I wrote about Dave Neiwert’s book “The Eliminationists” and I finished reading it a few weeks ago.  It was rather chilling and it was chock-full of our history as eliminationists in this country (we’ve done this forever, to many groups of people along the way).

I mentioned his blog site “Orcinus” where both he and Sara Robinson write posts on a reasonably regular basis.  I’m telling you, people, this site is required reading if you want to be aware of what the current flock of eliminationists is up to, so you can fight back wherever you can.  I have his link on my sidebar and if I can impart no other piece of wisdom to you (from my limited store of such) it is that you should make this site one of your favorites and visit often. 

One of the new tactics I’m seeing with the exgtremist conservative wingnut brigade is that they are accusing us liberals of doing the same things they themselves have been doing for ages.  In fact, the book mentions that there is a growing effort to say that fascism is a leftist concept…that fascism is a liberal concept.  wtf?  If they turn all this around on us, it’s like NewSpeak and is very Orwellian.  

We can’t, in this day and age of our civilization, allow this kind of behavior to flourish, nor can we allow it to continue unchallenged.   If you haven’t read the book, you can get it on Amazon.com.

Lots of us are wondering about that big, sorry, sad-sack 800 pound elephant in the middle of our living rooms.  The Republican Party has never, in my memory, been so incredibly fragmented.  Although come to think of it, the Goldwater years were a little iffy, back in the 60s.   But maybe because we didn’t have instantaneous news, and the newscasters were just a wee bit more hesitant to make inside political bickering into “news”, we didn’t hear about all of this crap that we’re bombarded with these days…political Republican Love, American Style.

The Democrats, on the other hand, have always been fragmented, unafraid to beat each other up when they thought the need was great.  The extremist conservative wingnuts barking at us because we criticized the country or the President if we thought he was wrong?  Hell, they didn’t understand the half of it, because we’re also constantly taking each other to task if we think the other person is wrong, or is trailing off into the wilderness, too far for the rest of us to understand or support.  We’re equal opportunity naggers, we are.   Fearless in our opinions.  Each of us with our own pet cause to support, defend, and protect.  Angry at being outmaneuvered by ”the Man” and having our rights stomped on for so many years, we’re pretty vocal these days.

But back to the wingnut parade…I can’t seem to get away from “news” about Sarah Palin.  She’s everywhere.  Now that the Darden Restaurants have lost my business because of their chickenshit removal of their advertising from the David Letterman show over a lousy lame joke that slammed her pretense of family values (she was SHOCKED!  SHOCKED, I say, that he said he wanted to impregnate her prepubescent daughter!  Except he DIDN’T…SAY…THAT...), her campaign manager is still duking it out publicly with McCain’s insiders about whether she had hormonal problems during the campaign…say what?  (And who gives a rat’s patootie if she did?  She had plenty of other real issues that gave us pause, so let’s not focus on the “little wimmin” stuff as the reason for the Republican loss of the election, okay, boys?)

And hmmm.  Which new member of the GOP Family Values Brigade will take his turn in front of the cameras to declare his sinful lust and sorrowful tragedy to those of us who are full of schadenfreude and rapturous glee?

It’s just ugly, and it’s getting worse.  And I guess I’d be one of those sitting back and enjoying the show, if I weren’t fearful that out of all this chaos, some bastard eliminationist fruitcake (ala Nazi Germany) will find enough of a base to take charge and take over, and then we’ll actually have one hell of a cultural fight on our hands.  And I will be too damned old and infirm to make much difference.

I guess as long as I draw a breath, I will always have my big mouth…

OY!  I am such a fan of this band, ever since I heard “Pinch Me” and “One Week”.  This song doesn’t appear to be sung by either Stephen or Ed (Ed is my favorite) but it’s still pretty good.   “Pollywog in a Bog”

I was an extremely skinny child/teenager.  After getting married and having children I was a chunky adult, weighing 25 lbs over my “ideal” weight.  Due to my lymphedema, I’m very much obese, these last 15 years.    The obesity has created some difficulty in what feels comfortable for me, such as theater seating or even amusement park rides…too squished in to participate comfortably in many activities.  The inability to do these things fits well with my natural misanthropy. 

I have also never flown in an airplane.  For many years it was a matter of penury, with a huge dollop of fear of crashing.  How ironic that when I could finally afford to fly, or when my employer would gladly fly me anywhere, I can’t do it because of the lymphedema in my legs.  (Still have a fear of crashing!)

