Hm. Maybe I should move to Vermont.

A fictional kingdom in Vermont - ExploreNewEngland.com

More comics. But hey! I did something useful today! I made a form...a beautiful, beautiful form.

Cat and Girl

Cat and Girl Battle International Communism

This article rocks.

Pop Comfort Over Ambition - New York Times

"'When Americans learn to speak a language, learn to speak Arabic, those in the Arabic region will say, 'Gosh, America's interested in us. They care enough to learn how we speak,' ' Bush said."

What a freakin' moran. :-)

Foreign-Language Learning Promoted:

I want to fight the War on Esoterics.

Don't Iraq The Boat - Wonkette

This picture (in the link below) just reminded me of an analogy Susan Faludi makes between headwear and maturity (in the excellent book Stiffed). Her point is that a cap is a sign of boyishness, and that prior to WWII, it was expected for men to eventually graduate to man-hat-wearing status. The fact that men no longer tend toward man-hats, and continue to wear caps pretty much until death, signifies an inability for contemporary men to, uh, grow up.

It's a pretty compelling argument in the context of the book. Read the book. Yeah, it's a thousand pages long, but it's really, really good.

Abramoff Plays Ball - Wonkette

Barista bandits? Only in Seattle.

"I bet they were strung out on something other than caffeine," said Michael Chiu, a spokesman for the police in Bellevue, east of here, which is working the "barista bandits" case, as it is known among the authorities, with the Seattle police and several other police departments.

Espresso Huts Are Target, and Barista Tips Police - New York Times

Ha! My family are not the only strange people who drink this. Reading this has convinced me that it's about time I introduce it to the Empress. Whether she'll like it is another story entirely...

TOM AND JERRY Recipe at Epicurious.com

Sometimes it's amazing to realize how much books can be worth:

Abebooks Search Results - darwin, charles

Jon Stewart to Host Oscars - New York Times

Brilliant.

Gasp! People like their electronic devices? I never would have guessed...

CJR Daily: Electricity: For Real, or Fleeting Fad?

Oooh, good Andrew Bird news. He's not coming to Boston again, but reissues! reissues!

Pitchfork: Daily Music News

Why does he always look so cartoonishly evil and weird? What's with the grimaces, and the staring eyes? I wonder is small children have nightmares about him?

(Picture from WP)

(Oh, and the beginning of this article in the Post basically says Cheney's a big fat liar. What a shocker.)

I think the most annoying aspect of the Abramoff guilty plea is the way everyone is acting as though they didn't know this kind of shit went on. As though they're fooling anyone. Abramoff's public apology, his declarations of atonement and pleas for god's forgiveness...it's disgusting. He's not sorry he did it, and no one could possibly believe that he is--he's sorry he got caught.

What is saddening is that everyone knows the political system is corrupt, but no one cares. These "revelations" aren't surprising anyone. We've just accepted for so long that this is how politics works. It's disgusting. Can it be changed? I'd like to believe so, but the truth is, no one cares.

Bush to Give Up $6,000 In Abramoff Contributions

What a profound truth...heehee.

[Boy on a Stick and Slither]

It's not too often you're going to find a slang word that continues to be used for over 100 years.
From the OED:

cushty, a. (and adv.)
DRAFT ENTRY Sept. 2002
Brit. slang.
Brit. /kti/, U.S. /kti/ Forms: 19- cushti, cushty, kushti. [< Romani (in Britain and Scandinavia) kushto, kushti good, perh. influenced by CUSHY a. Cf. Hindi khush, pleasure.]
Good, wonderful; fine; brilliant. Freq. as a general term of approval or agreement. Also as adv.

[1889 A. BARRÈRE & C. G. LELAND Dict. Slang I. 528/2 Kushto, koshto, good.] 1929 E. MCCARTNEY Additions to Vol. on Slang & Idioms World War in Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. 273 Cushty, smart, good. 1937 ‘J. CURTIS’ There ain't no Justice xx. 226 Him and Tommy'd manage them cushty. 1972 Guardian 9 Oct. 16/5 ‘Kushti little trailer, you know,’ he mused. 1985 J. SULLIVAN Only Fools & Horses (1999) I. 4th Ser. Episode 5. 235 (Del is on the phone.) Del. No, no, no, everything's cushty! Yeah, no, no, no, you've got nothing to worry about! 2001 Daily Tel. 4 Apr. 22/5 Jamie Oliver has shot to culinary fame with almost indecent speed, but not everyone is a fan of his ‘cushty’ cuisine.

