a letter i wrote

Dear [Reverend 1] and [Reverend 2];

Please remove my name from the membership roll.

I feel the need to explain my decision as [church] had been a formative place in my youth. The Methodist Church's stance on gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people is completely at odds with my understanding of the world and God's involvement and love of humanity.

The God I know does not want people to completely shut off an important aspect of one's self simply because of whom they love. If we are to be full people, engaged in the community around us, we must be true to ourselves and embrace and love ourselves. By proxy, the institution of the church should accept and welcome the community as full people, some of whom may love people of the same gender.

If we are created in God's image and loved as such, then GLBTQ individuals are created in God's image and loved by God as well. While the Methodist Church finds homosexuality to be incompatible with Christ's teachings, I find the alienation, exclusion and disdain of GLBTQ individuals to be incompatible with Christ's teachings.

The Methodist Church is sorrowfully behind on accepting GLBTQ populations and it's embarrassing to hear that the WI Conference took 4 days to discussion to agree to begin a dialogue on the topic.

Thank you for your stewardship of a church I once called home; however, I cannot be a member of an organization that blatantly discriminates against a class of people and is blind to Jesus' call to welcome and love all people.

Thank you.

P.S. Jesus practiced radical inclusion. I hope you can do the same as a reconciling church.

saturdays

Somewhere outside my back window, someone is hacking and spitting. I can't see it but can distinctly hear it. Yuck.

This is what I did today and yesterday:


zucchini bread


white bread


yam crisps


salt and vinegar chips

Last week:


broccoli cheese soup

The white bread was a little dense, but I think I had problems with the ratio of liquid to dry ingredients. I'm going to try again soon. Also, I need to figure out how to get my potato slices uniformly thin for chips. Either they're too thick and don't cook all the way through or are too thin and burn. Argh.

Yesterday I had anti-bias training for work through the Anti-Defamation League. It was pretty interesting, but the worst part about diversity training is that the people who participate the least or who dislike it are those who need it the most. People committed to creating and maintaining inclusive atmospheres (in all aspects of life, not just early childhood education) usually are the ones who speak up and offer constructive ways to make classrooms welcoming. Maybe I'm just sick of people who treat other people's work (and presentations) as a joke, boring, annoying, etc.

The other thing was that as MRC members, some of us have very little power over the classroom space. Or we try to do something but aren't understood by our co-workers who haven't received the same training or focus that we have. It often makes our work harder.

Roller derby tonight. I hope people come and bring books.

people are hungry

I'm tired of people spending ridiculous amounts of money on non-essentials. I'm looking at you, 100k wedding and $700 shoes.

There are people who cannot afford food or shelter. Where are our priorities?

The things we could fix and the people we could feed if we stopped being so self-centered. I'm guilty of it too.

We've got to get past it, though. People are hungry.


-----------------------------------

More on my life later.

i lack a fresh breeze

I am, at heart, an entertainer. Not in the top hat and cane sense, but in that I like organizing events and seeing people have a good time. I loved doing it for YDS, even on my most frustrating days.

I'm guessing that's why not having a backyard or porch is killing me. Or a big dinner table. As much as going out for dinner is fun, I like the idea of cooking for friends much better. I wish I had time, ingredients, the imagination and skills do amazing things with food. And the space to accommodate that magic.

Yesterday, I headed to St. Paul for an old friend's birthday, and marveled at her awesome porch. Made me miss the CHouse porch.


This is the view from my back steps right now:


Not quite the same. Next place I live is going to have some mad backyard awesomeness. Here are some more apartment pictures, since I realized I never posted them:




Also threw my bike in there for good measure. I love it. It takes me places. It also has a "I <3 unicorns" sticker on it. I'm thinking it'll take me to Pride this afternoon, while it's not too ridiculously hot out.

music and work and hopeful work

Big decisions today, people. I've got an important date with Jake and I want to look as much like a pretty, pretty princess as possible.

