tell him who you want.

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Upon the urging of environmentalists,San Francisco wants to tax its residents 17% for plastic grocery bags. And just so they don't come off as being discriminatory, they're going to go for the paper bag users as well.

The point of all this being to "encourage" people to use their own bags to cart home groceries. It's more evironmentally-friendly, of course. Because these plastic bags wind up in trees, in the bay, etc.

And this comes after the Board of Supervisors passed "A new "backyard dog" law {which} says canines are entitled to a change of water once a day, palatable and nutritious food in a non-tipping bowl, and a dog house with a top, bottom and three sides. Tying up the dog is highly discouraged. "

San Francisco is a beautiful town. I love visiting, but as the saying goes, I wouldn't want to live there. Mainly because the residents of that fair fiefdom have their priorities out of whack.

There is a large contingent of homeless people who live there. They are, quite literally, everywhere. You cannot walk down the street without being accosted by panhandlers. The majority of the homeless I encountered were very, very ill. Most belonged in a hospital and should have been receiving treatment for whatever ails them. But they're not. Why? Because it's too expensive.

According to a native we became chummy with while we were there, the State decided it could no longer afford to pay for their upkeep and let them out. Willie Brown---Mr. Personality himself---as Mayor decided the city couldn't pay for their treatment either. But he didn't let them walk away emptyhanded, either: they receive a benefit from the City which, when added to their Social Security payments, adds up to about $800 a month. Just enough money to keep them self-medicated with booze or drugs, but not enough to help them afford treatment or a place to stay.

While we were there, we stayed in a hotel that bordered the Tenderloin district. It was very noisy at night, with lots of homeless people loitering about and screaming at one another. We wondered why they liked to gather right outside our hotel room window. Turns out there was a convenience store right next door that allowed the homeless to---ahem---run up tabs on liquor purchases. All they had to do to receive this marvelous service was to sign over their assistance checks once a month. And of course the convenience store doubled as a post office, too. Wouldn't want those checks going anywhere else, would they?

What's worse is how the homeless have become so accustomed to not receiving any help from anyone that if you do try to help, well, they'll turn on you. As we were there for a convention, we hosted some receptions and of course there was some leftover food. I asked the waiter if we shouldn't give it to the homeless that were wandering around. He told me, very gently, that while a very nice idea, that he wouldn't do it, because he feared for his safety. And he wouldn't let me do it, either. He said I would be mobbed and attacked. I let the matter go, but it seemed awful to have leftover food that could have done someone some good go in the trash. Particularly when those it would have done the most good were, literally, right outside the door. The leftovers wound up going home with the waiter.

This is how San Francisco deals with their homeless problem. It's an absolute shame and as far as I can see, no one on the Board of Supervisors is interested in dealing with the problem unless they get a fat check from the State or the Feds to tackle it. Gavin Newsom is the new Willie Brown. That they would worry more about dogs being chained up in backyards or that people should bring their own grocery sacks to the store is shameful.

Which judgment, of course, they would reject as bogus because there is no such thing as shame and how horrible of me to throw my Midwestern, faith-based construct on their lofty ideals. They don't deserve that. How dare I judge them. Their ideals are lofty. They came out of Berkeley: they must be correct. Their ideals are fantastic, because everyone's equal and no one is judged poorly for their behavior. Their ideals also allow them to rip anyone who doesn't agree with them a new one as much as they want. Their ideals mean that Golden Gate Park was really set up for protests, not for the enjoyment of their fellow citizens. Their ideals ensure the best of treatment for puppies and the environment. But their ideals also do absolutely nothing for the neediest of human beings they ignore every damn day of the week.

I hope they rot in hell. Because I do believe hell exists, even if they don't.

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The best of the Nebraska Boys, Johnny Carson, has died.

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Yep. We got out of the house last night and blew some of the stink off.