Because I didn't come across anything particularly interesting today, and because no one really reads this, so I can definitely indulge myself: the last 20 songs that I've heard on my iPod:

Girl Inform Me, The Shins
Hands Off, Old 97s
Turning Japanese, Liz Phair
Knives Out, Radiohead
Title Track, Death Cab for Cutie
It Hurts 2 C U Dance So Well, The Pipettes (It hurts me to type that title)
Ck86, Sweet William
Papa Was a Rodeo, Magnetic Fields
Amitryptyline, John Vanderslice
You Just Haven't Earned it Yet Baby, The Smiths
By The Way, Built to Spill
What You Are, Drill
Stable Song, Death Cab for Cutie
This Is Love, PJ Harvey
Trailer Trash, Modest Mouse
Immigrant, Sade
Sister Anne, Green Pajamas
Running Up that Hill, Kate Bush
Violent Love, Oingo Boingo
Offline P.K., Pinback

If you like that stuff, you should go to last.fm, sign up, and then search for username lkrier. Then you can listen to what I listen to. Or something. It's a cool site, even if you don't like what I listen to.

Craparagus.

Whaaat? Good god, I'm just glad I didn't have to write THIS story.

Down on the Ranch, President Wages War on the Underbrush

Heeheehee. Back to work, back to the internet comics. This one is especially for Crystal...scrabble. Heh.

Questionable Content: New comics every Monday through Friday

This one is way funnier.

Internet Archive: Details: Perversion for Profit (Part I)

Do they still make books this way? I hope so. I especially like the very bored old ladies putting signatures together. This is part of the "Americans at Work" series created by the AFL-CIO in the late 50s. Yay for the unions! And workers! And preserving literacy!

Internet Archive: Details: Bookbinders

Every now and then I will read a quote in an article that just appalls me with its appalling badness. Usually, these are quotes from religious fundamentalists. This is one of those quotes:

"This decision is a poster child for a half-century secularist reign of terror that's coming to a rapid end with Justice Roberts and soon-to-be Justice Alito," said Richard Land, who is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and is a political ally of White House adviser Karl Rove. "This was an extremely injudicious judge who went way, way beyond his boundaries -- if he had any eyes on advancing up the judicial ladder, he just sawed off the bottom rung."

The "secularist reign of terror"? Who do these people think they are? What are the judicial "boundaries" that Jones supposedly crossed. How ignorant can people be? Well, at least the ruling was sane...

Advocates of 'Intelligent Design' Vow to Continue Despite Ruling

FBI Papers Show Terror Inquiries Into PETA: Other Groups Tracked (WP)

Very amusing.

Best Rejected Advertising Volume Three

This is pretty cool.

Online Exhibition - Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943 (Library of Congress Exhibition)

This is where I always go when I go home. In high school, I used to hang out underneath that pier.

California Coastal Records Project - Image 200407879 - "Crystal Pier Hotel, San Diego"

You can almost see my old house in this picture. This site is awesome, but it's making me a little homesick. I guess it's ok because I'm going home tomorrow, and I can look at the ocean all I want. I miss the Pacific.

California Coastal Records Project - Image 200507073

Hee hee hee.

SALTED WATER FOR BOILING Recipe at Epicurious.com

Ok, I'm getting way too into this right now. Of course, I'm a bit of a book hoarder and I'm not yet sure that I'll be able to bring myself to release my books into the wild, but I like the idea A LOT. I wonder how often people actually do track books, how well this whole idea works...hmmm.

BookCrossing - Home - FREE YOUR BOOKS!

There's always something new to amuse me when I finish reading the archives of my favorite cartoons. This one spamused me. Ha ha. Ha.

Spamusement! Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!

Scientists discovered a gene that explains the appearance of white skin in humans; they think it probably mutated as people moved further north, in order to make it easier to take in Vitamin D from the sun in less sunny regions.

This is the kind of genetic science that totally fascinates me. I wish they didn' thave to give so many disclaimers about people not misunderstanding this discovery and using it in bad ways. But I guess I resolved myself long ago to the stupidity of most people.

(And will newspapers stop running ads about fungal infections in fingernails. They're gross.)

Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin (WP)

Ok, weird.

Columnist Says Bush Knows Who Leaked Name

I always knew there was something going on with that hot pie filling...

