Wow, that's just vile.
Who needs credit cards when you have a junior vagina?
Doesn't anyone w/ a clue work at any of the companies involved here? Sell your asses, girls! Charming.
________________
UPDATE: 12.12.07: Wal-Mart has pulled these idiotic things from the shelves! Way to go, feministing!
My fave pic from db's marathon TailgatePalooza w/ his college pals this past weekend. Not pictured: unholy amounts of fried chicken, 70,000 rednecks.
I ask you, really, what is an RV without a satellite dish on top?
[This one goes out to Dougie!]
As seen in Burlington, NC, on Friday. Had to swing back around to get this one. Ha.
Missed the Dem YouTube debate (though I caught the derision @ Wonkette), but I had the chance to catch the post-debate Q&A at johnedwards.com -- which I heard about directly from John Edwards on Twitter. Edwards' Twitter updates are 1) frequent and 2) worthwhile, and I have to admit I think it's a great idea for him to embrace this potentially fadish, now rampant technology, too. Edwards is the Dean of 08.
Anyhoo, he did a great job in answering the questions I heard. He was relaxed, respectful, even in tone, sincere, savvy, and straddled the line well between policy wonk and accessible to the rabble. He's never too wonky, never too flip. I was disappointed in his use of the phrase "secure the borders" in his discussion of immigration --man, do we need a new discourse in this country -- but his answer to the question about farm families/food distribution was amazing. It's astonishing how ill-informed dumbyass is. Though this is hardly news any longer, I cannot help but be astonished still.
Oddly (?), this exchange, sitting alone in a room reading from a computer screen the questions that folks submitted electronically (see screenshot), made Edwards seem more human. He was quiet, patient, possibly a little tired, and respectful of the queries he got. But then I'm predisposed to like him, unlike my coworker who, when I asked if Edwards had a chance in 08, looked at me w/ pity in her eyes and said, "bless his heart."
Oof.
A letter from America set me off, drove me out
on a white night in June through the empty suburban streets
among built blocks, cool as blueprints, too new to have memories.
The letter in my pocket. My unquiet raging stride a kind of prayer.
Where you are now, evil and good really do have faces.
Here, it's mostly a struggle between roots, numbers, transitions of light.
Those that run messages for death don't shy from daylight.
They govern from glass offices. They swell in the sun.
They lean over their desks and look at you askance.
Far away from that, I find myself in front of one of the new buildings.
Many windows merging into one window.
The light of the night sky and the swaying of the trees are caught there:
in this still mirror-lake, up-ended in the summer night.
Violence seems unreal
for awhile.
--Tomas Transtromer, "Out in the Open" (translated by Robin Robertson)
[photo: last night's sunset by db.]
Some visitors are slightly (sic) less welcome when we're engaged in our usual death match struggle w/ the yard. Treefrogs, slugs, toads, bluebirds, dragonflies, worms, and random yucky creepy crawlies all welcome.
Seconds before this picture was taken, I was lugging across the yard the rock underneath which this little lady was hiding/hanging out. Aaaiiiyy!!
Thank you, Ms. Black Widow, for not biting me.
Brrrr.
Off to grandma's for a visit -- a little lunch, a little running of errands, a dip in the pool. db's half-fish now, having spent about 112% of his time at the beach riding the waves like a porpoise. Bonus: no jellyfish stings this year! I'm not sure how the fair, healthily pink db managed to ward off the rays of the sun, which felt like it was hovering about 15ft overhead, though the fact that we bought out N. Myrtle Beach's supply of sunscreen level 5 trillion may have had something to do w/ it.
What's the opposite of bellyflop?
Unintended (?) consequences of backflop. Mm hmm.
Two quacks.
Now that's a handsome devil. And the guy's not bad either.
This is how I feel today.
Gray treefrog (?) sitting on our banister on Sunday. About 1.5-inches and crabby as the day is long. What a face!
Well, that's just perfect.
Driver ticketed for using biofuel.
Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
So last fall the Charlotte musician and guitar instructor spent $1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil. He bought soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, spending about 30 percent more than diesel would cost.
His reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels: a $1,000 fine last month for not paying motor fuel taxes. He has been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal government.
To legally use veggie oil, state officials told him, he would have to first post a $2,500 bond.
Teixeira is one of a growing number of fuel-it-yourselfers -- backyard brewers who recycle restaurant grease or make moonshine for their car tanks. They do it to save money, reduce pollution or thumb their noses at oil sheiks.
They're also caught in a web of little-known state laws that can stifle energy independence.
State Sen. Stan Bingham, R-Denton, is known around Raleigh for his diesel Volkswagen fueled by used soybean oil. The car sports a "Goodbye, OPEC" sign.
"If somebody was going to go to this much trouble to drive around in a car that uses soybean oil, they ought to be exempt" from state taxes, he said.
The state Department of Revenue, which fined Teixeira, has asked legislators to waive the $2,500 bond for small fuel users. The department also told Teixeira, after the Observer asked about his case this week, that it will compromise on his fine.
How magnanimous (and logical) of them. Sheesh.
A bumper sticker that read: FLIRT HARDER, I'M A PHYSICIST.
Thank you, Mr. Unassuming Physicist, for the best chuckle I've had in awhile.
