Cheapshot Photoshop of the Week.

Not that it's gonna be a regular feature or anything.



PS. You guys do know that Sean Hannity has a dating website called Hannidate and that he's looking for guys who want to propose (propose what, an end to the war?) on his radio show for VD. I mean Valentine's day. Sean, I assume same sex couples are welcome, right?

Right?

The personal is political...

...or all politics is local...or something like that...

anyhow, my point is, yesterday I bought a skein of yarn to knit a pair of socks for me my own self:



And the colors really do glow just like that.

I'm sorry Edwards dropped out...his voice in the end anyway was speaking for people who aren't heard otherwise. What's fascinating is hearing the buzz outside the MSM...people chatting about how he'd make a great VP, AG, etc. Looking for a home for him in public life. People feel good about Edwards. He's out but not gone.

Not so much of a wish for Mr. Fusion here, who btw Pammy Atlas endorsed (kiss. of. death?) only Monday. (vid from 1996):

On the Newsstand this week...

Seventeen: Just because your [boy]friend is two years older, doesn’t necessarily mean he is trying to get in your pants.

Glamour: Sex Do's and Dont's. The whole "swallowing thing?" It’s a Don’t, say 52% of women.** But it’s a Do, say 85% of men.

Time Magazine: The length of your ring finger belies your testosterone level. Therefore, the longer your ring finger, the better you are at math. Wait, didn't Lawrence Summers get fired for saying something just like that?

Esquire: These days, striking out with the opposite sex is as simple as buying a webcam and "being yourself." (and trust me, the Five Worst Online Video Dating Profiles is definitely worth the click.)


**[Yo, fifty two percent. You know that "maybe he's just not that into you" mumbo jumbo? Nevermind.]

Presented without comment.

And then there's this, Wally:

SOTU Salon Tonight

Blue Gal's SOTU Salon hosted by blue.gal.

Join now

---

Chat about what's on your mind. More about public chats.

Vlog for January 28

Details about the Coleman Young statements on Morris Udall are on Udall's Wikipedia page. The Kennedy implications are my own recollection, which is pretty reliable, trust this liberal old fart.

The NYFT article about Kennedy/Clinton thang is here.

Skippy and Jon Swift are spearheading Blogroll Amnesty Day this Sunday. If you want to participate, post some love for one to six of your favorite small blogs (defined as blogs with less traffic than your own) on Sunday, February 3. (Duncan honey, you're welcome to participate, too, but I wouldn't if I were you.)

Salon tonight during the State of the Union and the drinking game scorecard is here. Don't forget I can eject and ban anybody who skypes drunk though. We'll know it's time to call a cab for you when you change your skype avatar to this.

Congratulations, Senator.

It was a good speech, an uplifting speech. You have a lot of us on your train, Senator, but we're sitting in the last car talking to each other, not about hope or the future or fucking bipartisanship. We're not going with you that far, and here is why: Senator Obama, no matter how good it feels to rub ourselves with this:



We can't put this administration and its crimes behind us. Because what is happening in Guantanamo and Iraq and in the White House right this minute is NOT behind us, Senator. Not behind us.



(Thanks to Poetry Man for that.)

It's not behind us any more than lynching is, Senator. And you know it.



We're still prosecuting Klansmen and expressing outrage over nooses on Golf Magazines because that's the right thing to do. Crimes against humanity do not have an expiration date. And whether they're committed against the African American community, a community in Africa, or a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, the guilty must be brought to justice.

And by the way, that includes anyone implicated in the 9/11 crimes, too, Mister President. We had a justice system in this country before you took office. And if you say Osama bin Laden is the mastermind, you've had over two thousand days since your masterful reading of My Pet Goat to find the bastard, let alone bring anyone you've already locked up to trial.

