Liberal Serving

The End of Ass-Fucking.

Say it ain't so! Lefty blog heroine Wonkette - also the actual Ana Marie Cox - is retiring.  Before I had my own soap box to stand on (and, of late, neglect), I was a daily semi-hourly reader. If I were cheeseball enough, I might mumble a few lines from "You were the wind beneath my wings" to capitalize on the moment with a little exaggerated hero worship, though I suppose I do sincerely count her a role model. (with the funny about the serious, which I aspire to between jesus pot shots) I'll be bronzing the emails she returned to me back when she co-mingled with mortals.

Here's a favorite vintage Wonkette quote from waaaay back in the early days of '04 when she called Kerry on some fake gay air-kissing:

...Kerry is less out. He says is opposed to gay marriage, but he advocates "equal rights for all" and believes that "the spirit of marriage is more important to gays than the civil ceremony."

We had no idea! That makes things so much easier: Gay couples will get spiritual visitation rights in hospitals. They can adopt spiritual children. And, most important, they can get spiritual health coverage. In return, maybe Kerry can expect gays' and lesbians' spiritual support!

The gays don't like it when you blow smoke up our collective ass, John Kerry. Quite a waste of ass in our thinking. You blowed in so many wrong ways... and Wonkette counted them for us. Here's ass-fucking to you, AMC, good luck with the book!

Bank of America Sucks

I apologize in advance for this post.  There is not going to be venting or snark about politics, personal, polemic or otherwise.  I haven't found an image of jesus or the virgin mary on my debit card, I'm just pissed off, and wanting to exact petty vengeance via this very small soapbox by adding a single digit to the google returns for "Bank of America Sucks."  If you don't want to hear my bitching, don't worry, I've hidden it after the jump.

Let's Us Liberals Reclaim the American Flag

It's so easy to be discouraged with the state of American politics.  Things seem especially dark today with Sandra Day O'Connor retirement announcement, so I'll try to muster a little optimism for your holiday weekend.

"Racial stereotypes are offensive no matter what their origin, Images like these have no place in today's world."

Maybe it's lip service, but Scott McClellen's words indicate a critical mass in race relations, where even a hateful (mostly homophobic and sexist) reactionary administration speaks out against racism.  That's a huge step for our historically racist country, and though we're not perfect, we've come a long way in the civil rights struggle, and I'm proud of that about our country.  I like to think progressive culture is the best of our country, so perhaps we liberals should take back the flag from all those wingnut rednecks, and make it a symbol of leftist idealism.  Think about that over your holiday weekend, and see if you can manage to wave your flag a bit.  See if you can imagine it a symbol of hope and idealism for the oppressed here and abroad.

Liberal Battle Plan

Paperwight has an excellent and expansive treatise on strategies the left needs to use to fight back against the language war the right has been winning (remember, the liberal up top isn't just for pretty).   I complain about the convoluted use of "conservative," but paperwight does it real justice:

In ordinary life, a conservative would generally be thought of as having a close reading of the way the world actually works, and responding prudently to reality in order to weather the vicissitudes of life.  Or, a conservative can be thought of as a person who wants to conserve or preserve existing structures, and change those structures only cautiously, for fear of the law of unintended consequences.  Conservatism in those guises is a respectable thing, often a good thing.  But that's not the modern Republican Party, and describing Republicans as conservative is simply torturing the language.

Actual conservatism requires an empirical basis.  That's conservatism's whole claim to power.  Faith-based desires for an idealized theoretical conservative outcome without reference to empirical grounding is not conservatism:  it's at best misguided utopianism, at worst fanaticism without regard for consequences.

Fair Shot via Liberal Avenger

Andrew Sullivan Whittles the Point

I like Andrew Sullivan more than a liberal should like a conservative... no, it's not a crush, and I'm no stalker, but I like to catch up with Sully every so often.  Mabye it's the recovering catholic thing.  As I previously mentioned, he seems to have a greater grasp on logic than a lot of conservatives - or he's just less dogmatic than the talking-point-regurgitators.  Today he talks it through, and you can't fault the honesty:

Blogging Blog Ethics

I've found myself in an interesting comments section conversation today at liberal avenger about the ethics of blogging.  A great comment from another reader got my mind turning:

One of blogging's charms is the express amount of responsibility it places upon the reader to sort out soap-box fist-shaking, from enlightened but slanted commentary, from regurgitation of fact, from... etc... To me, it's refreshing to be self-consciously AND admittedly, *expressly* subjective

I really like the idea of blog as 18th century pamphlet, metaphorically mimeographed thousands of times by the internets.  You as a reader are responsible for filtering through what I say to determine what you value  Just like real life.  If I'm a crackpot, you dismiss me and throw away my pamphlet.  If you like what I say, you think about it, and maybe pass my pamphlet on to your friends. 

