Drinking Liberally®

"Look, if we had the rules that the Republicans have, I'd already be the nominee."

Let's review ...

		Supported the Authorization for Use of Military Force
		Thinks McCain is better prepared for presidency than Obama
		Thinks Obama is "elite"
		Agrees with McCain that the "tax holiday" is a good idea

I think maybe Clinton's advisors should do a little advising: "Listen, Hillary...maybe you shouldn't publicly wish for things like that."

(I've tried to maintain impartiality on this blog, but sometimes the jokes just write themselves)

Posted by dan at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)

Late-breaking Special Event News:  David Archuleta will join us this Thursday to discuss his campaign for the US Senate seat being vacated by Larry Craig.  He is seeking the Democratic nomination against Larry LaRocco.  Join us for this special event.

Mildred and Richard Loving

This world is full of people of courage and dignity who remain relatively unknown.  Some of them manage to make very profound changes to our lives, despite their anonymity.  We lost one of those very important people last weekend, and I feel ashamed that I didn't even know who she was.

Mildred Loving passed away on Friday, May 2, at the age of 68.  She and her husband, Richard, took their miscegenation conviction in Virginia to the Supreme Court and won, overturning laws against interracial marriages across the country.  Richard and Mildred were married in June of 1958 in Washington, DC, where they had moved to evade Virginia's Racial Integrity Act.  After returning to Virginia, they were arrested in the middle of the night – perhaps so the police would have some evidence based on finding them in bed together.  The Lovings originally pled guilty and were sentenced to a year in prison (which was probably the minimum sentence).  The judge offered them a 25-year suspension on the condition that they leave the state of Virginia.  Here's some of the language in the judge's ruling:

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents.  And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages.  The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

They moved back to DC, but longed to return to Caroline County, Virginia, where they both had family roots.  After a few years, they tried to get the judge to reverse himself, with no luck (the quote above may have come from this second ruling of the trial court judge).  In November of 1963, they began a series of legal motions to have their conviction overturned.  Those efforts, supported by the ACLU and the NAACP, culminated in the Loving v. Virginia decision, a landmark civil rights victory, in 1967.

They had three children together.  Unfortunately, Richard was killed in the mid-70's in a car accident.  Last year, Mildred Lovings made a statement as part of the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the decision.  This should give you some idea of just what kind of person she was:

"Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the 'wrong kind of person' for me to marry.  I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry.  Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others.  Especially if it denies people's civil rights.

"I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life.  I support the freedom to marry for all.  That's what Loving, and loving, are all about."

Like I said – a woman of dignity and courage.  I wish my kids could have met her.  June 12 will be the 41st anniversary of the ruling, and it has become an unofficial holiday for many people.  We have been talking about having a summer event – a Progressive Awards Dinner – and I wonder if this would be a good fit.  It would bring together some of the main participants – the African American Alliance, PFLAG, and Breaking Boundaries – under the same theme.  We could call it the Loving Day Celebration and Progressive Awards Dinner.

What do you all think?  Let's talk about it this Thursday, after Dave Archuleta speaks.

Cheers,
Dan

	Date	Thursday, May 8th
	Time	7:00 - 9:00pm (but show up whenever you can)
	Location	Marcellar's (431 Park Ave - map here)

Continue reading "Meeting Notice for May 8th"

Posted by dan at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)

Warning:  Link to the Wall Street Journal

Here are some more scary poll results:

THE ORIGINS OF LIFE Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin of human beings? Man developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms:  13% Man developed over millions of years, but God guided the process:  38% God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years:  45% Source: Gallup Poll of 1,016 U.S. adults, November 2004. Margin of error: +/- 3%

I'm sometimes asked why I count myself among the "new" atheists—you know, the angry ones who aren't interested in being nice and quiet.  Well, this is why.

It's because evil people like Bryan Fischer, and bad PR efforts like Expelled, are having some effect.  They must be opposed because they are crippling our children.  They have basically lost every court case in the last 50 years, and have tried to hide their failures and sneak their mythology into the schools by changing names.  Now, they are resorting to bald-face lies.  Read this if you doubt it.

ID proponents deserve scorn and ridicule, not respectful tolerance.

