I had a bad night.

This post isn’t getting tagged with either of the three Fs.

Because it’s mostly to remind people to please, when you’re going out drinking, make sure you have made plans to get home safely and you stick to them.

Plans to get home safely do not include:

1. Driving your drunk ass home even though you cannot read your cell phone or stand up straight.
2. Letting strange men who have been buying you shots and lifting your shirt to grab your tits drive you home.
3. Lying to the sober member of your party about having someone come to pick you up (especially when you’re doing it about three feet from the sober member. She can totally hear you when you ask the person on the other end, “Can I just put you on speaker and you tell this bitch you’re coming to pick me up?”
4. Wobbling down a dark street yelling at the sober member of your party that you’re a grownup and you don’t need to be babysat and that you’re walking the 30 miles home.

 

Also be aware that if I am in your party and you exhibit drunken behavior, I will totally steal your keys and I don’t care what you call me, you ain’t getting them back.

Additionally, I tend to carry a camera with me. And ’blackmail’ is such an ugly yet appropriate word…

 

(p.s. I don’t like getting thrown out of bars. So don’t invite me along if you plan on becoming a drunk-ass fool and getting tossed out.)

[Food] Filler is Tasty and Nutritious!

STILL no Interwebs at home. *sigh*

However, for my amusement, someone is attempting to argue that I do not know anything about making, bottling, and storing wine.

Arguing. With the graduate of Vintage High School, home of the Crushers. About wine.

[Fangirl] Update

The Internet situation still hasn’t shaken out at my new place.

However, I looked at the calendar today and did some math and

 

OMGTHREEDAYSUNTIL<a href=”http://www.nanowrimo.org”>NANOWRIMOOOOOOOOOOOO!</a>

 

Zombie bees. They’re the new lesbian ninja pirate cabbages. *nods sagely*

[Food] Filler Post

I’m moving. Have some food-related comics to keep you amused.

Torg and Zoe work to discover if Garlic Butter is the Ultimate Food.

And then, Riff and Torg battle it out over whether Garlic Butter beats Battered and Deep Fried.

Sorry, guys, they already determined that bacon and chocolate are not the ultimate foods.

[Food] OMG! It’s Teh Childhood Diabeetus!

OMG FLEEE TEH CHILDHOOD DIABEETUS! The media says it, ergo it is true, yo. Fat kids equal diabetic kids, right?

Right?

Junk Food Science is written by Sandy Szwarc. She has all these letters (BSN, RN, CCP) after her name, which means she is An Expert.

Her post A costly truism that’s not true— obesity has led to an epidemic of type 2 diabetes in young people is a must-read.

But I know you people. You don’t click through. Even when I threaten you. *sigh*

Excerpt-y!

The journal’s [Pediatrics] peer-review process also failed to do a simple fact check of the data on the actual incidence of type 2 diabetes among American young people. As was covered in detail here, several large population studies have been done since 1988 on randomized samplings nationally representative of the population of young people, monitoring the trend of type 2 diabetes. These include the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, and five other large population-based studies that have followed children and teens, all of which have also measured type 2 diabetes by actual blood tests.

All of these large population studies have consistently shown that rates of type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents at the population level have remained unchanged. There is no epidemic of childhood diabetes. In fact, type 2 diabetes remains extremely rare among pediatric populations.

[Fangirl] Open letter to Tampa Bay Fans

It’s called “The Rally Cap”.

You do it whenever your team is behind.

It’s real easy: you take your hat off, turn it inside out, and put it back on again.

Okay? We clear?

[Fangirl] The History of the Republican Party

It’s available here. Good read. You should read it.

You’re not going to read it, are you.

*sighs* FINE! Excerpty!

The early Republican Party was shaped by political conscience and regionalism. Throughout the early and mid-nineteenth century, states in the North and South were bitterly divided over the issues of slavery and state sovereignty. In 1854 the enactment of the KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT inflamed political passions. Under the act residents of the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska could decide whether to permit slavery in their regions. In effect, the act invalidated the MISSOURI COMPROMISE OF 1820, which prohibited the extension of slavery in new areas of the United States. Opponents of slavery condemned the measure, and violence erupted in Kansas.

