Transforming Force

A very cool quote:

"The connections between and among women are ... the most potentially transforming force on the planet."
--Adrienne Rich

Numbers, drugs and paths not taken

Dragon Mood? -- can you hear me now?

I need to take some time and post about numbers. Numbers that include too-high insulin, too-high cholesterol, too-high CRP (chemical reactive protein) and too-high some-thyroid-gobbledy-gook antibody.

And then I need to take some time and post about drugs. Drugs like good ol' Lipitor (hey, I've seen a zillion ads on TV for you!), Avandia (they must have a $0 budget for TV ads, cuz I've never heard of you) and S's long-time favorite, Synthroid.

And then, there's the conversation about the path to diabetes, the path we will not take, and the dietitian and the diabetes classes and the thyroid that is acting like an old-time light bulb (Zzzt -- it's on! Zzzt -- it's off!) which somehow makes me think of the movie, Erin Brockovitch, and sepia-toned images of industrial sites that are polluting our world.

(Oh yes, and did you hear about the nodule on your lung? A nodule on my lung? Yes, a nodule on your lung.)

But, amidst all this expectant posting of the discombobulated sort, there is anticipation of the real and sweet kind: seeing my kids Friday evening, wrapping my arms around them, smelling her hair, feeling his five-o'clock shadow on my cheek, all of us cracking open a beer at one in the morning to celebrate our reunion. Then -- maybe then -- I will tell them about all of this stuff.

Anti-gay hysteria

Dragon Mood? -- calm

[I found this link right after the election. I was so distraught at the prospect of four more years of this cretin and his crooked cronies (sorry for the excessive alliteration), that I just couldn't bear to post it right away. As if posting it made the reality even more harsh!]

I found this link on a website called MsGeek

Homo Hate
Kerry loses to Rove’s anti-gay hysteria
by Doug Ireland


The Republicans’ moralizing anti-gay crusade played a crucial role in George W. Bush’s re-election. The Rove-Bush decision to surf on the anti-gay backlash came about in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, in the spring of 2003, to overturn the so-called sodomy laws.

After that decision, there was a precipitous 20-point Gallup poll drop in numbers of those who thought gay sex should be legal, and support for civil unions also slalomed downward.

Under the guidance of Commissar Karl Rove, the Republicans crafted a strategy to make political hay out of the anti-gay backlash and to fuel its intensity, just as soon as the Massachusetts Supreme Court decided that denying marriage equality to gay people was a violation of fundamental civil rights. The tools to make gays a political scapegoat that would mobilize the 4 million evangelicals who failed to vote in 2000 — and at the same time appeal to Catholic adepts of anti-gay papal precepts — were the Federal Marriage Amendment and the 11 anti-gay state referenda on the marriage issue. These measures were seen as wedge issues to divide the traditional Democratic coalition by prejudiced appeals to blacks and Latinos. Last year, among blacks, the drop on legalizing gay marriage was, at 23 points, even sharper than the national average. A New York Times poll from August last year confirmed the backlash Gallup found, especially among blacks and Latinos, with strong majorities opposing gay marriage — 65 to 28 for blacks, 54 to 40 for Latinos. Out of numbers like these came the Bush-Rove anti-gay strategy.

This is, after all, a country drowning in censorious, politicized religiosity. And race is no longer the great political dividing line in this country — region and religion have replaced it. The exit polls on Tuesday night showed that Bush won a whopping 42 percent of the Latino vote, in large part thanks to the power of anti-gay propaganda in a community — already marinated in macho cultural traditions — that gets a lot of its cohesiveness and sense of identity from homophobic Pentecostal churches.

Moreover, 21 percent of voters said that “moral values” — more than either Iraq or the economy — were what determined their vote. In many states the GOP used TV ads featuring two men kissing to fan the anti-gay marriage flames. Nowhere did the strategy work better than in Ohio, where the southern tier of counties is the cultural equivalent of a Deep South state, steeped in religiously inculcated homo-hate. Ohio is also a state where traditionally Democratic working-class Catholic voters — whom Kerry failed to bind to him with an economic program that could arouse their passions — were peeled off in sufficient numbers to reduce Kerry’s margins in the larger cities. And the sweeping anti-gay referendum in Ohio — which outlaws civil unions or any lesser legal recognition of same-sex couples, as well as gay marriage — passed by 2 to 1. Huge anti-gay majorities were rolled up as well in all the other 10 states with referenda, with the smallest margin of victory for the anti-gay measure in Oregon (a supposedly tolerant state where it won by a resounding 14 points).

