When Sauce for the Goose Isn't Sauce for the Gander
Something of which voters need to be keenly aware this year is the tendency of Republicans to criticize Democrats every time the Dems touch on a subject they feel should be traditionally associated with them, claiming in a huff "how dare they politicize this?!" as if they (Repubs) themselves hadn't been doing that all along. Case in point, via Julia, is the Bush campaign calling John Kerry's remarks at the New North Side Baptist Church "beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse and a sad exploitation of Scripture for a political attack." Yep, it's a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation. You don't invoke spirituality and you cede that entire subject matter (and base) to the Repubs; you do and you're accused of being inappropriate. Please, someone get these idiots out of power. Update: Kevin Raybould at LeanLeft has more to say about this, to which liberal Catholic Melanie Mattson says "amen." posted by Elayne Riggs at 10:11 AM |
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I can't say what's more disturbing, this display (via Robin) or this one (sorry, forget which blogger referred to it). No, I take it back, I know which one's more disturbing. posted by Elayne Riggs at 8:41 PM |
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The Six-Hour Week
Budgie reminds us that it's now British Summer Time. Here in the US, Daylight Savings Time doesn't kick in until next Sunday. So adjust your mental clocks accordingly - for this next week, when it's noon in NY it'll actually be 6 PM in Great Britain, not 5 PM. posted by Elayne Riggs at 9:26 AM |
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Just until Robin wakes up and I have to go out to the post office by our new address and find out exactly what it is (opinions differ) and pick up a change-of-address kit, then off to do other new-apartment-related errands for much of the afternoon to escape the inevitable open-house noises upstairs (only a few more weekends of putting up with that, yay!). I think this week I'll concentrate (in reverse alphabetical order by first name or handle) on the Liberal Coalition members who don't have properly working RSS feeds 'cause I skipped them last time and there are fewer of them:
T. Rex's scorecards are always great. This week he asks "Where are they now?"
Mike Stabile at Left is Right recommends Noam Chomsky's new blog, which I'd put on my sidebar but, I dunno, it seems pretty disjointed so far, and I'm given to understand that although they're Chomsky's words he's not really sitting there blogging them himself, they're just essays taken from elsewhere (a message board, I think). Mike also brings news that Jeb Bush may be eyeing a presidential run in 2008. Lastly, I've bookmarked Mike's "Friday Fun" archives for future Silly Site reference. Why the Atom RSS feed works for Friday Fun and not for Left is Right is anyone's guess, but then I can't figure out why, when I click on an individual entry/item on many Blogspot blogs - including mine - Bloglines doesn't take me to that entry but to the first site linked to... my guess is it's probably a short-term Blogger problem...
Keith Kisser at The Invisible Library reiterates the news going around the blogosphere about China banning blogs. But nobody seems to be reporting this correctly. From what I've been able to ascertain, the hosting services that were shut down are apparently local ones, Blogbus.com and blogcn.com, (both load for me), not TypePad or Blogger or any of the familiar names we know here. Possible misinformation can often be just as dangerous as censorship.
That's it; off to read the LC blogs that are feeding to me correctly (thanks, Maru and MercuryX23 and Tony!). Might add to this brief blogaround if something there strikes my fancy...
