schmoomom

• 07:38 morning my little Twitterites #
• 16:00 off to the aunt's house for a lovely evening! Dyeing class tomorrow at TIK! #
• 22:59 Long day, the toddler won't stop moving, EVAH. Looking forward to dyeing class at www.thisisknit.ie tomorrow #

pepysdiary

http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1665/05/17/

Up, and by appointment to a meeting of Sir John Lawson and Mr. Cholmly's atturney and Mr. Povy at the Swan taverne at Westminster to settle their business about my being secured in the payment of money to Sir J. Lawson in the other's absence. Thence at Langford's, where I never was since my brother died there. I find my wife and Mercer, having with him agreed upon two rich silk suits for me, which is fit for me to have, but yet the money is too much, I doubt, to lay out altogether; but it is done, and so let it be, it being the expense of the world that I can the best bear with and the worst spare. Thence home, and after dinner to the office, where late, and so home to supper and to bed. Sir J. Minnes and I had an angry bout this afternoon with Commissioner Pett about his neglecting his duty and absenting himself, unknown to us, from his place at Chatham, but a most false man I every day find him more and more, and in this very full of equivocation. The fleete we doubt not come to Harwich by this time. Sir W. Batten is gone down this day thither, and the Duchesse of Yorke went down yesterday to meet the Duke.

mollydot

• 13:38 talked to kitchen guy and door guy today. Hopefully plumber tomorrow. Thinking maple kitchen cabinets and oak doors. Pine can be too "busy". #
• 23:15 @bluedevi: unexpected fireworks are the best. #

pamshouseblend

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PamsHouseBlend/~3/292488924/showDiary.do

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5428

This morning, the school put on an annual school festival:

Religious events calendar

International Festival, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. today and noon-7 p.m. Sunday, St. John Baptist de la Salle Catholic Church, 16555 Chatsworth St., Granada Hills. Free admission.

Well, apparently just as the event began at 11:00 AM, a man with a rifle came in and wounded three people. From the Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle:

A man with a semiautomatic rifle opened fire at a festival outside a Southern California church Saturday, wounding three people, one of them critically, police said.

Shots rang out shortly before 11 a.m. outside St. John Baptist de la Salle, a Roman Catholic church in Granada Hills, Officer Norma Eisenman said. Bystanders tackled the man and held him until he was taken into police custody, she said.

"He was tackled by an off-duty Burbank police officer" and taken into custody by Los Angeles police, she said.

The gunman wounded three people, including a female who was shot in the elbow, Eisenman said. Two people were taken to a hospital in stable condition and one was in critical condition, she said.

And, I just heard on the TV (from a KTLA reporter) that the shooter apparently was the father of one of the Catholic School's children. KTLA reports:

[More after the fold, including why my Dad liked that neighborhood for his children.]

Los Angeles City firefighters reported that a man in his 30s or 40s was hit, and taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition.

A 14-year-old boy was hit in his leg, and suffered a serious injury. Los Angeles Police spokesperson Norma Eisenman said a third victim was also hit, but firefighters could not immediately locate that person in the panicked crowd.

Back when I was in the twilight of my Navy career, and heard about the 1999 shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center -- that was a hate crime that injured three young boys, a teenaged girl, and a sixty-eight-year-old female receptionist. That shooting happened at a facility that was about a mile-and-a-half from that same Granada Hills home where I grew up.

In the late sixties and in the seventies, Granada Hills seemed a safe little bedroom community. At least it felt safe to me. Yet today, when shootings happen at a Catholic Church near my childhood home, and within past years a shooting occured at the Jewish Community Center near my childhood home -- and children/youth were the victims of these two crimes -- somehow it's hard to see that community in which I grew up as still being a safe community for that child I was. The old neighborhood just doesn't look safe for minority groups members, and my then being a femminine acting, pre-out transsexual child would have left me feeling like a vunerable minority group member.

Ironically, before my Dad died he told me we moved into that neighborhood in large part because it was a mixed race and faith neighborhood -- my Dad didn't want his children to grow up prejudiced against minority groups. To see this latest shooting in my childhood neighborhood is pretty disconcerting.

