Twistedchick's celestial navigation

and this week was going so well

2008-08-28T13:13:11Z

Obama's To-Don't list. And Hillary's truthtelling [when I can find the link that didn't copy and reattach it.]

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you can has icons

2008-08-26T21:03:59Z

If you read synecdochic's Broken Wings series, you might be interested in the icons I've put up for adoption in clanmitchell today (here, here, here). Words, phrases and ideas from the whole series except for Dial Tones and A Howling in the Factory Yard, which I am still rereading. And yes, these are behind cuts but are graphics-heavy posts. Comments welcome.

twistedchick @ 2008-08-25T15:54:00

2008-08-25T19:54:35Z

Money is tight now; you know that, right? You see it every day in the bills. And so do the companies who aren't getting enough income right now to make their payments, and who then have to declare bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy act. Some of the recent bankrupt companies: Mrs. Fields' Original Cookies, Hines Horticulture, Inc. (Irvine, CA), Trinity Hospital (Erin, TN, first hospital built by HCA Corporation, which owns and operates 179 hospitals and 104 surgery centers in 21 states, England and Switzerland), Stamford Center for the Arts (Stamford, CT), Linens 'n Things, Mervyns (jewelers specializing in diamonds), Boscov's (northeast regional retailer), and Finnegan's Wake Irish Pub & Eatery (Pensacola, FL.) And these links are just what's on page one of the news.google.com search for Chapter 11.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-22T17:19:00

2008-08-22T21:19:09Z

The Department of Health and Human Services (and what a deceptive euphemism that title is becoming) wants to funnel funding to anti-choice "crisis pregnancy centers" and make it optional for federally funded health care centers to provide contraception at all. This is a revised proposal; here's the AP report, here's the press release, and this link takes you to a pdf of the entire revised proposal, thanks to feministblogproject. There is a 30-day comment period, starting now. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-20T13:20:00

2008-08-20T17:20:01Z

How is it that the Department of Homeland Security now feels it can track law-abiding American citizens when they are in other sovereign countries? Doesn't that count as some form of espionage? The Post's version here.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-18T00:14:00

2008-08-18T04:14:51Z

List 5 things which are basic common knowledge in your culture, which people outside are unfamiliar with. This is not about obscurity, but something everyday to you, that others go "bzuh?" at.
1. Sharp cheddar cheese always goes on top of apple pie. Or next to it. Not ice cream. The cheese isn't necessarily warm, though the pie might be. The pie *never* has raisins in it.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-17T19:03:00

2008-08-17T23:03:40Z

Your personal information, your life, will become even less private if the Justice Department has its way.

...Under the Justice Department proposal for state and local police, published for public comment July 31, law enforcement agencies would be allowed to target groups as well as individuals, and to launch a criminal intelligence investigation based on the suspicion that a target is engaged in terrorism or providing material support to terrorists. They also could share results with a constellation of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and others in many cases.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-16T21:20:00

2008-08-17T01:20:24Z

I'm watching Primeval on BBC-America, and the accents are driving me nuts. I am not good at identifying British accents per se -- I mean, I know they're from the Isles, but I couldn't tell you where, the way I might be able to with American accents. So, I'm asking for help; I *think* I'm hearing Scottish, received pronunciation (Posh), and about four others but I would really like to know what they are. I think it helps me sort out some of the underlying bits of plot if I do know.

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some links for further thought

2008-08-15T14:36:06Z

The Independent, UK: What they don't want you to know about the coming oil crisis

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-15T10:03:00

2008-08-15T14:03:18Z

A bigger game than the Olympics is playing out there, and it's worth keeping an eye on. Let me outline the player alliances and see if this makes the world news any clearer. (No links; this is a summary of the past three years):

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-13T20:20:00

2008-08-14T00:20:51Z

Birthday Meme:
Look up your birthday in Wikipedia.
Pick 4 events, 3 births, 2 deaths, and 1 holiday.

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more things you won't learn from the network Olympics coverage

2008-08-13T21:26:57Z

The athletes aren't totally unaware of what's happening: 127 of them signed a statement to China's president, asking for a peaceful solution to the situation in Tibet and increased respect of human rights. However, the political armtwisting behind the scenes is not subtle. Cuba is now denying that one of its athletes signed.

