wet, then crisp

just a few days ago i was being drenched and pelted by hard heavy rain. in less than a block, my pants were soaked through and my umbrella threatened numerous times to blow up and away. it sure proved to be a scrappy fighter and it was all i could do to hold on.

today started grey, but the clouds cleared and the sun is favoring us. my deck door is open and i can hear the crisp bits of what had been summer's green skittering across the pavement. i just love that sound. those of you who live without autumn really miss out, and not just about the colors. the sounds and the smells are so different this time of year.

there won't be many more, so i'm off to get some for myself.

how to torture women

all i have read indicates there were no female prisoners at abu ghraib or guantanamo. they didn't have to endure the naked pyramids or waterboarding, which, no, were not really torture, ok, mr. cheney.

however, yesterday i realized the ideal way to do this. make them try on bras. or bathing suits, but having spent yesterday afternoon doing the former, it was quite horrible, i assure you. frustrating, humiliating, maddening.

why, noodle, why?

about a week ago, i realized my jackets were buttoning and zipping unlike they had in forevers. which prompted me to pull out my measuring tape. surely a man would never do this, he'd just be psyched his clothes were looser and take that as sufficient confirmation he was getting thinner. so anyway, i lost 1.5 inches from my back. my bra cups are just as full, so it was only from my back.

shortly after that 2 of my bras decided to come up with broken underwires. it's near impossible to describe the discomfort of walking around, not supported and yet bound and askew. but bras are crazy expensive and i was hoping to postpone purchasing new ones til i had lost more weight. foiled.

instead of going full-on masochist and having a saleswoman measure me (knowing i am not the same size as those very old bras) i hit the net to learn the proper way. for decades, i have worn basically the same style, which manages to give a decent heave up but doesn't look like a granny sack. so armed with the new digits and in the interest of frugality, as well as considering them temporary, i headed for the deep discounters downtown.

i suppose because the little frillies are pretty, but i am always amazed at the tiny tiny bras and why a woman would even bother wearing one if that small-chested. so i make my way to the boulder-holder rack, which is only the beginning of the slow boil since nothing is hanging in proper order with b's, c's and d's all mixed up and the 34's in with the 40's. grrr.

the web claims i am a cup size smaller than i had thought, but i hold them up and think, "no way will that do the job." i take some anyway, along with an assort of of 4 different cup sizes and 3 different back sizes. 10 bras. 100% fail.

next shop. smaller selection, but i paw through. i realize they are insanely cheap, and take 5 into the dressing room. the woman who gives me the plastic number tag is covered up in a burka, but i realize under there, she too knows my distress.

miracle. one fits. i am not a cup size smaller, lol. non-miracle, there is only one other that is the same style and size and it's leopard print, lol. under my winter wardrobe of browns and blacks, i justify it, and know the owner will laugh when he sees it.

no doubt the egyptians were adept at torture, but they missed a grand possibility with just wrapping the bewbies up tightly in muslin strips, i swear.

women, bodies, hate, again...

this model was fired by her long-time employer this past april. for 8 years, since the age of 15, she has done print and runway work for ralph lauren. she was fired for being too fat. she is 5'10" and weighs 120 pounds. the termination letter sent to her agent claimed that because she could no longer fit into the sample clothes, size 2, she was being let go.

heartbroken, she kept mum until she saw this photoshopped image of herself on a board in tokyo. her head is bigger than her goddamn hips. it looks horrible. she also kind of looks like a young brooke shields which is weird since she doesn't. this ad caused quite a bit of interwebs kerfuffle so lauren pulled it with awkward non-apologies and is trying to get it erased from the net. haha! good luck with that, ralph. but what kind of disordered group thinking wants to morph a gorgeous model into looking like an auschwitz survivor with a blow-out? it wasn't just one person that got this image and this ad and its distribution all green lighted, but a team working together in a process.there has been buzz lately about the use and abuse of photoshop, with some editors going so far as to say readers don't want to see how women really look, especially models and celebrities. the nanny state of france is trying to pass a law requiring all photoshopped magazine pix to carry a disclaimer. it would be far less ridiculous for untouched pix to carry a tag, since there are none.

