Jay Lake: Writer

[links] Link salad watches the Child hit the boards

Skungy Art. “Surfing the Gnarl.” Read Feb 7, Feb 11. — Rudy Rucker on (among other things) the February 11th reading in San Francisco, where K.W. Jeter and I will be sharing the stage with him.

Author C.J. Marsicano is running a Kickstarter campaign to get a book out — Go check it out.

Penguin Further Narrows Library Access, Suspending Availability of Audiobook Titles — Hmmm. (Via danjite.)

25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore — (Via willyumtx.)

The Hill Approach — Seth Godin on creativity.

The Story of a Suicide — Two college roommates, a webcam, and a tragedy. Tyler Clementi and Dharun Ravi.

Brains may be wired for addiction

Blood test accurately distinguishes depressed patients from healthy controls — Interesting. (Via @jackwilliambell.)

The Secret of Ant Transportation Networks — Just how ants create the highly efficient network of trails around their nests has never been fully understood. Now researchers think they’ve cracked it.

With Risk, Japanese City Takes On Once Accepted Fact of Life: Its Gangsters

Restored Edison Records Revive Giants of 19th-Century Germany — Talk about your obsolete formats… (Via my Dad.)

A case study of the tactics of climate change denial — But notice what he’s done. He’s taken what is clearly a minor point and blown it up as if it’s my main point. He’s used shady words (predictions, models) to cast aspersions, and to make someone (me!) look bad. Then, by “refuting” this minor issue he can then poison the well, strongly implying that all my arguments are wrong. That’s kind of a big no-no when trying to argue a point. But it packages well. A pretty neat summation of typically wrong-headed conservative discourse on a lot of issues.

Happy days are here again — Roger Ebert on Newt, Mitt and the evolution of political party nominating conventions. Entertaining and interesting bit of history, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum.

The Invincible Nobility Of The Middle Class — Ta-Nehisi Coates on a modern political meme promulgated by both major parties. But the implication of a middle-class patriotism holds that the poor do not work hard, and do not play by the rules. Their poverty is a moral stain. It’s rather sad to see ostensible progressives reinforcing this message.

The Politics of Cancer — This Komen-Planned Parenthood business is one of the more disgusting maneuvers on the part of the conservative movement. I am beyond appalled. Bluntly, the Right has made it clear that they find it preferable for poor women to die of cancer than have any potential access to abortion. A stark indictment of the forced pregnancy movement.

Romney: Context for me, but not for thee — Typical Republican. “Do as I say, not as I do.” Romney brags about mining Obama quotes deeply out context, but protests the unfairness when Gingrich does precisely the same thing to him.

Bush beats Obama’s deficit spending by 5 to 1, but Romney targets the wrong guy to whine about — Much easier to complain about a black Democrat that acknowledge the Republican party’s responsibility for its actions when last in power.

Mitt Speaks. Oh, No!

Blending politics and religion, Obama says his policies are an extension of Christian faith — Ok, I find this kind of thing alarming whether it comes from Republicans or Democrats. This is a secular nation in a secular world, and rational thought should be the basis of our governance.

?otd: What’s the last game you played?

2/3/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.0 (solid)
Weight: 230.2
Currently reading: The Man in the Moone, and Other Lunar Fantasies ed. Faith Pizor

Tags: Books, Cancer, climate, Conventions, Culture, healthcare, Japan, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Science, Tech

Posted: 6:35 am Fri February 03 2012 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad joins the Center for the Easily Amused

Five Authors + Five Questions : Goals — Shimmer‘s blog on various writers on various issues. Including me.

Philip Glass on style

Darwin Day — Portland celebrates the Antichrist one of the heroes of modern science on February 12. (Via threeoutside.)

DNA Turning Human Story Into a Tell-All — Humans and Neanderthals and Denisovans, oh my. I especially liked this bit: [O]ur modern era, since H. floresiensis died out, is the only time in the four-million-year human history that just one type of human has been alive. (Thanks to Dad.)

Steampunk Pocket Watch Winds Via Solar Power — So to speak… Some neat lateral thinking here. (Via markbourne.)

