Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI): I struggle to meet my bills right now… The benefits that were offered to me as a congressman don’t even compare to the benefits that you get as a state employee. I just experienced that myself. They’re not nearly as good.
Constituent: But $174,000 — that’s … three times what I make.
March 2011
75 posts
Went back to school today, but didn’t stay long. Got a phone call that my mom had fallen ill with the same thing we had in Seattle. So, I’m home watching Little. Our back-up plan fell through and Laura had a big project she had to present today. Felt bad to abandon my assistant. She didn’t have a sub for me yesterday and she won’t today. I’ll need to take her out to dinner to make it up to her.
Little and I have been watching PBS this morning. There was a story on Super Why! this morning that was about princes and princesses. It made me wonder why we still glorify royalty in children’s stories. Furthermore, why do we even have kings and queens anymore? And emperors? I know there aren’t any perfect governments out there, but kings and emperors? Damn. Shouldn’t that sort of shit be out of style by now?
It felt like we were dying, but we survived. We flew back to Georgia yesterday and spent today resting. I’ve only had about 15 soda crackers since Saturday night, but I think I might actually try to eat something tonight. The flight didn’t help yesterday. The motion of the taxi, walking, and flying were quite enough, but there was a bit of turbulence on the flight. The last thing we needed was to have our stomachs shaken up.
Sad we missed our last full day in Seattle, but we’ll be back. Love that city.
Ten Giant U.S. Companies Avoiding Income Taxes →
blogs.suntimes.com
- Exxon Mobil
- Bank of America
- General Electric
- Chevron
- Boeing
- Valero Energy
- Goldman Sachs
- Citigroup
- ConocoPhillips
- Carnival Cruise Lines
This happens because voters let them make the rules.
The Bronze Medal: A new branch of the Vancouver Public Library will include 20 attached... →
thebronzemedal.tumblr.com
A new branch of the Vancouver Public Library will include 20 attached housing units for single mothers and their children. This will provide safe housing in an area that badly needs it, and the units will be rented out at shelter rates. The library’s director explained why partnering with the…
this is awesome!
Well, we thought it was over, but boy were we wrong.
We’re all sick, except for my mom. Laura and Little are still in bed. Not sure we’ll even leave the hotel today. Had planned to visit Bainbridge Island, but I think it’ll be impressive if we leave the room. Ugh…
“At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.”
Losing my religion for equality
Jimmy Carter officially goes apostate over the Baptist Church’s treatment of women.
Barack Obama, THIS is how it’s done.
(via sluthaditcoming)
You should go to Plains sometime and see President Carter. He teaches Sunday School there. He gives a little talk beforehand and then you can get your photo with him afterwards. Well worth it.
“reading should not be presented to children as a chore or a duty. it should be offered to them as a precious gift.”
— Kate DiCamillo (via teachingliteracy) (via booklover)
this pretty much sums up my opinion of the Accelerated Reader program.
I love going back to the beginnings of folks’ tumblr blogs and reading their first few posts.
Also, is that apostrophe in the correct place?
Professionals Should Look Like Professionals
I’m already on record as stating that “Librarians are bad dressers” and I admitted that I should be included in that group, but there should be a limit to how low we’ll go.
I’ve decided that we should look at least as professional as…the receptionists at my dentist’s office. They are professionals and we are professionals; at least they look like they work in an office environment.
The newly revised dress code for Librarians:
- Black shoes (dark brown, blue, grey are also permitted). This means no sneakers, purple rubber boots, blue slippers (I wish I was kidding), etc.
- Jeans are for casual Friday and/or people out of the public eye. EVERYDAY IS NOT FRIDAY.
- Ask yourself: “Are people judging me by my appearance?” “What impression am I giving?” This is for YOU new Business Librarian! It’s time to stop wearing jeans everyday, no more tank tops or t-shirts, or shirts on top of shirts..with 4 hems overlapping at your hips
- I’m repeating myself here, but it’s still valid. Eyeglasses do NOT last forever. If you cannot/are too lazy (like me) to keep your frames in style you need to consider contact lenses or vision correction surgery. We have glasses/contact lens coverage in our health insurance…let’s use it.
- If your weekend clothes and work wardrobe are identical, ask yourself “Am I a conservative dresser?” or “Am I dressing too casually for work?”
- If an ocean separates what you wore to you job interview compared to what you are wearing today, it’s time to take another look at the clothes you wore when you wanted to make a good impression. I have never worn a suit (pants and jacket) at my job, but my pants look like they could match with a jacket.
- Make-up? I don’t do a good job of it, so I don’t wear it. If you could be confused for a $2 whore and/or a circus clown, it’s time to put the eye shadow brush down.
- If you can’t chew gum with your mouth closed, you shouldn’t be chewing it.
