In the next two months...
I got this in an email forward from my friends Richard & Richard (thanks!!), and thought I would share with all of you:
Some things to do before the inaugural --
1. Get that abortion you've always wanted.
2. Drink a nice clean glass of water.
3. Cash your social security check.
4. See a doctor of your own choosing.
5. Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild.
6. Visit Syria, or any foreign country for that matter.
7. Get that gas mask you've been putting off buying.
8. Hoard gasoline.
10. Borrow books from library before they're banned -- Constitutional
Law
books, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, Tropic of Cancer, etc.
12. Come out of the closet -- then go back in -- HURRY!
13. Jam in all the Alzheimer's stem cell research you can.
14. Stay out late, before the curfews start.
16. Go see Bruce Springsteen before he has his "accident."
17. Go see Mount Rushmore before the Reagan addition.
18. Use the phrase: "you can't do that -- this is America."
19. If you're white, marry a black person; if you're black, marry a
white
person.
21. Take a walk in Yosemite or Yellowstone, without being hit by a
snowmobile or a base-jumper.
22. Enroll your kid in an accelerated art or music class.
23. Start your school day without a prayer.
24. Pass on the secrets of evolution to future generations.
26. Learn French.
28. Attend a commitment ceremony or civil union with your gay friends.
29. Take a factory tour anywhere in the US.
30. Take photographs of animals on the endangered species list.
31. Visit Florida before the polar ice caps melt.
32. Visit Nevada before it becomes radioactive.
33. Visit Alaska before "The Big Spill."
34. Visit Massachusetts while it is still a state.
I did it (and other bad Dave Matthew's songs)
So, I got my lazy butt out of bed at 7:15 Thanksgiving morning, took the bus downtown in the ass-cold, with the light rain and cold wind, and ran 5 miles (along the rivers, no less) in the city's annual Turkey Trot (I had a 2 mile option, but went for the glory). I finished in just under 55 minutes, which was my goal (i'm really not much of a runner, so this is a GOOD time for me).
Later that day, we went to a friend's place for dinner, where six of us proceeded to polish off the better part of a 12 pound turkey. First, we gorged on dinner. Then we sat for a few hours and watched football (and some people tried to play football outside in the dark). Then we gorged ourselves on four different dessert options. Then we sat for a couple more hours, watching more football and finally switching to "Family Guy". At this point, people started to drift home. When it was down from 9 people to 4, we had the brilliant idea that turkey sounded good. So, we made leftovers. Yeah, you'd think it would be obvious that this was a BAD idea. So, Jon and I were finally able to roll ourselves home aroudn 10:30 that night.
We had company for the weekend - a friend from St. Louis was visiting. So, naturally this meant we were eating out often, and when we stayed in it was just to order pizza. Good times were had. We also bought a new coffee table from IKEA that I continue to love more with every passing glance, AND we FINALLY got a dining room table/chairs which will be picked up this Wednesday. Pending delivery of our office couch today, that makes our apartment complete!! woo hoo!!!
So once again, it's back to work. I'm suffering from vacation hangover today. But, I was able to roll my lazy ass out of bed, squeeze into my clothes after a weekend of gorging myself, and get to work on time. The countdown now begins to my days off around Christmas - 24 days and counting!
Good morning
Another grey day in the Burgh. Of course, it has to get cold tonight, just in time for the Turkey Trot tomorrow. Once again, I will get to run in the cold and wet (just like the Trot last year in Chicago). Ah well, at least this year it's a longer run (please note sarcasm). Anyway...
This morning on the way to the bus stop, I passed two slugs. I'm not talking little, 1 inch long, really skinny Illinois slugs, which I'm used to (I'm also not talking about six inch long, REALLY fat slugs that I have heard rumors about on the east coast). These were about 2-3 inches long, a bit fatter than a baby carrot, and slimey. One looked like it had been stepped on, though that could just be what slugs look like as they cross the cracks in the sidewalk. Still, I checked my shoes just to make sure it wasn't me.
