A Twist of Things to Come

I'm sharing this because I think it is a very intelligent deconstruction of the Republican party process right now. Also, it is funny.



Politics in this country... Well, you either laugh or you cry, and I'm not much of a crier. :P I honestly hope Santorum wins, though. He's honest. Not that Romney is dishonest, per se, but his rhetoric is very different now than when he was running for governor of Massachusetts. Like day and night on key policy issues, a la John McCain. (Both were very reasonable moderates, based on what they said and how they voted, until they were running for the Republican Nomination.

I'm kind of sad that Huntsman was never a serious contender. I probably would not have voted for him, but he did not strike me as a zealot (Santorum), a deliberately evasive, semi-slimy maneuverer (Romney), or an idiot (Gingrich). Ron Paul is too up in my bizness (as a woman) for me to take his libertarianism seriously. Government large enough to legislate what happens in every woman's uterus is, well, NOT SMALL, is all I'm saying.

I will do my best not to think about politics, ever again. :P Too depressing.

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In other news, I did manage to get about half of my NewYears/Valentines story typed up from the hand-written draft. It's pretty solid. Maybe I'll get it finished tomorrow.

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There's an Oscar Party, and I'm going. Won't stay until it's over because of work and all that, and won't drink because I'll have to drive home. But still. Party. With real adult friends. :)

So much going on, from all sides. Here's a short list:

1. Sister rolled her SUV on the ice yesterday. She drives a longish way over twisty mountain roads to work every day, and the accident happened on the way home last night. While dangling upside down form her seatbelt, she collected her phone and computer before exiting the vehicle. *snrk* Those are some familiar priorities. She's okay. Possible mild concussion, but they checked her out in the hospital.

2. Some nutter shot a democratic congresswoman in Arizona, one who had been targeted (with actual little target symbols) by certain elements prominent in conservative circles. I blame the disturbed individual who pulled the trigger (18 people were injured, six known to be dead). But I cannot help thinking that this is exactly the sort of thing that happens when the rhetoric gets as radical as it has in recent years. I am... vexed.

3. Finally got around to consuming the entirety of the BBC The Office. Both series and the special. Found it oddly... infuriating isn't the word I'm after. Pretty sure I just don't fully appreciate Ricky Gervais, am not capable of it. He was funny, and all, but it was everyone else that really made me giggle. There were also a lot more sex jokes than in the American version, but that is no surprise.

4. I've also just discovered Black Books and Dylan Moran, which are both quite amusing. Black Books is kind of a one long drunk joke, and I'm only three episodes in, but I really enjoy Moran's stand-up. Here's a taste of it, ripping on Americans:



Also under the heading of Tousle-Headed Men Who Amuse Me, here's Josh Groban singing Kanye West's Tweets:



That's just too funny, and is right up there with James Van Der Memes for the self-deprecating humor, which is awesome.

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The Funny helps with the ARGH, it really does.

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Wee Boy tested today for entrance into the Lusher School, where his brother attends. I'm just sort of glad it's over. Whether or not he gets in, the pressure is off for now.

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I'm over 100,000 words on my novel, right down to the climax. Then the Massive Edit of Editingness begins. I'm looking forward to that, because it will mean that I'm DONE with this draft. Almost there.

OMG. Bill O'Reilly is... well, probably my least favorite conservative blowhard. He's misogynistic and doesn't know what a loofah is. On the other hand I kind of like him because he makes such good fodder for Jon Stewart, and gets so satisfyingly huffy when anyone questions his pin-headed opinions. It's like splashing a rooster with a bucket of water - not a nice thing to do, but sort of entertaining to watch.

And I suppose it would take a guy like Bill O'Reilly to put me in a position I never thought I'd be in. O_o



There you have it. Never thought it would come to this, but I agree with Glenn Beck about something.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The world is full of so much information, and so little I'm sure I can trust. Had a talk with the hubby about his conservative talk radio addiction. Mostly because I truly believe that they are being paid to scare people, and to advance Rupert Murdock's personal agenda. I may be wrong, of course, but I like to find the most intelligent, articulate unemotional people on each side and hear what they have to say. (This means douche bags like Bill O'Reilly are right out, as is anyone who compares the opposition to Nazis or Communists - and goes double for anyone who compares them to both.)

It really scares me that my in-laws -- good, decent, smart people -- now will not listen to any source other than Fox News. *headdesk*

The hubby was irritated at me for mentioning the campaign of misinformation and scare tactics that led to the Prop8 win in the first place, and how it was all bankrolled by powerful religious organizations with a set agenda, geared to play on people's fears and prejudices. "Do you think people are that easily led?"

