I’ve even thought a bit about whether I even want to continue on this little blogging adventure. But since the beginning, me and my monkeys have been evolving all along the way, and I don’t think we’re done yet — we just might have to shift gears (again).

There is some stuff coming up, like Emmie’s graduation and our annual hop across the pond to visit the healthcare-mongering elitists (this year, we’ll pop in on the dreaded Bismarckians who started the entire socialist nightmare!), so please forgive some moments of quiet later in the spring. But in the meantime, I’ve got some stuff in the queue.

First up, and already implemented, I’m giving up the random link lists in favor of twitter bits. I’ve added a twitter feed to the right column, and I’ve already been tweeting random interesting links I’ve found recently. You can check them when you visit the site — or if visiting a site is a bit too much on the luddite side of things for you (or you just can’t stand the thought of missing a single link!), you can always just follow me on twitter or add my feed to your rss reader.

[I'm still feeling my way to figuring out what goes on twitter, what merits a blog post, and what is good facebook fodder (btw, crossposting across all social media is becoming a pet peeve of mine -- if you're doing it... uh, why?!?). You already know how to find me on the first two, and if you want to be facebook buddies, just shoot me a note...]

Coming up, I’m hoping to finally get the archives, categories and tags in order. I’m planning to do a lot more food blogging. And continue the photo blogging. I’m pretty well burned out on politics, but I imagine that even if it appears nowhere else, my progressive view of the world will show up in my tweets. Plus, even though I’m giving up the random links lists, I do have some themed link lists in the queue.

So much to anticipate…

And now, the exception to prove that I have little left to say about politics, here are a few choice bits I’ve read on the intertubes since health care passed in the House last night (yay!!!!):

• “Tonight I am thankful that the ability of everyone to have health care is no longer being asked to take a back seat to the few lucky ones who are satisfied with their blessings” (that one is from Emmie — the rest are unattributed…).

• “It took Dems to create Social Security, a basic social safety net to ensure all may live out their lives in dignity; it was Dems who led the Civil Rights Movement and said all men are created equal; now, Dems have led the fight to ensure that every man, woman, and child has the right to basic health insurance in the richest country in the world. No, it is not a perfect solution; but, it IS leadership. Yes. We. Can.”

• “The Party of Hope, not the Party of Nope.”

• “I think Nancy Pelosi should use that gavel on herself.”

• “I’m heading down to the hospital to watch the government start killing people’s grandmas. Who’s in?”

• “I reassert Jon Stewart’s line to the Republicans: ‘I think you are confusing tyranny with losing.’”

• … and one more…

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.

After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.

On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

And then I log on to the internet — which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration — and post on Freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

…and on to reality: What’s the bill mean? And what does it mean to me?

As always, please feel free to share your thoughts…

UPDATE: I’m not always a fan of KO’s special comments, but the Republicans really deserve this one. Until they get their homophobes, racists and other spewers under control (or jettison them), they will continue to be the Party of Hate.

• Two can play that game (and some other protest signs — some of my favorites: “My two moms can beat up your 14 wives,” and “They’re the ones that keep having gay babies!”).

• Sigh. Back to health care. Let’s just go ahead and cover everybody already — even the constituents who manage to survive Boehner. One way or another we’re going to pay for their health care anyway.

• I just started trying out google sidewiki this weekend. As one contributor pointed out, the implications here are numerous — and not all positive — but the potential is exciting.

• A Chattanooga suburb (East Ridge) made Boston.com’s Big Picture last week. Seriously, we got a LOT of rain.

• And finally… the Origin of Stupidty

Then there’s health care (the Huckabee plan is already in place!):

Where’s the efficiency in this system?!?

And the rest…

Oh, the fakery. The faces of coal are fake. The anti-marriage Mainers are fake. Which is all very sad and pathetic. But this fake Ronald McDonald is pretty much hilarious.

Big Egg.

The Man Who Walked Around the World.

Ta-Da! The gays save marriage!!!

And finally, this is a jam-packed “New Rules” from Bill Maher, including these choice tidbits:

But, what did Obama actually say to make Karl Rove’s head explode and the popcorn fly out? Well, cover your children’s ears. When he was asked if he believed in American exceptionalism, he said he did the same way the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks in Greek exceptionalism. Yes, “President John F. Kenya” actually said that people in other countries might like their countries better.

Well, I was so shocked, I nearly dropped the Bible I was using to help me masturbate into my gun.

Sarah Palin, in her farewell speech kept telling us how she’s wired. You know, I’m not a doctor–or an electrician–but, I suspect this is faulty wiring, this world view that, in her words, we should never apologize for our country. Really? Never? Not for slavery? Or Japanese internment camps? Or if we tortured the wrong guy at Guantanamo Bay? The Indians?! Nothin’, Sarah? “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” maybe?

I mean, shouldn’t John McCain apologize for…you?

Mitt Romney’s new book is called No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. You can find it at Borders in the “Suck Up” section. It’s such a perfect title for today’s conservative, combining paranoia with arrogance. “No one has yet asked me to apologize, but if someone ever does, f*ck them.”

• Duh!

• Take back the beep!

• Your “religion” for the week: The Story of Suzie

• The top ten notorious American biker gangs

There’s certainly plenty of crazy (or just plain stupid) joining in the discussion. Eugene Robinson highlights that point:

Red-faced retirees are railing against “government-run” health care and “socialized medicine” — with Medicare cards tucked in their wallets. They could have just stayed home and harangued themselves.

(Guess how many anti-socialized medicine kooks are willing to give up those precious cards?) Robinson also launches into an interesting dissection of the factors at play:

We should be having two debates. One should be about the obligation to ensure universal access to health care, which will directly benefit millions of struggling families and make this a better society. The other — a more complicated, difficult and painful discussion — should be about the long-term problem of out-of-control health-care costs, which would be a looming crisis even if President Obama had never uttered the word “reform.”

In the meantime, Investor’s Business Daily overreached — and whiffed.

And then there are the death panels. Where do they come up with these straw men? Oh, right — from the leadership of the Republican party.

I see. So you are speaking up to stop Obama’s plan to kill your baby. Well, I can understand why you resigned as governor. — Jon Stewart, 10 Aug 2009

Of course, the death panels are quite real and the rationing of health care is ongoing. But the last word on death panels has to go to Helen Philpot:

And what’s all this crap about killing your grandmother? Are you people honestly that stupid? This has become less an argument about healthcare reform and more a statement about our failed education system. Margaret, I don’t know what plans you’ve made up there with Howard, but down here with Harold, we have living wills to determine how we will leave this world when the time comes. Mine states that unless the feeding tube is large enough for a piece of pie, I don’t want to be hooked up to it. Harold, of course, says his can only be connected to him if the other end is connected to a bottle of single malt scotch.

Now shame on me for making a joke about a serious subject, but if these morons are going to show up and scream at their elected officials, they need to educate themselves about the subject at hand. No one is planning on killing you or your grandmother with rationed healthcare or death squads. By the looks of the American citizenry turning out for these town hall meetings, we’re doing a fine job of killing ourselves with fast food, cigarettes and an overindulgence of ignorance.

And back in the real world, patients in other countries — even the evil, socialists ones — are faring shockingly well.

Go figure.

(PS. if you’re the CEO of a company that caters to the needs of not just the wealthy, but also to a very conscientious clientele, don’t write to a very conservative publication to take a position against a progressive ideal, because then your customers might freak out and find some place else to get their organic tomatoes, and then how are you going to get the genie back into the bottle?)