Lots to do this weekend. For one thing, I’ve been a bit lax in doing my laundry, and have gotten down to some of the oldest underwear I own. The kind where the elastic band sounds like crinkling cellophane. On the bright side, the old stuff actually fits, so that’s cool. Then there’s my hair. It was getting all in my face and unruly and annoying, so I gave it a “bobbit” (that’s where I take everything that’s sicking out, and cut it off), which works out OK in the front and the sides, but not so much in the back, which I left alone, and now I have this Joe Dirt mullet kinda thing going on in back, and a Bettie Page thing going on in the front (which I frankly don’t have the body to pull off), and it looks pretty stupid. So today I’ve gotta deal with that stuff back there. That’s right, I’ve gotta give myself a reach around. There’s also some snow to deal with (a barn just a hop and a skip – not even a jump – from us caved in last night and a guy not too far away went through the roof of his barn, plunging three stories to his death; we have a lot of barns up this-a-way), I still have a dual-flush converter to install, a desk to finish, and, of course, the dogs need to be pleasured. Plus a lot more. And now the weekend’s half over. Damn. I feel defeated already, and it’s not even 5 AM.
On the bright side, I’m really learning to love the smell of Ben Gay (though it seem like they also ought to make a Ben Straight, just to be fair and balanced), and Egypt is “free.” I’m glad they’re free, of course, and I hope the poor folks over there get a break (goodness knows the poor folks over here are screwed, with the Republicans proposing massive cuts to domestic programs with not a penny to be cut from the #1 budget item, “defense”).
I also have a selfish reason for hoping this stuff is all over in Egypt: I’m tired of hearing the “man in the street” interviews with the protesters. No offense, but it would be nice if those people would use their inside voices once in a while (and talk a little slower). I keep waiting for one of them to yell, “NO SOUP FOR YOU!”
Anyhow, Allah bless you all, and good luck. I hope that military guy from the Indiana Jones movies who’s in charge now turns out to be a good dude. Just remember, if it comes down to it, don’t bring a scimitar to a gun fight.
Add Wisconsin to the list of places I’m glad I don’t live. I’m sure you’ve all seen where its new Governor wants to strip its State employees of their rights to collective bargaining and is preemptively threatening to use the National Guard to knock heads in case there’s trouble. I’m sure he’s also the first (OK, second, behind John Boehner) to shed joyous tears for the great Egyptian revolution toward democracy. A shame we can’t count on the US military to back the people over the government. Not saying theywouldn’t – just saying I wouldn’t count on it.
Too bad, too, ‘cuz then we’d have an armada of heavily armed unmanned Reapers at our disposal here in Syracuse. I’d dispatch them to Albany and have them circle Andy Cuomo and the rest of the NYS legislature ominously. Andy’s latest scheme (being touted a “brilliant” by many) is to have the legislature pass a budget with no specifics. Then he’ll decide what to cut. So there will be no actual chance for citizens to lobby their – and I use the term loosely – representatives to preserve funding for, oh, jobs, hospitals, schools, snow plows, prisons, copy, fire fighters…. You know, all that piddly stuff that the rich people on Wall St can’t be bothered to pay for (even though their always first in line for services, and loudest to squawk when they don’t get their way).
Oh well. As soon as it gets warm again, we should so get permits and have an organized Saturday protest, with clever signs and lots of speechifying. I won’t be able to make it, of course, ‘cuz I only get two days off and I can’t leave the dogs. But I’ll watch some of it on CSPAN and totally disagree with the crowd estimates.
Hell, it got us out of Iraq, so it’s just got to work.
Update: Yesterday was supposed to be warm and relatively snow-free. Bullshit.
Bob Herbert:
As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only.
While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment and declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial and corporate elite. It doesn’t really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, and the politicians dance.
So what we get in this democracy of ours are astounding and increasingly obscene tax breaks and other windfall benefits for the wealthiest, while the bought-and-paid-for politicians hack away at essential public services and the social safety net, saying we can’t afford them. One state after another is reporting that it cannot pay its bills. Public employees across the country are walking the plank by the tens of thousands. Camden, N.J., a stricken city with a serious crime problem, laid off nearly half of its police force. Medicaid, the program that provides health benefits to the poor, is under savage assault from nearly all quarters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/opinion/12herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Here we go again. Michelle Rhee, the ex chancellor of DC, exaggerated her record as a teacher.
It would be nice if all this evidence of schools and other folks claiming gains on student test scores that aren’t there would make people pause before they adopt the very methods that have not worked. But, unfortunately, the issues concerning student achievement are complicated, expensive and in need of a long term strategy.
Trying to reach Cairo’s Tahrir Square through clouds of tear gas and volleys of rubber bullets, Egyptian TV anchor Mona Khalil was forced by the tumult into a side street. There, she remembers, “I saw cats running, running, running, and trying to get into houses or staircases or buildings and some of them were really gasping.” Two kittens had found shelter under a car. She managed to take them inside a building, away from the toxic fumes. Others were not so lucky. “Going back later I found two cats that were lying on their sides, dead,” she adds. For Khalil, 43, who is also one of the leaders of Egypt’s fledgling animal rights movement, the event had particular resonance. It was, she said, “the first slap in the face that, oh my God, those streets are filled with cats and dogs.”
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2048792,00.html#ixzz1DrF7iPJZ
Marijuana possession was the top reason for arrests in New York city in 2010, according to a report by the State Division of Criminal Justice Services, that was obtained by the Drug Policy Alliance advocacy group.
An astounding 50,383 people were arrested for having marijuana in 2010. That makes up about 15 percent of all arrests in the city.
snip
The statement also noted that 86 percent of those arrested since 2002 were African-American or Latino and 70 percent were under 30 years old, despite the fact that “research consistently shows that young whites use marijuana at higher rates,” according to the statement.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/marijuana-arrests_n_822002.html