Speak Up

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
GEORGE ORWELL

Wow, wouldn't I like to be the next recipient of the Governor’s Award from the New England chapter of the EMMY.
Such a honor to be in the company of such journalist like Mike Wallace and Bill O'Reilly.
Yep you read that right.
A prestigious award for journalism was awarded to Bill O' May 10th.
~blink~
I'd say the award is no longer that prestigious if a loud mouth bully like Bill O'Reilly can win it.

Want to know the best part?
A journalist named Barry Nolan, who worked for the Comcast Network, was fired for having the balls to point out that O'Reilly was neither a journalist nor a gentleman and a bit of a sexual stalker.

Why are there not more folks like Barry out there?
What kind of pussies does he work for?
(you are right I called them pussies, what of it?)

Why do I care, besides the fact that I think Bill is an assmonkey who has been given a pass spew his filth long enough in this country? Here's why:

In your work life, they can fire you, as I found out, for quietly saying something that is widely known to be true. Put a lid on it.

And in our role as citizens, we have been told by O’Reilly to shut up, or Fox Security may pay you a visit. We are called traitors if we simply speak the truth about the absence of WMD’s – the way the war is going – the disgraces of Abu Ghraib, of Gitmo, of waterboarding. Shut up.

So, when exactly do they think we have the right to speak up? To speak the quiet simple truth, to people who have more power than us?

Well, I think now would be a good time. The fog of fear is lifting. The balance of power is shifting. People are beginning to talk to each other again instead of shouting. I think it’s time to reclaim the right to free speech – even if it comes at a price.

So speak up folks! Don't let FOX or this Administration or your loud mouth uncle keep you from pointing out when the emperor has no clothes. I know the Founding Fathers would be embarrassed with the way things are in this country and the shit we allow those in power to do without taking them out and tar and feathering the powerful.

Via Deus Ex Malcontent and Think Progress.

And here is another little story that shows how well the our military men and women in this country are treated.

On Being a Fatty

What has me all worked up this AM? Well, this "commentary" in the Gaurdian via Femministing

Best comment?
"You've left out redheads, left-handed people and people with a squint.Are you going to let them get away with it?"

On one Hand (rant about the suckiness of TV)

I can count the number of really good tv shows that I make any effort to watch on one hand:
The Wire
Battlestar Gallactica
Pushing Daisies
Dexter (on Showtime, not the water downed version being shown on network TV right now)
Lost (and "The Constant" maybe one of the single best episodes of a TV show every, I love Penny and Desmond's story, the ending made me weep.)



If Fox did not suck as a network (Arrested Development, anyone?) I would assume that Firefly would still be on my list too.
Sadly, it was gone way before it's time and there is a nice room in hell just for the Fox execs who cancelled it populated by rabid Joss Whedon fans.

Sunday night was the last episode of The Wire, which was probably the BEST TV show ever.... that you were not watching.
Why were you not watching?
To realistic, too depressing, too many black folks...don't have HBO?
Bah!
Who cares about depressing and realistic (I'll accept no HBO since until this season we have watched The Wire on DVD via Netflix) when the acting and writing rose to a level of excellence seldom seen on the boob box, except that which we get from the BBC.
All I can say is, unlike Firefly or Deadwood* (HBO co$@suckers), it was a fine ending to a fine show and I feel completely satisfied.


So now I wait for BSG (also a last season ~sob~) to show back up in April and will be on YouTube when the new season of Dr.Who starts in the UK. Lost will keep me going, but there really is not much to Tivo and I'm not even excited that some of the Network shows will be back soon.
I think I maybe going though Project Runway withdrawal......

*I wonder what it is about The Wire and Deadwood that made me love them so much. Of course the writing and acting are stellar, but there is something more. I guess it was the feeling that deep down inside I know that humans and our institutions really are that fucked up. That the only hope is what we, as individuals can do to by our actions, to pull gold out of the shit we are fed everyday.

Vintage Work Weekend (and in which I rant about getting old)

This weekend I did NOT vege out in front of the TV (ok, we did begin watching State of Play, which we had seen before on BBC America and loved and were jazzed to see is finally out on DVD and so I got a bit o' Bill Nighy time...and The Master, John Simms.) with Mr. Vintage Goddess, nor did I drive to any sales or spend the whole time playing on the net.
I worked.
I hand washed, I spot cleaned, I steamed and I took pictures of what will be going up on Damn Good Vintage in the next week or so.
I was quite the busy fucking bee...not to mention I did laundry and made chcolate strawberry muffins AND Roast BEEF with mashed taters AND gravy.
DAMN I am a goddess among housewives, fear me and love me bitches!

