This pretty much sums up my mood right now.

Oh, Please

I've been really busy lately; I am tired, and I have almost no patience left for idiocy. Something is again making the rounds out there in the "news" world, which exhausts me to the point of exasperated, glassy-eyed rage. I don't have time for this. Collectively, as a country, we don't have time for this.

President Obama, our duly-elected, American-born President of the United States, does not have to tell us what religion he is. Indeed, it's one of the many things that make this country great. So it does not matter if he's Christian, Muslim, or, indeed, if he is neither of those things and doesn't believe in a higher power. It's unfortunate that the political landscape in America makes it practically impossible to get elected unless you are a Christian, and that those who are most concerned with this are also often the ones waving the flag and bleating about "freedom," but it's not a real requirement. I think that Colin Powell summed this up best during the campaign:


"I'm also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said, such things as, 'Well, you that know Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

So people, please. I know it won't happen, but President Obama could be a circle-dancing pagan, and it would not make a difference. He's the president. I am sorry that it freaks some of you out, but there it is.

Target & Best Buy: Make it Right?

A lot of people and organizations are calling on Target to "make it right" by giving an equal amount to an off-setting recipient.

Sorry. There's no way to off-set this. Giving money to an LGBTA cause won't take back the publicity and air-time that Tom Emmer is getting from Minnesota Forward. It also won't help out science education, immigrants, choice, the environment, or facts. The opposite recipient would be a PAC that is running ads for Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, who is the Democratic Farmer-Laborer (DFL) endorsed candidate for Minnesota governor, and clearly, that would be a ridiculous thing to do.

This is still a hot topic here in Minnesota, and it's getting national play, too, from the Human Rights Campaign and Moveon.org.

Something that's missing from the debate, as I have been hearing it, is that it's not just about gay marriage and equal rights for LGBT individuals. It's much broader, and it concerns other issues that are equally important. Tom Emmer does not believe in evolution or anthropogenic global warming. Tom Emmer is anti-choice. Tom Emmer wants to continue the same economic policies of Tim Pawlenty, who is leaving us with a 5-6 billion dollar budget deficit problem.

Not to mention the insinuation that the other candidates for governor are pro-business, the false dichotomy that one cannot be pro-labor and pro-business, which is tied to the mistaken idea that jobs do not, somehow, equal people.

My boycott of Target continues, and it took me to Goodwill on Friday, where I got some cute clothes, including a shirt that originally came from Target. It's reminding me that when I go to Target, so do millions of other people, and we wind up with the same stuff. Also, when I only go to Target, I keep seeing the same brands, over and over again. It's nice to branch out. I am feeling liberated because I am not stopping at one place; I think it will re-open my city, at least in the material sense.