Presumably, this guy thinks Sarah Palin goes to the supermarket because, you know, she's a chick. I have to wonder when she has time. I think this guy actually supports MR. Palin for vice president, since he probably handles that little household duty. Or maybe he supports the Palins' household help.

And that, of course, is aside from the whole question as to whether we want regular schlemiels in the White House. Me, I want very very smart people in there. People a whole helluvalot smarter than me. It doesn't take much intelligence to go grocery shopping so that's not on my list of requirements for political office.

Labels: palin, politics, presidential election

Pardon my lousy mood. I’ll try to keep it to myself and just toss a little cheery flotsam your way.

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Cute Overload has a particularly great post today--check out the Prairie Dog smash-ups, here. Sound necessary. Some people have magical talents.

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If I dug a hole in my backyard straight through the other side of the Earth, I would emerge in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Which doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. How do I know this? Worldhum turned me on to the cool and essentially useless Google Tunneling Tool. Just because. Beats working.

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New model, same depressing style…



Evidently, there’s a small anti-Dillard’s movement brewing. Stockholders aren’t happy. Here’s a blogful of complaints. Evidently women don’t want to dress like Opal Pickles.

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Speaking of fashion, if you’re a fan of The Sartorialist then check out the senior version, Advanced Style. The text can be patronizing at times but the intentions are good and the styles range from inspiring to merely impressively audacious.

The video below comes to us via Advanced Style and this lady rocks.



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Another well-informed voter unleashes her ire on Charles Gibson’s glasses.



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You can tell I reported this story about visiting the fabulous Best Friends Animal Sanctuary a long time ago, because l'il ZsaZsa (RIP) makes an appearance in the lede. But I'm glad the story has finally made it into print.

And here's a story about my most recent glamorous trip, to the Choctaw Casino in Durant, OK. Actually, we had a pretty good time. Oklahoma good.

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OK, let’s all cheer up, because the renewed mind is the key. This is a must-watch, coming to me via my kooky friends at the United Methodist Reporter (via Best TV Week Ever). Warning: Earworm ahead.

Labels: advertising, dillard's, fashion, humor, politics, travel

Some of you might remember the mighty power I have to wreak havoc on places I visit.

I feel just terrible about Galveston.

I am particularly sad about the destruction of the Balinese Room, a historic nightclub that rambled out 600 feet from Seawall Boulevard. It was a gambling hotspot in the 1940s and '50s. After sitting neglected for years, it was being revived as a rock club. But then came Ike ...

I took a few photos of the Balinese on my recent visit to the island. Let's take a moment to pay our respects.






Such a pity.

A couple of regular readers here with a more intimate connection with the region have blogged about Ike and the coast. Here is Karen's post, and here is Cynthia's. I'm so sorry, friends. But Galveston arose from the rubble once before and we know it will do so again.

OK, to lighten the mood a little, here's the Letter to the Editor du jour:



I can just picture this guy with a long list of networks he's boycotting. ABC? Check. CNN? Check. NBC. Check.

All Fox all the time, I guess.

Labels: galveston, newspapers, politics, travel

I'll write what I can about last night’s RNC but it’s all so depressing.

One small consolation is that looking at McCain’s 96-year-old mom, I’d say there’s a very good chance that he has a lot of lively years left in him. She looks amazing, and when he introduced her, she fairly leaped out of her seat. So that means if the Republicans do win, McCain might actually live through his term and not saddle us with a lipstick wearing pit bull running the country into the ground.

Not that McCain would make me happy.

It’s going to be a very interesting, very stressful couple of months.

Here’s Gloria Steinem saying things I like about Palin. Too bad it’s Gloria Steinem, since she carries the stench of feminism. A friend who teaches college in the Bible belt told me that when she mentioned feminism in class the other day, a student actually stood up and walked out in a huff. And, she said, that’s not unusual—the only difference is that it’s usually girls who get offended and this time it was a guy.

A feminist speaking out against Palin only makes her more appealing to her voter base.

Ugh.

Let’s change the subject. Here are some links to cheer us up.

