As Seen On The Bathroom Wall

Why we feel for Sandra Bullock

2010-03-19T10:05:00.000-10:00

The celebrity tabloids have been bombarded with stories of Sandra Bullock's philandering husband and his tattooed (and mustachioed) mistress, Michelle McGee. (Sorry, honey, but you're no "bombshell".) While most tales of man cheating on woman get passed over without so much as a shake of the head, this tale of infidelity has shaken many, many women to the core.

Why? Because we ARE Sandra Bullock. She's not this cosmically out of reach beauty that so many of the other Hollywood starlets are. She's always represented herself as average, normal (in all relativity), the woman we all would be if we could pull off wearing red lipstick and a gold, form-fitting gown on the Oscar red carpet. It's easier seeing ourselves as her, and because of that, when something good happens, WE feel good, and when something terrible happens...well, we feel every single ounce of her pain.

And for those of us who know, who still feel the sharp sting of betrayal, the betrayal that has been cast against her is all too real. She's the Sally Field of our time. We like her, we really like her, and she's been brought down by a man she trusted, a man she loved, a man whom she stood by, despite the choices he'd made in the past, and the consequences that brought forth later. (e.g. the custody battle he had with his former wife, Janine Somethingmiller.)

Sandra is me, she's you, she's your sister, your mother, your daughter, your best friend. She's every single one of us women who've struggled with mediocrity and everything that comes before and after it. Whether we're drop dead gorgeous, or look like we've dropped dead, we've all been able to see ourselves in her, and now we see our own pain in hers. We see our own ire in what she's feeling towards her husband. We all ask ourselves why? Why would a man who had everything do something like that? We question whether or not it could have been prevented, but we all know deep down - though we probably can't admit it out loud - that there was nothing that would have prevented such a thing from happening.

You can't make a tiger stop eating meat any more than you can stop a dog from sniffing at another dog's hind quarters. And yet, as is most likely the case, we all still want to try. And that might have been Sandra's biggest flaw, a flaw far too many of us share: we all think we can change another person for the better. Or, to be more honest, for OUR better. Unfortunately, for those of us who have tried, we know the failure that lies in that line of thinking, and the painful reality of it all is that eventually, we will be disappointed. What separates us from Sandra Bullock is that when we finally come face to face with our disappointment, it isn't splashed all over grocery aisles and celebrity blogs. And in that, we feel even more for Sandra, and now stand in her corner, willing to take the brunt of that exposure if it means saving her from it, even if only a little.

Fading to Black (Poem Blog)

2010-02-02T19:00:00.004-10:00

Glass cutting flesh
tearing pieces of my heart
out from the soles of my feet

I walk to the end
where everything disappears
into unending and beautiful misery

Forgotten body
long abused and left wanting
desiring pain

I'm always watching
looking for the someone
who will hurt me again and again

Listen to my cries
Listen to my memories fading to black
Listen to my tomorrow and yesterday and never and forever die

Listen to my whispered wish
Listen to my mumbled pleasure
Listen to the way I say your name with mine and how they turn romance into wine

Give me your heart
and I'll tear it to pieces
I shall tear it to pieces with my kisses

Always waiting
you will never be behind me
anymore

Ass Backwards Hawaii

2010-01-19T12:19:00.003-10:00

I love Hawai'i. As a locale, it's beautiful. The diverse cultural spectrum of people that live here is rare elsewhere and it's something that, as someone from multiple heritages, with children from multiple heritages, I find priceless. Yes, it's expensive to live here. Yes, the diaspora has diluted the heart of what once was a wonderful and precious culture, but the essence remains the same...for the most part.

But when it comes to the people here...sometimes I have to wonder why we all don't just sink into the ocean with the suffocating weight of the stupidity that resides amongst them.

Today's gripe stems from the Superferry debacle. It's been almost a year since the Superferry was voted off the island by a small group of NIMBYs whose self-interest made them blind to their own hypocrisy and double standards. And now that so many of them have set their sights on the rail, I have to ask myself how do these people remember to breathe, let alone string more than two words together to form an opinion?

You see, these people complain about the aesthetics of the rail, saying that any rail - both street level and raised - will be an eyesore. I mean hey, why do we want to block the pristine views of all the industrial and retail businesses in Pearl City, or the condominiums in Salt Lake? And let's not dare try to block anyone from being able to see the new Trump Tower from their thrice-mortgaged studio apartment in Makiki, because that would be an eyesore.

Perhaps I should also mention that, while arguing that the rail isn't necessary to the people of Hawai'i, they also argue about traffic here, and how there are too many cars on the island, too large a carbon footprint, too much pollution. Their solution to the problem? WIDEN THE FREEWAY.

Yes. That's right. There are too many cars on the road so to alleviate that, let's make the road BIGGER.

When the Superferry was in operation, the complaints against it were numerous, mainly in favor of the whales because, as we all know, the only ones that can hit the whales are the whale preservationists! It didn't matter that the Superferry, in its short time operating in the state, had no accidents when it came to whales, but the PWF (Pacific Whale Foundation) did. It didn't matter that the screening system to keep foreign, inter-island transfer of plants and rocks succeeded in stopping people from bringing things that weren't allowed but the coqui frog was transferred from the big island to Oahu via a Hawaiian Airlines cargo flight.

The excuses were, of course, numerous. Grandfathered companies, familiarity with brand, my uncle's aunty's sister's brother's husband's nephew's girlfriend's baby daddy's new girlfriend works there... And not a single one of them pertained to the Superferry. Because of the Superferry going out of business, over 100 people lost their jobs, businesses had to raise costs, cut jobs, and so on. Reaganites love using the term "trickle-down effect"...well, there was a "trickle-down effect" here, only it wasn't Reaganites who had implemented it.

And now that the rail is so close to the start of construction, those very same NIMBYs are going to cost this state time, money, and jobs. So that they can keep their view of the Honolulu skyline free of anything that doesn't look like a foreign owned condominium. And as they do so, their neighbors leave, unable to afford the transportation and living costs anymore. $5 a gallon of milk? $3 for a loaf of bread? $3.80 for a gallon of gas? $590k for a house on a 3200sqf piece of property that's so close to your neighbor's house you can feel them flush the toilet?

Cultural melting pot or not, before you know it this state is going to smell of only one thing: ASS. Because if we keep this up, that's how we'll look and how we'll end up.

What it means to be a woman in a public restroom

2009-10-28T17:50:00.004-10:00

So my husband and I had a discussion the other day about public restrooms. He wanted to know why women took so long in there? What was the deal, he wanted to know.

So I explained it to him - broke it down if you will.

Women are planners. Even the spontaneous, unpredictable ones plan their bathroom trips. Even if they don't realize they're doing it, they do. There are several different types of planners, as well as their respective plans that, if you pay close attention (hello guys) will follow a pattern that you can almost always predict.

Whatever the plan, however, the formula always tends to involve three main steps:

Find cleanest stall the furthest away from the door.
Make as little noise as possible while inside the stall.
Re-apply cosmetic.

Now, as simple as these steps may seem, there is a lot involved in them, for each step contains within them countless sub-steps that can often times cause delays that end up creating a backlog of problems that every other woman now standing in line must contend with.

Let's start with step number one. A woman likes to be clean. This is why she wants the cleanest stall in the bathroom. However, let's face it women, we're pigs. We're sows in the pig pen of humanity when it comes to our public restrooms. We would never leave drips or floaties in the toilet at home, so why do we do it at public restrooms? It's disgusting!

This being said, when there are no other alternatives, when you cannot find a single stall that is floatie or drop free, you're stuck having to take one of those sub-steps I spoke about: cleaning the seat and flushing. Now, the former can be done with mild disgust, followed by a moment of air drying, a double layer of toilet seat cover-pseudo protection, and then...release. However, the latter of the two is a whole other story. If there's something in there that needs flushing, chances are when you flush that toilet, it's going to spray some heavily noxious liquid up into the air and...yep, you guessed it. ONTO THE SEAT. So then we repeat the entire seat wiping, drying, covering process before the eventual release. By then, you're probably well on your way to a nice, fully invested urinary tract infection. Add another strike against that whole female cleanliness thing while you're at it.

This, of course, brings us to the next step. "Make as little noise as possible while in the stall." Sounds pretty easy, right? Wrong. See, for some strange reason, women don't like knowing that other women are hearing them do their business. It doesn't really matter what it is, but there is a hierarchy when it comes to absolute embarrassment on the bodily function scale. At the bottom of the rung is urinating. Well, women don't "urinate". This is a feminine process, so it's "peeing" or "tinkling". It's definitely not "pissing" because that would imply we're masculine and, unless you're perfectly okay with that, no woman wants her down-there-area associated with anything that you can write with.

Women are mildly accepting of urinating because it's unavoidable and, for most, impossible to keep at bay. Women will often take a friend with them into the restroom and, as though it had been agreed on beforehand - silently - the friend will begin washing her hands while the other does her thing. The sound of the water helps mask the...event, thereby easing the woman's embarrassment.

Second on that totem pole of embarrassment, and something that most women between the age of 13 and 56 can relate to, is the removal of the sanitary napkin. Oh that wonderful sound of adhesive being yanked off of a cotton panty and a new one being torn out of its unmistakable packaging. All women recognize the sound immediately, and it cannot be masked by running water. Thus enters the hot air hand dryer. That ever present friend, after washing her hands queues up to the dryer and, through some unspoken signal, refuses the paper towel and instead slams her hand against that large, silver button that sends that rush of loud, hot air blasting onto her hands, essentially baking in that lovely hard water she just sacrificed her hands to.

Most women have unnaturally speedy hands during this brief, thirty second moment of distraction, and can remove, wrap, unwrap, and place a sanitary napkin with enough time leftover to flush and leave a soaking wet seat behind her. It defies the laws of physics if you think about it, but most of us don't, so let's move on.

The third, and highest place on that totem pole is the king of all things embarrassing. It makes women stutter, turns their faces a magnificent shade of vermilion, and can render even the most intelligent of women absolutely speechless. It is: crapping. Women use euphemisms for defecating as well; pooing, doing number two, having a "BM". It's basically taking a shit with lace and flowers and sparkly moon dust. Only, we women know there is no lace and the only thing that smells like flowers is the automatic air freshener that just sprayed overhead, as though it knew what was coming. Let's also not forget that the only thing sparkling are the stars in our eyes when we realized that the woman in the stall next to us can smell it, too.

For some reason, women just do not like to take a dump in public. It's the absolute holy grail of things we won't do. We'll wear jeans that bare our ass crack to everyone and their grandchildren. We'll give birth in the middle of the freeway. Hell, we'll even have sex in elevators. But take a shit in a public bathroom? Now you've gone too far!

And so, as women, when we have no other alternative, when our sphincters are simply incapable of staving off any longer the brown recluse that threatens to poison not only our underwear and outer clothing, but also our social life, we sacrifice a little bit of our dignity and take the plunge. While I cannot guarantee much about the where, when, or why, I can guarantee that this will be the fasted bowel movement that each woman ever had. She will push that bad boy out so fast she'll create dents, and time might actually begin to move backwards just a bit to accomodate such a feat. And all of this is done so for one reason and one reason only: WE DO NOT WANT ANYONE ELSE TO KNOW WE'RE THE ONE FUNKING UP THE PLACE.

We will get this part over as quickly as possible because logic dictates that if a woman is spending more time in the stall than the other, then SHE must be the ones causing that foul odor. We forget, however, that if we're thinking out this strategy, then the other woman has thought that as well, and might have even pulled something like that off herself. The plots are ever thickening in a restroom, people. Even if no one is talking.

Hey, I forgot to mention one important piece of information that is extremely vital to the entire process and also helps to explain why some of us take longer than others. Many stalls do not come with locks on the doors, and for some reason, women can't function without that door being closed. This is where the foot-lock method comes into play. We raise one foot and press it firmly against the door, holding it shut against intrusion from any other clean-stall-searching woman who passed over the drippy, floater-having stall we did moments earlier. And yes, we women do bend down to see if a stall that is locked is occupied, and being women, we know when we see a one-legged woman sitting down without a cane nearby that she's probably got the one with the broken lock and so we say a silent prayer of thanks that, if we have to flush and wipe before we sit, at least we can do so with both feet on the ground.

Now, these two things usually proceed without much in the way of interruption, but should one occur, it usually - okay ALWAYS - comes in the form of the most annoying and absolutely inexcusable offense in bathroom etiquette: THERE'S NO TOILET PAPER.

We women are greedy when it comes to toilet paper, so we use a lot of that stuff. Women could wipe out an entire forest with just toilet paper alone because let's face it - we gotta wipe! So you can imagine what happens when we reach for that ubiquitous little square of white and find that there is none. A prepared woman won't panic, of course. She'll simply reach into her purse and pull out her trusty little pack of facial tissue. On the opposite end of the spectrum are the industrious women who MacGuyver themselves a couple of usable pieces of paper from the leftover cardboard roll. (That's where those callouses come from, by the way.) And then there are those in the middle. The ones who come neither prepared nor capable of jury-rigging themselves a square or two of emergency vag-wipes. These women take bathroom personal space to a whole new level, taking it upon themselves to ASK the woman in the next stall if she has any toilet paper that she could use.

Now, many of you might remember the scene in Seinfeld where Elaine went into the restroom and discovered that there was no toilet paper available, and when she asked if she could have a square, the response that met her was "I have no square to spare." We didn't know if she did or not. Well, the men didn't, anyway. But we women, we knew. We knew that by saying "I have no square to spare", the woman was really saying "Ew, I'm not sharing my toilet paper with you!"

Toilet paper is a commodity. You don't give it away for free - not when you have yet to wipe yourself. It's a matter of restroom survival - it's every woman's sanitation for herself. Granted, most of us WILL pass over a wad because we've been in that position ourselves before - it's why we started carrying around that purse-sized pack of kleenex - but some will refuse because, yet again, we've been in that position before and we were burned. We were burned - hard. And those scars haven't healed yet. And never will. But oh, do they feel better when we're the ones doing the burning...

Moving on, after our business has been concluded, toilets flushed, packages dumped, lingering funk trapped between stalls for the next occupant to expire from, we arrive to our last step. The reapplication of the cosmetics. Now granted, not every woman wears makeup, but don't let the name fool you. Cosmetic merely applies to the outward appearance. Hair, lips, eyes, clothes - whatever is outside is part of the reapplication process. We wash our hands and we dry them, then we return to the mirror to make sure that we look okay, because the last thing we want is to leave the restroom and face our impatient and upset significant others looking like we'd just taken a warp speed dump with one leg up in the air.

Rape Should Never Be Arbitrary

2009-10-18T00:59:00.005-10:00

Take a look at these names:

Richard Burr (R-NC)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
John Isakson (R-GA)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
John Thune (R-SD)
David Vitter (R-LA)

Remember them come election time next year if they happen to represent your districts. These 9 men are part of a larger group of 30 who've chosen to take the side of large corporations who deem rape amongst employees to be something not worth criminally investigating but rather handled in-house via arbitration.

In layman's terms, they condone rape.

How? By believing that making contract clauses requiring victims of rape by fellow employees to not report said rape to the police illegal is wrongful governmental interference. Oh yes. The same individuals who went on for hours regarding ACORN, and how the government needs to get involved, are saying that the government should not bother with these corporations, that government shouldn't...well...govern, and that the Senate doesn't do things like that.

It's laughable, to be sure, to hear such a thing being uttered on Capitol Hill, but the sad reality is that there's nothing funny about rape. There's nothing amusing, enjoyable, or pleasant about it. How would any of those men feel if it had been their wife or their daughter who had been raped? How would they feel if their loved ones had been raped by a trusted co-worker, after being harassed without rebuke from supervisors, only to then be raped again - figuratively - by their employers who tell them that they can either handle it in arbitration or lose their job?

Well, I can probably guess, judging by their voting record and their speeches just what they think.

Tom Coburn, for example, condemns abortion in all cases - including rape - because his grandmother was raped.

It seems quite ironic, doesn't it? The Republican party strung up Bill Clinton by his balls in front of all of the world because he had consensual oral sex with an intern and set forth the only Impeachment ever to occur in the history of our country, and yet non-consensual sex, aka RAPE - RAPE-RAPE if Whoopi is reading this - is supported and protected! Who wants to be the person who voted in someone who condones rape? You? Do you want to be THAT husband? THAT father? Brother? Do you want to be that wife? That mother? Sister?

There are 30 men who run this country who condone rape, and we now know their names.

If we can't force them out, then let's vote them out.

Hairy situation

2009-09-29T10:33:00.002-10:00

I have an eight year-old daughter who is a beautiful, funny, smart, quick-witted child. She's friendly - almost to a fault - and she loves to read. She is, quite simply, a fantastic child. So, you can imagine how difficult it was for me to hear her say to me one day in a distressed voice, "Mommy, can I start shaving my legs?"

"Why?" I asked, knowing that her legs are quite hairy but never seeing that as being a problem since she is, after all, only eight.

"Because two of my friends at school tease me about it," came her reply.

Initially I thought to tell her to ignore the teasing since it is par for the course when you're a child: you get teased, you tease others, you laugh, share milk, and run around on the playground.

But then I thought to ask another question. "What do they say?"

"They said that I need to shave my legs, and if I don't shave my legs then I'm 'butchy'."

Well, this changes things. Eight year-olds using the term "butchy" is quite unnerving, especially since they're the ones who explained to my eight year-old what that term meant (to them). That, of course, wasn't the worst of it. No. See, I then led my questioning down its natural path and wound up with this final one: "Do they shave their legs?"

"Yes."

Call me floored. Call me shell-shocked, dumbfounded, flustered, and quite simply dismayed. Eight year-old little girls...shaving their legs?

WHY?

I quickly went into damage control mode then, because let's face it, being a girl is one of the toughest things one can be. There are so many outside influences that alter and mutate our own self-perception. My daughter, who's cared little to nothing about how she looked on the outside, has suddenly become self-conscious of parts of her body that are inconsequential to who she is as a person. Immediately, I told her that eight is far too young to be shaving one's legs, regardless of how much hair is on there, or what their so-called friends might have to say about it.

I also told her, in no uncertain terms, that not shaving one's legs doesn't make one "butchy", and that term isn't to be used again by her because it's insulting. I then lifted the leg of my pants and showed her my own hairy gams and asked her if she thought that what her friends had described fit me in any way. She shook her head and laughed, then asked why I didn't shave.

"Because I don't care what other people think about what I look like. Mommy doesn't need someone else to tell me that my legs are hairy to know that they are, just like Mommy doesn't need someone else to tell me that my legs are nice to know that they are. What other people say isn't as important as how you feel about yourself. Shaving your legs won't make you a better person. Those girls shave their legs but it hasn't made them any nicer, now has it?"

She shook her head and gave me a somber "No." It broke my heart then because I was witnessing the realization within her that these girls she thought were her friends were exactly the type of people she did not want to be around. It was a heartbreaking thing to witness, especially after seeing the hurt in her eyes just moments earlier, but it was one that she needed to experience. At eight, you're so optimistic about everything, and you want to believe that everyone is nice, or that everyone can be, and so when it turns out that that's not the case, it can be a tragedy of sorts and all I wanted to do was take my little girl into my arms and hug her and tell her that if shaving her legs would make her happy then she could do it until the cows came home.

Instead, I took her into the bathroom, handed her my Venus razor and shaving cream and stuck out my hairy leg. She looked at it like it was some kind of scary science experiment, one that would be messy, dangerous, and fraught with complications. Which, if you're an eight year-old girl, is exactly the kind of science experiment you want to do. So she went to work, and after three cuts to my ankle, a muffled g-rated curse from me, a sasquatchy-looking blob of foam attacking her hand, and a rather long four minutes of tongue - and nail - biting concentration and suspense filled silence, she's come to the conclusion that shaving is simply too complicated to get into right now.

"I think I'll wait until I'm Hannah Montana's age to start shaving," she announced emphatically, her foamy, hairy hands waving in defeat at the remaining acreage of hair left remaining on my legs.

"That's my girl," I said, smiling. "Now go get Mommy the first-aid kit."

Poor Tila Tequila

2009-09-11T21:13:00.002-10:00

Wow, two blogs in one day!

I was planning on ignoring that whole Tila Tequila/Shawne Merriman debacle because quite frankly, she's an attention whore and he was stupid enough to date her, and when you mix whores and stupidity together, you get a pretty noxious combination of karma. Well, unfortunately for Shawne Merriman, karma came by way of an assault allegation. Not just assault - attempted murder.

Why?

Because Tila Tequila, born Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen, is a damned bad liar, that's why.

See, when you put the two stories together, something just doesn't sound right. At first, it seems quite obvious who's telling the truth: He says he was restraining her from driving drunk, she says he assaulted her and choked her; he's a giant compared to her; she went to the hospital.

