Here's something quite timely for me:

Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist

I'm at a place in life where I don't want to take life and career too seriously, but I need to take it more seriously than previous incarnations of me have done in the past. Her posts are great. I'm all over it.

‎"We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them."

— John Waters

I hate to be a killjoy, but OMFG.

"Starbucks' 31 Ounce "Trenta" Cup Size Set for US Debut

The new cups will be introduced Tuesday in 14 states: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona.

Ummmm...

Most Obese US States

Sure, they're supposed to be for "iced beverages such as coffee, tea, or [sugar-filled] lemonade" but you know hella frappuccinos are going to be ladled into those things. Meh.

The Arizona tragedy is being covered quite extensively, so not to go on and on, but this is well done:

No One Listened to Gabrielle Giffords

While the article does engage in pointing fingers -- what many on the right are bemoaning as unfair, and some, ridiculously, as "blood libel" -- it does so in more than one direction, and acknowledges something obvious I hadn't really thought about: that the current rabid antigovernment radicalism on the right is as dangerous as the same on the left in the late 1960s.

The difference now, full stop? Mainstream media outlets for the radical right that legitimizes it, and a major party that is an apologist for it.

Oh Arizona.




















Tombstone Politics

This is a tragedy that I think anyone with a reasonable bone in his or her body saw coming in some form or another, and as such I've been really at loathe to add my voice to the chorus of voices condemning the radical (and mainstream) right wing for their perceived role, but in the end there are too many implications around all the things I complain about with modern day dumb American politics to NOT comment.

Part of my hesitation to comment is sorting out my feelings around the idea of free speech, and where it crosses the line into incitement of violence. What would seem like clear ignorant nut jobs like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin encouraging others to be ignorant nut jobs is one negative consequence of the right to free speech. So do we "compromise liberty for security and then deserve neither" and all that jazz? I'm somewhat reminded of the criticism of gangsta rap and the Tipper Gore PMRC hysteria years, and the attempt to link music to gun violence and suicide.

But music is entertainment, not real life. Yeah, I always say certain bands and songs shaped who I am, but the people who really shape how I am obligated to live my life within the confines of the laws of my country -- as well as those non-politicians with immense political power -- need to hold themselves to a higher standard, and use common sense with their constituencies.

Utilizing gun sights to indicate targeted lawmakers, rhetoric about "reloading" not retreating against lawmakers, and talk from (aforementioned nut job endorsed) candidates about being angry enough to use "Second Amendment remedies" is clear incitement to violence.

Would the sympathizers stand for environmental radicals like the ELF using gun sights as the symbol for targeting lawmakers in an election who had abysmal environmental voting records? Of course not. And nor would they stand for anyone using that same rhetoric to target lawmakers who were anti-health care bill, or anti-DREAM Act, or anti- any other countless thing that would be good for the United States that right-wingers deem "Socialist" or "anti-American."

The nasty "make the rich richer" liars that make up the Republican Party, and the redneck laughingstock that is the Tea Party claim to want less government intrusion in their lives. *snort* Do we need to legislate their common sense? It has to stop.

why, boy, they're playing our song
outside where no one can hear
why, boy, they're playing our song
at the start of my new career

it's a different walk of life
that I've come to know
because at every port of call
comes a time to go...

A self-taught multi-instrumentalist, best known as the bassist for the band Japan and as half of the duo Dalis Car, and a solo artist in his own right (his debut, Titles, is a favorite, and fantastic!) Mick Karn blew my mind in high school with the sounds that came out of his fretless bass.

Gone way too young. RIP.