Long Sunday

Want to know which is Wikipedia's 2000th Featured Article?

OK, this is not usual Long Sunday fare (but then what is?). However, right now I am extraordinarily proud of my students.

If you want to know why, look here, and then perhaps here.

This is what voting in America looks like

Allow me to echo some of the recent sentiments at Daily Kos:  that anyone should have to stand in  line for five to six hours in the dark to vote, after a full day of work and before dinner, is just a real pain in the ass of North American democracy.  Update:  apparently it was all part of the new war on immigrants that served the Republicans so well an ID verification bottleneck, and not a problem with the voting machines.  So Colorado, especially, has got some work to do.  Nevertheless, browsing the footage at Video the Vote this morning, what comes across most plainly to me, and despite all the lingering and shameful problems, is a sense of grassroots vigilance not about to go away.  (And then there are the adorable stories that just warm your heart, such as the man who expressed his general feelings about electronic voting machines with a cat paperweight's ears.) 

Anyway, I thought these two especially deserved a wider audience (as in:  kids, please don't peel away that plastic strip over the modem connection...please):   

How dryly amusing that in America on Veterans Day blue collars have to work, but cannot cash a paycheck as all the banks are closed.  On voting day, meanwhile, citizens of most states simply have to work, then go home for a late dinner and crash before another working day.

This really makes no sense.  Turnout is higher in every country where voting takes place over the weekend.  We should have a national holiday that respects this most basic right.  It could even fall on the Friday before voting weekend.  Polls could close late Sunday morning.  (If a few procrastinating vacationers had to skip church, it wouldn't be the end of the world.)

Americans are working more hours than ever before, for less; a trend for which we may safely thank Reagan, but one also exponentially heightened and solidified under Clinton.  In light of which, frankly, the minimum wage increase legislation is but a patronizing and cruel joke (who the hell can  ever live on $5.15 an hour, anyway? - it's less expensive not to work).  People need to know their worth.  Fortunately, the manufacture of wage slaves has the added benefit of barring them from ever traveling to Europe.  And if they decide it's more lucrative to sell drugs (or even in some cases if they don't), there's always a new prison or six waiting to be filled.  One wonders what Pelosi and Obama really think of this situation.

Serious Figures

John
CR
IT

Matt
Jodi
Ken
A

Alain, David, Alphonse van Worden

Alphonse (day) Alphonse (night)

This will, hopefully, clear some things up around here.  For one, that's not Zizek we're all holding.  Everybody, even YH, should go play God right now.  And yes, once complete, the Long Sunday Lego set will, one presumes, be made available for "purchase."   Obviously, this would be a declaration of No Theory Day, although you know I think they've been mistaking our No Theory Days for "Theory" over in The Valve.  How bizarre.  Let's call it No Theory Morning, rather.

Shrimp and crawfish heads

Shrimp and crawfish heads
Originally uploaded by Jodi3425.

No theory day?

Off with their heads!