Senate and House craziness.

Had lunch with FGK4 yesterday, and while I was waiting for him to arrive, I picked up a copy of our local paper. My working environment (although not me personally, tack och löv) has been in the news recently, and I wanted to see if there was anything new.

Didn't find anything about THAT, which in this case no news is good news, but I came across this distressing turn of events. Apparently, if you spend more than $250/year on your blog, and talk politics, as I often do, you could need to hire a lawyer unless this law passes. I don't spend any $$ on my blog, but think, if you use Adsense, or have a Paypal link on your blog for folks to donate to you....this could be a real problem.

Now, my local paper pulls all kinds of stuff off of the newswires, and sometimes adds a little local flavor, so I went over to the source (The Christian Science Monitor, something I wouldn't pick up normally) to check the article out, and they copied it e-zactly. HELLO AMERICA!!!! your civil rights ARE being eroded. It pains me greatly when this happens, but I agree with a republican here. And one from Texas at that. (Shudder. Deeeeep breath. OK, I'm past it.) Jeb Hensarling, R, Texas, has a bill before the House that will pre-empt the legal morass, because he says that, "No American should have to hire an attorney just to express their views online."

Herregud, common sense from a Texas republican? Sorry, I'm slipping into Swedish. Herregud is the rough equivalent of "dear God" and tack och löv is roughly "thank goodness". I do that sometimes when I'm at a loss for words. And sometimes the Swedish just expresses what I’m feeling better. But this time, I’m just (nearly) speechless. What a clusterfuck. Really. There’s this big loophole in some federal legislation and so I’m going to have to watch what I say about how much I dislike the Bush administration? What the hell happened to freedom of speech? I could publish a daily little log locally and distribute it, and since I live in the heart of the red states, no one would read it. Or I can rant and rave on the Internet, possibly have a worldwide audience, and still no one (or almost no one) reads it anyway, because I’m not a popular blogger. I believe that will eventually change, but the point is that regardless of how I express my views out there in the wider world, it is still freedom of speech. Helloooo, anyone remember the founding principles of this country? Freedom of the press; freedom of speech; freedom of religion; freedom of assembly…ya know?

I could get real riled up about the PATRIOT ACT too, but I’m going to save that for another day. I think. Let’s talk something else.

Today’s St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not Irish at all, rather more of mixed Anglo European heritage. I’m Swedish, Danish, Welsh, English, Czech, Slovak, and Polish. Two great-grandparents came from England, while the rest came from different countries. Like many 3rd and 4th and so on generation Americans, rather than rattle off that whole list when someone asks me what my heritage is, I stick with the "I'm a mutt" answer. So my heritage spans a big section of Europe. I've talked before about my total lack of understanding about racism, bigotry, prejudicial behavior, so it should come as no surprise that I don’t harbor any dislike for the Irish or for the holiday, rather I just think it can get way too silly. Green beer, urgh. I’ll be passing on that. If I drink anything green tonight, it would probably be a grasshopper, which I liked back in the day at about 17. I think the last one I had was about that time, but it was green and sweet. I’ll have to see if I can find a recipe for it. Don’t ya love Google? Found 3 recipes in about 10 seconds. Here we go!

Grasshopper

1 shot Crème de Menthe
1 shot white Crème de cacao
1 shot light cream

Shake well, serve frozen or over ice.

Vodka Grasshopper
1 shot crème de menthe
1 shot white crème de cacao
1 shot vodka

Shake well, serve over ice.

YUM. As I recall, it tasted something like a Thin Mint cookie, you know, the Girl Scout cookies. But might be a bit too sweet for me now. The vodka one shows promise. But we’re going to a Martini bar tonight, so maybe I’ll stick with a Cosmo. Or something like it. Whatever you end up doing, be safe. Skål! (Cheers)