Some stories just shock you enough to have to mention something about them, to think they're more indicative of something than the singular tragedy for one family.  What I just read on Boston.com is one of those stories.

A 53 year old woman, a wife and mother, from Taunton, Massachusetts, faxed her mortgage company at 2:30 PM yesterday saying before the 5 PM auction of her home began she would be dead.  When the company received the fax they called police within an hour.  When the police got to the home, she was already dead, 1 1/2 hours before the auction would have started.

http://www.boston.com/...
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Breaking news as of 3PM, and perhaps a bigger news item in the dear ol' Commonwealth than the nation at large, but nonetheless.

http://www.boston.com/...

As this has the support of Governor Deval Patrick, this vote may clear the way for gay couples from other states to have marriages performed in Massachusetts that are legally recognized by the Commonwealth, which I imagine will have interesting repercussions when couples head back to Maine, or Arkansas, or Tennessee, or wherever else, and perhaps add another element to the debate.
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An alternate title of this diary could have been: Why I've given up on the media, polling companies, and America, possibly New Mexico, most of Planet Earth and Some of Those Damned Star Trek Alien Species--Y'Know, the Ones That Look More Human Or Whatever.

While its moment has passed, for most of this morning on the Boston.com website affiliated with the supposedly decent Boston Globe newspaper (or as I prefer to call it, the New York Times, but with a couple articles about Dorchester thrown into the classifieds), had the following AP story:

http://www.boston.com/...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

He was 71.  Apparently, it was an existing heart condition and he was in the hospital most of the day where he passed away.

Say what you will of his comedy (I, personally, had other favorites...I think I'm a bit too young to have identified with him the way many do), but he was one of those rare personalities that really wasn't going to listen to any bullshit from anyone.

On that count, he was truly rare and will be missed.  You don't often run across people who simply won't let you lie to them.

QUICK UPDATE:  A little sampling of Carlin's voice in one recent ridiculous episode of right wing "social conservatism."  

Enjoy: http://youtube.com/...

I have not yet read his book.  I can't say that I will.  I have not spent many hours since he left the job in 2006 thinking about Scott McClellan.  Other than for the current news cycle, I can't say that I will spend much more.

But Scott McClellan is the current human representation of an issue that comes up from time to time, especially in the waning days of the Bush Administrations, when more than a few rats jump the ship.  They either jump to another, "less tainted" faction of the Republican Party, and some jump off the bandwagon altogether.  Maybe hoping for a job in the media, maybe hoping, as cynical careerists, that as the wind starts to blow in the Democratic direction they can get aboard as long as it's helpful to their ambition, or maybe they're just hoping to save their souls.

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This may not warrant a diary, but I felt like discussing it anyway, as it made an impression on me.

This story is not remarkable, not jaw dropping, maybe not worth mentioning.  Things like this happen every day and are quickly forgotten.  It doesn't warrant a letter writing campaign, there's no law to be passed as a result, there's really nothing to talk about.  It was a minor, minor incident of one person being rude to another for about 30 seconds.

I got cut off in traffic two days ago, and I don't diary about that.  Someone else has had an insurance rep or a paralegal treat them like they were children the other day, and there's no diary about that.

To live in a modern society is to build up defenses against its rough edges, especially when it comes to the little things, without crying about it.  Yes, I agree.  However, I just thought I'd tell a very small story.  (more)

Wow, this place is aggressive recently.  Kucinich fans bashing Gravel, Gravel fans bashing Gravel, Obama fans bashing Edwards, OClintonwards fans bashing Edhillama, and Ron Paul fans getting troll rated.

Personally, at times like this, I think it's best for me to take a break from research into the anti-Samoan biases of Hillary Clinton during her privateering days in the South Seas (not to mention the anti-privateering biases of John Edwards from his Samoan days), and to find a less nasty way to get out my aggression.  Sure, I like Candidate X & you like Candidate Y, and if my guy wins you're going to vote for Nader and if mine wins I'm going to vote for Mike Huckleberry or start a write-in campaign for Francois Mitterand's corpse.  

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Forgive me if this particular issue has already been delved into by other diarists, and feel free to add links to those diaries in the comments if they're out there.

I have just finished reading a story by the Associated Press as printed on the Boston.com website (affiliated with the Boston Globe).

There has been a study recently completed on the battlefield ethics of American soldiers in Iraq.  It is troubling to say the least.  However, I approach this issue cautiously, and add this diary more as a vehicle for discussion than to forward an agenda.  While the results of this study make me queasy, I am not a member of the Armed Forces.  Nor have I ever been.  I do not come from a military family.  Nor do I personally know any military servicepeople well.  (more)

Rap music must be destroyed.  I suppose it's alright with me, I don't really care much for rap.  I've bought two rap records in my life, with a small scattering of other songs downloaded.  So I won't miss it that much, personally.

But rap music must be destroyed.  You see, recently, there was a big news story I've decided not to repeat for the 6 thousandth time.  But this news story consisted of a certain radio personality saying something very nasty.  The response to this nasty statement was, by many, for some reason, "rap music must be detroyed."  Sure that nasty man said a nasty thing--seemingly the subject at hand.  Nope.  I was wrong.  The real subject was "rap music must be destroyed."  You see, this incident, though having nothing at all do with this musical style in any conceivable way, was in fact our Trojan Horse into the deepest caves of hip hop, to destroy it.  Because that, in the end, is the issue.  (more)

Welcome to the 4th Installation in Daily Kos's most headscratching series.  Most have appeared at about 3 AM, but I'm switching it up this afternoon.