But seriously, we're going to Rock the Garden today and I'm trying to figure out what to wear that will be 1: cool looking, 2: cool feeling, 3: let me get tan without a sunburn, 4: has the ability to cover myself if I do get sunburn without being stifling. I kind of want to wear a dress, but that'd eventually get sweaty and sticky. Maybe a skirt with leggings, but that might be hot too. My life is soooo hard.

Good progress on the job front. I am a badass canvasser, apparently. I've done two days of collecting signatures asking one of the local US Reps to vote for the American Clean Energy and Security Act and have passed my quota every day. At first I thought it was a fluke because I found a famer's market and cleaned up there, but then I did really well again yesterday in front of a library. I finished early yesterday and went to where a fellow canvasser was, and realized why he hadn't made his quota and I had. I'd ask pretty much everyone that came across the library threshold, made clear up front what I was asking for, the level of time/commitment of signing the petition, and was generally friendly. The other canvasser, on the other hand, sat in front of the building and didn't approach everyone, opened with asking about the representative we're petitioning as opposed to the issue, and often had snide comments for people who gave weak excuses for not signing. It was the difference between approaching people and walking with them or sitting there as they walked by. I joined the campaign after it had began so I don't know how much training people had, but even just a bit would have made a big impact for this guy. And I'm not saying I've had tons of experience (because I haven't), but I know the difference between active work and passive work. Plus he thought that a good place to ask would be in front of a golf course. Yeah, right.

Besides that, I have two job interviews in the near future. One with a church looking for part time program coordinating, and another for an Americorps position with a school looking for someone to coordinate volunteers and programs/events for students (mostly immigrants or children of immigrants) 15-20 who are behind at least a year in school. I'm really excited about this last one because it touches on a lot of major interests of mine - education advancement, volunteer coordination, event planning - and because it seems like the program has had a lot of success and does good work for that community.

We'll see how it goes. First, what to wear.

puking in public

This was the basics of a conversation on the bus by two old Catholic ladies behind me:

-the only good charity to donate to is the Knights of Columbus
-all tv is junk, it's just immoral movies where women show their "bags" all over
-the digital converter box is a tool from the government to control us
-Obama is also ultimately responsible for the digital converter box which controls us
-the digital converter box is also a tool that the Antichrist is going to use to in world domination
-therefore, Obama is probably the Antichrist
-they didn't vote for him, but one of the ladies did like Sarah Palin. They thought she was smart and moral
-she's going to plan a big role in the next election, we just weren't ready for her now
-Walter Mondale is awful.

The End.

This weekend was the Bellin Run. I had planned on running as much as I could (about 4 miles, I thought), walking a bit, and then running the rest. Well, when I got to the 4 mile marker, I was feeling awesome so I just kept running. There was a little bit midway during an uphill incline through mile 5 when things felt rough, but I made it though. Things went great all the way up through the end. I think the last water stop did me in, because just as I rounded the corner of the last block to the finish line, my stomach staged a protest. I ended up yaking twice before the finish line and then once after. But what could I do? I was on the last block after running further than I had before in my life. I wasn't going to stop and walk through the finish line... I'll take the puke and call it a win. I'd do it exactly the same if I had to do it all over (minus the suspected foul water stop). Everyone else did really well too. Anne, Sarah and I all expect to walk part and we all ended up running the whole thing; Mom had a personal record; Pete and Ethan (via stroller) started out running, but got stuck behind stroller people so they walked most of it.

Also, Pete and Carla and the kids stuck around through Saturday so I got to play with Ethan, Grace and Ali lots. They're cute as hell, I swear. I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb here, but I'm definitely their favorite. Except for Grace, because her favorite is Katie. Doesn't even try to hide it.

Kari's gone to Bolivia now and man, do I love sleeping in her bed. It is way more comfortable than mine. Also, wearing her clothes is pretty awesome too. I have also subsisted solely on her tapioca pudding. Delicious.

Golden.

My classes this semester are all awesome, but a few are slightly morbid... in good ways.

