Debate Live-Blog, part 6

On to Iran.

McCain says Iran is existential threat to Israel and region if Iran gets nukes. We can't allow second holocaust. Pander to Jewish community. Takes on Russia. Proposes league of democracies to impose pain on Iran's regime. Warns us about Iranian threat. Boo!

Obama does believe Rev. Guard is terrorist organization. Correctly points out that Iraq War has strengthened Iran. Cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran. Panders to Jewish lobby himself. Wants to engage in tough diplomacy with Iran. Repeat when I am president of the United States for, what, the sixth time? Excellent. 

McCain stumbles over Ahmadinejad's name. Thinks talks with him will lend him and his anti-Semitism legitimacy. Invokes Reagan and Kissinger. Wants preconditions. 

Obama defends. Claims Ahmadinejad's not most powerful person in Iran. Doesn't back down on preconditions. Points out that Kissinger agrees with him on the point. Uses Bush's approach to N. Korea as to underscore his point. Nails McCain on his Spanish president comments from last week. 

McCain tries lame zinger in response. 

Obama claims McCain is mischaracterizing his position. 

McCain gets in a good zinger. 

Finally some sparks.

Debate Live-Blog, part 5

Apparently, McCain has a record. He keeps telling us so anyway. Ugh, the inevitable and execrable story of the little guy imploring him to do something or other. 

Obama counters with his own human interest story. C'mon guys. 

Obama reiterates importance of judgement. Blames Bush admin. for taking our eye off ball again with Afghan., Iraq, Pakis., etc. Attacks McCain for talking about muddling through Afghan. 

McCain starts to sound pissed.  

Debate Live-Blog, part 4

Oooh, Obama nails McCain with record of voting with Bush 90% of the time on the "orgy of spending". Good segment. 

McCain uses "miss congeniality" for second time. Used that one already grandpa.

On to Iraq...

McCain begins will odd Palinesque response. Brings it back to success of surge. Cloaks himself in Petraeus's garb.

Obama goes back to initial question of whether we belong in Iraq to begin with. McCain and Bush reference again. Keep that up. "We took our eye off the ball." Looks directly into the camera and says "We must use military wisely." Good stuff. 

McCain attacks Obama for not going to Iraq and not holding a hearing. Obama defends, praises military and Petraeus. Attacks mismanagement of the war. Addresses McCain directly and attacks. Repeats "You were wrong" three times. Brings judgement into it. 

McCain claims Obama doesn't know diff between tactic and strategy. Claims surge is strategy instead of tactic. Claims Obama cut funding from troops.

Obama defends himself, attacks McCain's own funding opposition. Reminds people of timetable. Ties bin Laden's freedom to McCain. Wants to capture and kill bin Laden and "crush" al Qaeda.

They argue about Adm. Mullens. 

McCain: Surge is strategy. Obama: Surge is tactic. McCain: Strategy. Obama: Tactic. Etc., etc. 

Obama wants more troops in Afghanistan—two to three brigades. Again calls Iraq a strategic mistake, underlining strategic verbally. Nice touch. Bush and McCain again in failure in Afghanistan. 

McCain admits mistake in leaving Afghanistan in 1980. Doesn't want to talk about attacking Pakistan.

Obama defends his statements on Pakistan, attacks McCain's temperament. 

Debate Live-Blog, part 3

So far, I think McCain is looking better. Yipes.

Obama talks energy independence, health care, and education, in re: adjusting plans because of financial crisis. He's back to looking at moderator too much. We're out here, Barack, right here. 

McCain zings Obama (hard to reach across the aisle from so far to the left); Obama laughs. Good, it serves him well.

Lehrer tries to hold their feet to the fire as they talk circles. Obama is getting in some good specific points, though. 

Can't keep this up. Will check back in later for overall assessment.

Debate Live-Blog, part 2

Ugh. McCain botches his "paternity/criminal issue" bear joke. Second reference to age. Not good. 

Obama, for all of his strengths, is not a great debater. Good news: McCain is worse. 

So far, this lacks the electricity of the primary debates, but hey, it's early yet. 

Split screen as McCain talks. Obama looks angry rather than thoughtful. McCain should stop with the jokes. He sounds like everyone's lame grandfather. 

Oh, Obama has just interjected with an objection. Smile more, Barack. His makeup sucks. Hate to mention it, but in this arena it all makes a diff. 

McCain is on a roll with a diatribe against earmarks. Sounding fired up and understandable. On to his pander list. 

Obama looks directly into camera and says 96% of us will get a tax cut. Starts drilling into McCain's facts and loopholes. Nails McCain on his tax plan.

McCain makes good use of metaphor. Nails Obama on voting for earmark-laden bill. 

Obama fires back using big oil as a bludgeon. 

Debate Live-Blog, part 1

Obama gets the first question about the financial crisis. So far, so good. I'd heard on NPR earlier that he's been drilling methodically for this debate, practicing making his answers more concise. You can see it. He's also looking directly into the camera more than usual. 

McCain's response is lame so far, beginning with a gratuitous nod to Ted Kennedy who entered the hospital earlier today. Sounds crass and fake to me. 

Ooh, now Lehrer invites them to cross talk for five minutes. Who nows, maybe it could get interesting. 

Obama more or less dodges direct question, but starts in on the causality of the situation, hammering the conservative ideology. 

McCain "hopes" to vote for the plan. Begins going on about Eisenhower and accountability. "Somehow" greed and corruption are rewarded today in Washnigton and Wall St. Somehow? He's been a huge part of it for 26 years. 

Obama calls McCain out of the "fundamentally sound" remark. Lehrer awkwardly insists Obama address McCain directly. Weird. 

Now, Lehrer asks McCain to address Obama directly. He doesn't. This debate experiment isn't going to work. 

