I gave my son and my daughter pennies to throw in the fountain.
What did you wish for?
I wished Mommy would stay with us Always.
What did you wish for?
I wished that my Mommy was always here.
I’m pretty sure that spot, in front of that fountain, is where my heart broke into a million pieces.
Shattered.
If you go visit, please sweep it up and return it to it’s owner.
Thanks.
(cough…cough cough…)
Excuse me. It’s been a while since I really went off around here and I needed to clear my throat a bit.
Conservative blogs are an interesting place. There is the usual punditry and ranting. The occasional valid point. The passing off-color remark.
And the times where you drop in on a conservative blog and wonder if they think no one is looking.
Over at Townhall.com, Burt Prelutsky wrote a nifty little post. You can read what it originally said at Free Republic, before Townhall did some editing. I’ll let you go ahead and guess which one of the MANY offensive lines was scrubbed:
“It’s not just the politicians, but also their mates, so long as they’re Democrats, who get the star treatment. Take Michelle Obama…please. Every time I turn around, there she is on a magazine cover. Now, normally, like the Mafia, I lay off the spouses, but inasmuch as this particular spouse attended the same racist church as her hubby for 20 years, I’ll make an exception in her case. After all, in spite of the fact that affirmative action got her an Ivy League degree and a $7,000-a-week salary and, moreover, has sent billions of dollars for no particularly good reason to Africa, she insists this is a mean country. The burning question in my circle is: if the First Family gets a female dog, will she be the First Bitch or will she have to settle for second place?
Naturally, the left-wing media is now trying to convince us that this James Brown-look-alike has all the allure, glamour and fashion sense of Jackie Kennedy. I have even heard her upper arms described in the sort of language Wordsworth devoted to flowers in the morning dew and that Keats lavished on nightingales. Frankly, if I were Mrs. Obama and the geeks started rhapsodizing about my triceps, I might consider wearing sleeves.”
Townhall.com calls itself “the #1 conservative website. Townhall.com pulls together political commentary and analysis from over 100 leading columnists and opinion leaders, research from 100 partner organizations, conservative talk-radio and a community of millions of grassroots conservatives….As a part of Salem Communications Corporation, Townhall.com features Salem’s News/Talk radio hosts, Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, and Dennis Prager, who are heard on over 300 stations nationwide. Of our five hosts, three are among the top 10 radio talk shows in the nation! Salem Communications is the leading US radio and Internet broadcaster reaching audiences interested in Christian and family-themed content and conservative values.”
Now let’s go ahead and read what Mr. Prelutsky wrote one more time…
“The burning question in my circle is: if the First Family gets a female dog, will she be the First Bitch or will she have to settle for second place?”
and
“… the left-wing media is now trying to convince us that this James Brown-look-alike has all the allure, glamour and fashion sense of Jackie Kennedy.”
I’m going to let that just hang there for a second.
Stew on it. Roll it around in your head for a minute.
…
Now. Very clearly and with no misunderstanding, I’d like to see all those “feminist” conservative women rise up. Those “Sarah Palin suffered so much sexism” women who were appalled during the election. Those “women can raise a family and run for office” conservative mothers and sisters and aunts and daughter and granddaughters.
I’m waiting.
Just as the progressive blogosphere called out sexism against Palin, and Clinton…and everyone before and in between..it’s now your turn to defend the First the Lady of the United States of America.
We did it against Chris Matthews…someone you would call a liberal, right? So surely you can handle a townhall.com guy.
I’m asking you plainly…are you in this fight only for those of your kind? Only for sexism against conservative women? Or are you in it for real? Was it all a show?
And it’s not just the conservative “women’s rights” activists I’m calling out.
Feminists of the earlier era..the ones very upset about the way Hillary Clinton was treated. Where are your voices to condemn the rhetoric being thrown at Michelle Obama?
Did you hear Tammy Bruce call her “trash” today? Do you care?
Let’s see it. Now’s your chance.
I had a very stark reminder tonight about how different we all are.
As my husband and I celebrated the addition of another Academy Award to his resume, I remarked online how nice it was to hear so many of the acceptance speeches include thanks to wives and kids.
I’m a wife. I have kids. I notice these things.
Of course the internet being what it is, it didn’t take long before a very snarky comment was thrown my way by a conservative– “Yeah, they are such role models for family values.”
And I suddenly remembered what I had clearly blacked out since November 4th:
Many people in this country don’t believe my family has values. They can’t comprehend my family is “good” or “virtuous.” It’s incomprehensible to them that we are decent Americans.
We live in that scary place called California. My husband works for that really pornographic and satan-filled industry called “Hollywood” and OMG I have one hell of a mouth. Clearly we can’t be normal, good, decent human beings.
Nearly half of America still believes this way. They are shocked we raise children and teach them of love and kindness. They don’t know how to behave when I tell them I cooked dinner last night, and the kids cleared the dishes. That we attended a charity function. That we help our neighbors that we contribute to our community. That yes…we are actually GOOD people.
I suppose it serves me right to a degree to be stereotyped. It’s much easier for me to think of the right wing as some religious extremists idiots who believe in fairy tales instead of science. But alas, it’s not that simple is it? As much as I LOVE sweeping generalizations about the morons of the GOP and their equality hating ways, we all know they all don’t fit into that picture I try, myself, to paint.
Even in my anger, I have conceded time and time again that…ok, fine…not all Republicans are stupid. And not all religions teach hate. And don’t think it doesn’t pain me to have to concede this fact, time and time again.
So I think it’s time to shed some light on the other side of the coin. That now rather angry and defeated segment of America still stinging from their loss in November. Still trying so very hard to hate their President. Still hell bent on believing we’re all evil, indecent, NONfamily loving liberals out to destroy their churches and their way of life.
