Go 'Heels!

Amazing. My beloved Tarheels actually came back from a 12-point deficit to lead Villanova, and not only that, but held on to the lead and won the game. Although apparently one of the reasons they won was a controversial call by a referee at the end.

Not only that, but Duke (boo! hiss!) somehow managed to lose. So the 'Heels are the only ACC team left in the tourney.

Well, here's hoping they get to the Final Four, at least. I think it's been quite a while since I've seen them there. I know better than to get my hopes up that they'll manage to go all the way...

...Still, sometimes miracles do happen. :)

Another "Attaboy" For My State

Geez

Outside the hospice, eight more people — including a 10-year old boy and 13-year-old twin girls — were arrested Friday for trying to bring her water.

"I don't want her to die," Joshua Heldreth, 10, from North Carolina, said before his arrest. "I'm not afraid because God is with me."

and

Also, the FBI said a man was arrested Friday in Fairview, N.C., on charges of sending an e-mail threat, allegedly for offering a $250,000 bounty for Michael Schiavo's death and $50,000 for that of a judge in the case. The FBI did not immediately identify the judge.


Oh, yeah... let's start killing healthy, functional people to "save" a woman with no higher brain functions left. That's the way to enforce that whole "Culture of Life" thing, right? Apparently everyone has a right to life, unless we don't care about them (like little brown people overseas that are sitting on oil); or we disagree with legal decisions they've made/tried to enforce; or they're very little brown babies in Texas.

Heck, while you're reading that last link, look for the one where the Navy is persecuting some poor woman over the $3000 bill for aborting her baby that was going to be born with no brain. It boggles the mind that the Navy's lawyers could say with a straight face that the military shouldn't be involved in killing people -- okay, I'm paraphrasing them, but that's pretty close to what they said.

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

From Cookie Jill over at Skippy the Bush Kangaroo comes a story on how a number of IMAX theaters in my region of the country are refusing to show a documentary on undersea volcanoes because of references to evolution. Apparently they're worried that the fundies in their markets will rise up in arms and burn them as witches or something if they say anything that contradicts the view that the Great Invisible Sky Being put everything here. I am very sad to report that apparently even the Exploris museum here in my town -- a science museum, can you believe it? -- is also declining to show it. Maybe I should make that, "supposed science museum".

In the same post, she links to an article that points out an alarming trend. The US is falling further and further behind in leading technology -- we're having to import students from other countries where science is actually valued (gasp!) to do the more technical jobs.

With increasing prosperity in America, [Dr. Steven Koonin provost of CalTech] said, "the children of the higher socioeconomic strata are pursuing other careers, where you don't have to work as hard."

(This begs for a link to DL's performance in the second debate where he kept repeating variations on the theme of "it's hard work", but I don't feel like hunting up a good one right now. I'm sure you can come up with a snarky comment you remember reading from then.)

In the same tone, a commenter on Eschaton bemoans:

When I was a kid in the early 70s, America still felt like the greatest country in the world. It made me pround to grow up in a country where we were the best at science, technology, and democracy. We were putting people on the fucking moon, and we were even starting to clean up our environment. The only time religion was discussed was at Sunday mass. Now I feel as if I live in the most backward-assed, batshit-crazy banana republic in the Western world. How did we go from the pre-eminent scientific, technological, and rational civilization on earth, to a nation whose political discourse and civic life is held hostage by a bunch of barking-mad fundie loons and other assorted God-botherers?

Well-said. And I hope he doesn't mind me stealing it for here.

The Cost of Illegal Abortions

Aquaria over at Rampaging PMS posts a very eloquent rant on the consequences of making abortion illegal. She says it all so much better than I could, that I have little to add to it. I will echo the warning she has at the top of the post -- it contains a disturbing, graphic image that illustrates what one of those consequences can be.

A return to those days won't even stop abortions -- it will just mean a return to a time when only the rich could get them safely, and when those least able to care for an unwanted child were also those least able to avoid having them. Combine that with the "abstinance-only" sex education that doesn't reduce teen sex while failing to teach them effective birth control, and you have a real recipe for disaster.

But hey, I guess they'll need plenty of peons around to help usher back in the age of indentured servitude that seems to be the goal of the so-called "Consumer Protection Act".

Opinion From Above The 49th Parallel

A piece in "The View From the West" section of the Winnipeg Free Press by a former Canadian foreign minister takes DL's government to task in an open letter to Condi.

"As our erstwhile Prairie-born and bred (and therefore prudent) finance minister pointed out in presenting his recent budget, we've had eight years of balanced or surplus financial accounts. If we're going to spend money, Mr. Goodale added, it will be on day-care and health programs, and even on more foreign aid and improved defence.

Sure, that doesn't match the gargantuan, multi-billion-dollar deficits that your government blithely runs up fighting a "liberation war" in Iraq, laying out more than half of all weapons expenditures in the world, and giving massive tax breaks to the top one per cent of your population while cutting food programs for poor children. Just chalk that up to a different sense of priorities about what a national government's role should be when there isn't a prevailing mood of manifest destiny."

Man, if it weren't for the weather, I'd move to Canada in a heartbeat. I've chatted with a lot of our neighbors to the north over the 'net and I've enjoyed the time I've spent with every one of them. My son is all for the idea. He'd love to live somewhere where it snows every year. I think after the first winter he spent shoveling the drive clear every day he might take a different attitude about the whole thing.

