Did we see this at any point yesterday?

[link]

Protesters who attended Saturday’s Tea Party rally in Washington found a new reason to be upset: Apparently they are unhappy with the level of service provided by the subway system.

Rep. Kevin Brady called for a government investigation into whether the government-run subway system adequately prepared for this weekend’s rally to protest government spending and government services.

Seriously.

The Texas Republican on Wednesday released a letter he sent to Washington’s Metro system complaining that the taxpayer-funded subway system was unable to properly transport protesters to the rally to protest government spending and expansion.

Good grief - I'm pole-axed by the various parental horror stories! You guys!

Really. My sibs don't ever tell my mother anything to not upset her, then they get annoyed when she doesn't share with them. Your parents, siblings, and children need to know when you are in an accident, having surgery, lose your job, etc. It is your family. Share the exciting good news and the scary bad stuff. It's part of the whole being a part of a family thing.

The last time my sister was in the hospital it was on a day she was driving my parents to the airport. She tried to convince the admitting people that she just had to drive to the airport and she would come right back and admit herself. In the end she had to let mom know when they wouldn't let her go.

My lesbian cousin gave birth this week to a beautiful, baby boy. Which makes her my first gay relative I know of (because they can't hide that she's pregnant, apparently).

I wonder if that's too much to send her a "finally, someone in this family is admitting he/she is gay! Thank you so much for coming out, and congrats!" note is too much, but this is really how I feel.

Also, what's the word in English for the relation between me and my cousin's son? Is there a word for it?

Shir, your cousin's son is your first cousin, once removed. There's no neat and tidy word for it. Your children and that boy will be second cousins.

Congratulations on the new cousin-hood! And I think you should skip the note and pick up the phone and tell her so.

I think it is 2nd cousin. That is what we say anyway. Congrats on the new cousin. I don't know about the note, but I would tell her how you feel in person.

Hi Sparky1! You are no doubt right on the once removed thing. We have bunches of cousins. It gets confusing so they are just cousins.

I have been up for 2 hours but haven't made coffee for myself. I need to get my tired self to the office and down a bunch that someone else has made.

Hi, Laura! I don't have a bunch of cousins (Hi, Sox! There's one!) and my mother only had one, so we always called them what they were - not in a bad way. Besides, I'm a librarian, I like to classify.

My baby is supposed to be sleeping now (my DH told me that's what she does this time of day!) but she's not, and I need to get ready for work. I think she's preparing a diaper for me, instead.

Lots of ~ma to your friend, DJ. It's been nice to see you around here again.

ma~to you friend and her mother , DJ

happy new cousin, shir.

I have twenty cousins-once-removed. (Cork families. Big.) We called them second cousins for ease of distinction between them and the two first cousins. I lost count of how many second cousins I have once it went past forty.

Yay for both the new cousin, and the gay cousin coming out, Shir!

Sushi for lunch. Mmm.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I MISSED THE CONVERSATION ABOUT SF AND ALIENS.

My biggest pet peeve SF trope is when aliens are fascinated by humans and humanity because we're all such beautiful unique snowflakes, or when a problem is unsolvable only until Humanity swoops in and applies our patented Creative ThinkingTM to the situation and saves the day.

If we live in a world where we are only one of several sentient space-faring species, then we ARE NOT THAT FUCKING SPECIAL.

Alastair Reynolds sidesteps the problem quite nicely by having all the aliens extinct by the time humanity takes to the stars, except for one or two really out-there intelligences like the Pattern Jugglers who are basically superintelligent colonies of algae.