Rascism and a White Girl

Been given to thinking about the question of racism lately... seems to be on a lot of minds lately, can't imagine why;) I've always thought of myself as 'colorblind' and probably am more than some, having grown up in Southern California in a land of no obvious majority. I have come to see that 'isms' come more from the perspective of 'what is the norm.' Now living in a state that is predominantly white, I notice race or at least skin color at lot more. However, this has not lead me to believe that I am more racist.

But, when it is drawn to my attention, I realize that I suffer from a sort of silent entitlement that I am mostly unaware of. For example, I have often invoked strangely colored people when trying to make a point - "I don't care if he's black, white or purple." It never occurred to me that only a white person would use such a phrase... that it minimizes the importance of race because race may be unimportant to me... I'm not discriminated against because of my race. That never occurred to me.

On the other hand, I have been discriminated against because of my gender. Back to the idea of 'norm.' Males have been gifted with this majority position because of our culture. So, when listening to Chris Rock point out that he doesn't have the luxury of being crappy at his job because to be recognized as a professional while being black means that you have to be twice as good.... well, I can identify with that. Remember all those cracks about Hillary Clinton's appearance? yeah.

So back to culture. In the end, that's what it's all about isn't it? We live in a culture that defines the majority in a certain way - and that puts everyone else in the minority and subjects them to discrimination. Skin color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender - all these things are used to marginalize those that the dominate group wishes to keep at bay. So is there such a thing as race? I think I agree with Edward James Olmos - that there is only one race. It's the human race. Everything else is just the efforts of one CULTURE to dominate another. Think I'll just work at being human....

Greener?

According to Adharanand Finn in the Guardian, one needs to use the ceramic cup over 1,000 times to outdo the polystyrene cup, and even more compared to paper.

It may not sound very plausible - but on closer inspection the arguments seem to add up. Firstly, ceramic cups use more energy in their production. Second, there is all the hot water and washing-up liquid used when you wash up your mug. Third there's the environmental consequences of distributing ceramic mugs - because they are bigger and heavier than polystyrene cups, which can be tightly stacked, you are looking at more ship and lorry journeys, using more fuel. And, finally, polystyrene cups can be more easily recycled.

Except that polystyrene cups are rarely recycled, they mostly go to landfill, often after being carelessly thrown onto the street. And picking them up and disposing of them is an externality to the company that sold you the coffee, usually paid for by the taxpayer, whereas washing the mug is a producer responsibility. So hang on to your ceramic or stainless steel mug and in three or four years you will have made a difference. ::Guardian

Why I love Jon Stewart Pas Deux

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

A Party in Limbaugh

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

It could happen to you

I began to think.

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then-- to loosen up.

Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker. I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told
myself-- but I knew it wasn't true.

Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time. That was when things began to sour at home.

One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

This gave me a lot to think about.

I came home early after my conversation with the boss.

"Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"

"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."

"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"

"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.

She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche.

I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors...They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker's Anonymous poster.

Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting.

At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home.

Life just seemed...easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.

I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today, I registered to vote as a REPUBLICAN, so Limbaugh can do my thinking for me.

A little optimism and 'practical wisdom'

This 20 minute talk got a standing ovation... worth the listen...

Compromise is for Wussies

"Bipartisanship is safe and effective, when used as directed. In the present circumstance, however—dire economic crisis, hardheaded Republicans, time running out—bipartisanship is doing more harm than good. President Obama and the Democratic majorities in Congress can no longer afford to let comity defeat common sense.

An additional 600,000 Americans lost their jobs last month. If the loyal opposition chooses to obstruct economic recovery, those who hold power are obliged to use it."

