Laser Eye Surgery: Getting my eyeballs replaced

As someone at work put it. I’m getting laser surgery (specifically PKR) done on my eyes tomorrow by Dr. Waltz of TLC of Indianapolis. I’m doing my traditional “Stress relief by just not thinking about it” form of denial, so I don’t freak out. It couldn’t possibly be worse than the surgeries I’ve already had. Anyways, I’m taking several days off work – tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday (with bonus MLK day on Monday) to hang out around the house. My eyesight is pretty darned bad, and in the last few years my allergies have made contacts a pain to wear on an all-day basis. I’m completely looking forward to not being near-sighted; to be able to see while swimming, shave my legs in the shower without guesswork, and see the alarm clock better in the morning.

On Monday, I went out with some friends and saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets, starring Nick Cage, with his toupee in a prominent but uncredited role. There’s a fellow that’s had some surgery – and not in a good way. You can tell he’s going for the “Indiana Jones/Harrison Ford rakish grin” in some scenes, but it ends up looking a bit like he has gas.

And I just finished up The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden, finally. That took me awhile, mainly because I just wasn’t into it after I got part way through. I gotta say, I did completely pooh-pooh the people who were dissing it as a sexist tome, but after reading it, I see what they were on about. There were several sections that really should have been written a bit less – I dunno, anti-feminine? It’s great to be all “rah rah” masculinity, but not at the expense of “rah rah femininity.” The sections on Famous Battles was great for getting me to fall asleep – if I’d been sitting in a class on it, I’d be at the back intoning “boooooooooorrrrrrrrrring!” under my breath.

Continue ReadingLaser Eye Surgery: Getting my eyeballs replaced

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Hillary is getting the bums rush

This go around, I decided to take some time to watch some of the candidates out on YouTube – listening to them speak versus what the media is saying. So for the past couple weeks I’ve been pulling up the Democratic candidates and watching what they say, then comparing to the news coverage of the same event. Here’s my conclusion:

The media are sexist, racist assholes with a (mostly right-wing) political agenda.

More sexist than racist, but they are both. The spin they put on stuff is bizarre, and completely subjective, and it’s the media pushing some sort of agenda, rather than letting candidates speak for themselves.

Especially the longer footage earlier in the same event, where there’s some utter jackhole with a big yellow sign that says “Iron My Shirt!” and he’s chanting “Iron My Shirt!” over and over at her. In 2008, for fuck’s sake. Why the fuck isn’t that the big story all over the news, rather than her crying? Come the fuck on – that’s the story. We have people in this country who are actually not afraid to go to a public event and act this way – tell me sexism isn’t alive and well in America. That should be shocking to anyone and everyone who sees it, but I see it getting almost no coverage at all.

Then watch the “crying” – she never actually cries at all. At worst, she’s getting choked up because she loves America. She’s not “having a breakdown” or “Too tired to campaign” – I’m sorry, but aren’t there times when you also get choked up about our country, because despite its flaws, this is truly a great experiment we are in. Hell, I get emotional every time I hear the friggin’ National Anthem. Hillary is made of iron compared to me, and I can kick your butt to Toledo.

Do yourself a favor, and spend some time watching the candidates themselves, rather than the “interpretation” of the news. You’ll have a lot more faith in the system and the potential than you have in the past, I tell you.

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Presidential facts in 2008

The stats, via Shakesville:

If you were ever in any doubt about the supremacy of White, Protestant Patriarchy in this culture, let’s do a quick review, OK?
232 Years as a Nation
42 Presidents
42 White Presidents
42 White Male Presidents
42 White Male Christian Presidents
41 White Male Protestant Presidents
1 White Male Catholic President (who was assassinated in office)
46 Vice-Presidents
46 White Vice-Presidents
46 White Male Vice-Presidents
46 White Male Christian Vice-Presidents
46 White Male Protestant Vice-Presidents

It’s definitely time for some change.

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Gee, that sounds familiar…

Remember a couple days ago when I said If it were up to me…. and I proposed a new way of doing the primaries that would be more fair? That post did get linked to by about 40 sites… but apparently not everyone likes to give credit.

Check this out on Shakespeare’s Sister:

It wouldn’t have to be hard. Divide the country up into five groups of states, starting with the 10 smallest, then next-10 smallest, and so forth. Run 10-state primaries every other week from the first Tuesday of February through the first Tuesday of April. If you want, put Iowa and New Hampshire in the first group for old-time’s sake. Craft a federal law that sets basic criteria for the primary: the value of each state in delegates, the means of apportioning delegates. Give the parties some input, but make this a federally operated election — meaning it’s time to eliminate caucuses, and replace them with primaries.

Dude, that’s uncool.

Continue ReadingGee, that sounds familiar…

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