Year: 2006

The last dying rays of 2006 in Brentwood. Happy new year, everyone!

The wingnuts are gonna love «this»: ‘In a case that could shape firearms laws nationwide, attorneys for the District of Columbia argued Thursday that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applies only to militias, not individuals. The city defended as constitutional its long-standing ban on handguns, a law that some gun opponents have advocated...

Thank god! And «don’t let the door hit you on the butt on the way out»: ‘Representative Charles B. Rangel tried to do something graceful on Friday. He wished a very public happy birthday to his longtime nemesis, Representative Bill Thomas, the departing chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. In an exchange on...

«It’s final» and historic: ‘Democrats wrested control of the Senate from Republicans Wednesday with an upset victory in Virginia, giving the party complete domination of Capitol Hill for the first time since 1994. Jim Webb’s squeaker win over incumbent Sen. George Allen gave Democrats their 51st seat in the Senate, an astonishing turnabout at the...

So, about that first week … yeah. First three days of school were good. Besides one little incident, things went well. My students did great on a reading assessment I did on Wednesday. We’re going to be fine, just have to adjust to the school, city and grade level. Will take some time. But. Increasingly...

If only …

I’d heard of this from somewhere before (definitely not in the main media). As as always, « Molly Ivins cuts to the chase » and gives us the info we need to know. Seems that our bribed and paid-for House of Representatives is stripping health safeguards after the food industry ‘spared no expense to ensure passage’ of...

1. Brokeback Mountain. In 30 seconds. « Re-enacted by bunnies ». Hilarious. 2. The opening of The Simpsons done in « live action ». Excellent. 3. Autistic basketball team manager enters game in final minutes, « scores 20 points ». Inspirational. 4. Me? I’m fine. Barely hanging in there. The whole grad school sucks thing. But graduation is less than two...

Molly Ivins … I’m more in love with her with every column she writes. « Her latest » shows why she’s a true journalist and all the others are just empty, meaningless hacks. She covers the story from an angle entirely missed by everyone else: ‘Not that I accuse Harry Whittington of being an actual liberal—only by...

David Brancaccio interviewed Lawrence B. Wilkerson this weekend in an interview that was completely ignored by a country which really should be paying attention. Wilkerson was Chief of Staff at the Department of State from August 2002 to January 2005 and helped Imperial Foreign Minister Colin Powell make the case for the invasion and occupation...

R.J. Eskow, writing in the Huffington Post, « puts forth a manifesto for ‘progressive conservatives », which has 13 points: ‘1. To conserve our traditional moral values by standing up for for our longstanding national mission – to protect the weak, house the homeless, and defend the powerless. ’2. To conserve our Constitution by protecting us from...

« Yet another reason to hate Ma Bell » ‘The National Security Agency has secured the cooperation of large telecommunications companies, including AT&T, MCI and Sprint, in its efforts to eavesdrop without warrants on international calls by suspected terrorists, according to seven telecommunications executives. The executives asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the program....

It was interesting last night during the Golden Globes presentation of clips from Brokeback Mountain: scenes involving the two male leads involved them hitting each other or herding sheep or riding horses or solo shots; scenes involving the male leads’ interactions with the female characters involved weddings, kissing, hugging, etc.

« President Gore spoke today ». The President compared the wiretapping of Martin Luther King to the broad surveillance now imposed on Americans by the Boy Emperor: ‘Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction. Justice Brandeis once wrote: “Men feared witches and burnt...

Today: « Visit. Remember. Think. »

With the crush of having three graduate courses which have four months worth of work squeezed into just over a month, I don’t have much time for blogging. But this three-day weekend is helping me out. Grad school is intense, with lots of tedious work and pretentious snarkery, but I still have straight As and...

We went to see Brokeback Mountain last weekend. It was … all the superlatives that have been said about it: beautiful, moving, heartbreaking, terrific performances, lived up to the hype, etc. etc. etc. I was a trifle detached about it, however, I have to admit. See, I’m really sick of the American macho man who...