(no subject)

* I can't decide which I am more tired of: boy/men in films or women comics pretending to be little girls. *shudder*

* Given that 2-3 months is most common rabies incubation, the beasties are staying inside until next spring. (Cases of up to a year have been clocked, but it's not like they go out without me right there to supervise them and prevent encounters with wildlife.) I think they've figured out something is going on, as the black cats have stopped complaining about their confinement. I think it helps that we're having a damp, cool Summer, so the temptation is less.`

* Yesterday, all I could manage was lying on the sofa to watch my shows, then back to bed. I'm a touch more functional today, but still rather ick. Tomorrow's going to be exhausting. There will be no swimming until the 22nd. I'm taking this week off, then there's two weeks of annual cleaning. Let's hope my body is working by then.

* The cats are not handling my refusal to follow the expected schedule well. The squabbling is on the upswing, along with subtle competition for mests and pettins. hector, is, of course, vociferous in his protests.

* This year, the cherries are large and the cantaloupes are tiny. I'm okay with the tiny cantaloupes, as they are half price to make up for the higher rind to fruit ratio, and they are extra intence, and i like strongly flavoured melons. May I add, omnomnom.

* Gabby Giffords made it back to Congress for ten minutes today.

* The House passed the crappy give the Republicans nearly everything to the detriment of the long term health of the US economy in exchange for raising the debt ceiling "deal" today. damn. I was hoping this was all maneuvering to get a nice clean debt ceiling bill, but no, it was democrats scoring an own goal. So instead of being thoroughly fucked tomorrow, we've signed up for a slow fuck designed to move more money out of the hands of the poor and middle class into the hands of the rich. The cuts are to things like education, roads, etc.. Meanwhile, not a single tax loop hole was closed. We are trading WIc for corporate jet subsidies, public schools and college money to keep the average income tax payments for the rich at 15% and some corporations not having to pay in a dime. After all, we know tax cuts for the rich do nothing for the economy, so lets make children pay for them with their futures.

I've said over and over, the more we reward them for taking the economy hostage, the more they will demand each time. I'm terrified to see what they demand next time.

* The House is adjourning 'til September 6th, without reauthorizing the FAA. After all, it's only costing tax payers 200 million dollars a week, plus all those folks on unemployment because they are on furlough until reauthorization, and saving money is our top priority, right? could someone explain to me exactly how wasting 200 million dollars a week saves money and how getting rid of well paying jobs creates jobs again, because I'm having a hard time following the republican logic on this one. It seems like "opposite day" to me.

* I have to ask, is this super congress thing constitutional? This is not rhetorical. I am genuinely curious.

* In a bit of good news, it has been decided that under health care reform, they can not charge women co-pays for contraception. Whoohooo!

* Am I the only one thinks using MLK's "I have a Dream" speech to sell cars is icky?

* They are talking about building a theme park near Pompeii.

* The metabolic effects of armour: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110719194352.htm

* An interesting find in Northamptonshire: http://www.hindustantimes.com/1-600-year-old-human-remains-unearthed/H1-Article1-725445.aspx

* Clever: http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/978112.html

* Countdown: A Newsflesh Novella is now an ebook: http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/374842.html

* "Sesame Street: SpiderMonster, The Musical:" http://youtu.be/aR1DdMeVqTw

(no subject)

* I can't decide which I am more tired of: boy/men in films or women comics pretending to be little girls. *shudder*

* Given that 2-3 months is most common rabies incubation, the beasties are staying inside until next spring. (Cases of up to a year have been clocked, but it's not like they go out without me right there to supervise them and prevent encounters with wildlife.) I think they've figured out something is going on, as the black cats have stopped complaining about their confinement. I think it helps that we're having a damp, cool Summer, so the temptation is less.`

* Yesterday, all I could manage was lying on the sofa to watch my shows, then back to bed. I'm a touch more functional today, but still rather ick. Tomorrow's going to be exhausting. There will be no swimming until the 22nd. I'm taking this week off, then there's two weeks of annual cleaning. Let's hope my body is working by then.

* The cats are not handling my refusal to follow the expected schedule well. The squabbling is on the upswing, along with subtle competition for mests and pettins. hector, is, of course, vociferous in his protests.

* This year, the cherries are large and the cantaloupes are tiny. I'm okay with the tiny cantaloupes, as they are half price to make up for the higher rind to fruit ratio, and they are extra intense, and I like strongly flavoured melons. May I add, omnomnom.

* Gabby Giffords made it back to Congress for ten minutes today.

