sundries

[rm]

From the Department of Not On: Political ad claims opponent is gay.

I just.... it's an interesting situation because it's happening in the GOP, and my stance on outing is that if you publicly support anti-gay causes, media and/or legislation and it turns out you're queer and in the closet, you are fair game. Otherwise, not our business. Now, I don't know what this guy's stance on various gay topics is, but since he's running for office as a Republican, it's conceivable I might be okay with him being outed for hypocrisy if it turns out he is both gay and a hypocrite. On the other hand, he's being accused of being gay by _another_ Republican who's message seems to be "don't vote for this guy because homosexuals are untrustworthy creeps who have icky sex." UGH! What a mess.

The Other Side of Sadness

I am wearing a jacket my parents got me for the holidays that is _very_ Martha Jones.

Ordered stud set for tux which is not here yet (starting to freak out, because if I need alterations I need TIME to get them done).

jonquil links us to the latest update on security procedure changes for flights. Looks like that crap about the blankets and the use of electronics in-flight has been lifted. Still, if you're flying into the US from another country, expect ill-trained strangers to touch you. I have no idea what the current state of affairs is for domestic flights.

Little Kitty Story of the Day: Little Kitty and the Fruitless Commute.

When I lived in Gramercy Park, there was one day when she got out of the apartment and went into the open elevator so I called down to the doorman, and was like "my cat's in the elevator, stop her! I'll be right down!" But the doorman just turned her around, hit the button for my floor and then LIttle Kitty got back out of the elevator and came home.

Comments

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a chance to say it before, but my condolences on the loss of Little Kitty.

*

The candidate behind the anti-gay ad, Andy Martin, sounds like a real gem:

Martin objected at one [Illinois Supreme Court’s Character and Fitness Committee] meeting when staffers retrieved a document from his Selective Service file labeling him unfit for military service because of a “moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character.” Martin called committee members “scum.”

When reporters report these facts, Martin sometimes sues them alleging libel. His penchant for filing so many lawsuits later dismissed as frivolous has enraged some judges who have held him in contempt of court over the years. Some of his court filings have included anti-semitic comments.

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

Wow-- that ad is just one big ball of ugly. It's almost heartening to see the Illinois GOP reaction of, "We don't know this crazy dude . . we're not with him. (Guys, who invited crazy-Martin? He's CRAZY)."

[jigglykat.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what the current state of affairs is for domestic flights.

I flew yesterday and there didn't seem to be any changes. I'm just despising Delta and JFK at the moment. Not the flight itself, but the Delta folks at JFK are AWFUL.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

But the doorman just turned her around, hit the button for my floor and then LIttle Kitty got back out of the elevator and came home.

Great story! Smart doorman. :)

[rm.livejournal.com]

We're flying out of Newark for the cruise and try very hard to use Laguardia as much as we can 'cause it's near our house and is usually pretty painless. I'm out of JFK for Gally, but it's on Virgin (and there's like 5 of us cosplaying on that flight + Barnaby & some people traveling with him).

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

Today is the 27th anniversary of my mom's death in a car wreck; I was 6 weeks away from turning 14.

I may get the "Other Side of Sadness" because I've always felt I was doing grief wrong. When I was younger, there were times when I thought others, especially my dad, were doing it wrong as well.

I clung to odd bits of Victorian mourning, at least in my head. I would've worn black for a year and then transitioned into other somber colours slowly, if it would've been financially practical (dad was working class, we wore what we had). If people still made mourning jewelry out of the deceased's hair I would've wanted some brooch or something.

As it was, I didn't go to the funeral nor the viewing as I did not want my last memories of my mother to be similar to the last, horrid memories of my beloved grandfather who'd died two years earlier. His veiwing had sent me screaming in tears from the room. I wanted to remember good stuff. (And it's only now, 25+ years that I'm curious as to whom attended my mom's service. All in all, I still think I made the right decision.)

Now, I just feel strange about all of it. I go to funerals because we're supposed to and I have nothing to say because there really aren't words to convey just how sucky it is to lose a loved one and that some days it'll be better and that eventually if you're lucky the better days will outnumber the crappy days. Knowing that going to see a movie or going out dancing with buds is not weird when it comes to greif is reassuring.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

LOL!!! She just wanted to see the lobby!

My friend Nina had a cat Isis who was fond of getting out of her apartment. Not that she would go far. It was mostly just a chase game. There was one time I was over and I chased Isis down the hall. She would look back and if I was too far behind her, she would stop and wait for me to almost catch up before taking off again.

But Nina was worried she'd get in the elevator. Never happened. The closest to that was once, when I was up to NYC for vacation (before I moved back), Isis got out when Nina and I came back to her place. There was a knock on the door after we'd been back a few minutes. Nina answered it and an arm came in with Isis attached. She was a bit ticked off because we did not play chase with her.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

She just wanted to go for a stroll with those two elderly English Bulldogs who walked themselves around the park.
Also, didn't she escape from the Ave. C apartment once, too? Or was that Pretty?

