Strange Headlines

I agree with Balloon-Juice:

This is one, weird, headline:

"Bush calls for 'direct and rapid' stimulus"

FISA and Telecom Immunity Coming Up For a Vote

So I write letters to our Senators Durbin and Obama:

Please, Please, Please!

Do not grant telecom immunity.

The telecoms at the behest of our imperial president have broken the law with illegal searches.

If telecom immunity is granted, we will never know the extent of their criminal activity.

So please, do everything in your power to see that this immunity is not granted.

Sincerely

A Strict Constitutionalist Citizen of the USA

FISA as is already grants the right to immediate searches as long a warrant is secured after the fact from a secret FISA court, something that was not done by Bush and the telecoms. (I think it allows for FISA court review and warrants secured up to 90 or 120 days after the search. I find that practical, if a tad invasive.)

I do not relish opening every phone conversation with: "OK George, can you hear me now?"

So I write letters...

I urge you do the same.

Durbin can be contacted here, Obama here.

Chris Matthews, Retard

Apology or no apology, Chris Matthews is a blithering idiot.

From Media Matters' Jamison Foser

MSNBC's Chris Matthews problem

Think about this for a second: Chris Matthews is holding it against Hillary Clinton that her husband cheated on her. But he doesn't hold it against John McCain and Rudy Giuliani that they cheated on their spouses. Matthews seems to think women are to blame when their husbands have affairs -- and men who cheat on their spouses are blameless.

Read the whole thing.

I may just go and vote Hillary, just to watch Tweety's head explode. But then again, if a pile of shit explodes in a vacuum, is there anything to see?

But at least it would get this cretin off my TeeVee, permanently.

Flipster Mittster Takes Nevada

As Boston Betty gently weeps...

The state is heavily LDS. And the rest is having one hell of a sunbaked LSD flashback.

UPDATE:
Of course, this is MSNBC's call, with 0% of votes reporting in. Our Mainstream Media at work.

Meanwhile On Granville....

SnarkAngel walks by a shattered window at Gino's North and goes "too bad, so sad" and walks on by.


OK, SA must have passed prior to the disturbance.

Peace, Love

The Yuppification of Boystown: A sign of social progress or the degredation and dillution of a precious and unique culture

It occurred to me that this would be an apt topic for my first post here since Snark and I have been discussing it in the comments section of Youtube.

As I said in my intro, I am a "breeder" but I definitely don't color inside the lines. (I've long since given up on labels... I settled on Goth because I do favor black and I love the Goth attitude, and its a concept that people seem to be able to wrap their minds around. I wear what I want to wear, what looks good on me, what turns me or my wife on, etc, with little regard for traditional practices or custom.) I used to look forwards to trips to the Belmont & Halsted epicenter of "the rainbow kingdom" and especially Market Days as a chance to "let my freak flag fly," to wear my leathers and piercings loud and proud, etc.

One of my Market Days videos from 2007

But this year, I was sorely disappointed with it. I didn't see many piercings larger than 14 gauge belly rings sported by overly cheery and heavily pink clad girls. There were more baby strollers than leather collars.

The video which gave rise to our discussion was a frankly lazy and lame one I did by setting my camera on the dashboard of my car as I drove north on Clark through Andersonville and commented/kvetched/carped about things. From it you will doubtless advise me to keep my day job! But I don't have one other than studying for class, walking my dogs, and caring for wife, so there! *grin*

Our dialog on Youtube

SnarkAngel

A little prettier than "Granville," hey? But with it's yuppie-fi-cation comes a lessening appeal . . . well, for me anyway. LOL

Me

Its not my favorite place to "hang out" to be sure, but the yuppification of the southern end of the "Rainbow Kingdom" and especially Market Days is more concerning to me. In just the few years I've been here, its gone from being the Midwest's answer to Folsom or Burning Man to something wretchedly lame, tame, and vanilla. I saw more soccer moms and strollers than I saw nipple piercings and leather collars in '07. :<

BUT... Watch it bub, as people of your preference become more accepted and integrated into society, there might come a day when some are as boring and unimaginative as those of my persuasion who have neutered Market Days. *grin*

So where do the non-conformists go these days- breeders and otherwise- since Market Days has practically become a PTA party?

