My response to the situation in Gaza: I am getting quiet. That does not mean I have no human concern, outrage, worry, or sense of what is right and wrong. Hardly. Specifically, I want the one side that has dominated our foreign policy for over half a century to stop doing so. I sense with real anguish that things much get much worse for that to happen.
The awful violence in the Middle East is being reflected in the tiny insignificant mirror of certain blog comment threads. Lots of typists screaming and name-calling with no consciousness of their own addiction to outrage, self-righteousness, and moral superiority.
Incidentally, the entire Bush Administration has been a real meth lab for those addictions.
I'm waking up to a sense that all the noise has to stop, at least here in my own head. That's the place I can at least try to control.
Sisters? Make sure he's worth the broken glass (unlikely), before you throw his stuff out the window. Plus, if he's a cowboy AND a musician, why the hell is he keeping stuff at your place anyhow? Geez.
On the other hand, I'm told cowboy musicians find it difficult to take an angry woman wearing nothing but undies seriously, 'specially before he's had some coffee. Just sayin'.
But when you look at the competition in terms of overall stats, it's pretty obvious I'm the little gal in this competition for "best liberal blogger".
The blog you're reading right now (thank you) is that blue line hovering at the "zero" mark. This chart only allows me to select five blogs at a time, so it shows the biggest blogs with which I'm nominated.
I think the organizers of the Weblog Awards figured that putting my blog in an audience size category, which I won in 2006, would be unfair to the competition. So they ranked me with the big boys, which is a real honor. I'll hang out here happily knowing that the bling will likely go to those with bigger traffic.
My blog has never had a business model and I have no interest in spending time I could be writing working on driving up traffic. I'm also impressed that there are some very big liberal blogs out there that were not nominated. I take the nomination as a tremendous compliment and testimony to the quality of this blog and its writing, and I'm very grateful.
I may give the big boys a run for their bling anyway, if the small bloggers I've helped over the past four years show their support at their places. That's already started and it really touches me. Thanks again.
And if I go home empty-handed this year, I can be like Jim Morrison after they screamed at him for misbehaving at the Ed Sullivan Show, and told him he'd never be on Ed Sullivan again. "We did Ed Sullivan." I've won a weblog award. Ha.
This is an easy one. The beloved Doctor Zaius wins today's Don't Sugarcoat It Award for putting into pictures what so many of us have put into words.
Love on ya, Doctor Z.
For those of you new to this blog: The Don't Sugarcoat It Award is something I give out when I come across a blog post that says it like it is, sometimes with profanity, but that's not essential. You can't be nominated, it's my whim and my blog surfing that determines the winner.
As usual with Don't Sugarcoat It's, leave your comments at the winner's blog. Thanks.
Statute of limitations: there should be a law that if a newspaper publishes that you're fucking John McCain, and it turns out that's not true, you have ten minutes to file a lawsuit. You're given the ten minutes so you can stop. screaming.
Here is a modified-for-space list of those nominated for "Best Liberal Blog" at the 2008 Weblog Awards, along with notes I took on a call with my publicist late this evening:
I sort of expected some technorati-based acknowledgement of my small traffic to frequent writing ratio, but this...so this...kinda blows me out of the water.
(Go Driftglass for best individual blogger and Jon Swift for best humor blog. Just sayin').
Whether you feel she is qualified or not, there's no arguing that it's about ficking time someone called the media on their "handling" of women in politics. Caroline Kennedy deftly hands two NY Times reporters their gravy sacks:
"Have you guys ever thought about writing for, like, a woman’s magazine or something?" she asked them. "I thought you were the crack political team."
Of course, now she'll have to make it up to "women's" magazines:
Oh nevermind making it up to the women's mags, Mrs. Schlossberg. Every title on the magazine cover is for real. Yes, "The Trick that Attracts Hot Guys Like Crazy" is right there with "How to Outsmart a Date Rapist."
Don't get me started about "Your Orgasm Face: What He's Thinking When He Sees It." If I had to worry about such things, Cosmo, I wouldn't be in bed with him AT ALL, let alone enjoying it. Tremendously. As I said, don't get me started.
On topic: There's some terrific poetry, "Life Lessons I Learned From Popular Woman's Magazines" posted here. Don't miss it.
I was in a restaurant this past weekend with people I loved. It has to rank as one of the nicest moments of my life. To those who were there, thank you.
Salon tonight. Surrounded by post-Christmas clutter (and the kids who produced same) so no video blog today.
BTW I haven't said anything about the Rick Warren thing yet. Citizens who feel this is worse than a smack in the face to the Left and the Gay community are justified. [Update: As usual Susie Bright doesn't sugarcoat it and is not necessarily safe for work.] I'm with the guy in the Frank Rich oped: it's time for Warren to “recant his previous statements about gays and lesbians, and start acting like a Christian.”
I don't feel bad for us Lefties, though, having heard enough wide-brush "all religion is equally bad" blogger crap in the past four years to know Obama couldn't please some of them unless he dispensed with prayer altogether (ain't gonna happen).
I'm sad that Rick f-ing Warren is the issue, rather than respect for all humanity.
