Allison Unfiltered

Funny Boy Redux

Not too long ago I was introduced to the intricacies of the violent conflict in Sri Lanka between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamil -- or, rather, by factions within those two ethnic groups -- when I read Funny Boy, an archly poignant novel about a boy who grows up gay amidst this political turmoil. 

The Big Picture brought that book back to life for me with the photo essay posted today.  That place is gorgeous, its culture and people fascinating, and it makes me so sad to see this happening there.

This undated picture released on April 25, 2009 by pro-LTTE website Tamilnet shows civilians taking cover after what they say is an explosion caused by a goverment airstrike in the no-fire zone in Mullaitivu district. UN humanitarian chief John Holmes was to hold talks with the Sri Lankan government over the thousands of civilians caught in fighting between troops and Tamil rebels, officials said.The Sri Lankan government has resisted all calls to halt an offensive that is now on the brink of wiping out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, who have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1972. (AFP/Getty Images)

Sex and tweeting: maybe being Republican ain't so bad.

Tonight on CBS news there was a story about a new congressional trend: tweeting *OMG STOP THE PRESSES*

How newsworthy.  Yawn.  I was more fascinated with the infomercial for Time/Life's Romancing the 70's CD set afterwards.

But I did laugh at this stat:  There's twice as many GOP tweeters as there are on the other side of the aisle:

53 Republicans : 34 Democrats.

Then Hortense over at Jezebel blogs that red states consume more online porn than blue states.  How surprising -- Not.

But this is snorfleworthy:

As Callaway notes, "Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama."

Way to fight that stodgy uberconservative image, you silly red-staters.  Here's a terrorist bump for y'all.

DeafDC crosspost: Surviving Obamania

Surviving Obamania by Allison Kaftan
An out-of-town friend was visiting DC last night, and she rolled her eyes and said, "This whole pop-culture phenomenon around Obama is so overrated." I could have jumped out of my chair and proposed to her on bended knee right then and there. Our peeves are a little bit different, though. ...[keep reading]

Prop 8: The Musical, captioned.

Because no one deserves to go without seeing this, even if the creators put it in the No-captions'-land of Internetdom.

(Props to lucansan, whoever s/he is, for posting it on overstream. And yes, to funnyordie.com for being the originator of this musical, all their inaccessible -- yet incredibly culturally significant -- content notwithstanding.)

So that's what the country looks like

Cool cartograms found here, and a hattip to Alison Bechdel.

In other words: our country scaled according to population rather than acreage per state. 

If you can't figure out what the colors represent, may I suggest stepping off the commune once in a while?

Balance Optimism with... Tears?

via Anna Leigh Clark over at Isak:

Proposition 8 in California: The ban on gay marriage passed. This didn't just further restrict rights: it took them away. The gay couples who married in the last few months now find themselves, horribly, un-married. Because their commitments don't count as "real" or "natural" or whatever the logic is.    

Amendment 2 in Florida: Another gay marriage ban passed. Oh, Florida.           

Proposition 102 in Arizona: Arizona passes it, defining marriage in its constitution as an entirely hetero matter.

Act 1 in Arkansas:  It passed. Gay couples cannot adopt or foster-parent children. "This from a state with 3700 children in the foster-care system, and only 1000 foster homes. Disgusting," writes Feministing. I couldn't agree more.

Depressing, no?   Need a picker-upper?  Go check the Isak link above out -- she also celebrates several vote turn-outs, including Measure 11 in South Dakota re: abortion restrictions.

If I could live in my own fantasy world I'd abolish marriage in its entirety. 

The idea of marriage started as a way to pass property down through the body and to regulate the sexuality and reproductive abilities of women, anyway.  Property and reproductive issues are definitely not centered around marriage today, so why bother? 

For love?  Har-har.  Apparently not.

For something called "tra-di-shun" and personal beliefs?  You betcha.

Okay, that's it.  I've had enough for tonight.  I'm depressing myself and I'm way behind in my participation over at the Soul Coaching Group.  It's day 5 and I haven't even cracked the backlog.

Gut-Punched

Looks like people over on the left coast didn't quite do their job and drop-kick Proposition 8 through the door. 

Though there's a lot of people affected by this, I can't help but think of Nora and Lisa, the gorgeous deaf couple I blogged about a couple days ago.  Nora's parents and sister have also made their own thoughts public:  They couldn't be happier Lisa is (was?) legally part of their family.

No matter how much you try and spout legalese about where we go from here, it's hard not to feel like the floor's dropped out and we're flailing. 

Just at a point in our country's history where it was starting to look like we had a toehold against our fearmongering, reactionary, and discriminatory past, it's a cold shower to realize there are still scads of people who just aren't willing to let go of a fantasy world where everyone else believes and lives the exact same thing they do.

"I don't like lawyers telling me what to do," says one Californian.  Doesn't that rhetoric just remind you of the "defend our way of life" argument 19th century Southerners used when they were faced with giving up their plantation economy? (read: slaves)

Spitting, hassling, egg-throwing, vandalism?  All because some people want to marry the loves of their lives?  Intelligent, no? 

You can hold on to your own beliefs all you want.  But when your beliefs and your vote mean I or my loved ones can't pursue happiness in my life, something is very wrong.

Obama won a historic race last night.  I didn't vote for him or the other corporate candidate, but I'm happy he did -- to my mind, he's the lesser of the two evils on a social policy level. I think McCain has some very smart tax policy ideas, but the idea of ultra-traditional/white/conservative Palin being one step away from the presidency is just too much to bear.