It's On

The first presidential debate of 08 has just begun. Woo hoo!

George W. Bush: Liberal Hero

Really. He and his cronies continue to ruin the Republican "brand," and the country reaps what 30+ years of trickle-down policies have sown—their rancid, social Darwinistic ideology and neo-conservative strategies are thoroughly discredited and will likely remain so for at least a generation. 

One more piece of anecdotal evidence (and I've seen scores of these types of e-mail throughout the past year) from U.S. News & World Report: 

Economic conservatives may be horrified at the thought of a trillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street, but the GOPers on Wall Street seem horrified that they are being left to wither on the vine by Washington. Take a look at this email I just got last night from a money manager:

I am a lifelong ( 51 years old) "rock-ribbed" conservative.... What an eye opener this week has been! I now realize what a blowhard Newt truly is by advocating the GOP bail on the Paulson Plan. As a professional money manager I can tell you I am shocked, dismayed and depressed that the Speaker would excoriate the GOP to abandon this plan which is URGENT and necessary to avoid a financial catastrophe that once commenced may be irreversible. The level of ignorance of financial and economic reality displayed by the Speaker, Rep. Boehner, Sen. Shelby , et al, has been frightening and sad. I thought the GOP had a better grasp of such matters than the Dems. Apparently not. And if this has been pure election gamesmanship as I suspect? The willingness to play politics with the U.S. financial markets is appalling and disgusting.

I am a huge Reagan fan and admirer. I have voted GOP every election since 1976. Until now. Today. September 25, 2008. As soon as I finish this email I am going to try and get my $1000 McCain/Palin credit card donation back as I will not be voting GOP this year after watching this circus and the theatres passing as leadership displayed by the GOP. I am embarrassed to have been an erstwhile supporter of this gaggle of self-serving jerks. I hope the GOP lose their asses come November. They shall deserve it.

I'd ask what took him so long, but, hey, he's a conservatives, and they're slower to move than the rest of us (and they need to feel the pain in their wallets). Welcome to reality, my friend.

"Vote For McCain…

…to me you're a shit stain." 

Sarah Silverman exhorts Jewish kids to visit their grandparents and convince them to vote for Obama.


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Yes, she's proud of herself.

I'm Back

Wow, has it really been nearly a month since my last post? Let me retroactively say that I felt the need to suspend this blog until this financial crisis gets taken care of. 

But now that John McCain's on it, I can get back at the wheel. So for your viewing pleasure, I'd love to call your attention to an excerpt of a recent interview with McCain's choice for veep. Enjoy.

Okay, that's harsh. But decidedly not unfair. As you'll see from these excerpts from Katie Couric's interview with Palin yesterday:

"I'll try to find ya some and I'll bring 'em to ya." Ahem. You know, Couric has taken a beating over the years for being a lightweight, but look how she draws Palin out with her light touch. Nice.

But wait, there's more:

In the spirit of bipartisanship, I'd like to say I'm sure we can all agree that reducing taxes must accompany tax reductions. 

Watch CBS Videos Online

Still wondering why McCain needed to create the distraction of "suspending" his campaign yesterday?

I Have A Dream

Well, yesterday was the anniversary of one of the most moving speeches in American history:

Oh, and by the way, speaking in front of 84,000 people, Obama didn't do too badly himself:



Unsurprisingly, the best analysis of the speech comes from Andrew Sullivan, who's gotten Obama from the get-go:

It was a deeply substantive speech, full of policy detail, full of people other than the candidate, centered overwhelmingly on domestic economic anxiety. It was a liberal speech, more unabashedly, unashamedly liberal than any Democratic acceptance speech since the great era of American liberalism. But it made the case for that liberalism - in the context of the decline of the American dream, and the rise of cynicism and the collapse of cultural unity. His ability to portray that liberalism as a patriotic, unifying, ennobling tradition makes him the most lethal and remarkable Democratic figure since John F Kennedy.

What he didn't do was give an airy, abstract, dreamy confection of rhetoric. The McCain campaign set Obama up as a celebrity airhead, a Paris Hilton of wealth and elitism. And he let them portray him that way, and let them over-reach, and let them punch him again and again ... and then he turned around and destroyed them. If the Rove Republicans thought they were playing with a patsy, they just got a reality check.

He took every assault on him and turned them around. He showed not just that he understood the experience of many middle class Americans, but that he understood how the Republicans have succeeded in smearing him. And he didn't shrink from the personal charges; he rebutted them. Whoever else this was, it was not Adlai Stevenson. It was not Jimmy Carter. And it was less afraid and less calculating than Bill Clinton.

Above all, he took on national security - face on, full-throttle, enraged, as we should all be, at how disastrously American power has been handled these past eight years. He owned this issue in a way that no Democrat has owned it since Kennedy. That's a transformative event. To my mind, it is vital that both parties get to own the war on Jihadist terror and that we escape this awful Rove-Morris trap that poisons the discourse into narrow and petty partisan abuse of patriotism. Obama did this tonight. We are in his debt.

Look: I'm biased at this point. I'm one of those people, deeply distressed at what has happened to America, deeply ashamed of my own misjudgments, who has shifted out of my ideological comfort zone because this man seems different to me, and this moment in history seems different to me. I'm not sure we have many more chances to get off the addiction to foreign oil, to prevent a calamitous terrorist attack, to restore constitutional balance in the hurricane of a terror war.\

I've said it before - months and months ago. I should say it again tonight. This is a remarkable man at a vital moment. America would be crazy to throw this opportunity away. America must not throw this opportunity away.

Know hope.

Skunked!

