Former street dog Afonso applauds Barack Obama's "shelter dog" comments
| posted by William K Wolfrum | Friday, November 07, 2008During his speech on the economy today, President-Elect Barack Obama discussed one of the most important decisions he will make prior to taking over the Presidency on Jan. 21 - what type of dog he will get. And while Obama may be hamstrung by his daughter Malia's allergies and the need for a hypoallergenic breed, he did say what he preferred, even though he may have to go a different direction:
"It's our preference to get a shelter dog," said Obama.
Afonso approves.
(Looking for a dog or cat? Take a look at Petfinder.com or take a look at the Humane Society's info on how to adopt a pet. Got any more sources? Leave a link in comments.)
--WKW
Crossposted at Williamkwolfrum.com
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like YEEEEAAARRRGGHHH
| posted by Paul the Spud | Friday, November 07, 2008Fucking hell.
As most long-time readers know, one of my biggest pet peeves is the completely fabricated "War on Christmas." A big part of it is that it's one of my favorite holidays, and I fucking hate being told by douchebags that simply because I'm a progressive, I hate Christmas and want to see it destroyed. Douchebags like Bill O'Reilly. Which leads to my next reason for loathing this hollow lie; it could not be more obvious that O'Reilly created the WoC out of mistletoe dreams and reindeer farts simply to sell more shit from his website.No time of the year is more merry for Bill O’Reilly than the “Christmas season,” because he can then go to war with his nemeses, the so-called “secular progressives.” Last year, he kicked off the season on Nov. 9, with a story on a decision by the Fort Collins, Colorado City Council to forgo traditional Christmas decorations. Though he hasn’t found his first outrage of the year yet, he’s getting ready.
Case in point: It's a few fucking days after Halloween, so O'Reilly has to wave his Kringle in our faces and claim that somehow the WoC has already begun, even though no one's thinking about this shit other than him. And what's his big idea this year, you ask? He's breaking out the big guns, folks. A sticker. Great horny toads, we're toast; how will we ever stop Christmas when faced with this?
And how do you get one of these fucking ugly cheerful signs of the season, you ask? Why, spend money on Bill's website, of course!For the past two nights, O’Reilly has been offering bumper stickers reading “We Say Merry Christmas” to anyone who orders his book off his website:
Yes, in order to get one of these fifty cent stickers (And by the way, who wants a Christmas sticker on their car year round? And who, for the luvva Maude, is we?), you have to spend twenty dollars or more. There is not enough muscle in my skull to roll my eyes as much as I want to right now.
"We say Merry Christmas." Jebus. Hey Bill, I say "Go fuck yourself sideways, you greedy, moneygrubbing douchetacular fuckneck."
There's got to be some reason that this experienced and talented former diplomat and assistant secretary of state is reportedly only being considered for deputy national security adviser or UN ambassador, as opposed to, say, Secretary of State, but I just can't quite put my vagina finger on it.
(Please note "reportedly." This may be a problem with the Times' reporting, it may be that whoever's been tasked with leaking this sort of shit to the media is underselling the possibilities, it may be that she's really not being considered for a more serious position, or some combination thereof. I don't know which, so I'm not pointing vaginas fingers. All I know is that a man with the same résumé would probably be identified as a contender for director at NSA or State, even if he was more likely to end up as a deputy.)
...that in response to the Great Blame-the-Dumb-Slutathon of 2008, there are a good few people who are calling out McCain campaign staffers as hypocrites (see Campbell Brown here, for example), but McCain himself is largely being exempted from criticism.
If what the staffers are now saying about Palin is true (and I'm not convinced it is, but it is certainly being reported that way), it means that the man who ran a campaign under the slogan "Country First" while traveling on the "Straight Talk Express" told the nation with reckless disregard for the potentially disastrous consequences that a patently and dangerously unqualified candidate was prepared to be president in his stead, if necessary.