Isn't it interesting how we're not talking about Reverend Wright anymore?
Nevermind. If she doesn't refer to what is happening in Gaza as a quote, "war crime," I'm going to assume she's still guzzling the AIPAC kool-aid. I hope rather than expect someone to ask her about this at confirmation time.
UPDATE: Okay. I wasn't going to go with the graphic above, which came to me several hours ago when I wrote the original post. But as I made it, I realized...wow, I'll probably be able to re-use this graphic a lot in the next few years. Fucker.
Today as we celebrate the birth of a dirt-poor infant conceived out of wedlock (ha) I hope to take time to be quiet, calm, and grateful. I also want to recommend this post. I really liked it, Quaker as it is but also speaking to what so many of us are thinking today.
Merry Christmas everyone. I'm as busy as you are, probably, but still keeping my ear to the ground to see if Bush is going to pardon anyone today. The below is a post from an earlier Christmas. Have a wonderful day.
I made three batches of cookies yesterday which would not be necessarily bloggable, except I sang lefty ballads (rather than holiday carols) while mixing and measuring. Here are my recommendations for cookie recipes and their musical accompaniments:
They're rushing, well, as fast as the Illinois State Legislature can rush, what wit da holidaze an' all, to get Governor Blagojevich out of office.
This coming February marks the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. Kind of a big deal in Illinois. We don't need no crooks on the dais, if ya know what I mean. (What is it about Blago that makes me and everyone else write like we're mobsters?)
The three magic words that get more done faster than any other at the state and local level, my friends: "Bad for tourism."
What we Illinois Democrats would really like is for some FOX Noos Wise Guys to, ya know, doo what dey doo with Mister L's party affiliation:
And while yer at it, couldja make Blago a Republican?
On topic, I think calling this administration Lincoln 2.0 is presumptuous, arrogant, foolhardy and yes, dangerous.
Would this blog get more links, have higher "revenue" (what's that?), or a bigger hit count if I were a man? Well, I could sit here and at long last confess that in my other blog life I'm Eschaton, but you probably wouldn't believe me.
I love this comment thread, not only because the people in it are smart and lively but they're also honest. And I want to address directly those who feel a twinge of guilt when their eyes roll back as they hear the word "feminism."
That's alright. It's taken me a while to come to grips with what feminism means to me. I'm working on it, because I think it's worth working on.
Feminism means very different things to different people. I can only speak for myself. Ma hunnies, I've been abused, overlooked, put down, touched inappropriately, pushed, underpaid, and attacked simply because of my gender.
But with all of that I don't believe that the world is an evil place where I have to fight all the time to make it better. I can laugh a lot, love a lot, work hard, eat, kiss, knit, read and with all of that make the world better.
Oh, and I can write.
There are some times when you just have to fight. I get that. Trust me, I get it that "being good" does not always win the battle. I've admitted big defeat in that arena. Sometimes you have to be bad and you have to kick ass and you have to get out. I get that.
The reason I respond more often with resilience than anger has much to do with having a mother and father who listened to me. They treated my opinions with respect, so as I grew up and some jerk groped me, I knew I was of value and didn't have to put up with that. It took a lot longer when I had to abandon dreams of being a so-called good wife in order to endorse my inherent value, but I did that too.
Power is the right to say no to what you don't want, and yes to what you do. And to be treated with respect regardless of your own personal choice, provided that choice does not harm others.
Recently I've discovered the world of "sex-positive feminism." In the seventies this world was about telling off Andrea Dworkin, all sex is NOT rape and all porn is not anti-women, etc. I think sex-positive feminism has become a little less about that and a little more about enjoying one's sexuality, even if that means you are not exerting but rather surrendering power in doing so. It still amazes me that feminists who will march in the streets (justifiably) to allow two men or two women to marry each other, point with horror at certain other sexual deviances which are clearly consensual, and cry rape or warn that they're triggering or even misogynistic.
Extreme case here, but what if you are a woman who enjoys tying up other women, and find women who enjoy being tied up? Those were the original sex-positive feminists. They said, "Wait a minute, you think we leather dykes are, ahem, endorsing patriarchy? Somehow we're collaborating with the subjugation of women? And we're not invited to your "real" feminist colloquium on pornography as a human rights violation because we like photography? Pardon our French, but fuque vous."
One friend said it's like complaining about driving. The car ahead of you is always going too slow and the car behind you is too fast. If you sit in judgment against everyone, then the only person driving the correct speed is you. So all of what is right and wrong sexually is what YOU PERSONALLY can handle in terms of your own judgmental comfort level.
But wait a minute, Blue Gal, I thought this post was going to be about feminism, and you're making it a post about sex!
My point exactly. And to seal the deal, I have a little "Women's Studies in Popular Culture" class exercise for anyone who thinks I'm off the mark.
Listen to the song below, and then deconstruct Mary J. Blige by writing an essay based on one of the following options (choose only one, turn in your bluebooks via the comment thread below):
A. Convince us that because she sings this song, Mary J. Blige is not a good feminist.
B. (Advanced feminist critics only) Write a porno script that incorporates Mary J. Blige and her drummer. Make it good.