But if I could do it, I suspect I’d encounter the same difficulty with the seating.  With the need to cram as many paying passengers into the plane as possible to maximize profits, the seats are apparently pretty dang tiny and the planes are full of passengers.  My fat ass would have a difficult time fitting into one of those tiny seats.  And if I got there, I’m sure I’d leak over into the next one easily.

Meaning that a normal sized person sitting next to me would be inconvenienced by me.  And if the person next to me were fat, also, well…they’d end up spilling over into the aisle to inconvenience everyone having to pass by.

Fliers pay extra for almost everything these days.  My family pays to check their bags, to eat, etc.  There are extra fees all over the place.  One airline (United) even charges for a second seat if the person is obese…unless there are empty seats available on the flight.  But with fewer flights going these days, that’s pretty much going to be an extra fee for all chunky people using that airline.

This article on CNN asks, with the extra size they bring to the load, should obese people be charged extra to fly?  And there’s another issue, apparently, in that some fatties think the airlines should make fat person-sized seats, rather than letting the fat person use two seats.  Per the article:

“The airlines need to be making bigger seats,” said Peggy Howell, a spokeswoman for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, a group based in San Francisco, California. “It’s not safe to be cramming us into two seats.”

I realize most of the United States populace is getting bigger over time, probably due to a combination of things.  But does that mean the airline industry needs to change its practices?  Is it really safer for the person to have a large-size seat, than to be sitting on two seats?  

IMO, the airlines should have some chunky-person seats, that cost more than regular seats.  If you are like me and have a chunky ass, and you want to fly, you’ll pay extra.  That extra amount helps compensate for the extra weight you are bringing to the load (because you make the plane use more fuel than a person who is not obese) and also helps to cover the loss of the space for extra non-obese paying passengers the flight could accommodate.

But don’t cry to me that you are being discriminated against if you have to pay extra.  Lose the weight or drive (and good luck finding car seats that are wide enough to not be a pain in the ass with the seat belt clips!)  I can see the need to have larger seats for some but by golly, they should also pay.  None of this “the whole nation is getting fatter so fat is normal and I shouldn’t be charged more for it”.  Fat is NOT normal, no matter how common it is. 

So you skinny folks, do you fly, and have you had to share your seat with your fatty seatmate?

With all the budget cuts, and the fact that we’re trying to put in a new computer system, and me covering for my boss these last 6 months as she’s been covering for someone else, I just got a new assignment (well, about 4 of them but who’s counting?) that will require me to work in Boise for an extended period of time, coming home on the weekends. 

With the hotel having wi-fi and by bringing my laptop and iPhone, it won’t mean I’m disconnected, but I sure will miss my sweetie.

After the long, 3000 miles I drove on the whirlwind impromptu vacation last week, this 4.5 hrs will seem like a picnic.  And I’ll have time to listen to the latest Decemberist album, on my iPhone!

It was inevitable.  As more and more gay people lived open lives, or gay couples lived openly as partners, they either adopted or conceived children of their own.  Those children are growing up and are starting to feel comfortable in speaking out.  This article on CNN talks about several books written by and organizations dedicated to adult children of gay parents.  Per COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) there are at least 10 million children out there with at least one parent who is GLBT. 

The early gayby boomers have a varied set of backgrounds.  Some had childhoods where the stigma was such that they never acknowledged their gay parents to their social circles…sometimes because they were afraid of the reaction personally, and sometimes because they thought they needed to protect their parents.

Some were out and proud of it, but those children tended to be more from the later years, because the stigma lessened over time (make no mistake, I’m certain that stigma will remain for at least another 50 years or even more…our culture is so repressed that it takes a long time for most ingrained prejudices to wear off, or the old people who won’t change, to die off).

The interesting thing to me is that it mentions a book written from a Catholic church perspective, by a woman who says that children of gay parents grow up confused and hurt, because they have a natural need for a male and female parent.  And it says that she doesn’t know any children of gay parents…but she wrote a book about them?

I did think one young man’s comment was interesting:

“When you grow up with Lesbian mothers, you can’t get your ears pierced to rebel.  I became a Republican.”

The article details that children of gay couples have some similar issues, such as what to call both moms, or both dads.  It also mentions that sometimes a teenage child of a gay couple, who then thinks they might also be gay, sometimes will repress that out of fear that news of a gay child of a gay couple will reflect badly on the couple, as it plays right into the fears of the religious extremists. 

