When Irish Eyes are Smiling

At left: Katie and David Cassidy. Photo credit: Celebrity Photos.







Mr Daisy was watching "Arrow" DVDs, and the actress playing Laurel seemed so familiar to me. It was driving me crazy. I KNEW I'd seen her.

Her eyes. Very distinctive. I knew I had seen them before.

I can usually spot actors in various roles, even if they are wildly different. It's something I enjoy doing--trying to remember where I've seen them; which movie or TV show they were in previously. I especially enjoy solving the puzzle if many years have passed and they look recognizably older. (i.e. Did you realize that's 17-year-old Laurence Fishburne, primarily known to the younger generation as Morpheus, playing 'Clean' in Apocalypse Now?)

But I couldn't remember seeing this person AT ALL. I was confused. Why do her eyes look so familiar?



And so, finally hollering uncle and officially giving up, I went to the indispensable Internet Movie Database, that great settler of marital disputes.

She is David Cassidy's DAUGHTER. Ahh, so that's it! She assuredly has his eyes; Irish Eyes are Smiling.

Mr Daisy offered the observation that I had stared at David Cassidy's eyes on my bedroom wall for YEARS as a teenager, along with The Monkees, The Who, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Michael Jackson, and so many others.

And he's right. David Cassidy's eyes were lodged in my memory. They must have made quite an impression, to make his daughter appear so familiar to me.

~*~

When I visited my father in Indiana as a kid (usually a traumatic experience), I would try to stay away from his house as long as possible by hanging out with my cousins. I liked them a lot, and they thought I was cool for being from a "big city"... yes, you are now wondering why anyone would think Columbus, Ohio, is a "big city"--but in comparison to my father's hometown, it certainly was.

While we would be eating ice cream in front of what was then called the local Five and Dime, somebody would walk by, stop dead in their tracks and then do a double-take and ask me if I was _____'s daughter. In small towns, everyone knows everyone else.

It was galling, intrusive, but strangely validating. I hardly knew my father; years would go by when I didn't see him. Then he would inexplicably get a sudden attack of parental responsibility and drive across state lines to collect me for the summer. In Indiana, everyone would oooh and ahhh at our striking resemblance, which even extended to how we laughed, how we gestured, and our general 'theatrical' nature. It kinda blew my mind, since I had always believed you had to be raised by someone to "be like" them (not just LOOK like them) and it seemed that somehow, that had turned out NOT to be true at all. My mother raised me, not my father, and yet somehow, I was so much like him.

And so it is with young Katie. I knew I'd seen her before, knew she reminded me of someone I had watched before, very closely. It isn't just her eyes, of course. She is similarly LIKE him, as I was "like" my father. "Resemblances" are such an odd phenomenon; it isn't only a physical thing.

The cars stop, the people turn around on the sidewalk and ask Who's Your Daddy?

The rich get rich and the poor get children

I was awarded a strong cup of coffee about a year ago by lovely Jackie, who is no longer blogging. (We miss you!)

I am hereby using that snazzy graphic to announce: The new "low sugar" variety of Frappucino by Starbucks, simply is not the liquid crack we know, love and crave.

It's not BAD, you understand, it just doesn't serve the addictive personality!

As of yesterday morning, I'm back on the hard stuff.

And speaking of such matters... THIS NONSENSE especially got on my nerves today:

Before Facebook, infertile couples could try to avoid pregnant people at work or social gatherings, limiting their exposure to triggers of bitterness or jealousy. But that was when friendships were forged mainly in person, not via today's social media Web sites, where people can feel ambushed by photos of friends' - or mere acquaintances' - baby bumps.

Now, when more than a half-billion people use Facebook, couples yearning for children say they are trapped: They are unwilling to detach from the social network, but unable to avoid its frequent reminders - fetal sonograms are seemingly ubiquitous - of what might elude them forever.

Aside: Pregnant PEOPLE?! Are we now expected to refer to pregnant PEOPLE?

You know, you can choose NOT to use Facebook at ALL; I am married to a man who refuses to register for a variety of reasons. It CAN be done! ((gasp)) But no, they expect everyone to kowtow to their oversensitivity, rather than disengage from something that hurts them.

