I think this is the first year I didn't post something on Thanksgiving! It had become something of a tradition for me. Oh well.

Part of the reason for the lack of posting was that I was busy roasting a friggin' turkey. First time, and it came out...pretty good. Next year will be perfect, barring unforeseen disasters.

The other reason I didn't post was that, as it turned out, I was starting to come down with a little bug that day. It started with a slight cough, which by Friday was becoming more assertive, and by Saturday was here to stay. It was weird though--the cough never got horrible, and I didn't have any other symptoms other than feeling totally drained of energy. It was that energy drain that got me and kept me home from work yesterday and today. Bleh.

Today's the first day I've started to feel like I'm getting back on feet. I have no idea what I just rode out; it could very well have been a minor bronchitis relapse from my mega-illness two years ago. I've read that can happen.

At any rate, after two days in bed, I decided to see what's going on in the rest of the world. Of course, I'd heard about Obama's Afghanistan plan, and I have a theory about all this, but I'll save that for another post. In the meantime, news from New York.

Fantastic.

Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire Pride Agenda, a leading proponent of the bill said, "We certainly know who are [our] friends." He's not kidding. True colors are starting to shine through:

But Sen. Eric Adams, D-Brooklyn, challenged lawmakers to set aside their religious beliefs and vote for the bill. He asked them to remember that once even slavery was legal. [They should add, "...and the Bible was used to justify it."]

"When I walk through these doors, my Bible stays out," Adams said....

"That's the wrong statement," Diaz countered later. "You should carry your Bible all the time."



Seriously, though. Go join the Taliban already, Mr. Bible.

Here's my unsolicited opinion: the gay marriage movement needs to make this about money, not ethics. Money is what motivates revolutionary action, sorry to say. New York just screwed up big-time, because they've just alienated all the money-generating homos in Manhattan to start thinking it's time to move to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, or even...Iowa. Iowa, New York! Des Moines will soon become the new fashion, arts, and music capital of the United States, generating hundreds of millions in revenue that would have otherwise gone to you. I'm being silly of course, but my point is serious. Make it about money.

On the other hand, I can guaran-god-damn-tee you that if you just wait 10 years, gay marriage will probably be legalized by a landslide. How do I know this? Because of a little video my friend Alex sent my way yesterday (slightly NSFW):



This is a clip from the hot new CRPG out there right now, Dragon Age: Origins. Now, I take my RPGs the old-fashioned way, thanks, but my understanding of this game is that it is totally sweet. Alex is giving it rave reviews, certainly, and I really haven't heard anything against it from any other sources. My understanding is that part of its appeal is the wide-open possibilities for interacting with the game's characters. And that can include seducing certain characters, which then leads to a steamy "cut scene". And that it is possible to seduce a dude.

This is monumental. Computer gaming is traditionally dominated by white middle-class teenagers and young adults. Not the most gay-friendly audience. And here's a game featuring man-on-man action, and it's still netting rave reviews from that core fanbase. Talk about a sea change!

(And yes, I realize the man-on-man action was probably not an advertised feature of the game, but the fact that the game's developers had the cajones to put it in there, so to speak, means they felt the market was ready for that sort of thing, and I tend to agree.)

So yeah, this was the final confirmation to me that that predicted generational/cultural shift has occurred. Oh sure, there are plenty of teens and young adults out there who are as bigoted and homophobic as the next Bible-thumping New York State Senator, but the balance has shifted methinks.

Of course, all these open-minded children could grow up to be just like their Pappies:



You know, I listen to something like that, I've just got to counter-balance it somehow...restore my pride and patriotism, you know?



Ah, that's better.



And since it's been a while, how about some more random pics?



(I'm still digging my girl group boxed set. One of the best musical acquisitions in recent memory.)

I love those moments on Wikipedia where you go to look up something relatively innocuous and you end up stumbling across something else entirely. Such was the case for me tonight, where I went to look up what exactly a "malamute" looked like and ended up reading up on pets owned by U.S. presidents down through the years.

Ever since Franklin Roosevelt, it's been a fairly bland assortment of dogs, leavened by the occasional cat (and apparently the Clinton cat Socks finally kicked the bucket this year!) and assorted miscellanea (Kennedy's kids had a couple hamsters and a parakeet).

