Park Slope, Crown Jewel of Brooklyn

I'm working at home today and just watched some scumbag drop his trousers and take a piss right on the sidewalk across the street. He did have the decency to try to hide behind his (apparently purposeless) wheelchair while doing so, but still. For this I pay $2400 a fucking month (and that's below market value)?

Update: My wife reminds me that, just this weekend, there were opened condom wrappers on our stoop. It appeared somebody had just blown the condoms up as balloons and popped them, rather than using them for their intended purpose, but that' still not a great thing to see on the front stoop of your $2400-a-month apartment.

Frantic Baby Memories

I suck at writing down baby memories. Here are some of the past few days.

They've both been acting like gorillas -- G slaps his chest like a monkey, and L for a while there was grunting repeatedly like a monkey.

Yesterday, June 9, L crawled for the first time, really, on his hands and knees. I saw him crawl across the bedspread and again on the blanket in the living room. In fact, in the living room, he crawled to the base of the jumperoo, straddled it, and pulled himself into a sitting position. He also likes to pretend he's in the Jumperoo every time we pull him into a standing position. Will he be the physical one and G the intellectual one? Probably just a phase for now. G has been talking a lot lately, and he gets around really well, pulling himself along on his belly.

Yesterday, I made L laugh the hardest he's ever laughed by doing that dopey Jon Stewart "surprised" sound with my mouth closed, sounding sort of like Scooby Doo. He laughed and laughed, almost as hard as G did when laughing at his grandma.

She Hates Me, She Hates Me Not

The wife and I were hissing and spitting at each other yesterday morning, and I was having morbid thoughts about getting divorced and having visitation with the babies and living like a bachelor for the rest of my life, miserable and alone like my father.

But she later acknowledged that she had been an asshole to me and said the stresses of the week just pile up and that she needs a break by the weekend -- and she didn't get one yesterday because my brother's in town and we were spending the day going to a baseball game and hanging out.

So it looks like we're not getting divorced, which is good. And today she's taking most of the day off. Now I'm irritated, however, because I didn't go out to get breakfast and she dawdled around the house before taking off, so she wasn't getting me anything for breakfast, and my brother is still sleeping (it's 9:30 a.m., and I've been up for three hours), so he can't go get anything for breakfast. I just angrily ate a bowl of cereal, but am still hungry, and the babies are waking up soon.

On the plus side, it's not as miserably hot here as it was, and last night Baby B said "mama" several times (though he probably didn't know what he was saying). Today he purposefully pressed the button on the cow toy that makes it play "Old MacDonald," and he crawled forward a few times. Kid's a genius.

Things I Hate

I hate people who blog in the voice of their babies. Babies are cute enough. You're not making them any cuter -- and you might be doing the opposite, in fact -- by pretending to transcribe your baby's thoughts (typically inanities such as "I love going to Grandma's house!" and "I sure do poop a lot!").

Here's an example of the genre: http://www.elliott.org/aren/babyindex.htm

Stop it now.

Some Baby Memories

When I changed the babies in the middle of the night sometimes, they'd play with my forearm hair and my elbow, making that scratching/grasping with their little hands.

They always smile and sometimes laugh when I say "Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh."

Back Again

I've been away a long time. This won't be much of a political blog any more, except when I feel like it. I'm not going to try to be funny or insightful. It will be a blog in which I try to write again, to save some memories of my babies and to see if there's any way I can restore a shred of my fucking sanity. Sounds great, doesn't it?

We Hate Our Freedom

One of President Bush's favorite assertions has long been that the terrorists hate Americans for our freedom. "They hate our freedoms," he said in his famous post-Sept. 11 speech.

Well, apparently, we hate our freedoms, too.

In the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, taken Jan. 6-8, in answer to the question, "Do you think the Bush Administration has gone too far, has been about right, or has not gone far enough in restricting people's civil liberties in order to fight terrorism?" 40% said "about right," while 19% said "not far enough."

In that same poll, 50% said the NSA's warrantless wiretapping was OK, vs. 46% who said it wasn't.

In the latest Washington Post/ABC News Poll, taken Jan. 5-8, in response to the question,
"What do you think is more important right now -- for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy; or for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats?" 65% said "investigate," vs. just 32% who said "not intrude on privacy."

In that same poll, 64% said the government was intruding on privacy, and 49% said privacy intrusions were justified, vs. 46% who said it was not justified.

In that same poll, 51% said the NSA's warrantless wiretapping was OK, vs. 47% who said it wasn't.

In the latest CBS News poll, taken Jan. 5-8, respondents showed much more concern about violations of civil liberties. But 49% said the NSA's warrantless wiretapping was OK, vs. 48% who said it wasn't, and 49% said there should be no Congressional hearings about it, vs. 46% who said there should.

In the latest Pew Research Poll, taken Jan. 4-8, in response to the question, "What concerns you more about the government's anti-terrorism policies -- that they have not gone far enough to adequately protect the country, OR, that they have gone too far in restricting the average person's civil liberties?" 46% said "not far enough," vs. 33% who said "too far."

In that same poll, 49% said the NSA's warrantless wiretapping was OK, vs. 48% who said it wasn't.

All of these results, and more, can be found at pollingreport.com.

We get the leaders we deserve.

Back!

Doug Benson's "I Love the Movies" at BobandDavid.com is back!

Some of his insightful comments on this summer's gutbuster hits:

MADAGASCAR – If I wanted to spend two hours with talking animals, I’d visit my family.

STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH - I wasn’t bored for a minute. I was bored for 142 minutes!

MONSTER-IN-LAW – Makes me wish I could murder a movie.

THE INTERPRETER – Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman, together for the first waste of time!

THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY – I can’t wait to check it out three months from now on a plane!

And check out his generous archives. Some of my favorites:

THE PACIFIER – High-octane fun! If you sniff a gas rag first. (Gas rag not included.)

CONSTANTINE – It’s like THE MATRIX: PART FOUR. No, and thank you!

SIDEWAYS – Paul Giamatti puts the "whine" and the "cunt" in wine country.

NATIONAL TREASURE - If you like comedy, romance and kick-ass action…you should see something else.

SHE HATE ME – She not alone.

DE-LOVELY – De-lousy.

I, ROBOT – I, don’t think so.

SHREK 2 – The ads say, “If you haven’t seen it twice, you haven’t seen it at all!” Since I will never see it at all, it’s like I’ve seen it once!

RAISING HELEN - Perfect for an air-conditioned nap!

ALONG CAME POLLY – I laughed a lot more the first time, when it was called SOPHIE’S CHOICE.

GOTHIKA - The plot twists fly at you faster than you can say, "Where is the exit? Under that green sign that says ‘EXIT’? Great!"

TIMELINE – When you come out of this movie, you’ll feel like you’ve traveled two hours into the future!