Are you effing kidding me?

If you weren't already aware, there's a massive hurricane set to make landfall somewhere very near Houston. My parents live in Galveston County, which is looking like ground zero for this thing. They're already in Austin, with their cats in tow.

And that's what this post is about....Austin.

Look at this image capture from weather.com:Are you fucking kidding me? Austin is surrounded by clouds that are being spun off one of the biggest hurricanes (400 miles across) we've ever seen. And yet the clouds break up when they get to Austin and reform on the other side.

Before I continue, I should assure you I don't mean to be glib. I realize this hurricane will take an enormous toll. As I said, everything my parents own is currently its immediate path. That's my point. This massive thing, which could decimate half the Texas coast and continue to wreak havoc as is travels north across the state, might not bring a single raindrop to the only part of Texas still under extreme drought conditions.

Yesterday we had a 100% chance of rain forecast for Saturday. Today that forecaster seems less sure of him/herself, and the chances are 60%. I bet that by tomorrow we'll see 20% chance, but no actual rain.

Did I mention our rainfall totals are roughly 9 inches below average for the year?

Here's our drought index map, for anyone interested.

I live in hell.

Do you ever get the impression...

....that people pick political candidates the same way they pick their second favorite sports team?

By second favorite I mean the team they root for when their home team doesn't win shit. That team has a funny way of being one of the two teams in the world series or superbowl or NBA finals or whatevs. I think you get what I'm saying. Usually the one that's favored to win.

Yes. What I'm saying is I'm starting to suspect that most people vote for the candidate they think has the greatest chance of winning. That way they can be part of the in crowd.

Maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow. Right now I'm not feeling particularly hopeful about this election. All the fucking pigs working for the McCain campaign while simultaneously serving as analysts on various "news" networks clearly consider this election (and politicking in general) a highly amusing game. I hope they befall some awful accident that their health insurance provider decides it won't cover. Really I do. I don't usually wish disease or death on people as I find it unseemly. But I guess they've successfully knocked my noble ass off my ratty old steed.

Again: Jackasses.

by the pricking of my thumbs

Sometimes it matters less what you have done than what you will do.

Yes, I do feel insulted by this

For background details, please see my previous post on FOX's apparent preamble to the naming of Palin.
Actually, why don't I just let you watch the video.



I do wonder if FOX perhaps had a little bit of insight into the imminent plans of the John McCain campaign. I guess the answer is obvious.

Yes, I share the anger of the many, many, many people who consider McCain's surprise pick of Palin as running mate an egregious attempt to pander to women voters (the choice also clearly serves to steal some of the Obama's thunder in the "historic moment" department).

I've read a few blogs now that castigate those of use who are airing our offense at the McCain campaign. These people are calling us sexist for our audacious assumption that Palin was only picked because of her gender. We are such assholes.

Hmm. I don't think her gender was the only reason she was selected. Not at all. She's right in line with the base of the Republican party. She wants to make abortion illegal. She loves guns. She hates polar bears. She doesn't much like icky science because it supports such nauseating ideas as 1. Evolution is essentially irrefutable, 2. Global warming is quite real and very much a result of human activity, and 3. Drilling for oil now would not yield results for many years and would therefore not cause any immediate drop in fuel costs or reduction of dependence on foreign oil, and even when the oil is drilled and refined, the predicted effect on cost is a reduction of something like $0.04 to the gallon.

Yes, I certainly believe that McCain picked Palin just as much (if not more) to placate the right wing as to lure Hillary supporters.

So let me explain something: it's not his pick of a woman that upsets people like me. It's the fact that Palin is now being used as yet another way to pander to the women's vote, in a long string of pandering attempts this election season. We don't like that a bunch of Republican women have been parading as Democrats claiming to be so angry at Obama that they're willing to throw their support behind their political polar opposite. Seriously. Do you PUMAs think we're so stupid that we'll see you and think to ourselves, "Gee, what they're doing is so feminist 2K! I want in!"

Pandering pisses people off. In this case it pisses me off. So Republicans, quit treating me like an idiot and then calling me sexist for having an opinion, all the while denying that the glass ceiling even exists.

Jackasses.