obama's open letter to gay americans

we may all get there sooner than i thought----

As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws. I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment. But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples — whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage.

politics

Before long, a woman will come along who is equipped to use her gender as a joint of strength. A woman who taps naturally into all the positive feelings people have towards the powerful and influential women in their lives. Voters will defend this woman when she's attacked as if their own sister were under assault. And they will bend to her will to avoid disappointing her, out of an almost holy respect, as they do for their mothers. Such a woman will come along, but it appears her name will not be Hillary Clinton. Except in a case of monumental coincidence.

You may lament the superficiality of a politics that elevates personality and carriage to a par with policy. But as well to rue inconvenient realities like the need for sleep or ear wax build-up. These things aren't going away either.

books

Reading brings to mind wisdom, the exchange of ideas and quiet contemplation. It does not bring to mind people who need help putting their pants on. These books change all of that----five books that can actually make you stupider

she's gonna lose texas, too

Dallas County broke the '06 total vote yesterday [in early voting], with over 57,000 early votes (not counting the mail ballots). We've looked at about 55,000 of those, and as best we can tell, virtually half have no '02, '04 or '06 primary history. Less than 3,000 have previous R primary history over the same period.

flowers

orchids at the botanical garden are spectacular---

hillary

robert opined that he sorta hoped she would win---i asked him why and he replied, "because she's a bi*ch" ???????? "and bi*ches get things done"----i hadn't thought of that angle---

(i just discovered that blogger doesn't like "bi*ch" when it's spelled right)

more lost and found

An ancient stone plaza unearthed in Peru dates back more than five millennia and is the oldest known urban settlement in the Americas, according to experts here.

archeologists had previously believed that caral, also in peru, had the oldest structure---one of the articles also noted that caral was one of six places in the world -- along with Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India and Mesoamerica -- where humans started living in cities about 5,000 years ago.

they all got the same directive from god, i guess----

lost and found

created in prussia in the first decade of the 18th century and given by the german kaiser to the russian tsar in 1716, the amber room was considered by some "the eighth wonder of the world"----for sixty years, it has been the focus of one of the greatest art mystery of all time since it disappeared after being looted by the nazis during world war ii----an entire room finished with amber panels ----well, they think they've found it, 60 feet underground. . . . .although there are some doubters as to whether it's really been found----we've been through this before, but maybe this time it's real.

obamamania

his margin over ms. clinton in the last ten:

Louisiana: +21
Nebraska: +36
Washington: +37
Maine: +19
Virgin Islands: +82
DC: +51
Maryland: +23
Virginia: +29
Wisconsin: +17
Hawaii: +52

and 1,100,000 democratic voters vs. 395,000 republican voters in wisconsin!

won't be long now . . .

the early jonquils are blooming, and robert noted that some trees are at least thinking about spring, like the american elm down on cypress, which somehow didn't die when they graded away the hill behind it for a parking lot----

welcome to the jungle

Fundamentally, “Gotcha Capitalism” is a story about the death of the price tag, about the constant bait-and-switch tactics that layer on fees and surcharges long after we’re in a position to bargain over them. It’s about rampant false advertising, about the explosion of small print and asterisks and about the seeming disappearance of federal authorities working to keep our marketplaces fair. It’s about a threat to our economic system, which was designed to reward good companies with innovative products, low prices and smart employees, but now benefits cheating companies who hire the best liars and create the most misleading ads and confusing fine print. . . . The glorification of the individual as the ultimate center of the universe brings with it a concurrent lack of shame or guilt. If you are all that matters–if you are everything there is–then you feel no remorse about anything you do. We’ve seen this abhorrent behavior made manifest in the every action of our so-called “leader” for the past eight years, but even Bush is just a symptom of the larger trend. And as a commenter on Sudden Debt notes, that lack of shame has spread from corporations down to individuals, who no longer care about the consequences of defaulting on loans or their mortgages:

e. coli

beyond oil

well, don't we all want one of these----

Morgan Motor Co., the tiny British automaker so old-fashioned it still uses wood frames, is stepping well into the future with LifeCar, a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid it says will prove "a zero-emission vehicle can be fun to drive."

valentine's day

a friend found this postcard, c. 1907, at scott's last weekend----poor cupid looks like he's been run over or something, which is par for the course for most of us, if you get to thinking about it----

valentine's day itself has taken some hits: the hindus are beating up on valentine lovers---the saudis banned red roses----and, of course, the catholics tossed st. valentine off their calendar of saints entirely---

the kitten

who is actually no longer much of a kitten, and who is definitely not as big as a dog, nor quite as warm, although i might be wrong about that---he's been needy, but feline need is nothing like canine need, so i can mostly satisfy his wishes-----

hour of lead

After great pain, a formal feeling comes
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?

The Feet, mechanical, go round
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone

This is the Hour of Lead
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons recollect the Snow
First-Chill-then Stupor-then the letting go

that would be emily dickinson

doggone

hershey sinclair deuteron
28 july 1999 - 11 february 2008



before he got to be totally miserable all the time, the way sinclair got before i finally let go of him, i sent hershey on his way this morning----i had him for a year longer than i thought i would when he was diagnosed in october 2006, which may or may not make it easier---one of his last acts was to beg for a treat----just like a dog---now i have a little cedar box of ashes and a whole lot of great memories of a really fine dog----

obamamania

57% in louisiana and landslides everywhere else:

69% in nebraska

68% in washington state

90% in virgin islands

and everywhere more than twice as many democrats voted as did republicans---

plus the republicans turned out in droves for huckabee and were still voting for romney even though he dropped out three days ago!----so much for mccain---for what more could one ask?

roy and k.d.

watching the repuglicans implode

at the conservative political action committee today in d.c., where romney finally threw in the towel:

The Romney faithful were equally apoplectic. McCain's name was booed loudly when it was mentioned, even though CPAC officials had pleaded for cordiality.

It is like now I have to choose between the left and the radical left," said Jeffrey Goldberg, a Michigan Republican and Romney supporter. "John McCain's appearance here will be like David Duke going before the NAACP."

ah, sweet schedenfreude---

kitty kitty kitty

you think this can not possibly end well . . . . .

main street

looking purty----

obama