Sunday, November 30, 2008
Kaboom at dawn
Last night, close to dawn, I heard a voice, or maybe more than one, on the street, maybe some other noises -- I was half-asleep. Then a man yelled loudly, "Hey!!" If he had yelled again, I would have gotten up, but there was no more yelling, so I thought maybe I can go back to sleep. Then a car horn started sounding continuously -- a small Japanese car, judging from the "beeeeeeep." It lasted about a minute, and I thought, shit, somebody's just picking up a co-worker -- first he yelled and now he's honking. But after a minute or so, the car's horn shattered into two different notes and then died out. Then: BLAM!
I got up, walked to the front windows in the living room and looked out. A few doors up, a car was engulfed in flames, a ball of fire about 15 feet in diameter. Standing naked in the cold living room, I dialed 911, but by the time I was talking to them, I heard sirens already.
No way was I getting back to sleep after that, and it was almost 6:00 a.m. anyway. So while the firemen put out the fire, I took a shower and got dressed. By the time I got down to the street about a half hour later, the fire truck was pulling away and there was just a cop car, with a cop walking around the scene and making notes. The destroyed car was a small convertible with stuff piled in the back seat -- clothing and books that had partially burned up. Black burned mess, including several partially burned books, were all over the street and sidewalk, sitting in puddles of water.
By the time I left the house to go to church 45 minutes later, even the car had been towed away.
Obama voters sinned: Roman Catholic priests
At least The Catholics require an actual act before condemning people. You may recall the Alabama city administrator who told the NYT that people who aren't disappointed by Obama's victory "need to be at the altar" to ask forgiveness.
The Central Valley where Modesto is located is one of the most socially conservative areas of California. Churches in the region's Episcopal diocese left the national Episcopal church last year over the national body's endorsement of an openly gay bishop -- not in their diocese but in New Hampshire -- and voters in Stanislaus County, where Modesto is located, voted 68 to 32 percent in favor of anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 earlier this month.
technorati: Roman Catholics, Obama, Christian Right
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Focus on the Fundies: Ted Haggard is preaching again
Then the 50-year-old president of the National Association of Evangelicals and a symbol of the relationship between the Christian Right and the Republican Party, Haggard was outed by the male prostitute whom he had patronized and bought drugs from over several years in Colorado. His very public fall, coming just days before the 2006 election, was preceded a month earlier by the fall of Mark Foley, and marked the beginning of the end of Republican domination of electoral politics in the U.S. for several years.
Be sure to read to the end of today's story where an elder of Haggard's former church compares him to a "mouse" in his present state.
Update: Courtesy Jeff Sharlett, here's an ABC News story -- with audio excerpts from Haggard's sermon if you play the video.
technorati: Ted Haggard, Christians, televangelists
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wal-Mart employee trampled as doors opened
A giddy shopper in Atlanta, meanwhile, rejoiced over a bargain on a designer t-shirt, saying "We have to marinate in our deals." I wonder if that's quite what she meant.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Astronauts relieved as toilet functions with flying colors
Meanwhile, you remember the bonehead play earlier this week when a space walker let a tool bag drift away. An Australian hobbyist has captured the debris in a photo.
technorati: space travel, NASA, toilet, pissing
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Things I had to look up: fraught
Huh, good question. Dictionary.com says the words are related. Fraught comes from a Middle Low German word meaning "freight money," which I take to mean the same thing we meant when we ask, "What's the freight on that?" -- that is, the shipping charge, however metaphorical.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Candace Gingrich to Newt: You're the past
This (LGBT movement) is a movement of the people that you most fear. It's a movement of progress -- and your words on FOX News only show how truly desperate you are to maintain control of a world that is changing before your very eyes.
technorati: Newt Gingrich
JFK assassination day: the 45th anniversary
Oh, and if you ever had an idea to form a band called the Grassy Knolls -- it's been done.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Things I had to look up: Enarch (n.)
