It's a Boo-urns Life, or Not My Food Anymore

Did you guys see this nonsense? The Republican tax gift to the wealthy had this handwritten in the margin: "It's a Wonderful Life shall be reedited so that all the townsfolk's money be given to Mr. Potter, who will reinvest it in the town, thus giving it back to the people."

December 2, 2017

...

Dan Rather:

Big story. A GOP victory in a North Carolina congressional race is under a serious cloud of election fraud. Where's the outrage from those who've long used the "voter fraud" mantra to suppress (mostly minority) votes? It's rank hypocrisy. We need a hard, honest look at the injustices around how we vote.

I sometimes wonder, what if a fairy godmother could come, wave a magic wand, and instantly wipe away those injustices around the vote - the suppression, the gerrymandering, the long lines at the polls, all of it. Let's say nothing else changed about our country or our fellow citizens, just that. How different would our government look and function?

December 2, 2018

...

I just changed Zuzu's diaper and she said she wanted to see her poop. I asked why. She said, "Because...it's...not...my...food anymore." Good enough reason for me.

December 2, 2017

...

This "I was saying Boo-urns" ringtone has added the perfect amount of levity to my day.

December 2, 2017

...

Trump said he won by a landslide and I for one take him at his word. In fact I'm certain that if Trump won the popular vote by 2.5 million and Hillary won the Electoral College by the 44th best margin in the last 54 modern elections, Trump would admit that Hillary also won in a landslide.

December 2, 2016

...

If people like the electoral college so much, why do they respect a state's popular vote in deciding the electors? By their logic shouldn't we have counties (with disproportionate numbers of voters) who elect the state electors to pick the presidential electors? And each town could pick the county electors, each block could pick the town electors and each house could pick the block electors. If we play our cards right, a presidential candidate with 1 million more important votes, could beat the candidate with 99 million less important votes.

I'd be into the electoral college if states had a number of electors proportional to their population, but until then there will be degrees of disenfranchisement. 

I'd believe the same thing for 100 years, no matter if the other side won 25 elections in a row. If you believe in the principle of democracy, you believe in the respecting the will of the majority of the voters in some way. If you respect it at a state level, why not respect it at a federal level?

December 2, 2016

...

Drank a kombucha today that tasted exactly like the smell of Ben Kenobi's plastic action figure cape.

December 2, 2011

...

"May all jollity lighten your Christmas hours."

...

In his State of the Union message on this day in 1823, U.S. President James Monroe proclaimed American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warned European powers not to interfere in the Americas. The Monroe Doctrine. It led to some problems.

...

In his State of the Union message on this day in 1845, U.S. President James K. Polk proposed that the United States should aggressively expand into the West. Manifest Destiny. It led to some problems.

...

John Brown was hung on this day in 1859, for organizing and abolitionist raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. It's been said that his body lies a'mouldering in the grave but his soul goes marching on.

...

Penelope Spheeris was born on this day in 1945. She directed Wayne's World, Black Sheep, and also nostalgic, and extremely problematic if you watch it today, Suburbia. I probably watched that once or twice a week for a few years.

...

Other notable birthdays- Julie Harris (1925), Monica Seles (1973)

...

That time of year again- Here Comes Fatty Claus, from A John Waters Christmas 

https://youtu.be/MQ4ApY9YbYw

December 2, 2010

...

http://i.giphy.com/xTk9ZMvytLICEWw9bi.gif

...

...

So the president knew Flynn lied to the FBI and still asked the FBI to end the investigation, huh? Can't impeach him though, unemployment is 4.5 instead Obama's abysmal 4.6. It's like Bush speechwriter David Frum said... with Trump there are things you don't know, but there are no mysteries.

http://hill.cm/jw9LJDs

December 2, 2017

...

...

Oscar Wilde- "Some men improve the world only by leaving it."

...

Dick Guindon, cartoon caption from this day in 1935- "The good Lord never gives you more than you can handle. Unless you die of something."

...

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations- "Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness."

...

Voltaire- "Man is free at the instant he wants to be."

...

John Stewart- "I have complete faith in the continued absurdity of whatever's going on."

...

Vonnegut- "If what Jesus said was good, what can it matter whether he was God or not?"

(There's a primacy to our own notions of right and wrong that supercede God in importance. If it weren't that way, how could people even judge God as good to begin with? There's no good in blind obedience.)

...

