Deep Inner Turmoil.

It's stories like this that bring up the most fundamental conflicts in my politics.

1) On one hand, I abhor our lax gun control laws and find the path of the NRA and U.S. gun rights movements to be amongst the stupidest campaigns ever waged.

2) On the other hand, I would like to be able to shoot people in the arm if they won't stop talking during a movie. Especially a Brad Pitt film.

BEST DEFECTIVE PRODUCT EVER!!!!!!!!!!!

NEWS from CPSC

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Office of Information and Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20207

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 23, 2008 Release #09-073

Firm's Recall Hotline: (800) 425-5627 CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772 CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

Hallmark Recalls Jumbo Snow Globes Due to Fire Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Jumbo Snowman Snow Globes

Units: 7,000

Importer: Hallmark Cards Inc., of Kansas City, Mo.

Hazard: When exposed to sunlight, the snow globes can act as a magnifying glass and ignite nearby combustible materials, posing a fire hazard.

Incidents/Injuries: Hallmark has received two reports of the snow globes igniting nearby materials. No injuries have been reported.

Description: This recall involves a Hallmark Jumbo Snow Globe in the shape of a snowman with model number 1XAG5093 and UPC code 795902066666. The snow globe measures 11 by 12 by 17 inches. The model number and the UPC code can be found on the back of the hangtag.

Sold at: Hallmark Gold Crown stores nationwide from October 2008 through November 2008 for about $100.

Manufactured in: China

Solicitation Again!

Last time I solicited your books...and despite my fierce promise to read them all by the end of the summer, I wasn't able to keep up with my convictions because of the need to study for the bar. (How typical to be derailed from meaning by the Career of Law and then complain about it.) That being said, I still have the list of remaining books:

Down and Out in Paris and London – H.
Chinese Lessons - A.B.
Dhalgren - Jeff?
Some indecent book - mh.

Am I missing any?

In any case, I am coming back for another solicitation....this time for music. Similar rules to prevent overload and to ensure you give thought rather than volume...because it's impossible to deal with 30 new artists that are "sooo good." (M: I still have 94 cds of yours I haven't gotten to yet, though thanks much for the Ingrid!)

The rules:

1) Suggest one artist and/or album.
2) Suggest one.
3) Suggest one. If you suggest more, I'm ignoring you.
4) If you suggest something I already have, you get another go.
5) If you have it on non-DRM mp3, please send it to me.

Oh, and if you're one of the people out there who I am aware may read the blog but has never commented and for some reason thinks they shouldn't comment...just comment dammit. For example, KG or CFM.

Recovered!

I think I've recovered! I'm still a little sore, but I think everything else is in order. Now I'm debating with myself over whether I should crack a beer as I watch a game of football in HD.

...tough. On a side note, I think I've actually lost weight from not drinking any beer in the last 3 days...which, since it is the weekend, could add up to a total of, what, 15 to 20 beers? (That or I lost weight from having only consumed 1000 calories since Thursday). I've basically spent all of today doing exactly what I did the past two sick days...watching TV from the couch. However, I was able to sit up and do some cleaning too rather than getting too cold and woozy to be able to sit up straight.

In other news, I watched Hellboy 2: The Golden Army today. I actually really enjoyed the last Hellboy movie, which I had absolutely zero interest in seeing (but bought because I was living by myself in India and needed something to watch while washing my clothes by hand in my bathroom.) Although the movie is not without random flaws, I thought the movie was pretty amazing. It's sorta like mashing together Pan's Labyrinth, The Matrix, and Men in Black (without the Barry Sonnenfeld) into this gigantic, swirling ball of trippy pandelerium. I mean, for God's Sakes....Hellboy fights a Forest God ("An Elemental") under the Brooklyn Bridge - that's entertainment.

Ok...I'm going to recover with Hookah and Alcohol.

Food Poisoning Upsides.

So food poisoning has its upsides...

Although I should be sitting at my desk doing some reading on a new bank regulatory law involving tax deductions and calculation of goodwill for the purposes of tier 1 capital, the truth is that my head is still very woozy and my lower back hurts like hell for some reason. The back pain began with the food poisoning and seems to be my litmus test for how quickly I'm recovering...I suppose it's just a continuation of my body aches. Long story short, I can't sit at my desk and it doesn't seem right to try and work when I should just be resting up.

