Please Read

A friend of mine sent me this as part of a group emailing with "Please Read" as the Subject line. It IS a good read, very well put. [Here is the original posting on HuffPo]

Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for "The Vagina Monologues", wrote the following about Sarah Palin.

Drill, Drill, Drill

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008

Furbaby Friday - Henry is 17!

A kitten came to my friend's door looking for shelter. It was February in Missouri, and he was lost or abandoned. She already had several cats, and told me "Come and get this cat. It purrs real loud and it's got claws and if you don't take him I will have to take him to the shelter." I did take him. That was back in 1992, and his first vet figured he was probably born in Sep of 1991.

Henry has never been anything but a perfect cat. He brings the sweet. He just had his senior bloodwork done, and it shows no real problems. He's got arthritis, asthma, his vision is not so good anymore, and he's beginning to lose weight in spite a good appetite. He has turned into our little old man. Happy 17th birthday to Henry!

Tags and links: Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival is at Artsy Catsy - Cats - Catblogging

Y-IKE!

We are too far inland to actually have a hurricane hit us (technically) (and maybe there are exceptions, someone out there knows more trivia than I do about this) but this sucker looked headed straight at Galveston, which means we should get a hell of a storm around Austin come Friday and Saturday.

MrB has reminded me to fill up my tank, because when we thought Rita was coming close to here, the gas lines got very long. All Friday and Saturday plans are off the schedule. Hold on to your hats and tie down the lawn furniture. Get the pets inside. (Please)

Galveston, I have a bad feeling about this.

What's a Meme without Me? It's still Me.

DivaJood has tagged me!

1. Where was I ten years ago?
In 1998, I was part of an in-house art department for a company whose parent corporation was attempting to sell-off, merge, or both, with another company. I was making twice the salary I make now, but the days of the job's existence were numbered. The new arranged corporate marriage went bad for the home team and our new partner cannibalized us and closed most of our facilities. I was also in full middle-aged crazy mode, going to see the Moody Blues in Vegas, hanging with my other middle-aged crazy buds, and spending money like it was going out of style. (Well, it was)

2. What was on my ToDo list today?
Got up at 5AM. Worked 20 minutes for a client before hitting the commute north, working 5 hours there, grocery stop on the way home. 5 check marks. Now I really should be starting that one project for a client... but will probably put it off and work on my own stuff... and blog. (oops! Forgot about the huge pile of laundry)

3. My favorite number. (2) It's comfy.

4. Five places I've lived.
Athens, Greece
Carterville, Illinois
Honolulu, Hawaii
Austin, Texas
Albuquerque, New Mexico

5. Bad Habits.
Indecisive. (Maybe that's why I like the number 2. It gives me another option to fall back on.) Packratty. Whiny. Bad attitude about exercise.

And lastly: tag five others, and if this is a second tag, ignore it unless you can list 5 MORE places (that's the one I can do), and MORE bad habits, and MORE stuff to do today. If you don't want to play, that's OK too. I, like, totally understand. ;-)

1. Ingrid
2. Mando Mama
3. Dr. Don
4. Nava
5. Depthmarker (Ann & Th' Rev)

Is this less insulting? A better comparison?

You can put lipstick on George Dubya Bush, and it's still him underneath it.

I had to chuckle at this "sexist outrage." She already compared herself to a pit bull with lipstick, and Obama was just using a metaphor that's old as the hills about putting lipstick on a pig (not as old as the hockey mom one she used, but both have been kicking around for some time).

I really think we're dealing with John McBush and Dubya Palin here. If the lipstick fools you, you're not looking deep enough.

(I'd rather kiss a pig on the lips than vote for McCain/Palin - with or without lipstick. It's a pretty thin disguise, you know)

ADDENDUM: The Rethugs are throwing a fit over the "pig" comment, but look who used it in 2007 referring to Hillary:

McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health-care proposals that require too much government regulation. While he said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's plan, he said it was "eerily reminiscent" of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the 1990s.

"I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said of her proposal.

And Obama used it like this in 2007:

'I think that both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are capable people who have been given an impossible assignment,' Sen. Barack Obama said yesterday in a telephone interview. 'George Bush has given a mission to General Petraeus, and he has done his best to try to figure out how to put lipstick on a pig.

[source] [h/t]

Onward through the fog

Here's your soundtrack. This is a beautiful instrumental song by MiLkDrive, (very Nickel Creeky).

