Random Stuff LIV: Hot Diggity Dog Edition
Three cheers and congratulations to this guy here:
Over the past week I incorporated a new ritual into my daily commute. Whenever I pedaled past an Obama sign on someone's front lawn, I let out with a cheer: "Yaaaaaay!" Every McCain sign, on the other hand, received a stern "BOOOO!" As I get close to work, I enter a downhill stretch lined by rather narrow houses. More than one pedestrian in recent days has looked up, startled, at some idiot whizzing past on a bike shouting a Doppler-skewed serenade: "Yaaay! Yaaay! BOOOO! Yaaaaay!" Fortunately, on account of the local demographics, the cheers outnumbered the boos five to one.
Today I altered the ritual in honor of the most excellent election results. The "Yaaaay!"s stayed pretty much the same, if slightly more heartfelt, but instead of booing, I mocked the McCain signs with a falsetto "Ha ha!" in the manner of the bully Nelson from The Simpsons. Nothing like a little childish silliness to cap off a busy day mentoring graduate students and conferring with my faculty colleagues.
While I was elated with the election's outcome, I haven't felt the profound joy of many of my friends and acquaintances. Although America unquestionably made the best choice, I don't expect a miraculous delivery from our current woes. Whereas I supported Obama much more enthusiastically than I did John Kerry, whom I never really brought myself to like, I can't call myself an Obama fanatic. Yet this caught me completely by surprise: I actually fell prey to the patriotic, sentimental lump in the throat. I haven't felt quite like that in ages. (Thanks, chillyrodent and gwynraven for the heads-up. If you're a bit perplexed by the link, and if you want a laugh, it will help to see the original).
On the other hand, we've taken a big step backward with the likely passing of California Proposition 8, forty-one years after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a historic 9-0 decision, overturned similar statutes prohibiting interracial marriage.
Isn't it just a bit ironic that an incredible $20 million of the money poured into the campaign in favor was donated by members of a formerly polygamist church group who fled to the Rocky Mountain desert, eightscore years ago, to escape just the same kind of religious discrimination? Say what you like about "the sanctity of marriage," but you'll have to concede that the sanctity of hypocrisy is secure for decades to come.
I few days ago I noticed, on an Ohio vanity license plate, the perfect summary of the Yes on California Prop 8 campaign: "4HMIPRY". The owner may have intended something different, but I could not imagine it being anything but "For Him I Pry." Fair enough: the Religious Right in this country has made a hobby, bordering on a career, of minding everyone else's business, which they pursue with a singularity of mind surpassed only by their habit of shifting responsibility for their narrowmindedness, ignorance, hatred and bigotry onto God.
Edit: Of all the anti-Prop. 8 ads I watched on YouTube, I found this one the most powerful. It underscores my last point beautifully.
Much of how I've felt about right-wing politics over the last few months has been summed up powerfully, eloquently and obscenely by The Rude Pundit. (Warning: not within a light-year of being SFW.)
Over the past week I incorporated a new ritual into my daily commute. Whenever I pedaled past an Obama sign on someone's front lawn, I let out with a cheer: "Yaaaaaay!" Every McCain sign, on the other hand, received a stern "BOOOO!" As I get close to work, I enter a downhill stretch lined by rather narrow houses. More than one pedestrian in recent days has looked up, startled, at some idiot whizzing past on a bike shouting a Doppler-skewed serenade: "Yaaay! Yaaay! BOOOO! Yaaaaay!" Fortunately, on account of the local demographics, the cheers outnumbered the boos five to one.
Today I altered the ritual in honor of the most excellent election results. The "Yaaaay!"s stayed pretty much the same, if slightly more heartfelt, but instead of booing, I mocked the McCain signs with a falsetto "Ha ha!" in the manner of the bully Nelson from The Simpsons. Nothing like a little childish silliness to cap off a busy day mentoring graduate students and conferring with my faculty colleagues.
While I was elated with the election's outcome, I haven't felt the profound joy of many of my friends and acquaintances. Although America unquestionably made the best choice, I don't expect a miraculous delivery from our current woes. Whereas I supported Obama much more enthusiastically than I did John Kerry, whom I never really brought myself to like, I can't call myself an Obama fanatic. Yet this caught me completely by surprise: I actually fell prey to the patriotic, sentimental lump in the throat. I haven't felt quite like that in ages. (Thanks, chillyrodent and gwynraven for the heads-up. If you're a bit perplexed by the link, and if you want a laugh, it will help to see the original).
On the other hand, we've taken a big step backward with the likely passing of California Proposition 8, forty-one years after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a historic 9-0 decision, overturned similar statutes prohibiting interracial marriage.
Isn't it just a bit ironic that an incredible $20 million of the money poured into the campaign in favor was donated by members of a formerly polygamist church group who fled to the Rocky Mountain desert, eightscore years ago, to escape just the same kind of religious discrimination? Say what you like about "the sanctity of marriage," but you'll have to concede that the sanctity of hypocrisy is secure for decades to come.
I few days ago I noticed, on an Ohio vanity license plate, the perfect summary of the Yes on California Prop 8 campaign: "4HMIPRY". The owner may have intended something different, but I could not imagine it being anything but "For Him I Pry." Fair enough: the Religious Right in this country has made a hobby, bordering on a career, of minding everyone else's business, which they pursue with a singularity of mind surpassed only by their habit of shifting responsibility for their narrowmindedness, ignorance, hatred and bigotry onto God.
Edit: Of all the anti-Prop. 8 ads I watched on YouTube, I found this one the most powerful. It underscores my last point beautifully.
Much of how I've felt about right-wing politics over the last few months has been summed up powerfully, eloquently and obscenely by The Rude Pundit. (Warning: not within a light-year of being SFW.)