thursday!

Well DUH.

Glimpses of the Future: one, two, three

Since the majority of US workers are paid by the hour, I would've like to see that included here for good measure, not that the math is difficult (annual salary divided by 2080, total hours worked/paid out to a full time employee at 40 hours/week). The top earner, for example, makes $40,625 per hour, while the lowest earner makes a measly $3,798 per hour. The top earner also earns more in one hour than 51,463,000 households earned in a year, and that's according to the 2005 census data on Wikipedia, so you know it's even worse now.

Ramps! Who's eaten these? I've never seen them in stores and now I'm thinking about starting a patch in next year's garden.

NONONO

Good sign/bad sign?

Dude.

The War on Women: one, two, three, four

Pretty sure the new CPS head makes me wanna barf.

I hate Illinois Nazis.

Oh the huge manatees: one, two

****

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerds!!!

MBMBaM Live! The ALF stuff they did still broke me, even on the second listen. And you can totally see Tom for half a second at the half hour mark.

/can'tstoptwitching

Okay, for reals: who wants to go to Chinatown sometime for dim sum? Because OM NOM NOM.

Bonus food nonsense: potatoes, Cadbury creme eggs, eggburger

wednesday!

Can we all agree that these sorts of discussions are godsdamned ridiculous and people who start with this sort of thing should be openly mocked? We have an advanced, civilized culture that allows for leisure time and ergo, sitting. This is a good thing. I daresay, without having the alternative experience for comparison, that I prefer an existence that involves a fair amount of sitting rather than, say, spending large portions of my day running from large predators in the wilderness. Also, everything dies at some point and even if sitting is the enemy and you never sat down again for the rest of your life you would still die, so calm the fzck down and go eat some ice cream or play with a puppy or something, for pete's sake.

Yeah.

More on Michigan.

Tax the Rich, save the world. Or at least the middle class.

Oh Alan Keyes, you are your own punchline.

Science Science. (related)

Every once in a while the racists really take my breath away. Also.

Our awesome discourse.

/headdesk

Whoa.

***

Have I mentioned lately how much I completely love Jocelyn Elders?

This is one of the better TED talks I've seen in a long time.

This is odd but kind of adorable.

What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

Yeah. But Laurie Kilmartin is the Conan writer and she's equal to four peoples' worth of funny. I love her.

Justice!!

Kitties! (the gray one is the best)

tuesday!

Rachel Maddow covers a story getting barely any notice. Recap if you can't see the video right away: Michigan and Rick Snyder are using the new state's "financial martial law" to dissolve the town of Benton Harbor, a town that happens to be nearly 90% black and overwhelmingly poor, and replace it with a giant golf course and a bunch of McMansions. The land to be developed for the project includes a small, public beachfront park that was gifted to the town of Benton Harbor by the Klock family in loving memory of their deceased daughter. They asked, when the park was dedicated, that it always be preserved for children of the town.

Taxes: one, two, three, four

I love wordcloud analysis.

Daily Dose of Sanity from Paul Krugman.

I have no idea if this would actually be anything other than a money pit. *I* certainly don't have a burning need for a velodrome.

I am disappoint,VegNews.

I honestly don't know what to make of this, but I don't think I approve. But I can't say why.

***

Sleepy noms.

Gorgeous.

Cookie the Penguin. : )

monday!

Fzcking SNOW? Are you kidding me?

***

This is just embarrassing. I was not necessarily a fan of JJJ before, but that sort of nonsense puts him squarely in Ted Stevens, "series of tubes" territory. But I suppose it wouldn't be a day ending in -y if a Democrat *didn't* make me cringe. Also.

The GOP is a fzcking joke: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven

Well, obviously. Also. ALSO.

I love me some Krugman.

Ah, crap.

CPD! CPS! Chicago morons!

The War on Women, cont'd.

Bonus: the War on Science.

Speechless.

I disapprove of this. She should be in prison for war crimes, not on one of my favorite TV shows.

***

Um, okay.