You're shocked, right? I know. I know. We never leave this place. We're pathetic. We fully realize this and will be trying to remedy this in the coming months. Anyway, we made a start last night when we meandered down to Keegan's to attend the MOB Bash.

It was quite the experience.

I finally got to meet my wing man and his lovely wife. Gary, very chivalrously I thought, ignored the rudeness of my demand that he buy me a drink and bought me one anyway. Sweet man with a sweet wife, who I might add, does something that I could never do: she homeschools their three kids. Even better, though, she enthusiastically said, "it's fun." My hat's off. They disappeared before I could say goodbye, but it was very nice to finally meet Gary, even though he pointed out that he's very disappointed with me for this post.

As Keegan's was packed to the brim with bloggers (even a few who were liveblogging the event), it was kind of hard not to meet people. I was very fortunate to add Douglas of Belief Seeking Understanding, John of The First Ring (the other fellow Cake Eater City resident present at the party) Noodles of The People's Republic of Minnesota, Ellen of Mama Ellen and her husband Doug of Bogus Gold, the very enjoyable Cathy from Cathy In The Wright and Jordan from Jo's Attic (both of whom, very bravely, showed up in their jammies) to my acquaintance. I also was pleased to meet Flash from Centrisity, one of the few liberal bloggers amidst the the hordes of conservatives, Mitch Berg from Shot in the Dark, and two out of the four Fraters, Chad and Saint Paul.

There were, according to Mitch, lots of political and media movers and shakers there. I didn't meet any of them. Apparently I don't rate and that's just fine with me. Although, I did recognize local Republican activist/consultant Sarah Janacek, but that's only because she's on the news regularly. As far as the media people were concerned, well, I did meet Mischke's producer, who was a very nice guy and who doesn't deserve the fate of me not remembering his name. Sorry. I also met Bob Davis' producer, Kodiak. Scott Johnson from Powerline was there, too, and created quite the stir when he entered, but he was surrounded from the moment he entered Keegan's and there wasn't any opportunity for causal chit-chat, so I didn't meet him.

And just because I know those of you who don't live here are curious, yes, Lileks was in attendance. Gary, very wisely, brought his copies of Lileks' books along with him and got them signed. Gary said something about them going up on Ebay today, so you might want to check. (And, yes, he was joking. He's not giving up those suckers for love nor money.) So, did I meet the great man? you ask.

Nope.

All evening long I stood no further than ten feet away from Lileks. Could I work up the courage to chat with the man? Nope. I am the world's biggest chicken. I don't know exactly what it is about talking with people I admire: I freak out, then I freeze up. I don't want to sound like a blathering idiot, or clam up so I generally just avoid the situation entirely and dodge and duck around like a dolt. The husband has no fear, however, and went up and chatted with him. Of course, he had the cigar opening to work with (Lileks and crew had fired up, despite the bar not allowing for cigar smoking). During their brief conversation, the husband says he pointed me out to him. I doubt I rang a bell. The Giant Swede was there, as well, and the husband got to chatting with him and introduced me. It took me a few minutes to cotton on to the fact that he was, in fact, The Giant Swede. I know, stupid me, but he was introduced by his actual name and I didn't make the leap that he would be in attendance. (Neither did he seem gigantic. He's somewhere around 6'2"-6'4". I've got nephews who top him easily. That and I'm relatively short. Just about everyone's taller than me.) We had a lovely conversation with him about all sorts of stuff. A very nice man.

Anyway, we had a great time meetin' and greetin' and can't wait for the next gathering.

So long as it's not over at the State Fair.

Posted by: Kathy at 02:09 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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At the Bad Hair Blog.

Plus Fausta points me to an aggregator for Spanish blogs that are also in English.

Hot damn!

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Courtesy of the Pious Agnostic, who got it from the Diplomad, we have the lovely tale of a sailor besieged aboard his own ship: the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is currently helping tsunami survivors in Indonesia.