And if what the staffers are now saying about Palin is not true, it means that the man who told us over and over and over that he is a man of honor and integrity is letting his former running mate be smeared in a pathetic bid to save his own tattered reputation.
The reality is that probably some of what is being said is true and some isn't, which means that McCain is both colossally injurious liar and unctuous scoundrel.
It would be nice if I heard half as much about that as I've heard about Sarah Palin's wardrobe dysfunction.
Action Item: No Larry SummersIt will be another light day for me, as we're still on holiday. As to the important question, however, yes, there will be a Virtual Pub tonight!
Please feel free to use this thread as the blogaround: Leave links to what you've written, what you're reading, what you'd like to talk about...
What a quandary this poor man faced when he went to vote. He didn't like either candidate and just wanted to stay with the current president. Oopsie. A poll worker told him a president cannot run for a third term and Bush wasn't on the ballot. So, he left his ballot blank.
Someone give me one good reason why I should get out of bed EVER AGAIN?
Via Videogum.
Before I tell you what I found in my nose tonight, a joke:
Q: What's green and flies over London?
A: Snotsies!
Ahem. Yes. Well, back to what I found in my nose: purple boogers. Fortunately, I figured out pretty quickly that what made the boogers purple were fibers from the new shirt I'd been wearing on a date that took a rather bad turn when the guy said there were some things that he agreed with anti-feminists about (actually, that's not entirely right. Things started to look bad when he told me that he wanted all dogs out of the city parks, and then followed that up with sneering at me about being so passionate about politics. And this from a birder with a whole room for his birding-related camera equipment).
So. No weird tropical diseases, just the remnants of a bad date giving me a surprise in the tissue.
Aren't you glad you opened up the post?
I just don't know what to say about this.
Yes, I get that it's supposed to be humor. It's "humor" in the way that the Shouts & Murmurs page in The New Yorker is "humor." Meaning, it's not really funny, and there's little-to-no discernible point to the piece. I mean, is it supposed to be fat-bashing? A parody of identity politics, with the "now there's a role model who looks like me" thing?
But what really pissed me off about the piece -- and for reasons which I may explain in a post later tonight or tomorrow, I'm pretty annoyed in general right now -- was this:
On the right, there’s been much anxiety over what a Skinny Black Guy administration will look like. Will he paint the White House a warm, Cablinasian caramel, lop off the East Wing for a more svelte profile? Pack his cabinet with Garrett Morris, Dave Chappelle and Jimmie Walker? Such talk is ridiculous, although Mr. Obama doesn’t hide the fact that he keeps Urkel on speed-dial “because you never know.” I’m confident he’ll reach across the aisle to Skinny White Guys, Haven’t Been Able to Get to the Gym White Guys, and If They Were Women They’d Be Called Zaftig White Guys.But of course, they're not women, because we wouldn't dream of reaching out to women, would we?
When I started my blog, nearly a year and a half ago, I did so under the pseudonym "PortlyDyke" for a number of reasons.
First, the impetus for starting the blog was basically that I had become an obsessive commenter at Shakesville, and my comments had started to get really, really, really long (this should come as no surprise to those of you who have waded through my rants both at Teh Portly Dyke and at Shakesville -- succinct is not my middle name).
I really loved my commenter handle at Shakesville, and I kept it when I started my home blog.
The second reason that I chose to blog as PortlyDyke, rather than under my real name, was that I am a minister for a rather -- shall we say: "alternative"? -- religious organization. I wanted to keep those worlds separate, because I feel strongly about the separation of church and state, and I didn't want any political commentary that I might make at PortlyDyke to wash over into my work as a minister.
I haven't been absolute about my anonymity -- Melissa has known my true identity since I started blogging at Shakesville, and I've outted myself to a few folks that I've become close to in comment sections, virtual pubs, and chatty-chats online. If you had ever done a "select all" on my old blog template, you would have seen the copyright notice at the bottom (which I cleverly hid with white text on a white background so you would only see it when highlighting) -- and you would have known my real name. I've revealed my true name to those who have wanted to reprint blog-posts and credit me. I've linked to some of my own songs and poems. If you really wanted to know who I was, it wasn't impossible to suss it out.