Now, whose fault is that?!

As an alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in (((counts on fingers))) 28 years, I suppose I should whine and bitch and moan about the omnipresent alcohol commercials and all the hard-partying I read about on the net? (Whiny voice: HOW DARE YOU PEOPLE PARTY WITHOUT ME!!??!! ) Seriously though, that used to trigger me all the time, and nobody really gave a shit. (Drunks have never been popular, except in literature, or for comic relief.) I had to learn to deal, and I suggest these rich people undergoing pricey fertility treatments, learn the same. GROW UP.

The Washington Post article admits as much:

There's no shortage of people who feel pain while scrolling through Facebook: Chronically single people may envy friends' wedding pictures, for instance, and those who've lost a spouse can feel overwhelmed by friends' wedding anniversary announcements.

And guess what else?!

POOR PEOPLE can be triggered by reading about expensive vacations, houses, cars, clothes and electronic goodies... and even (wait for it!) expensive fertility treatments they can't afford. Are these affluent couples going to stop talking about that stuff because poor and unemployed people are "triggered"?

Wait, this is Facebook we are talking about... they probably don't HAVE any friends like that.

Elisabeth Rivers, 39, who has been trying to have her first child for four years, was recently getting a pedicure in Arlington when she pulled out her cellphone and logged onto Facebook.

I've never had a pedicure. Should I whine and complain I can't afford a pedicure?

She is TRIGGERING ME about the pedicures, goddammit! Stop, stop!

As she scanned her news feed, she noticed that her cousin's profile photo had changed to a grainy image.

"The post said, 'Here's a picture of our little baby.' I felt like I got punched in the gut," said Rivers, of Alexandria, who has spent $80,000 on fertility treatments and leads a monthly support group for infertility patients. "You want to be happy for people, but you take it personally. I was like, 'Why the hell does [my cousin] have a sonogram for her profile picture?' I called my mother and she said, 'Oh, we were wondering how we were going to tell you.' You feel like people are pitying you and they are avoiding telling you things. When they do that, it makes it that much harder."

If you expect me to have sympathy for someone who can spend $80,000 on fertility treatments, think again.

And let's not even ask why the Washington Post is writing about these extremely well-to-do people instead of the people who can't afford computers to access Facebook in the first place. Are the poor TRIGGERED when the mass media incessantly bleats about Facebook and Twitter? (Do you care if they are?)

When the rich fart, we all have to smell the stench. If a poor person farts, they arrest them for stinking up the joint.

Yes, that's an original quote.

If kids were something only poor people had, they wouldn't want them anyway.

Another original quote.

~*~

Blog post title comes from the old song, "Ain't we got fun"--my grandmother used to sing it.

Odds and Sods - St Rita's edition

A rather long time since I did an Odds and Sods post, so here we are.

I've dipped my toe back into the waters of Blogdonia with great trepidation, keeping my head down, minding my manners and decidedly not frightening the horses. See? Despite what you may have heard, I CAN behave myself when I want!

~*~

Today is the Feast of St Rita of Cascia, subject of many fevered novenas from Daisy in years past. Since she is also the saint in charge of the bees, I decided I'd include some links on what the experts have named colony collapse disorder. Believe it or not, as one connected to herbs in a personal way, I have stayed awake at night worrying over the fate of the bees. The poor bees could be signaling The End of The World As We Know It.

And now, a big hole in the ocean and an oil leak the size of Madagascar, drilled by evil greedheads. No, I guess THIS will be our undoing, the meteor-to-the-dinosaurs. I am sick over this, and it has superseded my worrying over bees.

Too much to worry about.

Um, just a question, but what is Obama doing? Does he have his thumb up his ass or what? Is he actually WAITING for BP to fix their multi-billion dollar, environmental disaster? And why should he wait for them? It's not THEIR coastline!

I've heard this called "Obama's Katrina"--and that isn't precisely accurate (or fair), since this isn't a natural disaster, it's a thoroughly unnatural one. Nonetheless, it has the ring of truth.

Get off your ass, Mr President, and stop attending state dinners for five seconds. The future of the ocean and the coastline (not to mention people's livelihoods) is at stake and it doesn't look good when you are doing little more than photo-ops.