And Senator Obama? Maybe I'm just a bitter old liberal hobo who has no business on your express. I don't look happy, and I have no fucking interest in looking electable. My flask is full of bitter swill, sure, and no one really wants to share it with me. I'm just stinking up your train...muttering to myself...ain't I, Senator? All about the past seven years...that if only I could just put all that behind me....it's a shame...a waste of a good Democrat...I stink of my own pissed-off-ness, and could never join you in the club car for a round of Era-of-Good-Feeling Hope-and-Faith Cocktails.

Saturday Song

Oh gawd, not more Madonna, Blue Gal!

The General bought me a dress for the dance...

Thank you, Sir. (and thanks to his pal Jane for taking me shopping for stuff like, um, "skin.")

Question of the day...

If they were real, exactly how many years would Wilma put up with Fred's bullshit?

Don't answer that.

Thanks!!! (But no thanks.)

1. Anti-perspirant specially formulated to keep me cool and dry during hot flashes. I'm absolutely convinced this was thought up by a guy in marketing, aren't you? It. won't. work.

Okay update. One reviewer who gave the product four stars says (emphasis mine),

I didn't sweat at all when I used this. It does tend to have a build up after prolonged use, and you have to scrub a little hard in the shower to get it off.

And I say hey, be happy, maybe the build-up is just irreversibly clogged sweat glands.

2. Someone with the online name "muffdiver" wants to share contact details with me on Skype.

3. Someone else, not muffdiver, (user blocked, baby) sent me a 1914 recipe on how to cook salmon guts.

Making the rounds and worth posting...

...because it's so true. Thanks LU.

Last night my sister and I were sitting in the den and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. That would be no quality of life at all. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."

So she got up, unplugged the computer, and threw out all my wine.

She's such a bitch.

A lil' sumpin for the GOP debaters

Sometimes your the bug and sometimes, like me, you jus' caught a bug. What I know for sure (sorry, Oprah) is, I won't be staying up tonight to watch McCain and Rudy duke it out. Hope to be better tomorrow, kids...ugh.

Don't Sugarcoat It Award for January 23

to Physioprof, a recent addition to the Blue Gal sidebar.

Physioprof has just started his blog, but he comes with a pedigree. He was kicked in the ass to get his own blog by Driftglass, who was kicked in the ass to get his own blog by Steve Gilliard. So Physioprof is kinda sorta Steve's blog grandson he never knew.

Steve would be proud.

Here's the kind of comment at DG's, this time regarding Chris Mathews, that got Physioprof bumped to his own blog:

"You know you're truly a bottom-of-the-barrel low-life misogynist scumbag when even some asshole "reporter" from gonorrheic cockdribble purveyor Politico calls you on your sexism."

That comment alone is worthy of a don't sugarcoat it, but here's a sample of the don't sugarcoat it talent decorating Physioprof's own place...

For progressives who are disgusted with Obama’s comments about Reagan, it doesn’t matter what he said, how it was intended, or how it should have been interpreted. What matters is the undeniable fact that he mentioned Reagan–the most beloved halo-encircled icon of the motherfucking Republican Party–you know, those sick depraved bastards who have been successfully working day and night for the last 40 years to turn our constitutional republic into a feudal fucking kingdom–in a context other than one of avowed repudiation of his pernicious political strategies and governmental policies. Reagan was the leader of those sick depraved bastards as he presided over the early stages of enacting their perverted agenda, one that has now brought us to the brink of national disaster.

I've said it to you already, Physioprof, but welcome to the party. Leave comments at his place, and tell him Blue Gal sent you.

Blue Gal Vlogs for Choice

Actually more on reframing the abortion debate, primarily based on this past post from last May. (Took most of the day Youtube was pretty useless today.)



The pro-life protesters were asked about whether women getting abortions should be punished in this Youtube (embedding disabled). Well worth the click if you haven't seen it.

Skype Salon tonight here's the link.

Blue Gal's Salon 1/21 hosted by blue.gal.

Join now

---

Chat about what's on your mind. More about public chats.

Salon Tonight, Video Blog Tomorrow

I've got kids home today, and my plan was to vlog about Blog for Choice, which is tomorrow, so I'll just do that tomorrow.

