Molly Ivins has written a terrific column on torture and this administration's macho act.

I grew up with all this pathetic Texas tough: Everybody here knows you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs; and this ain't beanbag; and I'll knock your jaw so far back, you'll scratch your throat with your front teeth; and I'm gonna cloud up and rain all over you; and I'm gonna open me a can of whup-ass ...

And that'll show 'em, won't it? Take some miserable human being alone and helpless in a cell, completely under your control, and torture him. Boy, that is some kind of manly, ain't it?

"The CIA is holding an unknown number of prisoners in secret detention centers abroad. In violation of the Geneva Conventions, it has refused to register those detainees with the International Red Cross or to allow visits by its inspectors. Its prisoners have 'disappeared,' like the victims of some dictatorships." -- The Washington Post.

Why did we bother to beat the Soviet Union if we were just going to become it? Shame. Shame. Shame.

OK, am I wrong, or is this completely bitchy?

Each staff is responsible for submitting their timesheets on time, even when there are changes in the schedule. No more calls or emails of reminder will be issued from our office to staff. This means if your timesheets are not submitted for signature on time, you will not be paid for that period. Please go to the [University] website to obtain a timesheet of payroll deadline dates for future reference.

Is it not normal to get a reminder ahead of time when payroll dates are moved?

Is it not normal to get a reminder ahead of time when payroll dates are moved?

Hey, if people can't be bothered to check the schedule on file at Alpha Centauri....

Shrift reminds me of the dismaying Onion article about the would-be musician who has a personal crisis when he realizes his "job until his band breaks in" job has become a career.

Thank god I never really had any real aspirations to end up a would-be.

Who's up for a cruise on the Nile?

I hope whoever wrote that policy signed his or her name so all the people who miss a pay period will know whom to go see about it.

Before leaving the computer-access for the weekend, I wanted to post that tomorrow, the 11th will be Penny B's birthday (even though I hadn't seen her post in forever), and Saturday, the 12th will be Jessica's birthday. Early wishes to both!

Have good rest-of-the-week and great weekends, everybody!

I hope whoever wrote that policy signed his or her name so all the people who miss a pay period will know whom to go see about it.

The thing that's double-plus shitty is that I KNOW who is responsible, but she made her assistant send out the email. I just walked by the assistant, and she was like "don't shoot the messenger!" We all know who the actual bitch is.

Bitchy.

Most places I have worked - always reminding people that time sheets are due. Unless it happens weekly - and doesn't ever change.

I have to remind two of the three people whose time sheets I collect that they are due every single pay period. Which is every two weeks, and doesn't generally change (I don't mind reminding them when it does). Yesterday I forgot to remind one of them and so today I had to call him at home so he could dictate me the hours and I could forge his signature.

News bits gleaned from Slate's science column:

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• Washington's Supreme Court extended parental rights to a non-biological, non-adoptive lesbian "mom." For six years, the plaintiff helped her partner raise a child (conceived with donated sperm), staying home while the biological mom worked outside the home. The biological mom then married the sperm donor and cut off the plaintiff's access to the child. The court said the plaintiff can qualify as a "de-facto or psychological parent" if she 1) lived with the child, 2) helped raise the child without expectation of compensation, 3) formed a bond with the child, and 4) was encouraged by the legal parent to form this bond.

• The mayor of Las Vegas proposed to amputate the thumbs of freeway graffitists. He said he was "dead serious" and added that some troublemaking kids should be whipped or caned.

• Four new findings on whether day care is good or bad for kids: 1) The cognitive benefits of day care persist, while the relatively high rate of behavioral problems diminishes. 2) The cognitive benefits are twice as great for poor kids as for rich ones. 3) Kids from higher-income families ended up with the worst social problems. 4) Kids in day care were 16 times less likely to die than kids at home.

• The Kansas Board of Education adopted science standards that allow supernatural explanations. The standards 1) recommend the teaching of shortcomings in evolution and 2) eliminate a definition of science as "a search for natural explanations of observable phenomena."