Leaned over to pick up a glove from the floor this morning ... and wrenched my back.
%&*(^ the aging process. I mean for real.
I was able to go to work today but was stiff and walking slow. People asked if I didn't want to go home - why? I can hurt here or there just as well. Half an hour ago I took some Soma I had left over from a previous adventure (and I can't help remembering the tranquilizer Soma in Brave New World, "A gram is better than a damn!" with which I heartily agree) and so I will have to go to bed in a moment.
WHAT NEXT. (Don't answer that.)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
So three people have been reported to have opened their mouths.
Evidently, according to the new book Game Change, Bill Clinton tried to get Ted Kennedy's support for Hillary over Obama in the last primary and he said this to him:
A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.
And Kennedy took this as a racial remark, and became very cold to Clinton afterward.
I don't know whether Kennedy took it that way or not (and in fact I don't know that Clinton even said it) but I really don't believe that if Clinton said it, he meant it that way. I don't think he would have had that thought, that as a black man Obama was meant to be a servant, and if he had, I don't think he would have voiced it expecting to get support. He probably meant that Obama was a newcomer in the political arena and that Hillary had paid her dues and was ready for entry into the old boys' network of Democratic politics.
One of the irritating things about the current state of race relations, of course, is that the worst possible construction is routinely put on what people say. Was it Eric Holder who said that Americans need to quit being too cowardly to have a real conversation about race? Ha ha.
The second remark is Harry Reid's, as reported in the same book, and acknowledged by him:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada described in private then-Sen. Obama as "light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Obama is the nation's first African-American president.
Once again, I'm not seeing the big deal here. The word "Negro" is not in current use very much, but I'm not aware of its being a pejorative. Reid's point was that Obama's presentation is mainstream enough that he could be a strong presidential candidate, and in fact he was. It would be nice if such things as skin tone and dialect weren't relevant to a candidate's acceptability, but we'd be better off if a lot of things were less relevant: how physically attractive a candidate is, for instance, especially a female.
The third remark, by Blagojevich, is a big deal.
I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up.
So Obama is less black than Blagojevich because he was raised in a wealthier household. "Black" is equivalent to "not affluent". Charming.
Evidently, according to the new book Game Change, Bill Clinton tried to get Ted Kennedy's support for Hillary over Obama in the last primary and he said this to him:
A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.
And Kennedy took this as a racial remark, and became very cold to Clinton afterward.
I don't know whether Kennedy took it that way or not (and in fact I don't know that Clinton even said it) but I really don't believe that if Clinton said it, he meant it that way. I don't think he would have had that thought, that as a black man Obama was meant to be a servant, and if he had, I don't think he would have voiced it expecting to get support. He probably meant that Obama was a newcomer in the political arena and that Hillary had paid her dues and was ready for entry into the old boys' network of Democratic politics.
One of the irritating things about the current state of race relations, of course, is that the worst possible construction is routinely put on what people say. Was it Eric Holder who said that Americans need to quit being too cowardly to have a real conversation about race? Ha ha.
The second remark is Harry Reid's, as reported in the same book, and acknowledged by him:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada described in private then-Sen. Obama as "light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Obama is the nation's first African-American president.
Once again, I'm not seeing the big deal here. The word "Negro" is not in current use very much, but I'm not aware of its being a pejorative. Reid's point was that Obama's presentation is mainstream enough that he could be a strong presidential candidate, and in fact he was. It would be nice if such things as skin tone and dialect weren't relevant to a candidate's acceptability, but we'd be better off if a lot of things were less relevant: how physically attractive a candidate is, for instance, especially a female.
The third remark, by Blagojevich, is a big deal.
I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up.
So Obama is less black than Blagojevich because he was raised in a wealthier household. "Black" is equivalent to "not affluent". Charming.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Sunday, January 03, 2010
CNN:
Brennan: Some Guantanamo detainees will go to Yemen
Washington (CNN) - The United States still intends to send some Yemeni detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility back to Yemen despite a terrorist threat there, President Barack Obama's terrorism czar said Sunday.
