X-Tra Rant

My biopsy from my upper endoscopy came back yesterday. No sign of Barrett’s. So that’s a good thing.

Anyone want to go see Sigur Rós in concert with my on September 21st in Chicago? let me know ASAP.

This is just cool. Apparently, a big dust storm from the Saharan Desert in Africa went all the way across the Atlantic and is now over the Gulf of Mexico.

Just to show I am capable of admonishing liberals as well as conservatives, and that there are crazies on both sides of the aisle…

as much as I dig Operation Yellow Elephant, this particular post railing against Boy Scouts and mocking kids passing out from the heat is just asinine.

Yes, there are many problems in the Boy Scouts today, but 99% of Boy Scouts just do it because they want to go camping with fellow boys their age and have a good time. They get to learn outdoor skills, honesty, community service, helping others, teamwork, etc. Yes there are some in the Scouts that have taken the religious themes in it too far. There are some scout leaders who have acted reprehensibly towards the children in their charge.

But that’s no excuse to go mocking kids who just want to go camping and have a good time traveling and meeting other kids.

Grow up, Elaine. (Of course, anyone who’s Blogger profile includes the phrase “grew up on many observatory mountains and secret government testing grounds, burr under the saddle of the Real Rulers of America since childhood” obviously takes themselves way too seriously to grow up beyond mocking kids. Take off the tinfoil hat, please!)

…Republican Party.

Sen. Rick Santorum is one of the most powerful men in the Republican Party.

Sen. Rick Santorum believes, among other crazy things such as women should stay home and not work, that birth control “doesn’t work” and is “harmful to society…and to women.”

I don’t’ give a rat’s ass if he’s “voted for contraception” (a claim I’d love to examine in detail if I had the time) - anyone who pushes the extremist religious right wing belief that contraception is “harmful to women” does not deserve to be one of the most powerful men in government.

My, my, was that too negative? Too mean?

pfffft.

Guidelines to development on the Hollywood Operating System

Via Shawn

Official Survivor Congratulations! You scored 81%!

Whether through ferocity or quickness, you made it out. You made the right choice most of the time, but you probably screwed up somewhere. Nobody’s perfect, at least you’re alive.

And another test from the same site, this one via John Hoke

the Wit (73% dark, 26% spontaneous, 27% vulgar)

your humor style: CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you’re probably an intellectual, but don’t take that to mean you’re pretentious. You realize ‘dumb’ can be witty–after all isn’t that the Simpsons’ philosophy?–but rudeness for its own sake, ‘gross-out’ humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat. I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer. Your sense of humor takes the most effort to appreciate, but it’s also the best, in my opinion. Also, you probably loved the Office. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais

To all those “quit being so mean” Democrats out there, finally, the A #1 100% perfect explanation as to why it is pointless to keep trying to appease the bullies on the right and why it’s pointless to keep trying to be “more like them.” *cough*evanbayh*cough*

I’m only going to quite the “money quote” but I HIGHLY suggest you read the whole thing. Seriously. Now. Go.

My point is this. The DLC and the party can change all they want to try to conform to Republican expectations, but they’ll be missing the point.

A bully doesn’t bully to improve you. A bully bullies you because that’s what bullies do. If belittling your clothes is how they can make you feel small they’ll tell you those shorts went out last year. If denigrating your patriotism is how they can get more people to vote for them and not you, they’ll do that, too.

Bullies are what they are. It’s actually got very little to do with you.

yes yes yes a hundred times yes.

P.S. Iraq War vet & Democratic candidate for the Congressional seat in OH-02 Paul Hackett gets it.

From kos

In the face of a series of amendments by Republican Senators McCain, Warner and Graham that would have instituted new rules against torture, as well as other Republican-backed attempts to strengthen veterans benefits and delay base closures until after the Iraq War, Bill Frist has simply pulled the entire $450 billion defense bill from the Senate floor. Funding the troops now won’t be reconsidered until after the summer recess.
…
Replacing it is a Frist-backed bill to grant gun manufacturers wide-ranging immunity from any lawsuits arising from criminal acts in which their weapons are used — a move for which Frist is rightly being hammered, since the symbolism of pulling a defense bill for a right-wing corporate sop is just a little too obvious to parties on all sides.

Could you imagine the uproar if it was a Democratic Senate Leader who’d done this? It would be deafening. Ahh that damn liberal media.

Well, according to my Gastroenterologist I have “man eating reflux.” Means I’ll probably be on some sort of medication for it for possibly the rest of my life. He didnt’ say anything about ulcers though, so that’s good. But…

I possibly have Barrett’s. I’ll know for sure next week when the biopsy is back. This also means I’ll have to have this done like, once a year to check for esophogeal cancer.

Marvelous. :\

As for whatever goofenthols they put me on … yeowza. When they said they were giving it to me I started counting in binary in my head (a nervous habit) to see how the “conscious sedation” effected me. I got to about 10011 when I started losing the capacity, although don’t hold me to that (my memory of the whoel ordeal is really foggy). Yes I am a dork. Yes I used being sedated as an excuse FOR SCIENCE. Once I got home I slept for about 3 hours in the most deep sleep I think I’ve ever had.

I do want to say the people at the Indianapolis Endoscopy Center were really great and made me feel alot more relaxed than I would have normally.

So that was my day. How was yours?