oipom.com

I am so happy that this country chose Obama for our next president. I will do my best not to gloat or rub it in people’s faces, but I will say the following two things:

1. During McCain’s speech when he first mentioned Obama’s name, I was disheartened and disappointed that his supporters booed at the mention. I think that’s sad. Conversely, during Obama’s speech when he first mentioned McCain, there was a round of applause and lots of cheering. I was impressed with McCain’s graciousness; not so impressed with the lack of grace from his crowd.

2. Three hundred thirty eight to one hundred fifty six at last count. The people have spoken, and they want Obama.

I am incredibly proud of this country.

In short:

I think you should vote for Obama/Biden for the reasons outlined here and here. They will have a positive impact on our country and I firmly believe they are the best people for the job.

If you’re in California:

Would you go up to your best friend and say, “I don’t believe you deserve to have the same rights I do?” Prop 8 is proposing this very thing – marriages that already exist and are recognized by the state of California would be annulled simply because they are same-sex marriages. I find this cruel. If you are in California, please vote “no” on Prop 8.

Everywhere else:

Get out the vote! Make sure you know the issues and exercise your right to have a say in what goes on in this country.

I just performed my civic duty and filled out my ballot. Oregon is fully vote-by-mail, so you get mailed a voting pamphlet and your ballot, and you can fill it out in the privacy of your own home. I have decided that this is one of the best ideas Oregon has ever had – you could vote in your underpants if you wanted! I personally enjoy not leaving my home to go stand in line for forever and ever to be at the mercy of a voting machine that may or may not work.

This does mean that I don’t get an “I voted!” sticker, but the convenience totally outweighs the lack of a sticker.

This article by George Saunders had me in hysterics at work:

“Where was I? Ah, yes: I hate Élites. Which is why, whenever I am having brain surgery, or eye surgery, which is sometimes necessary due to all my non-blinking, I always hire some random Regular guy, with shaking hands if possible, who is also a drunk, scared of the sight of blood, and harbors a secret dislike for me.”

The cadence and the stream-of-consciousness run-on sentences and political commentary just kill me.

This is my second installment of Why I Find the Republican Ticket Terrifying and Why I Think the Democratic Ticket Is Awesome. If you missed Part I, I recommend reading that first.

Onward!
(more…)

If you are currently undecided who you are voting for in this year’s US Presidential election, or if you are planning on voting for the McCain/Palin ticket, I implore you to read this post. I am going to try to be as respectful as I can while outlining why I find the McCain/Palin ticket objectionable and why I think you should vote for Obama/Biden.

Part I will discuss the McCain/Palin issues, and Part II will discuss the Obama/Biden issues.

(more…)

Somebody stop me – I seem incapable of avoiding clicking on news articles or videos cheering on Barack Obama. My left-leaning politics are well-documented on this website (much to the chagrin of my parents, I assume) but man does Obama inspire me. I want to print downloaded PDFs as posters and hang them in my windows and use the thoughtfully provided buddy icons on my gTalk chat thingy. I want to see this man become our next president.

This morning I spent a good amount of time perusing YouTube for Obama videos after watching something somebody posted on Digg. It was of Obama giving a speech (full text) about religion in America, and it sounds so sappy and awful but I teared up about halfway through when he says this:

In fact, because I do not believe that religious people have a monopoly on morality, I would rather have someone who is grounded in morality and ethics, and who is also secular, affirm their morality and ethics and values without pretending that they’re something they’re not. They don’t need to do that. None of us need to do that.

BIG HEART. He admits you do not have to be religious to be moral or ethical, and would, in fact, prefer someone non-religious with those qualities than someone religious who lacked them, and then goes to say that we shouldn’t have to pretend we are something we are not. How can I not support this man? For pete’s sake, a former president once said this:

No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God.
– George Bush, to American Atheists’ reporter Robert Sherman in 1987, while serving as vice-president

Awesome, thank you. I live in this country, I pay my taxes, I go to work, I am an upstanding member of my community, but I should not be considered a citizen or a patriot because I don’t believe in the same god as you. So infuriating.

I know not all of you agree with me or my beliefs, but I beg you, if you are in the US and are eligible to vote, please register and do so when it comes time. I would encourage you to vote for Obama because I feel like he would be the best person for the job (Hillary is just too divisive for me – if she gets the nomination you KNOW a zillion people will turn up to vote for John McCain primarily because they can’t stand the thought of her winning the presidency) but really, as long as you do your research and vote for who you truly believe in, that makes me happy.

This makes me absolutely LIVID: Ann Coulter wants to take away women’s right to vote.

