Fear is high up on my list.

Sadness is right next to it. It's not frustration, surprisingly enough--I think I had just become resigned to the thought that the average person in the US is underinformed, uninterested in the world, and watching out for number one and number one's own view of the world, to the degree that every other person out there, and the space in which they live, becomes unimportant.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do now...

Mark sent me a link to a posting that summarizes the conundrum very well indeed. Uncannily so--it's almost as if chisparoja had gotten into my brain and started siphoning thoughts and feelings out.

I'm surprised some of my friends have been able to muster words of sadness, anger and/or frustration over email. I haven't been able to do so.

I'm still shocked. Pained. I spent all of Election day in the West Virginia panhandle,waving signs and feeling confident and optimistic about the future. Every (rare)time someone slowed down and yelled "baby killer" or "anti-american" I simply smiled and told myself "that is why I'm defending democracy".

Jack O'Lanterns are supposed to scare away evil spirits. I don't think there's anyone out there for spooking away the spooks more frightening than the creep-in-waiting, Dick Cheney.
To those of you scared of what the next four years may bring, I bring you this so that you remember.

"But House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said he thought 'some people are overreacting.'

"'The people who are against the war are using this to their political ends,' he said."

Let's remember, folks: he's talking about reaction to the photographs of abuse at Abu Graib prison.

I met David for the first time about three years ago, after having been an avid reader of his website for many more years and after maintained an email based friendship. David's ability to write about both the profound and the mundane with sharp wit and pith, and his almost compulsive journaling habit going back to his early teenage years served as much of the inspiration behind Saddlesores. I even stole some of his design ideas for other sites I've written.

... to David and Mark for being one of the few hundreds lucky enough to be in wonderful love and able to receive a piece of San Francisco City letterhead that recognizes their relationship.

It's a presidential election year--no better time for your favorite Reactionary Republicans¯ to begin picking on their favorite cause-to-hate, equal rights for gays and lesbians. Today's target? Federal employees who may feel workplace discrimination:

• Newly appointed Office of Special Counsel removes references to sexual orientation discrimination off an agency Internet site where government employees can learn about their rights in the workplace