| edging towards forgiveness |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|07:48 pm] |
The administration invited 250 leaders of the gay community to a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the birth of the gay rights movement -- the protests that followed a police raid of the Stonewall Inn gay bar in New York.
From his remarks:
So this story, this struggle, continues today -- for even as we face extraordinary challenges as a nation, we cannot -- and will not -- put aside issues of basic equality. We seek an America in which no one feels the pain of discrimination based on who you are or who you love.
And I know that many in this room don't believe that progress has come fast enough, and I understand that. It's not for me to tell you to be patient, any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half century ago ...
And finally, I want to say a word about "don't ask, don't tell." As I said before -- I'll say it again -- I believe "don't ask, don't tell" doesn't contribute to our national security. In fact, I believe preventing patriotic Americans from serving their country weakens our national security...
Someday, I'm confident, we'll look back at this transition and ask why it generated such angst, but as Commander-in-Chief, in a time of war, I do have a responsibility to see that this change is administered in a practical way and a way that takes over the long term. That's why I've asked the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop a plan for how to thoroughly implement a repeal.
I know that every day that passes without a resolution is a deep disappointment to those men and women who continue to be discharged under this policy -- patriots who often possess critical language skills and years of training and who've served this country well. But what I hope is that these cases underscore the urgency of reversing this policy not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it is essential for our national security.
--
full text here. |
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| broken |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|01:57 pm] |
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| tee |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|02:47 pm] |
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| more comedy: Urgent Requirement for Web Content Manager@DC |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|02:26 pm] |
Hi,
This is Pooja from Vyshnavi Infotech .I does have a requirement Web Content Manager in DC. Do send me the matching resumes along with your expected rate and visa status to pooja@vyshnaviinfotech.com
Job Title: Web Content Manager
Location: DC
Duration: 6 months Contract with good possibility to extend
Rate: Best
Locals Preferred and Must have all the required skills and excellent comm. Skills
Position Description:
Migrating web content management static data and infrastructure from a legacy system to a modern content management system, based on either a Tier 1 commercial solution or open source offering.
Looking forward to hear from you soon!!
Kind Regards,
Pooja Kola
IT Recruiter
Vyshnavi Infotech Inc., VA
Direct: 703-793-1868*210
Fax No: 703-563-9200
Email ID:pooja@vysinc.com
Certified Minority Owned Business Enterprise
Note: Under Bill s.1618 Title III passed by the 105th U.S. Congress this mail cannot be considered Spam as long as we include contact information and a remove link for removal from our mailing list. To be removed from our mailing list please reply with "REMOVE” in the subject line of your e mail. We apologize for the inconvenience if any caused. |
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| what? it was a rough day! |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|09:22 pm] |
over the weekend, my delightful neighbor left a present at my door: vanilla cupcakes! she left a note saying they were unfrosted and "great with fruit." she signed it "love," which, of course, made me all melty and in love with my building and neighborhood and her and her wonderful husband and delicious baby.
tonight, after spending four or so hours watching the horrific metro accident unfold, I had an idea.
I took the paper off the (two) cupcakes and put them on a plate. I poured bourbon on them. I put ice cream on them. Then I added my aunt's secret-recipe, eat-while-mourning chocolate sauce, which consists mainly entirely of butter and chocolate chips.
mmm. |
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| No, really ... What? |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|07:21 pm] |
Palin accepts Letterman's apology, as follows:
"Of course it's accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who 'joke' about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve."
"Letterman certainly has the right to 'joke' about whatever he wants to, and thankfully we have the right to express our reaction," Palin said. "This is all thanks to our U.S. Military women and men putting their lives on the line for us to secure America's Right to Free Speech - in this case, may that right be used to promote equality and respect."
Never mind the fact that this woman knew nothing of statutory rape when her minor child was pregnant, and aside from the obvious dichotomy of someone being pro life and preaching about equality and respect, how does any one make sense of denouncing exploitation of girls in the same breath as using her minor child - who Letterman says he wasn't referring to - for false indignation and a blatant, shameless, ridiculously early stump speech? |
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| for mom |
[May. 10th, 2009|01:17 pm] |
WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?
Who am I? I am not sure.
Once I was a rabbit’s grave and a basketball hoop on
the garage, a cucumber patch, lilac trees and peonies crawling
with ants. I was stepping stones and a mysterious cistern,
grass fires, water fights and ping pong in the basement.
I was a picket fence, a bed and maple chest of drawers
I shared with brothers, a dog named Sandy who danced.
Friends were easy to find. We climbed trees, built grass huts,
chased snakes–and we dreamed a lot.
WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND? Beyond childhood.
Who am I? I am not sure.
