OK, so I love my husband a little less right now.

I need something on his laptop. It is turned off. It is password protected.

I figured I could guess it. My husband is the only person in the world who could know my password based on the prompt question, but he would know it instantly.

My husband's prompt question is absurd. I have no idea what the answer is.

I can't get into his computer until he gets home.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:24 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 OK, so I love my husband a little less right now. 1% less of infinity is still infinity: Pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam
Pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya
Pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate That is whole, this is whole From the whole, the whole arises When the whole is taken from the whole The whole still will remain - Isha Upanishad (Pūrṇa literally means 'full' and is cognate to 'full'.) Is the question in Persian? That wouldn't help.

Posted by: Amritas at February 27, 2009 07:36 AM (+nV09)

2 The title of this post also describes the struggle to post comments here! I must see this message at least a dozen times per day - if not per comment! Due to high levels of comment spam, commenting at mu.nu has been suspended for a brief period. You will be able to comment again as soon as the flood of spam abates somewhat. Please try again in a minute or two. We apologise for this, and believe us, we hate spammers even more than you do. Yeah, yeah, I know ...

Posted by: Amritas at February 27, 2009 07:54 AM (+nV09)

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I'll admit that I've been watching too much Glenn Beck lately, but I have worked myself up pretty good this afternoon over the future of my country and the world. Hugo Chavez cancelled Valentine's Day, China said flat-out that they hate us, and Iran and Russia are testing nukes together.

We're boned.

Posted by: Sarah at 12:08 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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From the latest cartoon hubbub:

"Just the fact that they put a monkey with gunshot wounds in his chest, it gives the idea of an assassination," said Peter Aviles, 48, a building superintendent.

I sure hope Peter Aviles was sufficiently outraged when Death Of a President came out. You know, the movie about assassinating George Bush, not just a drawing of a monkey that some people think was meant to be Obama. (Which I think was a lame cartoon, but not a depiction of Pres. Obama.)

Give me a break.

I like Powerline's take:

If the President is a Republican, it's fine to call him a "chimp." In fact, it's morally superior. But if the President is a Democrat, you can't call a chimpanzee a chimp lest someone think you might have been referring to the President.

It all makes perfect sense.

Posted by: Sarah at 10:20 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Last night the husband and I watched the movie Baby Mama. We had thought about seeing it for a long time but we weren't sure if it would make us laugh or make us depressed. It turns out that it made me laugh until about the last ten minutes. Then I hated it, choked back tears, and wanted to strangle someone.

Spoiler alert: I am gonna talk about the end of this movie. more...

Posted by: Sarah at 06:22 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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At least we're doing something. What a hollow statement. We don't have any idea if it will work, but at least we look like we care about the problem.

Seriously, everything coming out of DC these days sounds like it could've been dialogue from Atlas Shrugged.

And the Wesley Mouches of the world waste our money...

(via David)

Posted by: Sarah at 12:16 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Amritas pointed me in the direction of the latest Newsweek cover.

And the corresponding article:

We Are All Socialists Now:
In many ways our economy already resembles a European one. As boomers age and spending grows, we will become even more French.

Sweet Jesus. We're doooooomed.

The article blames the whole thing on George Bush, and trust me, I think he deserves some blame here for his obscene spending problems. But the article was a little too triumphant about laying the blame at Bush's feet and washing Obama's hands of any culpability.

Nestled in this article is a little gem:

Polls show that Americans don't trust government and still don't want big government. They do, however, want what government delivers, like health care and national defense and, now, protections from banking and housing failure.

Oy. We're boned.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:38 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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As I was working today, I thought back to another quote from that Wal-Mart article that resonated with me:

As I patrolled the aisles, repositioning misplaced items and filling gaps in the shelves, I realized that Wal-Mart "guests" really are like guests. They are visitors who move things around and create a mess before they go home. Cleaning up after them was not very different from doing housework.

I've never been one to shove items where they don't belong, but now that it's my job to un-shove, I am even more diligent about it while shopping at other stores. I make sure to take unwanted items right back where I found them.

