Judge strikes down Prop. 8, allows gay marriage in California!

No… wait. Wait a minute! This whole time I’ve been shaking my fist at a law… that only affects California?! Aw, what the… dammit, this always happens. I get all riled up… and I don’t read the fine print…

Colorado gotsta git us one theyum purty propositions so’s that we may strike it down, too.

Yee-haw!

–Reid.

(I lied, I read the fine print.)

A Literal Brain Poking

Yesterday I underwent the quick brain poking chemotherapy procedure that I undergo once every three months. I remained ever optimistic that, since I was feeling soooo strong and healthy, the intrathecal methotrexate injection and CNS fluid extraction would be a breeze. Ha ha!! I fooled Me again! My adorable youthful naivete got the best of Me yet again. Oh Me, when will I ever learn?

While I’m never exactly eager to get that needle in my noggin, I do recognize the necessity of the procedure. If, after I’m done with chemotherapy, sneaky Old Man Leukemia and his huge family of li’l leukemites don’t emerge from secret bunkers they’ve built in my brain and spinal cord (and *ahem* testicles) with noise makers and a big banner that says “Surprise! Recurrence!” well then, the brain pokes will have been totally worth my brains leaking out the top of my head every once in a while.

It was pointed out to me that if I did the math right, which I never do, with only 11 months of chemotherapy left to go, I only have two more of these brain pokes left to undergo (hopefully forever). Since I didn’t do the math, I will just trust this information as accurate, although this voice in my head keeps going on about how three goes into eleven three times. I don’t know what that means or if it’s even related to this–the voices in my head often just ramble on and on. I knew I should’ve never converted my brain into a wiki.

A Metaphorical Brain Poking

Farewell friends,

I am moving to an island in The Middle Of Nowhere, totally uninhabited by humankind. The only idiocy I will ever have to deal with ever again will be coming from someone I know well enough to give a stern talking to, and sometimes even a good smack upside the head.. Without any other humans, this island will be free of petty politics, pedantic pundits, and a population of peons. While I’m at it, I will pig out on packs of peanuts, piles of pineapples, and plenty of pickles (my potation will be pails of pop)–put that’s all peside the pig point! Er… I mean, that’s all beside the big point!

What finally encouraged my new secluded, misanthropic, castaway life? The top story on CNN.com last night was “Obama’s speech ‘too difficult’ for audience” Seriously? I’ll admit, it wasn’t the greatest speech ever, not by a long shot–it lacked a lot of specific information on how things he mentioned will actually be implemented. However, “Leaking oil bad,” and, “I will make them pay,” and, “This really sucks,” were concepts considered too hard to understand?

Perhaps the President should dumb down the facts a lot more while angrying up his response a whole bunch, so all those people who don’t even pay attention to anything he says anyway can understand the situation better. He could show some alphabet flash cards, each with a picture of different Gulf species covered in crude, and very slowly, he could show each and explain, “‘O’ is for ‘oiled pelican,’” “‘P’ is for ‘poisoned bobcat,’” and, “‘D’ is for ‘dead roseate spoonbill,’” all while making successively more melodramatic angry faces for each. How about President Obama shows a video of Tony Hayworth and then responds to in sarcastic gibberish, since that seems to be all that’s behind everything BP’s CEO says? Then there’s showing the all too familiar oil plume still spewing out of the Gulf floor, and playing the always popular peak-a-boo with it, showing that even if we’re not looking at it, it’s still there! Oh! And, of course, he should jingle his keys at the camera every now and again to make sure he’s keeping the audience’s attention.

Of course, if he does all that, the media will say he needs to dress up like a sad circus clown and play a sad song on a violin and shoot the BP logo with one of those guns with the flag that says “BANG!” on it. Although, after his dramatic concerto honoring the lost livelihoods of the men and women in the Gulf region, the media would probably say what he really should have been playing his concerto on a ukulele. Oh, and that a black man firing a gun was scary.

As Fareed Zakaria wrote in this week’s Newsweek (and I may be paraphrasing a bit here), “Who the fuck cares?” There’s so much idiotic focus in the media about what the President should be wearing, whose butts he should or shouldn’t say he’ll kick, and what emotion he should awkwardly mold his face into. For God’s sake, the kind of cologne he wears while working on this crisis, this “epidemic,” as he called it, could not possibly matter any less! I just can’t take it anymore! The Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem is being decimated, which makes me so incredibly sad whenever I think about it, and yet, people care more about landing with better political standing in what should be a nonpolitical issue, when they should be having no problem being on the right side of an ethical issue. OIL PLUME: BAD! THE PRESIDENT’S ROLLED UP SLEEVES AND THE COLOR OF HIS BOXER SHORTS: TOTALLY IRRELEVANT!

