All the News That's Fit to Fake

Taking a cue from another blog that I read recently, I thought that it might be time to finally return to the idea of posting something political, as I said I was going to do a few months back. Instead, I've been amusing myself by re-reading my old LiveJournal, circa 2008/2009, when I was considerably more politically-inclined than I am today. And I am indeed amused. Here are a bit of the fun facts that I'm reminded of, thanks to this little bit of Internet archive:

I used to use the word "fuckstick" quite a bit when describing people that clearly did not have two neurons to rub together. I have not said "fuckstick" in years, instead tending towards the somewhat milder "assclown" or "dickbag" these days. But let's ask the most important question of all: WTF is an assclown, anyway? There aren't too many reasonable possibilities for the literal definition of fuckstick or dickbag - but assclown? Are we talking about donkeys in the circus here? Or clowns that ride around on donkeys? What about donkeys that dress up as clowns? I've been explaining my usage of the phrase "Hungarian Polar Bear" to some of my coworkers, prefacing the story with the fact that there are all manner of ways to swear colorfully and creatively in Hungarian, and originally I was thinking that English is seriously lacking in the originality department. Then I remember words like assclown, and some iota of faith is restored in humanity.

I live in SF now. Some of the things that I wrote on my LJ a few years back would easily have one of my coworkers warning me that "my Arizona is showing." One of the posts I'm reading right now has a title of "nigger nigger nigger" - and it's a short rant about people who give words so much power that they cannot even discuss the words themselves in an academic setting. I'm sure if I were to go into work tomorrow and say that we should have a historical discussion on the origin of the word nigger and other racial slurs that I'd be tarred, feathered, and thrown into the bay. Notice that I still refuse to use euphemisms like "the n-word."

In 2007, I compiled a bucket list of 16 items, and as I'm looking at #6 I can't help but laugh at myself, given something I wrote in this very blog in a very recent entry. The comments on the LJ post are priceless, too, given the timing and the context, but if there's anything for me to take away from that entry it's that I should go to Germany and track down J and see what that cat has been up to. In case anyone is wondering, I have accomplished exactly zero of the 16 items. Most of them are no longer interesting to me; some of them are impossible, since I'm no longer under 35.

I'm going to bed. The only other comment I'm going to make right now is that it is amazing how certain patterns repeat themselves even when you think they won't. I've never been all that interested in history as an academic subject, but I have to admit that this little trip down memory lane has been fascinating. Maybe it will actually serve as some inspiration to write a little more.