TTFN
I'm closing up shop for a few weeks, folks. Comments will remain open, and I hope to post to Flickr from time to time. But this is a Bad Time for me to be blogging. More later.Strike watch: Day 1
[Link and photo source: NYTimes]
I'm staying home, at least for the time being. If I could get to Grand Central, I could catch Metro-North to Westchester County (just north of NYC), where my boss could pick me up every morning. But getting to Grand Central is tremendous "if" because we've been completely unable to find a way to make it work.
Jen found a ride via Craig's List; she walks about a quarter mile to Broadway and Flushing Ave. to meet her drivers every morning at 8am. They'll drop her off at 34th and Park in Manhattan, from which point she'll walk to 51st and Lex. In the evening, she's on her own to get home, but her firm is providing a daily stipend for parking, cabs, or car services, so assuming Jen can catch a cab or car service, that's how she'll get home.
To hell with the MTA and TWU for not reaching terms sooner and avoiding this horrific mess.
January 20, 2006
Yup, we changed our plans. We're getting married here in NYC next month, instead of Orlando in October. Read all about it.
I think this is damn cool. The municipal building is beautiful (at least outside), and we'll get to stomp around some of our favorite classy NYC locales: the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central, the public library at 5th and 42nd, and Bryant Park, before retiring for swanky cocktails and an intimate dinner. I'm excited!
Perspective, lack thereof
Anti-Christian persecution in China:
"They hung me up across an iron gate, then they yanked open the gate and my whole body lifted until my chest nearly split in two. I hung like that for four hours."
[BBC News]
Anti-Christian persecution in Saudi Arabia:
Just days before Crown Prince Abdullah showed up at President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, to declare that "tolerance must extend to those of all faiths and practices," Saudi police stormed a clandestine church in a suburb of Riyadh and arrested 40 Christians for proselytizing.
Anti-Christian persecution in Sudan:
Sudan's militant Muslim regime is slaughtering Christians who refuse to convert to Islam, according to the head of an aid group who recently returned from the African nation.
Anti-Christian persecution in the United States of America:
One of the generals on the pro-Christmas side is Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss. "Sometimes it's hard to tell whether this is sinister -- it's the purging of Christ from Christmas -- or whether it's just political correctness run amok," he said. "I think in the case of the White House, it's just political correctness."
Wildmon does not give retailers the same benefit of the doubt. This year, he has called for a consumer boycott of Target stores because the chain issued a holiday advertising circular that did not mention Christmas. Last year, he aimed a similar boycott at Macy's Inc., which averted a repeat this December by proclaiming "Merry Christmas" in its advertising and in-store displays.
[WaPo]
Ironically, one of the whiners that the Post quotes is the editor-in-chief of WorldNetDaily, who, having published the story about Sudanese Christians, should really know better than to give a shit about such piss-ant complaints.