Baptist Video Wednesday

Oh hey! So today, for a change of pace, I thought I'd blog. I know, it's unexpected, but we're wacky here at Dyxieland.

So I was scouring Facebook, as many college students do, when I'm sure I should've been doing something else, when I came across this terrifying/hilarious video on Argumentative Guy's wall. In it, a terrifying/hilarious preacher shares his terrifying/hilarious views on why women shouldn't wear pants and why neither gender should wear medium-length hair. Please enjoy/be sad about the state of our world.



To accompany this video, I'd like to share some thoughts.
1. I'm thrilled I'm not married to that man.
2. Some chicks can work short hair!
3. If I'm not supposed to wear pants, does that mean I can't wear sleep pants or sweat pants? Because there goes half my leg-wardrobe. Oh, and if we take out jeans, there goes another 49.5% of my leg-wardrobe.
4. I wonder what his thoughts are on kilts? Because as of recently, my thoughts on kilts are: they're hot.
5. Please stop saying "queer" like that, it makes me gasp every time.
6. I was absolutely not meant to be meek. I think he's right about how women want men who are strong, but I would change his idea of "Godly women want strong men" to "strong women want strong men (or other strong women, if that's their thing)." I would also argue that strong men want strong women (although again, they could also want a strong dude) because I think that people who are capable and confident search for these personality traits in others. I think that the only people who like weak people are also weak, if not physically then in some mental capacity. For instance, I'd say that this man considers himself to be strong, but from everything he's expressing - fear of "confusion," only wanting a "meek" woman, mocking people who are different from him, even the way he hides in the Bible - I see no strength. He probably does want a meek woman, because he couldn't handle anything else. Welcome to the 21st century, dude. Women are no longer valued for their silence, and we need people around us who can handle us having a voice - as Lorelai Gilmore once said, the meek shall not inherit the earth!

A Very Tall Masculine Monday

So one of my friends here in England told me about a beautiful website, tvshack.net, where I could watch American TV in my spare time when I'm not exploring London or doing homework or having the batteries changed on my door (about to be the fourth time in almost as many weeks!). You see, even though in the U.S. you can watch network shows on the internet, evil evil television corporations make it so that the licensing whatchamacallits (by the way, that word was not flagged by my spell-check, which gets mad at me when I don't capitalize the word "TV") don't allow people who are abroad access to their online archives (FOR SHAME television people! How am I supposed to survive if I don't know that Jin and Sun live happily ever after?), so this tvshack thing is really, really wonderful.

She told me about this site so I could start my relationship with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, about which I've heard only good things, but unfortunately I don't have enough time to devote to a new TV show right now - maybe next month. Anyway, I did use this miraculous God-send of a website to catch up on one of the shows I really loved in the U.S., but which I haven't been able to watch for a while: Community. This show is fucking funny - I think the characters are well-written and the casting of Chevy Chase was absolutely brilliant - but I'd be lying if I said that I started watching the show for any reason other than Joel McHale, who is, of course, today's Masculine Monday.

I've had major hots for Joel, who is a tree-like six feet four inches tall, since freshman year when I first discovered The Soup, the show he hosts on the E! Network, and when he started promoting his new sitcom I had to jump on board. And if you don't typically trust my taste in TV (although I'm not sure why you wouldn't; I have excellent taste), guess what? Ronfire likes it too! There's something for everybody! You all should watch it! Anyway, Joel is wonderful, and here are some clips of him.

This first clip was watched by me and JBear pretty much every day for about a month when we were freshmen.


This next one is Joel fighting a bully on Community, played by Anthony Michael Hall, continuing their string of John Hughes references. (He was the geek in The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Weird Science, but then a couple years later he bulked up and came back to play the bully in Edward Scissorhands (which of course was Tim Burton, not John Hughes, but my point is that he's the bully). Again, clever casting.)


And these next two are mostly because I really love Troy and Abed (Donald Glover and Danny Pudi).

In the Spirit of England

So this one will be familiar to my family.

There is this great British comedian named Eddie Izzard who does a lot of weird-ass stand-up comedy, which I find very hilarious. Once YouTube brought his stand-up to the masses, one guy took it in a direction that I don't think Eddie expected, but which actually works very well: he made legos act out Eddie's sketches. In stop-motion. And put them on YouTube. Here are some of my favorites, and I'm sorry for being so cranky about Bristol Palin a minute ago but hopefully this will lift all of our spirits. Enjoy.

Death Star Canteen:


Do You Have a Flag?


Cake or Death?


