Adieu Molly

Molly Ivins passed away today. She was a strong lady, but unfortunately cancer was stronger. Adieu, dear Molly. Here's to hoping someone else with the cajones to continually call out the Bush administration and other ridiculous human tricks will emerge and pick up where you left off.
(click on the post title to read about Molly in the Texas Observer)

Snow in the South

It snowed in Durham on Thursday. This is a photo of the trees across the street. We got about an inch total between 5 am and 9 am. An inch. In Chicago, an inch is barely noticeable. Here, it means the world is ending. The morning shows were preempted by the local news on every station, in order to report the chaos. Schools were closed. Businesses were closed. The news reported more than 100 car accidents before 8 am. All that everyone talked about was the snow.

By noon, the snow was gone. It melted into puddles, and the snow turned to misty rain. Friday was warmer and sunny, and no one would ever know that there had been snow just two days ago.

Do your research, folks

Dark Cloud Over Good Works of Gates Foundation
I knew it was too good to be true--Bill Gates leaving Microsoft to devote his time to the foundation that raises and donates more money than exists in some small countries? Stephen Colbert often refers to the foundation as the 'Stephen and Melinda Gates Foundation'. Wonder if he'll still want to be a part of it? Maybe more so, since his tongue-in-cheek character on his show would love such investments in things like large oil companies.

This is proof that you should always look into the organizations to which you donate money, because they're not always forthcoming about what happens behind the scenes.