Blue Gal

God loves athiests, and how do we out-bless that?

2009-11-08T11:40:00.004-06:00

Adult Sunday School today focused on Jesus asking the fisherman sons of Zebedee to "follow him," and they immediately dropped their nets and did so.

One woman there admitted "I'd want to go home and change clothes first." We all laughed.

I had a really nice exchange with a fellow blogger this week. A group of us were informed that one of us (not me) had an 8 week old niece diagnosed with H1N1. I and some others mentioned that we would pray or get in touch with a church group, etc. etc. BTW I don't claim any credit for me or for God, but baby is doing much much better this weekend and we're all grateful for that.

Another of the group said,

being atheist - I don't have a prayer group. God doesn't listen to me anyway. Must have just been all that non-denominational love radiating through the atmosphere...

Now those of you who know me know my answer to THAT, and I replied immediately, yes, as immediately as the sons of Zebedee dropped their nets:

if there is a God She loves atheists best of all...that's why She made you clever and loving without benefit of clergy....

So often we so-called Christians focus on how we can control people rather than how we can bless them. This abortion bill mumbo jumbo is just the latest example. If I had the money, I'd mail a box of condoms to everyone who voted for that Stupid Stupak amendment and tell them to get back to me when they completely abandon abstinence-only hypocrisy.

Planned Parenthood notes that the cost of an abortion in the first trimester costs between $300 to $900. That doesn't include travel expenses to Atlanta, which for many Southern Baptist college students is the closest place to have their "mistake"... "taken care of." Church-going Daddies and wayward boyfriends do come up with that money all the time, without filing an insurance claim, trust me.

For the women who were unable to get an abortion on Medicaid due to the Hyde Amendment before last night? Life continues to suck, or in the words of our Lord and Master, "the poor you always have with you." Dear Congress: Jesus meant that as an accusation, rather than a statement of fact. Jesus knows what is in your hearts, Congressmen, and that you would send any number of pregnant interns to that Atlanta abortion clinic for the full nine hundred, just to save your fucking job, and many of you likely have.

That said... there is no Savior, or morning-after pill, strong enough for this dude:

Saturday Song (Dear GOP:)

2009-11-07T11:49:00.002-06:00

.

PS. Telling women they can't speak is never a good idea. Did you NEVER have a girlfriend, like, EVER?

Where some see a large group of GOP a-holes attempting to silence women, I see a lovely 2010 Democratic ad spot. Just lovely.

Let me explain "rationing" to the teabaggers.

2009-11-06T10:10:00.006-06:00

[Photoshopped their sign just a lil' bit. Original here.]

Last night I attended an open house for the grade 6-8 magnet school for my children's school district. This is a terrific school. Every single kid in the school gets their own MacBook with their textbooks embedded to take home. The kids, as evidenced by the "student ambassadors" hosting the open house, are well-spoken, confident, learning dynamos.

There were about 250 parents and kids there in the crowded auditorium, being sold on the idea of applying to this magnet school. It's like selling water in the desert. Five hundred fifth-graders are expected to apply for approximately 100 available spots in this school. The sales pitch was completely unnecessary except to provide some eighth-graders with some public speaking "enrichment".

And we all sat there like sheep. No one shouted out in rage that the other option, one many of us fear and four out of five of us will be forced to consider, is sending our kids to the assigned residential school for our address. You know, the MIDDLE school that gets occasional good reviews because the SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES that roam the hall are really nice people.

That access to decent public education, right here in our own community, is rationed by a completely arbitrary lottery.

The children in my school district, a district I expect is typical, are poor and getting poorer by the year:

Crooks and Liars posted a story this week that half of all kids in America are, not will be, on food stamps sometime in their lives (full disclosure: my kids are, and free lunch too), and for black kids the statistic is 90%. This is not based on projections, but on historical evidence collected for a pediatric organization. Pediatricians know that children on food stamps are more likely to be malnourished. It's a national health concern and, memo to John Kyl, should be a homeland security concern as well.

And what comes to my mind as I take the long route home, my hands shaking on the steering wheel, is all this talk about rationing and "hands off my healthcare" from a generation of people who are going to receive a check from Barack Obama for $250.00 in the next year. Am I to assume the teabaggers will be tearing up the check and returning it to the US Treasury with their own stamp, out of concern for the deficits they protested in DC yesterday? Or will they apply that money to their hotel bill from last night, might as well stay an extra day so we can see the Air and Space Museum, seeing as Dick Armey gave us free bus fare into town.

