Dixie is a cat.

And in a comic!



Too many times! Too many times that muttly mutt of mine has waited for me to leave the room and then hopped right onto my spot.

When I return, she will wag her tail, "talk", or just look so innocent.

But she sticks to couches and beds - my uncle's cat once got into his medicine when it was out on the kitchen counter.

Pets!

She will get off, of course, if you shove her butt. However, I did not know that 10-year-old dogs could still pull off puppy eyes.

Oh, it's another year or somesuch... New Law and Order tonight!

My sense of humor should be revoked.

I liked today's Crock.




My plans? A Law and Order marathon starts at 11am tomorrow morning and is 32 hours long.

Bookmark swapping would be a social step up.

ETA at 4:30 - I said I liked it, I didn't say I laughed at it.

Education time.

Proof that higher education is not a waste.



I now know that 'moo' starts with an 'M'.


Wow, learning head rush.


I absolutely love Munch in any form, on any show.

And Briscoe, of course.

I love this video!

I found it at Pandagon, a site I've abandoned for too long.

It's a video of anti-abortion people who want abortion to be illegal, but don't know what, if any punishment there should be.

One believes it's murder, but doesn't think that women who get illegal abortions should be punished as other murderers.

And another believes that it depends on if the woman knew she was killing her baby or not. Yeah, that makes little sense to me too.

I stand by what I've said before - I'd get an abortion if I got pregnant in the next few years, as soon as possible. Mentally, I can't do it. Physically, I think my doctors would kill me. And I don't want to get pregnant, I don't want to have kids right now. What's worse - an abortion as soon as I realize I'm pregnant, or having a kid that I'm not ready for?

As for my family, my mother doesn't think abortion is right, but doesn't think she has the right to tell any woman what to do with her body, so she's on the same page I am - pro-choice. I may not like it, but I'm not denying others the right to do it.

I just like that they want it illegal, but don't want to punish the women who have abortions. The state's sanctioning murder, according to one.

This reminds me of a bit of immigration debate - deport all illegal immigrants or lock them all up here.

How? There are millions of illegal immigrants, right? And they're undocumented, so they're not too easy to find, right?

How are you going to deport millions of people? And what about the children of illegal immigrants, who are American citizens, if I remember correctly? Deport their parents, and put them in foster care? What?

Everybody wants to stop illegal immigration.

They can't even agree on how to do that.

I don't know how I feel about illegal immigration, but I'm not making big statements on tv about it, or acting like I do. That's my only contribution to the debate - how?

And now I have a way to do the same to people I actually disagree with!

I think abortion should be legal because, until you are in that position, you have no idea what you'd do.

Plus, there was this Law and Order where this underage girl got an abortion without her parent's consent. The detectives found a baby, thought it was a college kid, and found this dead end - the college girl's sister got pregnant, and used her ID for the test, and then got an abortion. Her dad called her a slut and was furious at the thought of her pregnant.

But an abortion is worse! That was a great, albeit fictional, example of why teenage girls should be able to have an abortion without parental consent.

Of course Law and Order's touched on illegal immigration, but nothing concrete because this isn't an easy issue.

The TV show "Murder"

It's a new original Spike TV reality show.

Very little is on TV on the weekends, besides movies and baseball.

And lots of CSI on one particular channel.

So I've seen the commercials for the show "Murder" too many times to count.

When I first saw these, I was horrified and disgusted. They didn't reveal much information in the commercials, besides that it's real people solving real crimes - in a competition, no less!

I couldn't believe it was legal, letting ordinary people solve homicides, or work at it anyway.

When I started seeing the commercials, I didn't have internet access (or a computer), and I just now got around to looking it up online.

There aren't many reviews, just basic articles from TV websites, like this one or this one.

Seeing that was such a relief - I hoped they were recreated crimes that the contestants would be working on, not real, unsolved ones.

The commercial made it sound like the contestants were not only competing with each other, but with actual detectives.

They're not, at least not that I can tell. The detectives already solved the case, or another one did. These cases were all solved through forensics, just like CSI.

In this article, the executive producer said they looked through archives to find cases solved through forensics, not confessions and eyewitnesses, like most actually are.

Yeah crime shows are fictional, they make it seem like every case can be solved in an hour or two, but another bit, one I've known for a long time, is that most murders aren't that complex. Though you have to give kudos to Law and Order for giving a date at most scenes, showing that the "order" part takes a long time.

Not so for CSI, of course. The worst about CSI? Jerry Bruckheimer. He also does the Pirates movies! And Johnny Depp hasn't been in any CSI. For shame.

But still.

The show Murder turns my stomach.

But people will watch - everyone loves a good mystery.

I finally know why I don't like Fred Thompson!

As I said before, I just don't like to listen or look at the man on Law and Order. (Balanced out by Jerry Orbach, of course.)

Today, after catching the end of the first Pirates movie on USA, I just decided to flip through the channels and caught a rerun of the Dukes of Hazzard on CMT. Judging from the opening credits, Daisy Duke was pretty cool - she kicked this guy over and seemed (in the 20 minutes I saw) very independent and kick-ass for a Southern woman on TV.

