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June 24, 2005

We're Winning! - Bolton shot down again

Democrats Block a Vote on Bolton for the Second Time - New York Times

This is really important. If Bush had won this battle it would spell the death knell for democracy, for sure. Even some Repulicans have finally been forced to see what a travisty letting Bolton become a UN Ambassador. Bolton or no Bolton - someone needed to let Bush know he can't just force is agenda down our throats forever.

Today the U.N. - tomorrow the war? Not bloodly likely but a girl can dream.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 02:05 PM | | Comments (1)

June 22, 2005

Grab bag day!

I have some great posts in the can, so to speak but they need work and I just don't have any writing time at the moment. I'm training for a marathon and working and all that and what with the random, aimless web surfing and the coffee dates with friends and the going out to dinner the days just fly by.

I will do better soon - I really will.

In the meantime I will share some of today's email with you.

My brother ended my day by sending me this thing that makes George Carlin sound like a guy who is standing on a soap box in the park yelling, "I"m a bigoted, homophobic, gun toting asshole and I'm damned proud of it!" Lovely. I hope George Carlin appreciates that Snopes has outed this piece of crap as an Urban Legend

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/carlin.htm

Thank you Snopes.com and brother dear, how many !#@@#$ emails do I have to send you telling you to check your sources before you send this stuff around the world??!!!


Fortunately I got this tragically funny one from a friend much earlier in the day. You may need to be a Californian to appreciate it or you may just need to be moderately politically liberal - you tell me. This come unattributed:

Dear Red States...We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington,Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.

We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms. (editors note - NTTAWWT)

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools,plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. (editor's note - only a Californian wouldn't know that Harvard and Yale are Ivy league but we're letting it go because we like this piece)

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University,Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed theygrow in Mexico.

Sincerely,Author Unknown in New California

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 10:31 PM | | Comments (2)

June 12, 2005

I'mABigLiar.Com

I'm single and meeting other single people is a rarity, at best. Being a 21st Century woman I do what people do - I use internet dating sites. We all know that on the internet nobody knows you're a dog so on-line dating is, by its very nature, fraught with peril. There are land mines out there everywhere. The uninitiated worry about axe murderers and philanderers but really, rare as they are, they are not the problem. The problem is the way people chronically misrepresent themselves. This goes for both sexes but my experience is with men.

The misrepresentations take a couple of forms:

1). Picture is really old - I can't tell you how often I have had a communication from some guy who says he is 50 or 52 and who looks pretty good in his picture. He appears to be fit, has hair, nice face. Through email we establish some mutual interest, have a phone call and then arrange to meet for coffee or a glass of wine. When I show up I see a single guy sitting at the bar and my brain says, "yeah - that's probably him" but it's hard to see with my eyes all bugged out of my head in shock as I try to process the gray, mostly bald pate and the droopy jowls. Does he think I'll be so utterly stunned with his sparkling personality that I will simply look past the fact that the man sitting before me looks like he must really be my intended date's Dad? All I can think is, "I wish you weren't a liar".

2). Big important job. - I had a date with a guy who said he was the operations manager for a major winery. This translated into 'guy who turns on the sprinklers in the middle of the night to keep the vines from freezing'. Not quite the same thing, eh? He was toast after boring me to tears with a 20 minute dialog about buying a golf putter. Too much fun for me!

3). Lied about age - My most recent experience is a guy who posted very accurate pictures but looked a little old for his stated age (58). When we met we were both quite relieved that the other really did look like the picture and seemed to fit the profile. We had a looong conversation about how people misrepresent themselves in their profile and about how bothersome that is. On our second date he said something about 'for a 58 year old man' referring to himself. He is a runner so I looked up this race he was doing and found his registration information and guess what? HE'S 64! When I asked him when he planned on telling me this he responded with, "I hadn't really thought about it". Well, think about this - I don't ever want to see you again.

