[Wednesday] "Happy Bunker Hill Day?" (to quote Amy's away message)

[hermionesviolin]

[from yesterday] (I didn't get home until after midnight last night and didn't even turn on my computer.)

***

Blake Huggins said, "The Revolution will not be Televised. It will be tweeted."

One of the big things going around re: the Iranian election is:

دنیارابگوییدچطورآنهاانتخاباتمان دزدیده اند
Tell the world how they have stolen our election

The next person who says, "We have so much in common," referencing the U.S. 2000 election, is gonna get slapped by me. Regardless of whether Bush stole that election or not, the people insisting that Gore won were not getting killed by the government for saying so.

Daniel Larison comments on a George Friedman piece about polling, questioning whether Ahmadinejad really could have stolen the election.

Edit: I will probably Stalker Pin this post. /edit

I am really not invested in whether the Iranian election was stolen or not. (I winced when at Rest and Bread, Keith said something about the courage of the people of Iran in the face of a stolen election.) What seems to me the big problem is that peaceful demonstrators are getting violently opposed by the government.

++

Matthew Iglesias writes:

Obama *always* stays “two steps behind them”

I missed an excellent post the other day from Spencer Ackerman citing Trita Parsi of the NIAC:

It was important, Parsi said, for any non-Iranian organization wishing to show solidarity with the opposition to ensure that “anything they do is two steps behind the opposition and not two steps ahead.”

I just wanted to point out that this has always been Obama’s MO. He’s always a step or two behind where his supporters want him to be, getting pulled along by their enthusiasm, rather than out ahead of them where he might get cut off. It’s a community organizer’s MO. You never get out ahead of your constituency. Instead you shape the playing field so that your constituency’s desires flow towards where you think they should go, and allow them to carry you along behind them.

++

I am surprised my flist hasn't exploded about Obama's DOJ and DOMA. (mjules complained to me in chat on Friday and nikitangel posted on Monday. Off flist, jonquil quotes Dale Carpenter.)

Edit:

Thursday's metro says: "Obama OKs benefits for gay partners of workers"
Morning Express on Thursday said that critics say it bestows few benefits that weren't already there [link via ... Dale Carpenter, I think, mentions that "Federal government employees can ALREADY use their sick leave to care for partners"].

Amusingly, I winced at "gay partners" (because the issue is same-sex partners, whether either partner is "gay" or not -- hi, bisexual invisbility, among other things), Dale Carpenter criticizingly says, I may have missed it, but Obama never used the words "gay" or "lesbian" or "gay couples/families," only the more neutral and palatable "same-sex partners" and the esoteric "LGBT."

I am confused by this thing in the metro that says, "The U.S. Justice Department informed the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders in a letter dated June 15, that members of same-sex couples are no longer prohibited from using the last name of their spouse when applying for a passport." If you have legally changed your name on your documentation (whether due to getting married or whatever), isn't that the name you are using in applying for your passport? It's not like you got married, didn't change your name, and then decided you felt like changing your name just for your passport, right?

Morning Express had a scroll that said: Obama calls DOMA "discriminatory." In Googling to find the source for this, I found this post [and a follow-up] about the DOMA brief.

/edit

Edit2: Another article about Obama and "the gay community." [via Dave Chen] /edit

***

GMA this morning [Wednesday] had MeMe Roth on (whom I had read about the other day via the Notes from the Fatosphere feed). (BigLibertyBlog also blogged about the GMA piece.)

I think even if I hadn't been prepped at all, I still would have been a bit "huh?" at the ridiculously softball nature of the interview. Yes, you don't want junk food to even be an option at "in loco parentis" places, I understand the logic behind that. But what sort of twisted logic is, "So that the kids aren't doing nothing while everyone else is chowing down on junk food, they can pull out a plastic container and put the junk food in that and bring it home and we'll discuss whether they're allowed to have it maybe after their piano lesson or something"? One commenter said, "if MeMe doesn’t want her children to have cupcakes, donuts, and juice pops, she could always just instruct them to politely refuse the treats. There were kids at my elementary school who were taught to do that because of allergies, religious dietary requirements, and parents who had strong beliefs about what foods were good and bad for them, and aside from a question here and a pitying look there, it wasn’t a big deal."

