I'm so behind on stuff! I have clothes from iGigi to review, memes to fill out, about ten thousand and one knitting projects, fluffy fiber to spin on my wheel. And my house.. fuggetaboutit, I've lost total control of the house since getting the stomache thing.

But I was tagged for something that's been provoking my thoughts all week so that's magically moved up to the number one spot.

The inimitable Vanessa, aka PluckyPunk, who was tagged by Zuzu at Feministe, tagged me for a seemingly simple meme called Five things feminism has done for me.

Plucky Punk is one of those secret friend crushes for me. You know those blogs you read and feel like that writer would be such a cool friend to have in real life? She's made some big changes this year: quit her evil corporate job, had a baby, went back to school. And she still manages to be active in the online feminist blog world. And she bought my craaaaazy scarf during the Katrina fundraiser last year! And she wears doc martens! So she has great taste in shoes and accessories too!

I was surprised that she tagged me because I've mostly been blogging all about knitting and very little about anything else lately. I used to be quite the politico-blogger, once I was called a pundit, but this became more of a knitblog than much else as the hobby took over my life during the last year and a half. Don't get me wrong, I still rant the political in person! But I made a conscious choice to cut down on the political and really personal posts for my blog a while ago. It keeps the mean commenters away and my mother from worrying that I'm going to get firebombed or something. She reads this ya know. Hi Mom!

This tag has given me something to think about, something interesting to discuss with Cody. I want whatever I write to be well thought-out and not just imitating other's answers! And I want to focus on positive aspects, not complain about things that need to change, just enjoy the good parts for the moment. All this buildup for five things. I guess I should get on with them.

Five things Feminism has done for me

I can choose my family
Obviously I don't mean parents and siblings, although I got lucky there anyway. I mean I can choose who I marry. Or to not marry. Or if I want to just live with someone. I happened to fall in love with someone of the opposite sex and I really wish people who fell in love with someone of the same sex could have as many choices, but I'm trying to focus on the positive here. I can choose to have children, or to not have children, or just have pets and treat them like children. Maybe to have children later on. It's up to me. My father can't sell me to a man for a goat (not that he would, obviously). I won't be forced to marry some creepy old gross man so I can clean his house and birth his little farmhands. My choice. Mine.

I can choose my career
Career is sort of an odd word for me since mine has been sort of not a career, as such. But what I'm doing now is not far off from what I wanted to do when I was young: Stay at home and create art. You know that character Whoopi Goldberg plays in Moonlight and Valentino? Her life (awkward marriage aside) pretty much nailed what I'd always wanted to do. It actually spooked me when I saw it. The art I'm creating is in a different medium than I expected, I thought it would still be pottery. It's a little different because I thought I'd live in a more country setting and have kids. But never say never.

The important part is, I was able to choose my major in college and get a really good education. And if I want to, I can go get a post-graduate degree or go get a "real" job if I want to. Or both. With the full support of my friends, family, and mate.

There are so many smart women in my life that have worked and gotten advanced degrees. Both my and my husband's moms worked. My mother put herself through college working, along with my dad. She has a master's degree in mathematics. She taught and worked and even had her own business for a while. My sister has a master's degree in English and works and travels for work and is always crazy busy. My best friend has a JD from law school and is back in school for her LLM to be a law librarian now while she works in the library for a law firm.

My father-in-law once asked me if I thought that a woman who got a college degree then chose to stay at home with the children was a waste of an education. (he does his best to have what he thinks are progressive conversations with me, so I try to give him the benefit of the doubt with questions like this) Right off the bat I pointed out that the important part was that she had the choice to do so. And that college-educated fathers had the same choice. And studies have shown that educated parents will raise smarter children. I wouldn't say that an education exists simply for career advancement, for most people I've known, it's been for the education itself.

I am not a possession
This was touched on with the first one but it goes deeper than that. When I go to the doctor they won't let Cody go in with me. I actually don't like this as I want him with me because doctors make me nervous and just his presence calms me down. But the reason behind him not being allowed into the exam room is important enough that I don't fight it: they want me to answer the questions, not him. They want to be sure I'm healthy and if I need to say something about issues that I don't want him to hear or to answer any questions about potential abuse, that I can freely without his coersion. Of course, I don't need this, but I want other women to have that so I accept it.

I am secure in the fact that I am an equal in our marriage, that I have the same amount of input in all decisions and will be heard if I have an opinion about any subject. We joke about him being called Cody Pendent and to a certain extent we are codependent. And we like it. We desperately need each other, but equally. I am not just a little living extension of his success as a man, I am his partner. He goes to work to get money so we can live a happy life together. I stay at home so the pets are healthy and the house is mostly intact so when he comes home we can live a happy life together. But the tables have been turned in the past, there was a time when I worked and he stayed at home. We know what it's like to be in the other's spot.

I can choose to look however I like.
Sure there are still people who think that women should act, look, or behave a certain way to be a "proper woman" but in this society in general, I can choose to wear a dress or not without getting stoned by the populace. I don't have to wear a corset, hell I don't have to wear a bra. And the worst punishment for that might be someone takes a picture of my saggy boobs with their camera phone and makes snarky comments on their blog. Big freaking woo.

I can also choose to be the girliest girl that ever lived in girltown. And it's ok because it's my choice. I don't exactly approve of Barbie and her clothes but I defend to death the right for her to wear them. As long as she doesn't give me crap about mine it's ok.

I can have an opinion
I can write this post without worrying that I'll get arrested, threatened, shunned by my friends and family, or tarnish my (already oxidized) reputation forever. I've written on touchy subjects ranging from religion, the president, the war, dumb movies, evil media conglomerates, unbelievably weird sado-masochistic murder mysteries, to the defense of fun fur and freestyle handspun art yarns. I may joke about the threat of getting firebombed for my writing but only in the most minute little corner of my mind does it seem like a reality. I've had some ugly comments on my blog once or twice calling me a dumbass pinko liberal or something but not once did someone threaten to come here and shoot me or my dog. Someone did threaten to shoot out my tires once but she's from Texas so that seemed to be a matter of course.

That's the big one to me. You may not agree with me but I can have this blog. And I can choose who I'm voting for in a month. And on that ballot I'll have to choose between two women for the US House of Representatives for my district: incumbent Heather Wilson or the current state Attorney General, Patricia Madrid. No men in that election. How about that?

So now I'm supposed to tag people. I hate the pressure of tagging people. So don't freak out if you're tagged and you don't feel like it ok? I'm going to choose several smart women whose answers I'm genuinely interested in.

Beverly
Ramona
In fact, everyone in the stitch and bitch group? Consider yourself tagged!
Jocelyn
Susan Colagirl
My sister

Or if I didn't tag you and you want to write about it, please link in the comments I want to know!

check it - jewelry made from inactive birth control pills to raise money for Planned Parenthood of Greater Cleveland. link via Colagrl

Barry says thumbs up.

Well, he does from his plush envelope flying somewhere over the Atlantic anyway.

I did not participate in the more popular April 1st flash your stash day even though I've been methodically trying to take photographs of my stash on my own. Want to know why? Simple. I find a good portion of the political articles posted at the main part of that website to be offensive, reactionary, and extremely small-minded and I didn't want to have anything to do with her, in any capacity, at all. Ever.

