Just don't know what to do with myself

Actually, I do. I've got tons of cleaning to do. I have company coming over tomorrow and an office that Pant swore he was going to clean, but is still flooded with comic books all over the floor. But I thought I'd take time and procrastinate and give a few thoughts on things.

Hurricanes:
They suck. All of 'em. For many reasons.

IRA disarmament:
Let's hope this lasts for a while. I was listening to NPR and Terry Gross, I think, was interviewing an official who wouldn't tell her what actually happened to the arms. He kept saying that they'd been rendered unusable and that was good enough, he couldn't say more because of secrecy concerns. Well you know what? If the IRA hears that you've melted all of their arms, they're certainly not going to try to break into whatever storehouse you have these stockpiled in and steal them back. Just seems like they could have done a little counter-offensive with the PR there.

Bring the abortion issue to SCOTUS: (I describe partial-birth abortion here, so you may want to skip to the next item or quit reading altogether)
Bad idea if it's to repeal Roe V. Wade, good idea if it's about partial birth abortions with the vital exemptions made for minors and those births that would kill the mother or child. I'm not saying it's a good idea to kill babies. Period. But that's a choice I've made for myself. If some woman is out there and gets raped and doesn't want to be pregnant by that bastard and gets an abortion right away or takes the day after pill, I think she should have that option. Same goes for a woman that finds out the kid she's carrying is going to be stillborn, etc. I think it's just not a black and white issue and we need to allow for all of the grey out there.
And this is one issue where I don't think men should be allowed to vote or have a say what-so-ever. None. It's certainly not their bodies and only an issue that they will ever have to deal with second-hand, if that. I don't think that a 50 something old man who fucked up the majority of his early life and is now fucking up the country, who will never, ever be pregnant, or raped by anyone besides Cheney, should be able to tell me what to do with my reproductive system.
Having said all of that, however, I will definitely have children and wouldn't have an abortion. I do take precautions, which I think a lot more people should. I think birth control should be free, I don't care how obscene it is to have a condom dispenser in the high school, as long as it works, why should you? They're going to do it anyway, it's not encouraging them to have sex, that would be if we left copies of porn or kama sutras around the halls of learning.
As for partial birth abortions, I'm not sure what late-night television channel it was, but one morning, about 4 a.m. I saw one of these performed on TV. OH. MY. GOD. It was horrible. They take a lady who's pretty late term, full belly and all, someone who could probably be induced into labor right then and the baby would live, it'd be a premie, but it'd live and might grow up just fine. Anyway, they take this lady and go inside her and pull the baby out feet first. They pull it until just the head is still inside the lady. Then, they take a sharp instrument and stick it up into the baby's head where it's skull meets the neck and scramble the poor little baby's brains out. They can do this because the infant is still technically inside the mom when the head is in there. If they did it after completely removing the baby then it'd be murder. So you can see why this would be a bad thing. I mean, if you're that far along, why not just deliver it and give it up for adoption? It's not like you didn't have seven or eight months to think about it.

The White Stripes:
You two still rock the Kasbah and everything in between.

As for Cindy, mom of dead soldier, Sheehan:
Good for you. I don't care if people attack you personally or say that you're using your dead son's memory to advance your opinions. That's what the other side is doing, so it's only fair to fight fire with fire. We have the right to free speech, you have the right to tell the president of the united states that you don't like the job he's doing representing you. I hate that, for expressing your opinion and letting people know that you aren't for the status quo and that something's not right about the way things are being done, you are being punished. If it'd been a protest FOR the war, the protestors would never have been arrested, FOX would have just had them on their TV and the story would have been something about all of the support the nation has for bush junior or something and how great America is that people can express their opinion. The problem is that we're such a big country that not everyone can do this and we only get two or three people, like rice, Cheney, rove and the president's nanny telling him what a great job he's doing while millions across the world hate him and millions in his own country are starting to realize they've elected a leader that only makes monkey faces to cameras and speeches where he repeats himself over and over without actually telling you anything. Then there's the millions who hated him to begin with and are embarrassed to call themselves American because we didn't vote for the bastard and are ashamed over what he's doing to the country. That and we have the leader of the most powerful country in the world and he sounds like a first-grader from hicksville (and that's an insult to people from hicksville) who can't pronounce words! But, whatever, he's going to be our fuck-up for the next few years, so I'm just going to sigh and try not to get too upset over it, he's not worth it. When I travel abroad, I'll just tell people I'm from Canada.

Dogs:
One of mine is now AKC registered and the other I got for $10 at the animal shelter. I love them both. They're mine, you can't have them!

Flat, India-inspired sequined shoes:
Love 'em. I'm so glad that fashion is going back to flat shoes and that we can find something so comfy. Plus, who doesn't love a little taste of India? OK, my little taste is some sweet Naan bread, the tiki masala made me nauseous, but it may have just been that restaurant.

My brother's girlfriend:
I don't care if you two are moving in together, you're still not part of my family. I know all about how he broke up with you and how you cursed him up and down and your little pregnancy scare and how you treated him and then how you freaked him out enough that he took you back. You realize he's just using you for the sex and that he doesn't want to marry you, right? God, I hope he doesn't just marry you because you tell him to, because that's the kind of thing he'll do because he doesn't know better. You don't inspire him to be a better person. If you loved him, you'd tell him that he's gained to much weight (nicely) and you'd encourage him to go back to school or get a job that he loves. For whatever reason, though, he's keeping you in his life and on the off chance that you legally become part of our family, I'll be polite to you. But I'm watching you, one mis-step and you're out. No one mistreats my family. I've been watching Godfather movies, so I have tons of ideas of what to do with hoochie mammas that mistreat one of the family. You've been warned.