Snark

Trust me, I already know some of my preference who have become boring and unimaginative . . . UGH! HA! Market Days as a PTA party! Good one! We need to bring "Edgewater Days" back to Granville. It's been more than a FEW years back, but what madness!

Me

Still, your point is well made, but "same as it ever ways." Which ever subculture is deemed taboo and exciting draws people from the dominant culture... first for excitement and danger, then they start to overrun it, and finally it loses its distinctiveness. Its rather like fluid dynamics... water etc. will move across the concentration gradient until the concentration is equal on both sides.

The more permeable the barrier, the more quickly this happens, and happily for the state of our culture, the barrier between breeder and non-breeder has become quite porous in places like Chicago.

SnarkAngel

Trust me, I already know some of my preference who have become boring and unimaginative . . . UGH! HA! Market Days as a PTA party! Good one! We need to bring "Edgewater Days" back to Granville. It's been more than a FEW years back, but what madness

Me

Exactly... on the one hand, I'm glad that the stigma is lower, the barrier more permeable. On the other, I miss the distinct character the GLBTQ "ghetto." Everyone needs a place where they can let it all hang out without worrying about PTA types getting their knickers all wedged up!

So much our dialog on Youtube

Now, picking up where that left off...
1) I've heard stories about "Edgewater days" and been told that I would fit right in with my gothy nobifurcated regalia, but it had ceased to be by the time I moved here.

2) All distinct groups have gone through the process of assimilation. My parents' generation still lived in places where German was the language of the street. (Made it real fun during WWII, lemme tell ya! The feds were crawling all over those towns!)

This raises two issues in my mind... one practical, one more philosophical...
1) If you assume that having a distinct subculture and place to express it is an innately good thing (as indeed I do), then how is this maintained in our increasingly media driven, mobile culture?

2) Is there anything innate to engaging in homosexual acts, living the homosexual lifestyle, or having a homosexual identity which makes a person more colorful, creative, eccentric?

Since while I'm a misfit, I'm not a misfit in precisely that way, I won't answer that question as such- there are others here more qualified than I am to do so.
But since I've always been a misfit- from the time I was a tall boy in growing up Indiana who hated basketball onwards- I do have these observations:

- Once you break one of the major taboos of society, once you break one bond of conformity, it becomes much easier to break others. I think most people who are outwardly conforming and "vanilla" have a vivid albeit repressed inner life which could bloom and grow in the right environment. I have many a friend who's still a church mouse or who lives in less diverse parts of the country who envies me the freedom of expression and attire I now enjoy and express in Chicago as one no longer affiliated with or beholden to any particular church body. (One of my blog friends on Multiply, for example, has talked very openly about what its like to have tattoos and lives in the rural south. She doesn't have a fraction as many as my wife does, but she gets "preached at" constantly, and is unwelcome at most churches. ) (The photo is of us from a year ago, pre-black hair- showing off my wife's beautiful "stained glass window" half sleeve tattoo, one of what... 16?... that she has.)

- Cities and subcultures provide for a critical mass and affirming social environment which encourages the exploration and expression of the unconventional.

So... that's where we leave off, over to you all.
Have fun folks!

Introducing... me, Listig aka the Rug Goth (thanks for the invite Snark!)

Hello all,
I wanted to thank Snark for inviting me to be a contributor to this fine raucous blog, and say a few words of introduction.

I too live in the far northside of Chicago- Snark's posted a number of my videos of street life and events in the area over the months, and that's how he and I became acquainted.

I am a "breeder"- married 12 years- but culturally, politically, and religiously I'm thoroughly eclectic and idiosyncratic. Indeed, last spring the "Broken Heart of Rogers Park" featured a picture of me with my papillon dogs the day the local stores had their liquor licenses revoked IDing me as "Kent the big gay dog walker" due to my rather unique mode of attire. I took it as a compliment and laughed at the South Park reference (my wife and I are HUGE fans of it.) While I have my own views and practices, I don't begrudge anyone else theirs, nor belabor my own. We each try to live according to our "inner Dao." The world would be a boring place were everyone like I am, and one filled with insufferable bibliophiles whose capacity for loquacity, pomposity, and arrogance knows no bounds.

