For the record

Things I don't hate:

1) Tulsa
2) Oklahoma
3) Christianity
4) Apple Pie
5) Baseball
6) America

Things I hate:

1) Bigotry
2) Homophobia
3) Stupidity
4) Religious extremism
4) People who leap to irrational and insulting conclusions based on extremist political preconceptions.

A note to Stan Geiger.

1) Please see this post. It explains how I'm completely unconnected from the rating system for BNN.

2) I didn't get to see all of your rant, because I can't get your site to load (which might be part of the problem), but the part I did see had at least one glaring inaccuracy.

I'm not an atheist.

I'm Jewish. Quite proudly so.

However, like most sane and rational humans, I believe that atheists have the same right to believe what they believe as do Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Sikhs, Wiccans, Satanists, and everyone else.

Now, can you stop whining like John McCain about your supposed unfair media coverage and, as Keith Olbermann put it last night, grow up?

Creative Commons license

Sinister, meaning this blog and its contents, is now licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. In a nutshell, you're free to redistribute what I write here, as long as you credit me and don't use my work to make money for yourself.

Here's the license:

Sinister by Ethan Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.sinisterblog.com.

It is posted at the bottom of the blog.

OK-Sen: Rice 41, Inhofe 50

The race is in single digit territory now. Looks like Rice's television advertising is really making a difference. The more people get to know him, and realize how utterly different he is from Inhofe, the more they want to vote for Rice.

Go Andrew Go!

http://www.andrewforoklahoma.com

Musharraf Quits

Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf has resigned to avoid impeachment charges.

Musharraf, despite being one of our purported "allies" in the "war on Terror," seized power in 1999 in a military coup and has suppressed democracy in Pakistan throughout his rule. He has also signed deals with tribal leaders near the Afghan border that allows them to operate with impunity and harbor all kinds of nasty characters, including, quite possibly, Osama Bin Laden himself.

Musharraf's resignation is a big deal for Pakistan and a big deal for the political dynamic in that region. We'll have to wait and see who comes to power to replace him and what, if anything, they can do to curb the power of the tribal sheiks and work to hunt down the leaders of Al Qaeda.

Let me stress that point: the leaders of Al Qaeda, including, perhaps, Bin Laden himself, are hiding on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, protected by the government of Pakistan.

Note what country is not mentioned anywhere in that description. Starts with an I. Ends with a Q.

Monday Loldog

see more dog pictures

Into the Void

Finally, here's something from NIN's 1999 double album, The Fragile.

NIN - Into The Void
by steveo_russianspy

Again, in case it's not clear by now, none of these videos should be assumed to be "safe for work."

Discipline

From NIN's most recent album The Slip, here's Discipline:



I have no idea if this is actually the real video for this song. I do know that it was featured on NIN's website for a time, but my hunch is that a fan made this and the band found it amusing enough to feature on the website.

Head Like A Hole

From NIN's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine, released in 1989.

Head Like A Hole @ Yahoo! Video

Survivalism

A more recent song, Survivalism, from NIN's dystopian future concept album, Year Zero.

As promised

"Closer" by Nine Inch Nails, from the album Downward Spiral.

Definitely not safe for work.

Anti-McCain Site: No John!

Anti McCain site. I don't know a ton about it, but there it is.

BOK Center finally gets good music!

One of the Great Ones of angry industrial rock, Nine Inch Nails will play the BOK center on November 22nd.

Hell of a lot better than the Eagles, Celine Dion, that American Idol thing, or whatever.

Rock.

In celebration of this news, I will probably post a couple of NIN videos here this weekend, so you can share in the wonderfully noisy angst that spews forth from the demented genius of Trent Reznor's mind.

Sir Penguin?

Nils Olav already has medals for good conduct and long service. He made honorary colonel-in-chief of the elite Norwegian King's Guard in 2005. And on Friday he was knighted. Not bad for a 3-foot tall penguin _ actually, three of them.

-snip-

Cute story.

Life, the Universe, and Everything

In a few months, I'm planning to make some major changes to my life. My partner and I are moving to Portland, Oregon, a place where we believe we'll be happier, healthier, and more comfortable. After five years together (almost exactly - our anniversary is the 20th), we've grown kind of set in our ways here in Tulsa. The move to Portland will really shake up our routine.

We're going from a city where cars are absolutely indispensable to a city where we won't even have cars. Instead of commuting to work on a Tulsa moonscape spending hundreds of dollars on gas, insurance, and maintenance each month, we'll be using efficient, comprehensive public transportation. Instead of driving to the grocery store and getting a week's worth of groceries, we'll be walking to the store and getting things for one or two days. We'll ride bicycles, and we might buy a scooter, which will get about 100 miles per gallon.

