Secure Your Rights

Liberal Pragamtic, with horrible spelling. Discussion and venting on the arts, politics, and the future of America.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

All good things come to an end.


Well, the time has finally come. My favorite fixture of social conscience and satire will be closing down show and moving on. For those who haven't heard (and may not care) Al Franken is closing down his radio show on February 14.

I am deeply saddened by this event, as Al has made my life more livable since early 2004 when he first signed on. He shepherded me through the disappointing results of the 2004 election, taught me how to pretend like I loved John Kerry, conducted great interviews with Barack Obama, introduced me to Joe Conason, Tom Oliphant, Christy Harvey, David Brock, and a host of others who want to make our national debate better. Not to mention the exceptionally brilliant "15 second debunk" segments from this falls election.

I have been a fan of Al's since I was 13. I went through an extensive obsession with the original cast of Saturday Night Live in my early teenage years. I was probably one of the few 13 year olds in the country who knew who Al Franken was at that time (it was the 80's and I believe that he was not on SNL at the time.) My enjoyment of his brand of humor and his political positions increased significantly when my mother gave me a copy of Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot for my 21st birthday. I have been hooked ever since.

The scuttlebutt is that Al is going to challenge Norm Coleman for his Senate seat in 2008. I sincerely hope that this is the reason he is leaving the air, as his replacement Thom Hartman is very smart but not nearly as funny. I wish Al best of luck, and warn him that though people like me would love to see him in the Senate, chances are the Democratic Party doesn't.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Lend me your ears

As probably one of my first acts of doing something stupid in order to seem more intelligent; when I was in 8th grade I chose to learn Latin, and once I had made that decision, I was then stuck with it until after my sophomore year of high school. I chose to stop at three years because I was very bad at Latin, and my Latin teacher was the worst teacher in the entire school - I learned this from the other teachers, it's not that he was a hard ass, or merciless...he just was incapable of helping people learn, but apparently could coach a baseball team.

In any event, since I have a mind full of facts about the roman empire I was very excited at the prospect of Rome on HBO last year. Alexander Strain and I watched and evaluated it as we slogged through a show which I will not name (this will be tough to figure out as we did 3 together during this time period.) I was pleasantly surprised last year, and very impressed with the show, however this season I have detected a disturbing theme which seems to be taking over the entire show. I am speaking of the ass sex. There have been three episodes so far, and suddenly everyone is getting corn-holed. Sometimes it's young children, sometimes whores, and sometimes it's done as a punishment.

The punishment seems odd in a world where everyone seems to enjoy this kind of sex. How is that a punishment? Perhaps they are just punishing me.

The sexual content of Rome is certainly one of the draws of the show, and perhaps now that they have an audience they may feel they can get more realistic with the sexuality of the Romans, but you know they could have given me a heads up. Like a notice at the top of the show that says "Warning to Straight Guys: Contains Buggery!"

Just to be clear, I have no problem with the buggery, and support the accuracy they are trying to represent. And maybe it has done to me what they wanted to do, catch me off guard. I also hear a lot is going to happen with Octavian coming up - and he has been re-cast to do a passage of time thing. I'm not giving up on Rome, but I might get a screener for future episodes,

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Bush is just a fly caught in a...

Not very often do I TIVO the president, but I did lst night. Well, I didn't really TIVO him, but I wanted to see the DEM response from the Junior Senator fro,m VA. So after a long dress rehearsal I watched enough of the presidents drivel to get the gist (by the way, he is distorting the facts and resulting effects of his proposed health care tax credit - not to mention that , like his social security fix, it would do nothing to fix the real problem) and then settled in to see what Webb could come up with.

Needless to say, you folks across the river got a gem! Not only that but he was good enough to make me forget all about that piss poor speech from Tim Kaine last year (well almost good enough.) But, wow. Clear, concise, wise, to a purpose - it's almost as if he isn't a DEM (whups.) But really, great speech if you missed it, you are in luck - as fate would have it, one does not have to watch the State of Denial in order to enjoy the pure sense that Jim Webb tosses at the American People, he even says so up from. Probably the truest statement made in an address to the American People in 6 years.

It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the president's message, nor would it be useful." - Jim Webb

I Think this statement should be used in reference to eveything the president says until January 2009.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Amen!

Finally something has gotten my mind off the disaster that is our president and his foreign and domestic policy. And that something is...last nights episode of Scrubs. No I am not kidding. I have recently picked this show up after finally succumbed to my TIVO's wishes for me to see it, and I have to say, congrats "TIVO you finally picked a winner."

In case you are non-TV watching elitist liberal (I have a high demo of these people, or at least people who claim to be theses people) the aforementioned episode was "The Scrubs Musical." Your already sorry you missed it (that's right, I'm talking to you SAS.) After the first 3 minutes I was already saying, out loud, "This is brilliant." And for a guy who finds it difficult to say, "good show,""nice work,"or"what are you doing next?" thats saying something.

I laughed for the whole thing, in fact the last movie to make me laugh like that was the Aristocrats. And if you haven't seen that, then I'm not sure you should be reading my blog.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

60 minutes is too long...

Now that I have refreshed myself with the new season of 24, a weekend of quasi illness, lots of Xbox 360, and a refocus on lines - the president is still and a-hole. I didn't watch the 60 minutes "exclusive," mostly because it conflicted with 24, but also I believe that I own it already. Just from the promo, it smacked of "Journeys with George." If you haven't seen JWG, don't. Alexandra Pelosi (yep, that Pelosi) video documented her time with Governor Bush during the 2000 campaign, and if you dislike the president, then you see what an ass he is, if you like him or are indifferent then you find him affable and kind of kooky. Just the kind of guy you'd like to sit down and have a non-alcoholic beer, some Cheeto's, and a baloney sandwich with...which for me means - no one.

