Extremes in absurdity

Not sure where I stumbled across this in blog-land, but since I'm the daughter of a teacher I have to help spread the word:
I don't pretend to know the whole story, just what I've read. But a substitute teacher in Connecticut has been convicted of showing porn to her students, and will face a sentance of 40 years in prison. She claims she was attacked by pop-up ads, the prosecution say she was looking at porn during class. Having been a substitute teacher, I know that you get what equipment you walk into, and I shudder to think of the implications of this case. Having to judiciously protect my own computer from similar pop-ups, I can empathize. I donated a small sum to her legal defense, and encourage you to consider the same.

I'm surprised that such internet images ever made it through the school's filter, and I'd be curious to learn why more people aren't on the defense. By contrast, I volunteer for the Middlesex Rape Crisis Intervention Center, and when the county installed a new system-wide filter it blocked every message from the employees at the Center, because the word "rape" was in the email address. Computers can't think, and they can't discriminate.

Are we ready?

Are we ready for a woman/black/hispanic president? This question was all over the news the past few weeks, and it's been slowly eating away at the patience in the back of my brain (that's where I store my patience, that's why I show so little of it). The fact that NPR (a "liberal" news media, though if they were so liberal why was this issue even a question?) did weekly segments on this topic for a month frustrated me. But what really threw me over the edge was the content of interviews from across the country. Women claiming that a woman couldn't be a good president, people of color denouncing a black man as president. But the most frequent complaint I hear isn't that female/black/hispanic individuals wouldn't make adequate presidents - (I mean come on, could they be worse than a guy whose basic qualification is a penchant for the game Risk?), it is that they aren't electable. Is that a reason that all of these countries should remain more progressive than the US? Bolivia? Panama? Freakin' Serbia? It is my belief that if the news media would quit making gender/race an issue, it would fall away. No, people won't neglect to realize that Hilary is a woman or that Barak is black, but maybe if we quit trumpeting the idea of "firsts" we could pay attention to what they say. "The first" is always scary (Remember pedaling your bike for the first time without mom/dad holding on? Wasn't it easier if you didn't realize until after you were halfway down the driveway that you were doing it on your own?). And if we must talk firsts, how about the first husband/wife couple to both be president? The first President born in Hawaii? The first president to have been raised in a foreign country?

In knitting news, things are going to be all socks all the time for a bit, so I'll be posting some finished objects that I haven't officially posted before:

in progress (the real color is somewhere in between these two pictures):

Aran Skirt from Vogue Winter 2005. Completed just in time for Thanksgiving 2006.
Yarn: Knitpicks Merino Style in Nutmeg, about 10 skeins (much less than the pattern called for)
Needles: Size 5 and 6 circulars
Modifications: Row guage was off, so fewer rows. I don't like sewing seams, so I sewed the sides and then picked up stitches to knit the waist section in the round. I also kind of made up the crochet stitch that attaches the elastic at the waist, and was pleased with the result (not sure I'd be able to replicate it, though). I've blocked it gently once, but might try again with actual pins. The weight of the yarn really lengthens the skirt, and the hem is uneven as the seams are more rigid than the rest.
Would I make it again? Only for a lot of money. I loved the cables and it's beautiful, but I was ready for it to be done long before it was wearable. Don't think I'd ever make another skirt out of 100% wool; it needs some cotton or other fiber to give more structure and reduce weight.