Initially, the anonymity was both comforting and liberating. I felt a bit safer in the meat-world knowing that my name and address weren't exposed to a possible plethora of trolls, misogynists, and homophobes. I had a sense of being able to put my opinions out there without having a whole load of personal history attached to my name and my real world personality. I found it intriguing to see what people would make of me if I were judged solely by my words -- no attendant baggage of assumptions based on my past or my circumstances. I also found it interesting to see what I chose to reveal and what I chose to withhold.
Pretty quickly, though, the structure became somewhat limiting. I realized that there were things about me that would be very difficult to relate without identifying my offline life, and I found that the self-editing that I did sometimes decreased my ability to really connect with others that I met online.
Also, my particular ministry is all about power and responsibility, authenticity, and full integration of the self, so I was constantly in question about my real motivations for blogging psuedonomysly -- a) Was I attempting to avoid responsibility for my words? b) Was I hiding out of fear? (blech) c) Was I worried that people who seemed to respect me online would lose respect, judge, or reject me because of what I do for a living? (More on that later.)
I kept asking these questions internally and checking in with myself the whole time, and tried very hard to address them honestly. The answers were usually a) sometimes, b) sometimes, and c) often.
This summer, the whole thing got a lot more complicated for me. I took a long hiatus from blogging as I worked on my video project, and when I returned, people often asked me what the project was. I usually hemmed and hawed, and mumbled something vague and non-identifying, but occasionally I revealed myself with those I felt safe with (digging into the virtual pubs, you could find hints and cues to link me to real-world events -- evidence that a late Friday night and a few beers will, in fact, loosen my already unrestrained tongue). Sometimes, I would wonder next morning if I shouldn't have been so free with my information, but I usually comforted myself with the thought that most people don't have the stamina to read through the entire pub thread anyway.
I did start to notice something, though. I found that the constant second-guessing and self-editing required to maintain partial or complete anonymity was beginning to slow my blogging down. If I had an idea for a post, but it would require a lot of fancy footwork to tell the story well and still keep my PortlyDyke persona intact and separate, I would sometimes just bag it, because it was too much fucking work.
I talked with 'Liss at Shakesville about the pros and cons of anonymity -- about her own process with revealing her real-world identity after beginning as simply "Shakespeare's Sister", how it has impacted her life, and her writing.
The whole situation is a bit ironic for me, because in real life, I'm known for being completely outspoken about stuff that other people are uncomfortable with (sex, farting, my mental health history, etc., etc., etc.). Many and many a time I have been greeted with the Universal Sign for Too Much Information.
I find that I'm genuinely fond of my PortlyDyke persona, and don't want to lose her -- she's been Superman to my Clark Kent in some way. I would sometimes wonder if someone I was commenting with might be someone in my home-town, or who might have known me in real-life in a previous this-life incarnation (and I've had many of them). I would wonder if the ultra-liberal checker at my food coop might be a secret Shakesvillian. I loved it when Melissa and I would talk on the phone and she would still call me "Portly", even though she knew my real name.
However, the time has come for me to come out. Again.
I came out to my parents as queer when I was 24, although my mom had suspected (and even asked about it -- I lied) since I was 19 and getting love-letters from my first girlfriend. I was terrified, but it all turned out much better than I expected.
In 2000, I came out to my parents about my current work (which I had been doing for two years) -- I was less terrified, then (probably because I had a better sense of myself), but in many ways, it was much more difficult than coming out as a lesbian.
