Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

My Computer, My Love

From the New York Times:
Most couples experts said the act of taking an electronic device to bed did not by itself threaten a marriage. “It depends on the relationship,” said Marcy Levine, a marriage and family therapist in San Francisco.

No, no, NO. Not that kind of electronic device! A laptop! A laptop computer!

Jeez.

Since we first installed a wireless network — several years ago — Mark and I have been devoted “compute-in-bed” people. Almost every day ends with us side-by-side, him on his MacBook Pro, me on my MacBook, happily surfing the internet or working on some project or other, Law & Order reruns tuned in on the television (or, if it’s “sleepy-time”, anything from HGTV — nothing prepares a mind for rest better than home decorating shows.)

Occasionally we’ll even speak to one another. Mostly we just do our own things.

Mark and I have both always been computer geeks. It’s one of the reasons we’re married. We actually met online — and that was back in the early 90′s before everyone was doing it! We love computers. We have LOTS of them in our house. Ummm… Nine, I think. Yep. We have nine computers. That’s six laptops, a Mac Mini, a Mac Cube, and a “snow” iMac. All of them have a wireless connection to the internet. It’s important to be able to connect whereever you are, right? Of course, right. So… we love computers. We’re the kind of people who like going to Comp USA or Micro Center just so we can pet the new computers. You know… just kinda… touch them. Mmmm… computers.

Anyway. So, while some people (the authors of this New York Times article, for example) seem to think it’s a big deal when people compute in bed, Mark and I have been doing it for so long it’s really normal to us.

Jesus, the Tree-Hugger

An eminent biologist implores evangelicals to go green
…religion and science are the two most powerful forces in the world today, and especially in the United States. If religion and science could be united on the common ground of biological conservation, the problem might soon be solved.

The New Republic has published a wonderful “open letter” from Edward O. Wilson to evangelical Christians. Check it out.

Signs

On TV tonight at 8 pm…

Signs
In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a five-hundred-foot crop circle is found on the farm of Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), the town’s reverend. The circles cause a media frenzy and test Hess’s faith as he journeys to find out the truth behind the crop circles.

Those weren’t aliens, baby!

They were Jews!!!

—-
Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

Plan B

FDA Approves OTC Sales of Plan B
The morning-after pill is a high dose of the most common ingredients in regular birth-control pills. Taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, the two-pill series can significantly lower the chance of pregnancy. Women’s health advocates have pushed for easier access to the drug because it has often proved difficult for women to get prescriptions quickly.

The FDA has approved no-prescription-needed availability of the “Plan B” birth control pills. (It’s really two pills that have to be taken.)

This is a good thing. I have ambivalent-to-negative feelings about abortion in general and, if the Plan B pills are readily available to women, it ought to cut down pretty significantly on the number of abortions.

Marriage and Careers

Careers and Marriage – Forbes.com
After all, your typical career girl is well-educated, ambitious, informed and engaged. All seemingly good things, right? Sure…at least until you get married. Then, to put it bluntly, the more successful she is the more likely she is to grow dissatisfied with you. Sound familiar?

Forbes magazine has published a story by editor, Michael Noer, warning men not to marry women with careers. As you might imagine, it’s more than a little controversial.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was that more than once Noer refers to “career girls”. Career girls?? Uh huh. That already tells us a little about where he’s coming from, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, he’s hardly alone in having outdated and demeaning ideas about women and marriage. And, while it is true that women with careers are more likely to grow disatisfied in their marriages, that’s not entirely surprising when so many people seem to believe that a woman’s primary role in marriage is pretty much limited to cooking, cleaning, popping out babies at appropriate intervals, and — oh yes, mustn’t forget — enthusiastically engaging in sexual intercourse whenever her husband happens to be in the mood.

What intelligent woman wouldn’t get tired of that? Surprisingly, though, many women seem to secretly harbor a lot of the same beliefs. Call it social conditioning.

What’s needed is a complete cultural re-do of the whole marriage thing. It’s got to be about companionship. Period. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

Aaaaaaah!

Yeah, yeah… another image from the DanaCam in Au Train, Michigan (up der on da Yoopee, dontcha know.) It’s awfully nice, though, isn’t it? It would be absolutely perfect if the boat were a canoe and not a motor boat.

Imperial Hubris

Six Questions for Michael Scheuer on National Security (Harpers.org)
In the long run, we’re not safer because we’re still operating on the assumption that we’re hated because of our freedoms, when in fact we’re hated because of our actions in the Islamic world. There’s our military presence in Islamic countries, the perception that we control the Muslim world’s oil production, our support for Israel and for countries that oppress Muslims such as China, Russia, and India, and our own support for Arab tyrannies.

Just this morning, I received a forwarded email with the subject line: “Muslim Peace Demonstration?” It consisted of a series of pictures from an “Islamist” demonstration. All the usual nutbar sentiments were represented. A sign held by one man, for example, read “Behead Those Who Insult Islam”. The general idea behind the email was that all Muslims are crazy butchers who will rip your face off if you give them half a chance. Well, here. Here’s the text that went along with the photos. See for yourself:

These Pictures tell it all!
Muslims have stated that England will be the first country they take over!
These are pictures not shown on American TV or in American Newspapers because they might help Bush’s war on terror.
They were, however, published in a Canadian newspaper.
These are pictures of Muslims marching through the streets of London during their recent “Religion of Peace Demonstration.”
Why would anyone think that we should be at war with such nice, peaceful Moslems?!
Americans need to Know!!
You might want to forward this one!

Cute, eh? I particularly like the insinuation that the pictures aren’t shown on American TV because “they might help Bush’s war on terror”.

Damn the liberal media.

