Yet another reminder of why Kathy and sports do not mix.

Well, perhaps I should qualify and use the word athleticism, since it wasn't really sports related.

I've mentioned that I started running again. This has, for the most part, been a humiliating exercise in out-of-shaped-ness, hence I've been keeping said humiliation to myself. Yet, except on the days it rains, I've been keeping with it and have been making small strides in getting my tolerance for pain back up where it belongs.

So, today, instead of running around the neighborhood, like usual, I decided to go over to the track a few blocks away. I thought this might be better for my knees rather than pounding the pavement. This track belongs to a local high school, and I thought since I was allowed onto the track (no one stopped me) the gate I entered in through would remain unlocked.

Nope.

Sometime during my huffing and puffing my exit was padlocked. To get out of the track, I had to scale a ten foot high fence. This wasn't so bad, but it was the getting down part that turned out to be tricky. When I was coming down, I slipped slightly, and in the process of stabilizing myself the bone that leads down from my thumb to my wrist got banged, rather hard, against a metal pole. Hence, right now it's all swollen up and it hurts. I've been imbibing the Advil---would someone in Europe or the Middle East please, please, please send me some of the 800mg stuff you have over the counter there so I don't have to swallow four at a time?----and icing it. This happened roughly two hours ago. I've just gotten to the point where I can type. I'm pretty sure I just bruised the bone. I can make a "4" with it, but damn, it's not pleasant. It's not bleeding. Nor was I able to feel any little bone chips floating around where there shouldn't be any.

Interesting, no? Yeah, I know. Boring stuff that you really don't need or want to know about but the next part I find fascinating. Because it's curious. Because of this, I've just realized I never really lost the ambidextrousness (?) I gained when I was twelve and I broke my right wrist. (If you want the timeline on this, well, know that I remember watching Jeanne Kirkpatrick ream the North Korean Soviet UN ambassador over the downing of that Korean Airlines jet that flew into their airspace by accident while I was waiting for my mom to get home to take me to the hospital.) Until I got my cast a few days after the break, I was completely dependent upon my left hand. I learned how to write with it (ugly though my handwriting may be), open bottles, operate a fork and a spoon, etc. The key to this ambidextrousness is to simply slow down and think it through. It's frustrating at first, but it'll get easier. This is so weird because I just assumed you'd have to learn that skill all over again. Apparently not.

Learn something new everyday, eh?

Posted by: Kathy at 03:55 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I think you could call this my proverbial "A-ha!" moment when it comes to Steve-o.

I've had Robbo sussed for quite some time, his penchant for Emma Woodhouse being a dead giveaway, but Steve? Well, he's an elusive cat. Or as I like to call him: Mr. Mysterioso. Sure he gives up some details about himself, but they never really give you the whole picture, do they? He's always switching things up, posting at random times, and he's always leaving you guessing. But now? Well....

I think we all know what's really going on there now, eh?

Posted by: Kathy at 11:35 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 As my three year old has taken to saying, "Hey....WAIT a minute!"

Posted by: Robert the Llama Butcher at May 31, 2005 03:13 PM (IkTb7)

2 The "It's A Wonderful Life" piece of sacrilege I did in your honor, Kath.

Posted by: Steve tlb at May 31, 2005 08:19 PM (eVpBU)

3 Awwwww. I feel so warm and fuzzy inside.

Posted by: Kathy at May 31, 2005 10:12 PM (cgZvM)

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In case you're a Lost junkie, and are experiencing serious withdrawal pangs (Somehow, I think I'll survive the summer without it, so don't bother counting me among your number.) you might want to check this out.

Click on the row numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 and see what awaits you.

Hat tip:Ith

Posted by: Kathy at 10:45 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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But just in case she doesn't know...

...Arianna, darling, hotlinking is considered to be a big boo-boo in the blogosphere. It's stealing, plain and simple. I realize you're probably shelling out a small fortune for hosting, but, sheesh. One would think you could probably afford to host your own images instead of stealing from a non-profit organization's blog.

Madame Sadie---from whom I found out about this---our freshly minted law school graduate, is wondering what sort of compensation would be in order.

I don't know, but after reading The Huffington Post's Terms of ServiceI got the distinct feeling that there's some Beverly Hills law firm just waiting for someone to steal from Arianna so they can take part in a We live to crush the little people smackdown. (Christ. Honestly. Who gets lawyers to write Terms of Service? For a freaking blog? I know you're just dying to spend your ex's money, Arianna, but really...how bourgeoise can you get?) So, really, turnabout would seem to be fair play, wouldn't it?

