The Bananaverse

Since I know posts fall off Craigslist after awhile, I wanted to preserve this before it was gone forever.

Ten Reasons Gays Shouldn’t Marry

10. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control.

9. Heterosexual marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are property, blacks can’t marry whites, and divorce is illegal.

8. Gay marriage should be decided by the people, not the courts, because majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of the minorities.

7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.

6. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

5. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why single parents are forbidden to raise children.

4. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven’t adapted to things like cars or longer life spans.

3. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people can’t legally get married because the world needs more children.

2. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a “seperate but equal” institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages for gays and lesbians will.

1. Obviously, gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

And if that wasn’t enough, Westboro Baptist Church (they do not get a link from me, they are behind the God Hates Fags site) came to Portland today and had themselves a good old fashioned protest. Clearly they did not realize that Portland is a protest town and we come correct for this stuff. See some photos taken by The One True B!x of their cute little attempt at stirring up support here. It isn’t often I say this proudly: We’re a buncha liberal hippies in PDX, and us treehuggers tend to be gayhuggers too so it’s adorable that you tried, but given your failure here I hope you go home and stay there.

OK seriously it’s the best I could do. We keep having these and I’m going to need to keep posting with goofy titles.

This time I was there in one small capacity: Sponsor Entourage. Initech has sponsored every single Ignite event thus far, which is cool. So this time all I had to do was show up early as part of the cow-orker carpool and that was fantastic! Plus, Teh Scoot and I got a new video camera That Very Day which was shipped to my office so I got to try it out on unsuspecting presenters. Here are my thoughts in no particular order:

* YAY sponsor video! It’s so much faster and I liked the interstitial graphics and some of the videos were creative and fun. However this is a missed opportunity for geeks to scream their fool heads off in appreciation of The Silicon Florist, one Mister Rick Turoczy himself. While that bit is disappointing I think sponsor vids are generally fab.

* YAY audience! I saw a TON of people I didn’t recognize at all and that was awesome. I also saw people I knew or recognized who were hanging with other people I didn’t know. Not that I am some sort of social director or anything but it is fantastic to see that such a cross section of folks show up to Ignite since it started as a pretty geeky event. I love love love that it is not another Tweetup. (:

* BOO audience! Shut up. I know you got in free. I know you have been drinking beer since whenever you started drinking beer. But please. Shut. Up. I asked nicely and got nowhere. Don’t make me suggest to the organizers that we need ushers or drink limits to keep loud idiots like you from effing it up for everybody else.

* YAY organizers! I love that this event comes together the way it does, and useful feedback (read: not just people bitching) is always taken to heart. I love that there is a ticket system, and that showing it on your phone (i or otherwise) will get you in. I love that we are a community such that tickets are needed. I love that when I was the volunteer coordinator for #3 my experience was awesome.

* YAY volunteers! Organize all you want but it doesn’t do you any good if you have no backup and volunteers are all about having your back. Especially in Portland, I love that we have so many volunteers to help out. It’s so nice to know that if I’m hoping to have some sort of event where I need bodies it will totally happen. We are helpful and that is awesome.

* YAY Bagdad! They sort of volunteer for this too, but the staff is phenomenal and they put up with a full house just for us and I want to make sure they get appreciated for it. I know they don’t do it for free but they could make it a really painful experience if they wanted to and they totally don’t. It’s awesome!

* YAY speakers! It is awesome that we have people willing to talk about The Ten Commandments (of Karaoke), or How to bluff (by my wonderful friend Cami Kaos). I even discovered What Portland can learn from Kentucky. Which was awesome, I might add. It is amazing that we have people willing to get up in front of a Bagdad full of people and talk about whatever it is with slides for five minutes.

* YAY Twitter! You knew I’d get here eventually right? Just because I didn’t know everybody doesn’t mean I didn’t give or get hellos from a LOT of people. I forget how many people I actually do know or am at least acquainted with until I go someplace like Ignite and I’m there with cow-orkers who don’t know any of these people. From that point of view I do kind of look like I know everybody. (: Plus it was a couple of fateful tweets about Ignite Seattle that created the one we have! (And in case you didn’t know, we were on the Twitter trends list!)

