(no subject)

First, for Aelf if she checks in, and silkblade, tumnus_love.

A busy, but glorious, and damp weekend for me, got lots and lots done. Leaving early Friday helped as my apartment was sliding inexorably towards a state of utter chaos. I beat back some of the forces of entropy with some serious cleaning and laundry. Also shipped out the last of my Xmas gifts (yay!) and got fitted for my Xmas gift by tamago (yay!). Got a little something started on the Super Secret Project (SSP from now on) that I need to clean up a bit before sharing with my fellow conspirators. Watched the game, then finally passed out. Next morning up bright and early for class, where we almost but not quite finished our choreography. We've got like 30 seconds of music left but it's all taqsim-y and none of us really specialize in that so we'll see how it goes. Alyne and J- had some ideas involving modified contortionists' moves that had Aelf and I wincing. My back is aching already just thinking about it.

Afterwards I zoomed off to grab some pies for elo_sf's mystery dinner, which was wonderful as usual. Mmm, a whole tray of veggie sushi, yum! I ended up cast as Geordie LaForge in the TNG mystery which was fun 'cause I could deflect almost any accusation with one of two phrases, either "But I'm such a nice guy, would I do that?" or "You're just accusing me 'cause I'm visually handicapped. Sure, pick on the blind guy." Of course in the end we'd all played some part in the theft of the Orb of Knowledge, but were clearly too incompetant to get the job properly done. And I came to the inescapable conclusion that Romulans are about as bright as your average box of hammers when it comes to plotting.

Anyway we did gift exchange afterwards and oh the loot! tersa gave me a huge book of quilting square patterns and alluded to a mysterious after Xmas gift to come, hmmm... jakejr got me the Depeche Mode two-disc singles set I've lusted after for years. elo_sf got me an adorable print, "When Wizards Collide", featuring Severus up against Gandalf, some incredible bookmarks (the naked Jack one...be still my heart!), and of course my Dr. Who boxed set, woo! Aelf gifted me beforehand (hey less to lug back and forth that way) and I got a gorgeous necklace which went with my outfit for the evening perfectly, a talking Mount Doom Frodo figure (he's filthy and has 29 points of articulation, ah the fantasies that's already inspired), a "What would a ninja do?" spinny folder for making decisions (it's at work as I suspect "Unleash Fury" and "Destroy Enemy" would be viable options there in the coming year), and a gorgeous Draco Malfoy pin in his black outfit from GOF. The best part was that they'd superimposed this flame motif in the background behind him and I commented that those were the fiery pits of hell I'd be consigned to for lusting after a little boy.

Managed to make it home afterwards in one piece despite a fucking downpour and some spectacularly poor driving on 101. Aelf and I did our best to collapse as soon as we walked in the door as we had a 4:30 a.m. wake up call to get her to the airport on time. I'd hoped it would stop pouring by the time we got up, but no such luck. The airport was surprisingly nutty for 5:30 a.m., but she got off ok and I didn't get hit or run into any of the morons vying for space as close to the curb as possible. Got home by 6 and promptly went straight back to bed. Finally dragged my ass up again at noon so I could make a Trader Joe's run and score some Tofurkey for Xmas, go me! Came home, did more laundry, got some further tidying up done, then played around online until jakejr dropped by with her keys so I can cat sit while she's away. cyranocyrano stopped by shortly thereafter so I could catch up on the progress of his super secret project (different than the SSP above), which was just wonderful.

This week should be a busy one at work, and we have our office party on Thursday so I'm going to have to be pretty efficient to fit everything in. It's kind of a relief that I am planning to come in next week, it'll give me a bit of a buffer so I don't have to feel utterly overwhelmed before the holidays.

(no subject)

via Sadly No!:

We knew that the NSA was feeding intercepts to John Bolton (collected from 10,000 US citizens), and recently we also learned that the NSA has been conducting thousands of warrantless wiretaps, which could easily have been obtained legally. Something's starting to smell a bit like an enemies list.

