Ive never seen data to suggest that those chickens are less apt to be salmonella-infected. They might be because, basically, theyre farmed the way they used to be in the old days — when farms had smaller flocks. Here, you have these gigantic egg-laying factories. And you can see that there are many opportunities for much wider contamination of the eggs.

via How To Stay Safe During The Egg Recalls : Shots – Health News Blog : NPR.

Back in the old days, Hens weren’t forced into pens that were far too small for them.  Nor were they forced, by the location of said pens, to eat their own feces.

via Dr. Laura Schlessinger Quits Radio After N-Word Flap – ABC News.

So let me get this right, she wants to be able to use racial epithets without people getting pissed at her?  She can always speak for the Tea-party

I have: three different calendar apps, alarms, email reminders, friends and family calling and reminding me and my white sheet at work. These are either methods to keep track of time, plan my time or remind me of time I have planned. This is neither efficient nor a guarantee that I will remember any one particular thing to do. Therefore, it is time to rethink scheduling and try something different.

I cannot eliminate the calendar apps. They are a part of a number of services I belong to, and even if I don’t use them, they show up in side bars or in other panels that I look at. Theoretically, I can combine these calendars into one perfect SUPER calendar. This has been on my “To do List” since I started using Google Calendar. I need to streamline this so I can stop worrying about which calendar is the right one.

While this will help with tracking some of my daily events, it won’t help with my to-do lists. Again, I have far too many options at hand. My iPhone has an app, my mac has an app, Google has an app…. I also have dozens of sticky notes, documents and scribblings on scrap paper that are my attempts to stay ahead of the game. Again, there is a better way.

Right now, I have the time–and the motivation–to develop a new system to keep myself organized. That’s easy. The trick is going to be to stick with the system when I no longer have the time.

I’m not at all sure why my mood went from pleasant to “SMASH” in less than thirty minutes. It doesn’t have to do with a client–it rarely does–and I doubt it has anything to do with work. I think it has something to do with a complete and total lack of motivation today. I think it, my motivation, fell out of my pores when I walked to work this morning.

I know that writing for fifteen minutes a day is only to get me into the rhythm of writing. Unfortunately, the prevailing rhythm today is “SMASH.”

There are far too many books that I want to read today, I can’t imagine what will be published over the next 30 years. There are places to go, bands to see, friends to visit. This says nothing about the professional goals I have: becoming a better clinician, changing careers, writing software…

I have no real plan to address these goals. I am just working to reach these goals. I’m not opposed to plans…but how do I craft an entire lifeplan?

via JetBlue Flight Attendant Pops Open Plane Chute at JFK, Slides Away – Metropolis – WSJ.

I don’t know why I think this is so neat.

Instead of engaging in a real debate about how to address the challenges we face, Republicans have turned to obstruction, no matter the issue, and then cry foul after the fact. They claim to want an open legislative process with more consultation and debate, but the truth is they simply don’t want to pass anything.

via Op-Ed Contributor – Anthony Weiner – Why I Was Angry – NYTimes.com.

The more I read about this particular rep, the better I feel about Democrats.

Let me be perfectly clear here: I never expected magical change. I expected slow but steady progress. On some fronts, I think we’ve managed that. On other fronts, we haven’t progressed far enough…and on some we’ve backslid.

I never had the “Hopey changey feel” that Sarah Palin dismissed in her pseudo-folksy speak. On my best days, I’m a realist that hopes for the best. On most days, I’m a realist who leans towards cynicism. In my world view, Hope and Change are synonymous with “Drag out slug fest with the CrazyCons.” This is the problem: I don’t think I have the energy for this kind of fight.

Obama inherited a slew of problems. Some stem from Bush, some were created by Clinton and others were created by Bush Sr or Reagan. There are individuals who have made a fuckton of money from these problems–and there are others who do not want to see any significant change in policy as that would diminish their own personal power. I wrote in 2009 that liberals will need to hold Obama accountable and support the White House as they tried to affect serious change.

Since that time, I’ve signed petitions…made maybe one phone call. I was more wrapped up in getting married and going to grad school than I was in politics. Here we are, nearly half way though the first term and I feel more powerless than I did after year six of GWBush’s presidency. And its all my fault. I needed to do more to stay on top of the political game. I need to stand up to the Right Wing Fear Machine. Simply put, I need to do more.

It is difficult to figure out where to start. The entire political system seems like such a mess. I’m going to look for one loose thread–health care, budget matters, civil rights,immigration, ‘civil discourse’–and pull on it until I’m satisfied that I can do my part for the liberal agenda.