* YAY community! I got to say hi to people and wave to more and cheer for presenters I knew and it was a really really good time. Plus someone said to me, and I quote, “That’s just reason 101 why you rock!” which made my day. I love that Portland turns out like this for events like this. We rule! This is why I love living here.

I won’t even go into the afterparty we had at the Spaceroom where Miss Cami and I had two glasses of punch and decided our husbands, who share the common quality of quietly tolerating their wives and their rampant geekery, should TOTALLY hang out. And that we managed to get the Silicon Florist himself to take a great chinposin avatar picture and even though I had to go home and wash my hair (nosmoking January can’t come soon enough!) I had a great time. I can’t wait for Five!

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the twelfth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Stolen Earth. From the site: Earth’s greatest heroes assemble, to fight the New Dalek Empire. But a fearsome old enemy waits in the shadows…
(more…)

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the eleventh episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called Turn Left. From the site: As Donna’s world collapses, she finds help from a mysterious blonde woman - but can Donna and Rose stop the approaching Darkness?
(more…)

I have to say a bunch of things on my mind right now. So here they are:

* This does not mean we are not a racist country. This does not mean there are not more people who will take a shot (literally) at him. People who are Americans.

* This does not mean we are finished. Not by a damn sight. If you made calls for Obama (as an official volunteer or using the iPhone app) you need to keep doing that sort of thing.

* This does not mean things will be immediately better. You heard the man himself say so: It may take MORE THAN A TERM to really set things right again.

* This is the first step in a long long journey to restoring the world’s faith in us and our reputation. Do not think for one second that President Obama automatically gives us back our cred.

* This is the time to knock off the cynicsm. Stop acting like you can’t make a difference. Clearly you can. And you have. Now that you get a crack at this don’t screw it up. Trying to RE-do something is always harder than doing it in the first place.

* This is the time to remember. Hit that little “Record” in your brain and try to capture this night. How it feels, how YOU feel, how you were part of it, what you did to help this night happen (hint: YOU VOTED. R or D or I or whatever, it doesn’t matter as long as it was a vote. If you didn’t, leave this blog immediately.). I know most elections aren’t really of this magnitude, but you were part of the process and that is always a good thing.

* This is NOT the time to stop. Winning the election was not the finish.

* This is HUGE for America. Whoever you voted for, please support the new guy until you have a reason not to. When John Wayne heard that JFK won he said “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.” Let’s try to keep that in mind, ok?

* This is the perfect time to remember what the new guy has said all along: There are no red states or blue states, just the UNITED States of America.

I do some of these things already. Here’s a list of things I do now to be part of the process:

* Subscribe to Megavote. I can keep up on how my Senators/Reps vote VIA EMAIL.

* Contact people! Congress.org has a spot there on the left where you can enter your zip code and find your Congressional folks. Get ahold of them and tell them what you think! You can also check out places like True Majority and MoveOn.org to find out about issues being discussed or voted on and sometimes it’s as easy as replying to an email to get your name listed as supporting or opposing a particular issue. And you have a cell phone right? You probably aren’t using EVERY space for contacts. Put your Congresspeeps in there and tell them what you think.

* Get informed. I know I’m lefty but watch Rachel Maddow once in awhile even if you aren’t. She’s not a shouter, she LOVES talking policy, and never makes personal attacks on those who disagree with her. She loves to be engaged and in total disagreement with someone. I think you’ll like it. She’s fun to watch and there are a fair number of people watching her who probably don’t necessarily agree with all her views but watch anyway. Try it!

* Admit you’re wrong. It happens. Stop forwarding crazy emails even if they support your point of view, quit repeating things you aren’t absolutely certain are true, and mostly STOP running around saying something to people SIMPLY because CNN or Fox or MSNBC told you to. Come to your own conclusion and use that quote to back you up. (:

* Don’t gloat. Quit feeling superior, stop being smug, knock off all the superior nonsense. We are still pretty majorly buggered, and that’s not going to change just because we elected him. We gotta help him get it done.

I may add to this later when I am awake. But for now, check those out and if I missed anything please let me know.

I live in Oregon (in case you weren’t sure). Here we are in the midst of our SUPER FANTASTIC vote by mail process, and it is so the nicest thing. I remember waiting patiently at the Grange Hall for my mom to vote, and really I like this idea better. Or at least I did until this time around.

