Beck in the Saddle again....

Ok, I know I’m a touch late to the table on this one, but I have to say I never thought I’d see this. After all the work, all the sacrifices of life and legislature, we’re still arguing about this. What. The. Fuck.

Let me take a step back. As some of you may know, I have a rather severe distaste for racism. Call it ingrained. And yet I stand absolutely aghast day after day at the constant blathering of this so-called ‘Tea Party’ and the sewage they use for said tea. Now, don’t get me wrong, the in-fighting currently being waged on the right about who is in fact right who’s a socialist librul-lovin’ commy pinko is delicious. But now we come to one of the icons of this movement: Glenn Beck.

Aw, Glenn. How you long for attention. Long for it so much you’ll say literally anything and cry rivers of tears for it, regardless of merit or taste or honor. And yet THIS is what you would tout as your motive for organizing a convention of hate in DC on the anniversary or the speech of a man truly worthy of a term like honor. Dr. Martin Luther King stood before a gathering of thousands to express a dream. Now you stand on that same ground and pile mountain after mountain of unchecked hate.

I pity you. I detest pity; I find it a font of weakness and insecurity that is not only unnecessary but loathsome. And yet you are all these things, and so do I pity you. Arrogance has never come in a more perfect package of self-righteous bigotry with a pretty little bow of unrepentant lies. You speak of people trying to silence your truth. You wouldn’t know truth if it hit you in the face with a wet fish.

But alas, Becky boy is only a swollen node on the groin of a much bigger problem: somewhere along the way we’ve managed to slink backwards. There is still a percentage of people in this country who believe are President is Muslim. And they care WHY, exactly? Oh wait, because ALL Muslims are terrorists, including the ones that share the vast majority of their beliefs and values with Christianity and Judaism. Namely ALL of them. Riiiight. Anyone ever notice that? 3 major monotheistic doctrine-based religions, one main (shared) deity, 75% the same rhetoric, and yet all they want to do is kill each other. Wait, what?

Back to my point, the state of Texas wants to change history itself to suit its purposes of fear-mongering and cultivated hatred, a tactic used by many an oppressive regime, right down to the Inquisition. Congressmen and women from all over the country are vying for power on the basis of fear of their own constituents. The Constitution is being put on trial because it doesn’t fit the self-aggrandizing agendas of the far Right (spelled ‘Reich’ for those of you keeping score. If you haven’t looked up the actually tenants of Socialism, you might want to. Note how closely they relate to the far RIGHT as opposed the Left. Just a thought.) Xenophobia has found a foothold in the ‘Land of the free and home of the brave.’ Unless your brown. Or not Evangelical Christian. Or anything other than starkly heterosexual. Then you’re just fucked.

How DARE you. As someone of Native American stock I can’t help but laugh hysterically at the gall of these people. Those whose heretical, religious-persecution-fleeing ancestors came to this land and then orchestrated the systematic genocide of indigenous people over the course of centuries are suddenly AGHAST at the audacity of anyone not like you in your midst. And simply because there was no law against it, it was fine to kill over hundreds of thousands of people just to further their own goals.

I grant you, some of my own ancestors came to this land in this way. But let’s take a moment, as a whole, and refuse to let history be our guide and not our warning system. History, not what they teach in Texas. History, that which is so soaked in blood and nightmares that it’s hard to look at most days. History, that which we too will one day be a part of. Is this the mark that we leave, a pock mark so deep it scars over to the point that a hundred years from now we too are scoffed at as short-sighted fools?

Nah, I like to form my own thoughts. But thanks for offering. Now FUCK OFF so the grown ups can something done.

MuseCon Musings (MuseCon 0)

I was really pleased. The programming was non-pressured and I learned some nifty new things (although I need another hobby like I need a pig on my head). Of course, now I have an itch to teach a beginning knitting class next year. And Gundo recruited me for Filk next year (SO HAPPY!!).

Speaking of Gundo, Toyboat RAWKED!! Rawked in wrong and wonderful ways. Songs that break people are always such a joy.