lastly, we'll look at lizzi miller. this was in glamour a few months back. she is 5'11" and weighs 180 pounds. from the looks of things, i'm guessing she's perhaps had a baby. she is a successful "plus-size" model and wears either a 12 or 14. there is no arguing she is a big girl, but i'm sure in person she looks great, i mean, she is amazon tall, ya know? modeling agencies consider anyone over a size 6 to be a plus-size model, even though it's 16 and up in shops.fashion has always been about fantasy and that will not change. nor do i think it should, so i'm not advocating to see fiddle-faddle chomping lard-asses in harpers bazaar. unless a woman was raised by wolves, she knows the chicks in the magazines are genetic freaks and/or starving themselves to death. (actually, a girl raised by wolves would be very slim and lean from all that running and subsistence eating, lol, so maybe that's not the best example...) i also find specious the consideration that these models "make" their audience into anorexics. that's craziness in one's own head and isn't about looking like agyness deyn.

supermodels in my youth (when i was in fact torturing myself with badly disordered eating) were cindy crawford and rachel hunter. they looked healthy, athletic, fit. they had hips and breasts and filled out the swimsuit fantasies of the young men i knew. heroin chic was decades ago and still the ideal is considered to be wraith thin and built like a boy.

americans are getting ever fatter and we all agree that's a bad development. even though this is one of the thinner cities, i still see many people that are of a staggering size. only a couple of my female friends are overweight, yet every single one struggles with both the scale and self-image. even as i get slimmer and am fitting into some long unworn clothes, i torment myself with the scale. if the number blips up by even a pound i scan my memory banks and dissect each caloric molecule for the culprit, and see only a bloated pig in the mirror. "did that chicken leg make my ass look fat in these pants?" 2 weeks ago the owner took me clothes shopping. the scale had ticked up that morning, so i could barely look at myself to see if anything fit and simply refused to try on any slacks. of course, this led to madness anyway since a size small dress was too big and a size 14 would not go over my boobs.

last week, i finally made myself stop weighing and tracking all my food on my excel sheets. it was putting my head in a very bad place, reminding me regularly that the only times in my life i have been fully comfortable and confident in my body was when i was anorexic and bulimic. obsessing about not eating or what i might allow myself to eat after feeling insanely hungry for a set amount of time. the scale has held steady, so i haven't sabotaged myself, but each day i am increasingly anxious that i'm not losing. rationally, i know my body is redistributing itself since those size 6 pants now fit, but that doesn't silence the accuser in my head who will always know i eat too much and am too fat.

liars and thieves

the restaurant industry is rife with both, often combined in the same person. it attracts the unstable, those who struggle with drink, drugs or gambling, so they're often short on dough. there is cash-handling mischief, the potential for credit card fraud and identity theft and simpler stealing of product. this is true on the low end like dishwashers, and also managers.

i know people who have been fired for regularly adjusting their tips upward. i worked in a place where the safe was unbolted from the floor and disappeared, along with over $30k in cash from the weekend's receipts. a 40" plasma tv walked itself down 6 flights of stairs and out the door. large format bottles of expensive wine, like massive 6-liters, went poof. guys i know ran a gift card scam for at least 6 months before getting bounced.

more than once i have been on the short end of a tip pool. one new years' eve, the owner and gm decided to pool all the waitstaff tips and share it with everybody else. including themselves. completely 100% against the law. we knew we would get screwed. we all waited for our envelopes and added up what we had collected. they took 60% of what we made and passed it around. it was 2000, the check averages were staggering, we worked a 12-hour shift and made less than on a dead monday. imagine my joy when that gm's jacket, with his envelope, got stolen in the after-hours party. share my delayed gratification the next year when we all refused to work new years if they pulled the same stunt.

an early, but short, escapade in my career was in a splashy place that turned out to be owned by the mob. guidos in and out, up and down, all day and night. something about the gm rubbed me wrong. besides the capacity my breasts had for hypnotizing him and his staggering misogyny, i mean. one of the soft opening nights a wine salesman pulled his car up front to unload product his company was donating that we were supposed to serve gratis. that gm pulled his car right up behind and loaded all 3 cases right into his own trunk. i was there only a few weeks and this was not the only time i saw him do this.

it's a small town and i have seen this bad penny turn up over and over. servers who have suffered under him and salespeople who have had to deal all know he is a thief. like the sky is blue kind of general consensus.

a few weeks back, i nearly spat my tea reading he is now the OWNER of his own place. which means he has investors. some rich dudes wrote checks to a guy who rarely stayed anywhere more than a few months. in the short bit in the globe, 1/4 of a column, maybe, he said, "it's a scene, man," three times.

he appropriated an iconic name, will have live music every night (a dearth here, admittedly) and hired a chef from a place famous for sticky sweet cocktails and hook-ups -- not food.

