goddess of clarity: a blog about politics, culture, and serenity

Archive: March 1 - March 15, 2007

March 15, 2007 —13:19 EDT

Unflattering Politician Photo of the Week

Going, Going Gonzales Edition

"Well, let’s see. There was that one guy I fired. He really deserved it. Then there was that other lady; she really pissed me off. Wow many more prosecutors did I fire? Six more? Wow, really?"

Let’s try to count up all the bad news that’s hit since the president has been on his roadtrip south of the border.

1. Emails, memos, and other documents revealed that the Justice Department fired eight U.S. attorneys for essentially political reasons, and then lied about it to Congress. Calls for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ resignation came in loud and quick.
2. An inspector general report showed that the FBI routinely made errors in how it used new provisions of the USA Patriot Act to access email, phone, and financial records without a court order.
3. The Army Surgeon General was the latest official fired over the scandal regarding the appalling conditions and mind-numbing bureaucracy faced by returning wounded soldiers at Walter Reed.
4. Democrats in the House and Senate finally started getting their act together (to an extent) in debating several resolutions against the President’s Iraq War strategy.
5. Oh, and Scooter Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice and lying under oath. Speculation about whether Bush would pardon Libby began pretty much immediately.

Not a bad time to be out of town. Arch-nemesis Hugo Chavez will look like a cuddly teddy bear compared to Congress when Bush gets back.

—lori.

March 14, 2007 —10:55 EDT

Today is International Ask a Question Day (at least that’s what I heard on the radio last night, and I didn’t question it).

Perhaps coincidentally, it is also Albert Einstein’s birthday. So today the goddess marks both occasions by declaring that there is no such thing as a stupid question before proceeding to ask a few questions of my own.

Feel free to join in the fun! Celebrate Ask a Question Day by asking me a question. I probably won’t be able to answer you, but nobody ever said it was International Answer a Question Day.

20 Questions

1. What’s the fastest land mammal?
2. Will I ever own a cell phone?
3. Will Grindhouse be as cool as the trailers are?
4. Do chickens have nostrils?
5. Where have all the flowers gone, how many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man, and – most importantly – who put the bop in the bop-shoo-bop-shoo-bop?
6. Has President Bush ever done a load of laundry?
7. Will this PBS pledge drive ever end?
8. Do those plug-in air fresheners actually smell like anything?
9. Who invented the spoon rest?
10. Can those Burger King ads with “The King” get any weirder?
11. What are loofas made of?
12. Why is Ryan Seacrest famous?
13. How many people can actually run for president at the same time?
14. When will Nicole Richie’s much-anticipated debut album finally hit the stores?
15. Who ate the world’s first peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich?
16. Was World War I caused by the complex interlocking nature of international alliances at that time, or the escalating naval arms race between Great Britain and Germany?
17. What’s Dick Cheney’s favorite flower?
18. Do all radio stations cut to commercial breaks at the same time on purpose?
19. Can babies talk in their dreams?
20. How many light bulbs does it take to change a blonde?

—lori.

March 12, 2007 —18:55 EDT

I hate Daylight Savings Time.

And it's not because I was involved in The Workplace's last-minute scramble to get our servers and desktop applications ready to spring forward three weeks early (I wasn't). And it's not because I resent having a well-earned hour of sleep robbed from me like a crime in the night once a year (though I do).

It's because it's unnatural, dammit. I know, I know: all measured time is an artificial, man-made construct. But we don't need Daylight Savings Time rubbing our faces in the fact, pushing the clock forward and backward willy nilly whenever an act of Congress decrees it.

When it's 8 o'clock at night and I look out my window, I have an expectation. And it's not sunshine. Night = dark.

I don't find too many sympathizers to my anti-DST cause. Just one day in and already many of my co-workers are walking out to the parking lot exclaiming, "Wow, it's still light out! It's so nice to leave work when the sun's still out." No, no it's not.

There is something exciting and electric about night. It's not a time for softball games and strolls to the ice cream parlor. It's for grown-ups only. Time to go to bed, kids. Mommy's heading out for a vodka tonic.

—lori.