Theater on a Grand Scale

Washington Post Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Want to wear a t-shirt protesting Bush? Want to hear one of his speeches, but don't really support him with the blind fervor of the neo-con right? Well, the organizers of those events have some pretty detailed instructions on how to deal with you, a "potential protestor". S

A White House manual from 2002 has recently come to light. The secret document gives presidential advance staffers extensive instructions in the art of "deterring potential protestors" from President Bush's public appearances around the country. And you thought that this sort of thing was covered under Free Speech, right? Nah, every single appearance by the president is carefully choreographed, carefully screened, and ever-so-carefully presented to the public.

The manual offers advance staffers and volunteers who help set up presidential events guidelines for assembling crowds. Those invited into a VIP section on or near the stage, for instance, must be " extremely supportive of the Administration," it says. While the Secret Service screens audiences only for possible threats, the manual says, volunteers should examine people before they reach security checkpoints and look out for signs. Make sure to look for "folded cloth signs," it advises. [...]

But that does not mean the White House is against dissent -- just so long as the president does not see it. In fact, the manual outlines a specific system for those who disagree with the president to voice their views. It directs the White House advance staff to ask local police "to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in the view of the event site or motorcade route."

So, dissent and the expression of opposition to the president must be carefully shielded from Bush. I've been searching the news sites and can't find reports of this sort of thing from previous presidents. Protest has always been part of our political system, protesters have always shown up at presidential speeches, and their opposing views have never been squelched like this. We didn't have "free speech zones" set up before -- only now, when the president is attempting to garner unprecedented power to himself and is so unpopular that even the die-hard base is starting to question things. Can't let him see that people don't love him. Can't let him see that not everyone thinks he is right and righteous.

So what to do when those pesky citizens want to express their opinions? Well, set up your own operatives to shout them down, wave supportive signs, and keep a weather eye out for anyone who might disagree. Apparently, the actual supporters aren't excited and vocal enough for the producers of these moments of grand theater. They have to place shills in the audience to make sure that the watching public thinks that there are active supporters. Bush only performs for Potemkin audiences.

To counter any demonstrators who do get in, advance teams are told to create "rally squads" of volunteers with large hand-held signs, placards or banners with "favorable messages." Squads should be placed in strategic locations and "at least one squad should be 'roaming' throughout the perimeter of the event to look for potential problems," the manual says.

Advance teams are advised not to worry if protesters are not visible to the president or cameras: "If it is determined that the media will not see or hear them and that they pose no potential disruption to the event, they can be ignored. On the other hand, if the group is carrying signs, trying to shout down the President, or has the potential to cause some greater disruption to the event, action needs to be taken immediately to minimize the demonstrator's effect."

Theater. Grand theater, but requiring a level of disbelief that not many people can summon anymore. I'd rather see the latest Harry Potter movie. At least everyone there knows that it's fiction.

What is wrong with people?

I am surprised, nay -- horrified -- that most people simply don't read. A recent poll noted that:

One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.

The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year - half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven.

How? How can these people survive? How can it be considered "normal" not to read books? (Or to read only FOUR in a year? Four? In a good week, I'll read at least that.

I am deeply, deeply suspicious of people who do not read. Oh, I understand that kids at home, busy jobs, etc, mean tha tyou don't have a lot of time to delve into that paperback novel sitting on the coffee table, but not to read at all? How is that possible?

I'm a serious bibliophile -- the Adorable Husband jokes that he can't leave me alone in the car without reading material, or I'll pull up the floormats looking for a new label I haven't read yet. I don't go anywhere without a book, just in case. Life has gotten busier lately, but I still read through a few books a week -- from fiction to reference books to whatever.

The internet, iPods, video games, and television bear the brunt of the blame for no reading, but that's really a crock, if you ask me. The most common reason? "Not enough time". Well, I'm sorry, I don't buy that. I fyou want to read, there's always time you can eke out from your day (I mean, really, you never go to the bathroom?) I think it's simply that many people don't want to have to expend any effort at all to be entertained. Reading a novel requires that you commit to the story, that you immerse yourself in the flow of the words and rev up your imagination; reading non-fiction requires that you at least engage your brain to process things. So many people want to sit back, passively, and just be amused by whatever. At least some poeple try to "explain away" the bizarre results by claiming that people do read, of course, they just read stuff on the internet, like news sites and other stuff. Maybe, but that doesn't replace reading a BOOK (whether physical or virtual). Reading a paragraph summary of the news isn't even reading -- that's the equivealent of reading the headlines scrolling across the bottom of the CNN screen.

It's rather frightening, actually, and I will freely admit to judging people who do not read as stupid, uninformed, and uninterested. If you can't be bothered to invest time in a good book, how am I to believe that you spend any time at all trying to educate yourself? It's not a fair assessment, I'll also admit; but if you simply cannot fit reading into your schedule, at least express regret about the loss! Those people who shrug and laugh and say they simply aren't interested in reading, or "it just makes me sleepy", as one respondent said...well, I don't even know what to say. I'm just flabbergasted.

Tare Weight

Ok, so we took the puppies into the vet on Saturday to draw blood for a distemper test and canine influenza test, since they were not really any better. We weighed them -- and had a Huge Freakout about the weasels losing 2-3 pounds since they had been in the previous Wednesday. I freaked, the vet freaked, even the unflappable Adorable Husband was a little freaked.

I spent the weekend in absolute terror that they had distemper. Couldn't sleep, totally anxious, convinced that they had this horrible disease that is 80% fatal in puppies.

Took them in this morning (for my mental wellbeing check) and weighed them....34 and 35 pounds. Huh. That would mean that they had gained five pounds since Saturday. While I suppose it's possible, probably not.

We puzzle over this a second, when I remember that Laura, the vet tech who was in on Saturday, made a comment about taking off the rubber pad on the scale to clean it.

The rubber pad that weights just about... 3 pounds.

She didn't re-zero the scale.

The whole office got a huge laugh out of this -- even me, after I managed to blurt out, 'Not funny! I totally freaked the hell out that they had lost all that weight! Not funny at all!" She's not going to hear the end of this for a long time. (I love her to bits, so I'm not really mad, but I'm seriously going to kick her butt!)

Whew. Less snot today, no wheezing, much more energy. Things are looking better!

Your Papers, Please

From CNN:

"Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act."

This barely noticed change to the original "Patriot Act" will require that every citizen report to a DMV with proof of identity, birth certificate, proof of SSN, photo id, proof of residency, etc, and get an official "Real ID" which will be required for any "Federal purposes", including getting in an airplane, using public parks, opening a bank account etc. It was originally dropped as legislation, but passed when it was attached to a military funding bill in 2005. This version wasn't even debated, just back-doored into the process because no one wants to vote against funding for the troops. Niiice.