And honestly? I didn’t think it was possible, but this infuriates me even more:

I am a woman, and I support repealing the 19th Amendment as well. Can any of you dispute the statistical FACT that if we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have another Democratic President elected? I think only one Democratic President in that last 60 years was elected with a majority male vote. Why is it that the Democratic Party can’t get men to vote for them? I know why women (especially single women) vote Democratic: because they need a daddy or hubby to take care of them.
-Rory

My brain hurts from trying to fathom this comment. As though having a Democratic president were the worst that could happen? I don’t care if that is a “statistical FACT” or not – it’s still a horrible, wretched reason to drag this country back to the last century.

You want to know why women vote for Democrats? THEY HAVE WOMEN’S INTERESTS IN MIND. It’s possible that men do not vote as much for Democratic candidates, but I’d guess it’s primarily because they do not have as many personal, close-to-home issues to feel strongly about as women.

Seriously? Getting rid of women’s rights to vote because you don’t like which candidate they choose? That, to me, is practically the very definition of being anti-democracy. I can’t imagine voluntarily abolishing your right to have a say in what happens to your own country, your own family, and your own body because you don’t like how other women vote.

Rory’s follow-up comment was this:

Because, missmolly, Republicans like Ronald Reagan won’t let government take care of poor, defenseless little women. Strong women vote GOP!

…and then this:

I would gladly give up my life if it means no more Democratic Presidents get elected.

Again, as though that were the worst that could happen? If that’s not voting on the party line, I don’t know what is. “Who cares about the issues – as long as they’re Republican, I’m good.” It’s a label. A LABEL. I could have a vehemently pro-choice, pro-gov’t sponsored healthcare, anti-death penalty, pro-women platform and label myself a Republican. Would “Rory” still vote for me then?

Also found on Digg: Lady worries about the effects of jackhammer noise on her unborn baby whilst smoking a cigarette. She apparently remains unconcerned about the effects of cigarettes on unborn babies.

A selected comment from that post:

What surprises me most is that this woman is actually pregnant. The fact that she’s complaining about something means she’s definitely a Lib, and Libs usually murder their babies before they get too far along. Maybe this slut is holding out for a partial birth abortion.

What surprises me is that “Jehovah” thinks all “Libs” are baby-hating assholes. “Usually murder?” C’mon. Liberals don’t hate babies – we like babies so much that we want them to be born to parent(s) who WANT them and are able to care for them. And oooh does that “partial birth abortion” bit get me. That makes it sound as though it’s a party she can’t wait to get to; as though it were a risk-free procedure anyone would choose willingly; as though she is purposefully waiting so she can forgo the less-complicated procedure in favor of the more angst-ridden, complicated, emotional procedure.

Don’t feed the trolls, I know. It’s so hard not to, though, when what they say is so demeaning.

Do you ever get the feeling that the United States is going to hell in a handbasket? Or is that just me?

I know it’s a product of reading the news, which is always remarkably sensationalist. JK Rowling talked about the Harry Potter books and said she felt compelled to kill off parents to show how truly evil Lord Voldemort is, and the headline was “Rowling says, ‘I wanted to kill parents.’” Seriously? I mean, I suppose it worked because I clicked on it, but couldn’t it have been something else a bit less… punch you in the face?

Then I see things like pharmacists suing over dispensing the morning-after pill or stories of women fleeing to a hospital directly after being raped only to be told that because of the hospital’s religious affiliation, they would not be receiving emergency contraception. To me, this is a blatant disregard for one of the most important duties of a doctor: CARE FOR THE PATIENT. So what if you don’t like the idea of someone preventing a possible pregnancy as a result of a rape? Why punish the woman? It seems as though these doctors (or pharmacists) value the possible life of an unborn child more than the living, breathing, troubled woman. Why else would they refuse to dispense it, even on religious grounds? What they are saying is “We do not care for your future, or how you intend to cope with this traumatic event, or the possible outcome of a baby and what that will mean for you or your life. We just want that possibility of a baby kept alive.” Or, I guess alternatively they are saying “Even though you and your doctor have chosen what is best for you, I think I know better, and I don’t trust you to make your own decisions regarding your future.” Either way it’s infuriating and demeaning. ETA: Proposed new bill in Ohio requires women to get a man’s permission for an abortion. As though we didn’t have enough of a patriarchy to begin with.

A recent study says religious doctors are no more likely to help the poor or underprivileged than non-religious doctors. Interesting, no?

There also seems to be a rash of news stories like “Two children found dead in trash bags under sink” or that awful story about the lady with four (dead) premature fetuses in her house, of varying ages, who was only discovered because she was admitted to the hospital with heavy bleeding presumably after delivering one of them early.