On the vintage front I am going to begin selling a bit of vintage jewelry.
I took some pictures (I am not happy with them) of a couple of pieces.
Yes, those a freaking bongo drums. I love 40's quirky stuff.


Cute 60's(?) multi colored pin and earrings.

I have this awesome vintage 60's lace cocktail wiggle dress, it is an XL.
This amazing Henry Rosenfeld bronze rockabilly dress. VLV?
Cute vintage pink gingham shirtwaist dress....shirtwaist dresses make me very happy.

I have to say I'm really happy with my new dress form and backgrounds, but my back is killing me today which brings me to the most important point of this post.
I hate getting old.
The older I get the more of a bitch I become BECAUSE everything fucking hurts and has begun to fail to listen to my commands.
Yes my back, which used to be cool with the extra weight and bad posture and all the crazy sitting positions, no longer is happy. It wants me to sit right, loose weight and get a new mattress.
My eyes, which have never worked properly, have decided that they do not like the bi-focals (yes, bifocals) and now require me to take my glasses off to read and the put them back on to see.
Except, get this, I forget WHERE I put the fucking things.
And lastly, when I cough, liquids seem to be leaking out of me.
WTF?
I have been coughing A LOT the last few weeks.

The worse thing is one begins to worry about their father who has had a heart attack and even though he does not need to go anywhere insists on shoveling the fucking snow off of his huge ass driveway just in case he has a heart attack and my mom needs to take him to the hospital, I guess.
When I share my concern with my mother, what does she say?
"We have an ergonomic shovel."
Seriously?

Buy a damn snow blower so I do not have to worry.
K,thx.
And he is chopping wood for his new play toy, the fireplace/Franklin stove that came with his new house. (of course I know I should be glad he feels buff enough to do all this stuff.)

Vintage is awesome in clothes, but sucks when it is a human body that is slowly decaying.

In Which I Seethe

This has me boiling and banging my head on the desk.
"This" being a column in this weekend's Washington Post
by Charlotte Allen titled "We Scream, We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get?"
in regard to some woman acting like idiots over Obama.
If she had left it at that, I might be agreeing.
I'm a little annoyed at the gals who scream and act silly about Obama.
Unfortunately Allen goes on to say that all woman are the
dumber sex because some of us think Obama is hot, watch Oprah,
read chick lit and can't do math.

Seriously, you ask are you sure this is not and article from The Onion?
Yes, I would assume the gal is serious and this is the Washington Post.

Sure I think watching Oprah is dangerous, and stupid and a complete waste of time (and that one of my reservations about voting for Obama is my extreme Oprah hate and a need to make sure she does not feel more powerful then she already does) and I hate Chick Lit, but I don't think that is because women are stupid, I think it is because some women have really crappy taste.
I can't do math, not because I am a chick, but because I can't do math.
It would be just as easy to bring up all the craptastic things men do, generalize them and decide that there really is nothing more moronic on earth then a man.
If men are so smart how does one explain The Man Show and American Gladiator?

There is so much in her article to piss me off that I'll let the gals over at Jezebel and Feministing
and Firedoglake where there are tons of ~gasp~ really smart women speak for me.

I will comment on this:

So I don't understand why more women don't relax, enjoy the innate abilities most of us possess (as well as the ones fewer of us possess) and revel in the things most important to life at which nearly all of us excel: tenderness toward children and men and the weak and the ability to make a house a home. (Even I, who inherited my interior-decorating skills from my Bronx Irish paternal grandmother, whose idea of upgrading the living-room sofa was to throw a blanket over it, can make a house a home.) Then we could shriek and swoon and gossip and read chick lit to our hearts' content and not mind the fact that way down deep, we are . . . kind of dim.

Tenderness towards men?
WTF?
Maybe I'm not a chick since when I look at most men, tenderness is last emotion I feel.
Or does she mean tenderness for them because in the end they are like little kids?
Or does she...arrrggghhhh...I give up.
I think I'll go hug my washing machine and be happy to make this house a home.



EDIT: Here are a few stats about how "stupid" women are from the comments on Feministing;

"For every 100 girls who graduate from high school 96 boys graduate"

"For every 100 women who earn a bachelors degree from college 73 men earn the same degree."

"For every 100 women who earn a masters degree from college 62 men earn the same degree. "

"For every 100 women who earn a doctorate from college 92 men earn the same degree. "

(The National Center for Education Statistics)

Hey CNN, Fuck Off!

Wow, Chez over at Dues Ex Malcontent got fired from his job at CNN because of his blog.

S'rly.
Hell, I had no idea he even worked for them since he never named his employer, all I know is he is a man after my own heart.

I wake up every morning baffled as to why America hasn't thrown George Bush and Dick Cheney in prison, Hollywood hasn't stopped trying to convince me that Sarah Jessica Parker is attractive, gullible soccer moms haven't realized that they share absolutely no kinship with Oprah, and Fox canceled Firefly.