Already the culture of the Obama administration is coming into focus. Its members are twice as smart as the poor reporters who have to cover them, three times if you include the columnists. They typically served in the Clinton administration and then, like Cincinnatus, retreated to the comforts of private life -- that is, if Cincinnatus had worked at Goldman Sachs, Williams & Connolly or the Brookings Institution. ... And yet as much as I want to resent these overeducated Achievatrons (not to mention the incursion of a French-style government dominated by highly trained Enarchs), I find myself tremendously impressed by the Obama transition.What the hell? It sounds like some kind of weird science fiction term. But I found this:
"Enarchy" derives from the acronym ENA, "Ecole Nationale d'Administration", which selects the 25 years old. students who will take the top chief executive jobs in high civil services. Graduate of this school are called "enarchs."Not sure how you count that in dollars; I suppose Brooks means "Ivy Leaguers and their ilk."
technorati: words, columnists, David Brooks
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Indian tech employee dies in fun team-building event
Such antics, and their unintended consequences, are the subject of the novel I'm just finishing up, Bangalored.
technorati: Bangalore, India, outsourcing
A very nice mention
If you need some inspiration, pick up a copy of Mark Pritchard's "How I Adore You." It's a collection of erotic short stories that mostly focuses on different degrees of BDSM. The first story, "Pretend," is so tastefully salacious that you won't need much more to inspire you, though you probably won't want to put the book down until you hit the back cover.I'm a fan of Alexis' writing too, and I hope she writes a book someday soon so I can return the favor.
technorati: Alexis McKinnis, sex columnists,
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Gingrich: it takes one to know one
What the fuck planet is he talking about?
GINGRICH: Look, I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact. And, frank -- for that matter, if you believe in the historic version of Islam or the historic version of Judaism, you have to confront the reality that these secular extremists are determined to impose on you acceptance of a series of values that are antithetical, they're the opposite, of what you're taught in Sunday school.
... I think when the left -- when the radicals lost the vote in California, they are determined to impose their will on this country no matter what the popular opinion, no matter what the law of the land. You've watched them, for example, in Massachusetts, basically drive the Catholic Church out of running adoption services, drive Catholic hospitals out of offering any services, because they impose secular rules that are fundamentally sinful from the standpoint, you know.
First of all he uses the classic right-wing tactic of accusing the other side of what you're already doing; in this case it's "fascism," and to that all I can say is, it takes one to know one.
Secondly, what the fuck is he doing, talking about what "traditional religion" is, what is or is not taught in Sunday School, what is sinful? He's a freaking politician. He hasn't had a day of religious training in his life, not since he left the Sunday School he must be referring to. (Unlike O'Reilly, who at least went to a Jesuit secondary school.) He is talking completely out of his ass.
Gingrich is determined to use the next three and a half years to position himself for a presidential run. He thinks enough time has passed since his infamous ethical problems lost him his House seat and he became a laughingstock for shutting down the government in 1995. And he's putting himself out front and center now, while Republicans are flailing, to see whether any of their wounded, run-over dogs will wag their tails.
One look at his scary-clown face should be enough to dissuade anybody from ever voting for him again, but if not, his record should be enough to convince people how toxic he is.
technorati: Newt Gingrich, crypto-fascism, Bill O'Reilly
Blue and beige seemingly ruled book design this year
That's a screen capture from a Galleycat posting about the upcoming National Books Awards; it depicts the five finalists in fiction and non-fiction. Go to the post and you'll see the nominees in the other two categories, poetry and Young People's Literature. Has anybody pointed out that, including the five poetry books (not pictured above), just about all the book covers use only two colors, blue and beige? The poetry books have a little bit of pale yellow and (daring!) on one, a panel colored a subdued orange. What is up with that??
technorati: book design
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Fight the power
Man accused of driving in the buff on interstateShit, you meant that's illegal!? I've never gotten caught.
The Associated Press
Thursday, November 6, 2008; 6:21 PM
SOUTHBURY, Conn. -- A 30-year-old man faces criminal charges after police said he was spotted driving nude on Interstate 84 in Southbury. Troopers said the man was driving nude on I-84 Wednesday morning near Exit 14, near the state police barracks.
The man, charged with public indecency and breach of peace, was released on a $1,000 bond and is due in Waterbury Superior Court on Nov. 19.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
What will anti-8 protests accomplish?
And it remains uncertain whether the aggressive tactics ultimately advance the activists' goal: Either having the California Supreme Court throw out Proposition 8 or persuading voters in a new election that gay marriage should be legal in the state.Right, there is already a lawsuit trying to stop the implementation of Prop. 8, so exactly what are the protests going to accomplish? Of course it's fine to give people an emotional outlet. But I think the reason why people are going to these demonstrations is -- for some of them -- guilt that they didn't do more to stop Prop. 8 before the election.
As I grow older, I look on street protests more and more as simply being theater. And there's nothing wrong with theater, to the extent that it motivates people to do something more than go to demonstrations. But if I were one of the people behind Prop. 8 -- a Catholic bishop, a Republican activist, a Mormon panjandrum -- I might look at the demonstrations and simply smirk. Just as Obama supporters are now feeling a good deal of smugness.