But Salon is tonight 9 Eastern as usual.

Be aware that one of our dear salon regulars, Morse, has gone back to his blog roots and has revitalized Media Needle. Delighted to hear it, Morse honey.

This song has been running through my head the past 24 hours. I could make it a dedication but if I did there would be political and social consequences that even David Broder might notice (ha), so I'll just hum it today and leave it at that. See you tonight at Skype salon.

The rockin' never stops at Fred Thompson HQ.

And Jeri gives away the secret of her happy marriage at the :22 mark, thank God for subtitles.

The Album Meme Thing.

I like it because it combines internet search randomness with art and music and thinking about design.

Cap'n Dyke did it and came up with this rockin' cover. (She's also got the rules and the links you need to do it yourself):



I came up with this which is almost as cool...I imagine the music therein is new agey rainforest Hearts of Space kinda stuff.



Yeah the fact that they're shells that look like angel wings and the God thing in the title is kinda creepy, except I'm a Quaker so we're used to this kind of hearing and we generally don't get freaked out about it.

Again, visit the Cap'n's fine blog to get the details, but also know I don't tag.

Saturday Song

Another old movie/modern song mashup. Geez, I really used to hate these, but Jean Arthur? And look at her clothes and her eyes and she's just lovely.

The song, well, Rob Thomas is a bit teenybopper corporate rock ballad, but if I had to select an Allie McBeal theme song, this would be a finalist.



Oh and here's a lovely scene from one of her depression era screwball comedies, apparently it's called Easy Living. (fixed now sorry)

Movie Review, kinda sorta...Atonement

Just some thoughts after having just seen it tonight, and no spoilers. I imagine many have read the book which I have not. I generally don't see movies when I love the book. But that's just me.

I'm absolutely convinced they wanted Russell Crowe for the lead of this movie, and then they met him and found out he was too damn old, so some "producers" flew down to Australia, stole one of Russell's ribs while he slept, and brought it back to the magic of Burbank to create the young hott James McAvoy. The trick worked.



For my friend the continuity person, there is a major gaffe when Keira Knightley has sex standing up against a wall of books in the library (geek monkey love alert) the guy lifts her out of one of her shoes. Later the shoe has jumped back on her foot in a way that says the shoe is male and just desperately wants to be up against her, which I totally understand.

The Dunkirk scene will be shown in film schools for a long time to come. It's two parts Gone with the Wind:


Then watch the first half hour of Saving Private Ryan while eating three pills of whatever pharma Terri Gilliam is on, and stir in what can be done with a tracking camera and computer-mixed sound these days and "can you spell Best Oscar Nod, Ryan Seacrest?" "Oh yes, Regis, the Academy loves movies like this one."

It should win for set design. The English country house omg you can smell the tea...yeah, set designers clearly had a huge budget and little restraint and did a fine job with the chintz and the WWII British hospitals and the war scenes, too.

As I said I won't spoil this movie for anyone, and I think I can still say that the grand things this film says about the power of narrative to transform reality are, in my very humble opinion,

a buncha BS.

I say that as a writer. I was actually offended by what this movie says about the writerly act, and I'm really, really hard to offend, trust me. If you want to chat about this film let me know but don't leave any spoilers in comments. Thanks.

Where did the DAY go?

When a kid of yours is sent home from school with a cough and a fever, that's where the day goes. Wouldn't have it any other way, actually.

There's a couple scheduling things in the pipeline I want to let you know about:

February 3 is the anniversary of the notorious Blogroll Amnesty Day. It is evolving, quite rightly it seems to me, from a vitriolic attack on A-listers into something more celebratory of us B-C-D-and-DD-list blogs.

We'll be celebrating the small blogosphere that day somehow and suggestions as to how to do so are most welcome.

___

February 5 is not just Super Tuesday. It's also the anniversary of Day of Shame, the day of Colin Powell's speech to the UN arguing for the invasion of Iraq. Vastleft of Corrente is spearheading a blogswarm and details will be forthcoming soon.

