Empty lives, indeed

Yes on Prop 8 in photos

A few editorial comments about people who support Proposition 8.

1.) The lady (yes, apparently it is a lady) below is named Ginger Reese. You'd think that she would support marriage for everyone given the fact that someone as ugly as she is would need to consider all possible suitors--male, female, and trans--to have even the slightest chance of finding someone who would want to marry her.



2.) The gentleman on the far left of the photo below (the one with the cane) is anti-gay marriage, but that's kind of understandable. When he was serving in the Civil War under Lee, buggery was a scourge amongst the fighting men and he has been against it ever since.



3.) The woman below is Mary Strauss from Oakland. Someone should tell her to take off her Obama/Biden pin, since neither Democratic candidate supports her son's right to marry.



4.) The bebeh in the stroller pictured below is named Crysta Rice. Hopefully Crysta will grow up to be the biggest k.d. lang-listening, "L Word"-watching, cous cous-eating, crew cut-having, flannel shirt-wearing, Harley-riding, labrys tattoo on her bicep-displaying butch bull dagger dyke to walk the planet, ever.

Fuck you, Barack Obama

Also, fuck you Democratic National Committee.

Fuck you, Nancy Pelosi

Fuck you, factory farmers*

*This is Proposition 2, by the way.

Fuck you, Yes on 8

This is why I f-ing love Sarah

Go Sarah! Go Sarah! I say Obama and you say Ayers!

"Let's kick some ass!"

As Karita Mattila said to Deborah Voight before today's Met HD broadcast of Salome, and kick some ass she did. No boobs were shown, much to Discipulus Legis's chagrin, but it was still a great morning out at the opera.

The anxiety of reading things that are so much better than anything you could have come up with, ever

Sometimes I think I'm an okay writer. Writing is my profession and I get paid to do it. But then I read something like this and realize that I am merely an assembler of words. This is truly art:

When they're right, they're right

Discipulus Legis says that I shouldn't give the Republicans credit for anything, but you gotta admit, when they're right, they're right. But that's not the real reason I'm posting this. I admire the Phillip Glass-type music they use in the background. Very arty! More like this! I am available at any time to help any political ad team choose the best classical music suited to a particular political attack.

A special message from Artur Axmann

"Hello, children! Artur Axmann here, sending you a message from beyond the grave to compliment all of you on your 'Obama Youth' movement. As a member of the master race, I am obligated to hate all of you because you are not Aryan, but I have to give you mad props for your recent efforts to glorify your leader, Barack Obama. Seeing this takes me back to the good ol' days when I trained children to unquestioningly worship, glorify, and defend der Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. Of course, I hope you all fail and that the Forth Reich will soon rise, but indoctrinating these youth to put all doubts and criticisms aside will surely make it easier for future leaders to control the people. Heil Hitler!"

Congrats to the Silver Stars!

I know Discipulus Legis was rooting for the other team, but I need to take a moment to congratulate the San Antonio Silver Stars on winning the WNBA Western Conference Finals. Here's to hoping that Becky Hammon can finally win a WNBA Championship!

And I'm still trying to think of a good caption for this picture:



How about, "Why yes, Becky, I would like to touch your monkeys." (Discipulus Legis does too so it's okay.)

Priorities

So how's that whole worst-economic-disaster-since-the-Great-Depression-bailout- negotiations thingy going, Obama?



Ah, swimmingly I see!

Change I can believe in

Solidarity

Today, as Discipulus Legis and I were getting off the bus in front of our apartment, a woman stopped me and asked "Where did you get that pin?". She was referring, of course, to the "Hillary for President" button that I still wear on my bag, but with the addition of "Write in" above her name. I explained that I bought it from her campaign site, but that I added the "write in" part. She told me, "Good for you. I'm still so pissed about that. She was robbed." I nodded and agreed. Then, as I walked off the bus, I raised my fist (all Angela Davis-style) and told her to write her in, too. It's nice to meet people who see things the way you do.

Age old enemies meet

I like the use of sound effects in this clip:

Two of my passions in one picture

PUMA and kittehs, together at last:

Oh, come on

So now experience matters to the Dems? Give me a freaking break. They should thought about the importance of experience before they put Obama on the ticket. At least Palin has executive experience--something none of the guys have.