Who is besieging him? you ask. Well, the answer would be relief workers. And reporters. And various officials who want to get in on the action.

{...}What really irritated me was a scene I witnessed in the LincolnÂ’s wardroom a few days ago. I went in for breakfast as I usually do, expecting to see the usual crowd of shipÂ’s company officers in khakis and air wing aviators in flight suits, drinking coffee and exchanging rumors about when our ongoing humanitarian mission in Sumatra is going to end.

What I saw instead was a mob of civilians sitting around like they owned the place. They wore various colored vests with logos on the back including Save The Children, World Health Organization and the dreaded baby blue vest of the United Nations. Mixed in with this crowd were a bunch of reporters, cameramen and Indonesian military officers in uniform. They all carried cameras, sunglasses and fanny packs like tourists on their way to Disneyland.

My warship had been transformed into a floating hotel for a bunch of trifling do-gooders overnight.

As I went through the breakfast line, I overheard one of the U.N. strap-hangers, a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to one of our food servers. He said something along the lines of “Nice china, really makes me feel special,” in reference to the fact that we were eating off of paper plates that day. It was all I could do to keep from jerking him off his feet and choking him, because I knew that the reason we were eating off paper plates was to save dishwashing water so that we would have more water to send ashore and save lives. That plus the fact that he had no business being there in the first place.

{...}As a result of having to host these people, our severely over-tasked SH-60 Seahawk helos, which were carrying tons of food and water every day to the most inaccessible places in and around Banda Aceh, are now used in great part to ferry these “relief workers” from place to place every day and bring them back to their guest bedrooms on the Lincoln at night. Despite their avowed dedication to helping the victims, these relief workers will not spend the night in-country, and have made us their guardians by default.

When our wardroom treasurer approached the leader of the relief group and asked him who was paying the mess bill for all the meals they ate, the fellow replied, “We aren’t paying, you can try to bill the U.N. if you want to.”

In addition to the relief workers, we routinely get tasked with hauling around reporters and various low-level “VIPs,” which further wastes valuable helo lift that could be used to carry supplies. We had to dedicate two helos and a C-2 cargo plane for America-hater Dan Rather and his entourage of door holders and briefcase carriers from CBS News. Another camera crew was from MTV. I doubt if we’ll get any good PR from them, since the cable channel is banned in Muslim countries. We also had to dedicate a helo and crew to fly around the vice mayor of Phoenix, Ariz., one day. Everyone wants in on the action.

As for the Indonesian officers, while their job is apparently to encourage our leaving as soon as possible, all they seem to do in the meantime is smoke cigarettes. They want our money and our help but they donÂ’t want their population to see that Americans are doing far more for them in two weeks than their own government has ever done or will ever do for them. {...}

Go read the whole thing. (They've been having issues with their server. If you can't get through the first time, keep checking. It's worth the extra effort.)

Ugh. This tale reminds me of the time when I was living in Iowa. During the summer of 1993, the 500 year flood rolled through. To put it lightly, the entire state was thoroughly soaked and flooded and Des Moines, in particular, had some issues with clean drinking water as their poorly placed water works had been taken entirely offline by the flooding. The husband, who at that time was "The Boyfriend", was drafted on a hot, sunny Sunday, by his Des Moines-living parents to bring bottled water down to the homefront because they had no potable water. After cleaning out the local Hy-Vee, we drove down to Des Moines and let me tell you, that was one car ride I'll never forget. more...

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Little Llama #4 is getting ready to make his/her appearance into the world.

In case you're confused, the Llama-ettes are Robbo's girls and I'm dubbing Steve-o's kids as the "Little Llamas" because I don't like the moniker "Llama 4.0" for their latest addition. What's he gonna do? Call the eldest Llama 1.0? I don't think so. Steve's gonna give the poor thing a complex. Daddy, am I obsolete because I'm version 1.0? Was I full of bugs when I was born because I'm version 1.0? Nope. That would be bad.

