Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

True, Monaco is a only tiny principality in Europe, but how bad was poor Prince Rainier’s timing?

If he’d died just a little bit earlier or later, his passing probably would have gotten tons of media coverage in this country. Any other week and we’d probably be busy complaining about “all Prince Rainier all the time” coverage, just like I was bitching about “all Terri all the time” coverage.

I’m not a big royalty aficianado, but I will be curious to see whether single, heirless Prince Albert ascends to the throne or whether the rules are changed to allow Princess Caroline to ascend so that her son can one day become the ruler of the principality.

I’ll wait and watch. Until then, I’ll just plan my Monaco vacation. (Do you think you can go there on a budget?)

In the spirit of generosity, and because my co-workers are probably sick to death of my trivial offerings, I’m bestowing on you my famous feature. Drum Roll please…

The German Phrase of the Day!!

My German phrase of the day is taken from my German phrase calendar, however the selected phrase is not always from the day on which it is posted. Today’s phrase however, is too perfect to post on any day, other than today.

This one goes out to all the last minute tax filers, of which I’m happily not one this year!

Nur die Ruhe!

Don’t Worry.

(Literal Translation: Just the Calmness)

Don’t you feel better now?

Have a great day and Happy Taxes!

If you want to be able to vote in May’s Democratic District Attorney’s primary you must be have your registration mailed and postmarked this weekend. In order to vote for Seth Williams you must be a registered Democrat. If you or anybody you know isn’t registered, get you or them registered today or tomorrow (Registrations must be post marked prior to 12:00 AM Monday). If for some reason you don’t get your registration in the mail by last pickup tomorrow, get yourself over to the 30th Street post office which stays open 24 hours a day including Sunday. If you can’t find a registration form, head to your local post office where I believe they should have them, or go to this site and download the form. Get to work. Additionally, if you have time or money to give, be sure to visit Seth William’s website and volunteer or donate. This election is too important for any Philadelphian who gives a damn to be sitting on their butts. Get to work.

This may seem silly. If it does, I don’t really much care what you think.

Why doesn’t Philadelphia have a major street named for John Coltrane, one of the major innovators in the only truly American art form? When the United States, as we now know it, is just another chapter in some kid’s history book, Jazz will be listed as our nation’s artistic contribution to humankind and yet somehow, in the town he claimed as his home, there is no major street or building or transit line or bridge named for John Coltrane. More fool us. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, more fool you.

Not that the naming of a street, or bridge, or whatever does any work of art, or any person’s body of artistic works, let alone any human being’s existence, justice…

Good night.

You’ve heard about my plan to diet, you even read about the first meeting, now you get to read about the item that may well sabotage my attempts at a healthier lifestyle.

These delectable bits of sugared, fried dough can be found at the Mexican grocery right below Carpenter Street in the Italian Market. Every 3 days or so (I wouldn’t hold my breath on the timing), a Mexican baker in Reading apparently hand delivers a bounty of these pillowy light, freshly baked doughnuts to my neighborhood store.(Not sure why nobody in Philly knows how to make them, but from a purely selfish standpoint, that’s probably a good thing. ;) They seem to be very popular, at least among the Latino population in the neighborhood. And when they’re gone, they’re gone; you’ll just have to wait another 3 days for the next delivery.

In spite of the doughnut that I ate tonight, I actually had a good Weight Watchers day. Thank God for sushi!! 4 points for 8 pieces of a lovely salmon avocado roll made with brown rice. Yummy and good for me too! Oh, and the Mexican store also has a limited stock of produce, so I picked up a couple of plantains and pan-fried one with a little cooking spray and some salt.

Honestly, I haven’t had the best diet week; way too much going out to dinner, which is never easy on the points tracking. I know I did alright, in comparison to the way I’d been eating, but I could have been more diligent. I’m not beating myself up over it, I’ll just try to be better next week. Besides, I’m not even going to my meeting this weekend; it’s the weekend to go to York and spend time with my mom.

Happy Almost Friday everybody!

I had really great stuff I was going to write last night. Really absolutely terrific, earth moving, mind-blowing, koala crapped a rainbow in your brain kinda stuff. Obviously, it didn’t happen. My wife, you see, absconded with my computer and my cat, leaving me with a few bottles of cheap beer, a long nap, and unfulfilled dreams of greatness. So it goes. Additionally, it turns out I have a job I’m supposed to pay attention to. Lame, I know. Ah, bugger all. Have a nice day.

Considering the impending permanent repeal of the estate tax, should we perhaps also consider instituting some sort of hereditary peer system? I, for one, would relish the opportunity to address drug addled trust fund babies, just back in town from their latest 2 month Miami coke binge, as Sir.

Happy hunting:

A majority of Wisconsin residents support a plan to legalize wild cat hunting, according to voting results released Tuesday.

At meetings across the state Monday night, residents in 72 counties were asked whether free-roaming cats should be listed as an unprotected species. If so listed, the cats - including any domestic cat that isn’t under the owner’s direct control or any cat without a collar - could be hunted.

Zoey, my chubby, feral cat is, no doubt, pissed.

