wow, i totally forgot about this short-lived blog effort. these pieces and jokes have (mostly) stood the test of time, right?

Pretty Pictures

Andrew Garfield in the latest incarnation of the apparently unkillable Spiderman movie (but not necessarily musical, haw) franchise.

Things That Make Me Happy

Hey Ladies!
NY's first newlyweds, under the new marriage equality law.

Palin: Could Run, But Prefers to Jog

Please, please, please

Crossing my fingers (and voting, of course) for my beloved senator Russ.

If things don't go well today, election-wise, at least we'll still have this

Boooooooo, Tim Pawlenty

I used to think that Minnesota's Governor Tim Pawlenty was a reasonably practical conservative, the kind who can go on Rachel Maddow's show and intelligently discuss important issues, but lately he's been proving himself to be a righty nut job. (How frightening is it that it's now considered necessary to be a nut job to be an electable Republican? That can't bode well for the GOP or the USA.) He's been trying to earn the Tea Party's love by turning down federal money for children's health care and sex ed (bonus Religious Right points on that one), and now he's gone on Fox News to say this to Neil Cavuto:

Instead of all just running around saying, “We’ll take the money because it’s free money,” let’s call it what it is: The federal government is basically a drug dealer trying to give out free samples, or give people a taste, get them further addicted. And I think we just say: “No, thanks, we’ve had enough, and get your own house in order, by the way, at the same time.”

That's right - accepting federal money = being a crackhead. Hope you're paying attention, elderly folks on Social Security, soldiers and veterans, companies with government contracts, and pretty much everyone else in America. Also, sorry kids, Tim Pawlenty's personal health care is just health care, but YOURS is rhetorically crack, and he demands that you get sick and die to prove his point.

We pay taxes to get services. But Tim thinks we should pay taxes and not get services. And that's the sort of position for passes for economic know-how in today's Republican Party.

Excellent Causes: Even Super-Tough Marines Love Fuzzy Kitten Snuggles

Behold, US Marine Brian Chambers and his rescued kitten Kiki.

Brian and two of his fellow Marines made it their personal mission to help find homes for stray cats while they were serving in Afghanistan.

The plight of needy animals in Iraq and Afghanistan also inspired a group of Commando Royal Marines to found Nowzad Dogs in 2007. They have been joined by cat-loving contractor Louise Hastie, who is merging her Baghdad Animal Rescue with them to form Nowzad charity. Visit their site to support the rescue and care of dogs, cats, and donkeys -- and the service members who love them.

Pussycat Panty Bandit

Oscar the cat brought home so many pairs of ladies knickers that his Southampton owners called the police on him.

The director at their local Cats Protection charity says that this is "natural behavior that is completely normal," but the conspiracy-minded may well wonder if Oscar is a convenient scape-cat for a non-feline panty-fiend.

BBC story

Terrariums!

I've been seeing a lot of terrariums and miniature gardens lately, but these are fantastic -- and fantastical.

ART: Signe Grushovenko

These paintings are both bright AND disturbing.

I don't know if these are meant to be disturbing. But the faces are blank, everything is flat and fractured, it's like the image cannot hold and everything is flying apart. And the patterned background bits that show through remind me of those flash-silhouettes left on walls in Hiroshima. Maybe I just haven't had enough caffeine this morning?

Things That Make Me Happy

Book Forest!

Money Quotes

A Tea Partier Speaks:

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

NY Times

Sigh.

Money Quotes

That old boys’ club in the Vatican became as self-absorbed as other old boys’ clubs, like Lehman Brothers, with similar results. And that is the reason the Vatican is floundering today.

Nicholas Kristoff

NY Times OP-Ed "A Church Mary Can Love"

Ouch - you know you're unpopular when you're compared to Lehman Brothers.

GOP: Better than Ever?

Look how far they've come . . .

Is the Republican party now courting the furry vote? I blame the teabaggers.

Thank you, Wonkette, for this horrible image.

ART: Mike Boyle

Google's artist of the day - such lovely light.

Glenn Beck Outsourcing His Work to Americans

Glenn Beck, in between his alternating bouts of raving and crying, has apparently written a work of fiction. But since he claims the paranoid crap he spouts on air is real, we must assume that this book is actually non-fiction. Anyway, Glenn can't decide which of these covers to stick on his book, so he is outsourcing his tough decision-making work to Americans. Which of these terrible covers do you prefer? Pick one and vote.

Here are your choices:

Global Warming Eats the Flag

Totally Straight Guy from 300 Replaces Statue of Liberty

Shaftacular Monument Menage a Trois

MAC Hatter?

Very nice -- Alice + Olivia does Alice in Wonderland color line for MAC cosmetics. Out July 8. But where is the red mascara for my Mad Hatter get-up?

"Modernist Dollhouses" from NYTimes

WANT. Click here for slideshow.

Money Quotes

I like David Brooks. He is an old-fashioned, intellectual, non-crazy conservative, and I prefer to disagree - and occasionally agree - with people who know what they are talking about. (In other words, not rabid tea-partyers. Have you seen the "Teabonics" tumbler page?) His polite verbal sparring with EJ Dionne on NPR is a work-day pleasure of mine. In today's Times, Brooks has an encouraging op-ed in which he resists the recent conservative impulse to convince people that America is doomed, the better to drive them into the GOP's arms in fright and desperation. No, he writes - America is going to be better than fine.

This column is a great luscious orgy of optimism. Because the fact is, despite all the problems, America’s future is exceedingly bright.

Over the next 40 years, demographers estimate that the U.S. population will surge by an additional 100 million people, to 400 million over all. The population will be enterprising and relatively young. In 2050, only a quarter will be over 60, compared with 31 percent in China and 41 percent in Japan.

...

As the world gets richer, demand will rise for the sorts of products Americans are great at providing — emotional experiences. Educated Americans grow up in a culture of moral materialism; they have their sensibilities honed by complicated shows like “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” and “Mad Men,” and they go on to create companies like Apple, with identities coated in moral and psychological meaning, which affluent consumers crave.

As the rising generation leads an economic revival, it will also participate in a communal one. We are living in a global age of social entrepreneurship.

In 1964, there were 15,000 foundations in the U.S. By 2001, there were 61,000. In 2007, total private giving passed $300 billion. Participation in organizations like City Year, Teach for America, and College Summit surges every year. Suburbanization helps. For every 10 percent reduction in population density, the odds that people will join a local club rise by 15 percent. The culture of service is now entrenched and widespread.

In sum, the U.S. is on the verge of a demographic, economic and social revival, built on its historic strengths. The U.S. has always been good at disruptive change. It’s always excelled at decentralized community-building. It’s always had that moral materialism that creates meaning-rich products. Surely a country with this much going for it is not going to wait around passively and let a rotten political culture drag it down.

Hurray, David Brooks - thank you for not attempting to scare me into voting Republican, and also for not sneering at the word "community." The 2008 campaign's focus on Obama's service as a "community organizer" seems to have led an awful lot of Fox talking heads to treat "community" as a distasteful code word for socialism or something. Which bugs me about as much as Glenn Beck's treatment of "social justice" - the man told his viewers to leave their church if that phrase came up. Isn't that anti-Catholic? Maybe that Catholic League nut Donohue needs to put him on his enemies list.