A holiday in the city where the original Tea Party was held. It's not much of a speculative stretch to think the most extreme current tea party members imagines the tree of liberty needs watering on tax day. Of course that being said, why target the marathon and not, say, a federal office building? But whatever. A lunatic doesn't really need an excuse for their lunacy, it's us in the aftermath who feel the need to attach some meaning to the meaningless acts of madmen.

This is according to a Catholic version of the bible:



It's like they can't read their own book.

You really don't know what you're talking about if you think history is not alive in the present. If you truly believed that, you wouldn't have cited your family history or some of the events of your youth in the OP. History is alive in you and in us all; your OP proves you are living at least partly in the past.

Still, I'm glad to see him voluntarily both condemning his soul to hell and enshrining his historical legacy as one of the worst, most prejudiced judges to ever sit on the SCOTUS. Right up there with Justice Taney leading the way on Dredd Scott and Justice Brown on Plessy v. Ferguson, to be judged harshly for eternity.

the morning after the largest anti-war march in the country's history, and the local affiliates ran a total of 6 minutes coverage combined. They showed close-cropped shots of isolated people in costumes, not the swaths of chanting, angry citizens marching down Pennsylvania Ave. I was horrified at the non-coverage, though of course I wasn't surprised.

But I have some questions:

How come none of the people whose debt has been abolished have come forward? So far the only verification we have that this has happened is from Strike Debt, even though they say they've sent notes to the people whose debt they've abolished. Where are those people?

CNN reports, "The organization spent about $21,000 to purchase the debt, using money raised from supporters." Back in December, they claimed they were poised to retire $9,000,000 in medical debt having raised over $350,000. Where's the other ~$325K? Even accounting for operating expenses, why hasn't more debt been bought and abolished?

I hate to be so cynical about an organization that's trying to do good, but before I send money to anyone, I want to see some solid proof that they are run competently and have some kind of accountability. I've worked in non-profits my whole life and cannot believe these folks don't have people up their ass demanding to see their books.

The full quote is

“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.”

― Rebecca West, Mr Chesterton in Hysterics: A Study in Prejudice, The Clarion, 14 November 1913

This quote has been truncated for at least the three decades since I first encountered it. I've often wondered why it was shortened. I like to imagine it didn't fit well on a t-shirt in the '70s so they edited it slightly. But the cynic in me thinks it was shortened because it was so outrageously OTT for the time in which she said it.

I think I'll try this next time. I'm making another white wine pork stew tonight, pieced together from a few recipes I found online. Basically, I browned up the stew meat and set it aside. Then took 2T butter and sauteed a small onion, two chopped celery stalks, and about a clove of chopped garlic, and set aside. Put in about a 1/2 cup of white wine, a cup of chicken broth, and a can of diced tomatoes, and scrapped off the brown bits. Then I mixed another 1/2 cup of chicken broth with about 2T of flour, added it to the liquid; added all the rest of the cooked foods plus a few small potatoes, two cut-up carrots and the last of the parsnips from last summer's garden. Sprinkled in some Herbs de Provence and added a bay leaf, brought it all to a boil; covered it and brought it down to a simmer. It's still cooking and smells divine! I'll simmer it for an hour and see what it tastes like, might go an hour and a half. But I'm hungry, so it might get short-changed.

The Wall Street Journal agrees with me: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323874204578219563353697002.html?fb_action_ids=10151236848743303&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

Large bookstore closings may give new life to independent booksellers: http://www.policymic.com/articles/25026/as-barnes-noble-closes-stores-independent-bookstores-may-be-the-ones-to-pick-up-the-slack

And I like a quote I read on fb the other day, attributed to Stephen King. Paraphrased, it said that printed books were threatened by e-media the same way stairs became obsolete with the invention of elevators. I couldn't agree more.

I'm sure most people see military dogs as necessary for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to bomb detection and the mental well-being of human soldiers who have dogs in their units. These dogs save human soldiers lives in many ways, and as such, many of us are grateful for their inclusion in the ranks as they keep the nation's sons and daughters safer and healthier in dangerous situations.