You just can’t fathom how relieved I was to find out that Britney Spears and her husband are expecting. And then to add to my joy, I learned that both mother and baby are fine after spending some quality time at the hospital this weekend.

Do you remember that song from a few years back by Harvey Danger? I believe the apropos lyric went like this…”been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding.”

OK, maybe I’m being too harsh. But it really does seem like lots of stupid people are breeding.

Maybe now we’ll have a little reprieve from the “way too interested in Britney” media until “baby Federline” arrives.

We can only hope.

It’s everywhere! (here here here here here here here here and everywhere).

What follows doesn’t quite relate (I’m still working on that), but it’s something I wrote a while back that sums up some of my feelings on the values issue.

The idea of a war over values and culture, at least in the way that war is currently framed, sickens me. In my mind, the values war that should consume the minds of an informed public, when it comes to federal elections and federal office holders, should concern the actions of the federal government, and how those actions represent the American public.

When we discuss public morality, we rarely discuss the moral implications of executing prisoners, the implications of social policy, or the moral implications of our foreign policy - be it war or a trade agreement. Instead we discuss religious beliefs or the lack thereof, sexual orientation, or a preference for one type of artistic expression over another, however depraved or without worth, which is deemed more or less morally acceptable than another.

What on earth are we thinking, where on earth is this going, and what possible good does it serve? Bemoaning another person’s cultural depravity is every American’s right, and lord knows I’m guilty, but what on earth is this line of thinking doing in our political discourse? What do we gain?

We, as a nation, have ceded our sense of civic morality to the basest elements of our society. We engage in a cultural war with those who choose to willfully ignore the meaning of our founding documents and choose instead to deal in historical fallacies and lies. We accept their notion of a Judeo-Christian nation without ever bothering to examine many of our founder’s Deism or the ideas of the Enlightenment, which they attempted to infuse into our Constitution.

We engage in the ‘values’ argument on their terms. We never invoke the true meaning of the electorate’s moral responsibility for the actions of its elected government. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people, I might add.

Nice description of Mr. Bolton in today’s Senate testimony. Reminds me of any number of people I’ve known. Asses, one and all:

“I have never seen anyone quite like Mr. Bolton,” Mr. Ford said under oath. “He abuses his authority with little people.” He called Mr. Bolton a “kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy.”

Susan has a nice take down of Kristof’s latest spewage. Go read:

…the reason we don’t respect journalists is because the media is just another factory now. Half-assed stories, corporate agendas and just plain cowardice. You know why it’s so difficult to watch? Because we still expect more. We still hope, against the evidence, that somehow this latest breed of self-serving, opportunistic “journalists” will remember why they have special constitutional protections.

Guess not:

Even though the economy added 2.2 million jobs in 2004 and produced strong growth in corporate profits, wages for the average worker fell for the year, after adjusting for inflation - the first such drop in nearly a decade.

“Pay increases are not rebounding, even though the factors normally associated with higher pay have rebounded,” said Peter LeBlanc of Sibson Consulting, a division of Segal, a human resources consulting firm.

The problem is not with the jobs themselves. Most economists dismiss as overblown the widespread fear that the number of jobs will shrink in the United States because of foreign competition from China, India and other developing nations. But at the same time many of these economists argue that the increasing exposure of the American economy to globalization, along with other forces - including soaring health insurance costs that leave less money for raises - is putting pressure on wages that could leave millions of workers worse off.

This very much reflects my own experience and the experiences of any number of other people I know. Wages seem to increase at about 2% or 3% a year, which at this point just isn’t enough to keep up with rising healthcare, transportation, and energy prices.

On Saturday, I overcame a bad case of terror and went to my first Weight Watchers meeting in over a year. I shouldn’t have been quite so worried. Of the 40 lbs I had originally lost, I only gained back 18. I’m just glad I was able to drag myself back to a meeting before my eating spun too far out of control again. I figure if I can keep this up for another 40 or 50 years, I’ll be good.

One of the women at the meeting told us a story that scared the living hell out of me. She started Weight Watcher’s about 8 years ago; I guess it took her about a year, but she lost over 100 lbs. After losing the weight, she stopped going to meetings and gained all the weight back, plus a little extra for good measure. So she went back to Weight Watchers, lost over 100 lbs again and believe it or not, she again stopped going to meetings, and gained all the weight back, plus some extra. She’s now back at the meetings and she has lost all the weight for the third time. This time, I think she’s going to stick with the meetings.

I’ve gone through some rough emotional patches, but I hope I never find myself in that kind of a situation. It was hard for me to get the courage and the motivation to go back to meetings, but I knew it would only get harder and I would just pack on more weight if I didn’t go back. I’m so happy I did.

I wish I had talked to the woman who told her story. What could possibly be going on in your head that would keep you away from Weight Watchers so long that you could go from a size 8 or 10 to a size 26(or bigger, I didn’t ask, she didn’t tell)? I wouldn’t want to hurt her, she’s obviously been through a lot, but I just want to understand and maybe take some lessons from her painful experience.