because i am not a nice person, imagine my glee at the craptastic reviews this place is getting. the food, the drinks, the service all suck. i am happy he is unlikely to succeed. however, i feel a bit badly for his dupes. then again offering start-up cash to a restaurant is only done with money you plan never to see again. this guy is such a small-time sleaze and yet people were amazed at a silky-smooth op like bernie madoff.

barnum was right.

women hating their bodies, redux

these ladies are british celebrities. one is a former spice girl and the other is that peculiar english phenom of "glamour model".

today's on-line version of the rag, "the daily mail", featured these pix.

commentary? spice girl on the far left is lauded as healthy and curvy (although slammed for wearing a dress she wore to an event 7 years ago), and oh-so-much finer than in her bulimia phase in the other pic. hard to tell with the camera, certainly, but is there maybe a 10-pound difference? at most? even "curvy" you can still clearly see her pelvic bones through her dress.

the other was on a british version of "big brother" and gained some weight on a crap diet of chips and such during filming. paper says she's "fat" now, and not worried about losing the stone she gained. in that yellow dress her fake boobs look big enough to topple that tiny body. i can only think that in-person she must have looked like a stick with basketballs implanted under her pecs. (or over, can't tell from the shot.) she looks curvy and healthy to me, what do i know.

this was the same issue where karl lagerfeld, formerly very fat, decreed nobody wants to see models with curves. that it is "only fat mothers in front of the tv stuffing themselves with chips complaining" the skeletor cat walkers are ugly.

not just kids

a few weeks ago, i discussed a poll of high school kids and my subsequent disgust at their ignorance of basic american history. "no child left behind", indeed.

around that same time, i just couldn't bring myself to write about the whole "birther" nonsense that was swirling around the blogosphere and from the shouting heads on fox news. laugh about it with my friends, sure, and take satisfaction in knowing nobody i know is a real amurrican.

today i stumbled belatedly upon this poll of peeps that gave me yet another face-palm moment, tyvm republicans.

24% know he is absolutely is NOT a real amurrican and 14% were unsure.

10% of the country thinks he was born in indonesia, 7% think he was born in kenya, and 1% think he was born in the philippines.

we are left with 20%.

that does include a portion who do know that obama actually was born in hawaii, however 6% of those people think hawaii is not part of the united states and 4% are unsure. yup, 10% of 'em don't know hawaii is "one of us".

and i suppose just to be funny, the pollsters asked the remaining hold-outs if they though obama might be french, lol. 2/3rds of that 20% were "not sure", but he might be.

62% of the birthers identified as republicans
86% are white.

nope. ain't about race, right?

dumb food

this is an actual product and i saw it for the first time today in a big display cooler at the market. different flavors all filled with buzzy ingredients without which we absolutely will die if we don't get them in a fruity beverage. ginseng, green tea, guarana, pomegranate and acai just to name a few. potassium too so you can skip your steak or your banana.

it's also full of splenda.

now, you're saying, what pisses you off about this, noodle? water is SKINNY. no calories and drinking lots of it keeps you healthy. there is no science supporting ANY of these ingredients, separate or combined, being dissolved in 21st century kool-aid will help you lose weight. however, there is science proving that a diet high in artificial sweeteners does make you crave more sugar. which will make you FAT.

i thought the special k protein water was bad enough (yeah, cuz americans just don'e eat enough meat!) but this is really the shizz. i'm sure there are women who drink it by the gallon. i wonder if they've yet inked a deal for placement in places ladies' gyms like curves?

which is worse? that a product this stoopid is marketed to women or that women are stoopid enough to buy it?

naked at school

do we ever stop having some version of this nightmare? does lance armstrong wake up in a cold sweat having seen himself up on the podium sans cuissard? does madonna gasp in the deep dark thinking she is just too old and the toy she wants to bang says, "uh, no thanks, k, granny"?

before yesterday's interview i dreamt i was at the place and had gone through the paces, i just needed to take a written and timed test. there was mad activity everywhere, like there always is in a busy restaurant and no place quiet to sit. hordes of people, whom i of course did not know, kept badgering me with questions i couldn't answer. i begged to be left alone -- "the test, the test, i'm trying to finish the test, please" -- and that person would go only to be replaced by another in a few seconds. i didn't finish the exam and was met with an acid glare from my potential boss when i woke up barely breathing. i was drained from my brain being in that chaos.

