And some further ugliness, also from Zac, who should really start his own freakin' blog ;)

Get this: The commission investigating 9/11 asked national security advisor Condoleezza Rice to testify at a public hearing next month, and she said no. Bush and Cheney have refused to be questioned by anyone except the committee's chairman because they "prefer not to meet with all members of the commission."

While I'm re-reading The Handmaid's Tale, maybe I should be catching up on old episodes of The X-Files, too.

In other news, we're all gonna die.

Abortion is about to become illegal in South Dakota, Unless The Mother's Life Is In Danger(tm).

Words fail me.

Urbandictionary.com: Very cool, but needing it to understand popular music (and my students) is making me feel old.

Ask an urban middle-schooler what "sprung" means, hoping they'll say "the past tense of spring," and you'll get this. (At least I got told the clean version, being a teacher and all).

Also helpful if you don't understand what exactly brings all the boys to the yard.

And I thought "those who can, do; those who can't, teach" was insulting
Via my faithful correspondant Zac Z-K, "Education Secretary Rod Paige called the National Education Association a 'terrorist organization' Monday."

If your children go to school, The Terrorists Have Won(tm)!

Okay, so they're terrorists not for educatin' the youth, but for opposing No Child Left Behind. Now everyone who disagrees with Bush is a terrorist? Oh, wait, that's not new.

In case you don't yet know why No Child Left Behind is a half-assed idea, here's one big example: "highly-qualified" teachers get that classification through paperwork, not talent. How much formal education they've had, whether they've passed certain tests. "Highly-qualified," in Bush-speak, has nothing to do with their performance in the classroom. So the best art/history/English/etc teacher you've ever had could lose her job if she can't pass a math test, while the crappiest teacher you've ever had will be fine if she's also an egghead. How about leaving no child behind by going and observing some classrooms -- and getting rid of the teachers who activly suck, not the ones who haven't jumped through enough academic hoops?

Not too late to post lovey-dovey pictures
Wedding photos and wedding photos! When was the last time civil disobedience was so, well, cute? I'm particularly fond of this one -- maybe it's the kilt -- and this one, of a lesbian couple who's been together for 51 years.

Does this guy realize what an idiot he's going to look like in a few decades? Never mind that, to many of us, he looks like an idiot now.

If I'm going to spend three hours on a Friday afternoon sitting at a bar, I'd really rather it not be Apple's Genius Bar. That's Apple's free (unless you've got serious hardware problems) walk-in help center at each Apple Store. Very cool concept, even if I arrived during lunch and watched one "genius" juggle four or five disgruntled people at a time.

Apple Stores are kind of weird in general. It's like walking into a cartoon. A cartoon full of wealthy people under unflattering lighting. I guess that wasn't it -- maybe it just seemed animated because all Apple stuff comes in funky colors.

I guess I shouldn't assume all these people were wealthy. The guy sitting next to me had an elderly G3 just like I did (not mine, a loner from a client). But I can't get over how expensive the Apple lifestyle is, particularly iPods. $249 for the cheap one? Dang. I know I'm both a tightwad and a neo-Luddite, but I think I recoil at these sorts of prices because I can't help thinking of an iPod as a giant Walkman, and a Walkman never cost $499.

Granted, a Walkman also couldn't hold your entire tape collection at once. The ability to walk around with thousands of songs in your pocket is, of course, a very groovy feature of the digital age, and surely if I was still a dot-commer I'd have sprung for one by now (I did buy a Palm V back in the day), but now that I've sobered up, I can think of plenty of other things to do with half a G. And if someone in front of me can't, I assume they're wealthy.

Unfair, as I can think of a few people who have iPods who would insist they aren't rolling in dough. But it's all relative, isn't it? To half the people in LA, I'm rich because I have a computer.

Didn't mean to get all reflective there. So the second biggest nominative letdown of the day, other than the Genius Bar not being full of beer and music and friendly locals, is that Vienna Pastries on Wilshire does not sell European treats. I have no idea what Austrian pastries are like, but surely with Austria being that close to Germany, they can't be all bad. Now I've got a Herculean craving for rumkugeln. Damn you, Vienna Pastries...damn you to hell.

The red, candy-like button
"DO NOT READ THE CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PLAN WHICH IS LINKED TO THE UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER OF OUR WEBSITE OPENING PAGE".

Ha.

A quick note in between SAT math problems (don't ask)
I'm truly an Angeleno now: today, I bought a bag of oranges from a Hispanic woman with a shopping cart while I waited at a red light.

4 pounds for $2, and they're good. Can't argue with living in an agricultural state.

Looks like I got out of Boston just in time!
As a good Republican who appreciates the government's desire to legislate people's private lives...

*whisper**whisper*

What do you mean, that's not what Republicans are supposed to stand for? Are you questioning our president? What are you, a terrorist? Get out of here before I open up a can of Patriot Act on your commie ass!

Anyway, as I was saying, I've come up with some new ways for the government to protect the sanctity of marriage.
1) Women no longer allowed to work outside the home or keep birth name. They've gotten so damn uppity for the last few decades.

*whisper**whisper*
Naw, I'm not sexist. I've got a rule or two in here that the wives will love, just you wait.

2) Re-ban interracial and interfaith marriages (It doesn't look like my relationship, therefore it must be morally wrong.)
3) All weddings must be performed in a church.

*whisper**whisper*

What do you mean, not everyone's Christian? Is that still legal?

4) No one older than 50 may marry. (Well, they weren't going to have kids anyway, and isn't that what holy matrimony is all about?)
5) Separate water fountains and lunch counters for same-sex couples.
6) Wedding licenses will now come with a government contractor who will construct your suburban home and the white picket fence around it.
7) Free fertility drugs for childless couples on their two-year wedding anniversary.
8) Gays can marry as long as they wear a big red "H" for "homo" pinned to their garments.
9) Single women who flirt with/seduce married men will be burned as witches.
10) Leaving the toilet seat up becomes a misdemeanor. (I told you there's be something for the ladies in here.)