~*~

At left: The WWII aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, which we toured back in (I think) 1993. It's permanently parked down at Patriot's Point in Charleston Harbor.

Edit: My original photo was of a cruiser named the Yorktown, which was not the aircraft carrier Yorktown. Many thanks to the Eagle Eye of Ted Christian (who should have been in congress), a rocket scientist with attendant amazing and arcane areas of knowledge.




Mr Daisy has been reading about WWII and depressing me with talk of battleships blowing up and whatnot. As children, I remember that we all wondered when "World War III" would come, and none of us ever doubted it that it would. We asked our mothers when it would be, and few seemed to find the question bizarre or alarming... after all, they had lived through a World War, and it seemed reasonable to assume more were on the way.

Magic Lantern Show gives us beautiful photos of a French WWI memorial near Verdun, as Owen describes touring such a place:

[How] many people know that the largest American cemetery in Europe is in Romagne sous Montfaucon, or that it is from World War I and holds the graves of 14246 Americans, as well as the names of another 954 men whose bodies were never found?

I spent a few days this past fall wandering the area near Verdun looking for traces of World War I. One afternoon I stumbled on the American Cemetery near Romagne sous Montfaucon, and spent a couple of hours exploring the vast park that it is. Why had I never heard of this place? Why weren't we taught about it in high school? Walking the seemingly endless rows of white marble crosses I was short of breath, nearly gasping at the enormity of it, the tragedy of lives cut short in firestorms of flying steel and lead. The names of the dead cried out from each cross in silent pain, a name, a state, a military unit, a date of death. Who were these men who died between September 26th and November 11th, 1918, as they drove the Germans back northwards along a line to the west of Verdun? What actually happened there? What did the letters they wrote home say? What did their families and the women they loved experience in those terrible years?

We are approaching the 10th year of the war in Afghanistan, and we would do well to remember that war is hell.

Bring them home now, yesterday, last month, last year... wait, where's my new bumper sticker: I'm already against the next war.

~*~

Disturbing reading at this Feministe thread: On Hating Kids.

As of this writing, there are 632 (!) comments, and yes, I briefly commented, but (as stated previously) I minded my manners.

But truthfully?

Whenever I hear "I hate ___(fill in the blank)____" from anyone, I wince and my opinion of them goes down a notch or two, or 85. How can anyone say, I hate ____, when you simply haven't met them all?: I hate the Muslims, I hate the vegetarians, I hate gays, I hate kids. All sounds the same to me. Apparently, hating kids is regarded as different (oh, isn't it always?) since "we've all been children". Well, we will all be old someday too, but I see clearly how old people are despised in our modern culture. That may in fact be the crux of it; a hatred for the overwhelming lability of the human condition, a hatred of our own biological vulnerability. And even more than most people (a fact mentioned in the thread several times), Americans are instilled with bullshit notions of "independence" and agency. (All that pioneer/cowboy spirit, one assumes.) In the thread, it was notable how many (childless, child-free, whatever term we are supposed to be using now) people openly brag about how raising children necessarily means you simply can't do the "fun" SINGLE things anymore, so stop taking your kids to pricey restaurants (nobody cares if you take them to a poor place like McDonalds) and movies and having them kick up a noisy fuss. (Some Feministe commenters seem barely able to contain themselves: TAKE THOSE BRATS HOME, you breeder bitches!)

Hey, I totally relate to all that. I once turned around and cussed some parents out for bringing their ill-behaved tyke to an adult movie... and will be happy to do so in the future, if necessary. I can dig it, as we used to say. But proudly announcing you HATE an entire group of people is bigoted and wrong. Period. No exceptions. And I will henceforth regard you as an acknowledged hater and bigot.

As is true of all bigots, I doubt the hate stops there.

Renee has considerably more to say on the subject.

~*~

And Glenn Greenwald writes more about that wonderful Change We Can Believe In:

Few issues highlight Barack Obama's extreme hypocrisy the way that Bagram does. As everyone knows, one of George Bush’s most extreme policies was abducting people from all over the world -- far away from any battlefield -- and then detaining them at Guantanamo with no legal rights of any kind, not even the most minimal right to a habeas review in a federal court. Back in the day, this was called "Bush's legal black hole."