I spend a lot of my time putting stuff where it belongs. It never ceases to amaze me that I can almost hear a shopper's inner monologue: "I want to buy this purple yarn...(walks around the corner)...No, wait, I want this purple yarn...I'll just shove the three balls of other purple here, whatever." I am constantly pulling purple out of green and green out of orange, all day long. And taking cake decorating and beading supplies back to their own parts of the store.

It's ridiculous how many people just drop stuff wherever they are in the store.

Oh, and also how I spent two hours of my Christmas Eve making a pirate ship that was manhandled and destroyed within days of putting it on the shelf.

Posted by: Sarah at 12:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As I was working today, I thought back to another quote from that Wal-Mart article that resonated with me:

As I patrolled the aisles, repositioning misplaced items and filling gaps in the shelves, I realized that Wal-Mart "guests" really are like guests. They are visitors who move things around and create a mess before they go home. Cleaning up after them was not very different from doing housework.

I've never been one to shove items where they don't belong, but now that it's my job to un-shove, I am even more diligent about it while shopping at other stores. I make sure to take unwanted items right back where I found them.

I spend a lot of my time putting stuff where it belongs. It never ceases to amaze me that I can almost hear a shopper's inner monologue: "I want to buy this purple yarn...(walks around the corner)...No, wait, I want this purple yarn...I'll just shove the three balls of other purple here, whatever." I am constantly pulling purple out of green and green out of orange, all day long. And taking cake decorating and beading supplies back to their own parts of the store.

It's ridiculous how many people just drop stuff wherever they are in the store.

Oh, and also how I spent two hours of my Christmas Eve making a pirate ship that was manhandled and destroyed within days of putting it on the shelf.

Posted by: Sarah at 12:13 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I didn't see Jay Nordlinger's My Kingdom For a Safe Zone when it came out, but I just saw that Varifrank linked to it. The stories are all too familiar, but the very last one is just abominable.

My personal philosophy is to always assume that I'm surrounded by Democrats. I never assume that someone agrees with me until I have it 100% confirmed, on his initiative. And even then, I am quite reluctant to go the full nine yards.

Only once have I heard a conservative make me uncomfortable in public like this. I was at my knitting group and a woman stopped by to see what we were doing. We told her we knit for preemies, and she remarked that she couldn't believe how tiny the little caps are. And then she said, "These babies can be born so small and still survive, and that's why I am pro-life." She continued talking for several seconds about abortion, and my eyes were like saucers. I am screaming in my head, "What are you doing, lady? Why do you assume that people want to have this conversation in the middle of a yarn store? Don't you realize you're being confrontational and controversial?" I found it horrifying, in the exact same way as when random tourists on the Vegas monorail blab on about Bush.

Despite the fact that I was sitting with a group of elderly women who knit for charity, I have never assumed that they are conservative or pro-life. I always assume that they disagree with me and that I should keep my mouth shut.

Sadly, these clods Nordlinger's readers wrote about haven't gotten the hint.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:59 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I grew up in a state that didn't require vehicle inspections. This is a new and highly annoying process for me. I just sat for an hour and a half so they could tell me that my three year old car isn't a safety or environmental hazard. What a surprise. And I got to pay $30 for the pleasure...and I go back on Monday with our other car.

All that waiting was giving me flashbacks to the emergency room last Friday. There was one story I haven't yet told from that night.

I decided to go to the emergency room because it was a Friday night. If it had been any other day of the week, I would've waited it out and called the next day for advice. But since I already had the procedure booked and needed to know if I should continue with the meds or stop, and since I know someone who nearly died from Clomid complications, I decided to play it safe.

It's darn near impossible not to eavesdrop on other people in the emergency room. All that separates you is a curtain, so all night long my husband and I were also privy to the medical business of the patient next to us. I am not going to reveal any details, but their presence was baffling and a tad infuriating.

