Happy Banned Books Week!

Happy Banned Books Week! Check out some of these links for more information:

ALA Banned Books Week
ALA Challenged and Banned Books
100 Most Frequently Challenged Books from 1990-2000
Most Challenged Books of 2006
Librarians Against Palin
Office for Intellectual Freedom
Amnesty International Banned Books Week

And, just to show how unbiased I am, you can read this tripe by some homophobic right-wing nutcase: Banned Books Week: Smokescreen of Hypocrisy

In the News

There is a lot of ridiculousness going on lately. Two things from the paper today:

"New Haven, Conn.--Contraband candy has led to big trouble for an eighth-grade honors student in Connecticut.

Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate.

School spokeswoman Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo says the New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 as part of a districtwide school wellness policy."

Boys Tossed from Overpass.

I Hate Being Force-Fed

I'm really pissed off by the fact that the media is force-feeding us Obama and Clinton and ignoring everyone else. I hate that the purpose of the media is to entertain, not to inform. I recently received an e-mail from Rusty asking me who Mike Gravel is. When I sent her a link to his campaign website she responded with "I watch the news! How the hell have I never even heard of this guy?!" This is truly not a bust on her because most people probably don't know either, and I didn't know until a few weeks ago. Plus, Rusty is a Republican and I can only name four of the Republican candidates off the top of my head. But it's a really sad comment on the state of the 2008 primary election. Have you watched any of the Democratic party debates? Which two candidates are standing in the middle? Which two candidates get at least twice as much time to talk? Here's a link to the YouTube debates; see for yourself.

I wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about the candidates who don't receive as much press. Mike Gravel doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell, but he is my personal favorite and is going to get my vote. I'm hoping to get the word out that there are choices besides Obama and Clinton. I'm actually probably more of a Libertarian than a Democrat, but I'm registered with the Democratic Party so those are the candidates I researched. Please keep in mind that I'm giving my opinions and this is in no way an unbiased discussion and the pros and cons of each candidate.

Joe Biden is a US senator from Delaware.

The good: He's against No Child Left Behind, wants to increase minimum wage, and is against the Defense of Marriage Act. He does have some good plans and ideas, but I think most of them require too much government involvement and are way too idealistic. I also have no idea where he thinks he's going to get the money for all this.

The bad: He has flip-flopped on the war; first supporting it, then saying we should go to war only after trying to end the conflict by diplomatic means, then supporting the war again, then saying he only supports it if Bush is honest with America, then calling for troop withdraw. He does not support legalizing marijuana and he thinks smoking in movies should affect the MPAA rating. He also supports affirmative action in college admissions.

Notable quote: "I've had a great relationship [with Indian-Americans]. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian Americans — moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

Joe Biden on Where I Stand.com.

Christopher Dodd is a senator from Connecticut and the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

The good: Dodd is against the war (although he voted in favor of the Iraq War Resolution in 2002) and he was not in agreement with the recent troop surge. He has some good ideas about health care and the environment, thinks the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional and is in agreement with stem cell research.

The bad: He supports free trade, which sends our jobs to other countries, he wants to relax immigration laws, and he is proposing mandatory community service. He also has received some questionable campaign contributions and frequently supports the ACLU.

Christopher Dodd on Where I Stand.com.

You've all heard of John Edwards. That's probably because he is third in campaign fundraising behind Obama and Clinton.

The good: He supports stem cell research and universal healthcare. He is against making it unconstitutional to burn the flag.

The bad: He's religious, which is fine with me, but I think it will interfere with his decision making; for example, he thinks prayer should be admitted to public schools. He also thinks religion should play a part in policy-making. He promotes mandatory community service, which I'm against because I don't think it's oxymoronic for the government to force us to volunteer.

John Edwards at Where I Stand.com

Mike Gravel is a former senator from Alaska. He is essentially broke and is probably running with less money than anyone else. In the two-hour CNN debate on June 2, Gravel was allowed to speak for 5 minutes and 37 seconds. He doesn't bullshit or beat around the bush and during the YouTube debates asked of the airtime given to most of the candidates, "Has this been fair so far?" to much applause.

The good: He helped to end the draft in Vietnam. He believes Bush should be impeached, believes the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional, is against No Child Left Behind, supports gay marriage, supports universal healthcare, and thinks we should treat drug addiction as a mental health problem, not a crime.

The bad: He came under fire for saying that everyone who died in Vietnam died in vain, but I don't necessarily see that as a negative. He won't win.

