My afternoon

Because I know you are dying to hear details on the life of leisure of a girl in the city.

I scootered into the downtown Title 9 store and flirted a bit with the pretty young clerks. They were arguing over whether milk naturally has sugar in it (it does). 

I went to a healthy bakery/luncheonette thinking I would have some wholesome soup for lunch. Instead I ended up in Tony's Bar eating a turkey sandwich and drinking Miller High Life.

That's how I roll. Hope your day was good too.

Sarah Palin might be good for politics?

This blogger notes that the cerebral branch of the Republican party--the pointy-heads from the East Coast who know that Africa is a continent, not a country--must soon acknowledge that Palin represents crazy unwashed masses of willfully ignorant conspiracy nuts.

Then, I guess, the game will be on.

The president buys pants

Audio of LBJ ordering britches that don't bind his man parts or ride up his "bunghole." (His word, not mine). Complete with Oval Office belch.

Johnson has always seemed a confounding creature. He pushed us into full-blown quagmire in Vietnam. And he signed the Civil Rights Act. 

This tape of his order of Haggar slacks doesn't clear up the confusion of who  Lyndon Johnson was. But listening to it sure beats pondering that dark day when he took the oath of the office of the presidency for the first time.

The stupid. It is stunning.

So someone is pointing out that conservatives not filling out and returning their census forms as political protest might result in, um, oh, I don't know, maybe said folks being under-represented in Congress.

The census is mandated in the US Constitution for the express purpose of determining the make-up of the House of Representatives.

I understand those who don't want to give the names, birthdates and ethnic backgrounds asked for on the form.  But it's dumb to not send in a form noting simply the number of warm bodies in your household. 

Hipster horses

I think my favorite is Skippy.

The sky is blue. The sun is hot. Ricky Martin is gay.

We are shocked by Martin's announcement. Not.

Here are other celebs whose declarations of gayosity elicited a similar collective yawn.

Epic LOLcat

Just ran across one of my favorite kitteh LOLs of all time and wanted to share. Go here to find more in the same medical meow vein. (Get it? I made a pun.)

What about those Stanford gals?

Wow.

The Cardinal join Baylor in the Final Four. The last two slots will be filled tomorrow. Regardless of those outcomes, I'm pulling for Stanford to win it all.

I like the 'Eers in the men's Final Four, if only because my cousin in town, a West Virginia native, might disown me otherwise.

Coda: I saw a fellow at a restaurant Sunday wearing a Carolina sweatshirt. How the mighty Tar Heels have fallen. That sweatshirt sporter is no fair-weather fan.

Fear the chia-hooah-hooah. Fear him.

Animals doing what they do. Being cooler than you and me.

Lucy in the sky with Friskies

Slate.com laughs at the psychedelic state of cat food commercials. Friskies is like, far out.

 Snarks trendhunter.com:  I want whatever the cat was having.

Who dat?

Some fabulous photos of owls.

Today's crush

Dorothy Dandridge

Cow Cow Boogie (with a fringed mini-skirt!)

I Got Rhythm

Hateful AND dumb

Earlier this month, the Oklahoma senate voted to exempt the state from part of the sexual orientation portion of national hate crimes legislation. In other words, bash away at the gay and don't worry about the feds.

Instead, the legislation mistakenly exempted the state from the religion/race part of federal hate crimes law.

'Stamps to the rescue'

Buy via the U.S. Postal Service and help animals.

Night kitteh

Come sail away

A salon.com blogger is not ashamed to love him some Styx.

Agreed.

Renegade

The Best of Times

Come Sail Away

Oh, mama.

It's not about health-care reform

It's not specifically health-care reform passage that has driven the teabaggers wild.

It's the fact that our moderate, middle-of-the-road president is a Nee-gro, and brown people will soon enough outnumber the white "majority."

This blogger nails it:

"If Obama’s first legislative priority had been immigration or financial reform or climate change, we would have seen the same trajectory. The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House — topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play."

Dyke Martens turns 50

Yeah, there's more to the history of the ubiquitous working-class Brit boot than lesbian fans. I just like typing the word dyke.

Dr. Martens celebrates a big birthday on April 1.

King coal

Haunting scenes of defunct Appalachian coal towns.

My county's example of such is Wilder-Davidson.

The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore

When I was a curly headed baby
My daddy sat me down on his knee
He said, "son, go to school and get your letters,
Don't you be a dusty coal miner, boy, like me."