Does the US Government have what it takes to stimulate this economy? My personal opinion - President Obama should take the proposal back to it's original and mostly useful, if still woefully modest proportions - less all the Democratic pork (even if some of it might be stimulating) and all the ridiculous Republican tax breaks which make no sense at all. And he should make our lawmakers (term used loosely) swallow it whole. And if they cry like the spoiled little girls that they are... he should go on national TV (because that's where the voters are,) and make an appeal to the American public that's proportioned to their tiny attention span. He should say something like, "Folks, you elected me because you wanted change... a new direction. But your elected officials are not interested in changing anything and they are not going to let me do what you've asked me to do. So now you need to take it up with them, and I'll be here waiting to get things going when you do." At the end of the ad - should be a screen with contact info for each state, because most good Americans have no idea how to contact their Senators and Reps (most good Americans might be fuzzy on just who those people are...)

It would be interesting to see what would happen now, wouldn't it?

This is not an issue where the answer is to be found in the “middle.” This isn’t a matter of left, right and center; it’s a matter of yes or no: Does the federal government try to get the economy moving again, or not? This will sound ridiculous, but the fact is that the details of Obama’s plan don’t matter that much. If anything, many economists believe, the government needs to spend even more than Obama proposes.

Republicans are using this debate as a branding opportunity, positioning themselves as careful stewards of the public purse. This is absurd, given their record when they were in charge. It’s also cynical. They know that some kind of stimulus will get passed anyway. If it works, they’ll claim their principled intransigence made the plan better; if it doesn’t, they’ll say “I told you so.”

Obama and the Democrats have public opinion on their side and the wolf at the door. Republicans need to get out of the way—or get run over. "

Read all of the excellent article by Eugene Robinson (quoted material) here.
And for an even more heated argument... click here.

Refreshing... sort of

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

After Dubya and his infamous, never ending refusal to take any responsibility for the horrific errors of his administration, I personally find it refreshing that this President can look into a camera and admit that he screwed up. However, we both know that the vultures circling his head are taking no end in delight in this... both to point it out as weakness and a character flaw not tolerable in a leader, and to show a lack of competancy. Come on, Obama, you can't afford this kind of shit.... Be sure. Do your GD homework and for Godsake, call the damn IRS on the carpet for not fleecing every dime out of the wealthy.... for they surely don't mind picking my pocket....

Refining Fine Art

Ten Apples and a Flat Sponge reports that the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen is selling reproductions of with some artistic interpretation. Venus is it Jenny Craig or NutriSystem?



But wait there's more: Check out the new Aphrodite!

Can you believe it? " It's not just the supermodels on the cover of Cosmo, it's not just Oprah, it's not just Kiera Knightly or whatever her name is, being stretched and elongated on her movie posters. Oh, no! Even Botticelli's Venus and the Thorvaldsen Aphrodite are "too fat" and not bobble-headed enough to sell in today's market. They've been Slim-fasted and Photoshopped (or had ribs removed) because in someone's opinion, even neo-classic art lovers who would be looking to decorate their homes with reproductions of their favorite pieces would not want to look at such chubby women as artists like Botticelli chose, as models.

Can you BELIEVE this? The catalog is full of these, the "Three Graces", Rodin's women, and a poor "Hebe, Cupbearer of the Gods" who looks like she's been given silicon breast implants.

This is hilarious: it's revisionist art history, as done by the Photoshop-happy editors of Vogue."

Soooooo wrong.

????

see Sarah Palin pictures

and I admit to amazing amounts of laziness with the posting of late.... apologies to my imaginary fans....

Lest We Forget

Not that I wish to taint the naked untarnished hope that lifted every American heart yesterday... I do not want to cast a shadow on those upturned faces... BUT

let us not forget the folly that nearly brought us to our knees.

Or minimize the seriousness of the situation.

We had better remember these lessons.....

Awwwwwww......

see Sarah Palin pictures

Happy New Year... now lose some weight!

US Tech Support

Dear World --

The United States of America, your quality supplier of ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for its 2001-2008 service outage.

The technical fault that led to this eight-year service interruption has been located.

Replacement components were ordered Tuesday night, November 4th, and have begun arriving.
Early tests of the new equipment indicate that it is functioning correctly and we expect it to be operational by mid-January.

