Ms. Geek: Straight Outta LA

1.) I'm glad that the House passed some sort of HCR. Having SOMETHING will mean we have something to build on, not having anything would mean we'd have another fight to build something from scratch.

2.) The cost of throwing women's health under the bus, unless the Stupak amendment is thrown out in conference, is really, REALLY high. This is perhaps the first thing to fix among the many fixes needed for any HCR plan moving forward.

3.) It is going to be a bitch to deal with Lieberman's promised filibuster in the Senate. I want to see the Nuclear Option used if necessary.

4.) Kucinich is currently on my shit list. We could have used his vote. And withdrawing the Kucinich Amendment that would have allowed the states to innovate in health care reform was a huge mistake.

However, we need to pat ourselves on the back. This is the farthest HCR has gotten since the passage of Medicare, the Clinton plan didn't get this far, and momentum is breaking our way. Surf's up...

No, really. SHAME ON YOU.

Special rights for heterosexual married couples is WRONG.

Yeah, I know we fucked up here in Cali, but I sleep well knowing I voted no on H8.

It is time the US Government got out of the marriage business anyway. Make everyone who wants the benefits formerly given to the "married" to those who get Civil Unions. Require everyone who wants those special rights to get a Civil Union for their "marriage" to count. Then cede the whole concept of "marriage" to religion.

That would solve the whole enchilada. The DOMA wouldn't even matter then. Make everyone get a Civil Union if they want the civil benefits that used to flow from marriage. The French have done this since the Revolution. It works.

I had the most awesome black cat as a pet from my late teens onward. Rael, named after the protagonist of the Genesis album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, was found with his dead black and grey striped mom and his two siblings, one black and grey, the other solid black. Rael had two white patches: one on his neck and one on his belly. All of the cats had to grow into their huge ears. One of Rael's siblings was named Yoda by his adopter. Rael never quite grew into them...they were batlike huge even as an adult.

Sort of like this kitteh:


Rael was my mom's boyfriend's cat originally. He named him Calhoun after a character in the old racist TV and radio show Amos & Andy. And he mistreated "Calhoun" badly. So much so that if I even had a bamboo pole anywhere near him he'd freak, run and hide even years after I had rescued Rael from his malefactor.

By the time I established trust with Rael he and I became inseperable. He lived indoors but kept his athletic figure. He was sleek and handsome and his initially green eyes paled out to being yellow with a green outer border. His vet had him written up in his charts as being of the Bombay breed, although it is much more likely the breeding process that created the Bombay cat (black American Shorthair x Burmese) had taken place in the "wild" either between feral cats or escaped family pets. He definitely had an Asian breed look to him...sleek build, thin tail, sort of like the character design of the Siamese cats in Lady And The Tramp. My mom would even sing the "Siamese Cat Song" to him because of that. I would always say "he's my little Ninja."

Anyway, Bombays are not known for being vocalizers, but Rael had a very wide range of vocalizations including an uncanny ability for mimicry of birds and even humans. He was fond of music and rather picky about what he'd listen to. He was always there when Richie would be practicing, though, even when Richie was practicing drums, something you'd think a cat would be scared of. Rael apparently understood that the crash bam was part of music, and would just hang out, watch and listen. Richie and Rael adored each other.

Anyway, neither Richie nor Rael are around any longer, and this apartment building does not allow tenants to have pets. So I can't adopt another cat until I live elsewhere. However, if you can adopt a cat, please strongly consider a black cat. Yeah, I know, everyone knows about Basement Cat, but really, black cats are not seen as evil in all cultures. British sailors in particular believed black cats were GOOD luck, and warded off shipwrecks. In Japan, a black maneki neko is a wish for good health, and protection against visitors bringing discord or worse.



However, we live in the US, and like it or not, black cats have a bad reputation. They are seen as agents of evil, witch's familiars, and every Halloween there are incidents reported of black cats being "sacrificed" by satanic dabblers. Now that Halloween is over, the animal shelters that hold back adoption of black cats usually find themselves glutted with them. So it's time to take on a "black is beautiful" cattitude and come to the rescue of some very elegant animals whose clocks are ticking.

From Kitten Rescue: top ten reasons to adopt a black cat.
10. They look like little panthers
9. A lint brush isn't required for a black-tie affair
8. Holding a black cat is very slimming
7. Black cats will match any decor
6. When you love a black cat, luck is on your side
5. They are a great accessory to any outfit
4. They don't care what color YOU are
3. The neighborhood goth kids will think you're cool
2. Love knows no color
and the number one reason to adopt a black cat....
1. They are the least likely to be adopted.