Notable quote: "The war was lost the day that George Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis."

Mike Gravel at Where I Stand.com.

Dennis Kucinich is a representative from Ohio.

The good: He supports the legalization of marijuana. He's against No Child Left Behind. He supports same sex marriage, stem cell research, and raising the minimum wage.

The bad: He flip flopped on abortion. A few years ago he described himself as pro-life, but then changed his mind. He's trying to ban the sale of handguns to civilians. He thinks religion should play a role in policy-making.

Dennis Kucinich on Where I Stand.com.

Bill Richardson is the governor of New Mexico.

The good: He has gone overseas several times to negotiate the release of American prisoners. He supports the legalization of marijuana and stem cell research. He's against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

The bad: He advocates affirmative action and the Defense of Marriage Act, thinks the HPV vaccine should be mandatory, and opposes term limits.

Bill Richardson at Where I Stand.com.

Insert Witty Title Here

Mmmm...beer-battered, deep-fried bacon double Quarter Pounder...*drool* Well, except for the bacon. Bacon is nasty. Which reminds me of one of my favorite Simpsons exchanges:

Homer: Are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No!
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal!
Homer: Heh heh heh ... ooh ... yeah ... right, Lisa. A wonderful ... magical animal.

from Accidental Hedonist

Did you hear about the woman who hanged her 4 children and herself? Only her 8-month-old survived. I can't even imagine what must have been going through her head.

Potpourri

I've been out of the groove for the past week or so and am now just getting back in. Hopefully I'll be a little better at updating LG&E.

L. and I had tons of fun at Rusty's place. We crammed a lot into our four days in Mooresville! On Saturday we visited Lowe's Motor Speedway and took a tour. While we were checking out the track some people were out doing laps on it, and you really get a rush of adrenaline when they drive by where you're standing. I can see why Rusty likes it! In the evening we went to Rusty's church and then out for dinner. We went back to her place and I crashed since I had been up since 4:30 that morning.

On Sunday we bought tickets for a luxury home tour. Most of the homes were awesome, but one in particular was the most incredible house I've ever been in. It was $3.2 million, although in York it would cost twice that. The first thing you notice when you walk in the door is a big plate of glass (etched with grapes, no less) in the floor that looks down into the wine cellar. That's the point when I knew this wasn't a typical York County McMansion. The house boasted a walk-in beer cave (it's exactly what it sounds like), a hot tub with a lowered edge that allowed water to cascade into the pool below, and a fireplace and big-screen TV in the master bathroom above the jacuzzi tub. I don't know about you all, but I would be afraid that the TV would fall off the wall and into the tub, electrocuting me. The sinks in all the bathrooms were gorgeous and one of the bathrooms had pebbles inlaid in the floor which looked nice but hurt my feet. The kitchen, of course, was awesome and it had one of those faucets on the wall behind the stovetop that you can use to fill pots. The attention to detail in this house was incredible. I must say, however, that the decor was HIDEOUS!! Apparently you can't buy taste.

That night we had dinner at Chili's (no, I didn't get Awesome Blossom with extra awesome) with Rusty's friend Vanessa. She's British and I could listen to her read the phone book. We headed over to Sonic where I got a chocolate malt which is my favorite sweet food after tiramisu. When we got home from that we sat outside and shot the shit for a couple hours and learned that L. is a quarter Jewish, which Rusty and I think is cool, but she doesn't. If I had to belong to a religion, it would be Judaism. I'd want to be a ethnic Jew though, not just a convert. I definitely have the guilt part down and I love the Old Testament God; he was such a bastard.

On Monday we went to a race shop where they work on the cars that are used in NASCAR. It was much cleaner and quieter than my garage, and they probably don't forget to put the oil cap back on when they change the oil like mine did. After checking that out, we drove to Charlotte, which is the cleanest, nicest city I've even visited. It seems like everything is more well cared for south of the Mason-Dixon line. I loved the tree-lined freeways and the flowers planted in the median down there. Up here our median is usually a concrete barrier. If we have grass in the median it's covered in trash. Flowers? Forget about it. I don't know how they would have the manpower to take care of things though, considering we have more roads per square mile than any other state and you can tell because they're crap. If you were driving down I-83 with your eyes closed you'd be able tell when you crossed the Maryland line because the bumpiness stops. Anyway, I digress. Back to Charlotte. We checked out the Panthers' stadium and even though football is probably the last sport I would ever want to watch, even after curling, it was sort of cool to see the field. I was amazed at how small it was (that's what she said!).