And, of course, I'm also renaming the kids because I'm on a power trip today.

Anyway...

{...}We were timing contractions last night but it turned out to be a false alarm. I'm at work today but am actually carrying a (turned on) cell phone, so you know things are serious....

I can only imagine that Mrs. Llamabutcher feels the same way. Poor thing. I sincerely hope the littlest llama makes their grand entrance soon.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:42 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 "And, of course, I'm also renaming the kids because I'm on a power trip today." -- funniest thing I've read all day. (and, btw, your permalink on my site's finally been updated -- sorry about the delay.)

Posted by: Adrianne Truett at January 21, 2005 09:28 PM (B2T6R)

2 Thanks! Don't sweat it, babe

Posted by: Kathy at January 21, 2005 11:27 PM (sQLe5)

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Well, they're somewhat better this morning.

A little less puffy, but there's still no point in putting eyeshadow on.

After reading yesterday's post, Mom (who can't type and refuses to use the comment section because of it) called and told me to throw out my tube o' Great Lash if it was older than ninety days. Ninety days? What the hell! The shelf life on one of those puppies used to be six months! Who comes up with these arbitrary shelf lives? The Greater Mascara Council of America? Does the bacteria in the tube really reach undesirable levels after ninety days or is this just their way of upping mascara sales? After all, mascara is a basic makeup tool that every woman who wears makeup buys---repeatedly. There's a huge market there. If I spend $10 a year on mascara, because I replace my tube after six months, switching the cutoff to ninety days means I would spend $20 a year on the junk. That's bullshit. Hence, I have to think this is a shallow marketing ploy. There's no way in hell I can get my money's worth in NINETY FREAKIN' DAYS! I have trouble letting a tube go after six months because---ahem---there's still stuff in there!

Christ! Don't they realize that six months is exactly when you finally get to the easy stage of mascara application? I hate buying new mascara. A fresh tube provides nothing but challenges, because the first time you pull that brush out, it's just loaded with black goo. If you didn't blot the excess goo with a kleenex, you'd transfer big chunks of it onto your lashes. Which then drop onto your face, like mini oil spills, and you wind up looking like Courtney Love on a really bad day. But the kleenex saves all and by six months, you've rid yourself of enough of the goo in the tube that the brush comes out with a manageable amount. This worked fine for me. I've resigned myself to the fact that half of what I buy winds up on tissues that are instantly thrown in the trash. Yet this wastefulness wasn't good enough to up their sales. Now they want you to get rid of your mascara after three months.

Do you have any idea how much mascara costs these days? Particularly if you're into buying tubes of the Estee Lauder variety? Over twenty bucks a pop. I gave up that habit years ago and stuck with the little pink and green tube, but still...that costs five bucks a shot. And that's only if you don't spring for waterproofing or lash growing or curling junk, which costs more. It's a racket, I tell ya! Where are the Feds! I want a RICO suit filed toute suite! I demand it as a taxpaying citizen of this country!

Grrrr. And of course, I'll pitch the tube just in case but for the love of God, I shouldn't have to! I want mascara regulation by people other than the Greater Mascara Council of America! This is simply not fair.

Mascara and computer related eye strain aside, though, I'm wondering if a big old head cold is settling in and this was just how the body reacted to it. I'm stuffy this morning and given the position of the sinuses, well, it kind of makes sense. I dunno. I'll be trying to stay away from the computer in the meanwhile, just until we figure it out. And the husband is insisting I call the opthlamologist to set up an appointment to have my eyes checked, so that'll be fun. (The headache is freaking him out.)

Anyway, I have laundry to do, so I'm off like a dirty shirt.

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Ok, something's wrong with my eyes.

They're swollen.