Scary Go Round :: Monday-Friday Comic by John Allison

Today I learned a new word. Thank you, Scary Go Round.

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Belial

Ok, weird. Who sponsored this ad site?

Black Page

"Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told reporters: 'The combination of extremist ideology, a warped understanding of reality and nuclear weapons is a combination that no one in the international community can accept.'"

And yet...the US has nuclear weapons, and no one is imposing sanctions on us...

Iran's President Calls Holocaust 'Myth' in Latest Assault on Jews (WP)

There is a lot in here that's true, and a lot in here that's ignorant. People think they can eliminate prostitution, but that's impossible if their understanding of it doesn't become a little more nuanced.

I wonder sometimes if it will ever be possible to eliminate it completely. The pimp guy quoted at the end of the article has a point when he says that this stuff goes back a long time (they don't call it the oldest profession for nothing). But does the belief that "some women like to be exploited" have to be a part of it? Would prostitution be less wrong if pimps were eliminated, and women had control over the selling of their own bodies? If the violence and coercion weren't part of it?

I haven't really thought about any of this since I was in school. It's always been something I was very opinionated about, and reading articles like this, where the complications remain under the surface the whole time, can be frustrating. But it's good to know that there are some things that politicians are willing to set aside ideological differences for.

In a Shift, Anti-Prostitution Effort Targets Pimps and Johns

From the Oxford English Dictionary:


girl power, n.

Brit. /gl pa/, U.S. /grl pa()r/ Forms: 19- girl power, girl-power, girlpower, (in sense 2) grrrl-power. [< GIRL n. + POWER n.1 In sense 1, formed in contradistinction to MANPOWER n. In form grrrl power (see sense 2, quot. 19922) after GRRRL n.; cf. RIOT GIRL n.]

1. The number of girls available to perform a task; girls considered collectively in relation to their capacity to perform work. Contrasted with MANPOWER n.
1952 M. LOWRY Let. 24 Nov. (1967) 323 Nearby is a Catholic church within which it says: ‘We want girl-power for our convent.’ 1963 Population Index 29 356 A dowry was required for a girl's marriage. Her farm family..needed cash more than it needed girl-power. 1989 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 18 June 1D, The St. Louis Boy Scout and Girl Scout councils and the Missouri DeMolay, the Masonic youth organization, quickly supplied the boy- and girl power. 1996 News Tribune (Nexis) 10 Mar. C1 Why waste so much manpower (more precisely, boypower and girlpower) in holding dozens of games designed to fill footnotes in a record book?
2. orig. U.S. Power exercised by girls; spec. a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition, assertiveness, and individualism. Although also used more widely (esp. as a slogan), the term has been particularly and repeatedly associated with popular music; most notably in the early 1990s with the briefly prominent ‘riot girl’ movement in the United States (cf. RIOT GIRL n.); then, in the late 1990s, with the British all-female group The Spice Girls.
1986 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 16 June V. 1 ‘Girl Power: Health Power’ motivates girls to assume long-term responsibility for their health and fitness. 1992 Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (Nexis) 14 Mar. 1B, Beatrice Joseph, 7, helped dissect a sheep's heart Friday to learn about the heart as part of the Minneapolis YWCA Girl Power program. 1992 Houston Chron. (Nexis) 4 Oct. (Lifestyle section) 3 Places like girl bedrooms, girl bathrooms and punk-rock clubs such as 924 Gilman in Berkeley, Calif., that have specially arranged girl nights, when girl bands sing songs about girl power. 1994 Rolling Stone 16 June 24/4 It has four all-girl bands... All amazing. Part of the grrrl-power underground that's so exciting. 1997 J-17 June 44/3 If something you've bought isn't up to standard, remember you're entitled to complain. Use your girl power and don't let the shop assistant fob you off! 1999 Times 2 Aug. 43/4 This was the fabulous, horrible lie of Girl Power as a movement with absolutely no meaning, it became a disembodied slogan capable of being slapped on any act. Girl Power, it seems, is simply Anything A Girl Does. 2001 Dreamwatch Mar. 24/1 Cameron has done it by mixing the sober feminism of his Terminator and Aliens characters with the sexed-up Girl Power of a Britney Spears concert.

I am fully in favor of taking up the first definition again--"I think we'll need 300 units of girlpower for this one, sir." Hee hee.

The 1999 example could pretty much be directly related to the 1997 example (in part two of the definition).

Sweet.