If you want a real blog that doesn't endorse thievery, read this one instead of Arianna's.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:22 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Ever heard of the Reduced Shakespeare Company? They can reduce Hamlet from an hours-long play to a performance of less than thirty seconds.

Well, I'm going to do that with my Revenge of the Sith review.

Actually the husband's going to do it for you. Here's what he said when we left the theater yeseterday:

Well, it took him two and three quarters movies to get back, but he got there.

Yeah. I had to steal it. Those of you who have seen it know what I'm talking about. Those of you who haven't---well, that's probably all you wanted to know, right?

If you want more---because you're a greedy bastard that way---well, take the jump for some observations. There are spoilers involved. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 11:39 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Here's a list of what's annoying me in a mild sort of way about living in Cake Eater Land this weekend.

1. It's been raining cats and dogs here for the past couple of weeks. I am annoyed with our sunless state. I am also annoyed that the new landlord has yet to purchase a lawn mower because the lawn looks like crap. Well, let me amend that: the lawn always looks like crap, but now it looks like overgrown crap in the few spots where there's actually grass. My current nickname for the lawn is "The Savannah." I fully expect that Marlin Perkins and Jim will show up soon to film an episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom because the grass is so tall that there's probably some interesting wildlife in there.

And there's a profusion of dandelions, too. Woot!

I am also annoyed that the new landlord has yet to tell me what I can and cannot do in regards to my plantings. With the Great White Hunter-exlandlord and Tweedledumb, anything you wanted to do that made things look nicer, well, they were for it---as long as you didn't expect them to pay for it. Hence I have a nice little landscaped flower bed full of lilies and hostas. I always border this with impatiens, because a. they're colorful and b. they're one of the few annuals that do well here in the Hinterlands. I also put out some pots on the front porch, as well, and when we had the roof of the garage as our deck, the husband built me some flower boxes and I filled them with pots of pansies and petunias. Well, since the deck is no longer stable enough for the average sized human to walk on, I have to rely on these other areas to satisfy my gardening jones. I have no idea if I'm going to be allowed to do these things this year. We'll just have to see.

And no, the man has not called the plumber to see what's wrong with my dishwasher, either.

2. The church that resides across the street from us has once again allowed clubs from the local high school to use their circular drive for fundraising car washes.

Sigh.

So, it seems we're back to being subjected to shouts of, "CAR WASH!" every Friday and Saturday afternoon. They shout this at cars who are going above thirty mph and who are prevented from stopping by the laws of physics and traffic. So, these drivers---may God smite them---honk their horns, repeatedly, to show appreciation.

Said honking gets quite annoying when the eighteen-wheelers that barrel through the neighborhood to avoid traffic on Hwy. 100 join in on the action.

This, of course, says nothing about how scantily clad these teenagers are. They bare their young bodies in a barely decent sort of way in an attempt to bring in customers. Yes, I know, it's a car wash. They're going to be dressed in swimsuits and the like. Ok, that's all well and good until you see what these kids do. One of the more popular ways to bring in customers is to hold a large poster directly over the midsection of your body to make it appear to drivers that you're naked. They've apparently learned that sex sells. (Hmmm. I wonder where they got that one?) I've never once seen a faculty advisor tell these kids to knock it off, either. It makes me feel like they're hooking for funds to support the marching band or the swim club or the track and field club, etc. One, I suppose, could also make comments about the luring of pedophiles if one was so inclined.

Surprisingly enough, the pastor of this church, when I've spoken with him in the past regarding this, has no issues with this behavior. Neither does he mind that all of this behavior is happening in his church parking lot. Apparently being concerned with "community involvement" is more important than the prostitution of children for extra-curricular activities funding. Yay for the Lutherans! They've got their priorities in the right place!

3. The obnoxious Cake Eater neighbor is weaseling his way into our lives. Even more than he's already done so.

I cannot tell you what it is about this guy that sets me off. He just bugs me. There is something there that not only makes me dislike him, but creeps me out as well. And most people don't creep me out. He does. In a I-don't-want-to-be-alone-with-him sort of way. He's definitely a Cake Eater---someone who is concerned with conspicuous consumption strictly for the sake of Keeping Up With The Joneses---and his new area of Cake Eatery behavior takes him into the land of computers. And he's adopted the husband as his guru. He keeps buying computers---as in there are four people in their house, and they now have five laptops, two desktops and a PSP. FOR FOUR PEOPLE. Of course, the guy has absolutely no idea what the hell he's doing with all of this technology, so this is where the husband comes in. He keeps it all straight for them.