I don't know what the heck is going on. A couple of days ago, whilst checking for any signs of new lines, I noticed that my epicanthic folds were pronounced. As in, there is no point in wearing eyeshadow right now as you wouldn't be able to see it. I thought I was imagining things, but the husband confirmed the puffiness. Hence I took it as a sign that---poof---my lids, ala my mom, had dropped. A sign of age and a hereditary one, too. Nothing ususual there. While disturbing, I am thirty-four, baby. It had to happen sometime. It was disconcerting it happened all at once, but hey, isn't that the way these things usually happen? I dunno. All those lines magically appeared overnight, why wouldn't my eyelids droop the same way?

Just as I was getting accustomed to this notion, that's when the headache kicked in. Now, I'm not normally prone to headaches. I just don't get them. Considering I'm married to an occasional migraine sufferer, I know I'm lucky in this regard. The only kind of headache I do get is when my glasses are either new or need to be upgraded. I will fully admit that I'm a year behind on my checkup schedule. As in I picked up the pair of glasses I'm wearing now on September 12, 2001. I was supposed to pick them up on the 11th, but other stuff got in the way and they closed the mall. This is that kind of headache: the eye strain headache.

Yesterday I had a slight headache that wore on during the day and into the night. It's back again today. I've done the advil and while that helps, it hurts slightly to stare at the computer screen, so posting will be light. But since I got the headache, I've begun to wonder about this whole thing. So, like a good little hypochondriac, I surfed around WebMD. And no, I don't have Bells Palsy. I'm not drooling, I can blink, and I can still feel my face and operate it. But as far as it being anything else specific, the vast amount of knowledge that is WebMD coughed up bupkiss. The husband thinks it might be an allergic reaction to something, but as I've done absolutely nothing new in the past few days---nothing new eaten, no new product, etc.---I don't know.

I'm assuming all of this is due to the fact that my prescription needs to be upgraded. But can that cause my eyes to swell? Can your eyes swell in the first place? And to an extent where it changes your facial features? I don't know and I haven't called the doctor, lest he tell me it's possible I've got a brain tumor. I don't think I could deal with that right now and I'd rather live in ignorance, thank you ever so much.

Any ideas? Anyone dealt with this or something similar.

I'm not dying or anything. Don't freak out, please. And yes, I'm referring to you, Mom.

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with ML's wife, The Doctor, and given my symptoms she believes it's computer related eye stress. When I told her I hadn't been spending any more time on the box than usual, she shot me down. Computer related eye stress, says she, is cumulative. I'm supposed to look up computer ergonomics on the web and that there should be some good eye-saving tips that should help. We shall see if it works. I hope it does.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I appreciate it And yes Kitty, I will go to the doctor if it doesn't get better.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:52 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 No freaking out allowed! I am not a Doctor so this is not medical advice, just practical. I'm very close to turning 52 and have gradually noticed a slight drooping and swelling of the upper eyelid. But this has been over a period of years, not days. Sudden drooping, along with a headache and the inability to look at a computer screen or read a book for very long should ring a bell with you that something isn't right. The drooping could be pushing on the eyeball causing the headache, etc. So, get thee to a physician! It's probably something very simple, but you don't want to chance permanently damaging your eyes. This is a THREAT!!!If you don't go see a doctor, I'm going to write to "The Husband" and then send copies to all my medical friends. While you're waiting to get in to see the Doctor, lie down and put cold compresses on your eyes. Take care of yourself, we need you to keep us up to date on pressing world issues. Kitty :^)

Posted by: K. Mason at January 20, 2005 02:39 PM (THsAz)

2 Yes, your eyes can swell -- I have a lovely allergy to eggs that has been known to swell them to the point where, if it happens while I'm sleeping, I can't open my eyelids to save my life (And if it's while I'm awake? Well, I'm just saying you wouldn't want to have a staring contest with me then...) -- this is why I now know that Milky Way bars contain egg whites...

Posted by: LDH at January 20, 2005 02:41 PM (bqPDz)

3 Have you figured it out yet? I'll ask the good doctor when she gets home from the dentist. I don't think she know that much about eye symptoms, though. Pregnant? Yeah, I know, very funny. It can bloat all or parts of the face, you know. Are you tired, too?