Not to say I have any fault with anyone who chose to participate in it. Not at all. I just couldn't and I don't feel particularly proud of my reasons either, believe me.

It's not like she gives two shits about or even knows who I am. And I know how stupid and petty it is and I've had that offensive saying "cutting off your nose to spite your face" (I wonder if that person has known anyone who has had their nose cut off, I have, and I doubt it would be thrown around so easily if they had) thrown at me before when I mentioned how small I felt for not wanting to even knit one of the little green zibibballs' patterns because I would feel dislike and general unhappiness with every stitch. Yeah, I dislike and disagree with her views that much. Call me petty or simple. But the personal is the political to me and I just cannot overlook some of the horrid things I've seen this woman write enough to enjoy the patterns or non-political web bandwagon ideas she's created.

I know that to a certain extent I suck for that. But I also know myself enough to know that that one little aspect of her life about which she feels soooo strongly would wiggle its way into my mind while I was working on her patterns or uploading her little graphics. I'm sure if she ever made it over to this site or had any reason to find interest in my site she'd probably feel the same way. And as far as I'm concerned I'm on medication to avoid depression. I don't drink because it's a depressant. Why the fuck would I bother participating in something with someone whose worldview would potentially depress me?

Now I'm the first person to say "Your blog, your rules," but I reserve the right to follow that with "My browser, my back button." I know myself enough to know that the few times I've tried to be kind or fair or even just honest to someone who is primarily an ideological polar opposite has never worked out. Never. It's best for me to just stay away and do my own thing. Surround myself with people who reinforce my happy little fluffy worldview in the same way El Busho has surrounded himself, keep my head down, and every once in a while say something when I think I should but not expect the moh-rons to understand.

There's this pledge thing from my hometown that I ran across last week. The city where I grew up has played a major part in civil rights in the US - good and bad. The bad parts were broadcast on the television all over the world for everyone to see and made people realize just how serious the situation in the US was. The good changes that came out of were primarily because of those broadcasts. It was forced to look at itself and change. Not very many cities have a giant mirror held up to itself in the way Birmingham did. And there are still a lot of changes that need to be made. But this is an interesting recent campaign that I've actually been trying to follow before I knew about it.

I think that this pledge should also include religious, ethnic background, sexual preference, and body-type. In my mind it does.

I've been trying to do that anyway. When my father-in-law makes offensive jokes about hispanics "but they're just jokes he doesn't really mean it blah blah," I say things like "I know you're joking but I'd be worried that I'd get in the habit of saying things like that. That I'd forget and say it to someone who didn't think I was joking and really find it hurtful." And he seems to get it. I think.

I was watching Gentleman's Agreement last year. The movie where Gregory Peck pretends to be a Jewish man in 1940s New York for a newspaper article. The really interesting thing that comes across, to me anyway, is that the people who allow others to make antisemitic jokes, the people who are silently embarassed and feel superior to the joke-makers, are just as guilty as the joker, if not moreso because they know better. And I have very serious views on racial, religious, ethnic, sexual preference, and body-type prejudices. Very serious. So, Gods help me, I actually feel like I should say something sometimes.

Unfortunately this comes off sometimes like I'm playing "World Cop" or a humorless liberal ass and I know my husband and my best friend have both commented that someday I'm going to get beaten up for saying it to the wrong person. This may or may not have an effect on my social phobias I don't know. It may be just because I hermit up in the house and get out of practice. But I've gotten much better at choosing my battles as I've gotten older. And I may be tooting my own horn here but my battlefights have gotten much better, meaner, and more subtle as I've gotten older as well.

Still, somewhere in there I just feel like if I let these people get away with saying something like that I'm more guilty than they are. So for the most part my solution is to just stick with people who don't say shit like that, and people who are intelligent and secure enough in their own beliefs to listen to someone else's opinion, even if they might not agree with it. And for the most part I'm lucky enough to be doing just that these days. *huggles*

So, um, with that said, I'll take photos of the noro today. Promisepromisepromise. As soon as I go on this forced dogwalking business. Cody's making me walk the dog in the mornings when he gets home from work. Isn't he mean?

I updated the esty shop with a few items I knit over the weekend and some yarn I spun and set last week. I would've taken photos of it on Saturday but it was rainy and gross outside and the indoor lighting here just doesn't do the knitting goodness justice. The good news about rainy days is I get to wear my big pink raincoat. This is a big deal of course because one rarely feels justified in wearing a raincoat when one lives in the desert.

I did snap a few photos of my yarn drying method.

Old water bottles are perfect weights to tie to hangers for drying because I can add or pour out water to alter the weight so the more fragile yarns won't lose their springiness or get broken. And I have a perfect little doorway to hang them up to dry once they're not dripping in the bathtub anymore. I just have to hope no one rings the doorbell while they're hanging there.

I'm calling this yarn Morrissey's Moody Garden. I spun it from some painted Finn roving from Hello Yarn. It's incredibly soft and there's enough to make a small to medium sized sweater.

If it doesn't sell I'll just knit something cool out of it. If the knit stuff doesn't sell I'll give it to someone. My attitude is if someone else enjoys something I had fun making that's great. Who wouldn't want to get paid for doing something they enjoy? It'll help pay to buy more yarn or something anyway.

These were a few things I knit over the weekend.

I'm calling that a Color Fiesta Stole. Because I'm a smartass. It's a very bright rainbow of colors knit on US 50 needles. Nice and soft merino thick and thin handspun.

This was knit using the same concept as the Craaazy Scarf but this time I used a magic ball method of lots of different yarns tied together. A neat mixutre of handspun and commercially spun with all kinds of different materials. I knit this on US35s and dubbed it The Bird's Nest scarf. It's tres punk rock.

We went to the dog park before sunset tonight and I got into a bit of a political argument with one of the other dog owners. I know better than this. But there were two important things I want to point out: I didn't start it and I was honestly being non-partisan in the beginning.

Basically someone started talking about a Nova tv program about the results of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans that was on last night and started generally blaming Bush about being a lazy asshole. As much as I'd like to blame Bush for every single hangnail in the entire world I do think that the results were due a series of mistakes, certainly his included but not his alone. But the retired Marine whom I've heard bash the UN during previous visits (so I should've known better) started talking about how it was completely the fault of the state and the city and I just could not help myself.

I said (in what I thought was a really clever turn of phrase but it was totally lost on these folks), "Well, I don't mean to start a big argument here, but I think it was just a big Confederacy of Dunces. They were all at fault. Everyone made mistakes and unfortunately the results were disastrous. I love that city and it breaks my heart to see it that way. But it was a result of many officials being incompetent. Not just a few."

Well, this wasn't received as the moderate statement it was meant to be. And it quickly devolved into ugliness. The retired military guy started spewing his typical party rhetoric such as

I'll probably be updating this a lot. Please scroll down for new posts.

Items for sale in the CraftRevolution Etsy Shop

felted desert spring bamboo handled purse
Ziggy Zaggy Scarf

PeskyMac's items up for sale :)

Olive Heather handspun yarn
Castle Stone handspun yarn

Also, Whitters is knitting stuff to order to benefit the Red Cross and Petsmart's hurricane relief fund!

I'm bumping the rest down into the extended entry.

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Washcloths for Katrina knit washcloths and donate a bar of soap to help the survivors of Katrina receive a handknit gift. I have a TON of kitchen cotton to knit washcloths for this. I'm also thinking about using a toy pattern in this yarn too.

