"And we should be in bed --" "--And you outta luck."

"Out of luck, watchin' these guys..."

A check for 10 bucks* to anyone who can name where this Bo Didley classic came from (my sister not included.)

(*Checks will not be honored.)

Today's two tidbits, before I go to bed, as i should've done hours ago instead of falling asleep on the pillows in the corner.

A) More proof Ward Connerly is a douchebag.
Sorry, I can't help it. I should rise above name calling (though sometimes its so fun! What's funnier than Jon Stewart's naming of Bob Novak as "A Douchebag for Justice"), but Connerly, who in his book admits he was the beneficiary of favoritism and elitism (he was friends with Cal. gov. Pete Wilson, who helped him get the UC regency, if I recall correctly), arguing that this sort of elitist nepotism is OK, becuase at least it's based on the individual in some way.

Wow. You almost want to make sense of this statement, but careful, you might start bleeding from the ears. Anything that starts with the premise "It's ok if I get job hookups from powerful friends, because at least these powerful friends really feel I'm qualified" is hard to conscience.

Anyway, read about UC Berkley's wayyyy down, then slightly up, then down again African American enrollment here (and stupid comments by Connerly as a bonus).

Another tidbit: Here. What are we looking for, you ask?

If you read down at the bottom of this article on the G8 summit, you'll see First Lady Laura Bush held a meeting, or rather, "informal gathering," for "spouses of G8 leaders to explore ways to help women in the Mideast improve their access to education and health care. "We're going to talk about women's issues in the greater Middle East -- about education and health care for women there," the first lady said. "And we have a woman minister from the Iraqi Governing Council and a women minister from the Afghan Governing Council, and we have a young woman who's an Iraqi Fulbright scholar studying in the United States coming to talk to us.""

Who can name the problems here?

Yes, you, with your hand up? Yes, that's right -- whatever the rhetoric, whatever the "we're still working on it", whatever the excuses -- the G8 summit was essentially a meeting of a boy's club and girl's club!! While the G8 summit didn't create the problem in any way, doesn't it belie the current US rhetoric of "if you work hard, you can do it" and "we've already pretty much got equality, no more affirmative action or anything needed" when the world "leaders" meeting in the big house are men, and the ladies are, basically, having punch in the next room and chatting about how to get the countries their husbands run to improve women's lives in the Middle East? Anyone see something wrong with this f'ing picture?

Not to patronize the spouses -- there's nothing wrong with their meeting (though Laura Bush seems to be the world's foremost exponent of "the soft bigotry of low expectations", though only for her spouse perhaps) -- but there's everything wrong with the fact that there's this sexual divide. At first, I thought the Iraqi minister was being invited as part of the group, which I was wrong about on two counts -- she's there as a speaker, and I was angry that she would be invited to hang with the unelected First Spouses rather than the G8 big boys, but hey -- she was unelected too!

And it's nice to see that the First Spouses have this time on their hands to discuss women's roles; I'm glad to see that this issue rises to the top of the unelected totem pole.

Maybe that's a bit unfair; the G8 Boys do occasionally talk about women's rights and all that stuff; but on the other hand, in regards to their success (or lack thereof) in doing anything about it -- the proof is in the Sea Island pudding.


(bonus fact: Ireland has already had 2 women presidents, se nao me engano. To rephrase another Jon Stewart comment-- "These guys have had independence for 55 years, and they're ahead of us?" That's one to grow on.)