Google Me, Google You.

John laments that a google search of his name turns up this wack. But, it also turns this up, and this.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Cesar!

Today is Cesar Chavez's Birthday. "On August 8, 1994, at a White House ceremony, Helen Chavez, Cesar's widow, accepted the Medal of Freedom for her late husband from President Clinton. In the citation accompanying America's highest civilian honor which was awarded posthumously, the President lauded Chavez for having 'faced formidable, often violent opposition with dignity and nonviolence."

Huh? What were you saying?

Having a hard time paying attention? Maybe this is why.

I haven't validated the source, but I like the thought.

"I searched through rebellion, drugs, diets, mysticism, religions, intellectualism and much more, only to begin to find...that truth is basically simple - and feels good, clean and right. "
Chick Corea"

Hi Sexy

A geek summarizes The Simple Life: Interns in three easy rules.

I can't believe I posted a link to Fox...

You think you're having a private conversation with your daughter....

And she posts it on the internet.: "Lilah Hinde: Dad, am I required to get my *first* tattoo with you, or *a* tattoo?
LeeHinde: FIRST!
LeeHinde: WITH YOUR ONLY FATHER...
LeeHinde: (but, no pressure.) "

What loving father wouldn't want his daughter to wait until they can get their first tattoos together....

Love Me, I'm a Liberal

Thanks to TPM for this link on the privatization debate.

Standard & Poor's said Personal (privatized) Social Security accounts would "bring more risk than reward to investors".

Ok, well if one of the house organs of the American investment community says so.

And in the Love Me, I'm a Liberal category, this from Scripting News:
So on Saturday night at dinner, when one of our companions, a man who considers himself a conservative, in the mold of Limbaugh, DeLay or Hannity, a death penalty proponent who feels deeply for the parents of Terri Schiavo, used the L-word in an argument, I said "Wait a minute, that's a code-word that means, weak effeminate, etc." I told him if he's going to talk about that, I'm going to expose him for what he is, an emulator of loutish, idiotic talk show hosts who say they're conservatives, but come on, they're not conservative, they're idiots who got a gig that pays them for being idiotic. The stupider they are the more they make.

Andrew Sullivan recommends Bill Buckley

: "SANITY FROM BUCKLEY: Another calm and decent column from William F. Buckley Jr. When you read him - an unimpeachable source for what was once the conservative movement - you begin to realize what a crew of zealots and charlatans now occupy the conservative pedestal. But they will fall soon enough. And the hysteria they are now creating will only accelerate their collapse."

Hopefully the Mujahideen of the American Religious Right are imploding. Or rather, the American public might take a step back and realize what they're being spoon-fed.

Or not. Also found on Sullivan's site is this link to a piece written by Diamond Bill Bennett basically suggesting that the separation of powers is only binding until the mullahs have spoken.

In Marbury vs Madison the Supreme Court first established its supremacy in determining the constitutionality of legislation.

Courts rule, legislators drool.

Opiniatrety.

John has a daily calendar of Forgotten English. Yesterday's word was Opiniatrety. It is defined in the calendar as "Unreasonable attachment to one's own notions".

I can't imagine why that word has fallen from favor.

And while I'm waxing on all things grammatical, should one say "Yesterday's word was ..." or "Yesterday's word is...". Because it refers to an entry on a calendar, the word for March 22 is Opiniatrety, but March 22 was yesterday. Hmmmm.

But, it's a dry heat.

I really like this cartoon, from the New Yorker...

And I have this one from last year's Onion Calendar on my book case.

Music on my mind

Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is a must have. The snippets of other things of hers I've heard haven't drawn me in as much. I may take a plunge and buy some stuff.

Si*Se came to me out of the blue from someone at work who saw my playlists and thought I'd like. I like. Only one album so far, that I know of. You can get a sample here.

My Heros Have Always Been Cowboys

Scripting News: 3/19/2005: "Without heroes, is there any point to Major League Baseball? After all it's just a sport. In some sense we measure ourselves against our past selves through men like Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, Hank Aaron, and the current crop of pretenders, McGwire, Sosa and Bonds. If we apply the test, even though Ruth was surely flawed, and Maris tragic, we lose."

I've never really had the sports Jones. As a kid I sort of followed the Detroit Tigers, but Al Kaline was the last player I really followed. Ok, maybe Denny McClain.

The Sacramento Kings were a client and I once stood this close to Chris Webber. Since I wasn't an idiot about it I was able to do the work and not drool. And you won't find a more cynical group of people than professional sports staff when it comes to the athletes.

And it's not that I'm immune to fan-dom. I yelled at Henry Winkler across an airport lobby once. I was young. I confess. I repent.

But professional sports are so far from their origins that I can't imagine holding any of the current crop of drug addled "atheletes" in any kind of high regard. And, the 'amatuers" don't do much for me either.

The cure for steroid use among young ath-e-letes is to teach them to chose more appropriate heros.

More Resting in Peace.

Dr. Roger Peatee died this week. He is the man who delivered me and served as the family physician until we moved to California, when I was 17.
I don't remember exactly when, but for three years in a row, around my birthday, I got a shot for a case of tonsillitis. I hated the shots. I'd tear up the waiting room, in tears (no pride) to avoid them, to no avail.
The last time I got the shot I was talking to my dad and asked him when the shot was going to happen. Peatee said "it just did'. I'd received the shot while I was talking to dad and hadn't noticed. That was really a life changing experience. It's all in our head. Say that again. It's all in our head.

Elucidate: Wyndcall Brazos Bailey1994-2005

R.I.P.

