Property of a Lady

Deborah Lipp goes on about Wicca, politics, movies, Paganism, and cats. Not necessarily in that order.

To call tonight’s experience a Date From Hell is to insult the actual Dates from Hell I’ve been on.

I looked nice. I didn’t put on makeup until just before I left the house so that it would still look fresh and not blotchy. I had on my magic Date Bra.™ I got a pedicure today. I smelled good.

This guy-thing-creature-person was smelly. Smelly. And unkempt. A front tooth appeared to be chipped. Slightly cleaner than a homeless person. I’d bet he could win a homeless guy beauty contest if he entered. And that’s as far as I can go.

And also? I’m a catch. Okay, fat. But if you like ‘em large, I have everything you could possibly desire in womanly womanness. I’m smart. Accomplished. Stable. Own my own home. Funny. A good mom. And did I mention the smelling good? And I think I should be able to go out with guys who can meet me on more or less equal footing. I think there should be parity of catchfulness. I think creepy unemployed smelly guys who collect SSI because of mental disability and BLOW THEIR NOSES IN THEIR SHIRTS should not ask women like me out. Should. Not. Ask. Date within your own species, mofo.

The Founding Fathers knew. The Founding Fathers hated government, because they knew that power breeds the love of power. They’d have started another revolution over “Unitary Executive Powers,” over “signing statements,” over warrantless spying.

It’s not that power corrupts. I mean, power does corrupt, but that’s another story. It’s that power loves to keep power, just as wealth loves to keep wealth, just as bureaucracy loves to perpetuate bureaucracy.

Life seeks self-preservation. Not just individual life, but all things about which we might say ‘they take on a life of their own’: Communities, nations, causes, institutions. That which has a life seeks to preserve its own life. That’s the nature of things. Not wrong. Just is.

Institutions are founded for reasons, but soon their raison de etre is the preservation of the institution. This may or may not breed corruption, but the mission is lost. Part of why we stay in bad relationships, or dead-end jobs, or hold on to outmoded notions, is simply the self-sustaining urge we apply to each of these things.

So to be in power is to seek to preserve your own power. And the more power you have, the better able you are to do that, until at last you create tyranny. The Founding Fathers created checks and balances, gave primary power to Congress, designed a government that would kick the President in the ass if he went too far, because they foresaw this. They foresaw that to be powerful is to seek to steal power from others. In a word, they foresaw George W. Bush. That’s why they gave Congress the power to stop him (or at least slow him way down). All Congress has to do is act.

The room is painted. Really looks good. I mean, for an empty room with a couple of pieces of furniture shoved into the middle it does.

You have no idea how much stuff is in a room until it all gets moved into the hall.

Now I have to figure out what to do about the socket covers. Paint them? Buy sorta matching ones? Decide not to give a fuck? Decisions, decisions.