Cartoons for the week …

Love this one, especially since it differentiates between blogging and mindless barking. I thought they were the same things.

And this may be the most delightful depiction of marriage ever. I would venture to say that this is just how Tom feels about me and the feeling is mutual. Except he's a manly cupcake. No pink icing on him.

Yoga joke du jour. Have I posted this one already? The New Yorker repeats the cartoons it sends out. I know I’ve seen it already.

Speaking of yoga, I’m way off that program. In fact, maintaining my workout regime has become a major struggle. I have resumed power walking, which I gave up many months ago out of boredom. But now that the weather is marginally cooler than it’s been all summer, I’ve been back out there with my iPod. It’s still boring but it’s something. If I don’t ramp things up very soon, I’m going to start splitting seams. It’s that bad.

And finally, here’s a delicious blog my friend Mary turned me onto, in which an artist takes commissions and critiques from his three-year-old daughter, Tiny Art Director.

If that doesn’t cheer you up, I can’t help you.

Labels: cartoons, feminism, flotsam, politics, presidential election

I sat through all the speeches last night, to get to know the other side a little better. What a crappy evening I had. There’s nothing likable about that bunch, as far as I’m concerned. And they like me no better. Evidently, as a liberal, I can’t even call myself an American.

According to one speaker (was it Huckabee? Giuliani? All the mean-spiritedness has blurred into one hateful creature) this election, “won’t be decided by the liberal media or Hollywood celebrities but by AMERICANS.” Hm, so are members of the media and Hollywood celebrities illegal aliens? Creatures from outer space? French?

The was something chilling about the enormous crowd chanting, “drill, baby, drill.” I expected to see pitchforks and flaming torches. KILL that environment! Drill it DEAD! We want HUMMERS!

Of course the star of the show was Sarah Palin, who was no more appealing to me than the rest of them, though I will concede her hotness. But the crowd loved her. They LOVED her. She’s a “hockey mom” and is there anything more exalted in this society than a mom of any sort? It’s a shortcut to credibility and lovability. Yes, well, it doesn’t mean anything in this context. Palin’s speech was full of entertaining one-liners and zingers but I didn’t hear anything that gave me any faith in her ability to be second in command of my country.

But I sure wish I felt more confident about Democrats’ ability to win this election. Yes, I have hope. Is that all I have, though?

Maybe if I were blinded by Obama’s light, I’d feel differently and could be as confident as my friends who have drunk the Kool-Aid. But while I see his appeal and support his candidacy, the smoke and mirrors aspect is even more frightening to me now that he has an equally appealing (to the other side) shadow opponent. It seems increasingly like rhetoric vs. rhetoric, a beauty pageant and popularity contest.

The evil, God-hating media is digging as hard as it can to find Palin’s skeletons, but I’m putting a lot of faith in the VP debate now. Go, Joe, go. Please.

On a related but basically irrelevant subject, I wonder what poor Levi Johnston was thinking as he stood there on that stage, chomping on gum, roped into a situation he couldn’t possibly have imagined when he pulled out his dick five months ago.

Labels: barak obama, palin, politics, presidential election

My friends and I can’t stop talking about Sarah Palin. The choice is so bizarre, so confusing, so insulting to thinking women, we are mesmerized. What was McCain thinking? It seems like a Hail Mary, but he didn’t need that yet.

Tom actually feels sorry for them. He’s so tender-hearted. He thinks the choice was such a monumental goof that McCain is probably already regretting it. And of course, Palin is already being dragged over the coals and the fun has just begun. Surely she’s going to wonder what she’s got herself into. And you gotta figure Bristol is none too pleased with her mom at the moment.

Of course you know that as avid a Hillary supporter as I was, there’s no friggin’ way I’d vote for the McCain-Palin ticket on the basis of genitalia. So put that idea out of your head right now, right here, immediately and you should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking it, if you did.