Posted by dan at 09:51 PM | Comments (0)

Things That Are Like Metaphors

Susan Scherr sent this list to me.  It's the first time I've seen it, although it has circulated on the intertubes for years, apparently.  Sometimes it's attributed to high school essays, and other times to a contest run by the Washington Post.  Some are so funny that you'll make one of those snort-laughs that sounds like someone trying to suck ketchup up his nose through a straw.

• Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master


• His thoughts tumbled around inside his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free


• He spoke with the kind of wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who goes blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes a round the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it


• She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again


• She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef


• She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like the sound a dog makes just before it throws up


• Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever


• He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree


• The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't


• The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00pm instead of 7:30


• Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze


• Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center


• Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36pm traveling west at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19pm traveling east at a speed of 35 mph


• The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play


• They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth


• John and Mary had never met.  They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.


• Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut


• The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while


• He was as lame as a duck.  Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.


• He was deeply in love.  When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.


• It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before


• The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant


• She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs


• It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall

More here and here.

Cheers,
Dan

	Date	Thursday, May 1st
	Time	7:00 - 9:00pm (but show up whenever you can)
	Location	Marcellar's (431 Park Ave - map here)

P.S.  I've been informed that the Truman Banquet has been expanded!  They've opened up a few more tables, and therefore, must sell a few more tickets.  We have a little more than a table-full, but it would be nice if we could add a few more DL folks.  One thing you won't want to miss:  Spencer will be participating in a series of Mac vs PC-type skits.  I've read the transcripts — they're great!

Continue reading "Meeting Notice for May 1st"

Posted by dan at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)

Senator Barack Obama and his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright

Here's a portion of the sermon that Rev. Wright gave following 9/11:

I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday.  Did anybody else see him or hear him?  He was on Fox news.  This is a white man and he was upsetting the Fox news commentators to no end.  He pointed out.  You see him John?  A white man he pointed out — an Ambassador!  He pointed out that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Mohammad was in fact true.  America's chickens are coming home to roost!  We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arawak, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo.  Terrorism!  We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear.  Terrorism!  We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard-working fathers.  We bombed Gadafi's home and killed his child.  "Blessed are they who bash your children's head against a rock!"  We bombed Iraq.  We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living.  We bombed a plant in Sudan to payback for the attack on our embassy.  Killed hundreds of hard-working people; mothers and fathers who left home to go that day, not knowing that they would never get back home.  We bombed Hiroshima!  We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye!  Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school, civilians — not soldiers — people just trying to make it day by day.  We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans, and now we are indignant?  Because the stuff we have done overseas has now been brought back into our own front yards!  America's chickens are coming home to roost!  Violence begets violence.  Hatred begets hatred and terrorism begets terrorism.  A White Ambassador said that y'all not a Black Militant.  Not a Reverend who preaches about racism.  An Ambassador whose eyes are wide open, and who's trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised —

Kinda sounds different when you see it in full context, rather than a 5-second sound bite, doesn't it?  I saw this transcript here, which is a great post, and really should be read in its entirety.

I'm reprinting Rev. Wright's words here because more of us need to read them, listen to them, and understand them.  If we had a thousand Wrights in pulpits making divisive sermons, it would just be a start.

Posted by dan at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

I like this picture

This one, too

Big News!  On top of our normal program of socializing, pontificating, moralizing, and inspiring, this week's meeting is a special event, folks.  It's going to be even more festive than normal!  It's so exciting!  Wait 'til you see it!

But first, we have to make final plans for Earth Day - which is this coming Saturday.  We have all the equipment and permissions lined up (assuming we still have the use of Bill's canopy) - we just need to schedule people so we can keep the booth occupied from 10am to 4pm.  I'll be there in the morning to set up, and will plan on staying for as long as it takes to thoroughly bore my kids to death.  If you'd like to help (with the booth, that is - not the killing of my kids), but won't be at the VERY SPECIAL DL meeting this Thursday, then let me know by email what time you'd like to participate.

Also, there is a great opportunity this Friday evening to meet Larry LaRocco, Idaho's next U.S. Senator.  He will be at the Whitewater Grill from 7 to 9pm.  If you'd like to attend, let his campaign know by email or phone (1-877-527-9443).  They need to know how many mushrooms to stuff.  I'll have some fliers this Thursday night.

