this is a woman

veena malik
her responses are incredible.
what bothers me is the jerk talks over her and never listens to her. and then her tears. a very brave pakistani

until now

some people may think that allergies are a minor inconvenience. and i did for most of my life. until now. i wont go in†o the incredible and devastating symptons i have endured and myriad of lists of thing i now have to avoid. i just pray that most of them, if not all, will be temporary. and i thank all of you who sent me kind words.
is myriad the right word?
god bless you all

absenteeism

i have been ill, and it has just sapped me of all my energy. here are some nice photos to keep you occupied while i still recover.

portrait of an artist as a young woman

when i was young and thoughts of being an artist (painter) was to be avant garde, an iconoclast, in conflict with the norms of society - to make them think. as i said i was young. in the pre punk days i went to see an show of the artists from russia prior to the revolution. their art was dark and vivid and made me think. i was inspired. however america was not on the brink of killing the ruling class and my art was not dark. i guess many punk artists went to see the same show for their art was very similar.
i go to shows and see nothing different from 30 years ago. a trip to the art museum of chicago two years brought me and maria into laughter and tears. nothing imaginative. nothing we didnt do in our college years. nothing to challenge society.
i believe this is because the majority of contemporary artists are complacent and no longer think beyond the footnotes they are given in college and life.
my art is still focusing on technique rather than waking up the dead. maybe one day i will be appreciated, if not, i am not worried.
i was inspired to write this after reading the smithsonian magazine on gauguin. now he is great. as is manet.
this post set off a train of thought

but the redhead says, next!

they're coming to take me away, haha

o blinded by their faux war against Fascism that they actively encourage the use of the state’s illiberal legislation, left-wing groups miss the fact that they could well be next. Police have made it clear they will be indiscriminate in also slapping similar restrictions on left-wing ‘extremists’.

and....

In short, for those the state disagrees with and finds offensive, Britain could soon start to resemble an open prison. This is a far greater threat than anything posed by so-called extremist groups like the EDL.

from spiked
and then there is this from crusader rabbit
about time we put an end to double standards.

some things just stay the same

dc mayor scandal

finally, a candidate i can endorse

paquismo for president

there and back again

i went to visit my parents last week.
first let me say there are many stupid drivers out there. i am one of those drivers that usually go the speed limit or 5 miles over. so i ask, oh why, when there is no one behind me for miles does a car insist on coming into my lane and make me slow down. and stay that way so that i cannot pass them. it happened several times on the way to williamsburg. idiots. selfish idiots.
we had a lovely time visiting the old plantations on the james river. and i ask this question too - why did the colonists paint all that beautiful woodwork? the gardens are always lovely and a treat. in one house there was a fantastic staircase that went up to the third floor with no visible support. the guide explained how it was done, but too technical for me to retain. it was just lovely and the woodwork on the bottom bits of the stairs, along with the railings, was just exquisite. (have i used enough adjectives here yet?)
i had fun fixing dinner for my parents and their neighbours. the dinner conversation was fun. it is great to talk to the oldies ;)
it was a nice break. stopped at cafe delux in tysons corner for a great lunch on the way home.
i came home for a doctor appointment. i have arthritis in my hip. great.

the future - 100 years ago

i will be gone for a while

take care all of you and be careful
love you to bits!

it started up in fife it ended up in tears

for alan

music time

fishermans blues

what i have known for years

why is this such a big deal - men and women respond differently to problems. women like to talk about them and hypothetically solve the world's problems, men just go about solving the problems.
i grew up in a family with 6 children. i am in the middle by default of a twin birth. the sister closest to me was 3 years older, my brothers are 18 months younger (they are the twins). by default i was thrown in with my brothers (and being my father's favourite). i competed with them in swimming and boxing, while my older sisters were preening. i was lucky to see the mets play on casey stengel's birthday 1964 i think it was. they were such the underdog back then ;)
and i think i may have said this before here, but when women's lib came around i declared that i was already equal with any man and didnt need to burn a bra to prove it. that didnt go over well. haha little did i care
men and women think differently
glen and helen should definitely know this and why is it such a big deal

ht:instapundit

its for the disabled

what another bunch of hoohie
i seriously doubt the increase in taxes will to go this bunch.. if it isnt already funded, then the increase is just a vampires cloak screen
i hate omalley

Families of developmentally disabled people in Frederick County plan to testify in support of a proposed liquor tax increase in Annapolis today.
Joanna Pierson, executive director of the Arc of Frederick County, said the nonprofit organization assisting people with developmental disabilities supports the bill because it provides an important funding source for much-needed services.

Arc employees plan to join families from Frederick County to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee.

The Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration has waiting lists of more than 19,000 people for services, including about 900 from Frederick County.

Some families don't even sign up for the waiting list because it is so long, Pierson said.

The Frederick County population is growing, and rates of disabilities such as autism are also going up, she said. The tax increase would provide new funding and help support those people in vocational services, residential placements and at-home help.

"You're talking a tax that is really very minor compared to the cost of beer or wine, so I don't really think it's going to have to have an impact on business," Pierson said. "I think everybody worries when there's an increase, but this is not a significant increase on getting a bottle of beer or glass of wine."

if my great job wasnt so close to home i would move to virginia

a warning for my daughter

boorish behaviour
the 16 commandments my daughter needs to know.. and many others i am sure.
i never played the "game" and hopefully i have taught her the same

found through instapundit

eleanor rigby

Lonely people have a higher chance of coming down with chronic inflammation diseases and the University of California, Los Angeles' Steven Cole is looking into why, The Economist reports. Cole is comparing the messenger RNA and gene expression levels of people who are lonely to those who are gregarious. He has found that while both groups have similar levels of messenger RNA, they have differences in gene expression levels. Namely, genes involved in preventing viral infections are less active in lonely people and more gregarious people had higher expression levels of genes involved in preventing bacterial infections. "What Dr Cole seems to have revealed, then, is a mechanism by which the environment (in this case the social environment) reaches inside a person's body and tweaks its genome so that it responds appropriately," The Economist writes. "It is not that the lonely and the gregarious are genetically different from each other. Rather, their genes are regulated differently, according to how sociable an individual is."

genomeweb again..
i am doing an email dump ;)

excellent now louisiana is making sense

he Board of Supervisors of the University of Louisiana school system voted on Friday to make it easier for universities to fire faculty members, even those with tenure, says The Chronicle of Higher Education's Audrey Williams June. The officials say the new rules will help the university system be more flexible when it comes to budgets, but professors say the rules will negate the point of tenure — job security — and make the universities unattractive to job seekers, June reports. Under the new rules, tenured professors will be given two academic semesters' notice if their jobs are being terminated because their programs are being shut down. Tenure-track professors will receive three months' notice, and non-tenured faculty could be fired with as little as one month's warning, June adds.

ht genomeweb