Which gets annoying when the Cake Eater neighbor calls at ten at night and expects the husband to come running to solve whatever problem has arisen now. Because we live next door, of course, in the immortal words of Martha and the Vandellas, there's nowhere to run to, there's nowhere to hide. Fortunately, the husband has no issues with saying "get bent" when this happens. But this doesn't apparently stop the Cake Eater neighbor from trying it on again and again, because the man has no familiarity with the concept of boundaries.

Furthermore...well, this is great news for the husband, but I'm leery. The man has decided to set the husband and this other guy up in a computer fixit business. He's funding it, he's got retail space for them---the works, in other words. The store opens for business on Monday. I'm happy for the husband---really I am. This is a big deal for him and I'm happy he now has the opportunity to see one of his visions come into being. That's wonderful and all that. But...

...I wish someone else who was dishing out all of this largesse. Someone who didn't give me the creeps and who didn't feel that it was all right to stick his nose into our personal business. Which he does. All the freakin' time. Sigh. Oh, well. I suppose you have to take the good with the bad. I just hope I don't blow it for the husband the next time the Cake Eater neighbor makes some suggestion about what I should be doing with my time. Because he apparently feels my life is now his business. {Shudder}

And if there are annoyances, there is, of course, also good news...

The downstairs roommate who I mentioned in this post from last week, well, he's doing wonderfully. He rested over at his girlfriend's last weekend, and he's now back at the house. He took the week off from work, but while it definitely looks like he had surgery recently, he looks pretty good, considering. Everything's good and they're thinking they got all of the cancer. I was chatting with him the other evening and he's really hoping they got all of it, because if they didn't, they'll have to operate again---and will have to remove all of his lymph nodes.

Keep your fingers crossed for him.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Let's have a little hot link on link action this morning.

• The Wiz is back from his muy importanto business trip and has posted on the bling-bling. The words "chrome" and "Craftsman" are lavished about. Go and read what he has to say.
• Some of the other Naked Villains have followed the example of their fearless Maximum Leader and they, too, have thrown their own two cents in on the jewelry thing. I must admit, I'm not all that surprised to find out that the Minister of Propaganda has his ears pierced. (He works in the film industry. If that's your story, boy, I fully expect you to stick with it.) I wonder what Madame Sadie thinks about this development and if Smallholder has suddenly gone back up in her rankings as a result.
• I'm a little hurt that no one bothered to tell me that PUFFY DIED! I would have sent flowers, I swear, but I didn't know!

  Anyway, I look forward to his reincarnation. Which I'm assuming will happen more quickly that if it had been a human who'd died, rather than a fish. Fish years being what they are and all.

• I must admit, I adore The Girl Child.

  She reminds me of someone. Hmmmm. I don't know. Who could it possibly be? Oh, yeah. That's right. It's me. Just ask the Cake Eater Mother for confirmation on that one.

• Doug doesn't quite know what to make of this development.
• Silk chats about growing up and how good things can come out of "disagreements" in bars.
• I'm a complete and utter dunce: I almost forgot to remind you to go over and take part in the Carnival of the Babewits, hosted by the most gracious WitNit.

That should keep you occupied for the time being.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:29 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Anyone else watch Quentin Tarantino's CSI last night?

Quickie review after the jump. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 12:57 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I hadn't heard about this one until the husband clued me in last night.

Billionaire developer Donald Trump has officially thrown his support behind a plan to rebuild the Twin Towers at Ground Zero in practically the same form they were in prior to the September 11 attacks with a few safety modifications.

Trump implored Governor George Pataki to discard the plans for the 'Freedom Tower' presently on the table, describing the design as 'the worst pile of crap architecture I've ever seen in my life,' according to a report published in 'Newsday.'

Wednesday, Trump held a news conference at Trump Towers on Fifth Avenue to announce his support for a 'taller, stronger, more beautiful version of the World Trade Center.'

