Drunken Monkeys?

Okay, I keep running across videos that tickle my funny bone. This one reminded me of my younger days:

Hot Fuzz Yesterday; Today it’s The Invisible

I’m reviewing two movies this weekend. One I loved. Hot Fuzz was great.  It’s not a perfect movie, but I found myslef laughing throughout.  It also had a slam-bang action ending that hit all the action movie staples, but with lots of humor.

I still have to see The Invisible, which I’m about to go do.  Who knows? It may surprise me.  Still, I’m not looking forward to it like I did to Hot Fuzz.  I’ll let you know when I get back.

God’s Oh-So-Convenient Plan?

Did you hear about the dad who was upset that his daughter’s teacher showed An Inconvenient Truth in class? He feels that there should be an opposing view offered, and in this hilarious interview with The Daily Show’s Jason Jones he gives one.   Crooks and Liars has the clip.  Go watch it….
Now that you’re back I have to tell you, if I didn’t have friends and family in my life who are decent, church-going Christians, I’d assume that all religious folks were nuts like this guy.  It’s hard to stay neutral about religion when so many folks are small-minded, mean, and creepy about their beliefs. Luckily, I do know some wonderful people who are not creepy, so I can’t make sweeping generalizations.  Still, there are moments when I wish the Rapture that all these folks are devoutly planning on would happen, so they’d all just go away.  The rest of us could get on with saving this lovely planet.

Renzi Resigning?

Okay, so there’s been tons of good stuff to post about, but have I opened up this blog and posted? Of course not! Anyway, what I’m following closely out in blogland is the rumors of my congressman, Rick Renzi, possibly resigning.

From Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion:

The zeitgeist both in Phoenix and Washington is that Rick Renzi will be submitting his resignation from the House of Representatives by Friday.

I am so hoping these rumors are true. The further rumor is another interesting one:

A further bit of mitote has it that Ann Kirkpatrick will resign her seat in the legislature early next week and announce her campaign to replace Renzi.

I like Ann, and think she’d definitely win in Flagstaff, but even though she’s an Arizona gal — born in McNary and going to high school at Blue Ridge — will this play in other parts of the district? I’d certainly volunteer for her. I’ve known her for a long time. We volunteered together at the Democratic Party headquarters, for other Dem events, and even after elected she’s such a sweetie for volunteering to speak at our local DFA events.

So, let’s keep our fingers crossed that the rumors are true. Getting rid of a sleazy, corrupt congressman, plus replacing him with someone who is decent and caring would make me a happy girl. And who knows? I might just post about it!

Is it Time to Go Home Yet?

Man, this is a sloooooow Friday afternoon at work.  I’m trying to justify leaving an hour early, but have no good justifications.  Sigh…back to work.

Rick Renzi in Big Trouble — Whoo hoo!

The FBI made a surpise visit to Renzi’s (AZ-01) family’s business today. Oh baby, oh baby, I’m feelin’ good.

In a second blow to House Republicans this week, the FBI raided a business tied to the family of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) Thursday afternoon as part of an ongoing investigation into the three-term lawmaker.

….

As a result of the raid, Renzi is stepping down from his seat on the House Intelligence Committee, according to a statement from his office obtained Thursday evening by Roll Call.

Arizona lost its US Attorney, Paul Charlton, in the Department of Justice purge, and some think it was because he was investigatin Renzi. I’m glad to see something is still happening.

Update: The Arizona Republic story:

The Justice Department has been investigating Renzi for months, but the subject of the probe has never been made public. Media reports last fall gave conflicting versions, with authorities said to be looking into either a land swap involving a former business partner of Renzi’s or a Pentagon contract involving Renzi’s father, a retired Army general.

Fucking Pissed

Furious. Enraged. Fucking pissed. That’s how I felt today when I discovered that my uterus is more important than I am. The Supreme Court just told me, “Sure, bitch, die. You don’t count. We care about what’s in your uterus, not about you.” How can this be? The health of the mother is not a concern? Okay, I’m getting pissed again.

The odds are that I’ll never have children. I’m getting too old, and menopause will soon hit, so this may not impact ME, but I have family and friends who will get pregnant, and though they hope to have healthy babies, they may have to face some horrible decisions if all does not go well. Too bad if it does. Now they can’t make some decisions with their doctors.

You know, I’m thrilled I’ll never have a baby now. A pregnancy is not 100% safe, and now it’s even more dangerous. Healthcare is a joke in this country, and then there are the folks who think that me and my doctor are too stupid or immoral to come up with the right treatment for me in case of problems. God, I’m getting effing pissed again.

