At least, my own: A the H and I nearly had to "step outside" over California's Proposition 8.

Patterico, however, is on my side. I wonder if his wife agrees with him.

And the proprietress of the now-dormant CalBlog is at odds with her own husband over the same issue. Of course, as attorneys they are used to discussing such matter in a dispassionate way.

My own equivalent household debate was not, really, my finest hour.

On the other hand, my husband didn't have play dirty pool by saying, "you really are very kind-hearted" during our discussion.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 02:42 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Because this really pisses me off.

Teachers' unions have done a lot to destroy young people's lives, and to keep teachers who are particularly talented and inspiring from getting paid any more than those who are simply glorified babysitters.

They are evil—like AARP, which purports to help retirees, but uses the money instead on gun control.

I shall try not to behave reflexively, but some of these groups—especially unions—that take people's hard-earned pay and then use the money to advance agendas that have nothing to do with their supposed missions—make me truly livid.

My mom was a teacher for years. And except in some arenas (she's a landlord who vigorously opposes rent control, because she sees up-close the damage it causes), she's pretty far to the left.

I'd be shocked if she did not vote for Obama in November.

But even my mom would prefer to choose her causes, rather than having others choose them for her.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 04:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My friends who are at risk from the fires are all with-it, pragmatic types. They'll grab their family photos, their precious jewelry and their legal documents (along with changes of clothes, extra water, and their meds). They will not wait until the last minute to evacuate.

I know two households that have already relocated (one in Malibu/Topanga Canyon, and one in Canyon Country).

Presumably my cousins in San Diego have done the same, along with the ones around Newhall (from the other side of the family).

So all we do is sweat it out, and hope:

1) none of our near and dear lose their homes, and
2) the wind doesn't drive it up into our hills at some point.

Pray for Southern California: I swear we're careful when we landscape. I's just that the heat and the dryness and the Santa Ana winds make it interesting around here—all year long, if you want to know the truth.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 09:27 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Let's not make it sound worse than it is. One swaps out the tanktops for long-sleeved T-shirts, and switches to jeans from shorts. And one starts wearing socks again.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:42 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 I'm waiting for your Yahoo! Avatar to start dressing for Summer.

Posted by: Darrell at July 17, 2007 05:30 AM (kbFgE)

2 Good point. I haven't done a thing with her since Spring.

Posted by: Attila Girl at July 17, 2007 12:33 PM (VgDLl)

3 I saw her Easter outfit. Nice. Does this prove I'm certifiable?

Posted by: Darrell at July 17, 2007 06:08 PM (j4+Np)

4 Was that in doubt?

Posted by: Attila Girl at July 18, 2007 03:21 PM (VgDLl)

5 I just figured you were keeping the dog happy.

Posted by: Sean Hackbarth at July 18, 2007 09:16 PM (8lL1c)

6 Oh, Sean, I'm sorry! You're in Wisconsin! How embarrassing! I guess there's more to it than just wearing socks with one's sandals over there . . . Imagine my horror!

Posted by: Attila Girl at July 19, 2007 03:54 PM (VgDLl)

7 And what exactly is "keeping the dog happy" a euphemism for?

Posted by: Darrell at July 19, 2007 06:42 PM (g7mO9)

8 I decided to take it as "walking your mother's dog during her illness," because otherwise I'd have to fly out to Wis-whatever and strangle Sean, and I don't really have the time . . .

Posted by: Attila Girl at July 19, 2007 10:42 PM (VgDLl)

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I got home last night after interminable adventures with U.S. Air that I may post about once I recover from them; suffice it to say that I got up at 3:30 a.m. Pacific on Wednesday, and arrived home at the same time this morning—24 hours later.

My attempts to recuperate have involved the following activities:

1) liberating my car from bondage;

2) doing laundry;

3) sleeping until 2:00 p.m., without a shred of guilt over it;

4) driving my car with the window open;

5) playing rock and roll very loudly;

6) checking out all the cool trees in my little town—many of which are covered in little pink blossoms that weren't there a week ago, when I first left for the East Coast. California is so green in the winter and early spring; it doesn't really get brown until late May or early June.

I dig Maryland, but home is pretty gorgeous, too.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 07:11 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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. . . was on one of the talk fests this morning. One of the benefits he pointed out to the GOP nominating Giuliani was that it could conceivably put California back in play.