I had the pleasure of sitting next to a guy on the bus today listening to music on his headphones. He was no a passive listener though - this guy was boppin' around in his seat, occasionally air drumming, but mostly sort of bouncing. My attempts to read were failing due to the distraction. Oddly enough, the bus took all of 15 minutes to get to my stop today, which is unusually quick at that time in the morning. So I got to work early. And, I'm ready to leave already. Woo hoo! Only eight more hours!!
Is it Thanksgiving yet?
Another short post
This is an article I liked:
Not Every Picture Tells a Story
This is an article that makes me mad:
Spending bill + anti-abortion law.
To clarify, the topic of this article makes me mad mostly because this is a way of passing a totally unrelated law through the back door. This spending bill must pass. So those on the fence in regards to a woman's right to choose are not going to put up much of a fight, because it would mean stopping this spending bill from passing. Yes, I realize that piggy-backing on bills occurs all the time. Doesn't mean I can't be unhappy about this one.
Ah-nold for President
And so it begins...
The 28th Amendment??
Odds & Ends
Several small stories from my day (and it's still early...):
- I was walking from my office building to a building about a block away, but across two streets (the intersection of death - they have to have a cop there to help people cross the street). I was umbrellaless in the rain and got to one of the corners just as the light turned red. I hunkered down, determined to stay as dry as possible (you know, shrug the shoulders, tuck chin to chest, make yourself as compact as possible in a standing position). There was a guy next to me also waiting to cross who stepped over with his big umbrella and let me share the wealth. Apparently people in pittsburgh are generous with umbrellas (i recall another story jon told me once of walking with a friend to said friend's car in the pouring rain. said friend was umbrella-less, and someone in a car rolled down her window and GAVE SAID FRIEND HIS UMBRELLA).
- Going to the doctor sucks. I hate it. Sitting on a table in a little gown always makes me feel like a five year old (doesn't help that my feet dangle a good two feet off the floor). The jury is still out on rather it feels more ridiculous to sit there in that little gown all alone while waiting for the doctor or to sit there trying to TALK to the doctor.
- I almost got hit by a car AGAIN today (not at the intersection of death). The funny thing this time is that I think the guy was actually gunning for me. I had the walk and I started to cross. I noticed that this car was turning left, so I paused to make sure he saw me. Good thing I paused. However, he did stop then, as if he had noticed me late. So, I started to walk, interpretting that as an "oh, sorry, didn't see you, please cross" stop. Nope. As soon as I started to walk, he suddenly guns it and turns right in front of me. Another foot and I would have become intimately familiar with his right front bumper.
- I have no will power. Despite the fact that I know I will regret it for the rest of the day, as my stomach screams at me for being so weak, I'm eating a donut. I didn't buy it!! It was sitting there, calling me from the table in my office.
- Tonight, I shop.
- For any who have ever been in ANY of the UPMC hospitals, you have probably gotten lost at some point. One would think that a hospital, of all places, would follow some sort of organizational logic. Nope. Tunnels here and there to different buildings, entrances and exits onto the street on different floors (Sometimes ranging from 1 to 7 in the same building!), hallways that lead to nowhere, floors that are split in the middle, so that to get from one side to the other, you have to go down the elevator, across the building and back up. Basically, the hospitals make less sense than the streets in Pittsburgh, which is saying a lot.
- Tonight, I shop.
"Oooh, you touched my tra la la...."
For those who have not experienced Gunther, you don't know what you're missing. Hopefully
this website will be grow rapidly (ooh, my ding ding dong....). For now, there's not much there, but here's a picture for you (if you've never even SEEN Gunther).
Who are you?
Who who? Who who?
Anyway, here is another delightful little quiz. This time, it is to determine which character from "Family Guy" you would be most like.
Take the Quiz
I'm Lois. I was hoping for Stewie, but I guess I just don't have enough plans for world domination!!!
Speaking of crotch pheasants...
