Al Franken is the Senator from Minnesota

YES!!!!!!! As a Minnesota resident all I can say is it's about effing time!!!!

Al Franken is the Senator!

Michael Jackson

Billie Jean is Not My Lover or Friday Feminist Super Hero: Michael Jackson Edition

I naming Michael Jackson as today's Survival of the Feminist Friday Super Hero! You might think it's a stretch, but I don't. I think he fucked with conceptions of gender, broke racial barriers, he entertained us, and worked to end AIDs and starvation in Africa, and doing it in sparkling socks with revolutionary dance moves. He saw the world's problems as our problems and he did something about it when he conceptualized "We Are the World."

His music has stood the test of time for me much in the way Prince's music has. It's still relevant and FUN!!! I was entertained by him. I was, like so many others my age, drawn to his sparkle, his crotch-grabbing, hotter than hot dance moves. He was a one gloved, military jacket and skinny pants sporting, kicking it in his penny loafers pop singer. He was the curly-headed everything!!!And, his songs were the greatest of their time, maybe of anytime in the history of pop music. He was the King of Pop. He gets center-stage today because I am very moved by the suddenness of how he died, and I feel a lot of compassion for his children, his family, his friends, and for him.

In 1982 I was a 12 year-old kid in the middle of rural Wisconsin with some birthday money and a record player and Thriller is what I bought. What I played over and over and over again, much to my father's chagrin. I danced his dances, and I moonwalked (badly)all over the basement. Other music has had a great impact on me for sure, but this was my first album, and boy was it a doosey. The energy, the music, the poppiness of it. Wow.

Michael Jackson was to Generation X, what the Beatles were for our parents. He transformed us.

He was also human, and in the public's view he did a lot of weird stuff, stuff we don't understand, stuff that may have harmed others....children. We don't know the reality of his life. I'm not suggesting guilt or innocence, but I do know he brought a certain kind of joy to my life and broke down racial barriers for entertainers to come. That is what I appreciate about Michael Jackson, and how I will remember him.



Feministing.com has some pretty smart takes on the impact Michael has had on our society, and, in turn what that society has done to him.

We Are the World

Sigh.

RIP Michael Jackson

Buffy v. Edward

I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love every second of every episode of it, except the last episode because it was the last. I have been reluctant to jump on the Twilight/ True Blood vampire-virgin extravaganza that has swept the country. A friend loaned me all the Twilight books so I would know what the big dealio is. I am not against reading these books, but I have some pre-judgment. Mostly it comes with being indoctrinated by Buffy that vampires are bad. And, virginity is underrated. Anyway, here is a great Buffy smackdown of Edward Cullen by Rebellious Pixels for your ultimate enjoyment. I will read Twilight, and I am sure I will find them entertaining, but Buffy will forever remain in my heart as "The Chosen One."

Where have you been Marky Mark?

So, how about that governor of South Carolina? What's his name? Mark Sanford. Right, he's against gay marriage because it's an abomination or some other fucking hypocritical moralizing made-up bullshit based on his so-called religious values, but disappearing to Argentina so he can fuck someone he is not married to is just a "mistake?" WTF?! Asshole. That is all the time I am spending on him because he is yet another politician with a "conservative mind and a liberal penis" as Jon Stewart so eloquently put it on The Daily Show last night. And, seriously, when is America going to stop voting in these cheating, lying, lying cheaters into office? When, America, WHEN? They only talk about their faith so you will vote for them. DON'T YOU GET IT????? O.K. I am done. For now.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Governor Mark Sanford's Affair
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

UPDATE: Farah Fawcett has passed away.


The Supreme Court has done something right. The Arizona teen who was strip-searched in her school for allegedly having ibuprofen has been vindicated partially. Notably, Justice Clarence Thomas (our favorite) was the only judge who dissented when 8 other SCOTUS justices deemed this action illegal, saying (and I am paraphrasing) the school had the right [to strip search] and that she wouldn't be the first person to hide drugs (!) in her underwear.

In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas found the search legal and said the court previously had given school officials "considerable leeway" under the Fourth Amendment in school settings.

Officials had searched the girl's backpack and found nothing, Thomas said. "It was eminently reasonable to conclude the backpack was empty because Redding was secreting the pills in a place she thought no one would look," Thomas said.

Clarence Thomas! How is this OK??? At all.There were no ibuprofen found on her person, or in her underwear. She was 13 years old at the time. 13!!! The court also ruled the school couldn't be sued for this gross violation. With my hero, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justices John Paul Stevens dissenting from the portion of the ruling saying that Wilson could not be held financially liable.

From Huffington Post: Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented from the portion of the ruling saying that Wilson could not be held financially liable. "Wilson's treatment of Redding was abusive and it was not reasonable for him to believe that the law permitted it," Ginsburg said.

The case is Safford Unified School District v. April Redding, 08-479.


Well, like Governor Sanford, I have also been a little bit absent. But only from this blog and not from my spouse. I am confidant when asked of my whereabouts that my mate would know where I was. Well, mostly. He did call me to talk about a record during my doctor's appointment this morning. But, in his defense it's one he has been looking for for a long time. Night of the Living Dead on vinyl. Hello. This is important.

Where have I been? I've been doing summer-type things with my husband-o and my kidd-o for the last week and a half and haven't really sat down to blog about anything including the illustrious Governor from South Carolina, the Iranian revolution, Obama's Health Care Plan, DOMA, DADT, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, GAY PRIDE, or anything else. I have been eating, working, vacationing, reading, writing, and tending to my sick dog. (He has lymes, and ear infection, and a slammed-in-the-door-tail--OUCHIE!!!)