Lots of foreign terms were used, like "citizen's arrest" - which wouldn't mean much to anyone unless you're a fan of Police Academy 3 - but when people see the word "arrest", they automatically think police>cuffs>jail>guilty. It all goes hand in hand. In an instant, Shawne went from average NFL player to attempted murderer. Like being called a rapist, or a child molester, that's a label that gets tattooed onto your body with lasers. It doesn't come off, and it'll never fade, especially not with the internet so readily available to every bored googleologist in the world.

Women rallied to Tila's side, crying "abuse" and shouting for "justice!"

Trouble was, the only thing Tila seemed to care about was attention. She stopped tweeting for one day, and then quick as a flash - or as some people have deduced, a hangover recovery period - she was back, tweeting about woe is her, justice, pictures, witnesses, and DA meetings.

Trouble is, there has been no corroborative testimony, either public or otherwise, to confirm her side of the story. When Shawne explained his side, she lashed out on twitter to say that he's lying because she's "allergic to alcohol" which, if you're Asian like me, simply means your face gets red as a freaking beet and everyone knows you were completely tossed. Let's be honest here, the girl's been drunk on television more time than Paris Hilton's panties have been on TMZ. This isn't a secret, so for her to say something that ridiculously and patently false is one obvious sign that there are cracks in her story that are wider than...well, I won't go there. Add on to that the fact that paramedics stated that they saw no visible injuries to Tila when they arrived and took her to the hospital.

Now, I understand that some individuals will claim that bruises don't normally show up until twenty-four hours after an assault, but this simply isn't true. Bruising can be almost instantaneous, depending upon the person. Also, the skin around the neck is very delicate, and bruising there will become visible within minutes. Redness from the contact will be visible immediately. Add to that the damage that strangulation will do to the capillaries in the eyes, even if only slightly, and you've got very visible evidence that someone has been choked, whether by a hand, an arm, or an object. Paramedics are trained to spot signs of oxygen deprivation that can be caused by an attempted strangulation. Also, vocal chords can be damaged that would impair an individual's ability to speak. All of these things would have been noticed by EMTs/Paramedics/Police Officers/hospital staff. Any of these things would have been evidence enough to file charges against Shawne Merriman for assault and possibly attempted murder/manslaughter.

The recent photographs that Tila "released" to TMZ show bruising "one day" after the alleged incident. Anyone who has ever been choked or restrained violently knows that those bruises are far too faint to have been caused within a twenty-four hour time period. There's yellowing to the bruises on her arms, which implies healing. There appears to be no bruising to her throat, and as someone who knows what being choked feels like and looks like, I simply cannot take her at her word that she was, in fact, choked. Could she have been restrained? That's not in question. Shawne admitted to restraining her. The bruises on her arms make quite clear in that regard that someone was holding her tightly there, forcefully if you will, and his explanation seems more plausible given the nature of the supposed altercation. If what he says is true, then that makes even more egregious the claims that she's made.

Why?

Because thousands of women out there are afraid to come forward with their own tales of abuse because they fear they won't be believed, and women like Tila Tequila are, in part, greatly to blame for it. Whenever a woman falsely cries rape or abuse, it pushes back the advances that women have made to tell their stories, to get help, to seek justice. There was a stigma attached to rape and abuse, that the women either deserved it or were simply saying it because they were jealous, or angry at their husbands/lover, and often times a woman was punished for even trying to get help. The system would return her to her abuser, and she would suffer for the audacity to seek sanctuary from any source. From woman's suffrage to equal pay for equal work, it's been a struggle to gain any ground in this world if you happen to have been born with ovaries and a vagina, and women died fighting for rights that far too many of us take for granted today.

And so when someone like Tila Tequila comes along and starts calling for justice for her because no one believed her blatantly false tales, what she does is not point the light of scrutiny at herself, but at the female population in general. The next time a female is genuinely assaulted by a celebrity, the number of people who doubt her claim will be far, far larger than those that exist today, and I'd bet that a great deal will bring up this particular incident as justification for their skepticism.

Without a doubt, the most vulgar and tasteless thing that she's done has been to bring up abuse and homicide victim, Jasmine Fiore, into the equation which, while it doesn't surprise me given the levels of depravity to which she has already stooped, still disgusts me. She's attempting to compare herself to this poor girl because she's looking for sympathy that she's probably not going to receive now that the DA has opted to dismiss the case entirely due to insufficient evidence. She's taken to the internet airwaves, tweeting over and over again how she deserves justice for what happened to her, how she was almost killed, et al. She has hordes of loyal "followers" RT (repeat tweeting/relay tweeting) her every post, which means, of course, that a trending topic has been created. I don't really care about that - way to use the internet and people efficiently! - but I do have a problem with the fact that a woman who claims she was abused would repeatedly lie to the very people who tell her - in no uncertain terms - that they love her, respect her, support her. She should go into politics if that's her game!

Seriously, this is one of those moments in life where you have to wonder just how shallow our country is, when we've placed this tiny, insignificant person so high up on a pedestal for drinking, being promiscuous, and wearing minimal clothing that we'd look the other way while she ruins the reputation and potentially the career and life of an innocent man all because she couldn't hold her liquor and didn't want to admit it.

And yes, I'm saying that's what I think happened. I don't have the facts - no one has to tell me the obvious here, Captain - but when the "facts" as they have been given to both the public and the government officials who oversee the prosecuting of alleged criminals show no corroboration for her, and everything for him, and her lies keep piling up one on top of the other, there's little else anyone can deduce from this travesty.

I hope she gets some help, I do. And I hope she apologizes for what she's done. Her actions will bear repercussions for many generations to come that will affect far more than the two parties involved. She might not realize that now - nor care - but many men and women do, and they're the ones who have to live with the consequences of her actions, while she tweets...

Things I don't understand...

2009-09-11T15:35:00.005-10:00

I haven't written a blog in months and for that I apologize. It's been a hectic time and I'm just tired...

But enough of the pity party. This is a list of things that have come to my attention that makes me question what exactly is depleting our common sense supply. Where has it gone? Has it developed cancer, like compassion has? Did it commit suicide like reason did? Or has it been kidnapped, like logic was? Whatever the case, please bear with me in this slightly organized, somewhat chaotic rant that may or may not piss you off, but it's doing wonders for me right now.

Why do people who are against Health Care Reform(HCR) say "Well, my health plan is just fine." as though they expect it to be exactly the same with everyone? Don't they see that that's the problem, that it's not the same?

why do people who are against HCR say "maybe you should have taken better care of yourself" or "maybe you shouldn't have gotten sick" when they hear stories of individuals whose insurance companies dropped them from their rolls because they were diagnosed with an illness? I'm sure Dana Reeves was doing everything in her power to NOT develop lung cancer, and yet she was diagnosed with it and died a year later from it. Her, a non-smoker, a healthy eater, a woman who was very conscientious about bacteria and the overall health of herself considering that her husband was a quadriplegic and she was the mother of a young son died cancer. Saying that she "should have taken better care of herself" is not only insensitive lacking in compassion, it's also ignorant.

Why do people who are against HRC think that everything will be solved if people "just got better jobs"? Let's face it, society is built on a tier system, and some people will do far more menial jobs than others, and as a society, we expected that someone will do these things, like pick up our trash, serve us our food, fix our hotel bed and change our sheets, pick our fruits and vegetables, and slaughter our meat. There's nothing demeaning about those positions, and every single one of the people who do those jobs works very hard for little pay and obviously far less gratitude and respect than those who work white collar, professional and skilled careers, so why is it that they don't deserve good, affordable health care too, without having to somehow climb to the standards that someone else looking from above them socially has set?

Why is it that those whom oppose HRC are screaming and shouting at town hall meetings, posting up pictures of Obama dressed as Hitler, calling him a Nazi, saying that he's going to kill Down Syndrome babies and grandmothers, and then claim that he's being uncivilized and rude and taking away their freedoms? Hasn't he been calm and rational throughout this entire debacle, despite the insults, the threats, the rude and childish acts perpetrated upon him by those who are the first to shout "socialism" and the last to explain it? Whether you agree with his policies or not, doesn't an accusation of lack of civility first require that one was civil to them first?

Why is the media writing about the anti-choice activist who was killed in Michigan as though he was the only one who mattered in those killings? Why does the media do that? Two men were killed today, both shot by the same man, and the only one who's getting any focus is the one whose views happened to be "pro-life". Is the other victim's life simply not as important because he wasn't as vocal about his beliefs? I don't care what your opinion on abortion is - no one deserves to be killed for it - so why is it that the media seems to think that one is more notable simply because he happened to be anti-choice? I'm sure the opposite would ring just as true, and it would still be unacceptable. Two lives were snuffed out and both were important to those who loved them.

Why are the politicians most rabid about protecting the "Sanctity of Marriage" the ones who can't seem to keep their penises in their pants? They espouse biblical teachings as their reasoning, and yet, were the government to mete out the biblical punishments for violating said teachings, they'd cry foul! Why are they so intent on foisting these laws upon others that they themselves are unable to respect via their own actions?

Why is Sarah Palin still relevant?

Why are people complaining about companies pulling sponsorship from Glenn Beck's television show? He's the very one who screamed about free markets; shouldn't he be the prime example of how free markets work? Wouldn't he be glad to be an example of the very policy he supports? I'm not bashing a free market system here, merely wondering why what's good for the goose is not good for the gander.

Why did so many parents not want their children to listen to the President speak about the importance of staying in school and focusing on their education? The cries of "indoctrination" were just ridiculously parroted by parents who knew nothing other than what talking heads on the radio and televisions were telling them they should be afraid of. Yes, because the worst thing we can do for our children is to encourage them to succeed in life. Of course, that begs the question if it's not a good thing to encourage our children to succeed, then why complain when others endorse mediocrity? Perhaps it's because of whom the message was coming from, and not the message itself, but even that seems a bit trite, don't you think? The argument that probably takes the cake when used to explain away the "opting out" of many schools was that the speech was using "tax payer money" to promote Obama's "socialistic ideology". If telling children to do well in school is socialistic, sign me up for my first meeting of the Obama Socialist Party because I've been doing that from day one, as have my kids' teachers, police officers, fire fighters, representatives, etc..., the latter five of which are all paid with tax dollars.

Why do people say that Obama hasn't fixed the country's problems yet so he's a failure yet, in the very same breath say that there's no way Bush could have prevented 9/11 from happening because he had only been in office less than a year? Can they not see just how absurd that is? A man is expected to pull this country out of a recession, faltering economy, two wars, crashing real estate market, jobless tailspin, and foreign policy nightmare in less than an eight month span, but Bush couldn't possibly have been able to appropriate additional funding for the FBI and CIA as had been requisitioned months prior? Someone please explain to me the logic in that. You know what, never mind - I know where that'll lead me, which brings me to my next confounding question:

Why do people use circular reasoning to try and get out of having to actually explain things using facts? Shouting "it's a lie, it's a lie" over and over again doesn't make it any more or less true. This is the apparent tactic that some people have taken when arguing that Obama is a "muslin commie terrorist" who's also a Nazi. "WHY is he all of those things?" gets asked, and the explanation received is "because he is" which would be received with either the question as to why being asked again, or this:

I'm pretty sure you see where this is going.

What is so wrong with admitting that America as a country could be better? Why do those who not only claim, but also insist that America is a "Christian Nation" cannot find a little bit of humility like Jesus told us we should have? We're not perfect - no one in this world is perfect - so there can be no perfect country. We exist on a body of laws based on a document that many in the legal and political community believe to be a "living" one, so why, if it can evolve and improve, can we not admit that its improvement also means that we improve? Is it that difficult to say that we were wrong? We encourage our children to take responsibility for their actions, but when it comes to our government, we refuse to acknowledge even the most minutiae of flaws - unless, of course, it's in regard to the opposing party, then it's aaaaaaaaall G - and that only sabotages our future because this is the message we're sending to our children. Either we teach them the values through our own actions or we continue on with this "Do as I say, not as I do" attitude that's obviously done wonders for politics in general, right?

Why can't they make Throwback Pepsi cost the same amount as regular Pepsi?

Why are not utilizing solar and wind technology like Europe is to help lower our fossil fuel dependency? Hawai'i is surrounded by the Pacific, have the world's most active volcano, and yet we'll never be self-sufficient when it comes to energy because NIMBYs keep complaining. We said goodbye to the SuperFerry, costing 300 people their jobs because of NIMBYs. We're even more dependent upon the mainland for fuel because wind turbines and solar farms are "eyesores", yet walking around in orange leathery skin while wearing a pareo (or less) and shouting at people and calling them environmental terrorists is somehow "attractive"? Really? Protect the environment, huh? With that "Move over, bitch, my Hummer's taking both stalls at the nail salon so I can get my nails did, and don't look at me like that just because I threw my cigarette butt on the ground" attitude while having the audacity to have a "Malama da 'Aina" sticker on your bumper? REALLY?

Why do parents dress their children up like miniature versions of themselves? I'm not talking about cute little matching family outfits - I live in the land of family portraits where all three hundred children wear the same freaking Palaka fabric - but the moms whose daughters wear the short skirts, the midriff bearing tops, and the makeup, or the fathers whose sons sport diamond earrings, atrocious dye jobs, and clothing with not only suggestive words and images on them, but downright inappropriate for them to view in the theater alone, much less on their bodies. Prostitots and mini-pimps aren't cute. There is nothing redeeming about them and instilling in them a sense of vain materialism and shallow sense of self does nothing to boost their self-esteem. Instead, it makes them dependent upon it, and there will come a time when they won't have it, and what will they have to fall back on? You?

I know this was long. I know this droned on, but after all this time did you expect something short and sweet? I'm neither short, and I haven't been called sweet in a long time, so putting those two words in conjunction with a description of me is SO not happening! But, I do thank you if you've stuck around this long. If you just skipped to the bottom, I've got only one thing to say to you.

The Sanctity of Marriage

2009-05-24T14:39:00.002-10:00

You hear it thrown around so often lately.

"The Sanctity of Marriage"

It's a phrase that's become the political platform of countless conservatives, neocons, and fundamentalists the world over. Protect marriage! Save marriage! One man and one woman!

Oh sure. It sounds like it's a noble cause, one that anyone would want to fight for. Until you get to their reasons for wanting to "save" it, and "protect" it and who exactly they think they need to "save" it from.

Homosexuals.

The Gays.

Or for you forum fanatics out there, teh [sic] gays.

See, for those who don't know because they've been living under a rock - or because you're Amish, and if you are, WTF are you doing on the computer anyway? The computer and the internets are the debbil!!! - homosexuals want the right to marry someone of the same sex because like most people, they feel that it's their right to leg shackle themselves to another human being for as long as they live. Or, if you're a Republican, for as long as it takes for you to find a new mistress and dump your hospital-bed-bound wife.

Shocking, isn't it?

Now, it's to be expected that the arguments that come against it - and I've listed a few in previous blogs - deal mainly with the religious connotations. Hey, you can't be a conservative and NOT be religious. It goes against the rulebook!

However, an article was brought to my attention today that lists some of the most asinine, ludicrous, hilarious, bass-ackwards justifications imaginable. Sam Schulman wrote a column piece titled "The Worst Thing About Gay Marriage" in which he explains what he believes to be the worst thing about gay marriage and why. It's a long, windbagesque diatribe of strawmen and red herrings that could, quite possibly, be the cure to insomnia or the cause of aortic embolisms; I'm not sure which yet as I'm still recovering from my eyes bleeding onto my keyboard.

For fun, and to save you all a lot of time, I'm going to list some of the reasons given, and in no particular order, though I'm certain it wouldn't really matter what order I place them in because they won't make any more sense - trust me, this isn't Jenga.

And here we go:

A wedding between same-sex lovers does not create the fact (or even the feeling) of kinship between a man and his husband's family; a woman and her wife's kin. It will be nothing like the new kinship structure that a marriage imposes willy-nilly on two families who would otherwise loathe each other.

Gay spouses have none of our guilt about sex-before-marriage.

marriage is concerned above all with female sexuality. The very existence of kinship depends on the protection of females from rape, degradation, and concubinage. This is why marriage between men and women has been necessary in virtually every society ever known.

This most profound aspect of marriage--protecting and controlling the sexuality of the child-bearing sex--is its only true reason for being, and it has no equivalent in same-sex marriage. Virginity until marriage, arranged marriages, the special status of the sexuality of one partner but not the other (and her protection from the other sex)--these motivating forces for marriage do not apply to same-sex lovers.

A same-sex marriage fails utterly to create forbidden relationships. If Tommy marries Bill, and they divorce, and Bill later marries a woman and has a daughter, no incest prohibition prevents Bill's daughter from marrying Tommy. The relationship between Bill and Tommy is a romantic fact, but it can't be fitted into the kinship system.

children adopted by a gay man or hygienically conceived by a lesbian mom can never be regarded as illegitimate)

In gay marriage there are no virgins (actual or honorary), no incest, no illicit or licit sex, no merging of families, no creation of a new lineage.

People in gay marriages will discover that mimicking the cozy bits of romantic heterosexual marriage does not make relationships stronger; romantic partners more loving, faithful, or sexy; domestic life more serene or exciting. They will discover that it is not the wedding vow that maintains marriages, but the force of the kinship system. Kinship imposes duties, penalties, and retribution that champagne toasts, self-designed wedding rings, and thousands of dollars worth of flowers are powerless to effect.

Well now, aren't you glad that you read that? Don't you feel that much more informed?

Oh, by the way, the author of this particular article has been married three(3) times. I suppose one could argue that it wasn't the vows that made him want to get married so often, or the flowers, or the children. No. It was the kinship. The loving, wonderful kinship of having three mother-in-laws who hate him, three father-in-laws who want his brothers-in-law to kick his ass, and countless other family members-in-law to show him what happens when you fail to practice what you preach.

Of course, I'm still working on the bumper sticker that reads: "The Sanctity of Marriage: Protect It By Marrying As Often As You Can".

Isn't that right, Mr. Shulman, Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Gingrich, Mr. McCain and so on...?

You're a Hypocrite, Miss California!

2009-05-05T16:53:00.002-10:00

This isn't going to be a post about gay marriage.

This is going to be a post about why Miss California is a lying hypocrite who deserves to have her crown removed.

Picture of her posing semi-nude have made their rounds on the internet. I have not seen them and will not because I don't need to. She admitted to having taken them because she's "a model" and "models pose in lingerie".

Of course, she also claims that the pictures are being shown around because people want to shut her up, to keep her silent because of her faith and her beliefs.

There's just one problem.

Her faith.

Now, I'm not saying it's wrong of her to be a Christian. I love Jesus Christ and try to accept everyone as he did because there is not a single one of us who are perfect. Miss California herself admits that she isn't perfect.

However, Miss California also holds her religion up as a shield, protecting her from all of the consequences that come from using her faith as a crutch for her behavior and beliefs. This particular incident with the photographs is no exception. She wants to claim that she's a Christian and a model, and that she should be given a pass at the latter because of the former. The trouble with that is that she uses scripture as her basis for other beliefs that deny others the rights that she has, all while ignoring the scripture that demands she NOT pose in lingerie as a "model".

“I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands , without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works”

(I Timothy 2:8-10)

Scripture also prevents her from being deceitful, which she was when she signed her pageant contract, both for Miss Teen USA and for the Miss USA pageant.

There's nothing wrong with being a Christian.

There's everything wrong with claiming to be a Christian.

The former requires you lead a life that Jesus would have lived.

The latter requires nothing of you, no scruples, no honesty, no integrity, no compassion, and most obviously, no humility.

Miss California, I think you know where you fall.

Why I don't really watch American Idol

2009-05-01T15:08:00.004-10:00

I admit. I like Adam Lambert. I haven't watched a full episode of the show yet, merely the illegally uploaded clips that get quickly removed on youtube. The excitment over Adam's voice is warranted. He's got chops, and he's easy on the eyes.

Really easy.

But there's something really wrong about how he keeps getting credit for being "creative" with his song selections and arrangements. Granted, I liked his rendition of Tears for Fears' Mad World, as originally performed by Gary Jules, but that's because let's face it, most people had no clue about the song, both original and other, prior to Adam's performance, so him selecting it was nice.

But Adam. That whole alternative song arrangement thing was done last season with whatshisface Cook and Doxology's cover of Eleanor Rigby.

This week, however, showed that Adam's just not tired of that whole covering the cover thing, and it's getting on my nerves. He covered one of the greatest songs out there, "Feeling Good", and did it in the same arrangement as Muse's version. Now, if you know that arrangement, you know that version kicks major ass. Granted the other versions out there are fabulous as well - I'm a big Nina Simone fan as well so her version comes in a close second - but let's face it, when you're covering a cover, you're not exactly stepping out of the box. You're just changing from cellophane to shrink wrap packaging.

