ah, the o.c.

stories from the REAL o.c. - orange county, north carolina - where i grew up.

former orange high school student murders father, drives to school and opens fire. those familiar with the area know orange as the "country" school. well, the "town" schools aren't much better off.

yee frickin' haw.

darwin award nominee

woman crashes car while teaching dog how to drive

war!

universal backs free alternative to itunes

what is that sound?

did i hear a "pop"? it sounds like a bubble bursting.

While the median price rose 0.9 per cent to $230,000 (U.S.), it was a bit of a mirage, because the gain was driven entirely by a 3.2-per-cent increase in the South. In the Northeast, Midwest and West, home prices actually fell. And they're bound to fall even harder in the months ahead, given the record number of unsold homes languishing on the market.

Last month, the inventory of unsold homes leaped 40 per cent from a year earlier to 3.86 million. At current sales rates, it would take more than seven months to clear the backlog. Sooner or later, sellers are going to bite the bullet and start cutting prices, and that's when things could get really ugly.

locally, i saw a 2 bedroom condo in hoboken, completely renovated, stainless steel appliances, on-site laundry, maintenance less than $300 a month - around $250k. my fiancee and i could afford that *now*. is this for real?

POPPITY! POP POP POP! POPPITY POP!

who *are* these people?

"If we do (what Hizbullah accomplished), this Israeli army full of gay soldiers and full of corruption and with old-fashioned war methods can be defeated also in Palestine."

- Abu Oudai, chief rocket coordinator for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank

tell me not to freak out.

emily1, what is this shit?!

it needs to turn around and dump more rain on florida, preferably katherine harris' house.

um, okay...

u.s. rep. katherine harris of florida has stated on the record that separation of church and state is "a lie" and that "if you're not electing christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin." she also said that "god is the one who chooses our rulers."

i was going to write something snarky, but i don't think that's necessary. the absurdity of her comments speaks for itself.

I've had it with these mother f***ing raccoons on this mother f***ing yard!

you just can't make this shit up: psycho killer raccoons terrorize olympia. yes, that is the actual title of the article.

Some have taken to carrying pepper spray to ward off the masked marauders and the woman who was bitten now carries an iron pipe when she goes outside at night.

"It's a new breed," said Tamara Keeton, who with Kari Hall started a raccoon watch after an emotional neighborhood meeting drew 40 people. "They're urban raccoons, and they're not afraid."

"urban" raccoons? kind of like the furry version of the crips or the latin kings?

In one case five raccoons tried to carry off a small dog, which managed to survive.

...

Brown said he had seen packs of raccoons this big but none so into killing.

"They are in command up there," he said.

there is something very "monty python" about all of this. i can't put my finger on it.

no p.c. police please...

new "survivor" to separate contestants into tribes determined by race. i hope no one tries to block the concept. i, for one, want to see how things pan out. the concept may be wading into hot-button territory, but i think in such a race-obsessed culture where race relations and race-based tribalism are often swept under the rug, seeing it in action might prove informative and educational. most importantly, it will foster discussion. it puts it right out there in the open. (americans are also obsessed with sex, yet we are also afraid to talk about it. dysfunctional society, no?)

[i am almost anticipating an e-mail from the uber-lefty asian-american lgbt group whose list i have been added to, asking me to protest. they also asked me to protest "israeli terrorism" by submitting poems to some site called the "electronic intifada." i remember coming across a post on that website on another occasion. it was a post that urged queers to boycott world pride, because they say israel is an illegitimate country that sucks sucks sucks. okay, i hate to switch topics so quickly, but if you are a queer, and you had a choice to protest the policies of a country that recognizes civil unions and allows you to serve in the military and is allowing a FREAKING INTERNATIONAL QUEERFEST within its borders OR a place where coming out would result in death or dismemberment, which one would you protest? i don't know. maybe i'm just slow, but some people's hearts and minds seem to be in the wrong place. come on, fellow queers, just because you're gay doesn't mean you have to drink (FAR) left wing kool-aid...]

Gross and Sensational News That's Not About The Ramsey Case

there's human sacrifice and cannibalism:

Aztecs butchered, ate Spanish invaders

Skeletons found at an unearthed site in Mexico show Aztecs captured, ritually sacrificed and partially ate several hundred people traveling with invading Spanish forces in 1520.

Skulls and bones from the Tecuaque archeological site near Mexico City show about 550 victims had their hearts ripped out by Aztec priests in ritual offerings, and were dismembered or had their bones boiled or scraped clean, experts say.