Scary Go Round :: Monday-Friday Comic by John Allison

Dude, could I get any more bored-er? I think not.

Oh..so THAT'S what's up with Christopher Walken.

Yes, I get paid to do this all day.

Niego

Heh! Exactly my sentiments...

Niego

An excellent method for solving moral conundrums--"What Would President Jimmy Carter Do?"

Scary Go Round :: Monday-Friday Comic by John Allison

New comic addiction. I recommend going to the chapters link and starting from the very beginning. Oooh, scary comics. It's kind of like Scooby Doo. With scary sentient gasses and gingerbread houses. Very odd. But then, I always like odd.

Scary Go Round :: Monday-Friday Comic by John Allison

How many times must these things be said before the saying actually matters?

Nobel Lecture - Literature 2005

This is awesome for so many reasons.

Politics or Not, Bronx Warmly Receives Venezuelan Heating Oil

Because boyfriend is just an annoying word.

Thesaurus.com/boyfriend

I'm all about bringing back "gentleman friend."

I have a mild fascination with old postcards. They are about the only thing I ever look at in antique shops. I guess everyone thinks they're a little cool.

The Morning News - Real Photo Postcards, by Harvey Tulcensky & Laetitia Wolff

I heart Barbara Ehrenreich. Here she talks about her most recent book, Bait and Switch, activism, the frustrations of the white-collar job search, faith-based services providers, and her love of battle scenes in cheesy historical epics. Excellent. Always insightful. She's awesome.
The Morning News - Barbara Ehrenreich, by Robert Birnbaum

Alright. I read this story because I thought, "Cat-fox! Now that's news that won't be depressing! Who wouldn't want a cat-fox?"

Then I got to the part where the WWF says that their plans to further study this potentially new species might be stymied by the Indonesians' plans to build a palm oil plantation in this rainforest.

Sigh.

CNN.com - Researchers to trap mysterious cat-fox animal - Dec 6, 2005

Yet again, these people are crazy.

WSJ.com - Business

Ok, they say it all better-like. I ain't much of a writer.

Put Christ in Christmas or Wherever Else He Belongs - Wonkette

This is completely ridiculous. The fundies are running amok, going crazier than the secular lefties ever did, and really? Really? People are going to get pissed that a card says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"? They can't think of anything better to receive their ire, to focus their energy on? Is this really what christianity is all about now? Blech.

'Holiday' Cards Ring Hollow for Some on Bushes' List

I will never understand why it's ok for the US to decide who gets to have nuclear weapons.

Iran Plans to Build Two More Reactors

This seems a little bit wrong to me.

WHO Stops Hiring Smokers

The Washington Post has been running some interesting stories lately. Here's another one about CIA practices in the war on terror. Hopefully all of this coming to light will force some changes. But I doubt it.

Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake

You know, I've started to notice that reporters will write about grassroots, internet-based activism that comes from the right, but much less often about those same efforts from the left. If journalists write about MoveOn or the Human Rights Campaign, it's often in an article expressly about progressive internet activism. But right-leaning organizations and efforts are mentioned in articles like this one, about Alito. Their planned campaign to get him confirmed is mentioned, but not MoveOn's ongoing campaign opposing him. Why is this?

Alito Distances Himself From 1985 Memos

So sad. I grew up reading the Berenstain bears (and especially my mom's old altered version, heehee). This is kind of an odd obit, though. In the end, Farhi questions whether the world presented by the Berenstains is really the world we want to teach our children. I say, there children's books. Let them rest in peace.

Stan Berenstain's Honey-Coated Medicine

Oh for the love of god. I especially like the part where Rumsfeld claims that Iraq isn't really our responsibility, and we should stop feeling like it is. Er. Yeah.

Rumsfeld's War On 'Insurgents'

"Bush cautioned that victory will require continued sacrifice. He became emotional as he read a letter left on the laptop computer of Marine Cpl. Jeff Starr, who was killed while fighting in Ramadi this year.

'If you're reading this, then I've died in Iraq,' Bush read, his voice cracking. 'I don't regret going. Everybody dies, but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, but it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so they can live the way we live.'"

It probably would have been wise to first find out if they want to live the way we live.

Bush Presents Plan to Win Iraq War (WP)

The world is a strange, strange place.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Bosnia unveils Bruce Lee bronze

How morbid.

US to hold 1,000th execution this week - Yahoo! News

Good stuff...