Once I was predictable. I was educated, trained, loved–not
as I was, but as I seemed to be. My role was my safe
way of hiding. There was no reason to change. I was approved.
I pleased. Then, almost suddenly, I changed. Now I am less
sure, more myself. My role has almost disappeared.
My roots are not in my church, my job, my city;
even my world. They are in me. Friends are not so easy to find–
and I dream a lot.
WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND? Beyond Roles.
Who am I? I am not sure.
I am more alone than before. Part animal, but not protected
by his instincts or restricted by his vision. I am
part spirit as well, yet scarcely free, limited by taste and
touch and time–yearning for all of life. There is no security.
Security is sameness and fear, the postponing of life. Security
is expectations and commitments and premature death. I live
with uncertainty. There are mountains yet to climb, clouds
to ride, stars to explore and friends to find. I am all alone.
There is only me–and I dream a lot.
WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND? Beyond security.
Who am I? I am not sure.
I do not search in emptiness and need, but in increasing
fullness and desire. Emptiness seeks any voice to fill a void,
any face to dispel darkness. Emptiness brings crowds and shadows
easy to replace. Fullness brings a friend, unique, irreplaceable.
I am not as empty as I was. There are the wind and the
ocean, books and music, strength and joys within, and the
night. Friendship is less a request than a celebration, less
a ritual than a reality, less a need than a want.
Friendship is you and me–and I dream a lot.
WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND? Beyond need.
Who am I? I am not sure.
Who are you? I want to know.
We didn’t sell Kool-aid together or hitchhike to school. We’re
not from the same town, the same God, hardly the same
world. There is no role to play, no security to provide, no
commitment to make. I expect no answer save your presence,
your eyes, your self. Friendship is freedom, is flowing, is
rare. It does not need stimulation, it stimulates itself. It trusts,
understands, grows, explores, it smiles and weeps. It does not
exhaust or cling, expect or demand. It is–and that is enough–
and it dreams a lot.
WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?
-James Kavanaugh |
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| McKane's Falls - James Merrill |
[May. 7th, 2009|11:54 am] |
Come live within me, said the waterfall.
There is a chamber of black stone
High and dry behind my stunning life.
Stay here a year or two, a year or ten,
Until you've heard it all,
The inside story, deafening but true.
Or false --- I'm not a fool.
Moments of truth are moments only,
Eyes burning on the brink of empty beds.
The years wink past, the current changes course.
Ruined by tin-pan blues
The golden voice turns gravelly and hoarse.
Now you've seen through me, sang the cataract,
A fraying force, but unafraid,
Plunge through my bath of plus and minus both,
Acid and base,
The mind that mirrors and the hands that act,
Enter this inmost space
Its lean illumination decompose,
Sun's rose wash on the wall,
Moon clinging like the Perils of Pauline ---
God knows I haven't failed her yet!
And yet how far away they seem, how small,
Get me by heart, my friend,
And then forget, Forgive
These bones their hollow end, this amulet
Its wearer who atones.
All things in time grow musical.
How can you live without me? While I live
Come live within me, said the waterfall.
- from McKane's Falls by James Merrill |
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| Yum! |
[May. 6th, 2009|04:34 pm] |
this is three blocks from my house:
this is the picture I took this morning, outside my house:
that's also the color of the water that came out of my tap this morning.
the rest of the story.
wonder what I am going home to. this plus days of steady rain make basement living an adventure. |
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| Samuel Wurzelbacher on Gay Marriage |
[May. 5th, 2009|02:11 pm] |
In the last month, same-sex marriage has become legal in Iowa and Vermont. What do you think about same-sex marriage at a state level?
At a state level, it’s up to them. I don’t want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it’s wrong. People don’t understand the dictionary—it’s called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It’s not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we’re supposed to do—what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we’re supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they’re people, and they’re going to do their thing.
Who is Samuel Wurzelbacher? Joe the Plumber.
He also explains to Christianity Today how the founding fathers based the Constitution "off of Christian values."
Fascinating. |
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| hey, guys? |
[May. 1st, 2009|04:42 pm] |
Someone from a snark community followed me back here to send me an email to tell me I am ugly on the inside and on the out.
As you all know, I care deeply what strangers on the internet think, so now I am forced to re-evaluate my entire life.
As soon as I am done crying.
It might be a minute. |
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| H5N1 flu in DC |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|11:27 am] |
According to DCist it's a World Bank employee who traveled to Mexico.
