But there must be something wrong with me, because the second I laid eyes on this picture (h/t Mamarazzi), Oh My God:
I want to see everyone in these underwear, in this picture, it's so unbelievably, hysterically rainbowlicious.
Seriously, take a minute and picture like five people you know subbed into this picture. With the red heart lollipop, people. Looking back with one hand on the wall. And I mean anyone. Your husband, your favorite blogger, your senator, your favorite movie star, anyone.
IT'S RIDICULOUS.
I swear, when I go to bed tonight, you're all coming with me, and we're all going to listen to Kermit the Frog singing Rainbow Connection in our rainbow underwear and white tank tops.
Have you heard Pork and Beans by Weezer? Damn, does my Gen X ass love that song. It feels like my generation. The confidence feels hard-won and paid for.
They say i need some rogaine to put in my hair
Work it out at the gym to fit my underwear
Okaley makes the shades to transform a tool
You'd hate for the kids to think that you've lost your cool
Imma do the things that i wanna do
I ain't got a thing to prove to you
I'll eat my candy with the pork and beans
Excuse my manners if i make a scene
I ain't gonna wear the clothes that you like
I'm fine and dandy with the me inside
One look in the mirror and i'm tickled pink
I don't give a hoot about what you think
Now, have you heard Handlebars by Flobots? Tell me that song isn't a damn anthem for Gen Y:
Look at me, look at me
hands in the air like it's good to be
ALIVE
and I'm a famous rapper
even when the paths're all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to "De Colores"
And "I'm Proud to be an American"
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want cuz, look:
I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome
And I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone
And yeah, I'm aware that Handlebars gets a little heavy - I think that's pretty damn Gen Y, too. I'm not knockin' it; I'm just sayin'. Gen Y peeps are so damn easy.
(Just so you know, Shaker BeatrixComet will be using this thread as
part of her final project this semester, in which she is making a mix
CD of "songs that people feel are a part of their identity." So make
sure you include both song title and artist for her!)
It's sad to admit, but the years that followed my first day of film school have left me still occasionally able to bounce around my apartment to some Katrina & The Waves, but unable to claim it as my personal theme song. Still I've always loved the concept of a personal theme song, and I do wish I still had one.
Any suggestions? Or should I keep trying to get back to the girl who so often felt like she was Walking on Sunshine?
The thing about blogging is that it gives you a space to express yourself about whatever you want and instantly makes you part of the blogging community. And whether you start out wanting to blog about Important Issues or not, suddenly there's Blog Against Sexism Day and Blog for Choice Day and on and on and on and on. There's "silence is compliance" and go sign this petition and go donate money here.
I could blog everyday about something horrible that's going on. Since joining the blogosphere I've become hopelessly aware of all sorts of things - many, many of which are of personal interest and concern to me. But if I blogged them every day, this would be a very different blog. And further, I buck against blogging feeling like homework because I "have" to blog a particular issue on a particular day.
Which isn't to say that it's not a great idea for the blogosphere to come together on a particular day for a particular cause - it's a great idea, actually. But I struggle about how much to participate and when and about what.
I also feel like too much of that renders it all invisible on a personal blog, because it's not why people are reading so they leave. It's much better to wait for things you really want to blog about, because then, hopefully they stand out.
I felt like I got snapped on the donation thing because I blogged about Hilly and Clusterfook - which I wanted to do, absolutely - and then along came the BlogHer Global Giving Initiative and I was like, crap, I just blogged about donate money... twice. And so I stare at that damn widget as if I could will it to get over $2,000 with the force of my mind. I sent another $12 because I was so sick of looking at it stuck on $1798.
Of course, I could also never blog about causes and issues, and that would completely solve the problem. It could be that this is simply not that space. Except that this is my personal blog, and I absolutely care about a million things and want to blog about them sometimes. So I try to strike a balance.
So if you're still with me here, there's three pretty major things going on that I think warrant your attention.
Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how
the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would
be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated
drowning, called waterboarding.
The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation
techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the
interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number
of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.
The advisers were members of the National Security Council's
Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met
frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security
policy.
At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President
Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well
as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Now, while this was reported by ABC and the blogosphere has been going crazy about it, other mainstream media outlets haven't joined in to ring the bell. From Digby:
They were aware that what they were doing was wrong, immoral.
Attorney General John Ashcroft warned them that by doing such things,
right in the White House, "history would not be kind." But they did it.
The president approved it. ABC reported it. And nobody else in the
media cares.