We apologize for and deeply regret any inconvenience caused by the outage and we look forward to resuming full service again and hopefully even to improving it in years to come. Thank you for your patience.

The USA

It's the most wonderful time of the year

see Sarah Palin pictures

The Annual Christmas Letter.... verbatim

Dear Friends,

Sooo, 2008 has pretty much bit. That's the way to open up a holiday catchemup letter, doncha think? I know that this is the part where you're sposed to be all thankful for the blessings and such, but I thought I'd be novel and just be truthful. Sucked. Ass.

First of all there's that lovely economic meltdown joy. Then there's electing a president of color in the same year that you destroy the civil rights of all the gay folks. sheesh. A resurgence of the dear old KKK? Sarah effin Palin? Poor temps trampled to death at Walmart? WALMART? What the hell is in Walmart worth stomping some poor bastard to DEATH for? Who needs a mood disorder to be suicidal in this mess? fa la la la la... lala... lala.

I somehow feel better now. Anyhooter, things have not been glorious starting with my week in CrazyCamp, otherwise known as Peer Counselor training in beautiful, downtown Tacoma. Didn't realize how much therapy I really need till I spent 40 unforgettable hours talking about it. Then Richard had what was sposed to be a routine hernia repair... until he developed a staph infection and was almost neglected to death by Dr. Kervork... I mean his surgeon. He's looking like he might just return to his old self but it's going to be a long haul. Not to mention the bill. And my boy lost his second job of the year. Good times.

On the flip, Richard and I both lost a person... (yes, don't we look smashing!) and the perfect child is thriving. Amanda really LOVES Seattle, God help them all, and she's single and burning it down. On Facebook. (No future in politics for her.) John and Steph made it to two years and counting and seem to be really solid. I taught my second Family to Family Class and lived. I'm still working, even if it's slower than I like, and I haven't murdered my husband... yet.

Hope things are better with you and that you manage to avoid the usual psychotic family crap, and instead enjoy the good stuff of the season - shiny lights not brought on by hallucinogens, the smell of evergreen and Starbucks salted caramel hot chocolate in abundance! Uh Huh!

Merry Christmas,

Keith Olbermann says it best

Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the passage, last week, of Proposition Eight in California, which rescinded the right of same-sex couples to marry, and tilted the balance on this issue, from coast to coast.

Some parameters, as preface. This isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics, and this isn't really just about Prop-8. And I don't have a personal investment in this: I'm not gay, I had to strain to think of one member of even my very extended family who is, I have no personal stories of close friends or colleagues fighting the prejudice that still pervades their lives.

And yet to me this vote is horrible. Horrible. Because this isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics.

This is about the... human heart, and if that sounds corny, so be it.

If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not... understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don't want to deny you yours. They don't want to take anything away from you. They want what you want -- a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

Only now you are saying to them -- no. You can't have it on these terms. Maybe something similar. If they behave. If they don't cause too much trouble. You'll even give them all the same legal rights -- even as you're taking away the legal right, which they already had. A world around them, still anchored in love and marriage, and you are saying, no, you can't marry. What if somebody passed a law that said you couldn't marry?

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage.

If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal... in 1967. 1967.

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn't have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it's worse than that. If this country had not "re-defined" marriage, some black people still couldn't marry...black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not "Until Death, Do You Part," but "Until Death or Distance, Do You Part." Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are... gay.

And uncountable in our history are the number of men and women, forced by society into marrying the opposite sex, in sham marriages, or marriages of convenience, or just marriages of not knowing -- centuries of men and women who have lived their lives in shame and unhappiness, and who have, through a lie to themselves or others, broken countless other lives, of spouses and children... All because we said a man couldn't marry another man, or a woman couldn't marry another woman. The sanctity of marriage. How many marriages like that have there been and how on earth do they increase the "sanctity" of marriage rather than render the term, meaningless?

