Tom Scola is a totally fun uncle!!

ok, I got done what I needed to do and now I must RUN OUT!

Horsies!!

Sorry. I love horses.

Saw this being spread all over the blogosphere--John Cafferty of CNN had an excellent one-minute recap of this administration's attitude: Just do it!

Who cares if the Patriot Act gets renewed. Want to abuse our civil liberties--Just do it! Who cares about the Geneva conventions? Want to torture prisoners--Just do it! Who cares about rules concerning the identity of CIA gents. Want to reveal the name of a covert operative? Just do it!

Who cares about whether the intelligence concerning WMD's is accurate. You want to invade Iraq? Just do it. Who cares about qualifications to serve on the nation's highest court. Want to nominate a personal friend with no qualifications? Just do it.

And the latest outrage, which I read about in "The New York Times" this morning, who cares about needing a court order to eavesdrop on American citizens. Want to wiretap their phones conversations? Just do it.... What a joke. A very cruel, very sad joke.

I just went back and tried to catch up with the last 500 or so posts since I am now officially on vacation and have time to do things like that.

Reading about ita's searing pain and tommyrot's diagnosis makes me not sad, but angry. Yes I know that is irrational to get angry about good people being in pain. I just hate that you're having to deal with this.

ita, please forgive me if this suggestion has been made or if it isn't your thing, but have you considered acupuncture to help with the pain management? I only ask because it helped me to manage some intense pain a couple of years ago.

Also, you all probably already saw it, but I smiled when I realized that krav was a central plot point in How I Met Your Mother this week.

Tom Scola is indeed a fun and wonderful uncle.

Allyson, I'm sorry about the 3000 miles and the Old Flame's girlfriend. I wish...oh who am I kidding, I wish he'd ditch his girlfriend and move to LA and swear his undying love to you. Failing that, I wish you happy crushitude without pain.

I got her an inflatable horsie she can bounce on. Fun!

You're trying to turn her into a cowgirl, aren't you? Admit it!!

As an uncle, it's my *job* to corrupt them!

Now I want a t-shirt with the two cowboys from Broken Back Mountain, with a caption that says, "I caught the gay from the Hollywood Liberal Elite!"

Now I want a t-shirt with the two cowboys from Broken Back Mountain, with a caption that says, "I caught the gay from the Hollywood Liberal Elite!"

"I went to Brokeback Mountain, and all I got was this stupid t-shirt and Teh Gay."

If only this movie were capable of turning people gay—there are a couple of guys who would be on my list to drag to it at earliest opportunity.

I'm saying that's either parody or a fictional entry created to stir shit.

Here's a cheery bit of statistical trivia:

Calculations based on the amount of barley used for brewing in Conventry during the 1520s indicate that the average consumption of ale was 17 pints of strong ale a week for every man, woman, and child in the town. Statistics for English consumption of beer late in the seventeenth century indicate an annual consumption per person of 832 pints. To put this figure in context, in 1976 the amount was only 209 pints, one fourth the earlier figure.