On Sunday at noon, Debu will be speaking at the Unitarian Universalist Forum.  The subject is "Rising Above the Gathering Storm," which is either a discussion of science and math education in America or a one-man re-enactment of two of the six volumes in Winston Churchill's definitive history of WWII.  I'm not sure which, but it should be interesting nonetheless.

We are also registered for Cinco de Mayo, which is the following Saturday.  It runs from 10am to 6pm.  Somebody has to come up with a translation for 'Drinking Liberally' that isn't insulting (does the word 'liberally' have both connotations in Spanish?).  Babelfish gives me 'el beber liberalmente,' which doesn't look quite right.  But 'Liberally Drinking' generates 'liberalmente bebiendo,' which looks better.  Rigo - can you help?

So, Big Special Event at this Thursday's Drinking Liberally, Meet-n-Greet with Larry LaRocco on Friday, Earth Day on Saturday, Debu's forum on Sunday, another DL next Thursday, and then Cinco de Mayo the following Saturday, followed by the Truman Banquet that night.  Then Mother's Day.  Then my son Alex's birthday.  Then Memorial Day.  It just keeps going like that.

Don't forget - this Thursday - BIG EVENT. Really special.

Cheers,
Dan

	Date	Thursday, April 24th
	Time	7:00 - 9:00pm (but show up whenever you can)
	Location	Marcellar's (431 Park Ave - map here)

Continue reading "Meeting Notice for April 24th"

Posted by dan at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)

I've been paying attention to the mainstream media this week, so that I'll know what's really important. It's really important to talk about important stuff, and not waste our time on stuff that is not important.

Here's the stuff that is important:

• Just how elite is Barack?
• Are the Clinton's making too much money?
• Can John McCain be any more moderate than he already is?
• How will Barack's lack of bowling skills impact his ability to fight terrorism?

Here's the stuff that is not important, and would be a total waste of time:

• President Bush and his cabinet planning specific acts of torture
• John Yoo's incredible rationalization for turture
• The Administration's admission that it directed the military to violate the fourth amendment
• Attorney General Mukesi's bald-faced lies about 9/11, as he tries to justify amnesty for telcos
• John McCain violating the Campaign Finance Reform act that bears his name
• John McCain's total devotion to the policies of George W. Bush

So remember. We will discuss the first group of very important issues. We will not waste time discussing the second group of non-important issues. Really, they aren't even important enough to be called 'issues.' They're just trivialities, really. Put them out of your mind.

	Date	Thursday, April 17th
	Time	7:00 - 9:00pm (but show up whenever you can)
	Location	Marcellar's (431 Park Ave - map here)

Continue reading "Meeting Notice for April 17th"

Posted by dan at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)

Special Guest Announcement!

Friends,

I'd like to extend a warm and heart-felt invitation for you to attend the next Tinkling Lethargically, which sounds like a strange thing ... wait a sec ... (whispering) ... I've just been informed by my good friend Joe Lieberman that the group is called Drinking Liberally — which makes even less sense to me, but there you have it.

You might be wondering why I would take the time during a busy campaign season to invite you to such a gathering.  Well, friends, what can I say?  I'm a Maverik™.  Also, given that I can embrace a man who said I had an illegitimate half-black love child, why can't I pretend to be nice to you?  This is just more evidence of the level of grovelling that I can bring to the table.  I mean, think about it, friends — I can be so right about "The Surge," and yet I can still come to you, a group that advocates voluntary defeat for America, and extend an invitation to attend this fine event.  How great is that?

Plus, there's the fact that my friends in the press seem to be focused on the Democratic primary.  It's awfully hard to get any press these days unless you count things like this.  And I can explain that.  I love my wife and her family inheritance dearly, but at the time her addiction almost derailed my political career, so she basically deserved it.  And I make this promise to you, friends:  if the islamofacists ever try to derail my political career, I'll be just as mean to them.  Seriously, does Barack have the balls to say something like that to Michelle?  I don't think so!  Does Hillary have the balls to ... well, OK.  She probably does.

