Blogs

As a lot of you know, after the outcome of Decision 2004, there's been a lot of outrage and subsequent screeds from Democrats and other left-leaners. I've said elsewhere that, while I understand the anger, I don't think it does any good. Today, via Jill's del.icio.us feed, I found a well-written, insightful letter by a Bush voter that everyone ought to read, regardless of political orientation. It's a much-needed lesson in rhetoric:

It's been two days since John Kerry conceded, and all I am seeing, hearing and reading from the Democratic party is that you guys think you lost on "moral values." You seem to think this means nothing more than opposition to gay marriage. You seem to think that Bush voters waited in line for hours to stick it to the queers, to tell those faggots how much we hate them!

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Many Bush voters, like myself, were not happy to be voting for the President's re-election. Many Bush voters agonized over our decision and cast our vote in fear, trepidation, and trembling. Many of us would have given our left arms for a Democrat we could have supported.
Because I am too young to be as disillusioned as I am, and because I know that one-party rule is not good for my country, and because it is my deepest wish to see the Democratic party change into one I can give my whole-hearted support, I am going to explain why you didn't get my vote, and how you can get it in the future.

Read the whole thing now.

Happy belated birthday to John, one of the coolest senior citizens I know. :D [Edited to add: Hey, you need some Ben-Gay, Aspercreme, and Icy Hot in that goodie basket!]

Lauren asks her readers, many of whom are feminists and Democrats, to define three terms from their perspective: morals, culture of life, and values. I've been thinking about these, and I'm reading George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant, so Lauren's prompt dovetails nicely with what I've been thinking about lately. However, the thoughts that have been buzzing around in my mind aren't of defining "culture of life" exactly. Instead, I've been thinking about what we need in order to have such a culture. I'll start by stating what should be obvious if you know me: I'm pro-choice, and I think abortion should always be an option for women, especially in cases of rape and incest. That being said, though, I would much prefer it if women were spared altogether the helpless, anguish-filled, alienated-from-the-body experience of unwanted pregnancy (when they probably tried to prevent it). For women's sake, it should be prevented. So here's my seven-point (so far) plan, in no particular order. These ideas are nothing new; I just wanted to get them all out there so I can see them. I want to stress that these ideas don't only apply to teenagers, but to every man and woman of procreating age:

I just got the green light to write two articles for the Gender and Information Technology Encyclopedia, one on Gender Theory and Information Technology and one on Gender and Intellectual Rights Concepts. 8) Should be fun and a good exercise for my dissertation research.

...is probably myself. I got my Sprint bill today, and I always open it with a morbid curiosity about how many minutes I racked up. This month, it was 2,333 minutes, and believe it or not, that's not as many as most months. I range between at least 2000 but usually about 3000 minutes a month. That's about 100 minutes a day. Why that much phone-talking? Is it really necessary? (Yes. Yes it is.) :P I reluctantly agree with the statement, "Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone." I do it quite absently.

Edited to add, in case you were wondering: I have one of those mega-plans with more minutes than I can possibly use, which ensures that I pay a flat fee every month. One thousand one hundred daytime minutes, unlimited Sprint-to-Sprint minutes, and unlimited nights and weekends (nights start at 7:00).

Cristina has translated a piece written by Mircea Cărtărescu titled "A Few Reasons Why We Love Women" (November 1 post) and written her own response. She muses that Cărtărescu's text possibly "could not even be conceived in this culture," and would most likely be read as at best essentialist thinking that takes "men" and "women" as already-constituted groups and reifies the man-woman gender binary (but that's just me in my poststructuralist feminist hat), and at worst would be read as, to use Cristina's terms, a "patriarchal political statement." Yeah, probably. But I have to say, the pieces don't bother me at all. To be honest, though, the fact that Cristina's a good friend of mine and that, well, I wouldn't mind running off to Split with Cărtărescu do have a bit to do with it. :evil:

I voted early this afternoon, and didn't have to wait long, as luck would have it. For the past few minutes, I've been slapping the candidate. I must say, it's fun in a futile way.

Thirty-five years ago today, Mike was born, and shortly thereafter he was brought home from the hospital, replacing his father's beloved pet at his mother's behest. Maybe he'll tell the story; I hope so. :) Happy birthday, Mike. All the best.