From Shakespeare’s Sister:

Donate, everyone. Please. Whatever you can manage. And tell others.

The plainest way to say it is that everything, every last fucking thing, is “constructed” in the SCLM product/discourse/fairy tale. Someone thinks about what it is in it, and what is not, and how, one word at a time. So when this happens, people should remember it’s a feature, and not a bug. What is funniest to me is that the WaPo, and the District, are queer havens, places where queer culture and thought and activity are open, vibrant. I guess I’ve just never been a part of that group of self-hating types who want to play these games.

But guys: trust me when I say, str8 America is over all this silliness. I look forward to the day, and indeed I believe it will come in my lifetime, when this sort of stunt is uncommon and quickly forgotten.

As the Blade reported last week, Maj. Alan Rogers, by all accounts a hero for his brave acts while serving in Iraq, was killed in January and buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Rogers lived as openly gay a life as he could, given the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He had many gay friends in D.C., patronized gay businesses and even worked as treasurer for the D.C. chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights, a group working to overturn the military’s gay ban.

But the mainstream media accounts of his death omitted any reference to his sexual orientation. These were not benign omissions. The Washington Post, in particular, worked overtime to excise any mention of Rogers’ sexual orientation. It did not even report his work for AVER. Several of Rogers’ gay friends told the Blade that they were interviewed by a Post reporter at the funeral, but their memories were not included in the paper’s coverage.

I say this as only one of my age and “race” can: there comes a time when people decide to hate others for different reasons. No construct lasts forever, and nothing cannot be changed. Yes, blah, I know it works ’both ways,’ but in this case, working with younger people and knowing what they tell me about sex and sexuality and gender, I’m confident that this country is on the verge of finally shedding our particularly vulgar and unimaginative form of homophobia. And that’s a good thing.

Feh, I’ll chalk it up to yet another example in which the WaPo reminds me that I’m not sorry I don’t read them. /tosses hair/ So tired, they are.

On September, 23, 2003, Senator Hillary Clinton was interviewed for the great PBS program Wide Angle on the topic of human trafficking (2003, folks, that was 5 years ago, ok… and yes, that was the year of the beginning of the war in Iraq but that was not the only thing going on in the world. I, for one, am glad somebody was paying attention to these other crucial issues even though I disagree with her - heck, ANYONE’s vote for the war). Let me excerpt a few chosen quote (full transcript at the link above, so YES, I’m picking and choosing).

“Hillary Clinton: Well. Jamie, the fact that this is a modern-day form of slavery was shocking to me. When I realized, because of my travels and exposure as First Lady, how prevalent it was, I determined that we should do something about it. I went to Beijing to the UN Conference on Women in September of 1995, and spoke out against a long series of abuses that were human rights violations of women’s rights and among those, of course, was trafficking. And then, in the time after the conference, when it did become an item that was of higher interest on the national and international agenda, we followed up. In 1996, I went with my husband to Thailand for a state visit. I went to the north where I met with NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], trying to help young girls who had been sold by their families into prostitution, trafficked into the brothels, mostly in Bangkok.  Read more 

This is the first in a (hopefully) collaborative series: WHSBP (title and series idea courtesy of Lambert) to counterbalance the Other Series (WWTSBQ). This series outlines issues on which Hillary Clinton was ahead of the curve, starting with microcredit. I have posted consistently on microcredit (here, here and here) but it is one obvious issue where HRC got it before everyone else.  Read more 

These are the Cymbidiums of Consensus. They come to life on my back deck….

Every Spring.

Res Ipsa Loquitor

Today’s astronomy photo of the day: Orion

M78 and Reflecting Dust Clouds in Orion
Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh  Read more 

From Here.

A benefit performance for the Texas range fires of 2006.

Range fires are an ever-present threat  Read more 

Surpise vacations, made possible by loving friends and family, in which both jacuzzis and learning are enjoyed, are the very Best. Thanks, People who Made it Possible.

So, what’s going on? It’s always fun to come back to the blogosphere after a few days off, to see what is bunching people’s panties today. Yawn, spare me the Hilbama wars for now, I didn’t miss that at all. Anything else on your brain?

Under the sway of the larger issues, burdened by fear and sorrow and the very real possibility that things will get much worse for many people before they get better, that indeed they may not get better anytime soon or perhaps not at all, it is very easy to miss the small scale things, the equal truth that everyday people lead their everyday lives in generally decent, good and righteous ways and that sometimes, more often than we might notice, in doing so they create wonder in the simplest of ways.

For Jerry Meredith and Lynne Chapman it was love at first sight.  Read more 

Bill Pucko today gets something right in comparing accredited basketball referee Michelle Campbell to suffragist Susan B. Anthony, and lauding the actions of Darin Putthof and Fred Shockey, a couple of male refs who refused to join a Kansas school’s misogyny at a recent game. Unfortunately, right after that he reverts to his normal crapheadedness  Read more 

I’m shocked, awed, and overwhelmed tonight!

