Just For Fun

I like to read w00t because, unlike Wonkette, it
s always funny. And sometimes I buy something.
Sample humor:

Everything about you screams “total schmuck,” except your luggage, which whispers “OK, not TOTAL.”

Carol Ann Duffy Is Pissed

Official expenses scandal? Take a number Carol Ann.
Great poem though, written by the first female British poet laureate in 360 years, and an openly gay one to boot.
Politics

How it makes of your face a stone
that aches to weep, of your heart a fist,
clenched or thumping, sweating blood, of your tongue
an iron latch with no door. How it makes of your right hand
a gauntlet, a glove-puppet of the left, of your laugh
a dry leaf blowing in the wind, of your desert island discs
hiss hiss hiss, makes of the words on your lips dice
that can throw no six. How it takes the breath
away, the piss, makes of your kiss a dropped pound coin,
makes of your promises latin, gibberish, feedback, static,
of your hair a wig, of your gait a plankwalk. How it says this –
politics – to your education education education; shouts this –
Politics! – to your health and wealth; how it roars, to your conscience
moral compass truth, POLITICS POLITICS POLITICS.

Health Care: Show of Support

They're calling it the National Health Care Day of Service and it's intended to build momentum and show widespread support at the grassroots level for health care reform. It might help to remember that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to spend $100 million to counter this and the energy initiative this year.
Anyway, there are all kinds of things going on. Check them out here.

UPDATE:

Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.

'She's With Me'

The best excuse note evah!
"To Kennedy's teacher," read the note, written in black ink over the president's distinctive signature. "Please excuse Kennedy's absence.... she's with me."

Pandemic: It's Official

 I also happen to own a swine mask, if it comes to that.

To Mothers (And Children of Mothers) Everywhere

But especially to Mardie, Pam, Carey and Carolyn. Did I forget anybody? Oh, you, too.


Andrew Sullivan had this up today. I couldn't resist.

Nazis In My Home State: Who Knew?

I left Michigan when I was 12 but still retain a soft spot for it. Two years at Michigan state, some lifelong friends, and a cousin or few.
Meanwhile, somewhere west of my hometown of Grand Rapids and north of Holland, one of our favorite beach towns, lives this guy...that Von Brunn turned his web site over to. Oy!
And speaking of oy, here's a quote o' teh day for ya from Eric Kleefeld at TPM:

How long will it be until white supremacists claim that the shooting at the Holocaust Museum never happened?

--Eric Kleefeld

Health Care: The Push Is On

Obama's people called my people and now I'm calling you.
This is the time to be involved and they make it easy.

The Other Emanuel Brother

There's Rahm, the mad-dog pol, now chief of staff to O.
There's Zeke, the sci geek doc, a nationally recognized expert advising O on health care.
And there's Ari, the model for the craziest Hollywood agent type ever portrayed on screen, in this case HBO's coveted Sunday night slot featuring once again the season premier of Entourage.
Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold is based on Emanual, and the character comes directly from the pen of actor/director/producer Mark Wahlburg, one of Emanuel's clients.
If you don't know Ari, here's a taste (you really need to rent the full seasons of Entourage):



And even if you could give a flying f about Hollywood wheeling and dealing, this profile in the Daily Beast is pretty fun to read. Comments above average, too.

...all the Emanuel brothers have been described as “obnoxious, arrogant, aggressive, passionate and committed.”

Go Play In the Sand

No beach nearby?
Go here.
Yeah, I know I gave it to you last year, but you'd forgotten, right? Me too.

Test

This is a test. Ignore it.

Erm, About That Deficit

In a nutshell, it's all Bush's fault. Don't give me no steenking tax cut talk again, Mister.

Today, bright, sunny and warm as usual, seems to have brought out my inner wonk. I apologize ahead of time. Hey, I read it so you don't have to. But in case you want to, here it is, The Definitive NYT Explanation of the federal deficit. And for those of you who like to cut to the chase, a phenomenally impressive graphic that even I can understand at a glance. Of course, it has words, too. That helps.

More Health Care Wonkism

If you're into that sort of thing. I am today. Anything but deal with my health care bills.
Cheer, Julie

Life v. Death, cost of

From Bloomberg on the CBO's analysis of the health care bill:

Illustrating the potential for disputes, the CBO has frustrated lawmakers who want credit for savings from steps to head off illness, such as expanded anti-smoking programs and cancer screenings. Among the reasons: the agency has said, essentially, that it may be cheaper if people die. Longer lives may mean bigger Social Security payments and higher Medicare costs for people who live long enough to develop other ailments.

Girlfriends (That's Right) Issue Innovative Economic Recover Proposal

Nation's Girlfriends Unveil New Economic Plan: 'Let's Move In Together'

Twittermania

Some old guy from Iowa named Sen. Chuck Grassley claims he tweets, but I don't think he could pick up the inherent inanity so easily. I think it was his great-granddaughter hired to do the job. Someone should check his office payroll records.
Meanwhile, Wonkette comments:

Remember back in 1780-something, when we had actual smart people writing our founding documents in beautiful longhand when they weren't inventing new kinds of ploughs and bifocals and shit? Now our nation's top legislators just type away like petulant teenage girls, with their thumbs, about how the president is so awful for spending the weekend in Paris. We are all stupider for having read this.

Somebody's Head Is Exploding As We Speak

Is that you, Rush. Anybody?
From Andrew Sullivan via Transracial:

Black, openly gay, West Point grad, Iraq vet, and running for Congress.

D-Day

Sullivan's selections say it all. I won't steal them. Just link.

Obama Back In Town

Just in time to fire up the campaign for universal health care which, according to news reports, is exactly what he'll be doing. Chatter I read at Daily Kos today indicates the Kennedy plan is too tame,  progressives favor the Stark/Conyers bills. Read more here and get links.
Me, I wrote the president. You can, too. Here.  Bookmark it, you're gonna need it.
Now, for Norm Dicks, my rep.

We Are (What We Are) Because We Cook

Slate review:

That is the bewildering, but brilliant, idea proposed by Richard Wrangham, a Harvard-based biological anthropologist. In Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, he proposes that the big breakthrough of almost 2 million years ago that generated another 1,000 ideas and changed who we are forever was this: Drop food in fire, eat it.

...Women, he observes, do most of the cooking in most societies (he describes it as a historic phenomenon, not a biological necessity), and the division of labor around food could have been the beginning of the marriage contract and the prototypical human household. If this is the case, Wrangham argues, marriage is not a primitive contract to ensure paternity, as most anthropologists would argue, but primarily an economic contract.

...There is nothing wrong with free-range eggs, farmers market preserves, or the slow-food movement; complicated cooking and leisurely eating are wonderful pastimes. But come 8 p.m., the natural thing to do is drop food in microwave, eat it, and then go read a book.

Mmm, Acetylcholine

Women and risk:

From Women's Adventure Magazine via Andrew Sullivan.

“It’s not at all that women are risk averse,” says Jody Radtke, program director for the Women’s Wilderness Institute in Boulder, Colorado. When men are confronted with challenging situations, they typically produce adrenaline, which is what causes them to run around, hollering like frat boys at a kegger. An adrenaline rush is a good feeling, but when confronted with the same situation, women produce a different chemical, called acetylcholine.

“Pretty much what [acetylcholine] does is it makes you want to vomit,” says Jody.

Because women don’t have the same positive chemical reward, they tend to be less pumped about confronting stressful situations. This leads them to rely on decision-making. Essentially, they want the whole picture before they go diving in.