Friday, May 28, 2010

comment moderation note

I just discovered a mess of comments that shouldn't have been stuck in the mod que (including more than a couple comments from yours truly).

if you posted something and don't see it, that's prolly why (unless you are an unruly douchebag or an estranged family member, then you are exactly where you are supposed to be)

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Happy Birthday Blue Lyon


I tried to find a cake with a blue lion on it, but no such beast exists in the pastry world.

(Hey, at least it's not a tampon cake)

Happy birthday you darling woman! May you and your pacemaker celebrate many many more

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Patience is a virtue (of assholes)

I can't tell you how many times I've been told to calm down and wait, these things take time and they don't happen overnight, blahblahblahblah. I am generally being fed this particular shit sammy when some well meaning fauxgressive is trying to get me to stop screaming about how some half-assed measure to rectify injustice being not enough.

Incrementalism. It is a hallmark of democracy. Change happens, but it happens slowly, they say. If you want quick change, they threaten, go with a dictatorship. I think (pun intended) that this is a red herring of a statement. I think incrementalism is meant to lull us into a false idea of progress. I think the ginormous amount of energy we spend just to move a pebble of injustice off our chest is how they demoralize us, exhaust us, and give us the false impression that we are actually doing something useful.

Fuck that.

(only slightly off topic, but a funny aside- Wonder's fiance and I recently had this conversation about my little benevolent dictator fantasy.
WF: but there is no such thing as a benevolent dictator
Me: Dude, if I was queen of the universe everyone would have enough healthy food, a safe place to live, medical care and education and I wouldn't give a shit what you do with your personal life or what god you pray or don't pray to
WF: Okay. )

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Other than the egregious typos

and only being able to write short posts, I think the posting from my phone thing is working out.

Now I just have to find the $$ to keep the phone on.

I get my best ideas from spy novels

And that ain't hyperbole.

The other day I watched the movie version of John le Carre's The Russia House. I haven't read all of his novels, but I've read most of them, and the premise of The Russia House may be my favorite of all time. If you love your country, sometimes you have to commit treason to save it.

While I have no current plans for treason, this is the grand political end of a tip I once got from a favorite art teacher. "If you are struggling with a piece and there is something in it that is too precious for you to change, it is that thing that is fucking you up. Get rid of it". It works for paintings and essays and political theories too.

But what does any of this have to do with my bitchy little blog? I keep saying the same thing to people lately "If you love the Democratic Party, the only way to save it is to NOT VOTE FOR IT". I know, it sounds so wrong. I know, it's hard to part with such a precious thing as party identity. But it is that refusal to ditch the broken part that keeps us from fixing the whole. It's not as sexy as giving up the secrets of the Soviet Union's military lie to the Brits. But you won't get arrested (yet) for not voting for(or volunteering, or donating to) a legacy party.

The problem can't be solved by erasing the edges of the existing parties and redrawing them in new places. It takes a dramatic act, the erasure of a precious thing, to effect change. That is how you can "be the change you wish to see in the world", not by doing the same thing over and over and calling it progress.

Monday, May 24, 2010

I need something fucking cheerful

Michael Franti- Hello Bonjour (lyrics below)