At least a HUNDRED blogs from every aspect of the political spectrum have taken part in this swarm of goodness. I want to take a moment to thank Chuck Adkins, a blogger at the Town Hall Blog Community and other places for picking up my plea, and spreading it far and wide through the Conservative ‘sphere. He’s right— this isn’t about politics, but I had to start somewhere.

It will be days before I get everyone thanked properly. But, I’m starting right now, and every day, I will post another set of Thank Yous, until either my fingers fall off and my eyes go blind, or I get to the end of the list. Let’s hope for the latter.


OK. Let’s toss around some numbers:

2,600 people visited this place over the last two days. I average ~90 on a normal day.

If 1/2 of those visitors donated $10 to the Mid-South Red Cross or the Mid-South United Way, we raised $13,000 from this site alone. TODAY.

If everyone came to make a $10 donation, we raised $26,000.
If everyone who came by made an average donation of $15, we raised $39,000.

If everyone came by and gave $20, then we raised $52,000.

—NOW.—

I’m still trying to sift out repeats in the Technorati site, perhaps others who use Technorati more than I do, can help me get down to the actual number of unique participants, I sure would be thankful.

Wandering around, I have noticed that many of the posts look sorta like this (Blogger’s abstract interpretation):

Monkeyfister lives in Memphis, says the storms were terrible. Here’s where to donate:

American Red Cross
Mid-South Chapter
1400 Central Avenue
Memphis, TN 38104
901-726-1690


And:
United Way of the Mid-South phone in a donation at (901) 433-4300.

I’m going to make an assumption, and figure at least another 2,000 people (considering the readership numbers of some of the bigger blogs that linked in, and the sheer volume of small-bloggers) hit those links directly from those pages, instead of coming here to do that. I noticed the storm coverage was pretty heavy on CNN, today, and that many people understand the situation enough, now. Applying the same formula as above, we get:

2,000 x 10= $20,000
2,000 x 15= $$30,000
2,000 x 20= $40,000

For thumbnail totals of:

$39,000
$46,000
$69,000
$92,000

That is one hell of a spread.

In my heart, I think that these are safe minimums. All I can say is this far exceeds my humble expectations, and I’m calling this a smashing success.

You statistics geeks might want to put the calipers on my assumptions, but I think that I may be low-balling that 2,000. Digby’s 26,000 readers, C&L’s 62,000 readers, The Raw Story’s readership… Even IF every single person who made a donation actually came to this blog to make their donation(s), and the first set of numbers are it, it’s still a fat sack of cash getting out to people in need. I’m not even counting in that percentage that might have donated more than $20. I think that I am definitely in the ballpark.

I am completely in love with every single one of you right now. I asked— you answered. Many dollars were raised. Many PEOPLE are getting help. BRAVO ZULU If there is ANYTHING that I can do to help you in a similar stead, I’m here to be tapped.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

It’s time for me to get down to linking, and Blogrolling.

Michael Vick’s dogs — all but one, euthanized for aggressive behavior toward rescuers — still have a future. It’ll be different than their past. Perhaps after all a few iotas of good resulted; but the price in cruelty, carelessness, arrogance, and indifference is astounding.
No, I’m not forgiving the former NFL star, and no, I don’t advocate dogfighting, forced breeding, or any of the other atrocities — and I use that word advisedly — humans perpetuated on these dogs, or ever perpetuate on “dumb animals” (including each other) in the name of money.

But I am glad the dogs have another chance.

Of course, I’m not going to have any and that’s a good thing, but one passage in this report struck me a slightly behind the scientific times:

BHARUCH: Gujarat’s gay prince of Rajpipla, Manavendrasinh Gohil, who was disinherited by the family for going public about being gay but later taken back into the fold, now wants to carry on the royal bloodline, in a manner of speaking.

The gay prince, who wants to ensure the lineage does not end with him just because he can’t have children, wants to adopt a child and make him the royal heir. Manavendra hit the headlines recently by going on the Oprah Winfrey Show and proclaiming his homosexuality.  Read more 

Because I’m already done with mourning Edwards, enough already, and because thanks to Dick Nixon and his heirs there are plenty of worthwhile battles to choose from, here’s a bit of creative thinking that deserves a smile and an Atta-boy if nothing else. Out here on the West Coast, where the future lies, one of our clever entrepreneurs has found a way to marry high-tech with common sense and compassion – medical marijuana from a vending machine.  Read more 

Final results: $138 total recurring monthly contributions (new and previous Patrons combined) and $120 in one-time contributions.

Mighty Corrente Thanks to all for sharing your hard-earned dollars. Especially with the looming recession it means a lot.

We didn’t reach the goal but there is enough to keep the hamsters going at full speed for another couple of months.