What is this, to you? Nobody is asking you to embrace their expression of love. But don't you, as human beings, have to embrace... that love? The world is barren enough.

It is stacked against love, and against hope, and against those very few and precious emotions that enable us to go forward. Your marriage only stands a 50-50 chance of lasting, no matter how much you feel and how hard you work.

And here are people overjoyed at the prospect of just that chance, and that work, just for the hope of having that feeling. With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division, and people pitted against people for no good reason, this is what your religion tells you to do? With your experience of life and this world and all its sadnesses, this is what your conscience tells you to do?

With your knowledge that life, with endless vigor, seems to tilt the playing field on which we all live, in favor of unhappiness and hate... this is what your heart tells you to do? You want to sanctify marriage? You want to honor your God and the universal love you believe he represents? Then Spread happiness -- this tiny, symbolic, semantical grain of happiness -- share it with all those who seek it. Quote me anything from your religious leader or book of choice telling you to stand against this. And then tell me how you can believe both that statement and another statement, another one which reads only "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

---

You are asked now, by your country, and perhaps by your creator, to stand on one side or another. You are asked now to stand, not on a question of politics, not on a question of religion, not on a question of gay or straight. You are asked now to stand, on a question of...love. All you need do is stand, and let the tiny ember of love meet its own fate. You don't have to help it, you don't have it applaud it, you don't have to fight for it. Just don't put it out. Just don't extinguish it. Because while it may at first look like that love is between two people you don't know and you don't understand and maybe you don't even want to know...It is, in fact, the ember of your love, for your fellow **person...

Just because this is the only world we have. And the other guy counts, too.

This is the second time in ten days I find myself concluding by turning to, of all things, the closing plea for mercy by Clarence Darrow in a murder trial.

But what he said, fits what is really at the heart of this:

"I was reading last night of the aspiration of the old Persian poet, Omar-Khayyam," he told the judge.

"It appealed to me as the highest that I can vision. I wish it was in my heart, and I wish it was in the hearts of all:

"So I be written in the Book of Love;

"I do not care about that Book above.

"Erase my name, or write it as you will,

"So I be written in the Book of Love."

Amen, Keith. AMEN.

Joy in Mudville!

see Sarah Palin pictures

Pardon Me...

As we contemplate the possibilities of today's election results this song keeps going through my head....

Pardon Me by Incubus

Pardon me while I burst...

A decade ago,
I never thought I would be,
at twenty-three, on the verge of
spontaneous combustion. -Woe-is-me.-
But I guess that it comes
with the territory,
An ominous landscape of
never-ending calamity.
I need you to hear,
I need you to see
that I have had all I can take and
exploding seems like an imminent possibility
to me.

So pardon me while I burst
into flames.
I've had enough of the world
and its people's mindless games.
So pardon me while I burn
and rise above the flame.
Pardon me, pardon me...
I'll never be the same!

Not two days ago,
I was having a look
in a book
and I saw a picture of a guy
fried up above his knee.
I said, "I can relate,"
cause lately I've been thinking of combustication
as a welcome vacation from
the burdens of
the planet Earth.
like gravity, hypocrisy,
and the perils of being in 3-D...
but thinking so much differently.

Pardon me while I burst
into flames.
I've had enough of the world
and its people's mindless games.
So pardon me while I burn
and rise above the flame.
Pardon me, pardon me...
I'll never be the same!

Never be the same, yeah...
Pardon me, while I burst into flames...
Pardon me, pardon me, pardon me.

So pardon me while I burst
into flames.
I've had enough of the world
and its people's mindless games.
So pardon me while I burn
and rise above the flame.
Pardon me, pardon me...
I'll never be the same!

Never be the same, yeahh!!

Dear God, by all that is holy, let people have some frigging sense today. AMEN.