Experts Build Crab-Like Robot to Remove Stomach Cancer — Huh. (Via danjite.)

How Neutrino Beams Could Reveal Cavities Inside Earth — Commander Laforge to the bridge.

Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest subglacial lake

Team to investigate underwater ‘UFO’ – is it sunken ships or Millennium Falcon? — Duh, of course it’s a life size replica of a completely fictional starship. At the bottom of the ocean.

Far side of the moon filmed by Nasa spacecraft — One whole face of the Moon can never be seen from Earth because it does not spin on its axis, meaning we always have a view of the same side. Umm… stupid much?

Bill legalizing same-sex marriage passes Washington state Senate — Someday fairly soon, opposition to gay marriage will have all the social panache and credibility as opposition to interracial marriage, and for much the same reason. This shameful bigotry will be the province of bitter, aging cranks, largely behind closed doors.

I Don’t Care About Your Invisible Jeebus — But from where I stand these days, the only thing I see religion doing in the public sector is gay bashing and telling women, mostly poor and desperate and in deplorable financial and personal situations, what to do with their bodies. I see busybodies deciding what drugs they can dispense to which customers, or deciding that they don’t have to issue a marriage license because of some petty deity that I don’t believe in told them to hate their fellow citizens and ignore the law.

Indiana Senate passes bill putting religion in science class — Conservative America: driving all our children deeper into ignorance every year. Yet another of the myriad reasons I can never be conservative, and honestly don’t understand how any thoughtful, self-aware person can be.

Teleprompters are stupid … only when Obama uses them — Ah, conservative “logic”.

The Conservative Backlash That Isn’t Coming — Some thoughts from conservative commentator Daniel Larison. I will observe that since no one in the GOP seems to remember the eight years of the Bush administration, preferring to blame the disastrous outcomes of his governing on conservative principles on Obama who inherited Bush’s mess, how could there be a backlash?

Have Democrats Succeeded in Pre-Destroying Romney? — A conservative leaning narrative complaining about the Democrats using the same tactics that have been so successful for the GOP these past decades.

?otd: Are you ever bored? Why?

2/2/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.5 (solid)
Weight: 227.2
Currently reading: The Man in the Moone, and Other Lunar Fantasies ed. Faith Pizor

Tags: Cancer, Cool, Culture, Funny, gay, healthcare, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, Science, steampunk, Tech, Washington, weird, Writing

Posted: 6:32 am Thu February 02 2012 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad lingers over its cereal

Paying Tribute: The Stars My Destination — Ty Franck on Daniel Abraham’s blog.

The self-epublishing bubble — (Snurched from @lilithsaintcrow.)

Pythons linked to Florida Everglades mammal decline

Little Ice Age was caused by volcanism

Russia blames radiation for space probe failure

Toward a New ‘Prime Directive’

While temperatures rise, denialists reach lower — The WSJ OpEd makes a lot of hay from having 16 scientists sign it, but of those only 4 are actually climate scientists. And that bragging right is crushed to dust when you find out that the WSJ turned down an article about the reality of global warming that was signed by 255 actual climate scientists. Ah, ideology: trumping facts in the conservative mind since 4004 BC.

The Condom’s Cousins — Health care coverage is one horse that the Church has chosen to ride in order to protect its belief in the sanctity of its beliefs. Sex, rather than God, is its focus. If God’s perceived commandments on how one deals with one’s fellow man come into conflict with the Church’s opinion on sex, its opinion on sex wins out every time, irrespective of the effect it may have on fellow man.

The Austerity Debacle — Haven’t we learned a lot about economic management over the last 80 years? Yes, we have — but in Britain and elsewhere, the policy elite decided to throw that hard-won knowledge out the window, and rely on ideologically convenient wishful thinking instead. “Ideologically convenient wishful thinking” pretty much describes most of the conservative mindset these days, at least on the budget, jobs, climate change, foreign policy, etc.

Brewer Has History Of Getting Facts Wrong — In the past, when Brewer has been confronted about inaccurate statements, her first move has been to maintain she was right no matter how clear the matter was. Republican to the bone.

