samesecks

As You Like It

By in gender, ohferfucksake, samesecks No Comments

I have to admit to getting just a bit verklempt while reading this:
Then as we got closer to the actual day, he stared to hem and haw about it. After some discussion it comes out that he is afraid people will laugh at him. I pointed out that some people will because it is a cute and clever costume. He insists their laughter would be of the ‘making fun’ kind. I blow it off. Seriously, who would make fun of a child in costume?
…If you think that me allowing my son to be a female character for Halloween is somehow going to ‘make’ him gay then you are an idiot. Firstly, what a ridiculous concept. Secondly, if my son is gay, OK. I will love him no less. Thirdly, I am not worried that your son will grow up to be an actual ninja so back off.
…I hate that my son had to learn this lesson while standing in front of allegedly Christian women. I hate that those women thought those thoughts, and worse felt comfortable saying them out loud. I hate that ‘pink’ is still called a girl color and that my baby has to be so brave if he wants to be Daphne for Halloween.
I had totally forgotten about it, but this reminded me that my mom still has pictures somewhere of me dressing up in some of her clothes when I was probably four or five — hats, wigs, jewelery, coats, shawls, heels, you name it. I painted my nails more than a few times, and I used to play around with the rest of her makeup too. You know why? Because it was fun. Men’s and boy’s clothes are frequently just boring as hell. Nowadays I’m too lazy to dress for anything but comfort, but I can still harbor an sneaking admiration for dandyism, foppishness and general sartorial creativity.
Anyway, I’m grateful that I was never made to feel like there was anything wrong with it, even when I went through my gender-bending rock musician phase in my teens. Thanks, mom.

If You Do It Again, I’m Gonna Freak Out

By in germans supported their troops too, samesecks, waiting for the barbarians No Comments

So do it again:

Barack Obama invited some special friends for a first-of-its-kind, in-person White House chat today: liberal bloggers who are always mean to him! And the first report back suggests that they discussed Obama’s legislative strategy for repealing DADT. He has one!

Really? That’s the big, breaking news from this meeting of the minds? Given a chance to bend the president’s ear for a few minutes, this is the issue you would focus on? Sigh. And these are the people who, with no trace of irony or self-awareness, will turn around and boast about being Dirty Fucking Hippies.
I’ll never understand this mainstream progressive conviction that one of the best things we can do to help gay people is to make it easier to stick more of them in starchy uniforms, press a weapon into their hands, and send them off to our imperial outposts. IOZ once noted that it’s a testament to the inessential nature of much of our military activity that we can afford to discriminate at all; if we were actually in a life-or-death struggle to defend the homeland, rather than occupy someone else’s for dubious reasons, we would damn sure make vital use of anyone capable of standing up straight and uncrossing their eyes long enough to aim a rifle. Then again, given all the salacious details we keep learning from Wikileaks about the grim reality of militarily occupying a country whose inhabitants don’t want you there, maybe this push to repeal DADT is rooted in the conviction that a group of people who by and large are habitually accustomed to the necessity of discretion and circumspection would be invaluable when it comes to keeping secrets from the wider public. Come on out of the closet, all you would-be warriors, Uncle Sam needs the storage space for all these piles of Iraqi and Afghan bones!
At any rate, I make no claims to being an especially original thinker, but I was starting to feel a bit like a voice in the wilderness for my belief that while discrimination against gays is surely bad on the face of it, there might just be more important issues to consider here, a forest-and-the-trees situation, if you will. So I’m glad to see John Caruso, Radley Balko and Mr. Fish adding their voices to what should be a chorus of the obvious.

Domino Theory

By in germans supported their troops too, ohferfucksake, samesecks No Comments

Dan Savage:

State-sanctioned discrimination against LGBT people legitimizes the kind of anti-gay attitudes and beliefs that lead directly to anti-gay bullying at the ballot box and anti-gay bullying in schools.

