Really Naughty Committee?

RNC donor money...lesbian bondage club. Thanks to Jon Stewart.

South Island, Week 1

Starting in Christchurch, we expect to see glaciers, penguins, alps, dolphin, sounds, llamas, vineyards, sheep, jade, keas, shipwrecks, black stilts, waterfalls, seals, blowholes, tuataras, hot mud pools, kiwis, and hot springs. We leave on Friday.

North Island, Week 2

The North Island is smaller than the South, so arrows were a bit harder to fit in. Nonetheless, I hope you can see the route that the second half of our journey will take.

Reprint from Gillian's Blog

Guest post: Michael Cook

"Conservatives today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960's".

Those aren't the words of some smug liberal gloating over the passage of health care reform, not at all.

They are the words of David Frum, a former top speechwriter for GW Bush and a highly regarded mainstream conservative.

Frum went on to say, "It's hard to imagine the magnitude of this disaster. ...No illusions please. This bill will not be repealed".

"...Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to reopen the 'doughnut hole' and charge seniors more for their prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition?... And even if the votes were there, would President Obama sign such a repeal?"

Frum continued, "We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement and they led us to abject failure and irreversible defeat."

Pretty strong words but, thankfully, also true.

If a conservative and diehard GOP loyalist like David Frum holds these views I can only wonder what other mainstream Republicans and intelligent independents must be thinking as they bear witness to the fallout that's resulted from the once great party of Abraham Lincoln being usurped by politicians like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Tom Coburn, and media demagogues like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

All five of the aforementioned people are the personifications of "the most radical voices" in the modern GOP and conservative movement and as Frum said, they led their followers to "abject failure and irreversible defeat."

But I, quite frankly, hope...the so-called Tea Party movement remain[s] front and center on the public stage because the more they do, the more likely, especially as the 2010 political season heats up later in the summer, and more Americans start paying closer attention to politics...[that] Americans will say; "Thanks but no thanks" to the overt racism, homophobia, and xenophobia that "the most radical voices" in the GOP and Tea Party movement are really all about.

I also think we should all fasten our political seatbelts because, to paraphrase Bette Davis in "All About Eve", this coming political season is going to be one bumpy ride, one very bumpy [ride], and quite possibly [a] very ugly ride indeed.

Michael Cook
PV de Limon , CR
& Nbpt
via portreporter.blogspot.com

Doubling Down

As of yesterday, I have lost another four pounds. I'm positive this time -- I looked at that scale every which way. I got off and on again to check, about three times.

So how did I lose four pounds between Monday and Thursday? I have no idea. Weight fluctuates. I'm not getting on the scale again until =next= Thursday.

Wrecked

I was stunned to see a photo in our local paper of the remains of a ship. The caption stated that it was on Long Beach, and the story said that the shipwreck had not been visible since the Perfect Storm in 1991. Our hurricane-force gusts a few weeks back swept away enough sand to uncover it. I so love living on the sea.

Fleurs

I hope that nothing in bud today will bloom while we are away. Everything has a week to burst forth.

My Review of SanDisk Cruzer 4GB USB flash drive (Green)

Originally submitted at Staples

Experience reliable, portable storage with a SanDisk® Cruzer® USB Flash Drive. Why leave your photos, videos and music at home when they’ll fit in your pocket? Trust the minds behind flash memory to make it easy to store, transfer and share your dig ital files wherever you go.

These drives are bu...

SanDisk Cruzer 4GB USB flash drive (Green)

Attractive, Compact Storage

By Sarah Jane from Gloucester, MA on 3/24/2010

 

4out of 5

Pros: Fast, Portable, High Capacity, Easy To Setup

Cons: Difficult To Use

Best Uses: File Transfer

Describe Yourself: Casual user

Primary use: Personal

Love the color, and I trust the maker.
One issue is that the slider on the USB connector does not lock into place. In addition, having owned the device for less than 6 months, it is impossible to assess reliability.

