The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good news for Democrats -- and a majority of women, blacks/African Americans, Hispanics, other minorities, those who believe that healthcare should be a right not a privilege, that women have the right to decide what's best for them, that you should be able to marry the person you love, regardless of gender, and that government has a responsibility to help people here at home in times of disaster: President Barack Obama was re-elected.

The bad news (or good news for Republicans): The Republicans still have a majority in the House and have enough seats in the Senate to filibuster any bill proposed by their Democratic colleagues.

And the ugly: Thanks to the Republican majority in the House and their ability to filibuster in the Senate, Republicans are going to do their damnedest to make sure no bill that could possibly help the American people and aid economic recovery (and by extension benefit the Democrats) gets passed in the next four years, so they* can disingenuously blame Barack Obama and the Democrats for any economic or other failure -- even, or especially if, they are the ones pushing us off the fiscal cliff. Heckuva job, Boehner.

*Especially Conservative Republican Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who is Chairman of the House Budget and Ways and Means Committees and will no doubt be running for President in 2016. If you think for a second that Ryan and Speaker John Boehner and the Tea Party Republicans -- the few moderate Republicans are gone -- are going to compromise on or pass ANYTHING that could possibly help the Democrats, take another hit of whatever it is you are smoking -- that is if you live in Colorado and Washington State.

Why I'm voting for Barack Obama

I saw the following declaration on a friend's Facebook page a few week's back, before Super Storm Sandy. It was written by a woman named Julie E., who beautifully expressed why, even though President Barack Obama did not live up to certain expectations and did not fulfill every campaign promise (though find me a single politician who has), many of us will vote for him over Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Especially now, in the aftermath of Sandy.

So why am I voting for President Barack Obama? "Because I believe...

"no one has the right to tell another what they can and cannot do with their own body.

"Because I believe everyone should be allowed to marry the person they love – and share the benefits of legal marriage.

"Because I believe health care should be a given.

"Because I believe my God may not be your God – and that’s OK.

"Because I believe it is our duty to stop the poisoning of our air and water and land.

"Because I believe serving in the military should not be dictated by whom one has sex with.

"Because I believe equal work deserves equal pay.

"Because I believe lowering the income tax rate for the wealthiest people and corporations does not benefit the whole.

"Because I believe in stem cell research.

"Because I believe some messes take longer to clean up.

"Because I believe in numbers and facts.

"Because I believe Planned Parenthood [helps women become better parents].

"Because I believe racism still exists and pretending it doesn’t hurts us all.

"Because I believe running the country as a business with the sole goal of making more money is selfish and not beneficial to all its people.

"Because I believe guns DO kill people.

"Because I believe in evolution.

"Because I believe it is our duty as good citizens to lend a helping hand.

"Because I believe the world is large and full of God’s creatures and we are not the center of it.

"Because I believe in progress and that it requires moving forward, not going back.

"Because I believe being of moral character is less about preaching and more about doing.

"Because I believe love always trumps hate.

"Because I believe – I still believe – in hope."

Thank you, Julie.

Oh, and regarding the tax issue, the reason why many people I know say they will (and I should) vote for Mitt Romney, I would happily pay a few hundred or thousand more dollars per year to lower the debt, make sure our infrastructure is adequately maintained, help our children and grandchildren receive a decent education, make sure everyone has healthcare, support agencies like FEMA, and make sure those pesky "government employees," i.e., firefighters, police officers, teachers, who protect us and keep us safe and educate our children (respectively) and help our economy to grow, keep their jobs.

Beauty is in the beholder of the eye

As some of you know, I've been taking a photography class. My latest homework: exploring depth of field and aperture. My latest test subjects: the teenager and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

I call this series: "Beauty is in the beholder of the eye."

Note: I took the photos with my little Canon PowerShot S95, as opposed to my new Nikon D3100, as we were fleeing a freezing house (no power all last week) and only had so much room. Considering the limits of my little camera, I think the photographs came out very well.

MIT Style (Geek parody of Gangnam Style)

I have a soft spot for both the PSY song "Gangnam Style" and geeks, having spent a lot of time at MIT during my college days and having married one. So when I saw this parody of "Gangnam Style" created by a bunch of MIT students and professors (aka geeks and nerds), I couldn't resist posting. (We're on Day 4 without power. We have no generator. Schools are closed. We're cold and cranky. And I am easily amused. Or not so easily.)