American Idol is supposed to be about singing, and I guess if what you're trying to sell is another cookie-cutter pop star, then winning is the way to go. The only two successful winners of the show who've gone on to earn musical accolades entered into the two most conformity driven genres out there - pop and country - while all of the others have pretty much crashed and burned. Runner ups and third, fourth, and fifth place contestants have fared much better, which goes to show that America, the voting public, isn't really interested in originality and merit. We just want to see if you'll fit into the mold we've set out for you.

I hope Adam doesn't win. Not because I don't want him to be successful, because I do. No, it's because perhaps if he lost, he'll develop his own style and the next time he covers something, it'll be more than just a replica of a copy.

Quote of the Day

2009-04-20T11:49:00.002-10:00

"If it's RPattz and the world finds out, we will soon all be covered in the remnants of a million exploding vaginas." ~ By Michael K of DListed.com regarding the possibility that Robert Pattinson might be gay.

Focus On The Family - Perhaps that's exactly what they should do!

2009-04-08T10:36:00.002-10:00

An article came out recently in my local paper regarding FotF (Focus on the Famnily) donating $20k to help prevent civil unions from being passed in Hawai'i. Now, while this isn't surprising to me, especially considering the source, what is surprising is the fact that FotF is worried about civil unions in Hawai'i - a state they are not based in.

Equal marriages/civil unions/gay marriages; whatever you want to call them, the Federal government has deemed it the individual state's responsibility to dictate whether or not it should be legal. Several states have legalized it, most recently Iowa, and the trend will continue because, contrary to the accusations thrown out by those opposed to same-sex unions, it does not destroy the entity or the validity of one's marriage anymore than the divorce of two heterosexuals does.

I have been married for ten years. The idea of one of my gay friends getting married doesn't threaten my marriage in any way. If it does anything, it strengthens it. My marriage isn't so weak and fragile that it can be destroyed by something as trivial as someone else getting married.

However, all of that aside, the most interesting and intriguing bit of information regarding all of this is the fact that FotF is based in Colorado, which has the twelfth highest divorce rate in the nation. The highest was Nevada - which is understandable considering how many people get married in that state - but following it was a slew of southern states (almost all of them), and then Colorado. It's well noted that the majority of southern states consider themselves to be God fearing, Christian based. Why, then, do they have such high divorce rates?

And, more importantly, why is it that Colorado isn't spending that $20k on helping to improve marriage (regardless of orientation) in THEIR state when they so obviously need it? Even more interesting, the first state to allow homosexual marriage, Massachusetts, has the LOWEST divorce rate in the nation.

$20k could have paid for a week's worth of food for 1000 families, provided clothing and shelter for hundreds - you know, what Jesus advocated.

Instead, FotF spent $20k on trying to influence laws of man (tsk tsk tsk) in a state that has a lower divorce rate than their own just so more people cannot get married.

Losing. You're doing it right.

Happy Birthday Edgar

2009-01-18T21:58:00.002-10:00

Today marks Edgar Allen Poe's 200th birthday. He was a very dark poet and story teller who wrote far more poems than he's noted for, and his best work bears no recognition in any venue other than in the minds and hearts of those that love him.

This is one of my favorite poems. It's long. Very long, actually, and quite involved, but it holds a place very close to my heart.

Al Aaraaf
by: Edgar Allen Poe

Part I

Oh! nothing earthly save the ray
(Thrown back from flowers) of Beauty's eye,
As in those gardens where the day
Springs from the gems of Circassy--
Oh! nothing earthly save the thrill
Of melody in woodland rill
Or (music of the passion-hearted)
Joy's voice so peacefully departed
That, like the murmur in the shell,
Its echo dwelleth and will dwell--
Oh! nothing of the dross of ours,
Yet all the beauty, all the flowers,
That list our Love, and deck our bowers--
Adorn yon world afar, afar--
The wandering star.

'Twas a sweet time for Nesace--for there
Her world lay lolling on the golden air,
Near four bright suns--a temporary rest--
An oasis in desert of the blest.
Away--away--'mid seas or rays that roll
Empyrean slendor o'er th' unchained soul--
The soul that scarce (the billows are so dense)
Can struggle to its destin'd eminence--
To distant spheres, from time to time, she rode.
And late to ours, the favor'd one of God--
But, now, the ruler of an anchor'd realm,
She throws aside the sceptre--leaves the helm,
And, amid incense and high spiritual hymns,
Laves in quadruple light her angel limbs.

Now happiest, loveliest in yon lovely Earth,
Whence sprang the "Idea of Beauty" into birth
(Falling in wreaths thro' many a startled star,
Like woman's hair 'mid pearls, until, afar,
It lit the hills Achaian, and there dwelt)?
She look'd into Infinity--and knelt.
Rich clouds, for canopies, about her curled--
Fit emblems of the model of her world--
Seen but in beauty--not impeding sight
Of other beauty glittering thro' the light--
A wreath that twined each starry form around,
And all the opal'd air in color bound.

All hurriedly she knelt upon a bed
Of flowers: of lilies such as rear'd the head
On the fair Capo Deucato, and sprang
So eagerly around about to hang
Upon the flying footsteps of---deep pride--
Of her who lov'd a mortal--and so died.
The Sephalica, budding with young bees,
Uprear'd its purple stem around her knees.
And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnam'd--
Inmate of highest stars, where erst it sham'd
All other loveliness: its honied dew
(The fabled nectar that the heathen knew),
Deliriously sweet, was dropp'd from Heaven,
And fell on gardens of the unforgiven
In Trebizond--and on a sunny flower
So like its own above that, to this hour,
It still remaineth, torturing the bee
With madness, and unwonted reverie:
In Heaven, and all its environs, the leaf
And blossom of the fairy plant, in grief
Disconsolate linger--grief that hangs her head,
Repenting follies that full long have fled,
Heaving her white breast to the balmy air,
Like guilty beauty, chasten'd, and more fair:
Nyctanthes too, as sacred as the light
She fears to perfume, perfuming the night:
And Clytia pondering between many a sun,
While pettish tears adown her petals run:
And that aspiring flower that sprang to Earth--
And died, ere scarce exalted into birth,
Bursting its odorous heart in spirit to wing
Its way to Heaven, from garden of a king:
And Valisnerian lotus hither flown
From struggling with the waters of the Rhone:
And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zanthe!
Isola d'oro!--Fior di Levante!
And the Nelumbo bud that floats forever
With Indian Cupid down the holy river--
Fair flowers, and fairy! to whose care is given
To bear the Goddess' song, in odors, up to Heaven:

"Spirit! that dwellest where,
In the deep sky,
The terrible and fair
In beauty vie!
Beyond the line of blue--
The boundary of the star
Which turneth at the view
Of thy barrier overgone
By the comets who were cast
From their pride and from their throne
To be drudges till the last--
To be carriers of fire
(The red fire of their heart)
With speed that may not tire
And with pain that shall not part--
Who livest--that we know--
In Eternity--we feel--
But the shadow of whose brow
What spirit shall reveal?
Tho' the beings whom thy Nesace,
Thy messenger hath known
Have dream'd for they Infinity
A model of their own--
Thy will is done, oh, God!
The star hath ridden high
Thro' many a tempest, but she rode
Beneath thy burning eye;
And here, in thought, to thee--
In thought that can alone
Ascend thy empire, and so be
A partner of thy throne--
By winged Fantasy,
My embassy is given
Till secrecy shall knowledge be
In the environs of Heaven."

She ceas'd--and buried then her burning cheek
Abash'd, amid the lilies there, to seek
A shelter from the fervor of His eye;
For the stars termbled at the Deity.
She stirr'd not--breath'd not--for a voice was there
How solemnly pervading the calm air!
A sound of silence on the startled ear
Which dreamy poets name "the music of the sphere."
Ours is a world of words: Quiet we call
"Silence"--which is the merest word of all.
All Nature speaks, and ev'n ideal things
Flap shadowy sounds from visionary wings--
But ah! not so when, thus, in realms on high
The eternal voice of God is passing by,
And the red winds are withering in the sky!
"What tho' in worlds which sightless cycles run,
Link'd to a little system, and one sun--
Where all my love is folly and the crowd
Still think my terrors but the thunder cloud,
The storm, the earthquake, and the ocean-wrath--
(Ah! will they cross me in my angrier path?)
What tho' worlds which own a single sun
The sands of Time grow dimmer as they run,
Yet thine is my resplendency, so given
To bear my secrets thro' the upper Heaven.
Leave tenantless they crystal home, and fly,
With all thy train, athwart the moony sky--
Apart--like fire-flies in Sicilian night,
And wing to other worlds another light!
Divulge the secrets of thy embassy
To the proud orbs that twinkle--and so be
To ev'ry heart a barrier and a ban
Lest the stars totter in the guilt of man!"

Up rose the maiden in the yellow night,
The single-mooned eve!--on Earth we plight
Our faith to one love--and one moon adore--
The birth-place of young Beauty had no more.
As sprang that yellow star from downy hours
Up rose the maiden from her shrine of flowers,
And bent o'er sheeny mountain and dim plain
Her way--but left not yet her Therasaean reign.

Part II

High on a mountain of enamell'd head--
Such as the drowsy shepherd on his bed
Of giant pasturage lying at his ease,
Raising his heavy eyelid, starts and sees
What time the moon is quadrated in Heaven--
Of rosy head, that towering far away
Into the sunlit ether, caught the ray
Of sunken suns at eve--at noon of night,
While the moon danc'd with the fair stranger light--
Uprear'd upon such height arose a pile
Of gorgeous columns on th' unburthen'd air,
Flashing from Parian marble that twin smile
Far down upon the wave that sparkled there,
And nursled the young mountain in its lair.
Of molten stars their pavement, such as fall
Thro' the ebon air, besilvering the pall
Of their own dissolution, while they die--
Adorning then the dwellings of the sky.
A dome, by linked light from Heaven let down,
Sat gently on these columns as a crown--
A window of one circular diamond, there,
Look'd out above into the purple air,
And rays from God shot down that meteor chain
And hallow'd all the beauty twice again,
Save when, between th' Empyrean and that ring,
Some eager spirit flapp'd his dusky wing.
But on the pillars of Seraph eyes have seen
The dimness of the world; that greyish green
That Nature loves the best for Beauty's grave
Lurk'd in each cornice, round each architrave--
And every sculptur'd cherub thereabout,
That from his marble dwelling peeréd out,
Seem'd earthly in the shadow of his niche--
Achaian statues in a world so rich!
Friezes from Tadmor and Persepolis
From Balbec, and the stilly, clear abyss
Of beautiful Gomorrah! Oh! the wave
Is now upon thee--but too late to save!

Sound loves to revel in a summer night:
Witness the murmur of the grey twilight
That stole upon the ear, in Eyraco,
Of many a wild star-gazer long ago--
Who, musing, gazeth on the distance dim,
And sees the darkness coming as a cloud--
Is not its form--its voice--most palpable and loud?
But what is this?--it cometh--and it brings
A music with it--'tis the rush of wings--
A pause--and then a sweeping, falling strain,
And Nesace is in her halls again.
From the wild energy of wanton haste
Her cheeks were flushing, and her lips apart;
And zone that clung around her gentle waist
Had burst beneath the heaving of her heart.
Within the centre of that hall to breathe
The fairy light that kiss'd her golden hair
And long'd to rest, yet could but sparkle there!
(20) Young flowers were whispering in melody
To happy flowers that night--and tree to tree;
Fountains were gushing music as they fell
In many a star-lit grove, or moon-lit dell;
Yet silence came upon material things--
Fair flowers, bright waterfalls and angel wings--
And sound alone that from the spirit sprang
Bore burthen to the charm the maiden sang:

" 'Neath blue-bell or streamer--
Or tufted wild spray
That keeps, from the dreamer,
The moonbeam away--
Bright beings! that ponder,
With half-closing eyes,
On the stars, which your wonder
Hath drawn from the skies,
Till they glance thro' the shade, and
Come down to your brow
Like---eyes of the maiden
Who calls on you now--
Arise! from your dreaming
In violet bowers,
To duty beseeming
These star-litten hours--
And shake from your tresses
Encumber'd with dew
The breath of those kisses
That cumber them too--
(Oh, how, without you, Love!
Could angels be blest?)
Those kisses of true love
That lull'd ye to rest!
Up!--shake from your wing
Each hindering thing:
The dew of the night--
It would weigh down you flight
And true love caresses--
Oh! leave them apart!
They are light on the tresses,
But lead on the heart.

"Ligeia! Ligeia!
My beautiful one!
Whose harshest idea,
Will to melody run,
Oh! is it thy will
On the breezes to toss?
Or, capriciously still,
Like the lone Albatross,
Incumbent on night
(As she on the air)
To keep watch with delight
On the harmony there?

"Ligeia! wherever
Thy image may be,
No magic shall never
Thy music from thee.
Thou hast bound many eyes
In a dreamy sleep--
But the strains still arise
Which thy vigilance keep--
The sound of the rain
Which leaps down to the flower,
And dances again
In the rhythm of the shower--
The murmur that springs
From the growing of grass
Are the music of things--
But are modell'd, alas!--
Away, then, my dearest,
Oh! hie thee away
To springs that lie clearest
Beneath the moon-ray--
To lone lake that smiles,
In its dream of deep rest,
At the many star-isles
That enjewel its breast--
Where wild flowers, creeping,
Have mingled their shade,
On its margin is sleeping
Full many a maid--
Some have left the cool glade, and
Have slept with the bee--
Arouse them, my maiden,
On moorland and lea--
Go! breathe on their slumber,
All softly in ear,
The musical number
They slumber'd to hear--
For what can awaken
An angel so soon
Whose sleep hath been taken
Beneath the cold moon,
As the spell which no slumber,
Of witchery may test,
The rhythmical number
Which lull'd him to rest?"

Spirits in wing, and angels to the view,
A thousand seraphs burst th' Empyrean thro',
Young dreams still hovering on their drowsy flight--
Seraphs in all but "Knowledge," the keen light
That fell, refracted, thro' thy bounds, afar,
O Death! from eye of God upon that star:
Sweet was that error--sweeter still that death--
Sweet as that error--ev'n with us the breath
Of Science dims the mirror of our joy--
To them 'twere the Simoom, and would destroy--
From what (to them) availeth it to know
That Truth is Falsehood--or that Bliss is Woe?
Sweet was their death--with them to die was rife
With the last ecstasy of satiate life--
Beyond that death no immortality--
But sleep that pondereth is not "to be"--
And there--oh! may my weary spirit dwell--
Apart from Heaven's Eternity--and yet how far from Hell!
What guilty spirit, in what shrubbery dim,
Heard not the stirring summons of that hymn?
But two: they fell: for Heaven no grace imparts
To those who hear not for their beating hearts.
A maiden-angel and her seraph-lover--
Oh! where (and ye may seek the wide skies over)
Was Love, the blind, near sober Duty known?
Unguided Love hath fallen--'mid "tears of perfect moan."
He was a goodly spirit--he who fell:
A wanderer by mossy-mantled well--
A gazer of the lights that shine above--
A dreamer in the moonbeam of his love:
What wonder? for each star is eye-like there,

And looks so sweetly down on Beauty's hair--
And they, and ev'ry mossy spring were holy
To his love-haunted heart and melancholy.
The night had found (to him a night of woe)
Upon a mountain crag, young Angelo--
Beetling it bends athwart the solemn sky,
And scowls on starry world that down beneath it lie.
Here sat he with his love--his dark eye bent
With eagle gaze along the firmament:
Now turn'd it upon her--but ever then
It trembled to the orb of Earth again.
"Ianthe, dearest, see! how dim that ray!
How lovely 'tis to look so far away!
She seem'd not thus upon that autumn eve
I left her gorgeous halls--nor mourn'd to leave.
That eve--that eve--I should remember well--
The sun ray dropp'd, in Lemnos, with a spell
On th' Arabesque carving of a gilded hall
Wherein I sat, and on the draperied wall--
And on my eyelids--O the heavy light!
How drowsily it weigh'd them into night!
On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran
With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan:
But O that light!--I slumber'd--Death, the while,
Stole o'er my senses in that lovely isle
So softly that no single silken hair
Awoke that slept--of knew that he was there.

"The last spot of Earth's orb I trod upon
Was a proud temple call'd the Parthenon--
More beauty clung around her column'd wall
Than ev'n thy glowing bosom beasts withal;
And when old Time my wing did disenthral
Thence sprang I--as the eagle from his tower,
And years I left behind me in an hour.
What time upon her airy bounds I hung
One half the garden of her globe was flung,
Unrolling as a chart unto my view--
Tenantless cities of the desert too!
Ianthe, beauty crowded on me then,
And half I wish'd to be again of men."

"My Angelo! and why of them to be?
A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee--
And greener fields than in yon world above,
And woman's loveliness--and passionate love."

"But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft
Fail'd, as my pennon'd spirit leapt aloft,
Perhaps my brain grew dizzy--but the world
I left so late was into chaos hurl'd--
Sprang from her station, on the winds apart,
And roll'd, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart.
Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar
And fell--not swiftly as I rose before,
But with a downward, tremulous motion thro'
Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!
Nor long the measure of my falling hours,
For nearest of all stars was thine to ours--
Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth,
A red Daedalion on the timid Earth.

"We came--and to thy Earth--but not to us
Be given our lady's bidding to discuss:
We came, my love; around, above, below,
Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,
Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod
She grants to us, as granted by her God--
But, Angelo, than thine gray Time unfurl'd
Never his fairy wing o'er fairer world!
Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes
Alone could see the phantom in the skies,
When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be
Headolong thitherward o'er the starry sea--
But when its glory swell'd upon the sky,
As glowing Beauty's bust beneath man's eye,
We paus'd before the heritage of men,
And thy star trembled--as doth Beauty then!"

Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away
The night that waned and waned and brought no day.
They fell: for Heaven to them no hope imparts
Who fear not for the beating of their hearts.

Ulterior Motives

2009-01-14T16:35:00.003-10:00

Why do people think that you always have an ulterior motive when you want someone to do well, or do things for other people? Can't a person genuinely want things to go well for someone? Can't a person genuinely want to help someone succeed for nothing else other than see that person happy?

Sorry to disappoint certain someones but I have nothing to gain from the success of others except knowing that they've accomplished something they've wanted for a while. I'm not looking for accolades or prize ribbons. This isn't a beauty pageant and I'm not looking for the fucking tiara at the end of the runway.

Never a moment.

2009-01-14T16:20:00.003-10:00

When they give you a baby in the hospital after gestating for nine months and however many weeks, days, minutes, hours and seconds, they never tell you that any semblance of privacy and personal space you may have possessed are now nonexistent. They send you home with diapers, formula, and enough vaseline to keep a porn company in production for weeks, but never any advice on how to deal with never being able to pee alone, bathe alone, eat alone, or BE alone.

When you sign onto this whole baby business, forget what a hot meal tastes like. Forget what it feels like to have clean hair. Oh sure, you can wash it. Wash it twice a day, even. But forget it being clean. In less time than it takes oxygen to enter your blood cells, your child is going to have schmutz in your hair that'll make you wonder what exactly it is that you've been feeding it.

Bathroom moments will turn into sprint training. Want to go alone? Well...How fast can you pee? Wipe? Forget flushing - that'll alert the kid to your absence and then you'll have to deal with the guilt you'll feel when they flash that "you left me...ALONE" look at you through red-rimmed, tear laden eyes. Forget even going number two; you don't have time for that. No. Seriously. You don't.

But in the end it's all worth it when they look up at you with such sweet smiles and say their first word, that precious word that you never knew you waited a lifetime to hear, but when you do, you feel your heart stop.

"Dada".

Sisters Who Cause Trouble

2009-01-11T13:11:00.003-10:00

I was tagged by Meg at Overdosing on Nostalgia for this blog challenge. Here are the rules:

1.Go to your documents

2. Go to your 6th file.

3.Go to your 6th picture.

4. Blog about it.

5. Tag 6 friends to do the same.

Since all of my documents are located on an external hard drive, I couldn't exactly follow these instructions exactly, but the sixth image happens to be one that's uploaded into my myspace photo album. It's an image taken nearly three years ago of my two daughters on a time out. I thought it was such a cute scene, I grabbed the nearest camera (on my phone) and snapped a quick shot. I later messed around with it and added captions.

They had been fighting over a Strawberry Shortcake DVD - I remember this vividly because the DVD ended up flying into my sink and chipped my family mug - and had refused to stop after being warned, so off to the wall they went. They stood there, sniffling and whining, while I stood watch. Afterward, they apologized like little ladies and hugged each other. Fifteen minutes later they were at each others throats again, but I didn't expect it to last ten so it was a bonus for me.

Now's your turn, ladies!

1. Col @ JamericanSpice
2. Stinka @ Hippie Liberal Mom Chronicle
3. Kerri @ Desperately Seeking Sanity
4. Susie @ Knitting Knoobie
5. Kyla @ The Hellions Mom
6. Chelle @ Her MySpace Blog

It's a bit like life.