Instead, I've been resting in a complete daze of media. I woke up and laid in bed listening to an episode or two of This American Life in bed while trying to assess how good or bad I felt. (I felt good lying in bed. I felt sick getting up.)

I managed to trudge over to the couch and turned on the television. So far I've re-watched Talladega Nights, I've watched Annie Hall, and I've also watched Pan's Labyrinth...these in addition to polishing off the first season of The Wire, getting through the first half of Season 11 of South Park, and watching Persepolis last night. Since it's not worth getting into, I'm just gonna say that every thing I watched was totally awesome, except Pan's Labyrinth, which was totally awesome but far more intense than I was ready for. I have semi avoided that movie because I knew it was the type of movie that had the ability to drain you...and boy...it sure did. Then again, it's not like The Wire and Persepolis were lightweights.

I also started reading "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" and though I'm only like a quarter of the way through, I still don't really like it. Does anyone have any opinions on this particular book? I know we all have opinions about Eggers and whatnot, but just this book...anyone? I could just as easily put it down and leave it for good, but I'm curious as to why he is as well-received as he is.

That's all...back to food poisoning. Ugh.

AH Goddammit!

Food poisoning fucking blows.

I don't know where it came from, but I think I got food poisoning from my firm's holiday party. If I had to guess, it was that cold meatball I ate right before I left. Miserable. Joint pain, my body aches, my skin hurts, I'm freezing and hot and chilled like a motherfucker, my stomach is queasy, I've been in and out of the bathroom for various reasons at least 40 times (25 of which were between 3:00 and 4:00 am.) And if I'm not mistaken, I must have vomited up so much and dug so deeply that I must have cleared my spleen and liver by the time I finished.

And, as it turns out, throwing up HURTS man! I couldn't even keep water down for more than 10 minutes as I felt my lips and skin drying up from the inside.

URGH.

At least I ordered 7 gallons of gatorade from the local delivery grocery place.

Weekend Wrap-up.

There's nothing all that interesting here...just a few notes:

First, I had the pleasure of seeing Frost/Nixon. It was excellent. And jesus christ, that Frank Langella is one hell of an actor. I suggest you take the time to see it, not because it carries any deep lessons, but just because I think it's a good movie worth seeing. But probably not on the big screen...instead, you should go see

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL! NUMBER ONE IN THE BOX OFFICE BITCHES!!! For the record, in case you've forgotten or in case you are new, I will consistently and earnestly defend Keanu Reeves' honor with ferocity and admantine resolve. I am keenly aware of his shortcomings and I make no claim on his talents. But damn, I support Keanu Reeves. Reviews for this movie have made me laugh out loud everytime I see them. ALL of the reviews are all similar (and funny). Here are some examples of the idea conveyed in every review you will read:

• The best part of this movie is Keanu Reeves. He plays an alien who doesn’t talk much and shows no emotion. I really think he has found his perfect role.
• I even liked Keanu Reeves, who has often been unfairly accused of robotic acting. Intentionally or not, his performance here subtly tweaks those accusations.
• On the plus side, Reeves is relatively well cast as an affectless alien. One can only hope that in the future he will devote himself to playing androids, less-self-aware species of undead, stylish pieces of contemporary furniture, and other roles that do not require the exhibition of any recognizably human traits.

Heh.

In other news, I am very impressed with GWB's ability to dodge thrown shoes by Iraqis. I have to admit that I probably would have gotten a very fearful awkward face (like the one I get when pigeon dodging) and had a momentary panic the instant someone stood up in Iraq and started yelling and making sudden movements. I would have embarrassed the shit out of myself. Instead, Bush quite gracefully dodged the first shoe and wasn't all that bothered by the second. Furthermore, as soon as security came over, he brushed them off to the side. Now I hate that fucking man and everything he stands for and has done to this world...but I'm a little impressed. (Note: He completely undid the cool factor by his verbal response to the incident afterwards.)

Sampler Platter.

Once again, I am here with a healthy mix of chinese victuals...a little kung pao, a little general tso's, some financial crisis reading, some buddha's delight, some explanation of securitization, and maybe a quick concert review....followed by yet another great way to pass 15 minutes at work....followed by a pictorial explanation of why racism is proper.

1) The Kung Pao.