Dick Armey, who considers healthcare reform, but not the Bush tax cuts, "generational theft."

Theft for WHOM, Dick?

Not a photoshop

2009-11-05T09:12:00.003-06:00

Gee, that Midol solves all kinds of problems, doesn't it, Bonnie? [image from a 1966 TV Guide, h/t and thanks to Professor B.R.]

Woke up to find myself linked at Memeorandum, sandwiched between Carly Fiorina and Nina Totenberg...

Yeah, story of my goddamn life. :)

Many, many thanks to everyone for their kind words and good wishes yesterday. I love you too. xo

In bed with Dick Armey has unforeseen consequences

2009-11-04T16:41:00.003-06:00

Yeah, I went there...

That's NOT YOUR CAKE, Barack Obama!

2009-11-04T07:28:00.002-06:00

That's BLUE GAL'S Anniversary Cake! Her blog is five years old today!

I don't know how FOX News can claim they aren't a propaganda arm of the Republican Party after they sent you a half-eaten (Cavuto, natch) "aborted white babies" theme cake. But once again, you can't fault them for subtlety!

(Happy one year anniversary, Mister P. It gets easier after five, you betcha.)

Tex Betsy's Food Porn, or what you missed at Salon Last Night

2009-11-03T08:23:00.000-06:00

[20:20] texbetsy: i'm starving but don't have anything quick and easy. i may need to actually, ya know, cook
[20:20] bluegal: mac and cheese, baby
[20:20] texbetsy: that's cooking
[20:20] bluegal: HA!
[20:21] texbetsy: lol
[20:21] bluegal: stir in a can of tuna and you're a CHEF
[20:21] texbetsy: but may be necessary
[20:21] texbetsy: oh i am a real chef. a cup of frozen peas in as well
[20:21] bluegal: I may have to BLOG That.
[20:21] bluegal: lolol
[20:21] darkblack: Little Parmesan and it's Cordon Bleu
[20:21] bluegal: whoo hoo!
[20:21] texbetsy: too much work db
[20:21] darkblack: Oh, and shallots
[20:22] bluegal: sauteed shallots

I love TexBetsy. And leave it to Darkblack to think of the effin shallots.

Chat Salon 9-10 Eastern

2009-11-02T19:25:00.001-06:00

While Quitty McQuitter runs the GOP from her Facebook Account, we're chatting live at Monday's Salon. Click here to join. No registration or special equipment needed, but it does work best in Firefox.

Linky love to a sex blogger? Ooh.

2009-11-02T11:36:00.006-06:00

When I saw this "comment guideline" in a long post on "how to be respectful" at the community section of a large traffic feministubule blog, I instantly thought, "wow, that would look so cool on the front of a pair of white panties. Sisterhood!

But seriously, I feel sorry for people who don't have the will to ignore, or failing that, the verbal skills to swiftly and without writing nineteen paragraphs (I counted) castrate, those who are not "respectful to the blogger and her community." Sticks and stones, bitchez!

And now for the linky love...
____________

Scott's blog "Bill in Exile" is a hardcore gay blog, not safe for work, hide the kids and pets, etc. But then every once in a while he writes stuff like this, and I remember why he's so very blogrolled at my place. Besides the nekkid boy parts pictures.

GREAT writing.

Congratulations on your millions of hits, guys!

2009-11-02T09:29:00.005-06:00

A big congratulations to Doctor Zaius, who has reached one million hits, and Driftglass, who will reach two million today if he hasn't already.

And then I look at my hit counter and say, is this thing on?

This blog turns five years old on Wednesday. (Yes, Zaius, there will be cake.) My goal for the next year is to take my creativity in a more focused direction. I want to do more film-making and get back to video blogging or podcasting. There are changes coming to the big blog in which I hope to be a part.

But this is not my David Sirota "I'm going to completely quit blogging except for one post per day and also, Mrs. Sirota says I have to make this gig pay as soon as I get back from four weeks in China" resignation letter. You'll never miss me because I'm not going away, ha.

I'm writing this post while trying to get through to the state home heating bill assistance people. Wish me luck, Mister Sirota, the line's been busy twenty-three times so far.

As I said over at Driftglass:

...to paraphrase the BEST exchange in Napoleon Dynamite, which is the perfect blogger movie, in my opinion:

Whatcha gonna write today, Driftglass?

Whatever I want to GOSH!

On days like today I try to remember that...

On days when the fucking Wapo says ten assholes off the Harvard/Nobel Prize/federal prosecutor/published author boat are better choices than ANY blogger (not one of the finalists had even a blogspot addy) for their pundit contest***...

