December 2010
“As Republicans we cannot risk heightening this cultural war to a higher level than it is already. It is not just the liberal elites versus the “real” American Republicans, it is now becoming a war within the Republican Party itself about what kind of people we want leading the party. This type of rhetoric will continue to alienate and stereotype Republicans that don’t pass cultural purity tests. We are watching the old fashioned spirit of the Republican Party that once served us so well abused for the purpose of clever talking points.”
—Meghan McCain on Sarah Palin’s ‘Blue Blood’ Comment - The Daily Beast
November 2010
Center for Women, Families seeks help with gift cards -- The Courier-Journal →
courier-journal.com
The Center for Women and Families is asking for help providing its clients with gift cards this holiday season so that they may safely shop for their children.
Gift cards allow residents who live in the emergency shelters to shop online for holiday gifts. Non-residential clients plan to gather and shop together.The center expects to have almost 1,000 adults and children in Kentucky and southern Indiana who will use the gift cards as their only means of getting gifts this holiday season.
The Center is asking for gift cards in $25 increments. It’s preferred if cards come from stores including Kmart, Target, Walmart, Meijer, J.C. Penney, Kohl’s and local malls.For information about how to drop off gift cards call (502) 581-7200 or mail them to
The Center for Women and Families, attn: Chris
P.O. Box 2048, Louisville, Ky. 40201.
Steve Beshear (KY dem governor I happen to normally like) to flaunt new Creation Museum theme park tomorrow →
barefootandprogressive.blogspot.com
Joe Sonka from B&P posted this to FB with a resounding, “What. Twain. Said!”
The Mark Twain quote in question:
“I want to be in Kentucky when the end of the world comes, because it’s always 20 years behind.”
“As well as igniting the debate over human-sized versus ideological Modernist architecture, the Prince of Wales has led the charge over organic agriculture against GM crops, traditional history teaching in schools, complementary medicine, defense of the Prayer Book, anti-Islamic prejudice, fox-hunting (despite not overtly wanting to), environmentalism (along with his father Prince Philip), community business, human rights abuses in China, and many other causes close to his heart. Few will agree with him on every single issue on that list, but none can doubt that he is a rain-maker in public affairs. (My house in Belgravia in London lies almost in the shadow of where 17 identical neo-Brutalist steel-and-glass high-rise apartment buildings were due to be built, which Prince Charles used his influence to prevent in the interests of preserving London’s beauty.) The fact that few people, even 13 years after Princess Diana’s death, seem willing to accept is that the Prince of Wales is a great man who should no longer be haunted by his ex-wife’s poltergeist.”
—Prince William and Succession: Charles Should Still Be King - The Daily Beast
"Andrew Mason, Groupon’s chief executive, declined an earlier interview request, adding that he would talk “only if you want to talk about my other passion, building miniature dollhouses." →
dealbook.nytimes.com
I’d take him up on it.
“So let’s say you build a nice dollhouse and then someone comes along and wants to buy it, what do you do?”
“They couldn’t stand him. They just couldn’t stand him,” Depp says of Disney’s reaction to his controversial interpretation of Sparrow. “I think it was Michael Eisner, the head of Disney at the time, who was quoted as saying, ‘He’s ruining the movie.’ Depp reveals to Smith, however, that he remained unfazed by the studio’s hysteria. “Upper-echelon Disney-ites, going, What’s wrong with him? Is he, you know, like some kind of weird simpleton? Is he drunk? By the way, is he gay?… And so I actually told this woman who was the Disney-ite… ‘But didn’t you know that all my characters are gay?’ Which really made her nervous.”
—Johnny Depp Talks to Patti Smith About Working with Angelina Jolie, Jack Sparrow, and His Own Musical Aspirations
“HOW IS CRISTINA FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER MANAGING HER NERVES AND ANXIETY? HOW DOES STRESS AFFECT HER BEHAVIOR TOWARD ADVISORS AND/OR HER DECISIONMAKING? WHAT STEPS DOES CRISTINA FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER OR HER ADVISERS/HANDLERS, TAKE IN HELPING HER DEAL WITH STRESS? IS SHE TAKING ANY MEDICATIONS? UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES IS SHE BEST ABLE TO HANDLE STRESSES? HOW DO CRISTINA FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER,S EMOTIONS AFFECT HER DECISIONMAKING AND HOW DOES SHE CALM DOWN WHEN DISTRESSED?”
—
As Moe observes, this is awful TMZ of Hillary (who wrote this cable).
(via whatwillsuffice)
All I hear is how can I become Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner without anyone suspecting a thing?
(via starsgowaltzing)
“WE ARE CURRENTLY PREPARING A WRITTEN PRODUCT EXAMINING THE INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS BETWEEN THE GOVERNING TANDEM.”
(via sexartandpolitics)
“As 9-year-old Piper assembles the ingredients for cake from a mix, Sarah becomes concerned about possible excessive egginess and tells her to recheck the instructions. After Piper confirms that she’s done everything correctly, her still dubious mother glances at the recipe and does a double take. “It’s in Spanish!” Well, no wonder her red-blooded, American, hardworking, tax-paying third-grader can’t figure out how many huevos to include! Except …
Piper: No, it’s not. [Points at the box to distinguish it from the imaginary one Sarah just read.] “Three eggs.”
