I’m back in town, but don’t expect too much for a few more days, at the very least. Tomorrow we pick up Gracie & Penelope, so it’ll be all doggy this and doggy that for awhile.

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Skeptic’s Circle 44

Carnival of Hurricane Relief 57

Carnival of Satire 48

Carnival of the Liberals 22

Carnival of the Decline of Democracy 9

Carnival of the Green 46

Carnival of Hurricane Relief 56

Carnival of Feminists 23

Erase Racism Carnival 5

Carnival of Liberty 63

Carnival Against Child Abuse 4

Carnival of the Godless 49

Carnival Against Sexual Violence 7

Sour Jocks Sports Carnival 1

History Carnival 39

Skeptic’s Circle 43

Carnival of Hurricane Relief 55

Carnival of Bent Attractions 10

18 out of 25 on the How Well Do You Know: Serenity pop quiz.
 

Originally uploaded by RavenU.

Now that’s Shiny!

Via Whedonesque.

“On the Hollywood list of people I pray for often, Tom Cruise is probably No. 1. All I have to say to Tom is, God bless ya, I hope you’re having fun. But I’d love through Radar magazine to throw a gauntlet down to Mr. Cruise. I’d love to break bread with him and pray with him, and I’d love for the Holy Spirit of God to reveal the truth to him. That would be an awesome thing…. Seriously though, can you put us together? Can we get a little sushi together? I’d like to give him a spicy Jesus roll.”

— Stephen Baldwin, in an interview with Radar (via Nerve)
 
 

I want to get down on my knees and start pleasing Jesus.
I want to feel his salvation all over my face.
 

Well, it’s a dreary Sunday here in Kansas City. Seeing as how Flickr’s busted at the moment - and I had planned on uploading some old photos this afternoon - I don’t have much to do. I could write a post or two, but - blecht - the weather’s much more conducive to junk food and old CSI eps.

So, in lieu of a real post, a few 9/11 links. Gotta post ‘em today otherwise they won’t be very timely, ya know?

CNN has been heavily promoting their 9/11 Pipeline coverage for weeks now. From 8:30 AM through midnight tomorrow, they’re replaying their September 11 broadcast from five years ago, in real time. I’m not sure whether I’ll tune in or not - it sounds morbidly interesting, and I’ve yet to discover which impulse will win out. Guess we’ll find out in 13 hours or so.

Also, check out the Beast’s 9/11 issue.

The cover says it all:
 

 
“Despite staying 7 long minutes in a Florida classroom reading to second graders after being told of the attack by Chief of Staff Andy Card, George W. Bush has yet to finish The Pet Goat, deciding instead to wait for the movie.”

So funny, it’s not.

And remember, we’re heading to NY on Tuesday, so blogging will be sporadic for a bit. Upon our return, two new canines will join the clan, so don’t expect anything but pictures and more pictures.

Counting down the days ’till November…

This week’s must-see carnivals:

Carnival of Satire 45

Carnival of the Feminists 22

Carnival of Liberty 61

Carnival of the Green 43

Carnival of the Godless 48

And, for Dad: Star Trek 40th Anniversary Carnival 1

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Did I miss a good one? Leave it in the comments!

Muscling my way to the front of the nerd herd…

Via PZ.

Motherfuckin’ snakes. In my motherfuckin’ door. What will the terraists think of next!?
 

 

We can all rest easy tonight. Looks like Japan’s Princess Kiko finally popped out a triped!

Princess Kiko, the wife of the emperor’s younger son, gave birth to a boy on Wednesday morning, securing the succession of Japan’s imperial throne for another generation.

The birth of a male heir will shelve for the foreseeable future a politically explosive debate over whether women should be allowed to ascend the throne. It has solved for now a succession crisis that had taken its most direct human toll on Crown Princess Masako, 42, the Harvard-educated former diplomat whose inability to bear a boy contributed to her depression and withdrawal from the public.

