THE OLD MAN AND THE MARINE

(My mom sent me this one!)

One sunny day in January, 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench.

He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine looked at the man and said, 'Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.'

The old man said, 'Okay' and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine again told the man, 'Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.'

The man thanked him and, again, just walked away. The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U.S. Marine, saying 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, 'Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I've told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don't you understand?'

The old man looked at the Marine and said, 'Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.'

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, 'See you tomorrow, Sir.'

More than you wanted to know

Poor, neglected blog. Doing NaBloPoMo on my other blog, so this one is getting the short end of the stick. Plus today, when I FINALLY am able to rest, rather than run around and do 234,232,380 things, I am sick. But not with a cold. Actually, a cold would be nice at this point -- much better than having a nauseous and queasy stomach all day. Thank goodness I work from home all this week so I can recover from this and my emotional coaster week last week.

Want to hear about it? Yes, I thought so.

So last week was the election (duh). Election night I was alone in a hotel room. I was awake when they announced that Obama was president-elect, but went to sleep before seeing McCain's concession speech and Obama's acceptance speech. So, when I went to sleep I wasn't yet feeling 100% sure about the results, and was actually really nervous that I was going to wake up in the morning and find them saying, "oh, we don't actually know -- (insert state name here) had problems at the polls" etc. So when I did wake up, I decided to shower first before turning on the TV. When I finally did allow myself to peak at the TV, I started to cry (in happiness). It was a good thing I hadn't put on my makeup yet.

It was also my first night away from Il Tonino. I did really well, being so busy and so tired and having the election to take things off my mind. I did, however, cry when I called my Mom (who had Il Tonino with her at that time). Il Tonino had a much harder time with me being gone and we had a rough adjustment once I was back home.

The day after I got back from my trip, I took both my cats to the vet for dental cleaning. They both have horrible tartar on their teeth, and since they are 6 years old, it was time to get it taken care of before it caused worse problems (and a bigger hole in my wallet). Even though it was not a big deal, they still got the whole anethesia thing and they were on my mind. Once they were home, though, it was fun to watch dopey, wobbly cats walking around in a drug-influenced daze. They are fine now.

While away, I got notification that my checking account was $0 and they had to use my overdraft protection. WTF!?! I had PLENTY of money in there. The day was spent beating myself up for being so careless with my fiances and not paying greater attention. It was a huge relief when the Urban Shaman figured out that the bank had withdrawn $4070 on a check that was written for $1420. Dude! That is a HUGE difference. $2650 to be exact. I had to call them and they told me they saw the error and it would go to the research department and take up to 5 (yes, FIVE) business days to resolve this. Uh, no. Give me my money back NOW! Luckily, I got it back the next day, in time to pay a credit card bill that was due. Man.

My brother and sister in-law showed up the day after I got back from my trip to stay at my house for awhile. It is a good thing I love being with them. (Actually, it is awesome to have relatives that I adore that are not actually related by blood.)

Now, who wants to come over and rake the leaves off my lawn?

Bigotry Cuts Both Ways

My friend J and I grew up together. He and I were the athletic ones in our families. Our moms were, and are, best friends. Our sisters were 2 little blonde drama queens who played together. J is very intelligent, blunt sometimes to a fault, and articulate. I love what he has to say on various topics, either verbal or written.

Here is something he wrote yesterday, which is related to his thoughts on the No on 8 California propostition. It is so good, I wanted to share.

Subject: bigotry cuts both ways

I typically don't crank these things out everyday, but this topic is perfectly juxtaposed with what I wrote yesterday. I couldn't resist taking 15 minutes. A friend of ours worked on (defeating) Proposition 8 in California, which is a measure on our ballot that, if passed, will officially define marriage as that between a Man and Woman only. So a YES vote would eliminate same-sex marriages in CA.

What I find incredible is not that this piece of crap is probably going to pass. We have a lot of rural parts and even more upper middle-class white suburbs in California and those groups have never been too fond of 'the gays.' So, as the Wall Street Journal article below explains, it's the religious fanatics (Mormons in this case), hicks, and uneducated, white, suburbanites against the city folk, book reading, elites with their college educations and world viewernesses. These battles are typical in every state over every issue...can the cities out vote the non-cities?

In Oregon it's Portland and Eugene against the rest of the state. In Missouri it's St. Louis and Kansas City against the rest of the state. In Pennsylvania it is Philly and Pittsburgh versus everybody else. This country isn't now and never has been divided by red states and blue states...it's divided by cities and non-cities. I attached the 2000 Presidential electoral map for good measure. See if you can pick out Oklahoma City in Oklahoma. See if you can pick out Las Vegas in Nevada. Washington: Seattle/Tacoma. Virginia: DC. I don't see red states and blue states, I see specs of blue in a sea of red in an election where there were more blue voters than red.