Check out the Fleur de Lis washcloth pattern I made for this group

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While I was out mailing the sold items from the etsy shop yesterday Will called and left a message! He's fine, he and Sissy (a friend that goes way back to my boarding school days but I didn't know she was in NO) and her boyfriend went up to his parents' house. He'll be staying in Birmingham for a while but he plans to move back to New Orleans when the rebuilding starts.

It was so good to hear his voice.

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These are the sold etsy items:

My Craaaazy Scarf sold to plucky punk! yaaay!

My felted pink purse and belt set sold to Jocelyn yaaaay!
My beaded merino crossover scarf sold!
My Grape Kool Aid Neck Tube sold!

Erin's Plums in the Icebox handspun yarn I think this has already been sold?
Heather's Tess the purple vintage handknit purse sold!

Mac's sold stuff
Circus Freak baby hat sold!
You light up a room adult hat sold!
Working Girl adult hat sold!
Secret Agent Man adult hat sold!
Creature from the Purple Lagoon adult hat sold!
Orangecicle handspun yarn sold!
Clear as Mud handspun yarn sold!

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Also, for Sims creators and enthusiasts, the Depot Simulations Station has sent this out:

The Sims Community, while notoriously insane sometimes, is one of the most generous I've seen as well. People will probably be flooding this site with objects for donations so if you like playing The Sims 1 or 2, Zoo Tycoon 1 or 2, or Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 or 2 check these donations out when they become available. There are a lot of talented creators out there and the creativity in the objects people create can really change the game sometimes.

I love people combining their weird hobbies and philanthropy. It's pretty cool.

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My sister's been volunteering at the City of Refuge in Atlanta. They're really in need of volunteers during daytime business hours. You can check the shifts needed and volunteer through this page on Hands On Atlanta.

She says that if people are going to donate used clothing (which a lot of places are not even taking now, due to the time and efforts involved in sorting) to please be sure to separate and label things by gender, age, type, etc. Like "Men's M short-sleeved shirts," "Women's size 9 summer pants," "Boys 0-3 month pajamas."

It's better to give new stuff: new underwear and new shoes are really big needs here.

Money and time - that's what are really needed.

Her friend Randy that lives there is ok. Apparently he stayed in NO to care for two elderly aunts. I'm listening to mp3s of him telling the whole story.

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My mother volunteers for the Assistance League of Birmingham - a non-profit org that runs a store that sells crafts made by senior citizens so they can supplement their social security income and has a huge bank of clothing for children and teenagers where they give low income kids complete school outfits and warm coats every year. They have enough clothes and coats in their cache where they've already started clothing refugees that are staying at the Birmingham Civic Center and will be giving hygiene kits and more clothing as the children get registered for schools in the area.

They also sell a cookbook called "Serving Birmingham" that includes many family recipes. Some of our family's recipes are in them including some wonderful Cajun recipes for Barbecued Shrimp and Red Beans and Rice. I can personally attest how good (and easy) these recipes are. The cookbooks are twenty dollars and 100% of that goes to the Assistance League's Operation Schoolbell clothing program. They will accept credit card orders and donations over the phone!
Call 205-870-5555

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Blogger Michele is raising funds to buy school supplies for children at the Houston Astrodome. They're already setting up little schoolrooms there!

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Good news! I sold my sunset kool aid yarn to a knitter not quitter for fifteen dollars! We threw an extra ten in and donated it to the Houston Food Bank Drive. They say that 25 dollars will somehow buy 980 meals!

snagged from BridgeTroll

10 Assertions against Gay Marriage. With bonus sarcasm!

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3)Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behaviour. People may even wish to marry their pets! Because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans

Please post this list in your journal if you are for gay marriage.

And join the HRC.

I can't get over the Bush supporters who are saying things like "this isn't the time for politics it's time for action!" It's just because their boy looks bad and WE ALL KNOW that if Clinton or Gore or Kerry were in the White House they'd be calling for BLOOD.

Not that I honestly think that Kerry would have been able to do all that much better and I voted for the guy. Look, most of the time I think Democrats are just slightly less obnoxious about their religious beliefs and slightly more charitable about poor people than Republicans. But Democratic or Republican politicians are mostly a bunch of rich white male asshats who lie for a living and have no idea what its like to have a real job. And yes Louisiana politicians are usually famously corrupt - although what I know of the NO Mayor his entire campaign was run on a "cleaning up corruption" stance and the NO Police have really improved since that drug assasination ugliness in the early nineties.

It was a whole series of incompetencies that led to this tragedy. In my mind I keep comparing it to the large number of variables that led to so many deaths from the sinking of the Titanic.

But COME ON. Don't even try putting the holier than thou pretense that we should put politics aside. This is who half this country voted for and the Bushes are lookin' baaaaaad between Mr. Record holding Vacation taking gee can't wait to sit on poor beleagured Trent Lott's brand spankin new porch and calloused Mama worrying about all those icky poor people actually moving to Houston putting a strain on her state's economy and that whole Antoinettesque statement about how they're getting a better life in the Astrodome than they had in their own private homes. And Haliburton gets the contract to clean it up.

It's not just black people the Bushes don't care about. They don't care about anyone who can't do something for them. And if you honestly believe that these people are good, worthy Christians, that they would give their spit to save you from dying of thirst you are seriously deluding yourself.

Is this how people in other countries really feel? Do they really believe that the people in New Orleans have free access to the big US government coffers and just choose to live in abject poverty and not be able to escape the direct hit of a cat 5 hurricaine? That all people are doing is raping and stealing and shooting and nothing else?

It seems that people like this forget how completely outrageous it is to assume that every single person from a country are all exactly the same. That we all believed in and supported the war, that we all voted for Bush and all we believe in Jesus, guns, and the American dollar. This same person would be fucking livid if I said "All Australians are..blahblahblah" and ya know what? I never would.

But amazingly I've actually been to his country and not only have been to every goddamned state in it I even know their proper geography. Unlike him: "I have the deepest sympathy for what�s happening to the people of Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and the other states ravaged by Katrina" Shut up you fucking moron. You claim to know the intricate workings of this country and don't even know which states were affected. You are a self-righteous asshole who is using a very large human tragedy to tout your hypocritical political beliefs, almost taking glee in watching a country that may be far from fucking perfect but has millions of good people in it despite how some behave as it falls apart? How dare you claim to know what we're all doing here and think you have any right to decide who is and isn't worthy of help? You are no better than Pat Robertson or George Bush you're just a heartless asshole in liberal clothing.

Original Child Bomb

interesting mefi thread about it

Last night I watched a movie about Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs at tennis. I probably watched that game as a baby with my Mom, who used to be quite a tennis player herself. The ending to this movie was so hopeful, giving a sense that before that movie, it really was just unheard of that a woman might be able to beat a man in a sport. I got the impression that watching King's skill and training beat that guy's grandstanding and poor sportsmanship at his own game became an inspiration to millions of women, who went on to form their own companies, run for senate, make their own choices. And in that movie the lack of respect for women at that time really came through, a pilot grabbing a stewardess' ass without any thought about how humiliating that might be, or that there could be any consequences. The idea that we could be returning to women being considered second class citizens like that scares me. I've never seen a world where women weren't given equal consideration under the law. And sadly, I'm starting to wonder how likely it is that we're right on the way back to those days right now.