And here's him just doing stand-up. You will especially appreciate this if you understand French.

Bristol Palin Is an Asshole

So Bristol Palin is out with a new ad for the Candie's Foundation talking about how if she weren't so rich and popular, her life would really suck because she was a pregnant teenager. I'm not sure what pisses me off most about this ad - the fact that she's now going against her former (and let's be frank, more honest) statements about how abstinence-only education is "not realistic," or the fact that she is essentially flaunting her luck of being born into a prominent family and simultaneously judging other people who aren't fortunate enough to have the money and fame that she has - who, you know, if they made poor decisions and got pregnant at 17, might actually have to face those poor decisions and figure out what to do with their lives.

"Oh you rubes, living in states that don't pay you to stay there, without famous mothers who campaign for the world's worst causes - your lives are going to be so awful, now that you're forced to take responsibility for your actions! You other poor people, you'd better not act out - only we privileged, lucky people get to make bad choices (which are then taken care of for us). Better not have sex, because there's nothing worse than being poor and having a baby - not that I would know, because I'm rich." Plus Bristol Palin telling people not to have sex is totally going to work. Oh, unless they're teenagers who have heard "abstinence only" their entire lives, but who decide to make their own choices. But that's totally not likely, right? Because God wants us to wait until marriage. Unless we're rich enough to pay for a nanny, in which case we can fuck whoever we want. Here's the ad, I hope the condescension doesn't burn.



Bristol Palin's teenage pregnancy PSA @ Yahoo! Video

Sidenote from CK: There's also some weird subliminal shit happening here that really makes Sarah Palin look like a really great human being. Honestly, with her 5 kids (and I'm convinced that that down-syndrome baby was never actually in her womb) she's just one step above the octomom. Good thing I'm rich because having sex with women is really dangerous. I'm so glad I paid to be gay so that I didn't become a teenage mom or be able to marry someone in order to have sex. I'm so rich an abstinence only lifestyle is written in fine print in the contract for my Trust Fund.

Re-Side Note by Katie Dee: Upon watching it again, though, I can't help but point out that THAT is a really cute baby. YES I KNOW THIS IS A WEIRD THING TO NOTICE. I CAN'T HELP IT, I LOVE CHILDREN.

Palo Alto Highschool Peacefully Fights that fucker Phelps.

I blogged about Constance McMillen and her school's cancelling of a her prom all because she wanted to bring her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. Well, her school and community duped her. They told her there was a prom happening at a local country club and McMillen and date and tuxedo showed up ready to party. Well, they walked in to 7 other prom-goers, 2 of which were mentally handicapped. The only reason I'm including the mentally handicapped thing is because every article I've read includes and I find that hilarious. So they're basically saying, not only are you GAY but you get to party with RETARDS. Let's be real, that's discriminatory and politically incorrect TWICE. Whatever. People can be cruel sometimes. This shows that even being on the Ellen Degeneres show doesn't guarantee you anything. Shit's RAW.

But across the country, at Gunn High school in Palo Alto, CA, something amazing happened. Westboro Baptist Church, The "God hates Fags" people, (p.s. I can't believe I googled that to get the URL and it really is godhatesfags.com. I feel dirty linking you to it, and I can't even bring myself to explore the website because I'm greeted as a"deplorable son or daughter of Adam and Eve.") decided to protest the school because in the past 6 months 4 teens have committed suicide. Apparently, this is god smiting them for their liberal thoughts and the community's acceptance of all people. OMG THAT TOTALLY MAKES SENSE. I know that the events in the past semester at Gunn High school are tragic, but they are not the beginning of the second coming and they have nothing to do with Fred Phelps and his deranged followers. In order to retaliate and show the Westboro Fools that they have no business in the Palo Alto community, the school, lead by administration leaders and teachers, discussed a plan of action. They considered not showing up, so that the Westboro Fools protested a barren school campus; but finally settled on a peaceful display of acceptance and campfire songs. As a soul born into the wrong generation (I should have been a tree hugging hippie who ran way to San Francisco instead of Iowa who still reads Beat Poets and listens to Janis Joplin) I have a soft spot for campfire songs and peaceful demonstrations. Watch the video below to see what I'm talking about:



Daisy Renazco and Noreen Likins you're pretty ok. High Schools need more teachers and principles like you. Teachers with a social conscience. So in a time of cultural set back for Human Rights in Mississippi, we can always count on California (even though I secretly hate Palo Alto because of James Franco) to have their shit together. Now if only they shit can be together in a de jure sense instead of a de facto one.