We probably won't have air conditioning, as it only gets hot enough to need it in Portland for a few days out of the year. We won't get hundreds of channels of cable television, because there will be many more things that we can do outside of our apartment. My partner will go to school at a real university, instead of a horribly managed community college where he's constantly frustrated by inept instructors and an incompetent financial aid office. In short, we'll be active, engaged, alive, and aware of the world, instead of living this kind of half-dulled couch and television and computer gaming existence we have in Tulsa.

Of course, we're both a little nervous about making such a major transition in our lives. There is a lot to consider. The move itself is going to cost a lot of money. It will be a challenge to find a good job and a nice apartment from halfway across the country. And once we get there, there's no guarantee that we'll actually be happy.

The thing is though, I've spent too many years of my life just kind of coasting along and not taking risks, lazily taking life as it comes and taking the easy road when faced with a difficult choice. Moving to Portland is a major gamble, and it will allow both of us to kind of reboot our lives. And we'll have a network of friends already established in the city once we arrive, so we won't be totally lost and out of our depth.

I'm convinced that despite the challenges, this move will be good for us. I grew up in Tulsa, and it's always going to be the place that I call home. But I also grew up in Paris, and I miss the urban dynamic that Paris provided and Tulsa sorely lacks. I miss being able to sit at a sidewalk cafe for hours on end. I miss being able to walk in a city without worrying about being run over. I miss being able to hop on public transportation and go anywhere I want.

Portland seems to provide a good balance between the urban dynamism of Paris and the affordability and comfort of Tulsa. It is a city that is well designed, walkable, alive, and full of great restaurants, cafes, and museums. At the same time, it's small enough that it won't seem overwhelming.

Clearly, we'll have to see where we are a year from now to determine whether we made the right choice. The only way to really know whether you've made the right decision is to make the decision and see what happens.

So the decision is made, and we'll see what happens.

Happy Friday!

What happens when we can't be the world's police anymore

The United States has no way to respond to the Russia-Georgia situation. We have no diplomatic leverage, because our international credibility has been ruined by the Bush regime. We have no military leverage, because most of our military is in either Iraq or Afghanistan. We have no economic leverage, because we've sold our economy to China.

All we can do, it seems, is threaten to kick Russia out of the G-8, and refuse to participate in a joint military exercise with them. Neither option gives Russia enough of an incentive to stop the fighting.

This conflict is a stark example of a new reality developing on the world stage. America is no longer the world's police force. It cannot rush into countries and stop conflicts. It cannot change the behavior of bad states. It cannot influence global diplomacy in quite the same way as it once could.

This new reality has developed over quite a few years, but there are several factors that have come together to bring it into focus.

Europe has risen up and taken the stage as a new global economic and political superpower. At the same time that we've been pawning ourselves to China, developing a huge trade deficit, and driving down the value of the Dollar to dismal levels, Europe has been building up a strong economic foundation, with the Euro now challenging the almighty British Pound for the title of most powerful currency.

China has also become a power player, since they basically own us. We can't really tell the Chinese to stop investing in Darfur, because we don't want to get the Chinese angry at us and have them call in our debt. We can't really call out the Chinese on human rights violations in their own country, either, because, along with the debt issue, the Bush regime has destroyed any credibility we might have once had on human rights issues.

Russia's 21st century development has been an exercise in recreating the authoritarian government structures and military might of the old Soviet Union without the Stalinist propaganda, while maintaining the illusion that they're still a developing democracy. This latest move into Georgia is simply an extension of the Russian desire to reestablish itself as a global superpower in opposition to the United States and the so-called "West." Former Eastern Bloc countries need to take notice of Russia's actions, because if Georgia falls, Russia could be emboldened to make further moves.

And we can't do a damned thing about it.

The old MAD defense of the Cold War era isn't an option anymore. Sure, we could nuke Moscow, and sure, that would probably lead to a global nuclear holocaust which nobody would win. But the threat of that global nuclear holocaust will fall flat, because we're not poised on the brink of it anymore, and the international community would not allow it to happen. The stakes have changed so much since 1989 that the idea of the United States and Russia duking it out is a completely different dynamic, one that leaves us with no options for stopping Russia from doing pretty much anything it wants.

If anyone is going to stop Russia from whatever it might be planning in the long term, it's going to have to be Europe, or China. Combined, Europe and China have the economic, political, and military wherewithal to stand up to Russia and force them to back down. The trouble is that there would have to be some extreme conditions to force Europe and China to sit down together and work something out.