Sarah: Oh. You’re right.” —Decoding ‘Sarah Palin’s Alaska’: Spoiled by family love | Show Tracker | Los Angeles Times
Piper: No, it’s not. [Points at the box to distinguish it from the imaginary one Sarah just read.] “Three eggs.”
Sarah: Oh. You’re right.” —Decoding ‘Sarah Palin’s Alaska’: Spoiled by family love | Show Tracker | Los Angeles Times
“Average credit card debt per household with credit card debt: $15,788”
—Jim Quinn: Lies Across America « naked capitalism (via quotingthecrisis)
My credit card debt just gained new perspective.
Top 10 revelations from WikiLeaks cables
1. Many Middle Eastern nations are far more concerned about Iran’s nuclear program than they’ve publicly admitted. According to one cable, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has repeatedly asked the U.S. to “cut off the head of the snake” — meaning, it appears, to bomb Iran’s nuclear program. Leaders of Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern nations expressed similar views.
2. The U.S. ambassador to Seoul told Washington in February that the right business deals might get China to acquiesce to a reunified Korea, if the newly unified power were allied with the United States. American and South Korean officials have discussed such a reunification in the event that North Korea collapses under the weight of its economic and political problems.
Continue reading… TheLookout
I think #10 is my favorite (says someone who is still not well versed on this wikileaks situation, oops):
10. Some cables reveal decidedly less than diplomatic opinions of foreign leaders. Putin is said to be an “alpha-dog” and Afghan President Hamid Karzai to be “driven by paranoia.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel “avoids risk and is rarely creative.” Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi travels with a “voluptuous blonde” Ukrainian nurse.
“I think we should be a little more tolerant, a little more accepting and understanding of not just the gays but other people, minorities. We just don’t have enough love to live in this world.”
—Dolly Parton
“Everything I’ve seen — every post spreading the gospel of small business support, every I-would-never comment on overnight queues, every joke about Zombies of Walmart and duels over the last flat screen TV — grew from the fetid soil of classism. Because Buy Nothing Day is great — if you can afford to pay full/er price on your holiday presents (or clothes or kitchen tools or household goods). Buying local is wonderful — if you can pay $13.95 for a small skein of wool instead of $1.95 for super bulk acrylic. But y’know, not everyone can. And I have no patience (but plenty of pointed words) for anyone who says that if you can’t afford handmade from Etsy then you don’t deserve anything under your tree, or that if you’re struggling to make rent or don’t have savings you’ve not the right to “extras” like Christmas presents or DVDs or cell phones with cameras. We all of us — unless you are reading this at a public access point on a mandatory fifteen minute break from your 100 hour a week unpaid job of serving the disadvantaged — make “selfish” decisions sometimes. We indulge. We allow ourselves luxuries — yes, sometimes when we don’t have the basics, because it helps us feel a little more human in a world that would deny us our humanity. This isn’t a trait of those poor people over there, it’s something we all of us do; it is only kyriarchy and classism that somehow makes it ok when it is our own indulgences (or those of persons of a similar class), yet calls it “imprudent” and a sign of “stupidity” when they do it. We cluck our tongues at those who fail to buy handmade, while clutching our Kindles and fretting about our retirement and ignoring our hypocrisy.”
—Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and the discomfit of classism « Raising My Boychick
“My daughter was asked by a little old lady in a London hotel restaurant what her daddy did - she answered, ‘He’s a pirate.’ I was very proud of that answer.”
—
Johnny Depp
(via wonkaschocolatefactory, silentsigh)
“Hopefully she didn’t get that from me because I certainly never encouraged her to do any of that… I think she’s just in a cross - she’s just kind of in a crosswinds trying to overcome the Hannah Montana little girl, and trying to become a young woman… I don’t know if she’s surrounded by people that are helping (her to) not make the wise decisions.”
—Dolly Parton’s fears for Miley Cyrus
Kids are resilient, right?
Because I’m slightly concerned about Phaedra and Apollo’s baby.
And no, Phaedra, not everyone loves the name Ayden. Especially not with that Y.
“Cooper told The Insider that when he hung out with the Grammy-winning provacateur in England to shoot their Q&A, she had her own ideas about how to make the interview more relaxing. “We actually ended up that day in a pub in London drinking Jameson, which I don’t really drink,” the longtime CNN journalist said. “So, she got me to drink, like, two of them. And by the end, I was ready to have the interview be over, because I really sort of couldn’t ask anymore questions.”
—Anderson Cooper’s Drinking Buddy: Lady Gaga?