In a few more paragraphs, you will probably understand more as to why coming out about my work might be a little unnerving for me. It's actually one of the things that I've angsted about the most, as I've considered coming out on the blog. My work is of the type that some people poo-poo and scoff at, or think is so weird that they automatically discount me as an absolute nutcase (which, come to think of it, isn't exactly an unfounded assessment). I feel scared that some of my online atheist friends will now decide that I am just a silly ninny whose spiritual beliefs mean that she can be relegated to the "pay her no mind" bin.
I'm nervous about this. My hands are sweating right now. (Of course, it could just be the hot-flashes.) However, I know from my first coming out 28 years ago that there is never really a "good time" to dive off a diving board into a pool that might hold sharks or chocolate mousse -- if you wait for that "good moment", you will probably never do it.
That said, I do know why this is the right time for me -- the election is finally over, with results that I adore and results that I abhor -- but as I found myself saying in an email exchange with someone the day after the election, the truth is, I don't have much faith in elections.
I do think politics can change some things, but at the end of the day, I think that the transformational impact of individual human beings, acting in integrity, is more far-reaching than we can imagine. When hundreds, thousands, or millions of individuals act in integrity, we see the political and social tides that make big changes, but without those individual droplets, there is no ocean.
In truth, the little nigglings in my gut about straddling the philosophical chasm between anonymity and complete authenticity (a pet project of mine) have grown to rumbles as I realize just how important it is to me to be fully aligned with my own principles about showing up, taking responsibility (and the power attendant to it), and bringing the full energy of who I am to everything I do.
So here goes.
I've been cheating on you. I have another blog.
My name Carol Steinel, and I make my living as a psychic and full body channeler.
The video project I've been working on is -- wait for it -- called Psychic Hygiene, and yes, it's just as out there as it may sound.
I'm a wild, weird, wacky woo-woo babe.
There. I said it.
That's it for the gaggle. Now I'll take a few questions.
What's that? No, I already told you -- my middle name is not "succinct" -- as a matter of fact, it's "Lee" -- but you can still call me . . . . .
PortlyDyke
Aww. Poor guy can't catch a break.
Publishers Not Interested in Producing Bush's MemoirOkay, Shakers- What should be the title of Bush's memoir, if it ever gets published?
When George W. Bush leaves office in January, he’s likely to join other past presidents and write a memoir. However, publishers aren’t that interested in producing something from history’s most unpopular president at this point and are suggesting that he “take [his] time.” Even Marji Ross of the conservative Regnery Publishing said, “Certainly the longer he waits, the better.”
I'm thinking: Nope, No WMD's Here!!
Alternate title: Heh, heh. Suckers.
The election is over. The transition begins. TEH GAYS are still second class citizens. I need a distraction. Here is an evening edition of the morning readings.
The Out 100: The Men and Women Who Made 2008.
Photographed by Lee Jenkins in London
Props and costumes from SCI FI's Battlestar Galactica will be auctioned off on Jan. 16-18, 2009, in Pasadena, Calif., with proceeds in part going to benefit the United Way.Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century.Europa Film Treasures Archive. I got trapped there for hours.3D gives taste of life and combat in ancient Rome. (Yahoo)Why did the chicken cross the road? To catch the escaped tigers.Skeleton Of 12,000-Year-Old Shaman Discovered Buried With Leopard, 50 Tortoises And Human Foot.Rock-Eating Bacteria "Mine" Valuable Metals.Craigslist Agrees to Crack Down on Erotic Ads. (CNBC)"A PERSON who has an aphorism for everything gives thought to nothing." (Scotsman)Shostakovich's score for the film New Babylon restored. (Sydney Morning Herald)Joan Miró's Wild Decade. (Slate)
Rahm Emanuel Chosen as Obama's Chief of Staff
| posted by Melissa McEwan | Thursday, November 06, 2008The bad news: There's stuff not to like about Rahm Emanuel.
The good news: There's stuff to like about Rahm Emanuel.
