Les made a wonderful dinner of tilapia, grilled shrimp and precious little baby vegetables. But I feel shallow talking about my meal while watching the exquisite Milk. I know so many beautiful gay people and to think of the oppression and suffering that they have lived through makes me really sad. Trite, but true. Glad we’re moving past those days. Equal marriage rights are only a matter of time, in my opinion.
From Camille Paglia:
Yes, something very ugly has surfaced in contemporary American liberalism, as evidenced by the irrational and sometimes infantile abuse directed toward anyone who strays from a strict party line. Liberalism, like second-wave feminism, seems to have become a new religion for those who profess contempt for religion. It has been reduced to an elitist set of rhetorical formulas, which posit the working class as passive, mindless victims in desperate need of salvation by the state. Individual rights and free expression, which used to be liberal values, are being gradually subsumed to worship of government power.
For the past 25 years, liberalism has gradually sunk into a soft, soggy, white upper-middle-class style that I often find preposterous and repellent. The nut cases on the right are on the uneducated fringe, but on the left they sport Ivy League degrees. It’s a comfortable, urban, messianic liberalism befogged by psychiatric pharmaceuticals.
I am a liberal, but I’ve noticed a disturbing trend among my liberal pals. Thinking is not encouraged. Any discussion or suggestion that there might be more than one way to look at an issue or that traditional liberal policies may not have had the results that were intended is met with confusion at best and insults at worst. When did strict adherence to the party line become a requirement to be considered a “good liberal”?
Last night, Les went to Bishop Arts after the election to check out the big Obama Rally. To quote him, it was fucking brilliant. At work today, someone asked the receptionist how she was, and she said, “Today is the best day of my life!” There is certainly no shortage of enthusiasm for our new President-Elect.
Waiting for our friends to come over to watch the returns. Right now it’s 194 to 69 Obama.
Vitto’s Pizza and cake from Janet and David. Yum!
So this is floating around the blogosphere. It appears to have been said by, of all people, JayZ. Although the true source is somewhat in question.
“Rosa Parks sat, so Martin could walk… Martin walked, so Obama could run… Obama is running, so we all could fly”
Tonight is the big night. We’re having an Election Night Party. Even the Republicans that are coming voted for Obama. I agree with Bill Maher: Bush has been so awful that the American people said, “You know what sounds good? A black guy with a Muslim name.”
I hope we will be celebrating tonight.
I admit it. I didn’t expect to feel this way. But I did. When I read that Obama got the nomination, I got a chill. And then a tear came to my eye. Whether you support him or not, it’s a historic moment. Maybe we should be ashamed that it is such a big deal. Maybe we shouldn’t care at all what color he is. But… the fact is, he is the first black man to get this far in a presidential race. And it made me feel weirdly emotional. How far America has come in the last 50 years. I hope we get a lot farther before I’m gone.
So inspirational that I actually teared up. But then you think… we can “what”? Hope for “what”? Change “what”? As someone said… “I’m not buying an iMac, I’m voting for the next President of the United States.” As someone else said, “Where’s the beef?”
But still… beautiful.
Christians and Muslims work together to raise a cross and re-open St John’s Church in Baghdad:
THANKS AND PRAISE: Michael Yon emails: “I photographed men and women, both Christians and Muslims, placing a cross atop the St. John’s Church in Baghdad. They had taken the cross from storage and a man washed it before carrying it up to the dome. A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from ‘Chosen’ Company 2-12 Cavalry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John’s, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope. The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. ‘Thank you, thank you,’ the people were saying. One man said, ‘Thank you for peace.’ Another man, a Muslim, said ‘All the people, all the people in Iraq, Muslim and Christian, is brother.’ The men and women were holding bells, and for the first time in memory freedom rang over the ravaged land between two rivers.
I can’t tell you how this photo touched me, which may seem weird since I’m not a big fan of organized religion, but it seems such a tiny miracle in the face of all the death and violence and hatred.