...Fuck Kung Pao chicken. It has peanuts and I can't eat peanuts. Fuck Kung Pao.

2) General Tso's.

...This makes up for my inability to eat Kung Pao. If General Tso met Kung Pao (445-398 B.C.E.), General Tso would whip his ass.

3) I read another great article on the financial crisis today, this time from the perspective of Chairman Bernanke. If you're unfamiliar with the players, Ben Bernanke is a smallish little jewish professor who was a lauded academic and economist who became the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. He was installed during one of the most exuberant economic times in history with the irrelevant background in studying the Great Depression, and is now at the helm of potentially one of the most destructive financial crises in the history of mankind. This one is in the recent issue of the New Yorker if you, for some reason, need credentials on whether it's good.

4) Buddha's Delight.

...who the fuck are you kidding? Vegetarian chinese food? Leave. And eat some leaves. (Maybe thick succulent ones if you're lucky."

5) Securitization.

I watched this little video during work today because I had nothing to do. If you have a fairly good grasp over the process of securitization, you won't need to see it. If you 1) don't know what securitization is, 2) don't care what securitization is, and/or 3) don't immediately understand how our financial system managed to vaporize itself...I suggest you take the 7 minutes to watch. It's definitely not academic. It's entirely made for lay peeplez and is interesting.

How credit cards become asset-backed bonds from Marketplace on Vimeo.

6) Bon Iver.

I went to the Bon Iver show tonight at Town Hall. Fantastic. Chills and warmth. 'Twas good. Likey.

7) Fascinating Fascinating: The story of Clive Wearing.

Sarah sent along this wonderful wonderful article about this dude named Clive Wearing. He contracted this cold sore virus that somehow decimated the part of his brain that allows people to remember, and thus has spent the last like...30 years without being able to remember anything for more than 18 seconds. When he wrote in a journal, his entry looked like this:

8:31 AM: Now I am really, completely awake.
9:06 AM: Now I am perfectly, overwhelmingly awake.
9:34 AM: Now I am superlatively, actually awake.

As existential and chilling a piece as you will read. But then again, it's just very interesting because it's just so...inconceivable. (Incidentally, he still plays music beautifully.)

...yeah yeah...it's the New Yorker.

8) [Shakes head]...Chinese People and their products.


IVIKE HAHAHA

Harry Potter and the GIANT FUNNEL. No shit.

Violence and the Media.

WARNING: This post contains several very violent images. I guarantee my thoughts aren't worth reading if you don't want to see the photos.

I don't know if it's just Indian media or all media except our own, but despite our overexposure and over coverage by the media, and all the proclamations about "violence in the media"...our outlets remain extraordinarily sensitive to depictions of violence. This is something I understand, since no one wants their deepest grief and loss displayed for the entire world to see and sensationalize. I remember seeing the Fallujah attacks on the American contractors (i.e., Blackwater) and wondering what it must feel like for the wives and children to see the photos of these men...the people they love the most (I tried to link them to avoid posting them, but it wasn't working, so I'm just posting them.)
(I still can't get over the smiling kid on the left side of that photo.)

I was living in Bangalore when the tsunami rolled through Sri Lanka and southeast India on December 26, 2004. I remember sitting at my computer continuously refreshing the NY Times and watching the death toll climb from 1,000 to 10,000 to 50,000 to 80,000 to 100,000 to 150,000 to 200,000...completely unable to comprehend what was happening less than 200 miles away. What made the experience so different was going into work each day and reading the Indian newspapers and seeing the photos they printed on the front page. I remember seeing the front page of The Hindu which had a half page picture of an enormous pit, maybe 20 or 30 feet deep with a mass of dozens and dozens limp, bloated bodies rising from the bottom to the top, and on top of the pile were 3 or 4 naked and dead babies. I just stared at it. I had never seen anything like it. Mass death. It wasn't a movie. Real people. People who had never imagined their lives would end and would someday look like this. Everytime you see a dead body, it makes a little bit of sense because...they must have somehow put themselves in these situations to die like this...right? nope.

I always wondered how our foreign policy would have to be conducted if the real photos from the front line came back to us. If we were forced to look at the dead face and mangled body of a 21-year old American boy, I think the wars would end pretty quickly (...although I also think we would also lose any wars we did fight.) We've had over 4,000 dead American soldiers since 2003 and probably close to six figures in dead Iraqis. How many of their dead faces would we have to see before we just had to stop? And how many more before the zealots are satisfied?

