The first of November. It's raining steadily, overcast and fragrant here. I slept until nearly eleven this morning.
We "did" Halloween; my friend with whom I'm staying went as Supergirl - he looked great, and his friend was dressed as Marie Antoinette with this ENORMOUS Marge Simpson wig - he was over 7' tall in the 5" heels, the wig and everything. I wore my traditional red fairy costume. When I went to put it on, I didn't have to struggle to get into it - the tights and leotard just wooshed right on, and the costume hung on my like a flour sack. Last few years, I could hardly get the tights up to my hips. Last few years, I couldn't zip the leotard. It was very cool to have that kind of validation that I'd lost weight.
We went first down to the Castro, and wandered around a bit - into the Walgreens to get Marie a new set of press-on nails (they were completely out) - we kept getting stopped every few feet to have our pictures taken by tourists and people who weren't in costume. Several times, there were so many cameras going off that I felt a bit like David Beckham coming into LAX. We went into a bar, but it was so crowded in there that it was uncomfortable (my wings kept getting into people's way, and they'd just shove the wings aside) so we went to a private party in the Castro for a while, then up to Haight Ashbury to the big party of the evening.
Parking was a nightmare in the Haight; we ended up parking blocks and blocks away (and still getting a ticket) but the party was awesome. The costumes very impressive and creative, and the food was glorious! I kept getting chatted up by people who LOVED my fairy costume (which I'll have to have taken in next year, I think - it just was so .. baggy!) The hosts have no back yard to speak of, so the smokers and people who wanted some air spilled out onto the sidewalk, where we got to interact with the folks walking down the hill to the straight bars. Some of their costumes were very cute; the straight girls' favorite this year was Sarah Palin. One girl was dressed quite passably as Glinda the good witch of the North, and did a perfect spin and then sat down with her dress perfectly laid out around her.
By midnight, we were all tired, so we came home. I left my costume in the trunk of the car, so today when the rain dies down a bit, I must go put it all back together.
DJHJD
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Why is it
I'm just amazed that people who have a different viewpoint (um, pretty much the wide-eyed, Ayn Rand, conservative "taxes are bad, regulation is bad, government is inept" crowd) have to levy judgment that one's intellect is flawed rather than just acknowledging that there are different ways to look at the world.
I've been called unintelligent by a person I consider a close friend at one of my birthday parties because I don't subscribe to supply side economics (or, trickle down economics which even G.H.W. Bush didn't believe in) or welfare mothers in Cadillacs. Today, I was inherently called stupid by the sister of another friend for engaging in a conversation on facebook about Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."
When someone advances these concepts, I must admit that I question why they're looking at the world that way. In the case of my insult hurling birthday party friend, she's still focused on how she always felt she had to work for things in her life and her sister got all the breaks without deserving it. It colors all of her opinions about people whose lives don't work but get assistance from the government or parental figures. Her belief in welfare mothers in Cadillacs stems from her anger with her father and her sister and from no empirical data or anecdote.
I don't know today why my friend's sister felt it was necessary to tell me I wasn't smart enough to understand "Atlas Shrugged." I understood it just fine; I just don't agree that it's a valid economic and societal blueprint. In fact, given that our society and government have been operated from this blueprint for the last eight plus years (I'd say more like 28 years) and it's a spectacular failure would put the bullet in the argument, but it seems to be ramping up again even as its spawn melts down.
So, what is it about persons of more conservative political and social views (wasn't it nice of me not to call them little Hitlers, fascists, bigots, haters, fear mongers, oppressive and superior white bastards or any number of other labels I could have used?) find people who disagree to be intellectually flawed?
How is it that these same people will ask my flawed intellect for instruction on how to deal with tax issues, or to recall historical facts, or to provide relationship advice, or to provide a shoulder to cry on? If my intellect was that flawed, then why should it follow that ANY of my mental qualities were reliable?
I've been called unintelligent by a person I consider a close friend at one of my birthday parties because I don't subscribe to supply side economics (or, trickle down economics which even G.H.W. Bush didn't believe in) or welfare mothers in Cadillacs. Today, I was inherently called stupid by the sister of another friend for engaging in a conversation on facebook about Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."