We all knew that whomever Bush chose to replace O'Connor was going to be a white conservative guy* who would be rubbing his hands together in anticipation of overturning Roe v. Wade so the country could get back to the family values of denying women the right to make their own decisions about what they wanted to do with their bodies and make us into the meek, barefoot, church potluck ham and macaroni and cheese casserole-making baby machines God intends us to be. We knew there was going to be some form of good-ol-boy network nepotism.

None of these are a surprise, really. This is what a lot of us were truly afraid of all along. We knew he was going to be nominating Chief Justices. But anticipating something and watching it happen are very different experiences.

In my household this is another argument for Mr. Man's two year long "let's move to the Netherlands" campaign. My father (who is not usually an optimist by any means) likes to talk about the pendulum of American politics - how it swings one way then builds momentum and eventually swings further the other way. He should know, having grown up in the Eisenhower years. Having worked for one of the more conservative corporations for over forty years as a closet Socialist. And I have to admit, I'm starting to look into those good things I've heard about Vancouver, especially after this recent gay marriage bill passing.

All I know is I'm perpetually afraid and finding more and more situations (and tv shows and presidential speeches) that feed my phobias.

Here's a good example: at the kool aid dyeing potluck party there was a woman wearing a "dissent is patriotic" pin on her shirt. I leaned over and whispered that I liked her button and asked where she got it. We started talking about different websites like impeachbush.com and she said I should get a bumpersticker. I told her that we don't put bumperstickers, particularly political ones, on our car because we're afraid that the car will be vandalized or that we would get accosted in a parking lot. I started to say "Isn't it sad that we're living in a time when that seems like a real possibility," but before I even finished my sentence a woman wearing yellow standing on the other side of me said that if she saw a bumpersticker like that on my car she'd shoot my tires out, effectively proving my point. The two women on either side of me started arguing (the "dissent is patriotic" woman kept saying how they should "politely agree to disagree" while the woman in yellow kept harping about Lewinsky and Jesus and her personal friends "The Bushes") and I immediately wished I just hadn't said anything at all.

I have no problem with someone disagreeing with me. To be honest I prefer when they do it in an intelligent manner without namecalling. But, yeah, I have a problem when someone threatens to shoot my fucking tires out if they disagree with my bumpersticker. That just makes *you* look like an asshole and kind of diminishes the liklihood that I'll take your opinion seriously.

So my fears are sometimes warranted. And while I'm not a big fan of either party right now (in fact, I honestly believe that the two-party system serves no purpose other than to keep the status quo) I'm genuinely frightened of Roe v. Wade being overturned. To me it represents more than the legal ability for women to have access to abortions, it shows an entire attitude towards women being able to make their own reproductive decisions, free access to and knowledge of birth control, preventative care, hell just showing a modicum of respect for women having control and knowledge of their own damn bodies without legislation (or self-righteous pharmacists) telling a woman that even if she were raped by her Christian snake-handler father or uncle, even if the prenatal tests showed severe developmental and physical disease, she had to carry that baby to term because very old white Christian lawmakers think their God told them she should.

I know a lot of good Christian people are feeling all put-upon these days because people keep saying mean things about them. And I know that most people who genuinely follow the teachings of Christ are just as appalled by what these crazy few are talking about. I don't have a problem with Christianity itself, I swear it, but I SURE have a problem when people use their religion as a goddamned hammer to control what I can believe in or especially what I can do do with my own body. If I want to tattoo or pierce, infect myself with a disease, or even have a limb removed for no reason I should be able to do so without some asshole telling me I can't.

In the bible there's a whole LOT of discussion on God's gift of free will to man. So if I choose to not follow what your God thinks I shouldn't do, well, that's my choice and I'll take the consequences. You should worry about yours and leave me the hell alone, so to speak.

So here I am feeling completely helpless. What can I do to get my feelings across other than start ugly arguments at knitting guild meetings and post angry fist-shakings on my personal website?

Not a lot because I'm a big lazy chickenshit. But here's an interesting thing I'm going to do to feel better: knit a bunch of uterii and mail them to washington. Well, hell, it's something.

* While people may argue that the justice should be chosen based on his merit not based on his gender or color I can't help thinking about how in a Democratic society the people are supposed to be represented by their supposed peers, not the guy with the best smile, most bullshit and connections, or unlimited funds so he can run ads on prime time local television and campaign endlessly without having to work a real job to support himself and his family. But that doesn't happen. Do you think the people representing us in any form of government (and I'm talking both parties here) have any inkling what it's like to be you? Hell no. So in a country full of people of all kinds of colors and ethnic backgrounds (with different genders and a few different sexual preferences) don't you feel a little spooked that the people who not only make the laws but enforce them are usually straight Christian white men who have no idea what it's like to hold a real job (one of the reasons I wasn't all that super-excited about Kerry either - he was another ivy league child of priviledge who had no idea what it was like to have to deliver pizza) or have to balance a budget? Do you really think that's representative because I sure as hell don't.

1992:

The (extremely conservative Methodist 90% greek and I don't mean nationality) college I was going to at the time had three terms: a fall and spring term with a one-month mini term in-between where we focused on one class, took a sponsored trip, did internships, etc.

That January I'd gone on an "Art and Architecture of Italy" trip, led, oddly-enough, by a Classics and an English professor. The only actual art students that were on this trip were me - at the height of my I'm a big fag-hag Fluevog shoe and babydoll dress wearin', unnatural shade of red hair sportin', dance club goin' pretentious little pseudo-goth-industrial-dance art school girl days and my friend Will who was also a big Fluevog shoe wearin', dance club goin', unnatural shade of black hair mushroom cut sportin', pretentious little pseudo-goth-industrial-dance art school gay (but not admitting it yet) guy. The others were your average run-of-the-mill preppie Southern fraternity/sorority khaki wearin', Bush senior votin', beer drinkin', pretentious art major hatin' Birmingham Southern students. For the life of me I can't figure out what any of these people were doing on a trip about Italian Art and Architecture although I'm fairly sure one or two of those sorority girls were on a mission to have some old-school American woman in a Mediterranean country sex though the little hypocrites would never admit to it in a million years.

It was our last night in Italy. We were staying at what we'd come to regard as our home, the odd and lovable Hotel Ponte Sisto in Rome, and the frat boys wanted to watch the superbowl in the bar lounge. Now Will and I had been drunk pretty much the whole time we were there (the wine in Italy is, as you would expect, cheap, plentiful, and delicious) but this night we had a pretty good hammer going. We'd gone back to my favorite Chinese restaurant on the Campo del Fiore to get one more meal in and had celebrated the fabulousness of the Chicken Marco Polo in our usual wine-soaked manner. I have no idea who played or won. But we had a fabulous time giggling about homosexual overtones in sports. It's a wonder one of those frat boys didn't beat the crap out of us.

Important travel tip: don't pack your bags when you're drunk.

2004:

Cody was in Austin helping get the Tennessee lottery working. He wasn't coming home until valentine's day and I was about six months into my inability to drive without a panic attack. I was on a weird sleeping schedule, as usual, woke up at about six pm to discover that the coffeemaker had died.

