A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged by idiocy!

Do I annoy you?

I ask this because you're here by choice. You stick me on your friends list presumably because you believe I have something interesting to say, or share, or something like that. Whatever it is that you like about me you keep me around on your flist. Maybe you grew tired of me months ago and I live on in your flist due merely to inertia.

This afternoon I took Kouryou-chan to her dance class. I was trapped there in the front room while rehearsal went on in Studio #4. While I was there I was subjected to a woman reading the newspaper, loudly, and proclaiming loudly in that way that, I'm sure, annoys red state conservatives. I don't even know what she read but suddenly she was talking loundly to whomever she was trapped with about how our cheap food and cheap clothes and cheap whatever was due to our underpaying all the illegal immigrants here and we weren't doing enough for those peolpe and if they were going to be here they should get paid the same rate as Americans and on and on. Another article about Burma lit her off into a rant about how the tsunami two years ago was somehow America's fault; if not the storm itself, then all the deaths were our fault because we hadn't done all that we could to instrument up the ocean over there the way we've instrumented up the West Coast to protect our own people. A third article about Iowa apparently flooded well-worn grooves in her brain about how governments had failed in their responsibilities to those poor people and how things could have been prevented if the government had done something.

When she got to the article on the earthquake in Japan, all was well because the state machinery was on the ball, which was good because "you can't do nothing when Mother Nature wakes up."

And on and on and on. Oh, did I mention she was loud?

Gods, she's a teacher. "I tell my students, privacy policies are a lie. They don't keep your stuff private. If you put your name on a petition, and the government doesn't like it, they'll know who you are. They might come investigate you." Half-truths don't serve us at all.

I think I drive people crazy because I seem to vacillate between being a conservative and standing behind liberally proposed programs that-- surprise-- benefit me and lay the groundwork for the well-being of my children. But this woman drives me crazy with her assumptions that all the ills in the world are due to failures of U.S. governance.

Lady, get a blog already!

Brains, poached and with a delightful salad on the side.

But doc, it prevents heart disease and Alzheimers!

My doc told me to cut back on the coffee. Hmm. Do I live with the acid reflux and risk the relatively rare esophogeal cancer, or do I stay awake and reduce my risk of more significant and commonplace diseases? Hmmm, decisions, decisions...

"The term 'brain storm' may be associated negatively with epileptic seziures..."

"Staff will therefore use the preferred term, 'idea showers', from henceforth."

1.3 Gigatons!

Click on the link. That's probably the most amazing graph you're going to see today.

Quote of the day:

"If elected, Barack Obama will be the first Affirmative Action President." (via Andrew Sullivan)

The Texas Republican Convention, In A Single Button

Would John McCain be man enough to stand up and say, "I do not want the sort of people who would wear this pin, or admit these men into my convention, to vote for me?"

Andrew Sullivan gets it wrong.

( SIWOTI! )

"How do we know if it's torture?" "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong."

( “Well need documentation to protect us.” )

Aging cats: my gods, that was disgusting

Last night, after I'd drugged, watered, and fed my cat Dinah, she came and sat next to me, climbing quite noisily up the arm of the chair to lean over my shoulder and breathe her "oceanfish and chicken" combo on me. She started to make the oddest sounds, a deep, hacking kind of sneezing sound. "Are you okay?" I asked her. She ignored me and continued what limited grooming she can acheive despite her arthritis.

Later, after Omaha and I had gone to bed, she climbed into bed with us, and again began making that sound. Only this time, it was louder, more pronounced, and it was accompanied by a mixture of coughing and what sounded like gagging. "Is she having trouble breathing?" Omaha asked as I fumbled for the small light on the bedstand next to me.

Dinah was sitting on the bed down by our feet, batting at her own face with her paw. "What's that?" Omaha asked.

"What's what?"

"On her face right there! What is that?"

In the dim light it was difficult but I could see something just next to Dinah's nose, stuck to her face. Omaha grabbed her head and I tried to grasp whatever it was in my fingers. It took three tries, but finally I got it. Dinah let out a soft, high-pitched mewl as I extracted a nine centimeter long blade of grass that was embedded deep in her sinus and down her throat, causing her distress.

Grief, that was disgusting. Even worse, I suspect she ate some grass, threw it up, and one blade went into the wrong pipe on the way up and has been working its way to the point where it was prominent enough for us to get it.

"I guess these monkey paws are good for something, huh?" I told her as Omaha petted her for comfort. She gave me her best old-kitty sneer as we went back to bed.