OK, this is a very confused fellow. This "sketch" supposedly is meant to be funny, right? Well, not funny at all. Except to someone with a warped, twisted mind. Like Glenn Beck. Supposedly God has called into his show. Deluded sense of self-importance, delusions of grandeur. Then God blames Satan, who pre-existed before him, for his misery. And then says that Gaia, the Earth Goddess, is his "enemy" and has been screwing things up for him too.

RIIIIIIIGHT.

I can't recognize any of this particular dogma. It sounds a LITTLE like the High Weirdness of Mormon doctrine, and I know Beck says he's a Mormon convert, but in Mormon theology Elohim, the G_d of the Old and New Testament, is married to several wives, and Lucifer, later known as Satan, and Jesus were his two eldest sons. Lucifer does not like that Jesus is Elohim's favorite, and attempts to overthrow his Father, with the help of a rebellious angelic host and some pre-born human souls he manages to hoodwink. Lucifer and his angels are defeated and cast into Hell. The pre-born humans who sided with Lucifer got born as Indians and Blacks. And Gaia is nowhere to be found...unless She is one of Elohim's wives.

Then there's another candidate for inspiration for this weirdness: Gnosticism. Elohim and Lucifer are co-equal beings. Elohim wants to create the universe. Lucifer thinks this is a bad idea. Elohim goes ahead and creates the universe anyway, which turns out to be a bad idea. Lucifer points the problem out to Elohim, who smites him and calls him Satan. Elohim creates human beings, another bad idea. Elohim makes them essentially sleeping godlings. Elohim wants them to be asleep. Lucifer wants them to wake up.

But no, Beck-ism resembles none of this. It's a brand new revelation! Who's right? Who knows. None of it makes any sense. All of this resembles the ramblings of a paranoid schizophrenic. Religion as mental illness. What a concept.

...imagine a Bruno Magli shoe stomping on a human face. Forever."
-- apologies to George Orwell



Well, the expected decision has come down from the SCOTUS. Basically it affirmed the status of corporations as fictive persons, and furthermore affirmed the notion that campaign donations equal free speech. What does this mean for John and Joan Q. Public? It means that corporations are more equal than you are, and that they have an inalienable right to spread as much money as they want to elect the politicians which represent them. Welcome to 1984, suckas. It's been 1984 since Reagan was elected, and arguably since Nixon sent his plumbers to do his dirty work in 1972.

The movie "The Corporation" has been freed for download at Internet Archive. I suggest you download and watch it. I also suggest you buy the book "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein (no relation) and the movie "Capitalism: A Love Story" by Michael Moore when it comes out on DVD.

I wish I could give you more action items but I really don't know how we can fight this. Game over, man. Game over.

1.) People feel HORNSWOGGLED. They don't feel like the nation is on the road to anything resembling the change that Obama promised.
2.) People feel like the government cares less about "the little guy" and more about the "Masters of the Universe" on Wall Street.
3.) People are still unemployed, underemployed, or feel totally insecure in their jobs.
4.) As much as it gives people "warm fuzzies" that we are reaching out to the rest of the world, the fact remains that we are still in Iraq, we are still in Afghanistan, China is playing us, and we are so overstretched we can't do as much as is needed in Haiti. And here at home, New Orleans is still in ruins.
5.) Coakley went in to this believing she was INEVITABLE. That she was the anointed successor to Teddy Kennedy. That's NO WAY to run a campaign. Coakley only has herself and her entitled, lazy campaigning to blame for this loss. NOBODY IS INEVITABLE. Xref: Hillary Clinton.

Going forward, regardless of what happens, we need a course correction. Here are my suggestions:
1.) Order the Justice Department to investigate the hell out of Wall Street. Prosecute anything that smacks of malfeasance. Suggestion of who to bring in to give them hell: Elliot Spitzer. Appoint him as a special prosecutor for financial crimes.
2.) Re-establish all the Depression-era curbs on financial institutions. All of them. They were there for a reason.
3.) Stimulus without Job Creation is no Stimulus. We need a WPA 2.0 and we needed it yesterday.
4.) Do NOT be afraid to get "populist." It is right-wing populism we are fighting now and we need to fight it with genuine Democratic left-wing populism.
5.) Do this, and do it quickly, before College lets out in May and June. Then you can reconstitute the army of volunteers and defend the seats in the House and the Senate we have and maybe even take a few back.

OK, read this: my screed about Comic-Con, AX and local cons from July of last year.

Now then. I just checked out how much buying a membership for AX would be RIGHT NOW. How much? $55. $55 in January for a con that happens on July 4th Weekend. The price rises to $75 at the door. And of course, AX tends to pile on ancillary costs for special events and for the shuttle bus service. That is, unless you buy a room through the travel agency they contract with.

OK then, how about San Diego Comic-Con International? I used to do that yearly, until it became too much effort and too little fun to continue. Right now 4 day memberships are SOLD OUT. So's Saturday one-day passes. Friday one day passes are almost gone. Thursday and Sunday? Still good. But how much for a day of being part of a huge herd of fandom? $35 for Thursday and Friday, $20 for Sunday. Sunday, of course, ends early and is "wind down the Con day."