Under the current succession system, only men in a direct line to the emperor can inherit the throne. So Princess Kiko’s child will become third in line to the throne, after Crown Prince Naruhito, 46, and the child’s own father, Prince Akishino.

The crown prince and crown princess have a daughter, Aiko, 4; Prince Akishino, 40, and Princess Kiko, 39, have two daughters, Mako, 14, and Kako, 11. But none are eligible to ascend the throne.

Fucking minga. Masako has a Harvard education! She should be out saving the world, not trying to add another prick to The Patriarchy’s pool! Perhaps I should file an Urgent Blamer Intervention Request with Phil, caretaker of the Twisty Bungalow?

Eh, what’s the use? A penis has been birthed, thus saving the throne from suffering the indignities of The Vag for at least another generation.

Once again, the misogynists in power manage to avoid confronting their misogyny head-on:

Last year, with seemingly no resolution to the succession crisis, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi convened a panel of experts that recommended that a woman and her offspring be allowed to ascend the throne. The change would have allowed Princess Aiko, as well as her first-born, regardless of sex, to inherit the throne.

Before the bill could be introduced in Parliament, however, news of Princess Kiko’s pregnancy in February led Mr. Koizumi to put the proposal on the back burner.

The proposed bill had stirred unexpectedly fierce opposition from Japan’s conservatives, who argued that the male-only succession was the Chrysanthemum Throne’s defining characteristic. Japan has had eight empresses in the past, but they did not have offspring who succeeded them.

It’s a strange, sad world when sexism is proudly touted as the “defining characteristic” of a culture and its traditions.

And, yes, I totally blame the patriarchy.

The good part? Since women are only fertile for several decades, our ‘pre-pregnant’ prison terms must surely be shorter than men’s, who are capable of knocking their Baby’s Mommas up well into their golden years.

Then again, I doubt that this delicious little slice of science

Children with older fathers have a significantly increased risk of having autism, a study has concluded.

The UK and US researchers examined data on 132,271 children and said those born to men over 40 were six times more at risk than those born to men under 30.

They said the study in Archives of General Psychiatry was further proof men also had “biological clocks”. […]

The mother’s age did not appear to influence the chances a child would have autism.

will get much play anyway, which makes the whole gender-equality-when-it-comes-to-having-your-babycakes-and-eating-’em-too discussion moot. The Patriarchy loves to harp on the ways in which women’s choices can harm The Children (!), yet conveniently overlooks Dad’s influence on his offspring.* Imagine that.

* Except, of course, when it comes to Daddy’s Little Girl and the Intactness of His Her Hymen.

Go to the UCS website and vote for your Science Idol.

Bonus: your vote registers you to win one of fifty copies of the 2007 Defending Science Calendar. Sweet. Almost makes up for the Bush admin’s flagrant disregard for science.

I had hoped to blog a bit more about Hurricane Katrina, but I’ve had a busy week. We met Gracie and Penelope on Friday, and of course decided within the first 30 seconds to adopt them. (We visited for at least an hour though, with a few rounds of belly rubs for each of ‘em.)

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to bring them home until the end of September. Next week we leave for NY - again - and will be away for a few weeks. Shane’s sis is getting married, and then a week later my little bro heads to Texas for boot camp (the Air Force). Not exactly a trip we can postpone. The 18-hour drive is stressful enough without mixing in two brand new canines, which will then have to room with my parents’ two dogs and cats while Shane & I skip town for a few days for the nuptials (which I hear will involve plenty of gawd-talk - oh my!).

So Gracie and Penelope (soon to be renamed Kaylee and Jayne, Kaylee and Katrina, or Kaylee and Selena…it’s still up in the air) will have to stay with their foster mom until then. The unfortunate part is that foster mommy cares for more animals than we realized, and houses many in a rented kennel, rotating which furbabies she takes home with her every night. So, I feel like quite the guilty “mother” right now. The thought of “my” girls sleeping on a cold concrete slab is too much to bear. Hell, the thought of any dog living like that kills me. People suck.

—–

Anyway, to the Katrina links. Maybe I’ll get to writing a few more in-depth posts regarding some of these articles, maybe not. Either way, check ‘em out.

