BOOM

This is great:

The end is my favorite.

Happy TNX, Y'all

Here at Chez delagar, we're having Uncle Charger & his mama to dinner, which is a relatively small guest-list for us -- in general, Dr. Skull spends the entire months of October and November inviting everyone he runs across in the street or in his active social life to dinner.

But this year, between his job and the fact that he's been working on not one but two novels, he's been more occupied than usual; also, many of our friends are traveling.

And Now For Something Entirely Different: Reviewing The Stepford Wives

Normally when I review a book, it's a one-off, one-post overview deal.

BUT.  As some of your might know, the kid has been doing a running review of Flowers In the Attic, and over here at Libby Anne's blog, she's been going bit by bit through a thoroughly silly book about how evil CPS is, called Anonymous Tip, and I assume everyone knows about Fred Clark's review/s of the Left Behind series.

So last night I was reading The Stepford Wives, because one of my Utopian/Dystopian students did a presentation on the movie yesterday, and because I had never read the book, and because this online book service I subscribe too had a copy available.  It's not a terrible book, by the way.

But Here in Arkansas, We've Got Poor White People

AKA the "Where's my privilege, huh? HUH?" argument.

AKA as the argument that makes me roll my eyes and sigh.

Not because it's a good argument. But, like every argument trotted out by a freshman or a libertarian or a toddler, it's one of those arguments that is difficult to refute not because it's a good argument -- it's a terrible argument* -- but because to refute it, you practically have to re-educate the person in question from the ground up.

It's not an argument that can be refuted with sound-bites, in other words.  And in general, people making this argument are only going to used to arguments made in sound-bites and bumper stickers.

So, you know, I'm already discouraged.


Part I: "What are you even talking about, delagar?"

More than once this semester, I've had a student, in class or in person, argue with me that white males are the ones who face real discrimination these days; or that white people in general are the ones facing real discrimination in our current economy.

Some Links on the Protests

These are from LG&M, where the bloggers are doing good work.

You Know Who Else Took Part in Hunger Strikes?

More about Mizzou

Jonathan Butler and Mizzou

ETA: See this link as well, from the Guardian.

The Campus Race Protests...

The comments over there are also very much

Protests at the Universities: What's Up, Why They're Righteous

Over the past week or so, two protests at two very different universities have been stirring up a lot of ruckus, mostly on the Conservative blogs, but also on the mainstream media.

One protest is at Yale; the other, at the University of Missouri.

The Conservative blogs -- and I know, big shock here -- have been represented these protests as either "whiny, spoiled entitled rich students who need a dose of the real world" (Yale), or "SJWs out for blood" (UM).

Rod Dreher -- again, no shock here -- has gotten even more hysterical than usual. (It's the French Revolution, y'all!) I think that boy needs to get some help, and soon.

The Kid Writes a Post

Y'all remember the Kid's blog, upon which she liveblogs books she is reading. (Currently she is liveblogging Flowers in the Attic, for our amusement.)

She had another post up.  My favorite part?

Cathy is still preoccupied with clothes, but when she tries to get some of the ones in the attic, moths with DISGUSTING LITTLE WINGS fly out. She also finds some photos with relatives; everyone is completely miserable. This is a Misery Family.

Then Cathy picks up a book and CENTIPEDES FALL OUT AND ITS TERRIBLE EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE. Chris chastises her for still being scared of bugs but HONEY IF YOU PICKED UP A BOOK AND FUCKING 100 LEGGED SQUIRMING TERRORS FELL OUT YOU'D SCREAM TOO.

Go here for the rest!

As Much as I Hate to Keep Attacking Rod Dreher....

So you've all heard of Ben Fields and how he assaulted that black child.

You know all the circumstances.  How the girl is a recent orphan.  How the entire contretemps started over the girl getting out her phone in class, and then refusing to surrender the phone. (I'll admit I have some sympathy here -- I know how essential my kid's phone is to her mental well-being, and no, I do not exaggerate, not even one tiny bit. She, too, would probably risk arrest rather than give up her phone, and she has two living parents.)