...

Amazingly, the Bush DOJ -- in a lawsuit brought by Bagram detainees seeking habeas review of their detention -- contended that if they abduct someone and ship them to Guantanamo, then that person [under Boumediene v. Bush] has the right to a habeas hearing, but if they instead ship them to Bagram, then the detainee has no rights of any kind. In other words, the detainee's Constitutional rights depends on where the Government decides to drop them off to be encaged. One of the first acts undertaken by the Obama DOJ that actually shocked civil libertarians was when, last February, as The New York Times put it, Obama lawyers "told a federal judge that military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their imprisonment there, embracing a key argument of former President Bush’s legal team."

...

So congratulations to the United States and Barack Obama for winning the power to abduct people anywhere in the world and then imprison them for as long as they want with no judicial review of any kind.

If I may quote the very wise John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) at the infamous last performance of the Sex Pistols: Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? You should ask that question with a cockney sneer and punctuate it with spitting (or whatever bodily function you choose).

Yep. I sure do.

Barack Obama has brought the Rotten out of me.

Homeschooling parents apply for political asylum

Not sure what I think of this. Since when is homeschooling a partisan political position, worthy of protections? Hmmm.

This is hitting several of the right wing blogs, including World Net Daily. These are the kinds of immigrants they approve of!


Christian News Wire reports:

HSLDA Files Political Asylum Case

Contact: Ian Slatter, Home School Legal Defense Association, 540-338-8663

PURCELLVILLE, Virginia, Nov. 18 /Christian Newswire/ -- A homeschooling family who recently fled Germany has filed for political asylum in the United States. "The persecution of homeschoolers in Germany has dramatically intensified," said HSLDA staff attorney Michael P. Donnelly. "They are regularly fined thousands of dollars, sent to prison, or have the custody of their children taken away simply because they choose to home educate."

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike formerly of Bissingen, Germany along with their five children made it to the United States in August of this year. The family has settled in Eastern Tennessee where they have been warmly welcomed by local homeschool supporters and are being assisted by HSLDA.

Uwe Romeike, a music teacher, and his wife Hannelore, are grateful for the support they have received from HSLDA and American homeschoolers.

"The freedom we have to homeschool our children in Tennessee is wonderful. We don't have to worry about looking over our shoulder anymore wondering when the youth welfare officials will come or how much money we have to pay in fines," said Mrs. Romeike.

"We have received so much love and support," said Mr. Romeike. "Our children are no longer homesick. They are so happy to be homeschooled here. We left family members, our home, and a wonderful community in Germany, but the well-being of our children made it necessary."

"By supporting a political asylum application we will be able to shine the light of truth on this real and ongoing problem. A successful application will provide a path to safety for German homeschool families escaping persecution," said Donnelly.

HSLDA, with support from the Alliance Defense Fund, has hired immigration attorney Will Humble of Houston, Texas to handle this groundbreaking case.

For more information about Germany's persecution of homeschoolers, visit www.hslda.org/germany.

Why is homeschooling more worthy of asylum than trying to get a decent job in the USA? Is this dad employed? (Of course, with all his new right wing droogs, he will likely get a pretty good gig.)

I am continually amazed by which immigrants get the green light and have their causes championed, and which don't.

Babies having babies is a BAD THING

When my daughter, Delusional Precious, was a teenager, barely of high school age, she climbed out of her bedroom window in the middle of night. Repeatedly. Only she and God know how many times this occurred. She was off to meet winsome Video Store Guy (herein known as VSG), a cute, popular 21-year-old punk rocker and precocious son of a shrink, with a PUNK ROCK ACADEMY ("where all of the students are diagnosed with ADD") bumper sticker on his car. This went on awhile before I caught on, since they also carried on a semi-respectable, knock-on-the-door (Hi Mr and Mrs Daisy! Hi kitties!), leave-for-the-movie dating relationship, which was pretty smart of them. Anima and animus, I figure.