Posted by: ML in MN at January 20, 2005 02:46 PM (Dvbxq)

4 Also keep track of what you eat, because of food allergies. Either way, I hope you're well, happy and thriving by now!

Posted by: Fausta at January 21, 2005 06:56 AM (LtiJz)

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The next hot plagiarism story: Alias (yeah, the TV show) plagiarized Kurt Vonnegut with last night's episode.

Drew's got the goods.

To answer your question, Drew, homage becomes plagiarism when the author decides to sue.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Uh-oh. Reportedly, I have yet to be "made" in an organization I didn't know existed.

Hmmmm. Interesting. Not sure it's for me, though.

I'm not really a joiner. I did all of my "joining" in school. They lure you in with the opportunity to meet people and to have fun, but then, before you know it, you've been drafted to lick envelopes and all you've got for your efforts is the inability to taste anything other than glue.

Do I really need this? Do I really want to be made?

I suppose I could make the effort. They're at least having this thing on this side of town this time around and not over in St. Paul. During the ever popular State Fair, which I loathe. (No one will EVER drag me to that thing as long as I have breath in my body. The Great Minnesota Get Together my fine wide arse.) So I suppose this is my chance to meet other web crawling, political junkie hermits.

Sounds like there's trivia, too. That's always a bonus.

I suppose the thing that could get me out of the house come Saturday is if my wing man a. doesn't desert me this time around and b. offers to buy me a drink.

If Gary coughs up, well, I'm there.

I believe I've told you before that I'm exceedingly cheap.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:42 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Anyone who posts under the handle "Noodles" is just asking to be "made."

Posted by: Douglas at January 20, 2005 12:52 AM (/XmMl)

2 Yeah, I would have to agree with that sentiment.

Posted by: Kathy at January 20, 2005 01:04 AM (sQLe5)

3 Interesting. It would be very interesting to meet that crew. I'd like to find out which corner of the right they really lean toward. They might be too much "god squad" and not enough libertarian for me.

Posted by: MRN aka "The Husband" at January 20, 2005 08:45 AM (sQLe5)

4 Dearest Husband, There's room for everyone, I'm sure. Even you.

Posted by: Kathy at January 20, 2005 09:12 AM (sQLe5)

5 Husband: I'm an evangelical who doesn't lose sleep at the thought that someone, somewhere might be having fun. Strong libertarian tendencies here. C'mon down and share a Boddingtons with your bride and the Millers. Wingman

Posted by: Wingman at January 20, 2005 09:35 AM (JdqMm)

6 I'm buying the first round.

Posted by: Wingman at January 20, 2005 09:36 AM (JdqMm)

7 We'll see ya on Saturday!

Posted by: Kathy at January 20, 2005 10:27 PM (sQLe5)

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With the sound of really sucky music.

Yet another meme. Someone came up with a list of fifty songs they hated. I'm supposed to bold the ones I like. Discussion will also follow.

If interested read on after the jump.

(Of course, I caught this, like yet another bad, treatment resistant, case of the crabs, from a furry llama who's skipping the inauguration tomorrow. ) more...

Posted by: Kathy at 10:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I MUST HAVE one of these.

While this undoubtedly seals the deal that George Lucas really has gone batshit fucking loco, I wonder, though, if that light saber's going to fall off like Mr. Potato Head's nose always did? It's been years since I've played with a Mr. Potato Head. Has the quality improved? Do the pieces finally stick where you want them to? Ultimately, is it really worth it to possess a Darth Spud if all of this parts are going to resemble a leper's appendages, like the Mr. Potato Head of old?

Hmmm.

Posted by: Kathy at 02:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Interesting stuff going on over at Martini Boy's joint. I really enjoy that there are two bartenders nowdays: we get more good stuff as a result.

