Florida woman charged in unborn's death

( Text save here. )

The teal-deer version: Seven-months-pregnant woman apparently miscarries. Fetus comes out with severed cord. Medical personnel call police. Police arrest woman and charge her with manslaughter.

...

WHAT??!

Looks like the world at large is finally aware of Michael Savage. No, not Dan Savage, the actually funny and occasionally helpful gay sex-advice columnist. Michael Savage (nee Weiner, I kid you not) has been your standard conservative radio hatemonger for ages--I had to be careful surfing channels while driving in Reno because if I caught his show at the exact wrong moment my blood would spontaneously hit boiling point and cause instant road rage.

Yes, he's been frothing about EWW TEH GAYS and STOOPID LIBRULLS for years, but now he's finally done it: he has dismissed autism as kids just being brats. Bravo, Mike, yer a big man now.

I'm not gonna bother linking or quoting anything, someone else on your Friends list will surely do it soon just like they have on mine. Just wanted to remark on my total lack of surprise, here, having apparently known and loathed him longer than most.

So far not much different from 27.

Oh, and I attempted another velvet painting:


Click through to art blog for details.

Technically not a good photo but I rather like how the peach looks all solar and stuff.

Gonna go open my prezzies now.

I've made these cookies a few times before for friends and coworkers because they're hella easy and relatively healthful. The original recipe is from "The Healthy Hedonist", a semi-vegetarian cookbook by Myra Kornfeld, and my dumbed-down but still effective version follows:

1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup washed raw sugar ( <--- I usually only use 1/2 cup, in deference to my less-sweet tooth...)
1/4 cup maple syrup ( <--- ...or I eliminate this if I'm fresh out)
1 cup peanut butter, chunky or smooth
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chickpea flour ( <--- That's right, kids, it's gluten-free!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter, sugar and syrup together until fluffy; add peanut butter, egg and vanilla and blend just until smooth. In a medium bowl, whisk remaining dry ingredients together, then mix into the wet in three batches until batter is integrated and moist like a UN orgy--er hem, sorry. Drop the batter by teaspoons onto a baking sheet at two-inch intervals, flattening each dollop with the back of the spoon. Bake, rotating the sheet once, until the bottoms are golden, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a rack or plate to cool. Store at room temp or colder for up to two weeks. Makes 35 to 40 cookies.

Is knowing your self the highest truth, or is the concept of self an illusion?

I've been wondering lately if I have a far better chance of fitting in and having fun as a burlesque dancer than as a belly dancer. I only have about a year and half's worth of experience in the latter, and I've enjoyed a lot of it and seen a lot of great performances, but even for the more light-hearted cabaret styles, belly dance seems to require a far more... reverential (that's not the right word, I will totally get laughed at, but it's something like) persona than I have the capacity to maintain, especially if I ever had the nerve to perform publically. Props and satire and yes, even nudity, much more up my alley.

I know Princess Farhana pulls off both styles fabulously, but actually moving with any kind of grace and skill for a life-long couch potato like me requires extra determination, and even if I could keep the two sets of technique separate enough in thought and practice, I fear I'd end up mediocre at both, hence my wish to focus on one.

Unsurprisingly, though, the only nearby burlesque classes I am finding are being taught in San Francisco, so once again time, money and transportation thwart my budding aspirations.

I'll just stick to yoga for now. That class is only a half-mile from my apt. :p

I was already feeling not too great about the world today, and then I got home from work and found this via indigoskynet:

Private First Class LaVena L. Johnson. On July 19, 2005, Pvt. Johnson was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the head at her base near Balad, Iraq. Though her body bore evidence of an assault and rape, including a broken nose and chemical burns around her genitals, and there was no evidence that Pvt. Johnson was suffering from emotional distress, the Army classified her death as a suicide.

Clicking through reveals more suspicious "suicides" among female recruits.

There's been a lot of yammer about some dozen teenage girls allegedly making a "pregnancy pact" at a high school in Massachusetts. At first it sounded like they were planning to get pregnant and raise their babies together--which is of course the more scandalous guaranteed-to-sell-papers angle--but later stories have suggested that they made the pact to help each other raise their kids after discovering how many of them had gotten pregnant on accident.

