White House

First Black President: Barack Obama

Ken Erfourth - 09:46 pm Pacific Time - Jul 27, 2004 - #96 of 111

Wow.

I watched Obama tonight do the keynote.

Wow.

Forget that he's an African-American.

Wow.

Forget that he's young and ready for the long haul.

Wow.

Forget that he has locked up the seat as junior senator from Illinois 100 days before the election. That he scared off Ditka and beat a guy in the primary who spent $30 million to try and get the nomination.

Wow.

Forget that I've often held black politicians, like Jesse and Sharpton, in respect, but with reservations. I've felt like they were spokesmen for a segment of the population, or that they added perspective to the gestalt of America.

Wow.

I want Barack Obama to speak for me. After John Kerry finishes his second term as President of the United States, I want to vote for Barack Obama.

Wow.

Private Life

You see some weird shit, just today I saw.....

Vinca Minor - 12:01 am Pacific Time - Jul 24, 2004 - #4566 of 4630

Okay, this is a vignette more than anything.

Last night my friends and I were riding home on the train and at one stop a tall, handsome, if defensively fierce-looking, young man got on with his backpack. Preceding him into the car as he bent his head to enter was his glossy dark hair, which was cut short and plushy, with raised circular areas like pincushions painted gold all around and, at center front, a section gelled and spiked up into a sort of rhinoceros horn, painted silver. It was apparent that he was making a Statement, but it was difficult to tell just what it might have been.

The train proceeded on into town and as it slowed to pass by a busy square, we saw in the dusk a vision of what might have been an alien being. It was rumply-looking, colorful and seemed to have two large horns. It was sitting on a wall. We got closer and I was able to make out that it was a young female with orange, fuchsia and purple dreadlocks. She had a pair of large knitting needles stuck in the dreadlocks on either side of her head, from which she had suspended skeins of brownish yarn, which hung about her shoulders, and with another set of needles was busy knitting a woolly sweater.

As the train passed by she glanced up, a Technicolor wildebeest, and the handsome rhinoceros in our car looked out the window at the square. For just a moment their eyes met.

In my romantic imagination, violins played.

Though violins might be too bourgeois.

Member Lounge [used with permission]

Venting in a Closed Room

Dale Marisa - 08:48 am Pacific Time - Jul 25, 2004 - #2025 of 2185

Sometimes I think we liberals are much too careful not to hurt other people's feelings. There was an article in the paper today written by Nicholas Kristof from the NYT. In it, he discusses the Left Behind books, in particular the supposed gruesome fate awaiting those who are not "saved", as detailed in these things. I'd heard of this crap before, but what really annoyed me was his statement that "I had reservations about writing this column, because I don't want to mock anyone's religious beliefs." Well, I do. I think this kind of crap is disgusting and immoral and completely revolting, and I don't give a damn if it's somebody's "religion". Just because something is called "religion" does not make it worth venerating or protecting or otherwise valuing. This is unadulterated evil, and it needs to be exposed for what it is, and frankly people who believe it also need to be told that it's evil and that believing it does not make them good people. Some religions, and sects within religions, do no harm. People who wish to believe those things can be left to do so and their beliefs protected, as long as the overarching principle is to be good to others, whether it's called the Golden Rule, the Wiccan Rede, or whatever. Those that demonize others and predict or encourage their destruction should be mocked, reviled, and eliminated. (Note. I said the beliefs should be mocked, reviled and eliminated. Not the people.) Just because somebody claims that their god needs live children thrown into the volcano doesn't mean we should accept that because it's a "religion". And just because somebody claims that they are "Christian" doesn't mean their beliefs should be respected, either.

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