I don't know about you, but I don't trust the government to keep the records it has safe, and I have no faith whatsoever that they can keep this sort of centralized information database intact and safe. The almost unnoticeable mention that the card will "use common machine-readable technology" means that they can track information about the card, about the user, and about its use. And the law itself is vague enough that the dept of Homeland Security (gah, I hate that name) still hasn't really defined what sorts of things can be included -- prints, bio-data, RFID tracking? They have said they can include these things, but haven't decided...yet. And who else will be using this sort of information?

I find this Readl ID to be a serious breach of privacy. I already have all these identifications. I have a passport. I shouldn't have to prove that I have the right to interstate travel within the US, or to provide my identification papers in order to go about my daily business.

Quite a few states have already passed legislation that states they will not comply with the RealID legislation. Luckily, Colorado is one of them. Other states have embraced this big-brother national identity system whole heartedly. Maybe it's a good thing we've identified them now.

The whole idea is a mess. It creates a national identity card (which the citizens have strongly opposed), imposes huge fiscal and bureaucratic costs on states, ups the risk of identify theft (because of a centralized database), while doing absolutely nothing to "prevent terrorism"...it's primary stated purpose. Apparently, terrorists will be too stupid to adopt the technology of the RealID, or fake the documents needed to get one of their own. .

Yeah. Right. There is an (admittedly strongly anti-id) FAQ here, if you want an overview

Total Relaxation

Happy Happy!

I am feeling quite content and happy today -- we headed up into Longmont to search out food and decided on a new Italian restaurant that the Adorable Husband had just heard of. We stopped in front, realized that it was more of a bar than a restaurant and the music blaring out was so loud neither of us wanted to go in.

So we wandered up the street and found Pinocchio's -- a little Italian bistro with red-checked tablecloths. When we sat down, the menu suddenly looked really familiar! Wait a minute...this looks just like the menu from our favorite little Italian place in Lafayette...which CLOSED abruptly a few years ago.

Yes! The same chef who ran the Sweet Tomato (where we practically lived while doing our kitchen renovation) is the owner! We were so glad that the other restaurant was just not attractive to us, or we'd never have discovered Pinocchio's.

This simple discovery has made me very, very happy today.

Everything is Secret

The Republican National Committee said it will not abide by a subpoena and turn over documents to a Congressional committee investigating the firings of at least eight US attorneys last year because the RNC is waiting to see if the White House will assert executive privilege over RNC documents at the center of the controversy, according to an outside law firm retained by the RNC.

Let me get this straight. The RNC, a political organization, is waiting to see if the president is going to claim executive privilege over their documents? Just how, exactly, is that supposed to work? It's stretching quite a bit to say that the entire RNC is "the kings man", and in a position where the president could claim that they are an advisor of such importance that they need protection. I suppose they're going to argue that since the president might have seen the documents, or that they might have been seen by someone else the president has declared "off limits" that they can refuse to provide them. Must be nice.

JK Rowling would be proud. Once again, Bush is trying to make the narrow accepted definition of executive privilege do double-duty as is personal Secret Keeper. He seems to think he can just decide that information that might make him look bad is simply unavailable to anyone else, for whatever reason he wants, for as long as he wants.

The day a political party gets executive privilege, the whole concept of "democracy" gets set by the wayside.

2 on the Weasel Scale

We still don't know what's wrong with the puppies, except that they have some sort of respiratory infection (viral or bacterial, we aren't sure, since the antibiotics don't seem to have had much effect.

They are not their normal perky little selves. Maybe a 2 on the 1-10 scale of Weasel-ness.

Poor puppers. They don't feel well at all. The vet office is calling twice a day to check on them.

Still more mucus

The weasels are still sick today, even after three doses of major antibiotics. Much more mucus and snorfling and they really just look like they feel horrible.

I woke the Adorable Husband up last night to make him look at a tissue of puppy snot. Lovely man that he is, he dutifully got up and assured me that it was perfectly fine and that no, it wasn't a sign of something horrible.

If they are still sick tomorrow, we're back to the vet. Sigh.

No Constitution

From one of the posters on TableTalk, where I often hang out -- the gentleman put this much more clearly than I ever could:

If you accept the logic that the government can do in secret what it is expressly prohibited from doing by the constitution, and BECAUSE it is secret neither the actions themselves nor the decisions to do them can ever be challenged, then you no longer have a constitution.

Yes.

Welsh Signage

I ran across this comment in a ScienceBlog regarding the change in US road signs to a new font called 'clearview', which purports to make the signs more readable. Hey, I'm all for more readable signs, but one of the commenters on the blog had this to say, which made me snort with laughter in a very unlady-like fashion.

The problem is there is no consistency as to where on the signs the two languages are placed. Sometimes the English is on top and the Welsh on bottom, sometimes it's the other way around, and sometimes (albeit rarer, as far as I can recall) they are side-by-side (and, I assume, which one is on the left probably varies?). That makes navigating in Wales a real treat, especially since the spelling in either language isn't always agreed--the map says Bygtih (I just made that up) whilst one sign says Buthr/Yobithge/10miles and the next sign says Bezoug/Bigyth/12miles, and when you finally get to the place (3 miles later), the "Welcome to..." sign says Oythiryg. All pronounced "Neigh".

Snorking Mucus SIckness

There has been much sneezing and snorting and puppy snot at our house since yesterday. The weasels are definitely not feeling well -- they're at about half-speed, if that. We've had to pick Rowan up and take him outside to pee a few times now, otherwise he just sleeps and snorts and blows little puppy boogers all over the place. Yuck!

So, off to the vet this morning. They aren't feverish, and there isn't anything obviously wrong with them, so she thinks it's probably just a respiratory bug and put them on antibiotics and antihistamines to get rid of the snorkling.

I get them home, give them the pills and then, this is all I've seen since:

Parade of Homes

This is the fourth (fifth?) year we've gone to the Denver Parade of Homes -- it's always fun to see what a 2 million+ dollar house is like, and see the design trends and nifty stuff in these showplace houses.

Last year, there was one house that was such a standout in the group that we went back to see it three times. This year, nothing really stood out much. THey were nice houses, but seemed 'overdone', and also seemed to be much more expensive than I would expect. Some of the houses this year were 2.6 and 2.7 million dollars. While the house itself is pretty big (most were about 6,000 square feet), the lots were TINY (smaller than our lot) and the price just seemed outrageous, even if you could classify the houses as "shorefront" because they could see, off in the distance, the small lake.

The theme this year was oceanfront/beach houses, and each house had a strong thematic element of the ocean, the shore, beaches, blue sky, that sort of east-coast-Cape-Cod sort of house. Rather odd for the middle of Colorado, if you ask me. It was also down in Aurora -- about an hour drive for us.