First, after reading this article , part of which touches upon the "white flight" that might or might not be occurring as a result of the rise of minorities in the Netherlands, Will Collier wonders where this new diaspora will flee to:

{...}What if a considerable fraction--even a large minority--of that 13,000 really are fleeing from Islamic radicalism? What happens 20 or 30 years from now, when demographic trends could well result in "minority-majority" (or even outright majority) status for the Islamic cohort in western Europe? If they're faced with the options of dhimmitude or flight, where will the native Europeans flee to?

Why, here, of course.{...}

Martini Boy replies thoughtfully that instead of simply fleeing or adjusting, Europeans might actually be forced into fighting in such an instance.

{...}What Will left out is the third option. If somewhere down the road the worst should come to worst, Europeans could always stay home and fight. And don't think they couldn't.

Problem is, the fight wouldn't be the pretty kind where you see a few bold arrows drawn on the map, confidently slicing through history and the enemy lines. We're not talking Desert Storm here, which you could draw with five arrows and lasted only 96 hours. We're not even talking about the Liberation of France in 1944, which took slightly more arrows and just six weeks. Oh, no.

We'd be talking about city fighting. But not the kind of city fighting you saw in Saving Private Ryan, where the likeable, well-trained and battle-hardened soldiers could call in an air strike just when all seemed lost. Thanks to modern Europe finally putting "ain't gonna study war no more" into nearly full effect, they hardly have any battle-hardened soldiers. They hardly have any soldiers left at all.

The city fighting we'd see in Europe would look like what we saw in Sarajevo ten years ago. You know, ragtag bands of men with no uniforms, stolen weapons, and a desire to kill anybody who looked Muslim (or on the Muslim side, European). Holland and Denmark would fare worst. They're both tiny, both have very high (and increasing) Muslim populations, and neither country has much of a modern military tradition. In this worst-case scenario, the likelihood of ethnic mob rule ala Bosnia seems high.{...}

Go read the whole thing.

While I think Will's got a point and that an awful lot of Hollanders will simply pull up stakes and in a fit of "I can't believe it's gotten this bad" whining, and will move elsewhere, I also think Stephen's scenario is likely to occur. If the worse case scenario comes to pass---meaning the Europeans doing nothing to stem this tide now---it will also be as ugly as he claims. Replete with mass murders, mass rapes and the like.

I agree that the Europeans do know a thing or two about warfare and can be made to fight. They're just reticent to do so. WWII may have hit them just as hard, if not harder than The Great War, but, in my humble estimation, it is still the memories of just how flamingly idiotic WWI was fought that has made them gun-shy. That war may have started ninety-years-ago, but its legacy has been long lasting. Europeans don't focus so much on WWII in their movies and books, but rather on WWI. ( Why, there's even a movie out right now that uses it as a backdrop. ) They leave WWII to the Americans. WWI has more resonance for them. It's the ulitmate cautionary tale for these deep thinkers with long memories. An Archduke is assassinated in Sarajevo, as a result war breaks out because of the ruling elite's misguided perceptions of some Serbian nationalist nutjob's intentions, and teams are picked. Worldwide chaos unfolds, millions die, and when no one can take it any longer, this chaos ultimately leads to unwieldy, harsh peace deals, economic depression, starvation, the rise of mass murdering dictators, and ultimately to more chaos caused by yet another war. I can't blame them for going to the beginning and focusing on the start: the twentieth century was their bloodiest ever. Given Europe's war-torn history from Caesar to Attila the Hun to Charlemagne to the Bourbons, well, that's saying something.

