Well shit. One of my friends, who has an 18 month old, who I used to trade lattes for baby time? Just got diagnosed with ALS. That sucks so incredibly much (and god, what a time to be worrying about ACA, eh?)

I'm sorry, meara.

The Boy Scouts just surprised me, in a good way, if the NYTimes headline can be believed.

I'm wondering if all the flamboyantly horrible shit is being tried now so that they can get through other horrible but less inflammatory stuff with less fuss later because it seems measured and reasonable by comparison.

I'm going to eat a salad for dinner. Partly because I can't keep eating my feelings or I won't survive very long, and partly because I have lettuce I need to use up. Then I am going to read a book and watch some TV.

Flea, Steph and Hil- do you know you have a tiny baby hippo at your zoo? [link]

I had spinach lasagna for dinner and then a pint of ice cream and some girl scout cookies. and wine.

Oh no, meara, I'm sorry for your friend (and loved ones!).

Much of Christian doctrine is based on the idea that man is inherently flawed and tends towards evil (the fallen nature of man) and can only be saved and made whole through the intervention of God. With this as a core belief, then yes, I can see how a dismal view of humanity at large takes hold.

Despite the fact that I'm a cranky curmudgeon most of the time, I tend to actually believe that humanity leans towards good. As an atheist I trust humanity.

This is an ignorant and fundamentalist twist. Shame on you, Drew. You should be better equipped to disagree, by now.

Hey, JZ, is that you? IJS

When I look at the conservative feed at Blue Feed/Red Feed, I noticed that a good number of articles seem to support the immigration executive order because it upsets liberals rather than the merits of the policy itself. I wonder if the liberal feed was similar while Obama was President. I like to think that wasn't the case, but I don't really know. I don't feel like I hate conservatives, I just don't think their policies will be good for the country. I also have been very disappointed that they defined themselves as against everything Obama rather than articulating their own solutions.

Ugh. I don't even know what to do. I keep alternating between rage and sadness with all the Trump bullshit. It's infuriating the number of people who can't tell the difference between legal immigrants, illegal immigrants and refugees. The number of people saying "Good on Trump for kicking the illegals out" in regards to the Muslim ban is just mind-blowing. (Obviously, illegal immigration isn't cut and dry either, but the fact that it's all the same in these people's minds is just flabbergasting.)

Gud, I have no idea if it would do any good with your friend, but Andrew Sullivan had an eye-opening and heart-breaking conversation on abortion with women on his blog back in 2009: [link]