The gist is that the daughter had a chronic problem that had been happening for months. The parents were separated and the mother was "too lazy" to make the kid an appointment. The dad said that he works here in the hospital and had asked colleagues about his daughter's problem, but since it persisted, they wanted to have it checked out.

On a Friday night. In the ER.

There was no emergency, no sudden change in her condition that made them feel that treatment was necessary, nothing like that. This dad just brought his three kids in to spend the night in the ER. My husband and I were there for eight hours, until 5 AM, and this family had arrived before us and was still there when we left.

That is not an emergency.

This family was clogging up the ER and making me and, more importantly, other people with more pressing problems wait longer. They were sapping resources. If you work in the hospital, can't you find the time to make an appointment for your daughter? Why are you taking care of a child's chronic health problem in the middle of the night on a Friday?

Because you don't have to pay anything either way, that's why.

Why make a regular doctor's appointment during the week, and have to ask for time off work and take the kid out of school, when you could just bring everyone to camp out in the ER all night. There is no cost difference, so it's just easier to do it off hours.

No wonder it took me so long to be seen. And I feel even worse for the guy with the gall stones; he really would've liked to have been treated faster.

I am sure that this family isn't the only one of its kind. They bog down the system for all of us. A problem that's been going on for three months is not something that requires ER care on a weekend. Make a normal appointment and free up that ER doctor for someone who really needs him.

Posted by: Sarah at 07:03 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Just wait, it'll get better once itÂ’s all nationalized.

Posted by: tim at February 06, 2009 07:20 AM (nno0f)

2 The ONLY way I could give this dad a break is if he doesn't have custody of the kids & only had them on a weekend. Of course, urgent care would be better & the ER is not meant for these kind of things & it makes it harder for everyone else to be seen when folks like that are taking up a bed...I think it's dumb what he did, but I could see him being an either/or, all or nothing kind of thinker & just taking her where he knows people not thinking to the next step that this is the EMERGENCY room.

Posted by: Guard Wife at February 06, 2009 08:44 AM (N3nNT)

3 At least you weren't 'shaken' (車検 up ... Japanese-style: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor-vehicle_inspection_(Japan) Before a test can be administered on a vehicle the owner of the vehicle must call up a shaken [Japanese official car inspection] center and make an appointment by phone after which the owner must fill out paperwork at the center. The cost for the shaken is broken up as follows: 1,400 yen for paperwork and processing, 25,200 yen for the testing, 29,780 yen for 24 months of validity and 8,090 yen for the "Recycling Department" with fees being added depending on the vehicle and its intended use (business, personal, commercial, etc.). These variables can result in a shaken costing from 100,000 to 150,000 yen or more. That's equivalent to US$1,100-$1,600 per car!

Posted by: Amritas at February 06, 2009 11:01 AM (+nV09)

4 tim, slowly you are becoming a gOOd persyn. Healthkare will get better. You are beginning to see the benefits of a tOtal cOntrOl ecOnOmy. Once gOsplan takes over, everything will be fairly allOcated: wagyu steak for us, Soylent Green for you. Guard Wife, there is a simpler explanation. The androppressor was a member of the nOmenklatura: The nomenklatura were a small, elite subset of the general population in the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc. The nomenklatura was analogous to the ruling class, which Communist doctrine denounced in the capitalist West. Without exception, they were members of the Communist Party. An Officer of the peOple always takes precedence. This is the true equality of sOci@lism. Never give the state control over your life, because they won’t “take care of you” - they will make a token effort and leave you up the creek when it suits them. - James Hudnall

Posted by: kevin at February 06, 2009 11:25 AM (+nV09)

5 Never give the state control over your life, because they wonÂ’t “take care of you” - they will make a token effort and leave you up the creek when it suits them הוו זהירין ברשות, שאין מקרבין לו לאדם אלא לצורך עצמן: נראין כאוהבין בשעת הנאתן, ואין עומדין לו לאדם בשעת דוחקו אבות ב,ג Be wary of the government, for they don't relate to anyone unless it is in their own interest: They appear to like [one] when they benefit from it, and they don't stand by him in the hour of his need. Avot 2:3

Posted by: David Boxenhorn at February 07, 2009 07:17 AM (/8I3y)

6 My sister is an RN in an ER. The stories she tells (and has told for years) make you realize that a significant portion of our population don't have a whole lot of common d@mned sense.

