Here is your topic: Top Five Favorite Vegetarian Dishes. You don't necessarily need to be able to prepare 'em yourself; as long as you enjoy eating 'em, that's good enough. Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
Top Five
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Applesauce Parker: "What project are you currently working on? 'Project' being any kind of creative (short story, knitted item, playlist, etc.) or practical (building those bookshelves, organizing my pantry, trying out that paella recipe, etc.) idea you're trying to implement."
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Homophobia.]
"Hate is never of God, never."—Megachurch monster Rick Warren, after conceding that "probably" some of the evangelical Christian churches in the US "are responsible for some of the attitudes towards gays in America, the negative attitudes." But not him, of course. His comparing homosexuality to rape, for instance, is some hate the sin but love the sinner shit, or whatever.
And even though SOME hatred emanates from SOME OTHER churches, the people engaging in it aren't real Christians.
And there are No True Scotsmen.
Ugh, this guy. Ugh.
I really don't think people like Warren understand how truly offensive such arguments are to people who have been marginalized, threatened, hurt, their lives made worse in myriad ways by self-identified Christians.
At a certain point, saying that hate isn't of your god when millions of people practice active and often violent hatred in the name of your god is kind of splitting hairs, from the perspective of those of us targeted by that hatred.
I'll happily concede your god has never personally emailed me a death threat. But lots of people have cc'ed him on them.
Photo of the Day
President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney talk in the Oval Office following their lunch, Nov. 29, 2012. [Official White House Photo by Pete Souza]That's a crop I did of the hi-res version of the image. Here's the whole thing:
The hat tip goes to Jordan, who captioned it: "NO MITT YOU CAN'T SIT AT THE DESK."
Bill Bennett, Stop, You Are Killing Me!
Bill Bennett, last seen making us laugh with his treatise on how the meanie poophead Democrats won the election by playing identity politics (oh my aching sides), is back with more of his very solid theories: "Why Liberalism Will Ultimately Fail."
Obviously, as I'm sure I don't need to tell you, the whole piece is GREAT, but this is definitely my favorite part:
For the college student struggling with student loan debt, the single mother who can barely afford to provide for her children, the minority family in the inner city struggling to find work, liberalism offers immediate relief: subsidized student loans, national health care and entitlements for the elderly and the poor.LOLOLOLOLOLOL! THIS MAN IS A PAID CONTRIBUTOR TO CNN! LOL!
Rather than waiting on free markets to correct themselves and start creating wealth again, liberalism's cure is immediate, and so are the political payoffs. This explains partly why many voters feel liberals care about them more than conservatives.
Talk about projection: The reason conservatism is failing is because the idea that wealth created by free (rigged) markets will magically trickle down to the "inner city"—or, you know, much of rural Real AmericaTM—and rescue struggling people from entrenched, systemic, generational poverty has been COMPREHENSIVELY DISCREDITED.
If struggling people helped by liberal policies waited for "relief" care of trickle-down economics, they would be waiting FOREVER. And, although Bill Bennett may be stupid enough to believe otherwise, the people in need of immediate help are not.
Any conservative who can continue to make the incredible argument that wealth is shared from the top down while insufferable millionaires are endlessly whining pitiably about a moderate tax increase is a fucking joke. If your position depends on some fantasy about the greediest, stingiest, most selfish fucks in the developed world sharing their wealth with the hoi polloi, via job creation or increased taxation or philanthropy, instead of screaming BOOTSTRAPS! into the faces of starving children, your position is garbage and you are a monster.
Get fucking real.
Like a Horse and Carriage
So, when one of us has seen something funny or great on YouTube during the day that we want to show the other, or when Flula has a new video, or whatever, Iain and I will watch it together on our television via our AppleTV. It's run through my account, so Iain has parked a bunch of shit there that he likes, in case he wants to show it to me, or Kenny Blogginz, or some other poor unsuspecting guest.
Like, for example, "A Romantic Tribute to Grand Admiral Thrawn."
Which is pretty much the least embarrassing thing that Iain has parked on my account.
Occasionally I will (re)discover these things, and I will laugh and laugh and laugh. And also feel slightly mortified that someone might imagine I have favorited them.
Please enjoy this favorite of Mr. McEwan's.
Video Description: A "Star Trek Fartershop Quartet," which is simply, per its own description, "four members of Star Trek, farting in the Transporter Room."