On days when I find out my video for the Steve Martin contest is automatically disqualified because it advocated a "political viewpoint" -- that puppies want single payer, yeah that old canard -- I try to remember that

...I can write whatever the hellfuck I want to. It's my blog.

It's a bowl of cold comfort,

except I get to share it...

Thank you for being there, for reading, for commenting. You folks are my personal miracle, and for that I am so grateful.

***To avoid having to go back and fix the broken links when Wapo goes out of business, I'm linking to other bloggers who write about the contest instead, a better long-term investment you betcha.

Ready to make nice? Well...

2009-10-31T19:41:00.007-05:00

I've been thinking a lot this weekend, in light of the celebration of evil versus good in the whole Halloween/All Saint's Day dichotomy, about what it means to be "good."

A good woman...
A good wife/homemaker/mother...
A good liberal.

The good woman debate got a bit of a jolt this week with the publication of some racy sexual fantasies over at Double X, a "sex article" site run by Wapo/Newsweek. (Yeah, they're desperate at Wapo, but we knew that.) One African-American woman fantasizes about being degraded, and the other is entitled "We Act Out Rape, Then We Snuggle."

As the church lady would say, "Now isn't that special?"

Of course, the definition of rape includes coerced and non-consensual, so if the two partners want this whatever it is, and both have an equal say in what happens and what doesn't -- it's not rape. I say this fully aware of the horrible gang rape crimes discussed in the news recently.

But there are blog communities that would still have debates about that. I've suffered through many comment threads where ironically, it just doesn't matter what a woman wants because the women at the blog thread "aren't comfortable" with what she is doing and find it threatening/triggering. And that brings me to a related illustration concerning the housework/parenting/spousal goodness that came up this week at another website.

Someone posted an "instant mocha" recipe at a "organize your life" community which I read on occasion. This site deals primarily with home organization but has also branched out into saving money, eating healthy and getting exercise, the whole idea is to take care of yourself and your home because you're worth it, etc.

Anyway some nice lady suggested mixing instant coffee with cocoa mix and dried milk and voila, you never have to go to Starbucks again.

And a commenter chided her for publishing such a calorie-laden high carb prescription AGAINST the organizers of the online community. No, really:

Do [the website organizers] know that [this forum] is promoting this recipe? This recipe is very high in calories (and carbs), and one cup should be considered [our rule book's] "one dessert a week'! Drinking a cup or more of this every day is very likely to add to your weight.

"Nothing says I love you like a cup of something warm and wonderful" Such self-pampering is not blessing your body. It is shortening your life to your detriment and to that of your loved ones.

Stick to water or black coffee.

P.S. Is it your brat or your princess that tells you drinking this is a way to pamper yourself?

Wow. Name calling over calories. You think we on the political side are bad? But now we have the purist liberal "Obama sucks because he didn't give us single payer" commenters at several big liberal blogs. Watch this video, which was apparently made by a conservative to show what liars we on the left are on the public option thing...HA!

You are reading the blog of a unabashed liberal woman who cut her political teeth on Kennedy 80, made videos for Kucinich 08, and wants single payer without apology.

I also watched Reagan get elected in '80. I am not going to freak out at this point because, frankly, I think I can find a way to diss Rahm Emmanuel without electing Mitt Romney. And for now, I'm going to write the history of what happened as "liberals dug in their heels and did not flinch, finally, when told they were asking for too much when they had ALREADY compromised." I hope those who think we've "failed" at this point will not freak out about the carbs in the coffee and the rape that isn't there.

And we really have to let the dust settle on this one, assess where to go next, and fight on for what is right. There's more to do, obviously.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T17:09:00.001-05:00

Saturday Song

2009-10-31T08:48:00.001-05:00

Today I'll dress up like a vampire and spend the rest of the day raking leaves in full costume. Happy Halloween!

Movie Review - Astro Boy SPOILER ALERT

2009-10-30T18:08:00.004-05:00

On the surface, Astro Boy is Wall-E without the subtlety.

The city of Seattle (veiled? I don't think so.) is elevated and suspended above the air pollution of the earth below. The result is a two-tiered society of city dwellers served by robots, and surface dwellers living in the garbage dump of the city above them.

Scientists, funded by the military, develop an endless supply of energy harvested from a far off star. It must be stored in two separate conditions: blue energy which restores the environment, brings peace and prosperity, and makes all things new again, and red energy which is military and kills people. The incumbent President running for re-election in this movie loves him some red energy.

