No kidding

Found the image below while working on another post but it’s just too funny to wait until then. Enjoy.

 

Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Teabagging, taxes, and Fox News

Admittedly, this isn’t fresh news. That being said – wow – this is funny stuff. Three questions: how did the writer manage to get this by, how did the anchor manage to get though it without cracking up, and finally, is there no one in the Republican party team who put this event together with a little marketing experience? Teabagging? Really?

Big, big thanks to Sarah Morgan for posting this on her site.

House, smokin’ kitties, and a long-awaited film

I confess – I’m a House fan. Weird when you consider I have to avert my eyes each time one of those long silver needles stabs into a patient’s back for yet another lumbar puncture (which seems to happen every friggin’ show) because I’m kind of a girl that way. It makes my stomach clench just thinking about it.

At any rate, one of the show’s writers/producers, Doris Egan, just knocks my socks off. I first stumbled onto her work while getting up to speed on the writer’s strike last year. Everyone seemed to have something to say about it, one way or another, but it wasn’t until I followed a link, then another, and finally another, that Egan’s blog appeared in my window and I started to really wrap my mind around what was going on.

I know the strike is over (although the issues clearly aren’t) but if the topic is at all interesting to you take a few minutes and read her post about it here. It’s not short, but I promise you’ll come away thinking.

Months later, and well into the presidential campaign, she wrote about audience participation and the political process. Don’t worry – it’s not a political post – but rather offers some really interesting questions and observations through the lens of television production. You can find that post here.

That covers House. Smokin’ kitties and a long-awaited film to follow…

Ice Cube was right – today was a good day

It was an odd morning. Thanks to a 21mg nicotine patch worn around the clock sleep has been, well, interesting. More than two weeks of active dreams, fitful sleep, and lots of staring at the ceiling in the wee hours of the night have left me feeling more than a little washed-out and punchy.

But the dreams have been cool, too. Last nights’ starred my old boss (now happily chugging away at a new gig) who gave me my end of year review using riddles and a rather odd mind-map. Knowing the man, I’m certain that if it was actually his company that kind of review wouldn’t be entirely out of the question.

He then invited me to watch then President-elect Obama’s inaugural ceremony and we stepped out of an office into a basketball gym and then into a pretty day. Not sure what that last bit was about – I can’t dribble to save my life – but I woke up singing/whispering, “Yes. We. Can.”

I was pretty excited about today, is what I’m saying.

Throughout my shower, lacing up my shoes, and over and around spoonfuls of cereal, I was humming along with that lovely tune in my head. In fact, I was singing along…And a King that led us to a mountaintop… right up to the point I was rear-ended on the way to work.

So now I have a dented car, a throbbing headache (coupled with the thinness from little sleep and it feels a little like Codine to me, and I enjoy Codine about as much as I do mucking out a latrine in the desert) but I’m still smiling. Wide and happy, I’m still smiling, and haven’t really stopped since I arrived this morning.

I’m glad you’re here, Mr. President.

Why I don’t understand some Republicans, part two

I went through my day yesterday, writing and reading, organizing and checking off my to-dos, and just couldn’t get the ridiculous bumper sticker mentioned in my last post out of my mind. Those eight words would randomly float to the surface of my mind, coming into focus like the title sequence of “Lost,” and I think I ended the day with a permanent crease between my brows from grimacing.

Thinking about it last night, I remembered a video my brother-in-law turned me on to during one of our marathon drinks, music, and endless stars sessions on just about the best patio ever. So once my two favorite ladies were warm and asleep I sat down in our office, tapped this and that on the keyboard, and then leaned back and watched it a few times. Wouldn’t you know, that little crease just about disappeared.

You may have seen this before, but if you haven’t, take the four minutes and watch it. If you’re anit-Obama, I ask that you really watch it and instead focus on the message. Chances are I’ll never meet that knuckle-head in the SUV, but if ever I do, I’d like to tell him I believe hope has the power to do everything.

Another reason I just don’t understand some Republicans

Okay, so the election is over, my guys won, and I’m floating in a sea of political bliss. But.

We’ve now arrived at the time when I, you, and anyone else even marginally invested in the process need to become ardent critics of the Obama administration. I say “critic” and mean not that it’s time to moan, complain, and ridiculously pick and jab. Rather, it’s time to rationally and intelligently question decisions, search for verification and truth, and to hold our President accountable for promises made over the course of this insanely long campaign. In  other words, all the things President Bush calls us unpatriotic for doing.

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to doing so. Mostly because I think, I hope, that he’ll do the right thing. That he won’t be dishonest. He won’t consider might the keystone of leadership. He’ll hold true to the beliefs and ideals that inspired so many of us. In a word, that he, through policy, leadership, and thoughtfulness, continues to give the country hope.

Which brings me to the title of today’s post. Driving home yesterday, on the back window of a large SUV directly in front of me, I saw the following sticker:

Fair enough - nothing weird or out of the ordinary wanting to support your candidate. But in large bold letters directly below it, another sticker read the following:

“HOPE” DOESN’T HAVE THE POWER TO DO ANYTHING

So I ask this (Republicans, please chime in and help me here): political ideology aside, just what the hell kind of person actually believes that?

The apathetic security detail

or, Waiting for the other shoe to drop

Okay, so it was only a shoe. Or a pair of shoes, actually. I get it. But.

Could there have been something in them? Yes. Could there have been something sticking out from one of them? Yes. Could there have been something, anything, dangerous about those shoes? Absolutely.

Now, anyone who knows me knows I’m not a fan of our President. But folks, he’s still our President, and some nutjob cameraman from Baghdad had the time to throw a shoe, pause, then throw another at him. And call him a “Dog.” It was degrading. It was disrespectful. But that’s not the scariest thing.

Where the hell was the Secret Service?

photo by Daveybot

Thoughts about election night

A great guy I work with turned me on to a blog called Dooce. I’ve added it to the Blogroll if you’d like to check it out. The author, Heather, is a wonderful writer and I laugh out loud – occasionally a real, honest guffaw – just about every time I read. Check this post out for just one of those moments.

I mention her and it because shortly after my wife and I found out we were pregnant I began writing letters to my (at the time unknown and unnamed) child. It’s been a great experience, and I’ve already started new letters for our next kiddo who’s currently, well, baking. I’ll be glad when she/he/it no longer has a tail. While I’ve been using pen and paper for my efforts, Heather writes letters to her daughter in her blog. The post I suggest you read is one such letter.

It begins with her thoughts and recollections of this year’s Halloween, but ends with election night and the hopes she has because of it. Since I’m still working on my letter to Ellie about this very thing, I found the bost both warm and poignant. Take a few moments and check it out.

Something else you might like to read is this post from the Times. It’s a bit partisan, but the central theme isn’t entirely dissimilar from Heather’s. One of the final paragraphs is below.

“The actual real America is everywhere. It is the America that has been in shell shock since the aftermath of 9/11, when our government wielded a brutal attack by terrorists as a club to ratchet up our fears, betray our deepest constitutional values, and turn Americans against one another in the name of “patriotism.” What we started to remember the morning after Election Day was what we had forgotten over the past eight years, as our abusive relationship with the Bush administration and its press enablers dragged on: That’s not who we are.”

That the article is clearly slanted left is something to shelf for the moment. For me, the message that’s important is that we now have a real opportunity to do and become something wonderful. My question is this: how are you explaining these events to your children?