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

“You’ve got Mark Kirk, who’s been so strong on his homosexuals so long that the solid rumor is that he himself is a homosexual,” Roeser said on the program.

The idiocy is strong here.

I'd register Republican just to vote for the liberal, gay Republican in that primary. :D

(One of my friends is thinking of running for office as a Republican and he is pro-gay marriage and pro-choice. It's not as odd as you'd think. This is not in a very highly red state, though.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

We thought Pretty escaped but she had climbed into the bottom of a moving box and been missing for days that way. Pretty also escaped from my apartment in Brooklyn for days and days.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

One of the great things about having been raised with the tradition of sitting Shivah, is that during the first week after a death I can be all blubbery and really let myself immerse in the fact that someone or something I love is gone.
After that I'm still sad, but the immersion is over.
Regardless there's a whole lot of mixiness when it comes to grief, having lost close to me the for the first time this year, along with cancer, I feel I got the handle on crying and laughing at the same time and for telling horrid cancer and dead baby jokes!

That Little Kitty Story is adorable!

[jigglykat.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I'm certainly flying Virgin for Gallifrey (as I'm about 90% sure I'm going). I just need to figure out if I tack on extra days before the con or afterwards to go see my folks and friends. That decision will be made in the next couple of days, HUZZAH.

I would rather fly out of Laguardia since it's like 10-15 minutes away from my house (I watch planes land outside my window), but hardly anything flies out of there to where I need to go.

UGH NEWARK. I have bad memories of Newark, but that's only because we landed 10 minutes before that big Northeast power outage in... 2003? We were stuck in Newark for an extra five hours because they were hand-delivering all the luggage by flight. It was super creepy because you really notice the lack of noise when the power's out (like announcements and A/C units and all that stuff).

[rm.livejournal.com]

Newark and I have a really bad relationship too. I really, REALLY try not to fly out of it, and really really hate when I have to. Childhood trauma.

Where do you live? We're in Spanish Harlem so LGA is just right on the bus for us. Quick if it's not the holidays.

If you wind up flying on the Thursday before Gally, let me know, and you too can join the scary, scary, flight of absurdity (which right now is me, redstapler, brewsternorth, marchek and whoever is in Barnaby's party. And all our seats are clumped together. Man, I can already tell I'm going to be such an asshole on that flight.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I think, from the article, it's pretty clear that Martin is a nut job of the fairly standard demi-asshole sort and everyone knows it and has known it for years.

He's essentially a troll, just in the political party instead of on the internet. And, really, we've got lots of different types of idiots in the world and sometimes they get the attention they want and sometimes they don't.

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

According to this:
http://www.ontheissues.org/IL/Mark_Kirk.htm

Kirk is fairly progressive on gay rights but otherwise he's kind of mixed on social policy. He's also a member of the moderate caucus so he's fair game for anyone looking to ride the teabagger bloc.

Aside from trying to smear Kirk during the campaign this would end his career as he is an active officer in the navy.

[jigglykat.livejournal.com]

I live in Astoria, so I always go right by it on my way to JFK and lament about not flying out of there. I think the last time I did, it was on a flight down to Savannah (and joy of joys, it was a direct flight too! I went to school there for four years and NEVER had a direct flight. Had to land in Atlanta first, then switch to another plane)

Excellent! I will definitely look into it.

[rm.livejournal.com]

What's annoying is flights out of LGA usually cost about $20 more, but it's worth it for the aggravation. I'm just pissed they don't do more international flights, since Patty and I will both be in and out of the country repeatedly in 2010. It's going to be the JFK schlepp.

[frodo-esque.livejournal.com]

Fantastic picture of you.

The Other Side of Sadness
Great article, really makes you appreciate human beings for the complex beings they are-- their ability to cope with stress is phenomenal.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

It doesn't seem like many people take that Martin guy seriously, which is always good...I love the part where he passed the bar exam, but the state of Illinois refused to grant him a license to practice based on the results of his character and fitness examination. I wonder why? [/sarcasm]

If only there were a legal way to shut him up, though. Sometimes I abhor free speech; people too often abuse it.

[jigglykat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd certainly pay 20 bucks more! I'd *SAVE* that money because I live so close!

I normally fly JetBlue which I love and it takes me directly to the itty bitty Long Beach airport, and I never have any problems with them at JFK because they have that gorgeous new terminal. But yeah, we had a free flight with Delta.

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but the problem with "abuse of free speech" is that one person's abuse is another person's "dissenting opinion." Majority opinions don't *need* protection, and all.

Libel/slander might apply. I'm fine with those laws. The question being, would filing suit (as opposed to ignoring it) just be giving the troll more of the attention he wants, and making it into a bigger issue than "some nut job being a crank"?