They quip that it’s laughable those accepting awards on a stage in California could possibly love or value their families enough to thank them. To mention them. To even remotely care about their loved ones.
Well tonight that quip went directly to a family involved with those on stage. Who know FULL WELL their kindness, their love for their families, and their humanity. Who sat with family to watch as our livelihood -you know that pesky economy thing you keep talking about- had an industry celebration.
Yes as the Right mocked the “self important Left” for fawning over “actors” …the Left is here, calling out many of the smug and self-righteous Right. Who seem to think their virtues are better, and more pure. Who seem to think they are more decent, and they are living the life of Saints as we wallow in sin.
I almost feel sad that you miss the humanness of a family- any family, not just those you think are good. That you assume we’re out cheating on our taxes, robbing banks, teaching our kids to fight and hurt others. You condemn GOOD families because they are different than yours. Because in your mind, they can’t possibly be anything but wrong, or evil. They can’t be anything but unnatural because they don’t work the same way YOUR family does.
Yes, I do feel sad. I feel sad because when I meet you- sure I have my own assumptions- but they never include that you don’t care for your loved ones as I do mine. I might question your motives and I might question your sanity, but I can’t possibly question your family. Sure, I find it odd. Sure I find it unnatural. Sure I’d never do it the way you do…but I’d never assume you weren’t capable of thinking of your family during a celebration.
That how foreign this concept of “liberals are good people” actually is to many in on the Right. They can’t even comprehend that we have families or values.
Newsflash: Conservatives don’t own the rights to good, decent, loving families.
Newsflash: Liberals love their wives and spouses and partners and children too.
Newsflash: Kindness and generosity are NOT conservative values, they are HUMAN values. Just like you don’t want the GLBT community owning the rights to the Rainbow…YOU don’t get to own the rights to FAMILY.
So how about we move forward from here. I’ll do my best to not assume you’re all uneducated, backwood, anti-science, anti-common sense, tank-loving, sexist, homophobes…and you do your best to not assume we’re all coke-sniffing, baby-killing, irresponsible whores….
Sound good?
crossposted at blogher.com
Valentine’s Day has always been a bit of a tense joke in our house. You see after nearly 9 years of marriage and those many years of dating before hand- Valentine’s Day has always, without question, sucked.
It’s been known since our very first V-Day in 1997, after a year of dating, as “the day we fight and eat Italian Food.”
My husband tells the story of our first Valentine’s Day as “that time I took you to that super nice Italian restaurant in Orlando and you wouldn’t stop interrupting me so I stopped talking.”
I tell the story as “that time you ruined our special night out because you told me you didn’t ever want to get married or have kids.”
Sucker.
Anyway, every single year since that first fateful holiday we’ve gotten Italian food and fought. Every. Single. Year. Even the years I was pregnant and stuck in bed, we’ve had Italian food. Even the years one of us was at work, we had Italian carry out on an office floor. Even the years we’ve forgotten it was even a holiday, we’ve ended up with some sort of pasta and red sauce and wine.
Call it tradition. Call it “Erin has ridiculous, romantic expectations.” Call it my yearly disappointment.
Actually, I take that back. It USED to be my yearly disappointment. When my husband, very unceremoniously, announced he wasn’t going to participate in that “Stupid, fake, Hallmark Holiday” and never buy me a gift I was pretty pissed off. No presents? What the hell? Not even some flowers? Jerk. And every year I would brood and pout and more than likely instigate the fight that would inevitably follow the eggplant parm.
But as time went on, I recognized something almost sweet in our little tradition. Just that fact that we HAD a tradition was a meaningful way to celebrate the hoilday. And we did it in our own way…every year we get Italian food and every year we laugh about that first horrible V-Day and every year we end up fighting all over again.
It’s almost cute. It’s almost romantic. It’s certainly a married couple’s Valentine’s Day.
What are your Valentine traditions? Do you have any? Do you have those expectations like I always do of candy and roses?
I can’t be the only one.
For some more Valentine’s fun check out
Contributing Editor Erin Kotecki Vest also blogs at Queen of Spain Blog
I’ve admittedly been lazy about this. Annoyed but not feeling the need to scream and yell.
However Glennia and Belinda reminded me that sometimes the only way to tell someone to #suckit, is with your wallet.
Queen of Spain blog will no longer be a Go Daddy domain. My blog has up and moved. #suckit, Go Daddy.
Thanks to Jeremy Tanner for the help.
I have a boob issue.
Or not.
It’s still unclear.
So today I wore the wrong outfit to a breast specialist and waited my turn to see Dr. S. in a room filled with cancer patients. They made me feel humble and grateful and scared all at once.
My turn came soon enough and I did as I was instructed: I took off everything on top (leaving only my black leggings on bottom…an ill fitting pair at that) and put on a very short, very pink, very papery gown.
Let’s stop and think about that for a second…mental picture, if you will. Erin with a pair of too tight leggings with fat rolling over sides, sitting on a table where her hips are spread in said leggings and belly crunched, where a not so hawt pink paper gown barely touches the bottom of her bulging belly button.
Oh, it was sexy let me tell you.
Anyway…
Dr. S. entered to see me in all my pink and black glory, asked me a few questions, felt my tits, gave me instructions, then walked out the door by saying “Ok then, DOLL, I’ll see you next week.”
The man just felt me up, called me “Doll” and walked out.
I visably scoweled and squinched my face when he said it…and he left in an awkward rush.
This is going to make for a really uncomfy second appointment. Or maybe not. Because like many things, this may just be an issue to me and it may be on my mind and he may not have even REALLY noticed and hasn’t given it a second thought. Or a first.
Either way, next week I’d like dinner and a movie first.
