This morning, I awoke from a dream in which Iain had left me. I'm not remotely fearful in my conscious mind that Iain will leave, and I've never had dreams in previous relationships about lovers leaving, but I occasionally have them now. Maybe it's a sign that I'm finally with someone I really want to stay; maybe it's a sign that I'm becoming more aware of our mortality; maybe a Freudian would tell me it's about unresolved Daddy issues; who the fuck knows?
In any case, as Iain was getting ready to leave for the train, I rolled over and peered at him through the grey morning light. "I had a terrible dream that you left me," I told him.
"I'm not leaving you," he said, matter-of-factly. He twisted a cufflink through his cuff then looked up at me and grinned.
"I hope not," I laughed.
As is his habit before he leaves in the morning, he came to me and kissed me on the forehead. "Hope is for Obama," he sniffed. "I'm all about certainty."
News from Shakes Manor
The Third Term of George Bush Is Going Splendidly
Anything Bush could do, I can do better:
The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.In case you need a reminder of the fun stuff national security letters—which are the intelligence-gathering equivalent of the presidential signing statement: a stroke of the pen to magically turn dubiously ethical and formerly prohibited actions into perfectly legal maneuvers, with no legislation, no oversight, and no knowledge of the American people required—were used for during the Bush administration, here's a refresher.
The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.
But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters.
That Obama, who strolled into office on promises to curtail exactly this sort of abuse of extrajudicial power, is now petitioning to expand that power is a naked betrayal of spectacular proportions.
The profundity of my contempt for this administration defies description.
[Previously in Third Term of Bush: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, and there are about a zillion more, but you get the drift.]
We need your help now to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
by Elizabeth Shirey, the Grassroots/Policy Advocate for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), a national, legal services and policy organization dedicated to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT), with our repeal coalition partner the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, jointly announced today a new grassroots campaign to increase support and to press for passage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal in the U.S. Senate.
Your help is critical. This nationwide campaign will mobilize grassroots supporters of equality across the country. Too many times when I mention that I work on the repeal of DADT, I hear the following response from repeal supporters: "Oh, right! I heard something about that a few months ago. So…what's going on with that?"
As you may know, the Defense Authorization Act – which contains the repeal amendment – passed the U.S. House and the Senate Armed Services Committee back in May. The next step toward repeal is the full Senate vote, which could come just after Labor Day.
We need supporters to contact their senators and tell them to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and follow the lead of Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) who will be managing the defense bill on the floor. It is critical that we beat back any filibuster threat, defeat attempts to strike repeal, and stop any corrosive amendments.
With the combined resources of HRC and SLDN, we'll be in a strong position to put maximum pressure on the Senate as we move toward this vote for repeal. Now is the moment where we need your help and your teaspoons.
We need every person on board as we try to flood senators' offices with pro-equality voices and drown out the ever-present opposition. There are many ways to get involved, including writing and calling your senators or participating in an in-district visit over the August recess. In-district meetings are a very personal way to tell both your senators why you support repeal and why this step toward equality is so important for our country.
DADT affects the lives of countless active-duty service members, veterans, and their dependents, discharged under this law. Don't let bigots call the shots – now is your chance to weigh in on this issue with major decision-makers. Let's get this done!
A Brief Encounter
The other night, I happened to glance out the front window just as I saw a big, beautiful pigeon land on the front porch. It's very unusual to see pigeons in this area; because we're right on Lake Michigan, we get lots of seagulls, but we're too rural to get many pigeons.
"Zup?"
I noticed zie had a green tag around one ankle and an orange tag around the other, but I couldn't make out what either of them said. I went out on the porch and brought my friend a piece of bread, in which zie showed little interest. Zie was, however, very interested in my cooing in hir own language, and spoke back to me for a bit while I took hir picture.
I happen to be a person who likes pigeons (it runs in the family) and so I was pleased to spend a few minutes with such a lovely specimen of pigeon-kind.
Eventually, zie decided to move along and took off in a great flutter of powerful wings. I went back inside and pet the heads of the very interested furry onlookers to the whole scene.
What I'm Listening To
(There's no transcription necessary for the video; it's just the song against a static anime image. Lyrics below, transcribed by BrianWS.)