Film and Liturgy (not quite so morbid... but this week we're watching the baptismal scene from The Godfather where they kill everybody)
GLBTQ pastoral care (not very morbid, but a little sad and enlightening for me)
Death in Music, Art and Liturgy (pretty morbid but good. I kind of like showing up in public places reading books titled "The Theology of Death")
The Passion of Christ in Art and Literature (we're basically spending the semester talking about an act of torture and how it's depicted over 2000 years)

Jake's pencil is very loud as he underlines in his book.

I'm going to run a 5k in early March with my friend Rachel. She's actually running one next weekend, but I'm not sure if I could do that now, especially since my legs are still adapting to the increased impact of, you know, running all the time. I should be golden by March, though. I looked at the course online and it's literally running from downtown up to the Div school and back. Literally. Did I mention it's going to be golden?

39 hours, 47 minutes, 7 seconds

I first added a "Bush: time left in office" countdown application to my Firefox browser shortly after beginning to use Firefox... I think that was in 2005 or 2006. The number of days left in office was still high, years off. But it was reassuring to see the number drop day by day, steadily. Last week the application changed to an hourly countdown.

Right now, Bush has 39 hours, 47 minutes and 7 seconds still left as president.

A new day is on the horizon... it's almost here!

Life without Kari

Kari comes back soon!  I'm not going to lie; my life has been a little stagnant since she left.  Well, not completely boring.  On Friday, Andrew, Drew, Amy, Jeff Matzke and I went over to Katie George's swanky apartment and played board games - Andrew is surprisingly good at Apples to Apples and I'm not sure why.  It might be a fluke.  We'll see.  Then yesterday Drew and I went to the Twin Cities Pride Festival.  They were giving out a ton of free stuff - I got some cool buttons and two reusable grocery bags.  Pretty awesome, if you ask me.  Someone was also selling a "I (heart) MPLS" t-shirt that I wanted, but I'll just have to show my TC love some other way.  

Friday was the last day of the first French session.  Now I have a week off until the second class session starts and I'm going to sleep in every day!  Awesomeness!  It's nice because now we can leave for GB earlier for the badass 4th of July weekend coming up.  Fireworks!

I've been riding one of Kari's bikes around while she's been gone.  The 84 bus that goes up and down Snelling is either 2 minutes early (so I miss it) or 5 minutes late (so I miss my connecting bus to the U and am late for class).  It's only a 20 or 25 minute bike ride, so I'm leaving the house at the same time anyway.  Now that Kari's coming back soon, I'm not sure if she'll want it back and I'll ride her other, shitty bike or not.  Anna and Amy bought some bikes at a trade sale this past weekend, so I'm going to see if after Anna gets it tuned up, if I can ride her extra bike.  It's a road bike so that's a step in the right direction.  I'm planning on buying a bike once I get back to New Haven.  Through craigslist, I found a guy who fixes up bikes as a hobby and I emailed him and he's going to fix one up for me between now and when I get back.  There weren't a ton of bikes for sale when I looked this week so it's kinda nice to have it all taken care of ahead of time.

I'm going to go make hard-boiled eggs from the massive pack that Kari left here.  I can't eat 18 eggs alone, plus I haven't had hard-boiled eggs in a long time.  Ok, May was the last time, but seriously, before that it had been a long time.

50 books update:

Lincoln and Douglas - about the 1858 Lincoln/Douglas senate debates

The Mermaid Chair - pretty good

Right now I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife (KT George lent it to me) and it's pretty good.  Interesting concept and how she structured the book/how the time travel works is interesting.

If anyone wants to read Kari's blog from her trip to Peru, she's been updating it while she's there.  Here is the link:  Peru!

I don't think this is what they meant by "support"...

I'm at my summer job at a website company and I'm filling in random text for a vending machine company's website. For the support page, I wrote this: "We choose to affirm the personhood of all individuals as well as take care of their vending machines."

I thought it was funny.

I'm a nerd, a big liberal, inclusive nerd.

I'll write more later; I've been pretty busy lately so I promise to update soon.

Let me just babble on for awhile about my academic interests

As you must have been wondering, I DID get my paper and annotated bibliography in on the original due date... woo hoo!

