More tangential references to Friday afternoon blog-reading.

This is an article about how the McCain campaign dreamed up Sara Palin's line about Obama palling around with terrorists. (Shocking? Wait, but wasn't she on the campaign? At least sort of?)

But more important: the article references a book by a gentleman named Dan Balz.

DAN BALZ!

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This just in from the Department of Stretching Metaphors Way Too Far

Way too far.

Obama and Hitler have a great deal in common in my view. Obama and Hitler use the "blitzkrieg" method to overwhelm their enemies. FAST, CARPET BOMBING intent on destruction. Hitler’s blitzkrieg bombing destroyed many European cities - quickly and effectively. Obama is systematically destroying the American economy and with it AMERICA.

To whit: Obama's steady stream of 'post-partisan" denial and mediocre policy non-stances is leading us to national socialism and, well, genocide?

As to the link itself, if you follow it: is the Baltimore Sun not the most bootleg-looking website you've ever seen? It is as bootleg as the Orioles mid-80's uniform, which I always thought was a gorilla holding a baseball bat.

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bad haircut

I have a job interview tomorrow, so I decided I needed to get a haircut. I head over to some spot on Beverly after work, and the guy is like, "Regular sideburns?" Yes. Regular sideburns please.


"I'm here for my job interview."



I want to take this moment to send a shout out to Gracie. Not that she reads this. But no one but Gracie has really cut my hair for about three years or so. Except once or twice, my ex-girlfriend did. And last winter, I cut my own, which was a disaster of its own, resulting ultimately in a complete shave of the head. Hence my reluctant trip to the barber shop today.

But now I have learned my lesson and I will never see a professional hair cutter again. I will only have Gracie cut my hair.

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Shock. Disgust. Horror.

I'm sitting here eating, reading an article, and I look over to the windowsill, and there is Rakim just very purposefully licking Eric B.'s ass for like, a minute and a half.

I felt like someone dropped me in the middle of a Nas album.

Fellow cat-parents: how to deal with this? Normal? Not normal? Creepy? Creepier still because as a result of MJ's death, I've realized that Eric B. has his eyes from "Thriller."


WHOA WHOA WHOA: While trying to find a link for the Nas reference above (and only finding pornography), I found out that Nas and Kelis are getting divorced.

Kelis, if you are out there, my phone number is 213 210 4683.

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Hating on someone else's President for once.

Via Feministing, I thought this was a good article on Sarkozy's desire to ban the burqa in France.

Excerpt:

So now we have a bigger picture: Muslims as a "misbehaving" minority group, an ongoing war on terror and related distaste for all things Muslim, wide-spread discrimination against Muslims (1 in 3 Muslims in Europe have reported discrimination), desire to maintain a culturally homogeneous society, and, finally, a fascination with another man's progress. Put together, the something else is revealed: by highlighting the oppression of Muslim women Sarkozy is giving people in France more reasons to do what France is already doing pretty well - marginalizing its large Muslim minority.

Anyway, I should admit that I find the burqa a bit unsettling by sight, but I also find this sort of religious censorship suspect, and wrong-headed.

Two other quick notes: If the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in modern history is tied in part to forced secularization in the Middle East and forced secularization mixed with underclass status in European Muslim immigrant communities, then this sort of move seems counterintuitive even if you can get around it being racist. (Obviously it goes without saying that the greatest contributing factor to the rise in Islamic fundamentalism is a hatred of our freedoms that God made for the United States of America on the Sixth Day of Creation, but I guess there are also other factors.)

Second, check out those staggering numbers on Muslim incarceration in France. They looked at our numbers on African American men and started feeling competitive. Truly appalling.

Also, the "sartorial hijab" page on Wikipedia is interesting to look at if you're interested in being able to distinguish between, say the burqa and the niqab.

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this is a non sequitir.

Works great as motor oil!

Tastes sort of like bread-paste, if memory serves.