you tacky thing

Obama recently put out an Open Letter to the LGBT community (via Feministe). Clinton gave her LGBT address here. There’s lots of discussion in the community about these: their tone, their verbiage, the policy they promise, etc. We’re tired of having our votes taken for granted and getting little or no return on our political support. We’re tired of having our rights thrown under the bus in the name of “appealing to the center.” We don’t agree about what we need to do, or what the candidates should be doing, of course. So I think it’s important for us not just to discuss Obama’s and Clinton’s specific plans, but also to discuss the bigger issue here.

(more…)

My best friend broke off her engagement last week. She’d been with this guy off and on for five years, and she finally said yes and put on the $27,000 ring around Christmas of ‘06. The wedding was set for this summer. They sent out Save-the-Date cards last month. But they’d been fighting a lot lately, essentially the same fight they’d been having since they first got together: Incompatible visions of each other and the relationship. Each of them kept demanding that the other one change in fundamental ways, and each of them kept dismissing the other one’s demands as unreasonable. One fight too many, and she asked to postpone the wedding; he refused, and they fought again, more bitterly than ever before. “It’s over,” she told me miserably. “It is finally 100 percent over.”

The telling thing? Each and every one of her friends has greeted this news happily. (more…)

I’ve been haphazardly stringing my days together moment-to-moment for a while now. It won’t work much longer.

A crisis is coming, and it will bring change. I hope I’m strong enough to shape it to my own purposes. Rather than panicking and squeezing my eyes shut until it rolls over me like a tsunami, leaving me sputtering and covered in weeds.

Young woman: “Women are so catty.”
Me: “That’s really sexist.”
YW: “No, it’s not. It’s just my opinion! We’re all entitled to our opinion.”
Me: “You’re not entitled to the opinion ‘women are catty’ any more than you’d be entitled to the opinions ‘Jews are greedy’ or ‘Hispanics are lazy.’”
YW: “Actually, I’m Jewish and Hispanic, and Jews are greedy and Hispanics are lazy.”
Me: “… Well, at least you’re consistent.”

*headdesk*

Oh, for heaven’s sake.

Republican John McCain says there will be no new taxes during his administration if he is elected president.

…

The leading contender for his party’s presidential nomination, McCain blamed out-of-control spending for a lack of enthusiasm among Republican voters.

“Spending restraint is why our base is not energized,” he said. “I think it’s very important that we send a signal to the American people we’re going to stop the earmark pork-barrel spending.”

Yes, Senator McCain, earmark spending is on the rise. (more…)