Back to the point, I've seen the opening credits a couple times, but today, it just hit me.

Fred Thompson looks like Sorrell Booke, who played Boss Hogg.

They even sound similar - southern, "folksy", old white guy accent.

My mom used to watch the Dukes all the time in the early 80s, and since Fred Thompson's joined Law and Order, she's had the same visceral dislike I do.

See for yourself. And consider how Stephen Colbert described him, paraphrasing, the "basset hound/grouper look".

It's the grouper part that gets me.




Petty?

Yes.

Immature?

Incredibly.

But I really can't stand seeing or listening to him. Boss Hogg was better, much more of a cartoonish bad guy. Arthur Branch is not stupid or corrupt, but the actor irritates me. Same with Winona Ryder. Nothing I can explain, but it stopped me from watching Girl, Interrupted on DVD last summer when I had a chance, which also bugs me, because I love the book.

Maturity is optional, especially online.

I would love it if Fred Thompson ran for President in 2008.

I wouldn't vote for him or anything, I'd just love it if he ran on the Republican ticket in 2008. For anything really: senator, representative, Vice President, dogcatcher.

Why?

I love Law and Order. I like Law and Order: SVU, but not Criminal Intent so much. (One reason - Vincent D'Onofrio played the bad alien in Men in Black, and I keep expecting cockroaches.) CI is a good show, I just can't get into it too much.

Back to the regular Law and Order, I don't know when I started watching, it's a television institution, like SNL or the Simpsons, at least for me. It's always been there.

I love the detectives - the 'law' - and I love the prosecutors and ADAs - the 'order'.

I saw somewhere that it was originally set up so it could air as two separate 30 minute episodes, and you still see that cut today.

TNT airs reruns all the time, and even with their hideous commercial breaks that clearly don't match the old ones (do they do that to the Closer, their own series? I wonder), I love to watch them.

And I've seen other actors and actresses in Fred Thompson's role, the District Attorney. Directly before him, another old man. And in even older episodes - Lennie Briscoe and Benjamin Bratt (don't know the character's name) were the detectives - the DA was a woman.

I want Fred Thompson to run for office, any office, because he will have to leave the show.

And I do. not. like. him. At all. It has nothing to do with his politics (disagree with him) or his acting skills.

I just cannot stand the man. It's visceral, there's no logic to it. My mom backs me up. We think he looks like a bulldog or a bullfrog, we can't decide, and we hate hate hate his voice. Maybe it's the southern-but-not-southern part, I don't know.

I just can't stand him, and I'd love it if another elderly actor stepped in after DA Arthur Branch lost in the next local election (or retired, like Briscoe), giving Fred Thompson a chance to run for office again and get off one of my favorite shows.

His voice is patronizing, that's it. It's that patronizing Southern Authority voice that knows best.

Nothing against the man, this is all on appearances and sounds only, I know nothing of him politically except he was a Republican Tennessee Senator during Watergate.

According to Wikipedia, he went to Memphis State University, which is now the University of Memphis, which is where I'm going. Huh.

He later went on to Vanderbilt in Nashville for his law degree.

No, he was not a senator during Watergate. He was on the Senate Watergate Committee, working for Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee. Before that, he was an assistant US attorney until 1972, when he became Baker's campaign manager.

He got his acting start in 1985 in the movie Marie, which was about him working to get corrupt Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton out of office in 1977. (Blanton sold pardons - not just to turkeys.)

He became a Senator in 1994 in the race to fill Al Gore's spot. He beat the Democratic candidate by a large majority - 61%. He ran again in 1997 and won, beating a guy from Covington, which is a lot closer to me than Lawrenceburg, where Thompson grew up. (Southern border county of middle Tennessee - may explain the accent.)

In the 2000 presidential race, he backed Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander until he dropped out, and then Senator McCain until he dropped out. He was also considered for Bush's VP slot, but didn't have the family ties, money, and lack of ethics. (He was part of a committee that questioned Nixon, the President of the United States. Treason, sez I!)

After Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords became an Independent, he became the ranking minority leader.

He didn't want to run again when his term was up in 2002, which is when he joined Law and Order. Well he did, after the September eleventh attacks, making announcements, but changed his mind when his daughter died.

So he joined Law and Order.

But he didn't stop with the politics.

He did voice-over work for the 2004 Republican National Convention, probably because he'd been on a popular show for two years, so his voice was familiar to almost everyone, not just political junkies. And in 2005, Bush gave him an informal position to help John Roberts through the confirmations.

Ew, in 2006, his name was bandied about to run for Governor of Tennessee, but didn't. I wish he had. He would have lost to Bredesen (he's very popular for a Democrat in the south, must be the cutting TennCare thing), but he would have had to take a break from Law and Order!

And on March 19th, he won a poll on Hannity.com, beating Guiliani, McCain, Gingrich, and Romney by more than 50%. But he won't say yes or no yet, he's just"leav[ing] the door open".

According to another poll a few days later, by Rasmussen polls, he was ahead of Hillary Clinton by 1% - 44% to 43% with a margin of error of whatever.


Thank you, Wikipedia. By copying the information, or at least restating it, I gained more information and maybe educated you. I still couldn't find anything on his views, but I heard them somewhere and I know I disagree with most of them.