My feelings about Emanuel, with whom I've been familiar for a loooooong time by virtue of his Chicago background, are probably best summarized in this Photoshop I did a few years ago for reasons I don't remember:
The fact that I can't recall whether it was intended to be a compliment or a criticism really says everything I need to say about the guy.
If you don't know much about him, this 2005 Rolling Stone profile is a good place to start.
One thing that's encouraging: Picking Emanuel is almost certainly a signal that Obama is serious about governing toward the left.
As Predicted, Republicans' Feminist Awakening Was Short-Lived
| posted by Melissa McEwan | Thursday, November 06, 2008I've been predicting for two months that if/when McCain lost the election, the Republicans who were so keen to use their funhouse version of feminism both to defend Palin against genuinely sexist attacks and to mendaciously attempt to insulate her from legitimate attacks by calling them sexist, would immediately excise the words sexism, misogyny, and feminism once again from their vocabularies and throw Palin under the bus using vicious sexist attacks.
File this under Unhappy to be Right:
(If anyone can find a transcript, please drop a link in comments.)
Everything about this video is disgusting. Bill O'Reilly affects minimal concern for Palin only as a bridge to get to Carl Cameron's next vicious report about her "tantrums," her ignorance, her "shopaholism," her greeting McCain campaign operatives wearing a bathrobe (the original report actually says "wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair"). O'Reilly offers a paternalistic, patently disingenuous defense after every new revelation, hardly able to contain himself from gleefully salivating at finally being able to throw Palin to the wolves after having to pretend to respect her for oh-so-painfully-long. Being able to bask in misogyny again is such a relief.
O'Reilly is nothing if not a Republican water carrier, and this, then, is the official GOP talking point: Palin is a dumb slut and that's why we lost.
Classy.
Also known as: Coconut Chicken with Cashews. This is really good and even better the next day.
When I made this, I used bone-in thighs. I de-skinned them and cooked it a bit longer. I took the chicken pieces out and pulled the meat off with a fork before serving (just stirred it back into sauce). You can use raw or roasted--as the recipe says--but you get a really nice color with the roasted cashews.Murgh Kaju (Coconut Chicken with Cashews)
1 cup roasted or raw cashews + 1/4 cup roasted cashews for serving
4 whole dried red chiles
1 1-inch cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
8 garlic cloves
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled & sliced
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp black pepper
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut crosswise into thirds
2 cups water
1 tsp salt, or to taste
--Process the one cup of raw or roasted cashews into a fine powder in a food processor.
--Combine chiles, cinnamon stick, cloves, coriander, cumin, onion, garlic, ginger, coconut, and 3/4 cup of the just-ground cashews in large sauce pan or casserole over low heat. Cook, stirring, until the cashews and coconut have turned light golden, about 10 minutes. Cool and process into a paste in the food processor.
--Wipe out pan or casserole and put it over medium heat. Add the oil, spice paste, and black pepper, and cook, stirring, until mix turns a deep golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add some water by the teaspoon to prevent the spice mix from sticking to the bottom of pan and burning.
--Add remaining ground cashews and cook, stirring, about five more minutes. Add chicken and cook, stirring, until it turns opaque, about 5 minutes.
--Add the two cups of water and salt, stir well, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer, partially covered, until chicken is tender, 15 - 20 minutes. Taste for salt and sprinkle with the 1/4 cup roasted cashews. Serve hot with pita and rice.
If you'd like to participate in Shaker Gourmet, email me at: shakergourmet (at) gmail.com
It's my burfday!
No cake for the stinkabetes birthday boy; the delectable concentration of sweetness in that utterly adorable picture of the wee bairn we now know as our resident Scotsman will have to suffice!
I've told this story before, but not for a long time, and it's still as true as ever...
Once upon a time, I mentioned to my friend Sam that Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks had always been my favorite Hollywood couple. "Not Bogart and Bacall?" he asked. "Not Newman and Woodward?"
"Nope," I replied. "Definitely Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks."
