I liked the biker jacket with the ruching (sp?).

I tripped over my headphone cord (and got my foot tanbgle in it) this morning and now one of the speakers is dead. They're still under warranty, but I don't think Sony will fix them. Wah!

I thought Pop was now a republic, with an elected non-executive President (or Head of Pop, if you will) and a bicameral parliamentary system.

I think there's been a revolution. James Blunt is now the King of Pop.

It makes me miss the good ol' days of the Presley dictatorship - at least he made the Mystery Trains run on time....

is so out of it she doesn't know who James Blunt is

on reflection, may be proud of that

Um... why is there not more outrage?

In the latest New Yorker, Michael Specter has a positively chilling story on how theoconservatives and Christianists have waged a quiet war against some critical vaccines, especially against Human papillomavirus or HPV. A vaccine exists against this virus that would drastically reduce the numbers of cervix cancer cases. The religious right opposes it as a mandatory childhood vaccination, because it removes a disincentive to having sex:

"Religious conservatives are unapologetic; not only do they believe that mass use of an HPV vaccine or the availability of emergency contraception will encourage adolescents to engage in unacceptable sexual behavior; some have even stated that they would feel similarly about an H.I.V. vaccine, if one became available. 'We would have to look at that closely,' Reginald Finger, an evangelical Christian and a former medical adviser to the conservative political organization Focus on the Family, said. 'With any vaccine for H.I.V., disinhibition' - a medical term for the absence of fear - 'would certainly be a factor, and it is something we will have to pay attention to with a great deal of care.' Finger sits on the Centers for Disease Control's Immunization Committee, which makes those recommendations."

Specter has a Q and A about the article here. These people would rather people die of AIDS and cancer than do anything to "encourage" sexuality. And they have the cojones to call the Democrats the "party of death."

[link]

The problem is that those of us who are outraged are so busy being outraged about all the other bullshit!

Um... why is there not more outrage?

Oh, there's outrage. It's just muted because it's been going on for so long.

I loved the wacky WAT.

HDT and Malone doing Rock, Paper, Scissors (We used to call this jon ken pon) to see who got to talk down Mrs. Reynolds was so funny.

Also, you pockets haters are CRAZY!!

is so out of it she doesn't know who James Blunt is

British singer of what, some years ago, would have been called "soft rock." Became a big star worldwide on the strength of "You're Beautiful," which is a great single. (How big? "You're Beautiful" went to #1 in the U.S. Last time anyone from the U.K. did that, it was Elton John mourning Princess Di.)

Too soon to tell whether he's "flavor of the month" or "lasting star." But I can't say I'm as impressed with the other songs I've heard off the CD.

I'm on outrage overload. And with all due respect to Christians here, the Christian Right rather feels like an unstopable juggernaut to me now. Over the last five or six years, they've successfully eroded so much of this governement, and of the ability for any opposition to do anything about them, that I don't know what to do, or how to stop it.

It's soured me on Christianity so bad, I pretty much have to just not talk about it with people I care about, lest it cause too much of a rift in our relationship.

It's soured me on Christianity so bad, I pretty much have to just not talk about it with people I care about, lest it cause too much of a rift in our relationship.

It's funny/ironic/sad that I've more than once had the conversation where the person I was talking to swapped "Americans" for "Christianity" in the above sentiment. With the undertone that I was doing something wrong for being among the enemy.

I don't let them not have the conversation though, because it's important to me.