Tarhearted.

DIE QUICKLY.

Rep. Alan Grayson, of Florida, used an after hours speech last night to mockingly describe the Republicans health care position:

"If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: die quickly. That's right -- the Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick."

"Remember, the Republican plan: Don't get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly."

You can read more here. The Republicans are angry and already comparing it to Joe Wilson's "you lie" outburst. I'd like to point out a couple of crucial difference though.

1. Joe Wilson's outburst was during a Presidential speech. Alan Grayson's was during an after hours format designed for speakers to discuss the topic of their choice.

2. Grayson's speech was funny and not racist.

Doesn't it feel good to tell the truth? For all of their nay saying, Republicans have no alternative to Democratic health care proposals becuase- wait for it- they don't want health care to be reformed at all. I'll lump those so-called "blue dog" Democrats in there as well.

Yesterdays failure to pas seither bill with a public option is a clear indicator that the people's will doesn't matter anymore and that we live in a country run by corporations. Those not in favor of a public option state that it would unfairly run private insurance companies out of business.

Excuse me?

Not fair to insurance companies?

A recent stufy showed that 45,000 were going to die this year from a lack of health insurance. that's more than one 9/11 a month. What about what's fair to them? I'm almost afraid to ask, but do profits matter more than people to Republicans and fake Democrats?

THANKS FOR NOTHING, AMERICA. YOU'RE FAT AND UGLY AND I HATE YOU. ALSO, YOU SMELL LIKE HAM.

Those fucking fuck fucks. They just shot down the first go at a public option. Read the full story at The Huffington Post.

Really, America? REALLY?

You know what? I just can't anymore. I'm French now. Are you happy? You made me French. I refuse to stand with the fatso, Christianist, mouth breathing, bottom feeders. Nor do I want to live under the rule of corporate hogs. So I'm done with America and I officially hate Capitalism. I'm now a French Socialist.

CRAZIES.

My girl Rachel Maddow had Frank Schaeffer on her show recently to talk about Evangelical Christians and it was, in a word, AMAZING.

Here is one part I particularly like. I feel like it gets to the heart of this thing.

MADDOW: How do you work to move people off of that position? It doesn’t seem like facts are relevant [to them] in trying to move people away from these beliefs.

SCHAEFFER: You don’t work to move them off this position. You move past them. Look, a village cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot. It’s as simple as that. And we have a village idiot in this country called fundamentalist Christianity…. There is no end to this stuff. Why? Because this subculture has as its fundamentalist faith that they distrust facts. They believe in a young earth 6,000 years old with dinosaurs [living at the same time as] human beings….  This is la-la land.

See? AMAZING. I hope against hope that people in this country are finally starting to speak out against those aggressively ignorant people who denigrate reason and expect our society to bend to their make believe. Enough is enough. No more crazies at the table.

GLORIOUS SCARVES.

My friend Zoe is more beautiful than your friend Zoe because she sends me things like this:

We should all be spending more time on things like this and less time on things like this.

MilkMilkLemonade AND COMMUNITY THEATER.

MilkMilkLemonade closes tomorrow and my heart hurts. My heart started hurting last week, in fact. What can I say? I'm always a little ahead of the curve. I just don't want it to end. I really wish we could extend somehow, but it doesn't look like it was meant to be, due to schedules and mundance things like "space".

This has been the single most positive theater experience of my adult life. This is how it was doing community theater when I was a kid in Washington. I'd begin the summer with a collection of strangers and through the coming months we'd all become close friends while learning choreography and the lyrics to "Tradition" or "The Telephone Hour" or whatever. I love my cast and my designers a lot. And I want to gay marry my director, except he's not gay and is already spoken for and could probably do better than a hot mess like me anyway. Who wants to marry into my credit rating?

The press has been AMAZING. People seem to really love the show. Don't take my word for it. Just ask these guys here. Or here. Or here. Or here, or here, or here, or here, or here, or here, or here, or here, or here. Only one critic wasn't that into it. The Village Voice gave it the equivalent to a C plus, but that's only because that particular critic's heart is made of tar and looks like a Craisin. Just kidding! A C plus is fine, especially from the Village Voice. I'll take that C plus straight to the bank, thank you very much.

Mostly I feel good because I feel as if I made theater for my immediate community, which is something I've been thinking about a lot. Until recently I had very different goals. Without going into it too much, I got caught up in my backwards thinking of what a successful playwright is. Lately though I've been thinking that it's important for theater to be local. It's not television or a Hollywood movie, which have to reach widespread audiences. We should be making theater for our communities. The people who are actually around us. Maybe then they'd actually come to the theater. I knew this when I was 12 and performing in musicals in Kitsap County, Washington (which always sold out, by the way). I wonder when I forgot it.

P.S. MilkMilkLemonade is getting published. Details to come.