Don't worry, though:
 |
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| pay attention |
[Apr. 25th, 2009|05:48 pm] |
there's an LJ hack going around. apparently, people are gaining access to and deleting LJs by taking expired hotmail accounts that have access to LJ accounts. remember when hotmail was the rage? I had one I'd totally forgotten about from like 1996. anyway, you should check here and make sure you don't have any old hotmail accounts associated with your LJ. My friend, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) springheel_jack, explains it much better here. |
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| We are better than this: Part II |
[Apr. 22nd, 2009|11:02 am] |
Now that my initial visceral reaction has receded a bit, I want to revisit Miss California with something more substantive than a crass invitation.
Again, when asked about gay marriage, this was her response:
“I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage and, you know what, in my country and my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman.
“No offense to anyone out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman.”
I object to this on three fronts: form, substance, and context.
As for form, and as others have pointed out, she contradicts herself. She says she thinks it's great Americans can choose, but in her country she thinks she believes it should be between a man and a woman. It seems like she may have switched midstream what she was going to say, but there's no telling. To be fair, and as was also pointed out, it's got to be tough being asked a question under bright lights, on national TV, no less, knowing the answer may well influence the outcome of the pageant. And it did seem a bit out of the blue; I am not a connoisseur of Miss USA or similar pageants, but I always got the impression that the questions are usually a little less edgy. I recognize that while winning Miss USA is not important to me, nor does it register on my radar of the top million things I would aspire to do before I die, it is clearly very important to the contestants. However, she has since said that not only was she ready for the question, she is proud of how she answered it.
On to substance. It is unclear to me from her answer what she means by "country," "land," or "Americans." Only small minority of people in the United States are free to marry whomever they choose. Perhaps by "America," she meant Vermont, and by "land" she meant Massachusetts. But when she mentions her "country," she may well be speaking of the state she's representing, which passed the now-infamous Proposition 8 in November. Of course she is entitled to an opinion and she was, indeed, asked for it. She is welcome never to marry a woman. She is welcome to boycott weddings of friends, family, and loved ones because they are contrary to her values. She is not welcome, however, to impose her beliefs on me or my family. Not even when she, as she later told Matt Lauer, is speaking for God. I'm going to spare you all a rant here about religious moral authority, even though it's been stomping around the back of my brain for months.
Finally, context. And I am going to restrain myself from going all Andrea Dworkin here, but beauty pageants uphold an unrealistic standard for women and girls. They set unreasonable and unrealistic expectations for men. They set forth the offensive notion that beauty is tall, skinny, and has long hair, long nails, and perfect teeth. I am sick to death of beating my whole imperfect self against this standard every day. And we celebrate it, put it on TV for judges and the world, and call them Miss USA or Miss America. You may be surprised to learn this because you've never seen me wearing an American flag lapel pin, but I love my country. And I loathe that we value women based on how they look in a bathing suit or a ball gown. These values do real harm.
I'm done.
I'm screening comments. |
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| We are better than this |
[Apr. 21st, 2009|01:35 pm] |
“I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage and, you know what, in my country and my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman.
“No offense to anyone out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman.”
-Miss California, Carrie Prejean
Go fuck yourself.
No offense. |
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| A sock! A what? A sock! |
[Apr. 19th, 2009|12:36 pm] |
A couple weeks ago, I got a knitting email that offered free sock patterns. I am a sucker for sock patterns, and fell in love with one instantly; Caspian Sea Socks:
So I printed the pattern and went to my local yarn store, Stitch DC, where the owner, Marie, helped me find the right weight yarn and suggested color combination (as neither the yarn nor the colors in the right weight from the pattern were in the store, but improvisation is one of the many joys of knitting). Her sister, Nora, took the many skeins I picked out and very kindly and patiently spun them into wonderful little balls:
It was tough to start, and even though I am a fairly experienced knitter, I was intimidated by the pattern, the new techniques, and all the sticks:
After two or three evenings hunched over the pattern and speaking the colors out loud to myself ("light dark dark dark light light"), I had a toe! The top of the foot:
and the sole:
After that, I was a bit more comfortable, but I still had to pay close attention to the pattern because, as you can see above, the top and the bottom are almost completely different patterns. But I got the whole foot done:
The calf actually starts at the horizontal gray and blue line. On the opposite side was a green line that was just a place holder. Once I completed the foot and leg as a tube, I went back and removed the placeholder and put the now "live" stitches on needles for the heel:
I'd never done this before and put it off for a few days. Once I took out the placeholder and put the stitches on the needles, I glanced at the heel instructions and went to bed, deciding to leave it for a couple of days.
Last night, I finished the heel. And it looks pretty darn cool:
and so does the sole:
Now I just have to block it ... and make another one. For the second one I was thinking of either reversing the colors or using the same palette but changing the placement of colors altogether, like making the foot gold and green and making the leg blue and gray. I'm about to start the second one, so I should probably decide.
The Flickr set is here if you want to see bigger pictures. |
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