askinosie chocolate – part four, in which I liberally use the word “fuck” September 12, 2008

Here’s some info that my “kind reader” sent me about the Askinosie cases. Again, this is just to put the information out there so people can decide for themselves. I am really not all that interested in the whole fracas anymore, to be honest. I have my position and feel fine about it.

In case you’re interested, here’s my position in a nutshell:

-It seems to me (a nonlawyer, just someone who’s done some reading on the case) that that guy he represented did kill his family. But that’s neither here nor there. (I mean, it is, and I hope he goes to prison and all that, but let’s just let it go for now, OK)

-But there is still the tanning salon thing. As I’m sure you recall, the situation was this:

Asshole (Brett Patrick Kent) takes (unauthorized, obviously) videos of naked women (and girls) in his tanning salon. Askinosie represents him and never denies that he took the videos. Instead, he “say[s] the law under which he was charged is unconstitutional.” That law would be the one that guarantees a person the right to privacy. One most women and even most men are, well, pretty fucking attached to. I personally have no use for tanning, but for those that do, how would you feel knowing that someone was LEGALLY videotaping you all naked in that weird little coffin? Or maybe taking a picture up your skirt from below as you climbed a staircase? As I recall, a photographer did this to crazyass Britney and it held up in court because the lawyer said the same thing Askinosie did.

No thanks to Askinosie, the guy still pled guilty (to 22 counts of felony invasion of privacy) and went to jail.

Askinosie then gives up the slimy lawyering biz and starts a highly ethical choco company. Somewhere along the way he finds god, too (puke) – search on his site, you’ll see him talking about it.

Thus:

I AM NOT GOING TO BUY FUCKING CHOCOLATE FROM SHAWN ASKINOSIE.

OK? That’s it. Case fucking closed.

But I highly encourage you to read everything below so you can make up your own mind about it.

(What the hell am I talking about? Good question. Read backwards to see:

Start here

Then go here

And finally here)

And here are the articles and links and all the info you can handle. Happy reading, and thanks again to my own personal Deep Throat, “Kind Reader.”

massive head trauma February 28, 2008

Five years ago today my childhood friend Susan Barber was murdered by her boyfriend.

Here’s what I wrote about it at the time (sorry for the terrible formatting).

how cute is my mom? January 23, 2008

She speaks lolcat!

From: lagusta’s mom
To: lagusta
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 9:54 PM
Subject: addiction

it izz adohrabell!

—– Original Message —-
From: lagusta
To: lagusta’s mom
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 3:22 PM
Subject: addiction

Have I told you how addicted I am to this site?
http://icanhascheezburger.com/

So far J. has physically prevented me from creating my own captions of our own cats and sending them in, but it can’t be far off.

it’s so cold!

xo
L

a gay fantasia on national themes December 13, 2007

A simple question: does any work of art touch the pure singular perfection of “Angels in America”? I’ve read the play many times, seen it on stage, and watched the movie a dozen or more times, but it never gets old. It touches me more deeply every time, familiarity only serving to deepen and widen the channel it has made in my heart.

I quite seriously think my New Year’s Resolution for 2008 might be to memorize the whole entire thing. I heard about this guy on the radio who has memorized “The Great Gatsby,” and in high school I memorized that long monologue in “Six Degrees of Separation” about “The Catcher in the Rye,” (as well as countless hideously cheesey quotes, and all of “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”)

“Angels in America” might take me a little longer, but if I could hold all its pain and complication and astonishingly heartbreaking beauty in my heart at all times, 2008 would see me becoming the person I’ve always wanted to be, I know it.

crocsmamas redux September 23, 2007

Well, two friends have pointed out that my post on Crocsmamas was maybe a wee bit woman-hatin’ and I pretty much agree. I’m not going to edit it though, because I still believe what I said. But I can admit that it’s rather anti-feminist of me to dislike (many!) breeders so much, and I should work on it.

