Thursday, June 29, 2006

No Mo' Gitmo

Quite a beating for the administration this morning. Can't say I'm much surprised, and I think I'm glad for at least one check on the ever-expanding executive power grab--not sure though completely.

Here's the story.



ETA: All right, so on closer review this doesn't actually close Gitmo. My apologies.

Diet Coke and Mentos

While I'm still working on the new site, I thought I might provide a bit of divertment to while away the time. Take a look at what you can do with enough time, lots of pop, and breath mints. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

It's coming...

Very soon. A new blog on a new server. New options. New posts (hopefully :-)).

Stay tuned!

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Pictures please!

I'm working diligently to try to update my blog, but I'm running into a dead end looking for a picture for the header. Anyone have any suggestions that follow the mermaid theme?

Friday, June 16, 2006

Eugenics in America

I just finished reading a book called A Merciful End. It was a very thorough and balanced historical walk-through of the euthanasia/eugenics movement in America, starting about in 1900. I'll definitely need to do some more reading to get a better grip on some of the philosophies that shaped the movement, but I thought it did a great job of chronicling the movement.

I vaguely remember running across a reference to eugenics laws in America sometime in the last year or so, but this fuller accounting just blew me out of the water. Call me naive, but it hadn't ever occured to me that there was a time not so very long ago that a large portion of the American public was in favor of laws mandating involuntary sterilization specifically targeting the mentally disabled and ill.

How can you possibly be so convinced of your own worth to think yourself able to proclaim that "three generations of imbeciles is enough"? Thank you, Oliver Wendell Holmes in the Buck v. Bell case. This declaration in an age where they used such clear-cut definitions of mental illness as "feeble-minded" as a catch-all for anyone just a little bit different. Wikipedia argues that there wasn't anything wrong with Carrie Buck other than that she had been raped by her adopted mother's nephew, that she was put into an institution to save her family's reputation. That may or may not be true, but Holmes declaration is no less obnoxious either way. It makes me sick to think of it.

Check out this article by a U of Virginia prof giving a little more background on the Carrie Buck case.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Off to Charlotte!

Praise God Friday is here, and in about seven hours, I'll be in Charlotte with Chris!! :-) I can't wait. :-)

Unless we find hotspots for an internet connection, I probably won't post over the weekend, but I've got lots of things to chew on until Monday. As an intro to a post that will go up next week, ponder of the fact that Helen Keller was outspoke in support of eugenics and euthanasia. Huh?!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Please welcome to the stage

Joanna!!

Welcome back out of the bubble and into blogdom. We're glad to have you around.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Whew

So, now Chris is settled into his internship, and after crying all the way back to the highway, I've settled into a rather more stable emotional state.

I keep telling myself that it could be so much worse, you know? He could be in the military and be gone for indefinite periods of time in highly dangerous areas. As it is, I'm going to see him every weekend, and it's only for 8 weeks, so it could be so much worse. But we haven't even been married a year, and it still stinks. Sigh...

On a rather lighter note, I planted a sort of veggie garden yesterday. Chris and I got ourselves a sweet cherry tomato plant, a green pepper plant, a yellow pepper plant, a hot red pepper plant, a cucumber plant, and a flowering plant just for fun. :-) We bought them on Friday, but as it was pouring down rain Friday night, we left the planting for after the weekend. So yesterday, I diligently got out my brand new trowel and the big bag of dirt and put all the plants into their respective pots and troughs. The tomato got its own pot (it's already twice as big as when we bought it!!), and the flowering plant came in a sturdy enough pot to be left alone. All the others went into a long skinny trough kind of thing. I have my doubts about whether it's deep enough to let the roots form properly, but Chris insists that it's fine, so we shall see... :-)

I'll try to take some pictures tonight and post them up some time. Does anyone know if veggies will keep producing over the winter if I bring them inside and keep them warm?