SassyBlonde

So this random shooting thing is really wigging me out-- all of the shoottings happened right in areas where I teach-- all within a mile of my students' houses. Yikes! They're all freaked, too. Poor kiddies! :(

Okay-- so now I'm REALLY P'd off- what kind of loon picks off a 13-year-old kid in front of his school?????? I can't believe this crap. This is the reason why all of the parents I know are so adamant about gun control.

Now I'm not saying that no one should own guns-- I really understand the reasoning behind some of the arguments-- but whoever this is is obviously not some random drug dealer-- this is someone with brains enough to plan the jobs and smarts enough to carry them out.

Not to mention that he's using a high-powered rifle to pick off his victims like so many deer in a field. It begs the question... WHY IN THE HELL HASN"T ANYONE SEEN ANYTHING?????? Surely the neighbors would notice a guy with a rifle, right? Geez, what a world.

So, the loon is still on the loose. The ever creative media has labeled him the "Suburban Sniper". Bunch of hacks.

Tired of hearing them babbling on about nothing, or the same thing, for a week.

All of the roads are clogged because the police have set up roadblocks on all of the highways. Yeccch. Hope everyone makes it here for rehearsal.

There are so very many wackaloons in this world. This past week a disgruntled tobacco farmer ground DC traffic to a halt by driving his John Deere into a pond on the Mall and threatening to set off explosives-- all in order to bring attention to the plight of starving and suffering tobacco farmers.

Now let's back up a minute here-- they're asking for OUR sympathy? No way bucko-- your past success was built on the death and dying of millions of people.

First of all, do none of these farmers realize that they're raising a crop which goes to create a product which has no other main purpose than addiction and only causes sickness? It's sick, if you ask me. If they had any kind of a conscience they'd change their business. And as for the argument that it's been a family business back to colonial days, forget it. Listen up guys-- your ancestors didn't have the information you have now. Theirs was a sin of ignorance, yours is a sin of negligence.

I'm sure they've had family members sicken and die from tobacco usage-- what's not adding up for them here?

Secondly, I know that even the dullest person in the world had to have seen the decline of the tobacco industry coming. After all, the government can't give subsidies for a product that does nothing but kill its citizens, right? (Ahem... we'll ignore that last statement.) I can't actually see the realism in Philip Morris-- oh ahem, Altria-- trying to defend the product either. They know damn well what it does.

These people are wacko. If they're so hung up on tobacco, let's not subsidize them, let's create a mandatory consumption for each family member who helps produce it. Let them try that on for size for a couple of years, and if they've survived and when they get a day free from treatments for lung cancer and emphysema, then I'll listen to their arguments for their way of life.

Fresh Air with Terry Gross was a really good program today. Just thought I'd give it a plug-- especially Joseph Cirincione's segment.

(Sent to Fresh Air host Terry Gross following the airing of her interview with pundit Bill O'Reilly today)

Dear Terry,

I cannot commend you highly enough on your wonderful interview with Bill O'Reilly. As a long-time listener to Fresh Air I can honestly say that I think this was one of your best ever. Kudos to you for having the guts to hold him accountable for his many , ahem, "truths".

Honestly, before today, I was neither fan nor critic of O'Reilly's, but in this interview you really did what all good hosts should- you let the man illuminate his own character. You gave him every chance to deal with what his critics have put out there about him, and he did great job of further proving them right. Despite every personal attack and slight he threw out to you, you did a masterful job of maintaining a clear and calm discourse (at least on your part). Concerning his comments about your interview with Al Franken, which I also listened to, I'm sure had Franken asserted that the satirical writings in his latest book were "truths", you would also have been as hard on him as you were on O'Reilly, and rightly so. Bully for you for reading the People review, as well.

Thank you again for your wonderful work on the show and I will continue to thoroughly enjoy listening daily.

(Sassy)

I have to say-- I've just received a very original response to a post I made a while back. Anybody remember the farmer who drove his tractor into a pond downtown in DC? Well, someone has come through in his defense. And the argument is truly staggering. Not only is it our fault for choosing to become addicted to cigarettes, now apparently drinking should be categorized as worse. Please feel free to respond.

Now this is medicine I can get behind:

The Inaugural Conference on Disease-Mongering will bring together academics, researchers, health professionals, health managers, journalists, writers and consumers who share an interest and concern over the trend to corporate definitions of diseases with a primary interest in making profits rather than a concern for the public health.

Man, I hope it was a roaring success!

Browsing through my email today, I saw an urgent communique about the new regulations regarding the substances allowed in carry-on items. Little did I know that I would soon be so impressed with the compassion and forethought of the TSA:

Travelers with Disabilities and Medical Conditions:
Important Information Concerning New Security Procedures

Due to enhanced security measures liquids, gels, lotions and other items of similar consistency will not be permitted in carry-on baggage. These types of items must be packed in your checked baggage.

To ensure the health and welfare of our air travelers with disabilities and medical conditions the following items are permitted.

Liquid prescription medicine with a name that matches the passenger's ticket
Up to 5 oz. (148ml) of liquid or gel low blood sugar treatment
Up to 4 oz. of essential non-prescription liquid medications including saline solution, eye care products and KY jelly
...
(Guideline bulletin located here)

Yes, that's right, the TSA supports your right to carry onto the plane that essential item for every initiation into the Mile-High Club-- KY Jelly.

Nice.

A little weirdness to lighten your day. Seriously people, for the love: these stories make even my friends seem normal.

Police arrest naked man with concealed weapon (from MSNBC)
Kanye West a sore loser at MTV awards (from MSNBC)
Pucker up and pee (from MSNBC)

Enjoy.

