Tonya and PQBON's WebLog
String theory in 2min or less.
Geeks in entertainment... We've done some digging and came up with a list of geek stars -- celebrities who work at traditional artistic pursuits to make their way in the world, but have been known to kick back with a little astrophysics or microbiology in their spare time. Some of these headliners do exude a distinct nerdy spark, but others in our list will undoubtedly surprise you. - The list is interesting. I think it misses some poeple like Dexter Holland (is there any name better for a lead singer of a punk band then Dexter?).
Blacklisting is back! Dixie Chick-ing of artists by organized conservatives... The HUAC/McCarthy era and Hollywood blacklist may be over, but the not-so-grand inquisitors are still among us. On March 31, 2007, activist/actor Mike Farrell, who co-starred in TV’s “M*A*S*H” and co-founded Artists United to Win Without War, told Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting’s “CounterSpin” radio program, “There’s a price to be paid for speaking out, and some have paid a fairly serious price.” Around that same time, at a March 24, 2007 anti-war Oakland town meeting called by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, actor Sean Penn stated, “we are encouraged to self-censor any words that might be perceived as inflammatory—if our belief is that this war should stop today. We cower as you point fingers telling us to ‘support our troops.’” - This is kind of a companion idea to a piece I read in the Sacramento Bee about abortion protesters photographing workers for a fence construction company hired by planned parenthood. The protester post the pictures online. "We have talked to employees on site to encourage them to reconsider their business affiliation," explained Wynette Sills, an event organizer. ... The Web site features photographs of the company's trucks and its workers, and a statement: "Please let them know that working with Planned Parenthood comes at a price." - sounds like a threat to me. The right will not loose power until we find someway to wrest their intimidation and economic threats from their hands.
Teacher looses job over graphic novel... The girl’s father, who asked that his family remain anonymous because it has already been the target of criticism, described the graphic novel that English teacher Nate Fisher gave the student as "borderline pornography."
The book, one of a series of comic book novels by Daniel Clowes, is called "Eightball #22." It includes references to rape, various sex acts and murder, as well as images of a naked woman, and a peeping tom watching a woman in the shower. - So much for unbiased reporting. The opinion of the reporters involved in this piece clearly feel that justice has been served by the firing. Though they did throw in one quite from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in support of the teacher.
Edited for spelling...
As she approaches two Katie has some definite ideas about activities that are daddy activities. Those activities include bike rides, looking at motorcycle pictures, hugs & kisses, 'egos, and gosh balls. Tonight we played both 'egos and gosh balls.
You might be asking what 'egos are... The correct pronunciation of 'egos is Legos. My younger brother left Katie and I a very large tub of legos that is the sum of all the legos he and I owned as a child. Katie and I now get together after dinner some nights and build things and play. She seems to really really look forward to this as some days she starts asking me at lunch and today she asked me at 8am when I was leaving for work. So far we built a house, a boat, a truck, and Katie's castle. I've also put together a few small cars for her to play with and take apart. Her record is playing with legos with me for 1 1/2 hours. That's a long time to do any one thing when you are talking about a kid not quite two.
Gosh balls is Katie's way of saying golf balls. Since my father has surrendered a large bulk of his weekends to golf not unlike my grandfather, I have started practicing in the back yard again (which I haven't done since I was 12 when my grandfather was grooming me to be a golf champion). As I approach 30 I realize that if I don't practice now when I hit the age of golf where all men in my family seem to be consumed by the game I will be woefully under prepared. Plus it is great stress relief to hit golf balls. To do this I use my dads clubs and some plastic whiffle balls that are the size of golf balls but plastic and with the whiffle ball holes rather then golf ball dimples. What Katie likes to do is stand in the yard and "catch" them in her bucket. I hit golf balls in her direction and she picks them up and puts them in the bucket. It started out one day as kind of a joke in the front yard with my father and I hitting the plastic golf balls into the drive way. Katie wanted to play and since she had her bicycle helmet on we let her pickup the balls in the drive way while we hit the balls. The next day when I got home from work she ran up to me asking for gosh balls! gosh balls! A new family tradition was born.
Tonight, Tonya went out for some non-Katie time, so Katie and I had the evening to ourselves. We started off eating dinner. We then went out side for some gosh balls at her request until it got dark. Then we went upstairs to play 'egos until it was time to get ready for bed. It was a nice evening basically for the two of us. For the first time in a while she went to bed very quickly and stayed asleep. We had a good night.
This video is the spiritual successor to the great book: The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.
Via Laughing Squid
The miasma was thick during the 1990s, when stock values were soaring and it seemed for a while that even a clerk might do better with a mutual fund than a supposedly meager Social Security check. Then President Bush sought in 2005 to capitalize on the myths—and told a few whoppers of his own—with his politically disastrous proposal to change Social Security from a system of government-guaranteed payments to one in which individuals finance their retirements mostly through private investments.
Through it all, too many Democrats quaked with worry over being politically outfoxed by conservatives. They feared Republicans somehow would find a way to rob them of FDR’s mantle. As they sought to stop Bush’s plan, House Democrats privately pressed Nancy Pelosi, then the Democratic minority leader, to come up with a “plan” to “save” Social Security as a way of countering the president. She refused.
That’s partly why Clinton can now speak truth to nonsense.