Masculine Monday: Presidential Edition

So while deciding today's MM, I briefly considered making it the 1980 Olympic Hockey team because I just watched the movie Miracle today, but then I realized that I haven't yet given big O his due for finally getting shit done this week! It seems like, since he first got sworn in (actually, since he first got voted in) Obama has been working constantly but not making any particular amount of progress. Then, BOOM, this week he comes out getting done not only health care, but also signing legislation that helps college students get loans and puts some checks on the banks, and signing off on new off-shore drilling, AND putting in much more stringent regulations on fuel efficiency in new vehicles, AND going into nuclear arms agreements with Russia.

Now, I'm not super pleased about the off-shore drilling because, I mean, I'm just not particularly in favor of more drilling, particularly in fragile underwater ecosystems (I'm a tree-hugging liberal), but at the moment I'm willing to trust that he knows what he's doing and is using the drilling to distract Republicans into voting for better environmental legislation in the long run (because from everything I've read/seen about this off-shore drilling, it's a very short-term fix and won't even be a viable source of energy for a few years. So it's like, dude, what's the point? I mean, it has to be a chess move. It has to be). But all the other stuff? Reducing arms in two major nuclear powers, helping our population become more educated with less debt, helping the ill afford aid, and decreasing the U.S.'s impact on the environment on a major way? Not a bad freaking week. PLUS there was actually an increase of a few hundred thousand jobs in March, which shows that we might slowly be climbing our way out of this recession.

Obama, it took you a year for us to see some of the change you promised us, but at this point, I like what you're giving me. Keep up the good work. (I like your railway idea too - let's do that after you put some major restrictions on banks and credit card companies. Ok?) So in what I hope will be the first of many Masculine Monday: Presidential Editions, I say kudos and keep going, and for God's sake let's keep a Democratic Congress this fall so the progress doesn't get backtracked, because the Republicans are being nothing if not unhelpful. And on THAT ridiculously partisan note, goodnight.

Hoppy Easter!

It's Easter... soo... here are some cute animals. That's the spirit of this holiday, correct? This goes out to J Bear and my sister.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know that I've started hosting a Literary/Creative Writing themed radio show targeted at undergraduates at the University of Iowa. It's on from 11-Noon and you can stream it online here! So, you can listen from anywhere. If you are in the Iowa City area, turn the dial to 89.7. This week, me and Ronfire99 are having a special guest on the show, our friend The Hobbit Extra, to talk about music with literary lyrics, book references, and music we write to. We're taking it easy this week since it's easter weekend. Our songs choices should lead to some really fascinating discussion, since Ronfire, The Hobbit Extra, and I are all lil Chatty Kathys (Kathies?) and it makes me proud.

Be sure to listen as I slowly become a media mogul.

Man... I'd Cry Too.

So since the video that CK and I were talking about posting on VVW was taken off the internet (hate crime?) - CK found it (or possibly J Bear?) and it was of a fabulous, glittery gay dancing and doing sign language to Lady Gaga songs - we were sort of at a loss for what to do on Wednesday. But I saw this video on Countdown, and I thought you all should see it as well. Don't ever tell your sons they aren't Single Ladies.



Sidenote from CK: I wanted to post this yesterday when I found it and before it went viral on HuffPost, but alas, my MAJOR HUGE LACK OF MOTIVIATION OF ANY KIND hindered me from doing so. But everytime I watch this my heart breaks. EVERYONE CAN BE A SINGLE LADY. KAtie Dee said something about how I should at least be happy that the dad is ok with allowing his son to create his own gender boundaries. Harrumph. I mean, when you see the kid's face drop how can you not give in to allowing him to be a single lady? I am no where near over how attached I feel to this small asian child.

In other Bizarro news...

I'm a writer. I write for Dyxieland. I write my own stories/poems/essays. I'm in workshops. I'm majoring in creative writing. I take classes. I plan on going to grad school for this. I read. A lot.

And yet James Franco thinks he can just do everything creative. He has a short story published in Esquire Magazine. I feel like James Franco is stomping on my life with this. Because if you read it, and I couldn't even make it through the whole thing, it reads like some stoner High School senior's creative writing final paper, or some left wing liberal arts college freshman's Intro to Creative Writing thesis. And he has a short story collection called Palo Alto (SO WEST COAST) coming out in October. Thanks, Scribner for bringing this to us. It's something I really want to read. I feel like I'm going to read it and just hear that weird James Franco voice where he focuses a lot of his syllables' stresses on the back molars and doesn't use his tongue enough when he talks so the result is this weird throaty gravely lispy thing. He also won't open his mouth enough.