It is totally infeasible to do SDCCI on one day. Thursday is actually a pretty good day for it, and at least all events are freebies once you get your membership. But I would have to come in Wednesday on the Surfliner, stay the night, and then do Thursday, stay another night, and then hop the Surfliner home. Not good, especially when you consider that rooms in San Diego are wildly expensive...if you can get one. This will be the 41st Annual SDCCI. The hoteliers know the drill. Jack the prices up, hold back a few rooms so you can jack them up even higher for the last-minute crowd.

Nope, Anime Los Angeles, at this point, is the only big-ish geek media con I'm going to this year. I might go to Mikomikon, considering it's so close. And SCALE is a definite go. That's a geek con, alright, but a techie geek con. There is an outside chance I might do PMX. But I've never gone to that, and it's another one at LAX. I understand WHY LAX, but it's just such a hassle. This next A-LA I'm going to get a room for myself, and see if I can share it and get the price down. It was lovely staying at Cousins Brad and Beth's, but good lord and lady it was still a slog getting to LAX from the Sawtelle District.

One other drawback about A-LA: There is NO WAY an Anime/Manga/J-Pop figure is going to be a guest of honor at a con held during Oshogatsu season. That's FAMILY TIME. That's like holding a con at Christmas. Even if someone has no family ties and is a total no-lifer there, you have SOMETHING going on at New Year's time that you want to hang for. So we'll get a diet of American and maybe Canadian guests of honor. This could be rectified by maybe moving the con to President's Day Weekend or something. But nooooooooo....A-LA has committed to 2011 and 2012 dates now. And they are all at the beginning of January. So no change can happen until 2013. And hey, everything could be gone by then, right? Kidding!

Let's see...Anime Los Angeles came and went and was pretty fun, although this time I spent most of my time being a doll geek there; I'm glad to see the back of 2009, and it looks like I'll be able to finish my classes by the end of this year at Valley College. I might even be able to have another Associate Degree by rolling my old credits into an Associate in Media Arts, Post-Production concentration. At least I think I might. Better check with LAVC Counseling Dept. first.

In any event, I still have a few weeks before I go back for Spring 2010 semester. Have I managed to get anything major done here? Nope. Oh well.

And really...January is starting out to be really screwed. There is the massive earthquake in Haiti, news of a few more people on my periphery either sick or dead, and the health care reform situation turning into health care DEform.

Who knows, maybe I'll be secretly nostalgic for 2009 after this year is through.

あけましておめでとう！！！

And good riddance to 2009.

Have a pancake. On the top of your head. Because you are not making any sense. At all.

I am taking a personal stand for 10% of Americans shut out of the institution of marriage.

I have been thinking about this for a while, and it all came together for me last Saturday, when I saw my cousin Katie get married. I believe in marriage equality. I believe that just as religion and ethnicity are no longer a bar to marriage, that gender identity should no longer be a bar to marriage. In places like Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Iowa, this is reality. But everywhere else, and on a national level thanks to the vile "Defense Of Marriage Act" (sic) if two consenting adults of the same gender identity want to commit to each other for as long as the love lasts, they can't do it. Just as President Barack Obama's parents would not have been recognized in the majority of US States as married when they tied the knot in Hawaii in 1961, their marriage will not be recognized.

I do not begrudge Cousin Katie and my new Cousin Darren their union and their love. They made a choice they could make. But if Cousin Katie was in love with and wanted to marry someone named Doris or Daria she could not do it here in the state of California. They could go to some Jewish Rabbis and have a "commitment ceremony." They could become "registered domestic partners" in this state, with almost total parity under California State law with married couples. But as far as absolute, total parity under California State law, those who are "registered domestic partners" are not quite there.

Also, if a heterosexual couple under 62 years of age wanted to register as domestic partners, they would be refused that status. This means that heterosexuals who are disabled and in fear of losing their benefits if they marry cannot opt for the same status that those of Social Security retirement age can. This also means that those heterosexuals that want to protest the current unequal state of marriage in California cannot opt for registering as domestic partners.

Dr. Kinsey first discovered that 10% of Americans are gay, lesbian, or bisexual in the 1940s. There wasn't such a thing as transgender then, although I am sure there were people who believed they were born the wrong gender. At that point, nothing could be done for them. Things are different now, of course.

This means that the 90% of us who are heterosexual are potentially the recipient of special rights that 10% of us are shut out from because of their gender identity. Yes, I said special rights. Reverend Lou Shelton coined that vicious phrase in 1978 when he advocated the Briggs Initiative, designed to keep GLBT teachers out of public schools. But one can accurately say that this is a classic case of what Psychology calls "projection," because it is heterosexual married couples who have the special rights.

