I need to stop reading the news. Every single headline pains me, and makes me fear for my future.

What? Come again? Am I losing my mind?

Conservative Author Is Seeing Red in America (WP)

I watched Bush's Brain last night--another one of those documentaries that I assume won't teach me anything I don't already know, but it turns out I'm not as smart as I think.

Anyway, it's highly worth watching, although probably more chilling than it really needs to be. They definitely play up the "evil mastermind" aspect of Rove...but hey, maybe that's not that far off. He does creep me out.

And causes huge internal debates in my brain: Would I rather he were on our side, or are his nefarious ways so despicable that it's better to walk the moral high road, or something? Hmmm. I really can't decide on that one.

The most frustrating part: the movie concludes on a kind of "karma will get him" note. Which just underscores the way a lot of liberals seem to be thinking in these dark, dark times: they'll get theirs, this can't go on forever, people will come around eventually, yadda blah stuff.

Tonight, I'm watching a much more innocuous movie.

Oy.

The Globe and Mail: Journalist death toll exceeds Vietnam

Awesome. I love starting my day with good news.

Access to Abortion Pared at State Level (WP)

This is the scariest part:

Three states have passed bills requiring that women seeking an abortion be
warned that the fetus will feel pain, despite inconclusive scientific data on
the question. West Virginia and Florida approved legislation recognizing a
pre-viable fetus, or embryo, as an independent victim of homicide.

"Questioned about the Sheehan protest, White House officials invoked words Bush used after Sept. 11 to stress the importance of current overseas operations.
'On September 14, 2001, [the president] stood at the National Cathedral and told all of America that this was going to be a very long and difficult war, and that there were going to be some very trying moments, but that because of what happened on 9/11, that we had to view the world in a different way,' White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
He added that the Sept. 11 commission had concluded that the nation cannot take any steps backward in its anti-terrorism efforts without risking the terrorists coming '50 steps closer to our own shores.' This echoes Bush's words earlier this week, in which he said any withdrawal from Iraq would 'embolden' terrorists."

Gargh!!!! I don't even know what to say. I've lost words. All language has become meaningless. You cannot logically argue with a side that refuses to answer to logic, or even to acknowledge reality. It hurts my brain.

Standoff Continues in Crawford

Yup, it's still amusing me.

WIGU: A COMIC ON THE INTER NET

Good god am I bored. Is it time to go home yet?

And more. Heh. Heh heh.

WIGU: A COMIC ON THE INTER NET

This rocks. I am laughing at my desk. Yes, this is what I do at work.

WIGU: A COMIC ON THE INTER NET

Awesome. I may have finally found something I can have faith in.

Open Letter

Why are we such bullies? I don't want to be part of the bully country. I love it: "Well, I don't care that the rest of the world would like to focus on international poverty reduction; we want free markets! And no Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty!"

And we always get what we want.

U.S. Wants Changes In U.N. Agreement (WP)

Oh, and? If you pre-order the soon-to-be released Death Cab record "Plans" from amazon, you can listen to the whole thing digitally now. And it rocks.

Amazon.com: Music: Plans

Aside from the fact that they're taking this news brief from Rollingstone.com, which seems a strange journalistic tactic, at the very least, whoohoo! New B & S album! And something to make me sad, only because I can't go to London on September 25:

"Rolling Stone also notes that Belle and Sebastian will be touring the U.S. next spring. For now, your only chance to see Stuart Murdoch shake his lil tush on the catwalk Stateside will be at the Across the Narrows festival in New York City in October. Or you can trek to London on September 25 to see the band perform their classic If You’re Feeling Sinister in its entirety as part of All Tomorrow’s Parties’ “Don’t Look Back” series. Or you can sit in your room and weep into your diary until the flowers bloom again."

One of my favorite albums. In it's entirety. Performed live. Le sigh.

Belle & Sebastian news (Pitchfork)

Why are we regressing back to 1952?

A Perilous Journey From Delivery Room to Bedroom - New York Times

Drawn to reading this article by the promise that it revealed HST's not-so-nice side, I was ultimately disappointed by the kind of "uncovering" Ambrose takes. These paragraphs in particular kind of pissed me off:

The fact is they [drugs and alcohol] did not work for him. The drugs and alcohol - an immovable, prominent fixture in his social philosophy and life - appear to have ruined him. His writing lost its verve; sometimes, in the later years, it seemed little more than the work of someone stumbling toward being average. His health deteriorated. I can't know how happy his life was, but some press reports indicate a miserable, unholy shambles at times.

