Too late for the holidays

Not like I'm looking forward to Christmas anyway, given my ongoing health problems and other sources of unhappiness, but oh, if only this had been published in time: Scott McLemee (post of 22 December) has an advance copy of From Ike to Mao, the memoirs of Chairman Bob Avakian. Damn. How am I to rise above the false consciousness of my bourgeois existence without some revolutionary guidance?

This made me laugh

Fontana Labs is grading philosophy finals:

"It's 106 miles to the kingdom of ends, it's dark, and I'm wearing sunglasses."

This made me cry

Getupgrrl on her surrogate's most recent ultrasound.

Some wisdom for this holiday season

From Dave Barry:

"Running away is never the answer, unless you are a teenage boy who has just blown up a mailbox."

What da fa?

Why is New York suddenly filled with supporters of Falun Dafa (aka Falun Gong)? On the sidewalks and in the subways, Falun Dafa adherents hold up posters and pass out leaflets protesting their persecution by Chinese authorities. I also assume that a new, free newspaper called Epoch Times is part of (or at least supported by) their movement. Prior to this influx of protesters, I was always sympathetic to Falun Dafa ... but now I'm more freaked out and confused.