Poor, Bella. As we were out for our usual 2 a.m. walk last night, I noticed her bolt after something. She normally doesn't go after anything at night, but it's not unheard of either. I figured she was after a raccoon or a neighborhood cat. I called her back to me and she came pretty quickly—I was pleased she responded so well. But within ten seconds I was hit with a brick wall of olfactory nastiness and realized she didn't come back quickly enough to avoid being sprayed by a skunk. 

Let me tell you, this is a thing to avoid. I generally don't mind the smell of skunk from a distance, but up close, at ground zero, it is one of the most repellent and nasty scents I can imagine. A combination of burning rubber and boiling acid. It's interesting, though, a split second before I could track what I was smelling, I had a repulsion reflex. It's like my body knew to recoil before my brain registered what it was recoiling from. 

Anyway, I began running to get away from the smell. Once away, I double-checked, and she had indeed been hit. It was a pretty chilly night last night and I didn't really want to make her stay outside, but she was so nasty with the funk, I couldn't bring her into the house. Even my clothes smelled a bit and they didn't get any of the skunk's oil directly on them. Unclear how best to handle it, I woke Annie up. She'd dealt with this before and I thought she'd know what to do. We agreed not to bring her in, so we put her bed out on the patio with a couple of towels for padding and warmth. I felt terrible about her sleeping in the cold, but our house would reek for days if she'd come inside. 

This morning Annie got some cleaning stuff from the Grange and I showered Bella: first I washed her with skunk odor removal stuff, then I rinsed her off. Then I shampooed her, and gave her another rinse. Then some more odor removal stuff and another rinse. Then another shampoo and another rinse. Though it was dramatically reduced, the smell wasn't completely gone even then. But I'd run out of the odor removal stuff, so we let her outside to dry off and play in the sun. 

Twenty minutes later, I bent down to pet her… and immediately pulled away. She still had enough of the skunk smell on her to keep my distance. 

I suppose it's lather, rinse, and repeat again tonight. Poor thing.

*******

Speaking of odiferous and repellent, here's some video footage of PUMAs and other assorted bright lights who claim to be or have been Hillary supporters who just can't—can't, I tell you—support Obama. Enjoy! 

And this:

Kudos to Matthews for not letting this troglodyte get away with a baseless and tired smear. (Notice how xenophobes like her use the word Muslim as a weapon. FOX-tastic!)

And then there's this, which just defies words:

Well, It's Official!

Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for president. 

It's official: Obama is the nominee
DEMOCRATS have made history by nominating Barack Obama as the first black presidential nominee of a major US party.

“It is with great pride that I announce Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for president of the United States by acclamation,” House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the convention.

“I have been asked to inform you that Senator Obama accepts the nomination,” she said, adding the Illinois senator would deliver his acceptance address at the Invesco field tomorrow.

A state by state roll-call vote was dramatically suspended when Hillary Clinton appeared on the floor of the convention and called for Obama to be nominated by acclamation.

The motion was immediately put to the floor and carried.

Though the vote at the Democratic National Convention offered no surprises, its historical importance was undeniable.

It capped the longest, closest US primary race in memory as Senator Obama, a political newcomer, defeated Senator Clinton, the former first lady whose victory once seemed all but assured.

It also meant that Senator Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white American mother, is now one victory from becoming president of a nation where, just decades ago, many blacks were denied the vote.

Here's video of the climactic moment on the floor:

Finally, The Drought Is Over

The long slog between the last primary battle and the Democratic convention is finally—finally—over. August is never my favorite month, but this year was especially painful, having to deal with a combination of no actual political news and a relentless wall of pseudo-news stories decrying the disunity and disarray among the Democrats. 

But thankfully, the end of August is near, the convention is underway, and the real general election season is about to begin!

Michelle Monday. And, what a great couple of days to be a liberal! Yesterday, Michelle Obama did a fabulous job of introducing herself to the American people, most of whom haven't really been paying attention. She came off as smart, warm, funny, and caring. She hit all the notes she needed to and put the lie to the stupid "angry black woman" trope the Hannitys and O'Reillys of the world have tried smearing her with. Best of all, she was real. 

Check it out if you haven't seen it:

Hillary Tuesday. And as if that wasn't good enough, tonight Hillary knocked it out of the park with a speech that was both gracious, commanding, and spunky. She threw her support unequivocably behind Obama and exhorted her supporters to do the same. She took a few big pieces out of McCain and—by referencing the Underground Railroad and Seneca Falls, as well as other seminal watershed moments in the advancement of human rights— reminded everyone of just why it is they're liberals/progressives/Democrats in the first place. An absolute A+ of a speech.

As an aside, I have to say it was a relief. I was tough on Hillary throughout the primary partly because I judged Obama to be a better choice for president, but also because I found many of her tactics beyond the pale. Mid-primary I was livid with both her and Bill and found myself re-examining my judgment in supporting them for so many years. In fact, they became personae non grata to me. Well, tonight wiped the slate clean. I'm proud to have her as a leader in the Democratic party. 

The speech isn't online yet, but I'll post it when it is. It's definitely worth watching.

* By the way, as Hillary mentioned in her speech, today, August 26, is the anniversary of the day, back in 1920, that women finally won the right to vote in this country. 

Update: As promised, here's part 1 of Hillary's speech last night.

Parts 2 and 3.

Aging, Death, Mortality and Angst: Happy Birthday, Dad!

Signs of decay

I'm getting old and signs of decay are everywhere! Madonna's turning 50 and looking like shit. Isaac Hayes is dead at 65. Prince just had a hip replacement. The famous Wall Arch in Utah's Arches Nat'l Monument has collapsed. Kids are younger all the time. Youth has become this exclusive club that I've been kicked out of and have no chance talking my way back into. My skin is losing elasticity and my hair's turning gray and I have to monitor cholesterol levels. I fucking hate it!

**********

Happy birthday, Dad!

