The Republic of T.

OK. I plead guilty to this When I got my iPhone 4, I gave Parker my old iPhone 3G (with parental controls in place, phone service deactivated, everything restored to factory settings, history wiped clean, and internet access and the App Store on lockdown) to play games on, etc. But does that make me a “Scrooge”? Puh-leeze. An eight-year-old needs the latest iPhone?

It’s happening again. I’m getting that “I’ve got a book in me, if I can make time to write it,” feeling. Of course, that “if” is the big, and the deciding, factor.

I was never one of those who claim “there’s no such thing as bisexuality.” I’ve known too many bisexuals to buy that the “don’t exist.” So, I’m not surprised that a study now indicates there is too such a thing as bisexuality. In men, that is.

Apparently, it’s hard to build a successful television show around someone who’s (a) unlikeable and (b) had no discernible talent beyond reproducing.

It’s not that I don’t trust the guy, and maybe the whole Weinergate thing has me a little gun shy, but am I the only who thinks Obama tweeting for himself may not be the best idea? 

I’m no fan of Margaret Thatcher, by any stretch, but she gets a nod of respect from me for telling Sarah Palin “Don’t bother dropping by.” I guess Ms. Thatcher doesn’t regret she’ll be unable to lunch with Sarah. They don’t call her the “Iron Lady” for nothing.

Bill Cosby may not have scolded Eddie Murphy for saying “filth flarn filth,” as Murphy claimed in Eddie Murphy – Raw, but Cosby reportedly told Russell Simmons to “Get the fuck out of my face!”. Russell wanted to patch things up, as Cosby didn’t appreciate Simmon’s 2009 open letter asking Cos to ease up on his criticism of African American youth. It looks like Cosby can’t take criticism quite as well as he can dish it out. Or maybe he’s so “old school,” that he expects young’uns to just listen to his pronoucements as an “elder” and not talk back.

Surprise, surprise. Among other things, the GOP’s budget cuts would hurt tsunami warning centers, undermining their ability to act. But don’t worry. Defending the Defense of Marriage Act should be all the tsunami prevention we need.

I wondered how much stuff would change when the Huffington Post was bought by AOL. Now I know. I attempted to cross post the “War on the Middle Class” post, and after a day got an email that it exceeds their 500 to 800 word limit. I thought about breaking it into parts, but then I’d have to post it over a couple of weeks to stay in line with their two-posts-per-week limit.

So, I withdrew the post, rather than rewrite it.  These days everyone loves lists. So, unless I have a “top 10″ or some such blog post, I’ll probably not bother posting it at HuffPo. Not that it matters much.

This looks like perfect casting. In fact, I’m not sure anyone other than Streep could pull it off. Always a terrific actress, I’m sure she’ll impress in this one too. In fact, I may see it. If nothing else, I’ll catch her likely Oscar acceptance speech.

Sometimes the debate over policy blurs the reality that what we’re really talking about are people’s lives. Case in point, on immigration: Can somebody tell me why this guy — a student who had lived in the U.S. since he was three-years-old — shouldn’t be able to return? Can someone tell me what’s the harm? There’s something about stories like this that shine a light a very ugly (and increasingly visible) side of us.

It’s not marriage, but the signing of Illinois’ civil unions legislation will afford couples and families in that state a measure of protection they didn’t have before. Remember, Vermont passed civil unions more than ten years ago, only to “upgrade” to marriage equality in 2009. Meanwhile, Maryland’s legislature will face a choice between marriage and civil unions this year. The latter is proposed by a GOP Senator, who’d probably be the only Republican to vote for it. So, you can guess which side I’m on.

Maybe I shouldn’t say much about this, because it doesn’t affect me (because I don’t drink), but I’m entirely in favor of increasing Maryland state taxes on alcohol. Look, the state tax on liquor hasn’t been raised since 1955, and the one on beer and wine since 1972. Not only is it about time, but if it helps the state avoid things like firing firefighters and other public employees (like, say, the teachers in my kids’ schools), then we’d be crazy not to do it.

Just not on a horse this time, but underground. Dammit, why can’t I ever run into Jake Gyllenhall on the subway? And why couldn’t he be riding with these guys? (Don’t get me wrong. I’m happily married. But just because I’m on a “diet” doesn’t mean I can’t read the menu.) [Via Grist.]

I don’t mean to engage in schadenfreude, but hearing that Tom DeLay has been sentenced to a three-year prison term just makes me fell warm and fuzzy inside.

Once again, there’s something I want very much to write about, but can’t because other priorities have to come first. Of course, everybody’s writing about it. Thus, by the time I do write about it, it’s likely everything will already have been said. I am resigned to redundancy. It’s times like this that I envy real writers. Y’know, people whose job it is to write, and who don’t have to squeeze it into rare spare moments.

OK, first 100,000 fish turn up dead along an Arkansas River. Then 5,000 birds drop out of the sky in Arkansas. Or vice versa. Either way they happened about 100 miles apart. In both cases, only one or mainly one species was affected — drum fish, red-wing blackbirds and starlings. WTF is going on in Arkansas?

I would just like to say that as a southerner it is both against my nature and my religion to leave my house under the current weather conditions. Nonetheless, despite a cracked rail on the Metro, I made it to the office this morning.

Dancing With The Stars is neither about dancing nor stars. Discuss.

Parker recently learned the word “overprotective” and now sometimes jokingly says I’m, well, overprotective. Whatever, but if I can keep my kids from getting hurt I’m gonna do it. Case in point: the shredder. I read a while back about the dangers paper shredders pose to kids and pets. Since then, I’ve kept ours unplugged. We plug it in, use it, and then unplug it again. Stories like this one about a 4-year-old who turns on paper shredder and sticks his fingers inside remind me why that’s a good idea. I’d like my kids to keep all their fingers.