Post-Christmas Chillin'

Well, I haven't done anything since the celebrations of the weekend. My truck hasn't been starting for the last couple days so I haven't really been able to drive anywhere, but I have gotten a good bit of reading done.
Louis L'Amour was the first novelist to ever be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Good for him. I need a time machine so that I may head for the mountains as they were in the early 19th century. That would be dandy.

Amber Tamblyn (That girl from"Joan of Arcadia." I never watched the show and it was probably sappy crap, but she is a poet in addition to being an actress and she seems to have things pretty well sorted out for herself.):
Q - What do you think is the most difficult thing that young girls face?
A - Social anxieties and image in general. I've been really fascinated recently by watching the shows on MTV, like "Sweet 16" and "Laguna Beach." I'm fascinated by this whole new generation of cultureless and deprived white kids in suburbia, and I feel like they have no connection to the outside world, and we're totally glorifying this image. We're glorifying that all white kids are dumb and cultureless."

Granted, I think she is a little too sympathetic for my taste, but I really do wonder if this really is conscious ignorance or these bastards just have never had the opportunity to experience anything. Shit, I think they might just be lazy, standardless peons.
Also, I was flipping throught the channels and saw one of the girls from "Laguna Beach" being punked. Ha.

"To live in a city, one must be larger than one's environment or enjoy belonging to the crowd. Out here a person can become a part of it all. He can walk the heights with the eagles and the cloud, but it needs a special kind of person."

Peace.

Airing of Grievances

It is Festivus time again. As the this celebration for the rest of us rolls around we must take time to clear the air. I shall begin and will update through the day as I decide to add others to my list.

Danny has disapointed me in the following ways:

• you are unable to clean up after yourself

Emily has disapointed me in the following ways:

• excessive whining
• insufficient humor

Tom has disapointed me in the following ways:

• no Mankato egging sponsorship
• not delivering me Wayne's milkshakes this afternoon

Seth has disapointed me in the following ways:

• getting a job
• acting like he was going to get into fights
• not going after the various women he desires
  

Oh, I still have to finish gift shopping and room cleaning. Back to work. More later.

Peace.

On a break.

As I am on a break, I have been taking it easy. Posting is a pain. Instead, I have been reading good deal of Frost and watching the Discovery Channel.
My room will be clean by the time family members arrive, and that will be my greatest accomplishment of the last year. Not that I have done so little but that it is such an enormous task. In my absence I will leave you with this:

Frost:
Bond and Free

Love has earth to which she clings
With hills and circling arms about--
Wall within wall to shut fear out.
But Thought has need of no such things,
For Thought has a pair of dauntless wings.

On snow and sand and turn, I see
Where Love has left a printed trace
With straining in the world's embrace.
And such is Love and glad to be
But Thought has shaken his ankles free.

Thought cleaves the interstellar gloom
And sits in Sirius' disc all night,
Till day makes him retrace his flight
With smell of burning on every plume,
Back past the sun to an earthly room.

His gains in heaven are what they are.
Yet some say Love by being thrall
And simply staying possesses all
In several beauty that Thought fares far
To find fused in another star.


I think I have run into that poem on more occasions than I ever expected to, and it still brings me pleasure.

Peace.

A Christmas Poem by Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)

'Twas a week before Christmas and all through the House,
no bills were passed 'bout which Fox News could grouse.
Tax cuts for the wealthy were passed with great cheer,
so vacations in St. Barts soon should be near.

Katrina kids were all nestled snug in motel beds,
while visions of school and home danced in their heads.
In Iraq, our soldiers need supplies and a plan,
and nuclear weapons are being built in Iran.

Gas prices shot up, consumer confidence fell.
Americans feared we were in a fast track to ... well.
Wait, we need a distraction, something divisive and wily,
a fabrication straight from the mouth of O'Reilly.

We will pretend Christmas is under attack,
hold a vote to save it, then pat ourselves on the back.
Silent Night, First Noel, Away in the Manger,
Wake up Congress, they're in no danger.

This time of year, we see Christmas everywhere we go,
From churches to homes to schools and, yes, even Costco.
What we have is an attempt to divide and destroy
when this is the season to unite us with joy.

At Christmastime, we're taught to unite.
We don't need a make-up reason to fight.
So on O'Reilly, on Hannity, on Coulter and those right-wing blogs.

You should sit back and relax, have a few egg nogs.

'Tis the holiday season; enjoy it a pinch.
With all our real problems, do we really need another Grinch?
So to my friends and my colleagues, I say with delight,
a Merry Christmas to all, and to Bill O'Reilly, Happy Holidays.

Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas.

Good for Ford

An update on the whole Ford-not-putting-ads-in-gay-mags thing:
They must of told the AFA to screw off as they are now going to continue to create tailor-made ads for distinct groups, including gay folks, and will be including those ads in various specialized magazines.
Isn't that nice?