(Why did I pursue this information? Why didn't I just leave it at I hate the man on screen, he makes my skin crawl when I see him, he makes me want to barf when he opens his mouth? Why did I have to go beyond the shallow, the visceral? Because I was curious, because I want to learn all I can, even about somebody I can't stand the sight and sound of. I'm going to do well in school, this is even more evidence - the push for more and more knowledge. I'm hoarding it. My sister took the artistic talent and height, so I'm taking the curvy body and knowledge. For everything new I learn, she forgets something. Or so I like to think at 2:30 in the morning. God, I'm crazy.)



So, with all that in mind, I beg him to run for office, even though he didn't want to be a career politician. Maybe he could get a job with the next Republican governor of Tennessee, or work as a state Attorney or work in another Republican White House. (Please no.)

All right, I don't want him in office in Tennessee or Washington, because he's a Republican, and we need them out, out, OH-YOU-TEE, out of the top office.

The latest thing over firing 8 attorneys (that Bush appointed) should bring his office down. It's a small thing, compared to the many other malfeasances he and his office have done, but whatever works.

The main thing that stands out, that should get Americans angry is not the firing of the attorneys, but Bush's reaction to Congressional questions.

His aides will not testify under oath and there will be no transcript.

Why?

If his advisors knew they'd be questioned under oath about everything they said to him, they wouldn't properly advise him.

That's BULLSHIT.

The only reason he'd say that is if they've discussed illegal things.

Like the rationale for wiretapping everyone - why should it matter if you've done nothing wrong?

(Because it's a violation of our right to privacy, but that's not the point right now.)

Why can't they testify under oath, with a transcript, out in the open?

Because they have discussed firing people for not wearing a Bush pin every day in 2004 until the election, because they have done things that are illegal.

Not that I want Bush out of office prematurely, that could lead to President Cheney. I just hope this stains the Republican party long enough to get us a Democratic president - a real one, with backbone. I don't know who that is yet, but I hope they make it.

And I hope Fred Thompson takes a break from Law and Order to help the Republicans lose.

The Reverend Billy Graham Confuses Me By Agreeing With Me.

In part.

This is from yesterday's M section, March 9th. I had TV to watch once the sun went down (Las Vegas and Law and Order baby! The L&O was from the start of the season and had Chevy Chase as the Mel Gibson character, complete with Sugartits. (Which is totally one of Wickett's new nicknames. He used to be called TeeTee because he "teetee'd" all over the house, and I guess she is too much of a lady to call him a walking pisspot when she catches him peeing or titshit when he acts like a rotten shit.)

There was a good point made - spoilers, I don't care, this is its second run on TV. Chevy's kid killed the lady, and to get the kid less jail time, they were going to charge Chevy with child abuse because he'd passed on the anti-Semitic torch. Jack McCoy said his dad was an Irish cop who would rant about the Blacks, the Hispanics, the Ukrainians, and every one who wasn't Irish. The new female ADA (who knows how long she'll last or if she'll get TV show of her own later on - Jill Hennessy has Crossing Jordan now, another show I adore.) said something along the lines of see, you did the right thing and came to your own conclusions. Jack's reply?

"Only because I hated the old man."

That was so funny to me (I was in horrific pain that went away within the hour.) and it was so true. My dad is a bigot. He was raised that way, and he loves his mother and his dead stepfather, going so far as to keep stepdad's name, when his two other siblings kept their father's name. (So did the youngest, but he's my dad's stepdad's biological son.)

My dad's a bigot and a conservative.

I don't like my dad at all.

It was just too funny, too true. I think I would have reached my own conclusions about life and people, but who knows, if they'd never divorced, this could be a conservative blog, weeping about Libby's conviction (not from laughing too hard) because Libby forgot something. We all forget things. Tim Russert forgets things - and it's on camera! And they convicted Russert. Travesty of justice. That's what Charles Krauthammer said in his op-ed piece printed in the Commerical Appeal yesterday. Basically, the paper's in the outside trashcan.

Back to my main point - Billy Graham agreed with me! And confused me.

A person wrote in asking if God knew people would get all murderous and imperfect. If he did, why didn't he make us good?

The Reverend's answer is straightforward, and he agrees with me on one point - God wanted us to have free will so we'd choose to love him, because love is more real if it is chosen. (I agree with that.) He ended up saying accept Jesus for your salvation, blah blah.

But what he started with makes no sense, and my sister can't answer my question about it. (She's a Methodist and doesn't go to church services, she sticks with her youth group. They don't believe what the Baptists believe, and they don't judge other religions. Clearly, she is going to hell.)

God made us becaue He loved us and He wanted us to love Him in return.

Where did God get the idea? It would have been easier to get a dog, really, they adore you, and yes, the brats do choose to love you or not. Trust me.

Where did God get the idea to make people? Is there a race of cosmic beings who have their own planets, and he saw the nearest one and the god forced his creations to love him and he didn't like that. Or the Sims existed back then in some form.

In the Big Book of the Unexplained, God or whatever is in charge, is called the Cosmic Trickster. I like that. It's the only thing that makes sense.