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Many questions, few answers, and why I don't watch the political sham that is the Olympics.

2008-08-13T02:26:37Z

Human rights? China? Words that do not belong in the same sentence. Consider the people who have been disappeared, and who have been harassed or detained while millions are cheering in the stadium. The predesignated 'protest area' are empty, but that's because the government hasn't authorized any protests -- applicants have been arrested for 'indicating subersive intentions.' One man was arrested on his way to church.

BEIJING - A Christian activist was detained as he cycled to church in the Chinese capital for a service attended by US President George W. Bush, who emerged later extolling religious freedoms before continuing with his Olympics visit.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-11T15:19:00

2008-08-11T19:19:42Z

I am not sure I can put into words how I feel about this story -- The evolution of trickster stories among the dogs of North Park after the Change, by Kij Johnson -- except to say that it is the finest example of George Fox's reasons for pacifism and peacemaking that I have seen in a long time.

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and the seasons, they go round and round

2008-08-11T19:09:38Z

I have a few things I keep an eye on, to see how the economy is doing. I live in an area that is (theoretically) stable as far as housing stocks go -- nobody's likely to rip all the single-family houses out and tear down the trees and put up condos, it's near public transportation and a hospital, the houses are in good repair and so (mostly) are the roads -- but there are two empty houses (deaths of elderly neighbors), one more for sale that has not sold yet and another that has been for sale for more than a year and now has been for rent for more than six months and is still empty. The market isn't likely as involved for the first two, but it certainly is for the others, and the fact that they are still empty in a place where local military tend to snap up these houses and rotate through them every few years says something to me.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-11T10:45:00

2008-08-11T14:45:20Z

Back from what has been dubbed QuakerCon, [which may or may not have included a session on siege warfare using walls of butter; see Richard the Lionheart for details; I am retaining deniability here]. Came home the long way via the beautiful hills and small interesting roads with Kat, getting off 68 and going down to Berkeley Springs for ice cream and then back via Rt. 9, Rt. 45 and some unattributable turns in Sheppardstown. And then crossing Mount Tabor twice.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-05T09:10:00

2008-08-05T13:10:01Z

Off to what has now been dubbed Quakercon -- try not to clog up the intarweb tubes till I get back, okay?

twistedchick @ 2008-08-05T09:04:00

2008-08-05T13:04:34Z

What's the first thing a woman does when she's being raped, or as soon as possible immediately afterward? She calls for help. That's what women working for KBR in Iraq did, the same as anyone else would do. What's KBR's response? They're banning the use of personal cell phones for employees in Iraq. More details here.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-04T13:33:00

2008-08-04T17:33:49Z

A comment on X-Files: I want to believe

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-04T12:18:00

2008-08-04T16:18:33Z

We are already at war in Iran. The public just hasn't been told.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-03T21:27:00

2008-08-04T01:27:07Z

Who stood to gain the most from the whole anthrax-sent-to-Senators business several years ago? Cheney -- because the senators who received it were against the Patriot Act, which he wanted pushed through. And more lies about anthrax taken apart here.

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twistedchick @ 2008-08-01T17:26:00

2008-08-01T21:26:10Z

Synecdochic started a meme in LJ, and I'm playing along here: List ten things that are your current happy places. You know, the thing you retreat to doing or reading or watching or thinking about or whatever when you need to get away from all the things that are conspiring against you. The images you conjure when you close your eyes and chant "go to your happy place, go to your happy place". Those.

As they come to me, not in any particular order of importance.

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twistedchick @ 2008-07-31T08:53:00

2008-07-31T12:53:20Z

A thought about the X-Files movie, which I saw yesterday, two weeks after driving through West Virginia:

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another beautiful day in the neighborhood...

2008-07-30T15:48:47Z

The House Judiciary Committee has voted to cite Karl Rove for contempt of Congress. More from The Raw Story.

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voices

2008-07-30T14:01:03Z

These are the quotations I've assembled as thought-sparks for the workshop next week, Love in the Work of Our Hands, the intersection of craft/art and spirituality:

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