That would change the political landscape considerably.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 09:19 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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. . . to acquire land or housing in the SF Bay Area; they've just had two small temblors less than a week apart.

Cash in! Buy that condo for less that $750,000! Now is the time!

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These might be the last ones we can afford for a while. Please keep the farm workers and farmers of California in your prayers. Three-quarters of the citrus crop lost, and nearly every crop affected. Shit.

I hope one of the trees in our yard decides to produce this year: the lemon tree is reliable, and the orange tree usually produces, but the tangerine tree is flakey in the best of times, and it's tangerines that we like the most.

Perhaps I can find someone who likes grapefruit, and work out an exchange.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 12:12 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 "tangerine tree is flakey in the best of times" Like a certain weblogger? I couldn't resist. It was a gigantic softball floating toward me, and I was Mark McGuire right after an injection.

Posted by: Sean Hackbarth at January 19, 2007 06:24 PM (QJ5cf)

2 The lady who runs the cafeteria at the school at which I work purchased ten times the usual amount of OJ this week because she suspects that prices are about to go up.

Posted by: John at January 19, 2007 07:26 PM (hJMG8)

3 Gee, Sean--if I meet anyone to whom that description applies, I'll be sure to pass that along! Yeah, John. I keep telling myself that if I overbuy on citrus, I'm part of the problem, because I'm creating an artificial shortage--a "run" on fruit in the stores. But I'm mired, oddly enough, in human nature. BTW, I'm not sure the price increases will extend to juice; a lot of the citrus that isn't pretty enough to be sold as whole fruit gets used for juice--that's why FL oranges are used more for this purpose than CA ones. But some of the CA crop was rescued, and will be diverted for use in OJ. Of course, I have no idea how much sort-of-damaged fruit was salvaged in the storm front, so I can't be sure. If they grabbed enough oranges as the frost was hitting, the fruit could, theoretically, flood the juice market and hurt FL farmers by creating an imbalance.

Posted by: Attila Girl at January 21, 2007 12:04 AM (0CbUL)

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Such a tragedy. And it happens way too often: the 1978 fires earned a few pages in the 1979Santa Monica High School yearbook. I watched the '93 blazes from my next-door neighbor's house back in West Los Angeles: a part of the Malibu Mafia from our Samohi days, he was able to tell me how close the fire had come to the homes of those we knew.

Does anyone know how Sandra Tsing Loh's father is? I don't think he was right on the beach. But I don't know the area well enough to be sure, and I no longer have her e-mail address. Someone get back to me on that.

I should have thought of this; it was so warm today, we had the windows open again. It seemed nice at the time. Fuck.

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. . . who didn't even know we had levees here? Well, of course we must: how else could we steal water for agriculture in the Central Valley? But other than that "keep the produce coming; I like water; faster, please" attitude, I hadn't thought much about how we actually channel the stuff. Stupid of me, really.

Arnold knew, though. Along with Crime-Fightin' Feinstein, who co-signed his letter asking for Federal funds. (No. Thanks for asking: I'll never forgive her for tipping off the Nightstalker when he was in SF. What a stupid woman; Ramirez' victims deserved better than that.)

Posted by: Attila Girl at 07:45 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Some things, of course, aren't so much shocking as just sad.

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Mark Steyn on politics and celebrity in the Golden State:

So now [Schwarzennegger's] being stalked by Warren Beatty. In the runup to election day, Beatty showed up everywhere Arnold did, as if he were the Actors' Equity-designated understudy for the role. If they're remaking 42nd Street, Arnold's Bebe Daniels and Warren's got the Ruby Keeler role as the plucky kid from the chorus who gets sent on stage with the stirring words, "You're going out there a youngster but you've got to come back a star!" Or in Warren's case: You're going out there a wrinkly woozy semi-has-been but you've got to come back a star!"

Will he do it? "I don't want to run for governor," he said the other day, making it sound like he's interested in the role but he won't audition. He's certainly in the right party: The Democrats have already taken on most of the characteristics of a bad Hollywood project—no ideas, script full of ancient cliches, but if you can get the right star to commit to it we just might make this thing fly. And, though he's never run for office before, Beatty has the crucial ingredient: name recognition. All over California, women are going: "Warren Beatty? Oh, yeah, right, now I remember. That guy I had sex with in the late '60s."