Thanks so much to BrianWS for passing this along. He emails (which I'm posting with his permission):
So the quick back story is that this band, The Rescues, is like my musical fantasy. The two ladies in the band are Kyler England and Adrianne (an excellent lesbian singer-songwriter who has routinely broken my heart over and over with her music throughout the years), both of whom had long and successful solo careers and both of whom I've spent way too much money on in ITunes.Enjoy.
They teamed up with two guys from LA, as they were all sort of doing their own solo things in the local scene, and The Rescues is the end result. The harmonies are amazing, the lyrics are honest and earnest, and the entire sound is just incredibly organic and not manufactured by anything other than their individual songwriting all coming together. Lots of call and response pieces throughout the CD, super-thick harmonies that absolutely blow my mind...blah blah blah I'm a total fanboy, but they're the first band that I really feel like I'm engaging with in a very long time -- and that's something I've missed since I stopped playing shows and writing as much as I used to.
Desert sand fills up your boots
You promise not to run
California won't grow roots
They burn up in the sun
I'm lost but I'm not afraid
So what if nothing's taking hold?
All the plans that you made
Let 'em go
Falling down in the dirt
We're OK
We are tired, we are hurt
We're OK
Crashing cars, dying stars
I can love you like you are
Hit the wall, have to crawl
Even if we lose it all
We're OK
Torn dress, broken heart
Stumble to the ground
Feel the eyes rip you apart
They try to take you down
Oh, but they'll never break us down
Falling down in the dirt
We're OK
We are tired, we are hurt
We're OK
Crashing cars, dying stars
I can love you like you are
Hit the wall, have to crawl
Even if we lose it all
We're OK
I know you don't believe it
Sometimes I don't believe it
Together we'll fall
Don't matter at all
You're the one you gotta forgive
Forgive
Falling down in the dirt
We're OK
We are tired, we are hurt
We're OK
Crashing cars, dying stars
I can love you like you are
Hit the wall, have to crawl
Even if we lose it all
Sirens wail, empty sail
Not enough cups to bail
Bad luck getting good
You don't want it like you should
Empty out your bank account
You know you can live without
Hit the wall, have to crawl
Even if we lose it all
We're OK
We're OK
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
The Ladies of The View Talk Lesbianism
So, here's the thing: I tend to identify as straight because I am in a long-term relationship with a man, I've primarily been attracted to men, I've never been in a long-term relationship with a woman, and thus I get all the privileges of heterosexuality. I've fooled around with other girls, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I've had a queer poly relationship with two men, and I strongly believe that my sexuality is dynamic—and that deviation from a static sexuality at a fixed point on a spectrum makes me queer by most straight standards, but doesn't always make me queer by most queer standards.
So I'm a straight-queer sorta gal. But labels are not what this post is about. It's about the fluidity of sexuality, and how the ladies of The View don't dig variability, man.
[Transcript below.]
Where to begin? Well, although Behar is certainly the voice of reason compared to Hasselbeck's nonsense, I don't particularly love the idea that women who come out as lesbians late in life were necessarily closeted all along. I'm sure that's true for many women, but why is it so hard to conceive of a woman (or a man, for that matter) whose attractions, or choices, change over hir lifetime?
We're always so desperate to talk about sexuality as if it isn't a choice, ever, for anyone, lest we create a crack into which homobigots can insert their argument that it's an American-wrecking lifestyle choice that makes the Baby Jesus cry buttplug-shaped tears or whatever, but, you know, maybe we should be talking about sexuality in a way that says even if it is a choice, people who love and fuck and live with and parent with and grow old with or have one-night stands with people of the same sex are deserving of equal rights because it's no one else's goddamned business and MREWYB.
Personally, I'd like to create space for the women who choose to be lesbians later in life, instead of telling tales about how they just "didn't know" they were lesbians until they woke up one morning with a voracious appetite for cooter, or whatever magical awakening they're meant to have had.
And let us not fail to mention how this entire either-or conversation the View ladies are having totally erases the existence of bisexual women.