2009-01-11T13:01:00.004-10:00

Sometimes, you get a boost of drama from the sources you don't expect, and the solutions seem far away and fairly unreachable. I suppose that's normal; everyone has these moments at least once or twice in a year. I guess the fundamental lessons that we're supposed to learn from them is to one, never give up, and two, if you do give up, don't expect anyone to be sincere when they say that they understand because even if they'd have done it themselves, they truly don't understand.

You're going to have to deal with the ups and downs of life. That's a given. The real problem is how exactly you deal with it. Are you going to go into denial and let the world fall around around you, let yourself steep in your misery? Will you face your demons head on and charge forth like a rabid, colorblind bull in the middle of Forks, Washington?

I suppose when it all comes down to it, we end up falling somewhere in the middle.

Stop Stalking Obama

2008-12-26T10:54:00.003-10:00

This goes out to every single resident of Hawai'i who heard the siren call of "native" son Barack Obama's presidential election and subsequent visit back "home" to Hawai'i this Holiday season. We're not Stalkarazzi. Hawai'i has always been a place where people with high profile names could come to relax because we locals don't let crap like that slide.

We don't like being shoved out of the way by paparazzi trying to get a picture of someone's ass. We don't like having sand kicked in our face because some idiot with a camera is trying to capture a shot of someone in a bikini. We don't do stuff like that here, so quit it. And shame on YOU, Honolulu Advertiser, for telling your readers to take pictures of Obama and send them in, all to boost revenue sales on your website. You've never done that for any past visiting president nor celebrity alike, even those born and raised here, or those that live here most of the year, and there are many.

My true cause for concern and ire here stems not from the treatment that the locals will receive by those clamoring to get that precious, potentially Pulitzer Prize winning (in your dreams) shot - it's an issue as to the safety of the future president and his family that worries me. The news has been riddled with stories of people and groups plotting to kill him for something as simple as the color of his skin... and we have people taking photos of him in front of his vacation home. This isn't the invited press taking these shots, let me remind you. Yes, Obama invited the usual group of press corps, as is the norm. However, that infamous shot of him without his shirt on didn't come from one of them. How difficult would it have been for that cameraman to have been a man with a grudge, and instead of a camera in his hands, something more dangerous?

Sure, there are going to be people who question why I feel so strongly about this, and let me make it quite clear that yes, I would have made the same comments about Bush had these things happened to him, but frankly, no one really gave a damn about him; Bush has no star power which didn't invite much in the way of public interest outside of the White House. The reality that he will be the least popular President in history will definitely not go unnoticed by both his detractors and his supporters, but let it be known that even he deserves to be safe and be left alone.

Obama and his family have been kept virtual prisoners of their home because of this intense media hounding, and I'm truly saddened by it. He couldn't even say farewell to his tutu in peace, which violates everything we here in Hawai'i stand for. Live Aloha; you see those damn bumper stickers on just about every car here. A'ole pilikia to everyone who forgot what that meant when they stood and took pictures of him saying Aloha to his tutu. Shame on you.

So take away their marriages.

2008-12-19T16:12:00.002-10:00

as long as you give them back their money, too.

Supporters of Proposition 8 are pushing for the more than 18k marriages to be dissolved/nullified, which is quite hypocritical when you think of it. Supporters of MARRIAGE want annulments for over 36k people.

Well, that's fine. Of course, in return, the state and counties need to refund all of these couples their marriage license fees, the tax dollars accrued for the event costs, etc... Seems pretty reasonable and fair, right?

What does that amount to again? From my understanding, over $18 million dollars were earned from the state from taxes and fees alone. That doesn't include what the businesses themselves made. That has to go back, too, I'm afraid. Refund it all.

If anyone has a problem with that, you can take it up with your local Prop8 supporter. Marriage may mean a governmental union between one man and one woman now in the State of California, but it wasn't when these individuals got married. If you want to say they couldn't do it at all, retroactively, then they need to be reimbursed.

I hope you enjoy paying up and out. Just think of this as a lesson in fiscal responsibility. Don't want to pay? Don't try and deny people the very same rights you would demand for yourself.

Call me Noah

2008-12-13T22:25:00.004-10:00

It's been raining something fierce these past couple of days, and though it's supposed to ease off by Monday, come Wednesday we'll be seeing more rain. I have mixed feelings about this, because though we need the rain, it's put damn kinks in my plans.

I was supposed to go to a play this evening with my family, but the rains caused our road to be closed - yay - and we had fifteen cars parked in front of our gate because the intersection just a few feet away from said gate had been overtaken by a fast flowing river that had overflowed its banks. Lovely, no? In the opposite direction was debris, more fast flowing water - though not as much - and a line of cars, a fire truck, and onlookers.

Had we left this evening, I would have been able to meet up with a dear friend of mine whom I haven't been able to see for years. Of course, had we left this evening, we wouldn't have been able to return. The way home has been closed off due to flooding. Fun.

Our neighbor's yard is completely decimated, our yard feels like a soaked sponge, and I feel like such a schmuck for telling my friends that I'd be at the play, and then didn't show up. There's not much I could have done about it, I know, but I still feel poorly about the whole thing. So, hopefully I'll be able to meet up with my friend tomorrow if the weather abates enough.

Oh, and why should you call me Noah? Because I'd be toting my two boys and two girls across the flood. Duh.

The following link takes you to a story of one of the families that lives on our street whose home was flooded just the other day because of all this rain.

http://www.khon2.com/news/local/36035159.html

This one is about the rain on my side of the island.

http://www.khon2.com/news/local/36028394.html

Fried Chips...

2008-12-11T22:31:00.001-10:00

Because I love really odd and quirky crap.

Deep Fried Computer

Four Years

2008-12-11T15:31:00.002-10:00

On this day, four years ago, I gave birth to my youngest daughter, after a very difficult, and stress filled pregnancy. We were told early on that we should abort because of complications that could arise from my undergoing so many x-rays and being treated with certain medications that were detrimental to a growing fetus (we didn't know I was pregnant at the time), but I'm stubborn, but all tests that were taken later showed that my baby girl would be fine.

Fast forward to December 11, 2008 and I'm amazed at how my family has grown, and how incomplete it would be without my precious Lotte's presence. She is a light, a joy, a sweet and precocious child who never leaves you without a smile.

Happy Birthday, mommy's Bebe.

Toto Never Sounded Better

2008-12-10T00:02:00.003-10:00

I had Christmas down in Africa! Five golden rings!!!

Share!!

Hit Ctrl + A and then Ctrl + C to Select all and copy. Happy Christmas!

PengWIN!

2008-12-09T17:50:00.001-10:00

Nothing says...

2008-12-09T16:47:00.002-10:00

Fighting Against Injustice Against Our Neighbors like looting from our neighbors.

Dec 9, 9:17 PM EST

Clashes, looting rock Greek cities for 4th night

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS and ELENA BECATOROS
Associated Press Writer

ATHEN, Greece (AP) -- Masked youths and looters marauded through Greek cities for a fourth night Tuesday, in an explosion of rage triggered by the police shooting of a teenager that has unleashed the most violent riots in a quarter century.

The nightly scenes of burning street barricades, looted stores and overturned cars have threatened to topple the country's increasingly unpopular conservative government, which faces mounting calls for Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to resign.

Police fired tear gas at protesters Tuesday following the funeral of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, who was laid to rest in an Athens burial attended by about 6,000 people.

The rioting - which has engulfed cities from Thessaloniki in the north to the holiday island of Corfu and Crete in the south - threatens the 52-year-old Karamanlis, who already faced growing dissatisfaction over financial and social reforms at a time of deep anxiety over growing economic gloom.

Opposition Socialist leader George Papandreou called for early elections, charging the conservatives were incapable of defending the public from rioters.

"The government cannot handle this crisis and has lost the trust of the Greek people," Papandreou said. "The best thing it can do is resign and let the people find a solution ... We will protect the public."

The call was echoed by protesters, who, though they have not voiced any particular policy goals, say they want Karamanlis out.

"It's very simple - we want the government to fall. This boy's death was the last straw for us," Petros Constantinou, an organizer with the Socialist Workers Party, said in Athens. "This government wants the poor to pay for all the country's problems - never the rich - and they keep those who protest in line using police oppression."

Karamanlis, whose New Democracy party narrowly won re-election a year ago, has ignored the calls.

Greece was torn by years of civil war between communists and right-wing nationalists in the wake of World War II, and was ruled by a military dictatorship from 1967 to 1974.

Though a student uprising succeeded in ending military rule in 1974, it also left a legacy of activism and simmering tensions between the security establishment and a phalanx of deeply entrenched leftist groups that often protest against globalization and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The groups have now evolved into various mainly youth factions that claim to fight trends ranging from globalization to police surveillance cameras. Their impact is usually limited to graffiti and late-night firebomb attacks on targets such as stores and cash machines.

But the latest riots have moved far beyond the small antiestablishment groups to become a siege of Karamanlis' government. Teenagers and university students have joined self-styled anarchists in much of the rioting and destruction.

The fallout from the riots, which has seen police stations nationwide come under attack by rock- and Molotov cocktail-throwing youths, could be far-reaching.

"This reaction will register as major discontent in the next public opinion polls, which will hobble the government's effectiveness," political analyst Anthony Livanios told The Associated Press. Whenever the government tries to pass reforms, "Greek society will react - while the level of parliamentary opposition will increase."

The government is already facing public discontent over the state of the economy, the poor job prospects of students and a series of financial scandals that have badly rattled public confidence.

Greece is heavily dependent on tourism, which could decline as a result of the global economic crisis.

Karamanlis trails the Socialists in recent opinion polls and would struggle to win a general ballot now. His government clings to a single seat majority in the 300-member Parliament and could be brought down by a single defection, though it is unlikely any deputy would risk his political career to topple a government at a time of civil unrest.

A poll released Tuesday gave the Socialists a 4.8 percent lead over Karamanlis' conservatives. The poll gave no margin of error.

A senior Socialist party official, Christos Protopappas, blamed underlying social inequalities for the violence, saying the government's policies exacerbated the gap between rich and poor.

"If there is no change in policies, I fear that what will happen in six months or one year will be much worse," he said.

Analyst Livanios agreed. "This was an emotional reaction after public opinion was outraged by the unfortunate event of the teenager's killing," he said. "Clearly, during very negative economic conditions people with very low incomes and jobless people who can see no future for themselves became part of this social reaction."

On Tuesday, police fired tear gas to dispel dozens of youths throwing stones and sticks and setting trash cans on fire near the funeral for Grigoropoulos, whose death Saturday sparked the rioting. Dozens of local residents gathered on the streets, shouting at police to stop firing gas in the residential area.

Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis said "the winds of destruction are blowing through our city."

Schools and universities across Greece were closed for the funeral and hundreds of teachers, university lecturers and students rallied in central Athens, where hundreds of teenagers threw rocks and scuffled with officers.

Still, the clashes were less severe than the rioting over the past three nights.

Amnesty International accused Greek police of heavy-handed tactics against protesters, saying police "engaged in punitive violence against peaceful demonstrators" instead of focusing on rioters.

----

Associated Press writers Derek Gatopoulos and Menelaos Hadjicostis contributed to this report.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press

Little Ashes Official Trailer

2008-12-03T21:47:00.002-10:00

A lot of twihards are going to have a hard time accepting the sex scene between Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltran. Oh well.

No limit.

For my husband.

2008-12-01T23:03:00.000-10:00

Over 20 Million...

2008-11-30T21:48:00.002-10:00

...People are living with AIDS in this world today.

Mothers, Fathers, Sons, Daughters, Brothers, Sisters, Friends, Lovers.

Today we stop to take a moment to remember everyone who has come into our lives and brought with them the painful, yet important lesson that AIDS is.

AIDS isn't a disease that affects just the victim. It affects us all. The butterfly effect has fluttered her wings on society, and unless we stop, think, and educate each other, we will continue to ride the rippling waves that AIDS is in this world.

Another Little Ashes Clip

2008-11-30T08:33:00.000-10:00

Little Ashes Clip

2008-11-27T22:31:00.004-10:00

Dear me, I am excited. How beautifully intriguing is the second clip, when Robert's Salvadore finds his muse in Javier's Federico?

Obama is King?

2008-11-21T09:53:00.003-10:00

I'm quite annoyed by the scripture used in the latter part of this interview with which the Pastor quotes that in Isaiah 3:22, the bible says that God is our Judge, God is our Lawgiver, and God is our King.

Okay, first of all, PASTOR, Isaiah 3:22 talks about removing from women their fancy garb and adornments as a means of punishing them for flaunting their wealth and sexuality amongst the poor and downtrodden whom have remained faithful. So, before you start throwing scripture in my face, at least make it RIGHT.

Second, how can ANYONE expect to believe you'd know what a muslim is when you can't even quote the book you would demand everyone be faithful to correctly?

Third, if Obama WERE Muslim, so what? Does it really matter when the past 8 years under a CHRISTIAN president have seen far worse times than we've had in the past 50?

Fourth, don't ignore the plain truths before you regarding our constitution and the words by which the forefathers of this nation bore so that we'd be able to demand equality with regards to our practicing of faith of OUR choosing, and not anyone else.

Fifth, you claim that Obama isn't a Christian because he says that there might be more than one path to God. In my first point, I made clear that your statement was incorrect. However, had you been correct, you're still insinuating that the President of this country would be King, which one, goes against the whole idea of Democracy, which our forefathers were fighting against in the first place, two, violates that pesky little commandment about thou shalt have no other Gods. What is a King but a man-god on a throne? You would have us label the President as King, and worship him? Hardly.

Lastly, you have not proven that Obama is a Muslim. His name isn't Muslim, the people that raised him aren't Muslim, and the way he lives his life definitely isn't Muslim, in ANY sense, so please... tell me how is Barack Hussein Obama a Muslim in anything other than your own imagination?

Lord, save me from your followers.

Straight outta my mouf...

2008-11-20T22:07:00.002-10:00

"She fucking named him Mowgli?"

The pop star has finally popped.

Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and her rocker hubby Pete Wentz welcomed son Bronx Mowgli Wentz, their first child together, Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The baby boy weighed in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces and measure 20 1/2 inches long.

"Ashlee, Pete and baby Bronx are all healthy and happy, and thank everyone for their well wishes," a rep for the couple, who tied the knot back in May of this year, told People.

The birth itself comes almost three weeks after the 29-year-old Fall Out Boy frontman told Ryan Seacrest that his 24-year-old missus was "very pregnant…She's at the very end, and it could happen at any point."

New aunt Jessica Simpson, meanwhile, said during an Ellen DeGeneres Show taping on Monday that her sister was considering inducing labor.

"I think she's really just jumping around trying everything right now" to get the baby out, Simpson said.

It's already going to have a hell of a hard time having a dumbass for an aunt, a lip-syncher for a mom, and a guyliner wearing doofus for a dad... And now he gets to do it with the name MOWGLI.

Oh where the HELL is Bagira when you need him?

This is what happens...

2008-11-20T13:29:00.001-10:00

When you pay more attention to the only relevant part of your body and totally ignore the one that is empty of anything but wandering silicone.

RIP Peggy Chun

2008-11-19T23:05:00.002-10:00

From the Honolulu Advertiser:

Hawai'i's most prolific and beloved watercolor artist, Peggy Chun, succumbed today to ALS, known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Advertisement

She was diagnosed with the disease in 2002.

As the disease took its toll, she did not allow it to stop her creativity. Always seeing the best in life, she said she was "living with, not dying of, ALS." She continued to paint.

In 2003, when she lost the use of her right hand, she painted with her left. In 2004 a weakened left hand sent the brush to her teeth. When she was fully paralyzed, a computer allowed her to paint with her eyes. "After all," she said, "you don't paint with your hands, you paint with your heart."

Born in Lawton, Okla., Peggy moved to Hawai'i in 1968. She taught school and owned a successful Christmas ornament company. When her twin sister and noted artist, Bobbie Segler, died of ALS, Peggy was inspired to paint. Her work is featured in fine art galleries in Hawai'i and in private and corporate collections across the globe.

Her husband, Elroy Chun, son Eric and a large, loving family have supported her through the years of building her career as an artist and the years of continuing her success against all odds. For six years Peggy was encouraged and assisted in her artistic endeavors by a now nationally famous group of friends and volunteers called the Peg's Legs.

Celebrating an early Thanksgiving with hundreds of friends, Peggy's husband Elroy, said, "Peggy, if we have become more tolerant and forgiving, we owe much of that change in ourselves to you. May Akua prepare your heavenly journey with blessings richly deserved upon taking residence in your new abode. We love and will dearly miss you."

Mary Margaret "Peggy" Richard Chun is survived by:

Husband: Elroy Chun;

Son: Eric Keala Chun, daughter-in-law Jessica Kimi Chun, granddaughter Indiana Anuhea, grandson Sawyer Kumula'au;

Daughter: Leslie, son-in-law Stuart Streuli, granddaughter Hanalei of Newport, R.I.;

Step-son: Bruce Akoni Yong, wife Briar, step-granddaughter Makena of Santa Barbara, Calif.;

Nephew: (son of Peggy's twin sister) Jason Segler, wife Jennifer, grandnieces Jade and Cian, Honolulu;

Nephew: Damon Segler, wife Desiree, grand nephew Dillon;

Niece: (daughter of Peggy's twin sister) Tina Segler, grandniece Molly;

Father: Joseph Richard, stepmother Sara of Lawton, Okla.;

Brothers: Joseph Perry "J P" Richard, John Richard, Peter Richard of Oklahoma; Matthew "Matt" Richard of Tacoma, Wash.; Michael Richard of Colorado Springs, Colo.;

Sister: Camille Richard Fox, husband Joseph, son Silas of Lake City, Colo.;

Peggy is also survived by the famed Peg's Legs 'Ohana of caregivers who served for six years as Peggy's arms, legs and best friends.

One of her works, "Manoa Stream", is a place most people who live in Hawai'i have visited and hiked. I think it represents her spirit the best. Like Peggy, no storm could weather its beauty, and keep the essence from deep inside from flowing out and touching everything and everyone who ever comes across it in ways they'll never forget.

God Bless you, Peggy. Now you can paint the stars from up close. Aloha.

Words... cannot describe...

2008-11-19T21:52:00.002-10:00

The unbelievable feeling of disgust I am feeling at the incompetent and irresponsible Senate that we have in this country.

They go against the people's wishes when they agree to a disgustingly exorbitant ~~fourth home mortgage for the disgustingly wealthy~~ bailout package, they push us further into debt than we already are, and now, when the auto industry, the nations LARGEST EMPLOYER (both directly, and indirectly by proxy) IN THE COUNTRY is floundering amid a recession that NO ONE wants to admit we're having except the people whose names AREN'T at the head of some government firm dealing with the economy, those very same Senators who said that the ~~massively outrageous method of paying for breast jobs and face lifts for second wives to feel better about themselves because of their husbands' fourth mistresses~~ bailout would help KEEP jobs in this country, KEEP the economy going, KEEP us from slipping into the "R" word, and subsequently the "D" word, are refusing to help.

Well here are sixteen words for you, Senators from every state that is against helping out the average Bobs, Michaels, Jills, and Janes of this country who pay for your Armani suits and Lobster dinners: If you're not going to do the fucking job you were paid for, you're fucking fired!

No, you can't take it back (Poem Blog)

2008-11-19T21:46:00.002-10:00

No, you can't take it back
What you said to me
There's more that you have done
that can be erased with
I'm Sorry
Your voice is ringing in my ears
but all I feel is the sting
of what I'm listening
to

No, you can't make it up
to me with
Flowers and tries of prose
I'm not that easily swayed
on it
Your face is centered in on mine
but all I taste is bitter truth
of hurt coming through
you

You can walk away and run away
and fly away and stalk away
and write away
and while away
but your words they stay
and the stain remains

Keith Allen is my Hero

2008-11-19T19:13:00.003-10:00

Watch the following series of youtube videos that make up a special filmed by British Comedian Keith Allen (father of British Pop Star Lily Allen) about the Westboro Baptist Church and never again question whether or not there are fanatical Christian extremists out there.

How do you feel? Shirley Phelp's dismissal of her own sin while condemning everyone, mother, father, AND child for the very same one is indicative of what WBC is all about: Do as we say, not as we do. They're building their own little Utopia here. It consists of 2 families procreating with each other, producing illegitimate children, and screaming FAG FAG FAG FAG FAG as loud as they can while their children swallow up their bile and vitriol.

Here's scripture for you:

Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs: 24:17 Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice

Leviticus 19:18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Never let it be said that the book that they take such vile hatred from is the same one that the majority of Christians read. It might contain the same text, it might contain the same quotes, but their eyes have tainted the message, and that message is to LOVE each other, for without the faith in each other, we can not have faith in God. These people have given up on humanity, and only believe in themselves. And no, I do NOT believe them to be human, animal, or mineral, for even a dog knows when to pick up its shit and leave.

