Craigslist

How could such a good idea go so terribly, terribly wrong?

(also, why no "t4w" category, guys?)

Obama hasnt killed MARS exploration yet - in fact the Chronicle says he is about to announce a new MARS plan. Life imitating the Chapelle Show?

The campaign is humming along

Things you wait a lifetime for

Core consumer prices down for the first time since I was 8 months old (December 1982).

Not so every-day-low-low-prices.

Yabba Dabba Doo

Noted without comment.

Met some of the GAIN folks today

Ok all - i checked old returns and in the last election Colbert got only 120 votes and only 199 votes in 2007. This is also pre-Ike so her base is smaller than that today. If we can get 200 VOTES then we have an EXCELLENT chance of winning this race. I set up a facebook group and we need to get all our friends signed up ASAP. Let's do this! Leeeeeeeeroy JENKINS!!!!

J and J MOBILE on Broadway are awesome!

Flip the Script

Today has been an odd day.

The weather was pleasant (a little cold this morning, for what it's worth) but still night-and-day different from how it has been much of this winter.

The letter carrier, for reasons unknown, decided to put my landlord's mail in my mailbox and my mail (apparently) in his.

I voted in a Republican Primary:


The stench apparently takes two years to wear off.

And then finally I decided to give Domino's Pizza a fair shake. Normally I hate Domino's, but they claim to be better than Papa John's. See:



The thing is, their pizza has really improved. I am still duty-bound to assert the superiority of Papa John's, but I think they have done enough to stave off the pizzapocalypse.

It is FAT TUESDAY and it is also about time for me to lose some weight.

Dave is gonna be my campaign treasurer! He is the MAN.

Best. News. Evar.

My doctor informed me that my testosterone is now in normal female range (so the estrogen dosing must be just about right!).

Random Thoughts

1. Is Valentine's Day (or at least the way it's marketed commercially) sexist? Why do all Valentine's Day ads seem to involve some desperate guy struggling to come up with some last-minute-but-wonderful Valentine's Day gift for his girlfriend (rather than the other way around?) And of course, the commercial invisibility of same-sex couples.

2. My friend Andrea asked me to critique her thoughts on the State of The Union address. It came out as a long-rambling-incoherent babble... and then we started talking about Iran. The short story with regard to the Islamic Republic is that I believe everything NPR says.

3. I have a new campaign e-mail address, and am working on appointing my friend Dave to be campaign treasurer. Let the hate-mail flow!

4. Neil Gaiman to write an episode of Doctor Who (probably early Series 6, coming in 2011). Hoping it will be as good as Douglas Adams' outing in 1979's The City of Death episodes.

5. Cristan Williams, who is always enlightening, sends out an e-mail comparing the number of Google searches for the term "shemale" (as in pr0n) versus "transgender" (as in moi, your webmistress) and comes to a startling conclusion -- although I suppose some might write it off as mere Kirk-and-Madsen-talking-point drivel:

Libya is the #1 place on earth that looks for shemales. In Libya, it’s against the law to be GLBT (punishable by up to 5 years in prison).

Here’s more on the top 10:

Pakistan: While transgender people just won a major equal rights victory, anything deemed to be a "homosexual" is punishable by death.

Sudan: If you are found to be GLBT in Sudan, you can receive up to 100 lashes and/or death.

Czech Republic: The Czech Republic is actually relatively good on TG issues.

Afghanistan: The penalty for being TG is death.Yemen: offers torture, public flogging and death to it's queer community.

Bangladesh: The penalty for being TG can range from ostracization, torture, life imprisonment and death.

Syria: Homosexuality is illegal and TGs are often viewed as being homosexual. However, the government has allowed TS people to transition.

Sri Lanka: While being TG is not illegal, TGs are often victims of harassment and discrimination.

Egypt: While the government has allowed a few TS women to transition, it has outlawed music by the Israeli transsexual, Dana International and the topic is very taboo. Individuals suspected of being gay can be locked up, tortured and sentenced to hard labor.

It should also be noted that all of these countries are exceedingly religious. So, here’s a question: Does living in a hyper-religious culture predispose one to TG porn?

Well... On an impulse I filed for Galveston City Council today - I want to be an advocate for LGBT rights and the environment as well as affordablr housing.

Run Away!!!!!

I have to confess to not having read Lori Gottlieb's book, but I did read her essay back when it was fresh. The new book-length version has attracted it's fair share of criticism lately; one of the more thoughtful critiques, by Julia Baird, is here.

Gottlieb is right, I think, in the basic point that the standards we set for ourselves -- and our partners -- can be unreasonable and have negative consequences. We live in a second-best world, and part of maturing is learning to accept things about people we may not necessary like or agree with.

