I give up

This isn't about Ted Barlow's Syndrome. This is about just not being able to communicate with certain portions of our community. I prefer to use the term Agro-Parsing, but what it comes down to is having your every utterance put through some kind of ultra-lefty machinery, which detects slight ambiguity and interprets it in the worst way possible. Or, put more succinctly, someone takes the time to find the needle in the haystack, and then jams it into your eyeball.

You can see below, I've had a previous experience with Melissa at Shakesville. She's good, she's really good, at what she does. She is one of the leaders of the fight to equalize our world in every way possible, via the web. I have no issues with her fight, and I wish her well. What I do have a problem with is WHO she is fighting.

Obviously I must have rubbed her fur the wrong way (oops! didn't mean it like that sounds, Liss, really), and she has decided that I can't be allowed any leeway in newspeak. Is it hyperbole to refer to what she is trying to form as newspeak? Probably, but she's not doing her cause any favors by attacking someone who is A) Entirely for equality, B) Believes that women should be able to control their own destinies in every way, and C) Thinks that the time has come to make changes. It really makes no sense to me, but what do I matter, I'm just a neanderthal man with a penis and not much brain.

I relinquish my duties as an ardent supporter of women's rights, Melissa. Obviously you don't need my help, nor that of many other men who feel the same way I do. Go ahead and play your little dominance games with what THIS person meant by saying THAT. And I DO think you're changing the world one teaspoonful at a time, but if you keep up your Agro-Parsing on your boards, you're going to lose more than you gain. Have fun in your brave new world.

The Ass of Dorian Gray

Looking in the mirror this morning, I see that same, sweet, slim face and neck, arms, chest and whatnot. I feel fine.

THEN I put on my jeans. Not so much the same. Everything I do to my body goes somewhere else, somewhere I can't immediately see, but it grows and festers like a painting hidden in the attic somewhere...

It's working its way up my body, though. My midsection is slowly chunking up, and soon enough I will have to ward off the man boobs and howler monkey chins.

I love this season, but I can't wait until the parties are all done and I can focus on HELPING my body, heh.

TEH MOSTEST OPPRESSED PEOPLE EVAH

Just a little note to Melissa at Shakespeare:

I love your writings dearly; you are a real power to behold and read when many of us are tired, so very tired, of everyone else's bitching online.

That said, I guess it struck me as a little odd that you would choose to disagree with the notion that maybe gay teens have it the worst at our nation's high schools. When I mentioned that a gay high school might be a good idea because at my high school it seemed they got the worst treatment, I didn't expect you to accuse me of making sweeping generalizations at other groups' expense (which I did not).

Perhaps it was my recent admission that I was a white hetero male that caused you to view me differently, perhaps as THE OTHER, the stereotypical BAD GUY? Hey, the Nazis worked for Spielberg.

You maybe didn't think that I was thinking of the recent election, where a black man was elected president, his female primary contender just barely losing to him (if that) earlier in the year, a cabinet full of women and minorities (and at least one lesbian, I didn't forget). I won't mention the various anti-gay people associated with Mr. Obama and he still won. All this CHANGE, and yet anti-gay legislation went through in at least 3 states. Hmm. I don't remember any anti-woman, anti-minority legislation going through recently, do you? Hmm. Could it be that certain things are verboten, while other things, like Prop 8, are not?

Melissa, you have to walk a fine line on your blog, and not offend people in a group of folks who seem to be striving to be TEH MOSTEST OPPRESSEDEST. I don't blame you for trying to make an example out of me so your other more 'understanding and less generalizing' readers can feel better about you and themselves. You go ahead and make everybody feel special, give everyone that shiny medal for being oppressed. Meanwhile, in reality, some of us can see the trends in America and think that maybe, just maybe, some groups have it harder than others.

I think you made the point earlier in a post about the Advocate's stupid cover (Gay is the new Black); this isn't a zero-sum game. Is there still racism and sexism and other-ism happening? Duh, of course. But you try to tell me that my saying gay teens might have it tougher than others, my saying that is wrong and over-generalizing? Read the newspaper, or better yet, your own blog. Openly gay people do have it tougher.

Twitchings

I'm ready to move on. I feel good about the future government, no matter what conspiracy (or non) theories get thrown out, or what CDS bullshit is heaped upon Hillary whenever a position of power goes her way.

