Dogged Blog

The hypocrisy of the anti-AR right

I follow a few lists about animal-related legislation both because it's an interest of mine and because, obviously, it's a great place to get story ideas and keep up with things happening in other parts of the country.

And I know I should post a bunch of background here, and remind you of past posts I've made here and on Pet Connection about how aggravated the assumption of right-wingitude makes me -- in other words, the wide-spread acceptance of the entirely false idea that anyone who supports the preservation of working dogs, hunting dogs, and heritage dog breeds is a right winger.

Not true. What is true is that the whole issue of shelter reform has arisen out of a truly non-partisan pool of those who care about what's really best for animals, and about forging unconventional coalitions and throwing all the old polarized positions out as pointless and unworkable. This isn't a right vs left issue, and allowing the whack jobs at PETA to frame it that way is abdicating the very real progressive position on both individual freedom and true animal welfare to those same whack jobs.

Some of us have stood up to take back the progressive movement for shelter reform and real animal welfare, but you wouldn't really notice that on a lot of these lists.

And never has this been more clear to me as I watch a little army of pseudo-libertarians falling all over themselves in glee at the selection of right wing ideologue Sarah Palin as the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Why? Because she's anti-AR and pro-hunting and fishing, of course. And they're all dancing around about this (even though in reality most Democrats are, in fact, anti-AR and pro-hunting and fishing, but that's not the "frame" we've been sold so they just ignore it), and neglecting to note the simple fact that Sarah Palin is not a libertarian and she's not interested in your freedoms and she's not about respecting our values or our beliefs.

No, she may be all for your choice to eat mooseburgers that you shot yourself, but she's violently opposed to a woman's right to have autonomy over her own body, or to use her mind to decide for herself when she thinks protoplasm becomes a person. If there's a more virulent anti-choice fanatic in this country, the only place you'll find them is outside a clinic putting firebombs in doctors' cars.

Hypocrites. You want your right to your guns -- which I support -- and your hunting and fishing -- which I support -- and to breed dogs and eat meat and all the rest, but you'll dance on the grave of my right to choose what happens to my own body, and make my own medical decisions.

Nice work.

Short is the new black

I've been living in a fool's paradise these last few years.

Long skirt and dress lengths have been in fashion for quite a while now, and although the knee-length skirt look came in around four years ago, there were still plenty of longer hems on the racks and in the catalogs.

Now, I'm tall. Very tall. So those skirts that were meant to be ankle length were, on me, already mid-calf, which is just about where I like my skirts and dresses to hit.

All that's over now. And before some well-meaning person says "Damn fashion! Wear what's comfortable for you!", well, yes, I agree, except when something is not in fashion, it ceases to exist in stores, and yo, I do not sew and never have and never will.

And while something too long can be shortened, something too short cannot be lengthened, because in this day and age even the most expensive clothes come with only a tiny little bit of a hem, presumably to save money in fabric costs, so I can't even have the hem taken down more than, say, half an inch. And frankly, even if we were talking THREE inches of hem, it wouldn't be enough. Because I'm very tall.

Woe.

And speaking of black, the new black is also chocolate brown and sometimes charcoal gray. Now, I like gray and brown but only in small doses, and I like black. I like it a lot. That will never change. And yet, more and more often, I go to buy something in a catalog -- a sweatshirt or sweatpants, a hoodie, a t-shirt, some kind of dog-walking basic like that -- and it comes in gray or brown or, you know, magenta... but not in black.

I'm aware there are things more important than this in the world, but I refuse to give in to the "sky is falling" crap about the crazy creationist whack job the Republicans just chose as their veep nominee... I shall leave that to every other cable news commentator and leftist blogger, because really, they have it covered.

I shall simply do what I always do when everyone is running around wailing and tearing out their hair, and donate to Barack Obama. Why don't you do it too?

Another post of scintillating wittiness

When Gina, my colleague at Pet Connection, shut down her personal blog, I didn't understand it.

And I'm definitely not shutting mine down. But I understand how it happened, because even right now, during a presidential election, I'm finding it hard to squeeze personal blogging into my schedule.

Which doesn't mean I'm not blogging -- I'm blogging my fingers off, but right now it's mostly over at Pet Connection, with occasional outbursts at DailyKos (although I do almost always post those here, too). I also blog sporadically at AfterElton.com and AfterEllen.com, although nothing recently.

So this is absolutely the most boring post in the history of this blog, but I just wanted to say yes, I live! I even blog! And I will try to do better.

I'm considering taking a semi-vacation for the last two weeks of December and the first week of January. Not going anywhere, just not working. No deadlines. Either getting ahead on my SFGate.com column, or skipping one. Making sure all my other deadlines are finished up by then, and no new ones are set until I've been back at work for a few days.

