Ade&Abet

Dear Teacher,

This Summer I read the following (and would recommend every one, in one way or another):

• Under The Banner of Heaven, John Krakauer - the history of Mormonism backgrounds a grisly double-murder where a mother and her baby are killed “in the name of God.”  Both sensational and fascinating.
• The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion - the author chronicles, almost in real-time, her emotional struggle to deal with the sudden death of her husband and hospitalization of her only daughter.  Intensely personal and heartbreaking -  I don’t think I’ve read anything this honest and bare. 
• In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan - Pollan’s follow-up to Omnivore’s Dilemma, the author answers the question “So, what should we eat?”  A must-read for any foodie, locavore or just anyone interested in assessing their impact on World ecology.
• Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh - not really my cup of tea, so to speak.  It was interesting (in a very English way) to have the gravitas of the plot rest in ellipsis and suggestion, but I prefer my Gay OVERT. 
• The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout, PhD. - The psychologist with decades of experience correcting victims of abuse by sociopaths explains the phenomenon of sociopathy (aka psychopathy or antisocial personality disorder), their prevalence in society and what you can do to protect yourself.  Both terrifying and a little paranoid itself (ironically).  It will have you second guessing everyone who is just a little too nice (“Do they have a conscience?!? SOCIOPATH!!!”) 
• When You are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris - standard charming, witty and at time, sidesplitting, Sedaris fare. 
• Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami - a beautiful whirlpool of Western and Eastern symbols, narratives and spiral and interrelate to create a rich and interesting story.   I love Murakami and this didn’t let me down. 

“I’ll answer the VP question when someone can tell me exactly what a VP does? I mean really…” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pak-rH0dCeA

HAHAHA.  Suggestion for a PFMF: talk about how your favorite thing about Obama last night was how he accepted the torch from Hillary and championed women’s rights and equal pay for equal work…

brianvan:

OMG guys we’re only a few days away from the new season! I can’t wait! This is my favorite show ever. Does anyone want to come over my house for a viewing party? 52-inch television and Sabra hummus!

(The all-new Please Follow Me Fridays!)

…to get tix to Hair in the Park.  This is harder to get into than damn Momofuku Ko! 

while it is hip on Tumblr to support Obama, there has lately been circulating the sentiment that there’s a certain cache in stating the banal with empty phrases like “it was’t that good of a speech” or “it’s not about how moved you were, it’s about policy. Balderdash, says I. Don’t know about you, but this is the first time in my life where I’ve felt resonance and real person stake and investment in the political arena. Sure, there was the original Gore Saga, but that didn’t have the dramatic build of 8 years of war, extraordinary renditions, internal wiretapping, Guantanamo, looming catastrophic economic collapse and enough malpropism to create a new language. Plus, Gore was no magician with the mic.
But here comes a young, handsome man that has the gift of passionate rhetoric, strategic thinking and the ability to discuss issues frankly instead of sweeping them under the political rug. Don’t tell me it’s ONLY about policy and tax forms and balancing a budget (which are all important things). It is about political theater, about the ability to move hearts and minds, to change opinions, to motivate masses. I don’t want a leader that can’t artculate economic policy, who shirks away from adressing pressing matters of environment and social justice becuase they don’t have the emotional vocabulary to describe it. Barack or McCain? Who moves you? Who do you think can most effectively move our foreign allies, sway our “enemies,” rally the House and Senate? For you to decide. In the meantime I suggest you read TIME magazine’s interview McCain…

kiamatthews:

niki:

I don’t support gay marriage. I believe that there should be civil unions that are 100% identical to marriage by way of rights. They would effectively be different to marriage in name only.

Marriage has nothing to do with love. It’s a business arrangement. The only “love” element to marriage has its foundation in religion. Why would you want to try to prove your love to a god that doesn’t think you should have it? The argument that “homosexual love is still love” is valid on the surface, but it’s completely irrelevant for marriage.

You just want the rights. You want the superannuation benefits. You want the legal status. That’s great! Civil union it is. Actively choosing gay marriage over a civil union is an embarrassment. You only want to be married because you’ve been told you can’t. And you’d take a religious version of love that isn’t meant for you just to spite the establishment. Well done, faggots.

Nevermind the separate-but-equal bollocks (there were some folks in Kansas who taught us that lesson), you’re completely invalidating queers who happen to also be religious. I agree that marriage as it has come to be is as equally about religion as it is about filing joint taxes and sharing a health club membership. But not all homos have rebuked the church. There are people who believe very strongly in a religious version of marriage that also happen to participate in the love that dare not speak its name. Buggery. Dykery. It’s not always about the legal status. Honestly, you can come pretty close with crafty paperwork and a good lawyer.  But if two people who believe in a benevolent, loving, accepting god want to stomp on some glass under a hoopa or jump a broom, then why not?

This producer just talked through an entire segment on the DNC, giving cues like “Pan left…switch to them and put up the names…hold music…” So I’m cringing, but she continues a few seconds later with “Mary, they could hear me on the air.  MARY!  MARY!  Do you have any keys…I wanna get out of here.  They coul…whh….” [silence].