...
Closing the Guantanamo facility is necessary because al Qaeda and others have used it as a propaganda tool against the United States, Brennan said.
Some time back, I read a blog post by this man in which he said that he was going to stop worrying about things he could not help. I think that was in the context of Obama's election but I can't find it. Anyway, I decided to pretty much adopt that point of view, but sometimes I cannot stand the stupid.
Let's announce, in a news medium that's read all over the world, that we undertake major policy decisions in response to al Quaeda propaganda. I believe that is the definitive exposition of the idea that "the terrorists have won".
Brennan: Some Guantanamo detainees will go to Yemen
Washington (CNN) - The United States still intends to send some Yemeni detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility back to Yemen despite a terrorist threat there, President Barack Obama's terrorism czar said Sunday.
...
Closing the Guantanamo facility is necessary because al Qaeda and others have used it as a propaganda tool against the United States, Brennan said.
Some time back, I read a blog post by this man in which he said that he was going to stop worrying about things he could not help. I think that was in the context of Obama's election but I can't find it. Anyway, I decided to pretty much adopt that point of view, but sometimes I cannot stand the stupid.
Let's announce, in a news medium that's read all over the world, that we undertake major policy decisions in response to al Quaeda propaganda. I believe that is the definitive exposition of the idea that "the terrorists have won".
Thursday, December 31, 2009
...Among other things, I saw a street corner prophet yesterday. He had his car off the road, with a sound system in the trunk, and was yelling into a microphone. I had a long red light, so could hear a lot of his message. When the light turned green I had to go, but I wished there was somewhere I could pull over to hear the rest of it.
How you gonna give billions and trillions of dollars away, when you ain't got it no mo? Huh?
How you gonna give billions
and trillions
of dollars away
when you ain't
GOT
IT
NO
MO?
People going into DEBT to give away MONEY THEY DON'T HAVE!
God gave me a vision last night.
I saw a box thrown out of heaven. It looked like a meteorite. And I saw
PLANES
with
EXPLOSIVES wrapped around them.
...OBAMA!
You cannot CURSE what God has BLESSED!
And you cannot BLESS what God has CURSED!
...And then the light turned green.
How you gonna give billions and trillions of dollars away, when you ain't got it no mo? Huh?
How you gonna give billions
and trillions
of dollars away
when you ain't
GOT
IT
NO
MO?
People going into DEBT to give away MONEY THEY DON'T HAVE!
God gave me a vision last night.
I saw a box thrown out of heaven. It looked like a meteorite. And I saw
PLANES
with
EXPLOSIVES wrapped around them.
...OBAMA!
You cannot CURSE what God has BLESSED!
And you cannot BLESS what God has CURSED!
...And then the light turned green.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Fourth Sunday in Advent
You heavens above, rain down righteousness;
let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up,
let righteousness grow with it;
I, the LORD, have created it.
Isaiah 45:8. Listen here.
You heavens above, rain down righteousness;
let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up,
let righteousness grow with it;
I, the LORD, have created it.
Isaiah 45:8. Listen here.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Y'all, it is such a hardship to live here.
After a stormy Friday, temperatures are expected to plummet during the weekend.
Bay News 9 is forecasting temperatures that will reach a high in the mid- to upper 60s today. The low will drop into the lower 50s .
On Sunday, the high will only reach the upper 50s. Lows will drop to the brisk low 40s.
Monday morning will be the coldest day, with lows in the upper 30s. Highs will be in the low 60s.
A chance for patchy frost is possible. Freeze warnings could be possible for areas to the north.
Weather System to Send Shivers Into Polk
Highs will plummet into the 60s and upper 50s! Oh noes!
After a stormy Friday, temperatures are expected to plummet during the weekend.
