Archive for the ‘All’ Category
Katrina Resources
Teresa Nielsen Hayden has a useful collection of Katrina resources at Making Light. [Later:] Also, "Bush and Katrina: so many outrages, so little time" from BobHarris.com (thanks to Paul the Spud at Shake's Sis). To consolidate from an earlier posting of mine, here is a resource page for LGBT Katrina survivors being maintained by PageOneQ. […]
Progress Is Possible
Sacramento — The state Assembly, in a stunning victory for the gay rights movement, approved a landmark bill allowing same-sex marriage Tuesday night and sent it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The measure, which passed with no votes to spare, marks the first time that a legislative body in the United States has approved a bill […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
We/2 Told You So
Spin is in, has been for too long. Framing is everything, at least when there are cardboard cut-outs in charge. New words pop up like mushrooms: how many times have you heard the verb "to blame-game" used in the last 10 minutes? (One would suggest that Rove shouldn't press the "blame-game" vocabularly too much lest […]
Platypus Billsight
Two selections from today's reading in Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2004) The point is that the platypus bill is not just a pair of jaws for dabbling and feeding, as in a duck. It is that too, though it is rubbery rather than horny like a duck's bill. But far more […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, It's Only Rocket Science
DMort Estimates
A co-owner of Shelbyville-based Gowen-Smith Chapel has been deployed to Gulfport, Miss., to help with recovery since Hurricane Katrina, and his business partner here has described the grim task there. "DMort is telling us to expect up to 40,000 bodies," Dan Buckner said, quoting officials with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, a volunteer arm […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Rehnquist's Legacy, Parts I & II
Allen Dershowitz wrote about the legal career of the late Chief-Justice William Rehnquist ("Telling the Truth About Chief Justice Rehnquist"). After recounting some telling incidents from Rehnquist's time (the late '40s and early '50s) at Stanford law school, which still discriminated against Jews and other minorities, he told of the memo Rehnquist wrote at the […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Reflections
Katrina LGBT Resources
Just to help spread the word about ways to help Lesbian, Gay, Bi- and Trans- people who've survived Katrina to suffer continuing homophobia while looking for relief, here is a resource page being maintained by PageOneQ. (via Avedon Carol.)
Goading into Action was Necessary
NEW YORK Appearing on the Larry King show on CNN Monday night, former President George H.W. Bush defended his son against criticism for his response to the hurricane disaster, suggesting it was mainly media-generated. […] Asked about the criticism, the former president said, "I think any time there's a crisis people want to blame someone. […]
Marxist Lawn Mowing
A couple of nights ago, I was mowing the grass — well, to be honest, the weeds that make up what we call our "lawn" — and thinking, as I often do. The steady noise of the lawnmower, plus the focus on repititive physical activity seems to create something approaching a meditative state for me. […]
In: All, Reflections, Splenetics
Unnamed Senior Bush Officials Not On Vacation
As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior [unnamed, unattributed] Bush official said. [Manuel Roig-Franzia and Spencer Hsu, "Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting: White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials", 4 September 2005.] [Later:] Correction to This Article A Sept. 4 article on the aftermath of […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
NO Green Zone
Iraqis watching the New Orleans drama unfold are suggesting that a section of the city be found which is still dry and not on fire which can be designated a Green Zone. There a little city within a city can be set up with running water, lights, toilets, air conditioning and a mess hall suitable […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
"Biblical Proportions"
Hard work. Think 'bout it a lot. My heart bleeds, I have to admit. I feel the President's pain. "It was not enough for the president to bank his plane and look at the window and say, 'Oh, what a devastating site,' " Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, said in a statement […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
Chimps? Bush?
Has anyone tried yet to sequence the President's DNA to determine how close he is to chimpanzees, genetically speaking, of course? THE CHIMP: COMPLETE GENETIC MAP CONFIRMS DARWIN'S THEORY. Scientists at MIT and Washington University, St. Louis, announced Wednesday that they have determined the precise order of the 3 billion bits of genetic code needed […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
Boo! They're Republicans
Just because Maureen Dowd wrote What Hillary has going for her is exhaustion. Exhaustion kicks in with any party in power for eight years, let alone one that tricked the country into war. I can't stop freely associating things like: Republicans are the Hallowe'en Party: every day is Trick or Treat Will they be taking […]
In: All, Eureka!, Splenetics
Tupper Inspiration
Earl Tupper was born in New Hampshire in 1907. He came up with the idea for air tight plastic food storage containers while working at Dupont. In 1938 he founded the Tupperware Plastics Company in Orlando, Florida and in 1946 introduced his line of Tupper Plastics at hardware and department stores. Sales were dismal at […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Curious Stuff
The LTEC Administration
In my blog reading, I'm seeing a bit of frustration and incredulity being expressed about the impressive speed with which the Bush League has been responding to the anticipated yet still terrifying disaster in Southern Louisiana.* I suppose it will be only the America-hating liberals who will be slapping their foreheads, trying to understand how […]
Condi Lends a … Foot
What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue [in New York city], Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Gays Finally to Blame
We've been waiting days for someone — finally! — to blame gay people for the current disaster in New Orleans. At last, it has come to pass. You can tell, though, that no one was rushing into the breach. Perhaps Pat Robertson still felt a little tender from being beaten up over his hysterical idea […]
Surveying Elayne
I can always count on Elayne Riggs to point the way to curious, informative, and entertaining reading on the Web. I don't know how she manages to keep an eye on all her sources, but I'm grateful. Somehow, I managed to fall behind by a few weeks on my survey of her surveys, so I'm […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Such Language!
Polygyny and Anteaters
Two selections from today's reading in Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2004), mostly to confound fundamentalists and creationists: The Ethnographic Atlas of G.P. Murdock, published in 1967, is a brave compilation. It lists particulars of 849 human societies, surveyed all over the world. From it we might hope to count numbers of […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science