Since
the national news is obsessed with the Pope's visit, "bitterness",
"duck blinds" and how and what Democrats drink in diners and bars, they
are not inclined to pursue this. Or maybe they just think the top
echelon of the Bush administration personally approving specific
torture techniques is business as usual by now. It isn't.
It's unbelievable and it's unacceptable what our current administration is doing to what it means to be an American. Digby points to a tool from Firedoglake that's better than an online petition. You put in your zip code and it helps you personally send a letter to various national and local news outlets demanding coverage of this issue. I will be sending mine right after I hit publish on this post.
~
Now, my second item is also about ABC, which ironically has found itself sitting at the tipping point of ridiculous election coverage. This video says it all:
This issue reminds me of when I tuned into the nightly news for the first and basically last time - When Katie Couric became a news anchor. I was curious and excited, so I tuned in. Only to find that the nightly news contains very little news. I blogged about it: This ain't no CNN.
You know, the network news shows are trying to compete when they add fluff. Yet they never try actually reporting the news. Somebody needs to watch BBC News for a refresher on what news looks like. Or just air BBC News, because even though it's England-centric, it's still more news than we're giving television viewers here.
~
Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.
Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.
Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.
That is so incredibly shameful and such a damning statement about our military. Women are in active combat more than ever. They are working their butts off and proving every day that women make good soldiers. And our military is allowing them to be raped and ignoring them or ruining their careers when they report it. It is completely unacceptable, and in my opinion it is a top down issue.
It's also the result of lowering standards of entry into the military. Kicking out homosexual soldiers while letting in gang members, criminals, cultists, etc. It is also happening within the companies that America is contracting work from in Iraq. And nothing, nothing, NOTHING is being done.
No one is shouting from the American rooftop. The military isn't making it a priority to solve this crisis. And lest you think they have more pressing matters to deal with - how is a unit where this bullshit is going on functioning at its best? Why are we letting some of our best soldiers be destroyed by our worst?
Ask yourself, if you were a strong, honorable young man or woman today, and you knew about this rape epidemic in the military, would you sign up? If you were a criminal, on the other hand, would the thunderdome that is the American military today appeal to you? Apparently, being in the U.S. Military today is just like being in prison.
Remember, rape doesn't occur because someone is horny. It occurs because someone doesn't consider the women in their unit to be full, equal human beings and because they have a desire to force their own power and violence and demoralize someone that perhaps they feel shouldn't be there and/or isn't their equal and partner. This is proven by every male U.S. soldier who doesn't rape and never would. Systemic military rape doesn't occur simply because women soldiers are there - it happens because it is condoned and allowed within our military structure and because, apparently, no one in the U.S. Military gives a shit about the female soldiers who are over there fighting just as hard in our war.
This is hardly a comprehensive round-up, but it's a good place to start. Hopefully there will be some calls to action on this issue, as it is finally beginning to get congressional attention.
~
OK, I'm off to Firedoglake to let the media know that I for one care that our administration is criminal.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading today about these important issues. Back to relationships, entertainment, books, and other daily silliness next post, I promise.
Hey, as I hit publish, the BlogHer Global Giving total is up over $1900! Rock on!
I can hardly bear the sexism. I feel such anger, such hate, such frustration, such fury, such disappointment, and honestly, flat out disbelief that people still think women are some mysterious other species instead of human beings JUST LIKE THEM.
Asshole media, TAKE YOUR SEXISM AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS. Because frankly, it's just ridiculous.
And if you prefer to read about the insane, unethical, disgraceful bias of our mainstream press, don't miss this post from Digby about Hillary Clinton's recent healthcare story and what the press did: Storylines.
Honestly, I don't know how the Clintons don't completely flip a gasket.
But I will say, that I can only hope that Obama is never subjected to this level of hate ever. At least we don't have to watch clips using black stereotypes to characterize him over and over and over again. At least racist humor isn't "funny" anymore.
I was in undergrad the first time I felt The Fear That Tells You Where To Go. It arrived while I was looking at an ad in the student newspaper, advertising a paid Student Government position: Assistant Controller. I was an accounting major at the time.
An accounting major with a part-time job at KFC I'd had since I was 16. It didn't leave a lot of time to be involved at school. A paid position would mean I could be a member of Student Government: A way to get involved.
But I was also intimidated. I hadn't been in Student Government in high school, and I hardly knew anyone at my college at all, as I was a commuter. In for class, then home again.
I knew it was a perfect opportunity, though, so I applied. I got the position, and I threw my comfort zone to the wind.