In any case, I'm still disgusted to my core over the Bombay attacks, which is what this is about. At the center of it all is the fact that I really really fucking hate stupid people. I don't mean unintelligent people or people who lack the capacity - I just mean STUPID fucking assholes. Racists. Bigots. Ideologues. Zealots. I hate stupid people to begin with, and I hate it even more when they have power and they exercise it by destroying life. And die believing that their version of stupidity was right. Stupid hicks who think they understand who their enemies are. 20 year olds. Kids. These are the deluded school shooters. These are the Cho-Seung Huis who are so lost and so fucking stupid that they think they understand something. Ugh. Someone give me a cogent argument for the use of brutal violence against the violent so that I can go face-punching and nut stomping in Waziristan.

If you're wondering what any of this has to do with anything and are curious at how or why I just rambled on about nothing for the past page, the answer is that I went to a few Indian media outlets (Times of India, NDTV) and picked up some pics from the sites. I wanted to post them both because I always find my perspective on these events sharpened and intensified by seeing pieces of what actually transpired and because I'm so fucking sick of these people that I would like to foster tiny little well-spring of hatred against radical religion, and radical islamism in particular.

So here are some pictures of the victims and the scenes of the attacks.

This is Moron #1. (terrorist/scumbag)

This is Moron #2. I hope it hurt and that they dragged you naked through the streets after this.

Morons #3-9.

I don't think I'll ever understand people...

So whenever I read the NY Times, I invariably wander over to the right lower side of the webpage and look at the "most-emailed" articles. I usually am able to find 2 or 3 interesting pieces to read in there and the bigger more meaningful pieces often end up there pretty quickly. I also get to find some articles that seem totally stupid and boring to me, but click on them to figure out why they are number on the list. (irrelevant, but I love stories like this about how all these haughty taughty luxury stores are *gasp* discounting luxury goods. *Jerk off gesture.*) (Here's another article, but it's more along the line about how millionaires are still buying $191,000 dollar purses because they're still millionaires.)

What I never look at though, are the other two tabs in that section: Most Blogged and Most Searched. I mean, I've clicked on them, but I've never really paid any attention because they don't really seem to offer much. But today, because work was a little slow today (I can't tell if that's terrifying or ok…) I looked at it for a little longer, and then furrowed my brow. Here's the list for the last 24 hours, and a few choice selections.

1. obama

2. november 5, 2008

3. mumbai

4. china

5. cancer

6. education

7. india

8. december 2, 2008

9. bush

10. health

11. modern love

13. canada

23. women

35. sex

36. recession

45. economic crisis

50. pakistan

Now I'm not going to go through these one by one, but I think that taking a few minutes to just think about parts of this list will leave you slightly baffled. Of course the high ranking of Mumbai makes sense, because a very specific event just took place. But searching for "Obama" doesn't make sense, mostly because every other article involves Obama. What is going through your head when you type Obama into the NYTimes search? What story are you looking for?

#5 cancer is sad. Because if I or someone I knew got cancer, it's likely I would type it into a NYTimes search just to see what I could find either to boost my spirits or find hope.

#6 education is a little baffling to me. Education is important. So is oxygen. Why is it #6 on the search frequency? I think Obama's choice for education secretary is going to be an interesting and highly covered issue, but if that's the case, where the hell is "commerce" or "state" or "homeland security"?

#13 Canada. Heh.

#23. Women. #35. Sex. #Wtf. This is the NYTimes, what are you doing?

And which random topics do NYTimes readers search for less, but with at least SOME interest?
Numbers 36, 45, and 50. Recession, Economic Crisis, Pakistan.

Glass.

There is broken glass all over my apartment. Two glasses were broken. One of them was thrown at full force at my wall. The other fell off my desk while I told her "Get the fuck out of my apartment and don't ever come back." There is a hole in my wall.

