Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Ignore your rights and they'll go away" -- bumper sticker

Dunno how much of what I want to write will get written today, but here's one short thing.

Today is the anniversary of my father's birth in 1931. He died in 1999. I've gotten used to his not being around (except for those sneak-up-on-me moments when I see something that it would've been great to tell him about), but there are a lot of things that make me think of him. And the reminder of the date has had me thinking about him, and the process of getting used to the fact that he's gone, since yesterday.

This message isn't a call for support (I'm not hurting now, just thoughtful), or really much of anything else other than a marker of my mood. Hey, it's a diary, right? I get to write some entries for myself. Even if too many entries lately have mentioned dead people. (That'll change; I've got one more bit to mention about my uncle's funeral, then a whole pile of more lively things I want to write about.) I could do a long riff about my father right now, and my reactions to his illness and death a few years ago, but no, all I want to do right now is mark the moment, a reaction to logging in and noting the date. I can write long essays another time.

I do need to get around to writing down the strathspey I composed in my father's memory though.

Whoops -- something I meant to post over the weekend...

Last week, as noted in several journals (including here) was declared by our president to be "National Protection From Pornography Week". While I was disappointed that nobody took me up on my offer to protect them from porn by holding their porn for them, I did notice an even better response:

bikergeek has proclaimed the week of 2 November - 8 November to be National Protect-Porn-From-Conservatives Week. (Which cheshyre suggested calling "Protect Porn From Prudes" week because, "there are some pro-porn conservatives [...] and anti-porn liberals [...]".)

"How do we protect porn from conservatives? Simple! Support your local pornographer! Buy an adult magazine. Buy or rent an adult videotape or DVD. Buy a membership to your favorite adult web site. If you're creative and want to go that extra step, become a pornographer yourself! Write some erotica or slashfic and publish it on the web. [...] Rights are like muscles--you don't exercise 'em, you lose em. So be a defender of the First Amendment and exercise your right to view and/or create porn. And every dollar you spend on porn is a dollar that your local pornographer can use to defend hirself with when some overzealous bluenosed sheriff or prosecutor knocks down hir door in the middle of the night. Think it doesn't happen in America? Check out the material on the Amateur Action BBS Case on the EFF's web site. You better believe it happens. There are so many people who are deathly afraid that someone, somewhere is having a good time. Isn't it our duty to reward their worst fears?"

This is a whole lot more useful than what I wrote last week. As bikergeek points out, "These people can only get away with this because the people who are in the majority, the people who view and buy pornography, are so damned embarrassed about it. [...] Maybe we could make up bumper stickers: "I LIKE PORN AND I VOTE". Imagine the political power if all the Americans who actually enjoyed viewing or reading porn stood up for what they believed in instead of being embarrassed."

(Okay, now it's time to start singing Tom Lehrer's "Smut".)