Social Security can pay full benefits until 2041, according to the latest report by the plan’s trustees. By then, the baby boomers will have begun dying off. The oldest among them would be 96; the youngest, 77. Even after that, the system would be able to pay benefits which, in real terms, are larger than they are today, according to economist Mark Weisbrot, who co-authored the 1999 book, “Social Security: The Phony Crisis.”
With the system sufficiently financed to fund more than three decades of benefits, there’s no near-term “crisis” to address. And even if Congress were to come up with legislation that would close Social Security’s long-range deficit, “the changes needed are less than what we did in the ‘50s, ‘60s, the ‘70s and the ‘80s,” Weisbrot says. “That’s the end of the story, as far as I’m concerned.”
I've long not believed the republican lie that the SS system was intractable and was going to fail any day now. It just didn't add up. It is great to hear a politician say it out loud.
I also love the point that SS was changed in the ‘50s, ‘60s, the ‘70s and the ‘80s. It shows that SS has always been moving target. Changes can and should be made to address short coming in the program, both when it needs to be updated financially for solvency and when it needs to be fixed to allow people to afford living off it.
I think the housing bubble and late '90s stock bubble has proven that if we did away with SS and just let everyone save on their own retirement the average American would be broke when they retire. Many retirement funds lost billions of dollars when the internet bubble burst taking the stack market with it. Financial companies have proven they can't be trusted by giving home loans to people who didn't know they could afford it, because the financial companies sales people swore that they could and swore it would be easy.
I'm not saying you shouldn't save for retirement. I'm saying that SS is an important part of the social contract in this country. In this country we don't expect people to work until the day they die...
Rep. Barney Frank cautions not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. It seems that the house is very close to a sexual orientation discrimination bill. However, they loose some votes if they try to tack on transgender rights, so they aren't going to. This is apparently drawing heat. And the community is not behind the new bill because it isn't all inclusive.
Issues like this really highlight while why the right is effective at advancing their agenda while the left spends so much of their time hitting their heads against the wall. The right understands incremental gains. While they talk about out right ban on abortion they work hard for each and every little advancement they can get. They don't constantly slam the politicians that are advancing their cause for only getting small victories. They just constantly push for more victories. The left seems unable to settle for small victories and pushes for dramatic often unrealistic goals.
Hopefully this bill will pass. Hopefully in the future it can be expanded to include transgender. I'm not happy that transgender people won't directly benefit from this bill but I think we should take what we can get. Incremental change is better then no change at all. The people that benefit from this bill shouldn't be punished because not everyone benefits from this bill.
Via TruthDig
At 20 months Katie has officially begun potty training. In the past she has gone to the potty before and after her bath. But tonight she twice asked to go potty on the "people potty" - (big people potty) - and she went. It was kind of a big deal. She was really excited because she gets M&Ms for using the potty. It was a big deal for me because both times she asked me and I was the one with her when she went.
Being that I work I don't get to be around for everything. Many of her first and even seconds I get though phone calls or after work recaps. This was one thing that I got to share with her.
Detail in the extended... For those that care.
The first time was right after I got home. She and Tonya were in her bedroom. I stopped by to see them before I used the bathroom. Katie wouldn't let me go and really wanted to use the potty. So I went with her wailing outside and then I let her in. I figured I would humor her and let her sit on the potty. She sat there for a second and started to go. She was really excited for her M&Ms but also she loves to get her paper to wipe with. She starts asking for her paper before she is even finished.
The second time was right after our nightly lego fest. My brother left Katie a large collection of legos that is the sum of all of his legos from childhood combined with all of mine. Most nights after work Katie and I go upstairs alone to build things with the legos and spend time together. We stop when she gets bored which normally takes between 15minutes to an hour. Tonight when we were done we were going into her room to read, I asked her if she needed to go potty since I was going to change her to her night time diaper (which is one size larger so it doesn't overflow in the morning) and put on her PJs. She said she needed to use the "people potty". So I took off her pants and diaper and set her on the potty. Again she went almost right away and wiped up with her paper.
I'm very proud of her. She also stole my new KTM poster which is now hanging in her room. OK, so I gave it to her since she was very excited by the motorcycle poster I got with my yearly KTM accessory catalog.
She is sleeping in her bed in her pink Thor pajamas having used the potty twice and is sleeping under a KTM motorcycle poster hanging over her bed.
A Day without a Mexican was recommended in the comments for a previous post. Tonya and I watched the movie back when it came out. (I think we rented it...) I can certainly add my recommendation to the movie. It was a funny lighthearted take on the issue. I'm not sure it would convince an opponent of immigration or a bigot to change their mind but it might convince people that haven't made up their mind that immigration is not the problem poeple make it out to be.
I've never been in favor of the pressure put on girls by the media and beauty industry. I watched my sisters learn to navigate the nightmare with concern. I saw school friends fight to survive it. However, it was never quite as real as it is now. Now that I have Katie it is a real concern. I worry about the message that these industries are going to send to her. I worry that Tonya and I will not be able to completely shield her from the onslaught and pressure. It is nice to see a company like dove at least pretend* to care about the issue.
* I don't know if they care or not or if this was just a marketing idea to help them great positive branding. For all I know they have some executives that are really tired of the messaging and pressure. Or it could be some drone looked at some market research and decided that this tact would sell more Dove products. I'm really sure I care either way.