And wtf "Show me an American who understands moderation?" Seriously? We should ban junk food from everyone's presence because no one is capable of consuming in moderation? (And how the eff did obesity rob her mother and grandmother of "their health, and their hope, and their aspirations"?)

And, um, you told the YMCA that if they didn't get some food out in addition to the ice cream buffet in the next hour you were going to start throwing food out? No wonder the cops got called.

++

I also watched part of the "Walker goes blind" episode of Walker, Texas Ranger ("Vision Quest"). It weirds me out that someone who is so physical doesn't already have more of an intuitive sense of his surroundings. I'm undecided about the shows use of this White Eagle spirit guide type character.

***

From a Y!M chat with mjules:

Elizabeth (2:36 PM): Blah, I still don't know how I'm going to answer Laura Ruth tonight when she asks me how I am. I will probably just say "fine,
Elizabeth (2:36 PM): " because it is not entirely a lie.
mjules (2:37 PM): I love that you think about this ahead of time.
Elizabeth (2:38 PM): :) Partly it is just that I keep having obsessive circular trains of thought about Terry and about whether I would feel better if I talked stuff out or if there really is nothing to talk out and I need to just wait until I can actually talk to him.
mjules (2:38 PM): *nod* That's a bit of a conundrum.
Elizabeth (2:40 PM): I feel like the latter is true, but I'm hesitant to trust my assessment as last time Laurel asked after me I told her about what was on my mind and afterward I was like, "Huh, that was actually kind of good to talk through."
mjules (2:40 PM): *nods* Understandable.
Elizabeth (2:42 PM): But on the other hand, what exactly do I have to talk through re: this matter (especially that I haven't already run through in my head)?
mjules (2:43 PM): Even if you've already run through it in your head (I originally typed 'my head'... heh, don't think I'm that empathic/psychic), sometimes it does help to say it out loud to someone else. And sometimes it doesn't.
mjules (2:43 PM): (I am so helpful. *snort*)
Elizabeth (2:44 PM): *laughs* Wouldn't that be awesome? If I could run through stuff in someone else's head and thus spare us all my having to articulate it? Or, y'know, maybe not.
mjules (2:45 PM): *snort* we'd need traffic lights.
mjules (2:46 PM): My mother and I were comparing people's thought processing styles to highways earlier. She decided Dad's was a two lane country road, unpaved in some parts, and hers was the LA Freeway.
mjules (2:46 PM): I said mine was the Autobahn - about 100 mph, and I miss about thirty things on my way anywhere. And miss my turn off as often as not. *g*
Elizabeth (2:46 PM): Heh. (So now I'm curious as to what mine would be.)
mjules (2:47 PM): That's up to you to figure out. *g*
Elizabeth (2:47 PM): :P
Elizabeth (2:50 PM): Probably some road where you circle back and cover the same ground a million times before actually managing a turn-off.
mjules (2:51 PM): Charlotte, then.
mjules (2:51 PM): They've built the roads with wider parts in spaces specifically for U-turns because you can't get anywhere without them.
Elizabeth (2:52 PM): Heh.

I appreciate that I can have obsessive thought circles in a way that isn't destructive like they usually are, but patience is still not one of my strong suits.

***

Today we have a service of Rest and Bread at 6. It's true we don't start the talking until 6:15, but for 15 minutes, no one asks anything of you except to be still.

Join us, if you heart is calling to you to be still. We will also serve you communion, and we will pray together.

Laura Ruth and Keith walked in while I was setting up, and Laura Ruth said, "Elizabeth [surname], as I live and breathe."
I laughed and said, "Hi, Laura Ruth [surname] and Keith [hyphenated last name]."
She thanked me for the "thorough" report on the Boston Interfaith Pride service. (After Friday night's potluck, she asked if she'd see me on Saturday. I said I'd be at the interfaith service. She said she wasn't going to be able to go because she still hadn't written her sermon for Sunday; I said, "So you don't do the Tiffany school of writing it the night before?" She said asked me to report back -- 'cause hi, who better? I typed up the order of worship with commentary for my LJ, so I basically just copied-and-pasted that into an email to her, with some edits.)