And an update to yesterday's post - Mark Kleiman has, in the comment section and his blog, confirmed that Kelly is his sister, and suggested I reread her essay, which I now have and, you know, she really does answer all the "but what about...?" questions I had. Worth a second glance, and a second plug. I'm still not totally sure that "Men dressing as women are dressing down," considering the Freestyle dressing movement and a certain "executive transvestite" whom I consider fairly aware of gender issues, but she makes some persuasive points and good connections. posted by Elayne Riggs at 7:36 AM |
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Via Wonkette, a nice resource called Footnote TV. Created by journalist Steven Lee, the site encourages readers to "look for your favorite TV shows and read about the real-life issues that have inspired episodes and skits." I remain skeptical - no footnotes for any Simpsons episodes? :) posted by Elayne Riggs at 10:37 PM |
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Modern History
I always get a bit of a thrill from certain photos. Probably the sentimental streak in me. Oliver Willis has a great picture here from last night's "Democrats United" fundraising dinner (I'm sure there's an interesting "compare and contrast with the RTCA affair" awaiting some enterprising blogger!). I like this one too; it's by Pulitzer Prize winner Pablo Martinez Monsivais. There's just something about having certain figures of history together on the same stage at the same time that's way cool to me. posted by Elayne Riggs at 4:20 PM |
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Susie Madrak (among others) reports on the Georgia legislation outlining punishment for female genital mutiliation, specifically the ban on voluntary piercings. Now, I'm all with them that piercing is absolutely a form of self-mutiliation, I've been saying that for years. But see, to me this is a classic case of not agreeing with a personal preference but defending the right of someone to make whatever choice they want. I have a huge personal hang-up on facial piercings - it took me 30 years to screw up enough courage to pierce my ears, only once in each lobe thank you very much - and don't even get me started on even the idea of doing that to sensitive genitalia. But again, I recognize this as my personal hangup. So you know, if these Georgians are as squeamish as I am about such things, I suggest they do what I do regarding excessive voluntary piercing - if it's a friend or personal acquaintance, ignore it as best you can in the interest of your relationship with the pierce-ee; otherwise, if you see it on TV or if it's a complete stranger and you're sitting in a restaurant watching them pass by and you're busy making fun of the way they dress anyway, feel free to mock the hell out of it sotto voce. After all, one must assume they're doing the same thing to you behind your back, n'est ce pas? posted by Elayne Riggs at 2:52 PM |
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Fiction Thrice Removed
So SZ passes along a few news stories she's been gathering about people whose lives have changed (or even ended) after seeing The Passion of the Christ. And in the comments, I'm wondering how many of these tales will wind up debunked on Snopes, but I also think it would be a cool idea to have a contest to see who can make up the most outrageous-yet-believable Passion-reaction tale.
Then I see, via TBogg, that there's a website doing it for real. Now mind you, I'm not one to suggest that people make up stories regarding a made-up story based on a made-up story, but you know, if the passion strikes you... posted by Elayne Riggs at 1:18 PM |
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She's Rosie, Really!
Nutshell Kid Julia brings us Chicken Hawks with Rice. She has no idea how much I loved that TV special. Even after all these years I can still sing along to her parody... posted by Elayne Riggs at 12:31 PM |
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Probing the Frontiers
Two pass-alongs to recommend:
Via Jesse at Pandagon, a site called MemeOrandum "presents a distinctly readable and relevant hourly synopsis of the latest online news and opinion, combining weblog commentary with traditional news reports." It seems very heavily skewed towards blog chatter. I've added it to the Round-Ups section of my sidebar.
And via Kevin Drum now of Political Animal, a group of scientists has started "a blog called The Panda's Thumb, dedicated to debunking the daily assaults on evolution from the ID zealots and the religious right." That one's been placed into my "Blogs in Waiting" folder. Hey, I'm up to 230 regularly-read blogs, gimme a break. :) posted by Elayne Riggs at 11:55 AM |
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On Bended Knee-Slapping
Lots of bloggers have been talking about the utter inappropriateness of George W. Bush's remarks at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner in Washington on Wednesday. While my favorite line came from Wonkette's review of the after-party ("No hard data on this, but fake journalist Rob Corddry appeared to be the star-fucking object of choice for real journalists"), I also like the observation from Jesse at Pandagon: "It's not funny when the person who did the bad thing jokes about the bad thing." I wish I'd written something like that as an adjunct to my humor essay last month. Although the RTCA remarks are certainly in keeping with Bush's sneeringly arrogant frat-boy attitude towards just about everything that's characterized most of his life (from blowing up frogs for laughs as a kid to mocking death-row inmates to the "trifecta" quip of which Eric at the Hamster reminds us), I don't know that I'd blanketly condemn anything of this sort as obviously "not funny" as much as my usual head-shaking observation that most of the mean-spirited jokes that come out of his mouth are in highly questionable taste.