In truth, while nothing could persuade me to vote Republican, I could have respected McCain's decision to put a woman on the ballot if he had chosen, say Kay Bailey Hutchison or Olympia Snowe, who at least have some chops. That would have been a much better transparent play for on-the-fence Hillary voters than Palin. It wouldn't have worked, IMO, but it would have made a lot more sense and been a lot less insulting.

However, I suspect some of my friends think the seemingly misguided choice of Palin is a slam-dunk for Democrats (if I may mix my sports metaphors). I wish I could feel that confident but I am cautiously optimistic at best.

Maybe it’s easy to feel triumphant if you’re a liberal Democrat in Noo Yawk City, surrounded by others of your ilk. But down here in the Red State Bible Belt, things are not so clear cut. Maybe people who believe in the sort of weird family values folderol that the right wing spouts are just mythological horned creatures to my Yankee buds, but they are real down here.

You don’t think anyone can possibly believe Palin to be a good choice, but can you imagine thinking the way the extreme right thinks about, well, anything? That abstinence education is an effective substitute for sex education? That same-sex marriage is a threat to heterosexual marriage? That the right to bear arms should include AK-47s?

As insane as Palin seems as a running mate for one of the oldest first-term presidential candidates ever (Reagan was older when he ran for his second term), we cannot for a second forget that this nation elected W. Twice.

What are they thinking? I haven't a clue. Do you?

Don’t celebrate yet.

Here are some of the blog posts and op-eds that speak to me on this issue.

My friend Christine's blog post about Palin and her family values makes a lot of sense to me.

NYT columnist Bob Herbert suggests that Palin is just another clever distraction from the real issues of our time—she’s the flag burning gay marriage red herring of this year’s election. Yeah, we certainly are distracted.

And here, LAT columnist Sam Harris wonders why anyone would want an average person--even such a sanctified person as a mommy--in such a powerful position. An excellent question.

And in case you missed last night’s Daily Show, this just slayed me:

Labels: news, palin, politics

Political discussion
All said in haiku

Labels: gender politics, politics, writing

I was mesmerized (thanks for the great word, Franz Mesmer!) by this strange story in today’s Dallas Morning News about Carrollton mayor Becky Miller who seems to have a very active imagination. Unless proven otherwise (still waiting…) she has made up stories about being engaged to Don Henley, singing back-up for Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne, an imaginary brother who was killed in Vietnam—even the college she allegedly attended.

I don’t care about Miller, she’s not my mayor, but aren’t liars fascinating? What are they thinking?

I wonder if most liars get caught in their lies or if we all move about in a swirling soup of others’ undiscovered untruths.

Some lies don’t really matter. If she weren’t an elected official, nobody would care about Miller’s imaginary love affair with cranky old Don Henley. The only reason the story is noteworthy is because such a string of lies seems to lead to an unhinged mind, which might be considered a problem in an elected official.

I like Bill Clinton and honestly couldn’t care less who sucked his dick, but I was annoyed when he lied about it, despite believing he was inappropriately backed into a corner. I’m bummed about Hillary’s Bosnia fantasy, too. (And the whole gas tax holiday idea, but that’s something else.)

I’m a terrible liar. In fact, one might even suggest I’m truthful to a fault. No, I won’t tell you if your haircut is ugly or point out when you’ve gained weight, but I’m no good at saying “everything’s fine” when it’s not. I’m trying to get better at biting my tongue when something is none of my business but even that can be challenging for me if it’s something or someone I care about. Annoyingly—even to myself—-I seem to feel obligated to speak the truth as I see it, which often isn’t the least bit helpful. Mostly, it makes everyone, myself included, uncomfortable.

But telling tall tales like Miller did is beyond incomprehensible to me. What do they accomplish? Such tales wouldn’t boost my ego if I knew they weren’t true, and I would always wonder who could tell all along that I was lying and when I would be found out, stripped naked and laughed at.

My shame muscle is far too well-developed to want to risk that level of shame.

Clearly this is some sort of bizarre compulsion. But what does it accomplish? I’m bumfuzzled.