I just blinked, because... well, DUH. Of course they are, when you appeal to their fears and prejudices. Calm appeals to reason and fairness are simply not as effective. Also, this is why DIALOGUE is important - not grandstanding for the folks back home, but actually discussing the core of issues. This is something we've lost the knack for in America. That scares me. Both sides have managed to dehumanize the enemy to some extent, and there is no conversation.

Our founding fathers set up the judicial branch and wrote the Constitution in order to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. This is not a case of an activist judge overriding the will of the people. It is a case of the government we have in place working like it was meant to work.They set up our government, our Constitution, to be as broadly idiot-proof as possible. Thank you, James Madison. It's not perfect of course, but this is a textbook example of how it was meant to work, as a secular society.

Here is probably the best video I've seen explaining why the Prop 8 case went so badly for the defense:



"In speeches, no one cross-examines you."

It's often an ugly and brutal process to get yourself fully informed on a subject - it requires facing opposition to clarify your beliefs - and there are many situations in which I am simply NOT up to facing the process. In those situations, I refuse to state an opinion because I *know* I don't have all the facts. You *need* dialogue to fully explore an issue.

This is one of those cases where I do feel really, really certain about. Those who cling to the status quo will be left on the wrong side of history. Most issues are not that clean and clear-cut.

So many other things being hashed about now, that I don't feel capable of devoting time to completely understanding. And I just have to live with that, for now.

I've been struggling with website code, trying to publish an article that is very important to me. The subject of the piece is frustrating enough by itself. See, it's all about how my friend hominysnark needs a hysterectomy to keep an unpleasant medical condition from becoming a life-threatening one (it's already most of the way there) and she can't, because she doesn't have health insurance.

Why doesn't she have health insurance? Because she's self-employed, and as many self-employed creative people (she's an artist and writer - full disclosure, she writes for GC) know all too well, when you have to choose between eating and having a place to sleep or having health insurance, the health insurance loses. I know this, because the hubby and I have been paying for self-employment health benefits for most of this decade, watching the cost go higher and higher while the benefits get lower and lower. We pay more for health insurance than we do for shelter, but live in terror of not having it, just in case. Because not having it could mean complete financial ruin, and destroy our children's future. It's freaking scary.

So, anyway. She needs $2700.00 for the operation, or she has to wait for her condition to become life-threatening. (It will get there long before she could save up that much, especially since she has $8,000.00 in medical bills from just having it diagnosed.) See, she falls in that sweet spot between having enough income to have health insurance or pay for health care herself and being poor enough to qualify for any sort of break from providers or government program.

And that BLOWS. As Homer Simpson put it FIFTEEN YEARS ago:




It really singes my biscuits that someone talented and witty and goddammed BRAVE enough to make her way in the world by her own brain and hands, on her own, has to risk her life and livelihood to medical care that most people in the first world can get without those conditions. It's barbaric. The US is now ranked 37th in health care, well behind most of the first world. That ranking table was done in 2000, I know, and I'm not about to argue whether things have gotten a lot better when it comes to basic care since then.

But my issue here is not the system (or not JUST the system). My issue is that I don't want my friend to bleed to death or suffer organ failure from anemia, when a relatively simple procedure would fix her AND cost the health care system less than helping her after it's gotten bad enough that they can't turn her away.

So, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to post about it everywhere I can, and beg people to donate a buck or two. (The GC article will be up as soon as I can get the son of a mother duckling DONATE button code to work with my craptacular site software.)

I'm going to go around the internet to any place I can think of, making a complete spectacle of myself because hominysnark's health is more important than my own squeamishness about begging people for money.

And I'm not going to apologize for that, because I know that if every one who can will give a buck or two, maybe we can get this thing done before her life is at risk. Here's a button for her Bye-Bye Woman-Part that is Killing Me Fund (Also called "The Human Fund"):

I know a lot of you know her and would like to help, but even if you don't know her, please post and link and do whatever you can to spread the word. Ask your friends to spread the word. If all of us who can spare a buck or two give a little bit, it can help.

So there's a big deal being made about GLBT literature, who writes it and how they identify themselves, and it singes my biscuits.

It's not just because the last call for submissions I got specifically said that female writers had to use a male or gender-neutral pen name, though that was annoying (I had done it already, but still).

It's not even the fact that as writers, it's basically our job to make things up and to be told that we can only make things up about people who are like us is kind of insulting.

No, what chaps my ass is that we're being asked to define ourselves by whomever (or whatever) we've had sex with, or would like to have sex with and excuse me, but that's not really anybody's freaking business.I know that to self-identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual is a powerful thing for a lot of people, but I think most of us of a certain age acknowledge that who we're attracted to can be a very fluid thing that frustrates our own attempts to label it.