Antislavery parties had already sprung up in the United States. The abolitionist Liberty Party began in 1840, and the FREE SOIL PARTY was formed in 1848. In much the same spirit, the Republican Party arose to protest the Nebraska-Kansas Act. The new group drew support from third parties and disaffected Democrats and Whigs. After organizational meetings in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin, and Jackson, Michigan, the Republican Party was born.

And if you’re interested, here’s the history of the Democratic Party, which is, of course, a descendant of the Democratic-Republican Party.

And since it’s my blog and if you don’t like the content, you can kiss my natural beige behind, here’s the history of the Green Party, of which I am a member.

Excerpty!

[Ralph] Nader and [Winona] LaDuke ran again in the 2000 presidential election, again on the Green party platform. Nader raised more than $8 million for the campaign, about $30 million less than REFORM PARTY candidate PAT BUCHANAN. Nader received the third highest number of votes with 2,882,955, representing 2.74 percent of the total vote. By comparison, Buchanan received a total of 448,895.

[Fangirl] Man being sued for owning comic books

HT to the incomparable Neil Gaiman for the heads up.

I quite literally have no words for this breach of a private citizen’s First Amendment rights.

From here:

Handley, 38, faces penalties under the PROTECT Act (18 U.S.C. Section 1466A) for allegedly possessing manga that the government claims to be obscene. The government alleges that the material includes drawings that they claim appear to be depictions of minors engaging in sexual conduct. No photographic content is at issue in Handley’s case.

“Handley’s case is deeply troubling, because the government is prosecuting a private collector for possession of art,” says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. “In the past, CBLDF has had to defend the First Amendment rights of retailers and artists, but never before have we experienced the Federal Government attempting to strip a citizen of his freedom because he owned comic books. We will bring our best resources to bear in aiding Mr. Handley’s counsel as they defend his freedom and the First Amendment rights of every art-loving citizen in this country.”

Mr. Handley’s case began in May 2006 when he received an express mail package from Japan that contained seven Japanese comic books. That package was intercepted by the Postal Inspector, who applied for a search warrant after determining that the package contained cartoon images of objectionable content. Unaware that his materials were searched, Handley drove away from the post office and was followed by various law enforcement officers, who pulled him over and followed him to his home. Once there, agents from the Postal Inspector’s office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, Special Agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and officers from the Glenwood Police Department seized Handley’s collection of over 1,200 manga books or publications; and hundreds of DVDs, VHS tapes, laser disks; seven computers, and other documents. Though Handley’s collection was comprised of hundreds of comics covering a wide spectrum of manga, the government is prosecuting images appearing in a small handful.

This case, if they get stupid judges, could have serious impact not just on comic writers and comic book owners, but all authors, and especially fanfic authors (you know who you are!)

I get paid tomorrow. I’m signing up as a member of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund then.

[Fangirl] Clean Living was his credo, and Justice was his ride

Oh, you only get this subject line if you’re a Middleman fan.

And if you are, you will be pleased to know that this is from the Tree Adams song “Palomino” which, according to the Middleblog, is now available on iTunes!

Yes, it’s on my iPod right now. On REPEAT!

[Finances] Bidding War for Your Money

HT to Joe who pointed out this nifty little site: MoneyAisle.com. You tell them how much you want to put in a high-interest savings or a CD, and they have small and mid-sized banks all over the country tussle it out to offer you the best interest rate.

As most of you know, I use INGDirect for most of my banking. I have 14 seperate high-interest savings accounts, each one earmarked for a specific budget line (my Sonic Screwdriver Random Acts of Fangirl account is currently at $0.08, but my Travel account is really ridiculously close to $500– Florida, here I come!). I also open a new short-term CD every pay period and I’m using that money as my emergency fund. I’ve got 17 of them.

I fooled around with the numbers a bit, and for like, way higher dollar values than my measly $50, the interest rates sometimes come back better than INGDirect.

Any way you slice it, it’s worth a look.