Stacy Horn

Someone tweeted how Obama had just signed a five year extension of Bush-era warrantless wiretapping. It was not long after Instagram had announced they were going to sell people photographs without their permission. The tweeter noted how there was a huge uproar about selling photographs without permission, but warrantless wiretapping hadn’t raised a peep.

It was a very good point. It made me want to make a list of all the liberties we’ve lost since 9/11. It’s probably already out there. I just googled it. It’s out there all over the place and it’s not pretty. Here’s the NYCLU’s list. I’d post more but I have to run to the dentist. More about that another day! (Also not pretty.)

Update: Here’s an article about what Obama just signed. This part in particular freaked me out—how could anyone have a problem with this amendment: “By a vote of 52 to 43, the Senate on Friday rejected a proposal by Mr. Wyden to require the national intelligence director to tell Congress if the government had collected any domestic e-mail or telephone conversations under the surveillance law.”

The Empire State Building on New Year Eve. If you didn’t watch my movie of this you might want to, because it was a beautiful light show.

Can you believe this?? What will they think of next? Thank you, Empire State Building lighters!

This has been reported all over the place, but homicides are down so much in New York that right now more people kill themselves here than are murdered. About 475 people kill themselves every year and as of Friday homicides are only up to 414. I spent some time researching suicide a long time ago, (thinking I might write about it, but didn’t). The best article I read on the subject was and still is: How Not to Commit Suicide by Art Kleiner.

On a much happier note, this roundup of 2012 from Google made me tear up.

More happiness: Nasa Johnson Style, a parody of Gangnam Style. Actual astronauts and astrophysicists are dancing and singing in this video! Just try to not fall in love with all of them. It can’t be done.

And still more happiness from a great Brooklyn animator named Alisa Stern. I have to point out, Alisa made this before this years Christmas Doctor Who aired! (This will mean something to people who watch the show.)

[Video removed because the link no longer works.]

Finally, a happy New Years Eve outfit. It’s not for me, but I love it anyway. And except for the fact that it’s probably leather, that bag in the lower left. I love the color.

I watched this TEDx Talk about climate change and for the love of God. Our lack of response to this issue is insane. Honestly, it’s criminal and unforgivable.

Why this has to be a left/right, democrat/republican issue is even more inexcusable than the way things have evolved with gun control, where at least I can see the cultural divide.

I don’t understand how people with families can sit by and do nothing. Your grandchildren are going to suffer. It’s like we don’t care about the end of the human race. I know some politicians must know this, they must be at least somewhat aware that even the few remaining scientists with more conservative positions about climate change are one-by-one accepting how bad it is, and yet they stick to their party’s platform in order to stay in office, perhaps saying to themselves, “It won’t be quite as bad as they say, and in any case we’ll rally and do something about it later.” But watch this video. The speaker addresses that line of thinking.

Good cat sign: Sometimes Finney wants to be on my lap and Bleecker is already there. Instead of going away he tries to see if he can fit somehow, without touching Bleecker. He can’t. On this occasion I picked him up so he could curl up with me without technically laying next to Bleecker. I tried to get a picture using the computer’s camera. I call this: Two Tiers of Cats.

Look at those faces. In that moment my cats were the cutest cats in the world. Every moment there’s a contest, and in that moment my cats won. Congratulations boys!

Author Dennis Lehane’s dog recently went missing and he’s been doing everything he can to find her, like posting on Facebook and offering a role in his new book to the person who locates her. Someone posted the following comment on NPR in response to the story:

“There are currently over 2600 missing children in the US, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Perhaps this author could use his clout to help search for one of them rather than his dog, notwithstanding how beloved it may be.”

First, we don’t know all the things Dennis Lehane has done in his life to help others, but that isn’t the point. There is always something more important we could be doing with our time and money, and its just so unfair and unkind to guilt someone addressing a personal crisis like this, famous or otherwise (because it’s not just the famous who are subject to comments of this sort).

People who are doing something for animals are subject to this kind of judgment most often. For instance, you never hear anyone saying to someone going on a vacation, perhaps an expensive vacation, “Well, instead of going on vacation you could have contributed that money to …” Or, “Instead of buying that tv, or stereo,” or anything at all practically, “you could have given that money to …” No one ever says that. But if I spend money for a medical procedure for my cat there are people who tell me I could be giving that money to save the lives of children, to cancer research, etc. If I contribute to any kind of animal welfare organization, (and I do contribute to other charities) it’s like I’ve allowed someone to die.

Again, no one will argue that there is always something better you can be doing for the world with your money, time, or fame if you have it. But unless you are going to apply this logic to everyone and to yourself, shut up. There are all sorts of ways to make a better world, and making this kind of judgement isn’t one of them.

Also, watch this video and tell me that animals are not worth a portion of our time and money.

I walked by this shoot in Washington Square Park. It looked like some low budget (perhaps student?) reality tv show.