Who I am…
I am a lawyer, former mother of teenagers, and a quixotic seeker after and champion of factual truth.
I make the best damn brownies you have ever had that are not regulated by the federal government.
I love movies, Broadway, and intelligent conversation.
I think in song lyrics and movie and television quotes.
I believe in the use of proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar even in text messages. I am willing to debate the use of the Oxford comma, if you know what the Oxford comma is. It also makes me very happy if people use the subjunctive mood when appropriate.
I have been told I intimidate people. I am really just a fluffy-centered teddy bear. Really.
- It's all my fault. No, really. The views expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone and in no way whatsoever represent the views of anyone else, including any past, present, or future employer.
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Words to live by ….
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8.
“Pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living.” Mary Harris (“Mother Jones”).
“Don’t boo. Vote.” Barack Obama.
“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” Reinhold Niebuhr.
“No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We’re always one of Us. It’s Them that do the bad things.” Sir Terry Pratchett.
“Damning facts are still facts.” Steven C. Holtzman.
“If you don’t stick to your values when they’re tested, they’re not values — they’re hobbies.” Jon Stewart.
“Darkness never sustains, even though it sometimes seems it will.” Doctor Who.
“Writing is a form of mischief.” Stephen Sondheim.
“An idea is not responsible for the people who believe it.” Don Marquis.
“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” Joseph Campbell.
“Truth is our strongest ally, our biggest weapon, and our best defense.” Me.
“Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Stephen Colbert.
“The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation.” Jonathan Larson.
“We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger.
We rise and fall, and light from dying embers
Remembrances that hope and love last longer.
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love;
Cannot be killed or swept aside.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda.“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” Emma Goldman.
“No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett.
“I believe that the God who made (among other things) light, and space, and number, and time, and the spiral curve of Fibonacci numbers, must be acknowledged to understand more than I do about why there’s pain in the world.” Teresa Neilsen Hayden.
“No, it’s not fair. You’re in the wrong universe for fair.” John Scalzi.
“Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.” Lawrence O’Donnell
“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.” Molly Ivins.
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Category Archives: Social Issues
Yet more evidence that the world has gotten to be a much smaller place….
…. and yet, at the same time we are farther away from each other than ever. I am sitting in a Starbucks in Palo Alto, California, IMing with the Rocket Scientist, who is thousands of miles away on Devon Island … Continue reading
Amid the political back and forth about the health care mandate on my Facebook a few days ago, someone slipped in a piece about how conservatives give more to charity than liberals. I made myself read the article, even though … Continue reading
Even stormtroopers have mothers.
It’s been a hard year. Part of the pain thus far has been the death of two people in my circle of acquaintances, friends and relatives. They were not people I was really close to, and I know as I … Continue reading
Class warfare, part deux.
I never watch Fox News. I don’t even get to watch the Daily Show or the Colbert Report or Rachel Maddow that much, which is where most of the people of my political stripe tend to get their exposure to … Continue reading
Nonjustifiable violence.
I haven’t been listening to a lot of country songs in the past few years, so have missed a lot of music I might have otherwise enjoyed. I wrote in the last post about Miranda Lambert’s “Gunpowder and Lead.” I … Continue reading
PETA does it again.
I can’t tell whether to be amused or infuriated by PETA’s latest legal manuever: they have filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Diego claiming that the orcas at Sea World are being held in violation of the 13th … Continue reading
Pretty and beautiful.
Taylor Swift is pretty. Very pretty. Very pretty in a traditional Hollywood way. And she sings very well. She is fresh, and pretty, and her music — the admittedly small amount I’ve heard of it — is full of energy. … Continue reading
Closets — and attics — can be lonely places.
In his talk at Stanford, Judge Alex Kozinski decried the extent to which so many of us live our lives in public these days. We have lost a sense of what it means to be private, he mourned. As examples, … Continue reading
What about the girls, Mr. President?
[Warning: rape/suicide triggers.] “As the father of two daughters,” Obama said. “I think it is important for us to make sure that we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine.” There was this girl. … Continue reading
Facts matter on both sides.
If you have a Facebook, and you have friends who are of the liberal/progressive/Democrat persuasion, you may have seen the post that claims “Congressional Republicans have introduced dozens of bills on social issues and other topics, but ‘zero on job … Continue reading
Open letter to the Occupy people
Dear everyone occupying everywhere (in the US): Great. I am all behind you. I am glad you are taking the initiative to bring important matters to the world’s attention. There are a couple of other things you could do for … Continue reading
Factual accuracy is a good thing; making stuff up isn’t.
Remember I had that post about how someone wrote a heart-filled response to that “53%-er” picture going around Facebook? Butster Blonde at persephone.com ran the numbers. Basically, it boils down to: this person is either phenomenally lucky, or, much more … Continue reading
Class Warfare?
It only becomes class warfare when we fight back.Seen all over Facebook.Occupy Wall Street is spreading. It is spreading to cities as far apart as Detroit, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Minneapolis. Chicago. Hilo. That would be Hilo, Hawaii, as far … Continue reading
It’s been twenty-four hours since I found out, and I still can’t believe it. I expected the ban on partial-birth abortions to be upheld. I was hoping it wouldn’t be, but I thought the chances with the new make-up of … Continue reading
Just a thought…
Whenever anyone starts decrying the fact that those numbers about the monetary value of the work that stay-at-home mothers do are just so much hooey,* and that the real problem is that working mothers are never paid enough to “make … Continue reading
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