The way he finally ended that life - sticking a .45-caliber handgun in his mouth and pulling the trigger while his wife was on the phone with him and his son and grandson were close by in the same house - bespeaks a horrifying moral degradation.

All Ambrose is doing is showing his own opinions on what constitutes good writing, a good life, and moral certitude. That HST's writing might have "lost its verve" is a highly subjective statement. And Thompson's choice of a way to die doesn't inherently show any moral degradation: one could look at it as dignified, courageous. I'm not necessarily saying that I look at it that way, or that I'm familiar enough with HST's later work to say whether it had "verve." I just want to point out that what touts itself as an examination of Thompson's life doesn't really reveal anything by Ambrose's own thoughts about Thompson's life. There isn't anything objective, or compelling, about it.

The Cincinnati Post - The dark side of gonzo

This picture is awesome. Apparently, this veteran wore his specially-designed ear flaps during one of Bush's "Rally the Heartland and Defend the War" speeches this week.

I think I should get a set to wear around the office. I mean, what? Did I say that?

Holy buddha. Really? Yes, really.

Amazon.com: Books: Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed

I find it more disturbing that this program is receiving federal funding at all than that it has a religious component. On what grounds did "Silver Ring Thing" get a grant? To do what? Do I really live in a country where the Department of Health and Human Services considers this a valid way to deal with reproductive health issues?


Federal Funds For Abstinence Group Withheld (WP)

More proof that the trickle-down theory is nothing but a fanciful dream of the neo-cons. Actually, I'm sure they know it's crap, they just like to talk pretty to get the votes. Higher corporate profits do not equal better living for all.

Why a booming economy feels flat | csmonitor.com

What a smarmy, snarky jerk face. Now I'm even more appalled at the lack of real resistance to this guy. I wish that this information was enough to deny this man confirmation, but unfortunately, that doesn't seem likely to be the case.

Roberts Resisted Women's Rights (WP)

I think I just like her description of Bill O'Reilly as "bitter semi-employed dad."

Wonkette - Autumn of the Patriarchs

Why are these people crazy? Justice Sunday?

Conservatives Rally for Justices (WP)

Weird...Santa Cruz? At the Boardwalk? (I like the pseudo-plug for the place in the middle of the paragraph.)

The fact that he was in Scotts Valley the next day is even weirder.

"I spotted AG Alberto Gonzalez on 7/22 at the Santa Cruz CA. Beach Boardwalk with his family and the requsite security following 20 paces behind. It was right after Roberts was nominated to the Supreme Court -- I guess the AG realized that this would be a good time to get out of DC for a vacation. The Santa Cruz Boardwalk has been in business for about 100 years and has rides like Double Shot, Climb 'n Conquer, Fright Walk, and the Giant Dipper. I was sure it was the AG, and on Sunday 7/24 I confirmed it when he appeared from a remote in Scott's Valley, CA on the Sunday morning talk shows."

Wonkette - Wonk'd: Jenna Has Better Taste in Music Than You

Simulataneously funny, and very, very sad. But mostly funny.

Andy Dick as political speechwriter/advisor to Bushie

I am suddenly thinking about "Oryx & Crake," and the totally bio-engineered world Atwood created in that novel. Step one?

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | When meat is not murder

Yup, they're serious. I hope no one shows up.

DefenseLINK News: 'Freedom Walk' to Commemorate 9/11, Celebrate Freedom

Ok, this is starting to get weird. Perhaps god really does it out for the Boy Scouts? Maybe we really should take this as a sign...but of what? Boys shouldn't go camping in strange uniforms? Knot-tying is one of the dark arts?

Girl, 8, Killed by Tree at Boy Scout Camp - Yahoo! News

Every now and then I'm reminded that I really am a computer geek at heart. I'm in an HTML training course today, and I'm all nerdy and excited and already thinking about going home and designing more pages for this site and...and then I remember that I always get really excited about coding, but it never really goes anywhere.

That's because I like to be very good at everything I do, all the time. That's why I enjoy drinking beer so much--I rock at that. If I don't know everything there is to know about web design (which I don't) I feel like I should wait until I do know everything there is to know. Not exactly a practical goal.

In my quest to fill my life with more interesting activities, however, I'm going to make a concerted effort to allow myself to be imperfect. At least until I become perfect. I suppose it's never too late to learn perserverance. Or something.

Oh, and read this, too. "The Lorax" as an argument for stronger property rights? Interesting...