So they do have some issues specific to being children of gay couples.  But very few children grow up with NO issues at all.  Mixed race children (or children of a different race than their parents) will have issues, too, specific to race.  And children of older couples have issues specific to age, which could be there for those children from really young couples, etc.  The lesson to all of this is that all children will end up having issues that are related to their parentage or their environment (urban or rural, migrant or military, etc).

It’s a groundswell, a new generation, one that will have kids of their own who will have gay grandparents…and it’s going to be as “normal” as anyone else’s family…one of these days.  We really are on our way.

Wow.  Hadn’t even thought of that concept, but was reading Time Magazine online and found this story that blew me away.   We’ve all seen the ads for the online dating services, the matchmaking services. 

There are also businesses out there, applications you can use with your phones, that facilitate adultery.  They help someone cheat, and connect with other cheaters, and do so without leaving a trail for a spouse or partner to discover it, virtually trace-free.  AshleyMadison.com boasts 4 million members, half of those joined in the last year.  679,000 uses in the last month.  92% of the men are married, and 60% of the women. 

One of the founders of Match.com criticizes the site, saying in part,

…AshleyMadison is making bad choices, broken promises and faithlessness look like something that’s trendy and hip and fun to talk about at a cocktail party. 

Of course, the folks at AshleyMadison point out that their site doesn’t cause someone to commit adultery.  It only helps those people who were already contemplating it, or were ready to take the plunge, to connect with someone else who is likeminded.  You know, a dating service for the conservative family-values platform Republican politicians… 

And that site guarantees that if you join, you will get to have an affair…WTF ???  I feel about this kind of site, the same as I feel about radar detectors.   People who use these things are cheaters, untrustworthy individuals who want to avoid getting caught while doing something they know is wrong. 

AshleyMadison.com gets my Salute! for their entrepreneurial, capitalism-at-its-finest foray into the lucrative business of breaking up marriages and destroying families.   It’s already easy enough out there for people to be unfaithful, and this sick sadistic sack-o-shit site should be ashamed of itself.

I had this salad at a potluck at my first husband’s workplace in Lewiston in the 70s.  Then I lost the recipe.  I did without it until I was able to find it online in the mid 90s (bless those search engines and the world wide web).  It’s a great summer recipe for a potluck.

2 fresh pineapples with green leaves                 1 t curry powder

2 ½ c chopped chicken or turkey                        1 medium banana, sliced

¾ c diced celery                                                  ⅓  c salted peanuts

¾ c mayonnaise                                                  ½ c flaked coconut

2 T chutney                                                        11 oz can mandarins, drained

Remove brown leaves from pineapples with sharp knife.  Cut each pineapple in half lengthwise through the green top, then cut in half again, making 4 pieces, each with part of the green top.    Remove the fruit, cut away eyes and fibrous shells.  Cut fruit into chunks.  Drain pineapple shells and fruit on paper towels.

Combine pineapple, chicken, and celery in a large bowl; cover and chill.  In a separate bowl, blend mayonnaise, chutney, and curry.  Cover and refrigerate.  

Just before serving, drain pineapple mixture.  Toss lightly with mayonnaise mixture, banana, and peanuts.  Fill pineapple boats.  Sprinkle with coconut and garnish with oranges.  Serves 8.

I find that the instructions are a little fancy for me.  I just buy fresh pineapple (sometimes I’m lazy and just get the kind that is already cut) and serve it in a nice bowl.  I also add a little more chutney, curry powder and peanuts, and usually use lotsa coconut on top.

Enjoy!

We have celebrities, every nation does.  We tend to admire them, emulate them, and obsess on their lives.  Then they die, and when the deaths are sudden or violent or from out of the blue, we mourn and obsess even more. 

Those of us who don’t participate in the tabloid mentality can usually avoid all the drama by avoiding those kinds of tv shows, or those kinds of websites or print media.  We don’t believe half of it and we don’t care about the other half.  We tend to be annoyed when the celebrities die in notorious or mysterious or unexpected ways, because that’s when our previous care in avoiding these things doesn’t work anymore, as then the death and the public reaction becomes easy “news” for all media and we can’t escape unless we completely withdraw.

Yet there is still serious news out there to be had, if we can find it.  We bemoan the fact that it seems less important or is given shorter shrift than we think it merits.  Unless, of course, you’re the latest Republican Adulterer Politician du Jour, and then you’re extremely happy about being replaced in the screaming headlines.  As some wag on another message board quipped, “the Republican Party killed Michael Jackson”. 