My paper was on Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ and his use of Catholic iconography - specifically the scene where Jesus pulls his heart of his chest in a morbid mock-up of the Sacred Heart. Then it magically becomes an axe out of no where... It's a messed up scene that's largely ignored by critics, so I wanted to put the history and meaning of the Sacred Heart of Jesus iconography next to the scene and see if/how his alterations change the meaning of the iconography.

Needless to say, it does change the meaning by taking an image representing Christ's divine love for humanity and turning it into a message of violence. The original image acts as a mediator to Christ's humanity, to ponder over Jesus' heart and his love for us. By changing the imagery, Scorsese takes this image of divine love and manipulates it in a way to cut off that access to Christ's humanity. Scorsese wanted his film to explore the humanity of Jesus, but it seems that everything he does stops that - including his manipulation of this Sacred Heart iconography. Scorsese tends to deconstruct himself again and again - what he wants to do is subverted by what he actually does.

Anyway.

I have three papers coming up in the next few weeks - two next week and one on May 24. I'm going to write one on Spike Lee's 25th Hour, based on David Benioff's book The 25th Hour. That's for my Christianity and Culture class, and I really don't know what I'm going to say yet. The paper for my Theology and Cinema class is about Saved! but the paper really is more of a project. We have to write about how we'd use a film in a ministry setting or professional setting (I suppose he really didn't account for people who want to teach film, and thus use film all the time... although maybe it'd be easier that way).

My paper due on the 24th is my Cinematic Spectacle course, and that's 15 pages - my longest so far (not counting the bibliography/pictures from my last paper). I have to give a 10 minute presentation on this tomorrow, so that's what I'm procrastinating from by writing this post. I'm planning on saying that The Ten Commandments invites participation from viewers on several levels - originally through it's widescreen proportions (a novelty when widescreen was released, promoted as engaging viewers) and then through it's yearly showing on TV, becoming a ritual in and of itself. Not only is the viewing a ritual, the film depicts the beginning of ritual - the original Passover. However, the movie isn't made for a Jewish audience, in fact it's often stripped of it's ethnic Jewish markers. It's Christianized (which is why it's shown at Easter) and Americanized in a Cold-War period. I'm still working on this, and I'm planning on starting to write the paper after my other work is done, so this presentation kind of conflicts with that. I wasn't even planning on looking at any of the material until those other papers were done, so that I have to put together this brief presentation is kinda annoying.

Anyway, after those two papers are due on the 7th and 9th, the Spectacle paper isn't due until after I leave for WI so I should have some free time after finals week to pack up my apartment and finish that paper. I have to move my stuff into the Catholic House (where I'm living next year, a intentional community living house) before others move out after graduation, so my stuff will be around the house until I come back at the end of summer. It's a big house and they have three floors, so it shouldn't be a huge problem. If anything, some of my friends are offering to store things in their rooms since they'll be gone for the summer too. Aside from moving and finishing that paper, I just have lots of drinking to do. I mean, spending time with friends. I'm actually really excited about it.

I posted before that I've started writing on a feminist blog Female Impersonators. Lately there have been some commenters who just don't get anything about the pro-choice movement. Their comments have been super frustrating and at times insulting (I stop commenting back when they do that - I'm a lady). Just today someone posted something along the lines of "but you deeply believe that all women should have abortions"... Yeah, because I'm so pro-choice that I think women shouldn't have any choice at all and just vacuum those babies out of their wombs. That's problematic enough, but the fact that someone wrote telling me what I believe? I told them they should come over and tell me what to have for dinner. Anyway, if you want to check some of it out, the particularly heated debates are in the Jessica Rabbit post and the Oklahoma legislature requiring ultrasounds before abortions post. There's also a really interesting link to a report about how scientists have been able to use menstrual blood to make similar tissue to heart tissue. It's really fascinating.

Here's some music I've been listening to these past few days:
Sweet Honey in the Rock - Wanting Memories (****)
Sia - Breathe Me (****)
Yael Naim - New Soul (****)
Tilly and the Wall - Bad Education (****)
Tilly and the Wall - Beat Control (****)
Hem - Half Acre (***)
The Poozies (hehe, Poosie) - Another Train (***)

Erich reminded me I haven't played Risk all year, and I'm jonesin' in a bad way. Riiiiisk. I miss it, especially LOTR Risk. Such an interesting board...