Still, as evidenced by plenty of successful tasteless comics, this kind of humor does have a willing and appreciative audience. I just wish the audience in this case didn't consist of journalists. In fact, I'm rather saddened that folks aren't more appalled that the RTCA (which doesn't seem to have a website, by the way, and how weird is that for a media-based organization?) regularly hobnobs with the objects of its coverage, as they've apparently been doing for 60 years - so much for the idea of an adversarial (not to mention objective) press! And since the RTCA membership is therefore so subservient to power, you get a tailor-made positive reception for whatever nonsense spews out of the mouths of the powerful (which, in this stage-managed presidential race, counts for a lot). I reckon few of them even realize that Bush's "WMD search" wasn't intended at all as self-mockery, but ultimately as an indictment of them and their utterly ineffectual journalism - a sort of taunting schooyard dance - "I'm rubber, you're glue, I can get away with anything and you won't call me on it, see I'm doing it right now!" That would require some thought, some digging under the surface, some nuance - which I'm not sure too many people at that dinner possessed (besides Rob Corddry)...
Update: For all the people who think Bush's remarks were in bad form, do you think this is as well? posted by Elayne Riggs at 11:17 AM |
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Celebrating Women - 26 March 2004
Are you surprised that most rapacious, clawing, greedy, self-centered venture capitalists are men? I didn't think so.
Lastly, if you feel you really must apply to work in a "breastaurant," you might want to check for hidden cameras. Sadly, the economy is that bad that tons of women will continue to choose this route. posted by Elayne Riggs at 6:47 AM |
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I must admit I'll miss the view from our window after it snows. Kitties will miss having wide windowsills on which to perch:
Ah, but we all must make sacrifices during this relocation... posted by Elayne Riggs at 6:34 AM |
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Silly Site o' the Day
Via Carolyn Ibis, here's your chance to create your own postage-type stamps. Not good for actually mailing stuff. Here's my first attempt: You can also create a whole sheet if you want. posted by Elayne Riggs at 6:25 AM |
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Thursday, March 25, 2004
My 15 Minutes
Well, okay, more like 9 minutes, at least until the Daily Show (with Al Franken as tonight's guest!). But before I retreat... okay, collapse in the bedroom, I wanted to profusely thank Seth "The Talking Dog" Farber for his lovely write-up of this blog! The timing is kinda funny as the resume he mentions, whilst still linkable from here, has just been de-emphasized with the pending move (see below) and imminent need to update the address and phone (or perhaps eliminate them altogether from the online version), and I don't feel as though I've been nearly as prolific this last week as the standard to which I'd tried to hold myself previously... but it also serves as the best incentive possible for me to keep plugging away here. Thanks muchly, Seth! posted by Elayne Riggs at 10:50 PM |
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Bronkers
Well, the apartment hunt is over, at least for this year! We've just signed a lease to take possession, as of April 1, of the top floor of a 3-family house (tenants already live on the first floor and basement) which literally lies on the border between North Riverdale and Yonkers. It's (barely) officially in the Bronx but the houses visible from the back window are in Yonkers; I've already taken to calling it "Bronkers." There's a little patch of land between the back patio fence and the back yards of those houses to which neither county has laid claim (tax reasons, I guess); Robin's thinking of either cultivating it for a garden or declaring it a sovereign country, possibly both.
When we started flat-hunting I suspended my job-hunting, so I'll be staying with my current company for the moment, which is moving out of the city altogether into a building my boss just bought in Westchester County, right by the New Rochelle train station. Our personal move and the company's move should just about coincide; if the company lags a bit it'll put another 10-15 minutes onto my commute into the city but that's certainly doable. And if it doesn't - well, this weekend I plan to vacate the premises during the open-house hours to avoid the louder-every-weekend tromping about going on upstairs (yes, it could be worse, someone else could have moved in by now) and throughout this half-empty building, and take a ride or two on the Bee Line bus system up into Yonkers then across the county to check out the newly-bought office building and time the commute.
I'm more psyched about this change than I'd first suspected; between the crowded subways with their too-small molded seats and the general push of the midtown crowds, it'll be nice to have Manhattan be a place to visit only on special occasions rather than a mandatory daily slog. And in a couple months I hope to go car-shopping with Dad. I haven't driven regularly in about 20 years, and I've never actually owned a car, but it will cut my daily commute down to about 15 minutes and finally enable us to visit friends and family without needing to rely on mass transit (which tends not to be so convenient once one gets into Jersey or Rockland County or even parts of Queens) so at this point in my life it's become a necessary evil.