all morning and all the way there, i was jumpy and weirdly nervous. the woman was very down-to-earth and easy to talk to, with lots of dropped hints that she is much like me being over 40, single, living here over the harbor and being a lifer in the industry. it went very well and i will get a call-back, lol.

i just can't help but wonder if this is more of the "i'm a fucking phony" complex that seeps from my subconscious now and again or if everybody from queen elizabeth to justin timberlake sometimes wakes up all freaked out too.

merry prankster

new englanders are stereotyped as taciturn, with that laughter-free puritan image just not dying. yet our weather has a sense of "ha-ha" like no place else i know.

many nights last week were down in the 40's and cold raw rain pelted my face just like march or november. october is close. i put away all the summer clothes and started mending the winter garb. "fooled you! haha!!" it's sunny and 80 and i'm about to get a nice big dose of fresh air and sunshine while it's out there.

every year, without fail, that box goes back and forth a few times before it finally rests, lol. every year, no matter how late i wait. maybe it's personal?

well-done

my italian grandfather taught my irish mother to cook. she was clueless in the kitchen, coming from a mother who was mostly out whoring around at dinner time and a father who, i think, boiled steak. the lessons took well and my mother learned to enjoy it.

except for one thing: meat. no matter what it was, it was well-done. cooked through and then some. beef was grey in the center and as chewy as chaplin's shoe. when it was corned beef brisket for dinner, no prob, but filet mignon made me want to cry. when my stepfather leapt several income ladders in a single bound, we had beef more nights than not. yuk. chicken too was cooked to dust and we were not a gravy house, so abandon hope and look forward to fridays which were catholicly meat-free.

when i left home, i sort of passively decided to "give up meat". more out of overkill and dislike than anything else. besides, freshman year dorm "meat" wasn't exactly julia's bouef bourgignon. over the years, i went through various stages of being "vegetarian", getting anemic, getting "save the world" fever, and finally, well, i'll have fish.

which quickly led to trying 2 new foods. the first was oysters. in nyc on a girls' trip i ordered a dozen and was blown away by the burst of salinity, the fresh icy piece of the sea in those rough grey shells.

shortly after was sushi. a date took me, a slightly older, very wealthy man (who got weirdly instantly stalker-y on me, but not germane here, lol) and i suggested he do the ordering, but to not be afraid for me. the one bite that instantly staggered me and became me favorite food evah in the world always, was sea urchin -- uni. again, it gives that slight resist before you bite down, and it's briny minerality slides down your throat in a cold swallow of ocean velvet.

as i became more adept at cooking, entertaining and eating, i was very aware of the play of not just colors on a plate, but of texture too. if you're having pasta, put something crunchy on, like toasted pine nuts, so you don't get bored to death before you are full.

now a few weeks into my new eating habits, i've been having to tread back out to meaty waters. not long ago, i had my first hamburger in maybe decades. it was sooooooooo incredibly good. granted, from prime beef at a steak house, but still. i've had a few since, and while none were at that pinnacle of beef grade, they all were really good. how had i been denying myself all these years?

so, another food light bulb for noodle. i don't dislike meat. i hate badly cooked meat. bring me medium rare with a nice sear on the outside and a barely warm moist juicy inside. what's not to like? add crispy bacon to kill it, lol.

what kind of eater does that make me? a textural one? is that a thing?

more god gobbledygook

no secret that the born-again george bush had a penchant for invoking god (who told him personally and specifically) both to run for office and to invade iraq, as well mixing up religion with real stuff, ya know like evolution, or the fierce fundy battle to keep the so-called "morning after pill" off the market.

also no secret my personal impatience with ALL the superstitious nonsense that the world calls religion. reading baboon entrails or telling me that man has only been on the planet 6000 years cuz that's the bible math is all the same mumbo-jumbo to me.

rest assured the face-palm moments will continue even though he's out of office, because some of bush's crankier and disgruntled former staff are putting out books.

here's a snip from a speech writer's forthcoming tome, on why j.k. rowling did not receive the presidential medal of freedom:

This was the same sort of narrow thinking that led people in the White House to actually object to giving the author J.K. Rowling a presidential medal because the Harry Potter books encouraged witchcraft.

just so we're clear: guys like paul bremer and george tenet, who were instrumental in invading iraq and afghanistan, oh yeah, and endorsing torture, got the snazzy medallions but a woman who encouraged a generation of geeky kids to read books and enjoy imagination was too subversive. all that backyard pretend quidditch was a step away from the glamor that is devil-worship fer sure.

