I sort of like my verbiage in little bite-sized chunks. And they have to be separated somehow. But too many commas are, indeed, an aesthetic evil.

So I usually prefer—under most circumstance, mind you—to set some of the phrases off with em-dashes.

And the one rule in the Joy Style Guide is that series commas are our friends; the eye generally skips by that extra comma before the "and" or the "or," but when it needs it—well, it needs it badly.

So many things are that way.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 08:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Check it out over at Ace's digs: Talk about your Angry Black Men.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 03:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Sayeth Glenn,from Ohio: "Greenhouse effect? Global warming? Faster, please."

Posted by: Attila Girl at 02:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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sur-prize.

The Brits did what they had to do to keep this from turning into an international incident and forcing premature war.

What the Iranians did still qualifies as an act of war, and should be taken seriously. But the timing should be up to the British, the Americans, and the Aussies. Not the Iranians.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 02:37 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Dear Jim Ladd:

First of all, I love you. I love you because I love rock 'n' roll, and I love radio. I believe in what you've done for both the art of music and the medium of broadcast radio over the years.

And your voice is as lovely as ever; it's a mystery to me how a guy can live a rich, full life in the Los Angeles counterculture and yet preserve those dulcet tones that make the long-legged ponies swoon.

And I love to listen to your shows on KLOS. Mostly. More on that in a moment.

There are a lot of us—both here in L.A. and across the nation—who are deeply saddened by what's happened to commercial radio, and wonder how it could possibly have drifted as far from its original mission as it has. We believe that there is an audience for free-form rock 'n' roll, if only the corporate powers would seek it out. We don't believe in playlists, in computer-generated "radio stations" that use idiot tests to determine what will sell.

You're the real deal, Jim. You're an amazing man and a force for creativity over the airwaves.

And I listen to you whenever I can. I listen to you until you start to insult me so much that I have to turn the radio off.

I'm a libertarian, Jim. That means I often vote with the Republican party. That means that despite having some disagreements with him, I voted for George W. Bush twice.

I'm a great believer in liberal democracy, and I think it's under threat from Islamists (not Muslims in general, mind you—radical fundamentalists). The geopolitical chess game that will be required to defeat it or contain it is a complicated one that you disregard in your glib "analyses" of the war in Iraq, which seems to boil down to: "Bush lied; he's a bad guy. Anyone who supports him in any way is an idiot."

I'm not suggesting that you stay away from politics, but for you to reduce very complicated issues down to black-and-white thinking and then insult the beliefs of those who disagree with you is going to lead to a lot of people voting with their radio dials. Your ratings will stay high, of course, but you will have alienated some of the Southland's most independent thinkers.

There has to be a way to express your beliefs without putting down your fans who support the war in Iraq—who did see a legal and moral justification for our military action there.

Please believe me, Jim: there are people in Los Angeles who think the way I do, and we want independent voices on the air. We love music. We may not speak up in media or artistic circles as much as we should, because most of us have already lost jobs because we voted for the President, or because we want to take a hard line against Islamo-fascism. We aren't all "out."

But we are out there. Listening. We want to listen. Please don't make us turn your show off. Be as kind to your audience as you have been to the real talents who undergird the music business over all the years that you've graced the airwaves.

You're the last DJ, Jim. For real. Don't shut us out.

Sincerely,

Joy McCann
Little Miss Attila
http://attila.mu.nu

Posted by: Attila Girl at 07:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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. . . I'm making my page quota on the "Mystery in Arizona" manuscript.

On the other hand, I'm running around the house in my bathrobe all day and taking lots of naps.

I need to catch up on laundry, answer a few phone calls, and get out to the grocery store. You know: life stuff.

The thing about this project is, it can only help me, even if the ms. is returned unread by the Hillerman Competition. If I've got two manuscripts on hand, I can shop them around more effectively: it'll give me some detachment about the fate of any one given story.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 06:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Um. Are they talking about that time The Washington Times gave me a beer voucher?

Or does it have to do with the fact that my readers send me socks and martini shakers?

Posted by: Attila Girl at 05:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No, no: not people on motorcycles. People on bicycles.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 05:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Fred Thompson's gun record looks pretty good.

Via Glenn.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 06:06 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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When in doubt, blame it on the White Mountain Apaches.

My story is shaping up nicely. I'm letting you know because I assume you're almost as obsessed with me as I am.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 06:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Oh, nice. I missed TC Leather Penguin's remark on this RightGirl post:

Feh. When I get death threats (and I've gotten a bunch of them), I reply with my home address at the top of the answer and tell the various mooks "Come on over. If you get past the dog then we'll see if you can handle me."

Because I'm too old and beat up to give a rat's ass about that brand of vermin.

Almost to a one, Internet "thugs" are fairies who wouldn't know what to do if you told them how to pull a trigger.

Not a bad point: I have a 30-round clip for my Glock (perfectly legal; I bought it pre-ban). And I spook easily, which acquaintances of mine will be quite happy to explain to the jury. You know how high-strung short girls can be.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 05:22 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Thank God.

One can only suspect what's going on beneath the surface, here: either the Brits/Americans quietly issued an ultimatum, or the entire situation was manufactured within Iran and reflects its own turmoil.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 04:56 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Hackbarth has the scoop on Tommy Thompson's formal announcement that he's running.

Sure, he has more executive experience than anyone else in the GOP field. So superficially, he would seem to be a strong candidate. But as a crack investigative journalist, I checked IMDB, and found, shockingly, that the former Governor of Wisconsin only has two credits to his name.

