I had a very busy but very fun day with some of my most favorite people EVAH!
My day was fairly evenly - divided between this guy...
...and this guy...
...with "color commentary" from this guy! :D
If I'm having this much fun prepping my May class, I'm just gonna be plotzing all over the place when I'm actually teaching the mother! :D
Let's get historical. On this date in 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill. For any bat$hit birthers lurking in da' house, the key words here are HAWAII & STATEHOOD! And, let's wish a happy 61st birthday to 'Doc Cochran!' ;D
Sure, Brad Dourif's been in a buch of other stuff, but he was in Deadwood, too, darn it. ;D
Now, it's time for end - of - the - week SPARK! In the "Damn, I feel old!" department, it's been 25 years since Stand By Me. Every once in a great while, a story comes along that boosts my faith in my fellow man/woman; this is one of those stories! Then, we go back to the stories of the face planting - head smackin' variety. ;D Finally, we have a "Dude!? AAAaaaWWWwww!" story from the animal kingdom. How long will it be before one of these little darlings can look me in the face? :)
On with The Rachel Maddow Show with Chris Hayes! Well, thanks for the fill - in, dear heart.
"The Next War?" - Well, it sure as $hit sounds like things in Libya are gonna get more dicey than not. Didn't I read someplace where Kodaffy's defense minister called for a cease fire? If so, has his boss killed him yet? Well, we're so gosh - darned good at war in the Middle East why not have another one?
President Obama did have some words about Libya - which sound pretty damn similar to what he's said before. The Brits want regime change. Well, don't we all? I mean, c'mon, Kodaffy's certainly got his comedic value but DAMN! President Obama insists American ground troops will not go over there. So, are we going to provide "advisors" a la Vietnam? THAT worked well! Eugene Robinson's in da' proverbial house to talk what wacky Kodaffy. He's stylin' in the pink tie tonight! :D He also thinks people are getting "intervention fatigue." Colonel Jack Jacobs is in studio to talk actual military on - the - ground implications of a no - fly zone & what's going to have to happen to enforce it. Huh, it sounds like this no - fly zone stuff is more complicated than some guy standing on a perch shaking his fist in the air & yelling "No fly!" Colonel Jacobs thinks Kodaffy's won already because we waited too long to get involved; it seems like there aren't too many organized "rebel" forces to help, they have no weapons, etc.
"Downrising" - A whole lot of Middle East/northern African dictators are going all Kodaffy on its citizens like in Yemen & Bahrain & Syria. Richard Engel is in Cairo & looks good!!!!
He thinks dictators are either trying to buy - off opposition or beat the $hit outta them; most seem to be beating the $hit outta them. Neither Egypt nor Tunisia did either one. Huh...interesting! Richard's also not ready by any stretch of the imagination to compare Bahrain to Libya; Libya's got that beating the $hit outta opposition memo DOWN & has been doing so for a long damn time. Peeps in our government are NOT thrilled with how the government in Yemen responded to its most recent round of protests. Richard thinks what's going on in Syria could get "interesting," too. 4 Times journalists are supposedly going to be released; I'd wait until they're back on US soil before celebrating too much.
{OK, in lieu of more Japan nuclear stuff, which I don't think has changed a whole lot since last night, I submit the story of 1 resident of Tokyo who's not sweating this part of the story too terribly much because she's survived worse. Feel free to fill in segment details in the comments, please.}
"The Diablo You Know" - We've been told in this country all week that our nuclear power plants are just fine & dandy, thank you very much. Well...except for that one built near a major fault line that didn't include earthquake preparadness in its building plan...OOPS! Oh well, how likely, really, is the possibility of any shaking IN CALIFORNIA?!
The plant peeps in Diablo Canyon are hoping & praying that a whole lot of shaking WON'T be going on...again...IN CALIFORNIA! So, who was in charge of looking over those emergency pumps there, too?
"Unpopulism" - Governor Scotty's been followed all over his fair state in the week since he signed that lovely union - busting bill, and he's not been told during that time that he's been nominated for the Nobel or anything. ;D Governor Scotty's been fibbing about the volume of email support he's received for his little bill? Well, again, MY world view's shot to hell.
David Cay Johnston has some observations about these odious bills GOBP governors are trying to ram down their constituents throats; the less you make, the more you're SPARKED! HAPPY FRIDAY, BOYS & GIRLS!