Ever been in a situation where you were in way over your head, no matter what you did you just kept going under until finally you desperately wanted to just be done with it already? That was me in my interview yesterday. Seriously it was as if I was interviewing for a completely different job than the one I interviewed for on the first go round. So we'll just say we've still got our feelers on and are still looking---only problem is there ain't a whole hell of a lot out there, even less than before.

Hard times, hard times.

Signs you can tell it's Autumn in Portland

1. Cornfield Maze on Sauvie Island is open for business.

2. Weather forecast calls for high temperatures no warmer than the low 70's for the entire week.

3. Everyone is either talking about the Ducks' or Beavers' games.

4. Rufus refuses to go outside to go potty because the deck is wet with rain.

5. The top is back on my Jeep.

It's all about choice.

I read this article from Dan Savage and I just gotta post it. Because this shit matters and he's summed up what I've been thinking...

The 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, the GOP's vice-presidential nominee, is pregnant. The news was released by the McCain campaign during a busy news week—a major hurricane, the Republican National Convention, Dick Cheney getting us into a war with Russia—so it may not have received the coverage it deserved. So allow me to bring you up to date, gentle readers...

Seventeen-year-old Bristol Palin got her ass knocked up five or so months ago by 18-year-old Levi Johnston. Among the hobbies listed on Levi's since-yanked MySpace page—"fishing, shoot some shit, and just fuckin' chillin'"—was this revealing tidbit: "I don't want kids." But Bristol, says her mom, "made the decision on her own to keep the baby," and is now engaged to Levi "Shootin' Shit" Johnston.

As the adoptive parent of a child born to a pair of unwed teenagers, I'm certainly not in favor of abortion in all circumstances. But I believe that it's a choice teenagers should be able to make for themselves—with input from their families whenever possible—and, so it seems, does the GOP's VP nominee. Sarah Palin is pleased that her daughter made the decision—on her own—to keep the baby.

But Sarah Palin doesn't believe that other girls should be able to make their own decisions. Sarah Palin believes abortion should be illegal in almost every instance—including rape and incest. So Bristol Palin is being celebrated for making a choice that Sarah Palin would like to take away from all other American women. Apparently, today's GOP believes that choice is a special right reserved for the wayward daughters of Republican elected officials.

Oh, and Sarah Palin also believes that birth control shouldn't be made available to teenagers, she opposes medically accurate sex education, and she backs abstinence-until-marriage sex "education."

Sigh.

The GOP has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into abstinence "education" programs during the Bush years. I believe this enormous investment of public funds begs the obvious question: Are our children abstaining? Sarah Palin's aren't. Despite this massive outlay on the part of the American taxpayer and the example set by her Christian parents, Bristol Palin became sexually active while still in high school. Excuse me, but if abstinence education can't keep the daughter of the evangelical governor of Alaska off the cock, what hope is there for the daughters—and some of the sons—of average Americans?

I'm a cad for even writing this, of course, because shortly before Bristol and Levi were paraded before cheering throngs at the Republican National Convention, the Palins asked the media to respect their daughter's privacy.

Another special right: When it comes to respecting your family's privacy, Palin and the GOP see no need. They want to micromanage the most intimate aspects of your private life. And if their own kids fail to live up to the standards that Palin and the GOP seek to impose on your family, well, that's a private matter between the Palins, their daughter, their God, and the thousands of screaming imbeciles in elephant hats waving McCain/Palin signs on the floor of the Republican National Convention.

...........I have always felt that if you are against abortion, don't have one.

What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Dan Quayle?

You guessed it.

I'd vote for Tina Fey for VP!

Watch this while you can. It's already been removed from YouTube for copyright infringements.

A little something for everyone.

Sing along, if you will.

Happy Birthday to me, indeed!

The Roommate got my friends together and got me this tiny token of appreciation for my birthday. They said they had ulterior motives for the purchase, that being that they want me to blog more---there's always a catch, isn't there? So now I no longer have to surf the internet on my hoopty, dead-screened laptop with an additional monitor attached. I guess I'll get rid of that crick in my neck from typing with my head slightly turned to the left.

So Thank You, Thank You, Thank YOU to Tammy and Jenn the Neighbor and Dana and Rich and Todd and Tracy and Katie and Diane and Vicki and Boytek and mostly The Roommate. As Aimee Mann always says in concert "Thank you so much, you guys are awesome!" Because you guys really are.

Now if you will excuse me I have to get back to playing with my new laptop. It ain't gonna surf for porn on it's own, you know.

Happy birthday to me!

Yup, another year older and little to show for it---except perhaps my fabulous tan.  Here's hoping next year is better.

Cheers!

Politics as (un)Usual

While most of America was in front of the boob tube watching the newest mouth piece of the Religious Right and big oil pat her cronies and herself on the back, I was attending a rather large birthday party for Sam Adams, the mayor elect for Portland (and he looks like Clark Kent, too!).  Portland is the largest city in the US with an openly gay mayor and I have a feeling we will be seeing big things from him.  I sat and spoke for a good long time to Sam's mother and grandmother and I gotta tell ya, I saw more love and family values in those two ladies than in that entire convention in Minnesota on the TV in the corner of the room.  

But about the GOP.  Damn, they're old.  It's a good thing Palin's family was there because those kids brought the median age of the room down a few years.  If Cindy McCain is one of the youngest-looking people in the room, you know you're addressing the retirement home.  And what's with all the cowboy hats?  Did they give them out free at the door?  I thought you guys were distancing yourselves from Bush and his wrangler ways.

But seriously, if Sarah Palin piles her hair up any higher she'll be required to move to Texas.  Just saying.  And as far as her thoughts on energy, maybe she should read this little piece from Robert Kennedy Jr---but then he's a Democrat, so there's no place for this leftist thinking in McCain's administration, controlled by big oil and "clean coal", and for which Palin is so ready to back.

But this is funny.