Today was my dad's—James Benjamin Altemus'—birthday. It's weird, the more time that goes by between now and his death, the less I think of him. This feels like a betrayal somehow. Like I'm a shitty son. Of course, I don't feel like I should constantly mourn him or obsess over him, but I figured I'd think of him more often than I do. 

When I do think of him lately, it's connected with mortality. Much to my embarrassment and frustration, I've become obsessed with my own mortality since his demise. It's like he was this buffer between me and death and now that he's gone, the buffer's gone. I'm next in line.

Now, I loved my dad. I've grieved his death. I've missed him. I've talked to him. I've imagined his presence. And I've honored him and his memory. But for the first time since his passing, it occurred to me yesterday I'm angry with him. (No one's ever accused me of being excessively rational.)

Really, though, I'm pissed that I'm left with this burden, this knowing that I'm going to die. That I can't run from it, hide from it, trick it somehow. That no matter what I do, I'm on a train that has only one destination and there's no getting off. 

Look, I've known this in my head since my early teens. But to really know it in your bones, in your gut, is a whole other thing. And ever since dad shuffled off his mortal coil four years ago, I've been deeply, irritatingly intimate with the knowledge. I've been slimed and I can't wash it off. 

Some background

It started when I realized he was dying. After a week in the hospital with little improvement after a nasty bout of flu kicked his ass, we moved him to a nursing home. He was clearly on his way out. I found myself unable to sleep through the night. I'd wander my house and think about going to the home to be with him. I think I must have believed I shouldn't sleep, lest I miss any time to spend with him, even if I wasn't in the same room. Actually, I don't know what I was thinking. I never felt more connected to him and more selfless than in those three weeks that he took to complete his dying process.

My obsession with mortality reached its nadir about a year ago or so. I found myself unable to sleep soundly several nights of the week and was on my way to becoming an insomniac. Worse, while I lay awake (or after I arose to putz around) I would focus on my eventual death. I was experiencing angst that would make a teenager blush. Serious, brutal existential angst. A recognition that sometime, whether tomorrow or in 70 years, I would be no more. And whether I was an Einstein or a homeless bum didn't matter. What difference does it make how I affect this world? I'm still going to be gone. The pieces of consciousness that make up my personality will be no more. 

And this drove me crazy. I writhed in psychic anguish. I felt I was staring into a black abyss that would consume me, if not now, then eventually. I realized that underneath all of my belief in spiritual possibilities, I—or at least a big chunk of me—was an atheist. I was furious, sad, lost.

It was absurd. 

Moving forward, then back

This winter, for reasons that stretched back farther and deeper than my newfound (though profound) mental discomfort, I started a course of antidepressants. A pleasant and unexpected side effect was that the anguish died down and I was able to sleep full nights again. And such had been the case until about a month or so ago. 

Though, not feeling the sheer agony and brutal fear that I felt last year, I've been once again focusing on my decay and death. (It seems though, that this time I have company, as Beck's latest album, Modern Guilt, is infused with the themes.) Anyway, it's back. And I'm sick of it. 

Because obsessing over aging and dying isn't doing me a damn bit of good. It's not making me a better person or giving me wisdom or helping me to enjoy life more. To the contrary, it depresses the hell out of me. The worst part is that I'm losing my sense of optimism, my sense of spirituality. No, the worst part is knowing that this is part of my birthright as a human being. This is pedestrian. I mean, who among us hasn't blanched at the thought our death? Which religion or spiritual sect or set of rites isn't birthed from the realization that our flesh will turn to dust and we will cease to be? How fucking tedious and useless.

What I want, what I'm craving right now, is the sense of limitless possibilities that I once had. The ability to disregard thoughts of mortality and just live. I'm not sure how to get back to that or how to redirect my thoughts away from the dead end they've been hanging out in lately. I'm not sure that I can.

**********

All that said, I still want to recognize my father for his warm heart, his integrity, his gentle nature. So, happy birthday, dad. I love you. I owe you my life and I thank you for it. 

Now, I've just got to figure out a way to get out of my head and live it. 

Schooled By Opus

Point taken, penguin. 

Lemony Pledge

Watch how Obama handles this somewhat disturbed heckler. Can you imagine the current occupant handling him with such humor and grace?

News To Warm The Cockles…

Of our little blue hearts. 

US Shifting Blue

The New York Times has a new piece on the national trends away from the GOP, both registration-wise and at a local electoral level. What's most interesting to me is that there's absolutely no attempt at forced balance in the article. There's not one "GOP consultants say..." to be found, which is refreshing. It's content to report the facts, even if they are all bad for the Republican Party.

Check out these registration statistics:

In several states, including the traditional battlegrounds of Nevada and Iowa, Democrats have surprised their own party officials with significant gains in registration. In both of those states, there are now more registered Democrats than Republicans, a flip from 2004. No states have switched to the Republicans over the same period, according to data from 26 of the 29 states in which voters register by party. (Three of the states did not have complete data.)

In six states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, the Democratic piece of the registration pie grew more than three percentage points, while the Republican share declined. In only three states — Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma — did Republican registration rise while Democratic registration fell, but the Republican increase was less than a percentage point in Kentucky and Oklahoma. Louisiana was the only state to register a gain of more than one percentage point for Republicans as Democratic numbers declined. [...]

Among the 26 states with registration data, the percentage of those who have signed on with Democrats has risen in 15 states since 2004, and the percentage for Republicans has risen in six, according to state data. The number of registered Democrats fell in 11 states, compared with 20 states where Republican registration numbers fell.

In the 26 states and the District of Columbia where registration data were available, the total number of registered Democrats increased by 214,656, while the number of Republicans fell by 1,407,971.

What's interesting is that this shift is not seen as merely a function of the enthusiasm generated by the presidential primary. In fact, it's been a trend that's been evident for several years, which in itself speaks to the likelihood that the shifts we're seeing are sustainable in the long term.