The design, drawn up by engineer Ken Gardner and architect Herbert Belton would make the new towers one story higher than the previous ones. It would preserve the footprints of the original towers but would have improved fireproofing and more staircases and means of escape in case of emergency.
{...}

Now, I'm not Donald's biggest fan. There's way too much waste in that man's lifestyle to make me ever think that being that rich would actually be fun. (If having a billion dollars in the bank can be classified as being "F You" money, one would think that it would get you out of boring black-tie charity dinners. But noooooo. Apparently you have to go to a lot of those dinners if you're The Donald.) But, I will admit I watched season one of "The Apprentice" and while I may think that "Trump Ice" bottled water is just plain stupid, the man knows what he's talking about when it comes to business: sales, sales, sales; if you can't market it, you can't make money on it; but most importantly, if you say you're going to do something, do it, and stop fucking about in the meantime.

I appreciate that.

That's why I'm pretty darned happy he's stuck his nose in on this one. It's time they stopped fucking about and just built the buildings. Every day construction of the new Towers is halted, is one more day that goes by that tells those bastards they've won. The Towers have to be rebuilt. It's not only a matter of New York pride, but is also one that belongs to the entire nation. And it's being held up by a few prima donnas. This is where Trump's brilliance shines through: he knows he'll never actually get to build the new Towers. It'll never happen. He knows this. He's simply using his reputation to get the chosen people to work.

Trump's smart enough to know that by inserting his nose into the mix, they'll be scared enough by that prospect alone to actually get moving. Because Donald isn't exactly known for his spectacular good taste and I can see where some hoity-toity architects would get their asses in gear just to prevent his taking over the project. Trump, undoubtedly, knows this. If he has to take one for the team to get it done, he's apparently willing to turn his back into the pitch.

Good for him.

{Hat Tip: Martini Boy}

Posted by: Kathy at 10:07 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Jonathan has his review of Revenge of the Sith up.

{...}What is most satisfying about Revenge of the Sith is that it finally delivers us back to the beginning, to the Star Wars we loved; to the Star Wars we still remember after all these years. Sith and the other prequels will, happily, soon be forgotten.

Ouchie. Georgie Porgy Puddin' and Pie's going to need a band-aid.

Fear not, my devoted Cake Eater Readers, I'm assuming that he won't have any problems finding one with R2-D2 or Yoda on it in his medicine cabinet.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:06 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Good For Her.

MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) -- A pregnant student who was banned from graduation at her Roman Catholic high school announced her own name and walked across the stage anyway at the close of the program.

Alysha Cosby's decision prompted cheers and applause Tuesday from many of her fellow seniors at St. Jude Educational Institute.

But her mother and aunt were escorted out of the church by police after Cosby headed back to her seat.

{...}The father of Cosby's child, also a senior at the school, was allowed to participate in graduation.

{my emphasis}

Adrianne, who it seems is finally done with her thesis, says:

{...}You can fight abortion, and you can fight unwed motherhood,* but at some point (for example, the point after conception) you're going to have to choose which one is worse. Even making equal punishments for each doesn't actually work for impartial condemnation of each; as it's much easier to have an abortion without anyone knowing about it than to carry a child to term and give birth without anyone knowing about it, a pregnant girl faced with a specific punishment has the option of choosing birth and certain punishment or abortion and punishment only if discovered. And, unless I am mistaken, while traditional Catholic teaching does not approve of unwed motherhood (nor the behavior that led to it), after the fact they prefer it to abortion. Practices such as kicking pregnant girls out of school (not quite what they did in this case) and firing single mothers and potential single mothers, while they'll keep your school or company cosmetically pure-looking, will have the effect of encouraging abortion over illegitimacy. {...}

I wholeheartedly agree.

I know I have related this story before, but you'll forgive me if I choose not to spend time trolling around the archives looking for it. It's a pretty simple one: most of you will know that I went to Catholic school for twelve years. Eight years were spent at a co-ed parish grade school, and high school was an all-girls school. The policy was quite simple at the high school: if you became pregnant, you were kicked out. No appeals were allowed. Interestingly enough, to prove Adrianne's point, there was this one girl in my class who, toward the end of senior year, became pregnant and procured for herself an abortion by asking her friends to chip in and pay for it---even though she could well afford to pay for it out of her own pocket. (She didn't want her parents to find out and they would have if she hadn't spent her allowance on clothes. I know. Rough life. Guess what? I went to a school that had plenty of spoiled little girls. Go figure.) The only adverse effect she suffered was that word spread to the boys' school down the road and she couldn't find a prom date to save her life.

I still have a very hard time with this one. This rich bitch admitted, point blank, that she'd had an abortion, but no one ratted on her because a. she would deny it to the administration and b. her parents were big donors to the school, so it would be unlikely that anything would happen anyway. Plenty of wonderful, deserving girls were booted from that school, and one rich bitch got away with it and never had to pay a penalty for her behavior. I'm sure I could call up my niece---who now attends this same school---and ask her if the policy is still the same, but I suspect it is.