Wash. Post’s Parker Wildly Distorts Charitable Giving Of Obama, Romney — Because when you’re taking the GOP party line, facts don’t matter, the message does. Even flat out lies like this pass unchallenged in Your Liberal Media.

Trillions in tax cuts — The Republican presidential candidates claim to abhor debt, yet propose tax cuts that would add trillions more. Supply side economics hasn’t worked yet, but why stop believing in it now? Who said New Math was dead?

Election angst hits Hill Republicans — What amazes me is that for most of my adult life, the GOP has had fantastic party discipline. Since about 2006, that seems to have really weakened. Not that I’m complaining about anything that undercuts the toxic conservative agenda, but I find it surprising.

Kansas Speaker O’Neal asks House GOP to pray for Obama’s death — Stay classy, GOP. It’s what you do best.

The Grover Norquist “Impeach Obama” Fantasy — [T]he Republicans wanted [Clinton] removed from the first day he took office, and that they were not waiting for a crime so much as they were waiting for the moment when they had the votes to do it. (That this is a monumental act of contempt for the people who elected him their president should not concern us here, because it apparently never concerned the Republicans.)

Why Gingrich is a Liability to Down-Ticket Congressional Races — And the GOP establishment continues to dog pile on poor, misunderstood Newt.

?otd: Got milk?

1/31/2012
Writing time yesterday: 2.5 hours (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.0 (solid)
Weight: 228.6
Currently reading: The Man in the Moone, and Other Lunar Fantasies ed. Faith Pizor

Tags: Books, climate, Culture, ebooks, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Science, sex

Posted: 6:14 am Tue January 31 2012 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad has one foot on the platform

Ten Bits of Advice Writers Should Stop Giving Aspiring Writers — nihilistic_kid is wise.

The Sky is Falling – Not — Richard Parks on the state of the short story market.

I will be a guest at World Steam Expo, May 25-28, Dearborn, MI — Along with G.D. Falkesen, Gail Carriger and Cherie Priest.

Author D&D Game — Myke Cole reports on the misadventures at Epic Confusion. Brent Weeks on the same.

Lewis Hyde on work vs. labor and the pace of creativity

What if there were another advanced species? — A little AH courtesy of your morning news.

Cute storm trooper photos — Really. By my friend JD Hancock.

Penguin with Russian aircraft — I love the photos x planes has been running lately.

Seattle museum gets ‘keys’ to shuttle trainer from NASA — Wait. “Bypass the Rocky Mountains.” What?

Eternal Monuments Among the Stars — Centauri Dreams on a new approach to SETI.

Scientists at MIT replicate brain activity with chip — Scientists are getting closer to the dream of creating computer systems that can replicate the brain. (Via @Mari_Kurisato.)

Dog skull found in Siberia is 33,000 years old – and hints that man’s best friend didn’t come from one single ancestor — Arf.

100 years of the war on drugs — From the British perspective. (Snurched from @amendlocke.)

Yes, We Have No Tomatoes — Portland’s indoor gardening shops sell all you need for homegrown medical weed—except advice. Ah, the hypocrisy of the War on Drugs.

Muslim Men Rescue Bagel Shop And Keep It Kosher

Graphic of World Military Spending (Iran’s too Small to Show up) — Defense spending isn’t really an issue that ignites me, but this does make me think.

Scalia: Blame Congress For My Decision To Turn Campaign Finance Into The Wild West — I don’t think so, Justice Knucklehead. Coincidentally, the free spending money enabled by the Citizen’s United decision overwhelmingly favors Republicans. Who knew? (Via @twilight2000.)

Arkansas Democrat’s cat killed, painted with “liberal” — Stay classy, conservative America. It’s what you do best.

Could A GOP Victory In 2012 Mean The End Of Roe v Wade? — Remember, the GOP is the party that doesn’t want the government to come between you and your doctor.

Mitt Romney’s Father Palled Around With Saul Alinsky — Oops. Newt’s got his boogeyman doubled down.

Romney, Interrupted — Way to go, Mittens.

