fix me in forty-five

[asimplechord]

I meant to write smut for JWalk's birthday, but my porn was inhibited during the San Antonio trip by the presence of toddlers, relatives, and dogs. Instead, there's a drabble-type thing of domestic fluff.

Um, happy birthday?
Part of the About A Girl 'verse
kid-safe
325 words


~

I've been stewing about this since spending time with Dad and Stepmom. Dad tends to not talk about politics around me. We had one Monstrously Huge Argument when he tried to convince me to vote for the Shrub in '04 (you can imagine how loud it got - pigs will fly before I vote for a Bush family member) that nearly ended our fragile detente, and we agreed to disagree. In many ways, he is more conservative than I am, but I think, from things he said this weekend, that he's not going to vote Republican this time.

Stepmom, on the other hand? Said flat-out that she didn't like Obama's name (it sounds too foreign) and she didn't think he "looked Presidential enough".

I. What? I mean, my initial reaction was to think she thought he was too young or something. Which seems sort of naive, in retrospect, but I like to believe that the people I love (or a least try to love) are reasonably intelligent human beings, and although I know that I have my own unintentional ingrained biases, I try not to let the color of a person's skin be one of them.

But further comments (which, in the end, had to be cut off because I warned her that she was talking politics, and if she wanted to do that it was fine, but I wouldn't hold back my opinion of McCranky and the lipstick-wearing, Bible-thumping, baldfaced-lying hypocrite he added to his ticket) made me wonder if she really means she won't vote for a black man.

She's a perfectly reasonable woman when it comes to other topics, but she's got categories for people: white, Mexican, Asian, black. And we all have to stay in our little boxes.

I just don't understand how she can see that she won't benefit from 99% of the policies McCrackpot espouses, but she won't vote for Obama simply because of the way he looks.




Okay, so Burn After Reading is getting rave reviews, and I think, actually, that Malkovich and Pitt and Swinton and McDormand all did excellent jobs in terms of their craft. But I didn't love it the way I loved Fargo, or even like it for its dark humor the way I enjoyed the darkness in No Country For Old Men.

I think it's because I want to like a character, a protagonist, in a movie, and Linda Litsky is set up to be the main character here. Me? I didn't like her at all. I think that as a female viewer I'm supposed to be sympathetic because she's an intelligent single woman looking for love, and not afraid to use computer dating to find it, but I get stuck on the fact that she feels so much dissatisfaction with herself that she wants to have a ton of plastic surgery. Also, there's her inherent belief that the surgery will automatically make her life better, make it possible for her to find that love. I have no sympathy for that superficiality, and the fact that her need to make herself over cosmetically causes the whole conflagration makes me have little patience with the stupidity. I mean, why didn't Chad just tell her to fuck off, rather than going along with her stupid plan? I know he's supposed to be the airhead coworker, but please. I mean, seriously, the RUSSIANS? Are we stuck in 1983? Geopolitically stupid? What?


Also? I texted some folks with a request for three words and a number between 1 and 50; all will be used for drabble generation. If you didn't receive a text, feel free to leave words&number in a comment here. If you're not looking for a Fred/George Weasely drabble, you can omit the number portion of prompt.

Comments

[scotrid.livejournal.com]

If funny names are actually a problem, we need to compile a list of white people with funny names. Dick Trickle, Conway Twitty, etc. Better yet, white Republican members of Congress (okay, that's redundant): Dick Lugar, Orrin Hatch, Arlen Specter (is that supposed to be the masculine of "Arlene"?), Saxby Chambliss, Lindsey Graham (male), John Sununu, Mike Crapo, John Shadegg, John Boozman, Michael Bilirakis, Connie Mack (male), John Shimkus, Todd Tiahrt, Jeff Fortenberry, Steve Chabot, John Boehner, Roy Blunt, Zach Wamp, Louie Gohmert, Jeb Hensarling, Bob Goodlatte, James Sensenbrenner. And Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. Some of them just sound funny, others are so durn furren.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

I know, right? What exactly constitutes foreign in a nation of immigrants?

[lilyeyes.livejournal.com]

words: fog, autumn, soup
number: 9

:-D

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Written, just not posted. I'm waiting to finish all the drabbles and post them in one place. :)

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Done! (http://irisgirl12000.livejournal.com/356776.html#cutid1)

[chiraljhae.livejournal.com]

I just don't understand how she can see that she won't benefit from 99% of the policies McCrackpot espouses, but she won't vote for Obama simply because of the way he looks.

You shouldn't because ignorance isn't logical. It just is and until that person is open-minded enough to listen, I mean really listen, to another opinion, nothing will change. Sigh. Politics - breaking up families since forever.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

The same afternoon, one of the other "refugees" asked me if I believed in Intelligent Design, since I'm a scientist it was a scientific theory.

My reaction: O.o

[chiraljhae.livejournal.com]

Wow!!! Seriously?!?

Sounds like you got caught in a boatload of fail. :/

[anglwitscbdwngs.livejournal.com]

i think everyone's commented on the obama thing. its sad and i've honestly had to take a step back from talking politics with some people. its just want to shout at them. have you been paying attention?! even if i could pretend to understand republican philosophy i wouldn't vote for those two. makes no sense.

anyway to my point. i saw burn after reading last weekend and i didn't like it either. i think pitt did a great job. but like i felt like instead of being complex the film was just confused. and i agree that you don't have a good enough exposition on any of the characters, chad probably most of all. what the hell is his motivation? I mean, seriously, the RUSSIANS? Are we stuck in 1983? Geopolitically stupid? What?
ha i went and saw it with my Russian friend. it was a little embarrassing to me. i think its supposed to be a comment on how many people in this country do still have a 1983 notion of geopolitics (our president for one). but like many other parts of the film i don't think they did a good job of playing out the subtleties.

oops sorry for bombing your comment box. i've been lj deprived.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many people think the Russians really still are our enemies, now that you mention that. Certainly the defense department did not decrease its spending with the official end of the Cold War.