Sometimes a dark hole looks nice

Not to be dramatic, but today has been one of the worst in years for me. The last few weeks have left me cold, angry and downright bitter. The world sucks, and I am sick of dealing with it.

So I went to bed early last night. Spending close to 12 hours in bed hoping to sleep away the bullshit, I woke up this morning knee deep. Not really, of course.

But after having to dig my car out of the snow for the fifth time in 4 days (and I didn't go anywhere Sunday!), and having to drive downtown where stupid people drive, and then still being a little bit late for work because the roads were horrible, I still felt like shit. Then work sucked. Not much to do. And I felt fucking shitty. So I decided to cut and run. Go home and forget this day ever happened.

But then I drove home. Roads still shitty, people still fucking stupid. Couldn't get up my driveway. Couldn't get in the ally. High topped my car trying to back out of ally that I couldn't get into. Took 30 mintues for me to dig my car out of that. Had help. At least one guy's not fucking stupid or a jackass. Wish the same could be said for my jackass of a neighbor who could only laughed when I couldn't get up the driveway.

Then, after having to walk to the house to grab a shovel, and walk back, to dig my car out of the ally entrance, I cleaned the driveway and got the car up it. Took my stuff inside. Then fell on my ass (and hit my head pretty hard) going down the driveway to get the shovel. Then fell again (and again hitting my head, and this time my right arm too) walking up the driveway with the shovel. Good thing I cleaned off the snow, wouldn't want that softening my fall.

I feel like shit. I hurt like shit. I still don't know, 2 hours later, whether to cry or scream, as I've done both, and neither helped.

Then I read this. Joe the Plumber: Ban media from war

As someone who graduated with a degree in journalism, and someone who worked on both his high school and college newspapers, I couldn't even understand this. Couldn't understand why anyone would think this is a good idea.

But it is this that shows what my life has become. I have to deal with this type of shit. People who are so talking about of their ass so much that they actually shit over all the normal people. Ban media from war? What's next, making sure the media can't ask questions of our politicians? Then making sure the media doesn't spread it's evil liberal truth around to people. We can't have the people knowing the truth. God no. Just the bible. Fuck the media, and put the church in charge. God bless God!

::sigh::

I don't want to even get into the fact that 'Joe the Jackass' is over in Israel right now, COVERING THE WAR FOR THE (RIGHT WING) MEDIA!!! So the right wing media bloggers can cover the war, but not the "liberal, mainstream" media. Now I totally get it.

::barf::

So while I fight my own personal demons, try not to fall on my ass again, and hope that my family won't be hurt by the economy (ala Bush) anymore than it already has, I will have fight every day against bull shit like this. And this. And this, because what else am I going to do?

Give in? Fuck no!

Obama and Harvey Milk

In this time of a great need, we got really lucky. We elected Barack Obama. But, as he as said many times, it really isn't about him. It's about us. The same was for Harvey Milk.

We all need to watch his movie, and then go out and change the world.

All along, it's been that simple.

Gone for the holidays

See you in 2009!

Rick Warren, third time's a charm

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After thinking it through, after giving everyone a chance to speak, I am still pissed. I will not forgive, I will not forget, but we will move on because we must. I am not going to pull my support for Obama, yet.

Now it is time for Obama to prove me wrong. Come on Obama, be smarter than me and pull of this crazy hat trick.

countdown

More on Rick Warren

Obama's response [with video] and leaked talking points here.

The ladies of The View discussing this same topic; at least talking over each other about this topic.

Between my idealogical core, and my pragmatic thought process, my brain has exploded over the issue of Rick Warren speaking at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration, and by proxy, gay marriage and really gay issues in general.

I'm not feeling well today (I'm actually home sick), but I wanted to say a few things. I will apoligize up front because I'm not at 100%, but I will do my best. Mostly, for now, letting others speak for me, while I try to really get my head around all of this.

from Advocate.com:

Choosing Rev. Rick Warren – the evangelical pastor who has equated gay marriage to incest and pedophilia and strongly supported California’s gay marriage ban – to give the invocation at his inauguration on the heels of the community’s gut-wrenching Proposition 8 setback pushes past a simple insensitivity to seeming downright cruel.

How many times is the President-elect going to gouge this gaping wound before it even has a chance to scab over? He says he doesn’t play interest group politics – that he’s trying to rise above the fray of pitting one constituency against another. And yet, a sense of basic fair play dictates that you don’t kick a group when they’re down. No LGBT person expected the incoming president to choose a gay pastor to bless his inauguration, but neither did they in their darkest moments dream that he would be so tone deaf to our misery as to choose a man who compares our love to criminal offense.

Does he not remember that we can still be fired in 30 states simply for being gay without having any legal recourse?

Does he not realize that we have never had a single piece of major federal legislation protecting our rights signed into law?

Does he forget that we are still beaten and killed on America’s streets -- that ten years after a young man was strung to a fence and left to die, neither federal statute nor Wyoming law extends hate crimes protections to us?