Waiting for Nov. 4th by Larry David

I can't take much more of this. Two weeks to go, and I'm at the end of my rope. I can't work. I can eat, but mostly standing up. I'm anxious all the time and taking it out on my ex-wife, which, ironically, I'm finding enjoyable. This is like waiting for the results of a biopsy. Actually, it's worse. Biopsies only take a few days, maybe a week at the most, and if the biopsy comes back positive, there's still a potential cure. With this, there's no cure. The result is final. Like death.

Five times a day I'll still say to someone, "I don't know what I'm going to do if McCain wins." Of course, the reality is I'm probably not going to do anything. What can I do? I'm not going to kill myself. If I didn't kill myself when I became impotent for two months in 1979, I'm certainly not going to do it if McCain and Palin are elected, even if it's by nefarious means. If Obama loses, it would be easier to live with it if it's due to racism rather than if it's stolen. If it's racism, I can say, "Okay, we lost, but at least it's a democracy. Sure, it's a democracy inhabited by a majority of disgusting, reprehensible turds, but at least it's a democracy." If he loses because it's stolen, that will be much worse. Call me crazy, but I'd rather live in a democratic racist country than a non-democratic non-racist one. (It's not exactly a Hobson's choice, but it's close, and I think Hobson would compliment me on how close I've actually come to giving him no choice. He'd love that!)

The one concession I've made to maintain some form of sanity is that I've taken to censoring my news, just like the old Soviet Union. The citizenry (me) only gets to read and listen to what I deem appropriate for its health and well-being. Sure, there are times when the system breaks down. Michele Bachmann got through my radar this week, right before bedtime. That's not supposed to happen. That was a lapse in security, and I've had to make some adjustments. The debates were particularly challenging for me to monitor. First I tried running in and out of the room so I would only hear my guy. This worked until I knocked over a tray of hors d'oeuvres. "Sit down or get out!" my host demanded. "Okay," I said, and took a seat, but I was more fidgety than a ten-year-old at temple. I just couldn't watch without saying anything, and my running commentary, which mostly consisted of "Shut up, you prick!" or "You're a fucking liar!!!" or "Go to hell, you cocksucker!" was way too distracting for the attendees, and finally I was asked to leave.

Assuming November 4th ever comes, my big decision won't be where I'll be watching the returns, but if I'll be watching. I believe I have big jinx potential and may have actually cost the Dems the last two elections. I know I've jinxed sporting events. When my teams are losing and I want them to make a comeback, all I have to do is leave the room. Works every time. So if I do watch, I'll do it alone. I can't subject other people to me in my current condition. I just don't like what I've turned into -- and frankly I wasn't that crazy about me even before the turn. This election is having the same effect on me as marijuana. All of my worst qualities have been exacerbated. I'm paranoid, obsessive, nervous, and totally mental. It's one long, intense, bad trip. I need to come down. Soon.

Couldn't have said it better myself....

RNC drops whopping $150K on Palin wardrobe?

by Pam Spaulding
Man, keeping costs down in the Bush economy is only for the little Joe Six Packs out there. Bible Spice doesn't have to open her wallet to get a spiffy, pricey wardrobe and makeover courtesy of the RNC.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The campaign has declined to comment on the expenditures. And they expect us to believe they know how to manage our economy and our tax dollars? It's also noted that there were no expenses of this magnitude prior to Palin's surprise veep pick. Oh, and Bible Spice wasn't the only one with new duds...

Macy's in Minneapolis, another store fortunate enough to be situated in the Twin Cities that hosted last summer's Republican National Convention, received three separate payments totaling $9,447.71.

The entries also show a few purchases at Pacifier, a top notch baby store, and Steiniauf & Stroller Inc., suggesting $295 was spent to accommodate the littlest Palin to join the campaign trail.

BTW, "elitist" Michelle Obama buys off-the-rack (e.g., the dress that she wore on The View was $148), and looks damn good in it without costing the campaign a fortune. You'll recall that Cindy McCain's ensemble at the Republican National Convention cost a mind-boggling $300K.