February 23, 2014

I'm not one of those women who thinks objectifying women is good

However, let me say one thing...

First, while it is true that some women (and a lot of them very young - 18, 19, etc) have bought into the heavily-marketed idea that in order to be thought of as worthwhile women they have to appear half-undressed, behave like sexual clowns, and follow the dictates of the media (which basically promotes the idea that women are pieces of sexual meat), we have to be aware that not all women buy into this shit, and it is shit.

Second, if we are to judge all women by the behavior of the worst ones (porn actresses, models for Victoria's Secret, and those humping one another - drunk - on the dance floor), we could just as easily judge all men by the behavior of the worst males (ones that rape, ones that hit, ones that are drug addicts), and so on. We could generalize till we're blue in the face, couldn't we?

Some men feel that it's "okay" to objectify all women and to post photos that objectify women, simply because there are some women out there desperately seeking male attention, or obtaining monetary compensation (porn, soft porn, etc.) by being the media's ideal and darling of the female sexual clown they (the media) adore to play up.

February 21, 2014

Some years back I served on a jury...

It was a murder case, and the defendant was a man who had allegedly shot to death a former friend, a man who had cheated with the defendant's girlfriend, who had gone around town convincing mutual friends that the defendant was gay, and who was now living in the defendant's girlfriend's house.

After the closing arguments, we, the jurors, were led to the jury room to deliberate the facts. The moment the door was shut, one white guy yelled, "I'm ready to fry the m@#$##@," whereupon he set about becoming the foreperson. He began to rush through the evidence, because, as he said, he had "better things to do" and wanted "to get the hell outta" there. He was one of those people that simply has to be the center of attention, and keep the attention of his audience, and a couple of other guys found him funny and laughed at his jokes and his abrasiveness. Then these two began to agree with his every word, and they became a team.

Up to that point, I'd imagined juries to be different, to be serious, responsible. I couldn't believe it. I'd never been a juror before, thought juries were those things on TV police and attorney shows, and I was soo disappointed that jurors I was serving with were behaving like complete a-hs!

I'd had just about all I could take, so I began to do the only thing I could do - disagree with him on everything (on purpose), debate every point he made, and hold up the process to force him (and the others) to consider and weigh everything carefully. Needless to say, I held up the jury by posing questions they were forced to discuss, and the foreperson became very frustrated, which made him look like an ass. Soon, one older man got exasperated with him and said, "Look, if you're not happy, let's call the bailiff and get the judge to excuse you." From that moment on he was pretty quiet and reasonable, we went through the evidence, discussed all points, and made a very measured, very cautious decision.

I SHUDDER thinking what goes on in jury rooms all over this country. People are people even in juries. People don't change simply because they're selected to serve on a jury. Republicans are STILL Republicans on a jury. Jury duty does not bestow on people a higher intelligence, more objectivity, or a stronger moral compass. Asses will still be asses, even when picked to serve on a jury.

February 15, 2014

My mom and dad passed away on Nov. 8 and Nov. 11, 2013.

It's been almost impossible for me to talk about it, since not a second passes that I don't miss them, and deal with the shock of having to spend the rest of my life without having them to call, talk to, take out to eat, buy things for, laugh with, and spend time with. I've cried so much I'm surprised I am still able to cry. I cry in the car, cry in the bathroom at work, cry myself to sleep. I've spent the past 3 months going through the motions of working, talking, functioning, and behaving as if I had it all together, but I don't. Inside me there's a turmoil, pain, and an incredible, heavy sadness.

They were the most wonderful parents, and that makes it all the more painful. I was truly lucky to have them as long as I did, but that doesn't provide any solace.

And today, Valentine's Day, I'm having an incredibly difficult time dealing with it all. Christmas and New Years I spent in a state of numbness, as if someone had severed nerves in my body. I barely noticed them because of how numb I felt. The holidays came and went as if they had not come at all. I could've been pierced with a lance, and wouldn't have felt it. For some reason though, Valentine's Day is proving to be excrutiatingly painful for me, and I don't even know why. It is the first holiday I'm fully aware of since mom and dad left me, and I feel a sense of isolation like never before, and wish that they could come back.

August 6, 2013

The homeless are having to use libraries as day shelters

I started visiting the main library in my town not that long ago. One day I arrived before they opened, and much to my surprise I found throngs of people waiting there - all of them with huge bags, backpacks, and some with rolling carts filled with their belongings - all were homeless and waiting to enter. Once the doors were opened, there was a rush to get in - some went to the bathroom (to use it, and some to wash), some ran for the more comfortable available seats, and others signed up computer reservations (where many of them play computer games).

When I was a child, I spent a lot of time at the public library. A lot of other children my age spent time there, as did adults, students, and folks checking out books. I don't recall homeless people occupying many of the seats there. Now it seems homeless people are spending a good part of their day there for lack of other places to go or be.