No, I'm not bitter. Thanks for asking. The one thing that makes this all better is that the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop (THE Graduate Program for Creative Writing) rejected his poetry application so he settled for General Hospital. SUCK ON THAT FRANCO!

Side Note from Katie Dee, because my stupid computer won't let me just make a comment: It's so "Jewel's book of poetry" from the 90's.

From CK: IT IS SO JEWEL'S BOOK OF POETRY. Which I may or may not own... she talks about her boobs a lot...

In other glorious gay news...

Hey you gays! We've got another one on board to count as one of our own. I didn't see it coming. I had never expected this one. It's such a shock to society that I'm pretty sure the world as we know it is going to implode.

Ricky Martin is gay.




Who's next to shock the world with their sexual orientation, Anderson Cooper?


Update 3/30/10: After thinking about this a bit more, I've decided I'm dissapointed in Ricky. I mean, way to come out now, after your intense period of relevancy in the 90's, instead of being out and unapologetic the whole time. You still would have been successful and your song choice would have been different instead of just signing "She bang" over and over again. This feels like a publicity stunt to get work again, Ricky. Unless you have some hidden nonprofit up your Latin sleeve or you were the silent partner in the production of "Milk," I'm dissapointed that you didn't come out when it would have meant something. Instead of now, when all anyone has to say is "duh" and moves on with their thoughts. Dare I say a bit cowardly?

Change, While Never Easy, is Always Possible

President Barack Obama visited Thursday to give a speech pertaining to the newly signed healthcare bill. I attended, not because I am an avid supporter who acts like John Lennon just walked into the room, but because here in Iowa City, American history was made. Right at my feet. Right in front of my eyes. Why WOULDN'T you go see your country's leader speak? Now I know we aren't famous for unbiased political opinions here on Dyxieland. But what can I say? Dorothy Anne's a feisty little cowgirl. So I want to focus on the importance that March 25, 2010 has in the context of American history, not political beliefs. I've sort of come to the conclusion that my political beliefs are so all over the place that I'm almost off the charts, almost an anarchist who prefers to be labeled as an "individualist," almost still stuck in this apathetic thing our generation has going on, but definitely someone who will never stop advocating for anyone's right to think or feel or say what they want as long as it is not a detrement to their fellow living being.

So with that, Iowa City was buzzing with protesters, with supporters, with press, with secret service (who have been here for 3 weeks without a majority of people knowing and that makes me uncomfortable.), with organizers. It was like Game Day at Iowa. The hotdog stand on Burlington that is generally packed with people in Black and Gold but instead was packed with red and blue and signs, has a banner that read "US Presidents eat 4 free." It normally has the perenneial I-O-W-A written on it. I managed to get a ticket to the speech. One with a red stripe on it. I was volunteering for Roxanne Conlin and am now an official Roxstar. Well, this red stripe got me into the official fenced off area that was about 20 feet (ish) (i dunno) closer to the stage where Obama was speaking. So that was super awesome. The ticket looks like this and is going to either go into my folder of things I want to keep and remember forever, or framed because I think it's just that cool:

It was so damn hot in the fieldhouse. That's one thing I don't ever understand about venues that KNOW there are going to be lots of people. They STILL won't turn the air on. Maybe Iowa's filedhouse isn't airconditioned. It is a possibility, I mean, my house doesn't have A/C and I'm kind of nervous about this summer... But let's be real. Some air would have prevented the man standing about 4 feet away from me from collapsing. Aaaaaaand segue into one of my favorite moments of the speech: Upon noticing this man who fainted, President Obama calmly points it out so the paramedics can help him, says "It happens, he'll be ok" and moves on. I thought this was really classy of him and exactly like the leader of a nation should act, as if he is watching out for his people. This is one of the first presidents that I've experienced in my short life that seems like just a dude. Just a person. I could see him walking down the street and it'd be totally normal. It's a relief that he isn't this weird "othered" politician-man-boy-thing. He's just a dude. With a wife. And some kids.

What I got out of his actual speech was that he recognizes that the bill is imperfect. He took into account some reasons why and the big one was that people (republicans) are unwilling to work with him. But my favorite quote of the whole thing was this: "Change, while never easy, is always possible." WHAT A DAMN GOOD SPEECH WRITER HE HAS. This bill takes America in a historically new direction. And that's exciting. My friend, Southern Gentleman, linked me to this really great chart that sort of explains everything about this new direction. I can't post it here, becuase the quality is pretty shitty, but here's the link to the article from the LA Times. I'm surprised Southern Gentleman came through with this link, I was expecting Dinosaur Comics or something equally as silly and nonsensical.

