It is kind of fun to answer "Four days ago!" when strangers ask when you're due, I'll grant you that.

But I am way, way uncomfortable and they tell me labor isn't a joyride in a jacuzzi either, so. I guess I'm a bit stuck between a watermelon and an 80% effaced cervix, as they say.

I'm pinning my hopes on this website and have been dedicatedly sitting leaning forward, and sleeping quasi-stomach-down since last Tuesday, in hopes of helping her rotate. This has become massively uncomfortable for long stretches, which is why I sighed and got up at 5 am this morning. More wanton bitching, please! Sure: also my hips are super-achey, because I have bursitis and I haven't been able to do the stretches that stave it off for two or three months.

Anyway, I've been singing a song I wrote, cross-posted at my place, to help explain the nuances of the situation:

We've got a baby
Who's never coming out!
We've got a baby
Who's got it figured out...
She's staying where it's nice and warm
She sees no cause for our alarm
She isn't facing any haaaaaaaaaaaaarm....
just happy staying put.

So, who's awake to keep me company?

Jonah Goldberg is frustrated.

How do I say this so people will understand? Fascism isn't a libertarian doctrine! It just isn't, never will be and it can't be cast as one. Anarchism, secessionism, extreme localism or rampant individualism may be bad, evil, wrong, stupid, selfish and all sorts of other things (though not by my lights). But they have nothing to do with a totalitarian vision of the state where individuals and institutions alike must march in step and take orders from the government.

Yeah, you nitwits. How could anybody possibly mix up two utterly unrelated philosophies like that?

Yglesias points out that Jay Bybee, one of the authors of the torture memos, is a judge on the Ninth Circuit, and that's just not right. It's also a position more amenable to being affected by public disapproval than say, being a tenured law professor.

Emails and calls to senators and representative demanding that Bybee be impeached for participation in a criminal conspiracy to torture prisoners would, I think, be productive. For any lawyers practicing in the Ninth Circuit with cases before Bybee who are up for some showboating (and whose clients consent), briefs requesting that he recuse himself for being a moral leper (with extensive discussion of the memos he wrote and their real world results) might not have much direct effect, but they'd do something toward re-establishing professional standards. And of course whereever he's a member of the bar, people should be filing complaints against him to get him disbarred.

Now, some of that you have to be an appropriately situated lawyer to do, but if you're an American voter, you've got two senators and a representative you can call about this. (I'm never sure who reads this blog other than the regular commenters, but I'd appreciate links for this -- it'd be great if we could get enough calls to Congress calling for his impeachment to be noticed.)

Reading the interrogation memos that came out today, I can only imagine what other obscene scenarios they must have considered and tried to contort into legality. "OK, so what if I put the insect in the box with him, tell him it's non-poisonous, but then show him The Wrath Of Khan? How 'bout that one?"

SFJ:

When I heard Nash sing part of Lenny Williams' epic seventies ballad "'Cause I Love You" over the phone, I realized it takes a tough man to embrace the tender stuff…

The question:

So it turns out that our heretofore solidly upper middle class family was below the poverty line last year, and qualified for a substantial EITC refund on our taxes. We are, of course, happy to take it - we've always paid what we owed, so why not take what we're owed - but it leads to a stickier question: What about WIC?

Somehow taking food stamps seems different. Some of it may be pride/class issues, but mostly it feels wrong for us to be taking advantage of a program meant for the needy - like a rich old miser taking a senior discount. So my question is twofold: 1. As a practical matter, are we crowding out the needy if we take WIC? I know it's not an unlimited fund, but is it effectively limitless? 2. As an ethical matter, is there any reason for us to scruple about taking advantage of the program?

Impoverished in Pittsburgh

Since I don't know what the program even is, I would be inclined to say that if you qualify, then you are, according to its lights, the needy.

I think this is a perfectly valid criticism in a theater review:

For the most part, Hair has made the transfer from Central Park with its high spirits intact. But during the famous mass-nudity moment, my companion noticed a lack of hair that helped crystallize what feels just a little off-kilter about this production: "I didn't think," she whispered, "that hippies had Brazilians."

Yeah, it's skeezy to judge a musical by its pubic hair. But those cultivated landing strips are emblematic of Hair's improbably gorgeous, irrepressibly sunshiny cast.

Surely the cast was given at least eight weeks notice that they were going to be in the show. It's Broadway! Commit!

For some reason, the Richard Phillips/PIRATES!!!1one!!/scary-scary story has me thinking about the Baby Jessica thing.

Is there a name for such a news piece? A multi-cycle news piece that focuses on the singular, Real-Live-Usian-Individual-Person person—who's in trouble!

There ought to be a name for such a thing.

Andrew Sullivan:

The Goal Of The Gay Rights Movement...should be to cease to exist.

...

In my view, once the government treats gay citizens the same as everyone else, we should close down the movement and get on with our lives. Full marriage rights, the right to serve the country, police forces that take crimes against gays seriously (not the hate crimes canard), the same employment protections as others and, er, that's about it.

Wouldn't it be great not to have a gay rights movement? Maybe before I kick the bucket, I can do my best to bury it.

I think that makes a really good point and have to wonder what the goals of other movements would be. Will there ever be a time when NOW or the NAACP or Greenpeace or other organizations decide they've done what they came for and no longer have a mission? If not, should there be?

Sure, everyone's parents manage to be weird in such unexpectedly weird ways. But today is the day that my parents independently both put on t-shirts featuring Kliban cats. On their planet, Kliban cats are the height of humor, so they each have a lot of Kliban cat paraphanalia and the odds of landing on matching shirts aren't really that high. But how exactly is it that they find these cartoons so hilarious?

Something called "the Unfogged forum" features prominently in this anti-NPR post at the WFMU blog.