Being superbowl night I decided that this was the ideal time to brave the drive to Wal Mart to buy a new one since most of the drivers and patrons that give me the heebiejeebies would be at home drinking beer, eating processed cheese products and, apparently, staring at Janet Jackson's boob.

So there I stood in the Wal Mart appliance aisle: bleary-eyed, having just woken up, and not had any caffeine, squinting at the various coffeemakers trying to figure out just how committed I was to the "pause n serv" feature when a young teenage vaguely Hispanic boy came up to me and started a sales pitch with his little notebook full of Carlson craft at it's most debauched cards. It took me a few minutes to realize that this kid was trying to sell me something for his church group. As far as I remember I was fairly polite to him but was giving him a very firm "no" while still giving my main focus to the black and decker coffeepots.

Then he gave me his big sales whammy that was supposed to make me jump so high my money would come pouring out: "The money from selling these cards goes to help fund an abstinence program for our school."

What's really weird is it wasn't the first time I'd been approached by teenage boys wanting to discuss abstinence until marriage with me in a hugely public place. In the summer of 1997, I believe, I was visiting my parents. This was when they were living in Atlanta and I had gone with my mom for an appointment to her neurologist at Crawford Long hospital downtown. While she was at her appointment I decided to walk across the street to Mick's for my favorite fried green tomato sandwich. On the corner I was approached by three Asian teenage boys who tried to make me sign some fucking pledge saying I wouldn't have sex before marriage. I think I laughed, probably very loudly, and informed them they were at least ten years too late for that one. Unfazed they said that I could decide to make the pledge now and my hymen would magically regrow if I put a leech on it. Ok, no they just wanted me to sign some pledge reclaiming my virginity and saying I'd wear an imaginary chastity belt locked with this piece of paper until the preacher handed my legal husband the key on our wedding day. To which I said "I think the man I'm living in sin with would have a serious problem with this. Sorry boys." And walked off. Which was true. I was already living with my would-be husband at the time and I think he would've taken serious umbrage if I'd signed some reclamation of my virginity in front of a bunch of fifteen year old boys on the street in downtown Atlanta. No matter how legally binding the contract would actually be.

So not only am I a plain old "Weirdo Magnet" which is bad enough, now I'm a "young boys wanting to discuss the absence of sex" magnet. And people wonder where this agora / social phobia stuff comes from!

Back to the poor little not-yet fifteen year-old boy in the Wal Mart appliance aisle. He thought this "abstinence program" thing was going to be his money shot, so to speak. That I would gladly buy the ugly notecards with the Precious moments twins and maybe even a few winter scenes with a deer to boot just because the money would go towards a class informing kids that sex is a bad, yucky thing to do and you'll go blind if you do it before you're married in a proper church. But he had no fucking clue who this woman was the devil had sent to test him with.

Uncaffeinated, mildly annoyed for being solicited while already in the process of shopping, but really annoyed now, I turned to that young boy and said "Then I'm definitely not going to buy those cards, honey, because I don't personally believe that abstinence before marriage does any good whatsoever. I think that sex before marriage can actually be a beautiful and fun thing when done in a responsible manner between two consenting adults. It can be a great way to develop intimacy with another person. And you know what? It's fun! And there's absolutely nothing wrong with sex when it's done properly - whether alone or with another person. I think this money would be much better served to go towards a sex education program that not only promoted safe sex but maybe provided some good young teenage couple counseling. I think programs that promote abstinence rather than explaining that it's ok when done properly not only promotes sheer blind ignorance but actually increases the likelihood of teenage pregnancies, shotgun weddings, and domestic violence because kids are going to experiment, that's a given. But to send kids out there without proper instruction in sex education and birth control is sending like sending a soldier out with a weapon he has absolutely no training in how to use!"

I don't know how long I lectured him in this vein. But as I kept going his eyes got bigger and bigger. I don't know if it was because no one had ever been this candid with him or if he thought I was some sex-crazed lunatic housewife who was going to jump him in the appliance aisle. I believe there was something thrown in there about how maybe he shouldn't accost people to sell these things amongst the aisles inside a store as well. Eventually he ran away in fear of my lascivious, discussing sex openly, appliance-buying ways. Which was perfect. I got to finish picking out my coffeemaker.

Is it ironic that I've since switched to tea?

Amazing isn't it though? Who are these people sending teenage boys out in public to not only discuss sex in general but to actually try to get other people to sign some abstinence pledge - or giving money to support an abstinence program? Why on earth do they think that's their business?

Wal Mart shopping trip tip: wear a shirt that says "The state of my hymen is none of your damn business" .

2005:

Diddled around with some wordpress plugins whose whitespace produced annoying header errors on the site I'm working on. Watched the first two dvds of Brideshead Revisited and ate Chinese food Cody had brought home the night before when he went down to Los Lunas to do some family tech support - sometimes it's easier to go down there and do the restore disk yourself rather than tell people how to do it on the phone. Spent my monthly thirty dollar itunes allowance. Went to sleep probably before the game had even started. Slept until two am.

itunes tip: Don't keep too many songs in your shopping cart. After about 300 you start getting unspecified error messages and the apple cs people will go in there and clear it out.

Indymedia

God damn

Yesterday I saw a lot of sites participating in protests in one way or another. And I saw a lot of other sites mocking them for the unliklihood that their posts would do a damn thing.

Let's see, which camp would I rather be a part of? The idealistic people tilting at possible windmills? Or the apathetic derisive folks who will complain about things regardless?

In this case I want my rose colored glasses. I've been the derisive one plenty of times and while it's fun to feel cynical and superior to the drooling masses all it ultimately does is build up the bile and self-hate. It's an action that's guaranteed to not make one damn bit of difference at the end of the day except make you look like a mocking asshole.

As far as I'm concerned if doing a protest yesterday (in any form) made you feel a little bit better and more empowered in a very frustrating, seemingly powerless situation then it served its purpose. Not everything is constructed with the primary goal of changing the world in drastic ways. But there is that saying about butterfly wings in asia right?

And if posting pointless dribble that rarely means anything of consequence except for your own mental masturbation isn't the epitome of weblogging than it might be time to step away from the keyboard for a while, sunshine.

Just sayin.

Did you know that retching and vomiting can do wonders for your abs? Seems so cos mine hurt like the debil. But I'm doing much better today. I got to eat! Whee!

In case you entered from a backdoor link: I've made a temporary index page for the site in recognition of today's 'special' day. The image is a picture of a talking poo-throwing monkey who, incredibly, doesn't believe in evolution, made by a mosaic of photos of US soldiers who died in Iraq as of April, 2004. Image taken from American Leftist. Idea to use it from Hatamaran.

Quirky Burque lists some counter inauguration events around town.

I'm Blue has a bevy of event lists, Irregular Times has declared today a day of mourning and has a huge list of events around the country. Cheeky Prof has a listing of different financial protests you can make today (also known as Black Thursday) if you're so inclined.

A lot of people say "what's the point? Your little act won't make a damn bit of difference." Don't listen to them. There are over fifty-six million of us (that were counted anyway) who did not vote for him. We can do small things in our daily lives that, added together, can make a difference. Or you can sit back on your apathetic ass and do nothing but bitch while these guys steal your money, your parents' money, access to education and information, proper preventative healthcare (and not just pills pushed by bloated drug companies).

And watch this country become the religious zealotist bitch to the corporate gulag they seem to have in store for us.