And anyone who knows me is going, yeah right. We'll believe it when we see it.

Excuse me, I have to go ice my fingers.

Taking away my rights is wrong

I answered the door this morning, and a man smiled at me from my porch. "I'm here from Yes on Proposition 8," he said. That's the evil-spirited California proposition to amend our constitution to strip same sex couples of the right to marry legally in the state, which we currently have.

I smiled back at him, and said, "Oh, well then I hope you go to hell. Now get the fuck off my property." (I really did say that. I have witnesses.) And then I slammed the door.

A minute later I thought I'd tell him that I'd be following him up and down the block as he spoke to my neighbors, making sure they all understood that, if they bought the shit he was selling, it was me whose rights they'd be taking away. And my neighbor, who was outside washing his car, was laughing. "I almost told him not to go up there," he said. "But I'm glad I didn't, because that was great."

I laughed, but then I held out my hand. "I'm shaking, though." And I was.

He shook his head. "He must not know where he is."

Well, he was definitely at the liberal end of the block, because all my immediate neighbors felt the same way, but I'm sure plenty of the folks he called on were somewhat receptive to his message. I know, because while I'm a lesbian living in San Francisco, I'm also a fourth generation native San Franciscan, and I know my City... and my neighborhood... very well. I grew up here.

Although I'd signed up to phone bank against Prop 8 already, I'd passed on going door to door. First off, it kind of scares me, and secondly, I figured, what's the point? San Francisco's certainly not going to go for this thing.

But I'm looking at it differently now. It's not like San Francisco will be winner takes all on Prop 8; every single vote matters, and there are people here who will vote for this thing. Many of them will do it because they believe outright lies, such as the one I keep hearing that if this right isn't taken away from us, churches will be forced to marry same sex couples. I think I, who was raised Irish Catholic here in the City, attending parish schools and growing up in the neighborhood where I now live, can do some good there by looking them in the eye and pointing out that the Catholic Church doesn't recognize marriages performed anywhere other than at their altars, and doesn't recognize divorce, and yet, no one has ever tried to make them marry divorced couples or recognize the marriages of those wed at City Hall or at the local Lutheran church.

I'd already donated to Equality for All, and am phone banking for them tomorrow night. If you're reading this, please donate to them, too. This is a fundamental matter of equality and civil rights. And taking away people's  rights? It's wrong.

Renee!

My interview with Renee O'Connor just went live on AfterEllen.com...

Renee O'Connor Saves the World... Again!

The Big O

I could march around being all militant about not watching the Olympics because of China's human rights, animal welfare, environmental, and other issues, but there would be two problems with that.

One, while I do love my poor beleagured country, America hasn't been doing too well on most of those things lately itself.

Two, even if the Olympics were being held in Left Blogistan, let's face it, I wouldn't watch them, because I can't stand watching sports on TV.

I bring this up because I was over at AfterEllen.com seeing if my interview with Renee O'Connor was up yet -- it's not, and I wish it was because, well... it's Renee O'Connor, yo -- and they have this really long long long article about the Olympics. So even the fact that I don't watch television isn't going to save me, is it? Meep.

Speaking of television, allow me to recap.

I recapped Design Star's third season on AfterElton.com, and when that was done, I did some interesting interviews with almost-winner Matt Locke, last season's fan fave Josh "Sparkle" Johnson, too. And I've got more... some of which might surprise you... coming out next week.

I also wrote an article on whether or not the Repubs will take the anti-gay attack machine out for a spin in 2008, and if they do, if it will get the job done for them like it is has before. I posted my interviews with Congressman Barney Frank and AMERICAblog.com's John Aravosis already, and a round-up of comments from other pundits interviewed for the piece is here -- including Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, and Karl Rove.

Which leaves me sitting here hitting "refresh" 3579866 times a minute at AfterEllen.com, waiting and waiting for my Renee fix.

Interview: Congressman Barney Frank

In an article running today on AfterElton.com, I disscuss the right's use of anti-gay attacks in the 2008 election. For this piece, I spoke to Congressman Barney Frank, one of the most powerful gay figures in American politics. This is the transcript of that interview.

Christie Keith: We asked Karl Rove about the elections in 2000 and 2004 and how gay issues -- same-sex marriage and gay rights in general -- were being used as helpful to President Bush in winning elections, helpful to the Republicans –

Barney Frank: What did he say?