Condoleeza Rice can go to Georgia, and she can shake her finger, and tell Russia that it's a bad bad boy, but she has absolutely nothing to back her up. This is one problem that the United States of America (property of the People's Republic of China) can't fix.

Endorsement: Jared Polis for Congress (Colorado)

Jared Polis will soon make history as the first openly gay man to be elected to Congress as a non-incumbent. His election will mark a greater victory in the GLBT community's ongoing struggle for equal rights and equal recognition. Please click the link above to learn about Jared's campaign.

Here's an excerpt from a note I received from the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund about Jared's campaign:

This milestone is an important one for our community. It sends an unmistakable signal that voters are willing to consider gay people as leaders at the highest level of government, and brings us closer to the American ideal of a truly representative government.

This tremendous victory is the culmination of Jared’s deep commitment to the people of Colorado, and of the hard work and discipline of his entire campaign team. We congratulate Jared and honor his achievement on this important night in the fight for LGBT equality.

Happy World Left Handers Day!

For today only, all you righties out there have to use left-handed scissors.

The Sinister shall inherit the Earth!

I have a problem with Evangelists.

A certain blogger who will remain anonymous has posted a video of a Muslim who "found Jesus Christ."

I'm getting a little tired of evangelists who think they need to convert the entire world to a rigid, narrow dogma.

Muslims have a right to be Muslim. Jews have a right to be Jews. Buddhists have a right to be Buddhists. Atheists have a right to be atheists. None of them have to "find" anyone, let alone Jesus.

To my way of thinking, evangelism, the idea that everyone must convert to a certain religion lest they face eternal punishment, is one of the most insidious and nasty forms of bigotry, and it leads to some really bad policy decisions. The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Iranian Revolution, the anti-Jewish pogroms in Europe, the current terrorist campaign to establish a fundamentalist Islamic caliphate throughout Europe and Asia, all of these can be traced to an unshakable belief in religious superiority.

A healthy religious viewpoint can include the conviction that the believer possesses the one true way to salvation. However, a healthy religious viewpoint must reconcile this conviction with an understanding that unbelievers have a right not to believe. Evangelism and proselytizing insult and denigrate those who believe differently.

The bottom line is this. Religious freedom also means freedom from religion.

Post edited to flesh out the arguments and make its tone more diplomatic.

Endorsement: Cindy Sheehan for Congress

Sinister is endorsing Cindy Sheehan for Congress in her grassroots campaign to replace our inept Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

Most activists know Cindy's story. Her son was killed in Iraq. She tried to get the President to listen to her and end the war. She couldn't get her voice heard. She camped outside of Bush's Crawford ranch, and she created a new activist energy that coalesced around her campaign for peace.

She has continued her fight to end this ridiculous war in Iraq, and she remains a true progressive activist to the core.

When Nancy Pelosi took the reins as Speaker of the House, a lot of peace activists and progressives had hope that the Democratic Congress would finally start to investigate and prosecute the war crimes of the Bush regime. We had hope that we could get a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. We had hope that the Republican rubber stamp would be thrown in the dumpster, and a new sense of accountability would reign in Washington.

We were sadly disappointed. Speaker Pelosi and her counterpart in the Senate Harry Reid have pursued a spineless agenda, constantly caving into the Bush regime's extremist agenda of curbing civil liberties and endlessly extending a meaningless war. They have given concession after concession and the American people have nothing to show for it.

The only way for things to change is for good people like Cindy Sheehan to stand up and say, "Enough is Enough." I admire Cindy Sheehan's determination to take on Speaker Pelosi in this race. I hope that her campaign will send a real message to Washington that the politics of fear and capitulation to extremism must be stopped.

A good way to make fun of Fundies

I just discovered this site, larknews.com. It's kind of like The Onion, but its stories satirize evangelists and fundies. I like it.

Presidential Chutzpah

President Bush has said that it is "unacceptable" that Russia has "invaded a sovereign..state."

Really?

Seriously. He said that?

I'll give you a minute to think about what might just be wrong with Bush saying that it might be "unacceptable" to invade a "sovereign state."

Got it?

Good.

Done futzing.

I'm done futzing with the blog layout (for now.) Your comments are welcome.

In other news, I spent the weekend sick with some cold-related goop. Yesterday it felt like a sinus infection; I spent most of the day right on the verge of a sneeze. You know how that is when you're about to sneeze - your eyes start watering, your nose starts hurting, and then boom - you sneeze. Imagine 24 hours spent in that split-second before the sneeze actually happens. Yeah, that was fun.

