Sometimes Amazon is Uncomfortably Astute

so i was looking for the new marc jacobs cologne and after i looked on amazon i guess it must have sounded not only the FAGGOT ALARM, but the RAGE-FILLED-ANGST-RIDDEN-SUICIDAL-COMPOUND-HYPHENATE-FAGGOT ALARM because it suggested the following:

1.) 'Velvet RAGE: overcoming the anger of growing up gay in a straight man's world,' an elaborately titled self-help book for gay men (obviously).

2.) 'A Single Man,' the excellent (but utterly steeped in misery) film by Tom Ford.

3.) 'The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture,' by Daniel Harris- a moderately well-known indictment of gay identity, then and now, circa 1999, featuring some valid points that are undermined by their misguided arguments.

4.) A bunch of other super fancy colognes.

i couldn't help but feel like amazon believed itself to be peering into my brain, and had decided that what i was thinking was that i hate everybody, myself included, and the only comfort i seem to be able to give myself is smelling good to the tune of twenty something bucks per fluid ounce.

WRONG, amazon! comfort only costs about eighty cents an ounce, unless you go to the bars.

seriously, though. i think it's interesting that you buy a higher end cologne and you're marketed to as tasteful, sophisticated and miserable (read gay male). i can see their point, but yikes.

Let's Talk About Arizona Politics!

(above: Governor HELLBITCH rubs her glasses against her Melanoma-TAN-RIFFIC muzzle)

i wrote something i liked today, and i did it in the comments section of one of my favorite Arizona bookstore's website. You can go to the blog entry i responded to HERE

i won't try to reiterate the post that moved me to froth at the mouth, but i would like to repost my response, because it was pretty fucking good if i say so myself. at least i think so!

Posted by Seth
November 3rd, 2010

i can't bring myself to feel anything other than abject horror and disgust about brewer getting elected. we might as well start literally eating the weak, the poor and the brown. it's hard to be all sunshine lollypops and rainbows when you're talking about arizona politics. this is the state that elected a man- evan mecham- who openly hated gays and blacks, CANCELLED martin luther king day (which voters backed up until threatened with the UNTHINKABLE possibility of losing the superbowl, god forbid), though him and fife symington both ended up getting impeached for illegal financial stuff and fraud, respectively, and now we've got Jan Brewer- Community College Radiology Technician (and amateur collector of imaginary mexican heads- did somebody say death and dismemberment?) RUN AMOK. stay classy, governors of arizona! this is the state that continues to elect joe arpaio even after 20 years of epic, well-documented scandal that has been condemned by GLOBAL human rights organizations, to say nothing of the myriad national and state groups (including the federal government in various forms) that continue to struggle (but SOMEHOW fail) to prosecute and oust him. cumulatively, it's all too much and it's all happened in too small a period of time. arizona should hang its head in shame. profanity and name calling seem like flirtation compared to what's ACTUALLY warranted at this point, the least of which would be for some physical representation of the most rudimentary, bare bones human decency to be burnt in effigy on the front lawn of Jan Brewer's new Barbie Dream Governor's Mansion. my own mother sent me an email forward that actually contained the phrase (in all caps) 'GOD HELP US WHO TOLERATE THE MUSLIM!!!' and you know what i DIDN'T do? i DIDN'T let it slide, and shake my head and say 'oh, i guess we'll have to agree to disagree! that MOM, she's so old fashioned!' i wrote her back and told her that she was engaging in hate speech, and was speaking the language of nothing less than ethnic cleansing, if not the sweet nothings leading up to the unending joys of genocide. after explaining to her that my assessment of her email was a condemnation of her sentiment and not HER, i also invited her to explain to me how she came to arrive at her point of view, as she is an upper middle class white woman who has only ever lived in small town nebraska and a nice little cul-de-sac in Self Satisfied WASP, pennsylvania... she never replied, because there is NO JUSTIFYING IT. anyone selling that crap would BALK at the possibility of being held accountable for their bile, and that INCLUDES THE GOVERNOR ('no more debates since GOD HIMSELF struck me dumb last time!').

seriously, sitting around in a fair trade organic cotton sundress and sending out good vibes with a bumper sticker on your car encouraging your fellow travellers to be the change that they want to see is NOT CUTTING IT. confrontation is not only warranted, it is necessary. i would have to agree that facebook is probably not the venue if you're going to do it intelligently, though. i'd totally go with twitter. don't forget the #hashtags!

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so yeah, that was what i wrote. check out the post i responded to for context.

Short, Sweet, True

Sarah Silverman cuts the bullshit in under 30 seconds.