Enough to make your head explode

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/06/26/elizabeth-edwards-makes-l_n_53899.html

In a nutshell, I am utterly disgusted that Ann Coulter has a career. Obviously, she has a constitutional right to express herself. That is, she should be able to say whatever she wants, no matter how stupid and hurtful. However, what I cannot get over is the idea that there are scads of people who want so badly to listen to her stupid, hurtful self-expression that they are willing to pay her money (i.e. buy her books) to increase their access to her stupidity.


Since we live in some post-modern permutation of a capitalist democratic republic, the tyranny of the idiot majority prevails.

The Sickness

http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/05/24/de-anza-case/

Today, I am too upset and too painfully aware of my own stunted eloquence to even attempt to add anything to this ongoing discussion.  Thankfully, the comments on the above blog post say enough for me and everybody.

P.S.

I want to check out this fellow's page, as it seems pretty funny.

God bless you, Regina Hackett!!

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Lee Rosenbaum (aka CultureGrrl) is my bête noir. I think she represents everything that is wrong with contemporary arts journalism AND with the comme on le dit "blogosphere."

At any rate, I discovered that in April, my fellow U.C. Berkeley alum Regina Hackett went at her and, in a beautifully-written rejoinder (scroll down the page to see it), pretty much tore her to shreds. Huzzah!

Making myself happy

I guess this blog will only be my way of keeping track of the occaisional amazing things I find on the web.

It's kind of sad... I had so many lofty dreams about daily diatribes, well-reasoned and carefully crafted. Ugh. Who has time for that? I'm no Digby...

So, with that fresh realization, here are my finds for today:

Carolyn Maloney is a radical democrat!

My grandmother's advice to me was to take up zen. Little did she know I'd opt for sticky zen!

I'm going to Hell

All the good stuff I discover on the internet I invariably find while I'm at work, so today when I followed the links from Slate, I dragged a coworker over to watch this.

Now, I kind of think Will Ferrell is lame in the extreme, but this I LOVED!!!! My coworker and I agreed that we're both going to Hell for loving it as much as we did.

A few days later, we commiserated about our inability to explain to other people why it was so awesome. "You don't understand!" she says, in a hurt voice, "Her name is Pearl! She's drunk!"

IRS audit? E gad!

I got my tax return returned to me on Friday, with a note saying that I had filled it out wrong (that the numbers didn't match in two separate entries).

Now, I did not prepare my taxes -- my father did (I'm 25 years old and my Dad still does my taxes, I'm such a dweeb!). Apparently, it's all for the best, though, because for the life of me I can't find the two instances where the numbers don't match. I've been over the form a zillion times. I am tax form inept.

It all worries me, though, because of this: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/business/16tax.html

Do you think the I.R.S. is gearing up for an audit of my records? Will my tax form ineptitude make them suspicious? Not that it really matters, I guess, but I just don't think I can deal with the headache of an audit on top of everything else that's going on lately.


PS: My coworker recommends this blog: www.cupcakeblog.com. Awesome!

Whence the title

A girl that I work with recently told me that traveling with her father destroyed any lingering childhood illusions she once cherished about him. Apparently, when she was little, she believed that her father was an enlightened citizen of the world. However, when they went to Paris together for a week, he refused to eat any dishes he wasn't already familiar with, complained unendingly about the overarching uselessness of French people, and was generally intolerant.

"I always thought he was cultured," she said, "but then I realized he was just irascible."

"The one doesn't always preclude the other," I said. "In fact, I like to think I'm both."