The anti-gay crusade was also crucial in mobilizing the religious in support of Republican Senatorial candidates in crucial races around the country. The Democrats’ Senate leader, Tom Daschle, was targeted in South Dakota by his victorious GOP opponent, John Thune, on the gay issue — a relentless barrage of TV and radio ads portrayed Daschle as a supporter of gay marriage (for opposing the FMA) and helped Thune squeak through.

Similarly, in Kentucky — where the anti-gay referendum passed by 75 percent to 25 percent — a nasty gay-baiting campaign by mad Republican incumbent Jim Bunning helped defeat his Democratic opponent, whom Bunning implied (falsely) was gay. Bunning was so gaga, his staff had to hide him for the final weeks of the campaign for fear of what lunatic things he might say — yet by surfing the anti-gay backlash, he, too, squeaked through.

On Election Day, there were widespread reports, from Nevada to Florida, of guys in very bad drag shouting “Gay marriage!” holding pro-gay-marriage signs, and accosting voters outside polling stations. (Democrats took photos of these costumed GOP operatives for later identification as Bushniks). More dirty tricks: Phony robocalls in Wisconsin and a number of other states, purporting to be from the Kerry campaign, told swing voters, “A vote for Kerry is a vote for gay marriage — it’s our time.”

Scurrilous gay-baiting literature abounded. And, of course, the Bushniks could count on the fervent homophobia of Bush’s shock troops from the Christian right (heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars through patronage disguised as “faith-based initiatives”) to hammer home the Sunday-go-to-meetin’ anti-gay message — and the sweeping Republican victory.

The Democrats were bereft of any strategy to fight this politicization of the anti-gay backlash. Across the country, the Democrats’ lawyers engaged in a furious struggle to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot — but didn’t lift a finger to engage in a similar challenge to the petitions for the anti-gay referenda, for fear of being tarred with the lavender brush. So, in referendum states like Ohio, the Reagan Democrats of yesterday — particularly married women and working-class men — became the Bush Democrats of today.

Kerry might have won them back if he’d hammered away at the economy. But his campaign ignored economic issues, and the national exit polls showed voters wound up trusting Bush more than Kerry on the economy by 48 to 46 percent. In Ohio, Kerry’s failure was even starker — while 62 percent of the Buckeye State’s voters said in exit polls they thought the economy was “bad,” they split even at 48 percent on who’d do better to get them out of the mess in a state that had lost 250,000 jobs. It’s well known that bigotry always increases in times of economic insecurity and penury. This year, among the economically hard-pressed, it was therefore easy to vent anger and frustration on those privileged, kissing, homo DINKS (Double Income, No Kids), who are portrayed as enjoying the fruits of luxurious consumerism by TV minstrelsy like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Our high-fashion gay Stepin Fetchits played right into the GOP-fostered perception of gays as seeking special privileges, and of Democrats as elitists. The reasons for the GOP’s successful strategy have been brilliantly explained in Tom Franks’ latest book, What’s the Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. Franks has understood that the anti–gay marriage crusade is a particularly insidious form of Republican “class warfare.”

And unless Democrats wake up to Franks’ message, and develop a populist strategy to defang the anti-gay crusaders, electoral gay-bashing will continue to doom the Dems to defeat at the polls in many regions of the country.

Simple quote

Dragon Mood? -- pondering

I found this quote and rather liked its Deepak Chopra-esque qualities:

"Let yourself rule and be ruled by these strings or emanations that connect everything together...."

-- John Ashbery

I didn't know anything about John Ashbery. Here's one site's info on him.

Good-bye Mr. Powell, Mr. Abraham, et al

Dragon Mood? -- ???

More resignations from the Bush Cabinet.

