Category Archives: equality

Moyers on ALEC

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Center for Media and Democracy has this up on Bill Moyers covering the dirty dealings of American Legislative Exchange Council.  It states that this was all over the nation on PBS stations this weekend.  If it was on my local station, I saw no advertisement of it, so I missed it.  (Boy, do I miss FW, which has such a kick butt public radio station, and three PBS stations, as well. )

Luckily, there is a link here to watch the show online. Also, there is a link for finding out which of your own state’s representatives belong to ALEC.  I found a couple of surprises, there, such as Win Moses, who was the former mayor of Fort Wayne, and John Gregg, the guy who just ran for governor.  Mike Pence was not listed, but yeah, he seems to be doing their bidding:

mikepence.com/newsletter/pence-hires-atkins-policy-director

See…this exposure of ALEC is a double-edged sword–you’re getting the word out and people are paying attention, but they (ALEC)  will find ways around it by people who are off in the wings, such as Atkins.

Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines

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I heard about this song last month, and was shocked and disgusted by the lyrics.

“you know you want it”  (shows she’s resisting his advances)

“you’re an animal baby”  “let me liberate you”

“I’ll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two” (no explanation needed)

“Do it like it hurt”

“you’re a good girl” (but you want the “nasty”–he categorizes women into good and bad…bad being those that like sex and willingly come to bed with him….the good girls, however, he wants them — he alludes to wanting to break them–to make them into “bad girls” who like sex.  )

It’s just another reinforcement of domination instead of consensual sex.  He sees her and wants her and she has no say in the matter. He’ll be “pimping” her…

Also, there is a subtext of comparing her to the other women…she being the best looking “bitch” there and better than the “bitch” he had before….

Apparently, I’m not the only one objecting to this song and what it represents. (I would quibble at the “kind of rapey”–it IS about rape–very subtle, but it’s there.)

…and it doesn’t surprise me that NPR “thinks it’s fun”.  Good grief.

I haven’t seen the video, but by the description, all the men are clothed while the women are pseudo naked in skin colored thongs.  And this is not degrading them?

From the article:

Thicke has insisted, a bit guilelessly, that by having the women naked, he was pushing the boundaries. “We pretty much wanted to take all the taboos of what you’re not supposed to do—bestiality, you know, injecting a girl in her bum with a five-foot syringe—I just wanted to break every rule of things you’re not supposed to do and make people realize how silly some of these rules are.”

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Oh.My.God.  My head is spinning.  Injecting a girl in her bum with a five-foot syringe…yeah, that’s not rape.  It’s just sex with violence….

And finally, the “robin thicke has a big dick”.  Seriously?

Nigella Lawson

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To Love. Honor. Cherish–vows given when walking down the aisle.

It all seems surreal, for some, when reality sets in:

ABC News has this up on the choking incident with Nigella Lawson and her husband.  Her husband actually tried to dismiss what happened by saying it was a “playful tiff”.  Her face tells her anguish.

His dismissal is typical of abusers–they either dismiss their abuse as being “exaggerated” or they will say she deserved it.

I don’t care what she said that made him angry.  He has no right to put his hands on her. None. Nada. Zilch.  If he is that angry, he needs to stop himself and back away from the situation…put distance between him and her until he can calm down enough to have a rational discussion about the disagreement.  When a man feels he can put his hands on a woman, he fails to see her as a person in her own right with a right to her own opinion and a right to voice that opinion.  This goes along with rape, as well.  That’s why I say rape is a cultural problem–it’s the view that women are not equals, that they should be subservient to men.

It’s when I see stories like this that I am glad that I’m single.  If my man abused me, I could walk away.

Yeah, I’ll probably be single until I die.

Or until  our rape /domestic violence culture  changes

Not holding my breath on that one…

 

 

The rape culture pushback

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(getting a migraine…spoke to soon. Pfft.  I’ll be back when I’m back.)

Wanted to put this up before things go downhill:

A guy sends a shot of his nether regions to a woman, unsolicited.  He’s basically a stranger she met on a date site who plays the victim when she calls him on his bullsh*t…and sends it to his mother.

