It's Friday, caption this!

Today's cool thing

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The Daddy Diaries

I haven't been a true stay-at-home dad for over a year now. Amy, my partner, has been at home on maternity leave, making my job a whole lot easier. All good things come to an end, however, and Amy returned to work yesterday. Leaving me to tend to an 11-year-old girl (a tween...EEEKS!), a 7-year-old boy (constant noise from the moment he wakes up), and an 11-month-old (a toddler, blink, she is into something).

Yesterday was easy, the older two children were gone for the day with their biological dad (I didn't mention that bit...? Oh, well, um, ya), which meant it was just myself and the baby. We had a great day, just the two of us. We spent most of the day curled up on the couch, watching vintage Sesame Street videos on YouTube. Zoey didn't cry at all, nope, not until her mother came home from work, and even then, those were tears of relief (hurray my boobies are home). Or maybe because mommy woke her up, the boobies were in need of relief as well (or so I was told).

The older two arrived home around supper time. The energy in the house changed from contented relaxation, to frustrated hyperactivity. The shift was so sudden that it hit me like an ice cream headache. My mood darkened, my blood pressure rose, I began to worry about tomorrow. How was I gonna handle 3 kids, especially if two of them are at each other's throats all day?

Later in the evening, once the older two were in bed (the baby was harder to get down, punishing us perhaps...???), I calmed down. I was able to visualize different plans of attack, depending on how things might go down. Most of these plans entailed booting the children outside, or trying to pawn them off on friends. With peace restored in the house, my anxiety ebbed. By the time I went to bed, I was sure I could survive the next day.

And survive I did. The baby was not as happy today as yesterday. She might be like her dear old dad, she might truly enjoy the calm. The older two were kept busy. Emily, the tween, had a follow tween over, and no word of a lie, they played with their dolls for almost four hours. There was some ungodly noises that came from behind their bedroom door (voodoo, witchcraft, budding hormones, what have you), but they were kept busy, I was off the Hook. Zach, the 7-year-old, he spent the morning watching cartoons and playing video games (every little boys idea of a good time), and was then picked up by his dad to go for a swim. Which made my afternoon all that much easier. Odd to be bailed out by my partner's ex... but I'll take any help that I can get.

I have been relatively lucky so far. The universe has been kind to me. I have been allowed to ease into the full-time stay-at-home dad role. I know that sometime soon, my luck will change, that the universe will conspire against me, and so will the children. There are going to be days when it is going to suck, hard. Days when I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a fork than deal with a snotty tween, or a whiny little boy, or a needy toddler. But right now, I feel like I can do this, and I can do this well. I have three wonderful children, if I remember that, even the bad days, won't seem all that hard.

Note to self: Remember to pick up a bottle of extra-strength Advil... you know, just in case.

The Glenn Beck Paradox

When I first read that Glenn Beck might be going blind, I couldn't help but think that maybe it was due to all the Vicks he puts in his eyes. You know so that he can 'cry' for America. Mean, nasty, I know, but true. To be clear, I am not one to wish blindness on anyone. Not even, say, a pretentious, blowhard like Glenn Beck. I am not spiritual, I am an atheist, and a cynic, but, I do believe it is best to avoid Schadenfreude. Why risk the bad karma of it all? Personally, if I hope for anything, I hope that Glenn Beck does not go blind, that this whole thing was nothing more than a pathetic attempt by a media whore, to grab even more attention. The more Glenn Beck is exposed as a fraud, a hack, and a liar, the better. There in lies the paradox. I dislike Glenn Beck, sure, but I can not morally, or intellectually hope for Glenn Beck to go blind. He wins, in the bizarro world that is Glenn Beck, if he in fact, does go blind in the next year or so. There is no way I want Glenn Beck to win, nope, not ever ever.

As much as we on the left despise Glenn Beck. He that is our Kryptonite. He that is all that is wrong with the universe. We can't hope for him to go blind. We can't feel joy in the fact that he might go blind. Even if we aren't sure what to think of him. He is both morally repugnant, and absurd. And yes every time we think of him, we can't help but chuckle, but it would show a weakness in our belief system, and our cause, to wish ill health on another human being. The paradox lies, not in the hope that Beck goes blind, no, that wouldn't be cool at all. The last thing we on the left need is for Glenn Beck to suddenly become a tragic character. He doesn't need that sort of coverage. There is no way, a man as repugnant, ridiculous, and media savvy, as Glenn Beck, needs a bump in ratings because of an unfortunate medical problem. Heaven help the blind community if Glenn Beck becomes their spokesperson. No, we on the left want Glenn Beck exposed as a fraud. So dear friends, pray, wish, throw quarters in a well, hang horseshoes, and rub your lucky rabbit's foot, hope upon hope for the continued good health of Glenn Beck's eyes.

P.S. As a precaution, keep the Vick's away from your peepers.

It's Friday, caption this!

Talk about dedication to one's craft.

Yes Fox News, most of it is Bush's fault.

