Politics
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Blog for Choice Day
Today is the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the 3rd annual ‘Blog for Choice Day’. I participated last year, when the writing prompt was, “Why you’re pro choice“, as well as in 2006, when I declared that I think that the rights of the pregnant woman supersede those of the unborn child, and that the answer to the abortion question shouldn’t be to outlaw it, but rather, to improve medical care, education, and family planning access so that fewer and fewer women find themselves having to make this difficult decision. The writing prompt this year is ‘why it’s important to vote pro-choice’. In an election year, especially an…
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Right Here, Right Now
A woman on the radio talked about revolution When it’s already passed her by Bob Dylan didn’t have this to sing about you You know it feels good to be alive I was alive and I waited, waited I was alive and I waited for this Right here, right now There is no other place I want to be Right here, right now Watching the world wake up from history I saw the decade in, when it seemed The world could change at the blink of an eye And if anything Then there’s your sign… of the times I was alive and I waited, waited I was alive and I…
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Subprime Woes
I heard something on the radio yesterday that ticked me off. That’s nothing new, really, I listen to a lot of NPR, and there’s often news and politics involved, which often ticks me off. So of course yesterday the big news was the subprime ‘bailout’, a move by the Bush Administration to help a few of the folks out there who are destined to lose their homes because they will not be able to afford the higher payments once their mortgages reset into a higher interest rate. There’s an assumption among many that these people deserve to lose their homes, because they were gambling anyway, and took on more debt than they…
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I suspect they think you have to be Redneck* to be truly ‘American’. Me no likey that…
You Are 51% American Most times you are proud to be an American. Though sometimes the good ole US of A makes you cringe Still, you know there’s no place better suited to be your home. You love your freedom and no one’s going to take it away from you! How American Are You? I mean, really, isn’t it our job as Americans to disagree sometimes with the decisions made by our leaders, to continually want our country to live up to its ideals, to try to make it the best country on earth? I know this is a silly blogthing, but I suspect I lost American points for not…
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Wordless Wednesday?
Click to enlarge
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Kool Thing
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=0OdSoKfTP1k[/youtube] Some song on the radio reminded me for a brief moment of this song, from way back in 1990, Kool Thing, by Sonic Youth. There’s a bit in the middle when they get all political, and Kim asks Chuck D what he’s going to do for the ladies…is he going to free them from white-male-corporate-oppression? He’s all supportive and kool, saying things like “Yeah…tell it like it is”, that kind of thing. I always liked that song, but here’s the thing. I don’t want a big strong man to save women from white-male-corporate-oppression. I want us to save ourselves. Men can work along with us, but not as our…
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Wordless Wednesday
I found this picture at …a roam to Roam, a blog I found through NaBloPoMo, along with a yummy and sad recipe for apple dumplings.
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Waterboarding
I find Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey’s equivication on whether the interrogation technique called ‘waterboarding’ constitutes torture or not to be deeply disturbing. Waterboarding was considered a war crime when practiced against Americans in WWII and in Viet Nam, yet for some reason, Mukasey can’t seem to make up his mind as to whether the treatment involved is equal to torture. This, from Malcolm Nance, a veteran of counter terrorism operations in Iraq: 1. Waterboarding is a torture technique. Period. There is no way to gloss over it or sugarcoat it. It has no justification outside of its limited role as a training demonstrator. Our service members have to learn that…
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Religion in Schools
Sometimes a subject just keeps coming at you, until you have to acknowledge it and give it the thought it deserves. Autumn’s Mom wrote a post the other day, in which she mentioned that Autumn’s 7th grade history class is teaching World Religions, and how she thinks that’s a great idea, and wishes she could take the class herself. This reminded me of a podcast I heard recently on To the Best of Our Knowledge, in which they mentioned a book titled Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, and Doesn’t, by Stephen Prothero. From Amazon.com: Prothero (American Jesus), chair of the religion department at Boston University, begins this…
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Anti Racist Meme
I was tagged for this one by Shelliza. She doesn’t say if she was tagged, or if she made this meme up herself. But I’ll go for it. 1. I am: Mostly British. Some of my family came to the U.S. as recently as maybe 4 generations ago, from England. Some of them came over back in the mid 1600s. I remember growing up saying I was English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. I did our family genealogy a few years ago, and couldn’t find any Welsh, and the Irish and Scottish were both disputed. Some of my family came over as indentured servants, some as farmers, I don’t think any…
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If You’re Not Pissed Off, You’re Not Paying Attention
I saw this headline the other day: al-Qaida Has Rebuilt, U.S. Intel Warns The summary is that despite our efforts in that area, “al-Qaida has used its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border to restore its operating capabilities to a level unseen since the months before Sept. 11, 2001.” And, of course, Bush is going to use this report to bolster his argument that we need to stay the course in Iraq, because it is a hotbed of al-Qaida as well. Um, excuse me fuckhead, WHO MADE IT ONE? Iraq was NOT a hotbed of terrorism before we attacked, before we went in and made it a poster crusade for…
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Rethinking the Draft
Memorial Day came about as a day to stop and honor those who died in service to their country, following the Civil War. On Friday, I listened to an interesting radio program (which I already mentioned on Saturday), which discussed the meanings of Memorial Day, and how the bulk of this war is being carried by the military, and the rest of us are pretty much free to go about our business, hopefully spending plenty of money at the mall, maybe even buying a new car or two, so that we can keep the economy strong, and get that Dow Jones up higher and higher. There is such a huge…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Blogs That Make Me Think
I’m both flattered (three days in a row of being flattered! It’s INSANE!) and a little bit annoyed. Flattered, because my wonderful mom, Maya’s Granny, has tagged me for a Blogs that Make Me Think meme, and thus awarded me with a Thinking Blogger Award. How cool is that? Amazing. I’ll confess to being a tiny bit annoyed though, because three of the blogs that make HER think are ones that she probably started reading in the first place because they were on MY blogroll. She shouldn’t get to use Angry Black Bitch, Brilliant At Breakfast, and Echidne of the Snakes, should she? She should leave them to me, right?…
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Firing of Prosecuters…
I have a confession to make…when the whole thing with the firing of the Federal Prosecuters started hitting the news, I thought that it was somehow related to the Army Military Hospital in Virginia. I have read about the problems in this and other Military Hospitals for the last couple of years, I believe at Salon.com, so I wasn’t shocked, and thought I knew what was going on. Then, as people talked more about it, I realized I was just confused, so I went looking around a bit for a decent summary. Here’s what I found, which I cribbed directly from Echidne of the Snakes, in case any of you…