Ah, but go back a bit further and we start to see some really...interesting choices.

For one thing, you get a real reminder of the the rural nature of 19th century America as nearly every president from that time owned some kind of barnyard animal. Lincoln owned a turkey named Jack and two goats, Nanny and Nanko.

That's another thing--the names! I think George Washington takes the prize for best overall names; he had a staghound named Sweetlips, a pack of coonhounds named Drunkard, Taster, Tipler, and Tipsy, and a donkey named Royal Gift. Take that George III!

Teddy Roosevelt takes the prize for best individual name, or in this case names, for a set of guinea pigs (probably belonging to one of his kids): Dr. Johnson, Bishop Doane, Fighting Bob Evans, and Father O'Grady. Oh my god, Fighting Bob Evans is the best name for a guinea pig pretty much EVER.

Some other bizarre presidential pets:

John Adams had a dog named Satan ("Satan! C'mere boy!")

Thomas Jefferson owned two bear cubs at one point

John Quincy Adams owned an alligator(!) and raised silkworms

Andrew Jackson, aka "The First Redneck President," owned a parrot he taught to swear and fighting cocks

Martin Van Buren "briefly owned two tiger cubs"

U. S. Grant had a way with naming horses: he owned one named Butcher Boy, another named Cincinnatus, and his mount during the Civil War was named Jeff Davis

Chester A. Arthur is the only President on the list with no record of having owned pets

Benjamin Harrison owned a pair of 'possums named Mr. Reciprocity and Mr. Protection

In addition to his illustriously-named guinea pigs, Theodore Roosevelt hosted a veritable menagerie at the White House: four terriers, a Pekingese, a Saint Bernard, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, two cats, a garter snake named Emily Spinach, two ponies, a pig, a badger named Josiah, a rat, a hen named Baron Spreckle, a macaw, a couple more dogs (breed not stated), and...a one-legged rooster.

Not to be outdone was Calvin Coolidge, perhaps the last of the great "menagerie Presidents" as we must now call them. Observe: two white collies named Rob Roy and Prudence Prim, nine other dogs of various breeds, two raccoons named Rebecca and Horace, a donkey named Ebeneezer, a goose named Enoch, a cat, a bobcat, two lion cubs named Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau, a pygmy hippo named Billy, a wallaby, a duiker, and, to round it all out, a black bear. And why not?

It's reassuring to know that in this day and age, what with all our modern ideas--and products--that good old American nativist paranoia is still alive and well:

One thing [G20 protesters] won't likely encounter are citizens. Fear of protesters is the talk of grocery and bank lines. At one point, local media was filled with reports of surreptitious foreigners training in a vacant building (they turned out to be a Swedish punk band on tour).

Sauce.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Reform Madness - White Minority
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Actually, Black Flag called it 30 years ago:

Gonna be a white minority
Dont believe theres a possibility?
Well, just wait and see
We're gonna be white minority

--why is everyone acting all surprised? ;)

So 5-6 years ago, we had liberal protesters disrupting town hall meetings...over war.

"Boo! War is unbelievably costly in money, misery, and human lives! Boo!"

This year, we have conservative protesters disrupting town hall meetings...over providing health care to all Americans.

"Boo! Giving everyone access to basic medical care is...somehow...wrong...and stuff. BOO!"

::sigh::

Warning: these rants are entirely based off rampant speculation and knee-jerk reactionism. You have been warned.

OK, first off: one of the hot books with a lot of holds on it here at the library is The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Crash Following the Greatest Boom in History. OK, I can dig why that book might be a high-demand item in this day and age. The author is Harry S. Dent, Jr., who the very cover of said book then points out is the "New York Times bestselling author of The Roaring 2000s and The Next Great Bubble Boom". So basically what we have here is one of the clueless boobs who, Jim Cramer-style, ra-ra-ra'd us right into the shithole we currently find ourselves sitting in, and now he's going to come down dispensing further "wisdom" from on high, still pedaling the same old self-centered greed-centric rhetoric that got us into this mess in the first place. How much you want to bet his methods are neither helpful nor constructive towards the greater good? In these uncertain times, I'm pretty sure that's a sure bet!