Sagan- "We inhabit a universe where atoms are made in the centers of stars; where each second a thousand suns are born; where life is sparked by sunlight and lightning in the airs and waters of youthful planets; where the raw material for biological evolution is sometimes made by the explosion of a star halfway across the Milky Way; where a thing as beautiful as a galaxy is formed a hundred billion times - a Cosmos of quasars and quarks, snowflakes and fireflies, where there may be black holes and other universe and extraterrestrial civilizations whose radio messages are at this moment reaching the Earth. How pallid by comparison are the pretensions of superstition and pseudoscience; how important it is for us to pursue and understand science, that characteristically human endeavor."

...

Churchill- "A lady came up to me one day and said 'Sir! You are drunk,' to which I replied 'I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly."

...

Twain- "I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

...

Woody Allen- "In my next life I want to live my life backwards. You start out dead and get that out of the way. Then you wake up in an old people's home feeling better every day. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day. You work for 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school. You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play. You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born. And then you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa-like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila! You finish off as an orgasm!"

...

Garry Shandling- "Without comedy as a defence mechanism I wouldn't be able to survive."

...

James Baldwin- "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."

...

Sarah Silverman- “I love kids. The only thing I love more than kids, is doing anything I want at all times. Kids are great, I bet your kids are a great measurement of time, right? Like, you could go, ‘Well, let’s see… That was when Billy was four, so that was 1998.’ That’s so great to have that. When you don’t have kids, all you have is 9/11. It puts such a malaise over just everything you try to recall.”

Addendum 

Myspace Blog 

December 2, 2006

The Parable of Gay Rapture

I woke up at 2:30 last night with Emma giggling and asking me if I was chasing squirrels. "Huh? No. What? Why? Wait…. what happened? What was I doing?" Turns out I was dreaming and kicking my legs like a dog. Want to know if I was running in my dream? I'll bet you do. Wait for it....... wait for it...... I was.

Here's what happened- I was sitting in a shallow stream surfing the internet. The ripples on the stream slowly flattened out and I think my computer shut off. I believe the sky darkened. I knew exactly what it meant. Apocalypse. I got out of the stream and met up with Jon Stewart who was on the bank for some reason. We started running along a jungle path, me following him. I passed a dead parrot. We came upon an encampment of gay guys living like Lord of the Flies. I realized what had happened. It was sort of a reverse Rapture in which all of the gay people and all of the people sympathetic to the gay cause were allowed to stay. It became a sort of heaven on earth- the intolerant people had been whisked away to heaven… their heaven. I'm not sure how the dream would have turned out since I was awakened at that time for amusement purposes.

So what does it mean???

You should know that I had just watched a documentary on the gay phenomenon from the 20's to the late 60's. "Before Stonewall"- you should see it. Many people talked about how natural it was for them to be gay and how awkward it felt throughout their lives when they tried to resist it. You know... like when they got married and had kids. So the gay guys are living in the jungle- the pinnacle of "natural living". Get it?

On being accompanied by Jon Stewart... he makes the case for gay rights repeatedly and perfectly. (http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=70273) By making that case you run the risk of upsetting people (i.e. family) or if you're Jon, you get accused of being "left-leaning". If Fox News talks about him, they'll go further, calling him "an element of the far left." You see, gay rights is a left-leaning concept these days- just like the pursuit of happiness and equality.

My computer and Jon represent information- and the more informed you are, the better judgments you can make. We all have to do things that we have a natural aversion toward doing. From now on I'll call that phenomenon "crossing dead parrots," as in "No, I don't want to go ballroom dancing, but I guess we all have to cross a dead parrot once in awhile." The dead parrot- loss of flight/freedom, variety (colors), loss of beauty. There are a wide variety of people and beliefs and the informed people must risk some ugliness if they are to follow the path of their arguments to their destination- freedom and equality for all, living in accord with our nature. So that's what the dream means.

The dream only showed the beginning, idyllic part of Lord of the Flies. Perhaps if it was allowed to finish, gay anarchy would have ensued. Or "San Francisco values", if you prefer. Or maybe Colbert (right-wing ridiculousness) would have showed up and got his glasses smashed. Take that order and democracy!

Perhaps if it was allowed to finish I would have learned that tolerance goes two ways and I shouldn't have been happy that the world was simplified by not having the intolerant people around anymore. Wait. Tolerant people must be tolerant of intolerance? A variety of good people and bad people makes the world better? Just because there's variety? That dreamworld is a messed up place.

Don't forget to send me your dreams!