Insert Trite Metaphor about a Corral Here

Posted on March 26, 2004 in Roundup

It’s politics Friday!

I had a incipient headache as I was writing this, so I rushed through and perhaps overlooked some fine blogging. Tomorrow Mute Troubadour is coming by for the tour of the nation’s Republican heartburnland.

Politics

• Mileah declaimed:

  My American heroes are the brave folks who are now speaking up and telling the the Bush administration that no we will no longer sit back and let you destroy everything we worked to build in this country and abroad.

• Jack Balkin predicts:

  Newdow will lose because no matter what the existing doctrine says the Supreme Court is not going to hold that government officials’ use of the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violates the Establishment Clause. The doctrine will simply be parsed or altered in such a way as to avoid this result.

• Check out Randy Paul’s Latin American Briefing at Winds of Change.
  
• “How in the world does the New York Times look at all that and conclude that Latortue’s hugs for thugs is a public relations mistake, and not a sign of the new order?” asks Joan of Arc.
  
• Andrew muses over what war does to human bodies.
  
• Rob throws a conniption about the early sniping at John Kerry: the Bush Administration has but a dismal record to stand on, so they attack the likely Democrat.
  
• Kathryn Kramer exposes the Bush-Cheney campaign’s hiring of a strike-breaking, mercenary deploying “security firm”. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
  
• MacDiva was angry (and so am I) about the shoddy FDA decision to issue a pediatric advisory against the use of antidepressants despite the total absence of evidence linking their use to teen suicide.

  Just about every entry I have written about a health issue has been from a pro-consumer perspective. Have I decided it is time for me to befriend the megacorps that manufacture prescription drugs? No, not at all. This situation is rare because I believe the federal agency has made a decision to please a vocal minority of drug users that is actually anti-consumer.

• Bill asks “Why not invade Monaco?”
  
• George compared Bush and Clinton:

  One held daily meetings where he wanted reports about what was being done to prevent a terrorist attack (and key members of the plot were arrested before it took place) and the other spent a month in Crawford. Can you guess which one people think is “strong against terror”?

• Wise advice from Politics in the Zeroes:

  To defeat terrorists, you must have a “better story”, a compelling reason for people to join your side, not theirs. Bombing them back to the Stone Age simply drives people to their side. Plus, you need to infiltrate them. And to do that you must 1) take them seriously and not think calling them Evildoers will accomplish anything and 2) learn about them, their culture, and what motivates them, because you can’t really stop them if you don’t understand them, can you?

• Kris reports that Michigan turned down a new death penalty law.

Culture

• maria reflected on the loss of the Hobbyist Programmer.
  
• Elkit had “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” on her mind.
  
• Jody is seeking out members of the Ex-Gay Movement.
  
• Robert Brady wrote:

  Humans evolved big brains to deal with small jaws say the scientists, who in their scramble to support and refute this hypothesis are overlooking the one key evolutionary factor they’re exemplifying, that came with smaller jaws: the ability to talk endlessly. Why just this morning on the train…

• “Heartiest Bijoya Greetings” is one of the Set Phrases for Greetings Telegrams recommended by a 1968 engagement calendar that Nancy Gandhi found while cleaning.
  
• Yule rambles on issues raised by her book.

Religion

• Deborama continues to write about sacrifice, “the major message of all true religion”.

Personal

• Denise worried about Infantile Dysfunction:

  I can’t decide if whole sectors of my brain are being rewritten to house the volumes of baby specific information I can now rattle off like some sort of modern day, West Coast Mary Poppins, or if I’m somehow retaining the pre-baby knowledge as well (things like how many copies to send the Supreme Court).

• Crazy Tracy went on a birthday cruise on the Ohio River with her son. After dancing with her waitress, she’s checking the statuatory rape laws in Ohio:

  It was turning out to be a very nice birthday indeed. She even copped a feel, and for that I left her a HUGE tip.

• Kimber speaks of a hermit crab named Spot:

  Ian was holding Spot in his hand after Spot’s bath and walk around. Apparently Spot got freaked out about something and pinched ahold of Ian’s palm and locked on tight. Ian was understandably sreaming bloody murder cause those suckers pinch HARD! John and I were trying everything we could think of to get the stupid thing off but nothing was working and through this whole thing, Ian didn’t once try to hurt Spot. He was crying alot and saying “It really, really, really hurts” but he didn’t try to do anything to Spot. I was wicked proud of him.

  IreneQ experienced a strange stalking which turned out to be a distant friend of one of her housemates. He didn’t get why they didn’t think it was funny.

  As a woman, every time I go out, every time I walk around the city alone, I’m conscious that I could so easily become just another rape statistic. When I’m out having dinner in the presence of a guy(s) I don’t know well, I watch my drinks carefully. When I take taxis at night, I call a friend on my mobile phone and tell her I expect to reach home in 15 minutes, then rattle off the taxi’s registration number so that the driver knows someone is expecting me. When I drive alone, I make sure all the car doors are locked. When I walk down the street, I walk against the flow of traffic and sling my handbag on the shoulder that is not facing the road. Above all, when I step out of the house each morning, I ask God to protect me, because I learnt from Mom never to take Him for granted.

• chari explains why she keeps a low political profile.

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