I do believe this is precisely ass-backwards. Or, okay, maybe you could say that state-sanctioned discrimination is emblematic of anti-gay attitudes and beliefs, but to imply that grade-school kids are taking their cues from the military as to whether it’s okay to call each other gay as an insult, or to play “smear the queer” during recess, seems, ah, just a bit of a stretch. And conversely, the military being integrated in 1948 didn’t do much to ease bullying of black people, at the ballot box or anywhere else. I’m getting a sneaking suspicion that some people are attaching way too much significance to repealing DADT.
And once again, it amazes and saddens me to see that leftist activism, or what passes for it, is more concerned with making sure our military displays a cosmetic diversity than aggressively challenging the size and direction of it. As much as progressive bloggers love to stroke themselves for supposedly being dirty, idealistic hippies, none of them will ever bother suggesting that dramatically slashing military spending should be a priority, even if only for the quixotic fun of it, purely for the sake of starting that conversation and getting people to start thinking about it. Legitimizing it, you might say. It has to start somewhere, doesn’t it? Why not among people who incessantly complain that the media and political elite never listen to them anyway? But Chalmers Johnson, who is hardly some wild-eyed refugee from Woodstock, has a new book out, and I’ll bet you won’t see many of the top progressive blogs even so much as mention it. They’re too busy making sure that every eligible citizen gets a fair chance to be chewed up and spit out in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and whoever else we’re covertly waging black ops against.

Shall I Compare Thee to Summer’s Eve®?

By in fresh hell, moralizing, religion, samesecks No Comments

Thou art more douchey, and more intemperate.

Now, while it’s obviously normal to feel repulsed at what a sociopath Vox Day is, I have to point out to those who have heretofore been blissfully unaware of his existence that I don’t think he has any special animus toward gays (or the “orientationally challenged”, as he calls them); the Scourge of Atheism seems to have issues with females and dusky foreigners as well. And woe betide any toddlers that happen to step between Vox and his God!
Pay attention, parents: this is what happens when the only bedtime story you let your son hear is the Marquis de Sade’s Justine.
Yeesh. Are you feeling a sort of numb chill in the core of your humanity that won’t seem to thaw out after reading all that? Are you stunned as you try to contemplate how a “Christian libertarian” managed to distill the absolute worst traits of both into a uniquely poisonous brew? Are you baffled as to how the orderlies don’t notice him chewing through the straitjacket and leather restraints in order to blog? Well, let’s try to laugh through the horror, what do you say? How about a classic joke?
Q: What’s the first thing Vox Day does after sex with his wife?

Titus Androgynous

By in beards, jests japes jokes jollies, religion, samesecks, waiting for the barbarians No Comments

Via PZ, this is funny:

In western countries in particular, a few years ago beards were often confused with a segment of society that reflected rebellion, namely the “hippy” movement of the 60’s and 70’s. It was felt that we should not in any way resemble those that reflected an attitude like this, or the drug culture that went along with it. We have to separate ourselves from that, and to have a beard a few years ago could be confusing, especially to an older generation of people at that time that were especially repulsed at the conduct of those of the younger generation. Even though we are some 30 or 40 years removed from that situation that existed during the late 60’s and early 70’s, it has been proven by experts that some people on some subconscious level do not trust a man with a beard. The underlying message that some get from a beard is that if you have one, you have something to hide, as if you are hiding behind the beard. I have even heard that idea expressed in sales courses that I have taken for secular activities. Beards are discouraged by some sales trainers because of the subconscious message that some people receive from a person with a beard, and some feel that a person without a beard generally speaking has a more professional appearance than a person who does.
…In the 1950s, in the the USA, beards were widely unpopular among the general public and most men who wore one were immediately perceived as beatniks (and later, hippies). In that American, Cold War climate, a young man who didn’t sport a military-esque brush cut and bare chin was out-of-hand labeled a communist or homosexual.
Beatniks, commies and homos, oh, my! But wait a minute…so, acting too stereotypically feminine will get a man accused of being queer, but sporting a beard, the quintessential symbol of masculinity and testosterone…also means you’re a gender traitor? Damn, they’ve got us coming and going, don’t they? Sort of like how they used to say that a witch could present herself as a beautiful young girl or a repulsive old hag. If I didn’t know better, I’d think all this paranoia was reflective of some weird psychological turmoil on the part of the accusers.
In all honesty, one of the greatest things about living among such uptight reactionaries is that they make it so easy to be subversive. No need to actually do anything confrontational or destructive, just let your facial hair follow its natural course!
Speaking of which, here’s another slander I’ve heard a time or twenty in my life:

Paul, the apostle, said something similar in 1Cor 11:14 about long hair being a dishonor to a man… Obviously Paul’s words were intended for his militant Roman contemporaries. That society started the cropped military haircut and clean-shaven face to keep lice to a minimum and avoid giving an enemy something to grab, in a skirmish.