Skeletal Madonna

2008-11-19T10:36:00.004-10:00

Take a look at the following picture and tell me if it offends you or not.

That is the image that is seen on a shirt that was pulled from the Nordstrom stores across the country because a woman said it "offended" her.

Story:

"PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL – A Palm City woman says an Affliction t-shirt she saw in Nordstrom is offensive. The department store chain agreed with her and removed the shirt from all of its stores.

The famous Millennium painting has striking similarities and differences to a t-shirt made by Affliction.

Judy Carbo describes the t-shirt, which shows a skeleton holding Baby Jesus, as demonic. The Millennium painting shows Mary holding Jesus.

Judy was in disbelief when she saw the shirt for sale in Nordstrom.

"As a Catholic and a Christian, it was offensive all the way around. We consider her holy," says Judy.

Judy, who is a devout Catholic, says the image on the shirt was offensive enough to say, ‘enough.’ She asked the store at the Gardens Mall to pull the shirt. They did.

Judy says, "If you were Jewish, you wouldn’t want to see a swastika on a shirt. If you were African-American, you wouldn't want to see anything desecrating you."

The Affliction brand is sold at department stores and small trendy shops. We visited several. The t-shirt was either not on shelves or sold-out. So, we brought a picture of it to find out what people thought.

Regardless of their faith, people we talked to in downtown West Palm Beach overwhelming were offended by the shirt. Here are a few statements from people we ran into:

"I would complain. I'm religious and I don't find it interesting."

"I don't like the looks of it."

"I think its more taste. The way they have the halo is offensive to me."

A group of teens did think the shirt was "cool."

In response to Judy’s complaint, Nordstrom looked at their entire Affliction selection. The chain pulled the shirt and two others – nationwide. A spokesperson for Nordstrom says, "The Company empowers its buyers and clearly someone made a bad choice. A mistake was made and fixed."

Judy does not want the shirt sold anywhere. She would also like to talk to the head of Affliction.

Affliction did not return calls for comment."

Now, I'm not exactly all for the desecration of religious symbols solely for the purpose of desecration. Art, on the other hand, is something that is very subjective. To me, the fact that you can use a religious figure like Mary and turn her into a deadhead says a lot about the freedom we have in this country to express ourselves. Personally, the image tells me that religion and faith is dying, and that faith in innocence is dead. And yes, I do believe in Christ, I do have faith in his word and in God. What I don't have faith in, however, is any one person or entity telling someone that they cannot show an image simply because it OFFENDS them.

Listen, lady, bigotry and ignorance offend me. Usually, it's kept to each individual's self, private and away from children and small animals. Sometimes though, people like this woman come out of the woodwork to demand that everyone suffer for her being offended, just for the sake of making HER feel better.

I'm sure that there are millions of people whom believe that she's right in her assumption, and there are others who agree that this shirt is as offensive as a swastika would be to a Jew. It doesn't matter that the "swastika" was an ancient Buddhist symbol long before it was raped for the evil purpose of one crazed self-hating man. Those who've chosen to enlighten themselves, however, can see differently. I, for one, would be more offended if a shirt had an image of the serial tattoos that concentration camp prisoners were forced to receive. THAT is offensive. BUT, that doesn't mean that I'd demand a store remove it from their shelves.

I hate cigarettes, beer, and tempeh. I hate Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter books. I despise Britney Spears and Paris Hilton music. But I won't demand that no one be able to make the choice of listening, reading, eating, drinking, or smoking just because it offends me. This IS America, after all, the land where your rights end where mine begin.

Our country isn't perfect, but damnit, if we keep on trying to pretend that we are, the least we can do is make sure that stupid people like this person at least help keep the facade up, instead of trying to peel it away piece by skeletal Madonna covered piece simply because she's OFFENDED.

Variety Interview with OME

2008-11-19T09:31:00.002-10:00

Okay, while I'm definitely excited to watch the Twilight movie, I'm posting this video because Robert speaks, albeit briefly, about Little Ashes, which is one movie I definitely want to see. But, for the rest of you, ~OME~, it's Spunk Ransom.

When music made you feel...

2008-11-19T07:50:00.001-10:00

Something other than what it felt like to have an STD...

Holy hell, I missed this song! Enjoy,

Self-hate

2008-11-18T12:42:00.003-10:00

Self-hate
Self-hate
Self-hate
Looking in the mirror
Loathing what you see
Unable to find the purpose that you're meant to fulfill
Following in footsteps
Unable to relate
You've got a lot of time left to kill

So follow your ambitions
to be nothing but sorry
and follow your traditions
of losing just more than faith
You've got a long way, baby
to fall before you
hit
the
ground

Look around
no one is watching
look and see
no one is paying any attention
to you
and you're all alone because your self-hate
is
showing through

Will yourself away
keep on taking chances
on your soul
you'll never realize how
on your own you are
and when you do
you'll se
your self-hate is showing through

This is what happens...

2008-11-18T09:17:00.003-10:00

When God creates something/someone to tempt me beyond redemption and remind me that he gave me a vagina for a purpose: hunting down and "devouring" my prey.

The Idiocy that is the H8 Movement

2008-11-18T08:35:00.003-10:00

Proposition 8 passed in California on Nov.5, 2008.

Gay marriage has, for now, been put to a halt and the 15,000 some odd marriages that occurred between May and up until the election are now in limbo.

That's over 30,000 people whose lives are being used as pawns in some ridiculous game of keep-away that I, for one, do not understand.

What exactly is gay marriage to those whom oppose it? What does it prevent them from doing? What right does it strip away from them?

The answer is simple: Nothing.

Oh sure, the arguments that line up might sound compelling-even humorous. If two men can marry each other, why can't I marry my cat? God hates fags, he says so in Deuteronomy. It's an abomination.

And yes, these ARE the standard responses that you get from those opposed to gay-rights. I'm not pulling them out of my ass. Go and take a gander at youtube and watch all of the speeches, the protests, the rants by those whom supported Prop-8. Read the blogs, the forums, the chatroom excerpts. It would be much better if this were fiction, and simply a novel we were reading, but the sad truth is that it's not.

Yes, the people whom would tell you that animals are not people-they're food-are the ones equating human beings to cats, dogs, and so on. Mighty convenient for them, don't you think?

Yes, the people whom would tell you that God calls lying with a man as one would lie with a woman an abomination in Deuteronomy are the exact same ones who tell you that they can eat pork and lobster and wear poly-cotton blends because Jesus got rid of all of the old rules.

The individuals whom would tell you that they are trying to protect the "sanctity" of marriage are the ones whose second wives just found out about the third mistress.

The individuals whom would take away the rights of others are the very ones who were themselves prosecuted not to long ago after having their rights denied them. And I'm not just talking about Jim Crow laws that prevented interracial couples from marrying. I'm also talking about groups like the Mormons, who were chased from state to state and persecuted for practicing their religious beliefs, and who had to alter their way of faith in order to be able to practice at all. Those two groups were some of the largest backers of Prop-8, which seems hypocritical, if only the irony weren't so palpable.

Love doesn't have a color. It doesn't have a sex. It exists because it is one of the few emotions that we're all capable of feeling, all capable of receiving, and all capable of expressing. We might not do it in the same way, we might not feel it for the same people, but it is there nonetheless, and we cannot deny others of it simply because we may not understand it.

For those that claim that pedophiles will be fighting to marry children now as a result of this push for gays to marry, let me remind you that states such as California and Kentucky, two polar opposites on the political and religious playing field of life, both had laws on their books that had NO minimum age requirement to get married. Pedophiles didn't write those laws.

For those that claim that their heterosexual marriages won't mean anything if homosexuals are allowed to marry, I suggest you question what your marriage was based on if the structure of some stranger's marriage can affect yours so profoundly in such a negative way.

For those that claim that marriage is only for procreation, perhaps it is for people like the Duggars, but for those whom suffer from fertility problems, or who simply don't want children, you invalidate their marriages, many of which have lasted far longer than those with children.

And finally, though it probably shouldn't need to be stated, how a government views marriage is different than how a church, synagogue, or anything along the religious order views a marriage. Marriage is a legal contract between two people as far as the government is concerned. Any and all legal responsibilities that are created during said marriage fall upon the married parties. Religion should play no part in who can and cannot get married with regards to the law. If they choose to not allow homosexual marriages in their churches and so on, so be it. I refused to get married in a church myself for all of the hypocrisy and bigotry that can be found beneath its roof, and I'm fairly certain that many of the people that I know whom are gay, and whom would like to get married, would agree that they'd rather not taint the beginning of their marital union with such negativity.

A man and a woman can get married in this country after following strict rules in each state. A man and a man should as well, as should a woman and another woman. Their being allowed to marry doesn't weaken my union with my husband, but rather strengthens it, because the sacrifices that some have had to make just to be able to say "I DO" is not something that I should, or would take for granted. I had the luxury of getting married because I happen to have been born attracted to men. Had it been the other way around, I'd be left where so many individuals in California are now: In limbo.

The Catholics, after all their centuries of stodginess, are doing away with such an archaic notion. Why can't we?

Words... cannot describe...

2008-11-18T08:01:00.001-10:00

I look forward to having many grandchildren one day... but holy mother of God and Dove Chocolates!

Helen Mirren: Queen of Foot in Mouth Syndrome

2008-11-17T12:52:00.002-10:00

I love Helen Mirren, the ACTRESS. You know, the career where you're paid to shove someone else's words into your mouth and then spit them out on cue? She's not supposed to have an opinion while she's reading lines, filming a scene, or posing on the red carpet and looking glamorous to promote a film. We, the consumer of her films, like the vapid world of celebrity if it means we, too, don't have to think about anything for a while. Television and movies are a form of escapism for most of us. We don't want to have to work for our entertainment. That's why we pay to watch you. It's why you have that mansion, those cars, and that Harry Winston necklace.

So, why, WHY does Helen feel the need to ruin that perfect set up by opening her mouth and spewing the kind of crap you'd hear from some redneck Joe the Plumber, non-job having asshole half-drunk off his ass in Podunk, USA?

A quote from her recent interview in TimesOnline - UK:

"In a rape case the courts in defence of a man would select as many women as they could for the jury, because women go against women. Whether in a deep-seated animalistic way, going back billions of years, or from a sense of tribal jealousy or just antagonism, I don’t know. But other women on a rape case would say she was asking for it. The only reason I can think of is that they’re sexually jealous."

You know, being a woman who's experienced that whole "jealousy" inducing crime of Rape, I'm not sure how exactly I would be able to sit on a jury panel and think "You know what? Bitch deserved to have her rights to say no taken away from her, have her legs spread open, and have some nasty, grimy cock shoved into her until it physically alters her vagina so badly, she'll need surgery and years of counseling to fix it" and then excuse it as me just not getting any.

Helen claims to have been raped a couple of times. She brushes it off nonchalantly, and that's fine. She dealt with it her way. Unfortunately, it looks like dealing with it includes treating other rape victims worse than the actual rapists. She's got it backwards, though. In most cases, it's the male jurists who will believe that a woman was asking for it. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that perhaps Helen, in all her feminist mystique, might be a bearer of a little penis envy. Perhaps if more women felt the same way that SHE did, she might not feel so badly. Why can the guys do it, but not her, eh?

Helen, stick to making movies. You're good at that. It's your niche. Then again, talking out of your ass is, too. I just hope you don't mind reciting your lines out of there, because your head has been shoved up there so far, they'll need to surgically implant an lavaliere just to hear you.

I hate this shit.

2008-11-17T12:47:00.001-10:00

The following is a myspace bulletin post I have received a few times already by several people, and while I know they mean no harm by it, it still gets on my last nerve. Look, it's not that difficult for people to read words that are misspelled. We get the gist of things quite easily because we're human - incomplete in all things - it's why we're not perfect.

That being said, you're not a fucking genius if you're just like everyone else and can read this. Moreover, you're also not proving your intelligence by pissing people like myself off who have to struggle every day with dyslexia with this intolerable and juvenile bullshit just to feel superior in some asinine and banal way.

You can read it. Whoopdeefuckingdoo. 5 people can read this, 20 people can read this, 500 million people can read this. Congratufuckinglations, you're just like everyone else. Welcome to mediocrity. Now get the fuck out of my inbox.

"
Cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed tihs rpsoet it. OLNY RSEPOT IF YOU CAN RAED TIHS. CNAHGE THE NMUERBR AT TOP TGOHUH, "ONLY __ PEOPLE IN THE WORLD CAN READ THIS...CAN YOU?" Go up a nmuber if you can raed it..."

I'm so unprepared!

2008-11-14T21:19:00.002-10:00

Not.

The above is a lovely gift/award from the fabulous Susie the Knitting Knoobie, who has graciously chosen me as one of four individuals whom she thinks is a Kreativ Blogger.

So, in order to fulfill the requirements set in order to receive this prestigious and meaningful award, I shall repeat what must be done:

List six things that make you happy.
Pass the award on to 6 more Kreativ bloggers.
Link back to the person who gave you the award.
Link to the people you are passing it on to and leave them a comment to let them know.

For myself, the six things that make me happy are as follows:

1. My family. Four children and one husband keep be very busy. Each one of them are so different - unique in their own way - and I cannot help but feel blessed that they are in my life, and that I have been blessed to be a part of theirs. There is nothing more special than being included in the growth of a person, and I am truly thankful that I am allowed such a gift with my family.

2. My friends. I have many acquaintances, but the people whom matter to me enough where I can call them my friends are those whom I feel a special bond with that transcends distance, culture, age, and beliefs. A beautiful friend of mine has a favorite quote that applies to this particular happiness: "Friends are the family you choose for yourself."

3. Reading. Nothing allows you to escape quite like a good book. Whether it's off to a different time, or to a different world, the mind of a child, or that of some alien creature, the words that jump off of a page and transports you to a different reality are priceless indeed. You can glean hope, humor, and perhaps a lesson or two about life from a few pages in a book, or you can have a completely life-altering experience in just a few hundred pages because books allow you to become someone different in just a matter of seconds like nothing else could. The pen is mightier than the sword; no sword ever left a girl lusting after vampires, or boys flying on dragons, and that, my friends, is true magic indeed.

4. Writing. If you cannot find what it is you want to read, that's what writing is for. The worlds that you would love to live in are there in your head, and all you need do to step into them is to put them down on paper, even if only for your own eyes. The written word doesn't just belong to the author from some faraway place. It also belongs to you.

5. Chocolate. No woman should ever live without it. Wars would be fought if chocolate became so scarce, there'd be a shortage. I'm quite cranky when I don't get my fix, and as the husband knows, a cranky korean is far more deadly than an pissed off potogee.

6. Sleep. I don't get enough of it. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that has nothing on me and my sleep. If I could, I'd spend an entire week sleeping. As it is, I get to spend a couple of hours in slumber, and those hours are so precious, you... my precious... my PRECIOUS!!!

Okay, back to the requirements. Yeah.

Here are four friend blogs, and one non-friend related blogs that I have chosen for this award. Visit them - or else I won't eat chocolate, and I won't sleep, and I'll hunt you down.

It's a Prozac Life belongs to my partner in forum crime.

A Hippie Liberal Mom Chronicle is the lovechild of Cheech & Chong and Hillary Clinton's Hair Dresser all rolled up into one neat and tidy package of sarcasm. She's a gem, this one.

Overdosing on Nostalgia is the blog maintained by the internet's resident vegan who does what I wish I could if I didn't like the taste of dead flesh so much.

Desperately Seeking Sanity is what happens when a mom of three turns into the coupon clipping maniac who also happens to have a pretty keen sense of humor.

Little Ashes is the unofficial blog for the fictional-account-turned-art-house-film about Salvadore Dali's sensual relationship with close friend, Federico Garcia Lorca. I'm a diehard Dali fan, and am looking incredibly forward to seeing this movie!

This is what happens...

2008-11-12T16:51:00.005-10:00

When you use way too much false eyelash glue.

This is what happens...

2008-11-06T20:52:00.001-10:00

When you join a psychotic cult and play dress up.

It's your party...

2008-11-06T20:33:00.001-10:00

And you'll cry if you want to.

How high they were - so confident in their own bigotry winning - and now how low they must feel.

Why do I not feel sorry for them at all?

From Hawai'i to the White House: Obama's Speech Transcript

2008-11-06T13:41:00.004-10:00

Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day. VideoWatch Obama's speech in its entirety »

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain.

Sen. McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.

I congratulate him; I congratulate Gov. Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama.

Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House.

And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.

And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best -- the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.

To my chief strategist David Axelrod who's been a partner with me every step of the way.

To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

President Obama

2008-11-04T18:08:00.002-10:00

He's done it!

The US has its first ever african-american President. I am glad that I and my children were around to witness history being made before our eyes. A glorious day this is for our country and for our future.

God Bless the USA!!

Countdown to History

2008-11-03T18:04:00.001-10:00

Whatever the outcome of this year's Presidential Election, history will have been made, with either the first female vice president in the nation's history, or the first african-american President elected into office. We stand on the precipice of great changes, and whatever they may be, I am glad to have stood with my fellow Americans.

Paramore's Decode video

2008-11-03T14:52:00.001-10:00

Because it's Monday and I like the song.

Paramore - New Music - More Music Videos

He.Took.My.Berry.

2008-11-01T12:04:00.002-10:00

My precious. My precioussssss.

The husband has taken my phone. No. The husband has taken my berry. Yes. He dared to breach the sacred wall of crackberry trust and has absconded with my Curve.

I am at a loss. I feel bereft. I feel...

Freaking naked.

There are few punishments that equal the total level of devastation that I feel without my precious.

The rack?

Boiling hot oil?

Root canal?

ANTM Marathon?

I shall exact my revenge on the knave for this betrayal. Mark my words!

Vote No on Prop 8

2008-10-31T15:47:00.003-10:00

The foundation of marriage is under attack.

I'm not talking about one man and one woman. I'm talking about the interference from governmental entities, egged on by religious groups and political parties whom feel that, while the government should stay out of THEIR business, they have every right to force their beliefs and their opinions down our throats and into our lives via that very same government.

Sure, one can argue that the foundation of marriage consists of two people who love each other and want to swear before anyone who will listen, God, country, Elvis, that they are committed to spend the rest of their lives with each other. I won't argue against that. But, for many people, ESPECIALLY of the heterosexual variety, marriage can simply be a way of making sure that they don't give birth to a "bastard", or ensuring the citizenship of someone, getting tax benefits that they otherwise wouldn't have, etc...

You know. All of the things that those whom support Proposition 8 accuse those against of doing.

They claim that marriage is under attack. I suppose when Elizabeth Taylor was marrying and divorcing her first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh husband, the state of matrimony was perfectly safe.

I guess when Britney Spears had her 55 hour marriage, that was perfectly acceptable. Didn't do anything to sully the institution.

The failed marriages of Republican paragons Ronald Regan (divorced first wife), Newt Gingrich (divorced 2 wives, now on his third marriage with his second mistress), John McCain (cheated on first wife with his now second), Fred Thompson (on his second marriage with his "trophy wife"), and Rudy Giuliani (third marriage) should definitely not have any affect what-so-ever on the foundation of marriage, should it? Maybe they strengthened the foundation of marriage by simply liking it so much, they did it many times over!

And as far as teaching about homosexual marriages in schools go, I might be a few years removed from the elementary age (okay, so I'm almost 30, whaddyagunnadonboutit, punk?) but I don't ever recall a discussion about marriage, period, until I was in high school when we had to plan a wedding for my sociology class. By then, of course, most of my political leanings had been set in stone, as is, I'm sure, most teenagers that are in school today.

But, let's say that marriage is being discussed in elementary schools right now. What exactly are they learning about heterosexual marriage? Is it a religious union or a governmental one? Does it occur with or without a dowry? First, second, third marriages - who exactly is the step-step parent? You know, these things are all questions that I'm sure must be addressed when speaking about heterosexual marriages, right?

Or is the whole "A man and woman get married to have a family" line still being tossed around? I know many a man and woman marriages that will NEVER result in a "family" of anything other than the four legged kind. Does that mean their marriage isn't a "real" marriage?

We can talk about religion, if you want, but if let's face it. Government and religion shouldn't be bedfellows. I'm sure a lot of Christians would feel quite miffed if the Jewish and Islamic laws of Halal and Kosher eating were instilled, preventing them from enjoying their bacon and eggs every morning as a governmental edict. If you're not willing to allow all religious laws (including the Christian ones, for all of you PC (pick and choose) Christians out there) then please, don't bring religion into the forming of laws AT ALL. It only makes you look like a bigot, and we know how much you hate THAT word.

Vote no on Prop 8. It's not about God, or Sex, or Children. It's about equality.

Signs FTW

2008-10-30T10:05:00.002-10:00

westboro baptist church and me, originally uploaded by Burstein!.