...am I just totally irresponsible and dissipated for taking the stance that there are far worse things teenagers can do than become parents, and that there are far more pressing issues for the media to report on?

I know a few people who had kids very young, or as single parents. They certainly didn't have it easy. I also know plenty of people born to married adults who didn't always have it easy, either. Legitimacy is no guarantee of a happy life. Nor am I presuming that the Scarlet Women of Gloucester have fully thought out the consequences of young unwed motherhood and are all mature enough to deal with it. I certainly hope for the sake of their children that they have, but frankly, it's none of my business.

All I'm saying is that the culture of shaming just needs to fucking stop already: they have made their choices, so new lives are imminent, and those lives deserve as much consideration and care as those brought into the world "legitimately".

In other words, enough with the "MOTHERHOOD UR DOIN IT RONG".

Reno air declared 'unhealthful' due to wildfires

"RENO, Nev. – Health officials declared the air quality "unhealthful" for the Reno-Sparks area on Tuesday due to thick smoke in the region from hundreds of wildfires burning in California.

People with respiratory problems, elderly and young children were advised to remain inside with windows closed."

...

Yes. Stay indoors. In Reno.

Where everyone and their dog smokes a pack a day.

Unless they live or work in a casino, in which case it's two packs.

I'd just be fleeing towards Winnemucca at this point, and that's saying something.

From MoJo Blog (via Andrew Sullivan):

On McCain's "Blog Interact" page, where the candidate's supporters can find recommended blogs of all ideological stripes, the campaign is actually awarding points for trolling:

"Help spread the word about John McCain on news and blog sites. Your efforts to help get the message out about John McCain's policies and plan for the future is one of the most valuable things you can do for this campaign. You know why John McCain should be the next President of the United States and we need you to tell others why.

"Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known. Once you’ve commented on a post, video or news story, report the details of your comment by clicking the button below. After your comments are verified, you will be awarded points through the McCain Online Action Center."

The site even has "Today's Talking Points" that McCain supporters can cut and paste into the comments sections of liberal blogs.

The lack of online savvy on display here is just stunning. But at least "John McCain is aware of the internet."

ETA: ZOMG I AM TEH GENIUS! I just thought to call this brilliant bit of political maneuvering: spampaigning!

I love when those little Pratchettverse ideas that rain down through the cosmos actually hit me. ;D

I'll re-post the zine I made last summer full of facts and recipes about iced tea:

http://www.iowaline.net/Subtle-Teas-for-Summer.pdf

Though come to think of it, the only folks I've added since then live in the UK and NZ, where AFAIK iced tea is respectively reviled and nonexistent save for some pre-sweetened brand name labeled "ice tea" which was as good as any port in a storm. ;)

I've been barely present here or IRL, but it bears noting that this past week marked the two years Aaron and I have been married. Eventually that poison I've been dripping in his mouth at night will--er, I mean, looking forward to many years more! :D

It also bears noting that we witnessed our first same-sex marriage yesterday, between stormmonkey and her special gal, so congrats to them! Yes, my husband and I were standing mere feet away, and as the minister pronounced them legally wed, our own wedding bands did not in fact melt and drip off our fingers, or whatever the haters though would happen. Then again we wear titanium--can't vouch for you chumps wearing traditional gold. ;)

My errands today will take me right past SJ City Hall, and I believe I've heard of a few random protesters with that whole "God Hates Gays" angle going on. I think I should stick up some backseat window signs to counteract such nastiness.

But how to be short and sweet AND supportive? Just "Congrats"? "God Loves Gays"? Hmm.

So, when I set out a few months ago trying to find more substantial info on the technique of producing black velvet art, I consulted everyone who might have the faintest idea, from traditional painters who work mostly in oils to random art store minions, since my trusty internet had somehow failed me.