So that's it. I am just striking out all over the place. I'm sure there must be someone out there who is telling the truth who is just perfect for me. He might be bald or gray or jowly and he might be 64 (will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?). I don't care if he is. If I know that going in to the date it's fine. I'm sure I'll meet him when I least expect it - perhaps while we are both feeling up melons in the grocery store where we can see exactly who we are dealing with - gray hairs, jowls and all.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 09:28 PM | | Comments (3)

June 08, 2005

Things that make me jealous

If I weren't such a cheapskate I would have one of those paid blogs where you can have various topics one of which would be 'Things That Make Me Jealous'. There are so many that they would deserve a whole topic. I would have to muster the restraint of a card carrying member of Overeaters Anonymous in a Baskin-Robbins store to keep from posting to it about every 5 minutes.

I'd also like to be able to upload clever banners like you can do in TypePad. However, in addition to being cheap I have the graphic design talent of a myopic newt. I am oh so jealous of Laid Off Dad and his ever changing, ever fabulous banners. It would take me a month to think one up and then I would end up in a mental institution, flayed by frustration when I tried to bring it to fruition. Clearly, when God was passing out artistic talent my Mom stepped out of line to go the loo. Feh.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 06:08 PM | | Comments (0)

June 05, 2005

And then there's the Bolton issue

Biden: Bolton Likely to Win Confirmation - Yahoo! News

A significant number of US senators believe that John Bolton is unfit for the job of U.N. Ambassador and yet the Republican party continues to push this through.

The Republican party cares not for democracy - they have an agenda and they are going to ram it down our throats no matter what.

I love Joe Biden's comment:
Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) of Delaware told ABC's "This Week" that President Bush will "probably be able to win the vote, somewhere between 45 and 47 votes against, and he'll think it's a victory."

So true - as long he wins his point Bush thinks it is a victory. The fact that he is tearing the country apart doesn't figure into his analysis.

This is so depressing.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 01:52 PM | | Comments (1)

June 04, 2005

A victory for our side!

Appeals Court Overrules?Va. Late-Term Abortion Ban - Yahoo! News


This is such a relief because it means somewhere in the hallowed halls of justice, even in this rapid, misogynistic, oppressive administration, there is a shred of sanity.

Here's a heart warming quote:
"We've got a major problem and it's not with the legislature, it's with the courts," Cuccinelli said. "Because of these sorts of rulings . . . we get a bunch of judges that want to write their own policy into the Constitution."


The panel wrote that its decision was based on U.S. Supreme Court decisions and noted that its obligation was to that precedent. Citing a previous decision, the panel wrote: "But even if 'abortion [is] offensive to our most basic principles of morality . . . that cannot control our decision,' for our obligation is to apply the Supreme Court's definition of personal liberty, 'not to mandate our own moral code.' "

See that? Someone is actually pointing out that the constitution grants us freedom of choice even in the face of right wing Christian fundamentalists. Oh Happy Day!

But wait. "Someone" is a Clinton appointee. Here is why you need to do everything to can to help keep the Bush appointees out of the courts:

The 4th Circuit is generally regarded as the nation's most conservative appellate court, but yesterday's decision was written by Judge M. Blane Michael and joined by Judge Diana Gribbon Motz -- both appointees of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, dissented.


It's a thin victory but we are still winning. If you care about these issues please make sure your elected representatives know. If you live in a Red state join one of these organizations if not all of them. They like it if you give money but even if you don't want to do that they organize lots of campaigns and the more people they can inform and get involved, the better.

the ACLU
MoveOn.org
NARAL
Not In Our Name

You can never put too much effort into thwarting the misguided, meglomaniacal efforts of the Bush Administration and the most important think to focus on now is judicial nominations. He is absolutely winning that war. This latest farce with the nuclear option is a perfect example. All the Democratic party could do to prevent the Republicans from rewriting the democratic process was to agree to the Bush nominees. Talk about your thin victory. Fight back people! You must fight back.

Posted by 21st Century Mom at 10:30 AM | | Comments (0)