Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

[Another day, another error message from the cron daemon -- segmentation fault this time. Anyone else having trouble logging in specifically at 05:25 EDT (that's what, 10:25 UT, right?) for the past few days or do I have Gremlins?]

"All the great liberal Presidents of the past century were nurturers (their weakness for war notwithstanding). But conservative leaders follow another model: Lakoff calls it 'the strict father.' The appeal of this harsh, punitive style is directly related to anxiety. People kept in a state of constant stress will sacrifice their best instincts and even their real interests for the illusion of safety -- and sheer sexiness -- that a bad dad can provide." -- Richard Goldstein, "Sex and the Democrats", 2004-01-12.

[And since I'm posting manually after having seen today's Quotation of the Day mailing list quote, I'll toss that in as well:]

"Iraq is free of rape rooms and torture chambers." -- U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking at the 2003 Republican National Committee Presidential Gala, October 8, 2003. (Submitted to the mailing list by Mike Krawchuk, May 10, 2004)

Between sleep issues, the heat, and remaining back pain, I bailed on rehearsal tonight. Not terribly happy about that, but figured I needed another day.

I just spent half an hour looking for the stylus from my Visor. I noticed it was missing, struggled to remember the last time I'd used it (I occasionally use my thumbnail), searched all the places I've used the Visor ... After half an hour I thought to look underneath some boxes it had gotten knocked off of a little earlier when I answered the door. Yup, that's where it was.

I've got some linguistic peeves piled up; some of them are legitimate gripes about the decline of literacy and logic, while others are admittedly unreasonable "just because it bugs me even though I know it's clear to everyone" things. I've been holding them in for a few weeks, but I'm going to start writing them.

I saw a teaser for the news (I've forgotten which station) showing glowing, fuzzy blobs in the sky, with a voiceover, "Are these UFOs?" Well gee, I dunno, have they been identified yet? It's an easy enough question to answer. Especially for a news organization.

(So in the news broadcast that I missed while searching for the stylus, they either identified these lights or they didn't. As far as I'm concerned, if they're really UFOs they're not news unless they also show up on radar and provoke a response from some country's air defenses. And if they're identified, they're probably not news unless they're violating a treaty or another nation's airspace. And if they're identified as what the newscasters probably meant to imply by "UFO" -- extraterrestial spacecraft -- I think they'd have pre-empted regular programming instead of putting up a "details at eleven" teaser.)

That'll do for now. Later I'll complain about drug commercials.