i hate women, redux.

lucky-linky and i found myself reading the sordid saga of a young woman who got involved with an older man. nothing new under the sun, eh?

in the second sentence (!) she admits, "i liked to think i was different." so does every 22-year-old ever, honey. she met him as an intern at the magazine of which he was editor. they stayed in touch, he mentored her with her freelance writing and a few years later, she landed a paid gig at his rag.

things end badly with the editor's long-time g/f, and they start bonking. rebound nookie not in her vocab, i guess?

she is hurt because around the office, he keeps his distance. she is hurt because she does not meet his friends nor his parents. she is hurt because he never introduces her to anyone as his "girlfriend". she is hurt when her mother voices her disapproval of this may-december fling and when girlie tells this to the editor, he freaks out, which makes her feel hurt. they had been fucking for 2 months and she says: "In my mind, we should be openly dating as boyfriend and girlfriend, and we’d marry and have children together."

on the phone, she tells him "she loves him". he admits he does not feel the same and they should end "this". he is seeing somebody else and it looks like it may become serious. someone his own age. she is beside herself that he doesn't feel emotionally the same, even though he gave every indication that was the case, and feels sucker-punched about the "other woman", even though they never discussed being monogamous.

he no longer takes her calls or answers her e-mails. it's OVER.

heartbreak hurts, no matter how young or foolish be the one feeling the pain. yet years later, she continues to blame him. "that he should have known better" than to "allow" someone so young to fall in love with him. um, which part of him coming to her with a broken heart does she refuse to accept? that perhaps he wasn't thinking clearly? that he wasn't in control of his own emotions, so how could he be expected to be responsible for hers too?

a year later, through facebook (oh, the joys made possible by social media!), she discovers he is engaged to *that* woman. she is furious and demands to see him. he accepts. she is hurt he didn't tell her in person. they no longer SPEAK so why does he *owe* her that? because he quickly moved on from a fuck-toy and she had not yet accepted that's all she was?

lastly, what really steamed me about this whole baring of her soul, is she gives enough personal details for anybody who worked at that mag to easily deduce the editor she was banging. nice discretion, lady. it's one thing to write about personal experience, but it's possible to do so without harming others. unless that's your intent.

as seen here

walking with purpose (which i do, even when i don't have one, and this will show why) yesterday, i was all dressed up for an interview.

giant black man: you an actress?
me: no

i do not break stride and he starts following me. the sidewalk is crowded with people, both walking and sitting at cafés.

gbm: you in one of them movies they makin' round here?
me: no
gbm: you should be
me: thank you
gbm: why you walkin' so fast? you afraid of black men?
me: no, i have someplace to be and my husband is black
gbm: you married to a brother and he lets you out alone and you so fine?
me: yes
gbm: you ax him if you can have a boyfriend -- i keep you safe when he ain't around.
me: please. leave me alone.
gbm: (yelling) i told you, you afraid of black men!

other black man: leave the lady alone.

and just like that, he finally went away.

one way to win an argument

a kansas couple had been arguing about his cross-dressing. one might likely think not for the first time. he was the father of her two children. the eldest, aged 18, came home to find her mother shot dead on the kitchen floor. her father, dressed in women's' clothing, was also on the floor, with a self-inflicted flesh wound, smoking. i'm guessing a post-murder smoke is even better than a post-coital one.

he appeared in court to plead not guilty, wearing make-up and a baby blue jumpsuit. (hey, we know kansas ain't exactly fashion-forward and even the frugalistas are shopping at the good will these days. just ask the ny times.)
eye bleach is in aisle 5.

good advice

anna rapaport, who is an actuary out of chicago and leads the society of actuaries' committee on post-retirement needs, was interviewed by "florida today":

reporter: if people can't bolster their savings, what can they do either before or in retirement to better deal with high costs?

rapaport: try to stay healthy.

this is the woman who knows how and when we are all going to die. see, america? health care crisis SOLVED! yo, get barry on the horn!

pray for us

there are certain republiclowns i am coming to depend upon to bring me the face-palm moments (except they also bring night terrors) and one of those is sen. tom coburn from oklahoma. you remember tom, right? another member of the extreme fundy group "the family", who, as an ob/gyn, claimed doctor/patient privilege in his counseling of slutty sen. ensign who was outted for fucking his not-wife and most definitely does not have a uterus.