All right. Presentation planning time. I figure I can waste a couple minutes talking about the state of film in theological academia. All right. Bacher out.

Quote of the day

"Often times people ask me, 'Why is it that you're so focused on helping the hungry and diseased in strange parts of the world?' "

— George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 18, 2008

Bush approved torture

From the ACLU:

WASHINGTON – In a stunning admission to ABC news Friday night, President Bush declared that he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details of the CIA's use of torture. Bush reportedly told ABC, "I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved." Bush also defended the use of waterboarding.

Recent reports indicate that high-level advisers including Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and George Tenet were part of the National Security Council's "Principals Committee" that met regularly and approved the CIA's use of "combined" "enhanced" interrogation techniques, even pushing the limits of the now infamous 2002 Justice Department "torture memo." These top advisers reportedly signed off on how the CIA would interrogate suspects – whether they would be slapped, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning.

"We have always known that the CIA's use of torture was approved from the very top levels of the U.S. government, yet the latest revelations about knowledge from the president himself and authorization from his top advisers only confirms our worst fears," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "It is a very sad day when the president of the United States subverts the Constitution, the rule of law, and American values of justice."

Romero added, "It is more important than ever that the U.S. government, when seeking justice against those it suspects of harming us, adhere to our commitment to due process and the rule of law. That's why the ACLU has taken the extraordinary step to offer our assistance to those being prosecuted under the unconstitutional military commissions process. We unfortunately can't erase or make up for what has already happened, but at least we can attempt to restore some of the values and some semblance of due process that the Bush administration has squandered in the name of national security."

The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Congress to demand an independent prosecutor to investigate possible violations by the Bush administration of laws including the War Crimes Act, the federal Anti-Torture Act, and federal assault laws.

"No one in the executive branch of government can be trusted to fairly investigate or prosecute any crimes since the head of every relevant department, along with the president and vice president, either knew or participated in the planning and approval of illegal acts," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Congress cannot look the other way; it must demand an independent investigation and independent prosecutor."

Fredrickson added, "Congress is duty-bound by the Constitution not only to hold the president, vice president, and all civil officers to account, but it must also send a message to future presidents that it will use its constitutional powers to prevent illegal, and immoral conduct."

The ACLU's letter calling for an independent prosecutor for torture crimes and any criminal cover up is available at:
www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/lettertocongress_2007_1213.pdf

ABC's recent news story is available online at:
abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/story?id=4635175&page=1

Take a minute to send a letter to your congressperson demanding an independent investigation here.

I saved a tree!

I know you were wondering how my plan to save trees worked out. Well, it went fine! I went downtown late morning, brought my laptop with me, and read the articles in the library and HGS (Hall of Graduate Studies).


Sterling Reference Room

Hall of Graduate Studies

I used my laptop in class and brought up the articles when I needed them. Carrying the laptop around all day wasn't too strenuous on my shoulder, I saved paper and looked pretty cool while doing it. I rock. I'm definitely going keep it up, since that class has articles nearly every week.

By the way, apparently I go to school with Harry Potter at Hogwarts. Seriously, that's how the rooms look.

Quaker bonnets, carbon emissions and me

I have a fairly low carbon emission score. I don't own a car, use public transportation and walk most places, recycle as much as I can, bug others about recycling (I yelled at my friend for not recycling when he was sitting right in front of a recycling bin), unplug my appliances unless in use, use energy conserving light bulbs, plus the apartment building I live in is mostly solar powered.

I felt pretty proud of the fact that I was able to greatly reduce my ecological footprint through very little inconvenience to my daily life, until I was cleaning out my school notebooks in preparation for the new semester. I have a huuuuuge stack of papers, mostly journal articles, that I printed out for reading and use in class. I printed a bunch of them double sided and ended up recycling those (because I'm not kidding myself - I'll never read them again plus I can find them online if I do decide to torture myself), but I still have a two inch stack of one sided paper. I'm saving them to use as scrap paper, but I'll probably be graduating from here before I ever, ever, go through the whole stack.

