File Under:Alternatives to Filibuster

You can't have any pudding until you finish every last bit of legislation. Hey! No spitting that out in your napkin, now!

My favorite part of the story as reported by Rueters:

"Wang later spat out the document and tore it up after opposition lawmakers failed to get her to cough it up by pulling her hair."

Thoughts from an American wedding reception

I was at a wedding this weekend, which was a lovely ceremony indeed. The reception was held at an elegant, historic campus building downtown. The food was delicious, and the bartenders made good gin and tonics (I ordered one from each so I could see who made the best one).

The DJ was a bald (head shaved, I'm sure) 30-something-year-old man in a tux whose favourite expression was, "put your hands together for..." and whose main purpose in life seemed to be to level the playing field amongst those who can't hear and those who can via very loud music.

After the cutting of the cake (they did it the nice way -- these are classy folks) began the traditional collective exhale from the wedding party and the traditional first dances (for which we, the guests were once again enouraged to put our hands together when the participants were introduced), followed by the all-in cutting loose of everybody on the dance floor.

Now, it's true, not everyone in that hot, crowded, loud banquet room was white. The bride, herself, is half-Japanese. But most were middle class Americans; the kind that you could find at almost any wedding reception in the midwest. And like those other truly American wedding receptions, the get-down section of this party started with the old standbys which inexplicably infest almost all American wedding receptions: "Celebration," "YMCA," "We Are Family," etc. I left before finding out if the Chicken Dance was played.

But in a non-airconditioned moment of startling clarity perhaps in part influenced by two gin and tonics (pretty much a toss-up between the two bartenders), as I watched the sweating, paunched, mostly pale mass jump, sway, and make half-assed attempts to form their arms in the letters of Y, M, C, and A, I wondered to myself, "Why is it we're so worried about keeping the Mexicans out?"

File Under:The Wrong Guy

All he wanted was a job. Poor [g]uy. This reminds me of the Monty Python Job Interview sketch.



UPDATE: There was word that Goma is a cabbie and was waiting for fare, as opposed to being a job applicant. I don't believe that is true, but I know he's not an IT specialist. However, he gets high marks in my book for his on-the-fly answers and relative composure after the initial shock. Video of the unfortunate interview is here.

File Under:Losing Their Religion

It's sad when someone loses faith in held beliefs. It's angering when it's because of a fictional story. For an excellent look at The Da Vinci Code, check out Nuclearity. Be sure to read the blog and listen to the podcasts.

File Under:Holy Book Review!

Slate Magazine's David Plotz is blogging the Bible. A lifelong Jew decides to find out for himself as an adult what is in the Bible that he grew up with, and he's sharing his raw reactions. Very interesting. So far, he's gotten to the flood, which is appropriate considering the weather much of the US has been experiencing lately.

File Under:Bluffing in the Buff

I've never understood the draw of televised poker tournaments. However, I think that this could be a great spectator sport if it comes to pass.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

It's nice to have a concise excuse.






I give credit where credit is due.

Fille Under:Ugly Concepts

Ugh. That's it. Ray Del Salvio is not getting on my Christmas gift list anytime soon.

A sign that the Old Regular Baptists are upon us.

My friend Perry and I stopped in to the Old Regular Baptist Church to try the pies, and also to see what Old Regular Baptists look like. As it turns out, Old Regular Baptists are indeed old, and have southern accents, even up here in southeastern Michigan. Also, as it turns out, fryed pies are like fried pies, only more so.

File In:Folders. Forty-Three of Them

Over at 43 Folders, you can get some good ideas for simplifying your life. You should probably get a pencil and write some of the ideas down. For example:

It’s easy to remember how many teaspoons are in a quart (192) with this simple mnemonic:

Over nearly every hamburger, under nearly dead raccoons—every delayed nanosecond inculcates nearly every teenager you think wears oranges.

File Under:Phoning it In

It's good to know that nothing, not even curfew, can stop love.

File Under:(Un)True Love Waits?

Wouldn't it be great if this were a post about Tom Waits? Yeah, but it isn't.

I don't like New Year's resolutions, because they're like diets: they fail once the sense of urgency leaves the room to take a smoke break, or when focus wanes, or temptation becomes stronger than expected, etc. And, much like virginity lost, once a pledge is broken, it's broken. So guilt comes in and purpose goes out, and the pledge has failed.

I'm not really sure what this has to do with teen virginity pledges and their apparent correspondence to untruths, but I do know that the Church has done a pretty good job at telling kids not to have sex, and not so much at communicating their unchanging place in God's kingdom if they do fall out of the virginity van, or after other failures in their lives.

Is that what the lying is about? Wanting to be accepted in the holy club? Not wanting to be asked to turn in their membership cards?

I would love to see purity taught not as a diet, but as a lifestyle. And not just to kids. And not just in regards to sexuality. What would the church look like if we admitted our impurities to ourselves and to God, but actually believed ourselves to be new creations in Christ, and thus strived in hope to live our lives that way?

File Under:Mind Power

This would have made my high school Humanities class a little more interesting for me.

Thanks very much to Greg for the enlightenment on this.









Locke, stock, and barrell-chested.

File Under:May - December (several years later) Romance

Yeah, it seems like a big difference now, but when he's 1200, she'll only be 1271.

More fun with apostrophes!

My good friend Erin sent me this picture. How could you not include an apostrophe where there needs to be one, put one in where there shouldn't be one, and then take a picture of your store and use it as an advertisement? Boggling.
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So, by now you know I have a thing about inappropriate public display of apostrophes.

If you've got any you've seen, let me know in the comments section of this post, and we'll see if we can't get a picture of it up here.

File Under:Abuse of Language

Bloggers are just spelling things however the hell they want to.