And then this new thing I don’t really understand about Rupert Murdoch and the Dow Jones? And something about the Wall Street Journal? Whatever it is, it sounded bad, like he might be gaining control of another media outlet. If that’s true, I think it’s awfully sad since it’s already so hard to get even moderately unbiased information. Monopolies are rarely helpful to society.

Ohio election records from 2004 have mysteriously disappeared. Which is awesome, you know, because they could have proved the election was stolen. Dick Cheney recently claimed he can ignore executive orders because he is not part of the executive branch, but now he does not like to say he is in one branch or the other. He’s also defending Justice Alberto Gonzales throughout his whole scandal. Seriously guys, does it not end? (ETA: Cheney believes Bush will be remembered fondly on his deathbed. Are they all delusional?)

I know a lot of people abstain from reading the news, and I think that’s commendable. I have to ask though, how the heck do you stay on top of everything? I don’t like being uninformed or ignorant about current issues, but I also don’t like to be bombarded with insane, sensationalist crap all the time. I do generally prefer the BBC news website over MSNBC, just because I feel like they’re more objective since they’re not actually within the US, but where else do you go to get news?

And why are there so many political scandals lately? Is anybody on the level anymore? I am feeling disheartened and rant-y about the US lately.

After a solid day of listening to the new Type O Negative album, I have to say that I am enjoying the music a lot. I like both of their sounds, the faster stuff (Carnivore-esque) and the more “cuddly,” slower stuff, so I’m generally happy with whatever they put out.

I am not happy, however, with the subject matter of the song “These Three Things.” Apparently, Peter Steele returned to his Catholic roots and rediscovered Christianity (so I have heard), and several songs on the new album reference his beliefs. “These Three Things” in particular is about being vehemently against abortion, calling it “infanticide” and “the worst sin you’ve ever performed.”

If you watch a lot of Seinfeld, you will totally get it when I say that I feel exactly like Elaine right now. (Season 6, “The Couch.) Elaine dates this hunky moving man but is forced to break up with him because he doesn’t support a woman’s right to choose, and she can’t be with someone who feels that way.

I don’t want to begrudge anyone their beliefs – don’t get me wrong. It’s totally within his rights to believe whatever he wants to, and to write songs about those beliefs. It’s just that they’ve always been this very irreverent, sarcastic band that liked to poke fun at all forms of religion – that’s part of why I liked them – and all of a sudden they’ve got these religion-y, anti-choice songs and it’s out of the ordinary and I’m put off by it.

The awful thing is that I really, really like that song. It’s awesome musically. I just… Now I feel like endorsing them means endorsing the message in that song and I don’t like that.

Can I ignore it and be like people who listen to rap, but don’t focus on the fact that it talks about smacking bitches up and stuff like that? Or really racist black metal? I don’t agree with the message but the music is good. It’s never really been possible for me to ignore lyrics of songs entirely – half the time that’s what I find interesting about the song, but… this is my favorite band and I want to feel good about liking them, and now they’ve gone and made that all difficult.

MUSIC CRISIS OMG.

Edguy

I think this is asinine: Woman kicked off plane for breastfeeding. It’s just so… GAH. SHE WAS FEEDING HER BABY. They serve snacks on the plane, so it’s obviously not a “no eating on plane” issue. I’m sure some people have horrible manners and chew with their mouth open and gobble their food, and somehow a (covered! discreet!) woman gets booted from a plane for feeding her baby. Stupid.

These accounts of Congo war victims (very graphic subject matter) make me upset. The things that happen to these women are so horrid. Can you even imagine? I hate to. I hate to even think that somewhere, this is actually happening, and it is happening to a lot of women. And babies. And senior citizens. The fact that it’s happening to anyone is despicable.

I can’t really articulate how I feel about the second topic. It’s like, I’m so far removed from it that it’s difficult for me to believe that yes, this sort of thing does happen in other places of the world, and it happens a lot. Hospitals are overflowing with victims of violent rape, so violent they require a hospital stay. That’s so awful I almost can’t fathom it.

I also have a hard time fathoming the fact that we’ve been at war for several years now. It’s sometimes very possible for me to forget we’re even at war. When I think of a country being at war, I think of bombs, cratered cities with orphaned children, food shortages, power shortages, air raids, bomb drills, propaganda posters, war bonds… Stereotypical war stuff. It almost bothers me that here in America we can mill about and go on with our daily lives, oblivious to the fact that other countries are experiencing these sorts of things, sometimes directly through our influence. How is it possible that we can be so oblivious? It’s WAR, for chrissakes. WAR. I feel like I should be sacrificing in some way – salvaging for the war effort or something. Is this stupid? I guess war to me seems like it should be similar to what I’ve read about World War II.

