BuggBlog

Here's a short-cut to tendonitis

Go bowling on Saturday for three hours with a ball that's far too heavy because none of the lighter balls will accommodate your giant fingers.

Play tennis on Sunday, then chop a lot of vegetables and do a lot of typing, then repeat all three on Monday.

On Tuesday, make hand-whipped mayonnaise from scratch, while in the meantime doing lots of -- you guessed it -- typing.

Proceed to whine, kvetch and overdose on Aleve.

That guy can't even dance gay

If Republican congressional candidates keep putting up ads like this, the long campaign season may be more inadvertently hilarious than I dared hope:

Really, those same-sex marriage dancers -- who appear to have been choreographed by Waylon Smithers -- exhibit all the glassy-eyed enthusiasm of D-grade porn actors.

But seriously, this is the level that Republicans have sunk to? They're so inept that they can't even effectively prey on racist and homophobic stereotypes? It does make one optimistic for the future.

(h/t TPM)

More Corner funnies

The right-wing inability to understand the concept of diplomacy and effective foreign policy continues apace at National Review's The Corner. From Mark Levin:

Andrew, did preconditions or preparations precede Vice President Nixon's meeting with Castro? The fact is President Nixon never met with Castro, nor did Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, or Bush 43. The Obama Doctrine, such as it is, is truly a unique one.

Considering that Fidel Castro has outlasted each of those presidents (I'm generously including Bush 43 since he had nothing to do with Castro's illness and retirement) and his communist regime extended well beyond the fall of his Soviet benefactors, the idea that Cuba is proof that U.S. foreign policy should be built around the idea of "not talking" is simply giggle inducing.

The only unique thing about the "Obama Doctrine" is that, compared to our current gang of thugs and idiots, it may actually work.

Dog days

I probably should have mentioned it beforehand, but I spent much of the past week on a semi-vacation, hence the next-to-nonexistent posting. Not that I felt a big void in my life as a result of not getting whiny with words about Hillary Clinton (who, I should note in all fairness, did a good thing yesterday when coming to the defense of Barack Obama, and Democrats in general, in the face of Bush's outrageous attack from the floor of the Knesset). But I did feel guilty for not getting something done, which is an odd way to feel about something that's essentially based on whims.

Anyway, my semi-vacation was in honor of my sister and brother-in-law coming to visit for an extended weekend. Until recent years, it was rare that a family member ever visited me here in my adopted hometown, so any such visit still makes me happy and excited. This time they brought their do, Schmitty. Schmitty is a very large dog, on account of being a Great Dane. He weights about 6 times more than our own geriatric pug, Lazlo. I would have taken a picture of the two of them together, but Lazlo's confused barking -- kind of the canine equivalent of "Old man yells at cloud" -- made things a little antsy.

But Schmitty being a mostly gentle giant, the situation stayed in control and peace reigned. It did prove, however, that I'm totally right in declaring that we will never get a Great Dane of our own, no matter how much Cavin wants one, unless we should move into a far larger house. While Schmitty was a far more graceful houseguest than I thought he might be -- he didn't knock over a single knick-knack as he loped repeatedly from the front door to the back -- our confined spaces and tiny yard must have felt like a prison cell, particularly to a dog raised in the wide open hill country of northern Kentucky.

My only regret is that, with his essentially gentle personality, he didn't take out the yappy little dog next door. Time for plan B, I guess.

Federalism for dummies

It's been obvious for years that Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review Online is one of the right-wing's most consistently imbecilic bloviators -- no mean feat, given the reflexive, hyperbolic hypocrisy that fills The Corner. I've often considered putting together a list of some of her greatest moments -- from lambasting nuns who dare vote Democratic to praising police officers who let off speeders sporting "W" stickers -- but there doesn't seem enough time in the world.

Predictably, Lopez and her compatriots are up in arms over the California decision, declaring it another example of "judicial activism." From Lopez's keyboard earlier this evening:

Since when is there a rule that if a judge was appointed by a Republican, he can't be a judicial activist? (I'm just reacting to e-mails in "The Corner" here.) This, my friends, is part of the problem. And part of the concern among conservatives and those who read the Constitution, respect the law, and understand the separation of powers.

Of course, a large part of the problem is that conservatives like Lopez -- members of a party that once espoused federalism as a fundamental principle of small government -- are willfully blind to the fact that the decision in California (as in Massachusetts) is a matter of state constitutional law. And, no matter how much Lopez, et al, declare it, "separation of powers" doesn't define the judiciary as a body that should blindly mimic the actions of the other two branches.

Given past performances, I'm guessing Lopez and her fellow church mongers are just getting warmed up. I have a strange feeling that it's not going to work as easily for them this time around.

Did I mention I was born in California?

While I'm a Kentucky boy through heritage and experience, by an accident of the draft and the Vietnam war, I was actually born in California. Given today's big pro-marriage rights ruling, and Schwarzenegger's decision to uphold the court's decision, I'm tempted to claim native-son status from the state.

Wow. Everyone should bask while they can. This is a big, big deal.

Hello, Hillary. It's me, Sean.

If you were a better candidate, you would have run a better campaign. If you were honorable in your positions, you wouldn't attempt to change the rules that you agreed to when you realized you were losing. If you were even a decent candidate at this point, I wouldn't be cringing and yelling every time a I saw you or one of your surrogates -- please, God, make Terry McAuliffe go away for a long, long time -- appear on television.

Stop it. Stop it now. Otherwise, when the Republicans snatch victory with your gracious assistance, we'll know just who is to blame.

I'm gonna start drinking wine just to make a point

Just caught Lisa Caputo's shot about Hillary not being the type of person sipping "white wine" with the elite, and it just makes it even clearer that these people must go. Sooner rather than later.

Or, as Andrew says, "God, I hate the Clintons."

We really do deserve better, you know.

I wish I was an ordinary person

So Howard Dean's on MSNBC telling me how superdelegates are just ordinary people with a vote. Really? The superdelegates actually have two votes, and one of those votes counts more than the other. That ain't ordinary people, and don't try 'n tell me different cuz I'm onto you, Howard.

Gas bag

I was kind of planning to write a post on why even though rising gas taxes are having a negative effect on many aspects of my elite life -- they increase the money I have to pay to distribute Metro Weekly, they increase the money I have spend on food for my catering business, they put a huge burden on my family members in Kentucky and Indiana who drive more than 50 miles to and from work each way every day -- but frankly, I can't get motivated because the Clinton campaign is simply too depressing in its willingness to ask the American voter, "How big a check do you want for your vote?"

Obviously, I'm against the gas tax holiday for similar reasons as basically every living economist. But I'm just finding myself more and more depressed about the possible outcome of this entire election cycle and the fact that Hillary Clinton seems to believe that America as a nation is all about the lowest common denominator. I'm hoping that voters -- including my Hoosier family -- who are actually hurting from the current economic situation will resist Clinton call to naked, short-term self interest and cast their vote for a needed change in the way our political system is structured. I like to think they will.

It would be nice to be proved right, for once.