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia

I have been on a bit of a hiatus from blogging, and during that time I've had the pleasure of reading George Orwell's 1984, a book I somehow missed reading in high school, college, and grad school (and I was an English major, to boot). I think it's especially fitting that I'm reading it during this election cycle, particularly during the Democratic National Convention.

All of the Newspeak words have taken on a richer meaning set against the backdrop of the DNC. For example, Obama and his most ardent supporters engage in "doublethink" all the time ("Supporting FISA is good. It has always been good"), and they frequently try to shove things--like Bill Clinton's entire presidency--down the memoryhole. And then there's "thoughtcrime," such as when a Hillary supporter points out one of Obama's many flaws, and a "Party member" (i.e. flaming Obamabot) responds that any sentiment against The One ("Big Brother") cannot be tolerated and will only help John McCain get elected.

So, when the "Democratic party" ("SLAVERY IS FREEDOM," WAR IS PEACE," etc., etc.) went through the motions of a sham roll call "vote" today, it hardened my feelings against Obama and the DNC even more. It actually inspired me to make an addition to the Hillary pin I've been sporting on my bag the past few months:



It's blurry, but you get the point. Winston ends up loving Big Brother. I will not.

Hmmm...

Why does Pastor Becky Fischer from Jesus Camp look like a huge honkin' dyke?

O wise kitteh

Neither does the presumed Democratic nominee for president.

Is it wrong to hope for an avenging super pigeon?

Maybe I'm still upset from seeing a poor pigeon this weekend who had its tail feathers ripped out, who lost all of the feathers on its stomach and back, and who apparently had both legs broken, dragging itself along the sidewalk, using its wings to pull itself along to look for food, but this article really pissed me off.

Here was my response in the comments section:

Hey, why not go even more local and eat dogs and cats? I mean, they're right there in our own living rooms! Sigh... As both an unabashed admirer of the pigeon and a vegetarian, I don't think I'll get much traction in responding to this, but just because you can eat something doesn't mean you should. Pigeons are extremely intelligent creatures that can identify abstract art and saved our (Allied) behinds in quite a few WWII battles. But hey, who am I to argue? Humans killing and eating everything in sight has worked out so well for the planet thus far.

I don't understand why people are so cruel.

Recap

I've been neglecting my blog as of late, so I'm going to do a quick recap of some of the highlights (or in the case of #3, lowlights) of the past two weeks in reverse chronological order:

1.) Ariodante

I went to go see Ariodante at the San Francisco Opera. Baroque opera is one of my most favorite entertainments, so of course I highly enjoyed this production. Susan Graham rocked it out as Ariodante (her "Scherza infida" was amazing), and although I was at first skeptical of OperaVision (large screens they had installed in the upper balcony onto which they projected high-definition video of the performance), I decided it actually is a good idea.


2.) Drag show at Aunt Charlie's Lounge

Discipulus Legis and I went with a couple of friends to Aunt Charlie's Lounge for their famous drag show. It was probably one of the most fun things I've ever done. Aunt Charlie's is a nice little dive bar on perhaps the nastiest corner of the Tenderloin, but the drinks were good (not to mention extremely strong and cheap) and the performers were amazing. My particular favorite was the fabulous 80s stylings of Miss Evita Minx (below).


3.) Wanted

We also went to go see Wanted, Angelina Jolie's latest movie. It ranked among the worst movies I've seen, ever. I have not the strength nor the stomach to go into why is was bad, just trust me, it was horrible.

I want this to happen in my bathtub

Though I think Discipulus Legis would strongly object:

Marching naked ladies

I attended my first ever San Francisco Dyke March this evening with Discipulus Legis. Here are some pictures we took of this memorable evening.

I don't mean to be catty, but this one is like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube:


In case you can't read the sign, it says "TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT." As we passed by, some lesbian behind us yelled out, "Take off YOUR shirt... on second thought, KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON." I can't say I disagreed with that sentiment:


The picture of this lesbian's tattoo is blurry, but it totally looks like Manannan, the evil wizard from King's Quest III:


See the resemblance?


