Monthly Archives: November 2004

Happy ThanksMonday, everyone. If you’re like me, you’re returning to work in a bit of a daze. I’ve had the standard Thanksgiving turkey dinner, the standard Thanksgiving Friday leftovers, the standard Thanksgiving Saturday lunch, even the not-so-standard Thanksgiving Sunday turkey … Continue reading →

Last night we got together with a few friends to watch what a couple of them (both male) had suggested was the “greatest movie of all time.” Of course, they were both drunk when they made the proclamation, and they … Continue reading →

Male-bashing seems to be the last bastion of acceptable biased speech. Pokerhed has a post suggesting it may be time to end it. Men, after all, are people too. The stereotype of men as “dumb brutes,” so often used as … Continue reading →

When I taught writing to college freshmen, they always had difficulty with the concept of plagiarism. Though they never expressed it this way, they all seemed to share the same thoughts on the subject: “so we’re supposed to use other … Continue reading →

Dear Senator Dole: I am writing in regards to HR 2391, which according to recent articles in The Washington Post and Wired News is a likely candidate to be “rammed” through congress in a lame duck session next week. The … Continue reading →

Alas, A Blog has a fascinating post (an old one, but new to me) about the issue of how to respond to an embarrassing intrusion. I think I’ve seen this happen before: a total stranger commands a woman to “smile,” … Continue reading →

There’s been a lot of blogging lately about Social Security reform. On the one hand, economists like Brad DeLong are arguing that if it’s done right, privatization can be a good thing. On the other hand, Jane Galt, Kevin Drum, … Continue reading →

Four years ago, I wrote about a dreaded affliction: the post-election controversy withdrawal, which I called NoCNNitis. Symptoms of NoCNNitis range from mild disorientation to violent delusions. As office workers across the nation try to reorient their water cooler conversations … Continue reading →

As a red-state liberalish moderate, my geography doesn’t match my politics. I’m hopelessly buried in Jesusland, and so perhaps inevitably, I’ve fallen for one of the shallower badges of suburban conservativism, the well-groomed lawn. Here’s a picture I took this … Continue reading →

Now that Bush has his victory, coupled with bolstering GOP dominance in Congress, he can get started with the agenda he spelled out in the campaign, right? Hmmm… where to start? Maybe education? That was a big one in the … Continue reading →

Remember all those lines, way back on election day, way back when Kerry still seemed to be a shoe-in? Remember those three-, four-, five-, eight-hour lines? Heck, even my measly hour and twenty-minute wait was annoying. Remember those election-stalling computer … Continue reading →

At about 10:00 last night, the CNN team was throwing up its arms in confusion. How could they have been so wrong? How was it that after 2000, after they had been so careful not to base their call of … Continue reading →

The statistics on death rates I pulled out yesterday are most commonly used to justify something other than changing the strategy on terror: they’re used to support the legalization of marijuana. In fact, yesterday when I was researching death statistics … Continue reading →

Just to place this “in print” for the requisite gloating or shaming tomorrow (or the next day, or the next day … and so on, depending on the judicial proceedings): Kerry will win. It will not be close — at … Continue reading →