Vent, or Risk Explosion

My country has gone bat shit insane.

Republicans are now out of the friggin minds. They hold the world economy hostage, until they can slash and burn away at the very things the middle class needs to survive, so that their corporate overlords can keep their bonuses.

And the Democrats, as the grown-ups in the room, caved surrendered are forced to acquiesce to this blackmail.

And the electorate keeps on voting for the Republicans, even as their way of life evaporates into the pockets of the obscenely rich. They are so afraid that "some lazy, good-for-nothing" brown person is getting more than their share, that the Gays will marry and this all will make the baby Jeebus weep. So on and evermore, they keep supporting these assholes, in direct conflict with their own best interests.

So we have jobs off-shored and outsourced, benefits whittled down to nothing, mass transit gutted, healthcare and education costs spiraling out of control; a nation where only the robber barons bourgeoisie gilded class can afford anything.

Welcome to America, 2011

UPDATE: I hear that a few Dem's called the Repug's out on their terrorist tactics. That's what terrorists do; take hostages. Well I guess this hurt the Republicans' feefees! Asshats to the end.

Time to Vent on AmeriKan's

OK - I have some crazzzzy family (no link provided so I can have peace over the holidays)
that is bat shit eating insane and always ready to bitch and moan to me about the lazy, thieving, black, brown, immigrant, slut, soul-less, family crushing, pervert/fag ("but not you, you know what & who I mean"), snobby intelligentsia, elite, libruls...

You know, not us but, Them!!

'Cos we're the only true True Merkins!

They say, all of the above, are taking all our hard earned shit, 'cos, you know, the lazy, thieving, black, brown, immigrant, unwed slut, soul-less, family crushing, pervert/fag ("but not you, you know what & who I mean"), snobby intelligentsia, elite, libruls never worked a day in their lives and could never be true hard workin' Merkins.

Meanwhile, The corporate overlords have looted the house (and destroyed the Middle class).

Sooo, To You True Blue, Stoopid, So-Called Real Merkins! Who do we burn first?

Its about time, a "plus sized" woman won America's next top model!

PAN forward: This is another "best of" from my multiply blog. Generated some very lively discussion there, even with so many people already on summer blog hiatus. You can see the commentary by reading the post there.

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The post...

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Image Source: http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2008/05/well_well_miss_tyra_threw.html

Whitney Thompson- Winner of the 2008 TV show

(Source: www.poptower.com) Vive le differance indeed! I've always railed against the rail thin, unhealthy, unattainable ideal set forth as the standard of feminine beauty. And I have to confess, as a man, I've never understood it, and wondered how much of it has to do our continuing evolution from a patriarchy and our culture's latent misogyny, and how much has to do with women themselves buying into it?

Sure, I know plenty of guys who go for the T&A on a pair of stilts look, but I know just as many who just don't get women's obsession with looking, smelling, and acting perfect.







In the case of my beloved, she was a size 4 to 6 when we wed 13 years ago Pentecost / June 4th, and now she's an 18/20. I'm no less awed by her beauty, and its not just that look of love in her eyes which this photo shows so well, or that she puts up with a piece of work husband like me. I love it that she's shaped differently than I am, that her body feels very different than mine.

What ever size she's been (and at times on her migraine meds, she can flux 4 sizes over the course of a month) she's always "worn it well." Her curves are always there... and that's what's so deliciously different for a rabidly heterosexual man like me.

I've been waiting for someone... say, a woman... to post on this, but none has, and since I've temporarily closed my Johari window so far as blogging goes while some chaos works its way out in my/our life (maybe I'll post on it tomorrow or Friday), I decided now was a good time to post on this. Its been a while since I've done a good feminist rant anyway.

In searching for news reports about this, the most fun one comes from Australia's National Nine News A couple of fun bits from that article...

The headline is:
"A plus-sized model has proven that you can have a "jelly botty" and still take out the crown of America's Next Top Model."

"This is what people should look like rather than skin-and-bones, which is disgusting and sends a bad message."

The decision by the American judges to give top honours to a more curvaceous woman flies in the face of recent weighty comments made by their counterparts on the Australian version of the show.

Judge Charlotte Dawson wrote to ninemsn after receiving a public roasting for telling one contestant she had a "jelly botty".

...

[Dawson said] "The reality is if they were at a casting, an agent would turn around and say 'your arse is too fat' or 'get that 'heffa' out of here'."

Puppy love and Valentine's Day / Happy Anniversaries | A cute & whimsical slideshow and somewhat gentle(by my standards) rant on "Hallmark Holidays"

Some puppy love for Valentine's Day!

A slideshow v-day / anniversary card

HIGHER RES, JUST PIX


puppies etc for vday slideshow
LOWER RES BUT FANCIER

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

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A couple of tidbits about St. Valentine and St. Valentine's day.

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Its not well known, but the whole tradition of courtly, romantic love in the west came via the Islamic East. Crusaders brought back romantic stories and poems from the East, and this greatly influenced the concepts of chivalry, romantic love, etc. in the West

So this info from the Wiki article on the day.

The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer:^[5]

For this was on seynt Volantynys day

Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese [choose] his make [mate].

This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia^[6]. A treaty providing for a marriage was signed on May 2, 1381.^[7] (When they were married eight months later, he was 13 or 14. She was 14.)

On the liturgical calendar, May 2 is the saints' day for Valentine of Genoa. This St. Valentine was an early bishop of Genoa who died around AD 307.^[8][9] Readers incorrectly assumed that Chaucer was referring to February 14 as Valentine's Day. However, mid-February is an unlikely time for birds to be mating in England.^[10]

Chaucer's Parliament of Foules is set in a fictional context of an old tradition, but in fact there was no such tradition before Chaucer. The speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among eighteenth-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. Most notably, "the idea that Valentine's Day customs perpetuated those of the Roman Lupercalia has been accepted uncritically and repeated, in various forms, up to the present"^[11]

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In the Islamic world

In Persian culture (Iran) Sepandarmazgan

is a day for love, which is on 29 Bahman in the jalali solar calendar. The corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar is 17 February. Sepandarmazgan was observed in the Great Persian Empire in the 20th century BC hundreds of years before its acknowledgement by western world.

This day is currently celebrated semi-secretly in Iran despite some restrictions made by government; young Persian boys and girls may be seen on this day going out and buying gifts and celebrating.

In Saudi Arabia in 2008, religious police banned the sale of all Valentine's Day items, telling shop workers to remove any red items, as the day is considered an un-Islamic holiday. This ban created a black market of roses and wrapping paper, according to a BBC News article.^[26]

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My thoughts

Rites of passage are important. For some, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, etc., have such meaning, and its well that they celebrate them. Had I married a woman for whom V-Day was a big deal, I'd certainly not have been stupid and stubborn enough to get on my high horse with her about it, and I certainly don't pull on my umbrage suit for Mother's Day, etc.

Tess and I prefer to celebrate the rites of passage and markings of time which are unique to our lives, as with our recent aufklaerung.

I am troubled by the commercialization not just of this holiday, but of all of them. We're a society which is so ready to substitute money and merchandise for meaning. Its much easier to buy someone something nice than to be nice to them!

So my beef isn't even with this or any other holiday in particular, its with our culture's obsession with matters material and inane. I prefer substantive and spiritual to superficial and saccharine!

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Finally, happy anniversary!

A pair of old friends from "real life" along with D&B are celebrating anniversaries. I rejoice with them/you and wish them/you all the best. I doubt (hope) my "real life" friends aren't reading this blog... they'd need depends (they're VERY vanilla albeit very dear people) but they may have come across the version of this post I put on Multiply.

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