My deep thoughts for the day.

Eddie Izzard “Circles” DVD

I’m very happy at the moment about recent political proceedings, hence the poll off to the right there. Already the Democrats want to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 (£3.79)! When I was working in Idaho, they only had to pay you 5.15 per hour. FIVE DOLLARS. For an hour of your hard work. And apparently that’s the current national requirement – so depressing.

Another plus: to find a better direction for Iraq. How long have we been waiting for that?

And Rumsfeld! RUMSFELD RESIGNED! I was in SHOCK when I heard that, and then positively overjoyed. I’ve no idea who the new guy is, but let’s hope for the best, eh?

Oregon defeated the “minors must notify parents before abortion” thingy. Very excited about that. (Please do not think that I am excited about abortions – I am excited about the OPTION for them, should one be in the position to need the option.) We also voted in lovely things like preserving land for parks and things, supporting schools, and supporting the library. I heart my liberal state.

Other things of interest:
Mexico City passes gay union law, and Spain approves gay marriage bill to join the Netherlands and Belgium in allowing same-sex marriage. Hurrah! Equal rights for everyone!

Speaking of equal rights, some asshole company in Houston, Texas refused to do landscaping for a gay couple simply because they were gay, saying the company “choose[s] not to work for homosexuals.” How f’ed up is that? They were basically exercising their right to choose their clientele, but how is that not completely discriminatory? It makes me so upset that people think it’s okay to do that. I don’t agree with the threats (death, sodomy, etc.) being made against the family who owns the company, but I do think they are assholes and deserved to be called out on their discriminatory actions.

Oh, and Britney ditched Kevin.

Harry and the Potters – “Save Ginny Weasley”

Did you vote today? I hope so. Daniel and I voted a while ago because we get our ballots in the mail. Does that mean they’re absentee ballots? I don’t know. Either way, we voted, and I’m happy to report that the Democrats did in fact get the 15 seats they needed in order to take control of the House! Woo-hoo! I’m following progress on the BBC’s website. For some reason, they always seem to have great election coverage that’s easy to interpret.

The Left is still a bit behind in the Senate, but in general I’m feeling pretty good about this election. It’s not like two years ago when I sat at my computer in shock, staring at all the red-colored states on the BBC’s election watch page. I don’t feel a sense of doom and gloom.

(Side note: please do not judge me on the quality of my posts from two years ago. I went back and re-read a bunch of them after linking those two, and ye gods they are awful. I nearly had a mind to either delete them all or set them all to “private” so nobody but me can see them because they are that bad. Gross overuse of slang, smilies, and name-dropping of people nobody but me probably know. Please avoid.)

So, yes; If you live in the States I sincerely hope you went and voted, even if I don’t agree how you voted. (I did notice that Santorum got defeated, though – hurray!)

The Beatles – “Honey Pie”

So much has gone on this week, both in the real world and in my head, that I’m going to do sub-headings to sort it all out.

Week 01

I’m feeling optimistic about this term. I’m still apprehensive about graduation (and finding a job, etc.) but I think this term will be do-able. Definitely challenging, but do-able. I don’t feel overwhelmed yet, which is a good sign.

Guests

Daniel’s sister Heidi got here Thursday night with her friend Kaylee. We hung out all weekend and did some shopping even though none of us have much money right now, and generally had fun. I found some nice Adidas workout pants for $5 and a *whispers* pink corduroy jacket that looks nice with jeans.

We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast yesterday at 7:30am – we purposely got up that early just to walk the 15 minutes to the restaurant to have those pancakes, and it was totally worth it. We had previously agreed to go to Voodoo Doughnut sometime this weekend, but everyone putzed out last night and we didn’t go, so that was sort of sad. We watched Arrested Development (season 02) instead.

Exercise

I recently made a goal for myself regarding exercise, and, um, I haven’t been doing that well. I’ve been walking more than usual (around the Hoyt Arboretum for instance) but I haven’t been sticking to my goals. Here’s hoping I get better at it.

I desperately feel like going running today, but I’m scared. I’ve never purposely went out to jog/run before. I’m one of those people that extensively researches things before she tries them, in case anything unusual (or usual, for that matter) happens, so that if it does, I WILL KNOW WHAT TO DO. Except there’s some things you just can’t research, like, do you start running as soon as you exit your building, or do you wait for the sidewalk? How do you carry an iPod, cell phone, keys, and ID all at once? Do I even need any of that stuff?

