Do the Yak

When I was growing up, a conservative was someone who wanted less government regulation and less government spending, especially on social programs, but generally advocated fiscal restraint and a balanced budget if at all possible, as opposed to "tax and spend liberals." But something odd has happened; our most recent Democratic president inherited a huge deficit but turned it into a surplus by the time he left office. Now the current GOP gang has run up another huge deficit and has no plans to actually pay for anything, other than suggesting maybe people should try to conserve fuel a bit. So... if I avoid jackrabbit starts and turn down the thermostat a degree, that'll pay for New Orleans, Iraq and tax cuts? Yeah. As Joan Venocchi pointed out in today's Globe, Bush's philosophy is even worse than tax and spend -- he wants to spend WITHOUT taxing, so we're REALLY going into the fiscal crapper. And don't even get me started on procurement, Halliburton, etc...

Wouldn't it be nice if all moms and dads -- all adults, actually -- had the freedom to choose whether they wanted to work, and for how many hours per week? I was reading a Boston Globe column about the feminist pendulum swing to the so-called "mommy track" that described how some women are now freely choosing to be stay-at-home moms even though they have challenging and well-paying careers, or at least career options (i.e., education). I think it's great that women have progressed from Point A (get married, stay home and raise the kids or don't get married and get one of the few appropriately "womanly" jobs) to Point B (have the legal and societal ability to get the same jobs men, but if you work full-time, endure guilt and Supermom burnout) to Point C (decide to be a full-time mom as in days of yore, but consciously choose to do so). What would be really great is if, #1, men had the same options financially and socially (I think there's still a fee...

I have a lot of frustration with the "intelligent design" crowd. I'm not a scientist (political or biological) and I don't play one on TV, but it seems more than coincidental to me that this renewed debate comes in an era of religious revival, political conservatism (survival of the fittest, anyone?) and stupidity at the highest political levels. But I digress. To spare you the ensuring rant, you can read what's inspired my current train of thought -- a Washington Post article that offers the best explanation I've ever read about evolution and the whole debate. So here's my two cents to the ID crowd. Folks, just because something is too complicated and beautiful for YOU to understand, or even for any of the people you know who are smarter than you, this doesn't mean GOD did it. Number two, just because things seem perfectly designed and adapted at this point doesn't mean there weren't a whole lot of screwups along the way, which is how it work...

Hurricane Rita is going to hit the Texas/Louisiana border late tonight and do to Port Arthur what Katrina did to Gulfport and New Orleans. Meanwhile, the Red Sox, who have led the division for months, have suddenly started their time-honored choke ritual and are suddenly a game behind the Yankees and a game and a half behind Cleveland for the wild card with 10 games to go. The last series of the season is against New York, of course. Yes indeed, I can feel that familiar tightening in the lower intestinal region that comes along this time of year. In another time-honored ritual, Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy has framed the whole thing in Biblical terms: "The Sox have been put on this earth to make us suffer. My eyes have seen the gory. The Sox are here to test our resolve." Oy. On a much more cheerful note, the delightful Becky always has something interesting to say as she careens happily through life. She recently learned what rhyming was, and is understanding (in her own...

Just had to share some thoughts on bad hair displayed by others, including: -- The guy at a local supermarket with the world's most amazing combover. His jet-black hair is totally absent except at the fringes, so it's about a foot long on one side and it wraps all ALL THE WAY AROUND IN A CIRCLE to cover the sides and then swirls onto the top like a soft-serve ice cream cone. It's like encountering a car accident: horrifying but impossible to look away from. -- James Traficant , Buddy Cianci and Trent Lott -- noxious politicians with even more noxious toupees. Do they actually think they're FOOLING anyone? -- Our former housecleaner in the South, a man also with a rug on his head but one that cost a lot less than the guys mentioned above, so it looked even rattier and didn't come close to matching what was left of his own hair. I'm the last person who ought to give fashion advice, but -- guys, really, going bald doesn't make you less sexy or personable. It ...

I may not be the handiest person when it comes to major home improvement projects, but I like to think of myself as practical in terms of minor problem-solving, seeing what needs to be done and then figuring out some (usually half-assed) way to do it. But even Ben was amazed at my latest solution. See, here's the problem: I finally found a granola bar that I like, but it has one downside: it's very crunchy and creates a cloud of crumbs whenever I eat one. Also I like a chewy texture better anyway from a mouth-feel standpoint. Whattodo? I was in Linen, Bath and Beyond (my favorite kind of store because it's all about storing and organizing and Putting Things Into Other Things) and I saw something I'd never come across before: a small oval-shaped piece of terracotta that's intended to soften up brown sugar that had dried out and turned into a rock. You soak this thingy in water for a while, then put it in an airtight container with the sugar. The container achieves hy...

Reading other parental blogs has made me feel guilty that I haven't documented Sarah and Becky's cuteness nearly enough. And they are of course the cutest, smartest and funniest kids on the planet, except when they're whining and screaming, which is only about 50 percent of the time, or it feels like about that. So I will try to record at least one cute thing a week for posterity's sake. Yesterday Sarah applied one of the Sarah Rules of Pronunciation to a new word. The rule is: add an extra syllable when making a plural form of a noun that ends in two consonants. So for example, one guest, two "guestes." Yesterday the word she created in this way was "deskes," as in, "Those big, brightly colored plastic boxes on the floor you just tripped over and cursed in a muffled tone are our deskes because we're playing school." Sarah likes to rough-house with Ben, and her latest game is "Gronjoe" (I have no clue about the origin of that ...