You scored as River Tam. The Fugitive. You are clever and dangerous, which is a nasty combination. The fact you are crazy too just adds to your charm. They did bad things to you, but you know their secrets. They will regret how they made you. River Tam 75% Zoe Alleyne Washburne 63% Simon Tam 63% Shepherd Derrial Book QuizFarm.com :: Which Serenity character are you?

carnelian seems to be a poetry magazine. someone posted this bit of this sonnet on livejournal, and i wanted to share it with people. (there's more to the sonnet, but this is the bit that speaks to me.)

Carnelian October 2003

Love Sonnet XCVI by Pablo Neruda


I think this time when you loved me
will pass away, and another blue will replace it;
another skin will cover the same bones;
other eyes will see the spring.

i thought of me, when i read it, and i thought of you, frog. i hope you are doing well.

i love molly ivins. love love love.

Molly Ivins - Molly Ivins: Public interest is not well-served by appointing incompetents - sacbee.com

Molly Ivins: Public interest is not well-served by appointing incompetents
By Molly Ivins
Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, September 22, 2005
AUSTIN, Texas -- So here are all the liberals going into a giant snit just because George W. Bush appointed a veterinarian to head the women's health section of the Food and Drug Administration. For Pete's sake, you whiners, the only reason he chose the vet is because Michael Brown wasn't available.

yup.

Lois McMaster Bujold Quotes - The Quotations Page

His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.
Lois McMaster Bujold, 'Memory', 1996

hopefully this doesn't break my blog... arrr!

fidius.org: What's My Pirate Name? (3/3): "

My pirate name is:

Captain Bess Rackham

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

"

a lot of good information here. i'd even bought a few of these. check it out.

Think Progress ? Right-Wing Myths About Katrina, Debunked:

Right-Wing Myths About Katrina, Debunked
There are a lot of right-wing myths about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. ThinkProgress has created this guide to help you set the record straight.

what jon carroll says. he is a smart smart man.

JON CARROLL:

I understand that people want to comfort the afflicted. I understand that people want to make it better. 'I love you' is a good way to do that. 'You are welcome in my home and to my family,' is another good one. 'If you need money, please don't hesitate to ask' is pretty useful too.
'Everything happens for a reason?' Not so much.

when a person goes in for std testing (because they are cautious, not because they think they have anything, hi mom!) there ought to be a box you can check on the intake form that says "i have done and am trained to do peer education about std's/sti's and for the love of god could i skip the part where the earnest and well meaning volunteer walks me through testing information that i know better than she does?"

she was dead earnest, though. i try to think of it as cute rather than annoying.

i am made so happy by this that i am twitching. i kid you not.

Assorted 'useful' foreign phrases.

this includes such phrases as:

Mi volas brakumi tiun sciuron.

and

Mitt huvud trillar av och det är fullt av godis.


hurray!

look! total frivolity!

What kind of disease are you? kalmn:
kalmn is caused by sponges.	kalmn disease causes excessive cross-sex cosplaying. kalmn is cured by never wearing shoes ever again.
Name?

my opinion of the current president varies wildly.

Newsview: White House Falls Out Of Step

Later in Biloxi, Miss., Bush tried to comfort two stunned women wandering their neighborhood clutching Hefty bags, looking in vain for something to salvage from the rubble of their home. He kept insisting they could find help at a Salvation Army center down the street, even after another bystander had informed him it had been destroyed.

today, my opinion of him is that he is just criminally stupid.

i'm sure i'll swing back to thinking he's malicious soon.

i have no words here. but go read the article. by david brooks.

The Bursting Point - New York Times: "Last week in New Orleans, by contrast, nobody took control. Authority was diffuse and action was ineffective. The rich escaped while the poor were abandoned. Leaders spun while looters rampaged. Partisans squabbled while the nation was ashamed.

The first rule of the social fabric - that in times of crisis you protect the vulnerable - was trampled. Leaving the poor in New Orleans was the moral equivalent of leaving the injured on the battlefield."

because, as we all know, the most important thing after you've royally fucked up and caused the deaths of a whole bunch of people is to make sure you're not blamed for it.

White House Enacts a Plan to Ease Political Damage: "

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: September 5, 2005

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 - Under the command of President Bush's two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan.

offered without further comment, from us senator mary landrieu, d-la.

KATRINA: LANDRIEU ASKS FOR MORE HELP
:
"But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old -- deserve far better from their national government."

American Red Cross: "Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?

Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

what. the. FUCK.

i do not, in any way, bear ill will towards the red cross for this. they are trying to get in there, and they are running shelters around the affected area for the refugees. this is good work, useful work.

rivka, at respectful of otters, has a good post here talking about this, how the administration is still providing an unacceptable response to this disaster, and:

To willfully withhold basic life support from tens of thousands of desperate people because you think it will discourage evacuation is - actually, I have no words strong enough for what it is. Unconscionable. Morally depraved. A crime against humanity. Nothing seems strong enough.

i keep thinking that this can't get any worse. and then it does.

new orleans mayor ray nagin talks to a radio station about the situation in nola.

CNN.com - Mayor to feds: 'Get off your asses' - Sep 2, 2005:

WWL: Well, you and I must be in the minority. Because apparently there's a section of our citizenry out there that thinks because of a law that says the federal government can't come in unless requested by the proper people, that everything that's going on to this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.
NAGIN: Really?
WWL: I know you don't feel that way.
NAGIN: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did it go through a formal process to request?
You know, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important?
And I'll tell you, man, I'm probably going get in a whole bunch of trouble. I'm probably going to get in so much trouble it ain't even funny. You probably won't even want to deal with me after this interview is over.
WWL: You and I will be in the funny place together.
NAGIN: But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.
Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.

kare11.com : Minneapolis, St. Paul: Offers have been received from Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Germany, Venezuela, Jamaica, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, NATO and the Organization of American States, the spokesman said.

Still, Bush told ABC-TV: 'I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country's going to rise up and take care of it.'

excuse me?

this makes me so angry that i can hardly talk.

it also makes me very coldly glad that i am certain that the shrub believes in hell.

Molly Ivins on, New Orleans: It's about us.:

This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or, "There's nothing I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks anyway."

Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can do about any of it.

[...]


Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant 'major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.'

the thing i want right now is to walk over to the gastronome (since it's closer than the produkti) and buy some yummy chocolate and come back to my desk and eat it.

since we keep that particular gastronome (not to mention the produkti) in moscow, though, i think i won't.

but chocolate! mmm!