As the bikers say, I was born at night, but I wasn't born last night, and I emotionally (ha!) interrogated Delusional Precious at length after discovering her absence. If I'd known about water-boarding then, I might have given it a try. I asked her point blank, and she answered, also point-blank. (Ah, the honesty of Aries!)

And so, I made a Ob/Gyn appointment the next day. I may even have attempted to make the appointment at 4 in the morning, right after our conversation, or something unreasonable like that.

Backstory: At this time in my life, I really was trying to be a good Catholic, or as good as I could muster (which okay, probably wasn't so good). But at no time, did I think my religious choices applied to the fertility of Delusional Precious, and certainly, I knew it didn't have any bearing on VSG (also from a Good Catholic Family, or at least as good as a Catholic Shrink family could be). Images of squalling infants dancing in my head, I trotted DP off to the doctor to have her cervix probed and examined, and the coveted Rx for you-know-what, duly given. Whew!

Now, we can breathe, and the extended torture session can begin! (Insert Vincent Price cackle here) Of course, I would never torture a pregnant teenager. I was a good Catholic, after all!

~*~

I am puzzled by commentary like this, in which adults hyperventilate over the kids using birth control. Do they want children to get knocked up? Because, you know, those are the choices, people. DEAL.

Kids cannot be controlled 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is simply NOT POSSIBLE.

And who is getting the attention here? Girls. Girls get pregnant, girls take the risk, and girls have babies. Girls will be uneducated single mothers. Girls will be broke. Girls will be on AFDC. Girls, not boys. Therefore, this is all about GIRLS, and PENALIZING GIRLS FOR HAVING SEX. NOT BOYS. (Are we really having this conversation in 2007?)

I understand the desire to penalize one's daughter for having sex... but is it the SEX, really, or is it the disobedience that this symbolizes? I can honestly tell you, the risk upset me far more than the sex itself; the idea of DP having a baby with VSG sent me into a panic far beyond the panic I felt when I discovered her absence and thought she had been abducted by aliens (which would have explained plenty!). Having a baby with VSG: NOT AN OPTION. I didn't even consider this worth discussion. I (rather loudly) INFORMED HER that she would be taking the Pill, as of last month!!!! She shrugged and rolled her eyes, in the taciturn and defiant language of teenagers all over the world, but she DID take the pills when they were given to her. She did NOT have a baby with VSG, which proves that novenas and pharmaceuticals, taken together, are far more powerful than either by themselves.

Why would anyone deny this to their child? The logic escapes me. Do they WANT babies having babies in high school?

Bill O'Reilly, weirdly obsessed with sexuality of all kinds, has made major political hay by attacking the school board in Portland, Maine, for doing the Lord's Work, and making sure girls can finish school and have real lives without being weighed down by children:

The school board in Portland voted 7-2 to make that happen. The rationale is that some kids will have sex and the school must try to reduce pregnancies. Also, parents must sign a waiver allowing their children to receive medical care at the school.

However, that medical care is kept secret from the parents, in the birth control area.

Now giving sixth grade girls the pill is dumb. It doesn't protect them from disease and tacitly says that sex at that young age is understandable.

This is foolish, ridiculous, and irresponsible. But in the secular progressive world. The SP doctrine is to quote, "empower children" and downgrade parental authority because some parents are bad.

Dear Bill: fuck you.

Okay, let's say that I am a bad parent. Should my daughter suffer for that? Should a NEW PERSON be brought into the world, simply because I am?

And this new person who is born, will they be supported by---who? You? Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney? Pro-life Republicans? Ha! I hardly think so. No, a child born to my minor child would obviously be financially supported by ME. Where do you get off telling ME what to do? Because it takes a village, yada yada. You are telling all of us what to do; the school board, the teachers, the parents--by implication. You are saying: suck it up and get ready for grandchildren.

Who do you think you are?

If I write any more about this topic, I will degenerate into more "fuck you's" and that leads nowhere. Suffice to say, Bill O'Reilly (herein known as BO) pisses me the fuck off! He has millions of dollars to support plenty of grandchildren! LET THEM EAT CAKE, huh BO? Can the new grandparents in Maine drop the babies off at your door? I'm sure you have enough money to start several Sisters-of-Mercy style orphanages, all by yourself...so how about it? You are critical of abortion (although you notably and significantly hedge about whether abortion should be illegal), so what exactly are you counseling parents to do? Put leashes on the kids? Put them in maximum security lockdown?

