These people are playing with the fate of the country, and do not care about the consequences. There have been many changes in America since the 50s - civil rights, women's rights, environmental protection - and all of these were accomplished by working to achieve majority support. None of them were accomplished by taking the country hostage, determined to wreck things completely if they aren't allowed to wreck selectively.

What's Happening in the Garden

My first harvest of the season was overwintered kale and cabbage sprouts, made into a couple of delicious spring-tonic soups. Last week, I harvested the first asparagus, with more on the way. My mind is reeling from the wealth! So far, I've made (a) salad from the tenderest tips, raw with a little vinaigrette; (b) an omelet with mushrooms, asparagus, and a little parmesan; (c) simply steamed. Oh, yes, and the stems went into the cabbage-sprout soup, along with parsley that also overwintered.

What I've Been Reading on the Intertubes

I just caught the Taibbi-McArdle smackdown at Tbogg’s place, and my mind is further boggled by McArdle’s career ascent. She is woefully unprofessional: a serious lack of preparation, a shifty-eyed demeanor, and a distractingly unattractive hairstyle.

She doesn’t do research, so she is left with only the most threadbare of arguments. Of course, Goldman Sachs ripped off their clients – every seller does! She accepts a second-hand report that GS perfomed proper disclosure; Taibbi, who actually read the pertinent documents, says no they didn’t. Who should the audience believe? She finally falls back on her classic assertion that everything is very complicated, so no one can really understand it.

Anyone in the public eye knows that you need to look at the camera, not off to the side as if at a shiny object, and not have your hair hanging limply in your face. I’m not elevating style over substance; it’s called engaging the audience. This is basic advice she should have gotten in any class where she had to make a presentation, but then I’m assuming she paid attention in school.

Random Rant

I wonder how many if any Intelligent Design believers are menopausal women?

I've now been through the whole female sexual/reproductive experience. If this is intelligently designed, I'd have really hated the stupid version.

Sounds crazy, but . . .

The House's reading of the Constitution was a gimmick, of course, a show for the rubes. But after considering it a bit, I started to think that it is not a bad idea for Congress to start with a ceremony. Ceremonies put us in a frame of mind - joy at a wedding, solemnity at a funeral - that reinforces the importance of the occasion. It can hardly be bad for legislators to start a session with something that turns their minds to serious consideration of the matters before them.

A ceremonial reading of the Constitution would also be made-for-TV (and the internet). Watching the reading, we would review our history, remembering past battles and compromises. Of course, the whole chronological document would have to be read, not an expurgated version. Perhaps this would remind both politicians and voters to think seriously before taking rash stands.

The ceremony itself could be dressed up a little for the cameras without taking away the basic seriousness. Can you hear Rep. Barnswallow announcing "the valedictorian from Possum Junction High School in my district will now read the Bill of Rights"? Pure gold in ratings and votes! And maybe get Americans to think about the whole Constitution, not just the bits of it that are used in campaign ads.

OMG

Yes, we expect models to be thin, but Ms. Bluedress is a heart attack waiting to happen no less than someone who eats Noodles Alfredo every day. I hope someone is talking to her about the difference between fashionably thin and concentration camp thin.

It's the Teachers' Fault Schools Are Bad

This NY Times article is about Brockton (Mass.) High School, where featherbedding, change-resistant union teachers have brought the school from failing to outperforming 90% of Massachusetts schools in the past 10 years.