I'm frankly sorry to see Colin Powell leave. He is one of the few (maybe the only) people in the Bush Cabinet that I truly respect as a person of integrity and high moral convictions! I imagine he has felt pretty lonely and isolated these past four years.

Of Spence Abraham, I have nothing good to say. He's a Republican party hack that got tossed a bone even after (then) Governor John Engler couldn't deliver Michigan to the Bush column in 2000. Abraham worked for Dan Quayle, for crying out loud. Doesn't that say enough?

As for the other two, Ann Veneman and Rod Paige, I know nothing about them. What did they do during their tenure on the Cabinet? I don't know. Hopefully, not too much damage.

Like many others, I anticipated Powell's leaving. I'm curious as to why the other three are resigning?

Nuclear tangerine

Dragon Mood? -- dragon proud!

I painted our kitchen in the big-city house Friday evening.

I had a game plan, a paint board all painted up with the colors and the techniques I was going to use.

So much for game plans. After getting the primer on and the first coat, I loved it. I didn't want to paint any more. So . . . what was going to be a squash-blossom yellow "dabbed" over a tangerine base coat, instead became a nuclear tangerine orange.

It glows. It positively glows . . . as in a nuclear reactor rod glows. While the kitchen has only one north-facing window, when the sunlight hits our neighbor's white aluminum siding, the reflected light in our kitchen makes that lovely orange glow.

I love it!!! I can't wait to post a picture showing it off.

Good-bye, Mr. Ashcroft!

Dragon Mood? -- a happy little swish of the ol' dragon tail

From the New York Times:

"We had an attorney general who treated criticism and dissent as treason, ethnic identity as grounds for suspicion and Congressional and judicial oversight as inconvenient obstacles," said David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University. "He was a disaster from a civil liberties perspective but also from a national security perspective."

Good-bye and good riddance!

Memory, ancient memory

Dragon Mood? -- letting out a "Remember?" roar

On Nov. 10, 1871, journalist-explorer Henry M. Stanley found missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone in central Africa and delivered his famous greeting: ''Dr. Livingstone, I presume?''

And more recently -- today, I heard someone say something about next Tuesday, and some ancient cog in my ancient mind turned to recall this:

Wimpy, said to the character, Bluto: "I'll have two hamburgers, for which I will gladly pay you next Tuesday."

Ahhhh, yes . . . now I remember! Good ol' Popeye and Saturday morning cartoons. All in black-and-white, I might add. That was lonnnnggg before the advent of color television.

Ah yes, the stuff of my childhood!

Red states, Blue states, Maps and Cartograms

Dragon Mood? -- carto-what?

While I never root for the University of Michigan in sports events, I have to give some University of Michigan faculty a thumbs-up for this site. I encourage you to take a look at it. Here's a couple of the verrrrrry interesting things they show . . .

Here's what we're used to looking at:



If you look at the same map based on population and not topographic size, here's what it looks like:



Amazingly, many of the blue states look like one of those gas-aid commercials where the folks, eating at a diner, bloat up! California, Illinois and New York look especially bloated! Suddenly, the whole damn country doesn't look like it's gone to hell-in-a-Republican-handbasket!

Again, check out the site.

Soothe my soul

Here's something that can soothe my savage, ravaged breast: the beauty of Mother Nature, especially as she prepares to wrap herself in the dark, stark beauty of winter cloaking.

[Editorial note: I guess the expression is "savage beast" and "ravaged breast," but I rather like the rhyming mixture of the two, whether it makes traditional sense or not!]

Doh!

Can you tell that I'm still angry, bitter, and despairing after the election?

Please note the caption at the bottom of the page: "U.S. Election Disaster: Pages . . . "

Why can the whole world see what half of our citizens can not? I heard a retired preacher pose the question, "Why is God blinding our country and its leaders right now?"

By that standard, at least one half of the country is currently blind.

more about the American voters' debacle

Dragon Mood? -- so, so sad

Rayne Today is a blog I like to read. Rayne is a woman who lives in Michigan (like me) and she expresses lots of enthusiasm for political expression. Today she has a truly eloquent letter from her friend, Christopher, who also writes a blog called Barbaric Yawp.