I could go on and mention that the President doesn't want a dirty hippie sitting in his oval office (that line is actually in this movie, really) but there is a much more pernicious theme in this film. For all its 'gag me with a pro-Democratic agenda' political correctness, this movie teaches kids that under no circumstances can they trust that the love of a parent will be consistent and unconditional. Dad (Nicholas Cage) made him indestructible and put a blue energy heart in his mechanical body, and then decides the robot can't fill the void left by his dead son, so kicksthe robot-with-the-soul-of-the-boy out of the house so he can work out his own emotional loss. Astroboy's search for someone who will provide him with consistent unconditional love? Well, it kind of happens at the end but then again, he's a frikken robot with the power (and urgent sequel-predicting opportunity) to save the world, so who needs a Dad? And as in many children's movies, especially Disney products but also John Hughes movies, moms are almost completely absent or invisible. Astroboy's surface-dweller gang of friends are parentless, too, except for a robot repairman voiced by Nathan Lane, who we think is going to be the substitute father, but in the end is crazy, abandoning, and destructive.

Sorry to sugarcoat it, but Astroboy is a noisy, non-educational and emotionally damaging piece of crap, and I'm sorry I took my kids to see it.

Is it me, or is Washington now like a bad remake of "Sixteen Candles"?

2009-10-30T11:47:00.007-05:00

"Score. A direct hit." Disgusting geeks on the [teaparty express] bus.

And does she really have to go to the dance with Long Reid Dong? "Stop yankee my wankee, the Donger needs campaign contributions!"

A song and a video clip for a friend...

2009-10-30T00:07:00.001-05:00

Congratulations and many happy returns of the day....

Performance Art is in the Eye of the Beholder?

2009-10-29T11:23:00.005-05:00

There's a website, I won't provide a link and I'll explain why in a minute, that claims its purpose to be: a place where women who are shaped like me can post their "outfit of the day."

I am not a cruel person and do not generally mock non-celebrity fashion. I think it's mean and unfair to make fun of everyday women who have nothing on me in terms of weight issues. But bear with me about the three outfits below.

Fashion Model A lets us know that she was on the phone with her long-distance boyfriend for several hours last night, and that things are not going well. In fact, the relationship is probably going to end, so, to cheer herself up she decided to put together some outfits made entirely from clothes purchased in stores whose names end in "-mart" and post pictures of herself in them for comment/voting. She says she cheated a little in this photo because the top did not come from a store ending in "-mart" it came from a store ending in "-bug" so take that into account.

Model B calls this her "international" outfit because each item (sweater, skirt, tights, and oversized Doc Martens) "comes" from a different country. Surprise! Every country in the world is now called "China."

"One quick snapshot before I leave for work."

As I say, I am not a cruel person and because I am not sure about this website I am not linking it, and I did pixilate the faces in these images to protect the potential innocence of the people in question. But please allow me to add that...

...if this is performance art you gals fucking rock.

Update: I'm grateful to be informed that Paris Fashion Week has just as bad and worse than the above, but without the irony.

The Word of the Day is: Whore

2009-10-28T10:53:00.004-05:00

GMB at I can't believe it's not a democracy! says what needs to be said. Beltway whores freak out over being called whores.

Anyone who wants to make that into an anti-feminist comment can bite me. Joe Lieberman is a whore. It's the term I choose, as a writer and a feminist, to describe what he is doing to SELL OUT AMERICA. If in this era of deep change and national crisis certain feminists choose to sit on their vaginas and debate nomenclature because "words have power"? Glad your trust fund allows you all that time to major in women's studies, sister.

I really think that's the silver lining in this healthcare debate, is the uncovering of just how much lobbyists OWN the Congress. The whole "take your country back" thing?

If only.

Sarah Palin's Audiobook -- FRIST!

2009-10-27T11:51:00.003-05:00

Since I beat even Comedy Central by a day in making a "Going Rouge" joke, and now the liberals actually have a book out by the same name....

I call frist on noting that the audio version of Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue, due out December 1 and read by the author, is only available in abridged format.

Obvious joke: she recorded three whole pages and then quit.

Next month is Blog Every Day Month (NaBloPoMo)

2009-10-27T11:08:00.005-05:00

For those of you not writing a 50,000 word novel next month...

PROMPT: "Beautiful young steampunk vampires who are deeply, deeply in love battle forces threatening the eco-destruction of their world -- a world unlike any other. " GO!