Anyway. History. I had friends on stage behind Obama. Those pictures will most likely be in history books. I ill know those people. So if your kids ever need any help with research papers or have to do an interview or something, tell them to call Gay Aunt Chatty. Because in my 3 years in Iowa, it's been the place to be. From gay marriage, to the caucus, to Obama. I've totally got the first hand goods. The protesters were also a very interesting part of the whole day. I also knew some of them. While obnoxious, they were fascinating. My favorite was this chick with an Obama shirt on and a sign that said "This Lesbian is for liberty." FASCINATING. And SO contradictory. But hey, you go protest your contradictory political views and entertain me for 5 minutes.

Then my highlight of the day was finding out that after name-dropping Prairie Lights Bookstore (our awesome local, independent bookseller where I've seen the likes of Tom Piazza, Junot Diaz, and Francine Prose and read.) he visited and bought books. I am no where near over that yet.

I think I've got everything covered. Thanks for putting up with my inability to stick to a schedule. I promise to be back on track this week.

Masculine Monday: Joshua Radin!

So I've recently, thanks to My Sister, become a big Joshua Radin fan. I think his voice is nice and his songs are pretty and mostly I think he's really bold for writing consistently sweet, unapologetically romantic love songs. Yeah, you can call it sappy, you can say that he's not particularly "masculine" for being so in touch with his feelings - but I say that for him to over and over again say, "I'm going to write a song that puts my fucking heart on the line, and I'm doing it with pride, and I'm doing it well," takes guts. So kudos, dude.

The thing about Joshua Radin, though, is that while I like his voice ok on its own, I am not a huge fan of his solo songs. I mean, they're fine. They just lack some oomph. If you want oomph, though, look no further than one of his many couples songs. Not since Damien Rice have I loved guy/girl duets so much, but Joshua Radin does it in a much less want-to-slit-your-wrists sort of way. So while of course this is a MM and I do want to give Josh his due, I also tip my hat to the lovely ladies he sings with in these videos: Ingrid Michaelson, Priscilla Ahn, and Schuyler Fisk. You should probably buy all of their albums. Enjoy some of the videos; my favorite song is "Paperweight." (BTW the video quality is crappy - they were taken by people at concerts. Apparently Josh doesn't believe in music videos. Luckily they don't do much on stage, and you can still hear the songs just fine!)











And this is just the cutest thing ever. Not his song, though.

VIRAL VIDEO GAY FRIEND WEDNESDAY

For the record, I am totally not tipsy-blogging. TOTALLY NOT. And anyway, whatever the fuck if I am - it's my birthday.

Anyway, as someone who has had many, many gay friends in her life (more than admitted so at the time, for sure), I can appreciate the influence and love a "sassy gay friend" can bring to an otherwise dull and meaningless existence. My very own sassy gay friend, Chatty Kathy, shared with me a great video on my wall (KATIE DEE HAS A FACEBOOK, YOU SHOULD BE HER FRIEND) and I will now share it, as well as a video I found through its link (THANKS YOUTUBE), with all of you. You're welcoooome. The videos are a postulation of what would have happened in various literary classics if the heroines had had a "sassy gay friend" to talk them through some of their tougher moments. First, we have the video CK shared with me (of the SGF talking to Hamlet's Ophelia):



And as if that weren't great enough ("Ophelia, he stabbed your dad through a curtain.") we have the SGF talking to Juliet. I love this, because I have always thought Juliet was an idiot (and it's not just her - Romeo's a fickle asshole), and this is everything I ever wanted to say to her.



"I think you're 14, and an idiot. You took a roofie from a priest." SPEAK THE FUCKING TRUTH, SGF!

And on this holiest of days, I wish that all of you have SGF's to help you through all of life's turbulent moments.

In parting, I leave you with a spontaneous song, inspired by my birthday BECAUSE I'M TWENTY FUCKING ONE YEARS OLD:

Happy birthday to me,
I know that I'm great,
I haven't felt this good
Since I turned the big one eight;
Happy birthday to me,
I'm awesome, I know
And now I can buy alcohol
Anywhere the fuck I go!

On this, the national holiday of my birth (and, all credit for this knowledge to a tip a friend gave me, the anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth I - RIP RIP), I bid you all a good night, and I wish you would all have a drink in my (and the Queen's!) honor. PIP. PIP.

Side Note From CK: And I was linked to this video by The Stranger in Acadiana! THANKS TSIA!!!