I think the inevitability of this need not be something we worry about, because it’s a way to draw the emotions of the masses into a single focus, and that works for us sometimes (the deaths of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King).   But getting through it for most deaths, if you’re not a celebrity-obsessed person, is an exercise in patience.

Now, I’ve once again used the editorial “we” as I am wont to do on many of my posts.  If you are a regular reader you will see that I do this often.  Please understand, when I do this I’m making observations, referring to “us” as humankind or this nation’s citizenry, and not particularly to myself. 

Wow, what a crazy time this June has been!  I got pilloried in blogger heaven, (and some of that is my own doing) and many celebrities died and are finding out if I’m right or wrong about whether there is a heaven or not.   For everyone’s sake I hope I’m wrong but I really doubt it.

I made a whirlwind trip with about 1/3 of my discretionary savings spent to obtain those memories, and my legs are so swollen from the experience that I’m currently laid up, all wrapped like a mummy with my legs on a foam wedge, to try to force some of the fluid out of my legs.

We got a 16 gig iPhone, then got a 32 gig iPhone when it came out.  During the trip, I traded my 16 gig for Megatantei’s 8 gig phone, because right now with my limited usage, and her many videos, pictures, and iBooks, she has more need for storage. 

We have a former Chicago Bears defensive lineman in my husband’s family, and he is hosting a family reunion tomorrow in Grantsville, Utah.  My sweetie and the kids will go, I will stay here, laid up and draining (if I’m lucky).

But that gives me lots of time to write.  Be prepared, peoples, I’m back in the saddle, again.

Well, we got to Rapid City a lot earlier than we had planned for, so we did the quick jaunt to both Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse national monuments before settling in to a local motel. 

We’re headed home today.  We could check out the Badlands and lots of local stuff but frankly, we’re weary of being on the road after only 3 very full days…we’ll stop by Devil’s Tower on the way back, but that will do it for our very impromptu trip.

Woke up at 5 after going to bed at midnight.  Showered, dressed, ready to go, got everyone else up at 6 to watch the LCROSS fly by the moon.

Then to breakfast at the Egg and I, then on to St. Vrain Park to take pictures of the scenery.  Then to Invesco Field, where the youngest two haven’t yet had the tour (and I’m thinking I should, even though it would kill my legs).

Then to 6 Flags for the afternoon, and to Ted’s (Turner) for a buffalo dinner, then back to Highlands Ranch for the rest of the evening. 

Will start out again early in the morning to Devil’s Tower, then on to Rapid City, South Dakota.

Whee!

Impromptu 4 day whirlwind vacation, running off to Mt Rushmore via Denver (gotta go to Invesco Field, people!)

I will be taking side trips to Devil’s Tower, the Wind Caves (? if I can find ‘em) and Crazy Horse.

I will be bringing my laptop and iPhones so I’ll be checking in at least daily.

I have the Mountain Goat Report as a link on my sidebar, and it’s there for a reason.  Her blog is required reading for political nuance in Idaho.

I have a few blogger friends who say they know this lady, but we are careful when we talk about other bloggers and their identities, so I am reasonably sure that while I have not been told her name, I have my guesses as to who she is.  I have read her posts off and on for about a year now, and I admire and respect her fearlessness (boomer used that word to describe me, but I think of that word for her) and her willingness to take someone to task if she feels they’ve stepped over the line.

Her latest post takes ME to task.  I wrote a column about the brouhaha over the Chaz Bono transgender decision, and in it I used a phrase that had been said by a friend, about why he thinks straight people really have a problem with someone being gay…she quotes me and says that with friends like these, who needs enemies?

I am crestfallen to have given her a bad impression.  While I’ve always identified myself since high school as an advocate for the GLBT community, and you’ll see pro-gay posts all through my blog here and elsewhere that I write, the fact is that something I wrote evoked a totally opposite impression in someone after a first glance.  Without knowing me (and many first time readers would not know anything about me) my words could easily be construed as thoughtless and demeaning.  She was very careful in her phrasing, but she was correct about the fact that if someone who is identified as a progressive uses words that are hurtful, then we have not really progessed very far.

I urge you to read her blog, she is very politically aware and she has fearlessly identified many a public extremist personage who is a danger to our freedom and our Constitutional rights.  She has good posts about areas where our current culture is sadly lacking in intelligent leadership.  I think you’ll like what you see there.

I think I was in blogger heaven tonight, at a bash for Sisyphus’ dad’s birthday.  Me, boomer, idahogie, Sisyphus, all sitting around a table drinking beer, eating good food, and talking smack.  Even Salt n Pepa was there, drinking a little wine and bringing some class, giving us a little smoothness for our rough edges.   What a bunch of colorful people we are, and we were all together for a short time. 

