babbling blue

At a recent town hall meeting, Tom Coburn, Republican Senator from OK, spoke up in defense of Nancy Pelosi and cautioned people about getting their news strictly from Fox News.

Quoth Coburn:

“Come on now, [Nancy Pelosi] is a nice – how many of you all have met her? (Groans from the crowd.) She is a nice person. Let me give you a little lesson here, I hope you will listen to me. Just because somebody disagrees with you doesn’t mean they aren’t a good person.

This is worth repeating: “Just because somebody disagrees with you doesn’t mean they aren’t a good person.” Republicans, Democrats, and everyone in between should pay attention to that (I’m looking at you Tea Baggers! I mean, Tea Partiers…)

Coburn continued to show he has a brain:

What we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that you can see what’s going on and make a determination yourself. So don’t catch yourself being biased by Fox News that somebody is no good.

In response to a town-hall participant who claimed the health care legislation aimed to jail people for not having insurance:

The intention is not to put any one in jail. That makes for good TV news on FOX but that isn’t the intention. … Don’t just watch Fox News or CNN, watch them both. I read two papers a day – the New York times, the Washington Post, and in between the Wall Street Journal. I get a perspective.

I wish more people felt this way, and I wish more elected officials&emdash;on both sides of the aisle–had the guts to talk like this to their constituents. I just worry that he will now have a target painted on his chest in the next election, as he dared to speak up (sort of) against the mighty Fox News!

Good luck Tom, and keep on keepin’ it real!

Source: CNN Political Ticker.

Religious, racial, sexual — hate is hate :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Neil Steinberg.

Last week, Constance McMillen, 18, a senior in Mississippi, drew nationwide attention because her school district canceled the prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School rather than allow McMillen, a lesbian, to attend with her date.

…

In the 1960s, as federal courts ordered racial integration, communities in Mississippi and other Southern states closed their municipal swimming pools, filling them with dirt rather than allow black children to share the water with white children.

You have to marvel at the determination of that kind of prejudice — so strong that you would deny your own children the pleasure of a swimming pool during hot summers in the Deep South rather than risk the intermingling that so horrifies you.

…

Anti-gay bigotry is part of a continuum of senseless prejudices. It will someday be as inexplicable as anti-Catholic bias, as reviled as racism. I do not feel I am predicting the future here because the change has already occurred. It’s just that some people haven’t gotten the news, yet.

Long time readers of my blog (all two of you) may recall my rant on how stupid it is to have to dial 9-1 to get to make a call to another area code (and now any area code in Chicago, thanks to 872) from office phones, since it’s so easy to dial 911 by mistake.

You may also recall that a couple months later I actually did call 911 by mistake.

Well it looks like someone finally came to their senses and said enough is enough! We got an email this morning that our phone system is being changed to require the use of the pound (#) to get an outside line instead of 9. About damn time! And the reason stated for this change? “[T]o eliminate inadvertent 911 calls.” I’m such a forward thinker.

This is blatantly ripped off from somewhere else. I don’t know the original source. Someone on Yelp claimed she got it in an email forward, so I can’t attribute this to its author. Also, this is not to say that I am or am not in the age range mentioned, I just found I could relate to many of these. With no further ado, the list:

• More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.
• Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
• I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?
• Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

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I haven’t posted for awhile. And I’m bored, so I figured I’d throw up an update on my life for anyone who still tunes in here.

I had a fun but somewhat sad Christmas. Due to Mother Nature’s shenanigans I decided against going up to Wisconsin like I usually do. A couple years ago I drove up in a blizzard and it was terrifying! So instead of seeing my family, I went out for Peking Duck with a bunch of people from Yelp. It was really good, and a lot of fun! I imagine all the wine didn’t hurt either! After that we went out and drank more. Because what can go wrong when you drink a lot? Nothing!

Fast-forward to New Years, and another awesome time. I went to a party hosted by a Yelp-friend and it was a blast! The beer and the jello shots were flowing freely. Perhaps a little too freely, based on the killer headache I had the next morning. Or afternoon, whenever it was I finally got up. But I played flippy cup for the first time, and from what I remember I was pretty good at it! Maybe I can play professionally?

I recently (as in last night) returned from a long weekend in San Diego. As it turned out, getting there was quite an adventure…
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