Potpourri

I probably have no readers left, and it's my own damn fault.

One thing about me: When I take the plunge, I take the plunge. Ever since I started rescuing stray and abandoned Dobermans on January 6, I've been doing little else. It can't be helped. There's learning, and transporting, and scrounging extra gear, and nursing the spayed and the neutered, and supervising the herd, not to mention picking up the leavings. There are adoption forms to the written and contracts to be devised and homes to be checked and references to be called. And if you're lucky enough to have donors and volunteers, there are thanks to be delivered. If you're new, there are lists to join for advice, and experts to call, and veteran rescuers to locate and network with. And shelters to visit. And shelter and pound staffers to woo. It's a full-time job and it's worth it all. Just to see the happiness on the faces of a new family and the mug of a dog who's found his or her Forever Home makes it all worthwhile.

So if you can, forgive me. I've got a life now. I'll write as I can.

And some things are irresistible.

New Balm for Persecuted US Christians
Now, in retaliation for Kosher salt, there's--wait for it--Christian salt. Don't trample each other in the rush to the grocery store.

Rush the Greaser
That picture of Limbaugh at CPAC, the recent gathering of adults born to cohabiting siblings, underfed in infancy, and beaten regularly at puberty (otherwise called "conservatives") was just the best. Someone said he looked like a bouncer on the afternoon shift at a Penthouse whorehouse. Who could top that? It was partly the shiny black shirt, partly the open collar, partly the Popeye the Sailor Man earring, partly the greasy curls at his neck. (Makes ya wanna . . . puke. Rush, there may be clues here about why women don't like you.) Whatta guy.

"Socialism"?
If you're somewhat at a loss for responding to the leaky crock the conservatives hoist aloft every time we get close to a sensible approach to healthcare, read this. It'll help you get started.

Rush, Rush the Toilet Brush

From Media Matters today:

On the May 21 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh asserted that "one of the objectives of the feminazis over the last 20, 25 years has been to dominate the public education system so as to remove the competitive nature of boys. You know, there's a crisis of young man-boy education in the schools. And they did this on purpose, to eliminate male competition in the work force. This is part of feminazi grand plan."

OK, see, wouldn't we have had to do more than merely advocate for equal education opportunities for girls and women to "remove the competitive nature of boys"?

Like, maybe, capture them all and drain their testosterone one little gonad at a time? Or round up all the daddies and mommies and take the competition gene right out of their DNA?

Rush again broadcasts his weakness as a person and as a man. He's telling us that just the search for female equality so threatens him that he feels justified in surrendering his honor and integrity. In public, yet.

He's fine with lying right out loud, with demonizing people who disagree with him, and with distorting the public record. He's fine with misleading people who are less informed and weaker than he is. That makes him sociopathic and generally unfit for the company of decent people.

Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Bush, Lott, Tancredo, Bill Donohue, Hagee, Robertson, McCain--guys like that may as well brand giant "Is" in their foreheads, for Insecure. For, what they say is really very telling. Over and over they light up in neon the core flaw in men of the Bush Davidian Right. To feel secure, capable, and competent, they have to stand on top of somebody else. If it's not Iraq, women, or Latinos, well, there're always Black people. To wit:

Limbaugh then said, "They forgot affirmative action for black guys. And because of that, every bit of their plan has gone up in smoke now, because they -- if -- they had to come out in favor of affirmative action for black guys, and that's -- see, this is one of the things that really irritates the women. And there are women all over this country fit to be tied -- trust me on this. ... [L]iberals eventually are going to be devoured by their own policies. And it has happened here. Because [Sen.] Barack Obama is an affirmative action candidate." He concluded, "So, it's just -- they just forgot that one thing: affirmative action for black guys. And if they had remembered to oppose that, then they wouldn't face the situation they face today."

Mmmmmm, cute and coherent, too!

If these guys don't get clear of that gaping inferiority complex very soon, or we don't clear them out of the halls of power, they'll take us all down.

Things Haven't Changed All That Much

This is for a beautiful Oxnard, CA eighth-grader, Lawrence King. He was gay and he's dead now.

If it can happen not far from Malibu, CA, it can happen anywhere.

Violent language is violence, and it’s also an enabler. We’re hearing more and more of it lately. A lynch-mob might be appropriate for Michelle Obama, suggests O’Reilly. That new anti-Hillary group founded by prominent Republican strategist Roger Stone, called CUNT. Really. The daily sludge spewed by Michael Savage, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh. The anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The more we hear it, the less it bothers us. The less it bothers us, the more we enable it. The more we enable it, the more violent the airways, and soon, the more violent the culture itself.

There’s been a 30-year escalation of violent speech against liberals, gays and lesbians, women, and people of color. Not surprisingly, there’ve been corresponding spectacularly vicious attacks on all the above.

Some we hear about—especially when the victims are pretty, blonde girls, we hear about them for days and days and days. Not a coincidence. Short, sanitized snuff flicks pitched to the worst instincts and the schadenfreude in all of us. In time, the result is that we grow bored. Read “acclimated.”

But most we don’t hear about. Most are publicized only in “gay” media or “black” or “Hispanic” media—not “important” enough to make the mainstream press. If you can’t think of examples that would support my contention, don’t be surprised. You’re not supposed to know about them. You’re not supposed to remember them.

The really bizarre part of this—the REALLY bizarre part—is that the chief purveyors of vicious language have been prominent Christian conservatives, both in and out of the pulpit. When violence is preached from the pulpit—literally or in its name-- violence is endorsed by authority. It’s that simple.

Things haven’t changed all that much since I came out 35 years ago, to accusations of “abomination.” In fact, things have gotten a lot scarier, especially for GLBT kids.

That’s our doing. Yours and mine. Because we haven’t stopped it, have we? I mean, what kind of people tolerates conditions that enable mass slayings in public schools, and looks the other way when kids call kids “faggot,” “nigger,” “dyke”?

Our kind of people, apparently.