___

I'm going to be out of town and quite busy the weekend of February 15. We'll be having a contest here at BG, probably a photoshop or caption this photo kind of thing. Again I'll keep you posted.

___

We're due to have real live snow here in Birmingham by morning. Big whoop.

A celluloid closet moment from 1958

IMDB on "A Certain Smile": "Dominique, a law student at the Sorbonne, is engaged to a fellow classmate. Unfortunately, she's more attracted to his philandering Uncle Luc, who's married to the charming Francoise. Dominique and Luc begin a tawdry affair..."

Okay so watch the dynamics between Dominique and Francoise in this scene and tell me what the hell is going on between them.

Francoise: "I kept her in bed for three days." I'll bet you did, Joan.

I can't discuss this movie clip further right now as my eyes have completely rolled back into my head:

Carnival of the Liberals 56

Welcome to the January 16, 2008 edition of carnival of the liberals. Tough choices made easier by a killer beta app, that let me paste the code for the post below right into my blog no troubles no worries. I'm impressed, and you should be (hosting a carnival your own self hint hint) too.

1697: Thomas Aikenhead posted at Executed Today: The last hanging for blasphemy in the United Kingdom teaches us the evils of theocracy...

Likely Voters Prefer Evolution Over Creationism posted at Greg Laden's Blog

China… you can’t have it both ways! posted at Understand Media Blog "In this post, I take a look at the media messages trying to demonize China and its relationship to the United States."

I know why the caged Snuffleupagus sings posted at Corrente.

Top 10 Cloak-n-Dagger Capers in '007 posted at thinkbridge,

The Crying of Maureen Dowd posted at Jon Swift, saying, "Is it unprofessional for journalists to show emotion or could Maureen Dowd cry herself to another Pulitzer Prize?"

vjack presents More Saber-Rattling on Iran posted at Consequences of Republicanism

Doctor Biobrain presents How the Bushies Failed Again posted at And Doctor Biobrain's Response Is...

Greta Christina presents Hypocrisy or Bigotry -- Which Is Worse? Huckabee and Guiliani on Gay Rights posted at Greta Christina's Blog, saying, "A meditation on which is worse -- the close-minded, true-believing bigot -- or the craven, self-serving hypocrite who spouts bigotry to advance their political career? Hey, I'm just asking."

Mike Haubrich presents Overshooting the Goal posted at Tangled Up in Blue Guy, saying, "Thoughts on how to get to Universal Health Care"

Thanks to everyone who submitted posts! Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of the liberals using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: carnival of the liberals, blog carnival.

On writing

That's not writing, Calvin, that's just bullshitting. And it's academic bullshitting, which has its own ultra-special hide-the-pets scent to it.

And we miss the writers, don't we? I don't watch television. Seriously don't. I've never seen a single solitary episode of The Wire, The Sopranos, Sex in the City, Will and Grace, Six Feet Under, etc. etc. etc. Never saw it. I hear it's great writing.

Here I am writing. It's why I started this blog, was I thought it might jumpstart my writing, make me write, get me to put words on the page in a more disciplined way.

Huh.

Some days I feel pulled to the keyboard like it's a religious experience. Like I'm communing with the very best amazing part of my holy Self. Sometimes I look at other posts and think, well, I could never do that, introduce Will Shakespeare to Flip Wilson and at the same time actually say something, now, could I?

And when I spend a few minutes reading Susie Bright on the death of publishing/books/the whole damn experience of words and can't tell what is still here or not, that unless that bound paper thing is being held up by Oprah or sitting Point-of-Purchase at a Starbucks NO ONE READS.

And still. All I want to do is write write write and then....

I find out that Tom Delay his own self has pulled a Pammy and that even when his simple spelling mistake is pointed out to him he leaves it up. Nevermind that there seems to be a planet where James Carville and Paul Begala are the "liberal enemy," and where the goal is to "hold accountable the liberal politicians who try to run as Ronald Reagan, but lead more like Jimmy Carter."



