Cheney's in town today to speak at Brigham Young University's commencement. There are protests planned. Al Jazeera English is in town. And I've suddenly realized that the crosshairs of some of the world's whack-a-loons are tracking to settle over my town.

I want this day to be over and that man away from me and my commute.

Mormons and Cheney and Al Jazeera, oh my!

Be careful, I hear if you get too close to Cheney you'll get all cold and feel like you'll never be happy again.

I get a mental image of Cheney giving the commencement speech in Jon Stewart's penguin impersonation.

I get a mental image of Cheney giving the commencement speech in Jon Stewart's penguin impersonation.

Oh, I would pay good money to see that....

Cheney's getting an honorary degree, too. But first he meets with the Mormon Church leaders in Salt Lake.

Like, you know when a toddler has a meltdown on public transit, and half the traincar is disgusted with the parent? What they really should be thinking is, "This is the price we pay for the species not dying out. What do I have in my pockets -- a snack? a paper clip? Some colorful paper? -- that can help that poor parent out?"

Or on a plane...I live in fear of sitting next to the asshole who is going to spend the flight giving me the look...mostly out of fear that i might verbally assault him/her if pushed too far.

The image of Stewart!Cheney makes me laugh. (Stewart!Cheney makes me think of Stewart/Cheney which is scary indeed. Eww..brain bleach!!!)

I don't know what to make of the Baldwin thing (although if he was someone I didn't like I imagine my view would be much more clear cut). I think Cindy has it right though. We can't really judge from that one message whether he's a shitty parent or was having a shitty parenting time right then. And I agree with everybody saying the worst villain is the person who let it go public. That poor girl.

On a much lighter note...remember when the World's Tallest Man saved those dolphins in China? My band wrote a song about it. I'm sorry I can't share the song at the moment (for, I can safely say, it does ROCK) but I do have some pictures from our first performance of it:

[link]

Cool, Lisah! In other music-related news, this video [link] is making the rounds of the office today and it is mighty enjoyable.

From the link that bon bon posted, I had forgotten that he said he would leave the country if Bush won the election. It's a little odd that he is saying the same thing now.

It never ceases to boggle me the perfectness (and ideological) standards to which popular culture holds parents.

Expecting parents to not insult and otherwise hurt their children is not holding parents to a standard of perfection.

It never ceases to boggle me that people would undoubtedly call the authorities on Alec Baldwin if he hit his child -- even if it were an isolated incident (it was just the one time, baby, and you made me do it, you just make me so *mad* sometimes) -- but they're okay making excuses for him when he verbally damages his child.

Seriously, a rant like that is never an isolated incident. It's too long and vitriolic.

Seriously -- that's not always true, even if though was true in your experience. Do I think it's likely in this Baldwin thing? Actually, I do

I really really hope for his daughter's sake that you're right.