In My Copious Free Time

Chauvinism rears its ugly head

The following letter ran in the Glens Falls Post Star, the paper for a town a bit north of where I live. Kirsten Gillibrand was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2006 in the district that borders mine and while I couldn't vote for her, I followed her campaign closely and was very happy to see her win. This letter absolutely turns my stomach.

The Glens Falls Post Star
Published: Thursday, December 20th, 2007

Editor:

Regarding a story that appeared in The Post-Star on Dec. 6: "Rep. Gillibrand announces she is pregnant."

First of all, I must admit that I am a male chauvinist and that there are, thankfully, differences between men and women. There are many occupations suitable for women and their physical attributes. Carrying a weapon while serving in the Armed Forces and firefighting are not suitable lines of work for women to prove that they are physically equal to men. How many male police officers feel comfortable with a 100 pound female backup?

And now, I have to add serving in the U.S. House and Senate as an occupation that may not be suitable for women.

Ms. Gillibrand's current pregnancy makes a strong case for my opinion. Ms. Gillibrand was elected to serve her constituency, and while she is away from her elected office she cannot perform those duties. The taxpayers who were duped into voting for her will have to pay for her medical benefits. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, Ms. Gillibrand receives excellent health benefits, courtesy of her constituents. We will be without representation in Congress for a time leading up to and following the child's birth. There will be times when she and the new baby will visit doctors. You can add those days to the total that she will not be serving her constituents.

The current base salary (2006) for members of the House and Senate is $165,200 per year. I wonder if Ms. Gillibrand will do the right thing and reimburse the U.S. Treasury in the amount of $452.60, her daily salary, for each day that she is unable to perform her elected duties. For some reason, I doubt it.

RON BLACHUT

Queensbury

Best sarcastic political bumper sticker

Seen on a car this morning:

At least the war on the environment is going well.

"I'm in"

I figured this was going to happen, but hearing that it's official is...wow.  Say what you will, but this is MY senator, and she has done a fantastic job. In any case, this is going to be a very interesting campaign season.

My Garrison Keillor impression

And now, a poem for today...

Hard Rain
by Tony Hoagland

After I heard It's a Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
played softly by an accordion quartet
through the ceiling speakers at the Springdale Shopping Mall,
I understood there's nothing
we can't pluck the stinger from,

nothing we can't turn into a soft drink flavor or a t-shirt.
Even serenity can become something horrible
if you make a commercial about it
using smiling, white-haired people

quoting Thoreau to sell retirement homes
in the Everglades, where the swamp has been
drained and bulldozed into a nineteen-hole golf course
with electrified alligator barriers.

You can't keep beating yourself up, Billy
I heard the therapist say on television
to the teenage murderer,
About all those people you killed—
You just have to be the best person you can be,

one day at a time—

and everybody in the audience claps and weeps a little,
because the level of deep feeling has been touched,
and they want to believe that
the power of Forgiveness is greater
than the power of Consequence, or History.

Dear Abby:
My father is a businessman who travels.
Each time he returns from one of his trips,
his shoes and trousers
are covered with blood-
but he never forgets to bring me a nice present;
Should I say something?
                                          Signed, America.

I used to think I was not part of this,
that I could mind my own business and get along,
but that was just another song
that had been taught to me since birth—
whose words I was humming under my breath,
as I was walking through the Springdale Mall.

Oh, come on

From this story about a Northwest flight turning back due to "behavior of concern" on the part of 12 passengers who were taken into custody upon landing:

In addition, some passengers unfastened their seatbelts while the light requiring they be fastened was still illuminated, the official said.

The horror.

Upsetting

On Monday, I arrived at work to find someone who works for me crying. After coming into my office, she told me that one of her best friends had died over the weekend. The friend was 7 months pregnant, and amazingly, they were able to save her baby. She said they believed her death was the result of a blood clot. Shocking and so very, very sad.

On Wednesday night, I logged into CNN.com to see what was up in the world and came across a story titled "Woman dies in heat at Red Sox game." I didn't click on the link immediately, but it quickly dawned on me that this was the same person, so I watched the video. At no time did they mention a blood clot, or anything other than "her heart had stopped." But the clear implication is that it was heat related. I hoped the initial report about a clot had been wrong, because it would really bother me to think the media had twisted the tragic story of a young woman's death, of a man who lost his partner in life, of a fragile baby who would never know his mother, into something to boost ratings by connecting it to the already big story of the heat wave. No, I thought, it must not have been a clot after all.

So today I asked my coworker. Apparently everyone is very upset over the media angle. I didn't even know this woman, and I'm upset. Aren't there enough people who will die needlessly because of the heat without pulling this story into the mix? It's disgusting.

Truth in humor

"Apparently the reason they didn't release the information right away is they said we had to get the facts right. That's never stopped them in the past." --Craig Ferguson

(Thanks to deaklet)

Balls the size of Texas

Wow, I am blown away by this Tonight Show performance. Very raw.

When the President Talks to God

(Edited AGAIN to correct WORKING link to Bright Eyes performance after accidentally linking the Will Ferrell/ACT clip.)

And I thought I was sick on Monday

Karl Rove is on TV right now talking to the Federalist Society. I think I might vomit.

Paging Bobbi Brown

I'll get right on reading up on Harriet Miers ASAP. I don't know if she passes the litmus test or not, but she fails the eyeliner test.