I'm feeling more happily married already.

Anger, and schadenfreude
I don't have time to extensively comment on this (unless someone wants to pay me to do it...yeah, I miss Media Grok) -- but since most news outlets headlined the same news with "Bush says economy is getting better, blah blah, monkeys out my ass, etc." it's worth pointing out:

Bush report: sending jobs overseas helps U.S.

I hope this really pisses off the "red states," which traditionally are also full of "America first"/"Made in the USA" types. Maybe between this and Bush's half-assed immigration reform idea, he'll alienate every working-class, white Republican in the country. That'd be cool.

Elsewhere in the news, Dr. Atkins died a fat man and Bill O'Reilly has started doubting Bush. Ha!

Rick wasn't home, so I had to make my Grammy comments somewhere.

A modest proposal?
There's a billboard I've seen around LA, publicizing WIC. There's a picture of a baby with Nutrition Facts stamped on his forehead, and the tagline says something like "everything comes with nutrition information except him." I know what they mean, but since Nutrition Facts go on food products, putting them on a baby's head just takes my mind into unfortunate places.

What the drivers miss
I see them on the way to the store. On the way to the dentist's office. On several different streets in my neighborhood.

Tags that say "RIP Star." Grafitti of little stars on buildings, walls, and sidewalks.

Who's Star? How did s/he die? Star was probably young, like taggers usually are -- did s/he go to Palms Middle School? I ask myself this sort of stuff with a big bag of groceries in my arms, walking down the hill towards my apartment. Sometimes I pass other pedestrians, even though it's LA: rambunctious school kids, a smelly homeless guy who nods at me, a skinny, middle-aged Asian couple. Late-model SUVs and luxury cars whiz past me, missing the whole thing.

Never let it be said this cracker ignored Black History Month

Rosa Parks was not the first African-American to refuse to give up her bus seat for whitey. I had no idea, either, until one of my students came upon the following passage in the biography of Rosa Parks she'd picked to read from:

Several months earlier, another black woman, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin, had also been arrested for refusing to yield her seat to a white passenger. Claudette had been seated in the filled black section of the bus, but when the seats in the front were occupied, the driver asked the first row of blacks to give up their seats and stand. Claudette stayed where she was, and no white took the vacant seat next to her. The bus driver grew so angry he drove into town without stopping and called for a street policeman to arrest Claudette. When she refused to get up, two policemen dragged her, kicking and screaming hysterically, off the bus, and she as later tried and convicted for violating state segregation statutes, as well as for resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and assault and battery. Many people regarded the convictions as an injustice, but because Claudette was pregnant and unmarried at the time, she was not regarded as an especially sympathetic public figure, and some blacks feared that she would reflect unfavorably on the black community.

But there was nothing that could be said to impugn the morality and respectability of Rosa Parks, and it was immediately recognized that she was an ideal figure behind whom to mount a nonviolent challenge to the centuries-old system of legal racial oppression in the south.

Another interesting wrinkle: according to this page, Rosa Parks' family helped raise Claudette's bail and get her a lawyer, so there's no saying Parks had no idea there was precedent here. Could the black community that made Rosa Parks an example even have put her up to it? Did I mention that Parks was the secretary of the local NAACP?

This page says Claudette Colvin was also not as good a rallying point because she was dark-skinned. My student's first comment upon seeing a photo of Rosa Parks was, "Dang, she light!" (Hey, I'm just there to help them read -- I don't have the time or energy to make the spoken grammar my problem, too.) Yet another source says the middle-class black leadership at the time was uncomfortable with how poor Claudette Colvin was and that another test case -- one Mary Louise Smith -- was rejected due to her father's alcoholism.

Slate also states that as of 2002, Colvin worked as a nurse's aide in the Bronx and Mary Louise Smith still lived in Montgomery, "in virtual anonymity." Rosa Parks has streets, parks, and schools named after her, and enjoys frivolous lawsuits. Seems kind of unfair to me. But I've never been told what part of the bus to sit in, so what do I know?

Apologies in advance, but I must talk about Janet Jackson's ladyparts now...

I saw the Justin/Janet boob exposure live. And my initial thoughts were, in order:
1) I never, ever, needed to see that.
2) What a cheap publicity stunt!
3) Well, Janet Jackson always was in love with her own breasts (remember that Rolling Stone cover?)
4) Never thought I'd see pasties on national television, though. (Update: it was some sort of jewelry. Whatever.)
5) I wonder if that was just to take some media heat off brother Michael, or Justin trying to get even with Brittney's recent media whoring?
6) They won't show an anti-Bush ad, but they'll show that?

After briefly perusing today's media coverage (and photos), I'll admit Janet looks a little shocked. If she wasn't expecting to flash the country, this would make Justin Timberlake both a crappy performer and a sex offender. Kind of like [insert troubled celebrity of your choice]. More likely, Janet was just being her usually exhibitionist self.

I know. I'm devoting way too much thought to this. I also secretly enjoy VH1 shows. Woe is she who spends all her time reading about politics and urban policy.

I also have to note that, while the bodice-ripping was stupid and in poor taste, I just can't get worked up about a little nudity on television since living in Germany, where nekkid people were just part of the media landscape. There'd certainly be no big fines for this in Europe. Hey, it's a breast, half of us have them, let's move on.

By the way, since when is 37 middle-aged?

Finally, in more serious Super Bowl news, many Boston sports fans are idiots. But I already knew that from 3 years living 2 blocks from Fenway Park.