The guitar player (Noah) said he wrote it for his mother in Idaho (called "Kay's Tune"). That's pretty sweet, and *almost* makes me wish I'd had a kid who would grow up to be this guy -- but what really would have happened is my kid would end up like Rush Limbaugh or Ted Nugent. I'll never know and don't want to know.

Anyway, MiLkDrive really loved their poster I did for them [VIEW]. I knew they really liked it, but it was even better. It was unanimously declared to be "Badass", and I say they are badass too.

Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market in Sunset Valley to stock up on Buddha's Brew Kombucha (so much better than ones you'll find even in the health grocery. Lots of people bring their pets, and this man had a beautiful python, said it was a full grown, New Zealand variety.

 I love snakes (non-venomous) and I got to meet this one. Here I am in full crazy-cat-lady gear, getting acquainted with a big snake.

I am going on 12 days of being pretty sick from the sinus infection, and today is the first improvement I've seen, the first day I haven't felt like a zombie (bad cough, congestion, fever, sore throat, almost no sleep at all, and exhausted). I got maybe 5 hours of sleep last night (IN A ROW), and the cough was better through the night. Don't want to get cocky though, because these things can fool you, they come and go, and come back. I am still congested and planning on still keeping it pretty low-key. Will skip Del Castillo on Thursday (not rested enough for that show) and wait for Sunday and the Punch Brothers at the Cactus. Very psyched for that, and need to be fit for it. It's Chris Thile, ex-Nickel Creek, and his band.


Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

So Sambo beat the bitch!

The more I read about Sarah Palin, the more I'm getting a Dolores Umbridge vibe from her.

Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean” -- LA Progressive

Some excerpts:

“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.

[...] But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and mean. We’re talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive.

[...] ...many people in Alaska, and particularly Wasilla, are reluctant to speak or be quoted by name because they’re afraid of her as well as the state Republican Party machine. Apparently, the power elite are as mean as the winters.

“The GOP is kind of like organized crime up here,” an insurance agent in Anchorage who knows the Palin family, explained. “It’s corrupt and arrogant. They’re all rich because they do private sweetheart deals with the oil companies, and they can destroy anyone. And they will, if they have to.”

“Once Palin became mayor,” he continued, “She became part of that inner circle.”

[...] “People who fought her attempt to oust the librarian are on her enemies list to this day,” states Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla resident and one of the few Alaskans willing to speak on-the-record, for attribution, about Palin. In fact, Kilkenny actually circulated an e-mail letter about Palin that was verified and printed by The Nation.

For good measure, Palin booted the Wasilla police chief from office because, she told a local newspaper, he “intimidated” her.

“She’s doesn’t like different opinions and she refuses to compromise,” Kilkenny notes. “When she was mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t hers. Worse, ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits but on the basis of who proposed them.”

[...] But when a local reporter dared to suggest that the reformer Empress has no clothes, Palin tried to get her fired.

“She came at me like I was trying to steal her kids,” said the targeted reporter, who now works for an oil company in Anchorage. “I heard she had a wild temper and vicious mean streak but it’s nothing like you can imagine until she turns it on you.”

One stupid mistake after another

When watching the McCain speech, I was struck by the green screen behind him, and thought "Good grief! What are these people thinking by putting a green backdrop behind him after all the fun that Stephen Colbert had with the last green background? Inviting viewers to "Make McCain Exciting" by taking the footage and making their own video revisions. There have been some brilliant entries, and you'll find more of them here on YouTube than at the Colbert site (a couple are posted at the bottom of the post but do seek out your favorite theme whether it's surfing or Star Trek).

Anyway, showing him against green was not the biggest mistake. AMERICAblog points out that it was supposed to be a picture of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in DC. Instead, it was a huge picture of Walter Reed Middle School in California. The school in the picture has nothing to do with the Medical Center.

A couple of green screen bits of fun. Here's the Pulp Fiction version:


Here's a Simpsons version:

Fast Draw Fast Food

[LINK] The NRA likes to say that guns don't kill people, people kill people, but sometimes if you happen to have loaded guns around you might just kill someone over a fast food hamburger, as has happened twice within a month's time in St. Louis.

Furbaby Friday - Doctor Henry

Henry's human mom has been sick with a sinus infection for the past week, so Henry has been practicing his bedside manner. Take a few deep breaths while he listens.