As you probably are well aware of by now, I have very liberal leanings in certain areas. Gay rights happens to be one of them. So, imagine how absolutely floored with glee was I when I saw this image posted on www.towleroad.com!

And yes, that poor child is probably going to end up married to his first cousin and have cousin-children who will take his place holding signs just like he did at that age. America is definitely doomed... inbreeding will wipe us out.

Your a Looser (sic sic)

2008-10-29T12:57:00.003-10:00

Here's a hint to the people who criticize others on political blogs for being "retarted" and "loosers": Learn to FUCKING SPELL before you call anyone mentally deficient in any way.

Let's recap some basic words, shall we?

Their is not the same as They're or There. They are homophones (not homosexual phones), but they each have their own meaning. Look it up, I'm too fucking tired and annoyed to do it for you.

Your and You're are not the same word. You can't interchange them. It's not fucking possible, so stop doing it.

Lose and Loose are also two different words, and also not interchangeable. When you call someone a "looser", you're proving just how much of a LOSER you are.

Anti-American means you're against America, not against a politician.

Patriotism cannot be compacted and stored in an American Flag Pin or a sticker on the rear end of some duct tape covered Daihatsu.

Patriotism is thinking that it's okay to shoot a moose - or not. You don't have to be 100% for or against an idea in order to be patriotic.

Patriotism is being able to see something wrong with your country and saying something about it without fear of retribution and death threats, as our constitution demands. If you're going to say that someone who criticizes the government should be shot, then everyone should be shot, and that would make this country pretty unpopulated. Mexico would be happy, wouldn't it? As would China, 90% of the middle east, and half of Europe.

Socialism is the new cuss word, and yet the largest socialist action in this country is now underway, headed by a Republican President. Soon, half of the banks and mortgage companies in this country will be owned by the government. Either socialism is bad or it isn't. You can't have it both ways.

Hussein is NOT an Muslim name. Michael isn't a Christian name, Jedidiah isn't a Jewish name, and Jong Oh isn't a Buddhist name. It's a name that derives from a specific language. Just in case you were wondering, the most prominent Muslim in this country speaks English.

And finally, will you quit with the whole "if your not voting for Obama your racist" crap? If you choose to vote for McCain/Palin, you're an idiot who is more concerned with Prada suits and misnomers than you are with the issues, but by no means does that make you a racist. Unless you're a democrat who is voting for McCain/Palin because you aren't ready for a black President. If so, then please, by all means do hang yourself with your mama's pantyhose, because there is no room for treasonous shits like yourself.

Have I pissed off enough people today?

This is what happens...

2008-10-29T12:15:00.002-10:00

When someone needs an image to visually define the phrase "What the hell is that?"

Horizontal Junkie

2008-10-27T15:26:00.002-10:00

I miss lying down.

The wee mite is sick, congested like no one's business, and nothing but sleeping upright seems to make him feel better. This means, of course, that I've been relegated to the role of human rocking chair, leaving me to sleep upright for the past few nights in a row.

I'm starting to have withdrawals, and it's not pretty. I've found myself leaning sideways in a chair, just to have the feeling of being semi-horizontal, and I've been quite snippy as of late. My back hates me, my ass (what little of it there is) has decided that it's high time it took a vacation and has left for Tijuana, and my neck is stiffer than an 18 year old on his first trip to the strip club.

I look forward to being able to lie down again, almost as much as I am looking forward to my baby being able to breathe through his nose again. And, as I type, my oldest mite has started that cough - and is that my throat now feeling scratchy?

Well shit.

This is what happens...

2008-10-27T15:09:00.000-10:00

When ugly shoes and ugly purses mate.

Foot in Mouth Disease

2008-10-27T14:43:00.003-10:00

“Do you want to keep it and invest it in your future, or have it taken by the most liberal person to ever run for the Presidency, and the Democratic leaders who have been running Congress for the past two years — Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid?”

The above is a statement made today by Presidential Nominee, John McCain.

Hey, John, I'm not sure where you've been the past eight years, but just in case you weren't aware, people in the US don't exactly have much money to invest anymore. The country owes more money now than it did when the first Bush was in office, the jobless rate is increasing exponentially, and outsourcing has never been higher or more prevalent.

Also, you cannot expect the people of this country (those with working cerebellums anyway) to actually believe that the Democrats having minimal control of the house and senate have something to do with the tax guzzling wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the failed banking system (which the Republicans only helped along by not passing regulatory measures in 2005), or the low approval ratings of Republicans nationwide... can you?

I know you've only been a senator for a couple of decades, but just in case you weren't aware, the house and senate need a much larger majority than they have in order to get certain measures passed, and even when they do, they still need the approval of the President who, just in case you might have missed it, is a Republican.

So sure, you might want to blame the Democrats for the way the current state of economic turmoil this country is in, but remember that while you're pointing one finger at us, three more are pointing right back at you. And this, "my friend", is from a real American citizen, who isn't a six-pack of silver bullets or boxed wine drinking voter. Which brings me to my last point, why is it that everyone who seems to be "Pro-America" a.k.a. McCain/Palin is always referred to as Alcohol-related Somebody? If you need to be chemically altered in order to be able to agree with their policies, perhaps it's time to put down the Franzia and start drinking a little H2O because you're going to need a clear head in order to vote for the right candidate.

Cultural Contributions

2008-10-25T23:45:00.003-10:00

Artistic expression on a personal level as done by the artist Levi van Veluw. His talent is only surpassed by his artistic vision. I see in his work not the way he views himself, but the way he feels we should view our own selves.

Art is special in that it allows us our own opinions, and no matter how far reaching it may be, we are never far from the truth, if only we were to stop and look at it through our eyes, and not those of the people around us. With my eyes, I see in this image from part of Levi's "Landscape" series, the promise of our minds and our bodies. We take so much of it for granted, and yet the potential is there, just waiting for us to utilize it for the betterment of ourselves.

Take the time, if you can, to check out his site and view the other images in his landscape series, as well as those from his ballpoint series. Some might find him a tad bit quirky, but quirk isn't necessarily a bad thing when all of that quirkiness results in the fantastic displays of imagery that you can find in his online gallery.

This is what happens...

2008-10-25T13:09:00.004-10:00

When someone takes an idea and shits lavender colored rainbows on it.

$150k Hockey Mom?

2008-10-22T15:04:00.000-10:00

How many people show up to their kids' hockey/soccer/football/baseball games dressed in $2k jackets? $300 shoes? With $4k hair cuts?

How many people have children whose total team costs total up to $150k?

The economy is on life support, total code blue chips, and the housing market is tanking faster than a Tom Cruise post-couch jumping movie, and yet the GOP, the purveyors of "Fiscal Responsibility" seem to think it's justified to spend more than the price of the average home costs in the US on clothes and makeup/hair styling on a woman who has done more harm to McCain's candidacy than being a cheating, superficial asshole ever could.

Hey, it's okay. I mean, this is the party that wants us to believe that Obama will spend our country into bankruptcy, as they turn a blind eye to Palin getting paid $17k to sit at home. It's okay. I get it. We Joe and Jane Six-Packs and Franzias of America should be glad that someone so lofty and powerful would deign to bless us with the recognition of merely existing.

Here's the real deal: Sarah, you're not one of us. You're definitely not me. I can't speak for my fellow Jane Franzias of this country, but I'll tell you what, I have no problem shopping at the local K-Marts and Old Navys for my clothing, or getting my hair cut at Fantastic Sam's. I don't have a problem with doing my own makeup, and tying my own sneakers, or putting on my own .99 cent pantyhose. I don't need to hire a team of advisers and nannies to schedule my kids' activities so that they stay out of my hair. I do it on my own.

With my .99 cent Wet and Wild lipstick, that I put on all by myself. Because that's what REAL Hockey/Soccer/Baseball/Football moms do. They don't spent other people's money to make them look like something they're not. Instead, they look like themselves: people who are disgusted by people like you who claim to be one of us.

A few questions for the McCain/Palin ticket

2008-10-21T14:37:00.000-10:00

Before I get started, let me make it quite clear that I am not Joe the Plumber. I never have been a Joe, never been a plumber, and never have had an interest in plumbing with a guy named Joe. I had a grandfather-in-law whose name was Joe, and a cousin whose name is Joe, and another cousin whose name means Joe, but I have never been, not now, not ever, Joe.

Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let me ask John McCain and Sarah Palin why is it that Universal Health Care for the American Citizens of this country who work hard and pay taxes simply not good policy, a form of "socialism" if you will, but they have no problem with accepting UHC for themselves, paid for by our tax dollars?

Why is it that they deserve health care, but not Joe the Plumber, Joe Six Pack, Jane Franzia and their children?

Why is it, Sarah Palin, that Joe the Plumber, Joe Six Pack, and Jane Franzia cannot submit to their employers itemized bills demanding reimbursement of travel costs, while you can?

Why is it, Sarah Palin, that you seem to think that it's okay to tell the people of this country that Obama and Biden wouldn't be fiscally responsible, while you go on a $76k shopping spree (paid for by Joe and Jane out of their necessary beer funds) for clothes?

Why is it, John McCain, that you want to talk to us about the sanctity of marriage, and yet you couldn't keep the sanctity of your own marriage vows?

Why is it, John McCain and Sarah Palin, that anyone who votes for you is "Pro-American" and part of "True America", and yet those who find your hypocrisy and double standards unappealing and un-Christian aren't?

New Twilight Trailer

2008-10-09T18:18:00.000-10:00

Call me an addict. Hi, my name is Sharon, and I'm a Robert Pattinsonholic.

Anyway, the new trailer is here!

WoOt!

Enjoy, and don't say I didn't give you nuttin'.

Mavericky

2008-10-06T13:38:00.000-10:00

All hail the resurgence of the politico drinking game!

So where's my bailout?

2008-10-01T18:34:00.001-10:00

$819 BILLION DOLLARS.

Tax dollars from every single tax paying American in this country is going to be paying nearly a trillion dollars to bail out wall street, thanks to our Senators who seem to think that you, me, and everyone else can easily afford to do that.

And what do they care? Their salaries, their pensions come from tax dollars, as well. Their pay won't decrease because the economy is going to pot. They couldn't care less about the average American citizen, who will be bearing the brunt of this entire debacle.

Oh no.

$90 billion every month for Iraq and now $800 billion for filet mignon eating, Armani suit wearing, Hamptons and Martha's Vineyard home owning victims of our economy's collapse, all at the hands of we devious middle class and lower citizens who make the up majority of the work force, without whom this country would cease to function.

Where's the bailout for the people whose jobs were lost because of tax benefits for outsourcing? Where's the bailout for the people whose homes were foreclosed on because of deceptive and criminal lending practices? Where's the bailout for the people who simply tried their hardest, but it wasn't good enough because inflation just kept increasing while their pay did not?

Why is it a much more economically sound idea to give a few corporations and banks that couldn't keep their hands out of the proverbial cookie jar nearly a trillion dollars of our money, but it's not a good idea to give the citizens of this country who pay those tax dollars less than half of that to pay off their debts, and to put that money back into the economy with the spending that we were encouraged to do just a few months ago?

I'll be waiting for my check.

It's always the Democrats

2008-09-28T21:04:00.000-10:00

The $700 billion dollar Wall Street Bailout didn't pass the house today, which is no big surprise. As a result, the Dow plummeted over 770pts, the largest drop ever, and the domino effect will probably be felt for at least the next 2-5 years. Now, while I'm particularly glad that the bill did not pass, what upsets me is what transpired shortly after the votes were tabulated and the final results were announced.

The Republicans, who overwhelmingly voted against the bill, blamed the Democrats for the bill not passing.

It was Nancy Pelosi's fault, apparently, because she did not unify the two parties with her speech prior to voting, and rather alienated the GOP. Sure. Because the GOP are always working so hard to unify with the Democrats, right?

Give me a break here. The bill failed because Republicans and Democrats both did not want it. More GOPers than Dems, but the end result is still the same. Rich, white collar fat cats are extending their hands out for billion dollar payouts, and John Q. Public would have gotten shafted. Again.

This is one time when both parties should admit to blame here. We're in an economic crisis, but the Republicans, rather than say that they didn't vote for the bill because it was wrong, instead say they didn't vote because the Dems didn't "include" them? This isn't high school anymore, this isn't Revenge of the Nerds, and this definitely isn't a Mean Girls sequel. This is the lives of every single American rolled up into a nice $2333.33 package that none of us can afford.

Stop with the games and let's get on with putting this country back together again.

An Atheist's View on Palin

2008-09-27T21:57:00.000-10:00

When Atheists Attack

A noted provocateur rips Sarah Palin—and defends elitism.
Sam Harris
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Sep 29, 2008

Let me confess that I was genuinely unnerved by Sarah Palin's performance at the Republican convention. Given her audience and the needs of the moment, I believe Governor Palin's speech was the most effective political communication I have ever witnessed. Here, finally, was a performer who—being maternal, wounded, righteous and sexy—could stride past the frontal cortex of every American and plant a three-inch heel directly on that limbic circuit that ceaselessly intones "God and country." If anyone could make Christian theocracy smell like apple pie, Sarah Palin could.

Then came Palin's first television interview with Charles Gibson. I was relieved to discover, as many were, that Palin's luster can be much diminished by the absence of a teleprompter. Still, the problem she poses to our political process is now much bigger than she is. Her fans seem inclined to forgive her any indiscretion short of cannibalism. However badly she may stumble during the remaining weeks of this campaign, her supporters will focus their outrage upon the journalist who caused her to break stride, upon the camera operator who happened to capture her fall, upon the television network that broadcast the good lady's misfortune—and, above all, upon the "liberal elites" with their highfalutin assumption that, in the 21st century, only a reasonably well-educated person should be given command of our nuclear arsenal.

The point to be lamented is not that Sarah Palin comes from outside Washington, or that she has glimpsed so little of the earth's surface (she didn't have a passport until last year), or that she's never met a foreign head of state. The point is that she comes to us, seeking the second most important job in the world, without any intellectual training relevant to the challenges and responsibilities that await her. There is nothing to suggest that she even sees a role for careful analysis or a deep understanding of world events when it comes to deciding the fate of a nation. In her interview with Gibson, Palin managed to turn a joke about seeing Russia from her window into a straight-faced claim that Alaska's geographical proximity to Russia gave her some essential foreign-policy experience. Palin may be a perfectly wonderful person, a loving mother and a great American success story—but she is a beauty queen/sports reporter who stumbled into small-town politics, and who is now on the verge of stumbling into, or upon, world history.

The problem, as far as our political process is concerned, is that half the electorate revels in Palin's lack of intellectual qualifications. When it comes to politics, there is a mad love of mediocrity in this country. "They think they're better than you!" is the refrain that (highly competent and cynical) Republican strategists have set loose among the crowd, and the crowd has grown drunk on it once again. "Sarah Palin is an ordinary person!" Yes, all too ordinary.

We have all now witnessed apparently sentient human beings, once provoked by a reporter's microphone, saying things like, "I'm voting for Sarah because she's a mom. She knows what it's like to be a mom." Such sentiments suggest an uncanny (and, one fears, especially American) detachment from the real problems of today. The next administration must immediately confront issues like nuclear proliferation, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and covert wars elsewhere), global climate change, a convulsing economy, Russian belligerence, the rise of China, emerging epidemics, Islamism on a hundred fronts, a defunct United Nations, the deterioration of American schools, failures of energy, infrastructure and Internet security … the list is long, and Sarah Palin does not seem competent even to rank these items in order of importance, much less address any one of them.

Palin's most conspicuous gaffe in her interview with Gibson has been widely discussed. The truth is, I didn't much care that she did not know the meaning of the phrase "Bush doctrine." And I am quite sure that her supporters didn't care, either. Most people view such an ambush as a journalistic gimmick. What I do care about are all the other things Palin is guaranteed not to know—or will be glossing only under the frenzied tutelage of John McCain's advisers. What doesn't she know about financial markets, Islam, the history of the Middle East, the cold war, modern weapons systems, medical research, environmental science or emerging technology? Her relative ignorance is guaranteed on these fronts and most others, not because she was put on the spot, or got nervous, or just happened to miss the newspaper on any given morning. Sarah Palin's ignorance is guaranteed because of how she has spent the past 44 years on earth.

I care even more about the many things Palin thinks she knows but doesn't: like her conviction that the Biblical God consciously directs world events. Needless to say, she shares this belief with mil-lions of Americans—but we shouldn't be eager to give these people our nuclear codes, either. There is no question that if President McCain chokes on a spare rib and Palin becomes the first woman president, she and her supporters will believe that God, in all his majesty and wisdom, has brought it to pass. Why would God give Sarah Palin a job she isn't ready for? He wouldn't. Everything happens for a reason. Palin seems perfectly willing to stake the welfare of our country—even the welfare of our species—as collateral in her own personal journey of faith. Of course, McCain has made the same unconscionable wager on his personal journey to the White House.

In speaking before her church about her son going to war in Iraq, Palin urged the congregation to pray "that our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God; that's what we have to make sure we are praying for, that there is a plan, and that plan is God's plan." When asked about these remarks in her interview with Gibson, Palin successfully dodged the issue of her religious beliefs by claiming that she had been merely echoing the words of Abraham Lincoln. The New York Times later dubbed her response "absurd." It was worse than absurd; it was a lie calculated to conceal the true character of her religious infatuations. Every detail that has emerged about Palin's life in Alaska suggests that she is as devout and literal-minded in her Christian dogmatism as any man or woman in the land. Given her long affiliation with the Assemblies of God church, Palin very likely believes that Biblical prophecy is an infallible guide to future events and that we are living in the "end times." Which is to say she very likely thinks that human history will soon unravel in a foreordained cataclysm of war and bad weather. Undoubtedly Palin believes that this will be a good thing—as all true Christians will be lifted bodily into the sky to make merry with Jesus, while all nonbelievers, Jews, Methodists and other rabble will be punished for eternity in a lake of fire. Like many Pentecostals, Palin may even imagine that she and her fellow parishioners enjoy the power of prophecy themselves. Otherwise, what could she have meant when declaring to her congregation that "God's going to tell you what is going on, and what is going to go on, and you guys are going to have that within you"?

You can learn something about a person by the company she keeps. In the churches where Palin has worshiped for decades, parishioners enjoy "baptism in the Holy Spirit," "miraculous healings" and "the gift of tongues." Invariably, they offer astonishingly irrational accounts of this behavior and of its significance for the entire cosmos. Palin's spiritual colleagues describe themselves as part of "the final generation," engaged in "spiritual warfare" to purge the earth of "demonic strongholds." Palin has spent her entire adult life immersed in this apocalyptic hysteria. Ask yourself: Is it a good idea to place the most powerful military on earth at her disposal? Do we actually want our leaders thinking about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy when it comes time to say to the Iranians, or to the North Koreans, or to the Pakistanis, or to the Russians or to the Chinese: "All options remain on the table"?

It is easy to see what many people, women especially, admire about Sarah Palin. Here is a mother of five who can see the bright side of having a child with Down syndrome and still find the time and energy to govern the state of Alaska. But we cannot ignore the fact that Palin's impressive family further testifies to her dogmatic religious beliefs. Many writers have noted the many shades of conservative hypocrisy on view here: when Jamie Lynn Spears gets pregnant, it is considered a symptom of liberal decadence and the breakdown of family values; in the case of one of Palin's daughters, however, teen pregnancy gets reinterpreted as a sign of immaculate, small-town fecundity. And just imagine if, instead of the Palins, the Obama family had a pregnant, underage daughter on display at their convention, flanked by her black boyfriend who "intends" to marry her. Who among conservatives would have resisted the temptation to speak of "the dysfunction in the black community"?

Teen pregnancy is a misfortune, plain and simple. At best, it represents bad luck (both for the mother and for the child); at worst, as in the Palins' case, it is a symptom of religious dogmatism. Governor Palin opposes sex education in schools on religious grounds. She has also fought vigorously for a "parental consent law" in the state of Alaska, seeking full parental dominion over the reproductive decisions of minors. We know, therefore, that Palin believes that she should be the one to decide whether her daughter carries her baby to term. Based on her stated position, we know that she would deny her daughter an abortion even if she had been raped. One can be forgiven for doubting whether Bristol Palin had all the advantages of 21st-century family planning—or, indeed, of the 21st century.

We have endured eight years of an administration that seemed touched by religious ideology. Bush's claim to Bob Woodward that he consulted a "higher Father" before going to war in Iraq got many of us sitting upright, before our attention wandered again to less ethereal signs of his incompetence. For all my concern about Bush's religious beliefs, and about his merely average grasp of terrestrial reality, I have never once thought that he was an over-the-brink, Rapture-ready extremist. Palin seems as though she might be the real McCoy. With the McCain team leading her around like a pet pony between now and Election Day, she can be expected to conceal her religious extremism until it is too late to do anything about it. Her supporters know that while she cannot afford to "talk the talk" between now and Nov. 4, if elected, she can be trusted to "walk the walk" until the Day of Judgment.