Secondly: I noticed on the news this morning a screen-shot of the top downloads on Walmart.com's MP3 listing (about as close to a vox populi of the current mainstream musical trends as I can figure). The top two spots were held by Lady Gaga and Flo-rida. OK, since when--WHEN--did it become acceptable for popular musical acts to have baby names? Next month's top musical act: Kaka-Doodoo-Bahbah. I mean, seriously.

::old geezer mode::
When I were a lad, and well before that even, musical acts had cool names. Evocative names. Names that made you go, "Wicked!" or "Boss!" or what have you. Guns N' Roses. Public Enemy. Nirvana. Black Sabbath. Even the silly ones, like Mötley Crüe or Run-D.M.C., still had a certain gravitas to them. Now, I say "Lady Gaga" or "Flo-rida" out loud and I can actually feel my brain cells dying. I don't even care what their music sounds like--I can't even get past the ridiculous names. Ah well, I am now officially old. Great.

[Laura} Bush also said she disagrees with critics who have deemed her husband’s presidency a failure.

“His inner core and his belief in freedom, and that means not just freedom from terrorism, but freedom from disease and freedom from illiteracy is what really is the basic of American values and that’s what I think he’s shown the whole time he’s been president,” said Bush in an interview aired Sunday on "Fox News Sunday."

Ah yes, those core Constitutional guarantees of freedom from disease and illiteracy.

...

Seriously, what the fuck is she on about? You know it's pretty bad when you have to say, "Well, these past 8 years we've managed to hold the line on preventing widespread epidemics and a descent into a new Dark Age...so yeah, I'd say we've met with wild success!"

Des and I were just having a conversation about how jarring it is to feel actual pride and optimism in our leader(s), how it's a moment of almost hysterical disbelief to watch America waking up (for the most part).

And I realized that one could draw a pretty close analogy between what's going on now in the American psyche and the ending of the (original) Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Check it out: America is Sally Hardesty, the previous administration is Leatherface & Co., the America of the last 8 years is the house she escapes from, the (conveniently black) big rig driver is Obama, and the F150 she jumps into is the America of the future. Her elated hysteria is how Des and I are feeling, blood and all.

Embedding has been disabled for the clip, but for those of you who don't mind a bit of scary imagery, check out the link and see if you don't agree with my thesis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT_HQht9X-M

ETA: Leatherface's dance of frustration at the very end is, of course, the frustrated minority who are now proclaiming "dark days ahead" for America.

I wrote this to a friend who spent 4 hours yesterday demonstrating outside a polling place in the heart of bigot country:

County-by-county map of yes and no votes:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-2008election-california-results,0,1293859.htmlstory?view=8&tab=0&fnum=0

McCain spoke in his concession speech of how Obama's election proves that we've moved past our national legacy of hateful bigotry. But these results prove that we've merely shifted our collective hatreds.

Des said she feels "gutted" and I think that's a good word, but I can't say I'm shocked--this state has a reputation for liberalism that it doesn't really deserve.

On the other hand, as someone pointed out on the local news, 6 years ago Prop Whatever-it-was passed with a 23 percent margin. In a very short amount of time that margin has shrunk to 4 points. It's all about moving forward. The worrisome thing, of course, is that now we've got discrimination written into our state constitution. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Proposition system needs to go!

( A side rant )

Watching the VP debate tonight, Des made a brilliant observation: Palin is Dolores Umbridge. The more threatening she is, the more sickly sweet she gets, the broader the smile.

As for her performance tonight, she clearly managed to do what she's always done.

The key quote from the article:

On April 18, 2006, Palin and I sat together in a hotel coffee shop comparing campaign trail notes. As we talked about the debates, Palin made a comment that highlights the phenomenon that Biden is up against.

"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.

While policy wonks such as Biden might cringe, it seemed to me that Palin was simply vocalizing her strength without realizing it. During the campaign, Palin's knowledge on public policy issues never matured – because it didn't have to. Her ability to fill the debate halls with her presence and her gift of the glittering generality made it possible for her to rely on populism instead of policy.

I just realized the VP debate is tomorrow, and I simultaneously felt a swooping feeling in my gut. I plan to watch the whole thing through my fingers. It's not that I feel sorry for Palin, don't get me wrong. It's just that, well, this is sort of the equivalent of watching someone on national television take a dump in their pants. For an hour and a half. It's uncomfortable to watch something so humiliating, you know?

