Messy Hair Girl asks, “Do we stack books in piles so that their spines are easier to read?”

To answer her, yes, sometimes, in my studio apartment. I’d stack them wherever I could find space. On top of the TV, in the bathroom, the closet, on my CPU, in my ‘fridge …

Oh, but she had a point to make (dammit!), “Do not put the fucking ribbon on its side just because that’s the way the letters are printed. To do so implies a sloppiness of intellect that is simply intolerable.”

But then we sort of knew that about most of those folks who buy the ribbon, don’t we? After all, it’s easier to plunk down a few bucks at 7-11 and say to yourself, “I am doing good for our servicemen and women” than it is to actually do something for them, heaven forbid the government might “ask me to pay higher taxes so that they and their families can have health coverage because that smacks of socialism and sin.“”

Read more of the best rant on the subject here.

Jeff the Baptist is a little pissed at being labeled a “homophobe.” He writes, “I find being called a homophobe very offensive myself. Is anybody else sick of the left sticking this label on anyone that disagrees with them over gay rights?”

I understand how he feels. Probably the same way we on the left feel when we’re labeled as “unAmerican” by the right. But that’s okay - we on the left are fighting for civil rights, and that’s about as American as you can get.

Also - aren’t folks on the right always whining about how all those bleeding hearts should stop being offended? And then what happens when you don’t look? The right gets offended! Someone thinks their shit doesn’t stink — but of course, it does.

What is a phobia? It is an irrational fear of something. So in this case anyone who disagrees with the gay rights agenda must have an irrational fear of homosexuals. They’ve managed to wrap multiple fallacies in one statement.

Look at how he phrases that - it sounds so sinister, “the gay rights agenda.” Actually, there isn’t anything sinister about “the gay rights agenda”, just as there wasn’t anything sinister about the civil rights movement in the 1960’s or the movements to equalize womens’ rights.

I take that back — there was something sinister in all of those, but it wasn’t a threat to the American people, rather to the “status quo.” A lot of folks who had previously been above other folk in the order of things suddenly realized they weren’t going to have the protection of their skin color, or their gender to give them a good head on the best pickings of life.

Why does Jeff the Baptist feel so threatened by the “gay rights agenda”? As an American, why should any of us feel threatened by the concept of equal legal protection under the Constitution of the United States of America? Why is it so hard for the right-wing to understand the concept of equality?

First, by labelling everyone this way you are excluding the middle. Sorry folks, but I can disagree with the moral legitimacy of homosexuality without being afraid of you in the slightest. I know and like a lot of gay folks. I’m straight, but I’m opposed to gay bashing as much as you are. I even support Pink Pistols, which helps gay folks learn to practically defend themselves from violence via firearms training.

First, the middle is overrated.

Second, the question becomes, if he is so “gay friendly”, why does he feel the need to point to the “gay rights agenda” as something sinister? And why — exactly — does he feel the need to point out that he’s straight? Oh, I know — because even though he feels the need to point to some aspect of his life that doesn’t make him a ‘homophobe’, he still needs to clarify that he is normal, because clearly, even though he “knows and likes” a lot of gay people, they are not.

If you were to ask me why folks on the right where “homophobic”, I would answer you this way: They aren’t neccessarily scared of the individual homosexual, or even a group or organization of homosexuals. What they’re scared of is that homosexuals might be allowed to live with the same legal and social protections that heterosexuals have. As long as they don’t have those protections, homosexuals are a lesser class of person, but with those protections! Why, with those protections there is truly no group of people for whom to blame your ill-lot in life upon. In fact, with those protections America will finally achieve its promise “that all men are created equal.”

And that will truly be an awesome day.

There’s no holiday spirit in Iraq, that’s for damn sure!

An explosion tore through a soft-sided mess tent where U.S. soldiers were eating lunch Tuesday at a military base near the northern city of Mosul, blowing a hole in the ceiling and leaving the floor littered with trays of food and puddles of blood. Officials said at least 20 people were killed in one of the most devastating attacks against Americans in Iraq since the start of the war.

A radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility for the attack, which officials said wounded about 60 people - the latest in a week of deadly strikes across Iraq that highlighted the unwavering power of the insurgents in the run-up to the Jan. 30 national elections.

And what are conservative bloggers blogging about?

They’re still furious that some folk say “Happy Holidays.”

Go figure.

One popular item for holiday shoppers is the “lap pillow,” with skin-coloured polyurethene calves folded under soft thighs — a comfy cushion for napping, reading or watching television.

Am I the only one picturing some dude humping a pillow?

There’s a release date for the 6th Harry Potter book. Looks like I’m going to be taking July 16th off from work and making sure I’m stocked up on food and drink.

Because, see, I’m a geek.

More HP at Blogcritics.org.

I have never been a ‘car guy’.

My level of technical expertise ends at driving the thing - and considering I blew out my clutch two months ago - you can make a rather persuasive case that even there I’m in need of continued education as to how to operate the pedals.

So yesterday when I turned on my car — and noticed the driver’s side headlight’s reflection fade immediately in the plastic panelling of a Ford tank — I thought, “Oh fuck me I’m going to have to pay $20 to get some guy to replace this fucker.”

Then I thought, “How hard can it be?” so this morning I drove down to DeSalvo’s, at the corner of York & Aylesbury, and bought a new lightbulb. NINE FRIGGIN’ BUCKS? Holy crap!

After work this morning, I resolved to replace the bulb. It took me about twenty minutes to get the rubber plug out, and undo the restraining clip, and plug the new bulb into the connector piece, and then put it all back together. And as I clanked the hood back down and fingered the stalk, I thought, “If I did this wrong, my headlight assembly is going to fucking explode.”

And I turned it on.

And it did NOT explode! Which, I think, really surprised me, because, y’know, not a car person.

The light worked! I did it right! I mean, yes, my hands were covered in grease, and two of my knuckles were bleeding, and I was freezing, but I FIXED SOMETHING! And, properly, too!

I was very happy and pleased with myself, as of course I should be. And so should you.

Okay. WTF?

I bought some recordable DVDs today and tried to burn some episodes of the Sopranos’s 5th season that I’d downloaded onto these discs. Except my computer says, “NO MEDIA FOUND.” And, yes, the disc is in the drive.

So, Double-You Tee Eff is going on?