I went down to 3 days a week at KFC, and the assistant controller position offered me schedule flexibility for the first time. A year later, I became Controller of Student Government. With a bigger stipend, I was able to go down to 1 day a week at KFC. More schedule flexibility.
Because of that, I was able to rush and join a sorority. Something I never would have been able to do if I hadn't answered that ad. Something that helped me more ways that I can count, from learning how to meet and mingle with strangers, to getting my second job after college because the boss had held all the same positions as me in his fraternity.
That particular flavor of fear became my guiding light. I spent any number of years trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I'm future oriented and a planner; I explored graduate school for economics, teaching English in Japan, and joining The Peace Corps.
Then one day, after another fortuitous course of events and choices, I looked up Florida State University Film School on the Internet and printed out an application.
There it was. The Fear That Tells You Where To Go.
And then, my world got flipped and tossed and spun and there were all new kinds of fear. My life was in such upheaval, I'm not sure what drove me to L.A. The good fear was hopelessly mixed with bad fears and hurts. Part of me still isn't sure how I got here, but by then I was running on gut instinct, and here I am to stay.
Then, there's been many years of seeing what there was to do and doing what I could. Similar to the years of not knowing what I wanted to do. Now I knew, but my options were limited. So I worked. And I worked. At whatever I could.
And last year, when I did Script Frenzy, after taking a few years off from screenwriting, I was suddenly fearful again. Fearful of failing. Fearful of writing being my only way in - What if I suck? What if I can't do it?
I did OK last year. I'm not done with that screenplay, but what's there is good, and better than my previous writing.
This year, I'm doing an adaptation, because I know in my soul that I will be good at it. It's how my mind works. It's a puzzle and a challenge of pieces - where they go and which ones are missing, or should be.
I got up this morning, and I was afraid.
Driving to work, I berated myself in my head. Just do the work. Just have faith; you know you can do it. But what if I can't? What if I fail? What if this is the only way in, and I don't have the strength to keep up this pace? How long can I honestly keep up this pace?
What if I don't have what it takes? I'm afraid.
But I know I can do this, and I know it's the right thing right now, why am I feeling like this?
And like a light coming on - How did I miss it before? - I realized. This is not a bad fear.
This is what we do with telephone books in my apartment complex:
We ignore them. This batch has been sitting out at least a week. I guess somebody eventually comes and throws them away. Thankfully, our garbage is sorted for recycling.
Still, what a waste.
And I can only imagine what's going on in places like South Florida where it rains every day.
I became a Democrat after 20+ years as non-party affiliated so that I could vote for Hillary Clinton in the primaries. Now, as a California resident, I could still have voted for her as an independent, but I didn't want to have to figure that out or risk screwing it up. She's a Democrat, so I became a Democrat to vote for her. Also, what's been happening with the Republican Party over the past decade has made me feel more and more like I wanted to be affiliated with the Democratic Party.
I don't fully understand the primary process because I have never participated in it before and therefore, have never paid much attention to it. (Thank goodness I didn't have to caucus - blech.) But going in, I was excited to vote for Hillary, and I was pleased about Barack Obama - Two strong, exciting candidates in a Democratic race? It seems like a miracle to me.
But as the primaries go on, I am exhausted by the hateful, simplistic, and at time misogynistic comments I read from Obama supporters online. Going in, of course I figured I would vote for him if he won the nomination - Now, I have moments where I think I might just stay home. Now, I've pulled entire blogs from my RSS because I simply can't stand the thoughtless, spiteful hate towards Hillary Clinton that I've read there.
Discussing issues is one thing - I'm not talking about whether or not you support her, wish she would drop out of the race, or even funny, witty commentary on either side ala Saturday Night Live or Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert. I'm talking about the snarky, snippy hate. Good friends of mine have shared some thoughtful commentary on Obama with me, and I've read some of his speeches, and that's helping me consider him outside of the voice of some of his supporters, but it's been really difficult for me.
At the forefront, I think, is that I am an incredibly ambitious woman myself, and when I was very young, I remember being inspired by quotes like John Paul Jones declaring, "I have not yet begun to fight!" I don't understand why Hillary should drop out of a neck-and-neck race because of the perception that Obama should be winning and is beloved. People are voting for her. I voted for her. I've sent her money, too (my first campaign contributions ever), and while I realize that anything can happen, she damn well better spend some of her contributions on advertising in Pennsylvania, because that's what the most recent emails I've received from her campaign are talking about. I expect her to stay in the race for as long as she and her campaign deem it makes sense to - Even if it goes all the way. That's what this process is for, right?