I try to keep it clean on my blog, but I've got to post this. If you have small children nearby, cover their innocent eyes:


"Quick! My dignity! It's getting away! Catch it! Hurry!":


If you ever wondered what happened to Rainbow Brite after she enjoyed the heights of fame in the 1980s:


Gay men: "Wooooo! We love dykes! And beer! And dykes! But mostly beer!":


"I came to SF Dyke March and all I got was this lousy death wish":

Change we can believe in

So the great Progressive Hope, Barack Obama, offered several interesting policy explications in the past few days. To review, he supports:

• More spying on U.S. citizens
• More guns
• More usage of the death penalty

Now there's some change we can believe in. I know that many of his supporters are beyond being able to see how flawed their Dear Leader is, but I can only hope that this news has at least some in the Obama Fan Club taking the Obama campaign signs out of their windows and using the cardboard to absorb the bitter tears falling from their newly opened eyes.

If Obama agrees with McCain on everything, I'd rather just vote for the real Republican, not the fake one.

Misanthropy, thy name is me

I am so over humanity these days. First, I read about how climate change is far, far worse than anyone is talking about and how humans will be responsible for killing off half the species that currently exist on the planet. Then, I read about how Wimbledon officials shot and killed pigeons because they were pooping on tables and "interfering" with the enjoyment of watching outrageously overpaid people hit a small yellow ball to-and-fro. Anything involving cruelty to pigeons usually pushes me over the edge. Didn't Gandhi say something about how we can judge men by how they treat animals?

Whatevs. Humans get what they deserve.

Props to PETA once again.

Opera at the Ballpark, Lucia edition

Discipulus Legis and I went to AT&T Park last night to see Lucia di Lammermoor simulcast live from the War Memorial opera house. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea (bel canto opera as a whole is not my cup of tea), and the sexism in the opera reminded me a bit too strongly of Obama and the DNC, but I still enjoyed myself immensely. My favorite Discipulus Legis quote from last night: "I loved Tosca because she just fucking died at the end." Yes, it did take Lucia and Edgardo a long time to die. Below is video from the event.

Celebrate National Pigeon Day!

Today is National Pigeon Day! Celebrate by feeding some pigeons. I know I did!

Catharsis

Today Discipulus Legis and I unregistered from the Democratic Party. I can't speak for her, but for me, it felt darn good.

Best movie of the year!

All I have to say is this: Indiana Jones + aliens = AWESOME!!!

The happy couple

My beloved pigeon, Walter, has his first ever girlfriend. Her name is Amber. For some reason, it's not the type of girl I pictured him with, but I am extremely happy for him. I raise a glass of seed to toast them both!

Politics disgust me. Let's turn to the WNBA

I have not the strength to blog about the Democratic primary right now (though I will add I HATE HATE HATE Obama for good measure), so I went to WNBA.com and found that they have added player widgets. I'm not exactly sure what this means or what it does, but here is Becky Hammon's widget. It's pretty cool, and a far cry from what they had at WNBA.com a few seasons ago when I started following the league. Onward and upward, ladies.

Seis de Mayo

Hoy is Cinco de Mayo. Bien, pero manana es Seis de Mayo, el dia de la victoria del Hillary Clinton in Indiana y Carolina Norte! Buena suerte Hillary!



Mi espanol no es bueno, pero you get the idea.

Horse racing...

...is the dumbest fucking "sport" ever.

Calling Obama a chicken is an insult to chickens

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of living with and taking care of a chicken for few weeks. I found the hen to be a sweet and gentle creature (after she was found wandering the streets of Queens, New York, she lived with me and then was taken to a farm sanctuary in upstate New York. I just love happy animal endings).

This is why I believe that calling Obama a chicken for refusing to debate Clinton is an insult to chickens. A more appropriate term for Obama would be COWARD.

My objection to the chicken terminology notwithstanding, I found this video quite amusing. My favorite line: "two hope-induced college sophomores born in 1988." Hahaha!
Enjoy...