Another question this raises is whether any super-secret Patriot Act detentions stemmed from super-secret, warrantless NSA spying. One reason to set up secret tribunals off the legal grid is, of course, that the evidence shown in them need not be disclosed -- and vice versa, in various interlocking ways. Plus, add torture to the mix, and you have all the necessary parts in place for a classic, functioning apparatus of political...well, 'terror' is such a harsh word. And luckily, we still have posse comita... Um. Otherwise the military...

Just saying. It really makes you step back a pace and think, "Wow, couldn't that be abused in terrible ways in the hands of an irresponsible administration, should one ever come to power."

Amanda at Pandagon takes the argument a bit further:

I suspected that the right wingers would come pouring out to find bullshit justifications for King George's proclamation putting himself above rule of law, and sadly, my suspicions are proving true. I'm incredibly grateful to Scott Lemieux for addressing the hands down most irritating Bush defenders--the so-called "libertarians". I have to admit, I'm disappointed. I always hold out hope that people who dare call themselves libertarians but voted for Bush will once in awhile take substantial pro-liberty positions for kicks if nothing else, but to no avail.
[...]
One of the top 2-3 rhetorical devices on the right is to assume the zero sum game and work out from there. This is, I think, justified by assuming that one is being "realistic" and that anyone who argues for actually improving society is a pie-in-the-sky idealist. Call it creating a false conflict or whatever you want, but it underpins a lot of "hardnosed" conservative arguments.
[...]
Introducing these false conflicts is also an awesome way to get people's eyes off the prize--if people think the debate is about whether national security or civil liberties are more important, they are less likely to notice that these sort of decisions are made without respect to either and instead for the purpose of consolidating power.

And Doghouse Riley posits:

• Bush approved warrantless spying on US citizens.

Excuse me for asking, but this administration believes it doesn't have to obey the laws of the Space-Time continuum; whatever gave anyone the impression they were concerned with what mere words mean?

• New York Times sat on the story for a year before publishing it.

I think I've said this before, but if your car won't start and you take it to a mechanic who finds that the battery is dead and tells you to come back in an hour, and you do but then he tells you the alternator is bad, too, you'd chalk it up to bad luck. If you went there daily for two years and every single time the simple problem had a much more expensive problem behind it you might get suspicious. Why does anyone bother asking Bill Keller for an "explanation" at this point, when the process involves shouting into Karl Rove's pocket so Keller can hear you?

• Keller: "It is not our place to pass judgment on the legal or civil liberties questions involved in such a program ."

That's funny, it seems to me that sitting on the story is the one way you're guaranteed to be passing judgment. I thought your news reporters were highly trained in reporting stories without passing judgment. At least I think that's what I've heard. You can lower the pocket flap now, Mr. Rove. Thanks.

Is the Kool-Aid wearing off?

You be the judge:

…Well, the fact of the matter is that the Constitution is the Constitution, and I took an oath to abide by it. My good friend, my former colleague, Dana Rohrabacher, did and the president did. And I don’t really care very much whether or not it can be justified based on some hypothetical. The fact of the matter is that, if you have any government official who deliberately orders that federal law be violated despite the best of motives, that certainly ought to be of concern to us…

…Well, gee, I guess then the president should be able to ignore whatever provision in the Constitution as long as there’s something after the fact that justifies it…

…The fact of the matter is the law prohibits — specifically prohibits — what apparently was done in this case, and for a member of Congress to say, oh, that doesn’t matter, I’m proud that the president violated the law is absolutely astounding, Wolf…

Now, can you guess who said this in regards to Bush spying on the American public? Michael Moore, you say? Nope. Al Franken. Sorry, no cigar. But for those who guessed former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), ultra-conservative who hates him some gays and abortions, you win today's boobie prize (a virtual noogie for being such a know it all). Methinks Daddy Cheney had best check the formula on the mind-control drugs being freely distributed to all members of the GOP to keep them in such lock-step harmony. Something seems to be amiss.

via Shakespeare's Sister

Potterific

Lookee, Yule Ball pics!

Also, a superb music video for Snape and Lupin to Perfect Enemy by persempreamore.

Hee.