I was, BTW, twelve years old when this video was produced:

>

I felt that it had Important Life Lessons, if I could only absorb them.

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"What I meant was that I was against drilling in ANWR as long as there was one Alaskan in the entire state who did not support the idea. And I found her, two years ago: she's a lesbian who lives in an anarcho-syndicalist collective with three other ladies who draw their water from the local township's pump, have turned their living room into a hothouse, and sport a moose-proof fence outside their garden that is 15-feet high and reminded me vaguely of the perimeter defenses in Jurassic Park.

Now that the girls have pointed out that it takes some petrol to get their our-of-season heirloom purple-and-white-striped tomatoes to the local farmer's market, I've decided that that the residents of a state should actually have some say in whether that state's petroleum resources are harvested to tide us over the next 25 years, until we are all using fast-food fryer oil to power our private jets . . . what do you mean, that shit doesn't wok for aviation? Say what?"

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So, drilling off of the coasts wouldn't be a quick fix for the current energy crisis? Way to harsh my mellow, WSJ.

Um. How stupid do they think we are? More to the point: how stupid are they?

Posted by: Attila Girl at 02:23 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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If the traditions of past years have held, two of the three or four issue of Bon Appetit you actually need to buy each year will be on sale soon:

(1) You must get the July issue, which focuses on grilling.

(2) August tends to feature "no-cook" recipes: salsas and so forth. Meals that require little or no use of the oven or range. My advice would be to get a blender, and use these recipes all year long. (Oh. You don't live in California. I'm sorry.)

(3) Whatever your favorite comfort-food issue is: October, with its winter-squash fever; November, with its turkey and sweet-potato fetish; December, with its extravagant whistling in the graveyard of high winter. (Oh. You have real winters; I'm sorry.)

Personally, I'm just waiting until my husband and I get married to the third person who is In The Mood To Cook. I shall keep her company, and give her tips. I'm not perfectly heartless, you know.

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Zucchini muffins that are as good as banana muffins? Show me.

And . . . any Real Gardeners on the north side of Glendale, California should feel free to contribute the raw material I might need for this Scientifical Project.

In all fairness, of course, anything with dried cranberries in it is unlikely to suck. But banana muffins, and banana bread, occupy a special place in Paradise. They just do. As do corn muffins with cranberries, and any quick bread that isn't overly sweet . . . and yet features blueberries . . . that is a no-problem breakfast. I'll take two.)

As soon as A the H and I find the third partner for this marriage, our gustatory lives will really take off. She just needs to handle the gardening, and go to the farmers' markets, and do all that other stuff that needs to be done before noon.

And then, my dears, I shall cook. Oh, will I cook.

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A the H just got a bitchin' set that cost a million jillion dollars, in celebration of his new paying assignments. I, of course, am still hanging with my fun-but-ill-paying gigs, so I'm wondering if I could get some noise-cancelling headphones for something in the area of $50. (Earbuds don't work for me, unless I can get some designed for children. Anyway, even if I can find some that don't hurt my ears, so I can use 'em with the iPod, they might not serve for watching videos and TV shows on the laptop.)

Needless to say, I'm also on the market for 1-2 used, dirt-cheap Mac-compatible monitors (one to save my spinal cord in the official office, and the other to function as a tiny television in the kitchen).

As always, Darrell is forbidden to take part in this scavenger hunt (or, for that matter, in my upcoming Birthday Whoring, the first week in July). Because I should have a couple of things around the house that Darrell didn't send me. It's a married thing, you know.

Also: K in Florida is forbidden to send me money or gifts. Ever. So is K2 in Arkansas, for that matter—she already gave me the best gift a girl could ever get. (She told me that my mother-in-law, were she still around, really would like me. That was the best thing I've ever heard! Well, one of five super-bitchin' things I've heard over the past almost-46 years.)

So: bottom line. Send me money, and tell me what non-earbud earphones that are cheap are the best for noise-cancelling functions.

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Michelle Malkin.

(And, yes—if I got their linking system right, that's Mary Katherine Ham's new venue at the Examiner. If I didn't, it isn't my fault, and I shall have to sack my webmaster . . . again.)

