Wow! If you haven't read Glenn Greenwald's takedown of the appalling and repellent column by Kathryn Parker in The Washington Post about John Edwards' endorsement of Barak Obama, go there now!

High Standards at the Washington Post Op-Ed page

But he also highlighted another column this woman had written about being a "real American" and it goes right along with this amazing discourse on race in American that this primary is highlighting. More

Crossville, Tennessee is about to get a dose of LOVE. In reaction to a Hand carved wooden Last Supper by a local chainsaw artist ("They came, they chainsawed, they carved"), a local Pastafarian has made a representation of the FSM to be unveiled on the courthouse lawn today and I plan to be there!

(what's up with those exclamation points--I never use them!)

It came to me in a sign....build a statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and put it on the courthouse lawn in Crossville Tennessee so that others can share in its beautiful image and learn about Its story.

Teaching people to write requires teaching them to ask questions. But asking questions demands a certain amount of knowledge,courage, and wonder or skepticism. Asking questions is a citizen's most important job. We used to trust journalists to ask some tough questions and give us a least some indication that they actually want to find answers. Now, that only happens on the blogs.

It's hot here--humidity in the 90s, heat index in the 100 degree range—and I am freaking canning day and night: beans. pickles, jellies, tomatoes juiced, souped, diced, stewed, and whole, and a great huge pile of basil to make into pesto 'afore I can quit—a hot job in a low-ceilinged kitchen with no AC. Pots are boiling—jars, lids, fruits, vegetables—and now my blood is boiling too.

All great movements have a song that anyone can seem to sing along with; I nominate this song off Ben Harper's new release--Both Sides of the Gun.  It has a great rhythm that makes you want to get up off your ass. It has some amazing guitar work, but what really propels it (and makes it stick in your head) is the percussion.

You can march to this song. You can bounce to this piece of music. You could have an all night mindless drum circle with this tune (yeah, I used to live in SoCal). You can make up new verses for this song. You can shout this song at the top of your lungs. You can blast if from your car, bike, campsite all summer.