The media is focused on how the President is not focusing enough on the Gulf. O, bitter irony!

I’ve saved some space on my island for you if you’re tired of having your brain poked with this nonsense. Don’t worry, there’s no oil rigs nearby… yet.

–Reid.

—————-
Now playing: They Might Be Giants – James K. Polk
via FoxyTunes

rebeccalevin: I am proud to be an American tonight

reidlevin: @rebeccalevin I am thankful to be an American tonight!

As an American with cancer, it is very difficult to explain my jubilation with the vote tonight that reforms American health care. I am moved for so many different reasons.

All politics is personal indeed, Madam Speaker.

–Reid.

One of the most important issues that faces modern America is giving the same rights, opportunities and benefits to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered citizens that most of us take for granted. On this issue, we are not only the purveyors of extremely outdated dogma, but also the teachers of schools of thought that are simply embarrassing. What human being among us is so powerful that they can dictate who can fall in love with whom? Who are we to tell people they can die for our country, but only if they pretend to be something they are not? That does not sound like America. That does not sound like liberty and justice for all. None of us shall be free until all of us are free.

Today, two people sent me articles about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” My Mom sent me “Top Uniformed Officer Says ‘Don’t Ask’ Should Go” from the AP:

“Has this policy been ideal? No, it has not,” [Arizona Republican Senator John] McCain said. “But it has been effective.”

At what, exactly?

“[At forcing] young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,” as Adm. Mullen said.

Ugh.

Chris sent me “Michael O’Hanlon’s ‘testosterone-laden tough guys’” by Glenn Greenwald on Salon.com. Chris recently introduced me to Greenwald, and I have to pass that recommendation on to other like-minded folks. Today Greenwald wrote:

“[In] American culture, there has long been a group of men… who equate toughness and masculinity with fighting wars, yet who also know that they lack the courage of their own convictions, and thus confine themselves to cheerleading for wars from afar and sending others off to fight but never fighting those wars themselves…”

There are many rights gays in America lack today. One of the saddest rights they lack is to serve their country without lying about who they really are. We prefer to pretend that homosexuality does not exist in our military rather than openly acknowledging a single gay person fighting and dying next to our soldiers. How can this be seen as anything other than dehumanizing?

It can’t be.

–Reid.

Today, after the iPad was announced and before the State of the Union was presented, Anil Dash posted a great analysis of our priorities as a country and as a culture. I highly recommend reading his “Free Publicity: Who do we help?”. Here is an excerpt:

[T]he biggest difference between now and 18 months ago is not that President Obama has gotten elected; It’s that those who support his agenda have gotten lazy about helping in the effort. Remember “We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for?” Well, it seems like a lot of people got tired and gave up on themselves. What if all the energy that went into free promotion for the Apple tablet went into free promotion for what’s been achieved so far, in the hopes of encouraging more achievements in the future?

Big thanks to Dave for passing that on to me.

I thought President Obama’s address tonight was good. It wasn’t breathtaking, but he said a lot of things he needed to say, that I wasn’t sure he would even touch on. He not only spoke of his achievements and nor did he try to pass blame for mistakes he’s made. I felt refreshed to hear him, our President, express disappointment with both mistakes he’s made and mistakes by the party he leads. My favorite line was also the line that made me think there still might be something, however small, worthwhile in American politics for me–not just to see what happens, but to try to help this country in my own way:

“We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambition.”

I hope that’s a point of view that others share, and that spreads.

My four biggest issues were all mentioned, even if not as fully as I’d have liked: veteran benefits, homosexual rights, medical care, and the environment. I felt each was an acknowledgment that not enough (or nothing) had been done about each of these issues in the past year. I wish the President would have said “ongoing psychiatric care for each and every veteran” and “equal rights for homosexuals,” but it was at least a new start.

I needed a new start.

–Reid.

Today I was excited to learn that a federal court will be reviewing California’s Proposition 8, which bans homosexual couples from being married in the state of California. While this is indeed great news and while I hope dearly that Prop 8 is struck down, I think we have a lot farther to go than many might think.

