If a good mother is one who loves her child more than anyone else in the world, I am not a good mother. I am in fact a bad mother. I love my husband more than I love my children.

The author of this essay has a new book out. Review is available in today's NYT. From the First Chapter:

Don't they see that I am busy? Don't they realize that obsessive self-pity is an all-consuming activity that leaves no room for conversation? Don't they know that the entrance to the park lies right next to the Eighty-first Street playground and that if I am not completely prepared, if I do not clear my mind, stop my ears to all sounds other than my own breathing, it is entirely possible -- likely even -- that instead of striding boldly past the playground with my eyes on the bare gray branches of the trees, I will collapse outside the playground gate, the shrill voices of the children keening in my skull? Don't they understand, these ladies with their petitions and their dead banker husbands and bulky Tod's purses, that if I let them distract me with talk of Republicans stealing elections or whether Mrs. Katz from 2B saw Anthony the new doorman asleep behind the desk last Tuesday night, I will not make it past the playground to the refuge of the park beyond? Don't they get that the barbaric assault of their voices, the impatient thumping of their Lucite canes as they wait insistently for my mumbled replies, will prevent me from getting to the only place in the entire city where I am able to approximate serenity? They will force me instead to trudge along the Seventy-ninth Street Transverse, pressed against the grimy stone walls, inhaling exhaust fumes from crosstown buses all the way to the East Side. Or worse, they will force me to take a cab.

Today, thank God, the elevator is empty all the way to the lobby.

You may also wish to check out the review by former Poet-Laureate Robert Pinsky of Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking":

The geological imagery conveys the disparity of scale between any mortal intelligence and those immense, lethal gulfs and mountains. It is a terrain often lied about, and routinely blurred by euphemism. Didion's book is thrilling and engaging -- sometimes quite funny -- because it ventures to tell the truth: a traveler's faithful account of those harsh but fascinating cliffs.

Modern Love: Truly, Madly, Guiltily

Kenyan MPs who interviewed the exiled former anti-corruption investigator said they were "astounded" by evidence of alleged government corruption.

John Githongo - who gave his testimony in London - has directly implicated several Kenyan government ministers in an alleged multi-million dollar scam.

The head of the delegation said Mr Githongo's information would be acted upon following a report to parliament.

time for a new politics

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Graft evidence stuns Kenyan MPs

It was a victory for Lance Cpl. Matthew Schilling to walk into the upper gallery of the House of Representatives on Jan. 31 for the State of the Union address. He wore his dress blues and a prosthetic leg. Five months earlier, he had been carried on a stretcher, wounded and bleeding, into a hospital in Iraq after a roadside bomb exploded 10 feet from him.

The blast tore through his right foot and calf and blew a hole through his left hand. But hearing President Bush speak confidently of victory in Iraq, Corporal Schilling, a smooth-faced Marine reservist and college student from Portersville, Pa., who grew up on a cattle farm, again felt that his sacrifice had been worth it.

"I felt really proud when all those people I met that night thanked me for my service," said Corporal Schilling, 21, who attended with his wife, Leigh Ann, as guests of their congresswoman, Representative Melissa A. Hart, a Republican.

Yet when the Schillings returned to the Mologne House, a hotel at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for wounded soldiers and their families, Corporal Schilling found that wearing his prosthesis that night had taken a toll. Blood blisters had formed on his stump, and he was soon back in a wheelchair facing more surgery.

the story of two brave men

Healing, With New Limbs and Fragile Dreams - New York Times

Deutsche: It was known that I, uh, was an undergrad when I was with the Bush campaign. It was known that I was an undergrad when I worked for the inaugural committee. When NASA hired me, they knew that I was an undergrad. The only real, uh, the only room here for misinterpretation could be my resume. And I, you know, if there, if my resume is misleading, I take responsibility for that, no question, I do. Um, and I didn't never mean for that to happen. But I have never ever lied about my status, I have never tried to misrepresent that to anyone. If my resume was misleading, I take, I take responsibility, but that's not it, it's not about my resume. It's about this larger issue, it's about the agenda of global warming, and how these people are willing to resort to smearing a 24 year old junior appointee in an effort to just get one step ahead in their agenda, to get a little bit more face time in the media.

"I take responsibility, only, it was really the fault of these loonies who think that we're harming the environment... they're out to get me because I dared to tell the truth about the fact that there's no such thing as global warming. The fact that I totally lied on my resume is irrelevant."

Gimme a break, you lying sack of shit. Just because 75% of your bosses get away with lies doesn't make it guaranteed. If that shit happened to me, I'd have gotten fired. Fuck resignation... FIRED. And I'd be working at some monkey tech support job, more than likely, because no one wants to hire an uneducated liar. Or maybe I'm wrong... I guess Deutsche's situation proves that some people actually do hire uneducated liars.

And, while I'm at it, why is it that we allow people to use the word "agenda" and immediately discount the promoters of said agenda? Fuck yeah, they have an agenda... establishing the primacy of scientific logic over political bullshit is an agenda, and it's one that I have no problem getting behind. Fucking infuriating punkass kid.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars

The BBC has learned of a major corruption scandal in Kenya, through evidence provided by the country's former anti-corruption chief John Githongo.

When I first met him he was one of a new breed of African campaigners - highly articulate, politically savvy and very brave.

sounds to me like the story of a real hero

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | A fearless Kenyan whistle-blower

Lost amid the ashes of torched embassies and the senseless deaths of Muslim protestors is the fact that the cartoon controversy is as much about freedom of expression in the Muslim world as it is about freedom of expression in Europe.

The violence and the bitter words exchanged over the past few days have little to do with Islam but everything to do with those who want to be its sole guardians and spokespeople.
...
I am a Muslim who fully supports Jyllands-Posten's right to publish the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, as I defend the rights of Muslims to be offended. But I find the daily human rights violations by our dictators to be more offensive to the memory of the prophet's life than a few cartoons ever could be.

Don't yield to extremists - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has done more to ensure that the green revolution moves forward than a dozen presidential speeches or a score of low-carbon targets.

Oil's nasty surprises: Thanks, Iran, for the reminder - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune

A Chinese editor has died as a result of a police beating he received for his paper's reporting on corruption, journalists and rights groups say.

Wu was reportedly attacked by some 50 policemen after his paper accused them of charging illegal bicycle fees.

These are dark days for the global media estate...

BBC NEWS | China editor 'died after beating'

The Bush administration's support for Iran's proposal to bar two gay rights groups from a voice at the United Nations sparked a demand from U.S. legislators on Tuesday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repudiate the action.

US legislators press Rice on UN vote against gays - Yahoo! News UK

Holy Fuck I want one.

YouTube - Model Fighter Jet