Butch, Mike (
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
draile ), and pretty much everyone else I know also passed. We are all relieved and happy that we never again have to take such a miserable, pointless test.Another way to look at my passage is that I've always wanted a reason to feel superior to JFK Jr., and now I've got one! Maybe for my next trick I'll get a pilot's license and not crash my plane!
What? Too soon?
I couldn't help it. I am so proud of my country. It's not that we've overcome racism, but we are now reaching past it to something better.
I believe with all my heart that this is only the beginning. Better things are to come.
Joe Biden just cornered Sarah Palin into saying that she supports civil unions. Awesome.
Gwen Ifill: So you agree. Wonderful.
And a big smile from Biden.
This debate will no doubt provide much verbatim material for Tina Fey. I can only hope that it will also provide the final nail in the coffin of the McCain/Palin campaign.
No one gets that if the banks go and the investment houses go, then no one gets a loan and 'ordinary' people like my uncle, a retired shoe salesman who opposes the bailout, will not be able to buy the retirement townhouses they've been saving up for the down payment on.
Nicholas Kristof says it better than me here.
For decades, women have dreamed of a female president or even a vice president. That's why my mother and her peers in the Boomer generation all voted for Hillary. After years of struggle for equal rights, equal pay, and freedom from discrimination, the crowning glory of the women's movement would be a female president. I understand that, though I didn't agree with it.
But I don't want Sarah Palin in office, and not just because I would hard-pressed to identify three issues on which I agree with her. I don't want her there because I want the first woman to hold the presidency or vice presidency to be whip-smart, deeply knowledgeable, and the most competent person around. I want Madeleine Albright, Janet Reno, or Sandra Day-O'Connor. Hell, give me Condi Rice even. Her slavish devotion to George W. makes her repugnant, but at least her foreign policy experience is not bounded by the view of Russia from her window.
The problem is that, for the most part, men still don't trust women to be competent and in charge. And to put someone like Palin in office would confirm male suspicions about women -- that we are too flighty, too emotional, and frankly not intelligent enough to do the job. To not set the women's movement back twenty years, the first woman in this type of office must be super-competent, super-confident, and no bullshit. Sarah Palin, for all that she claims to be a pit bull, has nevertheless proved to be an airhead who couldn't hold herself together in a softball interview with Katie Couric and whose governorship was marked by both incompetence (her championing of the famous Bridge to Nowhere) and nepotism (her assignment of the head job at the Agricultural Department to a former classmate who liked cows). Watching her flail in interviews has been painful, and I am afraid I would have to give up watching CNN altogether if she were elected because the discomfort factor would be so high.
Sarah Palin would be a laughingstock, a female Dan Quayle. Much as I love Tina Fey's caricature of Palin at the moment, seeing it for four years in conjunction with Palin's inevitable blunders -- perhaps asking Michele Bachelet if she has been saved, wrinkling her nose at Sarkozy's stinky cheese and asking for Kraft, maybe -- would be salt in my wounds.
Women cannot afford someone like Sarah Palin in office. We must have someone competent, or no one.
But the attacks on Palin's mothering abilities and her decisions about her family are reprehensible and should not be tolerated. Palin has been attacked for going back to work three days after giving birth. Why? She's the governor. Her job is important. And if she felt that she could leave her child and start, I don't know, running the state and all that again, well, that's her decision. It's the decision that women from my mother's generation fought hard to be able to make.
The furor over her teen daughter's pregnancy has also been ridiculous. Teenagers get into trouble. They make bad decisions. It goes with the job description, and Palin shouldn't have to face questions about it. It's not her fault that her daughter had sex and got pregnant -- there are many liberal households in the US with teenagers who have made the same terrible decision.
Finally, and worst of all, are the female commentators and spectators who are all questioning whether Palin could or should try to be VP with five kids. Um. Wait. Isn't she living the dream? Isn't she having the American Female Ideal Life --- mommy and CEO, hardass and tender caregiver? I thought this was what we wanted. Why are so many women criticizing Palin for a commitment to both job and family?
And when, oh when, have these questions been asked of a male candidate? How many Vice Presidential candidates have had large families and family commitments? Lots, I'm sure. Al Gore certainly had not quite grown kids when he was VP, as did Gerald Ford. I'm sure no one asked them if they could handle both their family and work commitments because they were men and they had wives standing behind them, ready to handle all the messy family details while the men preserved the safety of the nation. To ask these questions of Palin is blatant sexism. That it's women asking them proves that truly we are our own worst enemies. Men will never trust women in power until women trust women in power.
That said, I don't like Palin. I'd prefer to vote for a woman who believes in abortion rights and in not cutting money for education. I want someone who believes in healthcare for all, not just for those who can afford it. I'd also prefer someone who does not ascribe the idea of a natural gas pipeline in Alaska to divine will. I'm not voting for the McCain/Palin ticket. Just because she has ovaries doesn't mean I trust her with my vote. The Obama campaign just got another $100 of my money.