Give me a breather; I'm freelancing like a bastard right now and it's great, but no time for this stuff. More later.

BTW I made the comment that we have to come up with a meaning for the word 'Blooger' at some point. Or is there one already? My suggestion: A particularly odious post from an otherwise decent blogger, as in "Josh Marshall just flicked a blooger at my screen."

Wait, I forgot. Josh Marshall is no longer an otherwise decent blogger. My bad.

By the way...

In light of the following:

1. Iraq Mess
2. Katrina Mess
3. Economic Mess
4. Countless examples of incompetence, you get the point

I'd like to officially state that I believe that 9-11 would NOT have occured under a different administration. It was a colossal fuckup of major proportions, miscommunications all down the line, ignorance and maybe a little bit of anticipation built in there, anticipation that an attack would bolster certain view points. And as usual, the Administration got in WAY over their head.

I'm not saying the Bush admin deliberately staged the attack. No, that would be too complex for them, as we have seen. No, I believe they fucked up in much the same way they fucked up all the other things; they ignored intelligence, all the 'chatter' and couldn't see beyond their stupid, idiotic world, and when it happened everyone went "What the fuck? I thought it would just be another bomb in the basement!"

Rant over.

Thanks. Thanks a LOT

The Bush Failure is coming to completion. The world markets are beginning to fail, now, following our lead.

This is what you get when you have A) a stupid, mean and petulant leader of criminals in charge of the most powerful country in the world*, AND

B) a set of sheeplike, selfish and frightened-of-their-own-shadows "opposition party" that has NO SPINE WHATSOEVER, which allows the stupid, mean and petulant leader to get away with EVERYTHING.

Already there are people on DKos who are cheering that the bill didn't pass... well, it may not have been a good one, but it was what kept the waters at bay. Congratulations, you have what you wanted: Global Economic Collapse. Now you can go form your communes and sing songs around a campfire of hash while you grow your own food in a farm somewhere... while everyone who lives in the cities burns. Bra-Vo.

*not anymore.

If hope is all he offers...

Sometimes that isn't so bad.

Posted in comments at Talkleft and Correntewire:

I got religion, just not the kind that I think Obama would appreciate. (I think this is germane to this post, seeing as how tonight will be Hillary trying to convince people to vote for Obama)
I was speaking with a client of mine and we began to understand that we both have the same wavelength when it comes to politics (thank ghod)... I mentioned that I didn't like Obama's policies / politics, but that he seems to inspire quite a bit of young'ns with his speeches. (this was my mode of thought this morning because I keep hearing how awesome and emotional Michelle Obama's speech was - and I keep thinking how I don't intend on voting based on how good a speech giver you are). He agreed, and we both said we were Hillary supporters.

My client then went on to say that he sees this race as taking control of a super tanker... no matter who controls it, changing directions will take a long time to make happen. The fact is, even if Obama doesn't bring about Universal Health Care, the attention will have been brought infinitesimally closer to that eventuality. Even if Obama is as bad as McCain would have been in terms of religion, abortion, etc, the fact is that he will stand as a symbol to the world that we wanted to change - we voted against the party that brought Bush. As empty a suit as he is, or worse yet filled with Chicago politics, as a symbol, he will show African Americans that there is literally no limit to what they can do -- and the inspirational value of that alone is no small trick.

I don't agree with the UHC argument -- I think Obama can do damage to our attempts much like the deep-sixing of Hillary's plan pretty much hurt future attempts -- but with the rest I can agree: most people are not going to know the dirty tricks Obama played to reach his place, or how empty his rhetoric is... they'll just know that America chose a black man with a foreign-sounding name to lead their nation. To think of what that means to a young boy in the ghetto with bigger dreams, or of any race, I think it might just be worth it.

As for that young GIRL with big dreams, well, we'll always have Hillary, fighting no matter what. If Hillary never gets to the presidency, she'll at least be known as the most powerful, most intelligent, most well-known person of our time NOT to be president, and that carries a weight all its own.

Now, after all is said and done, I am not excusing Obama for all his trashy maneuvers this primary season. It will just be easier for me to accept him if he wins... and it makes me realize that payback for his deeds can happen AFTER he wins, too; he'll just go grey a lot faster than Bill, with all of us harping on his non-liberal stances.

Anyway, I had to say this. Unless Obama does something more destructive than he has in the next few months, I'll be voting for him.