(legalese)

And It Is Signed

Kudos to Obama.

What the--?

I thought that I'd lost a good bit of weight. On Saturday night, my pants were quite loose. Then, I got on the scale yesterday morning, and found I had...regained 6 lb.??

No. I blame my eyes. I think that I misread the scale last Thursday. The good news is that I have lost 4 lb. The bad news is that, as we all know, the older you get, the slower your weight loss is going to be.

But really: 4 lb.?? Is that it? After all that working out and religious adherence to low-carb eating? [sigh]

Done?

Is health care reform truly a reality now? My brother says that the current bill empowers insurance companies. Tons of tea baggers are calling it socialism. I'm assuming there has to be something good in there, somewhere between those poles. But we all know what's true about assuming.

I just need to say it again: I am very, very much in favor of health care reform. I don't believe that we're done yet, but I'm so glad to be where we are.

Glassing

I promised myself that I would get out glassing on Thursday, and I nearly forgot. I was getting ready to make dinner, the light was fading, and suddenly it dawned on me: low tide was supposed to be after dark--but around 6pm there'd be a whole lot of beach exposed.

I went to "my" beach on Rocky Neck, and I fear it had been well picked over. But I collected a little pile. First sea glass collected in months.

Smaller

I am nearly 10 pounds lighter than I was one month ago. I didn't think I was =ever= going to see results from working out and eating right, but there you go. I wonder how much more I can lose before we get on that plane!

Flowers

We have crocuses! We had crocus buds the other day, and today, in the warmth and sunshine, we got blooms.

White Dopes on Punk

In the issue of The Week with the fish story (below), there is also a piece on how pot smokers develop psychoses. Apparently, picking up the habit as a youngster is bad, bad, bad. At least if you hope to avoid delusions and hallucinations.

Seriously, a study found that starting to smoke pot before age 15 makes you twice as likely to develop schizophrenia. Who =doesn't= start to smoke pot before age 15? This study may have looked at things from the wrong end. Maybe people who tend toward psychotic disorders have a greater tendency to start young with the hallucinogens.

You know, this study was from Australia as well. They should have done the study in Michigan. The building manager where my sister and I lived in Pontiac was a study in and of himself of pot smoking. Don't think he was psychotic, but I am amazed that he remembered each night where it was that he lived.

Tightie

Dan Rea (I hope I spelled that right) has a show on WBZ radio that drives me crazy. Last Wednesday he made reference during the broadcast to the "Loony Left." I'll grant you that there is a Loony Left. But how come no one (least of all reactionary Dan Rea) ever talks about the Tightie Right?

Whereas the Loony Left deconstructs, the Tightie Right dehumanizes. Whereas the former takes relativism to extremes, the latter issues baseless judgments. I think both are worthy of occasional derision, in equal amounts.

By the way, the reason I listen to Dan Rea on Wednesday nights is hard to define. I'm on my way home from class, the radio is tuned to what was, on the way in, traffic and news, and it's difficult for me to remember to put on my driving glasses, much less re-set the station on the radio.

Fish

It is reported in The Week (March 19, 2010) that a northern desert in Australia has seen two recent fish storms. On successive days, at around the same time, Lajamanu was deluged with perch, which fell from the sky still flopping. Vic was not impressed; he says you hear from time to time about fish or frogs raining down upon the earth. He blames it on waterspouts. Okay, but how much water has to be sucked up around the fish to keep them alive until they can be dumped, not near shore, but on the edge of a desert?

Thrice

Aside from during V's recovery, I have been working out three times a week, 40 minutes each time, during 2010. Would you believe, I have not lost one ounce? I radically changed my diet this week. Cross your fingers for me. I really don't want to be the fat lady on the plane who is asked to buy an extra seat.

Absence

It makes the heart grow fonder, no? I could explain mine, but I'm not sure that I have been given leave yet.

I will say that my mood is variable, but not labile. I'm wicked pissed at a lot of people.