But this outrageous sexism has to stop.
She never got the chance to come to New York. The Hoffmans' dog killed her yesterday. They found her in the front yard with a hole in her side.
I don't know what to say. I feel responsible for her death because I knew in my heart that leaving her at that house was a bad idea, the assurance of Butch's parents aside. I feel like a bad parent, a bad guardian. She trusted us and needed us, and we abandoned her to be killed.
I feel as though I'm not fit to own a pet.
Butch and Mike and I are all very, very sad.
Democrats consume*:
- Asparagus
- White wine
- Gin
- Tofu
- Flax seed cereal
- Organic milk
- Anything from Trader Joe's
- Tofu jerky
*Except for Hillary voters. Hillary voters consume only rice cakes and, on occasion, entire pints of Haagen-Dazs, because they are all fat.
Republicans consume:
- Red meat
- Hot Pockets
- Bourbon
- Sausage McMuffins
- Turducken
- Whatever they've managed to kill with their massive powerful 2nd Amendment protected guns
- Babies
And you can tell how people will vote by their food choices! For instance, if you witness an old white man eat a massive ribeye steak and onion rings at Charlie Palmer's and then drive away in his gas-guzzling H2 with the "Don't Mess With Texas" bumper sticker on the back, then he is probably a Republican! You can tell because he ate a steak. Likewise, if a thin twenty-something woman consumes a seaweed salad and a nori roll made with free-range cruelty free non-antibiotic non-suffering salmon, and then drives away in a Prius with a bumper sticker that reads "Honk if you <heart> yoga/Arrested Development/brunch", then she is probably a Democrat. There is no surer sign of a Democrat than his or her willingness to consume non-steak Japanese food!
This is huge, people! I propose that we scrap the current voting system, whereby we actually have to show up at a polling location, as inefficient. There is a better way to record political preference without any of us having to do anything: let's vote with food! It works like this: there are certain neutral food items that everyone can buy without casting a vote. Examples include eggs, non-organic milk, most bread, and many fruits. However, any purchase of Jimmy Dean Flapsticks is a vote for the Republicans. Any purchase from the Amy's Organic line is a vote for the Democrats. Jeno's pizza rolls? Republican. Free-range chicken broth? Democrat. Bagels? Definitely Democrat, although there is a strong argument that vote should go to the NeoCons.
As some of you (all six of you) know, I have been on a diet for the past five weeks. And by diet, I mean WeightWatchers, that bastion of middle aged female fatness. It's a sign that I have completely left my youth behind and am approaching the age of saggy pantyhose and inspirational GIF email forwards. You can't be on Weightwatchers and still be cool, no matter how awesome your Myspace page is (disclaimer: my Myspace page is not awesome. It's neglected and under-adorned. I just never got around to putting up kitten wallpaper or whatever the hell.)
The thing is, Weightwatchers has been working. I've lost around 8 pounds in the last month, which makes me feel happy, considering that I was letting my weight start to creep up again after getting back from Asia, where thinness is apparently contagious and I caught some. My jeans are too baggy, I can wear my favorite plaid pants again, and my arms have gone from looking like German barmaid to normal, healthy 20 something female. Oh yes, and my blood pressure dropped 25 points. So those are the benefits of being on a diet. I actually plan to continue on it until I get down another 10 to 12 pounds or so.
But the cons are that I can't eat what I want anymore. Instead of eating jumbo slice, I eat 2 little pieces of whole wheat pizza with feta, olives and tomatoes -- delicious, but lacking in lovely greasy mouth feel. Instead of eating a granola bar, I eat carrots. Instead of eating candy, I eat an apple. Instead of steak, three ounces of chicken breast. And so on.
All of this is generally fine, but occasionally I just want to eat something unbelievably horrible, like fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, which probably contains something like a week's worth of calories. It's made worse by the fact that I live with a man who is 6'2", 190 pounds, and is a human garbage can. He can eat with abandon for weeks, gain a few pounds, and then go play racquetball at the gym a few times and the weight disappears like magic. My other roommate,
draile, can eat an entire cheese pizza by himself with no weight consequences. Being surrounded by non dieters makes dieters like me bitter and angry. I hate thin people now, not just because they are thin, but because they can eat noodles! with sesame oil! I hate non dieting fat people for the same reason -- they can eat the fettuccine alfredo because they just don't give a shit if they gain a few pounds. Right now I just hate everyone who is not on a diet, who does not, like me, have to think about how many calories are in an animal cracker and how many I can eat and still have enough of the 1200 calories I get per day to eat dinner with. I'm looking forward to the end of dieting so I can stop thinking about food so much. I want to go back to being angry because people are bad spellers or habitually misuse quotation marks, or because they are bad drivers or vote for Ron Paul, not because they get to eat candy bar and I don't.