I've been exchanging emails with Des's brother, who is currently getting his MBA and worked for a major bank for several years before leaving last week (right before the shit hit the fan--and that was no accident he left when he did).

Anyway, this is his latest email:

Exactly. This is surreal. Two things to keep in mind is that this is
far worse than anyone is telling us. And this administration does not
have a proven record for implemeting any kind of policy.

Congress should call a recess until January. Let it burn. If you
really think you can't live without something I believe you should
wait two weeks and see where you're at.

P.S. Buy a gun.

This is from one of the most even-tempered, non-panicky people I know.

Anyone have any gun recommendations? ;P

A group of roughly 5,000 broke into chants of "Drill, baby, drill!" and "Sarah! Sarah!"

"We are going to drill now to make this nation energy efficient," [Palin] said. "You're right, drill, baby, drill!"

Even though, you know, we wouldn't actually get any oil out of Alaska until 2030, and that's if we started drilling tomorrow.

This is a really well-done piece that debunks the latest slew of McCain campaign ads. At the end it says, "Send this 10 people you know," but frankly, I'd just be preaching to the choir. So I'm posting it here--if you have anyone you know (friend, family, whatever) who's leaning towards McCain, for the love of god, send this to them!

Time was, if there was a movement or belief that ran counter to "the establishment," it was simply repressed, usually with extreme brutality. The problem is that, over time, brutality has become increasingly passe. Nowadays it's positively condemned. It still goes on of course; it's just more, well, covert these days.

So now that you're no longer allowed to slowly unspool a dissident's intestines in front of cheering crowds, how do you go about undermining that which you find most threatening and abhorrent? By borrowing a page from the counterculture' own playbook, of course!

The counterculture and civil rights movements of the 1960s were the culmination of a long process that focused on subversion as a means to social change. This strategy paid off--a little too well, as it turned out. Starting with Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, the subverted became the subverters, and it's only been gaining steam since then.

First we had Bush running on a ticket of "compassion" in 2000; now McCain has undermined Obama's message by flat-out stealing his "change" agenda. And the most visible manifestation of this has been, of course, Sarah Palin.

I think the reason Palin has got so many lefties up in arms is because her subversion moves beyond simple politics. She is subverting feminism, arguably the most important social movement of the last quarter-century.

Rebecca Traister over at Salon.com has summed things up in one of the most keenly-observed articles I've read in a long time. I'm hard-pressed to extract good quotes; I really would just end up quoting the whole article. So if you're wondering why you're feeling sort of uneasy about Palin, or if you're wondering why others are and whether you should be as well, go give it a read. You won't regret it.

While I'm on the topic of subversion and feminism, I see Keira Knightly is in another god-damn historical movie! What in holy hell is up with her being the go-to girl for historical pieces? Because, frankly, the way she's built, whether it's due to anorexia or not, would have rendered her about as attractive to the pre-20th century male as, say, a 400-lb. woman would be to today's average Joe. Skinny was most definitely not "in." Ads selling weight gain formulas for women continued to appear well into the 20th century, in fact.

(What's especially hilarious about her latest role is that it's set in the late 18th-century, i.e. the era of cleavage spilling out of corsets. Folks, I have more cleavage than this woman. Check it out: http://www.aolcdn.com/pmms/productpagemovies/0f/06/2612003.)

And that's the main concern I have with Knightly being the historical model for women. I'm sure she's being cast because, let's face it, we always project our current beauty standards onto historical dramas. But this is more than having perfectly blow-dried hair in a 70s-era Western, or 50s-style makeup and hair in Spartacus. This is telling the audience that skeletally thin women have always been found attractive and desirable. Subversion strikes again!

The American media have basically been dormant for the past, oh, eight years. Seriously. They've given more free passes to political buffoonery (in both parties) than at any other time in recent history. Now that they're finally stepping up and actually, you know, doing their job, they get slammed for it:

Over half of U.S. voters (51%) think reporters are trying to hurt Sarah Palin with their news coverage, and 24% say those stories make them more likely to vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in November.

Sorry, folks. It's called reporting. And who the hell votes for someone because they feel sorry for them? :/

I'm reproducing that first article in full after the cut, because it needs to be repeated:

( Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention )