Write to Marry Day

Hi folks. It's me, Faith. Here's the thing. Apparently, this Proposition 8 -- it looks like it's going to pass. If it doesn't, it'll be a big upset for the evangelicals and Catholics. I am taking the day off on Tuesday, election day, to spend the day in front of the polls helping people who may be confused on what Prop 8 means. I'll also be spending the morning on Sunday - my sacred time for coffee and the L.A. Times and all of the crosswords I can plow through, at the Village. Here I will be training for my day at the polls.

One part of the reason that I am doing this? Yesterday I met with Frank and his partner and Oliver, of course. On Saturday, I will be officiating at their marriage which is such an honor for me. They are a wonderful family. I'm not going to go on and on because I want to save most of that for their ceremony but they are everything a family should be. A safe place in this big world.


That is what a family is -- or should be anyway. A safe place and while I know all the arguments against, I am not able to find even one that should negate the fact that one man, who is legally able to consent to marry a woman, and another man, who is able to legally consent to marrying a woman, should not be allowed to marry one another. There is no slippery slope. Churches will never have to marry anyone they don't want to marry. Ever. I give them their intolerance wholeheartedly. In fact, the Catholic Church is so -- consistent -- they would not marry a man who was quadriplegic to a woman because they would not be able to conceive. So, go on with your consistency -- but marrying by a judge in a chamber or a deputy in an office or by a friend in your backyard is not a sacrament. It is a legal contract no matter how much you would like to keep it in the religious realm, it has not been an exclusively religious contract for many centuries, if ever. And it wasn't before it was.

I hope this makes sense. I don't know how else to say it.

Please Vote No on 8.

Bak Obama!

My niece is an Obama fan - She walks around saying "BakObama, BakObama." It's damn adorable.

Here's an demo - and because I don't have Quicktime Pro, I can't rotate it (either that or I'm a complete idiot -- either one is entirely possible).

Mortified

The other day I went out on my front porch to find Michael having a discussion with our next door neighbor. It seems that he is a Republican (which I did not know) and he is having a hard time voting for McCain.

I joined the discussion (duh.).

"Why," he asked me, "are you voting for Obama?"

Among about a billion other reasons, I am voting for Obama, I said, "because I am tired of the anti-intellectualism being fostered in this country and especially by the Republican party. I want someone as President who is smarter than I am."

He replied incredulously, "And you think Obama is smarter than you?"

My response:
"Yes. Barack Obama was president of Harvard Law Review.

I could not be President of the Harvard Law Review. In fact, I couldn't get into Harvard. I couldn't get into Brown. Believe me, I tried."

"Hmm. I hadn't thought of that." he said.

No. You hadn't, because you're too busy eating up all of the bullshit put out into the world about Obama raising your taxes and being Muslim.

W. couldn't have been president of Harvard Law Review and I believe I am correct in saying that he was legacied into Yale. Unfortunately, as the first woman in my family to graduate from college, I wasn't about to get legacied in anywhere except perhaps L.A. Valley College and I don't think they do those sorts of things.

I am genuinely mortified. I do not know what is wrong with people. This election has brought out the absolute worst of our society. The amount of clear, unfiltered racism is repulsive (not that filtered, shadowy racism isn't). I just didn't think I'd see so much of it.

Shakesville has a Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude Watch that is up to #97. And #97 is quite a doozy.

The worst part is that the creator of this caricature denies she had intended to be racist in any way.

Jeebus, woman. If you're going to surround Obama with fried chicken, watermelon, ribs and Kool-Aid, own it. You've got yourself a little racism.

I wish there was a vaccine for that.

Hallowe'en Haunts

I am a tad on the morbid side. Jeff used to call me a death junkie, but honestly, I always had a little taste for the macabre. I suspect it's from all those times as a kid that I turned a lovely shade of gray and almost died. Love me some coping mechanisms. Even my tattoos are mementos mori. Which was the theme of my senior thesis.

Anyway, I love this stuff!!!
There is some serious WANT going on in this post.


via frightcatalog.com


















via CrimeSceneProducts


















And these wall hooks. They are just the end all, be all.

Oh, how I wish we weren't having an economic meltdown and I was less responsible because daaaamn...I would have these on my kitchen wall year 'round. Via A+R Store












Also, in case you weren't aware, the L.A. County Coroner's Office has it's very own Gift Shop which carries some seriously fun stuff.


Happy Hallowe'en y'all!!!!!

October!!!!!!

It is officially my favorite time of year.

• When my neighborhood starts the annual guessing game of who works at the best prop house, which neighbor is a sound engineer and which is an executive that has someone come from the studio to do all the decorations. (I'm telling you, the competition in my neighborhood is freaking fierce.)
  
• When I can eat all the pomegranates I can stomach
  
• When putting a hot pot of chili on the stove doesn't make me want to yak.
• When x-entertainment is having their Whatever-O'Lantern contest.
• When children run bawling in the aisles of Target because dad thought it would be awesome to scare the living shit out of his 4 year old. While mom has on her best, "What are you? A freakin' 12 year old?!" look. (saw it happen twice this weekend!)
• When it's time to start getting out saws and wood and carving tools to learn how to create a custom coffin because I can't find one cheap on Craigslist.

Hi honey! It'll be fun! Really! And then I'll have woodworking skills!

By the way:

This is a coffin = hexagonal

And this is a casket

Just in case you were wondering what the difference was.

I'm going to continue with my favorite Hallowe'en finds for the rest of the month because it just makes me giddy.

BINGO!!!!

I don't know about y'all but I'll be playing this tonight.

The Great Schnurriscation

I don't know about y'all, but tomorrow at about 5 p.m. Pacific, I will be sitting on my couch with my husband and I will be holding a pillow right below my eyes to begin the cringefest that in my household is commonly referred to as The Great Schnurriscation*.

While it is awfully tempting to dip my toe in the schadenfreude here (and maybe roll around naked too), that is not really the way I wish to be perceived. While the Republicans are well known for dancing on the political graves of distinguished Democrats such as Harold Ford, Max Cleland and Paul Wellstone, I just don't see the point of serving it up to them. Many have suggested that the downfall of the Democrats is their lack of willingness to "play nasty" but some ethic regarding the betterment of society as a whole has always been (at least the narrative) what the Democrats are about and I appreciate that (even if it is just rhetoric).

Back to Thursday night: While 99.9999999% of my brain believes that Joe Biden is going to steamroll his opponent, there is .0000001% that is so suspicious of the Republican party that I have this flea of fear hurtling about my skull ruminating on the crap they might pull before Gwen Ifill poses her first question.

Will there be a family emergency that requires the Alaskan governor to fly back to Anchorage at the last minute?

Will Vince Foster come back from the dead at the St. Louis Arch and the media will rush to the scene?

Will Dick Cheney have his 5th (known) heart attack and the news will be conveniently overshadowed?

I could think of far worse things that L'Rove & Co. could come up with but I hate to write them down for fear I might actually get one right.

The point, however, is that barring any of those things happening, you'll know where I'll be. Curled up in a fetal position, blood pressure cuff around my arm and all objects known to cause damage to a flat screen TV relocated to a place out of arm's reach.

*1892, from Yiddish, "beggar," from Ger. slang schnurrer, from schnurren "to go begging" (slang), perhaps ult. imitative of the sound of pleading or whining (e.g. sneer, snorkel, snarl).
In this definition, the act of leaving one's political opponent begging for mercy.