BiddiesInMyBrain

Unreal

I just got around to reading this wonderful editorial in the Memphis Flyer and was, once again, mightily disturbed at the idea that has been expressed of late Democrats are somehow wasterful and out of touch, while Republicans are of the people and somehow ready to lead this country again for the next 4 or 8 years. The Obamas do not own 7 homes, nor do they run their personal AmEx accounts to half a million dollars at a pop. But I know who does, and it's infuriating.

Phil Gramm was bad enough... a PhD in Economics and he resorts to his own brand of whining and remonstrance... but John McCain is really the limit. He brazenly raps the knuckles of Obama for being a tax-and-spend Democrat who doesn't know what the public really wants and needs, when he cannot possibly know what is going on with the general public; the only mingling he does with us is at rallies. He claims to feel the pulse of the country yet he doesn't shop for groceries or other necessities, doesn't buy his own gas... doesn't do anything that would put him in touch with what's going on - and hasn't in decades.

Let McCain eat cake. But don't expect me to vote for him.

::chuckle::

I guess we've been married long enough that anniversaries are a bit passe; the 17th wedding anniversary of our civil ceremony was on Wednesday and we utterly forgot until late last night, in the middle of a trivia game with friends. We were a bit chagrined, to say the least. I mean - I forget these things all the time - I have forgotten my own birthday (though it happens less now that I have a Palm)... but our anniverary? Somehow I missed entering that into Outlook or something and I didn't get a reminder, and the French exam completely flummoxed me. In my defense, I remembered it last Friday. ::chuckle:: I know. That doesn't help one bit! Happy Anniversary, Crash! I love you to pieces! At least we have a second chance in September with the anniversary of our family ceremony... which nobody else remembers, either! We're up against impossible odds! ::heading over to Outlook to do some entering of data::

Crash is practicing, and it is lovely to hear the sounds of his violin - I miss that during the school year, when he practices at school and on campus before and in between teaching and never at home. He has also been SUCH a trooper and has been out in the yard digging up a path for me to brick in (I can do the brick work of laying the path, but I can't dig up the old lava rock and bedding - it throws my back out badly), and pulling weeds in our central garden area. It looks SO MUCH BETTER. Kudos to Crash!

Was watching CNN earlier today and they had a real goof: they were talking about the weather system off the Atlantic coast bringing torrential rains and severe weather to the southern Atlantic states and that they may take quite a battering - really harping on the point that there could be a battering and Bad Things Could Happen... all the while showing Jesse Jackson on the screen with a caption on the screen to the effect of "Bad Tidings" or something like that in relation to his comments on Obama and use of the n-word. I couldn't help but laugh - and their attempt at recovery from the obvious goof was hilarious. OH - and what makes it even funnier is that Jeannie Moos had just parodied John McCain' goof with the Viagara / birth control fiasco of last week and used footage from The Daily Show to highlight the inanity. I really do hope that Jon Stewart picks up this gaffe.

It is really odd to see the DJIA and the NASDAQ so far out of whack with each other - the Dow gained reasonably, but the NASDAQ dropped substantially - by some 30 points or so. Usually they move fairly in tandem. Odd. Yeah, I've been reading Barron's lately, and am paying a little more attention to things like that. It's interesting reading, but as with everything, you've got to take it a bit cynically or you'll go crazy. Alan Abelson's weekly column is pretty good, though, and worth checking out - you can get it free on the Barron's website, if I am not mistaken, at http://online.Barrons.com (if that doesn't work, try www.barrons.com). I know, I know. It's really weird to see me, of all people, talking about the stock market. Go figure.

Played trivia last night with a group of friends - and we won! It was great fun! I was designated driver, so I had sodas and played along, having a ball... I think we missed one, maybe two questions, the whole night, and on the last wager we bet all the remaining 20 points and scored a decisive win over all the other teams in the bar. Rock on! I'm not usually someone who even enters a bar - I don't like smoke at all - but this was fun, and I went willingly. Took a monster bath when we got home and the clothes are in the wash, and all is well with the world. ::grin:: I needed to get out of my shell; I've been hiding at home for nearly a month since we got home from Colorado.

