Is a CIA Recruit Training Kit toy really necessary? Really?
I was in a toy store picking up a few things for our son’s birthday tomorrow, and when I saw this, I just had to catch it on camera.
Does anyone think that the CIA is all about playing infrared tag? This is what we’re telling our kids now?
(shaking head)
I’ve been noticing an upsurge lately in the frequency of some Republicans referring to the Democratic Party as the “Democrat Party.”
It’s not the Democrat Party. It’s the Democratic Party.
A member of the Democratic Party is a Democrat.
I don’t know what the right-wing imagines might be gained by referring to the Democratic Party as the Democrat Party. The far right seems to think that this terminology works as a pejorative. It doesn’t. It just makes you sound a little bit stupid, and not in a way that makes anyone want to hang out with you.
It’s just silly.
I’m grateful that no-one on the other side seems to have fallen for any mirroring. The “Republic Party” is even more absurd than the “Democrat Party.”
I’ve heard this a lot lately, even on relatively reputable news programs.
What baffles me is why no-one ever seems to correct the person who says it. They just let it slide, and I suppose it’s meant to affect us in some subliminal fashion.
Word to intelligent Republicans, talking-point authors, and assorted blowhards: It doesn’t work.
Inside of insidiously slithering into our minds, it only just makes the speaker seem even more annoying.
Time to retire it.
This has been a public service announcement.
This photo has been haunting me for days.
The audience wanted to celebrate but it was a stern – and brilliant – inaugural speech.
I watched it in my office break room. It wasn’t my first choice for a location, but at least I got to see it with other people. Aretha Franklin! Yo-Yo Ma!
And that rascal Roberts trying to get him to flub! He even skipped the part about protecting us from enemies, both foreign and domestic!
But – wiping a tear and sighing happily – I’m so glad.
From now on – I vow to extend a hand also…. if you will unclench your fist.
That’s not weakness, but a very singular kind of strength.
It was a “gird your loins” speech, which makes me think that he’s gotten some information that we don’t yet know, even given everything we already do know.
But I can’t be apprehensive today. I’m too glad in my soul.
Congrats to Barack Obama – and to America. A new day has come.
Wow – thanks for sending, Peggy!
Click for full image.
The Westboro Baptist Church group was stationed in Atlanta at the corner of Chamblee Tucker Road and Henderson Road, a block or so from the church where the funeral was being held. Their signs said things like “God Hates You,” “America is Doomed,” “Pray for More Dead Soldiers” and various other anti-government and anti-gay sentiments. One sign portrayed stick figures wearing Santa hats and engaging in anal intercourse. This seems pretty typical, judging by some of the photos on Flickr. 
Drivers couldn’t really see the Westboro group until they were right up on them. This is very near a highway exit. It was really interesting to watch the cars going by. I got a few thumbs up and smiles. They got a number of shouts and some old-fashioned flipping off. However, most of the people in cars were either studiously pretending not to see what was happening or talking excitedly on their cellphones.
It was actually pretty low-key as these things go. DeKalb police guarded the entrance and exit to the church, and the demonstrators were about half a block away. If you came in for the funeral on Henderson Road, you wouldn’t even have seen them. I suspect that it was a different sort of scene at the other, probably more prominent, Atlanta event at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church – maybe that’s why the demonstrators here were mostly female. They didn’t seem to have a serious interest in personally provoking anyone at this particular event. They laughed and jeered a little, but it was very easy to disregard them, partly because I stood on the corner across the street on Henderson (on the same side of the road on Chamblee Tucker).
It was a little scary for me at first and I was shaking for the first ten minutes or so, but then it got better when I started focusing on love. I let my favorite songs of love play in my mind, and I imagined beaming with healing, caring energy. It was wonderful.
My sign was clearly a home-made sort of thing, just one of the big posters we use for my son’s school projects. The details at the bottom probably weren’t readable at a distance, but that’s all right.
I was the only one there with an alternative message. I maintained silence and simply held the sign up to cars driving by.
On my way home, I passed the officers guarding the entrance and exit of the church where the funeral was being held. Knowing why they were there, I slowed and gave them a thumbs up. To my surprise, they returned the gesture! That felt really… really good – an unexpected thing.
Thank you to everyone who helped me decide what was best.
It was very much worth doing.