Depending on how you want to parse out our latest credit card bill – which was three times the normal monthly total (!)* – LD and I either spent our $1200 on groceries, gas and other essential miscellany; a fraction of my dental bills (ten years of avoiding the dentist will land you roughly four hours in the chair to the tune of about $2800, after insurance); or Kaylee’s dental work, which was actually just under $1200. If we hadn’t spent the money on Kaylee’s teeth…well, Ralphie’s scheduled for an extraction next month as well.
I had hoped to either save it or make an extra mortgage payment, but no go.
At no time did the thought of squandering it on luxury goods cross our minds.
* On the plus side, the Amazon points I earned through those crazy credit card charges will buy a small library. Ripley, here I come!
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom brought something old to the wedding ceremony he officiated Monday afternoon—traditional marriage vows that elicited laughter from the guests who came to see Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon get hitched.
“The contract of marriage is most solemn. It is not to be entered into lightly, but thoughtfully and seriously,” Newsom told Martin, 87, and Lyon, 83, who have been together for 55 years.
The audience of friends, relatives and elected officials burst into good-natured chuckles.
After the pair exchanged rings and promised to keep each other in sickness and in health as long as they both shall live, the mayor reminded them that “Love’s compassion is the glory of life. Never take each other for granted,” another comment that seemed to strike an odd note under the circumstances.
Newsom got his last laugh from the appreciative crowd when he said he was pronouncing Martin and Lyon “spouses for life” under authority “vested in me as a deputy marriage commissioner,” not mayor.
Under California marriage laws, only judges, state officials and members of Congress are automatically entitled to solemnize marriages.
Here, finally!, is my review of Strategic Action for Animals: A Handbook on Strategic Movement Building, Organizing, and Activism for Animal Liberation (Melanie Joy, 2008). At 2,000+ words, it’s perhaps my longest book review yet. Towards the middle, I kind of wander off the book review path, discussing issues of “mainstreaming”, violent vs. non-violent tactics and intersecting oppressions. Some of these are central to Strategic Action for Animals, while others are just touched upon. They all struck a chord with me, though, maybe because they’ve been floating around the internets lately. But bear with me, it’s all related.
By the by, I posted a condensed review on Amazon, so if you’d like the short of it, go here (or here, if you prefer LT).
What follows are real listings from real Freecycle ™ lists. (Srsly, I am not making this shit up!) Identifying info omitted to protect the gender rigid among us.
new mom is struggling and has nothing for her new baby boy that is due in 6 wks i told her about the good things off free cycle and all the good people and the help that everybody tries to give to other people and it has helped me a great deal so anyway i have given her some things i had that is not pink and a bath tub but here is the list thanks to all.
Looking for a small TV that works and twin sheets for a little boy. (anything but pink).
I am in search of a decent SINGLE STROLLER- nothing fancy. We have one of the $10 umbrella strollers & its great for concrete etc but we are needing something a little more sturdy & with bigger wheels (to handle gravel, mud, grass, and a chunky tot lol). We do alot of outdoor stuff so it would really get used! We are not particular about the brand or color. The main thing is that its not PINK as our munchkin is a BOY lol. Under the seat storage, a tray and a sunshade would be a plus.
I’m seriously (SRSLY!!!!1!!!1!) getting burned out on politics, but this shit is too good to pass up. At the risk of blowing the same horn ad nauseum, some link love. Or hate, would probably be a more accurate description.
Michelle Obama Watch is a nonpartisan effort to monitor the media’s treatment and depiction of Michelle Obama, the most visible African American woman in popular culture. Michelle Obama Watch will become the repository of the good, the bad, the ugly and the indifferent.
I’d like to close my eyes and think that they’ll only be able to fill the site with unicorns, soy ice cream, talking puppies and other good stuff, but we all know that ain’t gonna be the case. More likely a whole lotta of bad and ugly.
Exhibit #1: Michelle is “Obama’s Baby Mama!”, according to Faux Newz. (Via.)
I’m surprised they missed the opportunity for a melon joke.
(The time was ripe, you know what I’m sayin’?!? As in girls have boobies! ZOMG breasteses! Wait, what was I saying again?)
Trying to keep it classy, I guess.
For calling out the media’s misogyny vis-à-vis Hillary Clinton, douchebag extraordinaire Keith Olbermann hits Katie Couric with a nice dose of…
…misogyny! How fitting.
Jay Leno – who, despite not being a member of the MSM, is a fuckwit all the same – “quipped that Senator Hillary Clinton would offer Obama a lap dance in exchange for the Vice Presidency.” NOW has more. (Via.)
Finally, in a slightly more uplifting piece, Dr. Socks writes about teh wimmins’ newfound leverage. Go, read, now.
Imagine showing up on November 4th to cast your history-making vote for Barack Obama—only to be turned away because you aren’t properly registered.
Think it can’t happen to you? Don’t be so sure. There are a bunch of reasons your registration might not be up to date, even if you think it is.
Take one minute right now to double-check your registration using our cool web tool, VotePoke. Click here.
This is going to be an amazing, exciting, once-in-a-lifetime election. You don’t want to have to tell your grandkids you wanted to vote for Barack Obama, but didn’t actually get to do it.
C’mon, now MoveOn – did you learn nothing from your half-assed “endorsement” of Obama over Clinton? As I recall, some of your “members” (i.e., email subscribers) were annoyed enough over your proselytizing that you had to send out an extra-special email to smooth ruffled feathers. Now y’all are just assuming that I’ll vote for Obama? I mean, I probably will, but still. Talk about obnoxious.
By the by, if anyone would like to check the validity of their voter registration, here be the link. It’s actually not a bad idea; too bad MoveOn had to mar it by telling us bitchez how we’d better f’in vote.
HAS (also called anthrozoology) is, quite simply, the study of human-animal interactions. Because of its multidisciplinary approach, HAS is a vast and varied field; human-animal interactions can be examined through a multitude of lenses, including psychology, sociology, ethology, anthropology, zoology, veterinary medicine, health science, history, philosophy, women’s studies and ethnic studies. Consequently, scholarship in this field represents a motley body of work.
Social Creatures both reflects and embraces the heterogeneity of Human-Animal Studies. The thirty-one pieces in this hefty volume are grouped into nine topics: An Emerging Field; Studying Human-Animal Relationships; Historical and Comparative Perspectives; Animals and Culture; Attitudes towards Other Animals; Criminology and Deviance; Inequality – Interconnected Oppressions; Living and Working with Other Animals; and Animal Rights – Philosophy and Social Movement. A number of subjects are touched upon, including the human-animal bond; religious perspectives on animal rights; animal rights philosophy; the effects of gender on attitudes towards animal rights and participation in animal rights activism; correlations between support for animal rights and other social causes; grief in companion animal caretakers and shelter workers; and links between cruelty to animals and interpersonal violence, including child and partner abuse, to name but a few.
So…John McCain’s affinity for a shitty ’70s pop group is supposed to lure “disaffected Hillary supporters” to the dark side? He seems to be operating under the assumption that Hillary’s base – i.e., older white women – are either lesbians (or, similarly, friends to teh gays) or have gawd-awful musical taste. But what of her working-class supporters? I don’t know that a lot of miners get their groove on to ABBA.
Seriously, I’m confused. Please to explain, Old Man McCain?