Moreover, the fathers of these babies were never held accountable for their actions by their respective schools. When a girl was kicked out of school, there was never a reciprocal booting at the boys' school down the road. It's a double standard that it seems is still in practice today, given the father of this girl's child was allowed to take part in graduation, rather than being banned, like she was.

I can completely understand about the setting of an example. Of having a zero-tolerance policy. Yet, let's be honest about one thing: it takes two to tango. If you're not holding the father to the same degree of responsibility that you hold the mother---particularly in this instance---what sort of example does that send to other young men? It cuts both ways. Just because you don't have irrefutable proof of his actions in the form of an expanded belly does not mean he is not culpable. In this day and age, when everyone is bleating on ad nauseam about how society is going down the crapper because of same-sex marriage, the divorce rate, the everpresent evil that is abortion, single parents, etc. one would think that it would be a good thing to be consistent and apply condemnation equally, instead of simply resorting to age-old attitudes that have never worked.

One of the reasons I always thought it was very unfair the girls were kicked out was because, while the babies were the result of premarital sex, the school seemingly ignored that these girls were nonetheless respecting the doctrine of life by seeing the pregnancies through. Their actions in this respect, to my mind at least, should have been celebrated and held up as an example of what to do should you find yourself in this situation. But it never was. The premarital sex thing was apparently the more important lesson to teach of the two. They just seemed to assume no Catholic girl would ever go and get an abortion.

Well, they were wrong, weren't they?

Posted by: Kathy at 12:51 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Ms. Feisty has an important question.

{...}What is the real skinny on thin women?

Which is more attractive and why: Thin Kate Moss - Gweneth Paltrow types or women with voluptuous curves?{...}

All I can really say is that no one ever stuck their head out of their car window and yelled, "NICE ASS!" at me as I walked down the street when I weighed 110 pounds. Surprisingly, ever since I gained weight, I get this all the time.

Hmmmph.

Take it for what it's worth.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:29 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 That's an "Amen" from this corner, hun! ; )

Posted by: Christina at May 19, 2005 12:54 PM (z2S93)

2 [shrug] I've always looked a stiff wind can blow me away. Can't much help that, so curves are non existant in my experience.

Posted by: Ith at May 19, 2005 02:59 PM (BR1Us)

3 On the few occasions, when out on the town with the wife, when some one said "Nice ass!" I wasn't sure if they were talking about her lovely physical attribute or making a degrading comment directed at me!

Posted by: The Wizard at May 19, 2005 05:24 PM (isqUU)

4 Just look at the reaction to Lindsay Lohan. Everyone was obsessed with her. Now she dropped about 200 lbs (from a starting weight of 110) and everyone is wondering what the hell happened.

Posted by: Kevin at May 20, 2005 12:14 AM (e7I2/)

5 My favorite example: Chicago, with bag'o'bones Zellwegger making Catherine Zeta-Jones actually look *fat* by comparison, but there was no question which one of the two was attractive.

Posted by: Adrianne Truett at May 20, 2005 08:08 AM (LyYK+)

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I present to you, my devoted Cake Eater Readers, your chuckle of the day.

26 elements have been added since 1923. When will it end?

Posted by: Kathy at 11:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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WRITE something, dude.

Posted by: Kathy at 02:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Step away from the photoshop, Steve-o.

It's for your own good, I promise.

Although, I have to admit, I like the one with Reagan and Goldwater. Heh. I also like the new llama portrait. I always knew Robbo had the braided bun thing going on.

Posted by: Kathy at 02:07 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Ith is right on about last night's House episode.

It was incredibly clever storytelling. If you missed it, well... you're just going to have to wait until the reruns come along this summer.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:32 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I went running yesterday. For the first time in God-only-knows-how-long. I only ran for a mile, thinking I'd best not push it. That's it's been a really long time, and that I'm really out of shape. That I didn't really want to be in pain tomorrow (today) and if I pushed it, well, I'd be prostrate on the sofa, begging the husband to feed me bon bons.

All I can really tell you is that one mile for me is now pushing it.

And all I really want right now is to lay on the sofa and have the husband feed me bon bons.

Posted by: Kathy at 05:55 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 I went running yesterday Silly girl! What on earth would you go do something like that for?!?!