Overcompensating: Actual Things That Happen to Jeffrey Rowland: THANKSTAKING

Holy redesign, batman!

Of course, I don't have time to read any of the actual news on this site, much less think of something pithy to say about it. But at least my "fear of change" gene didn't kick in and make me automatically hate it. Is that a sign of personal growth? Hmmm.

CJR Daily

Shocker!

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force

If he really is innocent, why are they using every option they can find to stop the trial from going forward, or at least to make it as biased-in-his-favor as possible? Just, y'know, wondering and everything.

DeLay's Lawyer to Ask Court for Early December Trial Date

“Most Texans are down-to-earth folks, which is why the attempt to fool them into thinking a marriage protection amendment was actually a threat to marriage didn’t wash,” said Robert Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute. “The snake oil salesmen who came up with that tall tale ought to move on to more congenial environs, say, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, or Santa Cruz, California.”

Heh heh. I find it humorous that both places Knight mentions are places I've lived. I guess that's why I don't live in Texas.

Concerned Women for America - CWA: Texas Voters Protect Marriage and Reject Lies

"Wendy Wright, executive vice president of Concerned Women for America, said the GAO report showed that the FDA had made the correct decision. "Making Plan B over the counter would needlessly expose adolescents to risks and reduce access to health care to those in need of it," she said."

This isn't even logical. I am so tired of these half-assed, irrelevant arguments, that for some reason actually manage to prevent sound, scientifically-based, seemingly obvious things from happening. I am sick of living in a country run by the Jesus freaks. Did the middle ages end some 800 years ago?

And the Concerned Women for America? I hate them.

Review of 'Plan B' Pill Is Faulted

What is it about the former Clinton Administration that still gives me warm fuzzies? I know his administration was imperfect, and that he was an imperfect President. He made lots of decisions that I disagree with, because, above all, he was (is?) a politician, and, well, that's a job that requires wading in the muck and doing despicable things. Yet...sigh. I can still look back on it all with a glowy, nostalgic feeling.

I suppose it probably has a lot to do with the really, really bad feelings I have about Bushies administration. In comparison, the Clinton team were saints.

Legacy of 42nd President Framed With Barbs at 43rd

Good stuff. :-)

Panda-Matrimonium! - Wonkette

It's good to see that we've brought the rule of law into Iraq.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saddam trial lawyer is shot dead

Sweet! This is my dream project! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this...

Pitchfork: Daily Music News - Frank Black, Kristen Hersh cover 80s Teen Movie Songs

Only two Democrats voted for this legistlation: Landrieu (LA) and Nelson (NE).

I just thought that was interesting.

This is the best part: "It would raise $2.5 billion through leasing parts of the Alaskan refuge to oil and gas interests. " Leasing our public lands to private companies. Awesome. I love Republicans.

Senate Passes Plan to Cut $35 Billion From Deficit

"Currently 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office -- the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls."

Ok, I want to know who this 39 percent is! What do they approve of? Is this really just staunch, die-hard loyalty? Are these people who would still approve if Bush shot a black man while getting a blow job from a male intern in the Lincoln bedroom? I want the pollsters to ask this 39 percent what they're thinking!


Bush's Popularity Reaches New Low

"Harriet E. Miers withdrew last month because of criticism of her credentials, not her views."

This is an interesting statement in the NYTimes--it seems almost like wishful thinking, or a deliberate disavowal of the complete story. Miers was roundly criticized for her views--namely, that they weren't conservative enough. Many people believe she withdrew because the ultra-scary conservative base was angered by her nomination, which would certainly indicate that she was criticized for her views, not her credentials.

In fact, I remember being repeatedly surprised by even articles in this paper that the criticism over her reputed non-conservatism were raised more frequently than her qualifications.

History re-written?

Ideology Serves as a Wild Card in Senate Debate on Court Pick - New York Times

Ok, is it just me? This is a really weird picture...

Yahoo! News Photo

Is this truly necessary?

Ananova - World's first gay motoring website

Oh man. Republicans ARE an odd bunch. Is there something about a conservative social policy that incites bad sex writing?

The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town

Yup, exactly. Nothing particularly mind-blowing here (unless you're a Republican), but I like it when people point out the should-be obvious.

Bark Bark Woof Woof

"The CTC's chief of operations argued for creating hit teams of case officers and CIA paramilitaries that would covertly infiltrate countries in the Middle East, Africa and even Europe to assassinate people on the list, one by one.

