a posting potpourri

Here's a few interesting things I've read online recently. (I hope these links still work.)

'No, there are no F***ing postcards' - This is a story on The Telegraph's website (the UK newspaper) about a peculiarly-named town in Austria. As far as I can tell, it's real - I got the link in one of my daily A Word A Day e-mails - but when I sent it to the DH, all he could say was that it sounded exactly like something that you'd see in The Onion, America's Finest (Fake) News Source. I kind of have to agree.

Reading With Our Ears - much as I hate to think about formal writing (because it's something I generally hate to do), occasionally it's nice to contemplate writing as a craft (because, man, do words rock). It's nice to remember that writing on a higher level than blathering blog entries doesn't have to be a chore. Tho' honestly, to a certain extent, it'll always feel like a chore to me. If I can't just type whatever pops into my head - if I have to actually plan what I'm going to say, then edit myself (ugh) - it just never feels worth the effort.

The first article I read about how most of the people trapped and suffering in New Orleans were poor and black (from USA Today via Yahoo News). Later, I read a lot more at Slate.com. There's also this guy's take on Rehnquist's death in light of the hurricane disaster.

Speaking of Rehnquist, I'll admit it now - I'm a big Supreme Court geek. The DH and I have actually spent more than one dinner discussing court rulings, who's on the court, who used to be on the court, who was appointed by whom, just how batshit crazy Scalia and Thomas are (our verdict: Scalia is not so much insane as an asshole; Thomas = creepy wacko nutjob), etc. We were not surprised by Rehnquist kicking off (tho' I was surprised to learn about his drug habit), but I was a bit perplexed that Roberts got the nomination for chief justice. WRVO has been playing the confirmation hearings non-stop for the past few days from 9 or 9:30 in the morning until whenever the windbags on that committee decide to stop talking, but I just can't bring myself to listen. First of all, I don't trust Roberts as far as I could throw him, and I think the fact that he's so "likeable" (I'm sure my grandma loves him, because he's moderately good-looking and his wife dresses conservatively) just compounds the problem of his inner weaselly-ness. There is just something about him that makes me uneasy, and I'm betting if he does get confirmed, we'll have a much more freaky-conservative judge on our hands than some people bargained for. That, and dammit, there oughta be more women on the court! There oughta be at least - at absolute least - 4 women. I'd really prefer 5 or 6. Even if some of them are freaky-conservative, like Janice Rogers Brown. Dammit! Even Sandra Day O'Connor said it (about Roberts): "He's good in every way, except he's not a woman." I will so miss Justice O'Connor.

While we're on the subject of my somewhat-odd interests in government figures, let me post these links I found about Alan Greenspan. It all started, as with the F***ing story, with an A Word A Day e-mail. Each day's word is accompanied by a quotation, often from a newspaper story, showing the word as it's used in context. The quote for September 9th's word ("Wall Street" - scroll down a bit to find it) mentioned something about a woman who'd done some paintings of Alan Greenspan, so I looked for the story from whence the quote came. I found it, and this one, and this one (if you need to register with the sites to read any of these stories, check bugmenot.com for info on bypassing compulsory registrations). I also found the artist's site, www.alangreenspanpaintings.com, which has links to a few more stories. She's dead-on when she says Greenspan "has a great face for portraiture." I've thought Greenspan was pretty cool for a while now, but I saw a picture of him in the paper sometime this past spring that just totally sent me over the top. I cut it out - I made color copies at Kinko's. He just has this fantastic expression on his face. As soon as I can get the DH to stop playing his silly hockey videogame long enough to let me use his computer and the attached scanner, I will get that picture posted up here. Don't hold your breath for it, tho' - getting to that scanner could take a while.

Anyway, in the meantime, I've been searching for Alan Greenspan pictures online. I found the Google cache of this page from a message board, and also a Fark.com Photoshop contest from a few years ago which still has a small number of working image links on there. Please do let me know if you see any other good Greenspan pics floating around. I also found this article from foreignpolicy.com about how Greenspan may not be the economic genius many people believe he is, and how some of his policies that have worked out well in the short term may end up being detrimental to the world economy in the long run. I'm definitely not that into economic policy, but I found the article thought-provoking. The world economy's headed for total collapse - it'll be global chaos. Well, maybe not. But the evidence the author gives just adds to my theory that the US today is like the last days of the Roman Empire. I can't escape the feeling that this country's glory days are behind it, and it may not happen in my lifetime, but there will be nothing but hard times ahead for America. Cheery thought, huh?

There's a couple more things I want to post - about genealogy and my family - but I need to get to school now, and that stuff kind of needs its own post. If I'm lucky, I'll get to it tonight - if not, I'll get to it this weekend.