Eric Idle Is My Hero

This is just bloody brillant.

Thank you, Eric Idle, for putting my feelings about the last 4 years or so into amusing words and to a catchy tune.

And another thanks to rorschach for pointing me to it. And, btw, congratulations on your recent wedding. I hope the honeymoon in the "Big Easy" is a blast.

All That Reading Pays Off

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 93% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 88% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!
For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.


My test tracked 4 variables
How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 62% on Beginner
You scored higher than 31% on Intermediate
You scored higher than 34% on Advanced
You scored higher than 98% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

More Wierdness From My State

Dentist Charged With Assault In Semen Squirting Case

A former North Carolina dentist accused of squirting semen into the mouths of female patients was charged Monday with multiple misdemeanor counts of assault on a female.
[...]
The North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners revoked [Dr. John] Hall's license in August after six former patients testified in Raleigh that the dentist made them swallow what they now believe was his semen.

Now, what can I add to that? Honestly, I can't think of anything. Dang, you pay these boys a fortune for even routine dental work and one of them pulls something like this on you? At least as a middle-aged man the likelyhood of someone doing this to me personally is probably pretty slim -- this sort of outrage seems to be visited solely upon women.

Of course, the good doctor is denying this vehemently, despite the fact that police found syringes in his office with traces of his semen in them. Maybe next time he won't go for the cheap homemade masturbation aid, but instead for the Cyborgasmatrix Heat Melt Elastomer Gel Evaluation Torso instead. (via Jesus' General)

Oops. Forgot to give a link to the original.

Hey, It Says "Empty" Right Up There At The Top..

Been too busy feeling rotten from a cold, and catching up on my reading to feel like doing any posting of late. But just so I don't forget my ID & password or something, I thought I should make at least a token appearance on here. There's plenty of political stuff out there I could cut and paste into here, but I don't have anything to add to the things I've read other people say. So I'm just going to ramble a bit.

My wife has been at home for the last several weeks on short-term disability while she recovers from surgery, but this is her last week and she is really not looking forward to going back to work. OTOH, she knows we need the money. I'm sure I'm going to find the house feeling a little emptier, having gotten used to coming home to her in the morning. Of course, since she likes to stay up until the wee hours of the morning and then sleep till noon, ofttimes I'd be on my way to bed about the time she was just starting to wake up. And lately I've been back to spending most of my free time in the morning trying to complete Morrowind. I keep getting about half-way through the main storyline and then going a month or two without playing. Then I end up starting a new character because I can't remember what the old one had done. Anyway, this means that in the mornings I'm generally off in my own little world (or, at least, Bethesda Softworks' own little world); so I don't really mind that she's asleep.

She has promised me that this morning she's going to be awake and waiting for me, so she can get me to do some chores and go out and complete some errands with her. Lucky me, hey?

The game playing might be a little hard to come by next week, though, as my son will be out of school for spring break -- which means I'll have to get home to the computer before he wakes up, otherwise the only way I'll get on there is by throwing him off of it. He's planning on spending at least part of his time at my parents' house so that he'll be near his cousins, though, so that will give me free time.

This past weekend I finally got off my butt and looked up an old friend of mine, and we had dinner with him and his wife and spent quite a while catching up. It was fun. Today I had Chinese food and the cookie I broke up yielded up the fortune, "Never forget a friend, especially if he owes you." Well, Rick doesn't owe me anything that I know of, but I still thought it was an interesting little bit of sychronisity.

"What a Wanker!" Dept.

From Eschaton's "Wanker of Day" comes a link to a story where Creator's Syndicate is sending out a Cease and Desist letter to a website for "unauthorized use of a link" to a Bill O'Reilly column.

But the wanker I want to mention is Sgt falafel himself -- his column is on the flap from not so long ago over "Buster the Bunny"; specifically on the episode where Buster went to Vermont to learn about making maple syrup and met (gasp!) a family headed by lesbians. There was all the hoo-hah about "secret homosexual agendas" and the like. Bill says in response to Rep Barney Franks' complaints about the comments of the secretary of education (Margaret Spellings):

Well, yeah, Barn, that's correct. Many Americans believe that little kids should have a childhood and not be subjected to any kind of sexuality. I don't want to be offensive here, but who in their right mind wants to explain Norma and Barbara's lifestyle to their 4-year-old? Give the kids a break, OK?

I'm sure this is a waste of time, but can someone explain to me how two of these three sentences deal with sexuality and the other doesn't?

1) This is Frank and Mary. They are a happy, loving couple with two kids.
2) This is Joan and Wanda. They are a happy, loving couple with two kids.
3) This is William and Mark. They are a happy, loving couple with two kids.

Or better yet, could someone explain to Bill why they don't? If you merely present them as a fact why do you need to "explain Norma and Barbara's lifestyle?" Do you explain to your 4-year-old about how Frank and Mary express their sexuality? If your 4-year-old has a little buddy that only has a mommy, do you explain how his daddy was a boozer and abuser and so mommy dumped him, or do you just say "some people don't have two parents" and let them figure out the rest when they're old enough to deal with it?

Sigh... I'm old enough to remember when divorcees were scandalous, or at least remember that they had been scandalous and were only gradually gaining acceptance. Maybe I'll live to be old enough to see unisex couples gain the same sort of uneasy acceptance as a fact of life as divorcees had when I was a kid, and know that one day soon, people will just shrug and go, "So?" when they see one.