.

pandagon_net

http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/05/17/ted-kennedy-hospitalized/

I posted about this on a thread at my place, but wanted to post it here in case folks had heard any more developments.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy was rushed from his Hyannisport home to Massachusetts General Hospital this morning after an apparent seizure. One government official said the 76-year-old senator suffered a second seizure aboard a helicopter transport flight from the Cape to Boston.

Kennedy’s Senate office released a written statement just after 2 p.m. today offering the first official confirmation, saying, “It appears that Senator Kennedy experienced a seizure this morning. He is undergoing a battery of tests at Massachusetts General Hospital to determine the cause of the seizure. Senator Kennedy is resting comfortably, and it is unlikely we will know anything more for the next 48 hours.”

…The Cape Cod Times published a photograph of Kennedy, strapped to a gurney, being carried onto the chopper by paramedics.

BOSTON, MA- Senator John Kerry today released the following statement in regards to Senator Edward Kennedy. Senator Kerry is currently at Massachusetts General Hospital with Senator Kennedy and members of the Kennedy family.

“Ted Kennedy is beloved and respected on both sides of the aisle in the Senate in which he’s been a giant for close to half a century, a legend in Massachusetts, and a dear friend to me and Teresa. He’s also been a fighter who has overcome adversity again and again with courage, grit, and determination. Teresa and I are praying for Teddy, Vicki and all of his family and we know that everyone in Massachusetts and people throughout the nation pray for a full and speedy recovery for a man whose life’s work has touched millions upon millions of lives.”

pandagon_net

http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/05/17/good-old-republican-obama-edwards-fag-baiting-wapo-op-ed/

The Republican stupid - it burns. From Kathleen Parker’s column at the WaPo:

Well, at least they didn’t kiss.

I was bracing myself for the lip lock Wednesday when John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama.

Don’t look at me. David “Mudcat” Saunders, Edwards’s former rural adviser, came up with the idea, saying Obama should kiss Edwards on the lips “to kill this 41-point loss,” referring to Hillary Clinton’s landslide victory in the West Virginia primary.

Instead, the two men exchanged a manly air-hug to commemorate the moment when Edwards threw Clinton under the upholstered sofa on his grandmama’s front porch.

It’s tough to list all the things that make this column so mind-crushingly stupid, but let’s give it a shot:

• Parker begins the column by calling Edwards and Obama fags.

• Then, not having the courage to stand by this novel and poignant insight, she claims that it wasn’t her idea to call them fags, but was instead the idea of one of Edwards’ advisers. But hey, they’re still gay homo fruits who like to take it up the homobutt.

• Next, she pulls out the oldest trick in the Wingnut Punditry Bible: she lectures us about what Real Americans think! Never mind that she’s spent her entire working life on the Wingnut Welfare circuit - she’s got her hand on the pulse of The People, baby!

• And what do Real Americans think, you ask? Why, they’re apparently super-duper happy about the state of the country! Even though, like, 85% of them are dissatisfied with the direction of the country. And even though Bush’s approval rating stands at a sterling 28%. And even though the Republicans just lost a goddamn seat in freaking Mississippi.

pamshouseblend

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PamsHouseBlend/~3/292400972/showDiary.do

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5424

Well, at least they didn't kiss.

I was bracing myself for the lip lock Wednesday when John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama.

Don't look at me. David "Mudcat" Saunders, Edwards's former rural adviser, came up with the idea, saying Obama should kiss Edwards on the lips "to kill this 41-point loss," referring to Hillary Clinton's landslide victory in the West Virginia primary.

Instead, the two men exchanged a manly air-hug to commemorate the moment when Edwards threw Clinton under the upholstered sofa on his grandmama's front porch.

It's tough to list all the things that make this column so mind-crushingly stupid, but let's give it a shot:

• Parker begins the column by calling Edwards and Obama fags.

• Then, not having the courage to stand by this novel and poignant insight, she claims that it wasn't her idea to call them fags, but was instead the idea of one of Edwards' advisers.  But hey, they're still gay homo fruits who like to take it up the homobutt.