There is a redeeming moment when one of the reporters uses a baloney sandwich to outline any Republican Candidate: 1) White Bread = white bread candidate (defiantly white...no color at all) 2) American Cheese = cheesy campaign slogans/events 3) Baloney = the meat of the message is a bunch of baloney. Now you don't have to see it, or just borrow it from me.

Anyway, this "exclusive" interview (and I " mark that because the president is so desperate he will talk to anyone that will even pretend he is sane and in control) looks like it is calculated to bring those that have soured on the prez back into the fold. Personally, it looks like the same old strategy - hmmmm, heard that much lately?

Will someone please bring articles of Impeachment against this guy! God knows there is enough evidence of lying, and the Clinton Impeachment is president enough. Let me put it this way, Congress is there to do the People's business, and ejecting this enemy of the people is number one on our list. All of the reasons for the 2006 elections turning out the way they did can be responded too with one grand act: remove this administration. That will:
1) Stop the escalation of the War in Iraq
2) Ensure Universal Health care
3) Fund Embryonic Stem Cell research
4) Put limits on Corporate Profits
5) Pave the way for legitimate Renewable energy
6) Fund Education
7) Stem the abuse of the environment
8) Tell future generations, that yes we knew what was going on, and we did everything that we could in order to correct our horrible mistake. In fact we revolted and tossed out the man that ran up those insane credit card bills, and thank you so much for working your entire life in order to just get this country back into the black while we sat in private nursing homes with internet tubes stuck directly into our brains that just kept running old episodes of "Scrubs" to keep us distracted.

Ah, Scrubs.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

I've Had It!

What could be better for our country than to deplete our military completely on a lost cause? You know, I almost thought that once the DEM's took over I wouldn't have to be so pissed off anymore, silly me. There seems to be no end to the dumbfuckery of our president. (as a side note, I have been capitalizing the word president our of respect of the office and because I thought that was correct, but thanks to the Wall Street Journal I can now type it in lower case, feel good about it, and pretend to be disrespectful)

First off I want to assign blame. I blame Time Magazine's Person of the Year. Thats right, 51% of that person is fucking responsible for this dim wit. It's your fault America, and now you don't even have the balls to fix the problem. The polls say you don't want the surge master/decider to escalate the war, but you don't have a say in the matter because you put the country in the hands of a retard (I realize that mentally challenged people would probably be offended by being put in the same category as the president, but I assure them that retard is a class by itself.)

I hear over and over at family gatherings or in the business world (I leave our theatre because we are hopelessly liberal) "Well, there just isn't a good answer to Iraq." I'm sick of that comment, the year is 10 days old, and I will bet you a ham sandwich that phrase is the "truthiness" of 2007. Not only that, but it's dumb as shit. Any thinking person could have (and did) come to that conclusion in 2003 when president fucks-up-the-country-and-then-blames-everyone-else was selling this stupid war. And by the way, Time Magazine's Person of the Year, your fucking wrong. There is a good answer for Iraq. It's called evolution, you know survival of the fittest. We get out and let them fight for their independence. Freedom is won not given, further proof that president numb-nuts didn't pay attention in school.

In conclusion: Time Magazine's Person of the Year - it's you mess to clean up. The president - fuck you.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Oh come on....!

It is still going, the worst year ever. I will not really go to far in to detail, but my internet provider has been fleecing me for hundreds of dollars over the last year or so. They have stupid initials and almost nobody uses them any more, including myself pretty soon. Worse, it will take 15 to 30 days at the low end to settle this "mistake."

On the bright side I am enjoying being 6'2" in rehearsal, but I already feel like I'm gaining weight, even though I am eating less. Must be part of playing a woman.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Off to a bad start

I don't like odd years. One reason is I was born in an even year. Another is that there are no elections. Still another is that they tend to suck for me (except the later half of 2005, but the beginning of that year was virtual hell, well maybe just real hell.)

So far I have spent ridiculous amounts of time at an airport that some people insist on calling by the name of a asshole of a former President (never will I call it that name, so you might as well just change it back.) Received numerous cuts and abrasions at the Montgomery County landfill. Had to spend almost $1000 on new tires and brakes from my Jeep. And yesterday I blew out the gears on my bike. The last was the worst of all. I have just gotten up to 15 miles a day, 6 days a week. On top of that I actually enjoy this exercise, which for me is rare. I've probably dropped 15 pounds since the middle of November, which is necessary in order to look good in a dress for the end of the month. What I do not like is jogging. First of all, it hurts my shins, ankles, and feet. Not in the sense of "oh, whew, what a work out" but in the sense of "oh, whew, I need an orthopedic surgeon!"

I can't even get into the gym in my complex due to...well incompetence. I will fix this as soon as I can, but it might take as long as it will to get my bike fixed. So I guess I'll just have to eat ice and celery for a couple weeks, and dance extra hard in rehearsal. But this really sucks, I was hopping to be in shape enough to ride my bike to work (22 miles round trip) by mid March, now I'll be down to 7 or 8 miles a day by the time I get back on the bike. Plus I got swell bike pants and ninja bike mask from my parents over the holiday, and they are going to go unused.

The year is only 3 days old, but I'm very suspicious.