- Could you, in an emergency, go from work straight to City Hall to watch your sister and her boyfriend elope?
- Look at your outfit and ask yourself “Is this something my manager would ever wear?” Dress like the person you want to become.
I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate on this one. I work in a Primary School library and I occasionally wear sneakers and jeans. There are definitely jeans I wouldn’t wear to work, but I don’t think all jeans are automatically unprofessional. Sneakers are comfortable. I’m on my feet all day, so I’d prefer to be comfortable over caring whether or not someone thinks I look the part for my job. I don’t wear a tie everyday and some days I don’t even tuck my shirt in.
Looks like it wasn’t a virus, but more likely a reaction to something she ate yesterday. She’s acting perfectly normal this morning.
I feel bad for anyone who was in the rooms adjacent to ours last night. Hopefully, the walls between rooms have some sort of soundproofing.
And we are officially sleepless in Seattle. I know that’s cheesy, but I couldn’t resist.
Little is sick. We awoke to the sound of her throwing up … a lot. She’s had the heaves twice since the initial spill and really, really foul smelling diarrhea.
If Little and I hadn’t come to Seattle with mommy and we were at home alone right now, boy would I be panicking!
We’re hoping the worst has passed.
I was going to ask you to choose one book, but I find that question impossible to answer... I figured five would be a little easier, but then again, I know I'd have answers like your, "Could one of them by the complete works of Roald Dahl?" (which is definitely an acceptable answer).
I hope Seattle stays beautiful for you! I've wanted to visit there for a few years now. I went when I was 17, but I was with my non-adventurous, extremely conservative family... needless to say, the trip didn't live up to it's potential. After you're done exploring today, give us some highlights =)
Yeah, I suppose I could have answered that question more easily if you’d asked for five authors: Bill Bryson, David Sedaris, Roald Dahl, Shel Silverstein, and … guilty pleasure - Michael Crichton.
Sidenote - I was saddened to learn that Crichton was a rightist, but I still love his books - even the global warming denying State of Fear. I still think Jurassic Park, Sphere, and Timeline are awesome books. Actually, I think I have all of his books, but those are probably my favorites.
Oh, and Time Traveler’s Wife - loved that one? Surprised I didn’t add that to my list when you first asked.
Okay, so on to Seattle - it’s been awesome so far! Today, we started out with a complimentary breakfast at our hotel that wasn’t half-bad. Waffles, bacon, toast, and fruit. My mom wasn’t pleased to learn they didn’t serve grits here. She asked several times if they did before I reminded her that grits are a Southern thing.
After breakfast, we went to Pike’s Market. Loved it. If we lived here, I’d be there all the time… but perhaps only early in the morning. We got there around 9a and it was quite nice. All the food vendors and flower vendors were already set up, but the crafts didn’t open until around 10a. I found a great used bookstore in one of the lower levels of hte market, bought two Shel Silverstein books I’d never heard of, and had a good conversation with the owner. By that time, it was closer to 10a so we headed back up to check out the crafts. And it was packed by this time.
We had lunch at an Irish Pub named Fado. It was pretty good, but the best part was our waiter. We were the only folks in there when we arrived, so we got a lot of attention. Plus, we had Little with us and anytime we go out with her, we get more attention. Anyhow, the waiter told us about Columbia Tower. He said it was much, much taller than the Space Needle and a fraction of the price. He also asked us where we were going next. We told him we were going on an underground tour and he said he’d just recently done that tour himself and that it was great.
He was right. We learned a lot about Seattle and laughed a lot, too. If you ever come back to Seattle, I definitely recommend it. Did you know the toilet was invented here? And that after the fire, the city built the roads back 10 - 30 feet higher than the storefronts?
After the underground tour, we went up to the top of Columbia Tower. There’s an observation deck on the 73rd floor, which provided awesome views.
We’re back at the hotel now taking a breather, before meeting some friends for drinks this evening.
Pictures coming soon.
are you aware of the general strike being attempted? there is a Facebook campaign promoting it. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147739558619715
Yes, in fact I’ve already marked “Might Attend”. I’ve been sending out invitations on FB and generally spreading the word (although I guess not yet on Tumblr), but unfortunately I can’t miss that day of work.
I’m missing three this week for vacation and I’ve been randomly chosen (along with 11 other teachers) to attend a meeting with our superintendent in which we can discuss our school system - an opportunity I’d rather not pass up.
Right now, more than 12,000 are attending and nearly 100,000 haven’t yet replied. We’ll see how it goes.
So you know the ol' "stranded on a deserted island" scenario? Say you're in that predicament, and you made it there with 5 books. What 5 books would you want to be with forever?
And how is Seattle??
1. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
2. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
3. A People’s History of … by Howard Zinn (doesn’t matter which one)
4. Could one of them by the complete works of Roald Dahl?
5. Hmm… and maybe one by Neil DeGrasse Tyson?
That was tougher than I thought.
