Proposition 8 ruins my election fun

Yes, we are all happy that Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America. Such a day should come everywhere in the world, in every country where the marginalized are able to to find their rightful voice. This win is not a magic wand, but without it, America would truly be sorry.

Now I hate to be a party-pooper, but this morning I read the news item "California voters approve Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriages - Los Angeles Times" and was sorely disappointed.

Gay-rights advocates, after this debacle (52% yay-48% nay), filed a legal challenge in California Supreme Court to Proposition 8. The supporters of gay-marriage ban call it an attempt to "subvert the will of voters".

According to LA Times, lawyers for same-sex couples said they will argue that the anti-gay-marriage measure was an illegal constitutional revision -- not a more limited amendment.

Guess, there is still a steep hill to climb then, as Obama (watch video) said in his thank you speech.

Incidentally, I noted that Proposition 8 was the "most expensive proposition on any ballot in the nation this year, with more than $74 million spent by both sides." Talk about fervor and nastiness.

VOTE baby VOTE!

Er, I stole this from the political blog Crooked Timber that I follow:


A committee setting exam papers, a long time ago.


Paper: Public Choice Theory


Draft question: “When is it rational to vote?”


Economist, with raised eyebrow, looking political scientist in the eye: “On election day?”



Hope we know what America did by midnight...

Random thoughts... with Hillary out, will Palin iron shirts now?

Random thoughts are good. They don't stay long! On a propitious day such as Columbus Day (that plunderer...) I am thinking hmm, now that Sarah Palin is the Republican mascot, will anyone stand up in her meetings and holler: "Sarah iron my shirt"? How's that going to fare? As it is, some complaining noise was made about how either her opponents are harsh with her 'because she is a woman' (or a pit bull wearing lipstick) trying to compete with men or too soft on her because 'oh poor thing's woman' and should be back to womanly things only.

Somehow, opponents of Hillary have forgotten that there had been folks holding up signs or screaming "Hillary iron my shirt" (http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/01/07/hillary-hecklers-yell-iron-my-shirt-at-new-hampshire-campaign-stop/) at her campaign meetings. Now I'm randomly forced to think, will this happen in India when Mayawati or Sonia Gandhi or Renuka Chowdhury stand up speaking at their meetings. Will a Mulayam, Advani or any other supposed supporter of "male" privilege of being in politics do or say this sort of a thing, ever? NO.

Well, I don't mean to say anti-woman stances are not there among prevailing Indians, but not blatantly at least.

What is it that in a country like India, where gender biases run deep, where patriarchy can assume ugly forms, and where women are seen as means of reproduction, no one dare stoop so low regarding a woman in politics, government and policymaking. No sir, no one will say "Sonia make my rotis", "Maya clean my dishes" or "Renuka wash my undies"...! They might say, let's see, "Mayawati is a megalomaniac", "Sonia is manipulative" or "Renuka is unrealistic" -- things that politicians are supposed to say to each other.

So why, in America the land of freedom and other sundry stuff associated with that, will men stand up saying "Hillary iron my shirt"? Now don't try saying that to Palin, or you'll be branded a misogynist, for sure... Random thoughts.

Will the Real Sarah Palin Stand Up Please!

Sarah Palin appeared like a new star on the American political firmament, bright and sweeping, sweeping away all coverage of the old jaded Biden (pardon, no ageism here, he really is) from print, radio, TV, and the Internet. Even Obama's rock-star status seemed to wince a little from the enthusiasm she generated and the jibes she made with her 'pit bull wearing lipstick' half-liner (some power talk, huh?).

What an entry.

But the more I watched her speak (no hard news interviews to anyone yet. She just talks family stuff to soft mags and the only newsy bytes that came from her were apparently that she knows God -- my gawd -- supports Iraq war and Alaska pipeline. Also, probably hockey...) ad nauseum about her family, five kids, husband Todd, how she is so gung-ho about managing government and family together, the more suspicious I became.