Here are a few personal stories from various sites. Take time to read the impact this law may have:

• My Late-Term Abortion
• Between a Woman and Her Doctor
• Consequences
• 5 out of 9 SCOTUS justices say my mom should be dead
• Considering the Babies of Abortion

I’m furious, enraged, and fucking pissed.

Update: as I continue to find stories from people who have personal stories to tell, I’ll add them to this post.

Ow

I made a rare appearance at work before 8:00 this morning, which is unusual for me (I usually aim for sometime between 8:30 to 9:00, sometimes even later - yes, I’m lucky).  Well, coming in earlier is not good for me, or my truck.  I got rear-ended at one of the stops on campus.  My truck is okay, but the woman’s car that hit me had a hole in the hood. The car’s low-slung front had no chance against my high bumper.

Now my neck isn’t too thrilled, but nothing that some ibuprofen can’t take care of.  Basically, it feels like I was playing rock star and did too many head bangs for my own good.  Still, that’s okay — I don’t have a hole in my front grill of my truck.

Why?

When I read about the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech I can only ask, why? What makes someone do something so horrendous? It makes no sense to me. It also shakes up my feelings of security and safety.  It makes me realize that it is possible to be in the wrong place at the wrong time by no fault of mine. This disturbs me, because I usually like to believe that if one is smart enough and does not fall into a case of the stupids that death will wait until a nice old age.  I know better, but I still think this way.

I send my blessings to the family members who have to live through the tragedy, and for all the people at VT who are dealing with the aftermath.  I work at a university and it’s so easy to imagine it happening here.  My mom even called to make sure all was okay here at NAU. It was, but my mind kept plotting escape routes from my office on the chance I hear gunshots.

Once again, why?

Blades of Glory Review

Will Ferrell in a silly sport movie?  Well, here’s my review.  Do I like it?  Have to read it to find out.

Sunday Morning Sigh

It’s a good sigh, that sigh of relaxation. It’s a sigh that I can lounge about in jammies, drinking my coffee and munching on the cinammon rolls that I baked (I’ll be munching on them all week - made way too much).

I’m rereading one of Lois McMaster Bujold’s novels that I bought in paperback the other day: The Hallowed Hunt. I’m also finishing up this unit’s homework, but most of it is done.  Somewhere today I’ll clean the house as part of my Weekly House Blessing (thank you, FlyLady!).  It’s not raining or snowing, and I expected that today, so may take the dogs out for a nice short hike.

So, in other words, I’m loving my lazy Sunday morning and do not expect to get very much done today, except head back to bed to finish reading the book.  I’m grabbing my coffee and remains of my cinammon roll serving, closing up the laptop, and heading to bed.

May your Sunday morning bring you those sighs of relaxation.  Aaaaaah.

Not Late, but Later than Normal

I just sent off my taxes.  Refund coming my way.  Just glad to get it done.  So, what did we do before we had software like TurboTax?

Allegedly

I’m sitting here doing homework and watching today’s Netflix delivery: Kathy Griffin: Allegedly.

Man, she makes me laugh. I wouldn’t call her nice, as she makes cruel fun of celebrities, but I can’t help but love her stories. Seeing her in concert would be a blast.

Update: Well, I ask and she appears. She’s going to be in Phoenix in June.  I’m seriously thinking I may want to go to this one.

The Departed tonight

Wow.  I just watched The Departed on DVD.  This is one of those movies that I intended to see in the theaters but never made it, and now I wish I had. It’s wonderful, with a phenomenal cast and an intense story.  Martin Scorsese put together a great movie, and whether he won the Best Director award for this film or his lifetime filmography, who cares? He deserved it.

The funny thing about the plot is that I kept trying to figure out who would live or die, and the one character that I thought wouldn’t make it did live (I don’t want to give the plot away).  The rest were not so lucky.

The movie tonight was part of my “I deserve to take it easy today” day.  Yesterday I’d submitted my major paper in my other class, cleaned the house, and started my taxes (hey, doing homework all the time has delayed my normally early completion of this task). I even took the dogs out for a nice hike.  Today? Stayed in bed and read parts of my old favorite books, made tea, read some more, and now watched The Departed.  It’s a good day.

My Reward

You know how I keep bitching about being a student?  Well, I got my reward today: I received an A.  It was for the 10-week English class that had me going crazy.  I had to write a 12-page paper, and why should that be so hard?

Anyway, the instructor after great delay posted that my final paper, which I got the full points for, was my “finest work yet.” So, does my finest work yet mean that it was a great paper or only that it was the best that I’ve managed to scrounge up?  Oh well, I’m happy.  Now I have to finish my 6 page paper that was due last night in my other class.  There’s nothing like being on top of deadlines, is there?