I had Chronic Fatigue from 1991 to 1994. Haven't had a flareup since, but I don't give blood. If I hadn't gotten sick, I would donate on a regular basis. It's important. Similarly, I live in a rent-controlled apartment that will not allow me to have a cat, or I would have adopted three beautiful mini-panthers already. If you can have a critter, please adopt at least one black kitteh. Forget about the Poe story, that's just fiction. If you must think fictionally think of Kuroneko-sama from Trigun, Salem from Sabrina The Teenage Witch, and Jiji-san from Kiki's Delivery Service.



And yeah, Jiji-san's another cat that looks like Rael.

Kitten Rescue is doing two black cat adoption events on Saturday the 7th of November here in LA. There's one in the Valley and one on the Westside. So go, and let a little minion of Basement Cat steal your heart away. You won't regret it.

Nevertheless, I'm not enjoying it. I wish I could just get my fucking dose of H1N1 and be done with it. Then again fat chicks like myself are apparently having a hard time with it. But no way in HELL am I going to get the vaccine...too many people ahead of me in the queue. And rightfully so: one of my profs is pregnant, and she had to deal with H1N1. Many pregnant women who have gotten it have had to be hospitalized, and way too many of these have died.

Then again, at least she's through with it. :P

...with the Publican Party, then Joe Lieberman is a Kapo.

Not a whore, whores at least offer a service in exchange for money. No, he is actively collaborating with EVIL and working for the extermination of some of his fellow humans.

The last time I pointed this out on DailyKos I got flamed mercilessly and lost my TU status. But really, let us consider the 8 years of the Cheney/Bush Administration, how many deaths Cheney/Bush caused, and how he is actively working with the Publicans to thwart health care reform. As such, he is SIGNING MY DEATH WARRANT, as surely as if he had chosen me to stand in the line that was going to get the Zyklon B shower.

I have no health insurance. I recently had to basically beg to continue to be seen by the Fully Qualified Health Clinic I get what health care I can from. I have a handful of pre-existing conditions that make it impossible for me to get health insurance at any cost.

True, six to ten million have not died this year for lack of health care. But over 44,000 have. And in 136 and a third years, if we continue to kill 44,000 a year by denying them health care, we will have seen a holocaust of six million dead. If you count from the passage of the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 to now, assuming a constant rate of 44,000 dead per year, it will take roughly a century.

And before you say "How can you say these things?" let me just tell you my family history. I was born Jewish, and raised as a reform Jew. My maternal Grandfather was born in the Shtetl of Berdichev, in the country now known as Ukraine. Both my grandmothers had parents from the Polish Jewish ghettoes. My paternal grandfather had parents from the Hungarian Jewish ghettoes. My late husband's mother fled Berlin one step ahead of the Nazis thanks to the British Kindertransport.

I may no longer believe in the religion of Judaism, but I would have certainly qualified for extermination if I had lived in Germany when the "Final Solution" was implemented. Considering everything, I can defend my characterization of Lieberman. If you want to say I am wrong for saying this, fine.

Lieberman should be IMMEDIATELY expelled from the Democratic caucus. He should IMMEDIATELY have his chairmanships revoked. And he should be fought like one would fight a Publican candidate for the Senate by Democrats of good will.

Know this word: Hikikomori. Read up on it. Read up on the "Lost Decade of Japan" and the "Lost Generation of Japan." Because the pattern there is about to repeat itself here. I will expand on this later. Meanwhile, this realization is what is keeping me up with a bad case of insomnia. Because it's terrible. In all senses of the word.

PS: Khruschev once said, wrt nuclear war, that "The living will envy the dead." Richie succumbed to multiple myeloma in March of 2008. The crisis that marked the final collapse of the American bubble economy happened in September, 2008. Dude, you picked the right time to check out if ever there was one.

OK, so the Chicago bid failed for the 2016 Olympics. Why is this an occasion for celebration? Tell me, please! Oh yeah...it's because The Sheriff is a N******. (Watch Blazing Saddles if you don't get this reference, you'll thank me later after ROTFLYAO for two solid hours.)

To recap: Yumiko is a Volks Dollfie Dream Yukino-type, Zetto is an Obitsu 60cm 2-piece with a male chest.

I've got photo manga coming up in a bit but at least you can see some pix now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/msgeek/sets/72157622394295448/

Enjoy!

Now go and do likewise, bakas.

...let's have a Patrick Swayze Christmas in his honor, and hoist a tall cool one at the Roadhouse in his honor. Take it away Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot...