...you have an opportunity to commit to posting to your blog every day for 30 days in November.

I won't be officially joining NaBloPoMo because I already post every day, but I want to encourage those of you who find that a challenge to get on board. Blogging / writing every day for a month will make you a better blogger / writer.

I'm not the rule-maker here, but if I were, the following posts would not count:

"What Atrios/Huffpo/Paul Krugman said" posts
Wow, here's a very cool youtube/photoshop/twitter hashtag that I didn't make myself
Kitteh!

If it weren't for the writing prompt above, this post wouldn't count either.

Write every day for a month. Post it. Get it out there. It will bless you in ways you can't imagine.

On topic, I'm so sorry to see all the broken links on my blogpostings for 2006. Some people even went to the trouble to buy a unique url and hosting space, but didn't bother to keep at the writing. For those of you who are not old-skool, or who think you might want to try this blogging thing, it is never too late. Trust me, if some voice is whispering to you to do this, it's not too late.

And if you have already gone to the trouble to set up a blog, then you, my dear blogger, have something to say that no one else can.

Write.

My entry in the Steve Martin video contest

2009-10-26T14:53:00.003-05:00

steve martin contest video
by flangum

Daily Motion and Steve Martin are holding a music video contest. The rules are, you have to use Steve Martin's song "Wally on the Run" as your soundtrack, and the video must have a dog in it. I don't expect to win, but I had fun with this. Enjoy.

Free Speech on the Internet? Well...

2009-10-26T09:16:00.007-05:00

I've been avoiding writing up this story. It's complicated.

A person commenting on a blog has been arrested in southern Illinois for something he said on that blog.

Ordinarily, that would lead to big outrage here at Casa BG. Indeed, my ex brought the story to my attention with cries of "outrage" and "free speech" yadda yadda.

And there is that component to this. But there is more, and as someone familiar with the blog commenting history and tradition, I'm probably obligated to put some of this into context.

The context, first and foremost, is that the blog and comments in question involve (1)

you will notice I put those words in an embedded image, rather than in type, because I do not want anyone who might search for those words on a search engine to wind up at this post. Traffic is nice, but many of you have been to a blog where every single comment is from some douchebag typing incessantly (2):

over and over again under different usernames and logins. A great many blogs, including the big blog I occasionally write for, has been forced to ban all commenting on the subject because certain people see fit to use discussion of said issue to completely hijack (yes I use the term consciously and without irony) blog space that would otherwise be used for mature discussion.

The other issue that is tangentally involved in this 'arrest' issue is (3)

I can tell you that IP is another issue a great many blogs will not touch because the emotions involved lead to a lot of hijacking, screaming, and yes, personal threats being bandied about. I have posted in the past about certain of these issues, and have even issued a

(4) against commenters who might think they can bully me on these issues.

We all want free speech in theory, but the sad fact is, speech in so many ways in America, and especially electronic speech, isn't free. Someone pays for the bandwidth, and big blogs who pay for their own bandwidth have huge costs when someone leaves forty five automatically generated (2) comments which have no value because the screaming has by now outweighed the debate on that issue.

There's also the issue of internet access for all races and incomes, and the issue of whether we're going as a society to let corporations determine how internet is divvied out to various sites (net neutrality is such a bad term for it; I wish we could call it 'corporate welfare wants to take away your computer freedom and no ice cream sprinkles for hard working Americans over 50' or something).

And there's the issue that when speech IS free and in an open forum where all are welcome, certain News Corporations (listed there by name) use that as an opportunity to again, hijack debate and push false agendas through the manipulation of an ignorant and frightened public.

Speech isn't free. And while the people shown are "free" to engage in this kind of protest, many of them are collecting single payer healthcare and are willfully ignorant of the issues they are marching about. And they are encouraged in their ignorance daily by Glenn Beck, who makes a lot of money to organize them.

There is no "public square" any more. You at your laptop are sitting in it. Net neutrality is essential. But so is an understanding that a few bullies can do just as much damage to free speech as big corporations.

Okay, but back to the blog story: it appears that a commenter at a certain blog regarding the, you know, (1) issue, took offense at an op-ed written by someone regarding some (3) issues. It appears the op-ed regarded blaming P's for being killed in g.a.z.a, which was like, totally all the P's fault for getting bombed and starved and stuff. Yeah.

So guy at the (1) blog got bent out of shape about that article and made two mistakes. One, he let it be known that he knew where the author of the article lives, at least to the extent that he knew he lived in the same town as said author.

