Random Thoughts on a Friday

Y'know what I really can't stand? When people use the word "literally" to mean "really." They apparently feel the need for an emphatic adverb but don't want to sound like middle schoolers so they misuse a perfectly innocent word. Yesterday on NPR coverage of the Cash for Clunker's bill I heard one interviewee observe that a similar program is "literally going gangbusters in Germany."

I thought, "Really? Cash for Clunkers is actually busting gangs?"

It metaphorically drives me up a wall.

Part of getting back to blogging has been getting back into reading blogs. On Obsidian Wings I found this takedown of the tendency of too much of the conservative punditocracy to paint Teh Left with one broad brush. Required reading.

On the other hand this Volokh post on Sotomayor's "wise Latina" speech. Though I disagree with some of the conclusions, it's a sensible, balanced reading of what Judge Sotomayor said and what it means.

In case you haven't noticed, Akron is rapidly becoming a university town. It's always funny to read the trolls on Ohio.com opine as to how that's a Bad Thing.

I meant this week to blog extensively about the recall and the Sotomayor nomination. I did not mean to write a zillion (OK, four) posts about gay issues, one way or the other, but I have. Happily I have the perfect musical coda for Unintentional Gay Week at Pho's Akron Pages:



h/t Lives and Times

Now here it is, your Moment of Ten.

1. Old Crow Medicine Show, "I Hear Them All"
2. Death Cab for Cutie, "Summer Skin"
   
3. Little Walter, "Blues With a Feeling"
4. John Coltrane, "Giant Steps"
5. Toots and the Maytals, "Louie, Louie"
6. Barenaked Ladies, "Home"
   
7. Dexter Gordon, "Stairway to the Stars"
8. Low, "California"
9. Robin, "Little Black Dress"
10. Bright Eyes, "Nothing Gets Crossed Out"