I really wish I had acted proactively as she has done with men who have harassed me.  Women are not taught to be proactive like this.    We are taught to be nice.  We are taught that we are uptight bitches when we tell a man our boundaries.

Links to the other articles mentioned:  Yes means Yes

and Salon.…

I may have more to say when I get back from the migraine…see you then…

Loretta Sanchez

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…was on CSPAN this morning….a member of Congress that actually has a brain. 🙂

She voted against the invasion in Iraq. Check.

She voted against the invasion of privacy and illegal wiretapping act, otherwise known as the Patriot Act. Check.

BUT she said during this morning’s interview that what has happened with the NSA’s overreaching power has been authorized by Congress through the Patriot Act….so technically, it is prosecutable.  I say prosecutable because they have given themselves legal power that is…illegal… by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

Congress violated the Constitution by allowing it.  AND they continually fund it without even knowing what they’re funding!!

Sanchez reported that although she is a member of the Intelligence sub-committee, she has to fight to get information that should be readily given to her.  She said that she must schedule a certain secure room with certain intelligence personnel.  She said that she must go through the repubs to get allotted time in the room, and then she must coordinate with the intelligence personnel, who may or may not have scheduling conflicts with that time.  Then when she wants questions answered, she doesn’t always get that.  And they will try to divert her attention away by bringing up other intelligence issues, if I’m understanding what she was saying.   And she is not allowed to take notes.  WTH?

Is it any wonder that the American people are kept in the dark about all that is going on??

As someone said (caller)  they forget who they’re working for–the American public.  But, yeah, we sorta already knew that.  Like I said in my previous post–the information gathering most likely will be sold to the highest bidder.  The NSA won’t be held accountable because Congress is just throwing money at them without accountability or restraint.

And with all this information gathering, did they stop the Boston bombing? No.

Did they stop Fort Hood? No.

Did they stop Sandy Hook? No.

Did they stop the theatre shooting in Colorado? No.

Who stopped the underwear bomber?  The public.

Who stopped the guy in New York City who had the bomb in the Jeep?  The public.

Security, my arse.

 

Monsanto wins court case

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This is just mind numbing…do courts ever do their own research about stuff they rule on?  Or do they just accept what is force-fed them by agricultural bullies like Monsanto??

Well, with the ruling, I think we have the answer to that.  Anyone who does their homework and looks up genetically modified organisms will have had all the evidence against its continued use.  How many crops does this monster have to damage and destroy before courts and politicians wake up?!

Monsanto promises not to sue farmers….seriously?

Growing unrest in Turkey

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Report here.

After the incident, a representative from Turkey’s Socialist Democracy Party (SDP) issued a statement confirming that the individuals seen throwing the Molotov cocktails were not affiliated with the party, despite photographs of them carrying SDP flags.

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This just sickens me…there is just too, too much going on in the Middle East with what seems to be conflicts between those who are more progressive in their thinking who are sick of the austerity/conservative /pro-war gov’ts.  That’s just my take on it, your mileage may vary…

…it’s just my experience that most of the public, be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist,  or whatever, are for peace.  They just want to live their lives and be let alone…

I’m thinking it’s time for a worldwide political party:  the Leave Us the Hell Alone Party.  We don’t *stand* for anything–we just live our lives following the Golden Rule of Doing Unto Others as We Would Have Done Unto Us….”

God Bless Us everyone…

 

 

 

To Clarify

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To clarify what I mean with my last post–I don’t have a problem with wiretapping suspected terrorists per se, but I have a big problem with the illegal wiretapping of anyone.  That is, I expect the gov’t agency to go before a judge with evidence that this person is indeed up to no good.  It’s what our Constitution requires.  I expect those in the gov’t who swear to uphold the Constitution to do just that.

Daniel Ellsberg on Snowden

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Daniel Ellsberg was on CNN last night, commenting on the NSA and Edward Snowden.  He asked the question…”Can you charge someone with a crime whom  has exposed a crime?  What Snowden did was expose a violation of the Constitution. ”  (paraphrasing). 

“They illegally wiretapped suspected terrorists…but I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t a terrorist….

Now they’re illegally wiretapping me and there’s no one brave enough to speak up….”

 

From this poem.