P.P.S. You could vote for us in the New York Innovative Theater Awards if you want to.

Hooray. Ding.

LOVE IS ALL.

I have a new favorite band. It's been a while since a new band synced with me like this, and - no surprise- they're Swedish. I don't know what it is with me and Swedes, but nearly all of my favorite bands from the last decade have been Scandinavian. What makes them so damn good at pop music?

Anyway, Love is All makes music just like I like it: punchy, loud, beautiful, strange. Plus, a new awesome chick vocalist to swoon over.

NOTHING IS SACRED.

This story from The Arizona Daily Star just made my head explode.

Governor Jan Brewer, the leather face you see pictured, signed away domestic partner benefits that were enacted last year with one little signature. Why? Because God told her to.

This is yet another example of why the separation of church and state has to be tirelessly fought for. As liberals, we tend to try and be the party of inclusiveness, which is wonderful except when Evangelicals have spent the past twenty-five years successfully chipping away at the separation of church and state.

Social contract states that we're supposed to be respectful of each others' religions. I say bullshit. I resent the idea that I'm supposed to be respectful of people's religious beliefs, even when those beliefs seek to marginalize me and my family to second-class citizenship. I'm tired of watching reason erode because of the mouth breathers' sky god.

I say ask questions and ask them often. If people are so secure in their beliefs then they should be perfectly willing to answer questions about them. Par example: why is it okay for you to pick and choose which ancient scripture you choose to follow, revised time and time again by men, and throw away what you feel isn't relevant? How can you believe that Adam and Eve were the first humans when science proves that this isn't so? Where do you think heaven and hell exist and, assuming they don't exist on a physical plane, what exactly is the science behind all this? Etc.

We cannot afford to live in a Christian Theocracy. Theocracies are really for Muslims, and I think both religions suck about the same.

TELEVISED BARFNESS.

What in sam hell is ABC trying to do to me? Their Fall line-up has two- count 'em- TWO right wing sitcoms airing back-to-back.

On Wednesday nights kabillions of fatos and halfwits will tune in to watch Kelsey Grammer star in Hank, a show about a red faced jerk off who loses his job and is struggling to keep his middle class family in house and home. Oh, really? Well, if Kelsey cared so much about the middle class perhaps he wouldn't vote right wing.

BARF.

 

Follow that up with a half hour of cuntessa supreme Patricia Heaton in The Middle and you've got a double dose of barfness. Too bad that dilf has to act alongside such an evangelical, right wing, hatchet face.

 

The Middle, get it? Middle America. Where the real Americans are.  Barf times three.

Who is in charge over there? I asked for this, I guess. I always said I was sick of shows about rich white people in the cities. I didn't mean this, though! Why can't we have a new Roseanne? ABC fails.

THE KKK TOOK MY BABY AWAY.

Jimmy Carter suggested to some press outlets yesterday that good, old fashioned racism is a large part of the opposition to Barack Obama. 

To Mr. Carter I respectfully say "No shit, Sherlock."

As per usual, Gawker has something hilarious and true to say about this.

PEOPLE WHO DIED. PART INFINITY.

Jim Carroll died this weekend. I'm sad because I was a big, big fan. I know it must be difficult to imagine, but I was a fairly angry teenager, and artists like Jim Carroll meant a lot to me. Catholic Boy is such a fantastic punk record, and if you don't know it you should. It's wonderful, and along with albums by The New York Dolls, X-Ray Spex, Richard Hell, The Slits etc, it pretty much shaped my whole life.

I grew up in Seattle during the height of alternative rock, which I loved very much, but was also got made fun of by my friends relentlessly for liking old punk and new wave the best. Oh, how the tables have turned. These asshole hipsters who love this music all of the sudden were singing along to The Cranberries when I first discovered this music. Thank god for riot grrl. Otherwise I might have been a total square in the 90's.

I've included the lyrics to "It's Too Late", my favortie Jim Carroll song that I used to write in my journal to in middle school when I was feeling angst-y.

It's too late
To fall in love with Sharon Tate
But it's too soon
To ask me for the words I want carved on my tomb

I think it's time that you all start
To think about gettin' by
But I have that need to go out and find somebody to love

It's too late
There's no one left that I even wanna imitate
You see, you just don't know
I'm here to give you my heart
And you want some fashion show

But it ain't no contribution
To rely on an institution
To validate your chosen art
And to sanction your boredom
And let you play out your part

It's too late
You know when they got nothin' to give
They only part their legs for what's negative
They're so decadent . . .
Until their daddy's money from home's all spent

So I think it's time, because it's too easy
To rely on worshipping devils and strangers in bed,
Though they do get good drugs, and they do give good head

It's too late
You shoulda realized I was worth the wait
Ah, but you didn't hesitate
When he took you off, you let him seal our fate

So I think it's time
that you all start
To think about gettin' by
Without that need to go out and find
Somebody to love