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{ metropolis devoured }
a tribute to my san francisco


3/4 oz scotch whiskey
3/4 oz local politics
1/4 oz public policy
1/4 oz disaster preparedness
1/2 oz alamo square

Shake over neighborhood dives & venues, strain into a chilled cocktail dress, garnish with a sprig of gov 2.0, and serve.

Monday, August 18, 2008

When Christmas comes late...

Ever since the PPP gave Musharraf a 72-hour deadline to publicly resign on August 16th, I've been breathlessly awaiting Monday Morning to jump on Google Reader and eat up all the commentary from my favorite and most respected foreign affairs and region-centric blogs and think tanks. Monday Morning arrived, the formal news of the resignation arrived, but no good post yet! I am worse than a child on Christmas, refreshing the tool compulsively until it crashes my browser... c'mon J Foust, write something meaningful that I can be in awe of!

Edit: Ahhhh. I can now breathe a deep sigh of relief: the bloggers did not get sucked into a vacuum, or rededicate themselves to their regular jobs (god forbid!). Troy via AM; b via MofA; Resignation speech liveblogged.

Meanwhile, some bad news about the recent surge of violence aimed at soft targets: "yesterday three female aid workers for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and their Afghan driver were shot dead by gunmen who opened fire on their vehicle near the capital Kabul." Please read this post by a coworker of theirs, it's unreal. Umm. My Big Brother The Marine is back Stateside, working off his last two months for the mil'tary in SanD. Still wanna go, Mac Attack? Huh huh?

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

John Avalos endorsed by SF Democratic Party

Congratuations to John Avalos, a progressive, a family man, a champion of labor, and an all around great choice for office, for winning the SF Democratic Party endorsement for Supervisor in District 11. I look forward to seeing John conduct his politics not as-usual for the next 4 years.

Volunteer for the Avalos campaign;

Donate Online;

...and check out John's Campaign Blog.

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Bill Gwatney's murder highlights mental health issues and firearm control in one fell swoop...

We may never learn the exact reasons why Timothy Johnson (now dead) fired three fatal shots into Arkansan Democratic Party chair Bill Gwatney, but judging from the items seized from his home, we may have a good enough idea. The article states that "police are not discussing the product of the search", but they clearly speak for themselves: prescription anti-depressants and 14 guns owned by the "quiet loner known mostly for his passion for guns" who had little social interaction outside of a gun club, where he spoke only when spoken to, and even then only about his "hobby". A former co-worker notes that he was visibly distraught when fired from Target for writing batshit insane graffiti (ie: "This hall is too *** **** narrow", WHAT??) in his building's hallways, and that police were called, but there are incidentally no reports out there of someone telling the cops, "Oh by the way, this lunatic owns a shit ton of guns. Might want to check on that."

Johnson was characterized by neighbors as a quiet man meriting little to no recognition, and Target released a statement saying that he had no prior incidents during his two-year employment, so who could have seen it coming? There's a sister somewhere in the wings. She knows nothing.

Did you know that you can't join the military within one year of going off anti-depressants? Or the Peace Corps, within 8 months. But you CAN own 14 guns and all the ammo you can afford, as long as your prospective targets are domestic. Other victims of medicated gunmen? Virginia Tech students and faculty. Remember Columbine? How about the Omaha Killer who "just want[ed] to take a few pieces of shit with me"? Shortly before that, Lee Eisenberg took members of the Clinton campaign "hostage" at her New Hampshire headquarters demanding better access to mental health care.

The red flag continues to be ignored.

Here in SF it looks like we have more important fish to fry, what with our most important Battle for the Board and all. Last night's DCCC candidate endorsement meeting (still waiting on SweetMelissa do post about it; till then her previous post will have to do) went on until an unusually late hour (making me especially glad that I went to a yoga class, instead; I bet DCCC meetings don't end in 10 minutes of peaceful breathing exercises), but unfortunately made no mention of Bill Gwatney's untimely passing earlier in the day. So on behalf of SF's busy dem party, rest in peace, Chairman. May this tragedy shine some light on the two contributing factors to truly senseless violence and incite some much-needed dialogue on gun control.

P.S. Check out what this self-described "gun nut" and his gun-nutty continguent have to say on the topic. Don't want to? Let me digest it for you: regulate those over-medicated hissy fit queens, not our precious guns.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Toys courtesy of your friendly neighborhood defense development fund...

I'm not a huge fan of traditional military procedure and behavior (hence my ever-growing interest in all things COIN), but I sure do love the concept toys and prototypes developed by and for our national defenses.

Don't you feel that much safer knowing that someday you could have a convenient folding submachine gun-slash-flashlight (the MagPul FMG9), about the size and weight of a textbook, to take with you on long walks in the dark?

I know I do.

See?







And that our guys will have superior secret-stealing methods, aided by optical camouflage technologies such as the invisible rain coat?

But my favorite, by far, is the 360-degree-spinning, sideways-driving, parallel-parking?-No-problem! two-passenger vehicle, the spectacular HURRICANE. You know, I will always be a Wrangler girl at heart.. and if these babies were street legal (or, you know, produced for consumers at all), I'd be having so much fun right about now.



P.S. I've been adding really good articles on the South Ossetia war to my google reader, which you can also see on the side-bar of this blog. Check 'em out.