This is what I think everyone needs:
The Wondrous Vulva Puppet™ has been quietly creating a Vulvalution. Through the powerful use of story telling, the puppet has assisted educators, lovers, artists and healers, by providing a means for expression of sexuality.
Eve Ensler's award winning play, "The Vagina Monologues", was inspired by the Wondrous Vulva Puppet.
Midwives and educators use the puppet as a way to explain anatomy, touch and response. Because of the soft velvet and smooth satins which make up the puppet, participants break any negative stereotypes they may have and begin to see the beauty and wonder of the vulva.
For more, go
here.
"Mealy mouthed crotch pheasant!"
Barren Ground for Democracy
I'm not sure where to even begin with this article. The overarching point is that other countries need to "evolve" or "catch up" with the United States, as if they are just, in some way, not as far along in history as we are. For a good critique of this way of thinking, I suggest checking out
Jon's Blog, (especially some of the earlier posts). In short, this implies that history is some straight, chronological, pre-determined line that all countries (or people or knowledge) move along towards an end goal of perfection (or in the case of knowledge, towards omniscience), with different countries falling at different points along the progression. So, those poor primitive people just aren't as "modern" or advanced as those of us in the US, huh?
Here are a few excerpts from the article, to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:
To see all this clearly, one must look at the campaign in the Persian Gulf region not as an isolated effort but as the culmination of a decade-long effort to bring the vast lands of the defunct Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and Asia into the modern world and the Western orbit.
After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, communist satellites like Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary promptly evolved into successful Western democracies. This transition was relatively easy because the countries boasted high literacy rates, exposure to the Enlightenment under Prussian and Hapsburg emperors, and strong industrial bases and middle classes prior to World War II and the cold war. In retrospect, it seems clear that only the presence of the Red Army had kept them from developing free parliamentary systems on their own.
...
Mr. Levine defined pragmatism as a respect for liberal progress not in a fixed, ideological sense, but in terms of "the cultural context" in which such progress takes place: each people and terrain according to its own pace of political development, in other words.
Throughout the article, the author is attempting to view the situation in light of the fact that each region has its own historical and geographical context (on that point, I don't disagree). However, I think the very essence of his argument then takes a wrong turn, as he seems to imply (while in some cases stating otherwise) that this context is just a more primitive version of what all countries go through. To me, that seems as if he is contradicting himself (or perhaps I am falsely reading his points).
Any thoughts?
I'm...taller???
This morning I took the opportunity to go have a free health screening offered to me by my employer. I was amazed at the organization with which the event proceeded (typically, things around here are a gaggle#&*!). Good news is, overall, I'm basically healthy. Yeah, go me! The slightly disturbing news (that I have been trying to deny for the past year) is that I'm not 5'0" anymore. Apparently I have soared into the towering realms of 5'1". I can deny it no longer. Oddly enough, this happened sometime within the past two years. Who knew I would stop growing at 16, only to sprout an extra inch at 24 or 25? On the plus side, I now have that extra inch to shrink as I age, before I have to dip below the 5' mark into the dreaded 4's.
Hmm...here are some of my other interesting experiences from the past couple of days that just aren't interesting enough to get more than a brief mention:
- I almost got run over by a DHL truck running a red light.
- One block later, I almost got run over by some stupid girl trying to turn left through a crowd of people.
- Someone waved me across the street in front of them, and as I was trying to walk quickly (so as not to be one of those irritating people who walks REALLY slow when waved by) my heel landed on a dip and tipped, causing me to stumble and nearly fall on my ass. To make it more embarassing, I was observed by two men waiting at the bus stop. To their credit, they waited to laugh until I was well out of earshot.
- I have decided my favorite insult of the week is crotch pheasant.
- I found the perfect grad school program, but it's out of the country (and I can't afford it).
- I picked up another playing gig in December in the pit of an opera that is very oboe-friendly. Very excited.
- Pancho went three days (and counting) without barfing.
- I bought and wore a pair of maroon(ish) pants and I LIKED IT!
