]]>1000 students, along with an additional 1000 friends and supporters, are this morning [Tuesday, Feb 19] walking the 7.3 miles between Prairie View and Hempstead in order to vote today.
Or see yesterday's aerial shots of them walking.
Larger article in the Houston Chronicle here.
]]>1000 students, along with an additional 1000 friends and supporters, are this morning [Tuesday, Feb 19] walking the 7.3 miles between Prairie View and Hempstead in order to vote today.
Or see yesterday's aerial shots of them walking.
Larger article in the Houston Chronicle here.
I don't know the history here, but this is what I see: the decision not just to speak, but to act. To quote a Farkism:
THIS.
To quote from Ana Marie Cox's election blog, Swampland, Texas' "Caucary/Primacus" is about to get really interesting. Have I mentioned how glad I am that Jeff got the old laptop fixed so that I could be productive on the couch while keeping up with primary coverage?
]]>"You know, we should just drink until the election's decided."
It had, after all, been Kat's 21st birthday, and this wackiness in Florida had been getting funnier by the daiquiri, and by mid-evening we were plenty toasty and the election showed no sign of making a graceful stage-right exit from our televisions.
Eventually we got everyone sober enough to go home, and we watched with horror as we realized that if we'd stuck to our guns, we would have gone on a month-long bender of historic proportions.
Fast-forward four years.
]]>"You know, we should just drink until the election's decided."
It had, after all, been Kat's 21st birthday, and this wackiness in Florida had been getting funnier by the daiquiri, and by mid-evening we were plenty toasty and the election showed no sign of making a graceful stage-right exit from our televisions.
Eventually we got everyone sober enough to go home, and we watched with horror as we realized that if we'd stuck to our guns, we would have gone on a month-long bender of historic proportions.
Fast-forward four years.
Tomorrow night at Stephen and Misty's, we'll commemorate the probable beginning of the recount with geek-style socialization. The locals are expected to bring the following:
I wish I could sit here in my chair, reflect on thoughts of the gathering, and say that we're going to be celebrating. The truth is that even though we'll have people in attendance who will have voted for Bush, Kerry, and Nader, none of us will be celebrating anything but our own cynicism. We've made jokes about bringing Canadian booze and giving bonus points to anyone who can sing the Canadian national anthem in French while swilling Canadian booze and standing up straight in hockey skates.
Tomorrow, in the race that my husband has started describing as "the wrong choice versus the stupid choice," I'll cast my vote for John Kerry even though, in the end, I know that vote is meaningless. Bush will carry Alabama, and carry it decisively, and nothing short of a signed videotape showing Bush personally burning down a church full of disabled war veterans holding cute fluffy bunnies will change that.
Take away the bunnies, and Alabama will still go for Bush. Now that's conservatism.
Still, you gotta vote your conscience. (You in the back who just asked, "She has one?" I heard that, you little pest.)
If I'm lucky, when I feed my ballot into the machine tomorrow morning, a little light will go on and little elves will start tapdancing and chanting "Liberal! Liberal!" just so the other suburbia-dwellers will know that their haven has been infiltrated.
Either way, I think I need to pick up some booze for tomorrow night. I have a feeling it's going to be a long, long night.
]]> ]]>Freedom fries? Freedom toast?
Freedom fries? Freedom toast?
FREEDOM FRIES? FREEDOM frelling TOAST?
In case no one else in this country stops snoring and bothers to say it, let me jump around and yell a bit in the hopes that someone will hear it:
]]>Freedom fries? Freedom toast?
Freedom fries? Freedom toast?
FREEDOM FRIES? FREEDOM frelling TOAST?
In case no one else in this country stops snoring and bothers to say it, let me jump around and yell a bit in the hopes that someone will hear it:
Members of the House of Representatives: You are all wankers. As you have proven yourselves useless, please shoot yourselves for the good of your country.
Before I go any further, let's put the blame where blame is due: Representative Walter Jones, North Carolina, who originally circulated letter suggesting this change, and Representative Bob Ney of Ohio, who spearheaded the effort to have this name change made in the House cafeteria.
In the end, they answer to their own constituents, but I should think a flurry of emailed and written rebukes might work nicely. Need some help? Here are some helpful ways to get started:
Walter Jones' contact information:
Snailmail:
Rep. Walter Jones
United States House of Representatives
422 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
DC Phone: (202) 225-3415
DC Fax: (202) 225-3286
N.C. Phone: (252) 931-1003
1-800-351-1697 toll-free (for NC residents only)
N.C. Fax: (252) 931-1002
Bob Ney's contact information:
Snailmail:
Rep. Bob Ney
2438 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
DC Phone: (202) 225-6265
I can't wrap my brain around just how incredibly stupid, pigheaded, and insulting this move is. This is supposed to be "symbolic" of our support of our troops. Symbolic? Oh, it most definitely is - symbolic of how immediately snotty our president and our elected officials become when the rest of the world doesn't want to play by American rules.