He asked why. It was because of something Anne Bancroft once said. Yes, that Brooks made her laugh. And this: "When I hear his key in the lock at night my heart starts to beat faster. I'm just so happy he's coming home. We have so much fun." I can totally relate.
I'll never get over my crush on Iain.
He's all the things that anyone would hope to be able to say about their partner—kind, intelligent, loyal, admirable, talented, affectionate, witty. But then there's this other thing…this completely bizaare and wonderful thing that leads him to believe that his primary role as my partner is to annoy the shit out of me in the most hilarious way.
"Hey," he'll say. "Did ye see that poll that CNN did today?"
"No," I'll reply.
"Oh, it was really interesting," he'll tell me. "They foond oot that Joodge Toobbs is the moost brilliant chooby wifel in the entire universe."
Then he'll give me that wicked grin with the raised eyebrow, and I'll tell him to shut up, to which he'll reply, "Hey, dinny tell me. I'm joost repoorting the news, Chunkles." And on and on we'll go until I'm laughing so hard my sides hurt.
Which reminds me of something else Anne Bancroft once said about Mel Brooks. "I'd never had so much pleasure with another human being. It was that simple."
I can totally relate to that, too.
I love you, Iain. Happy Birthday.
Michelle Obama graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. She is a lawyer, having worked at the law firm Sidley Austin. She held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor, and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. She was Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, setting long-standing fund raising records. She is currently Vice President for Community and External Affairs. She serves on the Board of the Directors at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Her intelligence, personality and overall confidence and competence made her a vital cog in her husband's successful run for the Presidency of the United States as she spoke at the Democratic National Convention and gave numerous speeches throughout the arduous campaign.
So, of course, one day after the election, the top story on the inane Yahoo Buzz was how she dressed when husband Barack gave his victory speech. In fact, opinions on Michelle Obama's dress were all over the media.
Sexism in America: It knows no race, income bracket or level of achievement. It is still ingrained in our society. And it's only a matter of time before the marginalization process of Sasha and Malia begins.
--WKW
Crossposted at Williamkwolfrum.com
I've got a new piece up at The Guardian's Comment is free America about some of the conventional wisdom that should go the way of the dodo in the wake of Obama's victory:
And while we're at it, there's one more bit of conventional wisdom I'd like to dispatch to the nevermore: any suggestion that more democracy is somehow bad.Read the whole thing here.
Hillary Clinton was not mentioned much tonight; she wasn't on Obama's list of thank-yous, but she probably should have been. Despite the frenetic din of pleading, scolding, haranguing, begging, admonishing and outright mockery that was aimed at Clinton during the primary as she stubbornly refused to concede a primary that she hadn't actually lost, and despite the grim hand-wringing that a long primary would irreparably damage presumed nominee Obama, none of the grave warnings of the take-your-boobs-and-go-homers came to fruition. In fact, by engaging late-primary states like Indiana which haven't helped choose a nominee in decades, the extended primary actually helped wake up Obama voters sooner than usual. It forced them to pay attention to the minutiae of Democratic policies early in the election, and gave the Obama campaign the opportunity to test and perfect its ground operation. The result? Indiana is blue for the first time in 40 years.
Maude knows if Obama had lost, Clinton would be to blame. So a little credit where credit is due. Hillary ought to get a bit of the acclaim now that Obama has won. She was a tough competitor – and Obama emerged from his primary ready for a challenge, while McCain emerged from his as the hapless default victor of a dismal field of candidates, not the strongest contender, just the only dude left standing when the rest fell away. He was the best of a bad lot. The Democratic primary was a rigorous gauntlet that transformed the already effective Obama campaign into an unstoppable machine. The Republican primary was a clown car that picked up the McCain campaign in Disarrayville and dropped it off at Mount Meltdown.
More democracy was good for Obama, good for the Democrats, good for everyone who voted for him in the general election. Let us never suggest again that better candidates are forged in less democracy.