Read the whole post here.

"It's LIke, These Guys Take Pride In Being Ignorant"

Well, that's exactly what it is and has been for the past 30 years.

Apologies for such light posting lately. Just haven't been much into it. Been busy restructuring my business and learning new skills. But when I saw this I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it. 

I just love how he laughs at these buffoons, who are so deserving of derision. More of this please, Barack.

Watch Where You Step

Little hand-painted people, left in London to fend for themselves. Very cool.

Some examples:

Beware Teh Gays!!!

Unbeknownst to most of us, the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee began hearings yesterday—the first in 15 years—to decide the fate of the military's much derided "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Lucky for us, the Washington Post was there to record the rantings of the lunatic (not-so) fringe.

Choice cuts:

Don't ask, don't tell. And, whatever you do, don't ask Elaine Donnelly [pictured above] to tell you what she thinks about gays in the military.
…
Donnelly treated the panel to an extraordinary exhibition of rage. She warned of "transgenders in the military." She warned that lesbians would take pictures of people in the shower. She spoke ominously of gays spreading "HIV positivity" through the ranks.
…
Inadvertently, Donnelly achieved the opposite of her intended effect. Though there's no expectation that Congress will repeal "don't ask, don't tell" and allow gays to serve openly in the military, the display had the effect of increasing bipartisan sympathy for the cause.

Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) labeled her statement "just bonkers" and "dumb," and he called her claims about an HIV menace "inappropriate." Said Snyder: "By this analysis . . . we ought to recruit only lesbians for the military, because they have the lowest incidence of HIV in the country."
…
Donnelly was followed by Jones, a tough-talking businessman who suggested that the military's tradition of "selfless service" would be undermined by gay men and lesbians. "In the military environment, team cohesion, morale and esprit de corps is a matter of life and death," he said. His written statement spelled it "esprit decor"; it also warned of "a band of lesbians that harassed new females," and noted his own military experience when "the only way to keep from freezing at night was to get as close as possible for body heat -- which means skin to skin."

But it was Donnelly, founder and president of the Center for Military Readiness, who amused lawmakers the most. Snyder asked Darrah about Donnelly's reference to "passive-aggressive actions common in the homosexual community," saying, "I'm almost tempted to ask you to demonstrate."

Man, when the Bush-ass-kissing Wash. Post is making fun of conservatives, you know there's a sea change coming. Click here for rest of the homophobic fun.

More on the lovely Ms. Donnelly here, here, and here.

I'm Dreaming Of A Blue Thanksgiving

I've been thinking lately about listing my predictions for which states Obama will win this November and compare them to various other media outlets' maps. Well, over at Pollster.com they have made my life a little easier with their latest map of 2008 presidential electoral projections. Here's their map:

By and large, their projections line up with my predictions (unlike other maps). The main difference: my hit is that several of their toss-up states will go to Obama, specifically Virginia, Nevada, and Missouri (which will probably be a squeaker). 

I also think he has a good chance of taking Alaska, though I wouldn't be surprised if he lost by a bit. Montana could go to Obama, though I wouldn't hold my breath. Florida's a strange case. Given the primary fight and the demographics, you'd think it'd be ripe for a McCain win. But I've been reading that tens of thousands of newer, young voters have been registering throughout the year, which is why it's now a toss-up. My bet is Florida turns light blue by fall and goes to Obama by a nose. 

What do you guys think?

A Summit of Fonts

A peek inside the latest typeface conference. 

Religulous

Great news! Bill Maher been making a documentary called Religulous. From the trailer it looks like a hilarious combination of "Jaywalking", Borat, and Roger and Me. I can't embed the trailer, so here's the link. It won't hit theaters until Oct. 3. I can't wait.

He's also set up a website called Disbeliefnet, a parody of Beliefnet. 

404? Read This

Since we're most of us are texting nowadays, this list of net lingo should be required reading. Your thumbs will thank you.

(It's the place to go IMHO. CYA.)

I Want To Pay Off Every Bit Of Your Debt

There was something about that subject line that I found impossible to resist. The pay off to opening the spam was this brilliant piece of writing:

Everyone is in debt since the gas pricing and the economy although I know the secret to make it through including I can tell you the answer for no cost. You'll be free of your hard times quickly.

Love it.

A Total Failure

Speaker Pelosi slips a shiv into our Idjit in Chief. Bless his heart.

21st-Century Cicero

New York magazine's Sam Anderson examines the steep decline in American presidential oratory across the 20th century…and how Obama has already stemmed the tide.

Choice cut:

Raise High the Rafters
A major reason that Obama’s rhetoric seems to soar so high is that our expectations have sunk so low. In a new book, The Anti-Intellectual Presidency, Elvin T. Lim subjects all the words ever publicly intoned by American presidents to a thorough statistical analysis—and he finds, unsurprisingly, an alarmingly steady decline. A century ago, Lim writes, presidential speeches were pitched at a college reading level; today, they’re down to eighth grade, and if the trend continues, next century’s State of the Union addresses will be conducted at the level of “a comic strip or a fifth-grade textbook.” (“Iran’s crawling with bad guys: BAP!”) Since 1913, the length of the average presidential sentence has fallen from 35 words to 22. Between Nixon and the second Bush, the average presidential sound bite shrank from 42 seconds to 7. Today’s State of the Unions inspire roughly 30 seconds of applause for every 60 seconds of speech. Although it’s tempting to blame the sorry state of things on the current malapropist-in-chief, Bush is only the latest flower (though, obviously, a particularly striking one) on a very deep weed. Our most brilliant presidents, Lim says, often work hard to seem publicly dumb in order to avoid the stain of elitism—amazingly, Bill Clinton’s total rhetorical output checks in at a lower reading level than Bush’s. Clinton’s former speechwriters told Lim that their image-conscious boss always demanded that his speeches be “more talky”; today, he’s widely remembered as a brilliant speaker who never gave a memorable speech.

