night lights

I was outside tonight and I walked the city, interior, for a bit. The new blanket of fresh snow is a mirror upon the earth and it reflects the city lights against the equal great surface of the clouds in the sky. And so it is, tonight at the dark time in the city, light like the day was illumined by the moon bright as the sun.
That's why I live in the D-town.

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The Face of Things to Come

I've posted a clip of him below, so you can probably already tell, but my new favorite Dem in DC is Senator-Elect Jim Webb (D-Va). Like a lot of people the last few years, I've mostly been looking for someone to stand up to the President, realize he's not popular, realize he and his administration are objectively failures, and treat him like he's supposed to be treated: with respect for the office but criticism of the man, the citizen, who must bear the scrutiny of his fellow citizens. Especially since Congress is a co-equal branch. So here's what Jim Webb said at the White House recently:

At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers shortly after the election, Bush asked Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, was doing.

Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.

“I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing,” Bush retorted, according to the source.

Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but of course didn’t. It’s safe to say, however, that Bush and Webb won’t be taking any overseas trips together anytime soon.

Yeah, that's about right. Also, imagine the temerity of the President snapping at the father of a marine in Iraq because that father wants his son home.

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This is sadly the case.

I read, and you should read, the blog known as Pandagon. Because Amanda Marcotte is effing brilliant. And if you are wasting time with my silly, rarely updated, and mostly pompous and self-indulgent blog then you should stop and read Ms. Marcotte. Her post today about the racist patriarchy and it's creepy ideas is insightful and true and just good stuff all around.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but everywhere I turn lately, it seems the “race suicide” anti-choice argument is getting more explicit and the drumbeat for it is getting louder. This thread is going nuts because of some frantic defensiveness of anti-choicers of their bona fide desires to advance a patriarchal worldview where a culture has an imperative to inbreed a race and maximize numbers, which is obviously an attitude that leads to war and of course environmental destruction. Yesterday I blogged about how Missouri lawmakers linked illegal immigration and abortion, which don’t really have anything to do with each other. I’ve also seen modern variations on the old scolding at white women to have more babies that tie themselves to Social Security. White male control of white women’s bodies for non-stop child-bearing is the go-to solution to every problem (whether there is really a problem or not) that wingnuts can think of, it seems.

Go read the whole thing.

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Hey Kids!

Wanna see a man who has spent his life in service to his country, has been decorated for his heroism, and has served--despite political differences with the president who asked for his service--as a cabinet officer, and has decided to stick his neck out and become a US Senator in the hopes of improving the lives of the poor? Well I give you Senator-Elect (D-VA) Jim Webb.

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Congress will excercise oversight over the Executive? What crazy colonial thought that up?

CNN is now projecting Democratic control of the House of Representatives. I congratulate Speaker Nancy Pelosi and wish her good hunting.

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Breaking the World

I remember that when I was a kid fish was always Orange Roughy. Restaurants featured it, the super market always had it, the cooking shows always used it. A delightful fish. Not too fishy tasting, light, firm, delicious. I don't see it much anymore. We still import a shit load in the States, but there's just not as much as there used to be.

Apparently by 2050, we will have eaten all the fish.

There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of
the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study.

Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the
rate of decline is accelerating.

...

Steve Palumbi from Stanford University in California, one of the other scientists on the project, added: "Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together, as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood."

...

In 2003, 29% of open sea fisheries were in a state of collapse, defined as a decline to less than 10% of their original yield.

Bigger vessels, better nets, and new technology for spotting fish are not bringing the world's fleets bigger returns - in fact, the global catch fell by 13% between 1994 and 2003.

That really freaks me out.

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