But many CIA officers believed that the al Qaeda leaders would be worth keeping alive to interrogate about their network and other plots. Some officers worried that the CIA would not be very adept at assassination.

'We'd probably shoot ourselves,' another former senior CIA official said."

Oh, ok. Good. It's nice to know they hire only the best!

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons:

And this is the reason the Repubs are all over tort reform. What kind of asshole do you have to be to file a claim like this?

"A class action lawsuit entitled Chavez v. Netflix, Inc. was filed in San Francisco Superior Court (case number CGC-04-434884) on September 23, 2004. The lawsuit alleges that Netflix failed to provide "unlimited" DVD rentals and "one day delivery" as promised in its marketing materials. Netflix has denied any wrongdoing or liability. The parties have reached a settlement that they believe is in the best interests of the company and its subscribers."

Lawsuits are intended for recourse in a situation where another party has seriously injured or detrimentally affected your life. Not when a company fails on the "one day delivery" ad copy. If it bugs you that much, cancel your freakin' membership.

Doing his part to ensure corporate power only gets stronger. Thanks Frank Chavez!

Neflix Settlement

Gargh! Just because Republicans find it impossible to be objective or impartial about anything doesn't mean a judge isn't going to be able to do his job properly. What, is this going to start being a valid concern in all trials? Will I be able to get up and say "I'm sorry, your honor, but as a raging liberal, I don't think your conservative, Republican self can properly judge me"? Stupid, stupid, stupid. What is this country coming to?

Democratic Judge Is Removed From DeLay Case - New York Times

Now I feel like a I want to be a Democratic cheerleader! Are they finally DOING something? Hmmm.

I hope that they're serious about this. And I hope they're willing to take it as far as it has to go. It will be nothing but a political stunt if they're not willing to point fingers at members of their own party, if required.

Yeah, right. Who am I kidding?

Democrats Force Senate Into Closed Session Over Iraq Data - New York Times

Compassionate Conservatism in action. Cut Medicare and Medicaid. Cut Food Stamps, despite the fact that 500,000+ more people went hungry in 2004 than 2003. Cut support for foster care and child-support enforcement.

But at least there's this: "House Republican moderates have grown increasingly queasy about what one of their leaders, Rep. Michael N. Castle (Del.), calls an unbalanced package, too weighted toward cutting programs for the poor. "

Rhetoric Meets Reality in the Budget Season

Hee hee hee.

indietits.com- these birds are hipper than you

Bull Moose

New things to read are always fun.

I should be doing work right now. Why am I so lazy? Oh yeah, four hours of sleep. Sweet.

This is mildly nauseating to me:

"The panel, in that same ruling, struck down a single provision in the law requiring women to notify their husband's before they obtained an abortion. Alito dissented from that part of the decision.

Citing previous opinions of O'Connor, Alito wrote that an abortion regulation is unconstitutional only if it imposes an undue burden on a woman's access to the procedure. The spousal notification provision, he wrote, does not constitute such a burden and must therefore only meet the requirement that it be rationally related to some legitimate government purpose.

'Even assuming that the rational relationship test is more demanding in the present context than in most equal protection cases, that test is satisfied here,' he wrote.

'The Pennsylvania legislature could have rationally believed that some married women are initially inclined to obtain an abortion without their husbands' knowledge because of perceived problems -- such as economic constraints, future plans, or the husbands' previously expressed opposition -- that may be obviated by discussion prior to the abortion.

'In addition,' he wrote, 'the legislature could have reasonably concluded that Section 3209 [the spousal provision] would lead to such discussion and thereby properly further a husband's interests in the fetus in a sufficient percentage of the affected cases to justify enactment of this measure. . . . The Pennsylvania legislature presumably decided that the law on balance would be beneficial. We have no authority to overrule that legislative judgment even if we deem it 'unwise' or worse. '"

Or more than mildly nauseating.

Bush Selects Alito for Supreme Court (WP)

Good stuff...