?otd: Where is this train bound?

1/25/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hour (Sunspin revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.75 (solid)
Weight: 226.2
Currently reading: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

Tags: Antarctica, Conventions, Cool, Culture, Food, healthcare, Links, nature, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Process, Science, Tech, weird, Writing

Posted: 6:30 am Wed January 25 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad is chilly

A reader reacts to Mainspring — Including a comment on my author photo.

Mid-career surgeons ‘are safest’

Alone Again, Naturally — Some good stuff in this article. Also some pretty annoying generalizations about male behavior.

Gaming Tablet Suggests New Form Factor

Where the Trees Are — You can actually see Oregon’s Willamette Valley in this image, if you know what you’re looking for.

The TSA Posts Its ‘Top Good Catches Of 2011′ List, Not One Of Which Is An Actual Terrorist — Sigh. (Via danjite, who also sent along the sigh.)

Businessmen and Economics — Really, business and economics are not the same thing.

Appeals court affirms order blocking Oklahoma sharia law ban — A federal appeals court upholds a 2010 ruling preventing the implementation of an Oklahoma constitutional amendment that would bar judges from considering international or Islamic law in decisions. Hey, look, a brief moment of sanity from our court system! I’m sure the Supremes will smack this down in due time, unfortunately.

Huntsman would pose big threat to prez, experts say

Why Rick Santorum Can’t Just Say: God Doesn’t Want You To Be Gay — Gay rights and the collapse of pseudo-secularism. An interesting analysis of the religiously-sanctioned bigotry of Senator Frothy Mix. (Via scarlettina.)

Can Romney be more than an opening act? — He’s not actually pulling a lot of votes yet, he has the advantage of a split opposition.

Romney’s Dreadful Inevitability: How Did It Come To This? — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison mulls Romney.

?otd: Is it cold where you are?

1/11/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (work related evening social function)
Body movement: 30 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 7.25 (fitful)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

Tags: Books, Culture, healthcare, Links, Mainspring, nature, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Tech, Travel

Posted: 5:26 am Wed January 11 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad reports in from Omaha

jimhines is funny about award nominations

Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt — Claude Lalumière makes it into Language Log.

Anne Lamott on writing and reading

Giant tortoise ‘extinct’ for 150 years found on remote island

Newly discovered carnivorous plant devours underground worms — I for one welcome our new vegetable overlords.

Is 2012 the year to hang up the phone?

Greenland’s Ice Is Growing Darker — More of those pesky, liberally biased facts. To the Rushmobile!

The Myth of Japan’s Failure

Five things we learned from back-to-back debates — The effort in this article to spin Santorum as somehow supportive of the LGBTQ community is just painful. Your Liberal Media, reporting the facts as the GOP makes ‘em up.

South Carolina test: How GOP rivals could derail a Romney coronation — There’s little suspense in New Hampshire about who will win the primary there. The answer is Mitt Romney. South Carolina, meanwhile, could decide the tenor of the rest of the race.

Santorum Reminds Everyone Why He Can’t Win — Senator Frothy Mix is still at it.

?otd: Traveller time a you are?

1/10/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (1,500 first draft words on a novelette)
Body movement: 30 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 9.0 (fitful)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

Tags: Awards, climate, Culture, Japan, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Process, Science, Writing

Posted: 5:54 am Tue January 10 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad with a low key day

‘Portlandia’: Straight outta Portland

Why Men Need To Cheat — Interestingly, this entire article on men and sex is really making a strong case for polyamory without ever using the word or explaining the concept. Ah, the magic power of embedded assumptions.

Top tips on women for Stephen Hawking

Rare Gorilla Encounter — American wildlife photographer sits in awe and disbelief as a troop of wild Ugandan mountain gorillas coddle and groom him.

Tomorrow’s office, imagined in 1969

If them neutrinos are faster than light, physicists have a lot of work to do

Why can’t we use lasers as ray guns? — Mmm, laser-cooked bacon.

This Girl Snuck Into a Russian Military Rocket Factory — Some bad ass photos here. (Via mlerules.)