From one end of my apartment, which is at least 35-50 feet long, I hurled a glass in an uncontrollable rage at the wall. The glass shattered so completely, so fully that every inch of my apartment is covered in glass. I found glass in my bathroom, in my bedroom, on my pillow and in the farthest untouched corner of my bedroom. Every place I thought the glass could not have made it to holds pieces of glass. There is glass on top of my refrigerator, on top of the door frame, in my bathtub, in the space between my fridge and the counter, in pots and pans hanging over my stove, on the toilet, and even inside of clothes hanging in my closet. The glass is in shards and in chunks and in the finest powder that cannot be carried by a broom. I will be breathing, eating, and drinking broken glass. I will be discovering new pieces of the broken glass for the rest of the days I will live in this apartment. It is 1:45 a.m. on Thursday evening and I am done.

Clarification and Good Read.

Just to be clear, since two people have already expressed reservations about my last post: I think Saxby Chambliss is a piece of shit. I wish that some other, almost any other, Republican had kept their seat...maybe even Ted Stevens instead of Chambliss because he represents almost everything that is wrong about American politics. Hence, the "Fuck that Guy."

Nevertheless, the reason I was "ok" with his victory is because I believe a filibuster-proof locked down Legislative, Executive, and possibly Judiciary is a bad thing for the party. We're in for a world of disasters and chaos far beyond the control of any government, and I don't believe the electorate is discerning and educated enough to realize what disasters are government created and what disasters are continuing fallout from the last 8 to 10 years. All indications suggest that Obama is doing almost everything right, and I don't think good governance and good policy should be punished by circumstance...and I think a filibuster-proof Democratic majority can only hurt the long-term prospects for America.

There.

Moving on...

Today's "American Banker" contained a very interesting piece about the Community Reinvestment Act and its role in the current crisis. To provide a little background, it has become Republican stuff of legend that the Community Reinvestment Act is the source of the current crisis. To put a finer point on it, Republicans blame Jimmy Carter for what's happening (yeah, of course they are...jesus). The gist of the argument is that the CRA was intended to provide government support and funding for those who couldn't really afford houses. Thus, the story says too many people bought houses they couldn't afford, a housing bubble was created, and boom - 2008 Financial Crisis.

Personally, I believe that the view is bullshit. Yes, there is some truth to an inflated housing market. No, the CRA is not irrelevant to the housing market. But NO, the CRA explanation for the current crisis is BULLSHIT. The article below explains how all of the front-line regulators, republicans and democrats, agree that it is bullshit. And it is a good article.

In Election's Aftermath, CRA Stays a Flash Point

American Banker | Thursday, December 4, 2008

WASHINGTON — The debate on whether the Community Reinvestment Act caused the subprime crisis has outlasted election season and could affect future regulatory restructuring.

Though there is scant evidence and growing dissent from regulators, Republican lawmakers appear poised to make CRA a fall guy for the financial meltdown, arguing that it spurred banks to make poor loans that eventually led to delinquencies and foreclosures. Some said they plan to tackle the issue next year as Congress works to revamp the broader regulatory structure.

"The overwhelming support" in the Republican party "is for changing the CRA," Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview. "It's high on the agenda as far as trying to fix the entire collection of regulations that exacerbated the housing bubble."

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Tex., also argues that the financial services panel should "explore the role the CRA played in exacerbating the subprime meltdown and figure out how much bad lending was done in order to fulfill CRA goals," a spokesman said.

Regulators, even Republican ones, are beginning to push back.

Both Federal Reserve Board Governor Randall Kroszner and Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan have recently expressed strong support for the CRA.

In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Dugan said he felt obliged to speak up against criticism of CRA. Data does not support the idea that bankers made poor loans as a result of such requirements, he said.

"There has been criticism recently suggesting that the CRA caused the subprime crisis, and we just felt it was important to set the record straight because that's not what we saw," he said.

After a speech on the subject last month, Mr. Dugan was hailed by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank in a speech on the House floor. "This firm statement by President Bush's appointee with prime responsibility for the safety and soundness of the banking system should help us end the inaccurate, politically motivated misrepresentation of the role that CRA has played," he said.

Critics of the CRA have argued that the law, passed in 1977 to combat discrimination by banks against poor and minority communities, forces banks to lend to borrowers who are poor credit risks. They say CRA regulations have caused lenders to lower their underwriting standards.

"It caused standards for mortgages to deteriorate very substantially because it forced banks to find new ways to offer mortgages to people who couldn't meet the normal standards," said Peter Wallison, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a member of the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee. "Then those lower standards spread to the rest of the mortgage markets, so people who could have qualified for prime loans were able to get interest-only or negative amortization loans, and all of those things became more or less the standard for mortgage loans."