In fact, I admire her and Obama for continuing to go to every state and take it all the way.
And as for either candidate damaging the other before the main race - That's absurd to me. Either candidate is going to have to weather campaign competition no matter where it comes from, and they damn well better be able to. I'm with Marbury in the post woe unto the world because of offences:
I suppose, here in Britain, we're used to a fairly robust political discourse. I certainly have no problem the candidates roughing each other up. After all, a campaign which focused only on positive things would be pretty dull. So I say keep throwing mud, and stop crying foul.
My English blood says, Amen! For me, I do think there's times lines are crossed, and I don't judge either candidate for calling the other out, that's part of the process, too. But it is part of the process. I don't always like it, but if Obama says this and Hillary says that, that's called campaigning.
That's different to me than the whiny, hateful, unthoughtful, dismissive BS I've read from some Obama supporters, however. Again, I'm not talking about actually blogging about the issues for either side, which is awesome and important, I'm talking about stupid, flippant, frequently misogynistic BS flung at Hillary Clinton. Oh, I should give an example, but then I would just give it air, so I'm not going to. I simply haven't read anything dashed off against Obama in the same vein from a Hillary supporter. Commentary, yes; flippant hate; no. Perhaps it's there; in that case, I certainly don't condone that either. I simply haven't seen it.
And I know I shouldn't hold it against Obama, of course I can't, but because of it, when I think of him, my heart hurts.
...the biggest problem with this whole idea is the misogyny. There are
a couple of overarching themes here: Clinton is ambitious, power-mad,
ready to destroy Obama and the party as well, and she just won’t get
out of the way of the rising star. It’s a very easy narrative, one
that’s readily spooned down by a misogynistic press, which hates women.
Women who are ambitious, who fight for what they want, who don’t back
down, are tarred as shrews, ballbusters, bitches. It’s no great secret
that this has long been used to discredit Hillary Clinton.
Also: Tonya Harding? Seriously? For one thing, can you imagine the
outcry if a party official said the same things about Obama, but called
it the “O.J. Simpson Option?” But in the media, racism (or mere
accusations of racism, however debunked or unfounded) draws howls of
outrage, while misogyny just draws a good chuckle among the boys. (Not
to mention, Nancy Kerrigan made a full recovery before the Olympics and
lost because Baiul was just better.)
But here’s the part that’s puzzling me: Assuming that Tapper didn’t
get it wrong in the first version, and this *was* a DNC official, what
does that tell us?
It means the DNC has its thumb on the scale. And why would that be? To cover its own ass.
Well, screw you, misogynists. And screw you, DNC. Clean up your own mess (which you basically can't; nice job). Let Pennsylvania and the remaining states vote. Let the candidates run. Let us have a national convention that's more than a formality. Let's have ourselves a primary race!
Neither candidate is perfect; both have made missteps. Hillary's missteps hurt me more, because I care more, but Obama has had his share, and both surely will misstep again. That doesn't change their respective strengths and messages. Painting either of them as a spoiler is just lame.
As a Hillary supporter, I will vote for Obama if he is the Democratic nominee. It seems clear to me that if Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, many Obama supporters will instead hit the blogwaves to whine and cry and spew misogynistic hate instead of moving to support the Democratic nominee in the general election against John McCain.
Call me a crazy bitch if you simply can't help yourself, but I think that the Democratic Party is better off with people like me rather than people like them.
So at some point after my post New Fav: PopFiction on Hulu (from E!), what's available on the site for that show switched from the show to clips from the show. And I. Do not. Watch Clips.
I don't watch clips from movies, and I certainly do not watch clips from shows, with the exception of comedy clips where you are watching a segment with a beginning/middle/end in its entirety ala Saturday Night Live sketches or a bit on Jon Stewart.
I do watch trailers online, but I've always felt that watching a clip from a movie or a television show is just more than I care to see. I don't mind it when I'm watching an interview or a review show - when something I'm already watching is pushing the clip at me, but I find that I never choose to pull a clip to me by choosing to click on it and watch it. I'd rather wait and see it in context.
I'd rather watch the whole show online, and if I can't watch the whole show, I'm certainly not interested in watching clips. Same with movies; I'd rather see the whole film, I don't like to watch clips out of context.
So, so much for PopFiction for me, because I definitely do not have room on the Tivo, and I'm lamed out that the whole show was there, and now it's just clips.
Hulu seems to have a lot of clips, but for me, that's all just wasted space.