In another city I lived in, there was an issue with homeless people, and in particular a woman who was homeless and had emotional/mental issues. I was told that she never showered and as a result, the smell made it nearly impossible for other patrons of the library. Patrons began staying away, and the library staff was forced to work under unpleasant circumstances, so the city had to get involved, the police department, and so did the ACLU. It was a mess.

I think the damage done by decades of right wing ideology has resulted more people than ever being homeless in our country, and to make matters worse, right wing policy over decades has destroyed programs for the needy. So now libraries have taken on a role as homeless shelters during the day. I looked up articles on this and found quite a few. Here is one:

Public Libraries - The New Homeless Shelters

SAN FRANCISCO—Not everyone who spends all day, every day in the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library is down and out. Only mostly everyone.

Kathleen Lee knows this because she spends hours a day walking the six floors of the vast, sky-lit building, looking for patrons who might need real help. They are everywhere: in the carrels, amid the stacks, on the computers. Some wear all they own on their backs and all they’ve lived through on their faces. Others hide in plain sight. Lee knows this, too, since she was homeless a few years ago. So she tries to let everyone know who she is and what she does. “I strike up a lot of conversations,” she said at the end of a recent three-hour shift.

What Lee does at the San Francisco main library is help homeless and indigent patrons fill fundamental needs–food, shelter, hygiene, medical attention, substance abuse and mental health services. She’s one of five peer counselors, all formerly homeless, who work with a full-time psychiatric social worker stationed at the library to serve its many impoverished patrons. This outreach team, one of the first in the country, is no longer a novelty. In these hard times, as social safety nets shrink, libraries have become more vital than ever as safe spaces for people with nowhere else to go. Since the San Francisco Public Library outreach program began, about four years ago, it has been inundated with requests for guidance from libraries all over the country grappling with their new role as de facto day shelters.

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/public_libraries_the_new_homeless_shelters_partner/

August 2, 2013

..."(as a woman) as I struggle for others' acceptance - you see, I don't want children..."

...In the wake of the Supreme Court decision that struck down key portions the Defense of Marriage Act, I celebrated this historic milestone like many Americans as a step toward acceptance of all people. Even though I'm straight, I relate to my LGBT brothers and sisters as I also struggle for others' acceptance. By all accounts, I appear to be a completely average 27-year-old female. I was never the kind of person who thought I'd champion for individual rights or equality. Sure, I believe in it, but I'm not the stereotypical "Occupy" protestor or gay rights advocate.

On the outside, I look like many of my peers; I wear skinny jeans and Abercrombie. I play on my iPhone, Facebook and Twitter. I tend to blend seamlessly into the background of average female faces. However, I realize that my life as a typical twentysomething will not last long. As time goes on, I will start to become more and more isolated from my peer group as my secret comes out.

You see, I don't want children...

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/01/living/parents-irpt-zorka-no-kids/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

July 26, 2013

Policitians live on minimum wage, but not really

All of this is because de Blasio, along with seven other elected officials in the Big Apple, is living on minimum wage for one week as part of the “Workers Rising” challenge organized by UnitedNY and New York Community for Change. Each one has $92 to spend for the entire week, and a chronicle of their struggles shared on Twitter under the hashtag #canyousurvive reveals all are having a difficult time adjusting.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/26/19663755-canyousurvive-politicians-try-living-on-minimum-wage-but-then-what?lite

I think this is great. However, all politicians, particularly right wingers, should be made to live on $92 a week for a month, but living in the corresponding home that goes along with that - the street.

January 2, 2013

The NRA is pure deception

Gun owners, and particularly the NRA, LOVE to defend gun ownership by citing the 2nd Amendment's "right," and claiming that there are lots of guns in Switzerland and Israel, but few individual crimes. Every time I hear these fallacious arguments, it makes it more clear for me that the NRA serves only one purpose - to lie on behalf of gun manufacturers. Gun owners parrot these NRA falsehoods. The truth is very different.

Re Switzerland:

The Swiss military sends guns home with the members of the military WITHOUT ammo. Before the guns get taken home with the members of the military, the ammunition is taken from them and stored in military arsenals. In other words, the military-issued guns members of the military take home are ammo-less guns: unloaded. Also, stats in Switzerland reflect the fact that PRIVATELY owned guns have been associated with increasing crimes against women, whereas military-issue guns taken home ammo-less are not directly related with crimes against women. In fact, Switzerland has a HIGHER rate of crime per capita, than Canada, Germany, France, Ireland, Spain, Britain, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and other advanced countries. As a result of the increasing gun crimes against women, Switzerland has put in place a strict set of rules which affect PRIVATELY owned guns. There are now more background checks, plus it is illegal in Switzerland to carry guns in public. Because of these regulations, which more closely approximate the EU’s strict gun control laws than American laws, PRIVATE gun ownership has dropped in Switzerland. Of course, the NRA is smart and will mention none of this when they resort to the Switzerland pro-gun argument. The NRA’s gun-loving argument about Switzerland is pure inaccuracies. It bears zero resemblance to the serious gun problem in the U.S.