FYI
Today's Fun Hashtag: #RunOns Names, Titles, or Phrases that bleed from one to another with a shared word, e.g. Janet Jackson Pollock.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 29, 2012
I'm currently on a Shakespeare roll:
Shakespeare in Love, Actually #RunOns
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 29, 2012
Shakespeare's Sister Christian. (MOTORIN'!) #RunOns
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) November 29, 2012
Get involved, tweeps!
George Zimmerman Update
[Content Note: Gun violence; racism; exploitation.]
In other Reprehensible Fuckers Who Think Killing Black Teenagers Is Justified news, George Zimmerman is now selling his autograph to fund his defense in the murder of Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman is now mailing autographed cards to anyone who donates cash to help him fight murder charges over Miami teenager Trayvon Martin's shooting death.Discreet! Just like your pornography!
Zimmerman announced the autograph scheme on his website [URL redacted] while revealing that the once flush account -- which had collected $140,000 -- has now dwindled to under $15,000.
"Currently, the balance of the George Zimmerman Defense Fund is at its lowest, and new funds must be raised to support George's living expenses and legal costs," the site says.
Zimmerman promises to send a handsome signed card -- conveniently mailed in an blank envelope with "no reference" to Zimmerman -- for sending him some cash.
I like how it's signed "Your Friend, George Zimmerman." What a nice personal touch from the guy who stalked and killed an unarmed teenager.
In The News
[Content note: Homophobia, sexism, weight loss surgery]
Some Old Bullshit:
Scientists have just discovered the biggest ever black hole, which weighs 17 billion times as much as the Sun. Yes!
A Sasquatch researcher has video of Bigfoot ravaging his apple orchard in Vermont. Neat!
A David Sedaris movie is heading to the big screen. Neat!
Secretary of State Clinton told a professional group for LGBT employees "creating an LGBT-welcoming workplace is not just the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do." Neat!
Weight loss surgery may not be effective for treating Type 2 diabetes. Huh.
Oh, look!: A Walking Dead zombie bikini calendar. (Don't look.)
This might make your brain hurt. Ouch.
Gun deep fried at restaurant; man arrested. Okay then.
Note to iProduct Commenters
A couple of people have mentioned to me lately that they're having trouble logging into Disqus from iPhones and/or iPads. Here is a little helpful trick: At the top of any comment thread, on the right, there's a Disqus logo. Click on that to bring up a log in option. You can usually log in there, even if you have problems logging in via the comment form.
Hope that helps!
Top Five
Here is your topic, suggested by Shaker soupcann314: Top Five Favorite Blogs. And I'mma add soupcann314's qualifier "besides Shakesville," not because I'm presuming this is a favorite blog of its every reader, but because I don't want to oblige anyone to include it. This isn't a solicitation for accolades; I'm as curious to see others' favorite reads as much as everyone else is! Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
He Felt Threatened
[Content Note: Gun violence; death; racism.]
On Tuesday, I wrote about the murder of 17-year-old black teenager Jordan Davis, who was shot by 45-year-old white man Michael Dunn after Dunn asked the car full of teens in which Davis was a passenger to turn down their music in a public parking lot and they refused. Dunn shot at the car "eight or nine times" and then fled the scene.
He has pleaded not guilty a charge of murder, and his defense attorney is making a pretty remarkable argument for him:
"Once all the facts come out, that what really happened is known, it will be very clear that Mr. Dunn acted responsibly and as any responsible firearms owner would have acted under these same circumstances," said his attorney, Robin Lemonidis, reported FirstCoastNews.com, the website for NBC station WTLV in Jacksonville.Somehow I doubt that.
Jacksonville Homicide Lieutenant Rob Schoonover said (presumably with a straight face): "His side of the story is he felt threatened and that is the reason he took action."
He felt threatened. That old chestnut.
I feel like I'm running out of ways to write that "feeling threatened" is not a justification for violence (nor a justification for bullshit self-defense gun laws). The United States is a country with powerful systems of privilege and entrenched bigotry, where fear of the Other is continually exploited by people in power. Lots of people "feel threatened" by lots of stupid shit that is underwritten by nothing but stereotypes, straw, and ghosts.
Dunn clearly didn't "feel threatened" when he strode over to a car full of teens to demand that they turn down their admittedly loud music. And, given that there are no reports of any of the kids in the car, including Jordan Davis, having any sort of weapon, or even getting out of the car to confront him, he probably had no justification for feeling physically threatened.