We will have a Packing Party in a few weeks, at which time we'll also give away or dump all the furniture we're not taking with us (the new place is a bit smaller than our current one), including our dining room set, a couple just-barely-holding-together bookcases, our toaster oven and the table on which it rests, my computer table, and loads of VHS storage drawers, likely with the tapes still inside (most were taped off the TV and are pretty worn). I think Robin's also getting rid of all his PAL Star Trek:TNG tapes. The books and comics stay. :) More about the party once I've decided on a date. posted by Elayne Riggs at 8:55 PM |
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Brief looks at what's going on around the country coinciding with National Women's History Month:
The Seattle Police Department held its first Women in Law Enforcement symposium yesterday, to celebrate the contributions and history of women in the department.
The Defense Department held a forum last Tuesday on "Emerging Issues for Military and Civilian Women in the Department of Defense: Impact on Readiness."
Just in time for allergy season, Carolyn Ibis passes along this amusing 404 Error message reminding us that we all need a little more fresh air. My eyes and sinuses beg to differ. posted by Elayne Riggs at 7:17 AM |
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Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Keeping Up with Comments
So I said to myself, "self ('cause that's what I call myself), you really should look into Budgie's question about whether there's a way to be notified when you have new comments on your blog, particularly now that you're not there so much any more as you go through your blogroll via Bloglines." And then I said, "hey, wait a minute, didn't I subscribe to someone else's comments section RSS feed by mistake instead of subbing to their blog?" So I checked Haloscan, and sure enough, they offer an RSS feed for my comments sections. Moreover, when I click on a comment I'm shown the entire comment thread, including the fields in which to add any comments of my own. This stuff just gets more and more convenient! posted by Elayne Riggs at 10:57 PM |
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If I Had One, It'd Be Healthy Too
Not sure if this qualifies as a Silly Site or Obligatory Comics Content or both, but Brooke Biggs talks about the advertising for an anti-syphilis campaign being run by the SF Department of Health, which I think is just too adorable (uh, in a mature-readers sense, I mean). Go to this page and click on each ad individually; some are one panel and others are 4-panel strips. posted by Elayne Riggs at 6:25 PM |
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Items to Save and Savor
From my Saved Items folder, a few nifty and important essays:
The Old Bloody Shirt, in which Billmon salutes Vietnam vets better than you'll ever see our current Administration do. One for the Koufax nominations file.
Clarke, Clinton and Terrorism, some very nice observations from David Niewert on Richard Clarke and other former insiders who've had enough of this (mis)administration.
Empire in Fact, where Melanie Mattson looks at the expansion of US military bases. posted by Elayne Riggs at 9:37 AM |
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Julia led me to the Project for the New American Empire, a very nice-looking site consisting of "a small group of dedicated patriots compelled to point a satirical finger at the naked Mandarins running the horror show." (This is the creepy group they're spoofing.) Julia and I are both among the "Seditionists We're Keeping a Close Eye on" listed on their Fifth Columnists page, and I couldn't be more delighted. I can hardly wait for their weblog to start up, and have put them in the Humor/Satire section of the sidebar. posted by Elayne Riggs at 6:35 AM |
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From Avedon Carol comes this tour of Casa di Libri, a house made entirely of books. More "cool" than "silly," admittedly, although I suppose that depends on your point of view. posted by Elayne Riggs at 7:11 AM |
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Monday, March 22, 2004
Real-Time Book Reviewing
Looks like Tim Dunlop at The Road to Surfdom is reviewing Richard Clarke's book Against All Enemies chapter by chapter. Great excerpts, nice analysis. Start here, then here, then here. posted by Elayne Riggs at 9:47 PM |
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Another Bennie
Okay, last Bloglines-related post of the day, I promise. I just found out what the "Saved Items" folder is for. Now I don't have to e-mail my Yahoo account any time I find a Silly Site; I can just save any item (blog entry) I want to keep in that folder until I've referenced it. Also good, I might add, for posts one might wish to nominate for Koufaxes come awards time... of course, it too only works for blogs proper with RSS feeds... posted by Elayne Riggs at 5:30 PM |
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Wytheville to the Rescue?
