Lady, Do I Know You?

I just love how October is over so the ghosts are quieting. But now the living people want to chat.

But only the crazy ones.

I was walking across the parking lot into the grocery store. I was low on Perrier, if you must know. And this tall woman passes me, walking faster. She decides to speak, and here's how it goes.

Crazy Lady: I hope those Democrats are happy. He's just going to get assassinated.

Confused Stacie: That would be totally sad.

Crazy Lady: Sure it would, but that is what is going to happen. People have already tried twice.

Confused Stacie: Do I know you? Why are you saying this to me?

Crazy Lady: (mumbles something and throws her hands in the air and keeps walking)

Was it my clothes? I was wearing a sort of conservative looking outfit today because I was coming from a nursing conference. Why would this person look at me and figure me to be sympathetic to her tirade? Note to self: consider donating that beige skirt to charity.

I just wanted some French fizzy water, lady. Not yer damn conspiracy theory.

That is all.

What's Up, Bill Clinton?

You might be wondering how this title and photo go together. If you have known me a long time,you already know. Back during Bill Clinton's first election run, I had a dream. This is nothing like the dream Dr. King had. This one was about tacos.

I dreamed that I had made some fish tacos, and Bill Clinton stopped by and we ate them. Only we were in a hurry to get somewhere, so we didn't have time to sit down to eat them. So we stood side by side over the kitchen sink and ate. It was a very friendly and comfortable situation. When I woke up, I knew he was going to win the white house, and he did.

Bill Clinton is going to be on my campus today. That means that I had to come to school early to get a damn parking spot. I did get one, but if I showed up 10 minutes later, I'll bet I wouldn't have.

The part that sucks is that he is going to be speaking right when I will be taking my nursing miderm, so I will miss it. If I am going to be inconvenienced by Bill Clinton, I should at least get the chance to meet him or something.

Tony asked me if I was going to get in the queue to ask him a question. I replied that I didn't really have anything to ask. He said "You could ask him if he likes fish tacos." *snicker* All these years later, that still sounds dirty.

Bill Clinton has been the only President of the United States that I have ever written a letter to. I got an official form letter response from the White House, too. Pretty cool, even if a copy of that letter is probably sitting in my FBI file or something.

What did I write to him about? Why my dream, of course. That and a few other items of political concern to me at the time. Probably reproductive freedom of choice, or something. But the fact remains that I once wrote a letter to the President about eating fish tacos over the sink.

Gay marriage ban overturned in California

There are lots of stories all over the AP wire today about the ins and outs of the decision that came down today in California. I'm not even going to attempt political discourse on this topic, but just want to say that I'm pleased. At least for now. Conservatives are bound to get all whipped into a frenzy over this, perhaps especially closeted gay Republicans like Larry Craig. There is already a voter-led ban headed for the November ballot that could undo today's ruling. We are sure to hear more about this issue going into the presidential race, too.

I mean, we really need to worry about gays and lesbians wanting to form their own family units SO much more than the war or the economy, right? I mean come on, if we are in Great Depression 2.0, and you can't afford to buy bread, are you gonna care if Adam and Steve are making honest men out of each other? Or will you donate your sugar rations so they can have a proper cake, and maybe the'll save you a slice? We need more things to celebrate, in my opinion, and fewer things to lament.

I'm already married (to a dude! how retro of me!), but I wish I had a cute girlfriend to celebrate today with. Life is complicated enough without having the whole world hate you just because you love someone they don't approve of. Marriage is hard, too. If same-gender folks want to jump into the lifetime committment game, why not let them have all the benefits and burdens that entails?

People get all exercised about "the children" in these scenarios. Honestly, kids just need love and stability. I sincerely doubt they care who they get it from.

I can think of a few straight marriages that do more damage to the "institution" of marriage than any of my gay friends ever could. I don't need to name names, but let's just say that when K-Fed is the more responsible parent, the world is already topsy-turvy.

Bush burns the Royal Alexandria Library!

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/03/20/iraq_roundtable/index.html

Great, but long article in Salon today about the looting of the National Museum in Baghdad and of some of the world's most important archaeological digs. I'm going to break my own politics embargo to talk about it.

One of the first things that happened in this misbegotten war that made an indelible impression on me was the ransacking of the National Museum. Since I have an interest in history and archeology and anthropology, the looting of treasures from the ancient world caused me intense distress. This is in every way the cradle of human life and civilization. Mesopotamia, and Southern Iraq in particular is where the earliest record of human recorded history, of evidence of math and science and poetry, have been found. Even the garden of Eden is supposed to be in that neighborhood, the rivers Tigris and Euphrates passing through it.

I remember going out to lunch with a friend at the time, and saying to her that this was the worst cultural devastation since the burning of the Royal Alexandria Library. That the loss of those artifacts, hundreds of thousands of them, represents priceless information about the origins of human civilization that may never be recovered. I was gutted over it. If I recall correctly, she misunderstood my concern and admonished me that some old pottery was not as important as the human lives being lost.

True, "The Epic of Gilgamesh" is not a person. It also will not render oil if you squeeze it, or explode if your fire it out of a gun. Sumerian religion is profoundly Anti-Christian in a lot of ways, and contains goddesses who are dynamic and powerful in their own right, and exult in their sexuality as well as their prowess in battle. Inanna wasn't any body's meek and modest mother. She was a fearsome and powerful spiritual force.

But if not for the Sumerians, we wouldn't have the Bible. Much of the Old Testament and early Jewish lore is generally believed to have been cribbed from even earlier Sumerian and Assyrian works. They had a flood and everything. The similarities are staggering.

That the modern world turns its back on this cultural genocide just makes us more vulnerable to the barbarism that precipitates actual genocide. Losing the clay tablets buried in the earth robs us of a piece of our humanity. That our leaders don't understand it is a travesty. It really shows what their priorities are.

After all, people don't render oil when you squeeze them, either.