If you visit this website, you will be able to read, in PDF form, a list of over 1,000 special rights and protections given to heterosexual married couples over gay couples. This is a list prepared by no less an authority than the Government Accountability Office. (GAO) It is estimated that the additional costs of being a gay couple run between around $41,000 over their lifetime in the best case scenario, to at worst over $460,000. This dwarfs the vaunted IRS "Marriage Penalty" which only takes a few thousand dollars over a given married couple's lifetime. Most of this cost, save for the medical and legal costs of artificial insemination and surrogacy, would be wiped out if DOMA was repealed and GLBT marriage was allowed in all 50 states.

As a person whose preference is that of the opposite gender identity, and as a person who spent 20 years married to her soulmate only to lose him to the cruel blood cancer known as Multiple Myeloma, if I had known then what I know now I would reluctantly had opted not to marry. I would have lived together with my beloved Richie, and we would have probably spent the same amount of time with each other because we loved each other so much.

And so, I am making this vow, right here, right now, a vow as strong and unbreakable as I believe my vows to my late husband were.

I will not remarry until every consenting adult can pair up with another consenting adult and form a legally and spiritually binding dyad entirely and completely equal to traditional marriage.

I do not believe that granting such rights to 10% of the population diminishes, in any way, shape or form, traditional marriage. Richie and I took to heart the words of Thomas Jefferson, when he spoke of the supposed threat of atheism and polytheism. "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg," was his response to that "threat." GLBT marriage neither picked our pockets nor broke our legs.

We did not believe our marriage was threatened by homosexuals having the same rights as we had. As a matter of fact, we thought it a good thing because HIV/AIDS was running rampant, and one of the best ways to avoid it is mutual fidelity in an monogamous relationship after thorough HIV testing. Marriage does indeed reward faithfulness. Why should it be limited to heterosexuals?

I guess it can be argued, "If you allow gay marriage, why not polyamorous marriage?" If we are indeed talking about consensual polyamory I suppose that's ok, but the trouble with enshrining in law a union of more than one mate per person is that the history of polygamy as it is practiced in real life around the world is the history of polygynous polygamy. It is a history intertwined with Patriarchy and the abuse and exploitation of women. On the other hand, polyandrous polygamy is rarely practiced, and is a historic outlier. It would just be far too complex to tease out the exploitative relationships from the truly loving polyamorous relationships. So insisting on two consenting adults in such a relationship is a necessary safeguard from creating a framework that could legalize an exploitative situation.

And the slippery slope argument, usually made by religious conservatives, that if same-gender marriage is allowed eventually humans will be able to marry animals is truly disingenuous. Aside from humans and a few primates taught to sign, there are no animals that can communicate anything resembling consent. And only humans can truly consent, because it is unclear whether chimps and gorillas can understand complex, intangible concepts like consent. In fact, when I was at Woodbury University getting my BA in Psychology two of my professors had done studies about the whole concept of "informed consent" in research, and whether a person is capable of actually giving such without power relationships getting in the way. If there is question about how capable human beings are of giving truly informed consent, then animal consent is truly an absurd concept.

And let's get practical here. The wedding I attended must have cost a metric tonne of money. The venue was a historic and very expensive hotel in the heart of Beverly Hills. There was not just a band at the reception, but a full-on REVUE which consisted of a swing band AND a funk band with multiple vocalists. There was a spread of hors d'oevres and amuse bouchees, then a full on sit-down dinner. The flower budget alone must have been in the thousands. Allow same-gender marriage, and the economy will get a major shot in the arm. Think a little in particular about gay male stereotypes, and the truths behind them. There will be an arms race in West Hollywood and Pacific Heights for the most FABULOUS weddings. We saw a little of that during the brief period when same-gender marriage was legal in California. In a time when a Democratic President and Congress hasn't got the guts to pass an adequate stimulus package to get us out of the financial doldrums, same-gender marriage will be a tonic to the economy. Why should only Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont get the money? We are missing out every day since Proposition 8 was passed by a slim majority of religious bigots.

So again, I reiterate my vow. I will not remarry until every consenting adult can pair up with another consenting adult and form a legally and spiritually binding dyad entirely and completely equal to traditional marriage. If Mr. Right comes along, he'll have to live with this.

Except I might have to duck in and get some "trouser socks" to wear with this pant suit outfit that I'm wearing for this wedding I'm attending this weekend. Hope I still have some...prolly do. Oh yeah, gonna probably have to get lunch out because of timing.

Here's a little Black Friday serenade from Steely Dan. More apropos last year but the Dubai default is currently giving Wall Street the willies so I guess it's somewhat apropos this year too.

I now have a complete trio of Star Trek 2009 Barbie/Ken dolls. Original price: $150. My price: $38.64 plus tax. Replacing the fail body of Uhura with a Fashionista Artsy who looks better than the original: priceless. Bought them from Big Lots. There were a whole bunch on the shelf.

Dang, the Kirk and Spock dolliez are just made of smexy and awesome. Artsy Uhura actually compliments them quite well. Gotta make her some pierced earrings soon. And the original Uhura? Gonna sell her on eBay as a nude doll. Make back some of my money. ^_^

The Customs Dept. is holding a shipment of Michelle Obama Action Figures hostage!!!

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.)