To make up the difference we are looking into advertising and maybe another Pr0n-based pledge drive since that one worked out so well last time.

**Note to recurring donors:  Read more 

A group of eight protesters from the Iowa Occupation Project and Voices for Creative Nonviolence dropped by the Huckabee campaign headquarters in Des Moines this afternoon to ask that very question.  Read more 

Remember a few weeks back when Nezua Limon Zolagrafik-Jonez put up a post called Christmas for a Wounded Pretty Bird? The short: a women’s shelter on the Standing Rock Reservation in Dakota, which helps Native women who have suffered physical or sexual abuse, got some fundraising help from the Net to get a shelter up and running.

In October some bastard stole everything out of the place and burned it down.

So the word spread—Pretty Bird Woman House needed help. They figured it up and set a goal of $70,000, which would get them a new building, furnishings, a few month’s salary for everybody while waiting on more grant money, etc. It was a figure of impossible luxury and thought to be impossible.

Happy New Year, folks. They now have, according to AndyT over at dKos, raised nearly $80,000 with more still coming in.

’Scuze me, I am having a hard time typing, I seem to have something in my eye.  Read more 

Post your recipes here. I stole this one from DKos poster McMom:
Put in a cast iron pan:
two cups of sugar,
1/4 cup of cocoa,
2/3 cup whole milk,
2 tbsp. white corn syrup,
a pinch of salt.

Heat slowly, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Then cook without stirring to the soft ball stage. Take pan off heat, add butter and vanilla, but DO NOT STIR. After the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, beat by hand until creamy and the mixture loses its shine. Pour onto a buttered plate and cut into squares.
p.s. You can cook it on a stainless steel skillet, as well, but it doesn’t turn out the same if cooked in a saucepan. Must be something about the distribution of heat.

Okay, everybody, your turn!  Read more 

Heh, this is funny. My random not-RSS surfing device went to two posts in two different tabs at the same time. Empty. And, full. I’m giggling because I can and often do see/write both sides of that one. On one hand you have a major and strategically important victory, on the other hand you have a scores of posts long catalogue of why we’re talking about a drop in the bucket. I guess it all depends on your mood. Isn’t that the fun part of this mess, the silver lining of a sort?

The day everyone in our camp completely agrees on anything is the day I’m moving to Mars. I wish people could be more lighthearted about disagreements we have with each other, as nasty as they get sometimes life would be dreadful dull without them.

And he’s got medical problems. Send good thoughts his way.  Read more 

Not every town rolls over when Blackwater rolls in.  Read more 

Let us resolve to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Let us resolve to refrain from the laziness of cutesy-poo language and the muddiness of unsupported yet oh-so-passionate claims.
Let us speak one to another, not as culture warriors contaminated by the pervasive cynicism of the mass media, but as adults describing our concerns and imploring on behalf of our champions.  Read more 

Who, if you recall, didn’t exactly like the answers Mukasey gave during his confirmation hearings on the legality of waterboarding. Well, Mukasey’s been sworn in and time enough for a briefing Mukasey claimed he’d need to be able to give a legal opinion has elapsed.

So Feingold wants new answers:

Dear Attorney General Mukasey:

During the hearing on your nomination to be Attorney General and in your answers to questions submitted for the record, you repeatedly refused to answer questions related to interrogation techniques on the grounds that you had not yet been briefed on the CIA’s interrogation and detention program. I was disappointed with these responses. Familiarity with the CIA program should have been irrelevant to a legal opinion about practices such as waterboarding, which have been employed by dictatorships for generations and historically condemned by our own government.

Nonetheless, now that you have been sworn in as our nation’s Attorney General and presumably have been briefed on the program, I urge you to provide your views on its legality to Congress at the earliest possible date. As a member of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, I believe that a full and informed exchange between yourself and Congress is critically important if our intelligence activities are to be conducted consistent with our laws and Constitution and subject to appropriate congressional oversight. Such transparency would also be long overdue, given the refusal of the Department of Justice to provide to Congress any legal opinions on the program.

I oppose any interrogation techniques not authorized by the Army Field Manual, as do majorities of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees. I do not believe that their use is legally or morally defensible or that it makes our nation safer. It is my hope that, under your leadership, the Department of Justice will take a fresh look at the CIA’s program, and that you will urge the President not to veto legislation that would end the use of so-called “alternative interrogation techniques.” I request that you provide current and any past Department legal analyses to Congress, and that you provide your views on the program to Congress at the earliest possible date.

Sincerely,

Russell D. Feingold
UNITED STATES SENATOR

Now, THIS is worth rewarding!  Read more 

Former US President Dwight David Eisenhower wrote to his brother Edgar on November 8, 1954, as follows:

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.

Granted, this was written many seasons ago. But the Republican Party of Eisenhower, Goldwater, and (pre-2000) John McCain didn’t entirely belong to the rightwing nutjobs.  Read more