While looking at that huge stack of paper, I decided that I'm going to read my articles online from now on because it saves paper and saves me the 7 cent cost of printing it out. It'll be hard to adjust to, just because I underline when I read and I like have physical printouts in front of me. However, it'll be one major thing I can change in my lifestyle to make it more ecofriendly. In addition to that, I've decided to use re-usable dishes in the school's refectory. If I can remember to grab a plate before going to pick out my lunch, I can save a plate. If I grab a spoon after I get my soup, I can save a plastic one. These are specific choices I can make to readjust my thinking to be centered on environmental issues.

Anyway, because of that conscious decision, I brought my laptop to work at Holy Grounds tonight so I can read my articles for tomorrow. I have read 0 of 3 articles for tomorrow (but I finished the book that's due). They even sound interesting! I just need to read them. The one I especially want to read is on the eroticization of Quaker bonnets in religious art... should be pretty enlightening and fun to read... I just have to do it.

The best Democratic candidate?

I've been thinking about the Democratic primaries and who I want to see on the ticket. I think Hillary Clinton would make a great president. I feel she'd give the underprivileged and overlooked her attention and I admire her health care plan in it's all encompassing scope. Also, at this point, I feel the others don't have a plan - just ideas for health care. I think her leadership style is one that makes sure all of the bases are covered and that she would run the country efficiently. Her ties to corporate America do make me uneasy, but I think it's hard to be a national candidate without some sort of corporate endorsement.

However, here's the thing. I don't think she can get elected. Well, that it wouldn't be easy for her to get elected, especially depending on who the Republicans are running.

Like the rest of the Democratic candidates, Obama promotes himself as an agent of change but he gives an aura of actualizing this change more so than Clinton or Edwards. When you go into the voting booth with change and fresh beginnings being relevant to you, you're less likely to vote for someone who has a family legacy and more likely to choose someone who hasn't had a shot at the White House already.

While I think Clinton would be a great president, I also think Obama would be a great president as well. He'd bring fresh ideas and new outlooks to the position, he can admit his faults easier than the other candidates, and image-wise, he can be very inspiring domestically and internationally for people who are not old, white men (although very easy to argue Clinton can act in the same manner).

I'm using my dad as a sort of litmus test on the electability of each candidate. For as long as I can remember he's voted Republican, although there might be a few independent candidates over the years. But he's mostly voted Republican for their fiscal policies. However, he would vote for Obama. He wouldn't vote for Clinton. In his tone of voice, he used a thoughtful, sincere considerate voice when talking about voting for Obama. He just called Clinton a bitch and left it at that - don't worry, I called him on it and the underlying sexism.

So using my dad as a standard, in an election between Clinton and Romney/Huckabee, I'd like to think he'd vote for Clinton, just because Romney and Fuckabee are such nutjobs. However, put Clinton up against McCain and I'd bet he'd go for McCain every time. To my dad, Obama wins over Romney, Fuckabee and McCain.

Today the New York Times published their endorsements for each party ticket - Clinton and McCain. I think they nailed the issues with the Republican candidates on the head - as a group, McCain stands out as a leader because he's the only one not completely off his rocker. Giuliani touts 9/11 out for political capital and loses respect every time he does it; Fuckabee panders to the religious right for their vote by saying things like since the 10 Commandments can't be changed, we must change the Constitution, plus he's generally incompetent when it comes to foreign policy, and Romney wants those ultra-conservative votes just as much as Fuckabee and will change positions to get them.

However, the craziness of these Republican candidates makes them far more attractive than McCain - because they'll be easier to beat. Put Obama or Clinton against any of those stooges and they'll win. Put them against the somewhat sane McCain, and for Hillary, it'll be a tougher race. I have a glimmer of hope that she can beat McCain, since he still supports the Iraq war and doesn't give any thought to an exit strategy or rebuilding their devastated country.