Mother Jones: After Katrina (8/28/06)

An index of MoJo’s Katrina coverage from August through October 2005.

Grist Magazine: Life After Katrina: A new exhibit lets New Orleans residents tell their own stories (8/29/06)

Exactly what it sounds like.

Nola.com: How an amphibious bus never made it to Katrina (8/24/06)

The basic premise: A would-be do-gooder offers our Dear Leaders the services of his ‘unsinkable bus’ in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Actually, he offers the services of a whole fleet of unsinkable buses, stationed ’round the country. You see, as the ‘inventor and fabricator’ of said bus, he rallies his customers (via the internets) to action. Many answer his call and volunteer to lend their $225,000 Hydra Terras to the rescue effort, free of charge. Sadly, while the buses could overcome Hurricane Katrina, they couldn’t bust their way through all that sticky red tape.

Snopes.com: Crushed Hopes (7/1/06)

The urban legend: The mayor of New Orleans turned down an offer for the city to make $5 million on the removal of vehicles wrecked by Hurricane Katrina and instead opted for plan that would have cost the city $23 million.

Status: (…wait for it!…) True

Another ‘crushing’ example of government incompetence. Seriously, guys, it just isn’t funny anymore.

ABC News: Exclusive: Whistleblowers Say State Farm Cheated Katrina Victims (8/28/06)

South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Policy disputes stall post-Katrina rebuilding (8/27/06)

Business & Media Institute: Unhappy Anniversary: Katrina Insurance Battle Continues (8/23/06)

Three of many news reports regarding Katrina survivors’ disputes with their insurance companies. The last is written from the point of view of Big Business, so expect plenty of crocodile tears.

SFGate: Bush spends a day, Katrina lingers on; President alternately hopeful, aware that problems still exist as he tours devastated Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coast (8/29/06)

The NY Times: Year After Katrina, Bush Still Fights for 9/11 Image (8/28/06)

Bitch, please. You use the anniversary as a shameless (and rather transparent) PR ploy - even seeking out the one N.O. resident who doesn’t (yet) think that you’re a total douchebag - and then you wonder why Americans are so fed up with your sorry ass? You should be thanking Jeebus that you haven’t been impeached. Yet.

Really, what a waste of life.

The NY Times: Outlines Emerge for a Shaken New Orleans (8/26/06)

A look at N.O. one year later, with an emphasis on the disparate progress in different areas of the city. If you can still get to it, the page also links to some excellent multimedia features.

Mikhaela’s The Boiling Point: Roving Reporter: Katrina Losses

Cartoonist Mikhaela Blake Reid sums it up:

So say you’re a crapbag excuse for a president who was playing air guitar and eating birthday cake while thousands of people drowned, many of them black and poor. And say you didn’t really do a heckuva a job getting them jobs or rebuilding their homes. And say it’s a year later, and you want to reach out to them and show them you care, you understand, you really understand? How do you express your loss to all these (largely black and poor) victims?

By talking about how much you miss Senator Trent Lott’s porch. You know, the Senator who had to step down as majority leader because he longed for the days of Strom Thurmond, segregation and lynching? […]

Because nothing says “I feel your pain” like longing for racist lemonade. Meanwhile Lott is sitting pretty in the Senate and living in his other house, while Katrina’s real victims are stuck in trailers.

I haven’t yet found the perfect Garbato baby picture for Bush’s latest ‘woe is Lott’ quote, so humor me while I share a classic Katrina Bushism:
 
 

Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house.
And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.
 
 
After all this, I ask you: President Bush: douchebag or World’s Biggest Douchebag?
 

From the UK’s Medical Research Council, one more reason to hate men and their funk-filled bratwursts:

The growth of cervical and womb cancers may be fuelled by a hormone-like molecule in semen, a study suggests. […]

Prostaglandin occurs naturally in the cells which line the female reproductive organs. Its role is to regulate cell growth and direct the womb lining to either thicken or shed durin