Because sometimes you care about South Carolina politics for microseconds at a time
You know, I never intended to turn this into a political blog, but seeing as I've been a bit of a political junkie for the past, oh, 235346 years, it just kinda happened.
So,
queen of the welfare queens Mark Sanford disappeared mysteriously on Thursday, and didn't tell his staff or even his wife (who "was not concerned because he'd told her he wanted to get away and do some writing" lolz) where he was going.
Here's the good part! Sanford returns today, through Atlanta so that he could avoid press in Columbia, SC, but is cornered in the ATL by
some podunk the SC paper of record (?). He gives a bunch of contradictory answers re: his whereabouts. Finally says he was in Buenos Aires driving along the coast and couldn't be bothered to check in.
And then the AP (!!!)
gets snarky.
Sanford told The State he was alone on the trip to Argentina. He declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he drove along the coastline.Trying to make such a drive could frustrate a weekend visitor to Argentina. In Buenos Aires, the Avenida Costanera is the only coastal road, and it's less than two miles long. Reaching coastal resorts to the south requires a drive of nearly four hours on an inland highway with views of endless cattle ranches. To the north is a river delta of islands reached only by boat.
AP FTW!!!
You know, there's a term for people like Mark Sanford that I vaguely recall....what was it....oh yea:
Lindsey Graham is a fish fucker
God, just when I thought sniveling, slimy, wide-stance-having senatorial tulip Lindsey Graham
couldn't get any more offensive, he goes and says
this shit about Sotomayor.
Although Graham said he would not use the word racist to describe Sotomayor, he indicated that her past statements raise concerns that, as a Supreme Court justice, she may not treat white males fairly. “Being an average, everyday white guy, that doesn’t exactly make me feel good,” Graham said.
Yep, that's what I'm concerned about - losing my white male privilege. That's going to happen. I mean, I'm sure that the SEVEN WHITE MEN ON THE SUPREME FUCKING COURT prove that white men have no positions of power left in this sad little country of MEXAMERICA.
Crazy!
Busy busy two weeks coming up, and busy busy past couple of weeks. Recap:
- Parents came down. They had a great time and bought me lots of wonderful food. Brought dad to blue grass night, he loved it. Brought them both to the hottest apartment in the world, where we drank fancy drinks and stood in front of fans and played ping pong.
- Paul came down from Philly for Birthday Weekend. He caught the tail end of an epic, emotional couple of months for me.
- Body forced me to detox. Feel much better now.
- Nailed down some summer plans. Living in the Bywater for June and July, looking for a place to live in August. Prolly going to Boston/Philly in July. Trying to figure out how to sneak a Denver trip in there somewhere.
- Work work work work.
- Bike bike bike bike.
- Steve the cat is still adorable and soft.
Coming up this week:
- Move into new place.
- Move into new office.
- Tubing?!?!
- Go to California on Sunday. Daaaaaaaag yo.
- Profit!
Going on a year, starting to get sentimental
It's been 11 months since I moved down here, and as if I needed to provide much more proof about what a great decision it was, I offer pieces of evidence, courtesy of the National Weather Service.
Philadelphia, today through Sunday night:
New Orleans, through Sunday night:
And oh yea, I'm seeing Neil Young for free on Sunday. Hey New Orleans, being a bad ass place to live - yr doin it right!
ANOTHER zombie apocalypse dream
(For mystery and excitement, skip the first paragraph. Thrills!)
I have this unfortunate habit of not remembering my dreams. I will probably only remember one every couple of weeks or so. I apparently remember my dreams about the zombie apocalypse really well though, and I had another one last night.
In this one, I was living with some family (not mine) in San Francisco. I think I was part of their family, but I was still me. Anyways, I was out somewhere with some people, doing something anti-government (like protesting or something...protesting a zombie government?!) and all of a sudden the secret service was trying to kill all of us with sniper rifles. We all scattered, and I think they got some of us. They followed me in a black SUV with a sniper hanging out of the window. I got stuck at a busy intersection and one of my buddies was yelling at me for stopping and not running through the intersection. The secret service people got right next to me but I batted away the gun, and ran as fast as I could back to my house.
Somehow I knew that the zombie apocalypse was upon us, and when I got home my family wasn't there, but my brother's door was closed. He was kind of a dick, and was really all about his privacy, so the note on the door that said "There's Blood In There" didn't seem that off to me, because I thought he was just being snarky. I scrambled around the house gathering supplies and then our dog came in and started scratching at his door. Then my parents came home and I started to hear growling and moaning from his room. My parents didn't know what was happening, but luckily I had already grabbed my machete and when he busted out of the room, I swung at his head and knocked his head off right away. Then I scurried out of the house, evidently leaving my parents behind.