The New York Times also reports:

The choice of Mr. Warren, pastor of a megachurch in Orange County, Calif., is an olive branch to conservative Christian evangelicals. Mr. Warren is an outspoken opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage — litmus-test issues for Christian conservatives. In fact, his selection set off a round of criticism by gay rights groups angered by his support for California’s ban on same-sex marriages.

But Mr. Warren has also been one of the most prominent evangelical leaders calling for Christians to expand their agenda and confront global problems like poverty, AIDS, climate change and genocide in Darfur.

Mr. Warren flaunted his clout this year when he managed to draw both John McCain and Barack Obama to his Saddleback Church for a forum in which he interviewed them on stage about faith issues. He has sometimes angered the older generation of conservative evangelical leaders aligned with the Republican Party, as when he invited Mr. Obama to speak about AIDS at an earlier event at his church.

But it isn't just liberals up in arms:

Unless Rick Warren has changed, he is very disappointing in the pro-life cause. Just ask pro-life leaders their opinion. He doesn't like to deal with it at his church. It just seems funny that he is known as 'pro-life' when he largely ignores the subject and teaches others to do the same. I fear God for these 'men of God'. We have lost 50 million babies, and most won't say a word. Reminds me of Nazi Germany or our slavery days. Very few spoke out. It was more comfortable to keep quiet.

And lastly, with many saying it's great Obama is smart enough to ignore the "far left" of his party, I just want to know, when did equal rights and basic human kindness become a "far left" value? I guess it was a "far left" idea to give mix race couples the right to marry too? Far left values that created the Civil Rights Act of 1964? A far left idea that drove a group of men to come together and proclam "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."?

A letter to the Obama transition.

I wrote this letter to Parag Mehta, the LGBT liaison for Obama's transition team, and I think you should also write to voice your opinion on Rick Warren giving the invocation at President-elect Obama's inauguration. His e-mail is parag.mehta@ptt.gov - please speak up.

Dear Mr. Mehta,

While I am sure you have received many e-mails regarding the choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at President-elect Obama's inauguration, I felt so strongly about this I had to voice my frustration.

I had come to have a deep trust in Mr. Obama's judgment over the course of the election and transition, but I can not say quiet; I see no good reason Mr. Obama and others could not find another person to give the invocation that has not continually tried to divide us by labeling me, and everyone else in the LGBT community, a second-class citizen at best and a disease to be cured at his worst.

Why Rick Warren? Is my future president asking me and brothers and sisters to swallow this pill of hate in the name of coming together? Because, in terms of the gay community, coming together is about finding common ground, not asking us to shut up and deal with this 19th century mentality towards gays and lesbians. By giving Mr. Warren this pulpit to speak from, Mr. Obama may not be outright endorsing his views, but he is saying it is okay to agree with Mr. Warren. He is saying it is okay to think that gays getting married is equally wrong as insest, molestration, and polygamy. How can Mr. Obama even agree this is a valid argument?

I am asking, through you Mr. Mehta, that Mr. Obama admit this misstep, apologize to the LGBT community, and find someone who not only loves all of God's children equally but someone who can bring us all together. Isn't that why Mr. Obama wanted to become President?

- David Williams III

------

Once again, please write to Parag Mehta, at parag.mehta@ptt.gov, the LGBT liaison for Obama's transition team.

I hate being right

So, over at the Huffington Post, there is an article that confirmed what I have thought all along. We're being had.

Studies by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation have consistently shown that these Senators' states receive far more from the Federal government than they pay back in taxes. That's an irony that could lead to some Blue State bitterness: They love to preach about fiscal responsibility and lower taxes, but they keep dipping their beak into the Federal trough.

I believe the applicable Southern phrase is "a handful of gimme and a mouthful of much obliged."

The numbers in the Foundation's most recent study (warning: pdf) speak for themselves: Mitch McConnell's Kentucky took in $1.45 from the Feds for every dollar it paid in taxes. That's a 45 cent free ride. Bob Corker's Tennessee received at 30-cent Federal giveaway. And Richard Shelby's Alabama extracted a whopping 71-cent subsidy from Northern taxpayers.

What about Michigan? They lost 31 cents for every dollar they paid. In other words, McConnell, Shelby, and Corker have been skimming a percentage off these autoworkers' taxes for years on behalf of their constituents. Now, when the same Michigan taxpayers need help, these Senators are telling them to get lost.

So those damn tax and spend liberals have been taxing northern (Democratic) states and spending them on southern (Republican) states. And, as I am writing this, it looks like Chevrolet will be closing its plants for several weeks (into late January) because it doesn't have any money. So yeah, it's great that Senators Mitch McConnell, Bob Corker, Richard Shelby took that stand.

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Don't you just love the way the country is run? God Bless America.

Obama and Design

The Obama geek in me meets the Design geek in me. And I exploded; with excitement.





With links.