Running for freedom, Year 232

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That [...]

Pride 08 Post #10: Trans Equality “in the streets and on Capitol Hill”

Another first-ever! A historic one it is, too.
Yesterday, the House of Representatives held the first Congressional Hearing on transgender issues: “An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace.” Congressman Rob Andrews (D-NJ) called the hearing as Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) subcommittee of the Committee on Education [...]

08 Pride Post #3: What stream are we talking about here?

This has been percolating for a while. I think it’s relevant, given the Pride Holiday Season.
A couple months ago, a writer friend was researching an article on women’s music festivals and emailed me with some questions. She’s a married straight woman, has a very successful career, and I knew her to be insightful, [...]

Just married

“This is an extraordinary moment in history and extraordinary moment in time.”

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(Music: It’s Only Time, The Magnetic Fields)

Tonight, in the fullness of spring

I was thinking about this in the Crack Van last night, so trust me, it is not that profound. That said, if we notice them at all, it’s usually the simplest things that we resist the most, or that we dismiss.
Just because something is simple doesn’t mean it’s easy for us.
You are the young [...]

Weekend Warrior

“Wow. Wow. Wow.”
Indeed.
NTodd was on the ground at the Portland rally. See his photos.
Also, an interview with Gore Vidal @ UKTimes:
I ask if he thinks Obama has a similar charisma to that of John F Kennedy, whom Vidal got to know because he was related to his wife, Jackie.
“I never believed [...]

Robert Rauschenberg, 1925-2008

Robert Rauschenberg, artist, multi-media pioneer, pop icon, creative giant, visionary everyman, philanthropist, and force of nature, died yesterday at the age of 82.
Critic Robert Hughes described him as
“a protean genius who showed America that all of life could be open to art. …Rauschenberg didn’t give a fig for consistency, or curating his reputation; [...]

Happy Codpiece Day

Yesterday’s gaggle, via the obsessed one:
(this is Helen Thomas asking the questions, bless her)
Q Me? How does the President intend to commemorate “Mission Accomplished” after five years of death and destruction?
MS. PERINO: What you’re referring to is the banner that ran — that was aboard the ship five years ago. President Bush –
Q I’m talking [...]

Moore: “for Obama The Movement”

Here’s why I don’t blog about politics more: because I often don’t notice things like this until a day or two after everyone else does. Granted, the PA primary blocked out the sun for most of the week so far, but even so Michael Moore’s endorsement of Obama was big news [...]

Reality based folk singing

At lunch today, I sat near a table of older professors holding forth and setting the world to rights. The Bush administration was the topic d’jour and there was talk of an impeachment proceeding on the scale of the Nuremburg tribunals. One of the older men there mentioned this song and a younger [...]