David Goldfarb --
As a nation, we have tortured. We have wiretapped civilians with no warrant. The civil service has been politicized. We have chipped away at and eroded liberty and democracy in a myriad of ways in the past eight years with increasing speed.
Yes, we had elections. Yes, there is hope that we will soon be on our way to recovering our democratic ideals -- at least to the extent that we ever have.
But there was a reason some of us have been afraid. The things that the administration freely crows about now once would have been anathema for an American at least to admit to publicly, even if our ideals outstripped our performance at times. If someone had told me ten years ago that a sitting President would boast of having committed torture, I would have stated that democracy was dying in America.
Tomorrow I plan to watch its renaissance.
Lee at #16, you also have to factor in complete and utter shamelessness, as shown by his willingness to publicly admit to -- even take pride in! -- things over the past few weeks that would, if there were any justice in the world, get him sent for a loooong stretch in prison.
Lydy Nickerson at #118, it always disturbs me greatly the number of people who think 24 is wonderful television and that Jack Bauer is a noteworthy character rather than an amoral, torturing, thug. Then again, I thought the latest James Bond was portrayed as a murderous sophisticated thug, and people seemed to adore that character, too.
Serge, would it be they all played Captain Nemo at some point?
Serge, at #25 was it that all the actors played heads of state in the movies?
Noooooooooooo! Not fair!
I live 30 miles south of San Francisco, and on the twentieth....
I will be in St. Petersburg, Florida, where my brother will be finally marrying his girlfriend after many years together.
Serge, Juli, Lee, Bruce: Thanks for the congratulations.
Bruce, condolences. Here's hoping we'll find gainful employment shortly.
A friend and I will be attending the Castro Sound of Music singalong. It sounds like fun.
Serge -- two words: Pia Zadora. Oh boy.
Can I share something cool that's happened to me? Week before last, I found out that a beaded Christmas tree I made is featured in a full-page ad for Fire Mountain Gems on the back cover of the December 2008/January 2009 Beadwork magazine. I'm really psyched. Whenever I feel depressed these days, I remind myself of it. Or tell other people about it.
Doesn't make up for being laid off a couple of weeks ago, but it's still cool.
I'll probably stop talking about it, oh, 2012.
I hope this does not qualify as spam.
Xopher, I'm so sorry about your dad.
Juli, how horrible! My sympathies.
David, I hope Katie gets better soon.
nerdycellist, I had not read your identification as an Anglo-Catholic before I started on my rant. I'm sorry for my unpleasant tone; the announcement of the new group claiming itself as an alternative Anglican province in North America has upset me greatly, but that's no excuse for my boorish behavior.
Well, Xopher, it's the Episcopal church in the U.S. or Canada, but it may be the Anglican church somewhere else, or just "the church" in the England -- but not in Scotland because they're Presbyterians (Wait, didn't we just have a discussion about established versus disestablished churches in another thread?)
And then I am not sure exactly what the new splinter group folks are calling themselves, other than "The Anglicans in North America who are NOT those women-and-gay-loving Episcopal Church of the USA who are damned because they IGNORE SCRIPTURE or at least refuse to interpret it the way we do!"
Must not vent about stupid schismatics....must not vent about stupid schismatics.... Bitter? Me? Why do you ask?
On the lighter side:
How do you identify the corpse at an Episcopalian funeral?
They're the only person lying down.
Okay, okay, so it's not that funny -- I just thought it would be disrespectful to tell the Unitarian Jokes I know, seeing as how I am not a Unitarian. And while being Episcopalian where I am does have its advantages -- ritual mass and ordination* of women and gays! Woo hoo! -- some of us (not me) do have a tendency to take church very very seriously. It didn't take me long after converting from Catholicism to figure out why Episcopalians were sometimes called the "frozen chosen."
*priests and bishops, too: my diocese elected a woman bishop last year; the diocese immediately north nearly elected a gay man, which had they done so would have given Gene Robinson someone else kicked out of the Lambeth conference** he could hang out with.
**meetings of all the bishops of the Anglican Communion held every few years at Canterbury, unless you are gay, in which case you are disinvited. You can go if you're a woman, you just have to deal with bishops from other parts of the world refusing to talk to you, and (true: I heard it from my bishop) very polite English protesters who tell you to your face "I'm so sorry, but you're a whore of the church."
Ajay, I thought -- and Wikipedia backs me up, for what it's worth -- that the patron saint of aviators and astronauts was St. Joseph of Cupertino, who supposedly levitated.
The recent Prop 8 jumbo kernel patch added a huge, new, controversial and problematic feature, and it was therefore a clear violation of established protocol; system administrators are on the case, and we expect the patch will be rolled back soon.
Your keyboard to God's eyes, buddy. Me, I think undoing said patch will prove extremely problematic and causing much social disruption. Not that I think it shouldn't be rolled back, mind you.
Carol Kimball, at 58: It was St. Bridget in Phyllis McGinley's poem "The Giveaway."
Per Terry Karney: To elaborate on Charlie's comment, if you have such a reaction to drugs, get a medic alert bracelet.
A nurse once told me I *had* to get a bracelet because of my allergies to several oral anti-fungal drugs. I was surprised, since I assumed that I was not likely to be given them in any emergency situation in which I could not talk. She then pointed out that anti-fungals are often given to patients in comas to prevent or treat yeast infections in the folds of their skin.
My kids all had a talent for finding mushrooms growing in odd places in the yard, in spite of adult efforts at eradication. With the eldest (now seventeen) we were told to give him Ipecac (he was two). He threw up every twenty minutes for *four hours*.
The second and thirdones were taken to the ER, had their stomachs pumped, and given activated charcoal. To this day they won't touch mushrooms, regardless of their provenance.
"Christmas won't be Christmas without any plums," Jo grumbled, lying on the rug.
I must go off to the store again
in search of the fruit for the pie
and all I ask
are some golden plums
and an ice-box to store them by
[Oh, and David Delaney? I love the books of Mary Ann Maddden.]
We were ninety miles out of Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the plums began to take hold.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 4 |
| 2008 | 52 |
| 2007 | 83 |
| 2006 | 51 |
| 2005 | 4 |
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