Obama seems to have taken the opposite tack: He’s a Clinton-style natural who flaunts the artifice of his speeches and refuses to strategically hide his intelligence. Compared with his rivals, Obama’s skill-set seems almost otherworldly. His phrases line up regularly in striking and meaningful patterns; his cliché ratio is, for a politician, admirably low; his stresses and pauses seem dictated less by the usual metronome of generic political speech than by the actual structures of meaning behind his words. He tolerates complexity to such an extent that he’s sometimes criticized as “professorial,” which allows him to get away with inspirational catchphrases that would sound like platitudes coming from anyone else. His naïve-sounding calls for change are persuasive largely because he’s already managed to improve one of our most intractable political problems: the decades-old, increasingly virulent plague of terrible speechifying. The signature project of his candidacy—before health care or housing or Iraq—seems to be the reuniting of presidential discourse with actual, visible thought. It is not a trivial achievement.

Another:

Brilliant policy requires brilliant public discourse. If you can think your way through a sentence, then you can think your way through a policy paper—or a 3 A.M. phone call.

And another:

My relationship to Obama has been a complex cycle of enthusiasm canceled immediately by self-correcting cynical objections, canceled by self-correcting enthusiasm, canceled again by the cynicism, canceled by the enthusiasm. Is he really this good, I wonder constantly, or do we just need him to be? The speech that finally tipped my inner scale decisively toward belief was his least decorative: no refrain, little alliteration, no audience exploding at shouted catchphrases—just the man himself standing there solemnly, neutralizing the hysteria of a potentially career-killing scandal with the naked power of grown-up thought. With his race speech, Obama chose the riskiest path in American politics: to be conspicuously thoughtful. It would have been like Clinton, in 1998, giving a long contextualizing address to the nation about human sexuality, the international status of adultery, etc. It was one of the most encouraging political moments I’ve ever experienced. [emphasis mine]

An Honest Racist

Slate writer Debra Dickerson confesses to and examines her racism.

Choice cut:

Racist Like Me
In a nation riven to its very core by race, I appear to be the only remaining racist. Off and on, I'm homophobic and anti-Semitic, too, but mostly, I'm racist. Yet unlike the rest of you, I'm honest about it.

A Bright Day

Went to see The Dark Knight last night and let me tell you it's every bit as good as the reviews. I won't give my own review other than a full-throated rec and to say that the score by Hans Zimmer is utterly superb. 

Out for a late-night walk last night, it occurred to me that the real driving dilemma of 2008 isn't Obama or McCain—a no-brainer, the outcome of which is an increasingly foregone-seeming conclusion. No 

the real question of 08, the real hard call is…which super hero flick was better: Iron Man or The Dark Knight. Iron Man or Batman? Robert Downey, Jr. or Christian Bale?

If Hollywood keeps churning movies of this quality I'll be forced to reevaluate my long-held understanding of that town's (in)ability to tell a good story.

Underwater Elsie

A rarely seen translucent cow fish.

Dreams of Colbert Nation

Had the weirdest dreams last night. Dreams within dreams. Waking and waking again, but still in dreamland, like those nested Russian dolls. The longest running series was of me grieving over the unexpected death of Stephen Colbert. In the first of the series, I remember thinking about him dying just as I was dropping off to sleep. Even as I had the thought, I wondered what would make me think that. Upon waking from that night of dream-sleeping, I had the strong intuition that he had in fact died and that I had felt it psychically the night before. I started bawling uncontrollably. I couldn't bear the thought of this huge comedic voice-of-a-generation-type dying so young. It just seemed so unfair and unacceptable, that I convulsed in sobs.

Worse, I couldn't confirm whether my intuitive hit was correct. Finally, when I ran into friends and family they confirmed his death, but none of them—nobody—seemed to care much. I tried to find some news online or on cable to really confirm, but couldn't. I was damn near incapacitated with grief over this man I've never met and am not that big a fan of. (I mean I like him a lot, but this was over the top.) Still, I couldn't understand why no one else cared, or at least cared enough about me to say some sympathetic words.

Anyway, this kept up from one dream or dream segment to another. The combination of lack of reliable information, a deep unbearable grief over a public figure, and the apathy of my friends when what I needed was sympathy or empathy was truly bizarre and left a really nasty taste in my mouth.

Western Spaghetti

A truly incredible stop-motion short from The Twisted Films of PES.



Many more here. My favorite is Pee-Nut.

One Badass Bunny

An American Tradition

232 years of mudslinging.

With the presidential nominees all but official, partisans on both sides are targeting their campaigns -- and that inevitably means negative ads. Lately they have come in the form of unsolicited e-mails portraying Barack Obama as a Muslim or charging John McCain with abandoning his disabled first wife. Yet, though we decry it, negative campaigning is as much a part of our political tradition as fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Since the time of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, successful politicians have sought to sanctify their candidate and demonize their opponent. After three largely nonpartisan elections, the first campaign for president, in 1800, pitted Adams against Jefferson. Patriots in the best sense of the word, both men were brilliant, successful lawyers who stood out among the surviving heroes of the American Revolution. Devoted family men, they had served their states and country during the war and held high positions in George Washington's administration.

Well, I Declare, II

More on the Declaration. 

Choice cut:

On this Independence Day, as we pay annual homage to the Declaration of Independence for which Thomas Jefferson gets most of the credit for authoring, let's not forget the signal contribution made by Benjamin Franklin -- entrepreneur, scientist, diplomat, statesman and, apparently, wordsmith.

