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missroserose--Made it on the treadmill, at four MPH, all the way through The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. My legs felt like they were going to fall off, but that was okay, because I met my goal a week earlier than I thought I would. In the words of the inimitable Lester Burnham, "I rule!"
So now I'm taking today off. If I go to the gym, it will not be for the treadmill. Or the stairclimber. Maybe the pool...
--I'm debating with myself what I want to do when my gym punch card runs out of visits. I have three left, after which I need to decide if I want to buy another punch card, get a year-long contract with monthly payments, or pre-pay for a certain number of months. The contract is out, mostly because I hate monthly payments and partly because I'm not sure I'll still be going come summer. The punch card isn't really an economically feasible option, since it's almost the same price for a pre-paid one-month membership, and at the rate I'm going the latter would be half as expensive. A pre-paid six-month membership works out to $70 a month, the same as the monthly thing, but it's almost $450 in one chunk after tax, and what with a couple of other expenses that have cropped up (not to mention Christmas coming up) I'm not certain I want to drop that much right now. Alternatively, I could get a three-month prepaid membership, but that works out to about $90 a month, and the spendthrift part of me (she does exist! Really!) cringes at the idea of paying half again as much. *sigh*
Most likely I'll just nab the six-month membership, put it on the card and see if I can pay it off before getting dinged for interest without dipping into savings. If nothing else, it'll be a good motivation to not overspend this Christmas...
--We have had absolutely no luck getting our hands on one of the fabled $100 HD-DVD players - not even our brand shiny new Sprawl-Mart has had any, despite repeated promises and stories of delayed shipments. Current plans are to get up at oh-dark-thirty on Black Friday, steal (okay, borrow) my mother's car, and hie ourselves to the nearest Sears, where (supposedly) there will be $130 third-generation players on sale. Along with probably a quarter-million people out on the icy roads before they've had their coffee. Let's just say I'm going to be driving really carefully...
--On a slightly less personal and more national level, I found this clip rather telling as to the state to which things have degenerated in our national politics. For those of you who haven't heard about the waterboarding debate, steel yourself for one of the dumbest things yet to come from this administration: Apparently, there is "no consensus" as to whether strapping someone head-downward to a board and pouring water on their face, thus forcing it into their breathing passages, initiating the gag reflex, and making them believe they're drowning is considered torture.
Just think about that for a moment, there, people, while you watch the clip. Keep an especial eye on how Jon Stewart's manner changes towards the latter half - this man makes his living pointing out and making fun of BS like this, and even he can't look at it without becoming visibly upset.
I realize that, as someone with a bordering-on-phobia of suffocation, I'm probably reacting rather strongly here, but really - how in the unholy FUCK is making someone believe that they're drowning not necessarily torture? According to Giuliani, it "depends on who's doing it". According to President Bush, it can't be torture because "we're the United States and we don't torture", so anything we do, by definition, can't be torture. Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ in a waist-training corset. Most of the stuff from this administration has just seemed incompetent, but this just goes too far - it's actively malicious and in clear violation of any reasonable definition of human rights.
So...I'm issuing a challenge here, President Bush. We the United States have used the technique of waterboarding, in an official capacity, on terror suspects - that's been established as fact. But, since we're the United States and We Don't Torture®, you certainly wouldn't mind demonstrating the harmlessness of this activity by publicly undergoing it yourself, now, would you? Just think, in one fell swoop you can silence the liberal media on this issue and show the world how you're really just upholding good ol' American values! C'mon, whaddaya say? It'll be the greatest PR moment for the presidency since Kennedy told the Germans he was a jelly doughnut!
So now I'm taking today off. If I go to the gym, it will not be for the treadmill. Or the stairclimber. Maybe the pool...
