November 2007 archive

NaNoWriMo: Saturday Chores Edition

Eleanor Roosevelt once said

“The future belongs to those who believe in their dreams.”

It’s been a busy day around here at Castle Kredwyn.

Writing has been happening…cleaning and grocery store trips have also been in the works. Course I also shot a cranky email off to Senators Feinstein and Schumer for their wrongheaded decisions.

But now…I’m hungry. And since my characters have hied themselves off to the Green Man Pub for some grub, I thought that food would be a good idea.

Writers cannot work on empty stomachs…

Hitler Was a Fucking Piker

(Also at kos’s place….posted simultaneosly so I have time to write tonight’s episode….maybe!)

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Hitler threatened a relatively small area of the planet.

The Japanese alliance with Hitler was what made it a real World War.

But still, the combined threat was just world domination and life under tyranny.

Well…..and killing off 12-15 million “undesirables” just by Hitler. With many, many more to come if he had won. Estimates say 50 million people died in WW2.

Small potatoes.

Pony Party: Round Up Time

We watched a show on DHC channel where Dr.Mehmet Oz visited ordinary Americans and made them toss food out, take up an exercise program, and eat healthier. As a rule, he used to annoy me, because almost everybody who goes on Oprah annoys me and my husband actually puts her show on to annoy me. Oz cited general guidelines about what the safe measurement for a male and female waist are. So we measured out waists and kind of sighed…..

The sad part is I do exercise… I walk and lift light weights.. tennis once a week in the summer.. a bit of hiking in the Fall. And I still need to lose weight…

Freedom is the Conjunction of Consciousness and Consent

To liberals and libertarians, the question of freedom is not even a question. We take for granted not only the freedoms we have come to expect, but that we have the fundamental right to expect them; indeed, that all people have a fundamental right to personal and political freedom. The American and French Revolutions were liberal and libertarian, and so were the fights against slavery and for suffragism. Liberals and libertarians continue to fight for the freedom of the GBLT community, and for oppressed minorities everywhere. Many of us dream of a world free of warfare, hunger, and deprivation. Many of us dream of a world where everyone has a birthright of peace, justice, opportunity, and the human community’s compassion and support in times of crisis. We dream large because our ideals are large. Those who ridicule us as unrealistic would have also ridiculed those in the Eighteenth Century who dreamed of freedom from despotic monarchies. We take for granted the freedoms we have, and often forget the intrepid efforts of those who had to fight to win them for us.

Buh Bye Middle Class

The shirking and shrinking middle class is not a new item for anxiety. Part of the reason the illegal immigration debate has suddenly sprung forward in the last few years is because it is being framed in terms of how it directly affects the middle class, it is being sold as an explanation as to why the middle class is suffering. Illegals are taking middle class jobs. It is a great way for Republicans and Dems to transform themselves into populists and divert questions of the other ways in which the middle class has been subverted.

Strength Through Peace: Kucinich at the AAI National Leadership Conference w/poll

We have a choice.  We can live with our current doctrine of Peace Through Strength, which has much of the world hating the actions of our government.  We can live with our government fighting a war where 3500+ of our servicemembers have died, and over 1000000 Iraqi civilians have died.  We can live in a world where our troops are spread out over the world to protect our ‘national interests.’  Or, we can live in a world where we are a nation amongst many.  A world where we sit down and figure out what our interests are and how we can help them coincide with the intests of the people of the world.  We can live in a world where we don’t go to war at the drop of a hat.  We can live in a world where our doctrine is Strength Through Peace, where we work with the world, not dictate to it.

Saturday Night Bike Blogging: I wanna Electric Bike

OK, so I juggled funds and went to buy a new, slightly better, garbage department store bike on Thursday. I did that in case I was called in on Friday, and then I was not called in, so I got all weekend to get the gear off the shoddy department store bike that just was not designed for 1,000 miles in five months, and onto the new one.

But what I really want is an electric bike. Let me tell you the electric bike I am probably going to end up with, and the electric bike I wish I could have, after the fold.

And of course, as always, this is also a cycling open thread.

Weekend News Digest

The Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Pakistan’s Musharraf imposes emergency rule
By Kamran Haider, Reuters
24 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Saturday, deploying troops and sacking a top judge in a bid to reassert his flagging authority against political rivals and Islamist militants.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan’s internal security has deteriorated sharply in recent months with a wave of suicide attacks by al Qaeda-inspired militants, including one that killed 139 people.

State-run Pakistan Television said Musharraf had suspended the constitution and declared an emergency, ending weeks of speculation that the general who seized power in a 1999 coup might impose emergency rule or martial law.

State of the Blogosphere: The Swirlies

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The Blogosphere

So I took last night ‘off’ of teh blahgs…..to think.

But there is so much to think about that I have ended up with a case of the mental swirlies….the phenomenon that happens when you have had a bit to much to drink and everything starts spinning around. And I think that that is where the rest of the Blogsphere is as well….at least when it comes to strategy…lots of stuff swirling around, but nothing yet to grab on to.

Datamining 3.0 : Results

This is the last installment of Datamining.  I’m simply out of ideas for another poll.  I could ask about sexual orientation, or your pick for the Democratic nominee, but I simply don’t care.  Your orientation is none of my business and your pick is not going to affect the outcome of the Democratic convention, or change anyone’s mind.

I’ve enjoyed doing this and I’ve learned a lot about my fellow dharmaists.  If anyone has an idea for another informative poll I would be glad to drive.

So here are the results of my polls:

NYC Docudharma Meetup: Changing Plans Edition? A Saturday Meetup?

Hey, y’all, just a quickie essay. But, hey, it can still be lotsa fun! 😉

We had been planning to do an NYC Docudharma meetup on Wedenesday, November 14. With drinks at drinky time … 6ish? with a cultural outing earlier on to stimulate the sensorium, wear out the tootsies, and get us ready for drinky-time.

Some of you said you’d be able to make it, some of you no, and some of you maybe ..

Then, dear Victory Coffee informed me that she will be in the city but days later on the weekend. And we wondered if that change of date might work better for others too …

So …. I want to put out a call and see if more Docuponies would be able to make a meetup on Saturday, November 17th … If so, we’ll find a super-cool, but untrendy spot, so we don’t have to deal with crowds!

What say you all? Who could meet up on Saturday, November 17th? Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Mebbe if we have it on the weekend more out-of-towners could make it too!

If you don’t, sweet pf8, may beat you up! jk!

Gifted and Talented

I am far from an expert on anything concerning elementary education (apart from the topic of gender as it relates to child development, which I will claim as a topic of study about a decade ago).  But I have some personal experiences.  And I try hard to exercise the part of my brain which deals with fairness issues whenever I think about….well…anything.

At the same time, the better students need to be challenged.  I grew up in the era of “gifted and talented” programs and think it was good for me to get to do things that the other students didn’t.  But I didn’t think it was fair, necessarily, that I got to go to places that they may never go to and be exposed to knowledge reserved for the few.

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