If not for Franklin, one of the most famous parts of the Declaration would likely read, "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable."

Franklin, a member of the Continental Congress committee charged with creating the document, had a better idea. He crossed out the words "sacred and undeniable" and substituted "self-evident."

Well, I Declare

Who'd a thunk? The Declaration of Independence didn't just come pouring forth whole and complete from Jefferson's genius mind. Here are pics of earlier revisions: 

And a link or two for more info. 

Happy I-Day!

Maybe someone can forward this to the members of the Bush Administration.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Poem Of The Day

From Michael Kerr over at Melancholy Sideshow:

Wealth

Thank you for

the box

of diamonds

I can tell you worked

hard

on the label

God In A Cup

Michaele Weissman searches for the perfect cuppa.

Sample shot:

Journalist Michaele Weissman says she had her first real cup of coffee in 2005; everything before that was "hot water and Ritalin." The revelation came in the form of a double-shot 12-ounce cappuccino with whole milk made with specialty coffee purveyor Counter Culture's Toscano espresso blend. It was a concoction she remembers as tasting "as luxurious as cashmere, bringing mouth memories of caramel, chocolate and hazelnut." Baristas call this epiphany a "Godshot moment."

Your Guide To Not Voting

From Today Now!

Today Now!: How To Pretend You Give A Shit About The Election

Watching War Criminals Squirm

With former U.S. Justice Dept. Office of Legal Counsel John Yoo in the role of simpering idiot:

(In case you don't know who Yoo is, here's a brief refresher.):

And David Addington in the role of unbelievably arrogant asshole:

God, these people are just disgusting. Fucking cowards. 

Don't Tick Me Off

Slate.com has just started a cool new article series which delves into the lives of revolting creatures. Installment one is A Tick's Life: The Life Story of a Tick. I look forward to more.

Choice cut:  

I repeated the question of why God made ticks for Dr. Fish. He responded with a growl to what he took to be my facetious tone: "Nobody makes them. They're just there. Their object, like ours, is to make a living any way they can."

And the tick's place in the great web of life? "They transmit disease. They control population."

"Including us?" I asked.

"Whatever is susceptible to the disease."

Snow Jobs

Check out these beautifully creepy snow globes. Absolutely gorgeous.

Float On

Warming schmarming. If coastal cities get taken out by elevated ocean levels just move to a lilypad. Sign me up.

More here.

The Ghostly Gaze

A creepy optical illusion. The explanation of what's happening is fascinating.

A Different Spin

I can't wait to try this.

Go Away! We're Having Dinner!

Fucking bizarre.



h/t: Jeremy Holmes

Step Through The Looking Glass…

And into the realm of the Clinton dead-enders. Even though the lion's share of Clinton supporters have come around and most of the rest in all likelihood will, there are still those who just can't get over her loss. They insist on voting for McCain or sitting out. 

If you scratch the veneer of their complaints about process, however, you start to get the sense that they a) just don't like the guy and are emotionally invested in their stance, b) are racist despite protestations to the contrary, c) they're filled with anger and spite, or d) are at least separated, if not divorced from reality (they're certain the DNC has disenfranchised them and Hillary).

Most of these people have formed groups and have websites. One of the noisiest is PUMA (party unity my ass), but I just discovered there are scores of them. I thought I'd link to a site that has a good round up of them, but don't want to give them the boost. If you're curious and want to get a flavor, go to justsaynodeal.com. (The cream of the crop, if you can call it that, are blogs called NoQuarter and Hillary is 44. These people have truly gone off the deep end. They're little but smear sites.) 

Mostly, I ignore them and recommend you do the same, but I figured I'd bring them to your attention because they can be an interesting vacation from sanity if you need a break.

Oh, I found this in one of them. It's an interview with the crazy lady from the May 31 Rules and Bylaws Committee fracas. She really is a piece of work.

Damn, These Guys Are Good

Rachmaninov Had Big Hands


Mozart Bond


Check them out here.

Putting Cake To Shame

and making Gloria Gaynor proud.

Bonus points for anyone who can the song they reference in the long instrumental section. (Actually, I think there are two, but I can only put my finger on one.)

Fax Us Your E-Mail Address Now!

The Complete Gabe and Max's Internet Thing. ORDER NOW!

Ham-ster

I'm John McC**t And I Approve This Message

What a newsroom might look like if the media didn't handle McCain with cun—er, kid gloves...

A 360 Of Obama

Way cool panorama from Obama's Detroit rally. 

Wait…I Get It

Check out this attempt at wit from the adolescents who run the GOP in Texas. 

Thing is, I'll bet they think it's clever.

Yes He Can, Too

When I heard that Al Gore had finally endorsed Obama I thought, "Eh, now? Big deal." I didn't go out of my way to see the conference or rally or whatever in Detroit because I need a bit of a breather from the election and there's been no real news since Hillary almost, sorta, kinda, maybe conceded (she "suspended" her campaign). Still, I'm checking the usual blogs and came across a vid clip of Gore's introduction of Obama in Detroit. I have to say it's pretty damn good. Give it a watch.

Screw Hawaii…

…let's go to Siberia!

You're right, fuck that. But I do recommend reading  this fascinating article about that place you probably know only from playing Risk—the coldest city in the world—Yakutsk, Russia. Why anyone would choose to live there is beyond me, but I admit I would like to visit just to challenge my wussy-ass self. Now that we're safely in summer's embrace I can pass this article along without the worry of causing anyone psychic pain. 