WTF Happened To... EDUCATION!?

This also doubles as a Tuesday... COMICS! feature. Thanks Entertainment, etc. for coming up with the idea so that I can steal it and revamp it for my own political agenda. (P.S. Ronfire99's blog moved from a blogspot host to a wordpress host. So if you've started following him because we talk about him all the time, the link above is the new URL.)

I'm a big fan of politcal comics. HUGE. Some of them have changed the way America thinks. It's amazing what a little bit of humor can do. Well, since I'm highly caffeinated and at my boring-ass campus job where I answer a phone that doesn't ring and pretend to half-listen to my boss (who is a lovely lady that sends me cat videos via email) I've been reading Salon.com. Tom Tomorrow does a comic that's posted there called "This Modern World." I love it so much that some of his comics have made the facebook profile picture cut for my real-life profile. Not my internet-life Chatty Kathy facebook profile. (Which exists!) Today there is one posted called "You Can't Make This Stuff Up." It makes fun of the Texas Board of Education and Glenn Beck (ALWAYS FUNNY) and how they've changed the Texas social studies curriculum to remove Thomas Jefferson from the list of world thinkers who inspired 18th and 19th century revolutions. So says a New York Times article “Why Is Texas Afraid of Thomas Jefferson?” the History News Network asked, referring to the board’s recommendation that Jefferson, who coined the expression “separation of church and state,” be struck from the list of world thinkers who inspired 18th- and 19th-century revolutions."

So Texas OBVIOUSLY has it's shit together and is OBVIOUSLY the BEST STATE IN THE UNION and I am SO PROUD to be a Native Texan and carry around the state's driver's license so that when I drown myself in alcohol people know half the reason just by checking my ID. Which, the local corner grocery does not do anymore because they know me and I buy beer from them too often.

But that's a different blog post. On to the comic!

When read with a Texas accent, which is hard not to do, this comic gets about one billion times better. It's also no wonder people are shocked when they learn I hail from this state.

Also, Obama is coming to talk about Health Care at the University of Iowa on Thursday and there are helicopters and suits EVERYWHERE. It's rather terrifying. Big Brother is watching.

Masculine Monday: Lawrence O'Donnell

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So recently, as you may have noticed, I have been attempting to educate myself on the Health Care Bill, which Yahoo!News informs me has just been passed yesterday. So well done on that, Democrats in Congress, you actually got something done. Anyway, in doing this I've been spending a lot of time on the MSNBC website (don't worry, I'm also getting out and enjoying London. This is just when I'm crashing from exhaustion at the end of a day of walking EVERYWHERE with our astounding tour guide/cultural activities coordinator, Tony, who is a walking British encyclopedia of everything from London history to the medicinal properties of moss. You know what? Tony gets an MM too!)watching recent (since March 3rd) episodes of Countdown with Sadly Not Keith Olbermann because of his Dad's Recent Illness and Passing, and standing in for Keith is the stalwart Lawrence O'Donnell. Now, my immediate reaction to anyone hosting Countdown who is not Keith is "YOU'RE NOT KEITH," followed by pouting, but Lawrence has wormed his way into my heart. This speaks to his journalistic abilities, his excessive liberalism, and of course his affection for Jon Stewart. While there is no one who could replace Keith, Lawrence doesn't try to - he has his own style, which, while somewhat more reserved, is actually quite fiery and something that I can truly appreciate. He's going on my list of Older Dudes I'd Tap, I think. Congratulations, Lawrence! Oh, and the above clip is Lawrence giving some love and tenderness to Jon Stewart as he mocks the truly mockable Glenn Beck.

Whiny, Whiny, Why?

The title and contents of this post are taken from my friend, Argumentative Guy, in what was a Facebook Status but what he changed (THANKS TO ME, IT WAS MY IDEA, HE MENTIONS ME) to a Facebook note. You'll see where he gets his nickname in a minute, but you'll also see a well-thought-out and well-researched, if foul-mouthed, argument for why people should NOT just assume that the government will fix all their problems immediately OR just assume that the government will ruin their lives - that maybe people should just sit their asses down for a bit and wait for change, which can be a slow process, to come about. This is not to say that action is never necessary - for instance, when it comes to voting - but it is to say that not everything takes one of two properties of a Big Mac: either apocalyptically bad for you on the one hand, or ready in five minutes on the other. SOMETIMES THE CHOICE IS NOT A BIG MAC AT ALL, IT'S A SALAD. Below is his post.