I also wonder: if Prop. 8 had been defeated and anti-abortion Prop. 4 won, would there be these nationwide demonstrations? And why not?
technorati: gay marriage, Prop. 8, protests, demonstrations, gay
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Today's hoax: fake pundit not really a 'McCain adviser'
My favorite bit of the story is that the filmmakers based his name on the notion that "all the neocons in the Bush administration had Jewish last names and Christian first names."
I read much of the article to Cris, who said, "It isn't very funny."
I said, "It's meta-funny -- it's making fun of the whole superstructure of blogs, pundits, opinionators and so forth who form a sort of mulch that feeds the news cycle." (I thought I was clever for coining a neologism, but "opinionator" turns out already to be in common use.)
technorati: fakes, hoaxes, Martin Eisenstadt
The year in blogs
I know, who? Thank goodness, then, for RSS and Google Reader. I hope the Valleywag-only posts will have their own feed. Of course, there's always Silicon Alley Insider.
Speaking of Gawker properties, io9, their science and sci-fi-related property -- whose queen Annalee Newitz I interviewed early this year -- always makes me want to surf porn. I don't know why.
My new favorite blog site of the year (new to me, that is)? The Politico site. But now that the election's over I have the feeling I won't find it as compelling.
I wish Michelle Obama would start a blog. That could be awesome. But in the meantime, let me offer this post on Jezebel by writer Megan Carpentier. Recounting the opening today of the Republican Governor's Conference, she writes in part:
Former GOP pollster/strategist Frank Luntz took his turn shitting on the party and McCain today, too, saying, among other things, that "Stevie Wonder reads a teleprompter better than John McCain." Luntz, who was a GOP star in 1994, is so far up Newt Gringrich's ass that he knows what donor's cock Gincrich just finished sucking to fund his campaign in 2012 from the taste alone.Suddenly I have something to look forward to.
Today's fake: woman stages daughter's kidnapping
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Graphic novel by Jason Little
technorati: Jason Little, comix
Focus on the Fundies: Still stuck in early stages of grief
This is a community that's supposed to be filled with a bunch of Christian folks. If they're not disappointed, they need to be at the altar.That's one Don Dollar, in Vernon, Alabama, seat of Lamar County, where 76% of residents voted for John McCain -- a 5% increase over the number who voted for George Bush in 2004.
By "to be at the altar" he is not suggesting marriage, but contrition. Fundamentalist churches have "altar calls" in which people are invited to dedicate, or rededicate, themselves to Christ.
I think he's saying, "I thought everybody here was just like me. I can't believe almost a quarter of people aren't. And since I do everything I'm told, anybody not like me must be a sinner.
"Of course, they aren't so far like me that they don't share my religio-cultural context, so surely they belong to a church just like mine, with identical values. I fully expect them to feel they have sinned in not mourning the victory of the Democrat, and to repent of it."
The word "Deliverance" comes to mind -- the film, not the doctrine.
Link to churches in and around Vernon, AL. Five of the first ten are Baptist, two others are Church of Christ, and one is simply a "Full Gospel Worship Center."
technorati: fundamentalists, Baptists, Alabama, election, Christians, sin, repentance, white trash
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Chicken-or-egg question
technorati: drag, cinema, Billy Wilder, film, Gloria Swanson
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Focus on the Fundies: Dobson 'jubilant' over anti-gay election wins
Dobson's group contributed half a million dollars to help pass California's Proposition 8, which intends to amend the state's constitution to disallow gay marriage. Pro-marriage groups sued Thursday to keep the vote from being enforced.
technorati: James Dobson, Focus on the Family, gay marriage
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
The first thing I've seen that makes me like Sarah Palin
At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys' club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. "I'll be just a minute," she said.That's from a Newsweek article rounding up bits and pieces from the campaign.
technorati: Palin
Where the bigots are
But the most interesting thing it shows is which areas of the country got more conservative in the last four years:
- hillbillies, who are bigots through and through
- areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, where all the black people moved away
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Focus on the Fundies: sad faces in Colorado Springs
technorati: Colorado Springs, election
My near-misses with the near-famous, part 1
technorati: Suzannah Breslin
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Twitter your voting experience
Focus on the Fundies: Anti-abortion prop, vague fears stoke New Lifers
Read previous posts about New Life Church.
technorati: New Life Church, Colorado Springs, election