Iran welcomes ‘humanitarian’ rescue from pirates

Why Tornadoes Take the Weekends Off in Summer — Not just anthropogenic climate change, but anthropogenic weather change.

Priscilla Of Boston Spray-Paints Unsold Wedding Gowns To Keep Them From Grubby Poor People — Classy, very classy.

Report: Federal workers ‘pressured’ to approve citizenship papers — Anecdotally speaking, everyone I’ve ever known to go through the citizenship process (including the_child, as a 1-2 year old) has had pretty much the opposite experience: endless and seemingly pointless delays and weird make-work bureaucratic impediments.

Food Stamp President — Ta-Nehisi Coates on Gingrich and Santorum’s recent racist idiocy.

Frothing at Santorum — Bill Shunn rants, very much along my line of thinking.

Bain, Barack and Jobs — Mr. Romney and those like him didn’t destroy jobs, but they did enrich themselves while helping to destroy the American middle class. And that reality is, of course, what all the blather and misdirection about job-creating businessmen and job-destroying Democrats is meant to obscure.

Self-Styled Conservatives Run the GOP, Except When They Don’t — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison with a fascinating discussion of the GOP nominating process from a far right point of view. I always find him interesting, though sometimes he’s way off base, like his recurring contention that Bush was not a conservative. So far as I can tell, that’s the “No true Scotsman” fallacy in action, as Bush was a self-identified conservative elected by conservatives who governed from conservative principles in the most disastrous presidential administration in modern history. He sure as heck was no liberal, progressive or moderate. To claim now he wasn’t a conservative is a cowardly effort to wriggle out of responsibility for horrendous failures of conservatism under Bush.

?otd: Caper much?

1/7/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.5 (fitful)
Weight: 215.2
Currently reading: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Tags: climate, Cool, Iran, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Portland, Russia, sex, Tech, Videos

Posted: 7:47 am Sat January 07 2012 | Comments(5) |

[links] Link salad sits at the bar and puts bread in your jar

The Darth Vader Burger is Here — (Via my brother.)

Airline pilot startled by flying shark — Life imitates, uh… I got nothing. (Via David Goldman.)

The Apollo 11 lunar landing, told through data.

The Greatest Paper Map of the United States You’ll Ever See — Made by one guy in Oregon.

Center produces chimeric monkeys — That’s a hell of a headline. Interesting story, too.

Indonesia’s underwater masters of disguise — Meet the fish that mimics the octopus that mimics scary sea creatures.

Google Earth’s Lessons in Wave Mechanics — A close look at Google’s virtual globe reveals almost unlimited examples of the way waves behave.

X-37B spaceplane ‘spying on China’ — America’s classified X-37B spaceplane is probably spying on China, according to a report in Spaceflight magazine.

Extinctions from Climate Change Underestimated — Hmm. Actual hypotheses from actual data. I’d better tune into Rush Limbaugh to clear my head of these pesky facts.

L.A.-area bishop, father of two, resigns

I Was Shitting You People – A Message From Ayn Rand — Ah, satire. (Via danjite.)

Gay couple win suit over names on birth certificate

The Irrelevance of the Broccoli Argument against the Insurance Mandate

Magna Carta and Wingnut Legislation — I can understand, if not agree with, the conservative impulse to require all legislation to state its Constitutional basis. (I disagree simply because there are far too many issues in modern government and society which are not explicitly, or even implicitly, contemplated in the Constitution. Like many beloved conservative talking points, it’s a simple-minded attempt to solve a complex problem that doesn’t really exist.) But the Magna Carta. Really, guys? Is there a “nuttiest GOP politician” contest going on?

Here’s What Romney’s Unreleased Tax Returns Almost Certainly Hide — Every major presidential candidate for decades has released their tax returns routinely. Not Romney. Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along.

Santorum Becomes Millionaire in Six Years After U.S. Senate Loss — Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum describes himself on the campaign trail as a frugal man of faith and limited means. Right, Senator Frothy Mix. Limited means. And Mitt Romney is unemployed, while Newt Gingrich is middle class. What kind of idiot do you have to be to believe this crap? (I know, the question answers itself.) Not that I object to wealth in politicians or anyone else. I do object to blatantly false claims.

