When you realized Palin didn’t know what the Bush doctrine was, you had a moment of panic, right? I mean, even if you settled down after that, please tell me you had a moment where you were like “Oh, my god, she doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
You can respond anonymously, even, if it makes it easier. I’d just like to know that even you saw that and were afraid.
I went over to the house tonight to check out the Butcher’s work and to finish up a few things. He asked me to finish painting my room and to check the kitchen to see if it needs another coat.
So, my room is a lively beautiful blue. I don’t think it needs another coat, but I did touch up some spots. The color in the kitchen is so close to what it was before, except without the ugly green undertone that I hated that in the evening light, I couldn’t tell if it needed another coat, so it didn’t get one.
The den, now dry, is this beautiful darn brown. And the dining room continues to be so beautiful I about can’t stand it. And the living room is lovely. So, I took off all the painter’s tape in those rooms. Oh, and the bathroom, which has turned out very nice.
So, I have a few goals for Saturday:
Um… that’s it.
My evil plot is to lure the Professor out to keep me on track. Which I guess is not that evil.
1. Early Spanish porn stars were a cheerful lot. Everyone, from half-naked nuns using candelabras as dildos to topless book-readers, has the most pleasant smile on his or her face.
2. Men in antique Spanish pornography seem uniformly perplexed but game, as if they just happened to be passing along when all of a sudden a beautiful young maid needed their services and, though they were not sure what might come of it, they were willing to see what happened.
3. They must not have had mosquitoes in pre-Civil War Spain because a lot of folks seemed to spend a lot of time having naked picnics.
4. Okay, there is no four. That’s all I learned.
My boss just invited everyone here and our significant others to a party at his house. The text of the email I just sent him:
Are we limited to one significant other or may we bring as many as we have?
At Qdoba today, someone in line actually said “I wish they’d use English.” I did not look to see if that person was Eric Crafton, but I did have a good laugh to myself standing in line trying to imagine how that would work. Could we still use Spanish words while standing in line? “I’ll have a chicken burrito.” “A chicken big round thing stuffed with rice and other goodies? Would you like black or yucky pale beige beans?” “Oh, wait, no. I want a quesadilla.” “One flat thing stuffed with melty cheese coming right up.”
Okay, maybe that’s funnier in my head.
But then, I come out of Qdoba and this homeless dude with a cast on his arm start hollering “Hey, sweetie, I don’t mean to bother you” across the parking lot as he hones in on walking towards me.
Now, I think most all of you know of my complete impatience and anger at strange men who don’t know me approaching me in public while I am alone and trying to pressure me into giving them money. So, it will not surprise you to learn that when he said “I really don’t mean to bother you, sweetie” (yes, two ‘sweetie’s in about a minute), I glared at him and said, “Then don’t.” and walked away.
Okay, it did surprise me. I’m normally not that brave.
And it surprised him, too, apparently, because he was all “Oh, really?”
Yes, douchebag. Really.
Today, at work, I have to sort through a magazine that says, on the cover, “Las chicas del estanquero.” I have no idea what that means, not being a Spanish speaker.
But on the back it says “Desnudismo Integral” and “Illustraciones de todos los campos desnudistas del mundo” and I’m pretty sure even I can guess that spending my morning flipping through something that promises “Illustraciones” and “desnudistas” is going to rock pretty hard.
In brief:
Comparing John McCain’s economic policies to putting lipstick on a pig? Funny.
Listening to a bunch of people who don’t believe a woman has a right to control her own body weeping and moaning over how Obama called Sarah Palin a pig and isn’t that just so anti-feminist? Funnier.
Obama coming back and clarifying that, no, Palin is the lipstick on McCain’s pig of a campaign? Funniest.
Reminding Sarah Palin that Jesus was a community organizer and Pilate was a governor? Funny.
Watching the TNGOP–a group of folks who bear false witness so often you’d think they were training for it as an Olympic sport–act all outraged that Jesus’s name would even be mentioned in the campaign? Funnier.
Listening to folks actually sit around and discuss who killed Christ and whether you could actually call Jesus a community organizer, as if it has some bearing on the bumper sticker nature of the original comment? Funniest.
Heart saying that it was unintentionally fitting that the McCain campaign would use their song “Barricuda”? Funny.
The McCain Campaign being forced to remove their “lipstick on a pig” ad because CBS told them that their use of Katie Couric’s comment violated their copyright (she was talking about Clinton; the ad made it seem as if she was talking about Palin)? Funnier
The Sarah Palin as Rosie the Riveter buttons?
This remains to be seen. Two things have to be in play for this to be the funniest instance of the McCain campaign’s loose affiliation with a respect for intellectual property rights. One, I’d have to know that these items were being produced and/or officially distributed by the GOP or the campaign. And two, I’d have to hear from either Miller’s estate or Westinghouse that they weren’t asked for permission.
I suspect both of those things are true, because a.) Newscoma is seeing Palin the Riveter buttons and is under the impression that it’s part of a rural GOP strategy. and b.) none of the merchandise I’ve seen of Palin the Riveter carries any kind of copyright information, which it most likely would have to have if permission had been asked and granted.
Depending on the circumstances of the original poster–was it a work for hire or not?–rights belong either to the artist (or his estate) or to Westinghouse. Westinghouse’s intellectual property, interestingly enough, now belongs to CBS. People are selling this merchandise for a profit and to benefit the campaign (which means it’s not a parody). I’m really surprised the owner of that intellectual property isn’t looking for a cut of those profits.
Anyway, two thoughts spring to mind. One, it’s funny that McCain has the support of such prominent country music artists when country music has been so slow to embrace digital technology for fear of theft and here McCain’s campaign is showing every step of the way that it has no respect for intellectual property. Can John Rich not even act in his own self-interest?
But, two, which is funny for me not in a ha-ha way, but in a oh-damn way. Rosie the Riveter is an awesome and powerful symbol. The “We Can Do It” poster is awesome. Rockwell’s painting is moving. And look at this Nashville Rosie working over at Vultee. It’s hard not to look at those women and be inspired. Here were a bunch of women who, when the world needed them, did “man’s work” and helped save the fucking world.
Hell yes. And damn straight.
And even though those women more than proved they were qualified for and could do those jobs. And even though those women did those jobs and did their part to save the world. And even though many of them loved those jobs, liked doing the hard work. Even in the face of all of that, by and large, they didn’t get to keep those jobs. After the war, Rosie was sent home.
Is that what Palin represents? A woman who, no matter how good a job she does, gets sent home so a man can have her job after the crisis has passed?
Maybe so. And, if so, maybe that merchandise is more appropriate than I thought initially.
Tiny Cat Pants 