Skinner Kicked Pavlov's Dogs

http://www.nyupress.org/books/Out_in_the_Country-products_id-11057.html

About the book:
http://queercountry.fromthesquare.org/

I've just read bits about it online today... I wish I could articulate what bugs me so much about it. On the one hand, I'm sure I'll find many parts I concur with, or at least share a lot of experiences with. But, other parts of what she says are to the effect of, be the perfect homo, make excuses for the people in your area, online gay friends are a substitute for RL queer community, etc. Yawn. I deeply suspect that it's going to be painfully naive and rose-tinted at points, and much too homo uncle tom for my liking. There's probably a better way to put that, but yeah...

This may not be a romantic or idealistic statement, but for the majority of queers, Harvey Milk's advice, move to the nearest city, is sound advice, not only for safety concerns, but because queer or straight, urban areas offer economic and social opportunities that much of rural America cannot. There is not a need anymore for half the population to be family farmers, that's just how it is, and we waste a lot of money on romanticizing an inefficient and isolating way of life, through TV, religion, the notion of "traditional values", and more tangible things like too-small of school districts, local government infrastructures and road systems

TLDR I'm still gonna buy the book and will write about it later, so I guess the author achieved her goal there. Maybe it'll be better than I think.

So we went to pet adoption day at the same Petco and the same humane society we got Mauer from. Long story short, we saw Mauer's foster mom there :)  She  was showing a few kittens up for adoption that were from the same mama cat as Mauer's mom. We saw a friendly one we really liked, and filled out the paperwork for it! It'll be a few weeks, she still needs to be spayed. Younger than I'd been hoping for, but this cat really reminded us of Mauer. Similar face shape and patterns and all that.

(Mauer's cat mom is also getting fixed. She's a ferel cat and not really adoptable, so they're just going to let her back into her territory, which is probably for the best, since she's a rural cat, I think.)

Rebecca's brother did an awesome job, here are the first few he sent us:( Read more...Collapse )

I'm more of a domestic policy buff, but found this column on Iran's "election" to be really eye-opening: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/19-11

The Washington Post has has videos of Sec. of Ag Tom Vilsack  (better known as a beloved former Gov. of Iowa), talking about USDA, H1N1, etc, but also speaking well of the Iowa Supreme Court ruling for marriage equality.  It's been pleasing to see several prominent Iowa Democrats happy about the decision.

I BOUGHT A GUITAR TODAY
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MOAR MAUER PIX
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Why is the British media so damn harsh on their actors that have a bit of success on this side of the pond? Apparently Kate Winslet is over-emotional, drank too much on awards night, and perpetuates stereotypes. Oh, and how dare her look change a bit over the course of a decade.

For the record, I reserve the right to drink, laugh, cry, and otherwise enjoy the high points in my career.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=537504&catid=2

Minneapolis police are looking for two men who attacked a gay woman late Thursday night.

32-year-old Kristen Boyne said she was walking from her apartment to Rainbow Foods in Uptown when two men called her a derogatory word for lesbian and then began punching her in the face and stomach until she lost consciousness.

"It just seemed really random," Boyne said.

Boyne said she offered her attackers her wallet and cell phone but they didn't want it.

Police say Boyne was treated at HCMC. Police urge anyone with information about this crime to call Sgt. Bruce Kohn at 612-673-2941.

(Copyright 2009 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)

For the non-locals, Uptown is a gay-friendly, hipsterish neighborhood in the west part of Minneapolis. The "gay-friendly" aspect  in a way makes this worse, to me, because it's like, where the fuck are we supposed to live?

The article doesn't say her current condition, but someone in the comments mentioned she was messed up but able to attend work the next day, so I guess that's something. There will be a march Thursday night for those in the area that can make it.