Its also the history of the Great War that kept Great Britain and France from checking Hitler early on. While we today equate Chamberlain with the appeasement, his "Peace in Our Time" approach to dealing with Hitler's Germany was incredibly popular in Britain. While I don't know the exact numbers, it's generally known that Britain lost half her young men in WWI. That's a lot of men. These men are referred to as "The Lost Generation," because a generation was, for all intents and purposes, lost somewhere in the death and maiming that occurred. France suffered just as much. (As did Germany, but that really didn't stop them, did it?) Is it any wonder, given this fact, that neither France or Britain wanted anything to do with WWII and did everything they could to avoid it? While the French wildly underestimated Germany's intentions and let them walk all over them during the occupation, they nonetheless saved the lives of countless young men who would have been slaughtered if they had fought a blitzkrieg that would have smashed them regardless of their efforts. Was this the honorable thing to do? Was it right? Given what we know to have actually happened during the German occupation, no, it was not. But what we conveniently forget when we denouce the French as a bunch of lily-livered wine snots, is that this judgment of their appeasement is also hindsight. WWI was fresh in their minds: they remembered. They had lost many. Who---and be honest about this---can blame them for trying to minimize the cost they might have to pay when the next time occurred?

Britain's fate was different. They picked up the charge when it was presented to them, but they did so with full knowledge of what might happen and how badly they might suffer. In my humble opinion, I believe this knowledge is what saved them from a much worse fate in WWII than what they did suffer. They knew. They knew what needed to be done and they did it. It was their chance to avenge their losses and to put an end to Germany's madness once and for all.

With a little (heh) help from their friends, they succeeeded.

Europeans do know how to fight. The question remains, though, how long will it take for them to wake up and realize if they don't do something now they will have no other option than to fight? They may have gained a reticence to fight as the result of WWI and WWII, but that reticence is also willfully blinding them from the fact at hand: their societies are just as much at risk now from Islamic fascism as they were from Hitler's aggression.

Posted by: Kathy at 02:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Previous entry here

So, Sullivan apparently was so shocked by the rough yanking of his long beautiful locks that he was speechless for a few days.

Then he replied with this little blurb :

{...}(Speaking of which, Philip Nobile will be on O'Reilly tonight. Can you imagine the derision of Tripp's thesis that will ensue? Let's just see if Nobile says what he once wrote: that he believes that most Lincoln historians have been homophobes and that Lincoln was certainly bisexual. And let's see whether he discloses - as he didn't in the Standard - that after he quit the Tripp project, he tried to sell a rival book making the same case.)

As Jonathan says: "Is that a surrender?"

I think it might be.

While Sully is a fantastic master of rhetoric and one who obviously not only enjoys maintaining his corner, but also feels the need to vigorously defend it, I've noticed he's not entirely the practicioner of intellectual honesty that he claims to be. While I'm sure he simply believes that it's a waste of his time to reply to something like this, it's not exactly honest is it, after ripping Nobile a new one, to neglect to let his readers know that Nobile replied to his charges and threw a few of his own out there? This is not the first time this has happened, either. For a man who preaches regularly that "the revolution will be blogged," and that the blogosphere is changing how things are done, well, hmmm. It leads one to wonder just how much the revolution will be blogged if it makes Sully look bad. He's getting increasingly touchy about taking lumps, yet makes no moves to moderate his opinions. His blog is turning into a benevolent dictatorship rather than a thriving democracy and it's getting to be annoying.

Sully hasn't replied to Nobile's shot across his bow, and has, in essence, let the debate peter out in the utter cacophany that is the blogosphere, while maintaining his original position. He knows how to let it slide, in other words, knowing something new and interesting will take its place shortly. With this move, he has done his readers a disservice. If I only read Sullivan, I wouldn't know about this, would I? How many of his readers only read his blog and haven't taken a dip into the vast world of internet content? I have a feeling there are a quite a few of them out there.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Over 20,000 readers served since August 2003!

Ten thousand of those hits were probably me checking to see if anyone was actually reading this thing. Or people being sent here from Google for a "boob cake recipe" or something like that. So, it's a limited milestone, but hey...I'll take it.

Woohoo!

Posted by: Kathy at 12:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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