After the past two presidential elections and the tense neck-in-neck races, I want a resounding election, where voters symbolically throw off the yoke of eight years of war mongering, fear politics, falsified information on foreign "threats," partisan plays, implicit and explicit approval of torture, lost emails and memos, pandering to campaign contributors as opposed to doing what's right, the disregarding of children, women, the lower class, the middle class, immigrants, minorities, the GBLT community, and generally those in need. A big, nationwide "screw you" to Bush and Cheney, the people responsible for the state of Things.

I suppose it really all depends on who comes out on top in the primaries. I'm waiting for my "screw you" moment, though, come November.

35 years of Roe

Happy 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade! Happy day late MLK Jr. Day!

More later.

By the way... What the?

I popped the question!

I don't know where the concept came from, but someone somewhere at some point in time said that an engagement ring should roughly be one month's salary. I think it's way too much money to spend on a ring, but whatever. I just spent one month's salary on my school books for the semester. Going by that standard, does that mean that I'm engaged to school? Look for save the date cards in the mail.

I made a to-do list yesterday. Here it is:

End:
the legacy of White supremacy
global warming
conflict diamonds
sexism
hate

I canceled my iTunes subscription to The Colbert Report until the writer's strike is over. I figured if they're striking over online revenue, I might as well do my part and not give them any online revenue. This also includes watching on websites, so unfortunately I won't be watching at all.

Since I'm engaged (oooooh!) to my school work, I thought I should probably pick up some more hours at the library so I can afford that lovely dishwasher my beloved wants so badly. Not to mention the cost of the wedding! As I'll be living light and tight because of the new dishwasher and the wedding, it's just groceries and porn for me. No extra spending at all! I don't need the latest copy of Rolling Stone.

As my birthday is coming up soon, here are some suggestions for things you can get me:
Across The Universe (conveniently comes out the day before my birthday!)
The Keeper
A Cow
Money for Ireland

t minus 20 days until Kari comes to visit
t minus 50 days until I go to Ireland and see Andrew
t minus ?? days until I see Mom

Al Gore and his hurricane producing factories

I watched An Inconvenient Truth today for the first time, and let me just say that I learned a ton from Al Gore.


Did you know that Al Gore owns a factory at his childhood tobacco farm that can produce a hurricane? He's so smug about it he even put it on the movie poster. I say we vote against Al Gore and take away his hurricanes!

NO GORE IN 08 - DO IT FOR THE HURRICANES.

Love,
Lindsay

50% of the country has a vagina - get used to it

Anyone else mad at the sexism running rampant around the media coverage of Hilary Clinton's campaign? Anything think, in particular, Chris Matthews of MSNBC is ridiculous because he can't stop being amazed that a woman is running for president? Called her a she-devil and put up a graphic of Hilary with horns? Pinches the cheek of a presidential candidate?

Me too.

Media Matters put out a call to let MSNBC know that this isn't acceptable anymore, and I highly suggest you take the 2 minutes to e-mail MSNBC and Hardball to tell them Chris Matthews shouldn't be on television.

MSNBC
letters@msnbc.com

Chris Matthews
hardball@msnbc.com

I am just so sick of this. Stop pretending like it's not happening, because it is. Do something about it. If we let this slide, it'll get worse.

Maybe it's because it's late, and maybe it's because I'm tired, but I really feel like concerned people everywhere need to do something about this one. If you call yourself a feminist, write in. If you think that a woman should be paid the same rate as a man for the same job, write in. If you think everyone, regardless of chromosomes, should be able to vote, write in. If you think Matthews has a silly haircut, write in. Whatever you do, just write MSNBC.

The mere fact that this is a problem in the first place is utterly demoralizing and insulting. This is so important, because it sends the press the message that we don't want bullshit pundits who are more concerned about sound bites than about debating real issues.

Vote for who you want to vote for, but don't let the campaign become one where the press spends more time writing about a candidate's "cackle" or clothes. If she's going to lose, it had better be over issues and not over the fact that she's got a vagina.

And by the way, I'll let you know that Mitt Romney has cried three times during this election season, and YESTERDAY Bush had tears in his eyes at Israel's Holocaust Memorial. Where's the news coverage on that?