Posted by: Ith at May 17, 2005 06:24 PM (ZZOLQ)

2 It sucks to start running again. I ran throughout college and my military service with a pr in the 5k of 16:12...I have since been injured and I have not been able to run a lot. I get out there thinking that I should be able to run a sub-20:00 5k with little to no training...not so much. I was able to do a few 5ks at around 25 minutes and a half-marathon at around 2 hours...not my best but it is a start. Running is a cruel mistress. Keep with it and go for the pr.

Posted by: cleversponge at May 18, 2005 10:47 PM (tyOvJ)

3 I'll be back at it tomorrow. My legs are just reaching the end of the pain stage. One soak in the tub tonight should cure all the ills. Or so I'd like to think, because if it doesn't, tomorrow is really going to blow.

Posted by: Kathy at May 18, 2005 11:36 PM (cgZvM)

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You've undoubtedly heard about what Georgie Porgy Puddin' and Pie had to say the other day at Cannes, right?

Well in case you hadn't, here's a wee bit of reading material to go with your sherry this evening.

"Star Wars" director George Lucas says that although he wrote the original film during the Vietnam War, his six-part saga could apply to the war in Iraq.

''In terms of evil, one of the original concepts was how does a democracy turn itself into a dictatorship,'' Lucas told a news conference at Cannes, where his final episode had its world premiere.

''The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable.

''On the personal level it was how does a good person turn into a bad person, and part of the observation of that is that most bad people think they are good people, they are doing it for the right reasons,'' he added.{...}

In response, Mr. Chenkroff has written an open letter to Mr. Lucas.

{...}You might be aware that all of us who saw the "Star Wars" trilogy throughout the communist world saw it as an entertaining, yet still nonetheless powerful commentary on the current world events. We simply couldn't escape the conclusion that the militaristic and freedom-crushing Empire with its legions of stormtroopers is a futuristic version of the Soviet Empire, which had conquered and enslaved hundreds of millions of people like myself. For us, of course, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and all the others fighting to restore the Republic were brave oppositionists and freedom fighters in the truest sense of the word. Like the Western movie goers, we too cheered when the Death Star was destroyed (twice), but whereas for our counterparts in the Free World this was just a great cinematic climax, for us it embodied the hope ("A New Hope", if you pardon the pun) that one day the specter of totalitarianism will vanish and we will be free again.

Apparently, however, we were wrong - we didn't read your movies correctly.

{...} May I also add that whatever your thoughts about the United States and its supposed descent from a democracy into empire, had the Rebels won, you would have never had a chance to film a critical allegory on your own government. At best, your artistic output would have consisted of short features about the 150% increase in the wheat harvest, and at worst - if you had stayed true to your conscience - you would be dreaming your "Star Wars" trilogy from behind bars.

{...}But if in your mind, it's the United States that has slowly transformed itself into an evil Empire, and therefore, logically all those who stand up to it are our story's true heroes, than I have to say that the Dark Side is very strong indeed, and I have crossed over a long time ago. If America is the Empire, then please prepare a black helmet and uniform for me too.

Go read the whole thing.

{Hat tip: Fausta}

Posted by: Kathy at 05:46 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Steve-o, in a Deep Throat sort of way, picks up where Newsweek left off. He has the scoop on what was actually swirling around in the toitys at Guantanamo instead of a copy of the Koran.

It's an exclusive. *Must Credit The Llamas*

Posted by: Kathy at 11:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hot Damn!

WASHINGTON - Wine lovers may buy directly from out-of-state vineyards, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, striking down laws banning a practice that has flourished because of the Internet and growing popularity of winery tours.

The 5-4 decision overturns laws in New York and Michigan, which supporters said were aimed at protecting local wineries and limiting underage drinkers from purchasing wine without showing proof of age. In all, 24 states have laws barring interstate shipments.

The court said the state bans are discriminatory and anticompetitive.

"States have broad power to regulate liquor," Justice
Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. "This power, however, does not allow states to ban, or severely limit, the direct shipment of out-of-state wine while simultaneously authorizing direct shipment by in-state producers."

"If a state chooses to allow direct shipments of wine, it must do so on evenhanded terms," he wrote in an opinion joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

The ruling means that legislatures in the 24 states barring out-of-state shipments will have to review their laws to make sure in-state and out-of-state wineries are treated equally. As a result, states could choose to allow wineries to sell to consumers directly, but could also bar all wineries from doing so.{...}

Hurrah for interstate commerce!

{Hat tip: Absinthe and Cookies}

Posted by: Kathy at 11:39 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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