On Tuesday we went to Rusty's school and got to meet her class. I would have like to have more time with them, but unfortunately they had a boring-ass orientation for 6th grade. I wish those little bastards luck; 6th grade was the worst year of my life. I couldn't be around 10- and 11-year-olds all day; they would drive me up the wall! Most of them were cute though. After school we headed straight to the airport, where security went through my bag of dirty underwear, and started our less than one hour journey home. It's pretty amazing that sometimes it takes me longer to drive to work than it took us to fly to Charlotte.

I can't forget the most important part of our trip! We ate a lot of good, fattening food, and I ingested more sugar in four days in sweet tea form than I ingest in a year at home. I majorly need to detox!

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I almost got pulled over this morning going more than 90. I was passing some dumbass on the right. Luckily I knew to look for cops in this particular spot and as soon as I saw the top of those lights I slammed on the brakes. The dumbass was in the passing lane going about 75 which should have gotten him pulled over for A. speeding and B. driving in the left lane without intending to pass someone, but of course he didn't. There's no justice in the world.

I should probably be more cognizant of how I drive. I watched Murderball yesterday, and while those men are amazing, I would rather die than be paralyzed. I don't have the strength, physically or mentally, to deal with that. It's really disconcerting that one moment can change the course of your life forever. I almost cried at the end when the rugby team was explaining the game to the wounded vets. Damn PMS!

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Speaking of wounded vets, Laura Bush said on the Today Show that concerning the war in Iraq, no one is suffering more than she and George. What. The. Fuck?!?!?!?! I'm sorry, but haven't 3,300 American soldiers died? Haven't over 20,000 Americans been injured? What about Iraqis who have died? Here's what this source says about total deaths (US and non-US) from the war: "Counting all civilians, military, contractors, insurgents, and non-Iraqi civilians, at least 70,000; to as many as 655,000+ total excess deaths due to the war (second Lancet survey of mortality)." Hey, Mrs. Bush. How about sending your daughters to Iraq, having one of them die and one lose her legs, and then you can tell the American public that your suffering is worse than theirs. Furthermore, there has been little to no outcry about this. I first read it in a little blurb in our paper. When John Kerry "insulted" (one of my feet is in the camp that he was trying to insult Bush but didn't get it out quite right) the troops it was plastered all over every media outlet.

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I'm going back to my psychiatrist this Thursday. I don't think I ever mentioned this, but about a year and a half ago I went and was put on Wellbutrin. I was happy for the first time in ages, had no desire to smoke, and had no appetite (I know that's not a good side effect, but I was fine with it.). Life was good. But life's not allowed to be good, so my body decided to give me hives that made me want to kill myself. I had them in my throat, on the bottom of my feet, my thighs were one big, red welt; it was horrible. My doctor asked me if I wanted to try something else, but at the time I didn't because I was afraid of having another reaction. For some reason I've been in a pretty bad depression since about the beginning of this year, so I decided I should try meds again. I know it's the easy way out, but it's not like I haven't tried therapy and self-talk and all that other stuff. Therapy doesn't help me. My insight is good and I don't need to be told obvious things. I know that if I hate my job I should get a new one or if I'm unhappy about my weight I should eat better and exercise more. I don't need to pay to be told those things. I have a couple minor situational things going on and I'm hoping this will help me deal with them better. I've been in a really dark place for the past couple of months. That sounds a lot more melodramatic than it is, but I'm tired of being on the verge of tears all the time, having no motivation to do even the things I like, and feeling like I want to die.

Sick

This story makes me fucking sick. A 17-year-old and a 19-year-old put poured paint on a puppy, taped his muzzle and paws, put him in an oven, and cooked him to death. Police said there were scratch marks on the inside of the oven of the community center at an apartment complex. In addition to killing the puppy, the boys broke into the community center, trashed it, and brought neighborhood kids to see the dog, telling them they would kill them if they told. They were charged with burglary, criminal damage to property, terroristic threats and cruelty to children and sentenced to 10 years, which means they'll probably be out in 3. There's a poll on that page asking if the sentence was too harsh, too lenient or just right. I think they should do the same thing to those boys that they did to the puppy. Children who commit cruelty to animals can probably be rehabilitated but these kids are essentially adults.