One home had a three-story gazebo sort of thing in the backyard, with a great pool that had an in-pool bar and waterfall; another had a spiral staircase to an "Artists Loft". Out of the five houses, I really liked only one of them -- the ranch-style -- which had a great vaulted and beamed ceiling in the kitchen and living room, and a ton of "outdoor" spaces. But, at 2.6 million (including furnishings) the price was a astonishing.

Still, it's fun to take pictures and notes and dream about your own "perfect house" -- and each year, some detail from each of the houses ends up on our lists. This year? The extra-tall doors and pedestal slipper tub for me, and the five tankless water-heaters and washer-dryer in every bedroom for the Adorable Husband. Oh, he liked the huge garages, too, of course.

Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics

Global warming, organic produce, hybrid vehicles, low-carbon lifestyles. Just about every day brings a story about one of these topics into my inbox. The claims range from "global warming is a myth" to "get 100 mpg!" and it's always a bit of a hoot to read through and see what particular brand of pseudo-science or statistical manipulation form the basis for the claim.

I'm not a scientist, of course. But I hope that I'm a decent evaluator of information and can at least identify the whackoloons and crackpots. (Well, Snopes helps, too.)

For example, I spent a lot of time trying to explain to people on a pet food board that organic does not necessarily equal "safe" -- nor does it mean "better" or "more nutritious"-- when the pet-food tainting story came out a few months ago. There might be many reasons to choose organic produce or free-range chicken, for example, but that is no automatic guarantee of safety and goodness. Taking herbal supplements or using homeopathic remedies is not safe simply because it's "natural", whereas taking aspirin is dangerous because it's made in a lab.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics, right?

So I was amused to find an article in the Times of London that makes the rather outrageous claim that it actually "costs more" in terms of carbon emissions and energy usage to walk around the city than it does to drive. The analysis is flawed (for example, not taking into account the cost of making the automobile and providing gasoline, while counting everything in the lifetime of a cow and assuming that 100% of our energy comes from meat) but the article is in a major (read: non-tabloid) newspaper and makes some rather outrageous claims that sound persuasive and reasonable. I'm sure that most people reading the article will file it away as "correct"

Food production is now so energy-intensive that more carbon is emitted providing a person with enough calories to walk to the shops than a car would emit over the same distance. The climate could benefit if people avoided exercise, ate less and became couch potatoes. Provided, of course, they remembered to switch off the TV rather than leaving it on standby.

The sums were done by Chris Goodall, campaigning author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, based on the greenhouse gases created by intensive beef production. “Driving a typical UK car for 3 miles [4.8km] adds about 0.9 kg [2lb] of CO2 to the atmosphere,” he said, a calculation based on the Government’s official fuel emission figures. “If you walked instead, it would use about 180 calories. You’d need about 100g of beef to replace those calories, resulting in 3.6kg of emissions, or four times as much as driving.

Mr Goodall is a Green Party parliamentary candidate. Obviously, this sort of analysis supports his particular campaign, but the logic doesn't quite stand up to scrutiny. The article is not entirely wrong, of course -- Goodall makes some good points that we need to consider the distance that our food travels as part of the "cost", and how much energy is needed to process, store, and then cook the foods that we buy. It's not an unreasonable suggestion, of course, but the misleading claim that 'walking is worse than driving' tends to make me skeptical about the rest of his "science".

Rum Runner

Years ago, the Adorable Husband spent some time in Key West, FL, most of it lounging about on the beach and drinking a lovely frozen concoction called a Rum Runner. We used to have the faded square of plastic the he cut from the glass he ordered it in, with the recipe on it; it disappeared somewhere in one of our moves.

Why did this come up all of a sudden? I got a catalog from Frontgate (a lovely, albeit very high-end house-stuff catalog) that included this lovely item: Granita Frozen Drink Maker. Basically, a home Slushy machine! At $2500 bucks, it's a ridiculous appliance, but it reminded me of how lovely those frozen slushy Rum Runners were. We often joked about renting a slushy machine to have them at a block party.

So I sent out to find the recipe and met with a bit of frustration -- about fourteen sites claim to be the "Original Tiki John's Rum Runner" recipe -- from the Holiday Isle Beach Resort & Marina, Islamorada, Florida, submitted, the story goes, by a bartender called Tiki John. The recipes were all a bit different, but the two primary options are these:

1/2 Oz. Rum Light
1/2 Oz. Rum Dark
1/2 Oz. Banana Liqueur
1/2 Oz. Blackberry Liqueur
1/2 Oz. Grenadine
1/2 Oz. Lime Juice (Rose's)
1/2 Oz. Rum 151-Proof

Or:

3/8 oz. Bacardi Black Rum
3/8 oz. Bacardi 151 Proof Rum
3/4 oz. Creme de Banane (Preferably Hiram Walker's)
3/4 oz. Blackberry Brandy (Preferably Hiram Walker's)
3/4 oz. Lime Juice
Dash of Grenadine (Preferably Giroux's)

In both cases, blend with ice in a blender and serve in a 12oz glass. That Granita Maker is looking pretty alluring.

MN Bridge

Listening to the radio last night, I heard a few things about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis that surprised me -- one, they finally have a navy salvage dive team going through the wreckage, and two, that the bridge had been classified as "structurally deficient" for almost two decades. Not that 'structurally deficient' was any particular reason for the bridge to fall -- hundreds of bridges in the US are in the same or worse shape.

The dive team wasn't really a surprise, I guess , but it took quite a while for them to be involved. The local rescue organizations simply don't have the right equipment or the right training to dive into the swift-moving water amidst the wreckage of the both the concrete and steel bridge, and the cars. There are still eight people missing.

Yesterday, rumors emerged that the problem with the bridge may have been something called "gusset plates", which are used to connect steel girders and are used in many bridges, not just the 35W bridge. There seems to be some concern that the bridge was under-designed from the start. They are even suggesting that the additional weight of equipment that was being used to repair the decking of the bridge may have been enough to cause the failure in these bolted plates. But the bridge has been cited for years as having severe problems -- corrosion, cracks, even missing bolts.

It's certainly making me look at every bridge I drive over or under with a much more critical eye.

Unnecessary Parsing

I've been reading a lot of commentary on the recently demanded (and granted) powers in the new FISA act -- which basically expands the ability of the government to spy on citizens, using some fairly specious arguments about national security and the ever-present Terra! fear.

There's been much discussion about whether the new rules would allow any incoming or outgoing foreign call from the US would allow surveillance, or whether it has to be a foreign-to-foreign call that just happens to use some US circuits (huh? How does that work?). Even more discussion about how sunsetting the rules somehow makes all this "ok", and that anyone worried about is must be a "tin-foil-hat conspiracist" because the government wouldn't be able to spy on Americans. I think it's been rather conclusively proven that they have, indeed, spied on Americans -- but the rules they defined are such that they don't have to tell anyone about it. See how nicely that works? They can do anything illegal that they want, because they aren't required to actually defend the act, because they explicitly exempt themselves from having to tell anyone about what they do.