First, there was The Replacements Have Something To Tell You About Politics

Next, there was McCain: Blair Witch 2 Has Something To Tell You About Politics.

Finally, there was Romney: Tegan & Sara Have Something To Tell You About Politics.

Now, I turn my scatterbrained, stretched-to-the-point-of-puke-inducing-absurdity (pop) cultural analogies to Newt Gingrich.

Don't worry, Giuliani.  I'm comin' fer ya.  Sooner or later. (more)

I'm from the America's finest Commonwealth, Massachusetts.  Take that, Kentucky.  I know a little something about Mitt Romney.  He was my governor for 4 years.  Hell, I even drove through Belmont on Route 2 several times, so we're practically bossom buddies.

But I went to university in Canada (hint: Grandescunt Aucta Labore, and yes, I would like more sauce with my poutine & pâté chinois).

So I know something about the Calgarian lesbian identical twin sister indie-folkie duo known as Tegan & Sara as well.  Because I came to like a lot of Canadian music.  Most of the best bands on planet earth, if you have indie tastes, are either from Canada or Sweden (Peter, Bjorn & John, I'm looking in your direction). (more)

Note: Thanks for the Rescue, kraant!

In a world where George W. Bush is The Blair Witch Project, Mr. McCain, you are clearly Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.

Before you consider taking my keys away from me and having my license suspended, allow me a moment to explain what I'm talking about.  The phrasing of this diary title may sound vaguely familiar to those who read my diary last night: The Replacements Have Something To Tell You About Politics.  Hey, I need to find some way to hold my scattershot mind together, and painfully stretched cultural references to make political points just works for me.

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Note: Thanks for the rescue, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse!

Recently, as the 2008 elections apparently draw near (note: they ain't that near), the same old story and debates over how to approach undecided and even conservative voters disaffected with this President are flaring up.  Not only on a site such as this one, but in conversations with people in my life, and certainly with the Talking Head Class.

I try to be pragmatic.  I certainly would not chase away any voters who've been led astray--or led themselves astray, no matter how long--who have had a genuine epiphany.  This is why I appreciate David Brock, for example, although others will never accept the work he now does.  If you've voted Republican in the last 5 presidential elections, but just can't take it any more and see what you want in the Democratic Party--whether it was the war, Katrina, anti-lower/middle class policies that turned you off the GOP--welcome aboard.

So, that's pragmatism for you.

But when you're "attracting" new voters, regardless of their past, and you've been selling Coke the whole time, you don't freak out and start selling Sprite.  (more)

I'll admit it, I'm a thief.  The idea for this particular late Saturday night diary has been stolen from deepsouthdoug's diary on what music we each hate the most.

Well, perhaps I should say it has been inspired by that diary, in reverse.  That sounds a little nice.

I sit here typing, after a particularly tough week in what has been a very bad year on the personal front.  I had a bit of a tough time as a teenager as well, for a similar family reason.

In order to keep my house in order and a bit of a sense of humor as well, I have sometimes had to find a way to sort of artificially put me in a good mood.  A quick fix, if you will.  As my Massachusetts suburb did not have any heroin dealers of which I was aware, and being the music nerd that I truly am, there have instead always been some go-to songs that never failed, and still never fail, to put me in a chipper mood. (more)

I'm sure similar sentiments have been expressed here many times over the last several years.  I have not visited this site nearly enough, nor have I browsed the diary list nearly as thoroughly enough to know how many times this subject has come up.

But I have just been watching Combat Hospital on CNN, part of Anderson Cooper 360.  I don't even watch CNN that often, so this is rather a random event.  It's been a fairly graphic depiction of the experiences of doctors and health care workers in military emergency rooms in Iraq.

I've had several wake-up moments over the last several years.  And, intellectually, I've always realized what military doctors must go through on a daily basis in Iraq.  But sometimes, you have to simply see it.  (more)

Don't say I never did anything  anything for ya.

Now, I know 2, perhaps even 3 people on the planet have been absolutely dying of curiosity wondering, "What in the world is Fox News up to with its conservative Daily Show ripoff, The 1/2 Hour News Hour that premieres this Sunday?  Will it be as funny as the now cancelled hit show Yes, Dear?"

The answer is yes, by the way, but that's not a compliment.  My apologies to all you Anthony Clark fans.

I was doing a little dumpster diving behind Fox News headquarters in NYC the other day, looking for some of Sean Hannity's dicarded S&M gear and research files on Anna Nicole Smith to decorate my place.  Instead, I found...(more)

As a single Jewish fella in his mid-to-late 20's, nothing gives me more pleasure than celebrating the martyrdom of an obscure and still not comprehensively indentified Catholic martyr from the 2nd or 3rd century.

So, in that spirit, considering that it is now Valentine's Day, I thought I would use it as an excuse to post a thoroughly non-political subject: what love songs do something for you?  Personally, I'm rather partial to bittersweet love songs, they just seem to make more sense to me.  Also, if you have any anti-love songs you'd prefer to think about on this so-called holiday, feel free to share those as well.

We all reach epiphanies based on different moments, different events.  That instant where Moses comes down the mountain with a couple tablets, and you see something divine...or in this case, comically disgusting.

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