From Dad - Old Time Radio Shows

From Dad:

RadioLovers.com: "We offer hundreds of vintage radio shows for you to listen to online in mp3 format, all for free. Before the days of video games, shopping malls, MTV, and the Internet, families used to sit in their living room each night to listen to radio shows such as Abbott and Costello, Superman, Groucho Marx, The Avenger, Gunsmoke, Sherlock Homes, and many others. When TV become popular in the 1950's, most of these shows went off the air, but they now live on at websites such as this one and on weekly nostalgia radio broadcasts worldwide."

And to save you some time, here's the show with Who's On First.

Beware the Ides of March

It was 30 years ago today that I played at the Coffee House at the University Union. Thank goodness I realized early on that I can't sing, or I think I'd still be trying to have a go at it.

I remember playing Paul Simon's Duncan and Dylan's It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry. There must have been more. :-)

More from Lilah

Fucker: "Grover Norquist was on Fresh Air with Terri Gross October 2003. Ooooold news, I know, but I can't believe I missed this. He -brace yourselves- compared the Estate Tax to the holocaust. Yes, you read that right. I'm there with you Grover! Whenever I hear about grossly wealthy people being asked to contribute to the welfare of the country, or help rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, I think, 'Damn, this is just like when the Nazis systematically murdered 6,000,000 to 10,000,000 Jews!' Fucker."

She gets that from me too. :-)

Crack me Up

Lilah's away message:
Lord John Marbury: Abigail.
President Bartlet: Now it's a party.
Abbie Bartlet: Oh. Yes, your lordship.
Lord John Marbury: Your breasts are magnificent.
Abbie Bartlet: Oh. Um... thank you, John.
Lord John Marbury: May I inquire, Mr. President - the first thing that attracted you to Abigail - was it her magnificent breasts?
Abbie Bartlet: It was.
President Bartlet: You know John, there are places in the world where it might be considered rude to talk about the physical attributes of another man's wife.
Lord John Marbury: My god. Really?

Yahoo! News - Rice Says She Has No Ambition to Run for President

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday said she has no ambition to succeed her boss George W. Bush as president and has no intention of running for the Republican nomination in 2008."

So, Condi must want to be president. Hillary V Condi. 'Bout time.

Ain't it the truth!

Elucidate: The Bolinas Getaway

Elucidate: The Bolinas Getaway: "One last, incidental comment. We also found some lesbian-oriented literature around the cottage, and I later found the Beach House listed under Lesbian Owned Vaction Rentals. This might explain why the toilet seat wouldn't stay up."

Man haters, all of them.

Recycled rhetoric

Salon.com | Recycled rhetoric: "he coming defeat of President Bush on Social Security will be the defining moment in domestic policy and politics for his second term and for the future of the Republican Party. It will be a central, clarifying event because Bush alone chose to make this fight."

Bush needs to stick to fighting amorphic enemies like terrorism. Generally, whenever he gets specific, he loses. I'm really, really hopeful that his venal attempt to pump up the investment community will blow up on him and 2006 will see a Democratic controlled Congress. (Hey, a guy can dream.)

The American people will defer to their president when he rails about national defense. It was inconceivable that the president would lie to us about a foreign threat, so Bush was able to get us into Iraq.

But, he's in trouble when he starts lying to us about things that really impact us directly and that we can independently review.

Lilah gets it from me.

Anything, but the thing I should be doing.: "This. Is agonizing. I'm having one of those moments (days) where I spend all my time doing one thing, but actually concentrating on adding up all the other things I'd much much much rather be doing. Like, sleeping, or, reading one of my own books, or painting a pretty picture, filing my nails, or swimmming across the Pacific Ocean, or facing a mob of zombies armed with nothing but a machete. Er, I'd have the machete, not the zombies. They'd be the slow moving ones from the originals though, not the new ones that I'm always afraid are going to mow me down when I step out into the dark hall at night. 5 pages have never looked so long. "

Ouch

Note to self; that little steam escape at the top of the rice cooker is HOT immediately following the cooking time.

Having finsihed my 2nd beer (twice the number I've had in one sitting in some time) I'm on the hunt for something else cold to hold. :-)

Thai Chicken Dish

This recipe was recommended by Julie Steele and it's on a bottle of Red Curry Paste in real small type. This entry is to get it into a larger font.

1 14 oz. Coconut milk.
1 tsp of Red Curry Paste (if you're nuts! I use 1/4 tsp.)

Simmer these two for 5 minutes and then add

1/4 cup fresh basil (I did this the first time and not since. Peasant that I am, I didn't miss it. You might.)
1/4 cup bamboo shoots (never did this.)
3 Tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1/3 cup chicken stock
8 o.z. 'of your favorite vegetables, chicken, meat or tofu

Ok, this last one is where we add chopped cleaned chicken breast (I'm trying thighs tonight) and diced tofu, a can of whole straw mushrooms and a can of baby corn.

This all gets simmered for 10-15 minutes, I always let it go 15 or so, it seems to takethat long to do the chicken.

While all this is going on, make up about 3 cups of rice in the cooker.

The recipe says it serves 2, but I've always had leftovers when serving 3-4.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Death Penalty for Juveniles

NPR : Supreme Court Strikes Down Death Penalty for Juveniles: "The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the death penalty for juveniles. The court's decision, on a 5-to-4 vote, forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes. "

On some days there is good news. The death penalty is wrong on so many levels, but to execute children is indefensible.

Let's see, without looking, the four were - Scalia, Thomas, Rehnquist and O'Conner?

Longer article here.