But I can't help but be reserved in my optimism. 

How can I not be, when I watched McCain vainly try to quiet booers during his concession speech?  How can I not be, when all the pictures of people tearfully and joyfully celebrating Obama's victory last night say nothing about the ambivalence many Democratic voters felt when his opponent was Hillary Clinton instead of the somehow more divisive Sarah Palin?

In what seems like a repeat of the last election, the popular vote was very close -- Obama courted 52% of the people's vote while McCain garnered 46%.  That means nothing in terms of our beloved electoral college, which turned it into more of a blowout than it should have been, of course, but it does mean something in terms of this blog:

We are still a country divided.

A country divided apparently doesn't fall too much, but it sure makes its people miserable.  Obama is going to take the reins of a Democratic-majority Senate, and you can bet all the proudly-Red people are going to be champing at the bit for the next four years.  We've got work to do.  And by we, I definitely mean we, the people.  Not we the parties.  Not we, the anti's and the pro's.  The people.

Sigh.

"Plumm" Happy on Election Day

Went out to lunch yesterday with my (REPUBLICAN!) mom and asked, "I dunno if it's just my age and the mere handful of elections I've been interested in, but it seems like this one is the most polarizing one, like, ever?"

I forget what she said (I think she agreed).  We started yelling and bitching -- not at each other, but at the state of politics and fellow voters -- and then I went home simultaneously depressed and exhilarated.   Thanks, Momsie.  Can always count on you to stir up that pot.

Up until last night I still didn't know who I was gonna vote for.  Then somewhere in between falling asleep during that dismal Redskins game and yelling at CK to stop asking me what was wrong when I'm just freakin' tired, I decided. 

I also decided to celebrate election day by changing my party affiliation for the third time in the ten years or so that I've been eligible to vote.  I finally decided my affiliation just didn't match up with my values and stopped trying to look at the people around me to decide my affiliation.

Even though I'm joining a party that half of America's probably never heard of and that gets blanked out by mainstream media and therefore barely has any political clout, I'm much happier. 

Took this quiz and it pretty much confirmed my suspicions -- I'm currently registered as a Democrat, and that ranked fifth out of the seven party possibilities the quiz offers. 

Republican was sixth.  Four years or so ago, I was registered with that party.  Tells you how much I knew back then.

At least now I won't be slightly befuddled when I tell people my affiliation -- I'll be confident.  Now that's change I can wear on a T-shirt.

So today will be the last day I vote as a Democrat.  CK got in line before the booths opened and still had to wait almost an hour.  Exciting.  Fun.

I'm going for my turn in line and dragging the kid along in about half an hour.  Maybe I'll even let her touch the screen for me. Whoo-hoo.  That way she'll be the one sucked down the bloodletting booth's guts, a la Homer Simpson.

 

Yet another Eleventh Hour plea

Noreen and Lisa Marie, a deaf couple, had their legal wedding in San Francisco filmed.  You can see the video and accompanying blog on Deaf Queer News here (in hard-to-see ASL, no subtitles, sorry).

I don't know either woman, but I developed a major crush on both while watching the beautiful video.

It's a great reminder why, as Lisa says, voting no on Prop 8 is saying yes to love.  I only wish I were in California so I could put in my vote.

Wherever you are, Nora and Lisa Marie, congrats from a complete stranger.

(Photo stolen from here.)

"Rookie," coughed the lady in back.

When I read that Sarah Palin had told a mother of a deaf son to "have faith that your—that your elected officials will demand that for you, so the bureaucracy is—is enabling you to get those things, well, taken care of..." my birthing pains came back. 

The kind without the epidural.  Y'know, when you get carte blanche to punch people in the face and scream out four-letter-words as loud as you can, and everyone just ignores you because of what you're doing at the moment.

As much as I'm embarrassed to admit I'm nurturing a girlcrush (as opposed to, of course, my WOMANcrush on Rachel Maddow) on someone just because I like the way she wears jeans and subtly flips off McCain, she never fails to takes me to new levels of incredulity.

But then again... Trig isn't even one year old yet.  And it's not like Sarah and Todd are lacking for support or connections when it comes to caring for their son with Down Syndrome or making decisions on his behalf at some point down the road. 

A childless friend asked me recently if there wasn't even a little, teeny, itty bitty part of me that wished Leah was hearing. 

I answered, quite honestly, "No."

And then I thought about it again and added, "Well, not until she got to school age, anyway.  Then I had to learn to deal with all the bullshit out there."

Even though I know the names of all the laws I need to invoke whenever someone tries to deny Leah something stupid, though I know via first-hand experience and via education each and every single one of my rights under law and under human courtesy, and even though I have all the officials in my municipality on speed dial right after the various advocates I know I can call on to go to bat for me, it's still tough.

After just over five years of fighting the system, the ONE THING I WILL NEVER DO is "have faith" that the government is helping me take care of my family.

I know enough now to fall on my knees and thank the Universe for providing those few people in the system who truly want to and can help me, and to constantly seek out support to give me support to be Leah's built-in defense system.  Yes, I know I just used "support" twice in the same sentence, and I'm cranky enough that I just don't care.

There's no doubt in my mind that Sarah Palin has good intentions when she says "as the advocate in the White House, [a competent system is] what I will ensure."  But you'll excuse me when I'll take that with a gigantic shaker of salt.

Have faith in the bureaucracy, my ass.