When someone advances these concepts, I must admit that I question why they're looking at the world that way. In the case of my insult hurling birthday party friend, she's still focused on how she always felt she had to work for things in her life and her sister got all the breaks without deserving it. It colors all of her opinions about people whose lives don't work but get assistance from the government or parental figures. Her belief in welfare mothers in Cadillacs stems from her anger with her father and her sister and from no empirical data or anecdote.
I don't know today why my friend's sister felt it was necessary to tell me I wasn't smart enough to understand "Atlas Shrugged." I understood it just fine; I just don't agree that it's a valid economic and societal blueprint. In fact, given that our society and government have been operated from this blueprint for the last eight plus years (I'd say more like 28 years) and it's a spectacular failure would put the bullet in the argument, but it seems to be ramping up again even as its spawn melts down.
So, what is it about persons of more conservative political and social views (wasn't it nice of me not to call them little Hitlers, fascists, bigots, haters, fear mongers, oppressive and superior white bastards or any number of other labels I could have used?) find people who disagree to be intellectually flawed?
How is it that these same people will ask my flawed intellect for instruction on how to deal with tax issues, or to recall historical facts, or to provide relationship advice, or to provide a shoulder to cry on? If my intellect was that flawed, then why should it follow that ANY of my mental qualities were reliable?
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Atlas shrugged, and the world should have
I managed to skate through college without strolling into the Waldo Library until the last week of my senior year. Thus, I managed to complete a very fine public school education and a mediocre (by my own making) college education without having come into contact with Ayn Rand's monumental "Atlas Shrugged." In fact, I successfully completed college without having heard of it. I read a great deal of other, weighty tomes. "The Brothers Karamazov," for instance.
A few years ago, a fellow I had met was raving on about how "Atlas Shrugged" was the most important book he'd ever read. How it was such a signal truth about society. Okay, so I was influenced by how how I thought the guy was, so I picked up a copy of the book and read it. All 1400+ pages of it. I read it right through to the end, and thought as I closed the back cover "What a piece of self-indulgent crap."
Many young men read this work, and figure that they point of Ayn's Rant is the government and economic structure of the United States. It's not. Ayn was a child of the Eastern Block (for those of you who remember,) and her work was a rant about centralized economic planning and monolithic bureaucracies of the Soviet Union.
A great number of people don't do their homework on this point. Including Allen Greenspan, who, as it turns out, was ministering to our nation's economic condition using the premises of Ayn's Rant - all regulation is bad, and true, unfettered capitalism will always self-correct.
Somehow that hasn't worked out so well for us. And, the unfettered capitalists have run to the protection of the State, while those oppressed workers become further downtrodden and further disenfranchised.
It's funny, but as I remember the book and the story, the wealthy (who toiled not, neither did they sow) were living off the largesse of the State.
That being the case, isn't it then true that Ayn's Rant, when applied to the real world, has brought about the very condition that Ayn ranted against?
A few years ago, a fellow I had met was raving on about how "Atlas Shrugged" was the most important book he'd ever read. How it was such a signal truth about society. Okay, so I was influenced by how how I thought the guy was, so I picked up a copy of the book and read it. All 1400+ pages of it. I read it right through to the end, and thought as I closed the back cover "What a piece of self-indulgent crap."
Many young men read this work, and figure that they point of Ayn's Rant is the government and economic structure of the United States. It's not. Ayn was a child of the Eastern Block (for those of you who remember,) and her work was a rant about centralized economic planning and monolithic bureaucracies of the Soviet Union.
A great number of people don't do their homework on this point. Including Allen Greenspan, who, as it turns out, was ministering to our nation's economic condition using the premises of Ayn's Rant - all regulation is bad, and true, unfettered capitalism will always self-correct.
Somehow that hasn't worked out so well for us. And, the unfettered capitalists have run to the protection of the State, while those oppressed workers become further downtrodden and further disenfranchised.
It's funny, but as I remember the book and the story, the wealthy (who toiled not, neither did they sow) were living off the largesse of the State.
That being the case, isn't it then true that Ayn's Rant, when applied to the real world, has brought about the very condition that Ayn ranted against?
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