Let me just say, there is a certainly amount of sadism in scheduling meetings after lunch in the quietest office building on the planet. The first time I went there, I was fighting to stay awake, but thought maybe I just hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before. But last week, while sitting in someone's cramped cubicle while they droned on about their agonizingly ancient software, I realized this building was Ali-kryptonite - and I was about to pass out.
I started fidgeting with a vengeance, frantically swinging my chair back in forth to fight off the sleepiness. For a second, I thought I might even prevail.
Then my traitor body shut down for 2 seconds, and I toppled off my chair.
I don't know what the weirdest part was - that the people who saw me didn't realize it was because I fell asleep, or that most people in the room didn't seem realize I fell off my chair. But seriously, does anyone know any good speed dealers? I have a fucking reoccurring meeting with these people, and I'm getting desperate.
In the news...
NYT: Immigrants Rally in Scores of Cities for Legal Status
Being a New Yorker, of course my first reaction to a huge protest a few blocks away was damn, that's sure going to screw with my commute tonight... but honestly, I hope it works out. These people all have jobs - we obviously have an economic need for them. With all the problems in America today, we shouldn't be spending our energy trying to track down gainfully employed, law-abiding people who just want the chance to earn their way. That being said, I wish they were politically astute enough not to wave foreign flags like an invading army.
WASHINGTON POST: Bush Authorized Secrets' Release, Libby Testified
"If the disclosure is true, it's breathtaking. The president is revealed as the leaker-in-chief," said Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
I'm sure by now you all know the story about how Bush (surprise! surprise!) authorized the leaking of classified information just to get back at a critic. I'm still a little shocked that after all the bluster from the Bush administration, they were unable to contain this disclosure... but I'm mostly worried that the Democrats will continue to blow every God-given opportunity to wipe the mats with the G.O.P. The President is proven to have actually have abused access to classified information to prop up his lousy rationale for invading Iraq, and the worst the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee can do is "leaker-in-chief"?! It's so disheartening, I kinda want to cry...
NYT: 'West Wing' Writers' Novel Way of Picking the President
My last consolation, a White House better-run by screenwriters, has finally come to an end. (Though not really for me, since I watch the show on DVD and therefore can prolong the hallucination for years to come!) But the best part of this article is of course Martin Sheen, who seems to still have common sense even when his lines aren't being written for him:
Not long ago, [Sheen] said, he was approached by Democratic Party representatives from his native state, Ohio, to see if he would be interested in running for the United States Senate after he left the show... he turned them down.
"I'm just not qualified," he said. "You're mistaking celebrity for credibility."
In a world of Sean Penns and Jesse Venturas, how amazing is it that an opinionated actor, whose job for the last several years has been to portray the president of the U.S., actually understands this does not qualify him to run for office? Not that most of the non-actors are more qualified (see above article), but still...
NYT: Pro-Life Nation
"When we get a call from a hospital reporting an abortion," said Flor Evelyn Tópez, "the first thing we do is make sure the girl gets into custody. So if there is not a police officer there, we call the police and begin to collect evidence."
Doctors in El Salvador now understand that it is their legal duty to report any woman suspected of having had an abortion. Abortion rights advocates point out that Salvadoran law also spells out a conflicting responsibility: the doctor's duty to keep the patient's medical information confidential.
I think what terrifies me about the South Dakota law banning abortion is how it devalues the life of the mother. I don't think women of my generation really understand that we could honestly lose this right - at least I don't think I always do - and exactly what that means. Learning that in El Salvador victims of rape and incest are prosecuted for the repercussions of sex they did not choose to have - how can anti-abortion activists believe this is moral? (I think the worst part of this article was when a doctor reported a girl she suspected was being abused by her stepfather - because she honestly thought that was the best course she could take for her. Hadn't the poor girl been subjected to enough already?!) The law is taken so seriously there that doctors are forbidden to operate on ectopic pregnancies until either the fetus is dead or the fallopian tube ruptures - to protect a pregnancy that isn't viable in the first place. Obviously, the life of a woman can't be worth that much if you're willing to risk doing her harm for a fetus that won't live anyway.
The question even conservatives don't want to answer - if you outlaw abortion, who gets punished when women are desperate enough to try anyway? Are they willing to put away rape victims, or poor women unable to afford another pregnancy? Do they understand they'll never end the practice, but simply drive away people who so badly need help?
NYT: U.N. Finds That 25% of Married Syrian Women Have Been Beaten
With a statistic that terrifying in the headline, what more can you say?
NY DAILY NEWS: Rape suspect blamed 'bad judgment' - DA
"I made a bad judgment. I'm going through some stuff," [the suspect] told a detective in a police car, according to prosecutors.
Don't you just hate those times of your life when you're feeling kinda down, and happen sexually assault four teenage girls? Now, there's a big oops...
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