Gee, Bush wants a war. Wants to finish what his daddy started, I suppose. Congratulations - looks like he's going to get a rollicking good war - at the expense of American lives, any semblance of international agreement (much less cooperation), and any remaining slivers of goodwill left in the international community.
So, our president is going to aim, full speed ahead, at Iraq, while making conspicuous tests of a 21,000-pound bomb to make his point, which currently appears to be "Do what I say or we'll smack you around with this."
Where is Congress? This should be their moment to shine, to question the president's actions, to serve as a dissenting (or at least questioning) voice on what appears to be the eve of a war. Instead, they urge us to support our troops, beating the drums of patriotism with freedom fries and freedom toast.
Shame.
Better to be silent than to offer misbegotten 'support' in this political-stunt guise.
Mark my words carefully, reader. Do not construe my distrust of my president and his actions as a lack of support for the troops of this country. Nor should you construe my words to imply that I believe Saddam Hussein is a great, misunderstood leader; I believe him to be a dictator and a butcher.
But as the tone of a word is as important as its literal meaning, so are intentions and insinuations that accompany an action as important as the action itself. The French - and the rest of the world - will not remember this symbolic legislative action as being supportive of American military; they will see it for what it rightly is: an insult and a barely-veiled threat.
I love my country, but the people who govern it scare the crap out of me.
]]>Pass the chicken.
There's nothing quite like waking up one morning to learn that your adopted hometown is the news event of the day. "Four men dead in workplace shooting; police say that the gunman is holed up in some..." ... unnamed apartment building that's apparently over on my side of town.
]]>Pass the chicken.
There's nothing quite like waking up one morning to learn that your adopted hometown is the news event of the day. "Four men dead in workplace shooting; police say that the gunman is holed up in some..." ... unnamed apartment building that's apparently over on my side of town.
It was comforting to see that for at least one day out of the year, the Huntsville news stations actually had something to report on for a change. It was also comforting to see that the reports of the shooting were related in that same breathless tone of doom that marks every rain forecast or low restaurant health score. It would be much more of a compliment to say "they treated today's news like any other day's news" if they had any concept of how to treat a normal day's worth of news.
The stories change, but the tone never does: "Workplace Shooting, 4 Dead" is reported with the same note of urgency and horror as such obviously-filler topics as "Is Your Child's Drinking Water Safe?" More often than not, Jeff and I catch a 15-second teaser for the nightly local news, hear the topic, look at each other, shrug, and say, "Slow news day."
Of course, since we have the glory that is TiVo, we watched the first three minutes of the local news (yep, they're dead; yep, we've got shots of the traumatized family members; yep, we've got testimonials from survivors; now let's show recaps of the last few shootings in Huntsville that we've got film on so we can keep viewers tuned in), got the hint, and moved on.
Strangely enough, TiVo had an episode of the Daily Show. Even more strangely, one of the DS topics was about Smith & Wesson's decision to sell a .50-caliber revolver. Have I mentioned how glorious it is to have the freedom and liberty to pack a gun so large that if I decided to shoot someone with it, there wouldn't even be a body left to identify?
What, exactly, was the reason for making this gun available to the public? Something like "real men need more than a .24"? "Only pansies carry a .45"? Is there a single demonstrable reason for this gun to exist, except for the final pistol-topper in a my-penis-is-bigger-than-your-penis contest?
This is America. Bigger is better. I'm waiting for the ultimate super-sized package: a free .50-caliber with your next purchase of a Cadillac Escalade.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, I live in a planet where George Bush insists that we must go to war with Iraq because he says they are hiding weapons of mass destruction; meanwhile, North Korea shoots missiles into the sea.
Now, I don't know about you guys, but when did a missile get taken off the list of "weapons of mass destruction"? You know, light the fuse, it flies away, it comes down, and then goes boom on some heretofore-unsuspecting city? Cities, as you may have learned in your geography classes, tend to contain people and buildings and other very soft and appealingly squishy things that in war terms are known as "targets." Their eradication generally equates to "destruction," with the potential modifier 'mass' depending on the amount of actual destruction.
If North Korea has non-weapons-of-mass-destruction uses for its missiles, what would they be for, inviting Japan to a radioactive tea party?
Ah, yes. On this planet, potential Iraqi missiles are weapons of mass destruction that merit a war, but a real Korean missile really fired into a real ocean is something to be downplayed...and there's an actual need for a private citizen to own a .50-caliber weapon.
Now that's news.
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