Firefly, sigh....that alone makes him awesome, but you can read here and here* to see why I read
him everyday.

Not sure why CNN cared that he had a blog since for the most part no one knew who he worked for.
I've pretty much given up on CNN since they hired that douche bag Glenn Beck so it is no skin off my nose removing them from the satellite "favorites" list.
It will protect me from being traumatized by Wolf Blitzer.

I guess it is a good thing I work for myself.

*I mean really, who isn't sick to death of The Oprah and that %^&%%$^(*((*)#@ Ann Coulter?

Greedy Much?

In an radio interview on NPR a woman from Iowa, a REPUBLICAN voter said:
"I make a great deal of money through my own hard work. I don't want to pay for someone else's child to eat breakfast at school anymore."

I.
Am.
Speechless.
Even the Witch King is blown away by the evil, ugly, greedy honesty of her statement.

So we will let Devilstower on Daily Kos respond:

"Get that? She makes not just enough money, but a "great deal of money." How dare anyone take it away for something so frivolous as feeding a poor child? And yet Republicans, through their actions in blurring the lines between church and state, have become the "party of faith." Because they say so. Because they are bold in their actions and snarling in their defense.

We need to be just as adamant. We need to not hide behind any abstraction or evasion. We need to be unafraid to address this voter and say "I am going to take some of your money, and give it to that poor kid, because it's more important -- both to the child and to society -- that he eat, rather than that you have an extra week in Cabo."

Note that we should not pretend that "a program will take your money." Or "the government will take your money." This is a democracy, and we are the government. I will take your money. I will. Some of that money you worked hard for and want to keep. I will give it to a kid who is hungry. If your concern is that poverty should be addressed by individuals, then there's a simple solution: feed him. If there are no poor children needing food, I won't have to take anything for them. If your position is that people would be more generous if only the government would stay out of it, then sorry. I'm not willing to put this child at risk to as part of your experiment. Besides, if that were true, then why were their more hungry kids before we started these programs to give them a little breakfast? If your position is that your being able to keep all your money is more important than a child being fed, then I simply think you're wrong. And sick. You want to keep that money? You better beat me at the polls."

If it helps these greedy bastards who don't want to spend their money on things like free food for poor kids, I'd rather not spend my money on the war in Iraq.
and in the end money spent feeding poor kids so they can do better in school benefits not just the children, BUT all of us when most of those kids go on to be tax paying adults. It works in the same way the GI bill worked after WW2*, for every dollar the Government spent back then, seven dollars were put back into the economy after those guys became college grads with good jobs.

Just a reminder that there is an election next year and that there really are folks like that woman in the Republican "I got mine, screw you" party. These are the folks who elected Bush, who love Bush and see nothing wrong with him or the hatred exposed by the Religious Right.

For Democrats the whole entry is good read. Like Kos says "we do not need to elect Democrats, we need to elect BETTER Democrats".


*just a reminder. Today's vets do NOT get the same GI Bill of the 40's and 50's, theirs is crap compared to that one. Mostly in Bush's America we like to just screw our returning war heroes.

Asshats and Tears

Normally I can just ignore that part of the American public that exists just to make me feel all shouty and stabby.
Not today.
After having spent some time in the annoying Target store avoiding all manner of asshattery I come out to my van to see that the lady who pulled in next to me did so at the diagonal.
So close that I had to go around the front of my vehicle to get in the door.
I sat there for a few thinking of all the things I'd like to do, like scrape her car door as I got out of the space or let the air out of her tires.
Instead, for once, I wrote that note that I always think of too late:

Dear Asshat Target Shopper.
Hi.
Awesome parking skills you have there. Thanks for allowing me to practice my mad driving skills by getting out of this parking space without scratching your craptastic van.
Merry fucking Christmas!

No not very nice, but damn it, it would have taken her 2 min to straighten her van in the parking space. I wish I had a camera with me so I could have taken a picture and posted it here.

After that I got to be annoyed at the library, Lowe's and then WalMart.
While waiting in line to pick up my prescription there was a gal with a little guy.
Maybe 2ish.
He was just being a little guy, but mom was tired and bitchy and I felt sorry for her.
He really was not being bad, but you could tell her day had already been long.
What I wanted to tell her was that they go from this:
to this:
in a nano second and there is no going back.
I wanted to tell her to lighten up and enjoy the silliness and the little kid-ness and just let things go. How many times did I scoff at folks who told me to enjoy my son while he was little, the time goes by so fast.
I was a fool, they were right.
and while I was thinking this I began to CRY.
Seriously, in WalMart, standing in line waiting for a prescription.
Jesus, I'm such a sop.