I was born and raised at the mouth of Hazard Hollow
The coal cars rolled and rumbled past my door
But now they stand in a rusty row all empty
Because the L&N don't stop here anymore

I used to think my daddy was a black man
With script enough to buy the company store
But now he goes to town with empty pockets
And his face is white as a February snow

I never thought I'd learn to love the coal dust
I never thought I'd pray to hear that whistle roar
Oh, god, I wish the grass would turn to money
And those green backs would fill my pockets once more

Last night I dreamed I went down to the office
To get my pay like a had done before
But them ol' kudzu vines were coverin' the door
And there were leaves and grass growin' right up through the floor

I was born and raised at the mouth of Hazard Hollow
The coal cars rolled and rumbled past my door
But now they stand in a rusty row all empty

Because the L&N don't stop here anymore

Sweeeet

The Lady Vols were mauled by the Baylor Bears, and technically the men are already down to the Elite 8.

Still.

Esquire sought insight from cheerleaders from some Sweet 16 schools.

My head-banging rock and roll moments of zen

"Those American thighs." Yep yep. 

You, girl, are on the highway to hell. Your friends are gonna be there too.

Snapshot memory: Driving my mom's 1971 Chevelle to a package store on the county line with my sister's boyfriend (Get your mind out of the gutter. I was the gay from the get-go). 

This song was playing on the 8-track. We bought Miller High Life in Pony bottles. I was 16. He was too.

Mid-day ginger kitteh

Puppehs eating ice cream

How can these pictures be topped? Tell me how. They can't be. That's how.

Unintentionally funny propaganda posters

Cracked.com assembled some. Pictured is my favorite of all time, used in the United States to encourage car pooling during World War II.

Kitty wigs

There's a book based on them.

'Cuff me. Please.

Jennifer Beals will play a cop in a new television series.

Mid-South and proud

A fascinating controversy going on in Nashville on historic Lower Broad: Developers of a Jimmy Buffet-style bar want windows that open to mimic what you'd see in Key West. Preservationists say nay to the changes. Pictured is the building that would be affected.

As a Music City fan, I gotta side with the history nuts. Lower Broad has been gentrified and generically gussied up enough already.

If you want Key West, go there.

If you want Honkytonk heritage, seek out Nashville. 

Used to be on Lower Broad, you could swap stories with homeless people at a dive bar like the Wagon Wheel (and get two tall-boy cans of Budweiser for $5). All that's left to stop Nashville from turning into another soul-less Myrtle Beach is nattering historic organizations. Good on them.

So head to Guitar Town sometime. Save your flip-flops for your Florida trip and opt for boots instead; it's always raining in Nashville anyway and god knows what you might step in on those Second-Avenue sidewalks. 

Classic rock quiz

For JCatt since she's (almost) too gimped up to play gee-tar. Guess the classic rock songs from these clips. 

I got 22 out of 36 correct. Not too shabby, but not too great either.

Here's you some Kiss. This isn't a song from the quiz, but I roller-skated to this tune at the rink when I was in junior high. That's reason enough for me to listen.

OK, here's a gimme from the quiz--the Eagles.

It's a girl, my lord

In a flatbed Ford

Slowin' down to take a look at me

Sadly, no Heart on the quiz. So have some of that too.

And now I'm mad that the quiz makers included no girls with guitars. Bonnie Raitt will give 'em something to talk about.

I mean, how dare those quiz makers, what with that Joan Jett movie just out and all? Take this.

'Night, y'all.

Death panels aren't coming for you.

The Washington Post has a simple calculator to determine whether and how you might be affected by the health-care reform that is now law.

Here is a list of immediate or almost-immediate provisions of the new law.

Here is a timeline for full implementation of the law.

Shooting war

Find here some of the finest recent war photography.

BTW, read "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver if you want a literal interpretation of the human pain from conflict in the Congo. Here, a photo shows a family mourning a baby girl dead of diarrhea in that godforsaken land.

National Puppy Day

Celebrate the doggehs of the world.

Here is a pup angry at a praying mantis for not playing with him, I think.

Eastern redbud

Your moment of zen.

A half hour well spent

You'll thank me for pointing you to awkwardfamilyphotos.com's 1980s extravaganza.

We were all livin' on a prayer in acid-wash jeans and spiral perms. And oversized glasses.

I was anyway.

BTW, this photo from the site might be my sister and her family, circa 1989. I'm probably the one who shot the photo. In fact, I'm almost certain it's from a trip we took to Gatlinburg.

