the cake that is baking...

Josh Marshall over at talkingpointsmemo has been talking about the need for the democrats to position themselves as a true opposition party. I really couldn't agree with him more (although he might put it a little differently than I do).

The dems in congress really have to learn (as Charlie Pierce has been imploring them for sometime now) to just say 'no'. Wouldn't Nancy be proud? But seriously, let them (the republicans and such) have their cake and eat it too. The one they are baking now is not going to taste very good.

For God's sake just refuse to do a damn thing if they aren't going to listen and scream bloody hell about how they are screwing everything up! Really, just say no. They can pass what they want without you, so why the hell not take the moral high ground and keep your names off some of their crap legislation? Support the good stuff and tell them to take a hike when they present shit. I know there will be hemming and hawing and plenty of arm twisting; fine. Just make sure that at the end of the day, when it goes on the record, when the majority party is trying to flex their muscle that you say "I object."

It's their cake. Let them have it. Don't help them ice it, don't help them cut it, don't help them serve it. They chose the ingredients and how to cook it, let them eat it. You aren't the head cooks anymore but you better make it loud and clear that you know and accept that or they will be blaming their burnt shit on you.

burned food items as religious icons...(or 'for-sale-piety might as well be edible')

Thank God (who may or may not chose to reveal him/herself to you in your food) there is no end to coverage of the Mary on the sandwich being sold on ebay, since otherwise there would be nothing worth reporting. I guess the sarcasm falls flat when this is the subject on which I chose to comment after barely writing anything for a couple of weeks, but there are several things I find interesting and annoying about this.

I really don't mind some lady sincerely believing that Mary has come to her in her grilled cheese. Despite a protestant upbringing which frowns upon... well, damn near everything (mostly southern baptist, but thankfully also a little Methodist), but particularly on stuff such as superstitious beliefs, I totally find little signs comforting in everyday life. I have a Hello Kitty! toaster which burns her face into my bread each morning and I completely take how clearly the face burns into the bread as a direct omen towards how my day is going to go. No, I don't stay at home if my toasts burns or the face is indistiguishable, but it is one of those silly little things that makes my life a little easier. Frankly, compared to many of our institutions, superstition isn't looking so bad these days. (note: by superstition I do not mean to be derisive, but rather using it as a catch-all for finding spiritual significance or control in the way everyday, not explicitly religious or spiritual activities, and not in a holistic, 'everything is spiritual' kind of way but rather a event specific omen/talisman kind of way)

I kind of do find annoying (ok, I find it insanely annoying)the idea that someone believes God appeared to them in their snack and then subsequently believes it a good idea to sale said direct divine communique to the highest bidder. But I guess if folks auctioning off their piety for personal gain has to be on the news, I'll take the grilled cheese lady over james dobson or jerry faldwell or pat robertson or the nekkid emperor. She at least seems more sincere and I imagine her 13 year old grilled cheese would be easier to stomach.

Really though, if we need people who find pictures in food on tv, can somebody find that great lady who used to come on the tonight show with her collection of potato chips that looked like celebrities?

Matters of importance...

I haven't been blogging much lately. Things have been busy and I haven't really had a whole lot of extra time near a computer. We all needed a little bit of a break after all the election crap and I am no exception. Having screamed my bloody head off for so many months (really, I think I have been screaming for as long as I can remember, and given how things are looking, I see no end in sight), I had to turn my attention to matters of great importance which I had been neglecting. So over the last couple of weeks, I have repotted plants and brought in those that were still outside and gave the aquarium in my bedroom a makeover (it had basically been a swamp full of duckweed, Salvinia, hairgrass, and snails).

I moved my Brugmansia (angel's trumpet) indoors and am anxious to see how it will fair indoors. It had been badly battered by the wind and only bloomed right at the end of the summer. I cut it back and put it in a big planter and it is already sending out new leaves and seems happy so far. Our living room is well lit with southern exposure, so hopefully it will thrive. If I can get it to bloom indoors over the winter, I'm throwing a party.

My geraniums aren't quite so happy, but if they will hang on through the winter they will be huge when I start them again in the spring.

In my old established fish tank, my polypterus is protesting no longer having a regular supply of guppies to eat by targetting the arulius barbs. He has managed to take one down and leave a hole in another one's tail. These guys are full grown and several inches long, so this is no small accomplishment. They have been holy terrors since I first introduced them almost a year ago and at times wished Jackson (the polypterus) would just eat them and be done with it, but recently they had calmed down and started showing their adult coloration and the males' dorsal fins have grown out and I was enjoying them. I am feeding more often now and calling my friend with too many guppies to try to prevent further ichthycide.

I also took out the watersprite that had taken over the top of the tank and everything is looking so much better now. The tiny water lettuce and the riccia at the top have been growing great and look much better on the surface. The cryptocornes are spreading through the sand slowly and the java moss is finally attaching to the driftwood and rocks. (for those of you that are not fish/plant people, sorry, politics needed a break)

In the new tank in my room, after weeding back some of the existing plants and getting the substrate (sand) and water ready, I went a little insane with fish and plants. I noticed I had a little money in the bank and all my bills paid, and there were cute little South American puffers at the LFS, so I snapped them up and started populating the tank. Well, I moved three banjo cats in from smaller living quarters, and got a few new plants, and suddenly two SA puffers turned into 6 corydora, 2 marbled talking catfish, 8 glassfish, and 3 spiketail gouramis. A little overboard, but it is a nice sized tank and the fish seem happy and I can't stop watching the tank. Now comes the trouble with trying to not add anything else.

anyway, I'll get back to rants and snark soon enough, but the fish and plants are currently keeping me sane, so expect to hear about them from time to time.

ashcroft resigns!!! Ding dong, the witch is...being replaced.

Yes, one of the uglier witches is finally leaving Munchkinland, but unfortunately it isn't because a house landed on his head and it ain't Dorothy who got the slippers. Key player in bush's nation of retards, john ashcroft will be remembered fondly for such kind heart-warming things as indefinite detentions and the erosion of civil liberties. He truly has been a real, american douche-bag. I wish him all the best as he moves on to pursue a singing career.

But lest we be overjoyed and come crawling out of our flower and mushroom munchkin hiding places too quickly, he has been replaced by another dark overlord, alberto gonzales. Yes, that alberto gonzales. The man responsible for writing the legal opinion on how to toture folks and ditch the Geneva Convention and get away with it. Yes, this is obviously the person we want to be interpreting the constitution in an official capacity.

For all of you who want to scream, "but they are the bad guys; screw the Geneva Convention and they deserve to be tortured blah blah blah" remember this: when you see someone beheaded on tv, when you hear tales from our troops who get imprisoned who are tortured and treated like animals, when civilians are targeted in Iraq, our president had this man throw our grounds for moral objections to all this out the window. Oh yes, we the people can call these things monstrous (they absolutely are), but our president looked at them and said they don't matter. The Geneva Convention was the international aggreement that these things be considered war crimes and reprehensible. The man now interpretting the Constitution and our laws for the federal government disagrees.

More houses need to fall from the sky.