Kool-Aid pushers out on Fillmore

Discipulus Legis and I were out running errands this morning and happened upon Obots dutifully pushing their Messiah's latest plans to bankrupt the nation, um, I mean his budget. As you can see, they don't seem to have many takers even though the farmer's market across the street was hoppin'. Maybe there is some hope for my fellow San Franciscans after all.

What a difference an election makes

This is my score on a "How Progressive Are You?" quiz from the Center for American Progress. Thankfully, the answer is not very. Alaskan compound, here I come (and yes, I will be dragging Discipulus Legis with me)!

Priorities

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



Ah, swimmingly I see!

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.

Horse racing...

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

GLAAD website parties like its 1995

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

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?

An open letter to America

Dear America,

I hate you, especially your dumb citizens who put more stock in catchy, empty phrases than real plans and real solutions. But, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It is this exactly the same love of vacuous prosody and slick charm that got George W. Bush elected.

Yours,
VoxDixit

P.S. So nice to see that misogyny is still alive and well and such a thriving part of your body politic.

Happy cows come from California?

I hate the "Happy cows come from California" ad campaign. Every time I see those mother f-ing commercials on TV, all I can think about is Cowschwitz, the huge factory farm that Discipulus Legis and I drive by on our way to and from San Francisco and Los Angeles. Um, yeah, those cows look really happy to be standing around in their own filth with not a single blade of grass to be seen for miles.

This is Cowschwitz from above:



Let's zoom in for a closer look. Each of those whitish dots is one of those "happy" California cows, thousands of them packed into 100 square miles of factory farm:



Then there's Discipulus Legis's picture that she took of what it looks like on the ground:



I guess if you like things that are wretched and miserable and covered in feces, "happy California cows" are for you.

Sallie Mae still sucks

I don't even fully understand the implications of this article, but I'm sure it means that Sallie Mae is still evil and still sucks very, very hard.

Baseball should be called "The Game of ZZZzzzZZzzz..."

I hate baseball because it's long, boring, and the "athletes" who play the game are fat, disgusting slobs (see example at right). I pretty much hate all of baseball equally, but when it comes to the famous Cubs/Sox rivalry I hate the Cubs a little bit more. Jay Mariotti writes in the Sun Times that he'd like Sox fans (who are currently delighting in the fact that the Cubs are on the brink of elimination from the playoffs) to "grow up." I strongly disagree. Not only would this destroy a key part of Chicago's civic life that has animated the city for decades, but Cubs fans have to learn to take what they've dished out for so long. In my experience, the vast majority of Cubs fans couldn't tell you the difference between an RBI and an ERA. They just like to sit in the bleachers drinking beer and looking at Wrigley Field's ivy. That's perfectly fine, but it you're one of those "fans" just pledge your allegiance to Beer, Bleachers & Foliage and don't turn into a raving moron every time the Cubs come relatively close to winning a World Series.

Worst MUNI line ever

It seems that everyone in SF claims that their MUNI line is the worst, but MUNI line #5 MUST be the worst in the whole city. I see evidence of this every single day. Like today, when I ended up walking with Discipulus Legis to school because there were already 20 people waiting at the #5 stop right outside our building and there was no way she was ever going to get a seat on the next bus, or probably the one after that (and as it turns out, she wouldn't have been able to sit on the next THREE buses that passed by because they were all so full).

Or like last week, when I waited near City Hall for forty minutes for a #5, but then got so fed up that I walked the MILE back to our place and wasn't passed by a SINGLE bus. But what did I see on the opposite side of the street? THREE MUNI #5 BUSES stacked on top of each other. Yes, that's a very efficient way to service the SF citizens who must rely on the MUNI #5.

This city needs a Republican mayor. Stat.

God I hate Sallie Mae

Reading things like this enrages me too much to comment coherently, so I'll just provide the link: High-Priced Student Loans Spell Trouble

And this brief summary:

The near doubling in the cost of a college degree the past decade has produced an explosion in high-priced student loans that could haunt the U.S. economy for years.

Haunt the U.S. economy for years. Love that. F you greedy Sallie Mae bastards. I hope you all lose your jobs and rot.

Reason #5356 to hate the Tenderloin

I know where the great unwashed masses of San Francisco hang out: the public library. How do I know this? Of the eight people sitting at the eight public computers near the stairwell on the fourth floor, it is clear that fully 50% of them have not showered recently. This includes the gentlemen sitting immediately to my left AND my right.

Also, I am glad that the computer being used by the rude f-er at station #480 logged him out. He appears to have showered, but he's a demanding jackass nonetheless. Plus the pocket magnifier he's using is annoying me. I don't know why.

Defamation!

From the Associated Press, just another example of gross, vulgar, anti-avian defamation: Pigeon dung examined in bridge collapse.

Oh, so it wasn't shoddy engineering that destroyed the bridge in Minnesota, it was pigeons. Yeah. Right.

Wish I could do the same with my work computer

From Reuters: Police excuse angry computer user for outburst.

The article reads in part:

A German man who startled his neighbors when he hurled his computer out of the window in the middle of the night, was let off for disturbing the peace by police who sympathized with his technical frustrations.

I betcha anything his computer was a Dell running a Windows product.

Los Angeles; like a Boschian hellscape, only worse

Things I hate about Los Angeles:

Abundant use of gasoline-powered leaf blowers; the weather; right-turn on red; pedestrian-unfriendly streets and sidewalks; smog; the proliferation of SUVs; cell phones cemented to drivers' ears; Bluetooth wireless ear pieces that make people wearing them look either a) crazy (you look like you're talking to yourself) or b) like egotistical jackasses (are you REALLY that important that you must have a piece of telephony attached to your head at ALL times?); the lack of police patrols on foot; homeless, homeless everywhere; the lack of water restrictions of any kind even though LA is a DESERT and is experiencing a DROUGHT; people who say that they love the weather even though they go from their air-conditioned home, to their air-conditioned car, to their air-conditioned office, and then back again; aggressive drivers who have no idea how to drive; sprawl; crappy public transportation network; freeways; the lack of road tolls to combat congestion; and the lack of decent pizza.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for now.