You know how you watch a movie sometimes and you're like, "I'm loving this! I'm loving this! OH." Sucky ending.
I'm withholding my examples, but feel free to give me some in the comments.
Lately, however, I've been seeing movies that I haven't been way over the moon about, but I loved the ending. Juno, for example. I enjoyed it very much, but I didn't drink the Kool-Aid, you know? But. I *loved* the end.
No Country for Old Men. Really loved a lot about it, but again, no Kool-Aid. But. I *loved* the end.
Yes, I'm the one. Get me a hat to go with my "I loved Ang Lee's Hulk" T-shirt.
Third example: Atonement. Loved the entire beginning, felt lost in the middle, loved the end. And that dress!
I have to say, it's a better place to be than when the ending sucks. I like these films a lot more because the ends worked for me. Interestedly, each was surprising in its own way.
I'm stuck on the ending for the original screenplay I've been working on since last Script Frenzy. So I'm putting it aside for two months while I work on my adaptation for this year's Frenzy. I think I'm going to tell the brain gerbil in the back that's still working on it to take a mind pill that says "surprising" on it. How can I twist my ending so that it's surprising in some way?
I think a lot about how much I like Hillary Clinton, and about how much I am inspired by her. I think a lot about her experience - and yes, that time as first lady counts for something for me (a unique vantage point for observation and learning). I think about how she's learned from her mistakes, and I think a lot about the amount of political savvy that got her to this amazing place. I feel confident that she will hit the ground running as president, and that she has specific plans for how she will accomplish her goals for our country.
I do think about what it would mean to me and our country to have a woman president, but I also feel that even today, she has stood strong, weathered criticism, and changed America on that front. Our world *is* changing. Sometimes I think the remaining sexism in America seems so unbearable precisely because it's the last dying breaths of that bullshit. (I'm trying to curse less on the Internet, but truly, I couldn't feel another word when thinking about sexism.)
But man, there's a lot of people who love Obama. And I just don't. I've been thinking about it a lot, and reading and listening, and this morning I had a revelation. The people who love Obama, are all more liberal than me.
See, I feel like I forget sometimes, because to today's far right conservative, I am extremely liberal... but I'm not. When I lived in Florida, I felt fairly liberal. I support a woman's right to reproductive choice, health & education, I support gay marriage - those are big issues for me.
But when I moved to Southern California, suddenly I became more conservative. I didn't change, but you know, it's L.A. Peeps here are super liberal, yo. I was registered independent until last June, when I became a Democrat. But I am, in many cases, a reluctant Democrat.
The one big exception is I'm warming to some level of socialized medicine. When people are tied to their jobs because of their need for health insurance, the market can't work. You want to say, if an employer is abusive, employees won't work there, but in a world with our health insurance situation, that's not true. Employees often can't move about, they're trapped, and that's a problem. That's effecting the concept of a free market.
But there's a lot of other issues I'm more conservative on. I'm going to avoid a beat by beat discussion of specific issues, but generally, Obama feels more liberal and tends to fall left of me. Further, I couldn't find an obvious discussion of gender equality issues and reproductive health issues on his site. Also, "faith" is listed under issues on his site, and not on Hillary's. I see that "faith" and that bothers me. It's interesting, but at the core, Hillary's issues links speak to me, and Obama's lose me.
Further, were I in the Senate, listening to lies from the Bush administration, I may have voted to go to Iraq. I don't really know, but I am not blanketly against military action in some instances. We shouldn't be in Iraq, but neither should our House and Senate have been in a situation where they were voting on something like that based on lies. The fault for Iraq lies squarely and completely on the shoulders of the Bush administration who used 9/11 to take us to war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. Disgusting.
So while the big stumbling block for Hillary Clinton with a lot of people seems to be that Iraq vote, it just isn't a stumbling block for me. Neither is her remaining on the ballots in Michigan & Florida, and standing up for those voters' right to be counted. Important to me is: I think she will be able to take office and lead our country to change from day one. I think she knows how to hit the ground running in specific ways. I think she has more experience and more political savvy, and I think it's going to take one whole hell of a lot of both of those to go all the way and get things done when you get there.
And most important, I believe that Hillary's beliefs are more closely aligned with mine. I feel like Obama is a bit too left for me, and that makes me fear for his electability in the general election. Whereas I believe that Hillary is highly electable. I hear people say she's divisive and has electability issues, but I just don't get it. People email me and whisper to me that they really like her, but they almost feel like they aren't supposed to.
Well, I'm not whispering. I'm voting for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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