mostly, we talked about aquaman and condoms...but not how they relate to one another

With Congress looking for the votes to override Bush's insane veto for SCHIP on the 18th, I decided to take further action than just posting Daily Show clips on a blog that no one reads. So I found myself spending my Tuesday evening taking part in a demonstration in front of the NC Republican party headquarters.

I stumbled upon a small pocket of folks holding signs that seemed as uncertain as I was about whether or not we should be seen having a good time while trying to get a rather urgent message out. After we decided that, yes, it was okay, we went about the business of interpreting the reactions from passing cars. There were a few things we noticed.

One was that no one gives a honk of disagreement. If you're honking, you support the cause. This is an interesting deviation from the normal honking of your horn, which announces that the driver in front of you has just performed a vehicular maneuver generally reserved for jackasses that can't drive. It was nice.

Next, was that you could get a pretty good idea of someone's age by the reaction from the car. If you pumped your fist and/or yelled supportive things out the window of your car, you were pretty young. If you gave a thumbs up(the most common reaction), you were young-to-middle-aged. If you flashed a peace sign, you were pretty old. If you flashed a black power sign, you were pretty old and black.

All of those positive reactions, it should be pointed out, were done with one hand on the steering wheel of the cars they were driving. The one overtly negative reaction we got was a double middle finger from one particularly angry driver who obviously hates poor children. We couldn't help but notice that in order to double flip us off, he needed to leave both hands off of the wheel for an extended period of time. This is just more proof that you're either 1) not thinking in the long term or 2) a complete moron if you oppose the SCHIP expansion.

I tell you all of that to tell you this: you can have a great time acting on your conscience. I totally did. Also, conservatives are bad at driving(which is sad because they drive such nice cars).

By the by, Bob Etheridge is being a pretty lousy Democrat/human being and not planning to vote for an override(David Price is, advantage Durham) of Bush's idiot veto. So if he's your Representative(or even if he's not), you can call to tell him to grow a set and do what's right by calling his Washington office(202-225-4531) or his Raleigh office(919-829-9122).

UPDATE: Good news from the organizer:

Page 5B of today's N&O reports that Bob Etheridge will vote for the SCHIP expansion!!! "After careful consideration, I have decided to vote to override the president's veto."

Way to go, Bob.

favre ties record, loses game

Brett Favre tied the record for MOST CAREER INTERCEPTIONS in a failed comeback attempt against my beloved Chicago Bears, who I never said should give up on this season. Never. Said. It.

george, have you even read the Bible?

Once again, I find it easier to let someone else explain why I'm upset with W.



George, I just need to go ahead and point something out to you. You see, George, for all that you believe in private health care, private health care has zero...I repeat ZERO interest in helping anyone. They want to make money. So we can therefore assume that private health care has LESS THAN ZERO interest in helping a child who cannot afford their services.

Of course this isn't your problem, is it George? As far as you're concerned the poor are only poor because they want to be. I might even tune into whack-job right wing talk radio today to see if anyone can explain what "Poor kids first" even means.

In the meantime, there's also this...which is all kinds of entertaining in the face of tragedy.

but marqué en infériorité numérique

Last night, with football currently slowly killing me inside between the performances of the injury-depleted Chicago Bears and the, um, something-depleted NC State Wolfpack, I was very much looking forward to the start of a hockey season with a Carolina Hurricanes team that I think is going to do a lot of scoring and winning.

Of course, being poor means that I'm watching the game from my couch. Also, because someone hates me and has either a tremendous amount of hatred for either the team or its fans, the Hurricanes were the only team whose opening game wasn't televised in its own market. Fortunately, there was a free preview of NHL center ice. Unfortunately, the game was against Montreal so the broadcast was in French.

I was determined to watch me some hockey, though, so I let the game get about 30 minutes ahead so I'd at least be able to fast forward through the French commercials(the DVR is the best invention ever) and plopped myself down on the couch.

Andi gave up on trying to identify what was going on based on her high school French classes about halfway through the first period and instead scoured the interweb for and index of hockey terms in French. The term for short-handed goal is entirely unimaginative. Stupid French.

While the 'Canes did lose in OT, I at least saw a lot of positives in the game that get me excited for the season to come. That's more than I can say for what the Bears and the Wolfpack have shown me in the young football season. Is it basketball time yet?