Here in Oregon we have two candidates for a Senate seat: Gordon Smith who holds the seat now, and his challenger, Jeff Merkley. This is my attempt to work out some of my conflict over who to vote for.

Gordon Smith Pros:
* From Pendleton
(He lives near my mom, actually. I like the perspective this gives him. As someone from ‘out east’ he has a point of view that Portlanders don’t have.)
* Sits on several Committees/Subcommittees (Ranking Minority Member on at least 1)
(Do you know how long it takes to become someone with enough power to get on a committee? It’s a LONG time. And it gives us visibility.)
* Has deviated from Party Lockstep ™ from time to time
(This matters to me because it means he has a stance of his own. NOBODY should ever march in complete lockstep all the time. Thinking for yourself FTW!)

Gordon Smith Cons:
* Republican
(We all know what this means. There are some larger issues I disagree with him on.)
* Fudging a bit on the “pro gay” issue
(He says he’s all gay friendly or whatever, but he’d vote FOR a Constitutional ban on gay marriage and that’s wrong in like 8 different ways. He just helped pass hate crime laws. Good, certainly, but not enough IMO.)
* Helped Trent Lott maintain Minority Whip position
(Trent #$@ * Anti-abortion stance
(I can't call it pro-life, I just can't. He thinks it is wrong and I can't get behind that.)
* Pro Broadcast Flag
(Kind of a big deal really. This matters to me a LOT.)
* Running sleaziest/most negative campaign ads on TV (except maybe Merkley’s)
(Seriously. They are SO bad!!)

Jeff Merkley Pros:
* Democrat
(So we agree on some of the bigger stuff.)
* Unanimously elected to Oregon’s Speaker Of The House position
(In Oregon I’m pretty sure a unanimous anything is a big frigging deal.)
* Director of Habitat For Humanity’s Portland chapter
(This is good. I like that he’s done something that helps other people.)
* Pro “gay marriage”
(I use quotes because it should just be “marriage” and it should be for everybody. He agrees.)

Jeff Merkley Cons:
* Took away my Sudafed
(HUGE red flag for me. Sudafed is prescription only in Oregon now, and one of the biggest tines on the VOTE YES fork was “who, pray who, will think of the children!?” and it bugs me when someone is swayed by that. We still have a lot of meth, btw.)
* Claims he “grew up in a mill town” but graduated from a Portland HS
(I don’t get this. Why would his ad say it? It was super easy for me to determine this was hooey. They moved to Portland after FIRST GRADE. That barely even counts as living in the wilderness! I graduated high school from a teeny town where I spent my whole life. That’s a huge difference, Jeff.)
* Increased school FUNDING, but not school ACCOUNTABILITY for funding.
(If someone says they need ten dollars and you give it to them and a week later they need ten more, how many times do you give it before going “what are you doing with all that cash?” This is what already aggravates me about school funding.)
* Running sleaziest/most negative campaign ads on TV (except maybe Smith’s)
(Seriously. They are SO bad!!)

So while it would be nice to have Smith’s experience and committee seats, knowing that Merkley could possibly help the Senate hit the filibuster proof 60 votes would also be really nice.

If you know something I should be considering, or if I’m mistaken on something already in this list, please let me know. Thank you!

I like Japanese nonsense, and this is one of my favorites. All Kasugai snacks say something on them that ends with “And You”. Now on to the actual post:

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve rejiggered the sidebar over there. I did it to add two cool things to my sidebar: One is the Google gadget I titled “get your vote on” that gives you voter registration information no matter where you are (just feed it your city and state), and one is the bit underneath it titled “call your congressman” where you enter your zip code* and it tells you who your Congressional representatives are so you can get ahold of them and give them the what-for. It’s what they’re for, so don’t be shy!

If you want even MORE information about Congressional goings-on you can sign up for the newsletter offered by Congress.org called MegaVote and this one I like because it’s low traffic (once a week or so) and packed full of info. You tell it where you are and when bills are voted on it tells you how your representatives voted. I like this because I have every one of my reps in my phone and I call them and tell them how I feel about this or that, and then I check that against how MegaVote says they actually voted and then I follow up and either thank them for voting how I wanted or tell them I’m disappointed they didn’t vote how I wanted. For me that’s the good bit, the followup. It lets them know someone is paying attention, whether you agreed with them or not. I am not as good at this as I want to be, but I do a lot more of it than most people do (according to my informal statistics).