I don’t need a passport to walk on this earth
Anywhere I go ’cause I was made of this earth
I'm born of this earth, I breathe of this earth
And even with the pain I believe in this earth
so I wake up every mornin' and I'm steppin' on the floor
I wake up every mornin' and I'm steppin' out the door
I got faith in the sky, faith in the one
faith in the people rockin' underneath the sun
'cause every bit of land is a holy land
and every drop of water is a holy water
and every single child is a son or a daughter
of the one earth mama and the one earth papa, so
don’t tell a man that he can’t come here 'cause he got brown eyes and a wavy kind of hair,
And don’t tell a woman that she can’t go there
because she prays a little different to a god up there,
You say you’re a Christian ’cause God made you,
You say you’re a Muslim ’cause God made you,
You say you’re a Hindu and the next man a Jew
And we all kill each other 'cause god told us to? NAW!
Hello, hello! (Hello, hello)
Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour)
Hola, hola! (Hola, hola)
Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa!
Hello, hello! (Hello, hello)
Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour)
Hola, hola! (Hola, hola)
Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa!
Follow me, follow me
let me take you to the dance hall
now to come on, rock this rhythm (rockin' rockin')
Follow me, follow me, follow me
let me take to the dance hall now
now to come a skankin'
Follow me
let me take to the dancehall
now to come a rock this rhythm
Follow me
let me take to the dancehall
in a Spearhead style
Now hear this!
So you dance to the rhythm
bounce to the rhythm
shake to the rhythm
and you roll the rhythm
sweat to the rhythm
get wet to the rhythm
make love to the rhythm
clean up to the rhythm
when you movin' you come alive
and when you grooving in rhythm we survive, so
don't panic, don't panic
no drum machine, this is all organic
just Sly and Robbie on the drums and bass
Sticky on percussion and we mashin' up the place
givin' you a beat you can rock and roll to
givin' you a sound you can shake your soul to, so
hip-hoppas, punk rockas
roots rockas, even Woodstockas
don't need a passport, just send a postcard
send me a message, let me know how you are
whether you're walkin' or drivin' in your car
throw your hands high, tell me who you are
Hello, hello! (Hello, hello)
Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour)
Hola, hola! (Hola, hola)
Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa!
Hello, hello! (Hello, hello)
Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour)
Hola, hola! (Hola, hola)
Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa!
Boppin' from Nigeria to Botswana
Bop from Botswana to Ethiopia
Bop from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe, now
Bop from Zimbabwe to Mexicana
Bop from Mexico to Braziliana
Bop from Brazilia to 'mericana
Boppin' from America to Japan
Boppin' from Japan to China
Boppin' from-a China to a Pakistana
Boppin' from-a Pakistan to Australia
Boppin' from Australia to Palestina
Boppin' from-a Palestine to Israel
Boppin' from-a Buyaga [Buyaga], Jamaica
Boppin' to Italia [Italia], España [España], Britania [Britania]
Boppin', boppin', dance to the sound
Hello, hello! (Hello, hello)
Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour)
Hola, hola! (Hola, hola)
Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa!
Hello, hello! (Hello, hello)
Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour)
Hola, hola! (Hola, hola)
Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa!

Aside from the privacy issues, Facebook is really evil

Or at least it means I have to jump into that "let's be totes obnoxious for the good of humanity" role way more often than I actually like to. And i've got nearly 2000 posts where I do jump into that role, so I ain't chicken.

Y'all I am tired, dead fucking tired, of having racist drivel pop up on my facebook page. I find myself, after reading yet another thing hating on brown people (but not really, they all say) with hands shaking in anger and my stomach doing flip flops of revulsion. And for a second, just a second, I debate saying something. Just drop it. Let it go. I could you know. I'm white. I could slink past it and not give it another thought and no one would know. That's privilege for ya.

But I don't. I make myself obnoxious. I call it out for what it is. That is what I can do as an ally. It is my one small teaspoon.

I do need a fucking stiff drink though. It would be so much more fun to play obnoxious do gooder if I could do it with a vodka tonic in hand. And it's still early.

So easy even a dude could do it

A quick and easy guide to the Bechdel test

How fricken cool is it

That 15 year old boy child's response to 'ohhh Miss Marple is on' is 'sweet!'

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Another for the libertarian is short for douchebag file

I don't understand people who cling to failed philosophies. That's not true. I do understand that they all think that their own brand of special little snowflakeness will make them king of the castle if only they didn't have to follow these stinky rules. But it does make them look like 30 year olds making wish lists for Santa.
Libertarianism fails every hard and soft science. It fails economically (see Iceland for a microcosm of libertarian failure). It fails physics because unlike the universe economies cannot expand pepetually. It fails biology because every single selfish aspect of it is diametrically opposed to how we actually evolved, through cooperation. It fails anthropologically for the same reason. And it fails mathmatically. If you don't pay your slaves, or erm employees, enough money to feed themselves then they die of starvation, but without minimum wage laws there is no incentive to pay them better. The numbers in libertarianism add up to death. Add that to your wish list.