Lastly, there's this bit of news.  My advisors have informed me that I might have to start looking for novel (and free) ways to campaign in the near future.  And I may be limited to using the computer in the prison library, unless I can avoid getting caught violating my own law.

So, come on out and have a little fun.  And remember:  I'm a straight talker - but I'd appreciate it if you don't tell my new fundie friends on the about this little note.

Thanks,
John Sydney (that's proof I'm not a Muslim!) McCain

	Date	Thursday, April 10th
	Time	7:00 - 9:00pm (but show up whenever you can)
	Location	Marcellar's (431 Park Ave - map here)

Continue reading "Meeting Notice for April 10th"

Posted by dan at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

Here's the nefarious heckler, who should be ashamed of herself
Yesterday's "Ballot Bowl" on CNN really hit the nail on the head. People who ask tough questions of McCain are scum. From the transcript:

JIM ACOSTA (CNN):  It was earlier this week in Alexandria, Virginia, where he visited a high school, a high school Episcopal high school in Alexandria, Virginia, where apparently a student there started heckling the senator, and John McCain then had to respond. So here's John McCain responding to what appears to be a student heckler earlier this week in Alexandria, Virginia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: [I think, judging by the amount of press representatives here and also by the integration of your previous political endorsements in your earlier personal narrative, - added by me] We can see that this isn't completely absent political motivation, isn't completely absent, yet we were told that this isn't a political event, so what exactly is your purpose in being here, not that I don't appreciate the opportunity, but I'd just like some clarification.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I knew I should have cut this thing off. This meeting is over. This is an opportunity and part of a series of visits that I'm paying, started in Mississippi, where my family's roots are, back to the middle of the 19th century to here. We're going from here to Pensacola, Florida, and to Jacksonville, Florida, and a couple other places, where we're going to Annapolis, where I obviously attended the naval academy. And it's sort of a tour, where we try to not only emphasize the values and principles that guided me and I think, a lot of this country in the past, but also portray a vision of how I think we need to address the challenges of the future. And a lot of that is, in retrospect, but a lot of that is also advocacy and addressing certain challenges that face the nation. I hope that attendance here was not compulsory.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So there you have it, John McCain who is no stranger to incoming fire, able to handle the heckler there in Alexandria, Virginia. That wraps up this first hour of BALLOT BOWL here on CNN but there's much more to come. Stay with us. This is BALLOT BOWL on CNN.

So there you have it. It's good that McCain is tough, and can withstand torture like this.

See below for the actual video.

Continue reading "Tough Guy Stands Down Heckler"

Posted by dan at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

Liar, Traitor, War Profiteer

"In the summer of 2002...I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush.  He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend—but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

"The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'  I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism.  He cut me off.  'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued.  'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.  And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out.  We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

from Ron Suskind's Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush, October 17, 2004.

The Cheney Cabal sees the world this way.  They see themselves as not merely the elected leaders of a particular country.  They are people who shape reality for everyone.  They think of themselves as history's elites.  They see themselves in terms of how history books refer to empire-builders from the last millenia.

Cheney doesn't work for us — he's creating a new world order.  That's why he doesn't give a shit about the Constitution.  What does some piece of paper mean to him?

On the other hand, liberals are true Americans.  They feel bound to operate within the constraints of the Constitution and the rule of law, for the most part.  When they don't it's for some pedestirian reason like greed and theft (on a personal level).  They feel bound by those constraints, but proud to be bound by them, and proud of their successes while operating within them.  They think about how to create a better country — one that helps everybody achieve health, prosperity, and happiness.

Dick Cheney and his followers, including Bush, don't feel bound by those constraints.  They try to figure out how to rearrange the world to their liking while taking advantage of the decency and integrity of others.  They laugh at people who follow the rules.

So the question is this:  can liberals (Democrats, progressives, etc) prevent the Cheneys of this country from destroying it?  Is it possible to win, given that the Cheneys feel obligated to violate the rules?

What do you think?

Cheers,
Dan

	Date	Thursday, April 3rd
	Time	7:00 - 9:00pm (but show up whenever you can)
	Location	Marcellar's (431 Park Ave - map here)

Continue reading "Meeting Notice for April 3rd"

Posted by dan at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)