I'm not even going to bother deconstructing the foolishness emanating from Hasselbeck's garbage-brain. Suffice it to say I do not agree that late-life lesbianism is primarily attributable to sexless spinsters who are just looking for passionless companionship and fall into the arms of the nearest accommodating lesbian because all the good men are occupied applying copious amounts of Just for Men to their temples and chasing co-eds. Yawn.
[Via.]
Whoopi Goldberg: There is a rise…in late-blooming lesbians. More and more women are choosing same-sex partners, even after decades of heterosexuality. Why do you think that is?
Sherri Shepherd: Is that saying as women get older, it's just like a 'been-there-done-that' kind of thing, and I'm open to—
Elizabeth Hasselbeck: No—no, and I'll tell you what's happening: All the older men are going for younger women, leaving the women with no one!
Joy Behar: So that's why they're suddenly sleeping with women? That's ridiculous.
[a bunch of stupid crosstalk]
Behar: You act like women are in jail—we're not in jail! I—
Hasselbeck: No, but you're searching for a companion that understands you, and if all the men who— Say you were in a heterosexual relationships; you're looking for that, but the men who are of your age, have had similar experience, are off chasing a little young—
Behar: Yeah, but, Elizabeth, being a lesbian, being gay is not just, you know, holding hands and walking through the tulips.
Hasselbeck: I understand that, but—
Behar: There are things that people do, sexually—
[crosstalk]
Hasselbeck: Thank you for educating me! [sarcastically]
Behar: Wait a minute; I'm not finished. But I don't think that you suddenly wake up and say, "You know, I think I wanna do that." You wanted to do it; you were just trapped in a system that said "Get married."
Shepherd: So you're saying all along—
Hasselbeck: Maybe, maybe not!
Behar: All along you knew you were gay, and you just didn't either admit it or you didn't acknowledge it or you didn't know it, maybe—
[crosstalk]
Hasselbeck: —but maybe there's also— We've done studies that women aren't necessarily needing something sexual; they're more needing something in terms of—
Shepherd: Companionship.
Hasselbeck: —companionship, at a certain age.
Blog Note re: Recent Donations
I have a policy of writing thank-you notes to everyone who sets up a subscription or makes a one-time donation to Shakesville, and I was just trying to catch up on my note-writing when I accidentally deleted a whole bunch of emails from May and June I hadn't had a chance to respond to yet. I don't even know how the fuck I did it, because they're not even in the trash file—they're just…gone.
I started going through my PayPal records one at a time to recover the email addresses, but that process was so time-intensive it was taking away from the work people donate to support. Ugh.
So, I'm sorry for getting so behind in the first place, and I'm sorry that I totes fucked up and deleted those emails, and I'm sorry that now I'm not going to be able to send personal thank-yous to a lot of people.
Thank you to each of you. I am truly grateful for your support of this community and my work to manage it. And my apologies for not saying that personally.
[I will just quickly acknowledge here that some people will inevitably read this as some sort of backhanded fundraiser. I know I'm opening myself to that charge, but it was more important for me to say thank you than to avoid criticism, and all I can say is that this is not intended as a plea for donations. It is genuinely just to say thank you for donations received and offer my apologies for fucking up.]
Federal Judge Puts Hold on Controversial Part of AZ Immigration Law
In a ruling on a law that has rocked politics coast to coast and thrown a spotlight on the border state’s fierce debate over immigration, United States District Court Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix said some aspects of the law can go into effect as scheduled on Thursday.
But Judge Bolton took aim at the parts of the law that have generated the most controversy, issuing a preliminary injunction against sections that called for officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws and that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times.
Judge Bolton put those sections on hold while she continues to hear the larger issues in the challenges to the law.
"Preserving the status quo through a preliminary injunction is less harmful than allowing state laws that are likely preempted by federal law to be enforced," she said.
"There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens," she wrote. "By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a 'distinct, unusual and extraordinary' burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose."
Daily Dose o' Cute
Olivia, daydreaming of Two-Legs dropping a tasty morsel of chicken.
Or turkey. Turkey will do, too.
You Know What You Need?