I decided to try a little experiment with my Bloglines subscriptions. I've taken all the blogs that weren't giving me good feeds or any feeds at all, and (re)subscribed to them via the Wytheville Community College (WCC) RSSify connection. And all blogs seem to have WCC feeds that didn't show up when I just pasted in the URL itself. So I'm back up to being able to access all 225 blogs on my blogroll via Bloglines (with asterisks on 52 of them, or 23%). If you're on Bloglines, instead of putting in the URL of the blog into the "Subscribe by Entering URL" box, put in "http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/services/rssify/rssify.php?url=[the URL of the blog to which you want to subscribe]" and see if it doesn't come up for you as well.
Now, I'm still not really sure how all this works, but as best I've been able to figure out here's the catch: if you subscribe to someone's blog this way and the blogger hasn't set themselves up for a feed, the connection can't actually notify Bloglines correctly of new blog entries/posts (which Bloglines calls "items"); if you hit "Preview" when you subscribe, you'll get the message "There are no items available for this blog. This could be because the blog has not been indexed yet, or it could be because Bloglines was unable to properly parse the blog." So you'll probably have to note that on your subscription list; I'm using asterisks there the way I've been doing on my sidebar. posted by Elayne Riggs at 2:27 PM |
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"This Is For All The Fat Girls!"
A very happy belated blogiversary to Tish Parmeley at Fatshadow! Dunno how I missed that one, Bloglines tells me I'm updated on all her wonderful entries... *sigh* posted by Elayne Riggs at 10:56 AM |
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I used to have no real system to check up on new-to-me blogs where I was undecided as to when or whether they'd ever go on my sidebar. I'd just put them in a "Blogs in Waiting" Favorites folder I'd made then forget about it, because the Favorites folder's only on my home computer and I never seemed to get through my sidebar's blogroll anyway. Well, with Bloglines I can make up a "Blogs in Waiting" folder that's always available to me every time I open the page to read through my subscribed blogs, and stick in that folder every blog that someone's recommended I check out when I get a chance. I just went through Jude Camwell's list of female bloggers she likes and added just about everyone with an RSS feed to said folder.
And yeah, for me that's gonna be the catch. If I can't subscribe to someone's blog through Bloglines, chances are I'll never get around to checking out their new entries. But as I type, I have precisely four new entries to read from the 183 (non-"Blogs in Waiting") weblogs to which I'm subscribed. Even with about five and a half percent of the feeds not interfacing properly with Bloglines, to be all caught up with that many blogs is... well, suffice it to say that it's something I haven't been able to do in a long while. posted by Elayne Riggs at 3:54 PM |
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Celebrating Women - 21 March 2004
Lillian Robinson, principal of Women's Studies at Concordia University's Simone de Beauvoir Institute, is in the news today because she's written a book called Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes which purports to explore female comic icons. So I thought I'd link to my friend Trina Robbins, the foremost "herstorian" of things of this sort, who did it first and is still doing it. If Trina were Canadian would she get this kind of publicity? posted by Elayne Riggs at 8:40 AM |
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Okay, maybe I was a bit too skeptical. Looks like the day of protest garnered quite a bit of mainstream coverage, at least on the 'net. Of course, the spin is already being put on it in the form of comparing total turnout with last year's demonstrations, thereby attempting to belittle their impact. Don't fall for this one, folks; a hundred thousand in NYC and a million in Rome ain't "small." I don't watch American TV news as a rule, so I don't know what the coverage there has been. Will catch up on EuroNews tonight... posted by Elayne Riggs at 8:49 PM |
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This'll probably be an all-day thing, as we have to take a second look in about an hour (I've started typing this at around 11:45 AM) at what we hope will be our new digs. It's also the first time I've done a blogaround since switching from my sidebar to Bloglines for my blogroll reading, so those LC members with no RSS feeds will probably be grouped toward the bottom. Incidentally, I'm finding out that some RSS feeds to Bloglines are better than others; so far I've had to put tick marks next to about 10 non-LC blogs out of my 183 subscriptions which apparently don't feed correctly (but to which I can still get via just clicking on their URLs), so I have to remember to check them daily even if Bloglines doesn't show any new entries for them. Still, that's like 5.46% so far, so not bad at all. Now I'll be checking to see how good the LC feeds are:
Alex Greenwood at Sooner Thought gives us Hypocrisy on Parade. I'm with him; I'm divorced as well (though still buds with my ex), but I don't go around judging other people's right to marry. Alex also notes that Jay Garner is among the Coalition of the Pissed.
