i can almost breathe without hacking.
hopefully tomorrow will bring a full recovery. i feel completely useless but i know readers will come here looking for something so i'll do a link fest.
there's a lot going on in the community these days.
let me start with my pal folding star who has a new post at a winding road:
The surprise of the afternoon actually came from a Republican Senator. You'll all remember that back during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Bolton, Ohio Senator George Voinovich stunned his fellow Republicans (and no doubt the Democrats as well) by announcing that after what he'd learned about the Nominee, he wasn't willing to vote to send the Nomination to the floor at that point.
Voinovich's decision that day allowed the Committee to investigate Bolton further and delayed by several weeks the moment when the nomination headed out of Committee and on to the floor of the Senate.
betty's done an epic entry at her site:
Why does my husband Thomas Friedman hate America?
That's the question on my mind and the minds of a lot of other people.
Having drifted off the ice flow earlier by trashing Americans and the French as lazy, having trashed liberals in this country, Thomas Friedman found a new target for his hatred: General Motors.
"Why are people so mad?"
That's what Thomas Friedman asked, sprawled out on the sofa in his shortie robe, drinking his prune juice and eating chocolate covered cherries. Chocolate covered cherries which, by the way, I can not have any of because Thomas Friedman says that I am allergic. I don't remember being allergic to chocolate covered cherries but, according to Thomas Friedman, I am. So all three boxes of chocolate covered cherries that Nicky K gifted Thomas Friedman with can only be eaten by him. Nice how that works out for him.
Why are people so mad?
I couldn't believe he had to ask.
I grabbed the Friday paper and waved his last column in his face: "As Toyota Goes ..."
"You've advocated the closing of GM! You've spit on the workers and, maybe this will grab you by your chubby ass, the investors!"
"Workers? American workers are so lazy. In India, they work a thirty-five hour day."
"Thomas Friedman you are getting on my last nerve!"
I stormed out. I was furious.
kat had a nice entry noting michael the newest blogger to come out of the common ills community (also has a telling quote from a tori amos song).
i like mike. i spoke to him today on the phone and i recommend you read his latest entry on recruiters:
And they make this conversation with you but it's not really talking to you coz it's like they're trying to find your weakness and zero in on that.
So like I'm in high school and Dad's already had the talk with me but this recruiter and his bud are chatting like they're my best friends when all the sudden they zero in on my part-time job.
"So you like that? You bow for those men and women? You ask 'More pepper sir?' Like begging for tips? You wear an apron?"
And they're just like destroying me. I was a waiter coz it was good money and I could do it on weekends and all.
But they're saying stuff like, "Do you say 'I'm Mike you're serving wench, how may I serve you?'" Just pushing all the buttons. And I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck rising and even though I know they're trying to push my buttons and question my manhood I don't walk off and I start justifying my job.
And right in the middle of it I realize I'm being hooked and this is what they do, open up that conversation and act like they are the big men and you're not and you can only be one by being like them. But they're not going over to Iraq. They're going to schools and parking lots and malls. Then they desk jockey so who are they to question anyone?
So I just walked away because they want you to engage with them even if you're arguing. They know they can hook you. They'll just keep hitting your sore spots whatever they are. That's what the "Hey dude, talk" is all about. They don't care about you or why you're at the mall that day or what your friends are like. They just listen to store up ammo to use against you.
from the third estate sunday review, i'll note the 'five books, five minutes' that i helped on. and if nothing else, all this bed time (not the good kind) is allowing me time to read all the books required for this coming edition.
at the common ills, there's plenty to note. the wonderful ruth has a hard hitting look at npr and i listened to the story online, ruth's 100% right. isaiah's offering his latest the world today just nuts and you better go check it out. and c.i.'s trying to get the word out on the flame of my passions dahr jamail's latest by quoting from his report and also noting a photo of an ambulance shot and 1 of an ambulance shot many times.
hope there's something above that you'll enjoy and i hope i'm better tomorrow.