Well, we might have many parallels with ancient Rome, but I’m pretty sure modern hygiene and grooming have rendered the lice issue largely irrelevant. And we blow our enemies up with robot planes from the safety of a control center far away from the battlefield, so I don’t think hand-to-hand combat is as prevalent as it used to be, either. But that’s okay; like I said, hidebound traditions make such easy targets. And at least we don’t have to worry about being crucified for undermining social cohesiveness anymore.
And speaking of that, I find it most amusing of all that these people have no problem worshiping a savior who is constantly portrayed as having…long hair and a beard. Imagine the mental strife that would result should they be additionally forced to admit that a man born 2,000 years ago in Palestine wouldn’t have looked like a white Westerner.

No Viet Cong Ever Called Me a Faggot

By in germans supported their troops too, ohferfucksake, samesecks, tribalism, waiting for the barbarians No Comments


Let me emblazon it here, in bold type, for the record: GAY PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST. Period, full stop, the end, roll credits. Therefore, it logically follows that they should be able to pursue any form of employment they want, even in, say, the military.

However.
It really strikes me as sad and pathetic that this is what leftist, uh, progressive activism in this country has been reduced to.
Singing sensation Lady Gaga threw the full weight of her stardom Monday behind efforts to repeal a US ban on gays serving openly in the military, decrying it as “against all that we stand for as Americans.”
…”Equality is the prime rib of America,” she told the crowd. “But because I’m gay I don’t get to enjoy the greatest cut of meat my country has to offer.”
…”Doesn’t it seem to be that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is backwards?” she asked, observing that gay soldiers who “hold and harbor no hatred, no prejudice, no phobia, are sent home” while “homophobic” troops remain on the job.
“If you are not honorable enough to fight without prejudice, go home!” she said in her fiery 20-minute speech before hugging veterans who had been dismissed by the US military because their sexual orientation was disclosed.
That’s right, kids. If you can’t kill foreigners in their own country with an open mind, if you can’t respect the cultural traditions that you’re in the process of undermining and destroying (along with their physical infrastructure), well, you can just stay home and keep that hateful attitude all to yourself, buster! Uncle Sam wants you to blindly follow his orders and blow official Enemies of the State (this week) to smithereens as tolerantly as you can! A Pakistani villager can take pride as he stands in the smoking rubble of what used to be his home, with the charred remains of his livestock strewn all about, knowing that it was an out-and-proud lesbian who piloted the remote-controlled drone that turned his young sons into pink mist. It gives that man hope — assuming he doesn’t die soon from malnutrition, tribal warfare, disease or despair, that is — that such a world is possible.
I swear by the wine-stained balls of Bacchus, I can’t take seeing one more liberal/lefty whine about how this unfair policy is “hurting our military’s readiness.” Oh, is it? Well, good. It’s about fucking time we started trying to accomplish that! I want to “hurt the military’s readiness.” I want to see the offense budget slashed by 65%. I want to see leftists quit cowering in abject fear of being accused of insufficient loyalty to the troops. I want to see several hundred of our military bases around the world closed. As a moral issue alone, this should take precedence over everything else. Yes, you should be able to serve. The question is why you would want to, knowing what it is that your country’s military is primarily involved in doing.

Mama Weer All Crazee Now

By in augean stables, media/propaganda, religion, samesecks No Comments

One of these kids is doing his own thing
C’mon, can you tell me which one?
Can you guess which kid is doing his own thing?
Before my song is done?
And now my song is done.
– Sesame Street
On the Daily Show the other night, Jon Stewart and John Oliver discussed Terry Jones, the would-be Koran-burning pastor, by comparing him to other “lunatic” Christian preachers.
– Fred Phelps, famous for his “God Hates Fags” obsession and for taking his congregation of Midwestern bibletards around the country to picket people’s funerals for attention.
– Pat Robertson, famous for…oh, hell, just go read one of the many “Greatest Hits” compilations floating around out there.
– Jeremiah Wright, famous for being Barack Obama’s former pastor, and for suggesting that the HIV virus might have been deliberately created as a government conspiracy against black people, which isn’t quite as crazy as it sounds given other black experiences with government doctors. He also claimed that white people generally have no sense of rhythm, the crazy bastard. But what really pissed people off about him, and what prompted Obama’s public renunciation of him, is when he suggested that the September 11th attacks were motivated by American foreign policy. Oh, no he dih’unt! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
Stewart is probably the best pundit we have, and as I said before, I don’t expect him to be a radical firebrand, but sometimes this faux-evenhandedness really grates on my nerves.
…adding, what Glenn said.