What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance. Watching her deny to Gibson that she had ever harbored the slightest doubt about her readiness to take command of the world's only superpower, one got the feeling that Palin would gladly assume any responsibility on earth:

"Governor Palin, are you ready at this moment to perform surgery on this child's brain?"

"Of course, Charlie. I have several boys of my own, and I'm an avid hunter."

"But governor, this is neurosurgery, and you have no training as a surgeon of any kind."

"That's just the point, Charlie. The American people want change in how we make medical decisions in this country. And when faced with a challenge, you cannot blink."

The prospects of a Palin administration are far more frightening, in fact, than those of a Palin Institute for Pediatric Neurosurgery. Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated.

I believe that with the nomination of Sarah Palin for the vice presidency, the silliness of our politics has finally put our nation at risk. The world is growing more complex—and dangerous—with each passing hour, and our position within it growing more precarious. Should she become president, Palin seems capable of enacting policies so detached from the common interests of humanity, and from empirical reality, as to unite the entire world against us. When asked why she is qualified to shoulder more responsibility than any person has held in human history, Palin cites her refusal to hesitate. "You can't blink," she told Gibson repeatedly, as though this were a primordial truth of wise governance. Let us hope that a President Palin would blink, again and again, while more thoughtful people decide the fate of civilization.

Harris is a founder of The Reason Project and author of The New York Times best sellers “The End of Faith” and “Letter to a Christian Nation.” His Web site is samharris.org.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080

I'm not an atheist, although sometimes I wish I were, because it would mean that I'd not have to be associated with those like Palin when it comes to my belief in Jesus Christ. In all fairness though, I think that Palin worships at the Church of Jesus Palin of Latter Day Sarahs. And call that blasphemous if you wish. I really don't care. I'm more worried about this biblethumper trying to dictate what I can and cannot do with my body and my faith because of what she personally believes.

To change or not to change

2008-09-27T10:45:00.000-10:00

The first presidential debate of the election season between the two primary candidates happened last night. To say that it was anti-climactic would be an understatement. It was truly disappointing, undeniably so.

I didn't expect to have my opinion, my choice on which candidate I'm voting for to be swayed, and I have remained firm in my decision, but the reality, the gravity of the situation is that neither candidate has done enough to strengthen their hold and gain new ground. And yes, that was a very long sentence, but still rang with enough truth to make it warranted.

I lean more left than I do right, but I'm not a complete liberal. Most of my far left friends believe that I am way too conservative for my own good. Or theirs. Then there are my far right friends who believe that I am too liberal. It's a catch-22, being independent, but the fact of the matter is, both sides have too many problems for me to believe wholly in either of them.

So where does that leave me? I am still voting for Obama. His policies aren't aligning completely with what I'd like to see, but he's definitely more in line with my train of thought with regards to the certain topics than McCain. Then again, as soon as McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate, he lost any and all hope of ever winning my vote. Sarah Palin wouldn't have a problem with repealing the right for women to vote, she's so hell bent on sending women back a few centuries, and I cannot, as a woman, and a mother of future women, stand idly by and let that happen. Especially not by a woman.

So, debate or no, I haven't changed. Unfortunately, nothing else has either.

Ache (Poem Blog)

2008-09-26T11:36:00.000-10:00

Cracked
My skin is falling off
Where you touched it last
Bleeding
My heart is on the floor
not beating
Crying
Drown in my tears caused
by your lying
Hurt
Like nothing else before
came your cruel cruel words

And the ache
in my soul
makes me feel like I am falling
into darkness
into night
with no wings to help me fly
away from
sorrow and from pain
the whispers from the memory
of life before you
before this
before the aching
of my life

Torn
From my fingers was
my hope once reborn
Gone
my ability to find reason
to move on
Missing
The heat between our lips
when we were kissing
Sweet
The taste nothing else holds
in this world for me

And the ache
in my mind
feels like all the stars have fallen
from the heavens
from the sky
and the world around me crumbles like the dry
eyes you now hold
and the smile
you never give me anymore
because the ache
you never felt
was always mine
and mine alone

Busy Bee

2008-09-23T13:20:00.000-10:00

With friends coming into town this week and next, with a self-imposed deadline, site updates, other site updates, OTHER site updates, and orders to go out, 4 kids to raise, husband to make feel macho, and friends to fellowship with, I think I'm about to explode.

And, as psychotic and self-prophesying as this may sound, I cannot wait until it gets even more crazy. I look forward to the chaos if everything goes right. I'll be living my dream, and I'll be thanking God for the blessing of it all. I won't complain, I won't whine, I'll take it all in and relish it with every ounce, every fiber of my being, because this is something that I have wanted for such a long time, beyond anything else in my meager existence, and to know that all my hard work towards this just might pay off...well, it's inspiring, invigorating, and motivating.

Find Paige Hallman Update

2008-09-23T13:12:00.000-10:00

**Update**
Paige has been found. I have no details yet that are pertinent, but she is home.

The following is from a friend of mine on myspace whose 16 year old niece is missing. She hasn't been seen or heard from since Saturday, the 20th of September, and her family is deeply concerned for her whereabouts and her welfare. If you have seen her, or think you've seen her, please call the number provided in the bulletin.

From: Shirley + David
Date: Sep 23, 2008 10:45 AM

Saturday, my 16 YO niece page went missing. No one has heard from her since that day, and her fully charged cell phone is turned off. She's a text machine, so it's odd that it's turned off.

If you see her or have any information about where she might be, please call 480-946-5739 or the Tempe Police Department.

Blessed by the Dashboard

2008-09-20T12:20:00.001-10:00

Love them.

I'd open mouth kiss Ellen Degeneres...

2008-09-17T06:55:00.000-10:00

if she convinced Stephenie Meyer to finish and publish Midnight Sun.

She's on Ellen today. It's already been taped, so whatever she says is already old hat, but if what she says is "I'll finish Midnight Sun despite, in spite, and TO spite the Douchebaggery von Asshat who leaked one of the drafts because my fans support me.", I'll open mouth kiss her on tv, damnit. I don't care if she's married...or me for that matter.

As Dusty Springfield once sang "...wishing, and hoping, and thinking, and praying..."

An Open Letter to V.H.

2008-09-16T16:44:00.000-10:00

Dear V,

Let me start by saying how grateful I am that God blessed me as an only child. I cannot begin to tell you how thankful I am for his good grace and his wisdom, because when I see what I could have had in a younger sister, a sister like you, I cringe.

It makes me shudder with disgust, the behavior that you have displayed towards your family. You've behaved like a spoiled brat, unwilling to do anything that requires any amount of work, completely lazy in all aspects of life. Whether it's your marriage, your family, or your faith, your lack of drive is foretelling, the type of person you truly are. When you put more effort into shopping for cute tops than you do in taking care of your own dog, it only shows just how sadly superficial, wholly materialistic, and woefully un-Christ-like you truly are.

I want it be known that were I to ever meet you in person, I'd be able to know who you are instantly by your stench of hypocrisy and contempt for anything that doesn't meet your highly idealized and absolutely unrealistic standards that you, yourself, are incapable of reaching. You've developed this sense of entitlement to all things, and the one thing you can never get, because you are so undeserving, is the respect and genuine love of those who see you as a person, and not just as some warm, malleable wet spot in the mattress.

Your need to always be better than anyone else, simply to be able to continue to look down your nose at other people, is probably the one trait that will leave you the most lonely. While others are busy living their lives to their own standards, you'll be alone, demanding everyone else live to yours. When others are being loved by their families, cared for, respected, enjoyed, you'll be the one wondering why no one calls, no one writes, no one comes home at night.

I don't have to say it for it to be already known, but I don't like you. I don't like what you stand for, don't like what you've done to the people around you, don't like your shirking your responsibilities because you're too immature and too greedy, needy, whiny, and utterly stupid to do anything else, and I definitely don't like you for your selfish and bigoted behavior towards those you are commanded by GOD to love.

I hope, for your sake, that when the time comes when you realize just how alone you truly are, that those whom you've left stranded, those whom you've left alone because they didn't meet your expectations, are still there, willing to take you back into their arms, like Jesus would.

V.A.G.I.N.A.

2008-09-15T08:55:00.000-10:00

I'm a woman. That means I have one. It's the one thing every woman has in common. Some of us don't have breasts, a uterus, ovaries, or fallopian tubes, but we all have a vagina.

And apparently, in the world of politics, that's all that matters.

But, as most men will tell you, and this IS a male dominated world, not all vaginas are the same.

Take for instance the vagina that belongs to Michelle Obama and the one that belongs to Sarah Palin. Palin is running for the office of Vice President. Michelle Obama is the wife of the Presidential candidate. Palin will fill an official seat of power should she be elected. Obama will be the first lady should her husband be elected, and have no official power what-so-ever. Palin is next in command should something happen to the President. Obama will be widow and have to vacate her family out of the white house something happen. Two different seats, two different women, two different vaginas, but both are up for same level of criticism, to a point.

There's very little rush to condemn those who want to criticize Michelle Obama for her political leanings and the misconstrued statements. She's got no official seat of power, yet she's being attacked and targeted like she does.

Then there's Palin, who came under scrutiny, as she should, when she was chosen to be VP, and the axes on that criticism fell because she's "a mother" who has five children. Don't talk about her children. She'll do enough of that for all of us. Don't talk about her vagina either. She'll take care of that, too.

So let's talk about other things, shall we? How about we talk about their take on foreign policies? Michelle Obama isn't running for office, but her opinions regarding diplomacy and international relations are criticized as being too liberal, too socialistic. It doesn't matter that she'll never be able to implement them, or propose a bill in any capacity unless she runs for office herself. All that matters is that she has a vagina, like Palin. And Palin, with her foreign policy experience comprising of her state being within viewing distance of Russia, is being hailed as a reformer. Well, let's reform our Foreign Policy to involve only the countries that we can see from our own country. Guess that means less involvement in Israel and more in Mexico and Canada.

Palin's vagina, of course, is very important to the GOP. Without it, they could never hold her up as a paragon for Pro-Life doctrine. (BTW, Sarah, doctrine implies a specific principle, teaching if you will, regarding practices not limited to just government and religion. Maybe that should have been explained to you a bit better before your interview on ABC. FYI, the word comes before LIPSTICK in the dictionary. You know, that book you'd probably ban because it has the word "homosexual" in it?) Why, poor, suffering, all alone Sarah made the CHOICE to give birth to a child with down syndrome, and insists that if she can do it, anyone can, because she's just like the average woman who chooses to terminate her pregnancy due to birth defects. With the tiny, minor, insignificant exception of the fact that she has a state funded staff at her beck and call, free medical care, and access to the best of everything. But don't let THAT deter you from making the exact same CHOICE that she did. Especially since, if she has her way, it won't be a choice anymore. It'll be the only thing you can do. And then, when that child is out, and you cannot care for it, you'll be treated like a leper for daring to have a child you couldn't care for.

You know, men get cracked on a lot for thinking with their lower, middle appendage. A lot of times, it's wholly deserved. I'm married to a guy who often forgets to think with the more northern end of his person, and that resulted in 4 lovely CHOICES of my own. However, rarely is it ever stated that we women think with our VAGINAS.

I think it can now be said, without any uncertainty, that Sarah Palin has been thinking with her lipstick covered one, and it's mesmerized the GOP, while Michelle Obama would probably get better reception if hers was a transplant.

Ain't it funny how that works? I'm a proud vagina American. I just don't think with mine.

I wear my hymen on my ring, tyvm

2008-09-08T09:08:00.000-10:00

Let's hear it for Jordan Sparks, American Idol winner and proud purity ring wearing virgin. She enters singing contests because she couldn't get a singing contract any legitimate way, and she professes and demonstrates her purity by calling those who don't wear the rings "sluts".

How Christ-like of you, Jordan. How loving, charitable, and kindhearted of you. I'm sure Jesus would be proud of you calling just about every single female you'll EVER meet in your entire life a "slut". It's not like it's wrong to be a judgmental, bigoted, arrogant, ignorant, and self-righteous "Christian", right?

So what exactly did Miss Sparks say?

I just have one thing to say about promise rings. It’s not bad to wear a promise ring. Because not everybody – guy or girl – wants to be a slut.

Now, I never wanted to be a slut. It pissed off many a suitor who wanted to get into my pants, let me tell you, but there are some things that I didn't feel I needed to be sharing with someone I didn't think I'd be with for the rest of my life. That philosophy is shared by millions of women, men, boys, and girls in this country, and is nothing new. However, not wearing a purity ring means equating you to wanting to be a slut is absolutely one of the biggest pieces of sanctimonious garbage I have ever heard. I could chalk this up to her youth, but quite frankly, it's pretty damn difficult to remain so naive in today's age of information and technology. Just ask Bristol Palin.

I cannot say that I've only been with one person in my life, but I can say that for the past 12 years, I have, and that surpasses some of the marriages that some of the holier than thou critics who would praise Miss Sparks for her comments have had. I won't assume that Miss Sparks isn't a virgin. It's easy to be one at that age. However, I will not be surprised if in a year or two, she finds herself still wearing said purity ring, while thinking of impure incidents she had with a paramour or two recently. We've all heard this song and dance before from one celebrity or another, and they've all traveled down the less than stellar chastity road, pulling their foot out of their throats along the way.

So, from all the "sluts" to you, Miss Sparks, here's a little bit of advice. Be pure, be proud, but don't be an ass. You didn't offend me, but I'm fairly certain that there are millions of people out there who have had far more virtuous lifestyles than you who refuse to wear such an obnoxious and prideful piece of jewelry that were, more so out of your lack of Christ-like behavior, all while professing to be just that. It's hypocritical, it's ridiculous, it's just plain ignorant.

The proof is in the...

2008-09-07T22:54:00.000-10:00

... Mush mouthed, flip flopping, double standard having, hypocrtical puddin.

Mahalo to Meg for this:

WTF Sunday

2008-09-07T22:28:00.000-10:00

I didn't do them last week, epic fail this Friday, so Sunday it is.

WTF is up with half-vegetarian chocolate cake? A family friend's birthday was thrown today, and in the grand ol' fashion of "I don't want to grow up", we had the cake first. Well...I did, anyway. I had to cook dinner, so couldn't exactly stay and eat. Anyway, the cake looked incredible. Chocolate. Ooey, gooey chocolate. It tasted fabulous...except for the frosting. Vegan frosting. The cake itself had eggs in it. I can tell. I've had a lot of vegan/vegetarian foods, and there's something about the texture of a cake made with genuine eggs that you simply cannot duplicate. So, my question is, WTF would you use VEGAN frosting on a cake with eggs?
WTF is the deal with celebrities whose IQs go down as their bank accounts go up? Puff/P/Piffle Diddy/Daddy/Dumbass went on some LSD bender and took a video camera with him as he discussed Sarah Palin. Instead of something rational, coherent, or hey...FUNNY, he chose instead to wonder if Alaska even has black people. Take a cue from Kanye West, P Something: If you're going to say something on camera about a politician, make sure the entire country is watching, and the camera is S-T-E-A-D-Y. That way, when the people are screaming at the television screen, it's NOT because they just threw up on it thanks to motion sickness.
WTF is wrong with being a non-denominational Christian? Why is it that you're not "Christian" if you don't belong to a specific church? Jesus didn't preach in Church. He wasn't a Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, Mormon, etc... So why is it that when someone asks you "oh, what church to you go to", and you say "I don't", they look at you as though you have Jesus' ass tattooed on your eyeball? The last time I checked, the bible never stated that he will only listen to you from the hours of 8 and 12 on Sundays, and only in the vicinity of buildings that contain crosses and bear the words "Holy, Saint, and Christ" on them. WWJD if he came down and everyone was telling him he was a Lutheran?
WTF was up with the MTV awards basically licking the asscrack of Britney Spears tonight? She won HOW MANY awards? For what? Who buys her shit anymore? Unless her CDs start coming out with coupons for free Fraps and Cheetos, plus discount weave services, I don't understand the interest. The woman might be doing better thanks to her father finally stepping in and doing what dads are supposed to do, but no matter how sane she is, she sucks as a singer, she can't write for shit, and her music has always appealed to those whose IQs scraped their knuckles on the floor of epic fail.

I've speared him.

2008-09-07T22:20:00.000-10:00

Took my harpoon and lodged it directly into his now twitching eye.

My addiction, my obsession, my love, my torment has now enthralled my husband so much, he has spent the ENTIRE WEEKEND reading all 4 Twilight Series books. Not content to read it on just the laptop, I have had to download the ebooks onto the DT as well, which mattered little, since he spent most of the weekend in bed with the laptop anyway, preventing me from getting in a decent chat with any of my friends...or working.

I watched him read, looking to see if his reactions to anything in particular would tell me if he was thoroughly enjoying the read, or simply trying to fathom why it is that I have not put my blackberry down to read anything else. I heard him laugh at things he was supposed to, and also find humor in things that he probably wouldn't have had he never met me, twisted person that I am. I glowed when he called me over to a highlighted section of text, telling me that he thinks he now knows why I am in love with these books. (I love you, more.)

And now, as he stays up past his bed time to read a few more chapters in the final book, I have to smile, knowing that I won't have to pretend I merely want to see the story brought to life when we go and watch the movie in November. He wants to watch it, too...although I'm sure that he'll be looking at Kristen Stewart with half the interest that I'll have looking at Robert Pattinson.

Insulting Working Women By Proxy

2008-09-07T21:52:00.000-10:00

I'm adamantly against the McCain/Palin ticket when it comes to this year's Presidential election, as one can probably surmise by my previous posts. I'm not a fan of McCain's lack of backbone, and I definitely am not a fan of either of their politics, associations, and affiliations. Their beliefs rankle me to no end, and I'd rather suck my big toe than have to hear John McCain say "my friends" one more time.

However, despite my inability to accept these two as anything other than a desperate bid by the GOP to retain their control over the White House, I have to come against those whom support Obama who feel it perfectly acceptable to criticize Sarah Palin for her choosing to work, rather than stay home with her children. She's a mother, much like many other female politicians, and her children are yet minors, including her newborn son, Trig. It's been pointed out that while her 4 other children are old enough, and involved in enough activities to not really be affected negatively should she work during the day, the fact that she has a newborn, and that he has down syndrome should be reason enough for her to stay home. "It's what a good mother would do."

I'm not a fan of her politics, but the fact that Sarah Palin has a child who happens to be disabled in some fashion does not negate her ability to work, nor should it be a factor in her choosing not to. She's just as capable and just as deserving of an honest wage as anyone else in this world, and if she happens to make those wages serving her people, then why should it be an issue? Have we time warped back into the 50's? Is she supposed to put on an apron, some pearls, and have a martini waiting for her husband when he comes home from work, while he dreams of pushing their two twins beds together for quick fornication session of baby making proportions? Hardly.

We have female doctors, lawyers, judges, police officers, firefighters, postal workers, architects, etc... All balance their professional lives with personal in some shape or form. Why is it that THIS woman suddenly "cannot" perform this job? Why is it that her child is suddenly more needy than any other child in the history of the world with down syndrome? I understand the need for him to be supervised more so than her other children. He'll need more attention, more patience, more of everything, but that doesn't mean she cannot provide it, albeit in some other form. Why is it that a father can leave a child, but a mother can't? Especially if the mother is capable of bringing in the better paycheck?

Perhaps it's a male ego thing. I know many males don't find the idea of a woman making more than he does too appealing. It's an ego buster, emasculating if you will, to know that you don't get paid as much as a woman. However, a lot of the vehemence I have heard and read come from women, who are so appalled at Sarah Palin's choice to work, and not just work, but run for office, that they've started calling her names that really don't belong in the same category, if we're going to be focusing solely on her profession.

The rationale that a woman who has a child with a disability should stay home comes from that deep, dark place that needs to find something, anything, to cling on to, in hopes that it blocks the view of others from your own personal shortcoming(s). The notion that a child with a disability cannot be raised by just its father has the ring of idiocy to it, with a touch of "that's effing stupid" for good measure. The reasoning that Sarah Palin should step down because she's got to take care of her 5 children is asinine because she has her spouse, her family, herself right there to continue the role of MOM, just as much as she has all of them to support her should she fill the role of Madam Vice President as well.

Say what you will about Sarah Palin. I know I will. But what should not be said is that she shouldn't be working just because she's a mom. Perhaps all of these women who are so opposed to Sarah Palin doing what she was nominated to do should stop listening to Dr. Laura and start listening to Donna Summer. BTW, Dr. Laura, an adamant opponent to the working mom, worked throughout her child's entire adolescent life. If it's good for the goose...

Vice Presidential Vagina

2008-09-07T21:23:00.000-10:00

Sarah Palin has a vagina.

She's got a uterus, too.

She has a vagina and a uterus, and she's used them. Frequently. At least 5 times.

And apparently, that's all it takes to earn the vote of millions of women in this county.