* The House passed the crappy give the Republicans nearly everything to the detriment of the long term health of the US economy in exchange for raising the debt ceiling "deal" today. damn. I was hoping this was all maneuvering to get a nice clean debt ceiling bill, but no, it was democrats scoring an own goal. So instead of being thoroughly fucked tomorrow, we've signed up for a slow fuck designed to move more money out of the hands of the poor and middle class into the hands of the rich. The cuts are to things like education, roads, etc.. Meanwhile, not a single tax loop hole was closed. We are trading WIc for corporate jet subsidies, public schools and college money to keep the average income tax payments for the rich at 15% and some corporations not having to pay in a dime. After all, we know tax cuts for the rich do nothing for the economy, so lets make children pay for them with their futures.

I've said over and over, the more we reward them for taking the economy hostage, the more they will demand each time. I'm terrified to see what they demand next time.

* The House is adjourning 'til September 6th, without reauthorizing the FAA. After all, it's only costing tax payers 200 million dollars a week, plus all those folks on unemployment because they are on furlough until reauthorization, and saving money is our top priority, right? could someone explain to me exactly how wasting 200 million dollars a week saves money and how getting rid of well paying jobs creates jobs again, because I'm having a hard time following the republican logic on this one. It seems like "opposite day" to me.

* I have to ask, is this super congress thing constitutional? This is not rhetorical. I am genuinely curious.

* In a bit of good news, it has been decided that under health care reform, they can not charge women co-pays for contraception. Whoohooo!

* Am I the only one thinks using MLK's "I have a Dream" speech to sell cars is icky?

* They are talking about building a theme park near Pompeii.

* The metabolic effects of armour: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110719194352.htm

* An interesting find in Northamptonshire: http://www.hindustantimes.com/1-600-year-old-human-remains-unearthed/H1-Article1-725445.aspx

* Clever: http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/978112.html

* Countdown: A Newsflesh Novella is now an ebook: http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/374842.html

* "Sesame Street: SpiderMonster, The Musical:" http://youtu.be/aR1DdMeVqTw

(no subject)

* Because Democrats caved to Republican demands that they cut 323,000 jobs in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, the markets tanked. Because the "Deal" was so detrimental to the American economy, they are still considering downgrading the national credit rating. Remember how I said we needed a clean bill and this deal was an incredibly bad idea? Yeah. There is reason to worry this "deal" is so damaging it may be enough to give us a double dip recession or depression. I am not sure why it's a surprise that doing the opposite of what will help the economy damages the economy, but people are acting like it is.

* I know completely dismantling the American middle class and shifting the tax burden away from the rich is a really popular idea with Republicans right now, but trust me, it worked out really badly for the Romans and the 18th century French.

* neo_prodigy found: "Here’s the difference between straight celebrities and queer celebrities:" http://synthezoid.tumblr.com/post/8375000333

* In Wisconsin, there was a suspicious fire in the "We are Wisconsin" offices, which is organizing people to vote Democrat in the recall. Meanwhile, a Republican group, "Americans for Prosperity" and an anti-gay group, have been mailing fake absentee ballots that give the wrong date for the election as two days later to senior citizens and LGBT folks, presumably in the hopes they will vote too late or on fake ballots. As this is a popular republican tactic in recent years, and this group has done this repeatedly, I'm having a hard time believing it was a typo as they are claiming.

* Rm found: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/central-park-zoo-peacock-flies-the-coop/

* In Somalia, they are starving. If you wish to help, unicef is looking like your best bet right now.

* In Syria, they continue to slaughter unarmed civilians. I still have no idea how to make that stop, but I keep mentioning it because I'm scared we'll all forget.

* Eleven people have been arrested in the News corp hacking scandal.

* Pat Buchanan, made reference to "nailing the coon skin to the wall" in reference to President Obama.

* Meanwhile, Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado can't figure out why his calling President Obama a "tar baby" might be considered "insensitive."

* Regarding the two items directly above this. O.o I know you can all imagine my rant on Republicans using racial insults to characterize the president, so I'll just leave you to it.

* Shutting down the FAA until at least September is expected to cost at least 1.2 billion dollars. This does not count unemployment benefits for all the folks out of work. All this is because Republicans want to destroy those "greedy' unions for demanding safety procedures and enough sleep for pilots. Republicans say that this waste of 1.2 billion dollars and job loss is really saving money, although I have yet to hear how. Sounds like magical thinking, as the numbers look pretty solid to me.

* Republicans are so against any attempt to regulate or enforce laws regarding the financial industry, that that they are insisting Congress is in secession during the recess to prevent any recess appointments to the consumer Protection agency. I mean, the last thing we'd want to do is protect ordinary people from corporations.