... more ...

when i travelled to mexico in 1998, i visited the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. i read in a visitor's guide or on one of those plaque thingies next to the exhibits that the consecration of one aztec temple was accompanied by several days of non-stop human sacrifices. according to that story, it ended when the priests were too exhausted to continue. i'm not certain of the veracity of that story, but it's a little more believeable in light of this.

and now, i present to you news stories about a trend of super-sized yellow jacket nests in the deep south. in case you don't know, yellow jackets are carnivorous stinging insects that live in colonies like ants and bees. unlike bees, they can sting a victim repeatedly and not die. they are also notoriously bad-tempered and don't hesitate to fuck your shit up if you so much as look at them cross-eyed.

Giant nests perplex experts

To the bafflement of insect experts, gigantic yellow jacket nests have started turning up in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama.

Specialists say it could be the result of a mild winter and drought conditions, or multiple queens forcing worker yellow jackets to enlarge their quarters so the queens will be in separate areas. But experts haven't determined exactly what's behind the surprisingly large nests.

... more ...

this nest is even bigger than the one pictured above:

Massive Yellow Jacket Nest Forms on Couple's Property

Most of us have reached for the can of bug spray to put down wasps or bees around the house. But a Bulloch County couple has a bigger problem than that.

Rising up out of the water, it looks like another tree stump from a distance. But a closer look is enough to take your attention, and maybe your breath.

... more ...

and in other news, osama bin laden allegedly is obsessed with whitney houston:

Look out, Bobby--bin Laden might be sweet on Whitney

Who would have ever thought we'd see Osama bin Laden and Whitney Houston paired in the same sentence, let alone with a romantic/obsessive twist?

Yet one memoirist is linking those very same names.

Sudanese writer and activist Kola Boof, 37, claims in "Diary of a Lost Girl" that she was the unwilling mistress of the leader of Al Qaeda years before he masterminded the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and that he often fantasized about the pop diva.

... more ...

that ain't right

from this article:

The reaction to the fictional character captured the bitter tension that can exist over gender reassignment. Among lesbians — the group from which most transgendered men emerge — the increasing number of women who are choosing to pursue life as a man can provoke a deep resentment and almost existential anxiety, raising questions of gender loyalty and political identity, as well as debates about who is and who isn’t, and who never was, a real woman.

if SOMEONE ELSE decides to get gender reassignment surgery, and as a result, YOU suffer from existential anxiety, you have more problems than i can count.

The conflict has raged at some women’s colleges and has been explored in academic articles, in magazines for lesbians and in alternative publications, with some — oversimplifying the issue for effect — headlined with the question, “Is Lesbianism Dead?”

how did these women even get into college in the first place? isn't there an analogy section in the verbal portion of the SAT? i don't think these people did so well on it.

It has been a subtext of gay politics in San Francisco, the only city in the country that covers employees’ sex-change medical expenses. And it bubbles to the surface every summer at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, a lesbian gathering to which only “women born as women and living as women” are invited — a ban on transgendered people of either sex.

sounds like a lovely festival with friendly people. i read on a site that the male children of mothers aren't even allowed to enter the gates. how charming.

Barbara Price, a former festival producer, said the uneasiness has been “a big topic among lesbians for quite some time.”

i am happy to report that my lesbian friends don't really give a damn one way or another. mind your own business, i say. if a woman wants to cut off her breasts and inject herself with hormones, it's really her personal decision, and no one else's. if your "community" become "uneasy" about your decision to express yourself in a manner that makes you feel more complete, then your "community" sucks. (which is why i believe that the "gay community" is pretty much a figment of our collective imagination.)

“There are many people who look at what these young women are doing, and say to themselves, ‘Hey, by turning yourselves into men, don’t you realize you’re going over to the other side?’ ” she said. “We thought we were all supposed to be in this together.”

in WHAT together? sorry, i didn't get the memo. and i'm not sure i want it.

outkast - new album preview tracks

first two singles:

"morris brown" (video) [update: if you haven't had the pleasure of watching this video, you have not seen the epitome of trippy genius.]