So what started as just writing becomes writing about politics, and what is writing about politics becomes writing about who is at this very specific claustrophobic cocktail party where everyone is very familiar and the hour is late. Some of the guests are drunk on revolution and anger and a sense of entitlement taken away. Some are so bored they really should go home but they are here because to not be here would be to disappear altogether, because there is no there out there, they think. Some have completely, utterly, forgotten how to laugh.

And it's supposed to be a party. Like this one, where Mr. (and Mrs?) Atrios check into the Bloggo Lodgings and tea room, meeting up with someone who looks remarkably like Al Franken by the window, but then turns to greet staff from the NRO [note that in my house we always call "writing a left wing blog post," "putting lard on the cat's boil"]:



Yes, I write about politics. I asked a friend recently if I was spreading myself too thin with all these blogs and having learned my fourth or fifth blogging platform-- sorry I've lost count, and have yet to learn unadulterated Wordpress--the kind friend asked me what it is Blue Gal really wants to do?

Blue Gal. wants. to. write.

I want to write. I want to continue to help small bloggers find a voice and an audience and a community. And I want it to continue to be fun. Ray Bradbury says it better in under two minutes than I could in the same number of hours:



What I don't want to do on my moderately successful political blog, is do a netroots lap dance for the Next President Of The United States. As a blogger, that is simply not my job.

It seems to me we have more important jobs as political bloggers than sideline cheerleaders for the DNC/DLC. Our job is to stay awake, to watch, to guard the Constitution (yeah it's been raped but not murdered, not yet). And we've got to watch our so-called friends as much or more as our so-called enemies. There will be no celebration here if a Democrat is elected President.

No matter who is elected anywhere, please to put another log on the fire so I can hold his/her feet to it.

Memo to every Democrat in the entire world: STFU about everything self-congratulatory and self-preserving and self-serving and self-defending, even. Mrs. Clinton, change is what doesn't pay the heating bills anymore, and we know what you owe. Cut the Oprah crap: I'm much more interested in your relationship with Rupert Murdoch than any relationship you have with your own voice. Mr. Edwards, those are some mighty fine stories you're telling, but notice they're writing the last chapter of yours, whether you're ready to end it or not. Mr. Kucinich, you're a white man with a congressional seat and a hot wife. Get over what you don't have and work with what you do, and maybe I'll listen to you again. Stop running for President, stop fighting Mickey Mouse, as fun as that must be, and visit Lebanon and Syria again. Take a page from Jimmy Carter's book, FAST. Heroism awaits you. I mean that.

Finally, Mr. Obama. I don't even want to hear about hope anymore. And I sure don't wanna hear about bi-partisanship, as if there is some sort of family excuse that Uncle George raped our little sister, left our economy and environment and standing in the world sobbing uncontrollably with blood trickling down her thin little legs and we just have to nod our heads and move forward together. Big Daddy Cheney likes to make us say thank you for the cigarette burns on the parts that don't show, the off-site torture chambers and prisons with no exits, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a picnic because look what's great about America. Seriously, Mr. Obama, I may even vote for you, but shut the fuck up, my friend. And give me your feet, they look kinda cold to me.

Skype Salon tonight 9 Eastern

Blue Gal Salon 1/14 hosted by blue.gal.

Join now

---

Chat about what's on your mind. More about public chats.

Blue Gal vlog 1/14

This is probably the last time evah that I will be this nice to Hillary Senator Clinton, so make a note of it.

When I say I base my vote for President on foreign policy, that means an AIPAC hawk wearing a Chuck Hagel mask over his/her neocon face doesn't get my vote. Certainly not in the primaries and you'll have a very hard sell in the general election, I mean that. (Yep, that's me being nice.)

So please don't call it a "disorder".

h/t swissmiss

whadja say?