A few years ago, Better Than The Machine made a video satirizing the widespread and totally nonsensical fears over gay marriage. Recently, this video has been the target of incredibly intolerant, indignant and lewd attacks against LGBT folks. Imagine saying that people should die just because they want to be given the same economic, social and patriotic rights as everyone else.

The video is in the style of a 1950′s newsreel and is fittingly called “Gay Marriage Propaganda”. You can check it–and the attacks on it–out here.

The offensive comments below that video make me quite certain that there are many people who will not be happy until all LGBT’s are completely dehumanized. Better Than The Machine’s way of fighting that is through comedy. I hope we can help make a difference.

–Reid.

1) Good news to bring light to a dark day that really needs it should definitely come first. Raquel and James Bedell are the proud new Aunt and Uncle of a beautiful baby girl, who James’ sister gave birth to several days ago. Congratulations to both of you and especially to James’ sister’s family! This is truly joyous, wonderful news! I am glad I found out about it today of all days. Thank you Raquel.

2) Reports on television indicate that the leader of the shootings at Fort Hood was a Major Malik Nadal Hasan. I have few words with which to express the horror and sorrow I feel about this horrendous act of violence. Unfortunately, the 24 hour television news networks seemingly have even fewer words. With no further information available at the moment, news commentators seemingly have nothing else to do beside dancing around this man’s heritage. “I know we should be PC but…” and “I know we shouldn’t speculate about his name, but…” and worst of all, “I know we should wait for more facts, but…”. We get it: he’s Arab. He’s probably Muslim. So what? I fear the tide of racism rising. Whether that wave be visible or under the surface, we must not allow one man’s (or two or three men’s) actions, no matter how horrific they may be, to define an entire group of people.

3) My cousin is in Fort Hood right now. We are awaiting news from her. My thoughts and my prayers are with you, Kristina. Please be safe.

4) Psychological care for the men and women of our armed forces is in pathetic shape. To anyone that knows someone who has been deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, this is not news–this is one more in a long list of failures to help those in need of psychiatric help. While today’s slaughter has been far worse than anything we’ve seen at a base in the United States, there have been issues of spousal abuse, issues of the inability to readjust to normal non-military lives and too many issues of suicide among soldiers for many more years than many will want to admit. These are people who risk their lives for us, and today, we have truly failed them.

5) “Absolutely despicable” is the only way to describe Wall Street institutions getting the H1N1 vaccine to inoculate their employees while high risk people across the country are still unable to so much as find somewhere to wait in line just for a chance to get vaccinated. Absolutely despicable.

6) Even as a staunch left-wing, commie, pinko, Jewish, fag-loving, liberal, progressive, Democratic, part-time New Yorker, I would prefer President Obama serve only one term and ensure health care for all Americans, ensure equal rights for all Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Americans, enact measures to ensure the future health of our planet, and ensure that our soldiers get the psychological care that they need–rather than have him serve two terms and miss enacting even one of those four things. No more bullshit about needing 60 votes to do anything. What is needed is the courage and the wisdom to do the right thing, which might mean “the thing that makes you lose your next election”. Step up, Mr. President and step up, Sirs and Madams of the United States Congress. It is long past the time to put your responsibilities to the citizens of this country before your own personal interests.

–Reid.

Dad and I went to hear George McGovern speak about his life, his views and his new book about Lincoln last night. I wish politics were still the way Senator McGovern fondly recalled them from the 1950s. His idea for taking down the Taliban once and for all? Free school lunches for all Afghan and Pakistani children on the UN’s dime. It was similar to a concept Rachel heard the Pakistani Ambassador discussing the other night: used book libraries in Pakistan, like the US used to maintain in that country during the Cold War. Good will goes a long way.

I came as close as ever to pulling out fistfuls of my hair yesterday listening to modern political discourse on the teevee.

A shiver just ran down my spine.

–Reid.

An amazing call to service from our President Elect. More info.

Please forward this on to everyone! What a great excuse to do something good for your community.

I’m going to research some different possible things to do depending on how I’m feeling.

–Reid.

I can’t figure out how to embed this video, but I thought it was fun. Facial hair humor by the President Elect might just be the best thing ever. Check it out:

Bill Richardson’s Missing Beard: Obama “Deeply Disappointed With The Loss” (VIDEO)

Surprisingly, not from The Onion, although maybe there’s a statement to be made there about FOX News.

–Reid.