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That is all.

(For the next 24 hours or so, just look over to the right. As of Friday evening, you'll need to follow the link.)

"Owning." That's it, in a nutshell. Once African-Americans begin to figure this out in larger numbers—and it's already begun, as you know—the Democratic Party is going to have some 'splainin' to do.

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1 Well, maybe not God, per se... there be only one position, and the job's taken. However, I will make a very strong case that Mr Muir is a god, possibly a Greater Power on Faerun (well, at least a Chosen), or possibly a Level 70 Night Elf Druid. Nerds and Geeks knowing what I mean. BTW, on a completely different track I wonder if Chris could someday shoehorn Bridget from Guilty Gear into his artwork one of these days. That oughtta be fun

Posted by: Gregory at June 22, 2008 06:15 PM (cjwF0)

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I had a great conference call with the folks from the API to discuss domestic energy production (focusing on natural gas and petroleum products). There was a lot of material to absorb, but as it turns out there is a great deal that the average citizen can do to break the logjams created by state and Federal legislatures.

Bottom line: We are now experiencing shortfalls that because ten years ago our legislators failed to give the energy industry enough latitude to do what has to be done. Now we are "saving the environment" by having tankers bring us crude oil from halfway around the world—which increases the chances of environmental mishaps and is in and of itself an energy drain.

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dinner dates, and flowers."

Iraqi tea.

Via Hot Air.

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who once again has selfishly taken a Staff Gig. Whenever he does this, he is less available to help me with my computer angst. People never (as G.B. Trudeau once had Zonker complain), "consider the human cost."

So he walked me through the immediate crisis, and indicated that since my other computer-chick is no longer available, he'd help me if I "absolutely" needed him.

So of course I spent five minutes telling him how wonderful he was, and how incredible, and how I was about to built a small alter to him here in the new condo. You know: perfectly normal things to say to the guy who can make your computer work no matter what is wrong with it.

"All right, all right," he finally growled. "Stop kissing my ass."

"I can't stop kissing your ass," I told him. "That is an impractical idea. I just need you too much."

Posted by: Attila Girl at 11:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I mean, have you seen the parts of ANWR that hold the oil reserves? It's like this: if you drive East from Pasadena along the 210, and then head down toward Whittier, California, you will pass strip mine after strip mine—big stretches of phenomenally ugly, mega-industrial gashes in the landscape. And it's no better where the dirt hasn't been mined, notwithstanding the fact that a few of these stretches are in the shadows of the San Gabriels.

Not every stretch of undeveloped land is beautiful—not Prudhoe Bay (where, by the way, the caribou herds are thriving), and not the next wasteland over, which holds billions of barrels of oil.

But try to tell that to the Brits who are reporting on this story.

Oh, how pretty! And the picture was taken in ANWR, so it must be from the proposed drilling site; after all, the media wouldn't mislead us about something like that.

This is the terrain we're discussing; it might be on the Prudhoe side, and it might be on the ANWR side (Jonah Goldberg, from whom I stole the pic, makes the point that it's impossible to tell which side any given image is on without checking his notes. This is not the High Sierras we're talking about "despoiling"; the terrain is objectively ugly. So provided that the native flora and fauna are protected when the oil is harvested (as they are in Prudhoe Bay, though our technology for doing same is getting better and better), there is no reason not to avail ourselves of this important natural resource, to buy ourselves time as we develop alternative fuels.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 07:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Make energy and the economy your issues, and therein outflank Obama, who wants to go the "alternative energy only" route.

Or, as the biggest political genius of my lifetime used to put it, "it's the economy, stupid."

Via Insty, who remarks that ultimately "hairshirt environmentalism" never ends up being very popular with voters (no matter what they say, I might add, in their more idealistic moments).

I think we can have both: alternative fuels and more development of petroleum reserves. But we have to do it sensibly, and right now gasoline and electricity are our most cost-effective options. Let's not limit ourselves, or risk another recession.