* For the record, the incentive to be a better teacher for actual real life teachers is: 1. You teach because you love teaching and therefore want to be the best you can be at it. 2. The better you are the easier it is and the more good days you get as opposed to bad. 3. Things like at risk kids coming up to you at the end of the year saying things like, "You are the only teacher I've ever trusted," or "you are the first teacher who was really fair to me," or a refusnik smiling at me and waving as we passed each other in the hall. These are still the things I am most proud of in my life.

Money has nothing to do with it. I quite literally could have made more money working fast food, and I wouldn't have had to pay to maintain certification, keep up a professional wardrobe, or bought office supplies for work doing that. Imposing monetary penalties because this year the district happens to have more ESL or special ed kids than last year is a pretty fucked up way to fund education. Those are the years schools need more money, not less.

Teachers aren't in it for the money, but starve them long enough, and they have to go looking for jobs that pay a living wage.

* Yet another reason to love Matt Damon: http://youtu.be/WFHJkvEwyhk

* Here's the speech he made at the same event: http://youtu.be/Lxy9b0-u0gU

(no subject)

* Because Democrats caved to Republican demands that they cut 323,000 jobs in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, the markets tanked. Because the "Deal" was so detrimental to the American economy, they are still considering downgrading the national credit rating. Remember how I said we needed a clean bill and this deal was an incredibly bad idea? Yeah. There is reason to worry this "deal" is so damaging it may be enough to give us a double dip recession or depression. I am not sure why it's a surprise that doing the opposite of what will help the economy damages the economy, but people are acting like it is.

* I know completely dismantling the American middle class and shifting the tax burden away from the rich is a really popular idea with Republicans right now, but trust me, it worked out really badly for the Romans and the 18th century French.

* neo_prodigy found: "Here’s the difference between straight celebrities and queer celebrities:" http://synthezoid.tumblr.com/post/8375000333

* In Wisconsin, there was a suspicious fire in the "We are Wisconsin" offices, which is organizing people to vote Democrat in the recall. Meanwhile, a Republican group, "Americans for Prosperity" and an anti-gay group, have been mailing fake absentee ballots that give the wrong date for the election as two days later to senior citizens and LGBT folks, presumably in the hopes they will vote too late or on fake ballots. As this is a popular republican tactic in recent years, and this group has done this repeatedly, I'm having a hard time believing it was a typo as they are claiming.

* Rm found: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/central-park-zoo-peacock-flies-the-coop/

* In Somalia, they are starving. If you wish to help, unicef is looking like your best bet right now.

* In Syria, they continue to slaughter unarmed civilians. I still have no idea how to make that stop, but I keep mentioning it because I'm scared we'll all forget.

* Eleven people have been arrested in the News corp hacking scandal.

* Pat Buchanan, made reference to "nailing the coon skin to the wall" in reference to President Obama.

* Meanwhile, Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado can't figure out why his calling President Obama a "tar baby" might be considered "insensitive."

* Regarding the two items directly above this. O.o I know you can all imagine my rant on Republicans using racial insults to characterize the president, so I'll just leave you to it.

* Shutting down the FAA until at least September is expected to cost at least 1.2 billion dollars. This does not count unemployment benefits for all the folks out of work. All this is because Republicans want to destroy those "greedy' unions for demanding safety procedures and enough sleep for pilots. Republicans say that this waste of 1.2 billion dollars and job loss is really saving money, although I have yet to hear how. Sounds like magical thinking, as the numbers look pretty solid to me.

* Republicans are so against any attempt to regulate or enforce laws regarding the financial industry, that that they are insisting Congress is in secession during the recess to prevent any recess appointments to the consumer Protection agency. I mean, the last thing we'd want to do is protect ordinary people from corporations.

* For the record, the incentive to be a better teacher for actual real life teachers is: 1. You teach because you love teaching and therefore want to be the best you can be at it. 2. The better you are the easier it is and the more good days you get as opposed to bad. 3. Things like at risk kids coming up to you at the end of the year saying things like, "You are the only teacher I've ever trusted," or "you are the first teacher who was really fair to me," or a refusnik smiling at me and waving as we passed each other in the hall. These are still the things I am most proud of in my life.

Money has nothing to do with it. I quite literally could have made more money working fast food, and I wouldn't have had to pay to maintain certification, keep up a professional wardrobe, or bought office supplies for work doing that. Imposing monetary penalties because this year the district happens to have more ESL or special ed kids than last year is a pretty fucked up way to fund education. Those are the years schools need more money, not less.

Teachers aren't in it for the money, but starve them long enough, and they have to go looking for jobs that pay a living wage.

* Yet another reason to love Matt Damon: http://youtu.be/WFHJkvEwyhk

* Here's the speech he made at the same event: http://youtu.be/Lxy9b0-u0gU