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

You're right; the laws for libel and slander are there as checks and balances to the free speech law. However, as you said: one person's abuse (or, in that case, libel/slander), could be another person's dissenting opinion, even in a court of law. I think in cases of libel and slander, there is still a lot of wiggle room when it comes time to prove that something the defendant said actually caused damage to the injured party, especially when debates arise over what actually constitutes damage. Marginalized groups are often not very well protected in such cases.

Perhaps in this case, though, the things Martin says and the ways in which he says them are so obviously slanderous that were he to be brought to court, he would inevitably be charged and convicted. Who knows.

[jslorentz.livejournal.com]

<3 Martha Jones!

[missdeanna.livejournal.com]

I honestly do not understand why "accusations" of homosexuality are seen as shameful. That viewpoint is both totally foreign and completely offensive to me. At least the accuser in this case seems to have serious credibility issues in general.

I could have used that grief article eight years ago, when my dad died. In a lot of ways, the hardest part at the time was realizing that not only was I not destroyed by grief, but I didn't want my life to be consumed with mourning. I'd already lived with his illness for a year. For a while, I thought something was wrong with me.

[frodo-esque.livejournal.com]

It just hit me who your remind me of...the absolutely radiant and beautiful Annie Lenox.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Sly little thing. How is she doing?

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

Kirk isn't a liberal; he's a long-time moderate who's tacked hard right ever since declaring his candidacy. (He reportedly even solicited Sarah Palin's support when she was in Chicago appearing on Oprah.)

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

In this political climate, nobody can even be a moderate anymore, which is sort of sad. Politicians on both sides are routinely attacked by challengers for being middle-of-the-road, or for compromising or working with the other party, which is normally, you know, a valuable adult skill. But now it's too "wishy-washy".

Most of the people with whom I interact are... moderate. Not really conservative (especially not socially conservative, but fiscally, at least).

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

As has already been noted several times, Andy Martin is bugfuck crazy; he's a birther (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Martin_%28U.S._politician%29#Role_in_rumors_about_Obama) and an anti-Semite. He has about as much credibility as Jon Lovitz's old Tommy the Liar character on SNL.

Kirk, on the other hand, is not exactly your well-we-could-do-worse moderate Republican; although he's historically been sort of moderate (his suburban Chicago district in the North Shore went for Gore, Kerry and Obama, respectively, in the last three presidential elections), he's taken a more conservative stance since announcing his Senate candidacy. He supports DADT (http://gay.americablog.com/2009/10/gop-rep-mark-kirk-supports-dadt-refers.html) and DOMA (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/06/giannoulias-trails-kirk-i_n_311021.html?show_comment_id=32318421#comment_32318421), signed on to the bogus GOP health care "plan" (really just a me-too collection of proposals from the House debate), and opposed the sale of the mostly-empty state prison in Thomson to the federal government for housing terrorism suspects on the grounds that it would make Illinois a magnet for terrorist attacks (ignoring the many times that terrorists, not to mention gangsters, white supremacists and others have been held at Marion, the federal government's original replacement for Alcatraz), and so on. And then there's his attempted solicitation of Sarah Palin's support when she was in town appearing on Oprah, although that apparently wasn't forthcoming.

So... yeah, if he's successfully outed, by his ex-wife or a former partner or whomever (hopefully someone sane), it couldn't happen to a nicer guy, although frankly the field is rather lackluster this year. *sigh* I miss Paul Simon. (No, not that one, the other one (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Simon_%28politician%29).

[rm.livejournal.com]

She's been very high strung and clingy, and I think last night late she figured out that Little was dead, because she finally got quiet and just sat with me (and on my lap, which she never does). I'm worried about all the upheaval with her (Patty away, Little dying, Patty & I going on vacation). I don't want her to be lonely. I think she'll eventually need another friend, and I also think she's cold and she usually huddles with Little this time of year.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you so very much. The Eurythmics were one of the first bands my parents introduced me to in a "you should like this and not Madonna" sort of way when I was a tween (and they wonder why my gender and sexuality is how it is?!?!?!?) and I can't imagine a better compliment.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Poor beast. I know they sell fleece-lined sleeping bag type things for cats and small dogs; maybe that would be comforting to her for when you're not around?

[rm.livejournal.com]

She'd, like, have to understand what it's for. She's not bright.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

She's spiritual, not intellectual. You could just get some blankets to leave lying around; our dude likes to huddle under them when it's cold.
I will be extra sweet to her while you're gone.

[rufus.livejournal.com]

if you leave one of your slept-in sets of pajamas behind for her, that might help. I did that for my cats when they had to be in a strange place without me, and it seemed to help. I know Pretty will be at home, but perhaps it will be a comfort for her nonetheless?

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Awh!

When my cat ran away once we had no elevator. Luckily she ran upstairs instead of down and was adopted by a couple of women on the top floor who were really sad to give her back.