Read the whole thing, and thank me later.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 07:14 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Thank you, AG! I'm still wiping the tears. The thing Arnold has over Shirley MacLaine's little bro is that he actually worked for everything his has. Inspite of the fact that many people hear "funny accent" and believe that means low IQ, Arnold is a very shrewd businessman. He also can take the lumps that were dished out by the CTA, Unions and state Socialists, learn from them, and move on. Beatty was little more than a pretty, priapic shell. Looks like "shell" is all that's left.

Posted by: Darleen at November 22, 2005 08:49 PM (FgfaV)

2 Furthermore, he's really vain

Posted by: Attila Girl at November 23, 2005 12:10 AM (JZqY7)

3 Furthermore, he's really vain That song wasn't about him. Now, if the CA Republicans can just overcome their "Death Before Election Victory!" self-destructive tendencies. I mean, precisely how stupid does a political party have to be to take Gray Davis' advice on who to run against him?

Posted by: Christophe at November 23, 2005 12:29 AM (td8Qe)

4 Mark Steyn's on a short, short list of essayists who just about never miss. Hitchens, Krauthammer, and a few others are that good. Not many, though. No, Christophe, that song isn't about Warren Beatty. But he probably thought the song was about him. Which is kind of the point.

Posted by: utron at November 23, 2005 09:52 AM (VVBQC)

5 No, Christophe, that song isn't about Warren Beatty. But he probably thought the song was about him. Which is kind of the point. Christophe make little yok, ya? All over California, women are going: "Warren Beatty? Oh, yeah, right, now I remember. That guy I had sex with in the late '60s." We like to call that "energizing the base."

Posted by: Christophe at November 23, 2005 01:02 PM (2rBIo)

6 Fake Eastern European accents are so enchanting. I have to go now: I want to watch Shampoo again, and verify that its premises about female sexuality are just a teensy bit male-stereotypical. But in that charming, sleazy 70s way.

Posted by: Attila Girl at November 23, 2005 06:06 PM (JZqY7)

7 Actually, Utron, the thing that amazes me about Steyn is his ability to keep utterly up-to-date on what's happening in the U.S., Canada, Britain, and the Continent all at the same time. An ex-boyfriend of mine used to refer to Isaac Asimov as "the Asimov brothers." I feel that way about Steyn.

Posted by: Attila Girl at November 23, 2005 06:30 PM (JZqY7)

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right here.

In a surprise development, my views on parental notification laws are in the minority within the Bear Flag League. Life does have its twists and turns, no?

Vote Tuesday, and we'll be golden. (Get it? Get it?)

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. . . by one of GayPatriot's readers in this post, which posits that overreaching by activists could have the effect of setting gay rights back in this state for years.

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1 Sully stooping to new lows by insisting that Prop 22 only meant to ban OUT OF STATE gay marriages. Do you suppose he believes this shit, or just thinks we're idiots?

Posted by: beautifulatrocities at September 11, 2005 01:19 PM (uulnD)

2 Well, he does have that selective memory thing

Posted by: Attila Girl at September 11, 2005 06:42 PM (EtCQE)

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. . . has a thing or two to say about the "caveman element" within the California GOP.

A lot of us share this feeling: both parties in the Golden State are controlled by their extreme wings. It benefits no one.

A lot of people like to point to Reagan as a genuine conservative. He was one. But he wasn't anti-gay, and he discussed immigration issues without coming across as racist. We need someone positive, who can truly appeal to disaffected Democrats. Arnold is a start, but he's one guy, and we need more people to do the work in the most populated state of the union.

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That was lovely: nothing like spending two hours with your husband on a Monday evening, trying to guide the water out of the basement, as it seeps in through the little "weeping holes" in the wall. I've never seen the basement so flooded, even during that much-hyped "El Nino" year.

Plastic sheeting is horrible, since there's always a seam between the pieces, and the water makes its way in between them. This frustrates us, and makes our tempers fray. (There were difference in tactical notions: is it better to cover a wide area with the plastic sheets, or a smaller area that acts more like a funnel for the water? Each was convinced his/her own ideas were correct, so as I recall we alternated in whose got implemented.)

All I can think of is to make a hollow in the basement floor and install a decorative little streambed right along the middle. It would be a conversation piece, and it would impart bitchin' feng shui to the place. And it would come handy on years like this, when all of SoCal turns into a large fish bowl.

Somewhere, in Florida, I hear people laughing.

Come on in; the water's fine. And you won't even need your shades.

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The Spear Shaker has a summary of Schwarzennegger's aggressive reform plan for Cauli-fornia.

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