Go on over to her site and read his letter, on this day when half the nation mourns our "new" leader.

Day after the Debacle

Dragon Mood? -- I'm so exhausted from the past 24 hours, even my Energizer bunny has died.

I usually try to refrain from out-and-out sarcasm, because in my personal experience, sarcasm can be quite hurtful. But I'm so angry about this election, that I am "giving in" to my baser instincts.

Welcome to four more years...

• Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
• Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Daddy Bush made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
• Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
• A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational corporations can make decisions affecting all humanity without regulation.
• The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
• If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
• A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
• Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing healthcare to all Americans is socialism.
• HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
• Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
• A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
• Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
• The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades butGeorge Bush's driving record is none of our business.
• You support states' rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have the right to adopt.
• What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s (i.e., smoke pot) is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s (snort coke and abuse alcohol) is irrelevant.
• We must protect fetal and embryonic life. After all, we need those babies to become adults so we can send them off to war or execute them in prison.

Can you tell I'm mad?

Exercise your rights as an American citizen!

Events to record

Dragon Mood? -- dragon scales rising as the dragon falls behind

So much to tell. I am having a hard time keeping up with recording all the events going on in my life right now.

I have yet to tell you about

• S and my trip to Texas

• S and my conversations with people as a result of our ubiquitous Kerry/Edwards buttons and stickers

• my weekend in the hospital

uh . . . that's enough of a list for now.

International survey on our national election

Dragon Mood? -- ???

The London Guardian (Guardian Unlimited), a British newspaper, published a survey of ten international newspapers, headlining it as "What the world thinks of America."

One part of the survey I found quite interesting. In response to the question, "Would you prefer to see the election of George W. Bush or John Kerry on November 2," here were the following responses:

_______________Bush__Kerry__
Canada.............20.........60...
France...............16.........72...
UK....................22.........50...
Spain................13.........58...
Russia...............52.........48...
Japan................30.........51...
Australia.............28.........54...
Mexico...............20.........54...
Israel.................50.........24...
Korea.................18.........68...
Average..............27.........54...

Note that Russia and Israel are the only countries cited as supporting the re-election of George Bush. All the other countries support the election of John Kerry by an overwhelming TWO to ONE margin!.

. . . and HOW to slow down

Dragon Mood? -- snorting towards transition

From the same ABC News article:

"To transition to a slower life, Honoré has several suggestions:

• don't schedule something in every free moment of your day;
  
• prioritize activities and cut from the bottom of the list;
  
• limit television watching;
  
• and keep an eye on your "personal speedometer" so you can gauge when you are rushing for speed's sake rather than necessity."

Slow down!

Dragon Mood? -- Her rushed Dragoness slows down and perks up!

This sounds like something I might be interested in. I think our whole country is moving too fast for the quality of life that we desire and deserve.

The article also references an organization, Slow Foods USA. Their website says this:

Recognizing that the enjoyment of wholesome food is essential to the pursuit of happiness, Slow Food U.S.A. is an educational organization dedicated to stewardship of the land and ecologically sound food production; to the revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community; to the invigoration and proliferation of regional, seasonal culinary traditions; and to living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life.

Their first three guiding principles are Sustainability, Cultural Diversity and Pleasure and Quality in Everyday Life. Wow!

Check it out!

A welcome defeat!

Dragon Mood? -- hopeful???

John Kerry supporters have a welcome omen for their candidate: The Green Bay Packers defeated the Washington Redskins on Sunday.

If history holds, the 28-14 result portends a victory for Kerry on Tuesday because the result of the Redskins' final home game before the presidential election has always accurately predicted the White House winner. If the Redskins win, the incumbent party wins. If they lose, the incumbent party is ousted.

"Oh, yeah, he's going to win. It's guaranteed," said Packers' safety Darren Sharper, a Kerry supporter. . .

The streak began in 1933, when the Boston Braves were renamed the Redskins. Since then, beginning with Franklin Roosevelt's re-election in 1936, the trend has held, including a 2000 Redskins loss to the Tennessee Titans that predicted George W. Bush's win over Al Gore.

From ESPN via ABC News.