My grandmother proved surprisingly more resourceful than I in tracking down a book about the medium, that actually contained one person's detailed process; this artist chose to put the velvet over stretcher bars like typical canvas and paint on it with acrylic, which turned out reasonable well in photos. I suppose I'll learn oils eventually and finally be known as a real artist, but I'll stick with acrylics for now. My main question remains: how to mount the stuff first?

My first attempt, Maya here, is unquestionably non-archival being that she's been Mod-Podged and stapled to a piece of 9"x12" cardboard, the last remnants of an old sketchbook. An art store minion suggested thinly coating hardboard with adhesive (she probably specified, my memory's crap) and mounting the velvet thus. Another painter worried this would cause bubbles in the fabric. I also got to examine a velvet painting made in recent years; the back was covered by brown paper but feeling around the edges it definitely felt like the fabric was stapled to a hard board-like backing.

Further opinions on mounting are appreciated. I've acquired one frame's worth of stretcher bars and some precut bits of hardboard and will be experimenting soon.

Poll #1205197 Reviving a lost art.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

How best to mount velvet for painting?

That's right, no ticky this time. Velvets iz srs bizniss.

I'm not utterly enamored of Obama (still voting for him, duh, just not totally head-over-heels) but I must say, I admire his increasing attempts at transparency. I heard on NPR today that he's devoted a whole section of his campaign site to "Fight The Smears" leveled against him. It kinda sucks to have to dignify some truly ludicrous claims by responding to them, but eh, it's a new era.

Most recently, he has posted his birth certificate to dispel a rumor that he's been hiding his real age, because if he were born two years earlier on the same day Hawaii would not have been a state yet, and therefore he'd be ineligible to run.

I find this rather funny, considering how McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone where his family was stationed in 1936, and it was never a state, just under American control from 1903 to 1979. Looks far more like getting in on a loophole, that. And I think it's only fair now to start a rumor that McCain is lying about HIS age and is really 104. Strikes me as far more believable than Obama being secretly Muslim.

But it's still my first attempt at full color on black velvet, and it's done, so booyah.



Oil pastels? Much easier to manipulate than acrylic paint, but definitely harder to saturate on the endless visible depth of the fabric. I may give in and try to learn oil painting, because as far as I can tell that's what Edgar Leeteg and all the South Pacific masters used.

Also, can any fabric-savvy folks tell me if there is much difference between typical non-stretchy fabric store velvet (which I used here) and "high quality cotton velveteen" (which is what is written on all Leeteg's receipts)?

My husband mentions in his latest LJ post two new establishments opening withing two miles of our apartment that frankly I'm trying to ignore the existence of. The one was bad enough, being an established nationwide chain, but the emergence of the new one in conjunction with it...I am in fact forcing myself to go make tea and do some painting instead of ranting about them here. Go read him instead. :p

Aaron comes back from his evening constitutional and goes to his laptop in the bedroom. I get up from my desk to kiss him hello.

Me: (smooches his forehead) Your forehead smells like coffee.
Him: I was in a coffeehouse.
Me: Did you headbutt a barista?
Him: No, I headbutted a coffee bag that had become animated and tried to attack.
Me: (snerk) Oh, a coffee golem?
Him: Yes, a coffee golem. It was really hyper.
Me: (dissolves into giggles at the ensuing mental image)

Having conversations like this nearly every day reminds me why I married him. ;)

I suppose I never really thought about it, unworldly American that I am, but I guess I'm not surprised at the projected number of uncontacted civilizations that still exist across the globe.

I also feel prompted by the entry here on wtf_nature (a great fun comm, normally) and the subsequent thread wars that took off to drag the discussion here. Basically: there are tribes of people in various remote places, still living the way they have for thousands of years. Some happen to be threatened by logging on their land, so it seems contact by Western civilization as it were is inevitable.

However, we've seen what happens when... well... yeah. Based on the example of history, lots of folks seem to think it's best to leave them alone; some go so far as to envy and long for a return to a presumably simpler life. Some think outreach is a civic duty, that some young generations of isolated tribes may want to know of cultures outside their own. Maybe something like Rumspringa for the Amish could develop, with relatively mellow cultural exchange and enrichment on both ends. I don't know. What does everyone else have to say?