• Next, she pulls out the oldest trick in the Wingnut Punditry Bible: she lectures us about what Real Americans think!  Never mind that she's spent her entire working life on the Wingnut Welfare circuit - she's got her hand on the pulse of The People, baby!

• And what do Real Americans think, you ask?  Why, they're apparently super-duper happy about the state of the country!  Even though, like, 85% of them are dissatisfied with the direction of the country.  And even though Bush's approval rating stands at a sterling 28%.  And even though the Republicans just lost a goddamn seat in freaking Mississippi.

pandagon_net

http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/05/17/compulsive-heterosexuality-its-on-your-permanent-record/

This is extremely bizarre. A Staten Island high school has banned girls from the prom if they don’t have a male date. It’s a girls-only school, which probably means that proms generally have a huge number of girls and not that many guys. Maybe the principle is pitying the boys at the prom, feeling they shouldn’t be outnumbered. There’s other speculations.

“That makes sense only because it probably controls the chaos,” Valente said. “You know you’re there with somebody, you’re less likely to go crazy.”

So, there’s a grave danger of high levels of squealing and circle dancing. I say, good practice for the weddings the principle presumably wants them to have in the future.

By the way, explanation for the academicese in the title: compulsive heterosexuality isn’t just about compelling people not to be gay. It’s about the social pressures to perform heterosexuality that are put on everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. Even if you’re straight, you can be subject to this pressure if your straightness doesn’t conform to the get married/have kids/participate in the rituals of American heterosexuality. And so a straight girl who is banned from the prom because she wanted to go with girl friends instead of a date is getting smacked with compulsive heterosexuality, as is the lesbian student who is now banned from going with her actual date.

This article also drives home how high school is, no matter how the music and fashions change, stuck in this bizarre time warp. For example, this quote:

Added New Brighton resident Mimi Quillin: “That’s really sad, because I thought we’d just gotten to the point where boys and girls, if they wanted to do it stag, alone, whatever, they could do it.”

Emphasis mine, because the word “stag” is a shining example of the real world anachronisms of high school culture. Now it’s gender-neutral, which is ironic because the term “go stag” is a very early-t0-mid-20th century phrase that described young men who attended events like proms without dates. (I suspect young women were both not allowed and not willing to go to these events alone, because of the social shame or danger. Correct me if I’m wrong.) In the context, the word “stag” tended to denote events where men hung out in male-only groups. Stag dinners and stag parties come to mind, where they showed stag films (i.e. porno). The fact that men in the past would get together in groups to watch porn amuses me. I mean, I guess we still have some kind of stag parties like that, but most porn nowadays is consumed in private.

But I digress. The point is that no one in the world outside of high school uses the term “going stag”, except as a joke. It’s a dead piece of slang. But still used unironically in high school. High school is just an anachronism-loaded time. Your textbooks seem to think history ended sometime after the New Deal, the marching band plays the greatest hits of decades before to be hip and with it, and at least when I was in school, most everyone is driving a car of the vintage persuasion, because their parents couldn’t or wouldn’t spring for more.

By the way, we’re going to Houston overnight, so if your comments aren’t getting moderated as fast as usual, don’t freak out.

pamshouseblend

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PamsHouseBlend/~3/292357885/showDiary.do

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5426

* MSNBC: Sen. Ted Kennedy airlifted to hospital for undisclosed illness, WHDH reports

* CNN: Sen. Ted Kennedy is rushed to a hospital in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a Democratic source tells CNN.

If folks find links, post in the comments.

John Kerry released this statement (came in my inbox at 3PM):

BOSTON, MA- Senator John Kerry today released the following statement in regards to Senator Edward Kennedy. Senator Kerry is currently at Massachusetts General Hospital with Senator Kennedy and members of the Kennedy family.

"Ted Kennedy is beloved and respected on both sides of the aisle in the Senate in which he's been a giant for close to half a century, a legend in Massachusetts, and a dear friend to me and Teresa. He's also been a fighter who has overcome adversity again and again with courage, grit, and determination. Teresa and I are praying for Teddy, Vicki and all of his family and we know that everyone in Massachusetts and people throughout the nation pray for a full and speedy recovery for a man whose life's work has touched millions upon millions of lives."

pamshouseblend

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PamsHouseBlend/~3/292317969/showDiary.do

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5423

The first controversy is over the unclear representation of minority bloggers in the state blogging corps. Francis L. Holland: Jim Crow Blogging at the Democratic National Convention?

