In "A collection of medical instruments"

I can absolutely vouch for that.

In "Time Magazine"

"The fact that I find Cheney quite hot in this pic is deeply disturbing to me."

In "Hail to the chief!"

Between Clinton and Huckabee, I think I can safely say not a single person in this country wants to see another Arkansas governor on the national stage anytime soon. :)

and the Governor of Arkansas as head of Homeland Security Heh. No, we've still got our gov. here, for better or worse. Arizona's is the new DHS chief.

Will do. :) I didn't take it that way at all, though (see above).

Why?

Also, Kennedy's been released from the hospital, so apparently is not dead.

Relatively speaking, I mean.

Are there usually that many prayers and references to God in an inauguration? Not that I remember past ones in detail, but yeah, pretty much. That's just mainstream politics here. Obama's version was actually pretty moderate and inclusive, I thought.

Poem transcipt here. I like it better on the page, but I tend to think most poetry suffers from being read aloud. :)

Well, right, Vin Ethyl -- but I think the overarching message is, "Enough with the floundering -- I'm in charge now, we can do this, it's still going to suck for awhile, but let's get to it." As opposed to sitting around weeping into our 401K statements. That makes me feel very optimistic -- not that I'm going to recover my 50 percent losses and world peace will be achieved by next week, but that we've at least got someone who'll lead us in the right direction now.

Oh, it was beautiful. All of it. Warren was merely dull -- hard to get too worked up about him after Obama and Lowery. Yo-Yo Ma and Co., Aretha in that bodacious hat... I'm full of the happy dance today. Only Rush Limbaugh could not have come away from that ceremony sure that brighter days are ahead. I'm just sorry Jack's still too young to care about anything on TV that doesn't involve Big Bird.

In "The wonder of a Woolly Monkey."

I wonder if the mama knows that somehow and that's why she won't feed them? Probably more likely that she's just never seen another female feed her babies. Very sad.

In "Child elopers' Africa plan foiled "

My niece and nephew (now 6 and 5) have married themselves to each other any number of times. She even makes him dance with her a la Cinderella at the ball. He's kind of mortified about that part.

In "Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade."

Honestly? There's no "initially" about my worry. I'm still worried. Read just one parent's description of their very normal 2-year-old suddenly "disappearing" into autism -- yes, that's the exception, I know, but it doesn't make it any less horrifying or irreversible -- and the thought of that happening to my own bright-eyed, laughing, sweet, impish little boy... I'm frankly much more scared of that than I am of measles or mumps or anything he's actually been vaccinated against, because those diseases aren't real to me. I don't know anyone who's had them or lost a child to them. So no, there's no credible scientific evidence that vaccines cause autism. I know that. But there are plenty of things that science has changed its mind about in the past. Why not this? When the stakes are so incredibly high, and permanent, it can be very, very hard to shut off that part of your brain that is ruled by Mama Bear, not reason. Our kid's gotten all his shots on the recommended schedule, but I have held my breath every single time.

In "If it's not too late, watch the moon rise tonight."

I got to show it to Jack as we were coming in late from a neighbor's Christmas party. We had just enough clouds to give the moonlight something to reflect off. I didn't know at the time about the whole perigee thing, so I wasn't looking for it -- it stopped me in its tracks all on its own.

In "The strange phenomenon of fungi that shine in Japan."

I totally expected to see some Smurfs inside those things.

In "Curious George: Charity Contest"

Crap! I just saw this and have 8 minutes left. Appalachia Service Project. Does major home repair work for impoverished people in Appalachia, using high school volunteers and college kids as staff. I spent the summer after I graduated from college working for them so I can personally attest to the worth of what they're doing.

In "Makes my smiley faces look pretty sad."

I am never going to feel adequate again.

In "OBAMA WON"

I don't think race was the number one issue for most people. Racist white folks generally don't vote Democratic anyway, and black folks generally do. It might have helped with voter turnout in minority communities, but African-American populations are mostly concentrated in Southern states that Obama lost anyway. I can't imagine there are that many white folks out there who rate electing the first black president above electing someone who can simply fix what's wrong with this country. We just happened to get a two-fer with Obama. On another vaguely related topic, this dampened my spirits a bit last night. Sure hope my divorced sister isn't shacking with anyone if MCT and I kick the bucket before the munchkin's 18.

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