Christie Keith: He specifically said, “I think it was more in 2004 than it was in 2000.  I think it entered into force simply because it was not introduced by the political actors themselves; neither by the Bush nor Kerry campaigns, but brought forward by a Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts.  It sort of exploded on the scene and got a life of its own.” Then he goes on to say that he doesn’t think that’s happening in California and he’s not sure if it will.  Do you have anything to say about that?

Barney Frank: The general sense was that it was very helpful to them in 2004.  They obviously believe that.  Of course they went into 2005 determined to ride those issues.  Schiavo was an example, by the way, of that same thing.

But they forced several votes on the Constitutional amendment.  I think what he’s telling you now reflects that fact that he and the President and their political people tried very hard to whip up any gay marriage sentiment in 2005 and 2006 by forcing several votes on the Constitutional amendment, and it blew up in their face.

So, as I said, the most relevant election year is 2006 because the 2005/2006 Republicans had forced several votes on the Constitutional amendment.  Do you know how many people who for it? One. And he was a Republican in a Republican primary.  On the other hand, I think about two dozen people who voted for the amendment were defeated by people who were against it. So it was the 2006 election that made it clear.

What Rove is telling you is probably true now, but he forgot to add that he’s very disappointed because he tried very hard to exploit it for the 2006 election and it had no impact

Christie Keith: So you feel that this is probably not something that’s going to get a lot of traction in the current election.

Barney Frank: Right.  I think, by the way, even in 2004 and 2002, the two elections they won, it was really more the national security issue.  I think the air is substantially out of this balloon.

I get that from talking to members of Congress.  Meanwhile we passed an anti-discrimination bill by a large majority.  We passed the Hate Crimes bill.  I think the fear is out of that one. It was the 2006 election results that demonstrated it.  Okay?

Christie Keith: Thank you so much. 

Interview: AMERICAblog.com's John Aravosis

I wrote an article, running today on AfterElton.com, on the right's use of anti-gay attacks as a wedge issue in the 2008 election. I spoke with AMERICABlog.com's John Aravosis, and this is the transcript of that interview. It's long, even though I didn't include the part about Battlestar Galactica, so I've put it behind a jump.

When your dog bloats, every minute counts

Veterinarian Wendy Brooks, my former colleague at VeterinaryPartner.com, once called it “the mother of all emergencies,” and it’s the subject of my column in SFGate.com this week:

You’re trying to sleep, and your dog is driving you nuts. He’s restless, he’s panting, and he keeps making a sound like he’s clearing his throat, or maybe trying to throw up.

You check his stomach, and it seems a little bloated. Don’t reach for the Gas-X; reach for your car keys, because your dog is showing all the signs of one of the most serious and time-critical of all veterinary emergencies, gastric dilation and volvulus (GDV).

You might know this condition by one of its more common names, bloat, or bloat and torsion. More likely you’ve never heard of it at all. Simply put, torsion occurs when the stomach, for unknown reasons, twists so its ends are closed off, trapping air in the stomach.

While bloat affects many species, including humans and cats, those most at risk are dogs, particularly those of the larger breeds. Only around 6 percent of all dog breeds in general will bloat in their lifetime, but that rises to nearer to 25 percent for large and giant breed dogs.

Among those breeds likely to bloat are the most popular dogs in America, Labrador Retrievers, and all their retriever cousins, including the Golden. The breed with the highest incidence of bloat is the Great Dane, followed by the St. Bernard in second place and the Weimaraner in third. Mixed breed dogs can bloat, German shepherds can bloat, poodles can bloat, Irish Setters can bloat. If it has four legs and says “woof,” it can probably bloat.

The causes of bloat aren’t known, but I summarize much of the information that came out of the huge Purdue bloat study, give dog owners an idea of how to recognize the signs of bloat in their dogs and what to do when they see them, and explain what happens when a vet is treating a dog for GDV. I also discuss the procedure known as “stomach tacking,” often recommended to prevent bloat in high-risk breeds.

If you or someone you know have one of the bloat-prone breeds, or aren’t sure, be sure to check it out.

All the news that can be crammed into one self-indulgent blog post

I came home from my trip and fell into the vortex of deadlines. I had two yesterday and one today, and one more Monday morning.

Think about this the next time you contemplate quitting your job and becoming a writer, yo.

Gina is out of town this weekend so I'll be in charge of the blog at Pet Connection... which will shortly be changing its name to the "Scottish Deerhound Connection," but don't tell her, kthnx.

I have a few articles coming out next week, one of which I'm incredibly excited about and will post a link to when it's out. Well, I'll link to all my articles and of course, they're all completely brilliant and wonderful blah blah blah, and why no, I don't need self-esteem lessons, apparently.

Forgive me, I had only six hours of sleep last night. That might have been cutting it a little close.