this weekend was a "values voter" summit in d.c., with all sorts of loonies to bring the lulz: baby farmer michele bachmann, mike huckabee (i guess god stopped helping sway his voters?), actor stephen baldwin, phyllis schlafly (she's not dead and jello-wrestling with anita bryant in hell? wtf), and windswept former beauty queen carrie prejean. mormon mitt romney was there as a centrist. (and, no lie, a very bright white hope for 2012.)

as a direct paste from their site, here are the titles for the break-out sessions:

• SPEECHLESS - SILENCING THE CHRISTIANS
• THUGOCRACY - FIGHTING THE VAST LEFT WING CONSPIRACY
• DEFUNDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD
• ACTIVISM AND CONSERVATISM: FIT TO A TEA (PARTY)
• TRUE TOLERANCE: COUNTERING THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
• THE THREAT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
• OBAMACARE: RATIONING YOUR LIFE AWAY
• MARRIAGE: WHY IT'S WORTH DEFENDING AND HOW REDEFINING IT THREATENS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
• THE NEW MASCULINITY
• WAIT NO MORE: FINDING FAMILIES FOR WAITING KIDS
• TURNING THE TIDE IN YOUR GENERATION
• GLOBAL WARMING HYSTERIA: THE NEW FACE OF THE "PRO-DEATH" AGENDA

and here are some juicy cherry picks from the sessions deets, in order to continue the tide of fear, other-bashing and hysterical lying:

Ultimately, climate change hysteria rests on an unbiblical view of God, mankind, and the environment.

Redefining marriage poses serious threats to the religious liberties of people who continue to believe that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman.

Long lines, refusal of care, months waiting for needed surgeries, rationing of treatments, mandates in support of abortion.

Why did the President's science advisor support coerced abortions to protect the planet?

Americans are at a greater risk of losing their basic freedoms today than ever before in the history of this nation.

Feminism has wreaked havoc on marriage, women, children and men. It is time to redress the disorder it has wrought and that must start with getting the principles and ideals for a new "masculinism" right.


sen. coburn had this lil gem as part of a statement read by his chief of staff:

"praising one's parents in nightly prayers could enforce the notion of marriage, and telling children that "all pornography is homosexual pornography" could prevent them from becoming perverted."



because nothing says "homo" quicker to a horny teenage boy than hustler or estonian internet bukake. um, yeah. and seeing a triple-d blonde get trained by 10 bikers will make him want peen. for realz and forever.

as seen here

running errands in my hood today i saw that eyebrow waxing only costs 5 dollah. hollah. in all the joints. cheaper than a pack of smokes. this explains why all the boyz have gypsy moths doing cirque de soleil on their foreheads.

real amurricanz

tomorrow is constitution day, the 222nd anniversary of the completion of the constitutional convention. before y'all run off in your powdered wigs to party consider
this.

an outfit calling itself the oklahoma council of public affairs conducted a survey of 1000 high school students. they asked them 10 questions randomly selected from the current test immigrants take to become citizens. 92% of aspiring americans pass that test on the 1st go. 3% of the students passed. 3%. teens born and bred here, having been taught social studies and history since kindergarten. 75% could not name our first president, and the most commonly given answer to the 10 questions simply was, "i don't know."

oklahoma is not alone in this ignominy. arizona had similarly dismal results.

our founding fathers understood that free public education would be a cornerstone for maintaining the republic. that our citizens would need and have a grasp of civics, history and the ethics required for democracy. thomas jefferson wrote in 1789 that "whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government." later still he wrote, "enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."

golly, i hope those local school boards ordered enough intelligent design textbooks. i'm sure the kids are much better at (ahem) science.

oh, no, it's not about race

this was also taken at a 9/12 rally this past weekend, but had so many different kinds of stoopid in it, i felt it deserved its own post.


she seems delighted with her own cleverness, doesn't she? like a toddler who just made a big-girl poo in the potty instead of her pants. if she wasn't receiving medicare benefits for her hormone replacement drugs and high blood pressure meds, would she still be able to afford her fancy-schmancy art supplies?

i'm all for freedom of speech, but this is not dissent, this is hate speech, pure and simple. their white world has been turned upside down and it might as well be satan in the oval office, eating angels for breakfast and sodomizing girl scouts after a big lunch of bbq ribs and watermelon.

scans of the crowds at these rallies show white faces. lots of them. the only browns seem to be carrying press credentials.

freedom of speech

these were taken at a "9/12" rally, promoted by fox news' glenn beck. i don't think commentary from me is really needed.