I sat down at my computer a few minutes ago to check my emails.  I had one from my mother.

More below the fold.

Peter Daou posted a diary some weeks back that I thought was highly inappropriate for a paid campaign staffer to post here -- essentially it was a hit piece on Obama.  I'm not a huge fan of Obama or Hillary but I TRed the tip jar because I thought Peter was way out of line.

As a result, Markos yanked my TR and rec privileges.  I'm being punished.

That's how long it's been since the day I brought two ten-week-old kittens home to live with me.  I named them Archy and Mehitabel.

I participated in the Washington State caucuses today.

And it was the last fucking straw.

Follow me over the jump for my rant.

I'm going to re-tell a relatively little-known (at least on this side of the Atlantic) bit of history that I read about back in my college days, and that I was reminded of early this morning when I happened to catch part of a show about it on the History Channel.  It's been stuck in my head all day.

Please note that I'm not going for precise historical accuracy here, so I may get a detail or two wrong.  I beg your indulgence.

If one is to consider how much airing of grievances goes on around here, one could assert that on Daily Kos, every day is Festivus.

Daily Kos:  The Blog For The Rest Of Us [Democrats].

Anyway.

I decided to observe Festivus by doing some airing of my own grievances, and to invite anyone who so desires to jump in and do some airing of their own.

So with no further ado...

I posted this last year, and decided to repost it again today.

:::

Today marks the winter solstice.

The solstice has been honored and celebrated for millenia by cultures all over the world -- the ancient Egyptians, Celts, Persians, and Norsemen just to name a few -- as the birth of the new year and the return of the sun.

There many sources for histories of solstice traditions, one of my favorites being this one.  It's fascinating to read about how ancient solstice traditions originated, and how they have been co-opted and assigned new meanings in modern times.

But for today, rather than going into any detail about the origins of the midwinter holiday currently known as Christmas, I'm simply going to re-tell my own personal favorite winter solstice myth, which is a story from Pacific Northwest Native American tradition.

I don't think my mother realizes that when she forwards me this crap, my blood pressure ticks up about ten points.  Or maybe she just doesn't care.

This is going to be a very short diary, because I don't have time to write a long one.  Deal.

For the second Saturday in a row, I'm working -- once again staring at spreadsheets until it feels like my brain's going to melt, and once again desperately in need of a distraction for a while.

I'm in crunch mode at work and have spent the last four hours staring at spreadsheets.  Consequently, my brain is mush and I desperately need a distraction.

I just got the latest email from the DNC.  It made me want to puke -- well, the first bit did, at any rate.

I'm prompted to write this diary because of the controversy surrounding Michael Vick.  Vick has accepted a plea agreement on a federal dogfighting charge that, when filed on Monday, may land him in jail for one to five years.  Vick has been suspended indefinitely without pay from his team, the Atlanta Falcons, and his endorsement contract with Nike has been terminated.

All of this for what is essentially a charge of cruelty to animals.

I'm moved to write this in response to OPOL's latest diary, in which a march on Washington, currently being organized for September 15, is discussed.

This is going to be a very personal diary, because I'm going to talk about my own experience of marching on Washington.

I've just posted an update to yesterday's call for help.  Since that one has long since scrolled off the list, and since I was asked to keep all you wunnerful geeks apprised of the situation, I thought I'd just put this up to let you know that yesterday's diary has now been updated.

Don't bother commenting here, if you have additional comments, just add 'em there.

My thanks to everyone who showed up in that diary to offer help.  And no, otto, the problem isn't cat hair.  :-P

UPDATE  Saturday 9:30 a.m. PDT:  Due to popular demand, I'm not taking this diary down.  The geeks are having too much fun with it.

Steps taken so far:  When I got home last night I opened the case on the tower and gently jiggled and blew out dust as was suggested by a few of you.  There was a lot less cat hair in there than you'd predicted, although the floppy disk slot in the front of the tower did manage to cough up a sizeable furball.  Didn't fix the problem.

exmearden, who is a mensch, came over at 11:00 last night and spent about two hours futzing with it, but no joy.  The hard drive is, well, toast.

This morning I'm taking the tower to a computer repair shop that exme recommended, to see if I can recover the stuff on the hard drive and either repair the hard drive (which I doubt) or put in a new one.  I'll probably also ask them to reinstall XP and all that while they're at it.

If anyone's interested, the propellerhead information at the bottom of the Blue Screen of Death error message was this:

*** STOP: 0x00000024 (0x00190203, 0x82F8B580, 0x0000102, 0x00000000)

I got the below email earlier today.  It's the second time in a month I've received such an email.  The first time I deleted it in disgust.  This time I'm hopping mad, and I'll tell you why below the jump.

Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless or, which is the same thing, corrupt. -- Mahatma Gandhi

::

Lately, I'm seeing diaries about protests -- people who take a sign and stand on the sidewalk, by themselves or with others; people who sit in the hallway outside John Conyers' office, etc.  I haven't seen any diaries talking about this particular subject, though, so I thought, what the heck, I'll tackle it.  Non-violently, of course.

I started this thinking I could put together a quick diary with 'civil disobedience basics' -- a primer for newbies and a refresher for aging hippies -- but an hour later I knew that I'd either be writing a seriously long-ass diary, or I'd be writing the first of a series on civil disobedience.  I'm opting for the latter because I don't have the time or patience to write a tome right now, and I'm guessing you don't have the time or patience to read one.