I'm concerned that virtually all of the state blogs selected by the Democratic National Committee to cover Denver are white. Of course, it remains possibly that one of these white blogs will bring a Black person along as a blogger. But, Black bloggers and voters are not willing to wait until we arrive in Denver to find out whether a group of virtually all-white blogs will also send a group of all-white bloggers to Denver. We strongly suspect that we already know the answer, and it is totally unacceptable to us. Do any of these all-white blogs even have any Black bloggers who might participate? That's something we need to know before Denver.

This isn't the first time this issue has been addressed.  When Bill Clinton met in Harlem with an all-white group of bloggers, Black bloggers were furious and Clinton's campaign never recovered. The Clinton campaign had insulted and alienated the very Black bloggers corps that it most needed to reach out and round up support from voters in Black communities.

By the way, I can happily report that BlueNC, the progressive state community blog in my state, where I regularly post, will represent Tar Heels, though I won't be attending under the BNC credential.  There won't be black representation in the state blog at the convention; the person and alternate on the list to go for BNC are white. Not that I have a problem with the two folks slated, because they are extremely well-versed in state issues, certainly more so than I.

Not that I lack concern about minority representation in state blogs, particularly given the history of inattention to the contributions of black blogs in the broader political discourse in the blogosphere (and that painful Bill Clinton "whiteout" blogger luncheon in 2006 mentioned above), but many of the state blogs are community blogs. It's hard to tell, unless people self-identify, who is a minority.

Now I applied only as part of the general pool because the fact is that community blogs like BlueNC, with multiple contributors of various backgrounds and specialties re: state politics, are more logical choices than a national, issue-oriented blog like PHB to represent the state. While I blog about NC issues some of the time, usually in the context of LGBT and race issues, that's not the overall purpose of the state blogger slot for the DNCC, as I see it - for whatever that's worth.

BlueNC is the blog most suited to represent NC progressive interests generally at the convention, and as I said, I do blog for BNC, so it's not as if there isn't any minority voice there. The bonus of being a credentialed state blog is that those selected will have floor access to that state's delegation, so a healthy diverse representation on the blogs is not unimportant.

As a candidate in the general pool, which will be announced at the end of the month, I think that list will probably generate even more heat than the release of state blogs, given the volatile nature of the blogosphere "A-List" -- and "everyone else" conflicts that erupt from time to time.  I do, however, believe that the list will show better representation by bloggers of color and other groups in the general pool. I hope that I make the cut.

More below the fold.
Celtic Diva, of the Alaska state blog chosen to go to the DNCC, Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis, made similar observations to mine about the state blog situation.

You can also see that most of them were very focused on state issues as well as national politics...many having or referring to their state in the name of the blog. The blogs chosen from the bigger states (generally) were the slick, multiple-contributor websites as they are the most-read blogs.

...I don't know how I could authoritatively declare that "there are" or "are not" any "black blogs" in the 50 State Blogger Corps when the ethnicities of many (if not most) of the contributors are impossible to determine based on a one-time or short-time viewing.

Of course, one had to apply or be nominated to be selected in the first place. I know that the two other blogs that applied to represent Alaska were not owned by people of color. Heck, the owners of the most popular blogs in the state...the ones that everyone thought would be chosen...didn't even apply because their work and family schedules prohibited it.

Cotton Mouth has been the only progressive political blog covering Mississippi's politics at the federal, state and local levels since it started May of 2007.  It had more posts than any other progressive Mississippi political blog and had far more original content than any other Mississippi political blog.  That content included original reporting on events, analysis, aggregation, original video, exclusive candidate authored posts and a solid and consistent defense of the Democratic Party of Mississippi.

...We've had 33 posts so far THIS WEEK.  The Natchez blog has had 24 posts so far THIS YEAR.

...Again I would like to point out that we do not hold any ill will toward Casey Ann