 And here he is being sympathetic. His human mom finally got some medicine including antibiotics, and some prednisone too, just like the 2 kitties are taking. Can we share?

Tags and links: Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival is at Counting Cats in Zanzibar on Sunday - Cats - Catblogging

R.I.P. Jerry Reed

[LINK] Jerry Reed has died of emphysema* at the age of 71. You might be thinking of him mostly as a hillbilly singer and goofy actor (Smokey and the Bandit, etc.), but he sure could play the heck out of the guitar. The clip above is with guitar legend Chet Atkins. They recorded 2 or 3 projects together, and it is amazing stuff.

I did have City of New Orleans posted here (watch that one at the link) but switched it out for this even better one of Lightning Rod:


My favorite guitar player, Eric Johnson, counts Jerry Reed as one of his biggest inspirations. He wrote a song called "A Tribute to Jerry Reed," and I would recommend going to this NPR page, there you can listen to his interview, just the music clips, or watch video including that song, on the lower left sidebar.

*emphysema is something that I have had to deal with, it got my mother, and one of my uncles, my dad was already getting it at 44 but it was his heart that got him, and another uncle has been suffering from it for years. Give up the cigs if you can. Even if you dodge cancer, emphysema can still get you and probably will. It also kills you but it can take years, really hard years.

My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, and I Don't Love Jesus

Well, the news lately is either sad, bad or ridiculous. I had some downtime from work and was sick for the whole thing, too sick for activities beyond chugging tea or cough syrup and lounging on the couch, so MrB didn't have much of a weekend either. We need some chuckles (but no clowns).

Here is a classic Kathy Griffin, this one makes me laugh no matter how many times I see it (topic: Catholics).


LOLcat

Country song titles, always full of groaners. These snagged from Dribbleglass.

All I Want From You Is Away

You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too

I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Almost Like Having You Here

Four on the Floor and a Fifth Under the Seat

If You Can't Be Good, Be Bad With Me

Bubba Shot the Jukebox

Are You Drinkin' With Me, Jesus?

Billy Broke My Heart at Walgreens and I Cried All the Way to Sears

How Can I Miss You if You Won't Go Away?

I'm Under the Table Over You

Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Goal Posts of Life

Am I Double Parked by the Curbstone of Your Heart?

I'm Gonna Put a Bar in the Back of My Car and Drive Myself to Drink

Welcome to Dumpsville, Population Me

If Love Were Oil, I'd Be a Quart Low

Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed

My Phone Ain't Been Ringing, So I Guess it Wasn't You

I've Been Roped and Throwed By Jesus in the Holy Ghost Corral

She's Acting Single, I'm Drinking Doubles

Is It Cold In Here, or Is It Just You?

We Used to Kiss on the Lips, But It's All Over Now

My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, and I Don't Love Jesus

Thank God and Greyhound She's Gone

I Don't Know Whether to Kill Myself or Go Bowling

You're the Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly

Thanks to the Cathouse, I'm in the Doghouse With You

I Would Kiss You Through the Screen Door But It'd Strain Our Love

I Fell for Her, She Fell for Him, and He Fell for Me

You Were Only a Splinter as I Slid Down the Banister of Life

Did I Shave my Legs for This?

I Fell in a Pile of You and Got Love All Over Me

She Got the Gold Mine and I Got the Shaft

My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, and I Sure Do Miss Him

If You Want to Keep the Beer Real Cold, Put it Next to My Ex-Wife's Heart

I Gave Her My Heart and a Diamond and She Clubbed Me with a Spade

I Sat Down on a Beartrap (Just This Morning)

She Looks Good Through the Bottom of My Shot Glass

If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead?

Mama, Get the Hammer (There's a Fly on Papa's Head)

Red Necks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer

I Still Miss You Baby, But My Aim is Getting Better

If You Don't Leave Me, I'll Find Someone Who Will

My John Deere Was Breaking Your Field, While Your Dear John Was Breaking My Heart

So, you got any funny?

Yup Yup

Found via HuffPo, questionaire filled out by gubernatorial candidates in Alaska 2006:

Question: Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

Palin: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I'll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

[source]
The pledge, of course, was not written until 1892 and the words "under God" were not added until the 1950s.

Basic information on the Pledge of Allegiance can be found in a search that takes only a few seconds, and might be recommended for people who want to hold office in this country.