Hotel is really nice and cozy, even with the atrium lobby and elevator setup (yipe, heights). Roomed with Eric Colemanand Xap which was loads of fun. WSPA-2 also roomed with us, which made for way too many hysterical moments.

But all kidding aside, that boy can PLAY. It’s going to very interesting to watch as he gets better because he’s already oh my wow musically. Shiny shiny. :)

Hung out with lots of great people, including, Adam and Michaeland a bunch of mega super awesome people.

Got a lot of good ideas for projects and neat stuff (Xap taught me how to do shuttle tatting!!), and I think I want to start my own beehive. I know, allergy, but still, attended a really awesome panel on the subject, and it’s really interesting. And I got a bee on my ankle at the train station and he didn’t sting me! I like when the universe sends glowing neon signs that say, “Yeah, this is ok. Relax.” Now all I need is a backyard and a garden….

Had a great time in filk circle singing with Eric, and Gundo joined me on “Follow that Road” by Anne Hills. JOY! “Swamp Witch” was so eerie and fun. Must do that one again. That and more. More, more, more…

Overall: B+ Quite pleased, and I can’t wait for Sooj to be there next year!!! I get to be Filk helper with Sooj as our GOH. And Eric and I will likely be singing together again. And and and and… My life is so fucking GOOD…

I did the right thing. So why do I feel like a swamp rat that ran over a garden snake with an alligator bulldozer on fire?

I just told a guy I care about that I can't associate with him anymore. I illustrated why, as I have on several occasions before. He and I have gone over these points of contention more than once, and he has refused to change his behavior. He keeps professing to not understand what he's doing wrong even when I spell it out for him in crayon. I tell him no, he takes it at the time, then brings the subject up against mere days (sometimes HOURS) later to see if anything has changed when I SPECIFICALLY ASKED HIM TO DROP IT.

He's not a bad person. He's a wonderful man 90% of the time. Its that 10% that kills me, and I can't invest that kind of emotion in him anymore. I'm out of spoons.

So, we had that talk. he cried. I almost did, too, but I kept it together. I'm here trying not to feel like I just ruined his life by making the choice I had to make for me. Blarg.

Being a grown up is hard. Poly is HARDER. Let's go to the spa...

My First Rush Concert

Base drum hits my chest like cannon fire. A voice like windswept brushfire scorches my very skin. Must be a Rush concert.

Every heartbeat a bassline echo, but I am not caged. Barefoot and half-deaf with liquid joy. At the foot on Monsters, I am free.

Rhythmic pulsing pulls at my throat, and from it spins words I know by heart and soul and spleen. Yes, spleen.

Intermission. My ears are bleeding colored lights. I stand at the feet of children sprung from the pulsating forehead imagination. Dreams made flesh.

Synthesizer fever dreams, smokescreen light show, and three men captivating the soul of air itself by lighting it on fire.

20-armed steampunk drum robot freak of nature! Wait, that’s Neil every day…

My hearing will come back when its not hung over. Worth it. Utterly worth it.

Duckon 19.... QUACK!

That was different! Good different, weird different, but different. Sound checks and floor shows, and sight gags, oh my! And dang it people, what’s a girl in a red hood have to do to get a wolf around here?! ;)

Overall it was a lot of fun. I overbooked myself all to hell, but even that turned out ok. I get press ganged into a panel Friday, entitle ‘How to Pick Up Geek Girls.’ It was a basic explanation of do’s and don’t’s in thought process and action when it comes to girls at sci-fi cons. By far my favorite line of thought was “If I didn’t want you to look at me, I wouldn’t dress like this.” To say nothing of Anejo’s addition to the conversation from the audience: “Always stick the dismount.” Subtitle: How you break up with someone is just as important as how you pick someone up. Anejo, dear one, COME UP WITH A BETTER WAY TO SAY THAT. Thank you. 

Wydlekyttin’s birthday party was beyond fabulous. It was comfortable overall and gave a lot of people a place to relax as well as help celebrate the wondrous birthday girl. Who looked HOT in the Poisen Ivy dress I made her. Yeah. My life, it does not suck.

