My fanfic-related pet peeves are no different than the standards we all know and hate.  Example:  the use of ravaged when clearly the writer should be using ravished.

That said, indulge me while I harp on one that's bothered me for years.  One that I'm sure you've all encountered in one form or another.  I'm going to call it the "Error of Non- ( Read more... )

Dear Senator Rand Paul,

On tonight's The Daily Show, you threw out the quote of "that government is best which governs least" and confidently attributed it to Thomas Jefferson.  As is the sad custom with so many conservatives, you deputized a Founding Father into your argument as a way of pumping some vague notion of legitimacy into policies which ( Read more... )

For a day or so I was all "Yay financial reform!!  Lookee, we haz it!"

But now I'm thoroughly bummed about the climate bill biting the dust.  I've got schoolwork that demands my attention, so I shouldn't dwell on it, but shit, yanno?  Is the sky going to have to actually catch on fire to wake people up?

And all while Sarah Palin and her minions smirk ( Read more... )

First, re: Tiger Woods. Like many of you, I don't give a flying damn about this man. It hacks me off whenever he's referred to as an "athlete" and I happen to find golf to be not only boring, but also an elitist corporate waste of green space. The entire concept of it offends me ( Read more... )

OMG I WANT TO PUNCH SARAH PALIN IN HER BIG OLD REBUPLICAN PERFECTLY-COIFFED HEAD.  GO AHEAD, SARAH, NEVERMIND AN ACTUALLY POLICY AGENDA, NEVERMIND HAVING NO CONCEPT OF GLOBALIZATION OR FEDERALISM, INTERDEPENDENCE OR ECONOMIC EQUALITY, NEVERMIND THAT HALF YOUR CONSTITUENCY IS A HERD OF REINDEER THAT YOU'D SLAUGHTER TO MAKE WAY FOR ANWAR DRILLING.  ( Read more... )

It's 3:58 pm and I'm alone in the office.  One of the benefits of my job is that, late on Friday afternoons, it's okay to crack open a beer, which I have happily done (a Honey Moon, if anyone's interested.  Mmm...lovely).  I work on a university campus, so open beer isn't exactly a new thing -- during football season fans bring their entire liquor ( Read more... )

I'm teaching a class on poverty and civic engagement tomorrow, and in doing my course-prep I've been reading a lot of testimonials.  God, I'm depressed.

Then I happen upon this article, and dude....this is not so much insult to injury in terms of my mood, it was more like shooting a guy who's drowning.

Professors take the long course in poverty

By ( Read more... )

Note to self:  don't start the day watching / listening to that man, that Bush fellow give what could be only be charitably referred to as a press conference on Iraq.   It's more like witnessing the White House Press Corps play Wack-a-Mole.  Oh God, when will our national nightmare be over?  And I'm not using the Lord's name in vain....I'm asking, ( Read more... )

The saga of the broken television continues, and oh but what a comedy of errors it has turned out to be.  We're on Day 9 of no bigscreen, but G and I did watch SPN on the wee watch-size telly in his room, which actually turned out to be fun, since we just laid on the bed together all propped up with pillows like a slumber party.  And I should ( Read more... )

So tonight is the Mariah Carey concert.  Needless to say, I don't want to go because A)  um, it's Mariah Carey and  B)  I sure as hell don't feel like driving to Atlanta.  But, G did accompany me to Atlanta to see U2....we spent 13 hours standing in the cold to make sure we got spots along the rail (which we did, and Bono knelt down and sang to me ( Read more... )