In penance, I’d like publicly shame Bill Maher for his shitass tirade against breastfeeding in public. As a liberal atheist who likes to insult the American people, I privately consider myself a bit of a lady Bill Maher, and I can usually ignore the lightly misogynist comments that sometimes pepper his tirades. This week’s podcast (pity me, with no TV) got me down though, despite the presence of Jan Schakowsky, an all-around awesome lady. First he insulted the 9/11 truth movement. While I am far from believing that the government planned 9/11 completely, thinking people must admit that some questions do need to be asked and it’s not really helpful when would-be allies refuse to entertain the notion that some fishy stuff went down. Then his ridiculous little rant about how fighting for the right to breastfeed in public is “petty and parochial” just made me sad.

Breastfeeding mamas of the universe (hopefully not wearing Crocs and refusing to sign petitions): I will admit that the idea of a creature that already lived inside my body for nine months needing to suck vital energy from said body for years afterward makes me slightly shudder – but only if my own body is the one in question. Your lives seem to me to be impossibly difficult on levels I cannot even begin to imagine and the everyday woman-hating you must face must be constantly irritating. While I wish you would stop trying to get me to think your babies are adorable when they so clearly are not, I stand in solidarity with you on your quest to breastfeed wherever the hell you want.

(Feministing has great analysis on the Bill Maher ridiculousness).

yet another negative post – hooray hooray! August 14, 2007

Daniel Lazare has a big longass book review in The Nation this week. As you might recall, we do not like Daniel Lazare, because he does not like us. I’m keeping tabs on him because I collect idiotic misinformed liberal white men, but I don’t have the heart to read this piece. Maybe some kind reader could read and let us know if he has become any smarter since his famous dismissals of atheists and vegetarians. It sort of looks….good. I’m all for prison reform and, dare I say it, abolishment. (You’ll have to ask Christy for a more detailed explanation of my beliefs about the prison crisis. She’s the expert, and I agree with whatever she says I believe.) And most Nation pieces are, as a rule, good. But Lazare, oh my heavy heart, his sins are just unfuckingforgivable.

long distance birthday June 28, 2007

Today is my sweetheart’s 30th birthday. Happy birthday, love. I’m so happy to have spent one third of your life with you – so far.

i loathe daniel lazare with unmitigated passion!! June 13, 2007

There are some people in the world whose very existence makes you so sick at heart that you feel your skin is going to spontaneously combust every time you think about them because your loathing of them is so very flammable.

This journalist dude Daniel Lazare is one of those people for me. He writes for left-wingy magazines so by law I am supposed to like him. He also might be Jewish, and I’m not supposed to talk trash about my peeps, or whatev. I’m supposed to reserve my combustable ire and unmitigated loathing for right-wingers, I know. I’m not supposed to contribute to the long-standing tradition of liberal infighting. But, beloved citizens, I challenge you to read some of his claptrap and not feel the way I do.

I first became aware of his particular brand of shitwriting when he wrote a truly horrific book review of a book on the history of vegetarianism for The Nation. After I had painstakingly described, sentence by sentence, the myriad errors in his thought, history, writing style, etc etc, I just gave in to my anger and started attacking him personally.

The Nation, shockingly, did not print my letter.

Now I see that Alternet, my beloved homepage, has printed a piece of his on why atheists are losers! Oh Daniel Lazare, you are the antichrist! Why do atheists get out of bed in the morning? That’s easy: there is a slight chance they might run into you on the street and could spit in your fucky little face!

As you can see, progressive publications MUST stop publishing his tripe! And so I am launching a one-woman campaign against the idiocy-in-the-form-of-a man that is Daniel Lazare. I will keep you regularly updated. People, I have signed up for a Google alert of his name. I’m on top of it. The people, united, can never be defeated! Fuck Daniel Lazare! I am literally on fire!!

OY VEY!

i’m a “with”! May 26, 2007

So, I typed up and edited this hot-off-the-presses cookbook set for my beloved Bloodroot. Bloodroot feminist-vegetarian restaurant in Bridgeport, CT is where I learned to cook for real and found my feminist mentors. I am continually inspired and amazed by the world the women of the Bloodroot collective have spun for themselves.

In addition to my typin’ skillz, which garnered me a coveted “with Lagusta Yearwood” on the cover, I also contributed an essay on a new way to think about dairy which appears in the vegan volume, and a few of my own recipes make special appearances.

The Bloodrooties also wrote up a ridiculously touching little page about me (“in appreciation” in the front of the book), which makes me all weepy every time I look at it.

The appreciation is mutual.

Oh, you can buy the books here!