BBC:

An indigenous language in southern Mexico is in danger of disappearing because its last two speakers [men in their 70's] have stopped talking to one another.

The two elderly men in the village of Ayapan, Tabasco, have drifted apart, said Fernando Nava, head of the Mexican Institute for Indigenous Languages: "They are really personal reasons that they don't speak to each other. We don't have to think of a war."

The men are the only fluent speakers of their local version of the "Zoque" language.

According to the UN, one language disappears across the world every two weeks.

And yet there are some guys you just WISH would shut up:

How to wear underwear as an artistic statement.

Right:



Image from here.

Wrong:

Saturday Song

Just a reminder, mostly to me, that Crowded House is on Austin City Limits tonight on some PBS stations.

Here's Neil Finn and Sinead O'Connor doing one of my favorite CH numbers...after the long weekend, they were a lifetime together....yeah baby.

This is not a mommy blog, really.

But a friend of a friend is having her first child and asks, "what 'thing' was most essential as a new mother?" She's not talking sleep or a sense of humor, she kinda gets that (or she will soon, except for the sleep thing) but she feels a great sense of pressure to buy her way out of first mother anxiety and would like to avoid that.

My advice is a fold-upable port-a-crib. We used ours more than anything except the car seats.

And then there's Blue Gal's Patented Feed Your Child Flow Chart:



If you have any thoughts about what you really truly need to own when you're a new mother leave it below she knows where to look for it. And thanks.

Today is....

...wear orange day. In solidarity with those who have been held by our country for six years without charge and without trial.

The ACLU has kindly provided us all with a sample blog post but frankly I don't think anyone around here needs that either for writing or reading.

Some of you know that when The Bastille was stormed, there were very few prisoners inside, and that The Bastille was kind of the country club prison of Paris. Most of the seven prisoners freed that day were of a higher social class than their liberators. But the Bastille was symbolic of everything, absolutely everything, that was wrong with the government of France in 1789.

Guantanamo is not a country club prison, and the prisoners there are unnumbered and unnamed to the public. For our safety.

But it is a symbol. And it needs to be stormed, electronically and politically but we revolutionaries use what we've got. Shut down Guantanamo means live up to the Consitution of the United States as you swore to when you were inaugurated...aw fuck it. He won't. But we will continue to fight him and use the symbols at our disposal to show the wider world how wrong this whole country is right now.

Played "Bastille Day" by Rush while writing this and it's a good soundtrack for outrage.

What an overworked a "networked" blogger looks like.

This here blog is the square in the center. Surrounding it are spiders representing several other blogs I write for, and a couple other projects (notably Blog against Theocracy and last year's Spartacus blogswarm for Shakes) that generated connections of one kind or 'nother.

You can do this for your own blog here. And the big version would make great wrapping paper, I think...



On topic I'm hosting Carnival of the Liberals again next Wednesday. Details here. I doubt I'll have time to compose limericks this time around, though.

My completely imaginary chat with John Amato

John already thinks this image is too large for the post. Just saying.

BG: Hey John. I got a post idea.

JA: Yeah? Write it up.

BG: I wanna just run it by you first. It's about knitting.

JA: lol. Seriously, BG.

BG: No seriously. There's this sweater pattern that came out and it's full of errors, inaccuracies, and I believe just plain lies from the big yarn company.

JA: Ummm.

BG: No listen. I think it may be a conspiracy, because I'm sure that if anyone really tries to piece this sweater together? You know, get some experts in who actually know something about construction of a garment? I swear, if you get some experts to actually look at the evidence, you'll see, this sweater cannot actually be worn. It's full of holes!

JA: Blue Gal, Crooks and Liars is NOT a knitting blog.

BG: Have you ever worn a hand-knit sweater, John?

JA: Sure, but…

BG: So you have some firsthand personal experience related to this issue, but you don't want to talk about it. Is that what you're saying to me?

JA: Listen, Blue Gal, it's just that, you know…

BG: And this post correcting all these inaccuracies in the knitting pattern will definitely increase traffic to your site when knitters see you care enough to get the truth out there.