"This began as a status update, but I was advised to turn it into a note for better future reference so I am:

I am sure I must be out of my fucking mind given some of the crackpot arguments about "socialism" and "liberty" I have heard today. Guess what? John Locke said health was an inalienable natural right alongside liberty and property, and that a person's liberty to accumulate wealth was limited to only that which does not harm others or leave others with insufficient ability to prosper themselves. So to all you "conservatives" who think that the Constitution gives you the right to become rich off the backs of the poor and then refuse to pay your fair share can go choke on your own privilege while masturbating to Ayn Rand.

You will only have credibility to talk to me about personal and community responsibility for the poor and uninsured only when you can show me that you and your community/church/etc. actually have taken care of all of their members, and sorry assholes, even the churches and groups who spend the most on charitable works have still left 45 million people in this country uninsured [1]. Furthermore, for people who identify themselves as Christians to say that we should leave a situation which allows 45,000 people to DIE every year from LACK OF MONEY [2] up to charity is diametrically opposed to everything I was taught about Christ. Jesus engaged in and advocated charity because government was abusing the poor and leaving them to die in the streets, he was not against government helping them.

And finally, to those of you with confused notions about history and economics... first, last night's bill has absolutely nothing to do with socialism. We should be so lucky. Second, please read a book or two not authored by Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck before you talk about "central economic planning" or "Communism" or (especially) "numbers." Government run, single-payer, not-for-profit healthcare has not led to the decline of Canada, France, the UK, Switzerland, nor any of the 36 countries that have better healthcare than we do [3].

And since this is facebook and no fun without some good ol' invective...seriously you racist [4] teabagging fuck-sticks, I have spent a lot of time delving the depths of the internet for some of the most vile and offensive people and their creations and I have still not found anything which offends me as much as your ignorant [5] hate-filled rants. We liked you better when you were wearing your white hoods.

Sources:
1) CBSNews.com
2) Harvard Journal of Medicine
3) Photius.com
4) Washingtonindependent.com
5) Forbes"

Sidenote from CK: My personal favorite line in this whole thing is "go choke on your own privilege while masturbating to Ayn Rand." I knew I always liked Argumentative Guy.

So, I spent my Spring Break in the ICU.

Sorry I've been MIA. I was on spring break. One of the most emotional Spring Breaks of my life. And since Katie Dee set the tone with her impeccable trans-Atlantic blogging, I wanted to continue to focus on what our government is trying to change this weekend. The health care system. I know it needs a change. I think everyone knows that. Even the people it took forever to convince. Maybe Obama's plan isn't the perfect one. Yeah I get that. But I do know, especially after this weekend, especially after watching Keith's rant (Praise Keith), that our health care system needs some kind of change. And since that's what got Obama elected, his promise for change, let's let the man do what him and his team have been trying to do since he was elected. It's not my fault republicans can't handle change. And again, I know this isn't the pinnacle of impartial journalism. Did we ever claim we were impartial, Dorothy Anne, did we? No.

This is in part a rant on how the hospital system works, how the doctors are unavailable when you need them, how pharmacies make pills to fix a system and make money; and, part a Feminine Friday Tribute to Intensive Care nurses slash my favorite nurses from this week. Background info: My BFFAEAE was hospitalized for going on 12 days. 6 of those spent in the ICU. She's basically a mutant and all you need to know is if you ever see her fall and cut herself, call an ambulance right away. The girl is going to be on some kind of blood thinner for the rest of her life. Coumadin. Which Boy Roommate's Momma called "rat poison." The phrase "major bummer" cannot begin to describe the situation but is the only one I can think of because it's concise enough.

The ICU staff at the hospital was amazing. They allowed us to break every rule except for the small child and animal rule. Team BFFAEAE consisted of about 6 people rotating their presence with one constant, SuperBoyfriend. Nurse Tara was outstanding. She worked around us taking up too much space in the room, but understood that the 20 year old with tubes all over her body needed and wanted her crew there. She complained not once about how needy we were, even though I'm sure we weren't that needy. Just emotional. We owned that ICU to the point of planning a cout de etat.

