Wendy Davis!! And Why I Support Planned Parenthood

Who'd a thunk one blonde Texas woman could lead the charge and take down the Texas Legislature?

Populist Feminist Revolt and Heroic Filibuster Defeat Extremist Anti-Abortion Bill in Texas

Please note the last paragraphs of this article by Mark Karlin, editor of Buzz Flash at Truthout:

Personally, I want to dedicate the Texas triumph to the late Molly Ivins, a personal idol of mine.  Over 12 years, I have interviewed just about every prominent progressive figure, nearly one a week, but nothing thrilled me like talking over the phone with Ivins.
In our long 2003 interview (read here), Ivins said of social conservatives in legislatures and Congress, "I think that there comes a point where they're ramming something down your throat that's just flat wrong and unfair; you just can't take it anymore."
Molly, because of the courage of Wendy Davis and the civic activism of thousands of pro-choice Texans and Americans, this victory over the forces of darkness is in your memory.
(Molly Ivins succumbed to cancer in 2007 at the age of 62.)

Here's Joan Walsh in Salon on Wendy Davis, Feminist Superhero 

"...Ann Richards Is Smiling."

Not to forget Katha Pollitt at The Nation, either!  

Welcome to....

First, please welcome back Kalyn's Kitchen!  Don't know how that lovely blog slipped away from my list of BLOGS I LOVE, but she's back...with "Happy Cooking and Eating--Real Food, Real Cooking, Real Results!"  Good stuff!!

And welcome to Gaming Your Finances!  I saw this on Twitter this morning in a comment on a Mother Jones article about Trader Joe's.  The comment said something about a monthly challenge: setting your food budget at $25 a week!  and the kind twitterperson added a link to this site.  I must say the idea is a little better than the blog post, but there also were LINKS in that, one of which had a recipe for PB & J oatmeal, which inspired a comment by Kalyn (yes, it WAS her!).  She was saying "I love peanut butter and oatmeal" etc.  Well, there could be worse things than peanut butter & jelly oatmeal, but I'm verra curious!!  Maybe I can eat this for supper instead of hot dogs.  (Please don't mind me.  I am a true believer in eating healthy, but I make exception for hot dogs--the worst of the worst (wurst??).  Where else can you, when you are STARVING, get an approximation of a meal for $2 in this town except from a hot dog cart?  And if I walk another half block, it'll be $1.75!!

And so on....

Obama Betraying US on Syria?

I read Andrew Sullivan's rant against Obama, especially Bill Clinton's scolding Mr. Obama, last night and today to a friend, and she said, "Well, what do we know for sure?"  So I checked one of my best-liked sources, Juan Cole, and he had this (and much more--please click his name) to say:

Former president Bill Clinton criticized President Obama on Thursday for his inaction in regard to Syria. This step seems extraordinary and surely has something to do with positioning Hillary Clinton to run as a more hawkish New Democrat against anyone in the Obama circle in 2016. As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton appears to have pushed for arming the Syrian rebels, but could not get Obama’s backing for the move. Bill Clinton’s criticism is extremely unfair, since there are many bad situations in the world in which the US cannot fruitfully intervene, and Clinton knows this sad truth all too well.

Get a Load of This!!

Thanks to Cop Car, who lists her sources, including Time Goes By.



This woman, Johanna Quass, is 10 years OLDER than I am.  Could I catch up?  Hardly.  What she has is not only skill but also many years of gymnastic practice.  I'm just enjoying her apparent ease and beauty!  Way to go, Ms. Quass!

The voice of Virginia Woolf

Open Culture has the only surviving recording of Virginia Woolf speaking. Her talk, "Craftsmanship," was part of a 1937 BBC broadcast.  Her speech is gorgeous.  The captions, should you choose to--or can--activate them, are absolutely accurate.  She pronounces every letter beautifully! 

These are good....

Ole Phat Stu posts Marketing-Speak!...
Thanks, Stu...(and Brian).  I especially like "maintenance free"  :)

What the Marketing people write - versus what they truly mean . . .
 
NEW - Finally sold all of the old model & lost the old blueprints :-(
ALL NEW - Parts are not interchangeable with previous design.
EXCLUSIVE - Imported product. Instruction manual in Chinese.
UNMATCHED - Almost as good as the competition.
FOOLPROOF OPERATION - No provision for adjustments.
ADVANCED DESIGN - The advertising agency doesn’t understand it.
IT’S HERE AT LAST - Rush job. Nobody knew it was coming.
FIELD TESTED - Manufacturer lacks test equipment.
HIGH ACCURACY - All parts fit.
FUTURISTIC - No conceivable reason for it to look the way it does.
REDESIGNED - Previous flaws fixed - we hope.
DIRECT SALES ONLY - Manufacturer had a big argument with distributor.
YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT - We finally got one to work.
BREAKTHROUGH - We finally figured out a use for it.
MAINTENANCE FREE - Impossible to fix.
MEETS ALL STANDARDS - Ours, not yours.
SOLID-STATE - Heavy as hell.
HIGH RELIABILITY - We made it work long enough to ship it.
NON-REFUNDABLE - We couldn’t make it work long enough to ship it.
INTUITIVE USER INTERFACE - Does not come with a manual.
CHEAP - Shoddy.

Thanks to Brian for the heads-up on this :-)

Juan Cole Does It Again....

In this morning's post on Informed Comment, Juan Cole really parses 2nd Amendment fundamentalists.  They're ok with "hunting our school children like animals," but heaven help anyone who leaks a government "secret."  We the people can't have any secrets from the government, though.
We've turned another corner on the path to perdition!

Iowa Made Network!!

My former coworker Craig Hlas (actually, I hired him 25 years ago for his great sense of humor) has come up with a network for promoting goods produced in his home state of Iowa.  To quote:

We're dedicated to promoting products made or grown in Iowa by producers, entrepreneurs, and artisans. We want to connect small and midsize Iowa businesses with customers -- and offer a directory for companies devoted to quality and integrity.

The Iowa Made Network's website lists 20 categories of items from Art to Furniture to Jewelry to Wine.  This being Iowa, the largest category is Food (n.f.s.) with 543 purveyors, but the next largest is Art with 129 artists.  Candy/Snacks (46 purveyors) merits its own category. There is even a category for Horses: "Uncle Slim's Pony Farm," whose owners have been raising Shetland ponies for 25 years.

This is an idea whose time has come, I think.  Every region of the U.S. has lost manufacturing (even the writing of local news) to China and other countries.  We don't all live in Iowa, but what's to prevent other states or even cities from rounding up their entrepreneurs and promoting them?