Anyway, my point is that an astonishing number of people really do believe all Muslims are like this. They really do believe, as Michael Scheuer says in the intervew I’ve quoted above, that extremists attack us “because they hate our freedom”.

Michael Scheuer was in charge of the “bin Laden unit” at the CIA’s counter-terrorism unit from 1996 to 1999. He wrote the book Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror and he knows more about Islamism than most people alive. Harper’s magazine has a fantastic interview with him published on their web site. Click the link at the top of this post to read it.

And, for Pete’s sake, if you get a forwarded email like the one I got, step up and do what you can to dispel some of the craziness. “Reply to All” with something like what I wrote to everyone else who was on that email list this morning:

What’s most frightening of all is that lots of people believe ALL Muslims are like this. They’re not — the majority of Muslims are perfectly nice people who just want to live their lives in peace. They’re people who really aren’t all that different from us! There are millions of people in this world who practice the religion of Islam. Only a relative few are crazy “Islamists” like the guys in these pictures.

When photos like these get forwarded around without any explanation that guys like these — scary though they are — are really in the minority, it only serves to further alienate us from the Muslims who live in our world. We can’t afford to do that — not only because it’s bad for them. It’s bad for us, too. It makes us smaller people.

George

Our cat George died today. We estimated his age at about 17 years. Night before last we noticed that he was quite obviously not feeling well so we took him to SouthPaws, the local veterinary speciality/emergency clinic. They did a bunch of bloodwork on him and an abdominal xray and all they could say for sure was that he was very constipated. So, they cleaned him out with an enema, gave him some subcutaneous fluids, and sent him home with pills to help stimulate his appetite. For a little while, he seemed to be doing better. It was clear by last night, though, that he was — if anything — in even worse shape than before. He was very lethargic — hardly able to stand. We took him back to SouthPaws and left him there overnight so they could do an ultrasound on him this morning. The call came at about 10 am. His heart was failing due to previously undiagnosed heart disease that had, finally, become too much to bear. Although a referral to a veterinary cardiologist was offered as an option, the SouthPaws doctor told us that considering George’s age and his grave condition, his prognosis was very poor. We opted for what we believe is the kinder path in this kind of situation: euthanasia.

George first came to us about seven years ago. He literally came to us — appearing in our backyard. When I first went out to meet him, it was apparent that he’d been outside on his own for a while. His fur was dirty. His paws were very rough and dirty. Because he was sitting down when I first met him, it was few minutes before I realized he had no tail! Later, I noticed that he was declawed. Much later, we realized he was completely deaf.

It was clear what had to be done. There is no way a deaf, declawed cat can live a long and healthy life outside. We brought him in and he became a part of the family.

It wasn’t long before we discovered that George had certain “personality quirks” that might have been a factor in his banishment to the great outdoors. He enjoyed a bit of the old ultra-violence and would gleefully attack (with clear intent to kill or maim) the other cats. He was truly psychotic about it. As a consequence, he lived upstairs in our master bedroom suite — with his own private food and litter box and us, in the evenings, to keep him company. If one of the other cats was outside the bedroom door, George would become so agitated that he’d attack ME as a proxy-target. I have the scars to prove it. I eventually learned how to predict these attacks and how to quickly pick him up (without being bit) and deposit him in the bathroom for a 5-minute time-out. After his time-out, he’d stroll on out as though nothing had happened. The little goon.

George hadn’t been living with us very long when he started having problems with bladder stones. Over the course of a couple years, he had two surgeries to remove stones. After the second surgery, SouthPaws had us start him on potassium citrate capsules twice a day. He never had another problem after that.

Despite his occasional violent outbursts, George was a wonderful cat. He truly seemed happier living in the bedroom. Because no other animals were ever permitted in there, he could relax much more easily. (We’ve speculated that part of his freaky hostility towards other animals might have been related to his deafness. They could sneak up on him. Maybe he had bad experiences when he was a kitten.) At any rate, he could be the most affectionate sweetie-cat that you can imagine.

He was a good little guy and we’re going to miss him. Our two other cats, Mickey and Marjie, though… they’re probably going to throw a huge celebratory party tonight when they realize he’s gone for good.

Travels with Bob

I’ve discovered a web site I just know many of you will enjoy. I’m sure liking it. The site belongs to Bob Harris: writer, radio-guy, game show contestant. I didn’t think I’d ever heard of him, but when I looked at his photo on the cover of his new book, Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy!, I went “Ooooh yeah… I’ve seen that guy before. I like him!”

You’re going to like him too.

What I’m reading online now is his multi-part series, My Five-Continent Midlife-Crisis Around-The-World Adventure. Like all the best travel writing, it’s truly interesting and funny and sad… sometimes all at once. When I’m done with the Midlife-Crisis trip, I’m going to read all about his Almost Seven Wonders trip — which promises to be just as interesting.

But anyway, back to the Midlife-Crisis trip. One of Bob’s stops is Sydney, Australia and it’s really sort of gratifying to see that Bob has the same general idea about Australia that I have since visiting Melbourne:

BobHarris.com – Sydney: Like A Prisoner Episode, But Better
So gee — suddenly I’m in an actual nation of immigrants, one which values equality, freedom, and the environment — instead of a pretend one, where civic leaders routinely utter soothing virtuous bullshit, and the people go along because it feels a lot better than actually confronting the serious, urgent, even deadly problems facing them.

American Integrity

It looks like a chilly, damp morning in Duluth. I tuned in to the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association’s webcam this morning just on time to watch this boat come in. I believe it is the American Integrity. (And I bet you thought, from the title of this post, that it was going to be another political rant!)

And now, as we head off to start our day, the sun is starting to break through the clouds. Pretty, eh?