Category Archives: women

Woody Allen speaks

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The NY Times has a rebuttal  by Woody Allen on the child molestation allegations.  Since I posted Dylan Farrow’s letter, I feel it only fair to give the same to Allen.

The piece not only doesn’t change my mind, but reaffirms my belief that he most likely did molest Dylan Farrow.  Allen attacks Mia with the tired “scorned woman” defense with “evidence” that is questionable.  Mia acted as any mother would act if she found the father in a sexual relationship with the daughter (Soon-Yi) .  What kind of deviant takes nude pictures of his girlfriend’s daughter? 

He stated that he “passed” the lie detector test, but fails to state that his own lawyer had a friend do the test–it was not administered by police. And they are notorious for giving false results. 

A commenter provided a link to the court documents of their custody battle.  It’s pretty damning.  Woody Allen had been giving sole attention to Dylan, while ignoring the other children.  Others noted inappropriate actions towards Dylan BEFORE the affair with Soon-Yi, Mia’s adopted daughter, most notably the event in the TV room. 

Even before the Soon-Yi affair, Allen was not giving Dylan appropriate physical space–he was not honoring boundaries–a red flag.  The judge stated that Allen’s behavior with Dylan was inappropriate.

The conclusion stated that Allen had not demonstrated any parenting skills that would allow him to have custody of any of the children.  He did not consider the consequences of his actions with Soon-Yi.  He was oblivious to it.

Additionally, Allen had an affair with a girl of 17 years of age while he was 42—a twenty-five year difference….so there is history there of him with much, much younger women who are more vulnerable to manipulation and/or abuse.  I’m not saying that age difference is a sole factor–if a 40 year old woman is seeing a 65 year old man, that is hugely different than a young woman of 17.  Choosing vulnerable women of that age speaks volumes.

 

Putting an “X” on XL and Enbridge Pipelines

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Idle No More has put up  links to several folks speaking out against XL and Enbridge Pipelines:

Honor the Earth:

Rise Up Mother Earth:

Note how they characterize Mother Earth as crying–Earth isn’t a big ball of dirt, but a living, breathing organism.

Here’s a list of nationwide vigils.

The Black Snake will face mounting opposition.

What did Big Oil know and when did they know it.  Jack Gerard, head of the American Petroleum Institute, thought the pipeline was dangerous to the environment…bwahahahahaha *snort*   /just a little joke there, folks

Finally, Democracy Now! featured the XL in a debate with an industry insider and Friends of the Earth:

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/3/debate_state_dept_moves_keystone_xl

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/3/environmental_groups_shocked_by_reports_of

And this on Enbridge’s infamous 2010 Kalamazoo spill, with cleanup still not done.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/3/michigan_activists_face_up_to_2

Bob Braun: Newark school closings may be illegal

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I have to hand it to Bob Braun–the hits just keep coming.  He has yet another great report up on how the Christie/Anderson plan of trashing public education via closing public schools and pushing children into charters may be illegal, according to New Jersey law.

I am so happy that at least someone is fighting for them.  I wish we had them here….Indiana’s public schools will close before Hoosiers wake up to what is really happening…

**note that the 5 principals that were fired…er, put on indefinite layoff…were reinstated.  Woot.

 

Dylan Farrow shares her story on abuse

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This is difficult to read….her pain is evident.  I am glad she had good support from those around her–many times victims of abuse are accused of “leading on” their abuser–so they suffer twice…

Good on Mia for finding the strength to hold the family together.  Some may find fault with her for not pressing criminal charges, but given Allen’s celebrity and the culture of rape/violence against women that almost guarantees she won’t be believed, I think it was wise of Mia not to press charges and put her daughter through yet more abuse.  As Dylan states, she was repeatedly questioned about the abuse, having to tell the story over and over and over again…trying to find some way to get her to flub up.

And for those who don’t know what “gaslight” means…it’s a term used to describe the most despicable psychological games to throw someone off and make them think they are crazy.  An example:  a woman places her keys on the table next to the door when she comes home.  The keys are not there when she goes to leave.  She looks all over and finds them in the refrigerator.   The next time, they’re in the bathroom cabinet.  This goes on until she thinks she is truly “losing it”….when all the time it’s been her psycho husband playing mind games with her.  If you need more of an example, see the film Gaslight. 