--I'm debating with myself what I want to do when my gym punch card runs out of visits. I have three left, after which I need to decide if I want to buy another punch card, get a year-long contract with monthly payments, or pre-pay for a certain number of months. The contract is out, mostly because I hate monthly payments and partly because I'm not sure I'll still be going come summer. The punch card isn't really an economically feasible option, since it's almost the same price for a pre-paid one-month membership, and at the rate I'm going the latter would be half as expensive. A pre-paid six-month membership works out to $70 a month, the same as the monthly thing, but it's almost $450 in one chunk after tax, and what with a couple of other expenses that have cropped up (not to mention Christmas coming up) I'm not certain I want to drop that much right now. Alternatively, I could get a three-month prepaid membership, but that works out to about $90 a month, and the spendthrift part of me (she does exist! Really!) cringes at the idea of paying half again as much. *sigh*
Most likely I'll just nab the six-month membership, put it on the card and see if I can pay it off before getting dinged for interest without dipping into savings. If nothing else, it'll be a good motivation to not overspend this Christmas...
--We have had absolutely no luck getting our hands on one of the fabled $100 HD-DVD players - not even our brand shiny new Sprawl-Mart has had any, despite repeated promises and stories of delayed shipments. Current plans are to get up at oh-dark-thirty on Black Friday, steal (okay, borrow) my mother's car, and hie ourselves to the nearest Sears, where (supposedly) there will be $130 third-generation players on sale. Along with probably a quarter-million people out on the icy roads before they've had their coffee. Let's just say I'm going to be driving really carefully...
--On a slightly less personal and more national level, I found this clip rather telling as to the state to which things have degenerated in our national politics. For those of you who haven't heard about the waterboarding debate, steel yourself for one of the dumbest things yet to come from this administration: Apparently, there is "no consensus" as to whether strapping someone head-downward to a board and pouring water on their face, thus forcing it into their breathing passages, initiating the gag reflex, and making them believe they're drowning is considered torture.
Just think about that for a moment, there, people, while you watch the clip. Keep an especial eye on how Jon Stewart's manner changes towards the latter half - this man makes his living pointing out and making fun of BS like this, and even he can't look at it without becoming visibly upset.
I realize that, as someone with a bordering-on-phobia of suffocation, I'm probably reacting rather strongly here, but really - how in the unholy FUCK is making someone believe that they're drowning not necessarily torture? According to Giuliani, it "depends on who's doing it". According to President Bush, it can't be torture because "we're the United States and we don't torture", so anything we do, by definition, can't be torture. Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ in a waist-training corset. Most of the stuff from this administration has just seemed incompetent, but this just goes too far - it's actively malicious and in clear violation of any reasonable definition of human rights.
So...I'm issuing a challenge here, President Bush. We the United States have used the technique of waterboarding, in an official capacity, on terror suspects - that's been established as fact. But, since we're the United States and We Don't Torture®, you certainly wouldn't mind demonstrating the harmlessness of this activity by publicly undergoing it yourself, now, would you? Just think, in one fell swoop you can silence the liberal media on this issue and show the world how you're really just upholding good ol' American values! C'mon, whaddaya say? It'll be the greatest PR moment for the presidency since Kennedy told the Germans he was a jelly doughnut!
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 06:36 pm (UTC)And so Bert had him re-write his report with a few asterisks and caveats and indications that maybe it really wasn't torture and it really wasn't all *that* bad according to certain psychaitrists and then he sort of left the JD to find other employment.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-10 04:07 pm (UTC)But mostly the rant.
It wasn't fruitless! It made me yell ROCK ON!! (I suppose that wasn't your objective, exactly, but perhaps you can content yourself for now with an unintended positive consequence??)
The Dems took over the Virginia State Senate this week. Celebrate small victories. :)
L.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-10 08:21 pm (UTC)Congrats on the outcome of your state election! That will likely never happen here in Alaska (we're far too die-hard Republicans here), but I comfort myself with the fact that we're a small enough segment of the population that we hopefully don't have too much sway. Especially since Ted Stevens lost so much credibility with the "Series of Tubes" fiasco...