The past few days

I think this quote says it best:

“There are no words for this — it is just nuts,” said Dr. Michael Greene, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.

Health Experts Dismiss Assertions on Rape - NYTimes.com

Anywho, I think most of you can guess how I feel about Todd Akin and his, shall we say "eeeeenteresting" view of reality.
And you can probably also guess that I would think it was awesome if my uterus had magic powers. I mean, beyond the capacity to wander through my body and make me crazy.

I mean, wouldn't this be cool?

Egypt

Image by shoveling_ferret via FlickrI feel like I should say something about recent events in Egypt.  Really, the demonstrations, etc. were only a matter of time, but I think *this particular time* surprised a lot of people. 

I mostly stayed out of a lot of detail regarding modern Egyptian politics.  What I did know always made me wonder from time to time if I should be there at all.  Not because I feared for my own safety, but more out of a sense of concern that I was somehow tacitly supporting a fairly nasty dictatorial regime.

The flip side of that, though, was the knowledge that a revolution could wind up making things worse if crazy fundies wound up in charge. 

I really, really hope things get better.  I can't begin to imagine how to revamp Egyptian government to be better after decades of entrenched dictatorship and police-state habits, but I hope and pray that it can be done.  It's time to stop throwing people in jail just for saying unpopular things, time to stop rampant corruption and greed, time to stop brutality and torture in jails and prisons.

I didn't get to spend as much time in Egypt as I'd have liked and did not get to spend as much time with Egyptians as I'd have liked either, but the men and boys I worked with were nice, good-humored, ordinary people.  The people I met on the streets were too.   Even at a time when US foreign policy had made the US unpopular in a lot of the world, no one treated us like crap for being Americans.
I guess the point I'm trying to make none too elegantly is that Egyptians are people just like the rest of us, they just want to be able to make a living and be safe and happy.  Unfortunately, unlike most of us in America, that isn't very easy in Egypt any more.

I've seen reports that some of the protesters have been helping the police and military to protect the Cairo Museum.  I have no problem believing that to be true.  Many Egyptians are incredibly proud of their heritage.  They are also well aware that a lot of the economy is based around tourism. 

I hope very much that this situation resolves as peacefully and successfully as possible.  And my thoughts are not only with friends there now, but with everyone there now, especially the people putting themselves in harms way for what they believe in and what they hope to see in the future.

'Bout time

La. justice quits after interracial flap - msnbc.com

Did we ever hear from his supposed "pile" of black friends?

And today in "holy crap, you're stupid!"

Interracial couple denied marriage license in La. - Yahoo! News

I think I may have damaged my forehead smacking it in exasperation.

The truly classic quote from the article:

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

1. Dude, you're a racist. Resorting to the "I have tons of insert race/ethnicity/other status here friends" argument usually means you are.

2. Even if you did to begin with, I don't think you have "piles and piles of black friends" anymore.

3. Extra bonus points for "I let them use my bathroom" and "I don't believe in mixing the races that way"

4. Does he always refuse to marry people if he thinks the marriage won't last long?

Dear Mr. Bardwell,
You are a racist. You may not be willing to admit it, but you are. You're also an idiot.

Sincerely,
Most adults with a semi-functional brain

Holy Crap, He's a Jedi Too!?!?!

Photo by Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune (click photo for link to article)

Is he stabbing that dude?

So, to round-up the crazy conspiracy theories:

• Sekrit Muslin
• Kenyan
• Socialist
• Fascist
• Jedi

Snerk.

AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth: Whole Foods comes out against health care reform, calls it "socialism"

AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth: Whole Foods comes out against health care reform, calls it "socialism"

Well, I was already inclined to call Whole Foods "Whole Paycheck" but did occasionally go there to either look at or buy things that are difficult to find elsewhere, usually personal care products. No more.

I'll shop elsewhere, thanks...

ETA: The blog linked is heavily left-leaning, I might add and not particularly detail-heavy in their discussion of Mackey's editorial. While Mackey makes a few good points, the majority of his suggestions would do very, very little to address the health care crisis in the US and, in fact may well make a number of things worse (in particular, his suggestion that regulations on what insurance companies must cover should be removed seems especially ill-advised). My further research into the CEO of Whole Foods has made increasingly less inclined to do business with his company - I do not care for acolytes of Ayn Rand. I care less for people who create alter-egos to make message board posts slamming their competition, if only because it seems like a pretty stupid thing for someone who is supposed to be responsible for an entire corporation to do, but what the hell do I know - they did eventually buy out Wild Oats. I also don't particularly care for the misleading use of terms like "natural" and "organic" in labeling and advertising when there exists no objective standard for what those terms actually mean, but Mackey and Whole Foods are definitely not the first or the only entities guilty of that.

In any case, I'm sure Mackey and his fellow libertarians will be entirely unhurt by my decision to avoid Whole Foods, especially since it is a choice the upholds the very principles of the free market.