MUGWUMP

Irrational Thoughts

I don't know if you know this about me or not, but for some reason I can't quite pin down I hate morbidly obese people. Just something about them fills me with this unexplainable anger. It's like this weird sort of intolerance or racism that I'm not quite sure how to squelch. I refuse to sit next to a fat person in the movie theater or on a plane. I avoid not only conversations with them on the street but also eye contact. Perhaps it has something to do with the type of people I saw often when I was growing up in Kentucky. More often than not they were living in squalor, living off the state, and not doing much to change their station in life.

But it's not just fat people that I get irrational about. There are a couple of skinny people in my everyday life that just drive me mad. Any prolonged interactions with them at all and my heart and head are racing ("Oh please let this end NOW") and my shoulders and neck tense up.

It's somewhat ironic that I, as a gay man, have --in those instances-- so little tolerance. Anyone got any ideas as to how to defeat those "ARRRRRRRGHGHGHG urges"?

Sullivan preaches the gospel

I'm just going to copy and paste something from Andrew Sullivan's blog because it's glorious to behold.

"A Bush Collapse

These new poll numbers seem to me to reflect the unraveling of this presidency. What's stunning is not the approve/disapprove numbers, which are consistent with other polls, i.e. mid-to-upper 30s approve, mid-to-upper 50s disapprove. What's stunning is that almost half the sample - 47 percent - strongly disapproves. I came to the conclusion that Bush was an incompetent abetting something much more dangerous before the last election, hence my reluctant endorsement of the pathetic Kerry. But the broad middle of American opinion has taken longer to see what this administration is and what Republicanism has become. These are pretty stunning numbers given the relatively strong economy - strong in part because it's been propped up by an unsustainable Keynesian stimulus.

Historians will figure this out, but my own view is that Katrina did it. Katrina was the equivalent of Toto pulling back the curtain. Once Bush's passivity, indolence and arrogance were put on full display, once it was apparent that the government was not working, and that Bush was the reason, people figured out why the war in Iraq was such a shambles. And so the mystique required to sustain patriarchal authority was shattered. I think this is largely irreparable because it's about a basic assessment of a single man. What worries me is that we have almost three more years. If we face a confrontation or a crisis, this president will not be able to carry Americans with him. Our enemies will take comfort from this. Which is why re-electing him was such a terrible risk."

Dream on

A father hid paintings behind a secret wall and they're now worth millions. This is the kind of thing I keep hoping happens to me. I seriously doubt though that my Mom has a secret stash like this.

Lyin' Seacrest

(Ok... just so I don't get sued... this story ALLEDGEDLY happened to me the other night.)

So I was over at a friend's house on Tuesday and and his roommates were watching American Idol and during a commerical break there was a teaser for the news in which Teri Hatcher was talking about "the kiss" with Ryan Seacrest.

I rolled my eyes and said, "Is it just me or is this the most blatant publicity stunt this side of Tom and Katie?" and one of the roommates said, "What do you mean?" and I said, "I can't tell you how many guys have told me that Ryan Seacrest is gay. I don't know if it's true or not... but when you hear it over and over again, you really start to wonder."

At which point my friend came from the kitchen and said "I made out with him at O-Bar one night."

Ok... first off to my friend... EWWWWHHHHH.

and secondly... Seacrest, you're not helping ANYTHING. As Simon Cowell said to you the other night "Lose the beard."

Grousing

Today we find out that a disclosure in documents filed Wednesday to the grand jury investigating the Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame CIA leak means that the president and the vice president put Lewis Libby in play as a secret provider of information to reporters about prewar intelligence on Iraq.

I read this and my mind immediately jumped to the February 11, 2004 press conference wherein President Bush said the following things to the pool of reporters:

"If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of."

"I want to know the truth. Leaks of classified information are bad things."

He added that he did not know of "anybody in my administration who leaked classified information."

So..., based on the disclosure to the grand jury, we can once again surmise that one of two things is true. A.) Our President is an idiot or B.) Our President is a Liar.

I think he's both.

I really hope that I'm not forever jaded and that one day I will again have respect for the office of the President but for now it's at least a couple of years away. Current polls have the 2008 Presidential race as Hillary Clinton vs. John McCain. I'd vote for Clinton, but I'd be happy with McCain.

American Dreamz

We went to an advance screening of this last night and the crowd was just eating it up... and for good reason. Great casting, smartly written, and some great laugh out loud lines. I love that they've timed the release of this movie just a couple of weeks before the American Idol finale as well.