I'm sure everyone is sick to death of hearing about the police shooting of a groom at his bachelor partyby now, or will be very shortly, but I have a question to ask about this-- two drinks?

I'm not going to comment on the other aspects of the story, because whatever happens there will probably be played out in excessive detail in the press very shortly, but the fact that the officers were "authorized to have two drinks, no more" really pisses me off. What the hell kind of enforcement regulation was that?

Everyone always hears about the problems with drinking and driving, drinking and operating heavy machinery, drinking and getting a tattoo, even drunk dialing, for God's sake. It would seem to me that drinking on duty as a law enforcement officer is just simply taboo by common sense.

According to the Blood Alcohol Calculator on the OUPD website, a 200-pound police officer would have a .02% blood alcohol level (BAL) after two beers over two hours. His BAL jumps to .04% if he decides to have two martinis instead of beers, not to mention a BAL of .07% if he's going for Hairy Buffalos, which seems doubly idiotic from the get-go. Now, considering that the legal impairment limit is .08%, it would seem imprundent to allow these officers to handle firearms. After all, you can't drive a car at that point, right? Considering that at .04% you start to have impairment of reasoning and memory, as well as a lowering of inhibitions and a loss of caution, what's the obvious conclusion here?

I think those policemen are in for a heap of trouble on this one.

Sometimes it's better to just be quiet and remember. No finger pointing, no assigning blame. I'm sick of all the talking, which is why you haven't seen me doing it here myself about this. Join me or not, it's your choice.

There's just something about this news item that just makes me so freaking sad. It's funny in a way, too, but it just makes me sad for everybody involved.

One of the good things about driving up to the car dealership to pick up your husband whose car has died on a Saturday morning is that you have time to listen to the radio, specifically NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me on the way. I've learned about more weird stuff listening to that show, I swear, and I'm still hoping to have Carl Kasell's voice on my answering machine.

Anyway, the point is that sometimes I hear about stuff I never would have known about otherwise, such as curated art shows featuring nude portraits of the ladies from Golden Girls. Yep, you heard me right, people. (And yes, that is indeed a representation of Betty White as a dominatrix in the upper left of that picture over there of curator Lenora Claire, who um, by the way, looks fabulous, no?.)

"Golden Gals Gone Wild curator Lenora Claire came up with the show's concept after purchasing the now infamous nude oil painting of Bea Arthur by Chris Zimmerman. After turning down dozens of offers from friends, artists, and celebrities who all wanted a piece of Bea it became clear that it was time to share her liver-spotted bazooms with the world. Rather than take Bea door to door, or gay bar to gay bar, Lenora remembered that she had already curated numerous successful art shows and could probably rope some of her fancy friends in to contributing their own erotic depictions of the Golden Girls." -- ColoringBookLand

Apparently, D.C. as a whole is not filled with beautiful people. And here I thought the homely index was just higher in Laurel. Ha!!

Thanks to D for the link (UPDATE: Which is now working properly.).

So I have to update y'all-- one of the things I'm doing today is going over to Sloans and Kenyon in Bethesda (where I scored that rockin' flute earlier this year) to check out the auction of Barbara Bullock's stuff. Remember her?

Throughout the hour of unabashed confessional testimony from Bullock yesterday afternoon, some jurors and spectators in U.S. District Court stared in amazement at her account of thoughtless spending sprees -- and laughed out loud at her candor.

"Miss Bullock, would it be fair to say you like to shop?" Assistant U.S. Attorney James Cooper asked.

"No, that's not fair," Bullock said. "I love to shop."

(WaPo)

I think everyone who knows me can pretty much figure out that what I would have to say to that ignorant asinine Oklahoma representative would not be fit for posting here. However, I do think that the letter left on a comment board for News 9 Oklahoma City says it even more eloquently than I ever could. (Found over at Knit Like A Man.)

I think I may have to go and do a happy dance.

It would be funny except it's so true. I'm just saying.

Normally I try to stay out of the political fray on hot-button issues, especially the ones that cause such inflamed and insensible rhetoric as abortion does, but on this I cannot be silent:

A U.S. government-funded medical information site that bills itself as the world's largest database on reproductive health has quietly begun to block searches on the word "abortion," concealing nearly 25,000 search results.

Called Popline, the search site is run by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland. It's funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the federal office in charge of providing foreign aid, including health care funding, to developing nations.
...
A librarian at the University of California at San Francisco noticed the new censorship on Monday, while carrying out a routine research request on behalf of academics and researchers at the university. The search term had functioned properly as of January.

Puzzled, she contacted the manager of the database, Johns Hopkins' Debbie Dickson, who replied in an April 1st e-mail that the university had recently begun blocking the search term because the database received federal funding.

Sandra Jordan, director of communications in USAID's office of population and reproductive health, could not identify the documents that prompted her office's complaint, but said the publications were one-sided in favor of abortion rights.

"We are part of the Bush administration, so we have to make sure that all parts of the story are told," says Jordan. "The administration's policy is definitely anti-abortion, and the administration does not see abortion as a part of family planning policy."

The American Library Association's president Loriene Roy applauded dean Klag's swift move to restore the search functionality, but said in a statement that she is still concerned about the overall policy.

"Any federal policy or rule that requires or encourages information providers to block access to scientific information because of partisan or religious bias is censorship," she said. "Such policies promote idealogy over science and only serve to deny researchers, students and individuals on all sides of the issue access to accurate scientific information."

Please for the love of God tell me this is an April Fool's joke. *yurch*

I think perhaps Jessica Hagy said it best: Well, Shit.

As I know most of you have already heard, George Carlin passed away yesterday of heart failure. He will be greatly missed.