One whole joojooflop situation

Why does Bush's microphone gaffe at the Group of 8 summit make me think of the Gabbo episode of The Simpsons? "All the kids in Springfield are S.O.B.'s." Seriously, I don't think his comment about wanting to "get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit" was such a big deal. But then, I'm not someone who thinks using a curse word is a sure ticket to Hell, and I get the impression that a significant part (which isn't to say a majority) of Bush's constituency does.

And speaking of uptight conservatives, there was a recent Bill O'Reilly segment lamenting how fewer women are getting married and having kids, which Bill blamed on secularism, feminism, materialism, and the media (which, unfortunately, doesn't end with "-ism"). They all want to concentrate on their careers, take vacations, and obtain material possessions without making the sacrifices involved in child-rearing. Nothing about how, in our present American society, it generally isn't necessary to have kids to help out on the farm. I've discussed my opinion on the societal pressure to reproduce several times in the past, but really, what's wrong with putting some priority on career? If nothing else, unless a woman is planning on marrying a really rich guy, wouldn't you HAVE to earn some money in order to raise all the kids O'Reilly and his ilk want her to have? And, for that matter, what's so bad about wanting to enjoy yourself (especially during the period when the concerns of adolescence no longer seem important, and the worries of old age haven't yet set in)? It isn't even necessarily a matter of wanting to take trips and get stuff. Maybe some people have (and I realize this might be a foreign concept in the No Spin Zone) hobbies? And really, isn't pursuing your own interests at the expense of having kids better than what seems to be in vogue nowadays, which is having kids AND trying to do all the trip-taking and material-obtaining, so that the parenting often turns out to be half-assed? And why does O'Reilly care so much whether people he doesn't know want to reproduce? So he can sell more copies of The O'Reilly Factor for Kids? Probably not. I think it's more the hallmark of self-styled traditionalists to want people to do what's always been done, whether or not it makes any sense.

And as if that weren't enough, Kirsten Powers (presumably Fox News's answer to criticisms that their network is made up entirely of cranky old geezers) said that fewer black women are getting married because the black men are all in jail. Yeah, she actually said that. Nothing like some good old-fashioned racism to go with your traditionalism, eh?

Sweets to the sweet

I frequently have dreams where I'm driving, and my car periodically appears and disappears. Do you know what I mean? Last night, there was a particularly weird one where I was driving on the freeway in the Camden area, and I took the wrong exit (due to construction temporarily switching the exits around). I was actually on foot after taking the exit, but I decided I couldn't just walk back to the main road, because that would cause traffic problems.

Let's see. What else? Oh, you know how coupons always say things like "cash value 1/20 of a cent"? Does that mean that, if you collected twenty of them, you could trade them in for a penny?

The Shroom pizza at Pizzeria Uno is basically good, but I'm not a big fan of spinach on pizza. It's not BAD per se, just...I don't know, not what I'm used to. But it's probably good that it was on there, since I really don't eat enough vegetables these days. Oh, and the shrimp and crab fondue they have there is excellent. bethje got that for free with a printable coupon that had NO cash value.

Speaking of food, my mom gave me a lot of Fig Newtons for Christmas, and I still haven't finished all of them yet. I used to love those things as a kid, but now I can't eat as many as I used to be able to. I think I have less of a taste for sickeningly sweet things now. Except for drinks, for some reason. I still drink a lot of really sweet beverages. I no longer enjoy chowing down on candy corn and the like anymore, though.