Why yes, I HAVE had an interesting life -- Why do you ask?
Friday, December 28, 2007

When I needed to come up with a url for this blog, I chose:

http://portlytruestories.blogspot.com

My original intention was to fill this blog with true stories from my own life, because I had found that the vast majority of blog-posts and comments that truly moved and changed me were not objective reporting of facts and figures, nor outside perspectives (however witty or penetrating) on the "news of the day" -- but rather, personal stories that connected me with the author.

I actually DO tell personal stories here, and people seem to like them, and tonight I realized that I haven't told a tenth of the great stories that I could tell (like the Christmas Story), but I'm in a current quandary about where to start.

So, I thought I'd open it up to you, dear readers, and allow you to point me in a direction that you might enjoy. Please respond in comments, and let me know which of the following portlytruestories you might like to hear about next:
[UPDATE: I'll be linking to these stories from here as they're written.]

1. Portly Does Drag
   
2. Box-Car Portly Goes to Wichita
3. The Portly Stand-Up
4. Portly and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Bank Job
5. In Which Portly Embarrasses a Groper at Woolworth's
   
6. Portly's First (Real) Kiss

Posted byPortlyDyke at 11:55 PM 5 comments  

Labels: Rape Culture, Speaking Up, True Stories

Portly Dyke's Guide to Things That Do Not Exist
Saturday, December 22, 2007

(Please update your records)

Thing Which Does Not Exist	First Foisted on the American Imagination ON/BY:
Santa Claus	1881 -- Thomas Nast
War on Christmas	2005 -- Bill O'Reilly
The Tooth Fairy	1900 -- Rosemary Wells 1949 -- Lee Rothgow
The Gay Agenda	1992 -- Family Research Council Also not existing -- Gay Destruction of: 1) Marriage 2) Family 3) Western Civilization 4) The World
WMDs in Iraq	2002 -- George W. Bush
Liberal Fascism	2007 -- Jonah Goldberg and others

When people decide to
A) Graduate from MSU (Making Shit Up), and then
B) Go around distributing their Master's Thesis from MSU as if it is fact . . .

Well, that really pisses me off.

This technique is called "The Big Lie"

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”~ Joseph Goebbels

"It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously." ~ Mein Kampf

Case in point: There is no "War on Christmas" -- it doesn't exist. It never did exist. There are no brigades of people vandalizing Creche scenes across the nation or participating in gang assaults on individuals who say "Merry Christmas" on public transit.

Case in point: There is no "Gay Agenda" -- it doesn't exist. It never did exist. There are no queer parents kidnapping their children and forcing them to enter homosexual-indoctrination programs, and no school administrators attempting to shut down student organizations that promote acceptance of heterosexuality.

Case in point: There are no "WMDs in Iraq". They don't exist. They never did. I think this needs no further illustration.

Case in point: There are no "Liberal Fascists" -- they don't exist. They never did. There are no true liberals who are advocating wire-tapping, illegal imprisonment, false arrest, or allowing one person to become supreme leader of the entire government in case of an "emergency" -- and all for the "Greater Good" -- a justification used again and again by Fascist regimes. (Under National Socialism, Hitler used this justification for all four of these activities.)

So, the next time someone wants to toss these MSU phrases around at you, I suggest that you say:

"Well, I'd be glad to talk to you about the [War on Christmas/Gay Agenda/Liberal Fascists], but first, we're going to have to establish whether Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy exist or not. You better pee first. I have a feeling it's going to be a long conversation."

(I'm guessing the whole WMDs thing probably won't come up --even the staunchest winger seems to avoid the subject these days, but if it does, the phrase above should work just fine.)

This has been another educational moment and Rebuttal-Readiness tool from PortlyDyke.

Posted byPortlyDyke at 12:00 PM 3 comments  

Labels: Advice, Freedom, Politics, Queers, Shakesville, Speaking Up, Truth, Xtians

Solidarity -- Having the Shakes
Friday, June 22, 2007

Yesterday, a friend of mine declared that she would be blogging daily. Since I am jonesing so bad from lack of Shakesville, I am making the same commitment. For those of you who don't already know, Shakesville is under a DOS attack.

And in solidarity with all the Shakers, I am sending out a dykely/witchly chant that all Shakesville's servers may be healed and become eternally invulnerable to twits, wimps, weiners, and bullies everywhere. I will also be making a donation.

I happen to believe in the concept that "what you resist, persists".

I can't believe that the asshats who are perpetrating the attack don't see how precisely they validate the importance of the voices at Shakesville by their actions.

This will simply draw more readers to the blog, stimulate more donations, give more press. Here's to the asshats! (OK, maybe not so much.)

Ironic, no? Far from moving me into the silence they hope for, they have simply stiffened my resolve. Yesterday, a luke-warm lazy-ass blogger, today a keen and dedicated blogger.

I will not shut up. I don't believe that any of the Shakers will shut up. I notice that Phydeaux is Speaking, Mustang, WKW, etal -- and thank heavens for that. I loved that, even while one group that I think of as my community (Shakesville bloggers) were down with the electronic flu, I could get word of them via the rest of the dedicated souls who WILL NOT SHUT UP!!

There are various comments flying about regarding who perpetrated the attack -- and why -- Was it Christians, Fat-0-Phobes, Rape Apologists, or Wing-Nuts?

Were they complaining about the sacrilege of portraying Jesus in chocolate?

Were they maddened by the perversion of displaying beautiful fat women as . . . well . . . beautiful fat women?

Were they aghast at the audacity of 'Liss calling "bull-shit!" about one-liners about rape on the carpet by displaying the not-so-subtle heinousness of these toss-off comments?

Were they protesting the supposedly traitorous activity of examining the state of our nation from a rational point of view?

I've got my money on a lunatic response to fat-acceptance or the possibility of real change in awareness about rape in our society.

I think that folks in the business of hatred and separation must realize, at some visceral level, if not consciously, that shifting consciousness about these issues works at a completely different level than simply talking about politics or religion.

Cause the fat girl is next door, or in your house, or in yourself, and the rape victim is, too, and if you had to change your awareness and behavior about something that close to your own actual life, who knows what kind of cascading transformation might be set off by it?

I've been a full-on, in-your-face political activist, human rights activist, and anti-war protester at various times in my life. I've worked on skid-row with addicts and alcoholic homeless folk. I've confronted screaming homophobes in parking lots.

But the toughest choices I've ever made, and I think, the most powerful activist moments I have participated in, have been in the comfort of my own living room talking with my best friend about why it was important to talk about the sexual abuse she had experienced, under the flourescent lights of my parent's house as I told my Dad that I was fine with how much I weighed, or standing in the yard with my neighbor as I asked him not to vote for a measure that would deny gays the right to foster and/or adopt children, even if he is a Christian.

I gave up "traditional" activism because I believe, from experience, that the up-close and personal approach is more effective.

I think that's what I feel at Shakesville -- a sense of community, though we may be miles, or continents, apart -- a sense of the willingness to get up close and personal with one another as we discuss the issues.

That's why I go back there. That's why I "Have the Shakes" tonight.

Let's have a Phoebe Snow moment, shall we?

"Never shutting up, never shutting up, never shutting up . . . . "

Posted byPortlyDyke at 11:07 PM 5 comments  

Labels: Censorship, Consciousness, Freedom of Speech, Shakesville, Solidarity, Speaking Up, Trolls, True Stories