Mr. Wallison argued that the CRA should be scrapped.

But others said the focus on CRA is a red herring. They said it is a talking point for Republicans who want to distract attention from a growing consensus that more regulation is needed.

"I think that the deregulatory conservatives have a political motivation in trying to deflect attention from the underlying causes of the subprime and financial crisis to anything they can find, including the CRA," said Michael Barr, a law professor at the University of Michigan who has testified to Congress on the CRA's reputed role in the subprime crisis. "The facts just don't support the claim. The overwhelming bulk of subprime lending was made by institutions not covered in the CRA."

Mr. Kroszner on Wednesday told an audience attending a Fed conference on poverty policy that the CRA had not caused lenders to make a significant number of bad loans. He reviewed studies by the Fed showing that CRA lending was "nearly as profitable and performed similarly to other types of lending done by CRA-covered institutions." The Fed's most recent mortgage study showed that 60% of high-priced loans went to middle- or upper-income borrowers, those outside the CRA's target population, and that 20% of high-priced loans to low-income borrowers were not made by banks, he said. Instead, they were made by nonbank lenders not bound by the CRA.

"Contrary to the assertions of critics, the evidence does not support the view that the CRA contributed in any substantial way to the crisis in the subprime mortgage market," Mr. Kroszner said.

Some bankers clearly agree.

During a panel discussion Wednesday at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Ken Lewis, Bank of America Corp.'s chief executive officer, said CRA has become a "scapegoat" for the current mortgage crisis.

"The great majority of loans that caused this problem were outside of CRA," he said.

Given Democrats' control of Congress and the White House, Republicans have little chance of prevailing on CRA in the near term. But some observers said the focus on CRA is meant to lay the groundwork for change later.

"Changes in regulatory laws happen through people stating their case as to why things work or don't work," said Douglas Landy, a partner at Allen & Overy LLP.

"Those arguments are batted back and forth for years — or even decades. So people put in their place holders. You're not sure exactly when an idea is going to come back."

That has in turn spurred regulators to respond, Mr. Landy said.

"I think the Fed, as one of the regulators that enforces the CRA and perhaps as the primary regulator that enforces consumer finance rules, wants to set the record straight," he said.

Mr. Barr, the Michigan law professor, said the attempt to divert the attention of participants in the regulatory reform debate appeared to be failing, despite the recent attention from regulators.

"I think that it has failed so far because it's implausible on its face, the facts don't support it, and the country as a whole recognizes the origins of our crisis were in a failure of government to act and not in the CRA," Mr. Barr said.

So much better.

Obama during the Richardson announcement:

"I'm going to answer this question about the beard," said Obama, when Richardson was asked where the facial hair went. "I think it was a mistake for him to get rid of it. I thought that whole Western, rugged look was really working for him.

"For some reason, maybe because it was scratchy when he kissed his wife, he was forced to get rid of it.," Obama continued as his nominee for commerce secretary smiled broadly. "But we're deeply disappointed with the loss of the beard."

Heh. This is totally something we would want to say about each other if one of us were President.

Ack!

No, this does not qualify as a legitimate post either...but I won't post from work and I didn't get home until 2 am last night.

So I pass on a healthy shudder of revulsion and fear.


AAAGGGGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Credit to M. for sending me this link, which knocked me out of a corporate law daze and into a visceral fear.)

Oh, and Saxby Chambliss won the Georgia runoff, so thankfully the Democrats won't hit the magic number in the Senate (I'm not going to explain why I think it would be a bad idea for the Dems to get 60, but I do despite my utter repudiation of the mold of the current Republican party). Just three (eight?) words after being otherwise ok the Republican victory...

Fuck that guy. (with a big rubber dick)

World AIDS Day.

Today is World AIDS Day. I think I posted some reflections on the day over the past few years...on the state of AIDS policy, or how I feel about the direction the epidemic is moving etc...but the honest truth is that I haven't been keeping up with it as closely as I used to...and all I would be doing is rehashing the things I've been thinking and carrying with me for the last 4 years rather than adding anything thoughtful or new.

In this situation all I'll say is this:

Please don't get the hiv. The epidemic is definitely not going anywhere, and the greatest conduit of transmission is believing that you're safe. I've seen enough to know that no one is safe - no one.