Reflections on this period of DCeption - Wonkette

This is a transcript of a public conversation between Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector, and Seymour Hersh. Pretty interesting background on Iraq, and Ritter argues that we need to look beyond the Bush administration, back to Clinton, back to the first Bush administration to uncover the totality of the situation. Lots of interesting stuff here I'd never been aware of it. And lots of brutally honest finger pointing:

"Congress has abrogated its responsibilities under the Constitution, and they've abrogated it for years. Then there's the media, and, yes, we can turn this into a media-bashing event. But you know what? The media only feeds the American people the poison they're willing to swallow. And we the people of the United States of America seem to want our news in no more than three-minute chunks with sound bites of thirty seconds or less, and it can't be too complicated. So what we did is allowed ourselves during the decade of the 1990s to be pre-programmed into accepting at face value without question anything that was negative about Saddam Hussein's regime, and this made selling the war on Iraq on the basis of a lie the easiest task ever faced by the Bush Administration."

Scott Ritter and Seymour Hersh: Iraq Confidential (The Nation)

I just started a mailing list for Boston indie-type musical stuffs. Wanna join? Send an email to

bostonindiepop-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Sweet.

Zombie Infection Simulation

Ok, this thing is weirdly entertaining. I can't figure out why.

Someone on the indiepop list just posted the last 20 songs played on his iPod, in the midst of a conversation about musical diversity. I love stuff like this, but can't imagine everyone in the i-pop list would really be interested in knowing the last 20 songs I listened to. But here, I can do whatever I want, and not have to worry about bothering anyone (largely because no one reads this). So here ya go, the last 20 pieces of musical goodness that have floated through my machine and into my head:

20. Here Comes Your Man, Pixies
19. (I Want You) More Than Ever, The Clientele
18. No. 13 baby, Pixies
17. Good Man, Archer Prewitt
16. Amphibian, Bjork
15. What a Day That Was, Talking Heads
14. Who Named the Days, Arab Strap
13. I Was Meant for the Stage, The Decemberists
12. No Name No. 5, Elliott Smith
11. I Want to Vanish, Elvis Costello
10. The Stars of Track and Field, Belle & Sebastian
9. Suzanne, Leonard Cohen
8. Two-headed Boy, Neutral Milk Hotel
7. Everything Hits at Once, Spoon
6. Punchbag, Punchbag
5. The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders, Sufjan Stevens
4. Breaking Lines, The Pastels
3. Sleepwalking, Modest Mouse
2. HWY A, The Rock*A*Teens
1. Man Out of Time, Elvis Costello

You'd be amazed how many people are interested in separating interests with commas. At least on Friendster. It's apparently quite the kick these days. I thought finding people who were similarly interested in commas and semicolons might be curious, but alas, all these people are instead into this weird new trend. It's almost...cultlike.

"'It is clear that Senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House -- disclosures that would undermine a President's ability to receive candid counsel," says President Bush.

No, it is clear that Senators would not be satisfied until someone qualified was nominated.

And now the speculation can begin anew. Who will it be this time?

Harriet Miers Withdraws Nomination

More nefariousness from my favorite company.

Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit Costs - New York Times

Flowery prose alert! Flowery prose alert! Gross, dude:

"For thousands of years, something in the eternally lustrous metal has driven people to the outer edges of desire - to have it and hoard it, to kill or conquer for it, to possess it like a lover."

Behind Gold's Glitter: Torn Lands and Pointed Questions (NYTimes)

"Mehlman, who was White House political director before becoming chairman of the Republican National Committee, has been a key adviser, although some colleagues worry that bringing in the party chief [to replace Rove as deputy chief of staff] might send too political a message."

Right. Because Rove's not a stauchly Republican, party-oriented political figure at all. Who comes up with this crap?

A Palpable Silence at the White House (WP)

"Meanwhile, several constitutional law scholars said they were surprised and puzzled by Miers's response to the committee's request for information on cases she has handled dealing with constitutional issues. In describing one matter on the Dallas City Council, Miers referred to 'the proportional representation requirement of the Equal Protection Clause' as it relates to the Voting Rights Act.
'There is no proportional representation requirement in the Equal Protection Clause,' said Cass R. Sunstein, a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago. He and several other scholars said it appeared that Miers was confusing proportional representation -- which typically deals with ethnic groups having members on elected bodies -- with the one-man, one-vote Supreme Court ruling that requires, for example, legislative districts to have equal populations."

Um, can we say totally unqualified? I am increasibly baffled by this nomination. Stop making such a big deal about how she feels about abortion and start making a big deal about her incompetence.

Senators Assail Miers's Replies, Ask for Details (WP)

I still can't for the life of me figure out why this woman could be considered qualified for the Supreme Court. Anyone? Anyone?

Miers Once Vowed to Support Ban on Abortion