So check it out! Get involved! We need you more than ever. If you aren’t sure about some of the voting basics (hey, it happens, I’m sure there are a LOT of Americans whose only voting experience is calling in to American Idol) you can check out the FAQ at Declare Yourself. If you already know and you’re political to begin with you might want to take that act on the road. The Great Schlep is trying to get everyone to visit their retired Jewish grandparents in Florida so they know the issues and know how important the whole voting thing is for you. If the facts don’t seem so factual and you want to see if what one guy said about the other guy was true, your best bet is probably FactCheck dot org since they are nonprofit and nonpartisan (no really they are, not like the airquote fair and balanced of some news organizations), so they gain nothing by being honest. They come down on the side of facts, not the side of corporations or moral outrage or whatever else.

If I am missing a political resource that you find particularly handy, add it in the comments. I don’t want to leave anyone out!

*I want to make the results on call your congressman appear in a box below it like the Google gadget does. If you have any insight into this process and can help me make it work I will buy you a beer at the next Beer and Blog or a bacony treat of your choice.

Last week I had a lot of crappy days. All kinds of bad stuff happened, and normally I would have considered it a very VERY bad week.

It wasn’t.

My attitude was fine. I just kept coming home in a good mood, sounding almost chipper as I related that day’s tragedies to Mister Fishbones. I felt really weird about it and then I finally figured out why I felt so upbeat.

I had a chiropractic appointment, a massage appointment, and a friendly get together during the week. Since the get together was friendly, I was hugged a lot, and obviously getting cracked and kneaded meant there was laying on of hands (and elbows and whatever else).

I was supposed to be having a miserable week and it just didn’t happen because I had a whole lot of physical contact, and all of it was pleasant so it totally cheered me up. My fundamental outlook wasn’t bad at all, even though things were showing obvious signs of coming apart.

So if you are having a really bad week, or just a crummy day, find someone willing and get a hug. Or have your sweetie hold your hand awhile or whatever. Just get to touching already!

I like to think that I can reach out and “touch” people on the interwebs with my blog, or on Twitter, or through IM or what have you, and to some extent that’s true. But to really get the full range of human interaction you have got to drop those quotes and actually touch people.

If you are reading this when it’s posted, GO TO BED! It is late. Get some snuggles in before your sweetie is completely asleep. If you read this when it isn’t bedtime, find someone today who needs a hug* and hug them. It’s win-win, really.

*I would prefer you were trying to hug people you know. Look where trying to just give hugs away will get you:

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the tenth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called Midnight. From the site: The Doctor is trapped, powerless and terrified, on the planet Midnight, as the knocking on the wall begins…
(more…)

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the ninth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called Forest Of The Dead. From the site: As the shadows rise, the Doctor forges an alliance with the mysterious River Song. But can anyone stop the Vashta Nerada?
(more…)

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the eighth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called Silence In The Library. From the site: The Doctor and Donna enter a world of terror inside an abandoned library. They’re given only one warning: ‘Count the shadows’.
(more…)

In my last post I briefly mentioned at the bottom that John McCain can’t send an email. Since his campaign does not deny it, I am going to presume it true.

You know what really grinds my gears? (Or as The Ambassador would prefer me to call it, You Wanna Know Why? I’ll TELL You Why!) Here it is: McCain’s campaign is having like six different varieties of cows over Obama QUOTING MCCAIN. What’s their excuse? “Oh you shouldn’t be mean he can’t type because he is a POW are YOU a POW too Obama then you can’t say anything you are a mean jerky head and YOU ARE NOT READY TO LEAD! VOTE MCCAIN! CHANGE 08!!!” and so on.

Guess what? BULLSHIT. (Sorry Mom, if you read this, but it is.) I have a friend who is deaf. She plays video games and she’s on Twitter and has a computer and does all kinds of things effectively. I used to know someone who had a degenerative eye condition and she kept a blog and used instant messenger and SENT EMAIL and did all kinds of things. With her computer, no less. So that means a deaf person AND a blind person both use their computers successfully. I know there are people with other sorts of handicaps as well who get around that pesky keyboard issue JUST FRIGGING FINE thank you very much. Some people have a computer as their only means of communication with the rest of the world. It certainly doesn’t stop them. So why is it stopping John McCain? You’re going to have to try a little harder than “it hurts when I type” because NaturallySpeaking is one such bit of software that allows you to talk to your computer to control it. It’s easy to use and would allow people who are unable to use a keyboard, for example, to be able to control the computer with their voice. I am not shilling for them, I just know they are one of the more popular software packages with this capability. So learn to talk to your computer and then you can send email with the best of them!