You make choices every day. Whether to drive or walk, use paper or plastic, have red or green chile, whipped cream on top of the mocha latte or not. Think if we all made one different decision a day. Yes, it could change things. Or at least make them notice that our opinions might matter to them after all.

Thank you Michael!

I've never been a big fan of Domenici and I think by now he's well aware of that. All emails or faxes I've sent to him about various issues (from abortion to gay rights) have been met with snide, condescending form letters. I very, very rarely agree with how he votes. And he doesn't seem to care what we who oppose him think.

But I do trust Bingaman to ask pertinent questions if we ask him to do so. He has a history of usually voting in a way I agree with, although, not always.

I'll send them both a fax alert and pass this information along to other New Mexico webloggers.

New Mexico and nuclear issues have a very interesting history together. From Los Alamos to White Sands to WIPP. We're a weird state. Sometimes as conservative as any bow-tied talk show pundit. Other times, we're more liberal than we are with our chile sauces (and that's really liberal).

So it honestly could go either way. After what happened with Cosgrove this week I'm a lot more optimistic about the changes webloggers can make. So spread the word and call your senators!

Contact them in Washington. Tell them you are a New Mexico Voter.

Senator Pete Domenici:
phone:(202) 224 – 6621
fax: 202-228-0900
email: http://domenici.senate.gov/contact/contactform.cfm

Senator Jeff Bingaman:
phone: (202) 224 – 5521
fax: 202-224-2852
email: senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov

Here are some questions you can suggest to them-

Will you recommend to the President that he should order a resumption of nuclear testing?

Can America credibly compel Iran and North Korea to discontinue their pursuits of nuclear weapons when it is developing new bombs of its own?

How will testing nuclear weapons improve America’s national security?

How will a US resumption of nuclear testing affect commitments by Russia, China, and other states not to conduct any more tests of their own?

Thanks again, Michael, we'll do what we can.

So I'm sure most of you have heard about the pregnant woman who was denied the divorce from her jailed abusive husband. Most reactions I've read were (and I admit I was right there with them) "oh great just more of old fashioned keep em battered and barefoot and pregnant family values". Well, there seems to be a bit more to it than that.

Apparently the woman or her lawyer failed to disclose that she was pregnant when they filed for the divorce. And in the state of Washington where this is taking place the ex-husband is held legally responsible for child support if birth is given within 300 days of the divorce. This is assuming that the ex-husband is the father. Which, in this case, he is not. But it seems this wasn't brought up until after the ruling. And this kind of law, while being somewhat presumptuous about sexual practices in this day and age, is pretty much set up so the asshole ex-husband can't get out of child support payments. So it's not exactly a law that I would cry foul over right away.

Also, the pregnant woman is currently on state assistance. So the state of Washington had filed a formal objection to the divorce on the grounds that they would be unable to hold the actual father (whomever he might be) financially responsible for the child. She has two other children with the husband and apparently this charmer she married in 1998 wasn't abusive until she was pregnant with the second one.

Did I mention that the man the woman claims is the father is also in jail for federal drug charges?

The ACLU and various women's rights groups are all over this. There's already a restraining order against the husband who can't contact her even if he manages to get out of prison before the divorce finally does come through. And the judge involved in the ruling retired on Friday. So I'm sure this will be cleared up soon. But it really does seem to be a different situation than a lot of us were assuming.

Oh and I can't help this I gotta: HELLO?? BIRTH CONTROL!! Look, I'm not blaming the victim or any of that stuff this is exactly what I would say to any friend I had that was on government assistance with two kids and an abusive husband in the pen currently fucking her high school flame, the coke dealer: "You're using condoms right? I mean this situation is fucked up enough honey you don't want to get pregnant again do you?"

And lemme tell you, with some of my old Mountain Brook classmates this situation really wouldn't be as unlikely as you'd expect. Except they'd be more on the parental assistance program rather than the state's. Those crazy rich kids!

This is only slightly related but I'm excited in a giddy nerdy way. I saw a great deal for subscribing to Salon Premium which included a year's subscription for The New Yorker in print. I've been meaning to get that for Mr Man for years so I caved. And there were mp3 downloads from Salon. Rock. Now if I could only get the gumption to take one of their cruises.

Want to wear your beliefs on your car's sleeve too but haven't found one that properly sums up your feelings? Create and buy your own magnetic ribbons! Including prefab slogans, space to create your own, various ribbon designs!

I totally stole this from Rear Window Ethics

Ok, folks let's have a serious chat for a minute here. Now, I understand patriotism and I fully support it. Really. I promise. I've traveled around the world and while I was always proud to be so adaptable as to be thought of as a local (or at the very least not a fucking annoying American tourist) wherever I was I was also quite happy to come back home. Naturally there are things that happen here I'm not proud of but years ago I made a conscious choice to live in the US when I could have done otherwise and right now I think it's part of my job to stay here and try to fix it at least by the example of not becoming a paranoid xenophobic hate machine.

I'll admit though that even I get a little defensive when people who've never even been to the US try to dictate what we should do - in the same way I get annoyed when our president does it to other countries and we know how limited his travel experiences have been. Or someone who's never been to the south attempts to dictate the culture there for that matter. People who have grown up in these places don't usually fully understand the nuances of their own culture how the fuck should someone who's never even been there be able to fix what's wrong with it?

So, no, I'm not anti-American or a self-hating American or whatever the current demean-the-liberal phrase du jour is. I actually do consider myself a patriot - just not the kind that's so insecure in my beliefs that I feel I have to prove it every five seconds and shove it down others' throats by pasting stars and stripes on every god damn thing I own.

That being said, the existence of an ornament with Santa Claus being wrapped in an American flag is probably the creepiest thing I've seen in a few weeks. That's saying a lot folks I was in a Wal Mart parking lot in Los Lunas on Black Friday.

No goddammit, Santa Claus is not exclusive to the US. He is not a patriot. To literally wrap Santa Claus in the American flag pretty much goes against the modern concept of Santa Claus giving gifts to the children around the world doncha think? He doesn't only go to American houses to bring presents! He doesn't even live here! The north pole is not a US territory.

First, we stole the concept of Santa Claus from the Dutch - although there he actually 'visits' on a different day entirely and rarely leaves anything bigger than little fun trinket toys. And that figure's origins go back to a weird amalgam of Odin flying in the sky casting blessings during midwinter while his son Thor wore red and fought the cold to bring the light back combined with a kindly priest who lived around 600 ad later adopted as a saint by the church. And guess what? The original Saint Nicolos was actually a Christian Greek-speaking Turk!

See, Christmas is a big combination of lots of different cultures' winter rituals - the ancient origins of Winter Solstice or Yule involved having a huge celebration on the shortest day of the year. I'm paraphrasing of course. It was essentially hijacked by the church so pagans would be more comfortable with Christianity because they could still practice the rituals they were already familiar with. Examples of Christianity absorbing then dominating rituals like that exist in pretty much every culture and is associated with every modern Christian holiday.

The tree? The Druids decorated trees with apples and nuts and candles to celebrate and thank Odin for the harvest while later the Romans put candles and trinkets in trees to celebrate the week long Saturnalia parties honoring their god Saturn. Around the same time Egyptians were doing something similar with palm fronds (hello palm sunday). Later during the middle ages there's the Tannenbaum tree in Germany - which was brought inside because it was a crime to have under strict protestant no-false-idolatry rule at the time. Then under Charles II in England the ability to celebrate Christmas was considered law and the tree thing spread to other countries. Ironically, the Christmas tree was first brought to the US by the Hessians - Germans hired by England to fight against the US revolutionaries.