"the mighty oh"

new album drops tuesday, according to itunes.

white flight, part deux

racial tipping, otherwise affectionately known as "white flight," from new jersey suburbs. i missed something completely in my quick analysis of the racial tensions in queens. it failed to occur to me that many white folks would PREFER to move to a less affluent area where there are lots of white folks rather than stay in a rich neighborhood with lots of racial minorities. (many of the folks in queens are moving to staten island, where the property values, in general, are around $150k to $200k less).

anyway, check the analysis on west orange, nj. west orange is affluent. however, white folks have been fleeing in droves. the black population has ballooned, and property values have also exploded (which conflicts with the idea that black people bring is the decline of property values... natch!). so the reason is racism, plain and simple. rather than stay in a safe, clean and wealthy town with black folks, (some) white folks are picking up and moving to... who the hell knows. (hopefully not hoboken. please not hoboken.) so, for these people, it really doesn't matter if their next door neighbors are engineers or doctors; shit, they're black! run, forrest run!

the paper is an analysis of how to achieve integration. the conclusion they come to, i believe, is to erase the class element and to make sure a critical mass of all groups is in all parts of town - i.e. don't build public housing as a way to attract poor minorities, which hasten white flight - but attract affluent african-americans and stick them in all parts of the town. and stick white people where there are black people. and they can all send their kids to private school. yippee. but don't hasten the flow too quickly, or else the "west orange" effect might occur. oh my!

i thought to myself... what if i moved into a neighborhood with killer properties, and at the same time, lots of people who look like me move in. and then the older residents leave. what would i think? frankly, i'd be happy. "leave! i don't want you as my neighbor anyway. good riddance. take your ass across the verrazano bridge, and don't come around here no more, y'hear?"

ha ha.

OMG!

totally surrounded by queens on the bus on the way back to hoboken. how cool is that? dem gays are moving to jersey! overheard their conversation. they were opining about finally moving across the hudson and reminiscing about going to the village in the 80s. and one of them totally knew i was a sista.

disaster strikes!

scientists jump on the armageddon bandwagon. since i am strangely attracted to chaos and disasters, this looks like a fascinating program.

monks gone wild

best headline today: pro war buddhist monks in scuffle.

the headline speaks for itself, kind of like "snakes on a plane."

hrm...

hate crime in queens. two white men attacked four asian men in queens.

the new york times decided to add that the victim's family lives in a "richly landscaped" $1m property in little neck. furthermore, the attackers were driving a 1998 toyota, while the victims were driving a lexus.

i don't think the article states it directly, but i believe there is an implication that the attackers represent the more violent and extreme elements of a community that is resentful of being pushed out of their old neighborhoods by more affluent minorities who have caused formerly financially stagnant areas to thrive. and this makes the remaining people a "weetle bit jealous."

the clueless city councilman avella doesn't seem to get it, or is simply pandering to the older residents of his community. futher, in response to the question about the crime, he victimizes the former residents by stating that there were business signs that were not being hung up in english, which was a sign that the businesses did not intend to serve the entire community. although i agree that english translations should be available, how does a general feeling of resentment help justify a violent crime?

anyway, if you're unwilling or unable to improve your surroundings, someone else will. that's the way it goes. tough shit. gentrification by affluent minorities. puts a spin on things, don't it?

BREAKING NEWS!!!

today in the hallway, people were chattering. apparently, some incredible newsworthy event had taken place.

"have you heard?" exclaimed a co-worker.

me: "uh, mayhem in airports?"

coworker: "noooooooo! they found a lead in the jon benet ramsey case!"

me: [*blink blink*]

coworker 2: "you act like you've never heard of the case."

me: "no, i'm just wondering why people still get excited about it."

coworker 1: "because it wasn't her dad!!!"

coworker 2: "totally not her dad!"

me: ...

am i alone in my disinterest? does that make me weird? an asshole? a reject?

discuss.

Idea?

What shall I do with my brokerage account...

Oooooh, look what I found!

I'm also doing research on companies that provide parts to cars that use alternative fuels.

*Rubs hands together*

*Hoping for another calamity that drives oil prices further into the stratosphere* (Thank you BP!)

Yay for substitute goods and complementary products for said substitute goods!

Pump it up!

Forget hung juries... here's a hung judge!

Gays Are Totally Going Mainstream

a comment at Feministe on a post about pressure to marry:

Funny enough, this isn’t such a heteronormative question any more. I’ve been with my partner for 4 years now, and when the whole gay marriage thing started, the questions started. My mom bought me Dan Savage’s book “The Commitment” for xmas, in which she wrote: “whatever you decide I’ll support you.” Now, we had not, at that point, discussed marriage. So, despite being beautiful and sweet and supportive, it was also passive aggressive in that way only moms can be. Then she started mentioning all the gay couples she knew traveling to Canada to tie the knot. Then she wanted to know who would buy the ring. Then my partner’s family started in: all the gay aunts (except the one’s who are anti-marriage) dropped subtle hints about us moving to Massachusetts. This, in my opinion, is the one true downside to gay marriage.

