Knuffle Bunny and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus are the awesomest books EVER EVER EVER.

Everyone loves Knuffle Bunny and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! They are big hits at Mom's school.

I use cilantro on everything, once I bought it by mistake and used it in Potato Leek Soup instead of parsley it was very yummy.

Quinoa with black beans, avocado, feta, peppers, lime, olive oil, and cilantro! I hatesssss it, but I tried making it without the cilantro and it just doesn't work as well. I put in less than my friend did when she made it though.

Excellent blog post: The New Authoritarians

We need a change in nomenclature. Those who continue to support the administration’s radical theory of executive power are properly described as authoritarians. Once upon a time they may have been conservative but I think it’s safe to say that circa February 2008 conservatism has been orphaned by its ostensible champions. As a philosophy for governance it has no meaningful support on the national stage and hasn’t for years. I won’t dwell on long-forgotten odes to small government and fiscal responsibility, the counseling of prudence and pragmatism in foreign affairs, or reverence for tradition and precedent in conducting the nation’s business. All of it deserves more attention and the erstwhile conservatives served us all very poorly by abandoning it, but what bothers me most is their enthusiastic embrace of militarism, torture, fearmongering and a near-voyeuristic obsession with surveillance. They are at best former conservatives, as are those who maintain a discreet silence while all this happens. Some like Andrew Sullivan have explicitly distanced themselves from it and identified as Burkean conservatives (a lonely tribe at the moment, but possibly the only long-term alternative to extinction for the Republican party). The rest don’t deserve the legitimacy “conservative” implies.

Here are two recent examples. Senator Saxby Chambliss had the following to say during the Protect America Act debate: “Our intelligence community told us that without updating FISA, they were not just handicapped, but that they were hamstrung. Time is running out.” Put aside for the moment that this is the same intelligence community the right cheerfully excoriated a couple of months ago for being unreliable. Let’s assume their judgment is back to being infallible. What is there about FISA that hamstrings them? We never hear. Intelligence agencies can begin surveillance whenever they want - no delays - but in some cases they have to get a warrant from the FISA court within a few days. How does that harm them? What about our traditional principle of judicial oversight has become so hateful? And note that “time is running out.” How are unsupported arguments, stifled debate and fearmongering conservative? Those are authoritarian characteristics.

More at the link....

Knuffle Bunny Too is also a good one. And if you ever need cheering, the Mo Willem's Fan Mail will make you smile. My favorite is "Don't Let the Pigeon Become a Lawyer."

Knuffle Bunny Too is also a good one.

This one is for tomorrow. We got about 8 books of his tonight at the library. I'm doing an author project on Mo Willems for my Children's Lit class.

23 5 year olds. moral center minimized by my coffee being unsatisfactory this morning.

Knuffle Bunny rocks. Also? A weird little book called Rosie and the Rustlers.

I'm also a big Mo Willems fan. Thanks to Kat, to whom I guess I owe a toaster.

Is that a Mo Willems book, Sox?

I am trying to get everyone on the Grump train.

oh! no - I'm totally off topic. Sorry! I was veering down the Favorite Unusual Kids Books sidetrack.

( [link] because it's written in quatrains, with awesome illustrations, and uses words like "consternation". A friend who was trying to stock Iris' library with female-leads-in-children's-books found it ... which is actually strange. )