All Because Of The Intertubes

 teenage boys no longer have to quake as they purchase their porn, and other losses.

Here's What's Going On In Health Care Reform

The news and speculation break almost hourly about what direction the White House will take and what signals it's sending out.
Finally, somebody gets it right:

A careful deconstruction of recent statements reveals an irresolvable tension within the text itself. The administration necessarily supports and opposes the public option. Though the opposition is only implicit in the statements of support, the terms signifying his opposition are central to a multifaceted understanding of the ambiguous sense of the term "support." This aporia must ultimately dissolve in the universal recognition that the public option both is and is not itself. With or without a trigger, it will be infinitely deferred, always ascendant but never fulfilled as a thing in-and-for-itself. It is a paradox spiraling ever downward into the enigmatic abyss that is Barack Obama, the man whose purely reflective symbolic significance condemns him to serve simultaneously as our Christ and Judas.

This is why I read blogs and not newspapers.

Petition O' Teh Day

Yeah, the save health care reform message is going viral on Twitter and Facebook.
But here's something else you can do.

Vicki and Teddy, The End

Well, I'm still kinda sort interested in the annulment thing, so this from The Daily Dish clears it up. In case you're also kinda sorta interested.

Public Option: Damned If You Do...

TPM has an excellent synopsis of the Democrats' dilemma as they prepare to push the health care bill through the Senate with the reconciliation process.

The Vicki And Teddy Marriage

The Daily Dish readers answer my questions. Apparently Vicki also got an annulment.

Joke O' Teh Day

On Facebook I am a bona fide fan of Overheard in the Newsroom.
This morning it was, New Media editor:
"Teaching journalism...that's like teaching coal mining."

Teddy's Wife

The NYT does a soft profile of Vicki Kennedy, in case you were wondering.
But here's the thing for this recovering Catholic.
They both shared a deep religious belief, supposedly.
And were able to marry inside the Church because?
Well, he had his marriage to Joan annulled and I haven't seen any discussion about the grounds for that.
She divorced her husband before she met Teddy and, presumably, also managed an annulment.
Guess I'll see what Wiki dug up.

UPDATE: So Wiki says they married in a civil ceremony, which implies she didn't get an annulment of her first marriage. So in the Church's eyes, Teddy was living in sin with a divorced woman, and unless he made a deathbed renunciation of this sin, was technically not entitled to Church burial.
I know, I know, who cares? I don't care personally, it's just this cafeteria Catholicism that interests me because the Church I knew was all about sex. When my mother converted, my parents had a Catholic marriage ceremony, of which I remember nothing except that I was there.
I've had several younger Catholic colleagues who lived with spouses-to-be before marriage, unapologetically.
No wonder the Vatican was indifferent to Teddy's passing. Benedict's a strict constructionist on things like this, not to mention the abortion support by American Catholics like Kerry and Kennedy.

So Long, And Thanks For All The Goldfish

Crooked Timber explores the age-old dilemma: What about our pets when the Rapture happens?
Apparently there are whole web sites devoted to this question.
My favorite answer:

But aren’t most cats usually quite self-sufficient? I imagine there will be much less traffic and other man-made hazards in the areas previously populated by evangelicals, so, one could argue that the cats and dogs left behind will find themselves in their own little paradise. The goldfish will perish, though.

Libertarian Litmus Test

There's a little Libertarian in all of us, I think, but in the crazies? Not so much.
Anyway, Dark Syde's 10 tests of Libertarianism are just humorous enough to recommend, albeit a bit "strident," whatever that is.
My favorite:

If you argue that cash for clunkers or any form of government healthcare is unconstitutional, but forced prayer or teaching old testament creationism in public schools is fine, you're not even consistent, much less a Libertarian, and you may be Michele Bachmann.