But all of this is just unnecessary parsing -- there's no need to pick this apart. Once the executive is empowered to spy on citizens without a warrant, for any reason, and to claim that the details of the surveillance are secret because they impact some nebulous idea of "national security" and do not need to be justified or even revealed to congress or the courts..well, then the executive is empowered to spy on any citizen, any time, for any reason. Period.

Handsome Fuzzy Weasel

Bigger Weasels

They're starting to look more like dogs and less like puppies. In fact, Rowan's puppy fur is almost all gone and he has regular hair instead of fluff. Berit is still pretty puppy-fluffy, though. Of course, she's the less snuggly of the two.

They have learned that we don't appreciate being nipped, but that realization seems to occur to them only after they've done it once or twice. In the last day or two, both of them have taken to sidling up to us and licking us gently -- puppy kisses -- which seems to be a prelude to biting us like sharks. Lick lick lick...CHOMP! And they manage to look very surprised when we yell!

Our neighbors brought over a wading pool for the weasels -- it too a few days for them to decide they liked it, now they either stand in it or flop down in the water and become soggy puppy sponges. It's been hot and humid here, so it feels pretty nice.



Rowan always looks so worried.

They eat mulch. Not just chew on the sticks, or gnaw on things...they seem to actually eat the stuff. It's a losing battle to keep taking it away from them, so we've taken the tack that it's just roughage. So far, so good.


And more pictures in flickr, as usual.

Competitive Bunny Jumping

Yes, I'm serious. There is Competitive Bunny Jumping in Denmark.

It's kind of cute, really.

Enhanced Internet Experience

We had been with Sprint Broadband since about 2000, and we have been really happy with the service. About a month ago, however, we suddenly started having serious problems -- timeouts, unable to connect, download speeds so slow I was convinced that they were handwriting the packets and delivering them via camel train.

We've had minor issues in the past. We think that it's related to either a) the power lines between us and the tower, or b) everyone around us getting Mesa Networks antennae, which are rumored to cause interference with everyone else. Each time before, they've been able to tweak things or move the antenna a bit and thigns went back to normal for a while. This time, though, no joy. No matter what he did (on three separate visits) got us reliably connected. Since I work at home most of the time, having a connection that's fast, reliable, and consistent is pretty important!

So we swapped over to Qwest DSL, which offered us a much faster connection. We went from 1.5 Mbps to a possible 7. In reality, we're getting about 5 -- but still! Enhanced Internet Experience!



I got to do a brief 'told you so' dance about our new DSL connection, though. One of the requirements is that you have a special filter on all phone lines (DSL comes over the copper phone line, and you need to filter out the higher frequences so taht your phone still works). The Adorable Husband put filters on all the phones we use, ad disconnected (he thought) all the others. Our phone was still full of hissing and popping. I was sure that we still had a phone somewhere that wasn't filtered and he argued ith me that it wasn't necessary to filter ALL the phones, only those that you might talk on. As long as the filter was one the phone you were using, you'd be fine.

Well, hah! I was right. We had forgotten the telephone connection from the cable box downstairs and once I unplugged it not only did the phones clear up immediately, but the download speeds on our connection went through the roof! Yeah!

King's Cross Station, London

Rise of the Undead

This site might be one of the most disturbing things I've seen on the web in quite awhile.

Photo retouching for children's photos -- from snapshot to glamor shot.

Eeu. I mean, I get squicked out by the whole thought of kiddie pageants anyways -- the whole five-year-old beauty queen thing, and the weirdness that is a Pageant Mom are really just...kind of sick.

Some of the photos are just plain creepy. Like little dead children with perfect makeup applied by the mortician. I've seen dolls that look more alive than some of the retouched "after" pics.

The photo retoucher is technically adept-- if you like that sort of undead zombie teeny sex-queen effect. The retouches of the wedding photos are good, and seems more normal. Why on earth would anyone want their little girl to look like the "after" photos, though. Can you imagine the poor kid looking at the pictures and not even recognizing herself?

Anyway, make sure you keep clicking on the "see more samples" on each page -- there are a good dozen or so bizarre, undead-looking photoshopped versions of kid pictures, each weirder than the last.

You're not invited

Apparently, Bush is going to "visit" Minneapolis and the site of the collapsed bridge on Saturday.

Great, like the Twin Cities really need to deal with the shutdown of other freeways, more clogged traffic, and the airport security for a presidential visit so that his highness can run his motorcade through the city and get his picture taken next to the ruins. Why? What possibly purpose is there for him to come to the site, that couldn't be handled by an actual, heartfelt statement from his vacation? Oh -- and Laura will be visiting all those kids who were in the bus and escaped serious injury.

Because Bush's response to Katrina was so woefully inadequate, it looks like we are going to be forced to endure his PR visits every time there is some sort of accident?

We're supposed to believe they care, I guess. Yeah. Right. If you cared, you wouldn't cut funding for federal projects, and then try to blame the state of Minnesota for the problems without acknowledging that perhaps a teensy bit of blame belongs on the Federal government as well, for a federal highway. Pfah.

Meanwhile, 80,000 bridges in the US are inadequate, infrastructure is failing in multiple cities (water mains in New York, sewer systems in Detroit, just in the last few weeks) and no one really seems to care until there's a tragic accident that kills enough people to make the evening news.

Domestic Goddess Lessons

If you're like me, folding fitted sheets involves bundling them with most of the edges squashed in, and sort of mashing them into the back of the linen closet in roughly blobbish form (or, as I've done lately, just shoving the entire set of sheets into one of the pillowcases willy nilly).

Of course, Martha Stewart has instructions on how to actually fold fitted sheets so they look nice and stack into the closet.

Martha frightens me.

Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis

A 35W bridge in Minneapolis, near the University, collapsed at about 6:05 this evening. Over 50 cars were on the bridge when it collapsed, many of them went straight into the Mississippi river -- although there were a lot of people (including a bus full of kids coming back from a field trip) who walked away from the collapsed bridge. There is more information on the Star Tribune web page.
[image from Yahoo/AP]

Everyone in our extended families is ok -- no one was on or near the bridge when it collapsed. This is the bridge that my sister drives on every day, though. She's a bit shaken up, since only a last minute change in her plans kept her from being on the bridge around six o'clock.

Daid of Cuteness

This video is adorable, and it's not even my puppies!

Whistling Puppy

Aspergers

Everyone knows several people who are just slightly ...off in social situations -- a bit socially inept, uncomfortable with chitchat, often sort of oblivious to the social cues in a normal situation. I know that this is often related to mild Asperger's, a which syndrome on the autism scale and usually manifesting as problems with social behavior. Estimates of how many people are affected run from 3-71 people per ten thousand. It affects males much more than females.