Qbee

I’m still trying to come up with an idea for a Halloween patch for this month’s activity. I am woefully uninspired. I pixeled a drunken ghost on accident and didn’t feel it was 1) appropriate, or 2) good enough to submit, so here I remain. I’ve also created and deleted two frogs, a bat-related mess, and a purple thing. Just not going well. Also, I have only found three treats total, and am feeling rather lame about it – some people are up to the mid-twenties. I scoured a few sites and when I turned up with nearly nothing, I got discouraged. Hints aren’t helping much either. Feeling very lame about that fact.

Laundry

I’m not enthused about laundry costing money. Who has that many quarters? I end up doing laundry maybe twice a month because quarters tend to be scarce around here. It gets to the point where I’m wearing clothes that I’ve buried in the bottom of my dresser because I hate them just because I haven’t done laundry recently. And what about the times where you have a delicate shirt, maybe a bra (yes, I am bad and I machine wash my bras. I air dry them, though) and some workout pants to wash, and you don’t want to wash them with your jeans but you’ve only got money for one load of laundry? First major purchase when I get a house will be a washer and dryer.

Politics

Seriously, what is up with the Republicans lately? Now there’s this old, creepy senator guy who had inappropriate contact with pages that several people apparently knew about (or at least knew he had history of doing these things) and DID NOTHING. I’m sort of curious how far things will go before more people realize we need a regime change – I read an article by Keith Olbermann the other day that really resonated with me. I recommend it.

I was also researching potential 2008 presidential candidates, and found that several people were saying that a critical issue would be the candidate’s position on the Iraq war (duh). However, they were saying that the ones who are better off right now are the ones that opposed the war in the first place. It’s the people that initially voted for the war that will have the hardest time overcoming that “blemish” on their record. What they’re saying is that if you knew the Iraq war was a stupid idea in the first place, you are “four years ahead of the game.” VINDICATED. Finally, people who spoke out against the war to begin with are being seen as the wise ones. I feel like saying “I told you so.”

Bob Woodward has an article on MSNBC called “How Bush Deceived Public On Iraq” that is one of the most insightful things I’ve read in a long time. It’s a long article, but man is it worth it. I think we, as a country, are in a bad place right now. We need to get out of this bad place, and I don’t think the current administration is the one to do it. Woodward explains some reasons why, and he does it eloquently and respectfully.

Teachers With Guns

There’s a lawmaker currently proposing that the solution to school shootings is to arm the teachers. *smacks head* Sure, put more guns in the mix, that’ll help. :!: They would have a permit that would enable them to carry concealed weapons, much the same way police do. The guy (a Republican) cites Israel and Thailand as great examples of having armed teachers. :bored: Don’t you think that maybe arming the teachers shouldn’t be our concern, and that we should focus more on providing students with the healthy outlets they need to work through problems that might otherwise have turned into a bad situation? I do. Cecily recently posted about guns, and I’m in full agreement. Even if you are a gun collector, I believe you can live with buying “only” one gun a month if it will help save innocent children. I could live with buying yarn or knitting needles or a web standards book only once a month if I knew it would save the lives of children. Though, none of these things are generally regarded as a violent weapon, so there we are.

Halloween

I really want to do something fun for Halloween this year. I want to dress up and go somewhere, and I figure now that I’m 21 I’ll be able to actually get into some of the places holding Halloween parties this year. My current top picks for costumes are a bumblebee, a viking, or the perennial favorite, Hermione.

Crafts

My knitting is coming along okay. I’ve made some headway on my ear-flap hat, though I still can’t tell if it’s going to be revoltingly large or not. It’s my guinea pig hat, basically. If I screw it up I’m okay with that, and I’ll just try it again. That’s really the only project I’m actively working on at the moment – that, and the embroidery, which is also coming along okay. I think if I really wanted to I could finish it in an evening, but I keep getting sidetracked with other stuff. Namely school and guests, but I think that’s fine. It will get done.

I’m actually doing a how-to project for school on knitting. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In Sum

That’s what I’ve been up to. I have a feeling that these unexpected breaks in posting will continue throughout the next couple of months, pending how much stuff I have going on with school, but I will try to not let things slide too far. I’d love to put up a new layout soon; I doubt it’ll happen since I have so many other designs to work on, but it would be lovely.

Happy birthday to Elea, who turned 20 on the 3rd. I hope everyone’s week went well.

nothing

This video made me cry.

[edit: 11:28pm]
Don’t be afraid, it’s just a song.
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