35 days and counting

I got this as an email so I'm going to be bad and copy the whole thing. I'd link if I could find it somewhere. FYI Eve wrote The Vagina Monologues.


Drill, Drill, Drill

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the Arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country choose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the Arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task from God.'

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States . She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S. , but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008

Funny with a disturbing ending

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Working Class Warrior, also known as a blue-collar Democrat. You believe that the little guy is getting screwed by conservative greed-mongers and corporate criminals, and you’re not going to take it anymore.

Take the quiz at http://www.fightconservatives.com/Inside-the-Book/What-Breed-of-Liberal-Are-You.html

Took this little quiz from a link at Cecily's site. Was funny and cute right up until that last, vomit inducing question. WTF was that about? Naked pyramid?

Life is good

Even though I'm at work, eating a birthday cake with zero trans fat (WTF?) but lots of after taste.

This might be my favorite tattoo ever

I've been wanting to get a sugar skull tattoo for a long time, almost made an appointment when we went to Cabo San Lucas last winter. I also have an idea for a Mexican style tattoo of my grandparents, but I think my mom would kick my ass if I actually got it.

Anyway, the tattoo below was done by Morag (at Tribe Tattoo) who did my map of Scotland when I was in Edinburgh in February. She made a Mexican sugar skull Scottish! I really love this and kind of want one of my own now.



I think maybe I need a new tattoo for my birthday.

Free Sarah Palin

Holy Tax Plan Batman!

This is just one of the many reasons why I'm voting for Obama.

How cute is Noah?

Lisa and Noah were in town today and we got together for a few laps around the mall.

Love Noah sticking out his tongue in the background

Reminds me of pyscho summer photos...except we're
counting something very different these days.

Sharky kinda looks like he's ready to kick ass

Look Lisa, your dolly's in the photo too!

Those are the eyes of a future heartbreaker

See why I heart Scottish boys most of all?

A transcript from the Late, Late Show w/Craig Ferguson:

“This is a very important election, this one, but you would not know it from the way it’s being reported. Y’know politics is covered like show business, now. On the Today Show this morning, they’re, like, “Which candidate would you rather have dinner with?” Here’s an easy answer—NONE! They’re politicians, I don’t want dinner with you, I don’t want your friendship. Here’s what I want to know; what are you going to do for this country, pal? What are you gonna do?...

…The news reports are either very tabloid-y, or they’re trying to be funny like Jon Stewart, maybe because more and more people say they’re getting their news from late night tv, which, believe me, is not a good idea. I like the Daily Show, I like Jon Stewart, I think he does a bang-up job, a great job, but let him do it. The rest of the news people, TAKE THIS JOB SERIOUSLY! This is important…

…Do you know what bothers me? Every election year, as well, you get the voter registration drives aimed at the young people—“Rock the vote, the vote’s crack-a-lackin’!”…are we so lost that we have to be sold our own democratic right? What the hell is wrong with, what is going on? We have to “sexy up” the vote for young people?...

…Here’s what I’m saying to you—if you don’t vote, you’re a moron. I know what you’re saying—“well, not voting is a vote.” No, it isn’t. Not voting is just being stupid.

Voting is not sexy, voting is not hep, it’s not fashionable, it’s not a movie, it’s not a video game, all the kids ain’t doin’ it. Frankly, voting is a pain in the ass, but here’s a word, look it up, it is your DUTY to vote.

The foundation in this democracy is based on free people making free choices, so, young people, if you can’t take your hand out of your Cheetos bag long enough to fill out a form, then you can’t complain when we end up with President Sanjaya.

Listen, I’m an American. This country, as it is, at war, right now—Americans in foreign lands wearing uniforms representing this country are losing their lives. Americans here in this country are losing their homes. We have two patriotic candidates, right? They both love this country, they have different ideas about what to do with it. Learn about them, read about them, question them, listen to them. Then, on election day, exercise your sacred right as an American, and listen to yourself.”