“The Reagan Years
For 8 years, all poverty and violence in the United States end. And Reagan says ‘tear down this wall” and the Berlin wall comes down. Millions of sick children are also healed by touching the hem of Reagan’s slacks, and the crumbs from Reagan’s table miraculously feed millions more. And there was this time that a little boy was cornered by a bear, and the bear was really big and mean and was totally going to eat the boy, but then Reagan swooped down out of nowhere and simply smiled, and the bear stopped being mean and licked the little boy and gave him honey instead.” —
For 8 years, all poverty and violence in the United States end. And Reagan says ‘tear down this wall” and the Berlin wall comes down. Millions of sick children are also healed by touching the hem of Reagan’s slacks, and the crumbs from Reagan’s table miraculously feed millions more. And there was this time that a little boy was cornered by a bear, and the bear was really big and mean and was totally going to eat the boy, but then Reagan swooped down out of nowhere and simply smiled, and the bear stopped being mean and licked the little boy and gave him honey instead.” —
Introducing: The Tea Party Guide to American History!
Reference point: Reagan’s Bear Ad
“The real story, though, isn’t that Palin said “North” instead of “South.” Let’s be honest: Vice President Joe Biden could have just as easily blown a line like that. No, the real story is that Palin was discussing a complex, precarious, highly dangerous issue as if she were an expert, even though she clearly isn’t. Does anyone outside of Palin’s relatively small group of smitten followers honestly believe that she is competent to act as an expert on Korean policy? That she knows the intricacies and risks of engaging with the North Koreans? That she understands the possible leadership struggle going on there? Do you think she has the first clue about the history of Korea over the last century? Do you think she’s ever heard of Syngman Rhee, the Bodo League massacre, the Battle of Inchon, or National Security Council Report 68, or that she knows about the decades of Japanese rule in Korea? Do you think she’s ever read about the role the propaganda efforts of the post-Stalin Soviet government played in the eventual armistice that ended the fighting? Doubtful, at best. Now, do you doubt for a second that Joe Biden could reel off a dissertation-level analysis of these issues from the top of his head?”
—Mitchell Bard: Why Sarah Palin’s North Korea Flub Matters
“History is likely to judge Bush most harshly for two things in particular: Launching a war against a country that had not attacked us, and approving the use of cruel and inhumane interrogation techniques. And that’s why the two most essential lies — among the many — in his new memoir are that he had a legitimate reason to invade Iraq, and that he had a legitimate reason to torture detainees.”
—The Two Most Essential, Abhorrent, Intolerable Lies Of George W. Bush’s Memoir (via notemily)
“You, my friend, are a victim of disorganized thinking. You are under the unfortunate impression that just because you run away you have no courage; you’re confusing courage with wisdom.”
—The Wizard of Oz, to the Cowardly Lion
“DOROTHY: How can you talk if you haven’t got a…. brain?
SCARECROW: I don’t know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?” —The Wizard of Oz (1939)
SCARECROW: I don’t know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?” —The Wizard of Oz (1939)
“A simple respect for the office she seeks would not reflect itself in these increasingly callow, sarcastic, cheap jibes at a sitting president. But sadly, like so many now purporting to represent conservatism, there is, behind the faux awe before the constitution, a contempt for the restraint and dignity a polity’s institutions require from its leaders. There is no maturity here; no self-reflection; no capacity even to think how to appeal to the half of Americans who are already so appalled by her trashy behavior and cheap publicity stunts. There is a meanness, a disrespect, a vicious partisanship that, if allowed to gain more power, would split this country more deeply and more rancorously than at any time in recent years. And that’s saying something.”
—Why America Won’t Buy Palinism - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
“Suppose, for instance, that late in the season, when there are five couples left, four of the five teams receive 9’s across the board from the judges, and the final couple instead receives straight 7’s. In terms of the way the judges normally vote, that is a rather clear verdict: the low-scoring couple has had an inferior performance, and should be eliminated. But in reality the low-scoring team would need to receive only 24 percent of the votes from the home audience — just barely better than the 20 percent they would get if the audience voted completely at random — to be guaranteed passage into the next round. It doesn’t matter if 24 percent of the audience thought they were the best-performing couple — and the other 76 percent thought they were the worst one! They would still advance to the next episode.”
—
Nate Silver: Palin Debate Aside, Does ‘Dancing’ Vote System Need Reform? - NYTimes.com
I kinda love that Nate Silver just broke down the DWTS voting system.
“We’ll take turns sharing what we’re thankful for this year which will range from less original but still valid answers like houses and jobs to the more emotional blessings of little almond eyes and the tiny soul that changed us. I’ll most likely cry and then pull it together. But still, that’s not the heart of it. That’s not the meaty core of Thanksgiving…the kind I want my kids to grasp and feel. It will come somewhere in between…when no one’s watching. Right when the kitchen’s crazy and the gravy’s boiling and the football game is roaring and hands are being washed and babies are being prepped and hotpadded dishes are being carefully carried to the table. And someone will holler for everyone to come, and I’ll watch as conversations are wrapped up and bibs are fastened and heads are tipped in laughter. And right about then, I’ll want to grab my kids and kiss them, whisper into their ears….”This is Thanksgiving. This, right here, is being thankful. Drink it in, Babies. Drink it in.”
—Enjoying the Small Things: Perfume Apple Pie…and a little bit of thankful