Tear down was… FUN. Closing ceremonies was a Blast if a bit less the spectacle that we’d hoped for. But we 4 pulled it off with usual con gusto and fun, and Deacon Drew has left the building. Go, Slayer!

This marks my second Duckon, and I must say, my love of filk has been fanned into a passion not only for the music but the plethora of wonderful people that make it. SO amazingly happy to have been able to share in the laughter and beauty and presence of these musicians and what they do.

The con chair is dead! Long live the con chair!

That was fast.

Rand Paul is now saying he WOULD have voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act after 2 days of ridicule. http://tinyurl.com/2df9vs6

You wanted to be important. You wanted to be a contender. Then you opened your mouth and managed to piss off over 80% of the people of this country. What did you EXPENT, Rand?

But oh no, poor sad panda, he’s trying to play the ‘victim of the liberals’ card now. Oh no, he wouldn’t ever do anything so heinous as say Civil Rights are bad and HE’s not a racist. Yeah ya are, Rand. If this is what you truly stand for, having NEVER READ THE 1964 CIVIL RIGHTSD ACT TO BEGIN WITH’ (See previous post for the video. He admits this directly and without provocation), you are a racist. A racist pandering to racists trying to be an almost entirely racist political party that no one is taking seriously because they are truly that batshit. THESE are your people. You are what you hang with. DEAL. You have only yourself to blame.

Really, Rand?

Ok, this is just too much. So, Rand Paul (I refuse to use the title of ‘Dr’ here because any man of this nature needs to be ejected from any professional environment that ALLOWS for the title of ‘Dr’) just won the Kentucky republican Primary for Congress. G9od for him. He won by a landslide. Also good for him. He is also against the Federal government having say over private businesses not being able to discriminate thanks to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

WHAT NOW?

Oh but it’s ok, because he DOES believe there should be no discrimination of any kind in GOVERNMENT jobs and THAT is what the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT should have say over, not local businesses because its going against the rights of local business owners. Yeah, couldn’t say that with a straight face if I WANTED to.

Ok, is it me, or was this ‘local business discrimination’ issue exactly WHY the Civil Rights Act and ADA were put into place? Restaurants not serving Blacks or any non-white skin color, separate but equal (HA!) school systems, public AND private (so there’s no distinction to be made for who does and does not receive state funds), to say nothing of treated by law enforcement, city zoning commissions (all governed locally), voting officials, and do I need to GO ON? ( I could. Unlike Texas, I actually paid attention in ‘real life, no seriously this happened in THIS COUNTRY’ US history class.)

Thankfully, I don’t have to. HE SAYS SO HIMSELF: http://bit.ly/cCux5w

Look, Rand, I appreciate you have a Tea Party to pander to, and that’s your choice. But you have now gone from ridiculous to advocating that discrimination should be LEGAL while your well-fed Caucasian self tries to get into elected office because you got endorsed by Fox (fantasy)News. People like you are the reason my parents had to change STATES OF RESIDENCE to get away from the shit they were getting for being a mixed race couple. People like you are the reason why I can’t go back to my home state of Arizona right now for fear of getting stopped by a cop to ask "Papiere, Bitte" because I look vaguely indigenous so I MUST be illegal.

Fuck you, you fucking fucker.

State of Shame

I have never been more embarrassed to say that I was born in Arizona. I didn't think that was possible after having the walking dead John McCain, the governor of AZ at the time, walked into public and open his mouth during the 2008 election. That was bad. THEN to bring the idiot that is Plain into the picture? I was mortified. And NOW this. A law that basically makes racial profiling a legal practice for the 'enforcement' of immigration laws. Excuse me, AZ, are you sure you can hear me all the way back there in the 40's?!