JA: Yeah but I don't need a lot of knitters in my comment threads, Blue Gal.

BG: Do you have something against knitters, John? Or is it just the TRUTH you can't stand?

JA: Blue Gal! Knitters are fine! But I don't knit and I don't run a yarn blog, so…why don't you post it to your own blog?

BG: Oh yeah fine, where it will get one one-hundreth of the traffic and no one will know just how much of a cover-up the yarn company got away with. I get it. You're as bad as they are.

JA: It's not that I don't like the truth, Blue Gal, it's that my blog is not about knitting sweaters.

BG: And you're a fascist hypocrite gatekeeper who hates free speech.

[BG shuts down the chat window without warning and immediately sends a mass email to three hundred and fifty knitters, 9/11 conspiracy theorists, Ron Paulites, and ex-Diebold employees about how JA is getting paid by both the bigass yarn company and the Commerce Department to assist them in covering up their criminal conspiracy. He is also ignorant of just how much work goes into investigating each individual knitting stitch and how many experiments it takes to find out the REAL fiber content of a hand-knit sweater, and he has no interest in the truth even if someone else does the work for him. ]

I sense a disturbance in the Force.

Lord Vader. We were sure Obiwan Obama would take our ship to light speed. Yet his bucket of bolts can't break out of the atmosphere and he continues to talk shit about bipartisanship, as if the Dark Side is just the other side of the farking aisle.

And then there is Lady Clinton. The Force is strong with this one. She claims she's found her voice. She may out-Oprah Princess Oprah her own self with that line. Geesh. You'd think she was Han Edward's guy with the cleft palette, for crying out loud. What was all that personal suffering stuff in THAT speech anyhow?

Lord Vader, don't get me started on why the Special K badge is off my sidebar forever.



Okay okay, you've seen that one. I've been led in a very strong Quakerly way to pull out some Buddhist texts today, not knowing where exactly they would lead me. They've led me to this post: it is time, ma hunnies, to step inside the pod for a day or two and not let monkey mind get ahold of us. (of course I'm not talking about the Simian Blogger Alliance.)

We have work to do, and as a fellow blogger chatted me up this morning, I can tell you our job has very little to do with electing the Next President of The United States, and everything to do with holding the ship of state's trajectory on an even and left-leaning course in support of the Constitution.

One thing these Buddhist books say is how easy it is to look OUTSIDE for the cause of the trouble. It is incredibly annoying that we don't have a defacto nominee, after all, NEW HAMPSHIRE has come and gone, for heaven's sake!

Don't get cocky.

Lessons from last night

1. During his victory speech, John McCain was involved in some odd drinking game bet involving the words "my friends".

2. Mitt Romney's big problem is he thinks Washington is the current President. It's Bush, Governor. He's in your party. You supported him twice. Yes, we blame you.

3. CNN has casino pimp Ralph Reed and compulsive gambler Bill Bennett sitting next to each other as commentators. Oh, sorry. There's a bigass memory hole in between them.



thanks Mark Hoback for the panties

Cool.

I know Christmas is way over, but Best. Recycled. Wedding Dress. Evah. That's their TREE.


from here. (Yeah, I'm crawling through New Hampshire political blogs, go figger.)

I'm over there, kids!

Just crossed over here to let you know I have to go back to the little blog across the street (you're welcome for the link, John) for the remainder. Oy, the traffic! Please keep the coffee coming... Panties will be back again tomorrow. Thanks. xo

No comments here I've got open threads and better coffee at the link above. And my email box pretty much can't take it right now. Love on ya.

Salon Tonight 9 Eastern

Blue Gal Salon 1/7 hosted by blue.gal.

Join now

---

Chat about what's on your mind. More about public chats.

Blue Gal vlog: Time Management and Blogging

Since it's about time management I've learned to arrange these in more "manageable chunks." Part one under nine minutes:



Part two eight minutes ten seconds:


On topic here's a good post on saying no from Red Fork State.