I know that basically the world is, and always has been, out to 'box' you. People are uncomfortable if they don't know what sort of box to sort you into, and so they seek information. Once you give them the information they are after, they put you in the appropriate box and expect you to behave accordingly. The gay box, the straight box, the smoker box, the non-smoker box, the vegan box, the big-nosed box -- what the heck ever.

Sometimes, boxes are useful didactic tools. Like, when I lived in Georgia, the "My Marriage Doesn't Need Protecting" thing, was actually very useful politically, because people assumed that being married with kids and PTA memberships, etc. was a box that carried certain assumptions about your stance on SSM. So saying, "I'm in your box and I don't agree with you" was a powerful tool in that context.

In a more liberal context, that might not have been the case, but where I was, it was too powerful a tool not use. I know some folks were upset by that, either because they didn't like the thought of breeders co-opting their cause, or because they had some (understandable, considering our society) sexuality-based inferiority issues. In any case, it amounted to "don't rub your preferences in my face," a sentiment that is bigoted no matter who speaks it or what they do with their tender bits in private moments.

So, yeah. I'm married. I have two gorgeous sons. I've been attracted to a variety of people, but I'm exclusively Ronsexual in practice, having chosen my first lover carefully, married him because I love him and stayed married to him because he's good. Make of that what you will.

But don't you dare tell me what I can or cannot imagine. I'll write what is in me to write. You don't have to freaking read it, you know.

And if I stand up for what I believe is right in a way that I choose, and you want to nit-pick that based on what's in my undies and how I use it, that's fine. We all get to do stupid things on our journey, so I won't hold it against you.

With writing, as with personal convictions of right and wrong... well, Craig Ferguson said it best:

"Do what you love, and what you're proud of, and you're fucking bulletproof...If you do what you absolutely believe to be right, you're fucking bulletproof."

When you really believe in what you do, the haters are irrelevant. I've always known this on some level, but never really felt it until now. Took me long enough.

I'm fucking bullet-proof, bitches!

I'm somewhat stunned by reports that many Senators voted against an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that would punish contractors if they "restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court."

This, of course, has its roots in the Jamie Leigh Jones case. If you haven't heard, she was a civilian employee of a government sub-contractor who was rufied by her co-workers and woke up bruised and bloody the next day. One of her attackers was still sleeping in her room and admitted having sex with her. She had to have extensive reconstructive surgery because they tore her pectoral muscles, among other things. Then, her rape kit "disappeared" and she was threatened and held prisoner until one of the armed guards assigned to keep her there "for her protection" let her use her cell phone to call her father, who called a senator and got the State Department to rescue her. I mean, holy cow. Her case has been in legal limbo ever since. This guy explains the amendment a little better:



I'm flabbergasted that this can even happen in the first place, but even more so that Thirty Senators voted against it (the amendment, not the overall bill). The Pro-Gang Rape In The Workplace Senators are shown here:



I know they will probably defend this vote by saying that the amendment was specifically targeting Halliburton (though it was worded to include all government contractors and sub-contractors). But I say, who cares? Isn't your duty as Senators to the American people and the rule of law? Why are you protecting huge companies who cover up horrible crimes and protect criminals? Has our society's rape culture really gone so far that politicians don't mind letting this abuse continue to protect corporate interests? Are women who've gone overseas to support our troops really so worthless in their eyes that they don't mind letting this happen?

I seldom ask people to link and re-share anything, but I'm doing it now. Get this out there, my friends. Take them to task for this. It's not okay.

I'm a bit flabbergasted by reports that many Senators voted against an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that would punish contractors if they "restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court."

This, of course, has its roots in the Jamie Leigh Jones case. If you haven't heard, she was a civilian employee of a government sub-contractor who was rufied by her co-workers and woke up bruised and bloody the next day. One of her attackers was still sleeping in her room and admitted having sex with her. She had to have extensive reconstructive surgery because they tore her pectoral muscles, among other things. Then, her rape kit "disappeared" and she was threatened and held prisoner until one of the armed guards assigned to keep her there "for her protection" let her use her cell phone to call her father, who called a senator and got the State Department to rescue her. I mean, holy cow. Her case has been in legal limbo ever since. This guy explains the amendment a little better:



I'm flabbergasted that this can even happen in the first place, but even more so that Thirty Senators voted against it (the amendment, not the overall bill). The Pro-Gang Rape In The Workplace Senators are shown here:



I know they will probably defend this vote by saying that the amendment was specifically targeting Halliburton (though it was worded to include all government contractors and sub-contractors). But I say, who cares? Isn't your duty as Senators to the American people and the rule of law? Why are you protecting huge companies who cover up horrible crimes and protect criminals?

I seldom ask people to link and re-share anything, but I'm doing it now. Get this out there, my friends. Take them to task for this.