Maybe I’ll muster the nerve to ask her one of these weeks. Until then, I’ll just count my points, eat healthier foods, take my dog for longer walks, and be thrilled when I can again remove my jeans without undoing the fly. :)

Mithras may be on to something here:

What the Democratic Party must do is undercut the GOP’s science-fiction-based comparative advantage. First, it must promote the right candidates. Ladies and gentlemen, consider Picard/Data ‘08. Yes, yes, I know neither are eligible to the Presidency, on account of foreign birth and being fictional, but these are minor details that can be swept aside with a pliant press - after all, they didn’t say anything when a man with the intelligence of a small woodland creature was twice elected President and then dragged the nation into war under the barest of flimsy excuses. Second, we must transform ourselves into the party of Killer Robots That Can Blow Up Other Killer Robots With Lasers. Our strategy will be to disperse the robot and laser factories in low-income areas of major cities, divert the funding from places like Alabama and some of those other states in the middle of the country - I can never remember their names - and then stream the video of “tests” of competing robot armies over the internet. No one will be killed, there will be full employment and high-tech job training, and campaign contributions from tech companies will pour into Democratic hands. The Republicans won’t stand a chance. It’ll be a rout.

One of the little joys of having a roof deck is walking out the door for your morning cigarette and accidentally interrupting a couple of pigeons, well, you know. I’m not sure that mating season has actually begun, or if these two were just having a go. I’m such a prude though, that whenever this happens (more often than you might think), I always feel quite embarrassed and scoot back inside so as not to interrupt. I’m sure the pigeons couldn’t care less.

Danielua has written a nice summary of a few of the reasons why you should support Seth Williams in the May Primary. If you are a DailyKos member, consider recomending it. Here’s a little but go read the whole thing:

How about having a DA in one of our biggest Cities who fights not just to prosecute crime, but to prevent it? How about a leading Democrat who says: “As one of the most visible faces of national law enforcement and the head of the largest law firm in Pennsylvania, the DA has a special obligation to be a leading advocate for justice reform and modernization in Washington and Harrisburg.”

How do we breed progressive candidates? How do we create our own farm team of officials? How do we show that on local levels, Democrats are the party making a difference? We do so by putting into local office real reformers, real Reform Democrats. We create our own progressive, dynamic farm team for the party, even in spite of the party. And in doing so, we help give us all a small amount of hope for the future.

A little bit of what I was discussing with regards to the disturbing C-Span broadcast of the conference on “Confronting the Judicial War on Faith,” that I caught a little of the other day, has been trickling out over the weekend. Here’s a Stalin quote that one of the participants trotted out when discussing how to deal with “Judicial Tyranny”: “Death solves all problems: no man, no problem.” To be fair, the participant only said “no man, no problem,” but wow. Really, just wow. As the WAPO article points out, this is no fringe group, this is mainstream movement conservatism at its most fucked.

Okay, so for a brief moment pretend that for some reason the war in Iraq might have been a good idea. ‘Kay?

Now, pretend we’re supposed to win said war. Well, we’re not. Every time we find a cache of bodies and the New York Times reports on it, we lose another battle.

Every time the terrorists/freedom fighters (depending on where you stand) attack anyone, be it with a car bomb, roadside bomb, or whatever, we lose another battle.

And most important — every time we screw up and violate the Geneva Convention and word gets out to the Washington Post, we lose another battle. Memo to the bush administration: Al-Jazeera has reporters here in the U.S. reading American newspapers, and it’s not like they aren’t reporting this stuff back in the Middle East. What was that remarkable quote from Control Room about how any Bedouin can hook up a TV with a satellite in the dessert and get the latest news?

Today’s main headline on Al-Jazeera’s web site: Al-Sadr supporters launch anti-U.S. protests in Baghdad.

Who was it that said that the invasion of Iraq transformed Al Qaeda from an organization into a movement?

Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid

Tonight after a major grocery shopping trip (gotta stock up on the Weight Watcher’s friendly items in preparation for tomorrow), some chili-cooking, and a chat with a friend, I decided to watch The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never really liked Leno. I adored Johnny Carson, and back in the day (way, way back in the day to all you young’uns out there) I would watch Letterman when it followed the Tonight Show on NBC. Tonight, the start of Letterman was delayed by coverage of the Master’s Tournament(fucking golf), so I tuned in for the first half of Leno.

Let me tell you, I really haven’t been missing much. He used to be a pretty decent comedian. I used to enjoy his political humor, I mean, Clinton gave him some great material with all the Monica Lewinsky stuff, but Bush is no slouch as a comedy goldmine either. If you watch Letterman or even if you don’t, just check out the first half of his show sometime. Not sure exactly how, but they get completely unedited tapes of Bush appearances all over the country and edit them or just play them with such titles that Bush ends up looking like a complete buffoon.(Yeah, I know, it’s not that difficult)

For some reason, Leno has been beating Letterman in the ratings for years. NBC’s complete dominance over other networks for most of the 90’s is probably the big reason for this, but since CBS is doing much better now, I certainly hope the Nielsen voters wake up to the loopy delights of Dave and leave Leno scratching his oft-ridiculed chin.

Until then, I’ll just take comfort in my superior taste and unparalled sense of humor. :)