Working on new year's resolution summore

reasons to laugh part.



I know I should be talking about debates and primaries. After Tuesday I just might do that.

I do want to defend Obama on the Hillary "you're likable enough" line to Hillary. This isn't spin it's just what I thought when I saw it. My immediate gut reaction to the Obama moment and no one will ever agree with me on this, was that a woman saying "that hurts my feelings" punched him right in a soft spot, which it does for some men. He couldn't go put his arm around her and say "I'm sorry baby", so he totally emotionally retreated.

I know no one will ever spin it that way, but that's what I thought when I saw it last night live.

Saturday Song

I usually don't like the new song/old movie mashups littering YouTube, but this one works. Something about the deep dark sound of ubertrash Amy Winehouse, and the gorgeous high camp movies of Elizabeth Taylor, they go together like coffee and pillow talk. (Scott Simon is back on NPR this morning, he's the single thinking girl's best boyfriend. mmmm.)

being a good girl?

Well, I dunno about that. Somebody's gonna wanna spank me for this, but here goes...



...if you don't mind I think I'll sit here with my white-gloved hands in my lap until after New Hampshire. (If she's pregnant, it sure looks like Dennis is the father, donnit?) Original image here.

Clarification: sorry. I realize this post is not clear. I'm just a little upset with how the special K campaign is going on. We'll talk more about this after NH, though.

Midwest Accents.

You've heard my "slight" midwestern accent (ha). I was born in Ohio as was my mother and my dad is from greater Chicago. My twang gets way more when I'm on the phone with Mom, but it also shows that I know a real midwestern accent when I hear it.

Yup, this one's real:



And both these guys have one (hilarious):



But I'm sorry, to my ear this one has that "practiced in the bathroom mirror" sound to it. Or maybe she's just spent way too much time in Iowa. They all have.

LIKE a virgin?

Oh don't worry, ma hunnies, I would never run the youtube here at this here blog.

OH WAIT. There's a version with Madonna, Britney, AND Christina Aguilera? Oh well in THAT case... And look, there was a time when BS could walk down stairs in high heels sans assistance...

Anyone know who the rapper is at the end?



My favorite part is that the overarching camp of the whole performance means the Queer Eyes for the Straight Guy are having a fuckin' ball. But my political/social commentary point, and I do have one, is that I wrote an open thread at the big blog linking Susie Bright on the poster child for abstinence, Jamie Lynn Spears. And one commenter said, "Boy, those Spears girls sure do like to fuck."

Bullshit.

Jamie Lynn, like ALL sixteen year old girls, had a choice between two types of partners: she could do it with a teenage boy, or she could be done by a statutory rapist. It's possible she did and was done both ways, and I would put real money down that she didn't enjoy it they way Mother Nature, whose own orgasms are earth-shaking indeed, intends women to enjoy sex. (It also appears the rapist wins the "who's the daddy" contest for JL's baby. Sad.)

Britney, on the other hand, was able to choose her sex partners from a very large group of men, whose only requirement was that they have the taste, intelligence, and patience of, well, Kevin Federline. You know the type. Their letters to Maxim Magazine are always the same:


Oh, just keep being the amazing lover you obviously are, Dan.

I've talked with a large number of women about this topic over the years and asked lots and lots of girlfriends the following questions: How old were you when you first had sex, and how old were you when you had your first orgasm? The orgasm gap is pretty damn wide for a great many women. I have yet to meet an honest girlfriend who had their first good sex before the age of twenty-two. Lots and lots of women have had lots and lots of sex before they actually enjoyed it.

And sadly, some men and women never figure out which female erogenous buttons to push.



And nearly all of my readers know the button is nowhere near here:



And is much more likely to be somewhere in here:

Resolved.

Relax. Breathe. Listen. Find out what authenticity means and be it. Find more reasons to laugh.

And yeah this cartoon is a reason, don't get me started. :) Happy New Year.