Labels: becky miller, bill clinton, hillary clinton, liars, news, politics, psychology

I'm trying really hard to get something accomplished today. I've had a very silly week of wasted time. But now I'm enjoying discussing yesterday's topic further at Ruth's blog, The Fabulous Geezersisters' Weblog.

I'll glom off of Ruth's post today so I don't waste my entire day. Again. Stop on by. Ruth is a swell writer and thinker.

Labels: barak obama, gender politics, hillary clinton, politics, presidential election

So I’m trying to wrap my mind around the fact that when blacks talk about racism, the nation is awed but when women talk about sexism, we are mocked. Shoulder pad feminists, my ass….as always, it comes down to what women wear.

I’d like to point out that racism is divided by race but in our world, all the races are united in sexism. Women are fair game to all. You can make jokes about women in general. Jokes about fat women are mainstream. Old women are frequently portrayed as ridiculous. Blond jokes are a national institution.

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, Feb. 13, 2008
Relaying a joke told by Penn Jillette: "Obama is just creaming Hillary. You know, all these primaries, you know. And Hillary says it's not fair, because they're being held in February, and February is Black History Month. And unfortunately for Hillary, there's no White Bitch Month."

And this is different from Don Imus…how? Actually Don Imus managed to insult all women, black and white, but it was the black part that caused the real uproar. (The column from which the above was excerpted, by NOW president Kim Gandy, is great reading.)

Women are still murdered for being not toeing the line men set.

From NOW: Every day four women die in this country as a result of domestic violence, the euphemism for murders and assaults by husbands and boyfriends. That's approximately 1,400 women a year, according to the FBI. The number of women who have been murdered by their intimate partners is greater than the number of soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.

From UNESCO, as published on PBS.org:... the UNESCO project illustrates the wildly varying data on human trafficking produced by government organizations and NGOs (non-governmental organizations). For example, in 2001, the FBI estimated 700,000 women and children were trafficked worldwide, UNICEF estimated 1.75 million, and the International Organization on Migration (IOM) merely 400,000. In 2001, the UN drastically changed its own estimate of trafficked people in 2000 -- from 4,000,000 to 1,000,000.

There’s that pesky wage gap…

From NOW: Fifty-five percent of all women work in female-dominated jobs (jobs in which women comprise 70 percent or more of the workforce) whereas only 8.5 percent of all men work in these occupations. However, the men working in female-dominated jobs still receive about 20 percent more than women who work in female-dominated jobs.

And poverty gap…

From the U.S. Census: Women are more likely than men to live in poverty.
In 2001, 12.9 percent of the female population and 10.4 percent of the male population lived below the poverty level. Poverty rates were highest for children: the proportions of boys and girls (those under 18) who were poor were not statistically different (16.4 percent and 16.2, respectively). From ages 18 to 64, the poverty rate was 11.6 percent for women and 8.5 percent for men. For those 65 years and over, the poverty rate was 12.4 percent for women compared with 7.0 percent for men (see Figure 6). Like income, poverty varies by family type. Of families living in poverty in 2001, 50.9 percent were maintained by women with no spouse present, 40.5 percent were married-couple families, and 8.5 percent were maintained by men with no wife present.

In my business, some of us were mighty happy to learn of women doing loudly what some of us were doing quietly for years— counting bylines in the major (i.e. prestigious and high-paying) magazines. What a surprise! More men than women!

Am I pissed? Yup, I’m an angry white female.

Speaking of what not to wear, I then pick up my paper and see a photo of this full-grown man, Jason Helgeson, dressed like a five-year-old and am yet more disgusted.

Guys can get away with just about anything but when women gripe, even other women turn against them.

Labels: feminism, gender politics, politics, presidential election, racism, sexism, wage gap

Perspective.

Labels: barak obama, politics, presidential election

But here’s my incendiary question du jour:

If Barak Obama were a woman (young, attractive, inexperienced, touchy-feely message) and Hillary Clinton were a man (wrinkling, graying, seasoned, dry presentation)—all other things being just as they are—do you think Obama would have a chance?

Labels: barak obama, hillary clinton, politics, presidential election