Lex Dexter Anthology, 2012

Those of you who know me lately know that I'm both laboring and lying dormant under adverse conditions, enough so that even a cheeky blog post or two can turn tough days into half-victories. Because I love the people who read this blog, because I need them and I want their attention, I've compiled this "anthology" of the best of a blogging bender I've tossed off like apple seeds over Organizing Grievances, the Prisonship and Boatzone3. Comment if you dare and you'll find it's not unlike conversing.

Politics:

• My journey with the contraception debate: I know you were hoping another white dude would weigh in on women's reproductive health, so I do it long-form style, and end up, I think, in a place from which white dudes needn't un-invite themselves.
• Glenn Beck was recognized to advance white identity politics for the Washington Post, and I objected my way into some kind of neo-Habermasian stance. Can you imagine Jurgen Habermas angry? I tried.
• Thankfully this silly Habermasian roleplaying, and the socialist stuff underpinning it, attracted Gabba Weeks' attention: my response to his response.
  
• An attempt to shut this issue down and move on to its theoretical implications: "contraception-constitution-catholics-redux." and I think aloud about one or two things he said.
  
• My comments on Timothy Snyder's suggestions for "How Democracy Can Save Europe."
  
• Major Depressive Episode, brief reprieve: Getting weird and feeling weird about Rick Santorum's dead child. [Cue Joe South, "Games People Play."]
• Zizek speaks of Occupy and the Left: My forthcoming blog trilogy, which I haven't told you about and you aren't holding your breath anticipating? There's a key to that hidden here.

Autobio:

• Kate Carraway on drinking/not drinking while Thirtyish: a new favorite writer inspires me to assess what condition my condition's in.
  
• A pretty photo of pretty window dressing: that's all it took to take me back somewhere.
  
• 32-33 vector: Unclassifiable and a favorite. Somebody spray-painted a swastika on our driveway and my jaded response begot a guilt response that encompassed punk, maturity, propriety and the idea of art's autonomy.
  
• Maybe you shouldn't dream at all: Quotation from a crime novel frames just a paragraph or two about suicidal ideation, as much as I'm comfortable indulging in.
  
• Mommy told me it'd be fine if I watched Last Tango in Paris. Mommy lied, as I found out on the insomniac early morning of my 33rd birthday.
  

Music:

• The Annual Prisonship Bestuv List, this time featuring sub-lists of honorable mentions, letdowns, and "too early to tell," as well as the top 15 LPs of 2011. I worked days on this thing and received 1 comment.
  
• I write about and share a track from New Zealand's Bats. Turns out I have a lot to say.
  
• Comedian and personal hero Jen Kirkman talks Kurt Cobain and his non-jock persona, and I cannot help but chime in.
• I piggyback on Gabba and Andrew's smart thoughts about the over-hyped Fucked Up, whom some of us dig nonetheless.
• I post a video of Led Zeppelin playing "Achilles' Last Stand" and end up discussing my recent purchase of Zep's Presence and the redundancy of a rock dude saying, "Yo, Led Zeppelin rules." Then I talk about how Zeppelin rules.
• I went to a very fashionable rock show featuring SF's Brilliant Colors and London's Veronica Falls and came to some conclusions.
• Far from fashionable, the best thing about music in Michigan is Easy Action. I try and I try to explain why.
• A return to swastika content, inspired by Vice's coverage of the band Ice Age and misperceptions of their zine art that lead to misperceptions of their politics.
  

Sex:

• Amidst the contraception debate, a consideration of the mandated condom use recently stirring up the Cali porn industry seemed like a good idea. This one's as close as I get to a certain writer-thing I'm trying to pull off. Let me know what you think?
  
• Is now the time for fair trade porn? Let's talk about something else, and about fair trade porn, says me.
• Kate Carraway, Girl News: "Girls and work" and my unsolicited response.
• Kate Carraway, Girl News: "Girls and girl-on-girl" takes me places. Come along.
• Kate Carraway, "I'm soooooo bored of not having sex sometimes that...": I swear that the blogs these pieces inspire aren't filthy, just fanciful. She's my favorite writer I've happened upon in ages.
• "Paying the Price": A long, early morning survey of Cynthia Nixon's defiant anti-essentialist sexuality, Chester Brown's autobiographical graphic novel about his time frequenting prostitutes, and the sexuality of a depressed thirtysomething man.
  
• Yes, Mastur: I don't hate masturbation, but I don't feel like elevating self-love past the point of self-reliance. Getting more confident with wielding my Foucault, I go after what's repressive about pleasure and the difficulty of sexing transgression.
  
• Probably my best sex work this year: I try to weigh the ubiquity of sex and power versus death and desire. We see through a glass darkly, some say; in this case, I see through Vice Magazine's guides to "giving head" and "eating pussy," respectively.
  

Into the sunset

Beloved readers - with the conclusion of the 2008 presidential elections, I'm sad to inform you that we'll be retiring the "Maverick" label, that is, unless someone decides to get all post-partisan and nominate McCain to run Veteran Affairs (which would really, really suck). But before we bid adieu to that venerable label that has served us so well these past... how long have we been blogging here? Oh - served us, yadda yadda, we'd like to honor the man who inspired the label with what every True American Hero deserves: a photo montage set to a grunge-lite power ballad.



So long Mavericky McMaverick, and thanks for all the fish.

Gamechangers?

As we count down the hours to tonight's live-blogging debate extravaganza, we might as well speculate as to what dramatic game-changing moment will occur that will shift the momentum back in McPalin's favor. My guess? McCain challenges Obama to a mano-à-mano brawl that ultimately backfires for a literal hit below the belt.

The RNC in One Minute

From 23/6:

Hot Air Tour, Indeed

Possibly the greatest sentence I have ever read:

Add to these proposed new climate change taxes possible gas, tobacco, and statewide property tax increases, coupled with already high federal taxes, the loss of the Bush tax cuts and many new local bond and levy ideas on the ballot this fall and it becomes clear that the overall burden on taxpayers will take its toll on our jobs and economy.

From the Oregon Republican Party's advertisement for their "Hot Air Tour."

Toby Keith: American Idiot

I was watching Colbert last night, which I know I shouldn't do, and Toby Keith was his guest. After some chit chat about his up-coming movie, Colbert expressed concern:

Here's my worry Toby...you're going to go all Hollywood, hanging out with Sean Penn, chaining yourself to whales...

After chuckling and assuring Stephen that no such thing would happen, Keith gets real for a moment:

You'd be surprised how many people in Hollywood actually come up -- there's a lot of Hollywood people in this movie -- but when I'm in Hollywood and stuff, you'd be surprised how many people come up to me and say 'Hey, we support the troops, it's nothing political about supporting the troops.'

Toby Keith is surprised that people in Hollywood "support the troops"? And he thinks Stephen Colbert or Colbert's audience might be surprised that "Hollywood people" support the troops? Christ on a shingle, this guy actually believes the right-wing talking points about "Hollywood" people and, I'm guessing, "liberals."

Although it occurs to me that wherein most people say "support the troops" to mean "care for then men and women who serve the US and hope they all come home safe and secure," Toby is probably interpreting "support the troops" to mean "want them to kill as many terrorists as possible and bring glory and honor to the US." Otherwise, you'd have to be as dumb as a post to actually believe that anyone in the US wants our troops put in harm's way or doesn't "support" them in the sense of wanting them to come home alive. For fuck's sake, I can't believe we're still five years into this thing and anyone not screaming "America, Fuck Yeah!" is viewed with suspicion until slipping Toby the appropriate code words.

We truly live in George Bush's America.

America, Fuck Yeah!

Almost there!