I've been married 12 years. My wife and I met in theological grad school. Long story there, and one I don't intend to iterate here... if you care, email me, or read my multiply blog (listig.multiply.com) for the background there. The point is- Neither one of us in that vocation now, nor are there any plans to return to it in any official formal capacity. I'm training to be a nurse, she's disabled from teaching theology, Biblical languages, and modern languages. Her disability is daily chronic migraines which is what brought us to Chicago, as the world's best headache clinic is here. We love the city for its location on the lake, its cultural and ethnic diversity, and mass transit. As for its confiscatory tax rates and inbred political culture... thats probably something for a future post!

My nickname on Blogger- "The Rug Goth" is one I chose because my blogger blog: toothbrushrugs.blogspot.com - is solely dedicated to popularizing and teaching the ancient craft of naalbidning which is more commonly known as "toothbrush rug making" because the preferred needle for decades has been an old toothbrush with the head chopped off and the shaft sharpened to a tip like a prisoner's shank. I keep all other matters off that blog because I have a lot of interests, opinions, etc. which people who make the rugs may not care about, share, etc., and I don't want to dissuade them from the craft over what they think of me.

What's really wonderful about this craft is that it is a way to recycle worn and stained clothes, runned pantyhose, shopping bags, etc. into rugs without any use of fossil fuels. These rugs are beautiful and commonly last decades. Its the epitome of "think globally, act locally." (Yes, one of my political quirks is that I am an ardent environmentalist.) Its also so easy to do that a klutz like myself can do it, and do it well.

I get into other issues more over on multiply, and most posts are open for anyone to read, though I've tended to go light on the political talk because about 1/2 my main friends are outside the States, and quite a number of others haven't particularly cared for some of my views (such as opposing school prayer, "in God we trust" etc... they have a hard time with the idea that a former pastor and ardent believer could be that way.) They're dear folk none the less, they've been very supportive to me and my wife Tess, so... I find other things to talk about there. The only time when I'm at a loss for words is when I'm comatose, so its really no problem.

I think this suffices for now. I'll chime in with a "real post" when the time is right. Thanks again Snark!

FREAKY FRIDAY - "Cruising" Into the Weekend With a Laugh!

As scary as meat from the offspring of cloned animals . . .

And Now For Something Completely Different

Jack Benny vs. Groucho
My agesake...
Circa 1955:

We Do Have Something Special For You My Friends...

Is it an actress singing or a singer acting...

Circa 1966:

Dressed as an ostrich
As, alas, we all used to...
But underneath the feathers a fantastic songstress...

How can I live through another day..

Now I am numb
I've become unreal
...
Only my last
Goodbye...

Here come the stars

Tumbling around me...
And on a Como Show!

And JG triumphant reinterpreting Fred Astaire:
circa 1965

I'll go my way by myself
This is the end of romance...

And then there is the Shirley Bassey:

In a very ta ta decolatage.

And yes, Jaeggers with Snarkangel always bring this out of me....

Since we're in a nostalgic mood, may I offer this...

little tune as performed by Diane Keaton from Woody Allen's 'Radio Days.' This song and its setting made me long for a time I never even existed in, but my mom did, God rest her soul, and she loved this movie and song.

Best WWII Song Ever?

the children's carousel, the chestnut trees, the wishing well...

Or this:
From Torchwood

And the there's this:

Multiple Mitt Flip Flopney Caught in Another Lie

While trying to put down his rival candidates because of their ties to lobbyists, Mitt Romney got his ass handed to him by veteran campaign reporter Glen Johnson. In addition to the lobbyist named, Ron Kaufman, turns out closer scrutiny by the minute is revealing more lobbyists in cahoots with Romney's campaign, including former senator, Jim Talent! Watch Romney try to squirm out of this one!