- I'm reading an excellent book at the moment that is reminding me why I got into this field in the first place.
- I sent an email letter to my Congressman.
Terribly exciting, no?
Free Press?
On this day: On Nov. 10, 1871, journalist-explorer Henry M. Stanley found missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone in central Africa and delivered his famous greeting: ''Dr. Livingstone, I presume?''
In other news...
Our Not So Free Press
But now similar abuses are about to unfold within the United States, part of an alarming new pattern of assault on American freedom of the press. In the last few months, three different U.S. federal judges, each appointed by President Ronald Reagan, have found a total of eight journalists in contempt of court for refusing to reveal confidential sources, and the first of them may go to prison before the year is out. Some of the rest may be in prison by spring.
The first reporter likely to go to jail is Jim Taricani, a television reporter for the NBC station in Providence, R.I. Mr. Taricani obtained and broadcast, completely legally, a videotape of a city official as he accepted an envelope full of cash.
U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres found Mr. Taricani in contempt for refusing to identify the person he got the videotape from, and the judge fined him $1,000 a day. That hasn't broken Mr. Taricani, so Judge Torres has set a hearing for Nov. 18 to decide whether to squeeze him further by throwing him in jail
Protecting confidential sources has been a sacred ethical precept in publishing ever since John Twyn was arrested in 1663 for printing a book that offended the king. Twyn refused to reveal the name of the book's author, so he was publicly castrated and disemboweled, and his limbs severed from his body. Each piece of his body was nailed to a London gate or bridge.
So, on the bright side, we have evidently progressed.
Small World
Over the weekend, I had a rehearsal for a Reinberger mass (to be performed in two weeks with the Pitt Glee Club), and I got a ride home from a French horn player I had not met before. She just moved here for grad school and had mentioned her parents had recently moved to Michigan. Having gone to school in Michigan, I naturally inquired as to where and mentioned that I had gone to school in Dutchville, USA. As it turns out, she is the sister of a guy that graduated with me. In fact, he and I were on the same intramural flag football team and then the same intramural bowling (yes, you read that right) team our freshman year. I knew that he was here at Pitt get his graduate degree, so it isn't QUITE as strange, but still...
Dammit! I thought by the end of this post I would have that stupid song out of my head ("there is just one moon and one golden sun....and a smile means friendship to everyone...).
Honestly, for anyone who has ever been to Disney Land or World, aren't the rides really frightening? "It's a small world" is freaky as hell, and in "Mr Toad's Wild Ride" you get to GO TO HELL. Not to mention the evil witch from Snow White trying to crush you with a boulder... (these are really my only memories of Disney World).
Mmm...tangents... *drool*
The ignorant masses
I have moved beyond the initial despair of wednesday, and now the violent anger of thursday is cooling down into a simmer of disbelief and disgust. The article that I've posted pretty much sums up (to me) how The JaggerBush was re-elected: ignorance. Actually, I think it goes BEYOND ignorance, as it wasn't just being UNinformed, but being totally MISinformed (or just plain WRONG). And the correct info was out there, and the people were exposed to it, and they CHOSE TO IGNORE IT AND CONTINUE BELIEVING TOTALLY MISGUIDED AND FALSE INFORMATION. As despressing as it may be, and as angry as it may make you, anyone who has been left this week feeling totally overwhelmed by the ignorance of the voters of this country should read this article.
What Bush Supporters Really Think
(the following are select excerpts from the article, but I encourage you all to read the whole thing)
"It is normal during elections for supporters of presidential candidates to have fundamental disagreements about values or strategies," said an analysis produced by PIPA.
But "the current election is unique in that Bush supporters and Kerry supporters have profoundly different perceptions of reality. In the face of a stream of high-level assessments about pre-war Iraq, Bush supporters cling to the refuted beliefs that Iraq had WMD or supported al-Qaeda."
...