Gotta love the Billionaires For Wealthcare. Here they are getting teabagged. Gotta love it, the Fox drones just don't get ironic humor. Makes for comedy gold...

I just gave everyone health care and brought the troops home, and lowered the deficit in the process! Go me!

In a feat that no Republican senator could probably duplicate, Senator Al Franken draws a map of all 50 States...FROM MEMORY.



I love this guy.

Ok, here it is, for all of you who are going to schools where the Republikaaners and Teabaggers have forbidden you from hearing it. THE SPEECH.

Full speech behind the LJ cut! w00! I dare you to look!
( Read more... )

There is an old saying: your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose. However, if you defend yourself, you're going to get almost universally vilified.

In Thousand Jokes, CA, September 3rd, 2009, an elderly Teabagger swung his fist at the face of a pro-Health Care Reform vigil-er. I will let an eyewitness pick up the story.

All of a sudden, I saw a very tall man in an orange shirt (yes, he is in the photo I linked you to) confront her, verbally at first. Her back was to the thruway, and he was shooing her, approaching her, speaking to her in a very aggressive fashion (observation from body language only) and waving his arms in a shooing motion. With each step she took back, he took one forward, shooing her more. From where I was, it appeared as though he were telling her to get on her own side of the street, and backing it up with a very clear physical threat....

....Several minutes later, there was another altercation. My best recollection is that this man saw what happened to the woman and reacted to it. I cannot say with certainty where he was when he saw it — he may have arrived and was navigating his way through that group, or he may have crossed the street to defend her. He was confronted by the same man. I could tell from where I was that the man was belligerent, angry, and confrontational.

The man in the orange shirt hit the pro-reform guy (I’m going to call him PR Guy just to keep the players straight). Hard. ( tweeted in real time) He punched him in the face, knocked him to the ground and into that thruway. As you can see from the photo, cars drive straight through that without stopping. The pro-reform guy could have been run over. He got up, tried to get back up on the curb, but Orange Shirt guy was in his face. Finger in his face, PR Guy standing, steps up to the curb, and there’s a scuffle. Orange shirt seemed to have PR Guy in a hold, but again, I was across the street, so won’t state that as absolute fact. Next thing I see is PR Guy’s hat being tossed into the street, both yelling at one another, then Orange shirt walks away, PR Guy picks up hat and crosses to our side.

When he gets to our side, he tells a story in one sentence: “He punched me hard, straight in the face, so I bit his finger off.”

Honestly, I thought he was exaggerating. I guess he wasn’t.

I’ve given this report to the police along with my photos. I am not heralding anyone as a hero here. I certainly do not celebrate the idea of anyone biting anyone else, no matter what the reason. However, there is no question that Orange Shirt guy was aching to fight, was willing to pick a fight, and certainly didn’t care who he fought with. He chose people who were shorter than he, and he used his voice, his body, his body language and his height to intimidate them.

Don’t be fooled by reports ginning up sympathy for that 65-year old guy or worse yet, reports characterizing him as a senior citizen. He was aggressive and ready to mix it up.

Article here.

OK. Let me get this straight. Teabagger punches a pro-Reform protester so hard he got knocked into the street. Teabagger then eventually gets the pro-Reform protester into a grappling hold, maybe even one that would enable the Teabagger to choke the pro-Reform guy out. Pro-Reform guy bites Teabagger's finger to get him to break his hold. The fingertip gets bit off.

OK. OK. Biting a guy's fingertip off: bad. That said, should Mr. pro-Reform have allowed Mr. Teabagger to choke him out? I dunno. If Mr. pro-Reform died at the hands of Mr. Teabagger by asphyxia, there would be no ambiguity as to who provoked who. We would have a martyr: as if Nataline Sarkisyan and Nick Colombo weren't enough of martyrs for our cause. We would also have a dead, irreplaceable human being. As it was, both men lived to fight another day, albeit one who may or may not be walking around without a pinky fingertip.

Meanwhile, in spite of the vast popularity of a Public Option as part of a federal Health Care Reform bill, almost 80% to 20% popularity, reports say that President Barack Obama, during the address he will give to a joint session of Congress, will ask progressives to 'take one for the team' and be 'good soldiers' and cede the whole idea of a Public Option to the dustbin of history. Never mind that he has guaranteed the House of Representatives torpedoing the whole bill if this is true. Never mind that. If Obama does this, he has proven what he is made out of: marshmallows and gooey caramel.