I found a link to an interesting (if completely non-scientific) questionnaire to determine if you have tendencies to Asperger syndrome, with information on some of the social effects. I'm always a sucker for a questionnaire, and I scored a 12. Hm.

Education is Important? Bah.

Well, lawmakers in South Carolina have made it very clear that they don't actually value education, unless, of course, it furthers their political and religious agenda. Supporting a private school with a very specific political and religious agenda (and let's not ignore that these two are linked more often than we'd like) is ok --apparently even if you have to change the rules to allow a substandard, non-accredited school. Wasn't the legislature in SC nice to make such a special exception for Bob Jones University?

State lawmakers shot down a request for extra financial help for low-income students who will attend South Carolina's public colleges and universities next year.

Meanwhile, they approved $2.5 million to help low-income students attend Bob Jones University, a private school in Greenville.

The State Commission on Higher Education had requested $10 million to increase grants for some needy students attending public colleges and universities. Last year, low-income public school students received, on average, $1,158 in grants while their private-school counterparts received $3,100, nearly three times as much.

It's not that I'm upset that private schools get grants (although, why they would need 3X the public support than a public school is a bit questionable)--Private schools have been able to get grants in NC for years, of course, as long as they were accredited schools, non-profits, with a major campus in SC. But, the rules were changed so that any school that gives bachelor degrees and was started before 1962. Hey! That describes Bob Jones University to a T! What an amazing coincidence, isn't it? Like it was designed just for them!

And then, well, we better made sure that we fund the program enough so that can attend BJU with financial aid. Oh, we don't need to increase the amount for non-private schools! But look at all the people who want to attend BYU and just can't

Eddie Shannon, executive director of the Tuition Grants Commission, said that with the extra money, the commission can give about 800 low-income Bob Jones University students $3,200 next year. That's the same amount most other needy private school students will receive, he said.

The bill to include Bob Jones University was sponsored by Sens. Michael Fair, R-Greenville, and Darrell Jackson, D-Hopkins. Shannon said that although the bill didn't specifically mention Bob Jones University, "it happens to be the only new one that qualifies."

Must be nice to have he legislators looking out for you, eh? And it seems a pretty innocuous piece of legislation (you can view the actual text here) -- unless you, like me, actually value education.

In general, the rest of the collegiate world views Bob Jones as a bit of a joke, and for years they wore their non-accredited state as a badge of honor -- making it very clear that they were more interested in indoctrination and specious curriculum than reality. But hey, you can't focus on religion and dogma if you are actually being held to some sort of standards.

Bob Jones, like many other ultra-conservative religious instituations, teach creationism in their science department instead of, you know, actual science. One of the sponsors of the bill was also a sponsor of the failed bill to require teaching intelligent design in schools in SC last year. Well, this just deftly bypassed the Instead of funding highly accredited schools like Clemson, the University of South Carolina, legislators decided to keep South Carolina in the Dark Ages.

Bob Jones University is finally an accredited school (in April 2005) -- no, wait, that's not entirely true. They are accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. TRACS grants accreditation only to evangelical Christian institutions of higher learning. One of the nurses that works at the same hospital as the husband was denied the ability to join the military as a nurse, because her degree was not considered from an "accredited institution" -- in this case? BYU.

Yeah, they need all the help they can get.

Free Ebooks

Since I got my (fabulous!) Sony eBook Reader for Christmas last year (best present ever!) I've been constantly searching for good ebooks to load and read. They have a Connect Store, which has a ton of the newest releases, and I have a program to reformat Microsoft Reader files that I buy. I've also discovered that there are thousands of free eBooks from the Gutenberg Project.

A few other places to fine free (and legal) books --
baen sci-fi -- absolutely free books in several formats, from the venerable Baen sci-fi line.
wowio -- a variety of books (mostly new releases) that are free for those registering for the site with demographic information.

I signed up for Wowio two days again, and have received no spam or other email trash that appears to be related to the signup process. They require a verifiable email address (not hotmail or yahoo or other anonymous-type emails), and that always makes me a bit nervous, but so far, nothing has arrived.

Very cool.

Running with the Big Dogs

We go to puppy class twice a week. It's not actually class, of course -- it's more playtime with a five minute lesson in there somewhere, but the Weasels love it. Puppy Kindergarten is supposed to be for puppies 8 weeks to 16 weeks -- we're worried that in another two weeks or so, they're going to be so big we can't bring them to puppy class at all. They're already the youngest puppies in the class, and just about the biggest (the adorable Newfoundland puppy has them beat). It's so important that they get all the socialization that we can cram into their little brains, so hopefully we can manage!

At the vet today for their 11-week shots, and they weighed 24 and 26 pounds. I need to stop calling them Weasels and look for a larger animal. Badgers, maybe. Or wolverines, with those sharp fangy little teeth!

I don't have pictures of puppy class, but here are some puppy pictures to tide you over. This is what they do 90% of the time:

Look, I know there's something in there. C'mon! Dig with me!


Talk to the Paw!


Snarly Snarly Bitey face:

Drinking from the Big Dog's Bowl:


The cuteness is killing me daid. Of course, more photos on Flickr.

Plague Monkey Husband

Ok, the Adorable Husband was sick over the weekend, stayed home from work on Monday, and has been sick and headachy and generally icky since last Sunday.

He has a horrible headache, everything aches, feverish with chills...and now, SPOTS. He's definitely got West Nile Fever.

So, from the CDC:

It is estimated that about 20% of people who become infected with WNV will develop West Nile fever. Symptoms include fever, headache, tiredness, and body aches, occasionally with a skin rash (on the trunk of the body) and swollen lymph glands. While the illness can be as short as a few days, even healthy people have reported being sick for several weeks.

The symptoms of severe disease (also called neuroinvasive disease, such as West Nile encephalitis or meningitis or West Nile poliomyelitis) include headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, and paralysis. It is estimated that approximately 1 in 150 persons infected with the West Nile virus will develop a more severe form of disease. Serious illness can occur in people of any age, however people over age 50 and some immunocompromised persons (for example, transplant patients) are at the highest risk for getting severely ill when infected with WNV.

He had blood drawn to test for West Nile last week. They won't get results for another few days, but he definitely looks like he's managed to get it. I'm the one who gets eaten alive by mosquitos -- quite literally, dozen of bites -- and he gets bitten three times and gets sick. It's self-limiting, in most cases, and most people recover in a few days, despite all the hype and scare-words in the CDC page. We're not sure how I managed to avoid this, unless I really did have a very mild case last year that has given me some immunity. Colorado is expecting a very bad year for West Nile this year.

So far, he's not staying home from work -- he's not listening to me! I think he should be home, in bed (or at the very least in the chair) until he feels better! Send him emails and tell him to stay home!

Fangy Toothed Weasels

They don't fit under the ottoman anymore -- so now they just run around and around and around.



