jamie lawrence-howard • highly absorbent redundant and superfluous verbiage • clogging tubes since 9.1.98
well everyone else on the damn internet has weighed in on this, so why not me? my brief note at the end of yesterday’s blog notwithstanding.
i’m glad i waited to write this, because i have a bit more perspective now than if i had blogged about this, say, over the weekend, when, as one of my beloved former students used to say, “fire shot out of my ass.”
or “was shooting”. but that’s not the phrase she used.
Continue reading “terri schiavo”
so, with the recent spate of criminal judgments against rich and famous people, i’ve sensed a pattern and can conclusively say that guilt or innocence in the american justice system comes down to one thing.
perception.
and if you think about it, there are apparently hard and fast rules to govern your fate in this system. i’ve thought and thought, and i think these formulas work pretty well. what do you think?
Continue reading “justice in america”
evidently the social security people read my blog, because they have reversed course and decided to accept marriage licenses from straight people who got married in places where gay marriages occurred this past year.
i’m glad they listened to me. now maybe they can extend that logic and accept the gay marriages.
well, hopefully in my lifetime anyway.
first, i was whiny in yesterday’s blog. i was well aware of that. that’s why i blog. now i don’t feel so whiny about it. and thank you for bearing with me.
today, a couple of items that caught my eye and got my goat:
Continue reading “grr this and grr that”
short bursts of random stuff today, a day where i feel unfocused but will try to focus as much as possible.
as much as possible.
Continue reading “quick takes, random thoughts”
where to shop this year? try patronizing the businesses in bold on this list, which donated the majority of their money to democrats, and avoiding the others, which dontated the majority of their money to republicans.
i will even pledge not to eat at waffle house on my trip to florida this weekend. if you know me at all, you’ll know what a major sacrifice this is.
i can’t vouch for the veracity of this emailed list, so if you have any updates or corrections, let me know!
Continue reading “holiday shopping list”
apprehensive, by the way, because i’m off this afternoon to get my first non-cathy-rafanello new york haircut. i was so lucky to have her cut my hair all these years, and now she can’t because of carpal tunnel and all, and damn am i worried.
anyway, i’m thinking this morning about money, and how i make it, and how it makes me.
Continue reading “internal financial conflict”
i know it’s cheating, but here’s another great thing i got via email through the magic known as the internets.
here it is–“some things to do before the inaugural”, presented unedited.
Continue reading “cheating, i know”
there’s a great thread on the daily kos site about gay marriage and civil unions today. the gist of the argument is best stated by a poster named pastordan, a minister:
“I believe that God sanctifies the covenant made between two people, and the state legally recognizes that same covenant, whether made in a church or not. It’s one less piece of paper for me to sign, and one step toward a more equitable society for all of us.”
this seems so simple, so clearheaded. why isn’t this happening?
Continue reading “civil unions for all”
last few hours of work before the thanksgiving holiday. and what am i thinking about?
fingerprints.
Continue reading “fingerprints”
i’m an abc news fan. i think it’s a holdover from when they actually were the best in the business. and i have a very dear friend who was a producer at abc news, and she’s told me so many great stories of how they were the best and why, that i still watch them almost exclusively.
post-election, though, i’m taking a break from tv news. i was overdosed, and needed a bit of a break from it. so, news fast time.
but, while watching abc news pre-election, i had started to notice a conservative slant to their reporting. not so much as to compromise integrity, but subtle things. i wondered if ownership had influenced news decision making, or if it was an inevitable product of budget cuts and pooled coverage.
then today i read a story about an upcoming 20/20 story on matthew shepard that, while i haven’t seen it and thus have not finalized my opinion, has the potential to send me over the edge into full-blown rage.
Continue reading “abc news, reevaluated”
first in a series of short takes on various subjects. perfect for when i don’t have the energy or inclination to come up with a big statement.
such as today.
Continue reading “quick takes, random thoughts”
civil rights
by jamie howard
civil rights has come a long way since the turn of the century and before the turn of the century. i saw on 3-d where countries used to take rights away from people because they were black or because they were gay or because they were poor.
it doesn’t make much sense to me, but the history book says it’s true, so it must be true.
Continue reading “6th grade history, 2090”
“you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
or do you? most times you do, but sometimes the vinegar is necessary. but when?
Continue reading “honey and vinegar”
it’s been a weekend full of projects. the coffee soda always helps with that–i don’t normally drink beverages with caffeine (although i have nothing really against them…) so when i do it’s look out world. these are the thrills you get when you are 41 and boring. it’s come down to this.
so i’ll take a break from the furniture reclamation (we found a great hutch top on the street that makes an awesome bookshelf), the making of homemade mozzarella (astonishingly easy, you should try it), the general cleaning (kirk calls it “zipping” because i zip around the house like a maniac) and tell you about the day i voted for rev. al sharpton for president.
Continue reading “my vote for rev. al”
there’s a long article in this morning’s new york times about gay marriage. it seems that groups such as lambda legal are backing off pushing for gay marriage in the courts so they can try to regain rights taken away in the 11 states that passed anti-marriage amendments during this past election.
again with the pragmatism.
Continue reading “missing the point”
ronald reagan got everything wrong, as i’ve said numerous times already in these blogs. you could look it up.
except that he got the one big thing right. the soviet union and the cold war. say what you will about that rat bastard, and i do, he got that right, even when at the time everyone was telling him he was getting it wrong. he stuck with what he thought was right and it turned out to be right.
was he lucky? i don’t know. were we lucky? damn straight we were.
Continue reading “the big thing”
i just have to post this, because it’s so raw and so perfectly right. so here’s a bonus blog for today.
thanks to whoever wrote this because it says exactly what i think and expresses exactly how i feel.
don’t click on “more” if really rough language offends.
Continue reading “extra extra”
random snatches of babbling are driving me nuts.
dialogue heard in passing this morning: “i don’t agree with gay marriage, but it doesn’t matter if i voted for george bush because congress won’t pass the amendment anyway.” i’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of it.
this from someone who married someone who is not an american citizen.
Continue reading “intolerant of intolerance”
karl rove was on “meet the press” and various sunday shows yesterday. i didn’t watch any of them, as i’m still on my news fast. getting over the overload.
i did see a clip of him on fox news. i wasn’t watching fox news; some other channel ran the fox news clip. just to clarify.
and, of course, he claimed his mandate from 51% of americans and proclaimed that mr. bush would be hotly pursuing the passage of the anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment. it’s a priority.
you could have put money on that. but we were getting screwed by the democrats too.
Continue reading “two-sided demonization”