The date? Historians generally agree that the origin of the date now celebrated as Christmas, December 25th, was traditionally celebrated by the Romans as the birthday of a "child of light" better known as Mithra, a Persian Sun-God who was also considered a kind, redeeming deity. Blah Blah, adopted by the church blah. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Mix those all together and now the modern concept of Christmas in America can be primarily attributed to a big combination of history, Charles Dickens, and various tomes written to make the poor and middle class happy during the Industrial Revolution. And copywriters for chain department stores so you'd buy all their crap.

Got that? Santa Claus is not an American. We do not hold exclusive rights to the celebration. And while I'm delighted by the concept of giving presents, being nice, and making other people happy in whatever religious or secular form it takes...get that flag off of him. Now. Because it's shit like that that makes other countries hate us so much.

I apologize profusely to my various sources, to the cultures I didn't discuss, and especially to the ones I did. I didn't want to write a dissertation I just wanted to get my point across. Tis the season and all that jazz.

Bush makes first official visit to Canada Tuesday

You mean this guy's been in office almost four years and this is the first time he's gone to one of the two countries that borders the US?? A country whose fate is so intertwined with ours that I've heard it referred to as "The Fifty-first state" and "America-lite"? And he's NEVER BEEN THERE?

And we wonder why other countries consider us in general and our president in particular just a tad bit self-involved and out of touch with the rest of the world.

Dear Noelle,

For your heartfelt, personal conversations with co-workers, friends, and family that plant the seeds for tolerance and change in our culture; for standing up against harmful and discriminatory legislation; for your unwavering support as we continue fighting for equality and civil rights for all Americans - thank you.

From all of us at the Human Rights Campaign, we wish you a warm and loving holiday.

Many thanks,

Cheryl Jacques
President, Human Rights Campaign

Going to see Bill Maher live was great. I know he can be a crude little misogynistic ass but I can forgive him that just for the fluster he can send Andrew Sullivan and Alan Simpson into almost simultaneously.

It's true I was there for the licking of fresh political wounds like most people around me. They say laughter is the best medicine and to be honest I think my twenty-five bucks were well spent just on the sign language translator lady up on stage with him. There were two of them actually and they would trade off about every thirty minutes. They were clearly enjoying themselves too - translating with large, animated gestures and making fun little faces to express the Maher snark voice as best they could.

I'd previously heard a lot of the jokes on his hbo specials or the Real Time show but he seemed to be working some new shtick. My favorite non-political jokes by far were his translating rap songs into English that stuffy white people could understand. And even though I'm fairly sure I've seen it done before it was very very funny. My stomach is a bit sore today from laughing at those.

One of his newer jokes, to me anyway, is the plan to claim he's Swiss rather than having to admit he's from a country that re-elected W. This is a sentiment I can relate to in a number of ways but with which I strongly disagree. Now I know at the core he's just a comedian but it started an interesting thought process for me.

I know what it's like to be from a place you somehow simultaneously love and hate. I grew up with that feeling. One word folks: Alabama.

I have a pretty good guess what the word Alabama conjures in your mind if you've never been there - or have only briefly driven through the state on a road trip or even just on a dare.

In your mind's eye you might see Beer-bellied power-mad sheriffs, racist football-crazy hicks who like to recreate a war they lost when the game's not on, gum-smacking ignorant women wearing skin-tight stone-washed jeans with three-foot-tall hairdos held using a gallon of aqua net and at least four kids in tow, religious fanatics who play with poisonous snakes and take the most fantastic and anti-woman elements of the old testament literally, and tobacco-drooling bubbas in liberty overalls with red checkered shirts and John Deere trucker hats on their heads all shopping together for weapons and ammo and squirrel stew ingredients on a Saturday morning at the Wal Mart Supercenter, its parking lot full of trucks with opaque deer scenes painted in the back windows that almost obscure the gun racks from view.

Is that close?

What about the south in general? Your mental picture is probably similar if maybe a little less crude because Alabama really is the lowest in the rung as far as public persona. Oh people say it's Mississippi but there's an element of pity with that state - like they're too poor to help themselves really - while Alabama people are usually portrayed as just defiantly stupid, willfully racist, violently homophobic.

Yes, I grew up in Alabama. Not in a neighborhood where anyone in overalls (aside from silly teenaged art students like me) would live but the task of describing the insane snobbery and self-delusion of my home neighborhood is more than I can handle right now.

Yes, I left Alabama. Willingly and happily. And when I'm lonely late at night one of my last resort comforts is that I'm no longer in Alabama but don't think I'm proud of those false comforts because it highlights my personal flaws much more than those of the state. One thing I am most proud of, that I feel was a true accomplishment for me, is growing up there and not being a stupid bigoted blindly zealous xenophobe. Or, for that matter, a materialistic little preppie bowhead southern lawyer's Mountain Brook housewife. There were a lot of directions I could have chosen growing up there. I just happened to choose the one to move to New Mexico, marry a geek, and live in a tacky house in Albuquerque with a bunch of pets. What can I say I was holding a really weird compass.

I like being the exception to the rule. I like people asking where I am from originally and saying "Why, Alabama! Can't you tell?" In a similar vein I really enjoyed being mistaken for a non-American in other countries. That look of shock and confusion on people's faces when I told them where I grew up. I loved telling them about Alabama.

Believe me, being confused for a regular independant American student at Yon Sei University in Seoul and not a member of that group of frightened preppie republican students from my school was a beautiful, amazing feeling. That feeling of being different from the others gave me permission to go out on my own, meet people and have conversations the other BSC kids didn't get to have because they were busy being similar to each other, afraid to branch out, even in a foreign country, especially in a foreign country.

But my pleasure wasn't in some kind of abject denial of my origins - Alabaman or American. I took it as a great compliment to my ability to fit in wherever I went. I pride myself in having a cultural curiosity that makes me comfortable enough within myself to be able to try new unfamiliar things without feeling the core is being threatened. I've learned a lot from these experiences abroad and now in New Mexico.

I truly wish more people could adopt this attitude, namely W, because I think any sign of cultural curiosity, rather than the intrinsic fear of anything different he and his appointees have shown so far, would be met really well with us latte-drinkin pinko liberals and our communist European consorts. At least it would be some sign that he really is trying to meet us halfway. An attempt at unity was promised right? We're supposed to be compromising right?

So even if Cody and I did manage to move to another country some day I would never deny my origins goddammit. I would use them as proof to the people I met on a daily basis that not all Americans support this kind of governing, that not all people from Alabama are wife-beatin beer-drinkin racist homophobes....with big hair.

addresses any questions or points one might have against gay marriage. I don't always agree with this guy but damn I agree with this.

:tiptoe-ing around the whole actual discussion of politics:

Guess who gets to see Bill Maher live on Tuesday?

Me! Yaaay!

