Scratching Post

Made the mistake of going to Facebook during an election year. Normally fairly calm people are going apeshit and posting links to so much hate and lies - and it doesn't matter which candidate they are supporting/against, all sides have gone equally nuts. One aunt got a page solely so she can post extreme right-wing posts despite otherwise having no issue with the glbt members of the family. Another is posting any unfounded rumor she may find about anyone remotely on the republican side of the coin.

Very tempted to post something along the lines of: "As a lesbian married to a woman of color and raising our mixed race children together, don't assume I share your views. Also, as someone from a family of hunters who worked their way up from nothing to being able to do more than scape by, don't assume I share your views."

Somehow, I don't think this would go over very well.

Vote No succeeded!

This means MN will not identify marriage as an act solely between one man and one woman.

Today is the day that was chosen for people to wear purple in solidarity against bullying and in remembrance of those who committed suicide as a result of this bullying. The common factor uniting these unfortunate deaths was that each and every person was gay.

Please note I am not listing a number.

The media is listing the most recent and publicized of these occurrences but, let’s face it, over the years how many countless others have died because of this? How many have been killed due to hate, and how many have taken their own lives?

I remember Terry. How we sat together in my dorm room and how she talked about how much she wanted the surgery and how hard it was to be accepted by others. How she told me she preferred to be a “she” and a “her” but requested that we address her as “him” in front of her family as they did not understand. How she offered me chocolate and told me she would go through PMS and all it entailed if it meant she could truly be a woman in every way, shape, and form. And how she set neatly stacked her books and calculator, stood up, walked to the Washington Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi and jumped.

At the funeral, her parents refused to show a single picture of her in transition, the pastor referred to her only as “him” and, at one memorable point, listed the contributing factor to “his” suicide as school stressors and, “We all know about his other problems so we need not go into them here.”

That was fourteen years ago. One would have thought we would have come father than that by now.

A thought came to mind this morning as I was working my accounts. Now, I am far from the most knowledgeable political person out there and am solely stating an observation mixed with interpretation and thoughts, so take of this what you will.

( In which Cat rambles... )

So we're nearing the end of the initial recount in the Coleman/Franken race. Kare 11 has examples of some of the disputed ballots available for view. Some of them are frivolous, to say the least. Tiny dot for one candidate while another is fully colored in? No mark for either being challenged as belonging to a particular candidate? Others make you wonder how these people get by in their day to day life considering they can't seem to find the little oval to color at all.

Oddly enough, many of the rather obvious ones are being challenged by the same candidate - the one with the tiny dot and a lead of less than 400 votes. I'm sure that's just an incredible coincidence.

Okay, I know this is probably all over the web by now, especially since the BBC had it as an article today, but really, the "No One as Irish as Barack Obama" video, needs to be seen.

Link above, otherwise, video embedded behind the cut.

( There's No One as Irish as Barack Obama )

Still coughing up a lung from standing outside in line for an hour and a half with an air quality warning in effect, but got it done.

Several points about the day:

~ Mr. McCain supporter driving a Buick, gabbing on your cell phone, and swerving through traffic because you are busy flipping off an Obama sign, you are a parody.

~ Ms. Obama supported who was jumping up and down on the bridge above the highway so much that you nearly fell, so are you.

~ Various supporters of the amendment for funding for clean water and clean air (timely, yes?), I believe your message may have been better received had you not been driving a huge truck back and forth, up and down the street, shouting your message. As the man next to me suggested, perhaps bicycles would have been a better choice over a gas-guzzling vehicle?

~ Media Morons, please realize that people ducking out of the way of cameras probably don't want their pictures taken, and please respect this choice (man, the frat boys tried to give her cover).

~ Overly Patriot People Who Know Nothing About Patriotism, yes, you got to be seen on tv waving the huge flag, but did you know they were still taping when you rolled it up in a ball and tossed it on the picnic table as you walked away?

In short, yeah, I voted.

System’s down more than up here at work, LJ doesn’t want to work with crap, various pages from various sites are refusing to work. What does all this mean? It’s conspiracy theory time!

Current Theory:
In preparation of next week’s elections, the government is tracking usage and/or shutting down information routes to make sure the vote is corrupted. We won’t see the results until after they are made official and no one can complain about manipulation until it’s too late. There may or may not be pages being created to "support" the winning candidate at this very moment. But, like most things tainted by the govenment, it's all failing miserably and this is what we are left with.

Or, you know, the backbone’s down.

Please note – whenever I mention a conspiracy theory, I’m not actually serious. This one was brought on by frustration and sugar.

So the president is warning that, if we do not pass this huge bill to bail out big business, we're going to go into a recession.

Er, aren't we already in one? I mean, really, we've got inflation, job loss, people struggling to survive on the little they are making while the economy and some would argue society as a whole goes to crap. But the best way to make things better is to bail out companies against Federal laws, not to mention first try to sneak it by without approval, and charge every man, woman, and child roughly $3500.00 in taxes to do so? Why can't they take responsibility for themselves? Why can't they file Bankruptcy like literally hundreds of people are doing each week? Why do we need to fix their messes?

In a slightly more amusing take on the whole thing, check out Sinfest starting with Sunday's and scrolling through to today's, which is truly awesome.

It has only taken 31 years, but my mother has finally realized that I am not a Republican.