Seattle is pretty good so far. We got here around 2p yesterday. Walked around for a while, had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (first place we came upon - we were STARVING … and it was delicious btw), then visited a few shops. That’s when the rest of the group wanted to crash. My wife was nice enough to go back out and walk around the city with me a bit more before we all succumbed to our tiredness and crashed. It’s nearly 7a right now. Think we’re going to go get some breakfast and then hit the city again. On the agenda: Pike’s Market, maybe the aquarium, Space Needle (although not sure I’m keen about going up in it), and an underground tour of the old city.
When we got off the plane yesterday, the weather was so nice! It was warm and sunny. Last we checked from home, it was supposed to be cool and rainy the entire time. Hope the forecast is wrong again today.
Okay, so since I’m stuck in a hotel room and for some reason I’m the only one who isn’t tired… how about someone holler at me?
http://leftyjenkins.tumblr.com/ask
Anonymous questions temporarily available.
Atheists Cannot Hold Public Office in 7 U.S. States →
godlessgeeks.com
Arkansas State Constitution, Article 19 Section 1 (“Miscellaneous Provisions”)
No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any court.
Of course, none of this is actually legal. An atheist was elected in North Carolina recently. The state tried to prevent him from taking office, but he challenged the law and won.
Plus, the Supreme Court has settled this in Torcaso v. Watkins already.
Still, it’d be nice if crap like this wasn’t part of any state’s constitution anyway.
Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study says →
bbc.co.uk
The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.
Just added a few countries to the list of possible future homes.
A while back, I posted a picture of Einstein with a quote of his about measuring intelligence. Ended up with about 100+ new followers as a result.
I haven’t checked out all the new people yet. Any of you educators? Librarians? Georgians? Progressives? Nonreligious? Let me know, because I mostly follow those types of folk.
*** EDIT ***
How could I forget to add redditor to that list? Any redditors?
Play
Reporter: So, why do you write these strong female characters?
Joss Whedon: Because you’re still asking me that question.
(via iamemilyawkward)
I don’t know who Joss Whedon is, but I love that answer. Love it.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s Budget Repair Proposal May Have No Repeal Option for Voters
Whether you think it’s a dirty trick or a smart move, a House bill to implement Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal to eliminate tax credits and exemptions contains a $100 appropriation — enough to make the plan immune from a voter referendum.
In 2001, the state Supreme Court ruled that legislation with a state expenditure — even just $1 — can’t be repealed by voters.
so just to make sure that everyone is up to speed - this bill:
- takes away tax breaks for the elderly and poor
- gives tax breaks to corporations
- allows the governor to declare financial emergency and dissolve city governments
- including the dissolution of any contracts including collective bargaining
- the bill may not be repealed by the citizens of michigan due to a loophole regarding appropriations
this may well be a worse situation than what we are dealing with in wisconin. please share this. people need to know.
In Defense of NPR →
truth-out.org
Just as public radio struggles against yet another assault from its longtime nemesis - the right-wing machine that would thrill if our sole sources of information were Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and ads paid for by the Koch Brothers - it walks into a trap perpetrated by one of the sleaziest operatives ever to climb out of a sewer.
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
—John Steinbeck (via miketodd07, thirdworldgirl- )
Pledge.
Am I the only one who gets ridiculously choked up when reciting the pledge/singing the national anthem? Like I start thinking about the past and how kickass our forefathers were, how they were like “fuck those british bastards, we don’t want no taxation without representation, lets go fuck some shit up” then they go and rebel. Not the forefathers that some people want us to believe in, but the drunks, adulterers, duelers (you know, the people we would be friends with).
Then I start thinking about all the soldiers and innocent people who died during our wars, those who died thinking they were doing the right thing, died believing in our pledge (under god or not)
I don’t know, is it just me? Am I just a sap who buys into all that patriotism a bit too much? Cause I fucking love America.
I used to be extremely patriotic. Not in the Tea Party way, of course, but in the “I think we, in our hearts, stand for some good things, and the bad things we do are aberrations.”
Sadly, I don’t believe that anymore. I don’t believe that the “good” things are at the heart of what most people want for America—the people who want the good, the people here that I know, and the people elsewhere that I respect, the people fighting for the America I used to see instead of the xenophobic one, are the aberration. And it depresses the hell out of me.
I haven’t said the pledge in years. Under God? No thanks. Justice for all? Not even close.
I like this quote when it comes to patriotism:
“Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.” — George Bernard Shaw
That sort of thinking is why I like my sports teams, but it doesn’t work for nations.
little concerned about this nuclear mess in Japan. reading that worst case scenario is full meltdown which spreads radiation around globe, BUT how much? how bad? anyone know?
