The Syrian government continues its reign of terror, murdering 108 civilians (including children) this weekend.

"By God, I washed the dead bodies of nine children. One was less than 9 months old!" a man screamed to a U.N. observer. "Why are they treating us like animals? We are humans. Did the infant carry an RPG? Was he a fighter? It was a baby, he had a pacifier in his mouth."

It's obvious that Assad and his axe-murderers (literally, they have been killing people, including children, with axes) are horrific and should not be in power, or indeed alive. But I'm not sure what can or should be done by anyone outside Syria. The Syrian government has been remonstrated with by all sides, and has replied "go fuck yourselves." It simply denies its massacres and refuses to stop them. It is obviously not going to step down or stop the slaughter no matter what anyone says.

So the question becomes whether it's a good idea for "someone" to step in with military force. And if so, who.

This weekend was our 11th wedding anniversary. I like the number 11.

I always think that the next milestone w/r/t anniversaries is so impressive; then we get there, and it doesn't seem very impressive at all ;) In our families, 11 yrs is still a baby marriage.

Patrick says this is our steel anniversary. Our friend Kris gave us a cracked elephant teapot that appears to be made of some kind of metal, which she picked up off the side of the road. This is the sort of gift that we all find amusing. Actually it is kind of a cool-looking elephant.

This entry is so matter-of-fact; I feel like I should be more lyrical, but you have to understand, I am Minnesotan. Less is more. The fancier you get, the more skeptical I am that you actually mean it. We are married and that really says it all, because we wouldn't stay married otherwise.

I think I've mentioned before that in Minneapolis, we take the issue of trees very seriously.

We have trees everywhere. We refer to the trees as our "green canopy" or "urban forest." Most Minneapolitans can tell you all about Dutch Elm Disease and the Emerald Ash Borer. (The emerald ash borer is a thing politicians in Minneapolis all express great concern about. There is, of course, very little that can actually be done about it, but they are Concerned.)

about 31% of Minneapolis is shaded by trees. (Hostas are very popular here for this reason.) We have a special Tree Trust that plants thousands of trees (and makes other green space improvements) every year. We even have an interactive map of the tree canopy to help our park service identify where we might be able to shoehorn in more trees.

So I feel kind of guilty that I just called the city up today and asked them to cut back the trees overhanging our backyard. They have vines on them and are just out of control. OTOH, omg I am hurting the green canopy D:

I just received a letter from Isaac's school system saying in relevant part:

After a review of ability, achievement and classroom performance data of all 2nd grade students, your child demonstrates the need for advanced learner services at his/her school next year.

To address Isaac's advanced learning needs, his/her teacher will differentiate the core curriculum to provide greater depth, complexity and acceleration.

I find the letter very amusing. It's amazing how they can make testing higher than 98%* of other students sound like being brain damaged, and make gifted & talented programs sound like special ed. Also, my kid iz smrt.

The big question: Is he at the 98th percentile because I breastfed, or is he NOT at the 99TH percentile because I had an epidural/c-section??

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Advanced placement is based on their test results: "Isaac's local percentile rank of 98 means that he/she scored higher than 98 percent of students her/his age in the Minneapolis Public Schools, and is a general statement of this student's reasoning ability."

5 Ways to Spot a BS Political Story in Under 10 Seconds

OMG, so true, and I never really realized it before. This story made me feel dirty. Will not click on those stories again.

Even way better, 6 Things Rich People Need to Stop Saying. So hilariously full of good bits, it's hard to pick a best one, but I do like this, on #2. "You Shouldn't Be Punishing the Very People Who Make This Country Work!":

But the second part is this idea that asking the rich to pitch in is "punishing" them.

So, Rich Guy, let me explain this as calmly and logically as I can:

Are you fucking 6 years old? Do you still think mom made you clean up your room because she was mean? In the adult world, we get asked to do things because shit needs to get done. It has nothing to do with fairness, it has nothing to do with judging you. It has nothing to do with you at all. There's a whole world out there, with people who need helping and projects that need accomplishing.

You're only being asked to pitch in because you have the resources. You're not a tall person who us dwarfs are jealously trying to cut down to size. You're a tall person being asked to get something down from a very tall shelf because nobody else can fucking reach it.

