Dave's Verse

Sitting here watching a Buffy marathon. Its the beginning of the third season. So that means they have Sarah Michelle Gellar with at least three different shades of blond in her hair. And she looks a bit more in shape than when she does later in the season and especially in the rest of the series. Sarah Michelle Gellar's appearance changes quite a bit throughout the series. Its not always dramatic, but its certainly noticeable and I'm not quite sure why it happens so often. Maybe if I break it down something will pop up. In season one Sarah is at her heaviest, and when I say heaviest I still mean very small. She is about 5'3. So she isn't going to weigh much. But in season one she looks like a very healthy young woman. Her hair in past shoulder length and pretty dirty blond, certainly less blond than other seasons. I think Sarah was about 20 years old at this point. So her development as a woman is a bit ahead of the 16 year old Buffy she is portraying. I think this...

I didn't watch because Hollywood does too much in the way of masturbatory exercises. The only other institution that beats them is country music. Those people have a different award show every other month, and for music that sounds exactly the same across the genre and performed by people who look the same. I also haven't seen many of the movies that are nominated for the big categories. And that's the biggest problem, the elitist attitude of the academy that favors certain kinds of dramatic movies and performances over others. Yeah, Heath Ledger won for The Joker. But the academy throws us a bone every once in a while just to keep people from completely leaving. One of the movies that was getting a lot of Oscar hype was "Black Swan". I respect the director, Darren Aronovsky. Plus Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman are gorgeous. So I gave it a shot and it was good. Portman certainly deserved to win best actress. I also saw "The Fighter", which was also g...

Tonight in Memphis we had a tornado warning. The local news channels cut in to spend an hour telling us a tornado and sever thunderstorms were possibly coming our way. That was accompanied by tornado warning sirens used by local fire departments. I live about 10 minutes (walking distance) from the closest fire station. So it was really loud, loud enough to freak out my dogs and get them howling at it. Needless to say it was a very annoying act that violated the privacy of my home without my consent. Its not the government's responsibility to tell me when I should be concerned about the weather. That's my individual choice, and it shouldn't be made by unelected gov't bureaucrats. And my money shouldn't go to some person who belongs to a public union so he can violate my privacy and then use my money to bargain for a higher salary that increases my state's deficit. To top things off, one of the shows the local news completely cut into was "Community...

I think the whole situation in Wisconsin is a good microcosm for what is going on in the nation as a whole. A Republican is selectively targeting certain unions and not only trying to cut their wages and benefits, but also trying to take away their ability to collectively bargain. The governor claims this is about the budget deficit the state will face. But that is political spin to justify his real motive, which is to give rich people more money, which is the motive for the entire Republican party in this country. Governor Walker is doing this by cutting corporate tax rates at the same time he is cutting wages, benefits, and bargaining for middle class jobs. And he isn't targeting all public unions. He is leaving unions like the police and fire dept alone, two unions who supported him during his campaign. So instead of getting money from rich people who can afford it or from all unions equally, he goes after unions that are typically Democratic, unions that have already said t...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/17/AR2011021705836.html CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A federal judge on Thursday threw out a lawsuit brought by a man convicted of plotting terrorism and who alleged he was tortured at a Navy brig in South Carolina, saying a trial would create "an international spectacle." U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel ruled Jose Padilla, arrested as an enemy combatant, had no right to sue for constitutional violations and that the defendants in the case enjoyed qualified immunity. So this guy, an American citizen arrested in Chicago, can't even have his case heard. He might have been tortured, which is illegal despite this country's discussion on the issue. But he can't even be allowed to prove his case. Here is part of the judge's reason: "A trial on the merits would be an international spectacle with Padilla, a convicted terrorist, summoning America's present and former leaders to a federal courthouse ...

Following up on my last post about Republicans and their views on women, I wanted to highlight the fact that the House has voted to cut funding to Planned Parenthood. They are not hiding the fact that this is about stopping abortion. But the effect of their actions goes beyond that. And the consequences that result from those actions are why I maintain that Republicans don't care about women. In this instance it shows that they don't care about how their policies affect poor women. Planned Parenthood doesn't just do abortions. They provide contraception, counseling, cancer screenings, testing, and all sorts of things meant to provide health care to women. Even though PP performs abortions, they can't use the money they are provided by the federal gov't on abortions. That's because of the Hyde amendment which was passed in the 70s to prevent federal funding to be used on abortions. So this isn't technically about stopping abortions. Its about preventing P...

There have been quite a few stories lately about what states have been up to as they pass their budgets. Many of the stories have been about Republicans being creative in trying to get rid of abortion. As far as I can tell, most of them don't seem to have a good chance of passing. But this story about Texas and what they might do with education funding caught my eye, specifically this: Which brings us to choice two. Besides reducing services to children, Texas is doing as little as possible to help women — especially young women — avoid unwanted pregnancy. For one thing, it’s extremely tough for teenagers to get contraceptives in Texas. “If you are a kid, even in college, if it’s state-funded you have to have parental consent,” said Susan Tortolero, director of the Prevention Research Center at the University of Texas in Houston. Plus, the Perry government is a huge fan of the deeply ineffective abstinence-only sex education. Texas gobbles up more federal funds than any ot...