Here’s the thing: My great aunt was older than Senator McCain when she passed away. She had email and went to websites and was capable of all of this without getting someone to do it for her. My mom can run a spell check competently, and I have an aunt who is set up with her own gMail address now. I used my mom as a test case at a startup I used to work at. I would look at different UI elements and complain to engineers: You guys, my mom will never find this button. Can we put it at the top? Because we had decided everybody’s mom should be able to use this software, so she was my example. Also she lives in Eastern Oregon in a town of about 15,000 people. They have one “nice” restaurant in town, a couple of Mexican food places, and I think one Chinese place. It’s not the biggest place nor is it central to anything, so when my mom asks me about things (what is this Twitter I heard about?”) I can pretty much presume they’ve been around. My mom totally knows how to get her machine to check email, what her homepage is, and how to report spam. These are BASIC skills.

I am not saying McCain’s service to our country is useless or stupid. However that service does not entitle him to the Presidency. This seems to be his belief and I disagree. This is America and I am well within my rights (at least for now) to do so. I think Obama was well within the bounds of a “clean campaign” to point out that McCain doesn’t know how to send an email. It is yet another startling contrast between the candidates, and I think a valid thing to point out. My issue lies entirely at the feet of Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager. He is allowing this campaign to make McCain out to be a victim of his handicap and if someone wants to be The Leader Of The Free World they’d damn well better act like it and not let a little thing like “typing hurts” turn into the big issue of the day.

I would also like to point out, while I still have on my PunditPants(tm)*, that Karl Rove is absolutely the last guy on earth who gets to piss and moan about being taken out of context. Bitch all you want, turd blossom, the part you don’t seem to get is that I learned it by watching you.

*I have no actual graphic for PunditPants(tm), but I am accepting submissions. For now this photo will do since I only wear my PunditPants(tm) for blogging:

(Or: The Day Banana Lee Stayed Home and Accidentally Watched Hardball.)

At the very end of Hardball today with these two particular guests on (whose names escape me at the moment) Chris Matthews asked, “You know, every candidate for President in our lifetime has had a very succinct message if he won the Presidency: ‘Get this country moving again’, Jack Kennedy, ‘It’s the Economy stupid’, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’, I can’t think of the line from Obama yet.”

Buchanan (OMG yes THAT Pat Buchanan*): We can’t stand four more years of what we’ve had for the last eight years?
Matthews: Do you feel like four more years of this!? That’s what I’d say.

(he goes on)

“All I know is I’d go to the numbers…every time the Senator from Arizona spoke, I’d say let me read those numbers to you John McCain, you got a tough act to defend here, and you gotta defend it because you’re the republican candidate that’s why you’re standing here. You got an unemployment rate that’s spiking, you got a debt that’s growing, you’ve got a surplus that’s disappeared into a deficit and you’ve got gas prices at four bucks, your side has BLOWN IT, don’t ask for four more years.”

To which I say AMEN! I don’t want Obama to go out and say terrible things about McCain (and while he doesn’t know how to send email is TOTALLY TRUE it is one that they are crying foul about), but I want him to go out and speak truth to power as it were. If repeating “I said thanks but no thanks to that bridge to nowhere” over and over is going to make it true, then why not repeat things over and over that ACTUALLY are true? I wonder how well THAT would go over. How do you beat him up over things that are TOTALLY accurate? More “sex ed to kindergarteners” nonsense? Even KARL ROVE said your campaign is a little out of line.

*Not only is it THAT Pat Buchanan but that link is to his blog. McCain can’t send an email, but Pat Buchanan has a blog (E I E I O).

Once again, nobody asked ME if it was a good idea. If anyone had bothered to say “Hey there Banana Lee, you come from a place with colorful language. You can still say ‘lipstick on a pig’, right?”