My deepest condolences to David's parents on the loss of Pogo, as Amy notes on BlogAmY. And Pudge looks just like Datsa, which reminds me once more how lucky I am that my big boy beast is still with us. Also, David asks readers for their thoughts on the American Ideal. Lots more good stuff I'm not seeing on other blogs, worth a scroll down.
Chris Brown lets his "inner comic book mouse roar" as he attends and reports on the con that Robin and I were hoping to get to, before his work dwindled for awhile and the cat got sick needing twice daily medicine for the rest of his life and the rent got hiked so we needed to go apartment-shopping and, well, life getting in the way. Maybe next year! And another LC blogaround. Actually, two! I'd probably get mine done more quickly if I split them up...
Echidne of the Snakes discusses spring cleaning, which we'll be doing in a couple weeks in the form of throwing out everything we don't want to take with us when we move. Parting Party details to follow, for those of you in the NYC area. Oh, and yay, those tacky "piss in her mouth" urinals won't be installed at the Virgin lounge men's room at JFK after all.
Eryk Salvaggio is going on a road trip - cool! Have I mentioned that we're hoping to get our first car this year? I'm hoping to hold out for a hybrid...
Jude Camwell at Iddybud reasons that the best way to get a message across is to keep it simple and direct.
It's not necessarily what Maru Soze (alas, yet another 5.46 percenter) at WTF Is It Now? covers, it's the way she covers it. It's all good. And the little pictures never fail to produce a smile.
Weren't we speaking of cars? MercuryX23 is as well, on his Fantabulous Blog, as he and his wife just got rid of their gas-guzzling SUV in favor of a Honda Civic hybrid! Good on ya, Mercury!
Speaking of Fridays, at Happy Furry Puppy Story Time, Norbizness posts his Friday Bizarro! List (don't recognize the artist on Bizarro) and scares me with his anagrammatic talents.
Rivka at Respectful of Otters explains HIV prevention and long-term exposed seronegatives for the layperson and has some interesting thoughts about urban villages and how, um, bleached they look.
I see where Susie Madrak totally agrees with me about Trish Wilson's wonderful post The "Invisible" Woman Blogger, but then of course I'm biased. As Susie notes, "Men aren't the only ones who get to decide what's important, and I'm pissed off by their attempt to frame the debate as if it's their inherent right to set the terms." Been there!
Lastly, upyernoz in his Rubber Hose updates his LC blogroll as well (I'm gonna wrap this up now, I'll tackle those LC'ers without RSS feeds another time) and makes a few points about the Spanish election. Whew! Yep, on and off this has taken me a good eight-hour day. Good job I don't do it all at once...
Via Michelle at You Will Anyway, there's a very cool astronomical phenomenon coming up in the next few days for those of us in mid-northern latitudes, which will let stargazers see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter all without the aid of a telescope. Maybe the next time something like this happens, in four years' time, I'll have a car and be able to drive away from the bright lights of the city to view the phenomenon.
Neal Adams has updated his website with the news of how to contribute to the upcoming Dave Cockrum auction, so if you're an interested artist who hasn't been contacted yet please click on Neal's sketch below for more information:
Neal gave me permission to post the sketch here. If you can't read the balloons, here's the dialogue: COLOSSUS: Dave DAVE: Hey guys, gosh it's been awhile. THUNDERBIRD: We're here to help you, Dave. STORM: It's the least we can do. NIGHTCRAWLER: Da. (Hang on, shouldn't that be "ja" instead?)
And I quite agree. posted by Elayne Riggs at 7:43 AM |
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Monday, March 29, 2004
