Alas the abandoned blog. . .can the badger even remember how to insert a link? She is technoverwhelmed, adrift in the swirling currents of social media mutlti media networked-up-the-wazoo-pedia.  Maybe if I get an iPhone.

The sublimely brilliant Twitter 101 with Spacey and Letterman

The Ladies… need to seriously publish a cookbook, as evidenced by this multi-media culinary tour de force:PUDDING SHOTS! …Brava!!

And thus endeth the badger’s 30-day trial of one of those chemical cyber matchmaking services. Oh dear oh dear such a disappointment and with so many PhD’s coding and effusing daily from yenta central. And the chief complaint was…?

Your honor I submit exhibit A, a list of seventy-five (count them!) male candidates delivered to my virtual doorstep after (ostensibly) a rigorous, sophisticated, words-you-can’t-prounounce-or-may-not-even-know screening process. Let us be up front here: I, bookbadger, ordered up matches ranging from three years younger than me all the way to practically seventy (in the interest of full disclosure, 65 to be precise), of either Asian or Caucasion persuasion, of Buddhist, Christian, or even “spiritual but not religious” classification, with only the mildest restriction as far as tobacco or alcohol use goes—and get this: anywhere in North America.

Now, while it is true that my profile declared me to be a “pacifist,” what on Earth is wrong with that; is not “peace” everyone’s hope for society, the nation, the world? Other than this tidbit, and the minor detail that I have no progeny of my own (truly, could that be a liability here, since 99% of the pool appear to have *several*), I brought no strident, eccentric, or unpalatable details to the table. On the contrary, my expressed “interests” included the rather mainstream items like photography, reading, being outdoors (conceded that despite her moniker the bookbadger is -not- fond of camping or even of mountainous terrain; but her gravitation to sailboats and airplanes should more than make up for this), etc.

Well, yes, it is true there is a disclaimer which we presumed, perhaps mistakenly, would be taken in only the most lighthearted spirit–that the badger “doesn’t cook.” Well, yes, we admit that probably most men in the badger’s desired age range are likely not gourmet cooks themselves unless they happen to be professional chefs, and no, the badger is not interested in dating a working chef as she fears they would have too little time together. So yes, we suppose it is possible that with this one item our profile may have unwittingly eliminated a rather sizable swath of gentlemen in search of a wife capable of feeding a football team in style; but the simple truth is the badger’s culinary skills are extremely limited, almost non-existant when it comes to the actual preparation of the traditional breakfast, snack, or meal.

Yes, perhaps we should have explained this in further detail; would it not seem a bit odd though, to be expounding on my voluminous knowledge of washed rind artisanal cheeses and French burgundy not to mention a more than passing familiarity with a variety of flans, tortes, and mousses, and the ability to order Bengali dishes, Cambodian-French fusion, tapas, as well as the classic Mediterranean fare with utter comfort and confidence while at the same time attempting to tactfully underline the fact that the badger has neither the ability nor the inclination to fix these herself. Alas.

And so, what rose to the top and floated over to the in-box? Fifty-five-ish divorced guys living in places like Midbone, Kentucky and Palsy, Indiana who relax by reading military history (the campaigns of the Civil War, or airstrikes over the Pacific in WWII, or just bio’s of the top brass) and apparently riding oversize motorcycles every chance they get. Bookbadger found it disturbing that so many of these hapless fellows actually uploaded PHOTO’s of their MLC Harley as part of their profile: just the bike, not them actually-on- the bike…which is a silly extraneous detail included here mainly for emphasis since bookbadger, while not averse to motorbiking per se, is certainly not prepared to have her partner clearing out for days at a time on motorcycle walkabout. No no.

Then there was the literacy impasse. We fear what we have been quietly suspecting all along, that those salt of the Earth church-going divorcees of America’s heartland have for reasons unknown reached midlife with a worldview best described as un-nuanced or at least visibly limited to the most basic of physical and emotional needs. Not that these are to be discounted; not at all. It seems abundantly apparent that this particular pool is for whatever reason devoid of both literacy and variety. Thus I rest my case and formally give notice that bookbadger is withdrawing her subscription and moving on.

To see the seaside assistant click here: fiestapic

For the latest from Capitol Hill, see

Daily Kos, 9/1/2007.

“I hope you find what you’re looking for,” she said to me. It was laced with regret, and perhaps even a bit of resentment (or is that my projection; if so then maybe it was only an innocuous kind gesture.) I have come to believe that the search metaphor as applied to human satisfaction, contentment, or even meaning, is impotent: it’s one I’ve used all my life and it has never really changed anything. It certainly hasn’t resulted in its analog, “finding.” When we seek we are just carrying our expectations and hopes from one thing or place to another, checking to see if they match (which they never do except on lucky occasions in part or superficially–but the deeper ones, the only ones we really care about, never match up in a search.) Whereas when we create, that is when or how one can approach gratification (of desire?), contentment….It’s not that desire needs to be squelched, just that we are so intensely prone to its misuse and misdirection.

Really it is what we create in our lives that makes a difference. “I hope you will create what you’ve dreamt of,” may be the more constructive sentiment.

Brief Overview of Congressman Paul’s Record:

He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.

He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.

He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.

Congressman Paul introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.

Robert Scheer in The Nation pinpoints the character of the human being responsible for what could go down in history as the U.S.’s most degenerate, most hostile period ever, offering:

“Cheney stands brightly revealed as the main culprit in cherry-picking the evidence to make the case for a stupid, failed war. He has been exposed as a vindictive, inflexible ideologue, who attempts to destroy all who publicly disagree with him, such as former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and Wilson’s CIA agent wife, Valerie Plame Wilson. His extensive ties and loyal political service to energy and defense companies such as Halliburton (which now, in a burst of honesty, is moving its headquarters to Dubai), reveal him to be a man of deep corruption……..The argument for troop withdrawal is that, after four years of occupation, the presence of US troops on every street corner in Baghdad is part of the problem, not the solution. As the French learned in Algeria, the Russians in Afghanistan and the Israelis in the Palestinian territories, foreign occupation is the mother’s milk of terrorism. It is thus Cheney who has played right into Al Qaeda’s plans, heightening tension between the US and the Arab and Muslim worlds by evoking an image of US imperial conquest of Mideast oil resources. His palpable disdain for civil liberties, bald-faced lies and support for torture have even tarnished the reputation of democracy itself, which has to please tyrants and theocrats everywhere.”

Finally we know who will be taking the helm of our unpreposessing house this fall; at least it’s who I’d have chosen even though I don’t know the man personally. And alas since I haven’t checked out PW or the other channels, am not sure how public it is at this early point, months before his official start date. Though it sort of stands to reason if you announce it to the entire organization that it must be, er public. You know who you are. Or, some of you know who he is. So, the summer might prove inert as far as managerial brinksmanship, but that is fine with me, it may be the last stretch of weeks *without* the pressure of discontinuous change.

bookbadger  Trying out the posting routines.  OK that’s enough of that. What’s for dinner?