Sweet Jeebus, Food Network, crap like this is why I don't watch you any more. All of those shows, particularly the ones involving travel, have to be so much more expensive than an actual cooking show with a simple set. WHY.

Headline of the Day.

So, have we reached the bottom of the barrel now?

WTF Craigslist: one, two

Please Please Please...?

Kitties: one, two, three

thursday!

I did a bunch of garden prep work yesterday (peas and beets are going in next week, and yes I deliberately chose the "Feisty Peas.")! I raked back 4 inches of topsoil and dug several large holes, all the way down to the clay. Then Cash sat in one of the holes, which was deep enough that just his head was poking out like a groundhog and it was freaking adorable. Then I made this thing for dinner. Between playing in the dirt and rolling out a pie crust, I felt like a freaking pioneer superwoman or something. Point being I was not Internet-adjacent for most of the day so the round up's a little light. And I will probably be taking tomorrow off, because today's agenda mostly involves more dirt and a few power tools.

***

Save Bradley Manning.

Almost certainly yes.

Taxes, in burritos and beers.

***

Found my spirit animal.

Why was I not informed earlier that there is a Red Panda Sex Fund at the Lincoln Park Zoo?

Um, okay.

HUGZ

wednesday!

Hey! I finished Good Omens yesterday and it was *really* good. It's been forever since I read some fun, engaging fiction. Then I knocked out The Body Artist by Don Delillo after dinner and I'm not sure I totally understood it but it was fine enough.

***

"A senior United Nations representative on torture, Juan Mendez, issued a rare reprimand to the US government on Monday for failing to allow him to meet in private Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of being the WikiLeaks source and held in a military prison. It is the kind of censure the UN normally reserves for authoritarian regimes around the world."

Wisconsin: one, two, three

Oh goody.

This is awesome. One answer to his question re: why kids' books don't do the same thing anymore--because we've given up on class mobility and the idea that kids can grow up to be a doctor or whatever instead of praying for a cashier's job at Walmart.

Corollary to the above: no one ever says they want to be a junkie who gets beat up in fetish videos when they grow up.

There's a tremendous difference between taxing the things that make people fat and taxing people for being fat. Guess which option is stupid and hateful?

Surreal. I don't even know what to say anymore.

Fzck this guy.

***

Hmph. First of all, I am reminded of the David Cross quote about how you can't live in artistic integrity. Also, way to marginalize and dismiss all the non-Westernized artists who are producing in absence of marketing departments, and sometimes indoor plumbing. I find Banksy whimsical and all, but are we about done with all this now? ALSO: to sh1t on Marketing/PR folks, when like 90% of the appeal of Banksy's art is the stuntlike anonymity....you may need your hipster ironymeter recalibrated, is all I'm saying.

Bonus: subversive literature

Approve or Disapprove? I have never had strong opinions on the Crow.

Genius.

This is how little girls join the Dark Side. I'm sure this sort of thing helps.

This is gonna be in my head all day.

WHAT. The 70s were so weird.

tuesday!

Killing the Poor: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven

Destroying Public Schools: one, two, three

When does non-vaccination become child abuse?

Don't tell the U.S. what it can't do: one, two  #Lost

FZCK (also) (ALSO)

I don't approve of this policy, but if you're called on to justify it, at least try to claim it's in the name of protecting the kids with peanut allergies or something. Otherwise it just sounds like you're calling the parents crappy and that's bad PR. Also: Whoa!

DC Mayor arrested for protesting budget cuts: one, two

The War on Women: one, two, three, four, five

Power is from Mars, Magic is from Venus

Oh Canada...

Awesome! I was starting to miss Erik being smug about buying a Prius. : P

Infuriating trend, though one of the commenters is right that it's not Blockbuster's fault. Does anyone want to take bets on how long it will be until Big Hollywood implodes from their own shenanigans?

aka, What About My Right to be an Ignorant Bigot?

Sweet Lady Irony.

Wisdom: one, two

***

AWWWW

Heck Yeah