Posted by: MaryIndiana at February 10, 2009 03:20 AM (alEvL)

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From John Stossel's We Can't Spend Our Way to Prosperity:

We should be suspicious when politicians, economists and the media declare a "consensus" and marginalize dissent. President Obama says, "There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy."

That's not true. Last week, the Cato Institute ran a full-page newspaper ad signed by more than 200 economists, including Nobel laureates stating:

"We the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan's 'lost decade' in the 1990s ... Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth."

Doesn't that sound remarkably like global warming? There's no debate, everyone agrees, blahdy blah, and meanwhile the peanut gallery is saying that actually they don't agree.

My father is fond of saying, "Don't cloud up the issue with the facts." How fitting.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:31 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 My dad says something similar: "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind's already made up!" The next person who whines to me about how the Republicans are being selfish for voting against big spending bills is gonna get it. Maybe I'll ask them for 90% of their money (even if it's $5). Then, when they don't give it to me, I'll tell them they're selfish, because they're not stimulating my economy. If they spend that $5 on me, they'll get richer! That's how it works, right? By the way, Sarah, did you listen to Glenn Beck's show yesterday morning, or watch it in the evening? Did you hear/see him play the Al Gore speech, or talk about Pelosi's 500 million lost jobs? HI-LARIOUS. Link to the Gore speech (in case you didn't hear it), and Link to "Nancy Pelosi is an Idiot". Hee.

Posted by: Deltasierra at February 05, 2009 05:27 AM (fPHZv)

2 Pelosi also appears to have been under the belief that natural gas is not a fossil fuel. I'd guess her "reasoning" process went something like this: --fossil fuels bad --natural gas good --therefore, natural gas is not a fossil fuel

Posted by: david foster at February 05, 2009 06:03 AM (ke+yX)

3 B-but david, anything "natural" must be gOOd! The "natural" sticker on my SUV exonerates it! Sarah, "facts" are a Europpressive invention, a white cloud that mars the dark beauty of the imaginatiOn, the dreams of Our father, the audacity of hOpe. The Cato Institute's 200 "economists" probably all got degrees from the University of Phoenix. A for-profit institution, of course. The greedy pay each other to reinforce their delusions. When will they ever realize that the money tree is real? Deltasierra, I would ask for 100% of everybody's money. I know best how to spend it. I am a professor. I am smart. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need," said Marx. My ego has needs. Appease it. Do your duty.

Posted by: kevin at February 05, 2009 06:46 AM (+nV09)

4 This is yet another example of the sociocentric worldview I dealt with in this comment. "Consensus" is meaningless by itself. Facts are independent of people. If X is false, and everyone believes X, does that make X "true"? Reality is not determined by majority vote. Nor is it determined by minority vote. A conspiracy theory gets no points for being embraced by a handful who believe they are more perceptive than the blind sheeple. "I believe it, so it must be true." "Lots of experts agree with me, so it must be true." "Only my little gang agrees with me, so it must be true." All three variants of the same belief are false.

Posted by: Amritas at February 05, 2009 07:00 AM (+nV09)

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Julie at A Little Pregnant has a good post up about the octuplets lady. She says it all.

What I'd like to tangentially say relates to multiples. Two years ago, I would've freaked out to get pregnant with twins. I thought fertility drugs were scary and that people who risked having four to six babies were insane.

But a lot has happened inside my head in two years.

Now I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed for twins or triplets. I don't want to go through any of this ever again. I now understand the desperation people feel when they opt for riskier options. I will be thrilled if I have twins. I would prefer it to one baby.

Again, this is tangential to the octuplets lady. She is nuts.

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