Mayor Overrules 2 Aides Seeking Food Stamp Shift – New York Times Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took the rare step yesterday of overruling his own top two social service officials, deciding not to pursue a federal waiver that would make it easier for able-bodied childless adults to receive food stamps. Well, crap. It seems the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing (or vice versa).

Mayor Seeks to Lower a Barrier for Food Stamps – New York Times The waiver now being sought by the city, which is expected to be approved by the federal government, would affect adults ages 18 to 49 who are not responsible for a child or incapacitated relative and are not physically or mentally unfit for work. The federal welfare overhaul of 1996 imposed a three-month limit on food stamps in any three-year period for this group, known as able-bodied adults without dependents. The overhaul allowed states to request a waiver of the three-month time limit for residents of areas…

I can’t help but be reminded of a stupid mountain lion character that was a hapless foil of Bugs Bunny’s. When Bugs asks “How many lumps?” he’s holding a big wooden mallet. The stupid mountain lion always answers “Oh, t’ree or four” and immediately gets pummeled, even when wearing a saucepan as a helmet. The lumps swell and lift the cooking pot off his head. Funny when you’re twelve, still funny now. This couple seems to be in the same mold – about as stupid, and getting almost as many lumps for it. Apparently, she started out with just one,…

Chicago Tribune | 3 Arrested at Mass. Baby Shower Brawl SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — An argument at a baby shower escalated into a brawl in which one man was shot and the pregnant guest of honor was beaten with a stick, police said. Three people were arrested after the fight, described by police as a “baby shower gone bad.” Authorities said the shooting victim, Aristotle Garcia, got into a fight with a man who is dating his ex-girlfriend. The argument, over whether the woman let their 5-year-old daughter drink beer, escalated and drew in two other people — Jazz Rivas and…

Apparently, using the gay marriage issue to rally the rabidly religious Right in 2004 wasn’t enough. New for 2006: The brand new Anti Gay Adoption Extravaganza! I don’t want kids of my own, but I support the right of anyone who does want to have them, by any legal means. And by legal, I mean by not kidnapping them, or swiping embryos, or anything like that. I don’t mean by being gay and wanting to have children by adoption. That should be legal, but a number of states don’t allow it (including Florida and of course Utah). And it seems…

There are so many things in Dennis Byrne’s Chicago Tribune column today that I find objectionable, since I’m childfree. He apparently just became aware of the phenomenon of couples declining to reproduce and seems to be just horrified at the prospect. From the sound of it, he ran across some rants pages from the more extreme end of the childfree spectrum and he was shocked. Shocked! Yeah, Dennis, that’s the point: to shock people like you, and to reinforce the “us/them” construct between denizens of the various childfree sites. Another irksome thing: I’m pretty tired of hearing endless variations on…

A Taste Of Heaven in the Andersonville neighborhood sounds like heaven on earth for a childfree curmudgeo-woman like me. Naturally, the proprietor is now the most hated man on the Chicago North Side. Basically, he has a firmly worded little sign in the shop that states that “children of all ages have to use their indoor voices.” Many former patrons are in an uproar, because the world is their living room, and how dare anyone object to the happy shrieks and “cute” antics of their children. Especially not anyone in a tin-ceilinged coffee shop in what used to be an…

Candidates Who Play Anti-Gay Card … might not be doing as well in the next election cycle as they expect: Here’s a press release from Ron Grignol, the Republican challenger for a House seat in the 43rd District in southeastern Fairfax near Fort Belvoir: Del. Mark Sickles, a Democrat, “sent a mail piece deliberately misleading the voters” by showing Sickles cradling a toddler in his arms. “The problem is Mark Sickles does not have a child or a family.” Grignol notes in the release that he indeed has children, which he says helps him understand how to improve schools, while…

AAWWWWwwwww! Ooowwowoooooga! Woochie woochie coochie! Gooo! Cyoooooot! Wookada baybee! Seeda baybee! Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah. Gah.

Chicago Tribune | Cage names kid after Superman Nicolas Cage, who was once set to star in Tim Burton’s doomed Superman project, hasn’t let go of the Man of Steel. The Oscar winner and his wife, Alice Kim Cage, became the proud new parents of Kal-el Coppola Cage on Monday morning, Zap2it.com reports AAAAAAAAAA! I thought from the headline teaser that they’d named the baby after Chrisopher Reeve! AAAAAAAAAAA! I officially feel sorry for this kid. No word on any superpowers as yet; those apparently develop at the time of puberty.