As a person with young children, I can confirm that they are EXACTLY LIKE THIS. Republican rich people apparently never grew out of it.

We've decided to have the Vote No house party (against the proposed MN constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage) on June 10, 2012. I'm thinking a potluck BBQ!

Does anyone else want to co-host/join the party committee?? My materials indicate that a large group of co-hosts is a plus. You would need to:

=>invite all your friends (helps if you're super-popular!)
=>help distribute invitations
=>help set up/contribute some food
=>help clean up

it's not really that much of a commitment.

This is the civil rights issue of our generation! Do your part :)

Also, if you want to have your OWN house party instead, I'm definitely willing to help out with that.

I canvassed at the May Day parade for Minnesotans United for All Families, the grassroots coalition working to defeat the proposed anti-gay-marriage amendment.

Here's the proposed amendment:

"Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?"

Short form: "Are you a bullying bigot? Y/N"

I wish I could say that Minnesota is so progressive and empathetic and strong in our communities that this amendment has no chance of passing and we can all sit back and relax about it.

Unfortunately, MN's not yet quite so evolved as Prez. Obama. The amendment is very very likely to pass. All the polls favor passage. Also, when it's come to a vote, in other states the margins in favor of passage of the amendments have been HIGHER than in pre-voting polls. It's worth noting that similar amendments have been proposed in 31 states and every single one has passed.

I am concerned that my friends who support same-sex marriage and only hear from their friends etc. think that this amendment is bound to fail. IT ISN'T. IT'S VERY LIKELY TO PASS. And then we will have bigotry enshrined in our state constitution for decades. I also think this amendment could make it difficult to even have civil unions.

Bottom line: this is really likely to pass. BUT. it is very close. If we work hard enough and raise enough money and talk to enough people - we could make up the few percentage points.

I know we all have our causes and commitments and lives going on. BUT, this is very important RIGHT NOW. We have to beat this. And in order to beat this, we all need to get involved.

I want to do a fundraising/awareness raising/volunteer gathering house party. I could use co-hosts! bertine and gwangi are in; anyone else want to co-host? The more popular you are, the better it works ;)

I am LOVING Avatar: The Legend of Korra.

I was skeptical that I would like it because I was attached to the characters in Avatar: the Last Airbender. But Korra is great. She's totally her own character, very different from Aang, and very different from any female stereotype - but without being some kind of weird anti-female-stereotype. Strong and enthusiastic, self-confident but not arrogant, friendly but not saintly. I really like everything about her.

It turns out that, when he was back in prep school, Romney was a vicious bully.

A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.

Romney's response:

"Back in high school, I did some dumb things," Romney said in an interview on the "Kilmeade and Friends" talk show on Fox News radio Thursday. "And if anybody was hurt by that or offended by that, I apologize."

"If anybody was hurt by that"? Because, hey, maybe that kid you had your friends hold down while you assaulted him wasn't hurt at all! It's possible! You know!

Aside from the ridiculousness, anyone who has read my Apologies 101 knows that the above is not an actual apology. An apology does not start with "if." It starts with "I" or "my", as in "I was an asshole" or "my actions were inexcusable."

Nor does an appropriate apology say "dumb" when a more appropriate word would be "horrible", "inexcusable", or "illegal." Other appropriate terms for Romney's bullying include "assault", "battery", and "false imprisonment".

also fabulous: Romney now claims he can't remember the incident, while simultaneously saying he didn't do it because the kid was gay.

Our state budget is currently balanced by "virtue" of the fact that we forced all the schools to wait on payments. We have balanced the budget on the backs of public schools. We also slashed health care to the very poor and working families.

BUT! that's no reason we shouldn't find and spend another $400,000,000 on a brand-new stadium for a bunch of billionaires running the local football team, right??

There are so, so, so many reasons why the stadium push pisses me off. The fact that the lawmakers all know that Minneapolitans don't want it - to the extent that they are trying to avoid the language in our city charter that says we get to vote on such a proposal - and they're just ignoring that. The fact that we don't have the money for this. The fact that it's being spearheaded by a Democrat governor.

I think the best part is, though, that we would build this gradiose, $1 billion structure... for the Vikings to play all of ten games in per year.