Some Photographs

Here is a new photograph of my cat Junti, with a pear,

Here is the new dog, Heywood, lolling.

Hey, Look! The Kid Has Blog!

The Kid has a blog, called Lizard Lord Liveblogs, in which she will (more or less) recap the liveblogging reads she does.

Here you may read one of her first posts, in which she reads/tweets/liveblogs that 1979 favorite, Flowers in the Attic.

Enjoy!

Morning in the delagar House; or, The Perils of Letting Them Be Educated

Scene: This morning, in the delagar house. Just past six a.m.  Very dark and silent.  I am stumbling about the half-lit kitchen, assembling breakfast.

From the kid's bedroom, suddenly: A TERRIBLE HALF HOWL, HALF YOWL SHRIEKING YELP.

Me: (Nearly dropping the eggs): Good Shit!  What was that!  What happened!

Kid: (Mildly, from her bedroom): That was my barbaric yawp, Mom.

Missing the Point

Here is Rod Dreher, being clueless as usual.

I swear, he is utterly incapable of seeing what he is writing, or what he is reading.  (Here's the original article, the point of which Dreher has utterly missed.)

Instead of grasping the point, Dreher retreats (once more!) into banging his favorite drum.  Those black people! Their terrible culture!

He uses as his example the story of a young man, Jadereous Davis, who is the subject of the Washington Post story.  Jadereous is from Mississippi, growing up in a town where the poverty rate is triple the national average; where the schools are awful; where there are no jobs and no prospects of jobs.

Dag Nabit

So just over two months ago, I finally paid off all my credit card debt.

Which -- you know -- that had taken me, even with filing bankruptcy, something on the order of twenty-five years.  But it was gone at last, y'all.

Now, this month, a crown (my share, just over five hundred dollars), and this "procedure," as we're calling it, for my ulcer (my share, just over eight hundred dollars) and the car blew a tire, thanks to the charming Fuck Smith roads (that's barely a hit, in the scheme of things, but still, close to a hundred bucks, since we got the oil changed as well).

Much of this I hope to shit I will eventually get back from the fucking HSA account, once the fucking insurance company stops being asshats.

Meanwhile, yeah, I now have credit card debt again.

Fuckit.

What's This Good News WUT?

Just back from the Endodonist, who tells me he is fairly sure I do not need a root canal after all.

"Let's put a temporary crown on it for four to six weeks," he says.

"Keep an eye on it," he says.

"But I think it's going to be fine.  Then we'll put on the permanent crown," he says. "Eighty percent chance everything will be straight from there.  How's that sound?"

"Wut?" I said. "Yes!" I said.

"You look like you just got a reprieve from the Governor," he said.

American Medicine: Best In the World

So I have to get this root canal, right?

Luckily I have dental insurance. Right?

Except in July my kid had her wisdom teeth taken out.  Which I paid for with my Health Savings Account.

Ai.

American health insurance being what it is, when you use it, you're fucked.  (Apparently you're supposed to have it, not use it.)  I used the benefit card that came with my HSA, which triggered this audit function, and froze the card.  Since July, y'all, I've been fighting with the HSA company about the $625.00 co-pay which was our share of having the kid's wisdom teeth removed.

The HSA benefit card is still frozen.  Oh, and our deductible is still not yet met.  (Yes, even after paying $625 in July.) So Tuesday I have to go in for this root canal and pay $258.00 (my share of the root canal) out of pocket.  I have it in the HSA, but I can't access it, because the benefits card is still frozen.

(Why is it still frozen?  Because the insurance company -- yes, the same insurance company that controls the benefits card -- had not, until about a week ago, issued the EOB on the wisdom tooth question.  Now it has, but it will take four to six weeks to unfreeze the benefits card.  Explain to me one time why socialized medicine is worse than this?)

Then next week, I will have to pay out $421 dollars for my ulcer procedure.

Did I mention we owe almost $2000 in back taxes?

MURICA!