Saturday, September 04, 2004

cute baby-yarn beret

I did a beret based on the patterns in Anna Zilboorg's 45 Fine and Fanciful Hats To Knit, in baby yarn, in that pale yellow and pale green you basically only find in baby yarn, you know? Same green yarn as the little raglan sweater I've been avoiding:



The beret was knit on 4.0 mm circular needles and double pointed needles.

Very cheerful looking.

The baby blue cotton tank (apparently, I have a Thing of some sort about baby yarn, or baby yarn colors) is still progressing slowly but surely.

The bright yellow socks - ripped apart. Completely unsatisfactory. Though I may do some colorwork with that yellow yarn in socks for the future, I just don't think it's workable as the main yarn for a sock.

Hey, cool!

I own an 1888 Seated Liberty dime!

How neat!

Isn't it fun, the things you find when you unpack?

Friday, September 03, 2004

Power Corrupts

Don't Like the Poverty Stats? Redefine Poverty!

Last week, the Census Bureau released statistics showing that for the first time in years, poverty had increased for three straight years, while the number of Americans without health care increased to a record level.[1] But instead of changing its economic and health care policies, the Bush administration today is announcing plans to change the way the statistics are compiled. The move is just the latest in a series of actions by the White House to doctor or eliminate longstanding and nonpartisan economic data collection methods.


Not the first time, either.

Monday, August 30, 2004

Church of Bush

Worth a full read: The Church of Bush

Once I interviewed a Freeper who told me he first became a committed conservative after discovering the Federalist Papers. "I absolutely devoured them, recognizing, my God, these things were written hundreds of years ago and they still stand up as some of the most intense political philosophy ever written."
I happen to agree, so I asked him—after he insisted Bush couldn't have been lying when he claimed to have witnessed the first plane hit the World Trade Center live on TV, after he said the orders to torture in Iraq couldn't have possibly come from the top, all because George Bush is too fundamentally decent to lie—what he thinks of the Federalists' most famous message: that the genius of the Constitution they were defending was that you needn't base your faith in the country on the fundamental decency of an individual, because no one can be trusted to be fundamentally decent, which was why the Constitution established a government of laws, not personalities. [emphasis added -- sid]
"If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary . . . "
Conservatives see something angelic in George Bush. That's why they excuse, repress, and rationalize away so much.


I sincerely hope that we can walk away from this diefication of the president, because if not, we've severely hampered the natural balance of power that is fundamental to the United States.

Sunday, August 29, 2004

President Does It Again

Bush Hails His Actions On Intelligence

There goes Bush, again, signing executive orders when no one is paying attention.

Of course, now that I'm peeved he's sliding stuff past the media (again), I'd like to draw something *else* out, to wit:

"All of them [the orders Bush signed -- sid] are essential to America's security as we wage the war on terror," Bush, speaking in his weekly radio address, said of the orders.


War. On. Terror.

War on fear. War on despair. War on horror.

Not war on al-Qaeda, or some group of people, or a country. Not even war on a system or ideology, or illness (war on poverty, war on racism, polio). But terror.

Fear. War. On fear.

Does this make any sense, anywhere, to anyone?

RNC Attendees to Visit Ellis Island

RNC Attendees to Visit Ellis Island

How interesting.

If you're of Asian descent, or, say, some shade other than *white*, your ancestors probably didn't come through Ellis Island.

So, what does this field trip say about the ethnic and racial diversity of the RNC?