Spoiler alert! – Namely, for Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005). Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

OK, so perhaps this post is six days late, but I’ve been busy enjoying the last throes of warm, sunny weather here in the Midwest. Plus, there was this minor matter called the presidential elections on Tuesday…maybe you’ve heard of it?

As I mentioned previously, Shane & I have a longstanding (three years now?…maybe four?) Halloween tradition: namely, we spend the day watching horror movies and scarfing junk food. This H-day was no exception, although we didn’t get though as many scary movies as we usually do; we watched three flicks, compared to the normal five or six. Probably because the first film, Peter Jackson’s King Kong, ran three and a half hours! Also on the roster were Identity and Untraceable.

Aside from some dreadful “primitive tribal heathen” stereotyping early on, King Kong is an incredible film. There’s definitely a strong (albeit most likely unintentional) animal welfare message underlying Kong’s story, and it’s handled beautifully by director Peter Jackson and actor Naomi Watts. Jackson’s Kong is the last of his (her?) kind, living a life of solitude and loneliness on Skull Island – that is, until Carl Denham (Jack Black) and crew arrive in order to film a movie. Leading lady Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is kidnapped from her ship by the island’s natives and sacrificed to Kong (cue awful stereotypes), presumably to keep the “beast” happy, content, and out of their camp. Kong, instead of devouring Darrow, initially keeps her as a sort of “pet.” (Kong is taken with her comedic vaudeville stylings, it seems.) Darrow soon escapes, but finds herself lost on a prehistoric island filled with rampaging dinosaurs and giant bugs. Kong, distraught at his only companion’s disappearance, tracks Darrow down, just in time to save her from two raptor-like dinos. Once Darrow is safe, Kong skulks off, injured both physically (from the battle) and emotionally (at Darrow’s desertion). Whether from fear or compassion (or, most likely, a combination of both), Darrow rejoins Kong.

Meanwhile, in the face of stampeding brontos and an angry Kong, Denham’s crew has abandoned their search for Darrow. Instead, they leave Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) to continue the search for Darrow (with whom he’s fallen in love), while the crew heads back to the ship in order to set a trap (unbeknown to Driscoll) for Kong, who’s sure to pursue the pair. Driscoll manages to find Kong’s den, which is littered with the bones of Kong’s long-dead relatives. Darrow is asleep in Kong’s palm; the two, who have formed a reciprocal, interspecies bond, watched the sun set and then nodded off together. Driscoll wakes Darrow, and the two attempt to sneak away without rousing Kong. Kong awakes in time to see the two creeping away together, and in the ensuing scuffle, a hoard of bats stir from their cliffside perch and attack the trio. Driscoll and Darrow manage to hitch a ride on one of the bats’ backs, and Kong runs after them in frenzied pursuit.

Naturally, this is where the story becomes a tearjerker. Kong is tranquilized, captured and caged during his attempt to retake a regretful Darrow. Back in NYC, Kong becomes part of a grotesque monster display, wherein Darrow’s sacrifice to the beast is reenacted for the entertainment of “horrified” audience. Darrow, who during her time with Kong had come to recognize his humanity, intelligence and sentience, wants nothing to do with the circus act, so director/showman Denham hires a Darrow lookalike to play the part. Kong begins the show partially sedated; as he comes to, he initially starts at the blond actress: I know her! Kong reaches out to Ann – only to become enraged when he realizes that it’s an impostor. Now furious, he rips free of his shackles and storms New York in search of his Ann. On the streets, he scoops up any and every thin blond he can find, only to toss the women aside when he realizes they aren’t the ones he wants.

Performing in a small, low-budget vaudeville hall, Darrow hears the commotion and runs towards Kong while throngs of flee in the other direction. Once Kong is reunited with his Jane Goodall, the two enjoy a few brief moments of reconnection. Kong, who hails from a tropical island, has never before seen ice or snow, and he delights in skidded across a pond in Central Park with Darrow perched safely in his hand. This playful scene is interrupted by a hail of gunfire; Kong, though he hasn’t intentionally harmed anyone (and is in fact a captive slave in the city, there against his will), must be destroyed! You probably know the rest: Kong is pursued by the police and military to the top of the Empire State Building, from which he is eventually gunned down.

Kong dies for our stupidity, greed, selfishness and speciesism.

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…if one more Obamabot trolls my Flickr photostream in order to call Sarah Palin a bitch, a cunt, a whore, etc., and/or call for her murder. Doubly so if they defend their misogyny by saying “I don’t hate all women, I just hate this woman.” Because, um, we’ve all heard that before.

Besides, it’s over, people! What’s the point of all this hate when it’s fucking over!?

I guess misogyny is a Jeanie Kingmaker that’s harder to cram back in the bottle once you’ve encouraged it to run free for the past 21 months, eh?

Oh, and McCain campaign: fuck off. Palin may be as dumb as a box of rocks, but your boss is the one who chose her. What does that say about his intelligence (not to mention, concern for country), hmmmm? And you don’t think his angry outbursts qualify as diva-like temper tantrums? Oh wait, of course not. Silly me, he has a penis, and thus a license to act like one. My bad.

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Tagged: 2008 elections indecision ’08 elections sarah palin john mccain obamabots misogyny sexism flickr

He wasn’t my candidate, but I’m relieved that today, the Wednesday-morning quarterbacks are discussing how President-elect Barack Obama triumphed over Senator McCain – if only because the other alternative is too terrifying to consider.