I've been mistaken for Latina more times than I care to talk about because its both funny and a little weird, but I don't feel comfortable going back to my own home state for fear of being stopped on the street and having a cop ask for my papers. I'm pretty sure I'd send him to the hospital, and it may well be the same hospital that has my birth record if all this happen sin Tucson. I am sick to the teeth about this, but I must say I am proud to see Tucson and Flagstaff standing up and saying they want no park of this. Cities suing their own state over legislature. Let's see how long this law REALLY lasts. Constitutionality, go!

Of an evening stroll...

I was on my way home tonight by foot, naturally, going the same way home my feet always take me. I don't know why I looked up, but suddenly a figure caught my eye. Catlike by round, a Racoon lumbered down the sidewalk. He stopped a moment and looked back at me, paying no head to the couple moving forward across the street and beyond. He watched me watching him, then wnet on his way, fluffy tail and glowing eyes daring me to follow as he waddled along. I did.

I followed the fuzzy bandit to an black iron fence alongside a rather nice looking apartment building. The kind you might nto associate with a racoon's hiding place, but to each their own, even in the animal kingdom. He paused one last time, watching me watching him. I told him I cold not follow him further tonight. a blink, and he was gone.

I continued down this new path, new architecture to take in in the quiet night, when silver light caught my eye. the moon, just coming into fullness, lay over my new path, leading me on, all but taking my hand for the journey. I wondered that She would take such time for me, but I smiled back at Her as I walked, content that she thought of me even if only for a moment.

and a moment was all it took to follow Her glow to a tiny house, gently situated back from the urban street, of no consequence to any but those who know to look. Lamplight on the cobled path to the door, the sound of running water heralding a starnge presence, palpable yet elusive. I wonder at seeing it again without the Moon to Guide me...

I wandered on only to have a black cat emerge from the streetlamp night, well-fed and fluffy in the last of his winter coat. He paused only a moment before rambling on in his sure-fotted kitty cat way.

A corner turned, homeward bound, I was caught enthralled, a garden of light. Tiny litted flowers, garish colors coming together in a goldwash of light, happily playing across dew-strewn grass, new leaves in colors only moonlight and streetlight can show.

Gentle intrigues all as the Moon rolls on, and the tides roll in, and the nodding night wind blows. But why the Lady fishes the streets, only the Lady knows...

Apple's Revenge: We all get it in the end

As many of you are no doubt aware, an interesting story hit the news late last week about a blogger, Jason Chen of Gizmodo, who paid $5000 for a ‘found’ prototype of the 4G iPhone that was left in a bar by one of the researchers. His home was raided by police in san Mateo county and he could be facing felony charges.

This brings up a series of arguments and thought processes when it comes to bloggers. California does have laws in place that shield journalists from revealing their sources, but are bloggers journalists? What does and does not qualify as journalism?

As someone who was once bouncing around the idea of a career in journalism, this strikes a deep cord in me. Free speech is in fact protected under the First amendment, but how far does that really extend? There’s Free speech, then there’s threatening the life of the President (you WILL do Federal time for this, even if you don’t mean it. After Kennedy, the Treasury Department does not mess around). There’s free of speech, then there’s trade secrets, state secrets, and medical information. Even if you have access to this information, sharing it, regardless of free speech laws, incurs penalty by law.

So where is the line drawn? This is something people have been kicking around the past few years and the blogosphere has expanded into view-shifting territory. There’s a blog for quite literally ever palette, and that leads to many of the same questions that the internet has faced about free speech, privacy, and in the end, accountability.

My opinion, what Jason Chen did is stupid. Just plain stupid, to say nothing of questionable. I mean, whatever happened to finding something dropped in a bar and giving it to the bartender in a ‘lost and found’ type gesture? I appreciate iPhones aren’t cheap since I KNOW what I just paid for mine, but doing anything else is theft, by law. Taking an object, regardless of intent, and reconfiguring it for your own purposes is theft in the eyes of the law, as it should be. Can Chen then be held accountable for willfully buying stolen property? It’s entirely possible.

This is going to be an interesting story to follow, not only for the sake of bloggers, but journalists in general. Lines will be drawn by this criminal suit, even if a civil suit is not filed.