what do you call this sense of routine shame in one's leaders?

Just in case anyone out there hasn't finished breakfast and wants a good case of heartburn:

Texas lawmaker: Asians should change their names to make them ‘easier for Americans to deal with.’ from Terrel county's Republican state rep, Betty Brown. (No, really. That's her actual name. Which makes me want to email her a link to snopes.)

...it's like Bush wasn't enough or something.

However, her logic is impeccable:

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?”

Just to make sure this fail is understood to be part of a context of fail (because nothing is so bad it cannot look even worse), this speech came while she was addressing Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans during testimony regarding that utterly brilliant and revolutionary piece of legislation to finally end this huge problem of non-white people voting in public elections in Texas like they are, y'know, equals or something.

...I mean, non-white non-citizens voting in public elections. You see how it's really hard to tell those apart. Betty seems to have that problem, too.

“Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

Charming.

More here.

tintagel in pictures

Okay, I forgot to put up this link--and by forgot, I mean, lost the link, found it, then forgot it again--but here are the visuals I was using for Tintagel.

Tintagel Castle, Cornwall

The second picture is the cove and Merlin's cave. I can be literal when I say, that view is the reason that the story exists.

[Here is something you may not know about me; I'm not spatial, and I am not map oriented and pictures are really impossibly difficult for me to work with in my head; basically, to get a mental image, I have to have a.) have been there or somewhere similar or b.) have read something with a clear description. Option c.) it counts as me being there if the characters wander around it for a while and I can get a three dimensional image.]

Near the bottom of the page is a black and white with clearly labeled areas, in case you are like me and need lots of spatial references to places you haven't been. No, apparently these are not snatchable at all, which is why I didn't use them for illustration, and trust me, I was this close to offering some sort of sexual favor to anyone in the greater Cornwall area to go and take pictures for me so I could get a better feel for a place that does not exist only in my imagination. I mean, really close. I love that cove. Everyone should be relieved I didn't get desperate enough on Sunday night to hunt up a pencil and try to sketch the damn thing. I am not artistic and I am not spatial. It would have ended in tears.

Somewhere--and I cannot find it, but if you do, link me!--is a 360 walk-through of the entire place, which I could not find to be sure of my blocking of how Merlin and Arthur get from the village to the castle via the cove, but you know, fifteen hundred years ago. There's also the stone arch and an impression of the bailey at that site, though keep in mind that this particular Tintagel is the ruins of Richard of Cornwall's castle during the reign of Henry III, and not the actual ruins of the original Tintagel, which I totally believe exists and no one can tell me differently.

Also referenced: wikipedia. Is there nothing wikipedia does not know?