Like most grocery stores, Giant stocks its own house brand of most things. Today as I was shopping for party supplies, I noticed that there was a Giant brand of tortilla chips. They are called Festingos.
I know what they were going for -- Festingos sounds like 'festival' and also like 'fiesta', which are good associations. And the 'o' on the end sounds sort of like Doritos, a similar product. But to me, 'Festingos' sounds like some sort of tropical disease caught by sailors.
(Crew of ship gathers around moaning, writhing sailor.)
Ship's Mate: What's wrong with Smithson?
Captain: Yar, can you no see it's the festingos?
ALL (drawing back in horror): The festingos!
Captain (grimly): Aye, the festingos. Did I not tell ye all to keep your distance from yon dusky island women?
Ship's Mate: What do we do now, captain?
Captain: Roll him in coal dust and tie him to the mast. If he's still alive when we get to Bermuda, he might make it.
And then puke.
Ferraro wants us to believe that superdelegates know best because they are party insiders and have some sort of super-special electoral wisdom that the rest of us don't, that the votes of independents and Republicans for Obama in open primaries should not count, and, worst of all, that a "truly democratic" move on the part of Obama supporters would be to agitate to seat the delegates in Michigan and Florida, two states where neither candidate was supposed to campaign and where Obama, true to his word, did not. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, both campaigned (albeit briefly) in Florida, and kept her name on the ballot in Michigan, where Obama had removed his as per their agreement.
What a miserable op-ed. What a disappointment from someone who kicked off the era of women running for national office.
So I've done it. I've switched my support from Hillary to Obama. There are a few reasons for it, and here they are, in order:
1. I don't really like all the race-baiting that's been coming from the Clinton camp recently. I realize that the Clintons are old hands in the political game and that winning an election requires a certain amount of nastiness, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, particularly when the Obama campaign has decided to use the "We're above all that" strategy and is refusing to hit back, for the most part. I think the racial crap is horribly divisive at a time when the entire party should be coming together.
2. I don't think Hillary Clinton is a good general election candidate. Where Obama has the potential to get some crossover and independent voters, I don't think Hillary can do that. She is just too disliked (read: loathed) on the right to have any sort of crossover appeal, particularly against John McCain, that straight-shooting maverick who appeals so much to independents and wavering Democrats. Also, I think that the US is still far too sexist to elect a woman right now. The thing about Obama is that even though he's a black guy, he's still a guy and that's enough for a lot of people. It makes me sad to write that sentence, but at least for the moment it appears that possession of a set of testicles (and not big brass ones, or Hillary would be a shoo-in) is a requirement to be POTUS.*
3. Obama is by far the most inspiring speaker I have ever heard -- better than Clinton in his heyday. His speeches make me want to believe in him, and I do, with some reservations. I believe that he means what he says, and I believe that he'll do a good job as president.
So, two reasons to vote against Hillary and one to vote for Obama. I guess that's what changes a race. Hillary had my support, but she lost it.
That said, I'll still happily and excitedly vote for Hillary if she gets the nomination. I just hope that I'll be voting for Obama instead.
I'm still so excited about this election. With any luck, we'll soon be electing into office our first black President, or our first female president, and I'm confiden that either one will be great. All of the above aside, I'm still excited about this election. I'm so happy to just have candidates to be excited about.
* Please, no jokes about how Bill's are hanging from her rearview mirror/over her mantle/whatever.
I just got a "Support Ron Paul" message from my 23 year old cousin. That side of the family has always been wacky, but I'm hoping that her email address has been hijacked. Please God, let this be true. Please don't let a relative of mine support a candidate who feels it necessary to include in his campaign emails that he is "in favor of" catching Osama bin Laden -- as opposed to all the other candidates out there who would prefer to see bin Laden free and starring in his own reality show.
All the same, I'm worried. My father always seems to have medical crises when I'm living overseas. In 2004, when I was living in Prague, he decided that was a great time to have kidney failure and almost die. That same year he almost died again when his blood pressure swooped too low, for unknown reasons. Now he is having heart surgery, and once again I'm living outside the country, except this time I'm 13 hours away instead of 7.
My worst fear is that he'll die when I'm not there. I don't know what good my being there would do, but being worlds away from my family when something bad happens is just awful, like when south Florida experienced two hurricanes in a row and my mother was stuck on a cruise ship somewhere near Cuba and my brother and father were trapped in the house and I was reduced to spending hours in the same Czech phone booth every day, trying to get updates from a family friend in North Carolina. That was bad.
I just hope he's OK.