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He was, of course, unable to accept in person, due to the fact that he is, once again, in prison for speaking the truth about what is happening in Yemen. He wrote the speech, and it was delivered by a spokesman:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Peace be upon you

Conferring this award on me is a great honour to my colleagues in Yemen and myself. I would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to Amnesty International, as well as to all those attending this event.
I wish I were among you to accept this award in person and to talk to you face to face. However, I am imprisoned in my country, following a six-year prison sentence handed down by a special court on June 9.

The authorities in my country commit systematic violations against journalists and activists. What I have been through is only a example of the attacks and risks facing Yemeni journalists as a result of their professional and moral commitments.

The freedom of the press has faced an increasingly deteriorating situation recently, because of the authorities' insistence on keeping national and international public opinion in the dark about serious crises, like the war that broke out four years ago in Sa'da, (north of Yemen) and the resulting tragic humanitarian situation, the citizens' peaceful protests in the southern and eastern governorates against marginalization (exclusion) and denial of political, civil and economic rights.

The independent and opposition press, one of the most important instruments of peaceful change and democratic reform, is operating in a tough and precarious environment, especially in the absence of independent judiciary, disrespect for the rule of law, widespread institutional corruption and the government's monopoly over broadcast media. The authorities have developed repressive methods against journalists, those who hold anti-government views and human rights activists. These methods range from prison, torture, death threats to the use of subservient newspapers that are supported by public funds to discredit human rights defenders and government's opponents, especially independent women journalists and human rights activists.

Those who believe in liberty, justice, equality and democracy realize that the embodiment of such human values requires sacrifice, patience and hope, as well as a belief that they are not alone in this confrontation. This award is strong evidence to this effect.

The authorities have frequently banned me from traveling abroad. I have already been through the prison ordeal four years ago, and have been kidnapped and tortured more than once. However, I have never been alone, thanks to solidarity by my colleagues and support from the fledging Yemeni human rights movement that has never lost hope. Also thanks to an influential international human rights movement that have persistently responded to the violations by the Yemeni authorities aimed at isolating me and breaking my will.

Repeating my pride in this award with its noble humanitarian and human rights significance, I would like to assure you in this regard that I consider it an honour well deserved by everyone who stood by my side against repression, intimidation and the culture of hatred and intolerance, namely my dear and persevering wife and beloved children.

Thank you
Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani

Naturally, I recommend making Jane Novak's Armies of Liberation a daily stop to stay on top of Yemeni issues.

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Especially at computer programming; everyone knows this.

Bad. Bad!

Via Insty, who seems to link that Helen chick a lot.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 09:33 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Not the Kennedys. Not the Clintons (Hillary will still be active for years, and Chelsea my become a Tsunami when she gets older—particularly if she combines her mother's talents with her father's).

I'm not sure Jeb Bush has the interest (or the strong stomach) to seek Federal office. But his son, George P. Bush, may well be unstoppable in the future.

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I just happened to come across this as I was researching something else; it has a number of pithy quotes for aspiring writers. (And al writers, no matter how successful, aspire to something. Remember that.)

Jeff Sanford once accused me in a backhand fashion of being wordy, and asked me, in a rather cross, harried moment, what I would do if I didn't turn out to be "the next Virginia Woolf."

Fortunately, that never came about, for I am. I didn't have much of an answer for him yet, though: blogging had not yet been invented. I was thinking, "literary genius, or maybe beach bum." I hadn't yet decided for sure. I still haven't.

And yet Jeff and his wife Midge, their daughter Kate Sanford, and the Matthews family (Kerry, Scott, Joan, and Don) did something for me that I will never be willing to fully acknowledge, much less able to repay, in this lifetime: they took me in for months at a time when I was in high school/college and my mother "went violent."

Had it not been for the Sanfords and the Matthews (and, to a slightly lesser extent, the Perrys, Turleys, and Goldfarbs) I would have ended up on the street.

So when one discusses "the tender side of agenting," one hasn't even scratched the surface of the Sanford "mizvahs." Having a crazy teenager under your roof—coming and going at all hours—is much, much harder than holding any writer's hand through the dark tunnel of creative troughs.