While I was meditating, Laura Ruth came by and put her hand on my leg and said, "Thank you." I'm beginning to dislike getting thanked every single week, because I'm there early anyway and I like being helpful and this makes things run much more smoothly and is largely a self-serving act. Though now that I say that, I should remember the lesson about receiving people's thanks graciously.

Psalm 16
Sacred Text John 19:38-42

Keith did the Reflection. (I liked that his was more of an emphasis on what the story of Joseph of Arimathea might be telling us rather than, "Let me sketch you a biography.")
He said Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned in all 4 Gospels, though John alone mentions Nicodemus.
He talked about the Esther parallel -- secret identity.
He said that secrecy can bring us further from rather than closer to God.
The tallest blade of grass is the first to be cut down, but if we lay low we will not be cut down but we will also never grow. Jesus says: "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (John 12:24)

After service, I asked Keith something and after he answered I said that had been my guess but I thought I would ask someone whose church this actually is. He said it's my church, too, that Rest and Bread is church -- and he I've been here long enough that I've passed the vesting period, and joked abut equity :)

FCS-Ian hadn't been to Rest and Bread in some time, and talking afterward he said it's like a really good massage. I said I thought a good massage was better :) (But I did think of my experience at the Hav last week and being able to just sink into prayer and how good I felt.)

Laura Ruth didn't actually ask me how I was, which I was a little disappointed by, though I knew Church Council was at 7 so it's not like she would have had time for pastoral care even if I'd needed it (and yes I know that she prioritizes people over meetings, so if I were really in need I could ask her and she would take care of me). While we were setting up for service, Keith asked me how I was, and I said something vague and talked about summertime being slow at work and B's son being in and out of the hospital -- because those two things are legitimately major factors in how I am/major things on my mind.

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.  You wait and watch and work: you don't give up." --Anne Lamott

Good things about today:

• I didn't get to bed until close to 11 last night, but L. didn't call, so I still got a fairly solid night's sleep.
  
• I sat outside in the sun and read the Summer 2009 SAQ over lunch. It was sunny and warm out and I wished I could stay outside all day; it's not like I had anything to do at work. (I walked into Spangler really not knowing what I wanted for lunch, but the BBQ table had macaroni and cheese, so I got that. Though it really wasn't optimal. I found myself wanting vegetables and fruit -- except nothing on the salad bar was speaking to me -- rather than carbs and dairy. What up? I got a fruit/yogurt smoothie later in the day which helped some.)
  
• One of B's colleagues stopped by (and brought me a Kickass Cupcake -- Cinnamon Chai Pecan). Lovely guy, too.
  
• CWM-Rob said, "I've flown Sun Country before and they were fine. Similar to Air Tran." (I'd been dithering about flights to WriterCon -- I know, I know; I should have done this ages ago -- and liked the Sun Country flight better but was feeling hesitant because I had never heard of them before.)
  
• Rest and Bread
  
• Sushi [Takemura on Eliot St. ... I got veggie maki, and we split a plate-sized scallion pancake] with Allie (plus splitting a cupcake outside Finale after).
  
• Allie pointed out something I'd totally missed about using GoogleReader.
  
• Happy Endings film and Q&A. [I actually bought the DVD -- only $10!] (When I left, people were standing outside taking about the outdoor vs. indoor laws, and a small part of me was tempted to stay, but it was after 11:30pm and hi, I get up at 6am.)
  

Things I did well today:

• I got up with my alarm and ate breakfast at home and brushed my teeth and went to the [gym] 45min treadmill (2.5incline, 4.4mph)
  
• A guy called about something I'm not really equipped to answer, and I managed to figure out what he was asking in a way that allowed me to actually answer. (And blessedly he seemed willing to take that answer and hang up.)
  
• I remembered to get plasticware from the kitchenette for cupcaking with Allie.
  

Things I am looking forward to (doing [better]) tomorrow:
["anything that you're looking forward to, that means you're facing tomorrow with joy, not trepidation," as Ari says]

• drinks after work with Sara and Kate
  
• CAUMC small group was canceled due to Annual Conference, so possibly I will get to bed at a decent hour.