No, she's not trying to eat Berit, but the little beastie is being seriously annoying today. Uulaq doesn't take much guff.

Free! Cheap!

Does anyone want a puppy?

Take two, they come as a matched set!

They're driving me absolutely NUTS today. While they haven't quite mastered the whole housetraining thing, they have definitely learned that by whining in a specifically urgent way, that we will ask if they want to "go outside?" and they get to go romp in the backyard.

I am SO being played by the little weasels.

Beet Pulp Safety Warning

A rather amusing story for aninal lovers -- Beet Pulp Safety Waring

Operatic Range

So, an experiment in single-puppyhood last evening. The Adorable Husband is sick (they actually think he has West Nile -- and he has the spots to prove it) so I took ONE puppy to the puppy kindergarten class.

Packed up Rowan, put his cute little harness on and went to class. Left Berit at home in the puppy pen, with a gate across my office door, just in case.

The shrieking started immediately. And continued, unabated, for two solid hours. The husband got up, picked her up and carried her around, tried to calm her down...no go. Operatic screeching punctuated by pathetic little whimpers for the entire time we were gone. He said that nothing calmed her down.

We've had them separated before -- in fact, we're very careful to do it just so this sort of thing doesn't happen. We take them for separate walks, but apparently that's not enough. So far, it's only been for 15-20 minutes or so.

When we got home, she snorfled him all over, then laid down on top of him to sleep, still whimpering occasionally in her sleep.

I sincerely hope we haven't just cemented serious Separation Anxiety in her teeny little puppy brain! I think we'll be trying very short separations and work up to class all alone in a few weeks. Oy!

Executive Privilege

Even if you don't pay much attention to the news, you've probably heard the words "executive privilege" bandied around fairly often in the last few weeks. Citing executive privilege, Bush has forbidden his aides and other associates from responding to Congressional subpoenas, refused to provide information for ongoing investigations, issued an executive order to prevent the Justice department from prosecuting contempt charges, hidden all information about the friendly-fire death of a US soldier; pretty much anything that he doesn't want to talk about is suddenly covered by "executive privilege". Even Cheney, who a few weeks ago was claiming that he wasn't part of the executive branch, is happy to make claims of executive privilege when he doesn't want to come clean with the American public.

There are certainly things in the executive office that are covered by the rather nebulous concept of executive privilege -- but it is not meant as a get-out-of-jail-free card to avoid any and all transparency of the action of the executive branch. I'm all for making sure that national security is maintained, but this is beyond the pale.

Bush has invoked and expanded this idea to be a shield against everything. Generally, the idea of executive privilege means that the president's involvement in things can be shielded from public view, so that he can continue to do his job without constant interference and investigation. People aren't compelled to discuss conversations that had with the president. It isn't meant to cover any one who is even remotely associated with the executive branch -- waht Bush seems to mean when he claims "executive privilege" is that anyone who talks to him about anything is immune from Congressional subpoenas, even about matters which they did not discuss with him.

If Bush wasn't involved in the attorney firings (which have prompted a number of subpoenas and now contempt charges because Bush has told people in his administration to not respond to them) then Executive Privilege doesn't apply. If this was entirely within the Justice Department, and no wrongdoing was perpetrated...then Bush has absolutely no reason to invoke any kind of privilege for himself, adn certainly doesn't have the authority to claim it for others just because the outcome of the questioning might be embarssing for the administration. By claiming executive privilege, Bush is implicitly admitting involvement, which means that he was lying before when he said he wasn't involved. Either way, an unacceptable position.

The president does not have this power -- not by the constitution, not by generally accepted legal precedent -- not by assertion. It's astonishing, beyond astonishingto actually offensive, that the president thinks that he can simply disregard congress, disregard the American people, and disregard the law. He really does seem to believe that he's above the law and he can do anything that he wants, without fear of retribution, because he can simply bypass the laws by fiat whenever he wants to. I supposed the next step is just to get rid of the justice department and get rid of congress so the King can do whatever he wants.

Congress is not accepting this argument, as well they shouldn't. We -- the people -- deserve better than this.

Ironic?

With the exception of food stuffs, I don't really pay much attention to to whether things are imported from China. I probably should, with the recent spate of information about chemical contamination in many chinese products -- toys, food, pills, etc. The whole fiasco regarding gluten products used in dog food was bad enough, but when you think about the foodstuffs that we import from China, it gets a bit scary.

But sometimes the juxtaposition of chinese goods and western sensibilities is a bit amusing. There is a clothing line called "Free People". They make kind of bohemian clothes, rather funky. You can find them at Nordstrems.

They're imported. Usually from China.

I'm really not going to pay $70 for a shirt made in a sweatshop in china. Especially not one with the label "Free People".

More Clicking

Well, apparently Rowan felt left out. Now he's started clicking, too! Aargh!

It definitely seems like a "growing pains" sort of thing. I'm pretty sure they're growing visibly each day. Every morning we come down and they're taller.

Issue of Suffering

CRAIGVILLE, MA hosted 80 religious leaders from at least five denomination sin a week-long theological conference (called the Craigville Coliloquy) to discuss issues facing the faith community. This year, the topic was the issue of suffering. Many people of faith want to know why a benevolent god allows innocents to suffer, and they aren't happy with the answers from their churches.

"The explanation for suffering has become a thorn in the side of many 21st-century congregations, and pastors acknowledge the challenge. "We chose this topic because this [struggle to explain suffering] is a reason why people are leaving our churches," says the Rev. Llewellyn Smith, one of the colloquy organizers."

There is no real answer to the question that still fits in with the christian view of god, and people are trying to come to grips with an answer.

"When discussing human suffering and God's relation to it, stakes are high for church leaders and laity alike. They must decide whether to say a tragic event is a) God's doing, b) something God could have stopped but didn't, c) beyond God's realm of power, or d) unknown to God.

It's a serious question, and one that I am sure bothers a lot of believers. Non-believers don't waste a lot of time worrying about it, except to note that the presence of innocent suffering in the world generates a logical contradiction with the concept of the christian god. All good, all knowing, benevolent, and caring don't mesh well with people dying of common diseases, floods that kill thousands, plane crashes, school shootings. But if you do accept that there is a god, there seems to be disconnect here. I can understand how it would disillusion churchgoers to be told that they simply don't understand that they are supposed to suffer as part of the plan, and that despite these actions, that god is still good and cares about them.

If you believe, could you stay in a church that said it was god's will that thousands of people died in a flood? Or that students died in the regent Virginia school shooting? Many people can't. It's become a difficult issue for religious leaders when faced with this sort of question from their congregations. I'm not particularly impressed with some of the proposed answers:

For some, it was occasion to be daring. Asked why someone should believe in an almighty and loving God amid evidence of suffering, Magill backed off traditional doctrine. "I give up the 'almighty' part," she answered. "God is as powerful as those who believe in Him or Her and who let God guide them.... But we don't always do that, so God becomes less powerful.