I don't know what happened, but here's what I think happened: I suspect Dunn didn't "feel threatened" until after he'd gone to the car and then been (quite rightly) told to get to fuck.
I suspect Dunn walked over to the car all puffed-up and prepared to Be Respected, and instead the kids in the car refused to automatically bend to his will, and probably (quite understandably) scoffed contemptuously at his evident belief he owns the world.
I suspect that made his authority, his world view which is preciously perched on a precipice of crumbling privilege, feel threatened.
I suspect that Dunn is one of those guys who loves that whole Fox News Bill O'Reilly War on Everything "your birthright as a Real American is being eroded" shtick that grows toxic insecurity in old white conservative dudes like mold in a petri dish.
I suspect he's one of those guys, a kind of guy who unfortunately feels familiar to me, who just gets explosively enraged when people he perceives as his inferiors don't do what he wants them to do, because he thinks he has the right to demand it.
I suspect that Dunn erupted like an emotional volcano because he was fear-raging at being denied some show of deference to which he believes he's entitled, sheerly by virtue of who he is.
Or: He "snapped," as it is known in the common parlance when white men behave this way, as though it is inexplicable behavior instead of inevitable behavior when certain portions of any population are told they are special and then their frustrations at a world that treats them otherwise redirected onto scapegoats by the very tricksters who created their discordance of identity in the first place.
I suspect that the problem was not that Dunn "felt threatened" in that particular moment, but that he "feels threatened" all the time, in ways that are carelessly encouraged by all the institutions that exploit the impotent rage of people whose identities and self-worth are inextricably tied to unearned privilege, fanning the flames of their insecurity that their privilege, nay their very identities, are being eroded by nefarious Others whose very existence is an existential threat.
And I suspect that as long as the people who exist in this constant state of corrosive anxiety are the most likely to stockpile and carry weaponry, Jordan Davis will not be the last victim of a man who "feels threatened."
My heart hurts.
[H/T to Elle.]
Everyone Hates Romney
Even the guy who got the Mitt Romney face tattoo, and vowed to keep it after Romney lost, has now turned his back face on the sore loser:
30-year-old Eric Hartsburg of Indiana is removing the Romney/Ryan logo tattooed on his face. Hartsburg had vowed to keep the tattoo, even after Romney lost and he received an offer to have it removed for free, but Romney's "gifts" remark changed his mind.Mitt Romney: You stand convicted of assholism! Your proper punishment will now take place. Look pretty for your descent to oblivion, Mitt!
"It stands not only for a losing campaign but for a sore loser," Hartsburg said. "He's pretty shameful as far as I'm concerned, man. There's no dignity in blaming somebody else for buying votes and paying off people. I can't get behind that or stay behind that."
Rick Warren Doesn't Believe in Evolution
[Content Note: Homophobia; anti-choicery.]
Hey, remember how President Obama chose reprehensible bigot and deceptively sunny-faced megachurch monster Rick Warren to do the invocation at his first inauguration ceremony, even though Warren has compared homosexuality to rape and abortion to the Holocaust? Fun times.
In the interceding four years, President Obama has, of course, affirmed his personal support for marriage equality.
Meanwhile, Rick Warren is still shooting off his gross mouth about how being gay is an urge upon which people shouldn't act, like wanting to punch someone or eating arsenic.
I trust this means we won't see him anywhere near the Capitol on Inauguration Day this time around. Because FORWARD.
Right, Mr. President?
Question of the Day
Nicked from MaryAnn: If your life were a TV show, what kind of show would it be?
MaryAnn says her life "would probably be a Sunday morning news talk show... except all the guests would be required to be in their pajamas, and we'd drink tea and coffee and eat pastries while we yakked about movies and TV and pop culture."
I want to be a guest on her show!
My life would probably be a Showtime sitcom. Nurse Jackie, but with less addiction and more texting with Deeky.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Racism; classism.]
"On Nov. 6, Romney carried the majority of every economic group except those with less than $50,000 a year in household income. That means he carried the majority of middle-class voters. While John McCain lost white voters younger than 30 by 10 points, Romney won those voters by seven points, a 17-point shift. ... [A]ny party that captures the majority of the middle class must be doing something right."—Stuart Stevens, chief strategist for Team Romney, in an op-ed for the WaPo, boasting that, even though Romney lost, he got all the GOOD VOTES, i.e. rich white people.
Such a cool party filled with so many great people!
