Craig: "I'm not gay."

I don't have much to say about this except this: It's not whether you're gay or not. It's whether you're creepy or not, and clearly you are.

The war in Iraq

I really hope that the March on Washington this weekend will have a good turn-out, because it is a key opportunity to show our new Congress that we are serious about bringing our troops home, and that we are expecting them to take a stand and. At the very least, we expect them to stop the recently proposed escalation. (Everyone knows Bush isn't listening to anyone anyway, so let's talk to the people we elected in November.)

It truly frightens me that there are people out there that still believe that 9/11 was an Iraqi conspiracy, and that that's why we need to be there-- to fight terrorism.

Get it straight: THEY WERE SAUDIS.
Yes, SAUDIS-- as in the best friends of Shrub & Co. I once asked a supposedly educated person why the neocons, for all their screaming and yelling about spreading freedom and democracy around the world, were not particularly interested in helping oppressed people in a place called Rwanda. "Well you know," he said, eying me as if I were a complete and utter moron, "it's not as though an airplane full of Rwandans flew a plane into the World Trade Center."

HELLO? Anybody home??

Another thing everyone should know: there were no weapons of mass destruction.
Yes, this was investigated. Thoroughly. And they found nothing-- nada-- zero--zilch.
Yes, we were lied to. Repeat after me: "The President of the United States lied to us."
And the fact of the matter is: changing the justification for going to war-- i.e. talking about how we are spreading democracy, trying to "liberate" oppressed peoples, and fighting a war against terror--cannot and will not change the fact that the premise for getting the ball rolling in the first place was a big, fat lie.

As if that weren't scary enough, there is no end in sight.
More than three thousand Americans are dead. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead-- many of them civilians.

And here comes Bush, talking about "sacrifice" and our commitment to democracy and freedom and-- my personal favorite-- "winning the war against terror." Why doesn't he remember what happened in Vietnam?

Oh wait, that's right. Hmm.

Well, can't someone TELL him about it? Can't someone explain to him that it's not a good idea to keep sending more and more brave men and women to die for a cause that is about, well, who knows anymore? Is it pride? Is it about the Republicans (and some Democrats), needing to justify to themselves how they've voted in the past?

I don't even want an answer to that. I just want people to stop dying. Young people join the armed services to serve our country, and all they really ask in return is that we don't send them into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary.

Please-- tell your senators and representatives that it's time to end this senseless war.
If we don't stop it, who will?

Thoughts on Roe v. Wade's 34th anniversary

Every January I dread this day, because I know what it means: people from all over the country invading the city carrying signs emblazoned with phrases like "JUSTICE FOR ALL- THE BORN AND PREBORN" or, better yet, big banners covered with pictures of aborted fetuses or aborted fetus body parts. Yummy. And just to make it more fun, they bring their six-year olds, who don't even know what's going on, but can be coerced into waving flags and banners and screaming about murdering "babies"- as if there's some huge conspiracy in this country to take babies out of their cradles, rip their appendages out, and leave them in dumpsters.

Now don't get me wrong, here. I'm proud to be from a country that allows people to scream their brains out and subject the rest of us to pictures of things they pulled out of dumpsters in the name of their supposedly God-ordered crusade to protect zygotes. Hoorah for protesting-- I do it myself occasionally. But is it so much to ask that you keep your fetus body part photos to yourself? Fine-- wave them at me-- the "anti-life" person. Next time you're worried about your kids playing too many violent video games, ask yourself: isn't it a little weird that you let them wave around photos of fetal body parts?

By the way,I am really really sick of this "pro-life" stuff. I have to give snaps to the right wing for their brilliant overhaul of the English language. If you support a woman's right to choose what happens to her body, you are anti-life. You hate life. You hate babies. You hate other humans. It's just brilliant when you think about it. They never have to say that to your face. They just smugly proclaim themselves the "pro-lifers."

Speaking of respect for life, isn't it somewhat ironic to think of yourself as pro-life if you, in all of your Republican glory, support cuts to federal assistance programs like Medicaid and Head Start? That's right-- protect those helpless 12 cells in the petri dish. They're much more deserving of your concern and assistance than those poor crack-addicted babies in the ghetto who may never know the "land of opportunity" as you do because they aren't white, and their parents don't have lots of money. And don't even get me started on how stupid it is to call yourself pro-life when you want to send more brave servicemen and women to Iraq to die for nothing.

*sigh*
And tomorrow is the State of the Union address. I can't wait.