You begin to wonder whether the folks at Fox News were in a collective state of coma from the year 2000 until 2008. It's as if Fox's mouthpieces spent most of the last decade as high as a kites on psychedelics. Their ability to shit rainbows for Bush, Cheney, and the GOP, is nothing short of elite-level pandering. How, even the most ardent of Bush supporters, can totally preclude he and his Administration from any responsibility for the shit the US is in right now, is mind boggling.

And no, I am not an Obama apologist. Read some of my previous blog posts. I believe that our leaders need to be held accountable, there will never be a free ride offered from my end. So how can a 'news' organization act as the apologists for a radical political movement (Tea Partiers), a failed President (Bush), a dead President (Reagan), a failed political system (Neoconservatism), and a war hungry, fiscally inept political party (The Republicans), and still call themselves 'fair and balanced'? It's madness. A whole 24 hours news channel dedicated to revisionist history.

So there Fox, you can pretend that there was nothing wrong with the Bush Presidency. You can blame Obama, for 9/11, recessions, bailouts, and oil spills, but we the rational know that that is partisan, Fox bollocks. It was your man, your party, and the philosophies that you support that lead to this mess. Yours is a network that has always been a joke in the journalism world. And now that you don't have your man in the Oval Office you have become completely unhinged. Ahem, Glenn Beck, need I say more?

It's time to switch the channel folks. That or view Fox News simply as news themed entertainment. Current events told from the perspective of hateful clowns. If only they knew how to tell or take a joke.

U.S. Court Sanctioned Lynching of Black Men

A guest post by the wonderful @ggSpirit. Read her blog: g.g Spirit Writes...

“No money…no pot to piss in…just two fed up brothas” – Panther, movie.

Yesterday, yet again, a U.S. Court in Oakland, California sanctioned the lynching of a black man by a police officer. Formal news circuits may have reported this fact differently but to me it’s merely a matter of semantics: BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant. In this instance, Oscar Grant, an unarmed man lying defensively face down on a subway platform was shot in the back and killed by a police officer. Despite the fact that the execution was captured on video, the officer was merely convicted of involuntary manslaughter. In the so-called era of post-racial America, I believe James Baldwin to be prophetic in The Evidence of Things Unseen, when he said for one to ignore racial issues in America is for one to have willed himself colorblind.

As easy as it would be to make this issue a matter of black and white, I learned a long time ago to stay clear from this manner of reasoning. A college professor of African American studies often challenged his students of color to avoid blaming the white man by challenging, “Which white people are you referring to?”

The issue of continued genocide of blacks in the United States is a humanitarian issue. After the verdict was disclosed, Twitter was flooded with outraged tweets by blacks who again felt the insult of injustice.

Interestingly enough, I have yet to see this story on any mainstream media. Again, a police officer was let off the hook for the assassination of an unarmed black man. For those of you who may be unaware as to why I say ‘again’, please see Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell or the countless other points of reference you can easily Google.

In 1999 when the Diallo case occurred I was working in New York City as a social worker and a close family member was working as a prosecutor. When we discussed the verdict in which the police, having shot to death the unarmed 23-year-old Guinean immigrant with a total of 41 rounds fired, were found not guilty of all charges based on the premise of a “perceived threat”, my relative the prosecutor defended the police asserting they are scared to which I questioned, “Of what?”

It seems to me that the answer to this question gets to the heart of the court-sanctioned extermination of black America. What is the United States afraid of that allows the nation to continue to justify the wrongful death of its second-class citizens? Is America afraid that as long as black and brown exist, the threat of revelation of its dirty little secret of brutality, thievery and inhumane origins will be revealed? Or does the United States fear that the black man may suddenly realize he has the right to be pissed off about said history and the continued, systemic oppression of the black community and pull a Crispus Attucks all over again?

Ironically, after signing off Twitter, mentally exhausted by the inability to effectively DO anything in response to the Oscar Grant verdict, I happened across the movie Panther on television. The movie is a fictionalized account of the history of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. While watching the movie I was momentarily energized by the spirit of rebellion, uprising and fundamental ‘fuck you we ain’t taken this shit no more’ images which filled the screen. But when all was said and done, the United States with assistance of J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO (counter intelligence) program effectively neutralized the resistance of the black community.

The quote preceding this post was taken from the beginning of that movie to denote that it didn’t take much, just two fed up brothas, to ignite the fuse of defiance that marked one of the most powerful eras of organized civil disobedience to date. Yet in the age of the internet, social networking and the multiple means of uniting for a worthy cause we, humanity, appear to be the most divided, indifferent and complacent society to date. In one tweet, I asked if people of color could file a class action civil law suit against the United States for terrorist threats. No response.

So I humbly ask the United States, now that you have effectively neutralized any organized contender, can you please stop executing black America?

It's Friday, caption this!

An image from the last Tea Party Convention?

When press photos go horribly wrong

Rachel Maddow doing her best impression of a young Jewish man in a headscarf.