This is what I love most about literary interpretation. Anyone who says they're "over analysis" is obviously missing the point.

The Commons Blog: The Lorax Revisited

I love these kinds of interviews: rambling, in-depth, and conducted in a written, rather than spoken, medium. Oh, and I love the Silver Jews.

Silver Jews: Pitchfork Interview

I think today is the day my ipod decided I needed to hear nothing but really, really sad songs I haven't heard in a million years. I obviously needed to hear some songs from Beck's "Sea Change" (arguably the saddest record ever recorded), followed by a little Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (whose "Ease Down the Road" is a strong contender for that title). And toss in some Cat Power while you're at it! Just to mix it up, maybe some Pinback--still depressing as all hell, but a little more rockin. I forgot I had such a vast collection of sad bastard music.

I guess that's a good sign--it's been such a long time since I've wanted to listen to all my sad bastard music, I forgot I had it!

Wow. Second to last paragraph: did I actually write that? Did I actually love Boston once? I do recall that subway ride home from the aeroport, and feeling an overwhelming sense of adoration for this city.

I certainly don't feel that anymore. ESPECIALLY not when I'm on the subway.

The Smarmy Alligator

It's always interesting to discover that something you didn't think was a big deal has probably actually been pissing you off for a long time. I usually discover these things around 2 am, after 72 beers. I usually discover them when I've just made angry phone calls to poor, unsuspecting friends.

I think telephones should have breathalyzers, and should be rendered useless if you register a BAC of some high, high number. This should apply to text messaging as well. Doubly so, because there, you're also risking some nasty spelling errors.

Grrrr.

"A toothless, under-funded shell with inadequate support from President Bush." Does that surprise anyone? I think it's always been clear that civil liberties aren't Bushies biggest concern.

Civil Liberties Panel Is Off to a Sluggish Start

I've recently found myself in a strange predicament. I suppose it's not really a predicament, more like a situation. For lack of a better word. A technology-related conundrum. I've been seeing someone for a very short time, but I generally like him, more than I like most people I date. And seeing as he's a technologically adept and socially connected person, of course he has an internet presence. (The whole notion of our various internet presences is weird, in and of itself, but a topic for another time perhaps.) He has a myspace presence, to be precise.

I have no problem perusing the profiles and comments and blogs of random strangers. I have no problem perusing the online ramblings of my friends. But for some reason, I feel remarkably uncomfortable reading the online ramblings of this guy. I feel like a stalker, like I might be mistaken for an obsessive girlfriend.

Maybe I'm worried that I'll find something that makes me like him less. Maybe I'm worried I'll find something that makes me like him more, but it will be weird, because it won't be something he shared with me, it will be something I discovered in a detached world of 1's and 0's.

It makes me think of something I talked about with my mom when she was out here visiting. My little brother has a myspace profile, and my mom likes to check it out occasionally, to keep tabs and check up and all that normal mother stuff. She claims that she has free reign to do this, because he's put this up in a public space, and created this internet self that anyone can see. And while I see her point, I argued that myspace was not an internet space she could reasonably be expected to inhabit, and never would were it not for my little brother; therefore, I think she should leave it alone and give him that private space.

While I am a person who could reasonably be expected to be on myspace, I still feel the same way about this. It feels invasive. It feels like stalking or something. Friends have made the same argument my mom did about this: it's out there, and public, and so totally free game, and don't I ever google the people I meet? I guess I'm still just not sure how to negotiate the space between our real presences and our internet presences. And if I like the real presence enough, I think I'd rather just leave the internet presence alone.

Read The Imperial Presidency by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. for some cool background information about the history of executive power and privilege. Peter Baker's article this morning in the WP offers an interesting look at how the Dubya administration is further changing the limits and definitions of presidential power, but Schlesinger's book reveals that all of this is nothing new, and that the pendulum probably will swing back. Hopefully soon.

Privilege at Stake With Nominees

Curiouser and curiouser. I can't decide if I think this is awesome, or frightening, in a sick kind of culture overload way.

How the West Was Wonked (Washington Post)

Yeah, this Roberts character is icky. But he'll be confirmed, and honestly, I can't really see how he could not be. I don't think it's acceptable to deny confirmation simply because one's interpretation of the law happens to be repellant to you.

Bolton, on the other hand, should not be holding the office to which he was appointment, in a sneaky behind-the-back maneouvering kind of way. He is distinctly unqualified for it, in ways that go beyond differences of opinion. Double icky.

A Charter Member of Reagan Vanguard (Washington Post)