Other-Worldly

By in race, samesecks, the madness of crowds, tribalism, waiting for the barbarians No Comments

In a rather curious and confused way, some white people are starting almost to think like a minority, even like a persecuted one. What does it take to believe that Christianity is an endangered religion in America or that the name of Jesus is insufficiently spoken or appreciated? Who wakes up believing that there is no appreciation for our veterans and our armed forces and that without a noisy speech from Sarah Palin, their sacrifice would be scorned? It’s not unfair to say that such grievances are purely and simply imaginary, which in turn leads one to ask what the real ones can be. The clue, surely, is furnished by the remainder of the speeches, which deny racial feeling so monotonously and vehemently as to draw attention.

There’s nothing in the world more tired than a progressive blogger like me flipping out over the latest idiocies emanating from the Fox News crowd. But this summer’s media hate-fest is different than anything we’ve seen before. What we’re watching is a calculated campaign to demonize blacks, Mexicans, and gays and convince a plurality of economically-depressed white voters that they are under imminent legal and perhaps even physical attack by a conspiracy of leftist nonwhites. They’re telling these people that their government is illegitimate and criminal and unironically urging secession and revolution.

Dennis G. is also correct about the Confederate implications underlying all this talk of “honor” that needs to be restored by Beck’s overwhelmingly fishbelly-white faithful. And as I was just saying to Frequent Commenter Noel, one of the oddest things about it is watching how angrily these people deny being motivated by any sort of racial animus. Why do they even bother pretending? I’ve heard people call the cops on Latinos for sitting in a parking lot listening to music in their car, then “joke” with the cops about shooting them on sight, preferably before they cross the border (because they’re all here illegally, of course). Me, I found it a little more threatening to my existential security to hear the cop respond, “I wish we could!” I know people who think all their taxes go toward providing welfare for people who are inevitably stereotyped as speaking with an Ebonics accent, for some reason. I hear them blame lower-middle-class blacks for the housing market crash, deride them for being too stupid to leave New Orleans ahead of Katrina, and obsess over ACORN supposedly committing massive voter fraud to get Obama elected. But don’t dare suggest there’s a common theme here. All I can honestly figure is that they think they deserve credit for tolerance by not literally lynching anyone or dragging them to death behind a pickup truck.
Hell, it’s not even limited to race. I remember once laughing at someone who told me that if Hillary got elected, it would mean “the end of the white male!” She, of course, has long been accused of being a closeted lesbian, even as she was supposedly having an affair with Vince Foster, who she supposedly murdered, no doubt because he was going to reveal her clandestine clam-licking. (Or something. The mind reels trying to hold all this together in one coherent narrative.) I even heard someone just last week grousing about the New York Times fall fashion magazine, because it represents just one more way they glorify homosexuality in their quest to destroy the traditional family. It’s got to be exhausting, seeing comic-book supervillains with plans for world domination and destruction lurking in every shadow.
It occurs to me that a simpler way to encapsulate the point Taibbi was making in that passage I’ve quoted a couple times before is to say that insecure people are simply compelled to pick fights in hopes of assuaging those fears. People who are confident in their abilities and their place don’t constantly need to prove things to themselves. I don’t think they “get off” on it, I don’t think they want the neverending arguments; they’re just slaves to their inchoate fears and unable to keep from lashing out. Maybe we need to stop wasting time trying to argue at all and just start slipping some pharmaceutical assistance into their drinks.

Territorial Pissings

By in gender, jests japes jokes jollies, macho macho men, samesecks No Comments

The Guardian:

You may not want to know this – and it would be sensible to wait until after breakfast before reading any further – but, apparently, lots of German men nowadays routinely sit down to pee… Stand-up men, let it simply be said, are messier than their seated brethren – and almost never bother to clean up. In some German homes, little notices are tacked to the underside of the toilet seat so that seat-raising males are reminded to consider their options.

Heh. I’d like to see someone suggest this to American men. As far back as I can remember, I’ve heard it used as a gay-baiting insult to say that a guy sits down to piss. Further confirmation of the idea that ultimately, the real problem most macho, macho men have with gays is that they’re perceived as acting like women. Gender traitors, if you will. Real men spray like tomcats, goddamnit.
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