Because, you see, if they had, I could have said “Oh, no no no. Don’t do it. You will have nothing but heartache. Someone will misquote you and use it to drum up outrage against whatever you represent. They’ll gladly strip you of context and try to work people up about you criticizing something you never criticized at all.”

And they would have listened to that answer and said “My goodness Banana Lee, you certainly sound like someone who’s been there. Is this your area of expertise?”

To which my reply would only be, “Why, yes. As a matter of fact, it is.”*

*Seriously, I got misquoted about lipstick on a pig myself. It was stupid then and it’s stupider now.

Cliff Richard, who’s been making music for FIFTY years, is coming out with a book and a box set. I like some of his songs, and happened across an article talking about his book and how he refers to his “companion”. I presume they mean partner or boyfriend or husband or something like that, it sounds like he’s a bit more than a roommate. I don’t care though. Neither does he. From the book:

“I think the Church must come round and see people as they are now. Gone are the days when we assumed loving relationships would be solely between men and women. It seems to me that commitment is the issue, and if anyone comes to me and says: ‘This is my partner; we are committed to each other’, then I don’t care what their sexuality is. I’m not going to judge; I’ll leave that to God.”

And to that I say AMEN! This is line I referred to in the subject. Who are you to stand in judgment of someone’s personal decisions? Isn’t the whole point of things like Christianity that you are to stand in judgment after you die and that’s when you find out if you chose correctly during life? (Mormons was the correct answer.) Because, you know, when I went to church I remember the lesson being “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” But then I haven’t set foot in a church of any sort for full mass in a long LONG time so my memory might be fuzzy.

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the seventh episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Unicorn And The Wasp. From the site: In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 10 days. Was it amnesia? A nervous breakdown? Or a Giant Alien Wasp..?
(more…)

I am a little biased, since she did guest host for my man Keith and I love that show. So I wanted her to do well because when she does his show I like her. She’s smart and funny, and I like to know what she has to say about things. I also like her because she is making her way even though she’s not Barbie which means she basically has to be twice as smart as all the boys to do half as well. Oh I was born and bred an NBC news girl but come ON, tv news is not a place where good girls go. Y’know?

So when I heard Rachel was gonna get her own show I was very pleased for her. She does a great job on Olbermann so I was looking forward to seeing how she handled things on her own. I was also looking forward to seeing what her show ended up being since she does fine wtih Keith’s format but when it’s HER name on the title, what will it look like? So tonight I got a chance to see.

I like her show! Right now it’s a fair amount of campaign coverage, so I also want to see how her show evolves when the campaign is over. But for now it’s campaign coverage and then some time with Pat Buchanan and some guy who “gives me enough pop culture knowledge so I can be allowed out in public”. I liked that part because they touched on Britney and he said “I have more if you want it…” and Rachel said “No, I’m good.”

So here’s the show:
I like Rachel. She asked some interesting questions of all her guests who actually weren’t the Keithy usuals.
I liked that she had “my fake uncle Pat” (Buchanan) on, and that she stood up to him on some things. It was fun to watch civil disagreement instead of just shouting. What a switch!
I liked the pop culture bit and it was a brief snarky thing that was a nice change of pace from politics.
I felt like they were trying to show that Rachel could do it on her own, but I also think she really shines when she gets to put the hard questions to guests, so I would like to have more back and forth.
I think this could do well for a number of reasons. I like that she’s a girl but I don’t watch JUST for that, it’s bonus. (grumble McCain playing me grumble) I will save the politics for a different post. But I wanted to say that Rachel’s show is interesting and fun and I think she gives me a different enough perspective from Keith that I can watch two shows for a nice perspective and get info from another source.

Believe you me I have so much to say on politics lately that I barely know what to do with myself. I need a good outlet for all that political opinionating and pontificating. Maybe I’ll find one, you just never know. (:

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the sixth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Doctor’s Daughter. From the site: On the planet Messaline, in the middle of an endless war, the Doctor meets the most important woman of his life.
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I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the fifth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Poison Sky. From the site: As the Sontarans choke the Earth, the Doctor battles to keep both Martha and Donna alive.
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I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the fourth episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Sontaran Stratagem (first of a two-parter). From the site: Martha Jones summons the Doctor back to modern-day Earth, but an old enemy lies in wait.
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