Yakutsk: Journey to the coldest city on earth
Think our winter's been a bit grim? Try visiting Yakutsk – the Russian city where 'a bit nippy' means minus 50C, and a quick dash to the corner shop could end in frostbite. Shaun Walker enjoys a mini-break in deepest Siberia:

At minus 5C, the cold is quite refreshing and a light hat and scarf are all that's required to keep warm. At minus 20C, the moisture in your nostrils freezes, and the cold air starts making it difficult not to cough. At minus 35C, the air will cold enough to numb exposed skin quickly, making frostbite a constant hazard. And at minus 45C, even wearing glasses gets tricky: the metal sticks to your cheeks and will tear off chunks of flesh when you decide to remove them. I know this because I've just arrived in Yakutsk….

Like Being 80 Years Old

Can a night owl become a morning lark?

As a die-hard night person myself, I can attest to the strange allure of becoming a morning person. I love the softness of the morning light and the freshness of the day. The world feels brand new and full of possibility. I've tried numerous times to change my sleeping pattern only to fall back into my normal rhythm within a week or two. Yet there's something about the night that really resonates with me. I feel more creative, more alive, more at home at night than I do during the daytime.

Well, I'm not alone in my attempts at diurnal rehabilitation. After years of fantasizing about it (and despite the cheery smugness of most morning people she knows) this Slate writer attempts to change her habits—with the help of her doctor, melatonin supplements and yellow sunglasses—and finally become a morning person herself.

Choice cut:

At 6:30 on a weekday evening, I popped my first melatonin pill. Dr. Richardson had warned me that the pill might make me drowsy as soon as I took it, and sure enough, 15 minutes later my brain was shrouded in a thick fog. It felt like I had taken a teaspoon of Nyquil and I would now drift into a blissful, drugged sleep. Except that bedtime wasn't for another four hours.

The yellow glasses went on at 8 p.m. I looked like a cross between Bono and Henry Kissinger. At a get-together at a friend's house that evening, I wandered around in a sleepy, self-conscious haze. I went home at about 10 and picked up a novel to read in bed. A half-hour later, the book was slipping from my lifeless hands. So this is what being a morning person is like, I thought. It's like being 80 years old.

Cleanse…Or Torture?

Day seven of our detox cleanse and I'm hurting. Major headaches and all I want to do is sleep. Very little energy. This sucks. 

Week one went much easier than expected. I was surprised by how little I missed my normal foods and actually felt pretty good about what we were eating. It wasn't that much of a stretch really. Sure, we had to give up caffeine, refined sugars, salt, eggs, most grains, red and lunch meats, dairy and processed foods. But we could still eat chicken, veggies, fruits, beans, rice, oats, rice cereal, rice milk, and best of all, I could keep using agave syrup as sweetener. 

Now, having given up caffeine cold turkey before to ill effect, I knew better than to attempt it now. Instead I tapered off my caffeine intake by drinking green tea for a week. This has two benefits: 1) no screaming headaches and moroseness, and 2) way smaller sugar intake. 

So far, so good. 

Then came today. Today began the deep, intense part of the cleanse. From now through next Sunday, Annie and I are eating no breakfast except a rice powder protein drink, no more meat, and less of everything else. I could live without the meat, I guess, but the lack of cereal is a blow. I love eating cereal, it's a comfort food for me. 

Worse, I stopped drinking green tea yesterday. I didn't experience any headaches then, but had very little energy. I was incredibly sluggish. Today was worse, though, as I had persistent headaches and even less energy. I mean, I can't believe how tired I've been today. In addition to sleeping in and finding it near impossible to get out of bed, I've had two naps. As I write this I'm nearly falling asleep. It's 10:30 p.m.

These are all normal symptoms of a detox cleanse, of course, and I'll tough it out. But this sucks. 

The most remarkable thing I've noticed is just how much I rely on caffeine and sugar to just get through a day at what feels like a normal level. I guess I really am an addict. 

Turnabout Is Fair Play

Ah, it's good to be back. Good job, Bill!

FOX Ambushes Bill Moyers; Journalists Ambush FOX
At the National Conference for Media Reform 2008, a producer for FOX's The O'Reilly Factor, Porter Barry, ambushes PBS's Bill Moyers and peppers him with questions regarding his political affiliations and his "refusal" to appear on O'Reilly's show. Moyers disputes FOX's "facts" for the record and asks to interview someone at The O'Reilly Factor about Rupert Murdoch and the show's coverage during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The journalist crowd then reacts, chasing down Barry and intentionally giving him a dose of FOX-style bullying reportage.

Checking In

Well, I'm back. Checking in with exhaustion, gratitude, joy, and relief. 

What a weekend! I'm still physically spent from it. I went into this past weekend with a great deal of fear. Fear of fucking up, fearing of looking stupid, fear of having to be responsible and accountable, fear of being bored in down times, fear of the discomfort of being out of my comfortable life. But I just leaned into it and pushed through. And I came out feeling proud, excited, grateful, happy, and, most of all, relieved.

Seeing the weekend from the other side was intense and instructive. Tons of effort and energy goes into making it all go smoothly for the new men. It was a blessing getting to work with such smart, powerful, caring, and cocky men in the service of helping other men deal with their (sometimes very substantial) shit. 

It was my third time going up to Wa-Ri-Ki and by far my favorite road trip. Will and I had a blast and I really loved getting to know him better. We didn't listen to music once (well, we tried once, but suffered from technical difficulties that I just wasn't interested in resolving), and I hardly noticed. I'd road trip with him again at the drop of a hat.

By all accounts my dear friends who's initial weekend it was had the heart-blowing experienced I'd hoped they would. I was honored to be a part of the deepest pieces for one of them. It was a deeply satisfying and pleasing thing to see both of them shining bright on Sat. night and Sun. morning. 

There is serious magic that happens on those weekends. It's awe-inducing. I am impressed beyond words at both the processes and the men who facilitate them. I'm just blown away. And grateful to be a part of it. And honored. And proud of myself. 

And it's damn good to be back!