Andrew Sullivan (who gets no linky love from me) came off as a real ass on friday's show. He was quite rude in talking over Pat Schroeder whom I'd actually like to hear tyvm. And was quite insulting to the host and his other guests - including the televised guests whom it's customary on the show to speak only one-to-one with Maher. That's real class asshole. Talking about people being condescending and smug? And making huge assumptions about stereotypes? Hello Mr Pot meet Kettle you might have something in common. I find his little pushy bitchy speeches insulting to both parties.

That ain't politics baby that's just bad manners. :snap snap snap:

Since MT Blacklist seems like its going to remain in alpha (ie broken) stage for a while longer I'm going to start blocking specific ip addresses from commenting.

This is only because of comment spam I'm not censoring opposing viewpoints. I'm just having some trouble allowing my friends to post without a problem while not getting hit with massive comment spam to filter through. And when I have to go through and delete so many stupid ads for effexor and poker I'm afraid I'm going to delete an actual comment.

Although I'd like to point out two things:

1> This is my website and I could block anyone from commenting or even visiting at any time for any reason that popped in my head. But I don't plan to do this.

2> If you have an opposing viewpoint you might want to try expressing it in a more literate way in order to garner a modicum of respect. Just a suggestion ;)

So if you find yourself blocked email me or use the email form on the sidebar and I'll unblock your ip.

And with that said..
Look at these little widdle faces (takes a while to load even on my 3mbps connection though)

This next one is dedicated to my favorite homophobe voters out there, you know who you are. And it's brought to you by the letters F and U.

Nah, I'm not bitter. Just feeling a little huffy and poky at the mo. But, hey, Lou's cool go listen to him.

Sex With Your Parents (Motherfucker) Part II
from Set The Twilight Reeling
by Lou Reed

I was thinking of things that I hate to do
SEX WITH YOUR PARENTS
Things you do to me or I do to you, baby
SEX WITH YOUR PARENTS

Something fatter or uglier than Rush Rambo
Something more disgusting than Robert Dole
Something pink that climbs out of a hole
And there it was - SEX WITH YOUR PARENTS

I was getting so sick of this right wing republican shit
These ugly old man scared of young tit and dick
So I try to think of something that made me sick
And there it was - SEX WITH YOUR PARENTS

Now these old fucks can steal all they want
And they can go and pass laws saying you can't say what you want
And you can't look at this and you can't look at that
And you can't smoke this and you can't snort that
And me baby - I got statistics - I got stats
These people have been to bed with their parents

Now I know you're shocked but hang and have a brew
If you think about it for a minute you know that it's true
They're ashamed and repelled and they don't know what to do
They've had sex with their parents
When they looked into their lovers eyes they saw - mom
In the name of the family values we must ask whose family
In the name of the family values we must ask - Senator

It's has been reported that you have had
Illegal congress with your mother, - SEX WITH YOUR PARENTS
ah, Senator
An illegal congress by proxy is a
Pigeon by any other name, - SEX WITH YOUR PARENTS

Senators you polish a turd
Here in the big city we got a word
For those who would bed their beloved big bird
And make a mockery of our freedoms
Ah, without even using a condom
Without even saying "no"
By god we have a name for people like that
It's - hey motherfucker

Well. It's over I guess. We did what we could and lost this election. I'm sad, embarrassed, and seriously worried about the mental health of my neighbors. And people wonder why I have panic attacks when I drive: because clearly I'm surrounded by morons who don't give a shit about the safety or well-being of others on cellphones with the dvd player on for the kids controlling two ton SUVs of death with a serious attitude.

Here's the thing: I can understand to a certain extent why some people voted for him. No, really. These people genuinely believed what they were being told - that Iraq was for a good cause, the economy was going to get better despite having someone who has never been raised to balance his personal budget let alone a country's, that we can just pray to get better rather than provide affordable healthcare. That it really doesn't matter if the rest of the world hates us.

These people believed that special blend of faux optimism, sheer blind arrogance, and self-serving piousness they've been fed for, hell, the last eight years or more. An unbelievable number of people purchase obviously crap items on late night infomercials as well. Yes, you heard me, I just compared him to a thighmaster, a roombus vacuum, trimspa 'vitamins'. The Juice Tiger.

I plan to continue calling him the poo throwing monkey. And I pity the people who were so happy to make cruel Clinton jokes and became so self-righteous whenever this one was criticized. I can respect that amazing political machine that got him there. I can respect the clearly intelligent minds behind the machine. But the frat boy figurehead? No. Sorry. I'm just not that good a person I suppose.

Don't kid yourselves fellas. Without that frightening political machine this guy couldn't win a game of scrabble. And you know it.

But, really, I can kind of sort of see why some people would vote for him. They like having someone who speaks in a language they understand and apparently see no value in other nations being able to understand what our leader has to say.

Because god's on our side, right? heh yeah. If you were a deity would you give two shits about some annoying piddling country or any of their sports teams?

But like I said, I can understand to a certain extent believing in this guy and voting for him. Kind of.

No, actually I can't. I'm trying to understand but I just don't. I think half of our country has lost its mind and drunk the electric kool aid. Of course, they think we've done the same. And this is George W's legacy to history.

That said, I have a very special message for the voters in Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, North Dakota and Utah: Fuck you. No. Really. F U C K Y O U. How fucking DARE you pass such clearly discriminatory amendments into your STATE CONSTITUTIONS? How fucking dare you? Do you really seriously believe that gay people are beneath you? Did God speak to you as well? Busy guy, eh? Were you just not reading the fine print? I mean, I had a lot of bonds and things to vote on too but it's not like you didn't KNOW that one of these things might be kind of, I dunno, REALLY important?

I have fucking FAMILY living in some of those states and I just can't believe they live in places surrounded by self-righteous assholes that care so little for fellow men. I can't even process the thought that I might have the same dna as people who voted yes.

I can understand people genuinely believing a lot of things but these anti-gay marriage amendments. I do not understand. What the fuck is wrong with these people?

May each and every person who voted for that amendment produce big dyke-y daughters that grow up and seriously KICK THEIR ASS.

May you have sons who move west and never speak to you again, not even to meet your adopted grandchildren that all get on the list to win the nobel fucking prize.

May every single pair of support pantyhose run and bind in strange places cutting off circulation and causing truly impressive spider veins. May every pair of your socks bunch up in one place and cause huge infected pus-ridden blisters.

May every goddamned casserole at every one of your future church pot luck socials spoil and fester and smell to high heaven where your God takes notice and makes it rain over your house every damn day because it might be the source of a new biblical plague.

Petty of me? Yes. But well-deserved by each and every one of you who voted to support that piece of shit.

edit- think I'm being bitter? Go read Ed's amazing diatribe over at Gin and Tacos.

Damn the man.

It's not all about us and our flaccid elections, folks. (couldn't resist the pun there.)

There was some very sad news today (yesterday) from The Netherlands about the assassination of Theo Van Gogh, great-grandnephew of my favorite painter, and controversial filmmaker who had received death threats after making a film about muslim women.

there's a very interesting weblog entry about it here

ps-my last present of the day in the extended entry

AMERICA IS NOT THE WORLD **
by Morrissey

America / your head’s too big / because
America / your belly’s too big
and I love you
I just wish you’d stay where you is / in
America / the land of the Free, they said
and of opportunity
in a Just / and a Truthful way
but where the President is never black
or female or gay / and until that day
you’ve got nothing to say to me
to help me believe / in
America / it brought you the hamburger
well America / you know where
you can shove your hamburger
and don’t