This is a perfect tautology, by the way. "God is only as powerful as you believe him to be, and if you don't believe enough that god is powerful, then he isn't." I don't quite think that's going to be the official position of many christian churches, although it's certainly a concept familiar with atheists: god exists because people want him/her/it to exist, because god serves an important personal and social need.

Interesting article, and an interesting conundrum in the realm of the faithful.

Forensic Identification

I was a bit skeptical when newspapers announced that they had positively identified the mummy of Queen Hapshetsut (the Egyptian pharaoh from 1473-58 BCE). We visited her temple in Deir el Bahri when we were in Egypt, and her story is one of the more interesting pieces of Egyptian history.

She was the daughter of Thutmosis I, and married her half-brother Tuthmosis II. When he died, she became regent for Tuthmosis III, but after a few years, she assumed the throne as Pharaoh. She wore the traditional male articles of clothing, the false beard of the pharaoh, and reigned Egypt during a particularly prosperous period.

However, after her death, she was effectively "erased" from Egyptian history. Her statues were smashed, her name and image were defaced whevered they appeared, and she never appeared on the 'king-lists' that show the lineage of the pharaohs for over three millennia.

Like many of the pharaohs, her mummy had never been identified. So when Zahi Hawas and the Egyptian Antiquities group decided to re-open the search, I was expecting a much less positive result. Using a combination of CT scans, MRI images and even DNA testing, they assessed four possible mummies that might be Hatshepsut. The 3D image generated by the scans allowed them to compare known data and relics with the possible mummies -- and indeed, the final identifying bit was a broken tooth!

From a sealed box that has been accepted as belonging to Hatshepsut -- it's provenance is well known and everyone agrees that the contents of the canopic box are hers -- contained a fragment of a tooth, a molar with one of the roots broken off. The scans show that is matches exactly to the remaining broken root in the mummy that they had believed to be the queen.

Discovery channel did a special on the investigation which was fascinating (and reminded me that Mr. Hawas has never met a camera he didn't like!).

Miss Clicky Butt

Well, the vet doesn't seem too worried about Berit's clicking -- he thinks that it is a tendon issue, probably in her left knee. Everything feels fine, nothing seems to be painful, everything seems to work.

Since she's growing so fast, it's most likely a transient problem. If it continues, he says, we may want to xray next week at our 11 week appointment. But, it hasn't slowed her down at all, so I'm going to try not to worry!

And the growing like weeds? Berit is 20.2 pounds this week, Rowan is 22.4. They're not quite 10 weeks old.

Oy.

Deathly Hallows

No spoilers, I promise.

The Adorable Husband is avoiding me -- for fear that I will spoil the ending of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for him. I finished yesterday afternoon, he's still about half-way through the book. We actually bought two copies because we couldn't figure out how to share nicely!

I really enjoyed it -- I think it's the best book yet, and I was very surprised by the plot twists. I haven't been keeping up with all the 'predictions' sites, so I really had no idea what the rest of the world seemed to expect. It was quite different than I thought it would be.

If you don't want to inadvertently get spoilers for the ending (or anything else in the book) then you had better sit down and read it quickly, and don't websurf or watch the news! Details seem to be everywhere.

Clicking!

Berit has started clicking. I can't tell if it's her knee, hip, elbow, or what. About half the time she's romping around, she sounds like someone cracking their knuckles, or those bad-knee clicks that the Adorable Husband has all the time.

We thought at first it was her collar, but after taking it off and letting her romp in the backyard, it's definitely her making the clicking noise. She doesn't seem to be in any pain, and it certainly hasn't slowed her down much.

I'm hoping it's just a fast-growing side-effect (they are about six inches taller than they were two weeks ago!) and it is nothing serious, but we have a vet appointment today, just in case. With such big beasties, we always worry about hip dysplasia or other bone problems, but just two weeks ago, our vet thought she felt fine. But, like I said, they are growing like the proverbial weeds, so who knows. Gah.

Fur it, or agin it?

This same bill that Bush threatened to veto back in May he is now using to slam his critics. Now it's the democrats who are against pay raises? After he strongly opposed the more-generous pay raise that the democrats sent him in May? Well, of course no one is going to remember that, and I'll give a buck to anyone who hears about it on the news now. Fat chance.

President Bush, (Friday morning):

I’m joined by veterans and military families here to express support to our troops and their mission in Iraq. I want to thank you all for being here today. We’ve just finished a really good meeting. In our discussions, these folks had a message that all of us in Washington need to hear. It is time to rise above partisanship, stand behind our troops in the field, and give them everything they need to succeed. In February I submitted to Congress a Defense Department spending bill for the upcoming fiscal year that will provide funds to upgrade our equipment for our troops in Iraq and provides a pay raise for our military - a comprehensive spending request - that Congress has failed to act on.

President Bush, May 16, 2007:

Military Pay: The Administration strongly opposes sections 601 and 606. The additional 0.5 percent increase above the President’s proposed 3.0 percent across-the-board pay increase is unnecessary

Where is this granted?

Can someone explain to me where the constitution enumerates these dictatorial powers to the executive? Huh? It doesn't? Maybe someone ought to tell this administration.

WASHINGTON — In the growing battle between the White House and Congress, the administration will block the Justice Department from prosecuting any contempt charges that Congress may bring as a result of the administration's claim of executive privilege, according to a news report.

Administration officials have discussed the plan for several weeks, a move that could derail ongoing attempts in Congress to uncover new documents or testimony in the investigation of last year's firings of several U.S. attorneys, The Washington Post reported.

"A U.S. attorney would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case," an unnamed administration official told The Washington Post, adding, "A U.S. attorney wouldn't be permitted to argue against the reasoned legal opinion that the Justice Department provided. No one should expect that to happen."

Here's the full report.

Me? Bad? Naaaahhhh

Of course they're little angels. They'd never do anything bad.....

Escapees

I was woken up this morning by...two extremely happy little puppy faces at the side of my bed. On the second floor. Past both the puppy prison playpen and door gate meant to keep them in my office.

It took me a few moments to realize that something was wrong with this picture and quite a bit longer to chase down the little weasels and get them back downstairs (since they apparently can go UP the stairs, but not down.)As far as I can tell, they had broken out of puppy jail by pushing the whole playpen thing about six feet, until the free end was finally past the edge of the bookcase and then slipped out to run amok in the house. I have no idea how long they were out before they ventured upstairs -- but there was suprisingly little damage, all told. Shredded toilet paper, all the kitchen towels in the living room in little spit-soaked heaps, my shoes all over, tipped-over bag of dog food.

Uulaq was hiding in the other bedroom. She must have thought it was her fault they were loose and she didn't want to be anywhere near the fallout when I discovered that she'd let them run around the house!

