I had to actually wear a suit to work yesterday because I had witness interviews/fact finding investigation. Every once in a while, I have to play "lawyer." Professional tongue ring, suit, manners, etc. It involves a lot of trying to bond with people so that they will open up to you, as you try to figure out whether they are lying or discriminate or something. It's all about reading people. It was about 2 1/2 hours away, so it involved a lot of driving. But at least I got dinner and presents out of it, as my best friend lives in Columbus. We went for Mexican. Unfortunately, the decor, food and sevice all sucked. The worse part is, when the people I was interviewing heard me make dinner plans and say I wanted Mexican, this was the place that they both recommended...Obviously, our definition of "good Mexican food" differs.

The waitor walked over and asked us if we'd like to start with a drink, maybe a coke or a iced tea. My best friend asked how old he thought we were, he said, "20...Maybe early 20s." Other than not looking like I'm in my early 20s, I'm in a friggin' suit. How many 20 year olds wear suits? Grr...

THEN I missed my 12 meeting today b/c I couldn't find a parking place and I was 15 minutes late (which is only 10 minutes late for me). So I just went to work (which I had to do afterwards anyway.) Hell, it wasn't an important meeting, it was only the annual voting on officers one, right? Oh well, what can you do?

In other news, if anyone lives in the Cleveland area (or, as they say on game shows at the end of game shows, is planning to visit the Cleveland area) and has $130 that they don't know what to do with, may I suggest that you attend this on February 26th (and not just because I'm helping to build the set for the party...) Seriously, I went last year, I'm going this year, and it's a really fun time. (My best friend, for some reason, laughed at me when I told her she should come...)

And because Dern asked so nicely, a couple of discussions.

First, the evolutionary sticker banning issue in Georgia. As most people know unless they watch Faux news, in which case what they do and don't know is questionable, down in Cobb County, Georgia, the school board decided to put stickers on biology textbooks declaring "Evolution is a theory, not a fact." Ok, as I said earlier this week, I guess technically, they are right, as I learned about "the theory of evolution" in high school. Still...it's a pretty damn good, scientific theory, based on all sorts of objective scientific data. (This of course gets into my rant about how ID can't be a "science" because it wholly unable to be tested in any scientific sort of realm.) So calling it a "theory" as they meant the stickers to be taken is a bit (a bit?!) misleading.

Now, despite the obvious disadvantage to being in a red state, Judge Clarence Cooper (a Clinton nominee) was intelligent enough to rule just this week that the stickers violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. "Adopted by the school board, funded by the money of taxpayers, and inserted by school personnel, the sticker conveys an impermissible message of endorsement and tells some citizens that they are political outsiders while telling others they are political insiders ... [which send] a message that the school board agrees with the beliefs of Christian fundamentalists and creationists. The school board has effectively improperly entangled itself with religion by appearing to take a position. Therefore, the sticker must be removed from all of the textbooks into which it has been placed." Ultimately, this (along with an ID debate) will get appealed, it will go to the Eleventh Circuit, and ultimately the Supreme Court. How the USSC will rule depends on a variety of things, including whether Bush has appointed any Justices, and whether they replace Rehnquist, or an older Justice like Stevens. We know that Scalia supports creationism being taught in schools. And we are moving back to the 50s...we may not WANT the Supreme Court deciding this case. But alas...

Second, Randy Moss's touchdown antics thing: I hate Joe Buck. Not as much as I hate Tim McCarver, granted, but I find the two of them completely partial. It's disgusting. (In fact, for Tim McCarver I even signed the petition to remove him as Fox announcer during baseball season. I hate him.) So perhaps it's more because I don't want to agree with Joe Buck EVER (who was just so disturbed by Randy Moss's fake mooning of the Green Bay Packers fans that he exclaimed, "That's a disgusting act by Randy Moss" and then complained because it was live. Poor baby.) But like some others, I don't see what the big deal was. Last time I checked, mimicking a mooning didn't actually show anything. I really hate that every time they do something inventive, something that the FANS love (and let's get real, football fans aren't usually easily offended), the players get fined. Remember the Terrell Owens and the Sharpie? Did anything (other than the NFL) not find it hysterical??

And let's look at the world. 150,000+ dead in Asia, the California mudslide killed 10, more than 1300 are dead in Iraq, we are at war in Afghanistan, Bush was reelected...and we are getting all worked up over a pretend mooning?? We are concerned that "children are watching." Do they really think that children haven't mooned each other in the schoolyard? Are we really so shortsignted? Give me a break. Coupled with the fact that Moss is an entertainer. An athletic entertainer, yes, not an entertainer nonetheless. Give me a break. His actions were harmless. I laughed. Finally, as Tony Dungy noted, "The fans in Green Bay have a tradition in the parking lot after the game where they moon the visiting team's bus. It's kind of a unique sendoff." No one has ever done anything about that. Said anything about that. Not the Packers. not the NFL, not the police, not the outraged media. So take your hypocritical outrage and stuff it up your...