Homosexual Google Bomb

This morning I found myself involved in dumb internet flameout where I offended someone by using "homosexual."  I admit to being provocative and insulting some decorating, but I was completely shocked by the sincere hurt and anger the word aroused.

So much has been about reclaimed language, that it is now totally academic - not at all the zeitgeist of queer activism it once was.  When I google lesbian, queer, gay, dyke or faggot everything comes up roses.  From the Dyke March to the Faggot Museum it's all queer sites or allies, and that's great to see.  No hate sites anywhere near the top.  But google homosexual, and it's nothing but hate.  I say it's time to rise up (figuratively now - no need to get off the keyboard) and google bomb homosexual.

Words shouldn't have the power to hurt us on their own - especially a word as innocuous as this.  Homosexual is the word of choice for fundies and wingnuts - they use it because it still stings us.  Don't you want to stick a flower in that gun?   Wipe away your cynicism and please (google) bomb away!

I love taxes

Andrew Sullivan's a fun read.  He wants to be a rightie, but he seems unable to shake the shackle of logic:

But if we're not going to cut spending and we have a war to fight, the question is which taxes do we use? A gas tax for the war would be a great idea: it would mean a real general sacrifice, it would help wean us off the oil that is one reason we're mired in the politics of the Middle East, and it would cut down on those ghastly, unsightly, fuel-wasting armored tanks that now pass for cars throughout America. Yes, I mean SUVs.

In the past Americans voluntarily sacrificed during war times... In alternate-universe bushland, all we get is whining about raising taxes and hope for money from heaven or Uranus - anything but taxes.  Well guess what, America, we have to pay for what we take, and we've just about maxed out our unborn kids' credit cards. I favor taxing greedy robber barons, but consumption taxes also strike me as fair.  Idiot SUV drivers who choose to consume mass quantities of oil should pay more for the pleasure.  I also like sin taxes that focus on products that end up costing taxpayers money, like cigarettes.  If only we could tax junk food, sex work and mood-altering drugs, we'd be rolling in money.

knowing is [only] half the battle

The definition of liberal up top isn't just for pretty.  A lot of smart people and t-shirts have tried to fight the "liberal is not a dirty word" fight, but the truth is that the evil geniuses of the right are  winning the battle for the hearts and minds of our country by proving that sticks, stones AND names can hurt us.  They're winning the battle with semantics. 

In the 90's "political correctness" was a spitball from the back of the class that mocked the respect marginalized people tried to find though self-defining identity politics.  They were using semantics to address the power that language - through sometimes subtle coded messages  - especially labels - can have cumulatively.  Rather than using labels assigned to them by others, people defined themselves.  By asking to be called by their own labels they were able to stop small acts of racism, sexism, etc, step by step, person to person.

For example, oriental literally means "from the east," so calling a person oriental only makes sense if you are west of them.  Eurocentricism made sense for Europeans way back whenever, but it's easy to see why people in the 20th century took issue with the term and suggested Asian-American.  Nobody likes these clunky hyphenated terms, but oriental specifically contributes to the stereotype that Asian-Americans are invading foreigners, RIP Vincent Chin.

Each time Asian-American is used in place of oriental, it eliminates an act of racism, however small or subtle.  Asian racism probably not a high priority of the wingnuts who appropriated semantics from liberal activists 10 years ago, but each time they stretch to use an uncomfortable term is good.  They might not suddenly become thoughtful and examine their own racism or hegemonic ideas, but they will be kept from propagating them.

Now ann coulter et al are trying to force the left into into abandoning liberal, which I think is a beautiful work.  Sure  progressive is a nice word and all, but it's less grand and noble than liberal.  Lets examine:

1. Moving forward; advancing.
2. Proceeding in steps; continuing steadily by increments: progressive change.
3. A person who actively favors or strives for progress toward better conditions, as in society or government.

Certainly not a terrible word, but increments jumps out at me.  I'm no socialist, and I am really not expecting the revolution to come any time, but incremental sounds a bit weak after "advocating greater freedom" and "generous," no?  Is this a semantic symptom of the reduced expectations the left has after the recent electoral losses?  [insert call to war here]  To win, the left has to engage in the semantic battle.  No time to settle into a smug/jaded "I told you so" frame of mind.  Recall GI Joe's sage advice -  knowing is [only] half the battle.