Take any state and look at who disagrees about what. It's usually pretty close overall and the winner is usually determined by the percentage of voters who live within a few miles of some sort of mass transit line.

The "Division in America" is not about the always Blue California against the always Red Texas and why do these people hate each other so much...It's about how I have no idea how much fun midnight possum hunts can be, and they have no idea why I pay $5 extra for the good nigiri sashimi. Both of us think the other guy is crazy even though we've never tried and have no intention of trying what the other does for fun. We both live in California. 60 miles apart.

I'm not qualified to dive deeper into a "why are we divided" discussion, I'm just pointing out that, contrary to what we are told, our deep divisions have nothing to do with what state we live in.

There is no better way to highlight how deep the divisions run than taking a closer look at this Proposition 8. Whether it passes or not will have no effect on common law partnerships and the ability of gay people to get the tax benefits or visit each other in the hospital...it's about what how we are going to define the term "marriage." The opponents of Prop 8 think sexual orientation should have no bearing on whether or not a couple can declare their union to the State. Those in favor of Prop 8, as Tina Fey put it,"believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers."

I'm in the minority on this one compared to the rest of the country. A large majority of American's don't believe gays should have the right to call "that thing they do to each other" marriage. It really is the last form of publicly accepted bigotry in this country. Racism is still quite prevalent, but if you're racist you're not allowed to talk about it publicly in most places without serious consequences. Just ask Don Imus.

What I find absolutely incredible is that Proposition 8 is most likely going to be pass because Team Obama has mobilized and registered so many minorities. The marginal "swing vote" on Prop 8 is the minority vote. Of categories, men, women, old, young, black, white, no "group" is more anti-gay than the African American community (see article below).

It just blows my mind. The new bigot movement, which tries to pass laws that distinguish one group of people as "lesser and undeserving of equal rights," is being supported most vigorously by the targets of the previous bigot movement.

Is this as ironic as Governer Palin line-item-vetoing planned parenthood funding for unwed new mothers? I don't know. But doses of irony for everyone this year.

Here is a good article to read on the subject: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122463078466356397.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

No on 8

Thank goodness that this year Oregon doesn't have another one of those measures on the ballots again that want to take away rights from people, specifically same-sex couples.

However, California does -- Proposition 8.

I received this email from my cousin's cousin. Even though he is not directly related to me, I adore him and love it whenever I get to see him.

Family and Friends,

I am asking you to take some time (one minute?) and think about defeating Proposition 8 here in California, a vote that could turn back decades of equal rights progress and eliminate the right to marry for same-sex couples.

Proposition 8 is gaining a lot of momentum with their recent false ads, claiming churches will lose their tax exempt status and kids will be forced to learn in schools that Princesses marry Princesses or something. By going out of state to entities like the Mormon Church for support, Yes on 8 is more than $9 million ahead in funding. Unfortunately, this campaign will come down to ad dollars and we have about 14 days to catch up to the other side. I have been volunteering at a call center for the last week, urging voters to think about this, and this is a very tight race.

You can do several things to help, and I ask in lieu of any personal gifts this year (or next!), that you help us vote NO on this unnecessary attempt to take away some very basic rights. Please contribute whatever you can to Vote No on Proposition 8, but for starters, the cost of a wedding license in this state is $72.

If you're in California: vote NO on Proposition 8

If you're not in California: No on 8 Needs Your Support!

Donate Online at http://www.noonprop8.com/

Prefer to Send A Check? No Problem:

You can send a check to (but remember to print, fill out the below form and send it in with your check)

No On 8
c/o ML Associates, 8581 Santa Monica Blvd., #504
West Hollywood, CA 90069

http://www.fppc.ca.gov/forms/06-06form/461.pdf.

Thank you - I did not copy and paste this email. This request is coming from the bottom of my heart. Please help California be the best state it can be and help me Vote No on November 4th. I've never heard of a constitution that will take away people's rights, and I never thought I would live somewhere where I wouldn't be considered worthy of the same rights as everyone else.

Thanks, and much love,

T

Even though I don't live in California, I believe the outcome of this proposition affects everyone. If you can donate, please do.

Political Brain Teaser

A few days ago we had a small dinner party with another couple that we know well and love. We started discussing politics, our favorite topic, and talked about McCain's recent vice presidential pick, Palin. It was decided, before we really began discussing her in earnest, to each use a few words to describe our opinion of this pick.

My description?

"A Vagina for the Republican Party."

That can be interpreted in many ways. Enjoy thinking about it ;)