Rick Santorum claims same sex marriage is comparable to polygamy — Santorum is a fool and a moral leper. The more I learn about this man, the more I despise him. And mind you, this in a race where Newt is running.

Rick Santorum’s Google problem remains — As well it should, given his despicable comments on the gay community. I for one am happy to continue to support “Santorum” search results defined as “The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex”. It’s the least he deserves. See also spreadingsantorum.com.

?otd: Man, what are you doing here?

1/6/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.0 (fitful)
Weight: 214.2
Currently reading: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Tags: China, climate, Cool, Food, gay, healthcare, Links, nature, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, Tech, Travel, Videos, weird

Posted: 6:16 am Fri January 06 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad plans travel

Honesty and depression — Mur Lafferty on mental health.

A Future History — Centauri Dreams with a history of space exploration yet to come.

Ohio earthquake was not a natural event, expert says — Frack, baby, frack.

Dallol – The World’s Weirdest Volcanic Crater — (Via danjite.)

Hairy-chested crabs seen in Antarctic deep-sea vents

First Hybrid Shark Found — The first-ever observed hybrid may be a sign the predators are adapting to climate change.

Wildlife find path to safety under US roads — (Via the Infrastructurist.)

Canada-US border crossed by man using iPad as ID — Huh.

It’s Over — Writer and war veteran Myke Cole on the US withdrawal from Iraq.

Top Tea Party Republican admits it: We’ve been employing hostage strategy — And that’s why people vote Republican: they value good, principled leadership.

Campaign Countdown: Final Report — The Iowa caucus results, in case you missed it elsewhere. Eight votes. Wow.

Three Republican Bears and none Just Right

?otd: How many US states have you visited?

1/4/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.25 (fitful)
Weight: 211.6
Currently reading: Daughter of the Sword by Steve Bein

Tags: Canada, Cool, Culture, Iraq, Links, nature, Ohio, Personal, Photos, Politics, Science

Posted: 6:34 am Wed January 04 2012 | Comments(3) |

[links] Link salad lazes

History of Science Fiction — And here’s one for sci-fi geeks: Artist Ward Shelley’s hand-drawn flowchart tracks the literary genre’s 2,500-year legacy, from nascent roots in mythology to the post-Star Wars space operas of today. I object to characterizing space opera as somehow a post-Star Wars phenomenon, but that’s a headline writer problem. The chart is weirdly cool. (Via Curiosity Counts.)

The Law of Online Sharing — Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg will eventually have to deal with the fact that all growth has limits.

Hashtags’ mission creep — Language Log with more than you ever wanted to know about #hashtags.

Disruptions: Norelco on Takeoff? Fine. Kindle? No. — You can shave during takeoff and landing?

Lie of the Jungle: The Truth About Cheeta the Chimpanzee — The truth about Cheeta? Also, an interesting story about publishing. (Via danjite.)

Smokin’ hot island rises up from depths of the Red Sea — How, um, Mosaic.

All Four Oregon Wolf Packs Are Making Babies — The politics of this are rough, as rural conservatives out here hate wolves almost as much as they hate liberals, and for no better reason, but it’s good to see them growing.

Christian Priests Brawl at Jesus’ Birthplace — I think the spiritual life has great value, but when you get to the point in your religious attachments where you are beating people up over your claims to an old building, you’re no longer talking about spirituality, and a sane secularism would be far preferable. Um, good God yes.

Bachmann’s Iowa chairman quits, endorses Paul — Oops.

“Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source,” Mr. Perry said — Um. Canada, she is not foreign? And conservatives wonder why the rest of us think you guys have lost your minds.

?otd: Ever drive a Ferrari?

12/29/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 10.0 (solid)
Weight: 206.4
Currently (re)reading: The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey

Tags: Cool, Culture, Language, Links, nature, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Tech, Travel, weird

Posted: 8:01 am Thu December 29 2011 | Comments(1) |