IF I ACTUALLY TRUSTED THE F.D.A. . . .

. . . this might not be so friggin' scary. But they've done it, folks. This week.

This, from Truthout.org . . .

After years of debate, the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday declared that food from cloned animals and their progeny is safe to eat, clearing the way for milk and meat derived from genetic copies of prized dairy cows, steers and hogs to be sold at the grocery store."

This did little to make me feel better . . .

Animal breeding takes time, so even with Tuesday's actions, it is likely to be several years before products from the offspring of clones are at the grocery store in appreciable quantity.

Consumer groups immediately lambasted the F.D.A.'s report, saying that the science remains inadequate and that many consumers oppose cloning for religious or ethical reasons. Some members of Congress had sought to delay a decision until further studies were completed.

And the FDA doesn't believe special labeling is necessary. Ugh.

However, Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, has introduced legislation to require labels on cloned products, and consumer groups suggested that labeling would be a battleground in the near future.

The USDA is calling for a "moratorium."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture yesterday asked U.S. farmers to keep their cloned animals off the market indefinitely even as Food and Drug Administration officials announced that food from cloned livestock is safe to eat.

Bruce I. Knight, the USDA's undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, requested an ongoing "voluntary moratorium" to buy time for "an acceptance process" that Knight said consumers in the United States and abroad will need, "given the emotional nature of this issue."

Yet even as the two agencies sought a unified message - that food from clones is safe for people but perhaps dangerous to U.S. markets and trade relations - evidence surfaced suggesting that Americans and others are probably already eating meat from the offspring of clones.

Okay, I've managed to quit smoking (well, for two weeks plus, anyway). Maybe it's time to give up my meat-eating ways and become a vegan . . .

As Ususal . . . He Gets The Last Word . . .

Do'h! Asshole Wins Michigan!

Although it seems the election was certainly not decided by Democrats, I'd be interested in seeing how the rest of the Romney campaign plays out...apparently, at least the people of Michigan don't care that they've thrown the eggs in the basket of a corporate, pandering flip-flopper...the exact type of guy, as Huckabee referred to, as they guy that sent Michigan jobs overseas, rather than the type of guy who worked next to them. We'll see what the future hold, but mark my words, I believe the left is seriously underestimating "Multiple Mitt!'"

We may be on our way to a nightmarish Bush sequel!!!!

Speaking of Recession

In the comments that is.

DUDES!!! WHERE'S MY 401K?

DOW JONES: 12,501.11

Do or Die Day for the Flippin' Mittster

The Great Orange Satan is there to lend Boston Betty's BFFFF (Best Fabu Flipping Friend Forever) a hand encouraging da Detroit Dems to vote MR. Just to keep that circular firing squad a firin' apace.

To quote Irving Berlin:
"Oh I wish and wish and wish again,
That I was back home there in Michigan..."

Republicans did this numerous times in Michigan to Dems, and once, and threw the primary to pre-reformed bigot George Wallace and we all know how that went:

Kos:

In 1972, Republican voters in Michigan decided to make a little mischief, crossing over to vote in the open Democratic primary and voting for segregationist Democrat George Wallace, seriously embarrassing the state's Democrats. In fact, a third of the voters (PDF) in the Democratic primary were Republican crossover votes. In 1988, Republican voters again crossed over, helping Jesse Jackson win the Democratic primary, helping rack up big margins for Jackson in Republican precincts. (Michigan Republicans can clearly be counted on to practice the worst of racial politics.) In 1998, Republicans helped Jack Kevorkian's lawyer -- quack Geoffrey Feiger -- win his Democratic primary, thus guaranteeing their hold on the governor's mansion that year.

I love a bit of turnabout, just rewards, taste of their own medicine, don't you?

Proof Of Global Warming!

Click Here to see the full photo and where we were at in 2006!

NK - Why You Do This To Me: VDolls

The only explanation is SnarkAngel's Jaeger pour...
Dolls, Good-bye PussyCat:

"...to a great star like you." "I'll go back the way I came in."

By the way, wearing the Garland pantsuit, and then I continue with our JG...