Today the gunk has moved into my lungs, and I'm scaring my coworkers with deep, hacking, painful coughs. Plus, I can't really talk.

But my lovely employer has decided that I get 3 weeks of PTO, and that's it. Once I've used that up, I get NO more sick days, and I HAVE to be here 40 hours a week.

So here I am.

However, the good news is that this cool, rainy weather is a major relief after the triple digits we had at the end of July/beginning of August. Let's keep this up until October.

*hack hack cough cough*

Monday loldog

see more dog pictures

Obama to announce Veep selection to supporters via e-mail or text

Just got an e-mail to sign up for this:

Want to be the first to know Barack Obama's choice for VP?

http://my.barackobama.com/vicepresident

The Obama campaign is announcing Barack's running mate to supporters via email and text messaging.

Sign up to be the first to know or text VP to 62262 to get the news on your mobile phone.

Let's give the Edwards family some privacy, shall we?

Elizabeth Edwards has made a heartfelt plea on DailyKos that we allow her family some privacy and dignity as they struggle to handle the voyeuristic media coverage over her husband's admission of an affair.

Family matters are family matters. Whether you're a Democrat, a Republican, or other, your family business is your own, and it is no business of the press or the American people what happens in your marriage or your private affairs.

The trouble we get into is that since our culture is addicted to sensationalism and to tearing people down, anytime something like this comes up, we pounce on it, gobble it up, and we can't get enough of it.

John Edwards made a mistake, and whatever happens next is between himself and his family. We don't get a say in it either way. It's none of our business.

Thought for the day

The John McCain of 2000 would not even consider voting for the John McCain of 2008.

Discuss.

Bonus Friday lolcat

Because this one's just adorable:


more cat pictures

I'm catching a cold.

I blame the Republicans.

*cough cough*

Happy Olympic Friday!

Here's Eddie Izzard's take:

Tulsa Airport getting privacy invasion scanner

Tulsa Airport is going to get one of those machines that creates a 3d naked image of you that is beamed to an offsite security screener. Your face is blurred, but they can see your bits quite clearly.

If you're not happy about random people seeing all your bits, and you think that this is a bridge too far in the name of "security," you might contact the airport authorities.

http://www.tulsaairports.com/index.cfm?id=8

The ACLU has a page explaining the problem and showing a picture of what these machines can see:

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/35506res20080603.html

Restating a point in a more diplomatic manner.

It's clear that my post on Sally Kern and "Judeo-Christian values" struck a nerve with several people in the blogosphere.

Sometimes my emotions overpower my intellect, and I end up offending people. In an attempt to rectify that offense, let me modify slightly what I said and restate it in a more diplomatic and tactful manner.

Whatever its original meaning, the phrase "Judeo-Christian values" is currently used as code by certain Christians who wish to push an agenda of homophobia and religious exclusionism. Note that I said it is used by certain Christians. In no way am I implying that all Christians share this view. Note also that I am prepared to accept that the phrase "Judeo-Christian values" can have certain valid connotations in the proper context. Jews and Christians do share values: we believe in helping the poor, in loving your neighbor, in the awe and mystery of the Divine.

Sally Kern, however, does not represent any of the values that Jews and Christians may have in common. She represents an extremist agenda that seeks to impose a very narrow, very exclusionary religious dogma on the larger community. For those of us who don't fit into it, Kern's worldview is extremely offensive.

Kern is adamant that because her narrow view of scripture excludes the gay community, that we are somehow a threat. As such, she is determined to undermine our struggle to gain equal rights under the law. She says that we're worse than terrorists. She accuses us of having a nefarious agenda to impose our "lifestyle" on the wider community.

We are not trying to impose a "lifestyle" on anyone. I can't make you gay. You can't make you gay. You're either gay or you're not gay. That's all there is to it. It's like being left-handed. The only thing we ask is that we be granted the same civil rights that the heterosexual community takes for granted.

We want to be able to visit our partners in the hospital. We want inheritance rights. We want to be able to file our taxes jointly. We want to own houses together. We want a piece of paper from the state that says we're equal partners under the law. We want the stuff that straight couples take for granted.

We're not trying to force churches to perform gay weddings. We don't have the right to do that. Churches are private institutions, and as such they have the right to perform or not to perform whatever ceremonies they wish. We can't change that, and we have no interest in trying.

Again, all we're looking for are civil rights under the law. This has nothing to do with morality, sexuality, or religion. It just has to do with civil law.

So, to summarize: we're not trying to impose anything on anyone. All we want is equal rights.