Then I met up with my friends and we got on a boat...or maybe an airplane. (It was at this point in the morning that Steve (the cat) started licking my face and trying to eat plastic in the garbage, so my memories become hazier of the dream from here on out.) We headed to this abandoned island not unlike
this one that I read about yesterday. And....I think that was about it. But like I said before, I have lots of trouble remembering this shit in general so I'm surprised I remembered this much.
It just got really cold, it's about to start raining
We've had some really beautiful weather here in NOLA recently - 70s, not too humid, bugs haven't come out yet, a little breezy, sunny a lot of the time. But then we'll have spells of three or four days in a row where it just rains and rains, which is bad when I have to bike everywhere. But alas, alas - first world problem.
In other, non-weather news, I've been reading a lot of really infuriating articles recently, and having impassioned discussions about how fucked up things are right now.
Exhibit A •
Exhibit B • And most tragically,
Exhibit CBut easily the most infuriating thing that I've read was
this article from 1999, directly tracing the roots of this whole goddamned economic mess to one piece of legislation back, championed by actual human dildo Phil Gramm.
Wait wait - sorry, that's offensive to dildoes. Phil Gramm is actually rotted feces from space aliens, sent here to deregulate the financial sector in the name of a dead president whose asinine policies
didn't actually work.
So, this article shows how one piece of legislation, in 1999, undid all the lessons we learned from the last financial collapse (you might of heard of that collapse, in Steinbeck novels, or if you're from Oklahoma). "The original idea behind [the] Glass-Steagall [Act of 1933] was that separation between bankers and brokers would reduce the potential conflicts of interest that were thought to have contributed to the speculative stock frenzy before the Depression."
Imagine that! And, what's this about a "speculative stock frenzy" thing? Surely no one, especially the government, would be silly enough to gamble away things like, say, peoples' life insurance based on the assumption that real estate prices and the stock market had no place to go but up, forever. Right?
Ah, crap.What do you have to say for yourself, talking-space-alien-rotten-fecal-matter-turned-senator Phil Gramm? Got some pre-Bush freedom rhetoric to throw in, for good measure? "Glass-Steagall, in the midst of the Great Depression, came at a time when the thinking was that the government was the answer. In this era of economic prosperity, we have decided that freedom is the answer."
Well played, sir. So surely, everyone in the Senate was in agreement on this, Freedom For
Bankers Us, and no one had the foresight to see this would actually happen...?
''I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,'' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. ''I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.''
Fuck!
Then, everyone's favorite non-Clinton-or-evil-robot-replacement-Clinton senatrix from New York, Chuck Schumer, just had to weigh in with some spineless liberal crap. "If we don't pass this bill, we could find London or Frankfurt or years down the road Shanghai becoming the financial capital of the world." DEAR GOD NOT SHANGHAI, THEY'RE EH-RABS....ER, COMMUNISS!
Okay, Preznint Clinton, time to weigh in. Put an end to this stupidity. Let's hear it! "The White House has estimated the legislation could save consumers as much as $18 billion a year as new financial conglomerates gain economies of scale and cut costs." Oh, that's good, we can put that $18 billion a year towards the
$787 BILLION WE HAD TO SHELL OUT TO SAVE THESE FUCKERS.
I am done with this now. I have to go treat my ulcer.
Yea, no three hundo special, don't really feel like it
Ok, so, I am avoiding doing work, so I am posting on here all the time. Eh, happens sometimes. I am getting a bit done here and there, but mostly I am enjoying this wonderful weather. It's in that magical temperate sweet spot where it's warm enough for shorts, but a light jacket or long sleeve shirt is still nice. Also, no bugs yet, which is going to be a big problem in a couple weeks. So, I am soaking it all in as much as I can.
Recently I am getting a little unhealthily obsessed with some female singer/songwriters. Okay, maybe just two - Des Ark and Madeline. I guess Des Ark is more of a band, but the singer plays solo a lot and I think she writes most of the songs.
So first,
Des Ark: I saw them in a basement show in West Philly a couple years ago. It was just about the most hip I have ever been. I was also drinking a 40, naturally. I like that some of the stuff is really quiet, just her and her guitar really, but some of the other songs kinda rock pretty hard.
Choice lyric: "I was a ghost of a lover to you, I let you make up all this shit that was never true. I couldn't see you so I left you in the dark."
Next up,
Madeline: I saw her on Monday at the Dragon's Den with my friend Breonne, who knew her from Athens (Georgia). Evidently she has been playing around Athens since she was like 15, and is still ridiculously young, but MAN. She was GREAT. Great vocals, great songs, great variety. Plus,
her website is pretty great too.
Choice lyric: "I know you won't ever call me Baby like you used to, truth is, it turned out to be fitting. I know you won't ever remember just how gorgeous August was now that it's September."
So there's that.
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