How about you put your money where your arrogant mouth is?

How many babies are you promising to support, as the result of your self-righteous, ignorant meddling?

----------------
Listening to: The View - Superstar Tradesman
via FoxyTunes

Madeleine McCann's disappearance

If you've been following the news surrounding the abduction of young Madeleine McCann, you know that the McCanns have been unusually aggressive in searching for their missing child. They have tirelessly looked for their daughter all over Europe; going to seek the Pope's blessing, appearing on German television, giving regular press conferences, etc.

And now, it appears that they may be culpable. The London Telegraph reports that the couple is now headed back to the UK, after having been questioned by Portuguese authorities and named suspects in Madeleine's 'abduction':

It is just two days since they were questioned and named as "arguidos" by detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine from Praia da Luz on May 3.

The McCanns, both 39, left Portugal with the full knowledge and agreement of the police, despite their status as suspects, their spokeswoman said.

They are returning to the UK to "consider their response" to the allegations against them, and to reintroduce their twins to ordinary life, the spokeswoman added.

"Despite there being so much that they wish to say, they are unable to do so, except to say this: they played no part in the disappearance of their beloved daughter," she said.

No bail conditions have been imposed or charges brought but the couple can be called back to the Algarve at any point to be re-interviewed.

There was speculation that the couple may return as early as later this week to face questions from the local public prosecutor in Portimao.

Just after 7am the McCanns left their villa in Praia da Luz, relying on two police cars to clear a path through the waiting camera crews. They were followed at speed along the motorway all the way to the airport by Portuguese media.

Mr McCann drove his wife and two children in a silver Renault Scenic, the hire car at the centre of controversial forensic results.

Portuguese police believe traces of Madeleine’s blood were found in the vehicle, while other sources claim the DNA sample was too badly contaminated to get a proper match.

The McCanns plan to approach David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, asking him to intervene in the case of their missing daughter Madeleine amid growing fears that they might become the victims of a "shocking injustice".

The couple are "angry and horrified" that the search for the missing four-year-old has been halted as, they believe, police seek to blame them for killing her and disposing of her body.

Some forensic scientists have begun to question some of the evidence against the couple - supposedly samples of Madeline's blood found in the boot of the car they hired 25 days after the disappearance, and the "death smell" allegedly found on Mrs McCann's belongings by a police sniffer dog.

(Shades of Jon-Benet Ramsey. I have a headache already.)

The aggressive demeanor of the parents had me fooled; truly, this possibility never occurred to me. There are links and photos of Maddy all over the web--they have made looking for her a full-time job.

I'm still skeptical; then again, I have found the story somewhat strange since the beginning:

The McCanns, both 39-year-old doctors, are said to be "deeply alarmed" by the turn of events after they were interrogated separately by Portuguese police for a total of 24 hours on Thursday and Friday.

Portuguese sources said police were using a "war of nerves" in an effort to make Mrs McCann "crack" and confess to killing her daughter.

Her two interrogations last week - the second lasting 11 hours - were described as "aggressive", with officers said to be "exploring her weaknesses".

Media reports said the couple used their right to remain silent and refused to answer "more than 40 questions". Friends insisted they answered all questions put to them.

The couple, who spoke with Mr Miliband last month, will urge him this week to step in "with any help he can," said a friend of the couple.

"There is a danger of a shocking injustice here," the friend said. "Kate and Gerry are appalled that anybody could think Kate would harm any of her children."

Mrs McCann's mother, Susan Healy, defended her, saying: "She fought her corner in her interview with the police and I felt quite proud that she was able to do that knowing how distraught she was by Madeleine's disappearance."

Philomena McCann, Mr McCann's sister, said of her brother: "He is a bit distressed and very tired. But he is adamant that he has done nothing wrong."

Portuguese police believe that Mrs McCann killed Madeleine accidentally with a sedative overdose, and then hid the body. They think Mr McCann helped cover up her crime.

I'm especially interested in hearing from British folks who may be reading and are more familiar with the case. What do you think?