Yes, I'm kidding about the picture. But just barely.

'Let's go to the Gap and buy underpants'

Here's Snoop Dogg delivering Letterman's top 10 list last week. 

You're treated to a prelude of Dave twittering and joking about Dogg and his chronic Chronic use.

'Seraphina' sounds like a font face to me

Here's what the elites are naming their munchkins these days.

Nice to see "Harper" on both the boys' and girls' lists.

Sadly, "Tammy" remains relegated to the non-hip barrel of choices.

The morning after

This commenter on James Fallows' blog sums up nicely what happened last night when Congress finally got cojones (I bolded the guy's last sentences because I especially love that part):

"When I was 15 I developed a chronic condition, and received excellent care under my mother's insurance plan. When I turned 23 and graduated from college, I lost eligibility. Tagged with a pre-existing condition, I was black balled from the private insurance market for life. Since then when my condition's gotten bad enough that I couldn't put off treatment, I've made myself unemployed to qualify for Minnesota's General Assistance Medical Care [GAMC] program, which has taken good care of me . . . because I live in a prosperous, progressive county and I know how to use the system.
 
Now Gov Pawlenty is trying to unilaterally kill GAMC. Until tonight, I have been a Democrat because of people like Gingrich and Bush, Palin and Pawlenty. After tonight, I am an Obama Democrat in the sense that my grandparents were Roosevelt Democrats. For all the problems with HCR, for all the compromises and deals and disappointments and inefficiencies, tonight the Democrats stood up and took a political risk to say that I deserve medical coverage, that it's no longer okay to treat my health as sad but acceptable collateral damage in a Social Darwinist system. That's why this moment matters to me."

Night music, with doggehs

Tracy Chapman.

Give Me One Reason

Heaven's Here On Earth

Revolution

And so it is

Tammy the cynic is so proud to be wrong.

Health-care reform passes.

It's been a long time coming. Thank you Jesus, Buddha, Allah and the angels. 

Look at all them Baptists

A cool map of Christianity across America.

7 years

And thousands of lives later.

Happy Iraq Clusterfuck anniversary.

Another Antietam. And more K Fed. God have mercy on our soulzzzz.

So banning health-insurance companies from turning citizens away because they had acne when they were 17 will lead to armed conflict?

I don't know. I'm thinking most people will go for it. Just like the woman in the video who is probably looking forward to Medicare coverage.

How do you negotiate with people who are totally fucking insane?

Americanprospect.com snarks:

"When Republicans make predictions of terrible events to come, they are almost certainly wrong. This is important because if health care reform passes on Sunday, they'll be saying not only that Democrats will lose their majorities in Congress because of it, but also that jobs will disappear, costs will skyrocket, the deficit will explode, seniors will be executed by government bureaucrats, vicious animals will burst from their cages and carry off our children, Kevin Federline will release more albums, and who knows what other nightmarish events will ensue."

'11 shocking facts about the lady flower'

More Saturday fun.

Here's the last line of this feature. I know you want to read on after this teaser:

"Nothing says 'champion cooter' like lamé!"

Hot mother-daughter duos

Thechive.com lists some showbiz families to turn our heads.

Interesting that Susan Sarandon's daughter got Sarandon's er, um, eyes.

No mountains for me

Here's a live pic of the mountain pass I'd need. Guess I won't escape the city this weekend.

Serious doggeh

I are donezz for the day. Off to the local gay bar later to watch burlesque. Then to the mountains tomorrow if the weather allows.

Mind your brackets and watch Pelosi whip those HCR votes.

Snark-free zone today

It's all on the line this weekend for health-care reform.

Eugene Robinson at The Washington Post is on it.

"If health-care reform finally staggers across the finish line, it will be because President Obama and congressional Democrats recognized -- at long last -- the truth that has been staring them in the face for more than a year: They'll be better off politically if they just try their best to do the right thing."

"Yet the Republicans portray even this fairly modest set of fixes -- cautious, incremental, fiscally responsible -- as socialism run rampant. They portray the health-reform package as a government "takeover," although the idea of any kind of limited, restricted, tightly constrained little government-run health plan has long been abandoned. They portray Democrats as a bunch of wild-eyed leftists for a bill that Richard Nixon would have signed."

Paul Krugman at The New York Times nails it too.

"In every other advanced nation, insurance coverage is available to everyone regardless of medical history. Our system is unique in its cruelty."