But this passage from Baird's critique caught my eye:

This twisted thinking makes my head hurt. First, the only evidence offered to prove that women expect too much is anecdotal. Are some women too picky? Sure. People are shallow, unkind, and judgmental. But I don't know any women who have checklists. If they do, I imagine it's something most grow out of. If you will only date someone who looks like Brad Pitt, "earns a gazillion dollars, and makes your knees go weak every time you're together," as Gottlieb writes, then you're pirobably either 20 or stupid. Most of us just want to love and be loved. The data show that when it comes to money and education, women are in fact lowering their standards. A Pew study released Jan. 19 found that in 1970, 4 percent of wives earned more than their husbands. In 2007, 22 percent did. The percentage of women who had more education than their husbands rose from 20 to 28.

I had heard about this poll before and I had embraced it for two reasons: first, because obviously it would be nice to have a sugarmama; but second, because it shows some progress vis-a-vis gender roles.

That said, the point Baird is trying to make -- or at least the one I think she's trying to make -- is that there are some women out there who really need to raise their standards. It's really not a material issue and I wish Baird hadn't used economic figures. One of my friends makes a lot more money than her husband, but her beau is truly a sweet man -- a real catch. On the other hand, I have a co-worker (on my night job) whose boyfriend is in prison. And a lady in my neighborhood whose "man" doesn't seem to do a whole lot except disappear randomly and bum money off of her to buy pot. A friend-of-a-friend whose ex/baby daddy is bona fide bonkers. And don't even get me started on the boys my sister used to date (before snagging my brother-in-law, who I approve of greatly).

If "women need men the way fish need bicycles," then these women need these men about the way a fish needs the Gorton's Fisherman to show up in one of his industrial-sized floating fish-stick factories.

The point being, I can see how Lori Gottlieb may have a point. But, at the same time, if being overly picky about men is a problem.... then it really must be a nice problem to have. You know, right on par with not having enough space in the garage to stack all your hundred-dollar bills.

(I will allow more intellectual chicas the task of applying third-wave feminist notions, e.g. the intersectionality of class, to this debate.)

Getting benefits, paying off credit cards, having viable plans to pay off student loans... All these things reduce prole class consciousness

I finally have a job with health insurance (a really crummy plan actually, but...). No thanks to the whining footdraggers in DC or Obama's listless leadership.

Shamiwow: listening to the Democratic gubernatorial debate and impressed with Shami's passionate liberalism -- that said, White's pragmatism is what wins votes

Who dat that just won the Super Bowl?

MmmKayKayKay?

I actually signed up for "Women for Kay" recently. I wonder what Kay would think about that...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/020610dntexgopwomen.3e00543.html

See, the thing is, Senator Hutchison is not really all that bad, but surrounded by a bunch of folks who are, for lack of a better word, a bunch of twits (I'm looking at you, Mrs. Palin).

I've voted for KayBay before. Because, frankly, voting for "Dancin'" Gene Kelley (back in 2000) seemed like more of a dereliction of my democratic duty than voting for a Republican.

She's not perfect, but KayBay has the guts to have, erm, nuance on the abortion issue. I'm not entirely sure her answers were coherent, but at least she didn't do the easy thing and demagogue the issue (I'm looking at you, Governor).

Women shouldn't vote for women just because women are women. But women should vote for a woman who is at least as competent as they guy she's running against.

Go Kay!

(Though I still reserve the right to - and probably will - vote for my former boss Bill White or Farouk Shami in the general election -- I don't really care who wins the Dem primary, because they're both good guys. And I'm definitely voting Kinky for Ag Comm if he wins his race!)

Yay internets

The Audacity of Nope!

So here's the deal and the premise of this blog:

1. John Gay, who is running for Congress from the 14th District of Texas (the seat is currently occupied by Dr. Ron Paul) came into my place-of-employ yesterday to introduce himself. Nice guy. Will probably vote for him in the primary.*

2. Homeboy and I disagree about a lot of stuff, though. I'm voting for the guy more as a protest and as a symbolic gesture in favor of grassroots commonsensicalism than ideology, or partisanship, or whatev.

3. I've often b.s.'ed about running for Congress. I went to law school and passed the bar exam, and although I decline to practice, being a lawyer makes me morally "fit" enough to be a legislator, right? I'm a (pre-transition, pre-op/non-op, MTF) transwoman, so you know that means I don't have any shocking skeletons in my closet (though I do have a lot of shoes). I still don't have a fantastic career yet, and you know what they say -- a politician is just a lawyer gone bad. And honey, I'm awful.

4. But I have more important things to do, like work (60 hours per week+), blog, play with my ham radios, do my tranny thang, find a girlfriend (yeah, I'm a big fat lesbian too), lose weight, watch football, lose weight WHILE watching football, etc etc.

5. So this blog is where I would say, what I would say, if I were campaigning for Congress. Also, other stuff.

* I actually consider myself a Democrat, and was a precinct chair and captain for Obama in 2008 before Hurricane Ike ruined everything. I'm voting in the GOP primary this year because it is the only way that I can legally vote against this guy twice in one year -- and boyhowdy, does he deserve every bit of scorn that I can throw.