Sally Kern, on the other hand, is trying to impose her narrow viewpoint on us. Her position is that because a lot of people in Oklahoma are against marriage equality, that somehow that makes it ok to discriminate against the gay community. That everyone has to believe exactly as she does, and anyone who doesn't is a grave threat to her own personal sense of morality. She's taking her own personal religious beliefs and imposing them on everyone in Oklahoma. She does all of this in the name of "religious freedom." In Sally Kern's mind, religion is free only if it conforms to her view of it.

Real religious freedom means freedom for all religions and all viewpoints. More importantly, it means that our civil law is not and cannot be based purely on religious doctrine. In practical terms, while Sally Kern has the right to say what she wants, she doesn't have the right to legislate based purely on her interpretation of the Bible. In addition, true religious freedom requires that I have the right to criticize Rep. Kern, and that I have the right to fight for civil marriage equality. However, I also can't use religion as the sole basis for my argument in favor of marriage equality. And I don't. My argument in favor of marriage equality is a purely civil argument, based on American civil values of freedom and equal rights.

I will also restate my previous point. All of this bickering about marriage equality is a distraction from the real problems facing our country and our world. Those of you who spend a lot of time thinking about how much you oppose marriage equality really need to rethink your priorities.

Which is more important: stopping me from getting married, or working to make sure every American has health insurance, so that we can stop being the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn't cover its people?

Which is more important: denying me and my partner equal rights so that if one of us has a heart attack, the other can't visit him in the hospital, or stopping the genocide in Darfur, so that millions of Sudanese people can stop living in a state of terror?

Which matters more: denying me and my partner the right to file our taxes jointly, or working to fix our nation's roads, bridges, and levees, so that the next time there's a hurricane Katrina, we don't have a human catastrophe?

It seems to me that someone who is focused on morality and ethics above all should have no problem answering any of those questions.

I'll leave it there for now. I welcome your comments.

BNN Alert- Miscategorized Blogs

Attention bloggers! If you've been incorrectly assigned a category - ie. if you're a liberal and you've been put in the conservative bin, or vice versa, please let me know, and I'll fix it. Additionally, if you haven't been assigned a category and wish to be assigned one, please let me know. You will know if you've been assigned a category if your blog displays when you filter the list of blogs by "liberal" or "conservative."

So far, "liberal" and "conservative" are the only two categories we have. If you have any ideas for other categories we might want to implement, let me know, and I'll consider it.

On a side note: When I post to Sinister and I don't mention BlogNetNews, I am posting as myself, not as the editor of BNN Oklahoma. As I have previously stated, my own political views are quite separate from my duties as BNN Oklahoma editor.

I had hoped my post regarding Sally Kern would elicit a more civilized response...

But sadly no. Here's my response to Bill Kumpe's bloviating, asinine, and hate-filled screed, in which he simultaneously accused me of using hate-speech, and then, with the same breath, called me an ignorant, depraved pervert. That kind of doublethink is simply breathtaking.

Thus, here is my response to Mr. Kumpe:

I had hoped that my post would elicit a more civilized response from its readers, but clearly you're much more interested in calling me a depraved, ignorant pervert than in having an actual, rational discussion.

So be it. You can mask your hatred and homophobia in whatever religious texts give you the most comfort, but you're still a bigoted, ignorant, and sad excuse for a human being.

All that the gay community wants is the right to be left alone to live our lives in peace. That's all we want. We don't want to force you to have sex with us. We don't want to come over to your house and have sex on the floor and force you to watch us do it. We don't even want to call you and tell you we're having sex. So why is it your business whether, when, and how we have sex in the privacy of our own lives?

Moreover, how is it your business whether we have the right to get married? Despite your bloviating about religiously based common law, we are a nation based on religious freedom and the rights of the individual. Therefore, it should, again, be none of your business whether I want to marry my life partner.

The bottom line is this.

All we want, all we've EVER wanted, is for people like you, sanctimonious, self-righteous, ignorant, fearful, homophobic theocrats, to leave us the hell alone and let us live our lives in peace.

Kisses,

Sinister

I don't understand why Kumpe and his theofascist friends are so utterly obsessed with what I do in my bedroom, and what rights my partner and I have to live together as equal partners, as spouses, just like a straight couple does.

Don't we have more pressing issues happening in the world? Calling me a pervert isn't going to lower the price of gas, stop the war in Iraq, or get anyone relief from foreclosure. Railing against marriage equality isn't going to give healthcare to anyone, fix unemployment, or rebuild our nation's infrastructure.

So my message is this, and it has always been this.

LEAVE US ALONE! GO FIGHT FOR STUFF THAT ACTUALLY MATTERS!