Bay News 9 is forecasting temperatures that will reach a high in the mid- to upper 60s today. The low will drop into the lower 50s .
On Sunday, the high will only reach the upper 50s. Lows will drop to the brisk low 40s.
Monday morning will be the coldest day, with lows in the upper 30s. Highs will be in the low 60s.
A chance for patchy frost is possible. Freeze warnings could be possible for areas to the north.
Weather System to Send Shivers Into Polk
Highs will plummet into the 60s and upper 50s! Oh noes!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Pale horse, pale rider.
UNC student dies from reported H1N1 complications
Chapel Hill, N.C. — A University of North Carolina student, who friends said was battling complications from the H1N1 virus, died Wednesday evening, according to UNC Hospitals and a Facebook post made by her father.
Freshman Lillian Chason had been in critical condition at UNC Hospitals for weeks. Friends said she started feeling bad before Thanksgiving and went into the hospital on Nov. 20.
...
"I think all of us are really shocked and completely devastated. We were so full of hope the past few weeks," UNC freshman Laura Page said.
...
"I can't even comprehend it," she said. "It was so sudden and so soon, and we didn't even have a chance to say goodbye."
How inexpressibly sad.
UNC student dies from reported H1N1 complications
Chapel Hill, N.C. — A University of North Carolina student, who friends said was battling complications from the H1N1 virus, died Wednesday evening, according to UNC Hospitals and a Facebook post made by her father.
Freshman Lillian Chason had been in critical condition at UNC Hospitals for weeks. Friends said she started feeling bad before Thanksgiving and went into the hospital on Nov. 20.
...
"I think all of us are really shocked and completely devastated. We were so full of hope the past few weeks," UNC freshman Laura Page said.
...
"I can't even comprehend it," she said. "It was so sudden and so soon, and we didn't even have a chance to say goodbye."
How inexpressibly sad.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Third Sunday in Advent
The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
With wings as drifted snow, with eyes as flame:
"All hail to thee, O lowly maiden Mary,
Most highly favored lady." Gloria!
"For know a blessed mother thou shalt be,
All generations laud and honor thee;
Thy son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold,
Most highly favored lady." Gloria!
Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head;
"To me be as it pleaseth God," she said.
"My soul shall laud and magnify God’s holy name."
Most highly favored lady. Gloria!
Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ, was born
In Bethlehem all on a Christmas morn,
And Christian folk through-out the world will ever say:
"Most highly favored lady." Gloria!
-Basque carol. Listen here.
The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
With wings as drifted snow, with eyes as flame:
"All hail to thee, O lowly maiden Mary,
Most highly favored lady." Gloria!
"For know a blessed mother thou shalt be,
All generations laud and honor thee;
Thy son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold,
Most highly favored lady." Gloria!
Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head;
"To me be as it pleaseth God," she said.
"My soul shall laud and magnify God’s holy name."
Most highly favored lady. Gloria!
Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ, was born
In Bethlehem all on a Christmas morn,
And Christian folk through-out the world will ever say:
"Most highly favored lady." Gloria!
-Basque carol. Listen here.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Second Sunday in Advent
Christmas time's a coming
Christmas time's a coming
Christmas time's a coming
And I know I'm going home
Snowflakes a falling
My old home's a calling
Tall pines a humming
Christmas time's a coming
Holly's in the windows
Home's where the wind blows
Can't walk for running
Christmas time's a coming
Candlelight's a burning
My old heart's a yearning
Tall pines a humming
Christmas time's a coming
Can't you hear them bells ringing, bringing
Joy to all - hear them singing
When it's snowing I'll be going
Back to my country home
Bluegrass tune.