No pee spots (at least that I can find). They must have had a great time!

Math Problems

I can't resist copying this snippet from Pharyngula:

• Fundamentalists: believe 2+2 =5 because It Is Written. Somewhere. They have a lot of trouble on their tax returns.
• "Moderate" believers: live their lives on the basis that 2+2=4. but go regularly to church to be told that 2+2 once made 5, or will one day make 5, or in a very real and spiritual sense should make 5.
• "Moderate" atheists: know that 2+2 =4 but think it impolite to say so too loudly as people who think 2+2=5 might be offended.
• "Militant" atheists: "Oh for pity's sake. HERE. Two pebbles. Two more pebbles. FOUR pebbles. What is WRONG with you people?"

Cellphone Danger

This is actually a pretty awful story -- a car accident in Lexington, KY, where a woman and her six-year-old child were serioudly injured after their truck flipped over in the oncoming lane.

Jacqueline Dotson and her six-year-old daughter had to be cut out of their vehicle after the accident in which Dotson veered into the median and over-corrected, rolling her truck over the guardrail and landing upside down after flipping several times.

A good samaritan stopped, and put a tourniquet on Dotson's severed arm. She and her daughter should be fine.

But I clearly recognize that I am a bad person because the following sentences in the story actually made me sort of laugh.

Several people stopped to help, and it turns out, the good samaritans may very well have saved Dotson's life. Sheila Vice, a nurse's aide, and an off-duty EMT from another county stopped to help, and put a tourniquet on Dotson's arm to stop the bleeding. Her arm was found near the accident still clutching a cell phone.

Let me just repeat: Her arm was found near the accident, still clutching a cell phone.

Think that was the cause of the accident? I see dozens of drivers every single day that swerve all over, stop or move abruptly...all because they've got that phone plastered to their ear. I was nearly hit in a parking lot when a women sort of spasmed and slammed on the brakes as she ducked below the dash to fetch her ringing cellphone. She was so absolutely conditioned to answer it Right. This. Second that she forgot everything else that she was doing.

The damn things should be banned while driving. Even hands-free phones, when the driver simply HAS to answer them the microsecond they ring, can cause drivers to be erratic and unpredictable.

Spare Dog

Uulaq is molting. She does this twice a year, of course (more often if she's stressed) and hair is coming off of her in hunks. Her other name is "Sheds like Buffalo". The amount of hair is amazing.

This enormous pile is from one side of the dog. And not even that completely brushed out.

We also got the Weasels little harnesses -- so while we teach them to walk on a leash we aren't yanking them around by the neck. They look like teeny-weeny sled dogs.


More pictures on Flickr, of course!

Spare Trousers

I thought all the laughing commentary about 'wear dark pants' when you use Alli, the new diet-drug, was just that -- commentary. But no! The site itself actually warns you about something they are calling "treatment effects" (which the rest of the world call side-effects, I guess, except that these are pretty much guaranteed to happen. )

This is the same stuff as Xenical, and is supposed to prevent you from absorbing fat from the food you eat. But, eat just a smidge too much of the forbidden fat and...well, the warnings aren't pretty. Anal leakage? Eeeuuu.

So I checked the website for Alli (myalli.com)- here are some of the lovely side effects (which, while rather disgusting, aren't dangerous at all):

gas with oily spotting

loose stools

more frequent stools that may be hard to control

And yes, their suggestions actually do say, "wear dark pants". I bet Marketing is having fits.

You may feel an urgent need to go to the bathroom. Until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it's probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work

You may not usually get gassy, but it's a possibility when you take alli. The bathroom is really the best place to go when that happens

Methinks that this is not going to leap off the shelves, with warnings like that! Although, you know? It might work -- albeit in a completely different way than they intended.

I think that Alli works more like electric-shock treatment -- you know how they convinced rats not to eat by zapping them every time they touched the food? If it's so absolutely awful and possibly grossly embarassing to eat even a middling-fat mean (say nothing of high-fat), you will eventually avoid them automatically -- negative reinforcement works really, really well. Alfredo sauce? Cheese? Big mac? Well, be prepared to change your underpants (after an extended period of IBS-like symptoms. From someone who has weekly attacks of The Claw (serious intestinal distress!), it definitely makes me think seriously about what I eat.

It might actually work, if viewed like that -- not as a "I can eat anythign I want because I won't absorb fat!", but instead as "oh, shit, that's high fat and I'm waring white pants" -- it's quite possible that Alli will be very successful in helping people lose weight and keep it off. It will definitely change people's behavior, which is the only way that you can ever keep the weight off.

There goes more important info

I often joke that my bizarre ability to remember weird facts and trivia means that these little bits of data replace something important in my memory. Remember every wine bottle size? Whoops! There goes your memories of second grade!

The weird thing I learned yesterday? Bowling Shoes are sold as right-handed and left-handed pairs, since the soles of the shoes are different. You have a 'sliding shoe' and a 'braking shoe'. The sliding shoe is on the foot opposite your 'handed-ness', so you can do that little flourishy follow-through you see in professional bowling. If you're serious about it (like my Dad was), you might have interchangeable pads on the soles to handle different lane conditions.

Rental shoes, of course, are the same for both feet, with a composite sole that is neither grippy nor slippery.
[image from bestbowling.com]

Forget we ever said anything

From the Center for American Progress:

Conservatives who are now fully embracing the filibuster as a tool to thwart passage of Iraq redeployment bills are the very same lawmakers who were calling for the "nuclear option" in 2005. At the time, Republicans held 55 seats in the Senate and were constantly voicing anger over the "obstructionism" of Democrats, who objected to the confirmation of a few right-wing judicial nominees. In 2005, the majority called for upending the practice of filibustering judicial appointments.

Now, those same senators -- who are currently in the minority -- have been constantly deploying the threat of a filibuster. Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) previously said the filibuster was "bad for the institution. It's wrong. It's not supportable under the Constitution. And if they insist on persisting with these filibusters, I'm perfectly prepared to blow the place up. No problem."

Now, Lott, along with Kyl, are using the filibuster to provide political cover for President Bush and prevent passage of legislation that retains the majority support of Americans.

So it's only bad if the "other people" do it. Judges are only "activist judges" when they disagree with what you want them to do, policies are only wrong if they aren't your policies, behavior is only criminal or immoral if the other guys do it.

I know that both sides (all sides?) do this sort of thing. My astonishment here is that the republicans made such a huge deal about how the filibuster was baaaaad, and how it was obstructing the workings of the government, and how we simply shouldn't tolerate those damned democrats trying to frustrate Bush's grand plan.

Now? They are more than happy to use exactly the same tactics, do exactly the same things they accused the democrats of...but now it's a gooooood thing, and they're protecting us. Seriously, shouldn't their heads explode from the hypocrisy?