So while it was almost perfect, we did realize it was slightly incomplete.  We were missing Casey (All I’m Saying), Tara (the Political Game), Chris (Treasured Valley) and d2, BinkyBoy and Serephin (43rd State Blues).

And when we got that far, we realized, there were also some national figures we would have liked to have there.  Ah, nuts.  You know, much as the national people would have provided some valuable feedback and input on the world outside of Idaho, we can’t wait for or depend upon others.  We ourselves are going to have to shoulder our share of the load in our red and backward state. 

We are by no means the only bloggers in Idaho (or even the most important or the most effective or the most read) but we are a few of the footsoldiers among many who are striving to reduce the eliminationist stranglehold on our state’s (and nation’s) culture.

Sigh.  It was a treat, and as I said, it was almost perfect.

This group is a Mudvayne side project of sorts.  I really like the song, sorry but it’s a homemade video. 

Even though they declined in quality during the last few years that they were in Idaho Falls, I still liked the Skipper’s cod filets.  They started getting a little smaller towards the end, but that didn’t matter if you chose all-you-can-eat, anyway.  The chowder was very passable (not as good as the GangPlank’s chowder, but it was passable).

We took our other son-in-law out to dinner, he had flown in from Phoenix to attend a family reunion.  We went to the GangPlank, which appears to be going strong after all these years (20+) in the old Arthur Treacher’s building at the corner of Elva and Holmes in Idaho Falls.  The chowder was deluxe and scalding hot as usual, and with the tarragon added, always the best chowder to be had in Idaho Falls.   The scones and the waffle fries, (I think they were probably the first local restaurant to serve waffle-cut french fries) the coleslaw, all great as usual. 

The fish and the shrimp, which were tempura breaded and deep fried, were just a little less enjoyable than in the past (the cod or halibut filets are almost large fish sticks these days, not really a nice wide slab as they once were).  But all in all, it was still a dynamite meal and I really enjoy supporting the local owners. 

Be that as it may, I still really miss the Skipper’s filets.  Sigh.  I’m limited to stopping in to the Nampa location when I’m working out that way, and ordering a fish-only box from which to munch while driving back home…yum!

Pop says it’s really cool, it’s faster and has more bells and whistles like a video camera and a built in compass (shows which direction you’re pointing the phone), plus has that 32 gig hard drive (instead of the weinie 16 gig he got a few weeks ago).  The weinie one passes on to me, of course, as I’m the next in line for the used goods around here   ;-) 

He got the last white one available at the west side store.  There were 5 waiting in line ahead of him and none of them had pre-ordered.  They let a few in at a time, as none of the pre-order people were there at the special time reserved for them…7:00a.m. 

He’s chosen these free apps so far:  the level (operates as a level just like the real thing), the guitar frets (allows you to strum a limited set of chords) and the rifle (it locks and loads and fires) and the lightsaber (it makes those otherworldly wah-wah noises as it’s waved around) and free games of Pac-man, bowling, and solitaire.

He paid for a brushes program that lets you paint with your finger.  This man is set to play with his new toy for (I hope) months and months.

This story on CNN says the new launch went smoothly and the new features spell big bucks for the app developers.  Ask me in a year how I feel about it!

Our family has never seen Mt Rushmore (except for Heather who went there on her honeymoon in 2003).  We’re thinking about heading there in a quick, 3-4 day trip…just so we can say we saw the durned thing.

Of course if we went, we’d have to see Crazy Horse, too, because it’s so close by.  Heather says it was awesome, even back then.

So that’s a quick trip there, around, and back again.  Hotels for the overnights, as Pop’s not a car sleeper (spoiled!)

If we do it, we’ll miss out on the basement remodel we’re trying to get done (time and money spent elsewhere).  So we’re just thinking, right now.

Any particular things other than those two, in the vicinity or along the way, that we MUST see?  I’m not talking the largest ball of twine or rubber bands or what-have-you…but things such as the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming or something like that, close by and can’t-miss kinds of things.

I’ve mentioned her off and on and on and on this last year, because she’s funny and smart and charming and she’s progressively liberal in her politics. 

Casey O’Connell of “All I’m Saying” has been a delight to read and she brings good information to those of us who are usually out of the loop.  She keeps up on local Treasure Valley happenings and posts great pictures of her family.  I have many Treasure Valley regular readers, hopefully some of you will subscribe to her RSS feed, too!