Update: another comment from the same thread:

nterestingly, this is no longer a heteronormative question for me. My parents are members of PFLAG and Dignity (glbtq catholic organization), and are very supportive of me/my life overall. I’ve received a little marriage or commitment ceremony pressure now and then, but I got a huge-unto-sickening dose of it recently.

My partner and I have been together for over six years, and look to be making a long haul of it. We’re committed to each other, but we’ve had no civil nor religious ceremonies, as neither are available to us, and besides we’re not religious. My mother, however, is very religious, and really wishes we could have some kind of marriage ceremony in a church. Regarding my past girlfriends, my mom has hinted at hoping that so-and-so is/will be “the one,”, but now it’s obvious who “the one” is, and mum wants to make it official in some way that’s valid to her and her religious tradition. Nevermind that I’ve never expressed and inkling of an inclination to have anything resembling a ceremony.

This past weekend, I flew out to Indy for a family reunion and stayed at/with my parents. My partner stayed home to visit with a friend and spend time hiking, for which I can’t blame and rather envy her. Anyway, it’s the first time I’ve been “home” without her in the time we’ve been together, so my mom took advantage of the opportunity to corner me and deliver the big speech on how important it is to have that ceremony, to be witnessed by one’s whole family and friends, to receive their acknowledgement and support, and so forth.

My younger brother got engaged not long ago, and will be having his wedding next spring. My mom’s involved in the planning, but of course as tradition dictates, more of the planning and decision making lies in the hands of the bridal family. I don’t doubt that some part of my mother’s wish for me to have a wedding is so that she can glory in being the mother of the bride, in throwing a huge formal party, and so forth. She said it would mean so much to her.

My mother isn’t overt in her pressure–it’s just constant, little things. She often leverages GLBTQ-support organization ideologies, remixed with some modern activist catholicism. Sometimes, the children question comes up too, to which I reply that I’m 31 and still no mothering instinct has arisen.

I support same-sex-marriage and all that, and I certainly wish the Catholic church would do the same (as well as ordain women priests, and other things), and I believe in civil ceremonies that bring together family and friends for the recognition and acknowledgement of committed relationship. But I don’t want the ceremony. My partner too is skeptical of the whole enterprise, and would rather spend our scarce vacation time doing something for us, rather than putting on a dog-and-pony-show for the sake of revitalizing tradition.

On one hand, I cannot complain of the support from my mom, but on the other hand, I like to live a quiet life and don’t like to get up in front of crowds to declare my most intimate reality. I adore my partner and I so enjoy our relationship and growth together. I don’t need the acknowledgement of my family to continue what we committed to privately years ago.

I guess the marriage pressure is better than homophobia…but both have an underlying assumption that I should be and act in a manner that is expected of me from some external source of judgment.

World Trade Center movie

Okay, to just underline the million reasons not to watch Oliver Stone's Worst Idea Ever: linky.

World Trade Center producer Michael Shamberg said that they knew about Sgt. Thomas's role in the rescue, but were unable to find him when creating the film. He said producers didn't discover Thomas was a Black man until after they had started the movie. He also said that in spite of the fact that the film was co-written by McLoughlin and Jimeno was consulted for authenticity, no one ever asked them for a physical description of the man who helped save their lives.

"Frankly, we goofed--we learned when we were filming that he was an African-American," said Shamberg. “We would change it if we could. I actually called him and apologized, and he said he didn't mind. He was very gracious about it.”

Shamberg also apologized for another African-American officer, Bruce Reynolds, who was also portrayed as white in the movie.

GOOFED? WE FUCKING GOOFED?

Yeah, that speaks to his stunning, detail-oriented productions, don't it.

weird adult things

i broke my personal threshhold amount in my savings account, so i opened an online brokerage account. i hope i don't become one of those dorks who get addicted to online trading.

queen of snark

even if you're a lieberman fan, you have to admit, this is fracking hysterical.

excuse me, but did i read that correctly?

forgive me. i just watched 40 elderly women dance the macarena and jam to shakira at an assisted living facility while conducting a deposition. i suppose the reason why the volume was turned up so high was because they were all hard of hearing, but the driving bass and the occasional "woop! woop!" made the deposition really difficult to take.

anyway, since i'm so exhausted, i don't know if i read this correctly. virginia has a law that prevents two adults of the same sex from entering into binding "partnership contracts" that might seem to bestow the "privileges and obligations" of marriage? what exactly are these "privileges and obligations" anyway?