It's this sensitivity of the nursing staff that the current health care system does not incorporate. It does not take into account the people it serves, just the people who serve. If we needed a doctor, we would have to wait until their schedule was free and that generally happened at the end of the day, because when they came by to actually talk to the patient, it was at 8am while she was just waking up and loopy and alone and realizing she was still in the ICU with a tube up her nose. Try and ask questions and absorb information in that state. The nurses however, took the time to find out information for us, to translate what the doctor was saying into words we could actually understand, and really took into account what the patient needed.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I may not be the most educated on the details of Obama's health care bill, and my response to the hospital may be highly emotional and biased. But, I do know that the way the system works now, the fact that the "minions" for the doctor, the people the patient and family most see are so under-appreciated and that the system currently encourages that. The pills BFFAEAE are going to be on for the rest of her life, and the people who make them do not take into account that there is a life being lived attached to this pill. So yeah, the medicine fixes the system, the mechanics of the human body, but the side effects on the life the system lives are unreal. And they are not taken into account.

The change we need is to flip the system so that it works for the people and not for the doctors and insurance companies who currently run it. Why does the medical community operate under the Capitalism Oath instead of the Hippocratic Oath?

Health Care Reform, Keith Style

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hey all from London town where I have finally settled for my study abroad. Despite my distance from "The States," I know there's big political shit going down, and even though it's not about gay people I wanted to stay informed because health care affects everybody. With that in mind, I went over to msnbc.com to watch Countdown. Keith Olbermann wasn't in the most recent episode, but they did talk health care, and Dennis Kucinich, Argumentative Guy's favorite person, was a big headline because he finally agreed to vote yes on the health care reform bill (he previously was going to vote no because he didn't think the bill did enough). Anyway, after I watched that I went over to the Special Comment part of the site, where I found the above video clip. It's not particularly easy to watch; in fact, it made me cry. But it's worth seeing. It's a discussion of Olbermann's father and his recent health care struggles, "death panels," and insurance companies. It's from quite a while ago - February 24 - but with the vote so close I thought I'd post it. Also below is the hour-long Special Comment on health care that was replayed in memory of his father, Theodore Olbermann, who passed away on Sunday. I know these videos aren't examples of impartial journalism, but I love Keith's passion and I agree with a lot of what he says.

Also, on a personal note, my Great-Aunt Ruth died about a week ago, while my sister and I were abroad. I hope very much that her end-of-life care was as good as Keith's dad's.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Masculine Monday: Jay Z!

Man, my MM's are all over the place recently. And you're correct in guessing that I know almost nothing about rap. But I've still got something to say!

So this MM I'm still gallivanting across Europe with my good friend The Bro (My Sister just went home, very sad) and maybe, just maybe, I'm a little bit homesick for the dear, sweet company of CK, J Bear, and Boy Roommate. I think that's where this MM comes from. See, after watching the video CK posted of Lady Gaga and Beyonce's Telephone 5 times (that is a 9.5 minute video. That is a lot of minutes.) I decided I should compare and contrast it with the artists' former work, to see any patterns or interesting differences, so I then watched Video Phone (their other collaboration) and what I considered to be the pinnacles of their personal video-making forays: Single Ladies (ONE OF THE BEST MUSIC VIDEOS OF ALL TIME YELLS KANYE) and Bad Romance, which made everyone's (ok, my) fingers curl up like monsters in delight when they saw it. All three videos are posted below.




Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) [Official Video]
Cargado por Yannicklord. - Videos de música, entrevistas a los artistas, conciertos y más.

(Sorry the video quality isn't great. Beyonce is apparently into disabling embedding on her videos, and I'm not savvy enough to figure out a way around that. Go to YouTube and watch the official ones if you want better quality.)



So then on my video hunt I got super nostalgic for the old days (11 days ago) when my roommates and I would sit in our living room for hours, drinking Franzia, watching videos, talking, and listening to the same songs over and over and over forever and ever amen. And recently we'd been watching/listening to a lot of Jay Z. So obviously I had to pull up and watch four times On to the Next One. Here it is.



Right before my trip I was getting Jay Z'd at from every angle - both from the fact that everyone in my house decided to listen to it and it was played at my work - and I was upset because fucking homeshare wouldn't work (stupid Apple products) so I couldn't take any before I went. I mean, I could solve this problem by buying some of his songs. But who does that? Anyway, Jay Z seems like a nice enough guy and he is very in love with Beyonce, plus I feel like they're both brilliant business people and I think they're a cute power couple, and it doesn't hurt that his songs are pretty great too. So for all of the above reasons, whether they make sense to anyone else or not, this Masculine Monday goes out to a guy who has never had a problem with a bitch, 99 other problems though he may have had, and who is from the Empire State of New York, and who would like you to bring him back some money, please. Kudos!

Oh and then obviously because I'm crazy and love YouTube I found this video of him talking about Beyonce. He has a really dry sense of humor, which made me like him even more (because I communicate mostly using sarcasm). PLUS his interviewer is British! What could be better?