Another person who should receive a sentence of having the same thing done to him that he did to his victim is the 23-year-old father from Pittsburgh who was angry that his daughter wouldn't go to bed so he knocked her unconscious, took her outside wearing only a sweater and a diaper, and left her there. His daughter was just about to turn two. He hasn't been tried yet, but he was arrested on charges of criminal homicide, kidnapping, false reports (he called the police the next day to report his daughter missing) and simple assault. It doesn't say this in the story in the link, but in our paper it said that he cleaned up the blood with a towel (a Steelers "Terrible Towel" to be exact) and took the time to put the towel away in the basement because "that's where it belongs."

On a lighter note, here's what Anthony Bourdain had to say about Sandra Lee:

"Pure evil. This frightening Hell Spawn of Kathie Lee and Betty Crocker seems on a mission to kill her fans, one meal at a time. She Must Be Stopped. Her death-dealing can-opening ways will cut a swath of destruction through the world if not contained. I would likely be arrested if I suggested on television that any children watching should promptly go to a wooded area with a gun and harm themselves. What’s the difference between that and Sandra suggesting we fill our mouths with Ritz Crackers, jam a can of Cheez Wiz in after and press hard? None that I can see."

News Quickies

There is a new procedure where surgeons take hair from the scalp and sew it onto the eyelids, creating false eyelashes. That's freaking disgusting. My eyelashes are thin as hell, but I wear mascara and they look fine. Source

"President clarifies 'stay the course.' It really means 'constantly adjusting the tactics,' he declares." Ooooookaaaay... Those ideas are opposites, but whatever. Mr. President, you can call a pile of shit a rosebush, but it's still a pile of shit. Source

Rush Limbaugh is up to his asshattery again. Now he's mocking Michael J. Fox. Fox has been appearing in political ads for people who support stem cell research, such as Rep. Ben Cardin of Maryland and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Limbaugh's response to Fox's appearance in the ads: "He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act...This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting." Nice. I can't imagine what it's like to have a disease that could be possibly cured by treatments found using stem cell research and have not only the government opposing this testing based on their right-wing agenda but also a blowhard who is constantly kissing the asses of conservatives making fun of my disease. Source

Small victory of the day: New Jersey courts will extend civil rights to gay couples. Lawmakers are trying to decide if they will let them marry or just have a civil union. Source

The World in Which We Live

This story of the 67-year-old social worker who was killed while taking a child for a visit with his mother hits close to home for me since I did in-home work with families whose children were involved in Children and Youth Services before I took my current position with the company. Fortunately I never had families who I felt were dangerous. Some were assholes or nasty pieces of trash, but never dangerous (and on the flip side, some were wonderful). We had to go to some pretty bad neighborhoods though. My time in that position was relatively drama-free, but I was, quite randomly I might add, accused by a client's husband of plotting with her to kill him. This family's picture is in the dictionary under dysfunctional--I could write a book. It's actually a funny story, but I'll get back on topic. This quote in particular resonated with me:

"Family services spokeswoman Vikki Franklin acknowledged that it is common practice for social aides to travel alone. "But if a worker should be concerned about safety, he or she can request an escort by a police officer or another social worker."

But another social worker said such escorts are rarely requested because workers are typically so pressed that they don't have the time to arrange for an escort."

The notion of having someone to accompany you to a dangerous pace is bullshit. I was going to be given a family who lived on one of the most drug-infested streets of the city (Rusty--Chestnut St.) and when I said I wasn't really comfortable taking that case I was told I didn't really have a choice because I needed to make my hours. Thank Jebus that I left before I got that family. While most of the supervisors and other employees were at their cozy homes with their families at night, we peons were most often walking around in the ghetto at night. I learned right quick that social work was not the job for me and I have the utmost respect for anyone who can do that. It's a low-paying, thankless job. I say fry 'em.

A Nation of Wusses

A school in Massachusetts banned tag and other unsupervised contact games because of the fear that parents will sue the school if their children get hurt at recess. I don't know which is worse: the fact that our children are further being coddled or the fact that we live in a society where people would sue a school because their children got hurt on the playground while playing an innocent childhood game. What good are we doing our children by never allowing anything unpleasant to happen to them?

Source

Update

The latest update to the sick bastard who killed those kids is that he molested relatives 20 years ago and that's why he killed those girls. A co-worker said she just read he had lubricant with him; I suppose he was going to sexually assault them. Luckily he didn't get to do that, although what he did is horrific enough. Two other girls died in the hospital, so it's now up to five.

In the News Again

Our area is in the news again, this time for something horrific. Today a man took hostages at an Amish school, killing at least 3 little Amish girls, a teacher's aide, and himself. Before killing himself, the man called his wife and told her this was an act of revenge for something that happened 20 years ago.

Story