Re Israel:

As to Israel, which the NRA loves to bring up also… Israel has incredibly strict gun restrictions, far stricter than those of the U.S. with regard to PRIVATE gun ownership. The military is everywhere for the obvious reason that Israel is in a constant state of terrorism alert. For this purpose, members of the military are stationed in all cities and towns, and do carry guns. The military is under strict orders of the government. The guns they carry are not PRIVATELY owned guns. PRIVATE gun ownership in Israel is almost nil. When I lived there, I knew no one who owned a gun PRIVATELY. The only people in Israel who are permitted to own guns PRIVATELY, are security guards, people who transport money, hunters, and people who reside in the West Bank, which is routinely subject to terrorism and attacks, and all these are licensed and strictly controlled by the Public Security Ministry, which is very strict. Very different from the rampant gun free-for-all going on in the U.S. For this reason, a few days ago, Yigal Palmor, spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry basically told the NRA to keep Israel out of its defense for individual gun ownership arguments. Again, the NRA conveniently fails to mention any of this.

Re the 2nd Amendment:

The 2nd Amendment, LIKE THE 3RD AMENDMENT, were put in place for the purpose of accommodating the state-ordered and colony-ordered militias, for the country’s defense, not so that private citizens could arm themselves to the hilt as gun owners in the U.S. have done thanks to the NRA. Back in the 1700s the governments of the colonies and states did not spend monstrous amounts on a military the way the U.S. does now, so it was vital to have the 2nd and 3rd Amendments provide for state-ordered and colony-ordered militias. I’m all for enlisting all American gun owners in a form of organized militia and forcing them to be under the orders of the State, as was the case in the 1700s, when the 2nd Amendment was ratified so that state-ruled, and colony-ruled militia men could keep little guns home (and they were one-shot guns, not semi-automatic killing machines like now). Naturally, the NRA would not want gun owners organized into militias overseen by the State, as in the 1700s. They like it just fine the way they've manipulated it to be here - chaotic. murderous, and with guns selling better than vitamins.

All these NRA pro-gun arguments are specious, and meant only to continue the support of private gun ownership because this provides swimmingly good profits for gun manufacturers.

There are many more spurious NRA arguments, but I've got too much to do today to continue typing.

December 25, 2012

Starting out 2013 with no Creationism in New Orleans schools

I just read this, and it's such good news!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/new-orleans-school-bans-creationism-revisionist-history-textbook-texas_n_2330724.html

The Orleans Parish School Board, which controls the curriculum and policies for six schools in New Orleans, voted Tuesday to ban the teaching of creationism as science and a "revisionist" history course touted in Texas.

The newly approved policy bans teachers from including "any aspect of religious faith" in science courses and from using history textbooks adjusted to include Christianity.

The first part regarding textbooks reads: “No history textbook shall be approved which has been adjusted in accordance with the State of Texas revisionist guidelines nor shall any science textbook be approved which presents creationism or intelligent design as science or scientific theories."

December 23, 2012

Face The Nation had Bob Schieffer interviewing NRA President David Keene

I watched it for 1 minute, then had to mentally tune out. Here's my paraphrasing of the bs interview:

Schieffer: But aren't gun dangerous?
Keene: Of course not
Schieffer: But countries where guns are not pervasive are safer.
Keene: Not really
Schieffer: Why should we need to jump through hoops to own a car, but not a gun?
Keene: Because the 2nd Amendment says guns are good

Is there any reason to continue watching Face the Nation? I see none.

December 21, 2012

Your AR-15 ain't gonna stop a drone, but, hey, it'll make for funny video for the soldiers

On Guns, the Crazies Make the Laws

As a nation, when it comes to our safety, we have allowed ourselves to be led by the craziest, most paranoid among us...

... Anyone who thinks that teachers should be allowed to carry concealed weapons is a fucking idiot. Putting aside the inevitable, how much shit is stolen from schools? From teachers? You want to add guns to that mix? How quickly will a school be shot up by a student stealing a handgun from a teacher? Maybe that's the price to pay in blood to make sure a kindergarten teacher is armed and ready...

...Anyone who thinks that they should own assault rifles because the government might need to be confronted is mentally ill and should be treated as such. (Do you know how quickly the military could vaporize you if it really wanted to? Your AR-15 ain't gonna stop a drone, but, hey, it'll make for funny video for the soldiers back at Fort Collins.) Anyone who thinks they should own assault rifles because they're fun to fire and, gosh, it's just a hobby should be ignored because they fetishize the act of shooting like someone who gets off huffing sweaty shoes. In fact, let's just say that anyone who believes individuals should own assault weapons is out of the discussion because there is no rational reason for it....

...But our current policy is made by extremists, voted on by politicians cowed by the NRA and other right-wing groups.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/