Some might say that problem-solving at the state and federal level left him little time to work on his credits—but that strikes me as a cop-out. I mean, surely there are community theatres around Madison, and small Indie production companies. There had to be some kind of opportunity to burnish his repertoire—even if it meant just doing voice work on local radio shows, or filming commercials.

The comparison is highly unflattering. How on earth are we supposed to take Tommy Thompson seriously as a candidate?

Posted by: Attila Girl at 03:26 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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but there truly are people who use obesity to commit slow suicide.

Yet I'm happy for Joy; she seems like a hell of a girl.

H/t: the Cotillion girls.

UPDATE: CTG on the "fat" issue.

Again, it's complicated for me. I theorize that my mother has made a point of being heavy in order to keep men away from her in her later years. (She is intrinsically a very attractive woman.) Mostly, her strong body is able to handle the consequences, and the liver problems, diabetes and high blood pressure are treatable with the right medications. She's 70 now, and will be around for a good long time.

My aunt, however, is significantly heavier, and more addicted to carbs. Not to mention the fact that she is extraordinarily inactive—and, until recently, she smoked. Her greater obesity has led to a greater level of diabetes. Despite her being four years my mother's junior, I know I will lose her before I lose my mother.

I had the following exchange with my mom a few years ago:

Me: "My friend Dean Esmay says that many obese people don't actually overeat."

My mom: "Oh. How interesting. But I do."

At which point she proceeded to take another bite of the huge salad she was eating. (Because my mother eats compulsively, she tries to only keep healthful foods in the house. This is the main reason she won't stay at my aunt's place any more: the aunt keeps too many sugary and carby treats around, and these trigger binging on icky food.)

Food and obesity are linked, and in many cases there is a behavioral component. The problem is that you don't know from looking at a person whether that's the case. And you don't know what someone's genetic predisposition is from that single, judgemental glance.

It can, indeed, be a moral problem: there are certainly fat gluttons. But the biochemistry is complex, and there are several conditions that make people look "fat." And even in the case of the true pedal-to-the-metal food addict, there are worse things they could be binging on. (Drinking and driving, anyone?)

So this is an individual problem, with many solutions. One of which is societal acceptance of the fact that some people are naturally heavy.

UPDATE 2: Dean Esmay posts the Joy Nash video, and comments:

It's a metabolic issue, not a character issue.

By the way, the majority of Americans are overweight, and a third are medically obese. I guess we're just all slobs with character flaws, eh?

We're taking over. Give us your pizza or we'll destroy you.

I remember a discussion at my writer's workshop one day, when a skinny woman wrote about the temptation to judge when she saw an overweight woman ordering a salad at a restaurant.

Several of us were curious about why she would be tempted to condemn the ordering of a salad, of all things. "Um, even if you accept the premise that it's someone else's business what someone else is eating . . . what's to judge about the salad?" I enquired.

"Well, the thought would be 'oh, who does she think she's fooling?'" she responded.

I sort of blinked, and realized that anti-fat bigotry is at astonishing levels in some circles. If we intend to judge the overweight for ordering a steak and a baked potato, and we intend to judge them for ordering a salad, is there any choice they could make that would not incur presumption from those at surrounding tables? Answer: hell, no.

Yeah. Plenty of Americans eat too much. But improve your own damn health regimen: not someone else's.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 03:13 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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One page of outline. One page of typed text. Three pages of handwritten notes.

And so I'm going to bed. There will be more creepy things to write about in the morning.

But I know who was killed. And why. I just haven't decided how.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 02:15 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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It all hinges on whether she was in a house of worship, which I can't tell from the photo.

If she was, it was totally legitimate to cover her head, just as a gentile man would if he went to a temple.

Out in the public square, it becomes more dicey.

Though there are certainly parts of the world where I would wear a skirt if local customs demanded it, even though I happen to think that the right pair of slacks is even more modest.

The issue is not how the Speaker attired. It is whether her going to Syria was appropriate in the first place.

UPDATE: Yup. The pic was in a mosque. Talk about your misplaced outrage: get a grip, folks; it's a piece of fabric.

James Joyner, BTW, gets it right: she was within her rights to go on the trip, but that doesn't mean it was a smart stunt to pull.

She made it clear that the U.S. government doesn't speak with one voice when it comes to hostile states. But don't question her patriotism!

Posted by: Attila Girl at 02:12 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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It's a re-run from 2002, but no less chilling for that.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 02:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Good idea? Bad idea?

Where does your neighbor's right to build whatever he pleases next door to you end? When he cuts off your view? When he makes the neighborhood too ugly?

And tell me, O my libertarian friends: aren't there real estate developers against whom you harbor some ill-will? I mean, in the middle of the night—when there's no one else around to hear you, least of all the ghost of Ayn Rand—don't you wake up once in a while and say, "damned McMansions. How come so many people have so much more money than they do taste?"

Come on: admit it. When you walk out of your door and wander down your street or road on foot, you're not such a great believer in capitalism, are you?

Dish.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 01:49 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Well, the chosen conspirators, of course. Though I think the Masons might have been involved.

Which reminds me: it's almost time to re-read some of my favorite books.

But not this year. Not if I'm going to crank out a book manuscript in 90 days. And, no: not even I can rationalize it by claiming that one of my characters is a Titanic buff, and I need to do this for "character development."

Via Ace.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 01:06 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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No pix of me and my crew?

Via Cal Tech Girl.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 09:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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