First, I cannot imagine a mom shoving her minor daughter up on the pedestal, declaring to the world she is five-months pregnant -- they didn't do abstinence classes in Alaska, perhaps it was too cold, that's why; and we know Palin is against contraception, sex education and all that evil stuff -- and then whining that the press made a mincemeat of this juicy information. Just how calculating and cold-hearted can one be?

Second, to display little Trig as her trophy to be slung back on the face of the Democrats, was absolutely out of line. And this, after she had kept her pregnancy under wraps as she became the governor and disclosing it only towards the very end.

I totally fail to understand, why the business of running a government is made out to be a 'very special' job especially if you are a woman with five kids (one of them anyway decided to not remain a kid anymore and have her own kid)? Is "governance" supposed to be a measurement whereby gender angles now get defined? If you, a woman, had one kid and been in governance, you were not special at all. If you produced five or more kids -- one of them while you took up governance -- you are called "strong". As Palin has been.

What is so "strong" about having multiple kids and doing other work together? Instead of being a reaffirmation of feminism, this stinks of being a huge rotten piece of the anti-feminist agenda. Women not only have babies, but also work. Haven't we heard that always? And oh yeah, they have been working in fields, farms, large joint households feeding scores of mouths, walking miles to fetch water, firewood, fodder for cattle and ferrying food for their toiling male counterparts.

This has happened for thousands of years, it happens all over those underdeveloped or developing nations of the world even today. I am from the South Asian Subcontinent. Ask me, how the sacred duties of homemaking are hailed with greater reverence when the woman, a "good woman", does more work outside her four walls. Things like invading so-called male bastions like governance and policymaking and become false goddesses. But hey, while she does that, let her not forget babymaking and breadmaking.

While my respect for women who have been in aforementioned situations much due to patriarchal pressure than owing to their free will is unlimited, I don't figure out why such things should be considered a norm in today's world. Governance is an area where I'd want my representative to carry out her duties as a clear-headed person, married or unmarried, straight or gay, man or woman, with or without family and kids, equally effectively. And I won't listen to anyone telling me I cannot be a good journalist/writer/manager/banker/artist/professor/prime minister/leader because I have or don't have a huge family to look after.

Besides, to have or NOT have babies is a choice, clearly something Sarah Palin doesn't believe in.

Why else should anyone choose her? Not at least because of her moose-hunting, salmon-fishing skills (is it because these activities sound 'oh-so-manly'?). We've already had the outgoing Veep Dick Cheney proving that his quail-hunting skills were pretty similar to his governance skills. Don't need another!

Matt Damon's quip about Palin that it all seems a really bad Disney movie finds a zesty ring here with me. The Alaska governor reminds me of the pompous, raucous, flamboyant Fairy Godmother of Shrek the movie. She is really hoping to find that magic potion for her admirers. Well, I'm afraid she'll give them and several other unsuspecting ones a poison without an antidote.

Also please don't vote her for her rimless glasses, for I see little vision in her. Besides those glasses cost a packet -- elitist may I say? And although I cannot vote in the US, I think it's a good idea not to fall for polar bear burgers (I'm afraid that's truly why she wants those bears around, for hunting) on our table.

No, Palin is not a star and not someone who cares about policies for people's good. As much as Palin has energized the Republican campaign (she looks better than McCain, there's no denying), she hasn't made any detailed comment on issues like the economic trend, the debt, the tremor in stock markets, taxes. So, who is she? We definitely need to see the real Sarah Palin behind those rimless fixated eyes, bright lipstick, the plastic smile, the rankling voice, the Shrek Fairy Godmother braggadocio. Will the real Palin -- on real issues -- stand up please? Enough about what she thinks American life should be.

It's time to know what America deserves.

P.S. ---- If Sarah Palin wins, it'll be perpetual Halloween (interpreted as Hallelujah by Republicans...) for USA! There, my two cents. Also, I just read Katha Pollitt's "Lipstick on a Wing Nut" (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/pollitt) on The Nation's website which I recommend for her intelligent language and irreverent style (I had briefly attended one of her classes in Wesleyan Writers' Conference where I went as a Jakobson fiction scholar).