This weekend we may be going to Kaleigh's house for a party (K and her husband were the ones to get us out for trivia)... I hope to continue to be in an outgoing mood; I have been having to force myself to get out and do things lately due to an ongoing depression thing. Summers are tough, and focus is hard to come by sometimes. Well, a lot of the time. We're working on it therapeutically, and I hope to be in a better place in the next couple of weeks. Have to be: school starts in about four, five, weeks.

Wish I had the time to read some "for fun" books - I have a pile a foot high on my bedside table, and another foot-wide shelf full of them in the underside of the bedside table as well. Maybe when I get to the point of doing lesson planning next month I can sneak in a few. That would be such a delight; they've been stacking up for about a year now, and these are the best of the best.

Am getting rid of my library school books. Most of them, anyway, and have offered them to my grandma's library up in Ohio since they just experienced a devastating set of floods that destroyed a huge part of their collection. I am waiting to hear back from their director to see if they want them - they're some terrific books, and I want them to go someplace where they will be appreciated and needed. And, needless to say, I don't have any desire to keep them anymore. That part of my life is closed.

Well, it's time to start considering what's for dinner. I think we are having blue-cheese-stuffed burgers and sauteed carrots... at least that was the plan two hours ago. I'm not hungry, but since I really haven't eaten today I really need to remedy that. The weight is coming off too quickly, and I am a little nervous about that - no appetite and nausea worries me - and I see the gastroenterologist on Friday next week. I have now lost 80 pounds since my highest weight in 2003, and nearly 15 in the past two months alone, after gaining back over the past year what I had lost in the hospital. I'm not trying to lose weight, but it is just falling off me... and while the weight loss is welcome, it does bother me that it is coming off this way, and that I really don't enjoy food anymore for the most part. Every so often Crash is able to tempt me with something I love, but that is few and far between these days. Wish we could come up with some answers.

I'm off!

::::::SQUEEEEEE:::::::

I passed! I passed! I passed the French competency exam!! 20 years out of a French class and I managed to remember enough irregular conjugations and general knowledge to translate three pages of historical information on Wilson in Paris. I am so... ecstatic! One less hurdle to jump.

The next thing is to get through comps in nine months. ::gulp::

But for now, I'll just sit here today and ::::squeeeeee::::

South Carolina Shows Its Pride

I ran across this article on Gadling via AOL: Gay travel: South Carolina in an uproar over advertising campaign and thought three things:

1. Good on the Brits for getting SC to sign on to this. From the Stars and Bars and the General Lee to the Pride Flag in one fell swoop is a tremendous accomplishment. Gotta love the panache of this ad campaign and the cajones on the account manager at Amro Worldwide; it's not every day you place the whole of South Carolina and Big Gay Fun in the same category, yanno? Kudos!

2. Isn't tourism good for the economy, SC? Europeans with Euro-to-dollar exchanges - and plenty of it - ought to get your attention really quickly, I would think. Money, Money Money!! ALWAYS SUNNY!

3. Whaddya mean, SC, that your "market is families..." and that you seem to think your advertising dollars have been mis-spent. Are you implying, Mr. Smith, that gays and lesbians don't have families? :::pointed look::: I didn't think so. Because that would be bigoted, and I *know* you don't embrace *that* now, do you?

::thinking about a beach visit to South Carolina... just because:: BTW... were I to visit SC, I would let them know I did so *because* of the Amro Worldwide ad campaign. Just sayin'

:::smooches::: to Amro Worldwide on this coup. Y'all are just awesome.

Why Is This Acceptable?

I am in a bloody rage right now.

