Today's theme: ENGRISH!

One might ask, "Why have they made of plushie based on a Guild navigator who's ingested too much Spice?"

( the spiiiice )

Engrish, pt. deux

Oh, look, a new musical instrument, featuring our favorite genetic mutation from outer space!

( Wait for it.... )

Your creepy quote o' the day

Authoritarian governments are identified by ready government access to information about the activity of citizens and by extensive limitations on the ability of citizens to obtain information about the government.

--Prof. Robert G. Vaughn, summarizing the work of Alan Westin, and as quoted by John Dean in his book, Conservatives without Conscience.

OK, we actually bought a book by John Dean. We know, he was the Watergate Guy Who Squealed, but still, Richard Nixon, EWWWWWW! Anyways, Olbermann ordered us to read it. And we wuvs Keef. ♥♥♥

Annnnnd, we gotta admit, it's pretty fascinating. Tiki was raised in a New Deal Orthodox household, so we had no clue at all about any of the philosophical underpinnings of the modern Conservative movement. (Conservatives, to us, were that crewcut guy at dad's work who was always raving about flouridation.) So, Dean spends the first couple of chapters getting everybody up to speed. He has a disarming honestly, freely admitting all the contradictions and petty rivalries and intellectual disconnects that cobble together conservative ideology. He also confirms a long-held prejudice, that a lot of supposed conservative philosophies are completely reactionary in content. (Where would Ann Coulter be without "liberals" to screech at?)

Also, Dean is a total research geek! He's got bazillions of footnotes leading to various other interesting-sounding books and web sites (ack, just what we don't need, more readin'), and even refs to original literature--like, in refereed journals 'n stuff! It's been a while since we delved into the pure psych literature (other than, professionally, to figure out why medical doctors act the way they do). Dean references papers on a new-ish theory called "motivated social cognition" that's making us all swoony about original research. Whoa, a reality-based conservative! We've just had a prejudice smashed. Ah, well.

On the down side, he idealizes Barry Goldwater to a really excessive amount. Hey, Goldwater was great as a cranky, opinionated old guy, but didn't he also spend a lot of his early years hanging out with scary Mafia dudes in Vegas?

Beef: it's what's for dinner

Tikistitch can't donate blood (this is true!) because we lived in England during the heyday of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.

USA Today, approximately one year ago:

Mad cow cases met with shrug instead of safeguards

When bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, first surfaced in the United States in 2003, cattle ranchers and government officials shrugged it off as a cow infected in Canada before being imported here.

When a native-born cow tested positive this June, they explained it away once again, saying the animal was infected before cattle feed restrictions were put in place in 1997.

And when a third possible domestic case surfaced last week, they hastened to note that the 12-year-old cow hadn't entered the food chain.

Last week:

Canada's 7th case of BSE confirmed

An Edmonton-area cow has died of mad-cow disease, officials with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed Thursday.

And Reuters today:

US to scale back mad cow surveillance program

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States Agriculture Department will announce on Thursday plans to scale back its mad cow surveillance program, a source briefed by the department told Reuters.

EDIT: Boy, judging from comments, NO ONE ELSE in the whole entire USA is eligible to give blood any more!! It's OK, kiddies, Tiki would gladly take any of your blood! We mean, er, um, that was supposed to be comforting. Or something.