"i'll mow the lawn if you do the dishes from now on." - uh oh. looks invalid.

"if you promise to shut up, i promise to stop yelling." - yikes! invalid.

"give me the remote control, and i will stop whining like a little girl." - looks shady to me!

hey, state of virginia, i'd like some annotations to that statute, because i'm having a problem comprehending exactly what you mean by that vague language. so let's say you - a heterosexual in this hypothetical - and a heterosexual buddy - not a lover, just a buddy - decide to purchase a house, because, you know, single people are priced out of the real estate market. and you don't want your buddy's rotten harpy of a mother to descend upon the property if your buddy dies, so you buy it as "joint tenants with right of survivorship." will virginia put on its gay-sniffer and make that contract invalid, because it might think that you and your heterosexual buddy are porking each other?

what a stupid law.

Meltdown Narrowly Avoided in Sweden

this is why we need wind, tidal and solar power. the utility also kept the near meltdown a secret from the public for two days after it happened. so, in the event that there had been a meltdown, the public would have had no warning.

ah, the truth...

finally, a blog that dispels the myth of the legal profession being a sure-shot to financial security. it flushes that urban legend straight into the sewer. then it rolls up its sleeves, perches on the toilet seat, and dives right after said urban legend into the stinking underbelly of the legal profession and exposes the fetid truth about the lives of and opportunities available to the vast majority of today's law school graduates. you know, the ones who didn't make the cut at skadden or cravath. the everymen and everywomen of the legal profession entering an oversaturated workforce. the ones the new york times doesn't tell you about. the folks who didn't attend harvard, yale, or stanford law.

the lives of the bottom 90% of law school graduates.

bitter. negative. but very, very funny.

and of course, don't miss tom the temp's blog either.

wtf?

is it just me, or does anyone else think this is a bad move? we haven't even gotten to point B yet. in fact, we've gotten quite a few setbacks on the way to point B, and these people are already trying to snag points that aren't even in the alphabet. slow down, or the people who just want to get to point B may not even get there! argh!

bleeding hearts with no brain... *sigh*

Reading Materials, Yes My Precioussssss ....

i have been absent for many reasons, my kittens. i acquired myself a boyfriend within the last few weeks, but another equally significant factor in my descent into blogging has-been-ery is that i have been reading. after plowing through the Fascism: A Very Short Introduction, i dived into Sophie's World and hardly came up for air. it was that good. there's nothing more delicious than a good book, and Sophie's World is a gourmet meal. it has all the characteristics of a quality reading experience -- it's entertaining, educational and enlightening.

it's hard for me to pinpoint the moment in my own life where my education became a matter of putting my nose to the grindstone. there was a time when i reacted to new ideas and new knowledge as if they were fat, juicy pastries. this book made me feel like that again. from the moment that Sophie, just shy of her fifteenth birthday, first encounters a mysterious letter in her mailbox asking her who she is, i was hooked. intertwined with her philosophy correspondence course with the mysterious Alberto is another mystery -- Sophie begins receiving postcards for a girl she has never met.

my only regret is that i didn't know about this book when it was first published in English. it would have been ideal reading when i was an adolescent, especially because my fifteenth birthday was in 1990 just like Sophie's. it would have made my early tortured attempts to understand literary theory easier. it definitely gave me a good framework to enjoy the selections i've been reading from the Very Short Introduction series.

Sophie's World will be one of the books that i will read and re-read over the coming years. it will be the kind of book i give as a gift to bright young readers. since there are no children in my life who are old enough to read it, i contented myself by buying copies for my two older siblings and my father as belated birthday gifts.

okay, okay...

so the new jersey supreme court hasn't rendered a decision on lewis v. harris. however, based on past years' calendars, it looks like the court tends to break mid-august and resumes mid-september.

i'm going to make a prediction that the decision will arrive on or before august 14th. don't quote me on it though.

loudspeaker.

an announcement came over the loudspeaker demanding that all employees shut off all non-essential electronic appliances "immediately." the heat is incredibly oppressive. i walked down the street to grab an iced coffee, and i felt like i was wading through honey.

it would have been a nice day to spend at the beach.