I hope that Barack Obama’s victory over John McCain will begin to heal the deep racial divisions that still exist in this country.

But I fear that rewarding a campaign based at least in part on rank, naked misogyny will only encourage it to grow, fester and spread.

I want to believe that an Obama administration will respect and fight for the civil and human rights of all: people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, people of disability, people of all faiths – and particularly those of none. Non-human animals and the environment. Global citizens, not just American citizens.

But I’m fucking terrified that he’ll throw us all under the bus, in the name of “populism” and “reaching across the aisle.” All those “special interest groups” President Obama has called upon to converge as one – does he expect us to sacrifice our well-being for “the greater good”?

Because I won’t. A condescending pat on the head simply won’t do. Goodbye to all that shit.

And yet, blub. This is history, in the making. On more than one level, I’m so very proud to be an American today.

On other levels…not so much.

I don’t know what to think or feel or be this morning.

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Tagged: 2008 elections barack obama youtube acceptance speech chicago grant park video democracy human rights misogyny feminism racism

Mr. Bitch and I headed out to the polling place around 10:45. Anticipating at least an hour’s wait, I brought a copy of the latest Bitch magazine. We even parked a ways down the street from the courthouse, since we didn’t want to cruise around looking for a spot, and wanted to save the good parking for elderly and handicapped voters anyhow.

Alas, although the small room allocated for elections was crowded, there was no line to speak of. The whole process took all of 15 minutes, start to finish. The hardest part was penciling in my write-ins with a marker. (Ugh!)

Clinton County has paper ballots that you feed into a scanner; as it registers your ballot, it shows you what number voter you are. This bitch was voter #782 at her polling place. That sounds like a low number, but not so much when you consider that our county is only home to 18,979 people, including kids under 18. Given that there’s only one polling place for the entire county, and residents of different areas received different ballots, it’s possible that I was only voter #782 in my area. Either way, I hope the number reflects a high voter turnout this year.

Anyway, I prepared for a long wait – downed a bowl of pasta for lunch before leaving, brought some reading material, crated Miss Kaylee, the nervous pee-er – so now it looks like I have the afternoon free. I’ve been experiencing waves of nausea (zomg, what if McCain wins!?) and sadness (someone close to me passed away last night) all day, so methinks I’ll take the dogs for a walk (which means three rounds of walks, since I have five dogs and can only handle two at a time). It’s a gorgeous day out, and tomorrow a cold front’s supposed to come through and bring the first snow fall of the season. Better take advantage of the warm weather while I can. Plus, distractions – I needs ‘em.

For those voting in Missouri: if you plan on writing in a candidate, you can find Missouri state regulations on write-in candidates here. I double-checked ‘em on a whim before leaving; the write-in regulations, though a little stricter than I initially thought, didn’t affect any of my choices. (McKinney/Clemente, if you’re wondering, did file the necessary paperwork to be considered viable write-in candidates.) I mostly voted a Democratic ticket, though I did vote for one libertarian candidate and wrote in two candidates, one Dem, one Green.

And yes, I voted my conscience.

I’m not sorry.

(Crossposted to.)

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Tagged: kansas missouri ks mo kcmo kcks election vote 2008 elections ballot democrat republican clinton county i voted get out the vote bitch bitch magazine democracy participate flickr blogging

Today’s the day! Get yer arses to your polling places, people!

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Here I am, less than 12 hours from going to the polls, and I’m just now pouring over the Clinton County ballot and making my picks. Blame it on election burnout. Plus, despite all my blustering back in August, it looks like I’ll mostly be voting a straight Democratic ticket – there simply aren’t any left-wing third party candidates running in MO. McKinney/Clemente aren’t even on the ballot for president and vp – though Nader is – so it looks like I’ll have to write them in. I mean, jeez, if I’m going to “throw” my vote away on a third party candidate, I’d rather it be someone I actually like. Libertarians and Constitution Party members…not so much.

Anyway, my picks below. Since I did most of my research for the primary, I’ll mostly link back to what I wrote in August in order to explain my choices. At the end of this post I’ve also gathered links to various progressive scorecards and endorsements, so you can research your candidates and be your own decider person.

President and Vice President

x John McCain / Sarah Palin (R)
x Barack Obama / Joe Biden (D)
x Bob Barr / Wayne A. Root (Lib)
x Chuck Baldwin / Darrell Castle (Cst)
x Ralph Nader / Matt Gonzalez (Ind)

Though I’d rather vote my conscience as opposed to voting for the lesser of two evils, I’m still waffling. Every time CNN runs the AC360 segment on Supreme Court nominations, I freak a bit and start leaning towards Obama. Then I remember that he initially supported Roberts, and balk.

Ultimately, I suspect I won’t know how I’ll vote until I’m actually in the voting booth. I dislike the Dem ticket for a variety of reasons, some of which involve Obama’s policy positions (his flip-flopping on progressive issues such as FISA, offshore drilling, voter disenfranchisement in Michigan and Florida; his weakness on reproductive rights, including his support for restrictions on late-term abortions; his extension of Bush’s faith-based initiatives, etc.) , others which are more global and have little-to-nothing to do with the actual candidate(s) (i.e., the corrupt, anti-democratic nature of the two-party system; the rank misogyny that permeates the Democratic party).

Yet, the prospect of a McCain/Palin administration scares the red sauce outta me.

I plan on voting for the Green party by penciling in McKinney/Clemente, though I could still be scared toward the Obama/Biden ticket.

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