Itchy trigger finger

Now I've read a few reviews and seen a few videos, I am officially sad that I can't buy Grand Theft Auto IV. For those who have never played the Grand Theft Auto series, I must say there's nothing like coming home after a long, hard day at work and shooting a hundred or so people with an M4 assault rifle. (Discipulus Legis prefers grenades and a mini gun.)

When I was a kid, my parents bought me a new computer every other year and we always had the latest video gaming platform: Intellivision, Atari, Nintendo, Sega Genesis, PS1, PS2, Xbox... heck, I even a TurboGrafx 16. I'll add a PS3 to the growing list of things I can't afford (along with an iPhone) now that I'm an adult and pay my own bills.

Until prices come down, I'll always have video:

GLAAD website parties like its 1995

--> WEB --> DESIGN --> AT --> ITS --> BEST -->

Kittehs!

I'm taking a break from being obsessed by the election to post this:



There are no words to describe...

If yesterday taught us anything

It's that Obama is the new McGovern. Help us Hillary. You're our only hope.

Hillary Nevsky

Another primary eve is upon us. I don't know if it's the book about Napoleon I've been reading, but once again my thoughts have turned militaristic. So, here's to Hillary once again holding off the hordes of hopeless Obamatards in Pennsylvania, much like Alexander Nevsky drove off the Livonian Knights in Russia so long ago (Prokofiev's "Battle of the Ice" has also been a favorite on my iPod as of late. See below).

Hello there Senator, part II

Another picture of Hillary in anachronistic drag! Yeay! (Click here for part I)



And this picture isn't quite so drag-y, but I still like it.



(Special thanks to Esther's father for directing me to this.)

Schadenfreude

I'm too much of the nervous type to watch debates (I also avoid them because I don't think I could quell my nausea when hearing Barack Obama's voice), but I am reveling in the reports of Obama's terrible performance tonight. I think that Hillary's strong showing will be held against her (apparently, when the moderators asked Obama a tough question, it was all Hillary's fault), but I'll worry about that later. In the mean time, let us laugh:

Call the Department of Fish Family Services

I am a bad fish mother. I've been overfeeding little Rusalka and now her water is all cloudy and gross. When I moved some of the gravel in her tank, it stirred up a ton of old food and she's been gorging herself on it. So, hopefully, the filter in the tank will do its job and remove some of the icky food particles and bacteria. Cats are so much easier.

Welcome our new pet

Someone at my office had the ill-advised plan to use goldfish as decorations at a work party last week. What do goldfish become after they have served their time as decor? They become fodder for a toilet flush, which is why I brought one home with me on Friday. Discipulus Legis and I went to Petco yesterday to buy it a new tank and, after a few touch-and-go moments, the fishie seems to have adapted quite well to its new home.

So now comes the important task of naming the fish. I'm very bad at naming pets. At first I thought Hillary Finton would be cute, but then I also like Jadwiga and Beatrix. Discipulus Legis likes the name Vito, but last night I also came up with Poseidon and, my favorite so far, Rusalka.



Decisions, decisions.

Clinging to hopes of Obama's demise

I have to admit I'm a little surprised at the furor over Barack Obama's recent comments deriding small town Americans who supposedly "cling to guns or religion." I would've thought the Jeremiah Wright debacle would've been far more damaging. But then again, I'm an atheist who supports gun control and lives in San Francisco, so what would I know?

In any case, I'm delighted this has blown up in Obama's face and I hope the mushroom cloud only grows bigger in the weeks to come. Onward to Pennsylvania!

Obama's America

This is what Obama's America looks like, the America of this great uniter:



Obama is obstructing revotes in Florida and Michigan, yet it's Clinton that gets tarred with "she'll do anything to get elected!" Incredible. Read more by Taylor Marsh at The Huffington Post.

Another ridiculous GLAAD press release

I love reading GLAAD press releases because they are such rich sources of (unintentional) humor. For example, this recent gem: Call on AP to Highlight Anti-Gay Attitudes that Lead to Violence Against Gay and Transgender People

The release claims that this AP story "unfairly assigns blame" to a 15-year-old gay student for his own murder, a hate crime. GLAAD says:

Although the AP received GLAAD’s Eye on the Media, which provided resources to report on the larger issue of the intersection of anti-gay bullying and violence, the story highlights allegations from students that King told Brandon McInerney, the shooter, that he liked him the day before he was shot.