The Brady kids singing "It's a Sunshine Day":
Synopsis:
The Brady kids fucked up and can't afford to purchase the silver platter (it's all Jan's fault, duh) they'd picked out for Carol and Mike's anniversary. So they go down to the Pete Sterne Amateur Hour and perform "Keep On" (dig the jumpsuits) on live television in the hopes of winning a fat check. Their band's name is The Silver Platters. Get it? Well, they lose. (Sad face.) But Carol and Mike and Alice see their performance and buy the platter themselves. Heartwarming. The above clip is their rehearsal number "It's a Sunshine Day."Can't you dig the sunshine? Well? Can't you? I can, sure, but the fucking humidity gets me every time.
[Cross-posted.]
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Deeky's Snark-Packs, for your lunchtime snarking needs.
Recommended Reading:
[TW for stalking] Irin: Stalking Is About to Get Harder
Andy: Only 10% of the Pentagon's 'DADT' Surveys Have Been Returned
Sinoangle: Wardrobe Issues
[TW for sexual assault] C.L.: All Your Boobs Belong To Us: Some Thoughts About Consent While Female
Historiann: Why has The One fallen short?
[TW for disordered eating] Harriet: Poor Dr. Lundberg
[TW for trans-related discussion of names assigned at birth] Jessie_C: "...but she was born as..."
And check out Tami's and Renee's new True Blood podcast.
Leave your links in comments...
Assvertising
Best Buy's got a new commercial advertising its Geek Squad tech repair services:
[Transcript below.]
Well, it's a good thing that women aren't routinely objectified and women in technology aren't routinely marginalized, or else this ad would be wildly offensive!
Best Buy, naturally, has every right to communicate that women's primary value to them is as fetishized sex objects. Message received. The (substantial amount of) money I spend at tech stores (and have in the past spent at Best Buy) will be taken elsewhere.
Contact Best Buy's "Diversity & Inclusion Team" here.Scene: A Best Buy store. A white mother and her white, college-aged son are browsing laptops, with the help of a Best Buy employee, who is a young black man. There is a sign reading: "Buy a laptop, get a geek."[Assvertising: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113.]
Son [looking at a particular laptop]: Man, this is perfect.
Employee: Great. Well, with every laptop, you get a geek, so, take your pick. [He gestures at the wall, and they walk over, where adult humans are packaged in clear boxes as if giant dolls.]
Mom: Look at all these fabulous geeks. There are so many. [They walk past an Asian man in a box, then a white man in a box, and then come to a black man in a box.] Look at this one. It helps you [reading info on box] "video chat with Mom."
[Son comes to a stop in front of a white woman in box; she is young, thin, conventionally beautiful, brunette, with her hair up in a bun, and wearing glasses—a sort of classic "sexy librarian" look.]
Son: Bingo.
Mom [pointing at black male geek]: Look at this one—you can video chat with me, honey.
Son [staring, gape-mouthed, and moving closer to white female geek]: Mom, go get the car.
Mom [to employee]: He's in such a hurry to learn!
Voiceover: Buy a new laptop and get Geek Squad support for six months—online, on the phone, or in-store.
Apparently We Don't Miss You At All
Remember that dopey billboard with a picture of W that asked all passing drivers if they miss him yet?
Well, at long last there is a response:
"No."
The mustache is a nice touch.
[H/T to ThinkProgress]
Seen
[Click to embiggen.]
If you can't view the image, it's a picture of the side of a car wash bearing the words "Support Our Troops" flanked by two American flags. Below, there are three sections. On the left: "WWII: 1939-1945." In the middle, a picture of a coiled rattlesnake labeled "Don't Tread on Me," next to "Vietnam: 1959-1975." On the right: "September 11: 2001-Present."
1. I've no idea why WWI, Korea, the first Gulf War, or any other wars in which the US were involved are not on the wall. Maybe the owner(s) of the business only had family members serve in the referenced conflicts, but it's not like the average passer-by knows that (if it's even the case). The Korean War is known as the Forgotten War (or the Unknown War), and its exclusion is cringe-inducing.
2. "September 11" isn't a war.
Question of the Day
What's your favorite snack?
I'm not really a snacky person, but I'll usually pick potato chips before anything else. As of this weekend, I am officially in love with these.