Christmas time's a coming
Christmas time's a coming
Christmas time's a coming
And I know I'm going home
Snowflakes a falling
My old home's a calling
Tall pines a humming
Christmas time's a coming
Holly's in the windows
Home's where the wind blows
Can't walk for running
Christmas time's a coming
Candlelight's a burning
My old heart's a yearning
Tall pines a humming
Christmas time's a coming
Can't you hear them bells ringing, bringing
Joy to all - hear them singing
When it's snowing I'll be going
Back to my country home
Bluegrass tune.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
So F and the bf left about 30 minutes ago. She's to call when she gets home - it's about an hour and 15 minute drive. They are in separate vehicles. Don't care for her driving by herself at night like that but she's all grown up. Yeah.
Had a good day. The tree is decorated and looks very nice. Some of the more serious ornaments didn't get used so it's kind of a light-hearted tree this year.
We listened to some Brian Setzer Christmas music and ate beef stew. I sent some home with F also. (The beef was very tender and good; I marinated it for an hour before browning it and starting it stewing.) And F brought a card game called "Apples to Apples", which the four of us played. It was a lot of fun.
Had a good day. The tree is decorated and looks very nice. Some of the more serious ornaments didn't get used so it's kind of a light-hearted tree this year.
We listened to some Brian Setzer Christmas music and ate beef stew. I sent some home with F also. (The beef was very tender and good; I marinated it for an hour before browning it and starting it stewing.) And F brought a card game called "Apples to Apples", which the four of us played. It was a lot of fun.
Friday, December 04, 2009
It's raining, and the temperature is finally dropping just a bit. Maybe you want sleeves when you go outside, although if you are active at all you won't want them.
Our town had its Christmas parade last night. I brought a lawn chair to work on Wednesday, and Kristina put it out on Thursday morning with her family's chairs on a sidewalk lining the parade route. This town is so backward that you can actually do that, and your chairs will be sitting there waiting for you when you leave work and go to watch the parade. Places like Memphis are way too sophisticated for that - anything that isn't nailed down disappears before you can turn around.
It was a very pleasant evening for parade-watching. Floats, marching bands, etc. Next to me sat a dad with his little girl on his lap. He'd bought her a gun that shoots bubbles (lots of vendors with shiny schlock before the parade; I had some cotton candy) and she shot bubbles at everybody who walked by. Just calmly hosed them like she was Al Capone with a machine gun. Hilarious.
Tomorrow F is supposed to come over, maybe with the bf, and decorate the tree we've had up for a week. She doesn't think she will attempt to have one at her apartment, because her young cats are still in their destructive stage. We'll have beef stew, which I'll need to start in the AM, and I'll serve it on the Christmas china that I've had since before she was born. This will be nice, b/c it's been a really stressful week at work - I asked R on Wednesday to get me some rum so I could have a rum-and-coke - I was so tense I thought I would fly into bits. I think things are going to be OK now - I think. But we'll have a nice weekend, regardless.
Our town had its Christmas parade last night. I brought a lawn chair to work on Wednesday, and Kristina put it out on Thursday morning with her family's chairs on a sidewalk lining the parade route. This town is so backward that you can actually do that, and your chairs will be sitting there waiting for you when you leave work and go to watch the parade. Places like Memphis are way too sophisticated for that - anything that isn't nailed down disappears before you can turn around.
It was a very pleasant evening for parade-watching. Floats, marching bands, etc. Next to me sat a dad with his little girl on his lap. He'd bought her a gun that shoots bubbles (lots of vendors with shiny schlock before the parade; I had some cotton candy) and she shot bubbles at everybody who walked by. Just calmly hosed them like she was Al Capone with a machine gun. Hilarious.
Tomorrow F is supposed to come over, maybe with the bf, and decorate the tree we've had up for a week. She doesn't think she will attempt to have one at her apartment, because her young cats are still in their destructive stage. We'll have beef stew, which I'll need to start in the AM, and I'll serve it on the Christmas china that I've had since before she was born. This will be nice, b/c it's been a really stressful week at work - I asked R on Wednesday to get me some rum so I could have a rum-and-coke - I was so tense I thought I would fly into bits. I think things are going to be OK now - I think. But we'll have a nice weekend, regardless.
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