I've done both. Writers are awful, but teenagers are worse. Teenaged writers? The mind reels.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 12:59 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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>Ed Morrissey

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

They put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue, Sean Connery said when he completed that thought in the stylized (read: fictional) account of Eliot NessÂ’ efforts against Al Capone. The difference between ConneryÂ’s character in The Untouchables and Barack Obama is that Connery was prepared to confront his opponents anywhere at any time. Obama not only doesnÂ’t like a good brawl, he canÂ’t even take an open-forum debate unless it takes place on the Home & Garden Channel at 2 am on a holiday weekend.

Ouch; that was downright tart. Almost more like AllahP than Ed.

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Reader Gregory has a good-faith question out there on a previous thread. After I made a rather cavalier joke about ADD (assuming everyone realized I was including myself as a target of same), Gregory enquired as to how, objectively, we can tell the difference between these conditions and those of ordinary, energetic children.

There is a real concern, here, inasmuch as Ritalin may well be overprescribed to minors, and we shouldn't be giving our kids speed without some thought (any more than we should be using the television as an "electronic babysitter").

Given that I'm pushing 46, I reserve the right to take any drugs I like (provided my personal meth lab—now located in the back of my Cruiser—doesn't blow up).

But seriously . . . what are your thoughts?

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1 I think that the real cause of ADD/ADHD is PCDD: (Pedagogical Competency Deficit Disorder), defined as "a mental disorder characterized by the inability to inculcate useful knowledge in an educational setting."

Posted by: John at June 15, 2008 02:55 AM (XtJSd)

2 So nasty; so cynical. And at such a young age!

Posted by: Attila Girl at June 15, 2008 03:21 AM (1q/ac)

3 ADD does exist. I think it's over-diagnosed because people have forgotten what little boys are supposed to be like (and in some cases, little girls). But I can assure you, there are several folks in my family that are just, um, different in their executive function. And if they can have a happier and more successful life with some medication to help them achieve their goals, more power to them. Remember though, medicating is just one part of it. Really, what people with ADD need to be taught how to deal with it. Making routines, lists, organization, etc.. Just having a place to keep their car keys, so that when they get home their routine is to put them there, then there's no more running through the hosue for 20 minutes trying to find the keys, which makes them late, and so forth.

Posted by: silvermine at June 15, 2008 10:03 AM (4gdyI)

4 If you happen to attend any conferences, you will find many doctors arguing that in fact both of these are under diagnosed and under-prescribed. In my experience as an educator, I have seen students who could get help from the medical community but the parents did not want to label the child and in a lot of cases had a mistrust of medical authorities. John is absolutely correct, that in educational settings these conditions become enlarged and are a headache for the teacher trying to maintain a reasonable learning environment and the administrator who has to deal with parents who do not want the medicine to treat the the symptoms.

Posted by: Azmat Hussain at June 15, 2008 03:58 PM (+fapf)

5 I've seen the identical problem among adults who are chronically depressed but so hate the idea of taking medication that they don't do it: They choose to "tough it out," and suffer for no reason. Unnecessary suffering does NOT ennoble a person. Unnecessary suffering is just stupid.

Posted by: Attila Girl at June 16, 2008 01:58 PM (1q/ac)

6 As a parent of one ADD son and one non-ADD son, the decision to medicate was based on the fact that my ADD son knew that he was behaving badly and was upset (furious with himself, actually) that he was not able to control himself on a consistent basis. That, coupled with the observation by his teacher that he could do his school work if stuck in a corner by himself, but could not if left at a table with other children, made the decision straightforward. At the other end of the issue, I knew of two children who were being medicated (according to their mothers) because the mothers 'couldn't handle' the behaviors. Bottom line: if it is about the kid then medication can be appropriate, otherwise it probably isn't. B.t.w., over time my son was able to control his behavior by himself. When he said that he wanted to do it on his own (he was 16), then it was time to take him of the meds. He is progressing well.

Posted by: Wayne Martin at June 17, 2008 09:34 AM (m/dF+)

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. . . on the Heller case? Glad you asked. Via Insty, Mike O'Shea has some thoughts on the possible implications—in the form of a handy-dandy "top ten" list.

(X-posted on Right Wing News.)

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