It's not her ability to lead a country out of the turmoil of two wars. It's not her ability to help balance an ever downward spiraling economy. It's not her ability to stave off corruption. It's not her ability to deal with foreign nations diplomatically and respectfully. It's not her ability to handle humanitarian crisis with compassion. It's not her ability to lead with strength during times of great struggle. It's not her ability to focus on the issues that plague this country. It's not even her ability to not wear a brown belt with black shoes.

No.

It's whether or not she's got a vagina...that she was born with.

Somewhere, there's a dead suffragette rolling over in her grave three times and spitting upwards in our general direction. And we deserve it.

An Open Letter to Stephenie Meyer

2008-09-04T22:43:00.000-10:00

Dear Ms. Meyer,

I began writing this letter many times in my head before I finally decided to put thought to actual word. I have felt a multitude of emotions the past few days as I absorbed the details of the recent update to your website regarding the future, or lack thereof, of the fifth and final installment of the Twilight Series, Midnight Sun. While they pale in comparison to the gamut of emotions that you have experienced as a result of the breach of your personal and public space, they do run deep, and have left me feeling bereft as well, albeit in a way that a bystander who was incapable of stopping a tragedy from occurring would feel.

I have read, reread, and then read once more, each of the books in your Twilight Series. The method in which you tell a story, while simplistic and unfettered by unnecessary descriptions that detract from the overall flow of the storyline, had a way of pulling one in, taking them to a place that makes them reach out in an attempt to actually touch a hanging branch, or to breathe deeply, hoping to catch that all too lovingly and deliciously described scent. Twilight captivated millions of readers in a way that the written word simply has not been able to do before.

It brought one deep into the heart of literary bliss, and made them believe in magic, and most importantly, love. It transported people to locales far away from their problems, their worries. They fell in love with your characters, hurt with them, cheered them, and consoled them. A love/hate relationship formed with all of us, each one dying for our own personal love story to be as brilliant, as heartwarming as that which you have chronicled in your writing. It was what kept so many of us up late at night, when we should have been sleeping. It kept us from completing assignments, chores, and other mundane things that could simply be put off, if only to find out what happened to Edward and his Bella.

And now, to know that after all that you have given to us, your fans, that there were those who would betray you to the point where your heart is so wounded that you feel incapable of completing the story for us, even if it wasn't necessarily finishing it, but rather giving it the framing it needed for display, well...it hurts and disappoints me, and so many other fans of yours and this series. It is a betrayal to all of us, too, who have waited patiently and who trusted in you, your willingness to give us every puzzle piece left in this art piece of yours.

It is why, while I may feel selfish enough to beg you to finish the story, I understand your inability and unwillingness to do so. It hardens my heart, while shattering it all in the same instance, to know that I might never know the thoughts of a character that I have come to love and endear so greatly, all due to the selfish and self-serving need of some individuals, but you have suffered a far greater injustice than I or anyone else can even imagine for ourselves, and I do not want to cheapen that.

I simply want to say that I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the gift you have given to all of us. I have the written word that you have blessed us with, the stories, the moments, the laughter, and the tears that have been shared time and time again over the pages that bear your thoughts to remind me every day that you have given us far more than we could ever give you in return. Thank you, Stephenie, for Edward, Bella, Alice, Emmett, Jasper, Rosalie, Jacob, Carlisle, Esme, Renee, Charlie, Sam, Seth, Leah, and all of the other characters that exist in the world that you created for us in your Twilight series.

Only Terrorists from Islam are Evil

2008-09-03T18:17:00.000-10:00

That seemed to be the running theme during tonight's RNC speeches.

Rudy Giuliani repeatedly stated that Islamic Terrorists were this and that. Mitt Romney also declared that Jihadist Islamist Terrorists were evil.

I, personally, was under the impression that all terrorists were evil. It didn't matter what religion they happened to belong to. Perhaps I was wrong all this time.

Terry McVeigh isn't evil. The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, wasn't evil either, apparently. ELF isn't a terrorist organization. Matter of fact, as long as you're not a Muslim, you're not evil, because only Islam is evil.

I sit here, shaking my head, while listening to the ramblings of confused and bitter conservatives chanting what sounds a lot like "white power" to the rants of those who would have us believe that if it's not Jesus Christ, it's just not right. I wait for the Ann Coulters of the world to start ripping off their skirts and laying down for the plethora of wide stances that rests on the cusp on one gigantic Republican orgy of hypocrisy, bigotry, and double standards. We've already witnessed adultery, misogyny, fornication, and idolatry on one stage, in one night, so why not add a little bit more?

Conservative my ass.

Because the biggest problem in this country is...

2008-09-03T17:49:00.000-10:00

...that we're not all Hockey moms with 5 kids.

I'm disappointed in Sarah Palin. Her speech, monumental in its achievement, and historical in its moment, was down right anti-climactic and flat. Unbelievably flat.

She spoke about her experience as Governor of the largest state in the Nation...with one of the smallest populations. She spoke of how she took a surplus of money that came in from oil production and gave it back to the people, as though she made the personal decision to do so...never mind that it's already in the State constitution. She spoke about being a Hockey mom, about having chosen to give birth to a child with down syndrome, about how she married her high school sweetheart.

That's all fine and well, but is she looking to win the position of Vice President or is she writing a letter to Dr. Laura? This is the position automatically next in line should the President become unable to continue to serve, and I'm not exactly comfortable with a Dr. Laura caller who has no problem telling ME that the only way to prevent teenage pregnancy is to teach abstinence only sex-education, and then proudly announce that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant herself. I have a problem with someone trying to force their values onto me, while espousing "freedom" and the "constitution".

Not once did she talk about the economy, which is faltering amid 2 wars, budding feuds with other countries, rampant outsourcing, high fuel and food costs, and growing unemployment and homelessness. Not once did she talk about how to improve the educational system, which she claimed was her reason for joining her local PTA.

She gushed about her parents, about her husband, about her kids, about her "experience". She lambasted Obama for his lack of experience, and hailed McCain for his support of the war, and his POW experiences. All of which make him the perfect choice for President, of course.

Destined (a poem blog)

2008-09-01T23:05:00.000-10:00

Destiny I call for you
my hands open wide
Destiny I yearn for you
life mate soul mate my fate
Destiny I dream of you
I wander the places in my mind
Destiny I search for you
Forever reaching for you there
Destiny I will die for you
filling my lungs and drowning
Destiny I will live for you
you are every breath in my heart

Oh the lengths one will go

2008-09-01T08:59:00.000-10:00

Having the ability to reach through the screen and slap a bitch right now would be fantastic. You know you've felt that exact same desire at least ONCE while reading something online. I don't care how patient you are, how religious you think you are, how much of a humanitarian you believe yourself to be. It's not a bad thing, being honest with yourself about your inner desires, so why hide it?

I'm slowly losing my patience with those who consider themselves to be internet warriors. Strong online, but weak in every other regard elsewhere. In the chatroom, they're the ones who say they'll kick your ass for saying something they didn't like. On forum boards, they're the ones who blackmail you with information you've shared in confidence because they "don't like you anymore". It's pretty petty and juvenile, and ranks right up there with the whole "will you be my girlfriend, check yes or no" crap from our time as tweens.

There's a growing need for people to act out online, like toddlers throwing tantrums about not getting their way. They act as violently in text as possible. With as much hate, rancor, and ire as humanly possible. It's one thing to vent your frustrations. I vent all the time. However, I'm not threatening to destroy lives as a result of my frustration or anger. There is a line that you draw in the sand when you choose to take a stand. What most of us never seem to fully comprehend, however, is where we're standing when that line has been drawn.

Which side have we chosen to stand on? Are we standing on the side that we'd want those we care for to be standing on? Or are we standing on the side that would choose against us? Do we become the hero or the villain? And what happens once we've made that choice? Are we bound to the rules that dictate just what exactly makes each one what it is? The definition of good and evil are clear. But as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

So here I am standing, looking at this line, so distinct, so clear, and the sides are also just as clear. However, they both appear to be leading directly to my own personal Hell, and while I have no fear of it, I also have no real desire to get there any quicker. Either path will lead to hurting someone, something, and while I can probably live with the consequences, my conscience will keep on knocking on that door in my head that refuses to be opened. And it's that knocking that I'm not sure I can live with.

But, here I go, stepping across that line. I have made my choice. It was obvious a while ago as to which side I would take. Not straddling this line, albeit subtly, anymore.

Politics and Bedfellows

2008-08-28T21:16:00.000-10:00

We've all heard the saying right? Politics makes for strange bedfellows?

Well, what if we WANT those strange bedfellows?

Why is it that only politicians are allowed them?

Why is it that a Senator can have a wide stance in a public restroom? A governor can have an $80k hooker habit? A Speaker of the House can have a mistress mentality? A President can have a little fellatio in the ~~Oral~~ Oval Office?

Of course, I know that when Mr. Warner made that saying, he didn't exactly mean the aforementioned situations, but the question does beg to be answered, doesn't it?

I wonder if any of these individuals had been women, would the public have been so quick to forgive and forget? If it were Nancy Pelosi, rather than Newt Gingrich, who had cheated on not one wife, but two, would she be speaking on behalf of the Senate right now? What if it were Hillary Clinton, rather than John McCain, who had dumped her husband after a severe accident, and then married her lover a month after the divorce was final? Would she be able to have gotten away with that?

Politics is a very lopsided game of teeter totter. While we would like both sides to weight the same, go up and down equally, there's additional weight holding female politicians down. For example, it's hailed by conservatives when a female politician is a married mother. However, once her back is turned, the snide comments about how her place should be in the home, how she's taking jobs away from MEN, how she's the cause for the economy crashing, joblessness growing start to stream out in endless ribbons of misogynistic psychobabble. If she were single, then it'd would be a question about her sexuality, her ability to even bear children, and so on. This weighs down on the woman, more so than any physical entity could. Then you add on the weight of how other women view her. Some will hate her for being able to seemingly do it all. Others will hate her for not making a decision between motherhood and a career like they did. Her clothes, her hair, her makeup, even her jewelry will be criticized. We women can be just as harsh, just as cruel, if not more than men can in our criticism.

The sexual aspect of politics is very complicated. Male politicians are handsome, debonair, distinguished. Female politicians are usually called names rhyming with Yarpy, Witch, and Bike. Male politicians are excused for their rash decisions, the stress of the decision making process being one generic reason tossed out to fill that obligatory blank space. Female politicians are automatically "hormonal" and "emotional", incapable of any "rational" decision. Male politicians are given passes on their peccadilloes because the power can sometimes confuse them. Women politicans had better not even think about anything of the sort, because that will just prove she's the slut everyone thinks she is.

It's a double standard, to say the least, but it is the way that things currently are in this country. One day, we will see a female president in office. She might even be a mother when it happens. But, what most will want to know is if she still has sex with her husband, and she will have a husband. No lesbians in office unless she lets us watch. Her politics won't matter once she enters that big White House. Her foreign policies won't matter, her economic strategy, her concern for the GDP, or her interest in national welfare; She's only got to do one thing and one thing only to make the men in this country happy. Bring the men some beer and the remote control.

Election is over.

Time for football.

The Bathroom Peace Poem

2008-08-28T09:00:00.000-10:00

Funny thing, that feedit widget that a lot of us have in our blogs. It allows us to see from where a reader is coming from, the method they used to get to our blogs. Sometimes, they'll come from a search. Two days after installing my nifty little widget, I have my first google search result, and apparently, whomever it was that arrived did so after searching for a poem about peace and bathrooms.

He stumbled upon my Twilight poem, which is the furthest thing from bathroom peace poetry there is, but all the same, it was pretty amusing to know that such a thing exists, and that one would be searching for it.

So, here's to you, Mr. Bathroom Peace Poem man, (or woman), a poem about peace. In the bathroom.

Haiku

Crisp.Cold.Quiet.Light.
Like a dawn after the rain
Flushed tranquility

You gotta love stalkers ♥

2008-08-28T08:36:00.000-10:00

Or just pissed off people who have nothing else going in their lives.

I have apparently pissed off someone to such an extent, they felt the need to bombard my YIM box with IM after IM of vitriolic asshattery. It was annoying, really, to wake up at 5:30am and see in my offline box message after message from some numerical identity. Apparently all of the GOOD names have been taken. (I know who took them all...that fucking dog food pusball...)

Now, I'm not upset at what was said. I can guarantee you it takes a lot to upset me. (Live with my mother for a year and see if you don't develop a thick skin, too.) It's disturbing, though, knowing that someone out there is so deranged, so demented, so...hurt *tear* by something I did or SAID that they felt the need to act out in such a childish manner.

I'm not going to guess who it was. I could, and probably be right, but there's no need for it. What's done is done. I now know that I have affected someone so much so that they cannot leave it alone (as if we didn't know that already) and felt the need to stretch that hand across the internet to try and touch me back. Well sorry, oh spiteful hand o'douchebaggery. You're an insignificant peon whom should experience just that: being peed on. I reported you for spamming, but Yahoo being Yahoo, you'll probably just be given a warning. 47 times.

Of course, I'll still be here. Laughing at you.

BTW, the NEXT time you PM me, it's "COULDN'T" care less. Not "could". Could implies that you care. And I know you care. Otherwise my PM box would have only been filled with PMs from my friends. You know. The kind that don't have to pay for it.

Cheers!

Holy Blog Rolls, Bat Man!

2008-08-27T16:08:00.001-10:00

Why look over there ----------->

What is it? Why, it's a blog roll! An actual, working, live, existing blog roll!

Simple pleasures.

Shut up.

Heart Heavy (A poem blog)

2008-08-27T01:09:00.001-10:00

the weight of tears
brings down my face
no smile could rise above it
so long have I dreamt of it
nightmares calling my name
the darkest day
clouded futures
no light could shine down the sorrow
no talk of moving on
no
the sharpness of this new pain
makes a heavy heart
touch the ground
I can no longer carry
it around
in my chest
my mind
my soul
my spirit
I'm aching
to leave it all behind
and this heavy heart
has bruised me
the marks
all over
tell the story
of melancholy
and something not far behind it
disappointment
why do I feel the need to weather
what I know will never abate
the words and actions of another
that brought me crashing down
falling heavy
on my
heart

(copied from my old myspace blog 6-16-08)

Bonds (A poem blog)

2008-08-27T01:07:00.001-10:00

Clasped together
these hands of ours
locked in the embrace of understanding
Our fingers entwined
sharing space
unconditional, undemanding
Palm to palm
life line to life line
roads that separate but reconnect
Pulse to pulse
blood beneath skin
combined in wondrous affect
Shared thoughts
conflict contrast
collaboration of minds, two
Wholly open
receipt and parcel
of the gift of mutual truth
Friend, are you
heart mind body
glorious are these bonds of mine
To you, my friend
forever indebted
and loved, so blessed am I

(copied from my old myspace blog 6-17-2008)

So I'm Not Perfect (A poem blog)

2008-08-27T01:05:00.000-10:00

When I look in the mirror
I see what I see
eyes that are a plain brown
not special, or unique
no flecks of gold or green shimmering
no light rings creating halos of what is
quite simply
normal
Surrounding them I see glasses
black frames
rectangular
Nothing fancy, since I don't need that
Without them, I wouldn't be able to see
those normal
albeit imperfect brown eyes
with no other color but brown inside.
And below those brown eyes
are freckles
a lot
scattered like soldiers upon the battleground
that is my face
They climbed the crest of my nose,
declared victory on my cheeks
and laid claim to the territory
as is the custom of a freckle...
or a hundred.
My forehead, plus one, can bear the brunt of winds
and crush cans
because I can
and you can't mistake it
for no other bears on it
the mark
of a woman
whose entire life was spent
being called "bird doo-doo head"
go south now
to my mouth
bottom lip too big
top lip too bowed
teeth inside
a little overbite
a little crooked, too
but always smiling or grimacing
depends on who are you
besides my mouth
lay dimples and lines
or a "kiss" and J.M Barrie might have called them
if I were living in his time
but I'm not
so they just age me
or so some people say
but then again those people
aren't perfect themselves, anyway
My shoulders are bony
my neck is too long
my breasts
WHAT BREASTS?
Let's move on
My tummy has seen better days
that's for sure
but after four children
I certainly can't complain
sure my waist is thicker
and there are pathways to Peru
and my navel could probably hide
a Prius
or four
but moving on to where I sit
my butt's gotten bigger
as have my hips
but then again I didn't have either
so can I really say
they've gotten bigger?
Or should it be said
that I've gotten them?
My thighs
oh my thighs
how they jiggle to and fro
and on my body
that's not as good a thing
just so you know
my feet
well
they need prayers
since as a mother of four
I haven't seen a pedicure in years
My body in the mirror
isn't a picture of perfection
It's not what some others brag that theirs is
they can laugh and point all they want
It's not a monument to the glory that is flawless beauty
but rather
a testament to the wonders of nature
and the fact
that
quite frankly
I'm proud to be me

(copied from my old myspace blog 6-25-08)

Not Interested (A Poem Blog)

2008-08-27T01:03:00.000-10:00

I'm not interested
In your pseudo-superiority
COMPLEX
I'm not interested
In your innate ability to take shit out of
CONTEXT
I'm not interested
In your need to be
NOTICED
I'm not interested
In your inability to stay
FOCUSED
I'm not interested
In your need for
ATTENTION
I'm not interested
In your lack of
RETENTION
I'm not interested
In your political
AFFILIATION
I'm not interested
In your religious
AFFIRMATION
I'm not interested
In your sexual
MORES
I'm not interested
In your miltary
FORAYS
I'm not interested
In your ambitious
GOALS
I'm not interested
In your saving my
SOUL
I'm not interested
In your view of the
WORLD
I'm not interested
In how your plans have
UNFURLED
I'm not interested
In how you hate me so
VEHEMENTLY
I'm not interested
In what you think I stole
VINDICTIVELY
I'm not interested
In your pathetic
DESPERATION
I'm not interested
In your moral
INSPECTION
I'm not interested
In this need to be
DIVESTED
Of any notion that I may have
Just to get me
INTERESTED

(copied from my old myspace blog 7-11-08)

Place (A Poem Blog)

2008-08-27T01:00:00.000-10:00

If words fail me
forgive me
I've lost my way from mind to mouth
I simply forgot how to tell you
honestly
simply
that
I love
you
in every sense
the words may hold
because you may not understand
that I ask nothing in return
and I don't
expect you to need me back
the same way I need you
to breathe
My lungs can be full of you
and still I need more
to make the very skin on my bones sing
and you
all you need do
is smile to make me warmer than anything
I could hold in my hands during the cold
I feel so
at home
when you're around
and I am content
to simply see you
and ask nothing of you
other than to be
simply be
I have found where I am

(copied from my old myspace blog 7-22-08)

As Seen On The Bathroom Wall

Why we feel for Sandra Bullock

Fading to Black (Poem Blog)

Ass Backwards Hawaii

What it means to be a woman in a public restroom

Rape Should Never Be Arbitrary

Hairy situation

Poor Tila Tequila

Things I don't understand...

The Sanctity of Marriage

You're a Hypocrite, Miss California!

Why I don't really watch American Idol

Quote of the Day

Focus On The Family - Perhaps that's exactly what they should do!

Happy Birthday Edgar

Ulterior Motives

Never a moment.

Sisters Who Cause Trouble

It's a bit like life.

Stop Stalking Obama

So take away their marriages.

Call me Noah

Fried Chips...

Four Years

Toto Never Sounded Better

PengWIN!

Nothing says...

Little Ashes Official Trailer

For my husband.

Over 20 Million...

Another Little Ashes Clip

Little Ashes Clip

Obama is King?

Straight outta my mouf...

This is what happens...

RIP Peggy Chun

Words... cannot describe...

No, you can't take it back (Poem Blog)

Keith Allen is my Hero

Skeletal Madonna

Variety Interview with OME

When music made you feel...

Self-hate

This is what happens...

The Idiocy that is the H8 Movement

Words... cannot describe...

Helen Mirren: Queen of Foot in Mouth Syndrome

I hate this shit.

I'm so unprepared!

This is what happens...

This is what happens...

It's your party...

From Hawai'i to the White House: Obama's Speech Transcript

President Obama

Countdown to History

Paramore's Decode video

He.Took.My.Berry.

Vote No on Prop 8

Signs FTW

Your a Looser (sic sic)

This is what happens...

Horizontal Junkie

This is what happens...

Foot in Mouth Disease

Cultural Contributions

This is what happens...

$150k Hockey Mom?

A few questions for the McCain/Palin ticket

New Twilight Trailer

Mavericky

So where's my bailout?

It's always the Democrats

An Atheist's View on Palin

To change or not to change

Ache (Poem Blog)

Busy Bee

Find Paige Hallman *Update*

Blessed by the Dashboard

I'd open mouth kiss Ellen Degeneres...

An Open Letter to V.H.

Find Paige Hallman Update