Last night, Big Boy played the following movie trailer on the Xbox Media Center Apple Movie Trailers Plug-in:



I'd already seen it, because I'm an animated film Geek, but it had not occurred to me that my 11 year old would dig it. It seems... dark. In any case, he immediately began jumping up and down and saying he wished September would hurry up and get here.

O_O

My little apple did not, in fact, fall far from the tree.

It reminds me of my odd little flights of fancy, when I was a kid. For example, I must have been twelve when I developed a crush on the Antichrist from the Omen films. I cannot remember why -- it wasn't a looks thing, based on the evidence, so I shall posit that it was an accent thing. And probably an unhealthy fascination with the more taboo elements of my religious upbringing. *smirk*

Some time after that, I fixed upon Margaret Thatcher as a sort of hero. It wasn't a political thing -- I had very little grasp of politics. I just remember seeing this woman with my grandmother's haircut shouting down a roomful of men in wigs, and thinking it looked like fun. >;D

I've no political aspirations, but of the opportunity to shout at a room full of men in wigs presents itself, I am SO there.

What brought this to mind was that a friend across the pond happened to offer good wishes to her American friends about the historic inauguration yesterday, and someone rather hurt her feelings by de-friending her on account of it.

Not that I equate her good wishes with Maggie Thatcher somehow becoming a role model to my blossoming inner dominatrix, just that things have a way of looking very different, depending on who you are and where you are.

And also that maybe people should lighten the frak up, if you'll pardon my Geeky profanity. ;) If Sarah Palin can go on TV (the Neil Boorts show, which I happened to see a bit of while at the in-laws' house) and say that, while she might not agree with Obama on policy, he was still her President and the fact of his his election was historic (and proof of what makes America great), and you can't say that, maybe you should ask yourself why not. I was brought up to respect the office, and I have done it for many years, even when the men themselves didn't seem to do so.

Not saying we have to agree. Disagreement is cool -- it's what makes us grow and learn, and what changes things for the better. Of course we all have the right to friend or unfriend as we like, and that is cool, too. I just find the negativity unnecessary. Hissy fits don't do anyone any good, is all I'm saying.

But here's something my Mac-loving friends should appreciate:



Thanks to hedgegoth, who always posts the best vids around. :)

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Now for the really scary stuff. I generally avoid political discussion here, for a variety of reasons. Mostly, it is because my Beloved and I, while we are both intelligent and informed people with much the same views on various issues, frequently end up picking different candidates. He's more of a "who will hurt us less" kind of guy, and he usually votes for the candidate whose party does not control Congress, because he fears what either party might do if it found itself without opposition.

There does seem to be a lot more at stake than in past elections. Being a Tennessean, I was very supportive of Gore some years ago, because I knew him to be a very moderate Democrat from his years representing that state in the Senate, but I understood why people, embarrassed by the peccadilloes of the previous presidency, didn't want to go there. Though, in retrospect, a balanced budget and reduced national debt does seem rather attractive, no matter what Clinton did with his cigars.

In the last election, neither candidate seemed very attractive, really, and the level of political discourse degenerated even further. The left were called baby-killing evildoers, and the right were seen by their opposition as gun-toting religious fanatics. As an Army Brat, I can tell you it's never that simple.

I am going to come out and say it. Obama is getting my vote. Not because I think he's ideal, not because his relative inexperience doesn't scare me. But because he can bring this country together. He can give America something she hasn't had since Reagan -- a leader who can inspire us and bring us together. (Not saying I think Reagan was all that great (though I did volunteer at his local campaign headquarters when I was kid -- too young to vote but old enough to my part, stars in my eyes), in fact, I think the "War on Drugs" has become a clusterf*ck of epic proportions, and we'd have been better off without it.)

It's a long shot, maybe, but I am essentially a hopeful creature. Could he make things worse? I freely admit that he could. Does my support for Obama mean that I have no respect for McCain? Far from it. If he were still the same McCain he was some years ago, he would probably have my vote. I still respect him as a patriot, as I do all those who serve in the military.

I don't know what the future holds. My family and I have tried to do what is right, put everything we had into the business that is now all tied up in Africa, just in time for the world economy to go all to hell. We were trying to do a good thing, something we believe in with our lives. It may work out for the best, or not. Right now, I am volunteering my time with literacy programs and school things, but I will likely be working again, soon, probably for a fraction of my previous wages. Perhaps it was foolish to think we could make a difference in the world and still keep body and soul together. More gust than glory, as they say. I'm not complaining. I've always striven to be a person who does the right thing regardless of personal risk, and it has always turned out for the best in the end.

Either way, I am a person who needs to believe, and this time around, for good or ill, I do.



Vid via arachnejericho