Category Archives: uncategorized

Steal this Idea

A story in the San Francisco Chronicle quotes “Emily Solomon, 45, a Washington, D.C., playwright and Pennsylvania native”:

[The news media] completely downplayed the first serious female candidacy. When she won New Hampshire, it wasn’t, ‘The first woman to win New Hampshire,’ it was ‘Clinton steals New Hampshire.’ Very subtle sexism, you know. And I’m not even a rabid feminist.

Okay, I am tired of this “very subtle sexism” thing. What Solomon is saying in this remark is that the only way people could have reported Clinton’s win in New Hampshire was by specifically pointing out that she was “the first woman to win New Hampshire.” Anything else, apparently, would be “sexism,” albeit ”very subtle sexism.” If Obama had won New Hampshire and no one reported it as “The first African-American to win New Hampshire,” would that have been racist? I doubt it. (So would that difference be racist, or sexist? Honestly, I don’t care. Nobody should. There are bigger fish to fry.)

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An Apparent Failure of Logic

About Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein says:

“Each one of them represents a different constituency, and the constituencies are knocking heads at the present time. . . . There are women all over the country, and particularly in my state of California, who feel that she hasn’t been treated fairly. . . . They want her to stand tall.”

Um, huh? Maybe I missed something, but how does “[being] treated fairly” have anything at all to do with how good a candidate you are? (And what exactly does “stand tall” mean in this context?”) Leaving aside the allegations implicit in Feinstein’s statement that there has been unfair treatment and that it is because Clinton is a woman—the truth of either is irrelevant on this particular point—being treated unfairly by others, regardless of the reason, says nothing of one’s own qualities and characteristics as they pertain to the job of being President of the United States.

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Why is it that I only like onions after they’ve been boiled in oil?

Today I thought about what I’ve been blogging lately, and to tell the truth it’s pretty sad. It’s all cake, and french fries, and today’s blog was going to be about onion rings.

Why do any of you read this blog? Seriously. I can’t imagine what would drive you to do it. I think that maybe it’s because you don’t actually read my blog. You only skim it, and fill in all the bits that you don’t read with what you think I’d probably say if I were a much smarter or wiser individual. Perhaps you expect me to make compelling points about life and the inevitable failure of the human condition.

If that’s the case, then I’m happy that you think so highly of me. But it is a little sad, because it means you apparently don’t read the blog at all. You’d just like to think that you do, or hope that you do, or make excuses for who I ought to be.

Anyway, today there were onion rings. I’ve wanted some for a long time now. But even though I enjoyed the onion rings while I was eating them, in retrospect they weren’t the best I’ve had. They needed salt, and the ranch dressing had a distressing tendency to separate. Yet despite all this I guess the mediocre onion rings were better than none at all, and the french fries that came with the sandwich were extremely acceptable.

And so, in conclusion, I like onion rings.

Cake: More Useful Than We Originally Thought?

Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat. When I complained of it, everybody asked if I’d taken anything. But I don’t particularly enjoy being medicated, and I hate cough syrup. The most I’ll do is drink water, because you want your throat to stay moist.

But then I had an idea. If a moist throat is what you want, then why not just eat something moist? And what’s more moist than cake? Genius!

Now, I know what most of you are thinking. What about the calories? This is indeed an issue, and one I gave considerable thought. To that end I’ve decided that until my sore throat passes, I will simply confine my eating to the cake. That way, I won’t load up on too many calories. It’s a deceptively simple yet effective solution. Indeed, it was so simple that I questioned it myself. But really, there’s no need to re-invent the wheel here.

The only problem I foresee is that only fresh cake achieves maximum moistness. As such it is necessary that I bake cake on a regular basis. And to avoid wasting food, I must also make sure to eat all of the cake. I am pleased to report that so far this has not proven to be a difficult burden.

My throat feels great now. This new ‘cake therapy’ certainly deserves further research. I posit that the medicinal benefits of cake may extend to other ailments. As soon as the possibility presents itself I intend to study the effects of cake on minor psychological trauma.

Political Activists Can’t Be Trusted

A few minutes ago, I received an email from “CREDO Action.” Here are the important parts:

President Bush wants an endless war, but the majority of Americans want to bring our troops home. Now there is a real plan, endorsed by military leaders, over 50 congressional challengers, and 50,000 citizen co-sponsors like you.

. . .

The Responsible Plan will:

  1. End U.S. military action in Iraq
  2. Use U.S. diplomatic power
  3. Address humanitarian concerns
  4. Restore our Constitution
  5. Restore our military
  6. Restore independence to the media
  7. Create a new, U.S.-centered energy policy

And then there is a link to a page where I can help deliver this “Responsible Plan” to a Congressional representative’s office and another link to a page where I can sign a petition endorsing the “Responsible Plan.” Uh-huh. Right. Like I’m gonna do that on the basis of seven hugely vague phrases that are utterly without details. Sure, maybe I want to “Restore our Constitution,” but maybe what I think about that is not exactly what the people at “CREDO Action” think about that, or what the authors of this “Responsible Plan” think about it.

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