This whole fucking disastrous August, these days of rage where the frothing 20%, exemplified by a man who would physically bully pro-Reform vigil-ers, should never have happened. Obama should have steeled-up his spine, cowboy-ed up, and said "None of you are going on vacation until I get a bill. Period. End of story. I am keeping the Senate and House in extraordinary session. And if you don't give me what I want, I will have MY wonks draft a bill, and cram it down your collective throats." You don't give in to bullies. You fight them. Sometimes you might even have to chomp fingers and crack skulls in the process. FDR, JFK and LBJ are looking down at this horrifying state of affairs and weeping. This is Bill and Hillary and Harry and Louise all over again. And it happened because of a bunch of anti-democratic frothers commandeered the nation.

These fuckers don't even respect President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, the man elected by the biggest majority since George Herbert Walker Bush in 1988. Why? You tell me. They want to keep their kids out of school because President Obama wants to give them a pep-talk about staying in school and being diligent about their studies. Again, it's that goddamned frothing 20% saying this. And yet! They are causing school boards and school principals to not allow their students to hear their President address them.

Oh yeah. President Obama is BLACK. Ergo, not this frothing 20%'s President. Not worthy of respect even if it's grudging respect for the Highest Office In The Land. No, they are watching an endless loop of Birth Of A Nation in their head.

This 20% of the United States, this gaggle of idiots who take their marching orders from the Glenn Becks and Hannitys and Rush Limbaughs of the world, this gaggle who thinks that Stephen Colbert is really gooble gobble ONE OF THEM, not mocking them shamelessly...they are destroying our chances at real health care reform and guaranteeing their hated non-President Obama (remember, they don't think he's the President because he's a 'dirty n*****') will only last one term in office. That is, if they don't inspire someone even more unhinged then they are to assassinate him before he even finishes the term.

Officially, certifiably, INSANE. I thought the nightmare was over on November 5th. I thought the nightmare was surely over on January 19th, when Cheney and his idiot minion Bush slinked out of office. But no, the nightmare continues. Dear Goddess have mercy on us all.

CONSPIRACY THEORY!!! WHOOP!!! WHOOOP!!! WHOOOP!!!!

We've now raised the alert level to RED. As in Commie Red. As in Nazi banner Red. As in the Scarlet Woman astride the Beast. SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!

Well, Summer is over for me, in spite of the fact that we are in the midst of this season's worst heat wave and the firestorms have started right on schedule. Poor me and my poor sinuses. Ugh.

I've got my first 12-unit course load since leaving Woodbury...the LACCD/Metro deal on bus passes ($15/6 months!) was too good to pass up, I'm still an unemployed bum, and by taking more courses I can finish my Occupational Certificate in Media Arts: Post Production by Spring or maybe Fall if I decide to take the advanced Final Cut course which is only given in the Fall.

I spent a few hours with Cousin Brad yesterday, and more and more we are talking about my becoming a video editor as a new career. Unlike Aunt Karen's visceral reaction to my wanting to "get into show business" (please, it's perhaps the least visible career in Media) both he and his sister (my Cousin Wendie) think it might be the best place for me and something for which I might just have a talent.

This means that in all probability I will likely end my school career when I finish that Media Arts certificate. Getting an MFA in Film is likely to not be very helpful to me. But what I'm looking for is possibly to take a course or two to familiarize myself with Avid, since not everybody uses Final Cut and instruction on Avid is not available through LAVC. Post houses are usually either Final Cut shops or Avid shops, and it's prolly smart to have at least an acquaintance with the other even if you are an expert at one. I would like to get good at both but I doubt that's an option available to me.

I feel bad about giving up on a "helping" career, giving up on being a therapist or a counselor or a social worker. But really, I will be out of circulation for a lot longer if I went back for my MA in Counseling Psychology or my MSW. Because we would be talking about more than just the 2 years of further schooling, but a metric buttload of hours in internship. And furthermore, the new Income Contingent Repayment Plan pretty much makes the amount of student loans I owe a little less to worry about. They can only take 15% of your salary. I'm not sure if it's gross or net they are figuring on but either way it's way better than facing $45,000 in student loan debt with the old ways of paying it back. And the fact of the matter is that there is now a groundswell of support for further reform of the student loan process, and perhaps even restoring the option of a BK to discharge unmanageable student loan debt.

Besides, no matter how I deal with the student loan debt, they can't repossess my brain. At least, not at this technology level.

One of MTV's best forays into animation, The Maxx, is back and viewable. Yes, lots and lots of music has been replaced...no more Sartori In Tangier, no more Lighthouse Keeper, but the transfer to Flash is beautiful. Now if only it'd be put on DVD.



Oh yeah...I'm walking around very upset Senator Ted Kennedy did not make it to the vote on Health Care Reform. We knew he was doomed, but still...{sigh}