Seventy-five percent of Bush supporters said they believed Iraq was providing "substantial" support to al-Qaeda, with 20 percent asserting Baghdad was directly involved in the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
...
"To support the president and to accept that he took the U.S. to war based on mistaken assumptions," said Kull, "likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information about pre-war Iraq."
...
In particular, majorities of Bush supporters incorrectly assumed he supports multilateral approaches to various international issues, including the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) (69 percent), the land mine treaty (72 percent), and the Kyoto Protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming (51 percent).
In all of these cases, majorities of Bush supporters said they favoured the positions that they imputed, incorrectly, to the president.
Large majorities of Kerry supporters, on the other hand, showed they knew both their candidate's and Bush's positions on the same issues.
Bush supporters were also found to hold misperceptions regarding international support for the president and his policies.
Despite a steady flow over the past year of official statements by foreign governments and public-opinion polls showing strong opposition to the Iraq war, less than one-third of Bush supporters believed that most people in foreign countries opposed Washington having gone to war.
...
"This appears to have created a powerful bond between Bush and his supporters -- and an idealised image of the president that makes it difficult for his supporters to imagine that he could have made incorrect judgements before the war, that world public opinion would be critical of his policies or that the president could hold foreign-policy positions that are at odds with his supporters."
The Morning After
Too bad there isn't a pill I can take to make the JaggerBush go away...
Anyway, I know I said I probably wouldn't be posting, but I came across two NY Times articles today that I wanted to put up.
Two Nations Under God
But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies than I do - they favor a whole different kind of America. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is.
...
This was not an election. This was station identification. I'd bet anything that if the election ballots hadn't had the names Bush and Kerry on them but simply asked instead, "Do you watch Fox TV or read The New York Times?" the Electoral College would have broken the exact same way.
The Red Zone
The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.
...
Just listen to Dick (Oh, lordy, is this cuckoo clock still vice president?) Cheney, introducing the Man for his victory speech: "This has been a consequential presidency which has revitalized our economy and reasserted a confident American role in the world." Well, it has revitalized the Halliburton segment of the economy, anyhow. And "confident" is not the first word that comes to mind for the foreign policy of a country that has alienated everyone except Fiji.
Vice continued, "Now we move forward to serve and to guard the country we love." Only Dick Cheney can make "to serve and to guard" sound like "to rape and to pillage."
He's creating the sort of "democracy" he likes. One party controls all power in the country. One network serves as state TV. One nation dominates the world as a hyperpower. One firm controls contracts in Iraq.
Just as Zell Miller was so over the top at the G.O.P. convention that he made Mr. Cheney seem reasonable, so several new members of Congress will make W. seem moderate.
Tom Coburn, the new senator from Oklahoma, has advocated the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions and warned that "the gay agenda" would undermine the country. He also characterized his race as a choice between "good and evil" and said he had heard there was "rampant lesbianism" in Oklahoma schools.
Jim DeMint, the new senator from South Carolina, said during his campaign that he supported a state G.O.P. platform plank banning gays from teaching in public schools. He explained, "I would have given the same answer when asked if a single woman who was pregnant and living with her boyfriend should be hired to teach my third-grade children."
...
...Meanwhile, the blue puddle is comforting itself with the expectation that this loony bunch will fatally overreach, just as Newt Gingrich did in the 90's.
But with this crowd, it's hard to imagine what would constitute overreaching.
Invading France?
A long weekend
This past weekend I was in Phoenix for my sister's wedding (hence, the long gap in posting). Getting away, seeing my family, going hiking, and celebrating my sister's wedding made it a great weekend.
While I have many stories from the weekend, I am putting them on hold as my mood today is far from jovial. In fact, despite just now returning from a long gap in posting, I think I will be taking a brief posting hiatus (just a day or two).
I leave you with the following articles, which are all in some way related to the election:
Psst. President Bush Is Hard at Work Expanding Government Secrecy
G.O.P. in Ohio Can Challenge Voters at Polls
And for full election coverage:
Election 2004