More of my favorite "Gangnam Style" parodies here.

I will post something incredibly witty and/or profound once my power and sanity have been restored.

Everyone knows it's Windy

In light of Hurricane Sandy's imminent arrival here in the Northeast, I thought a little music was in order. And what better way to say hello to a hurricane (and goodbye to your power) than with "Windy" by The Association.



Honorable mention also goes to the Eurythmics' "Here comes the rain again"...



And 10,000 Maniacs' "Like the weather."


Where on earth is the sun anyway?

Here's hoping Sandy loses steam quickly and causes a minimal amount of damage.

Be safe everyone. See you on the either side of the 800-mile storm.

UPDATED: Have another suggestion for a Sandy theme song? Please leave a Comment -- with the name of the song and a YouTube link.

Blow me

Just when you thought hurricane season was over... along comes Sandy, what some East Coast weather forecasters are calling "The Storm of the Century." (Sometimes I think Schadenfreude is a requirement for being a meteorologist.)

Already, Hurricane Sandy has wreaked havoc upon Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, and the Bahamas, killing 21. Now it's headed northeast, whirling past Miami and Palm Beach, Florida, toward the Mid-Atlantic region and Southern New England just in time to turn the lights out on Halloween. (That Mother Nature, she sure knows how to deliver a trick!)

Here's a map of Sandy's progress and current projected path. (Right now forecasters are predicting the storm to slam into the Mid-Atlantic region and Southern New England Monday night or Tuesday a.m., bringing high gusts of wind and inches of rain, downing trees and power lines and knocking out power to millions along the Eastern Seaboard. Boo.)

As someone who lost power for six days after the first puff of Irene and again two months later, at precisely this time of year, when we had the Snowpocalypse, and again recently when another storm blew through (albeit only for a couple of days that last time), I do not share the macabre glee of the weather forecasters and networks at the thought of another major storm wreaking havoc upon the Northeast.

However, there is one potential silver lining (albeit a tarnished one) to Sandy: instead of a shitstorm of campaign coverage and ads that make us want to run and hide until after November 6, now we have an actual shitstorm to deal with! Plus, if we don't have power, we can't receive any annoying robo-calls or watch Super PAC ads!

Joking aside, I pray that Sandy loses steam before coming ashore -- or blows out to sea -- sparing the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states. But in the meantime, we'll be filling our bathtubs and water bottles and doing all of our laundry Monday (as we have well water and are the only house on the block without a generator).

UPDATED 10/28/12: Wondering if or when Sandy will be coming to a neighborhood near you? Just type your zip code into the NBC News Hurricane Tracker to find out! Also, I don't know about all of you but having been through several severe storms and having lost power on several occasions, I am at the point where I find the constant updates and phone calls about Hurricane Sandy annoying. WTF are we supposed to do (other than have water and flashlights and batteries and non-perishable foodm etc. on hand), get chain saws and start sawing every suspicious tree limb and tree near or next to a power line? In other news, our Superintendent of Schools just called to say that there will be no school this Monday and Tuesday. 

More pet shaming

As a cat owner, it is amazing to me what dogs will put up with -- especially come Halloween.

You would never (okay, almost never) get a cat to parade around in a costume. Especially one that involved wearing a wig and a pair of glasses on its butt.



Yet that boxer actually looks happy about it! Shameful.

Though this may be my all-time favorite Halloween dog costume:

It's the ultimate Chia pet!

Yes, cats have too much dignity to allow themselves to be dressed up in some ridiculous costume -- or do some of the other totally undignified things that dogs are always doing.

That is, I though so, until I saw this embarrassing video of a cat playing fetch with its owner. Fetch, I tell you! Sure, any cat worth its whiskers would happily chase after a ball or other small object its human tossed, but to actually return said object to the human?! Shameful.



(For more awesome cat videos, check out the finalists for the "The Friskies" award.)

UPDATED: This may require a separate blog post, but I just had to share. From Friend of the Blog Donna, "Sexy Pet Halloween Costumes."