Dick Morris used a Fox News poll in his last op-ed (Tuesday P-B for the local readers) to show that most Americans still support the Iraq War and that a bit over 50% still believe that Iraq had WMDs when Shrub said they did.
Isn't that like polling teen-aged boys over the phone to find the average penis size for American males?

Sorry for my brevity, but I must get back to something resembling studying.

Peace.

Update: Holy Shit. Look at this. Didn't expect that to ever happen. Shrub is turning soft on us.

“It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

The Constitution that is. Thank you Mr. President. That guy simply continues to astound. Sure, he said it in the privacy of a meeting and never thought that it would be made public, and we should respect his privacy. Hehe.
Oh, the story is here.

Next thought:
Why is it that, with a Republican controlled Congress and White House as well as the common social-conservative belief that life begins at conception, we don't have an income tax exemption of those babies that are still in utero? I mean, wouldn't that just be an excellent way for conservatives to start to show their belief that a fetus is a life? Assigning value to a fetus links right up with charging folks with murder when they kill one.
These whole idea has a little bit of merit too. Afterall, it is expensive to be pregnant. Eating for two and what not. The medical expenses are already written off, correct? This would just add another hitch in the giddiup of couples looking at baby-making and families are the basis of a strong America (or some shit like that), right?
Oh, this is a great plan for conservatives, but the lack of this being brought forward simply proves, as always, that conservatives always care more about money than they care about babi, famili, and you or me.

Peace.

R.I.P. Miss Maggie

My most consistant, most tolerant, and most sincere companion has passed on. She made it to the age of nine, but I still say that she was taken too soon. I guess she finally found something that he stomach couldn't handle; the chocolate could never kill her, but rat poison (the vet's best guess) was enough to do it. I don't blame the owner of whatever place she found the stuff, this was simply the result of her freewheeling lifestyle. She lived the equivalent of a rock and roll lifestyle for dogs. Too many wild nights on the town finally did her in.
She was my cuddle buddy for eight years, although she did abandon my bed for a couch when I decided to move to the basement, but I can understand her apprehension. I don't know that there is anyone who is her equal in the cuddling department as she was a mastermind of head placement and would never overstay her welcome.
I miss having someone to roll around on the floor with every time I come home, the kitchen floor will never be quite as spotless as she managed to keep it, the backyard will seem quite a bit more empty, and I don't know who will keep me company on lonely nights in the TV room.
I only wish she had at least had her opportunity to retire to the farm before her end.

Goodbye girl.

Peace.

Christian Tolerance?

Yeah, not only do fundamentalist Christians not want to allow homosexuals to be joined in any sort of union, they also don't want them to buy cars. That is the gist of what I get from this story. Yeah, the American Family Association doesn't like the idea of Ford trying to direct advertisements at gay folks. This is just disturbing.
Oh, funny part of the story: Ford will pull these ads for all of their brands except Volvo. Um...gay folks love Volvos? I guess that makes sense, Volvos are fine motor vehicles. Folks with good taste are likely to enjoy them.
Looks like I forgot this part: Excuse me, AFA, the reasonable folks are trying to get some work done. Perhaps you would like to step outside and play a rousing game of "Go Fuck Yourself". Just a thought.

By the way, my time wasting knows no bounds. I have been sitting at the same desk in the library for almost three hours and I don't know if I have gotten a single bit of real work done.
I am still sticking to my promise to myself that I would get at least five pages of typing done this evening.
The things I have been reading for the last while haven't even been interesting. I am just that worthless.

Peace.

Social Libertarian

Does that even count? It just doesn't work in a two party system.

By the way, I don't support government sanctioned marriage between homosexuals. Then again, I don't support government sanctioned marriage between hetrosexuals either.
The government has no place in this debate as it does not have the right to make such decisions as to which consenting adults are capable of entering into a loving relationship.
I can't recall if I have posted directly about this before, so I'll say it again: Civil Unions for everyone. If you want to call yourselves married go ahead and do it, the government will give you the legal status that is now given to married couples.
However, your marriage would not be one recognized under God or any higher power (this is assuming that we don't consider the government a higher power), at least, it wouldn't be in the wording. If you want to be married under you religion, head to your church or any church, but they reserve the right to refuse to conduct a service for any reason they please. If they aren't receiving federal funding, then they are a private entity (granted, one with tax-exempt status, but I will take away whenever I darn well please. hint: stay out of politics).
Civil Unions are the best way to retain, or, more appropriately, achieve, the seperation of church and state on this issue.

How does that strike you?

By the way, I am still boycotting the Meadow Park Church of Christ, they should have known better than to bring a in a guest preacher who would rant about the "Minnesota Marriage Amendment". What a wankster.

Peace.