Month: November 2008

A Memo From Dad

There may not be too many presents this Christmas, according to the company newsletter:

In the Travel and Entertainment category, you will find that fewer requests to eat in restaurants will be approved, and requests for desserts in restaurants, particularly, will not be approved (unless they are included in the cost of a kid’s meal). In the case of Cabot’s or The Cheesecake Factory, where ice cream or cheesecake, respectively, is kind of the point, sharing is strongly encouraged. An additional benefit of this will be improved health. Netflix has been put on hold for 90 days, and we will reconsider that offering then; unopened red envelopes left on top of the TV indicate a lack of demand at present. Newspaper and magazine subscriptions are subject to elimination as well. Executives, including myself, are being asked to purchase regular coffee in place of more expensive coffee drinks while traveling, and to utilize meals from our on-site food service provider whenever possible.

The good news: no lay-offs.

The Kurds Arm Themselves

And they do it outside the channels of the Maliki government, which strikes me as a pretty good indicator of Iraq’s likeliest future. As Judah Grunstein asks:

Given the argument about how strategically significant Iraqi stability is to U.S. interests, do we go back in in the event of a civil war breaking out following our departure?

It will be up to Clinton to say no.

The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin XXV: The Turkey Massacre

414_turkey_ride

The wack-job is once again denying reality. Here’s a sane person:

Scott Jensen is the one who filmed the scene. He’s local station KTUU’s award winning chief photographer. He told CC from KUDO radio yesterday that Sarah Palin, who was standing next to her personal assistant throughout the entire interview, chose the spot on which she stood for the “turkey slaughter interview” that quickly went viral on the internet, and received wide coverage in the news media. The turkey slaughter was already underway when the governor chose the spot. The photographer pointed out what was going on and asked her if she wanted to move. She said, “No worries.”

But Palin is now denying all of it, and implicitly calling the photographer a liar:

“The [Alaska] governor did not know it was going on behind her,” Palin’s spokesperson tells ET of the reportedly grisly scene at Triple D Farm & Hatchery outside Wasilla. Cameras captured Palin extending the annual Thanksgiving pardon to one turkey while a farm hand slaughtered the bird’s feathered friends in the background.

Who are you going to believe: Palin or your lyin’ eyes?

Orientation As Religion

Richard Just’s final riposte to Jeff Rosen on marriage rights is, in my opinion, a knock-out punch. This point is too often overlooked in the debate:

Neither court found that homosexuality was immutable, even though most people who study the subject believe that it is. Instead the justices reasoned that–to quote the California court–"[b]ecause a person’s sexual orientation is so integral an aspect of one’s identity, it is not appropriate to require a person to repudiate or change his or her sexual orientation in order to avoid discriminatory treatment." In other words, the justices treated it much like religion–which, as you note, is considered a suspect classification, and therefore invites heightened scrutiny from courts.

Certainly my own religious faith compelled me not to lie about who I am. So should the consequence of such religious conviction be subject to overt government discrimination?

Just Don’t Click

A reader writes:

The fervent scouring of blogs plays upon some pretty bizarre impulses. No aspect of blogging better illustrates this than the hyperlink. I saw your cryptic post and my curiosity spiked. I wanted to be privy to those insidery points too!

But then you previewed just how deep this rabbit hole might lead. I hesitated and then desisted. Though I remain ignorant to what the hell that post is about. I am no servant to my whims. It was a necessary backlash to maintain my humanity.

And we? To maintain my humanity? I’ll have the petite vanilla scones myself. (They’re back, by the way.)

Holes In The Firewall

Megan on the Citi bailout:

I don’t want to be a self-panicker; these things take time.  But I’m becoming increasingly convinced that the original theory of the bailout–that it would step in and provide a firewall to prevent future failures–has been proven wrong.  I still think it was worth trying, prospectively; there seemed to be at the time, a reasonable prospect that it would save money in the long run by forestalling the need for future bailouts.  But in hindsight, it hasn’t worked. 

Getting Punched In The Face

Freddie DeBoer did some drunk-blogging over the weekend. An epiphany:

Getting punched in the face sucks. It’s getting punched in the face! And yet the first time you get punched in the face, I mean really punched in the face, by someone outside your family or friends, someone who doesn’t care for you and is out to hurt you– it can almost be a blessing. A blessing, because afterwards, you know what it’s like. Before, you walk around with the worry of not knowing what it’s like, and that compounds it. Afterwards, you know. It makes it easier.