Whatever you do as a commenter at a blog, never, NEVER, cross the line into real world. Don't talk about where an opponent lives, what their phone number is, or even divulge personal emails if they are not given out by the person themselves. Don't say, 'this is personal because we share the same air', etc. That gets you in trouble, and is patently offensive in the blog world. For those who don't know, there's a very popular blogger named Malkin who pulls that kind of thing on her detractors all the time. Publishes phone numbers and therefore locations of people who disagree or even attack her at her blog. Some of those attacks on her are also deeply offensive and unfair, but Malkin has negated any sympathy I might have for her by sending her "flying monkeys" as the internet calls Malkin's minions, to harrass, threaten, and in some cases allegedly endanger people who dare to start it up with her. This is an abuse of the privilege of having a blog audience, and I think Malkin should be fined big time every time she does it. We're still in the wild west of blogging, though, and hopefully the law will catch up with her eventually.

The second mistake this commenter made was to write poorly. To me, it looks like he was taking a true story from work, where a rat got trapped in a trash can and was released by the said commenter, and turning it into an analogy about his feelings for the writer of the op-ed, who commenter had already pointed out lived in the same town as commenter did. He did all of this in a way that left a barn door open into which could blow some FBI wind. Not a good idea, particularly since, in my opinion, bullies specializing in being on the wrong right-wing z.i.o,n,i,.s.,.t side of the (3) debate have no qualms about using the FBI or any available cop, large bouncer, or thug, to do their bullying for them.

It's pretty obvious to me that this is a case of too much testosterone; as a friend always says, "one boy, one brain; two boys, half a brain." Everybody needs to get over it, and op-ed guy seriously needs to drop the effin' charges, point made, for crying out loud. If he doesn't, the local ACLU should get involved. It's made the front page of the weekly indie rag, I hope that means the issue will be resolved without further unnecessary posturing.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: Why I care.

2009-10-25T14:44:00.007-05:00

Back in November of 2006 I noted this quote from National Review Online's Kathryn Jean Lopez:

"Passing out contraception without any deeper context or conversation is degrading and disrespectful — to men and women. Tell me I'm crazy."

Oh honey. By the time I got your invitation, that show had opened on Broadway:

Now it turns out she's at it again, via Sadly, No!:

I may be delusional, but I think the American Revolution still trumps the urban dictionary in much of the country.

And my question isn't why she thinks the American Revolution trumps the Urban Dictionary in much of the country. Honestly, that ship has sailed.

She may be a victim of her own political lunacy, but in terms of her whole "call me crazy" "maybe I'm delusional" rhetorical, um, flourish? Maybe she thinks it's self-effacing. Maybe it's a cry for help.

Kathryn: speaking as one committed plump brunette leading political blogger to another, what it is, is bad writing. Take a good hard look at your NRO official keychain and just. stop. it.

Saturday Song and knitting finished

2009-10-24T12:58:00.006-05:00

The second sock is done and they'll be in the mail this week, J.R., hopefully before the snow flies where you are!

And my dear pal Akabini, fab friend, knitter, and now marathon runner (if she weren't so fabulous I'd hate her) sent me some gorgeous yarn from Twisted Sisters, and in the bag she'd enclosed a swatch/tube in lovely oranges...I topped it off with some leftover blue variegated to make a hat....

...which looks lovely on ~~little~~ BIG girls:

Dick Cheney: Free Speech at Five Hundred Dollars a Plate

2009-10-23T10:47:00.006-05:00

The thing that's been completely left out of the Dick Cheney "how dare anyone dither when it comes to blowing up our enemies and rewarding our torturers" speech is the context in which that speech was given.

The Villagers don't like to talk about specifics when it comes to the beltway dinner circuit at which so many of them feed.

This dinner, minimum $500.00 a plate, was to given by the self-described, and I am not making this up, "non-partisan organization" The Center for Security Policy. Dick Cheney was speaking at their 20th anniversary dinner, at which he received the, hold back your breakfast now, the "Keeper of the Flame" award. Cheney was introduced by, among others, Don Rumsfeld, a former awardee himself. You know who else has this prize sitting on a shelf in their well-appointed Georgetown dens?

Joe Lieberman
Duncan Hunter
James Inhofe
Paul Wolfowitz
Newt Gingrich
Ronald Reagan
Jon Kyl
Caspar Weinberger

Okay, then. So why would anyone not expect a bowl full of neocon crazy in his acceptance speech? He's among friends.

Why can't the press be honest? And how, at this point in history, has that become a completely rhetorical question?