We lived through the Civil Rights Movement years ago - and, at least in the classes I teach, we celebrate it for what it was - and still is - in our collective memories. Race, color, creed, handicaps, sexuality - all these things are fruits of that Movement that make us both unique and part of a coherent and vibrant whole - I thought we were embracing these issues and moving forward. At least that has been my hope.

But I have recently heard some of the most racist crap I have ever heard in my life.

Take, for instance, the absolutely horrid joke about the White House Rose Garden being pulled up and replaced with a watermelon patch. @@

Or the cover of the New Yorker this week. Satire? I think not.  

Or the Oreo coment of John McLaughlin this weekend. A provocative slip of the tongue? No way.

What the hell is happening to this country that these things are somehow mainstream and acceptable?

The vitriol I see is completely out of whack with the object of its attention. Disagree with policies. Challenge viewpoints. Even argue past issues and records. BUT do not *ever* resort to name-calling, hateful sterotypical jokes and cartoons, and personal attacks of the nature we have been seeing the past several weeks and months.

The misinformation out there is appalling: the idea that Obama is somehow a terrorist; the nastiness that calls him by his race rather than by his deeds and record; the assertions that somehow, some way, Obama's association - however limited or expansive - with Muslims is a horrible thing and will lead this country down a path toward destruction (look around you, folks; we're already in that situation, and gee, it didn't take Obama to do it).

And the thing is, I get these e-mails and statements from people I have loved and cherished and called my dear friends, as well as previously trustworthy news sources. The world has truly gone topsy turvy.

What is it about this election cycle and this day and age that people - embodied in this one man - can be yet again marginalized and reviled with such acrimony and spite? How do people find it within themselves to think such horrors, much less give voice to them? Why are so many onlookers just accepting this situation as "business as usual" in politics and society at large?

It is long past time to speak out and do something about this. Write editorials. Respond directly to e-mails debunking this crap. Refuse to pander to the lowest common denominator in our political spectrum. Speak up regardless of whether your circle finds your view unpopular for the time being. Don't cater to these monstrous affairs.

After all, this is the home of the brave, right? So be brave and do the right thing. Stand up and be counted, even if you are not voting for Obama. Do it because it's the right thing to do. You'll feel better you did - and your country will be a better place for your courage and fortitude.

Stronger Woman

Thanks, Rodeo, for pointing out this song by Jewel. The chorus really speaks to me right now... it's been a tough summer in some ways, and this is just what I needed to hear right now.

I'm gonna love myself
More than anyone else
Believe in me, even if someone can't see
The stronger woman in me

I'm gonna be my own best friend
Stick with me till the end
Won't lose myself again
No, no
Cause there's a stronger woman, stronger woman
There's a stronger woman
Stronger woman in me
Stronger woman in me

Here's a link to the video, if you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2uxB3EYbTc 

Dissertations and Doodles

Well, when you run across new data and it appears to fly in the face of your dissertation thesis, that generally means it's time for a revision, right? I'm not quite to that point, but I have found some provocative information that *has* made me rethink how I am approaching the main points of my proposed dissertation - and opened some other avenues as well. This fall is going to be an interesting, interesting exploration into the sources, and I am going to have to REALLY keep an open mind. But that's what this is all about, right? History is not imposed on the past, but discovered, right?

Need to buckle down tonight and really apply myself to some French tonight - my comprehension exam is Wednesday and I am feeling distinctly unprepared; I have the feeling I am going to have to take the exam more than once. ::sigh:: Just what I need right now. I have had plenty of opportunity to bone up on the material - I just have been feeling very overwhelmed lately. No excuse, but that's that.

Crash was sweet when he went to Costco today and, in between melons and meat, bought me new pillows. ::dies:: It may sound like a small thing, but I am positively delighted. What a kind, thoughtful thing to do. I already have one of them in a pillowcase and on the bed.

Tomorrow... tomorrow I don't think I have anything on the schedule but studying - and plenty of it. Crash is quite busy, but I am here to puddle about. And call docs back and schedule appointments and generally put things to right. Lots to do.