You mean the Associated Press, a world-renowned news organization, did not change their reporting despite receiving a GLAAD Eye on the Media? I truly wonder how the AP manages to function without receiving these vital informational dispatches on a daily basis.

In any case, GLAAD is going after the AP for stating the obvious: that teenage boys are insecure and may freak out if other boys make sexual passes at them. Nowhere in the article is there any mention that this is an excuse for the crime, or that it justifies the crime, or that anyone believes it should be used as a legal defense, just that it is. On the whole, it's an excellent article and quotes many of the spokespeople and organizations that I'm sure GLAAD was pushing for, which makes the release all the more ridiculous.

Plus, GLAAD writes that the AP should explore the "intersection" of anti-gay bullying and violence, which is simply annoying. Whenever anyone wants to explore the "intersection" of anything, you know it's nothing more than dumb people trying to make themselves sound smart.

Hillary longa, Obama brevis

If Obama is the nominee, I hope my fellow Democrats will not forget Obama's moves to block revotes in Michigan and Florida, his personal attacks on Hillary, his lies about her record, his distortions of the Clinton years, his arrogance, etc.

This is the sort of man we're supposed to "unify" behind?

Thank you, no.

With sponsors like these...

More news on the GLAAD front. Apparently, GLAAD suckered Comcast into sponsoring it's "Be an ally & a friend" parade of B-list celebrities, um, I mean campaign. Comcast is currently a contender for Consumerist's "Worst Company in America" title. Not that I believe GLAAD has any scruples about their donors, but still, Comcast?

All that is old is new again

GLAAD announced today that they've hired someone to work in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is what their press release said:

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced today the hiring of Juan Barajas as a Senior Director to be based in the San Francisco/Bay Area. In this new role, Barajas will report directly to GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano and will be responsible for strengthening GLAAD’s media advocacy and anti–defamation work in the region in its many forms and collaborating with other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and allied organizations.

For those of you who do not understand GLAAD-speak, let me translate: "People in San Francisco won't give us money because we don't have an office there (yes, we closed our office there years ago). We've tried to make it seem like we care about San Francisco by holding a lame awards ceremony there, but it hasn't worked out so well. Therefore, we're sending Mr. Barajas to see how much money he can bilk out of the San Francisco gays."

Does anyone want to place bets on how long he stays?

The war five years later

There was a big anti-war protest in San Francisco today to mark the five year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. Aside from snarling traffic and annoying people who were trying to go about their everyday business, I fail to see what the protest, especially here in SF, accomplished. I suppose if spending several hours yelling anti-war slogans at people who mostly agree with you is your idea of a worthy endeavor, then today was a resounding success.

In any case, I've never quite understood the progressive movement's position on the Iraq war. The anti-war movement's entire message seems to be simply "war is bad." Undoubtedly, war is horrible, but just ask Neville Chamberlain how well the "war is bad" mindset works out. Before the Iraq war started, I read Kanan Makiya's Republic of Fear, a book that details the crimes of Saddam Hussein's regime. Political executions, gassing of the Kurds, rapes, torture... as the book's title indicates, Iraq before the war was not a happy place to be. So, a question I would love to see an anti-war activist address is this: Is it always wrong to use force to destroy an evil regime or group (regardless of Bush's true motives in the Iraq war)? Is it better to let the Taliban execute women in soccer stadiums? Is it better to allow Hutus to massacre Tutsis (UN troops were only allowed to defend themselves in Rawanda. They couldn't attack Hutus to save defenseless Tutsis)? Is it better to let the janjaweed kill the inhabitants of Darfur?

I also want to give every anti-war activist a copy of Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier to help them understand that their goofy hats and pink outfits are actually undermining their cause.

And finally, Makiya--still a good source on the Iraq war--talks about what he got wrong five years ago.

I never thought I'd say this

But sometimes you just gotta love Fox News:

Before Wright Firestorm, Obama Called for Imus Firing