The hardest part to read is her account of cutting herself…sadly, this seems to be standard for those abused who don’t have any other outlet to express their pain.

Here’s to you, Dylan, for the courage to come forward because you already know the flaming will come next from those defending Allen. And here’s to your mama….God Bless the mothers of the world.

 

Mi’kmaq Warrior Suzanne Patles speaks

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She addresses the situation in Canada and how the indigenous’ rights outlined in the law have not been honorably enforced.  She speaks with heartfelt passion towards the land.  She sees this as a fight for her children.

We are all borrowing this land while we are here–no one owns the land, truly.  One cannot own what one did not create…and one cannot take without giving equally in return…

Newark parents fighting back

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This just makes my morning!  Bob Braun’s article here.

The explosion of personal anger occurred at 8:30 pm, two hours after the meeting at First Avenue School got off to a delayed and troubled start.  Scores of residents who wanted to attend the meeting were kept outside in single-digit temperatures. Then some were allowed to enter an unheated cafeteria. Police officers, citing fire regulations, said the auditorium in the school was too crowded.

The venue clearly was chosen to keep the size of the crowd down.

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See…you can control the negative speech against you by making it harder for the mounting opposition to even get a space to stand.

Remember what I said in the previous blog about education and how it seemed like they were trying to separate kids from their parents by reducing the amount of time at home?

Well, this statement kind of supports that:

a letter to families that suggested if Newark children were home from school they would get into trouble, make the city “less safe” and cause crime to go up

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Where do I start?  The insinuation is that parents don’t know how to raise their kids.  That kids are little criminals just waiting for the opportunity to commit a criminal act.

Perhaps art and music instruction would be helpful here in creating and encouraging imaginations so that kids could entertain themselves while out of school, eh?

They could be painting, drawing, learning a new game, playing/practicing an instrument,  playing tag outside, making snow sharks 🙂  , or doing something to give back, like shoveling an elderly/disabled person’s sidewalks, or running errands…the list is endless….

Helping Afghan women

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I sometimes forget about my “past life”…

I had purchased a crafted zippered “wallet”,  for want of a better word, crafted by the women of Afghanistan **, featured on the Feminist Majority’s website many moons ago when I had a job…I wondered if they still had this program going.  They do. 

So…I hope that some of you can support the women of Afghanistan to gain some independence with a purchase of their handicrafts.

**keep the kleenex handy…for those in pain and those that never made it home, on both sides of the ocean…

Update: Indiana HB1320

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Update on this post on the power grab/information grab by Pence and his henchmen.

I found this summary of the bill– as you can see, it does not outline what information is being gathered.  It does not say who is receiving this information.  It does not outline how this benefits children and education.  And why does the state need to provide backup when schools routinely backup their own records??

As I wrote on Diane’s blog–

It looks like Gates has his dirty little fingers in this–gathering more information for…what? or perhaps I should say…who? What kind of information are they gathering? Who will benefit from gathering this information?

The bill does not tell us. Highly suspicious.

I also found this excellent blog by Doug Martin (you might recall he posted on firedoglake).

If passed into law, HB1320 will probably hand another $3.7 million of our tax dollars to a private company which will sell off personal and confidential information of students and families to companies out to market their products and agenda to them.

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This new move is not a new one.  In fact, HB1320 was probably inspired by a model bill drafted for various states by the American Legislative Exchange Council, the corporate sponsored bill-mill behind the scenes in Indiana and across the country bringing us school privatization, attacks on the postal service and unions, and the infamous Stand Your Ground Law.

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Yep.  This has the smell of ALEC all over it.

 

 

 

Repost: Rape is Not Entertainment; The Grammys **edited

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After once again being subjected to Robin Thicke’s rape song, Blurred Lines, at the Grammys,  I feel the need to repost a couple of blogs on the misogyny:

Rape is not a joke.

Blurred Lines

Rape culture in living color.  Degrading women as second class starts with media images.  The media is a powerful messenger.   Fear and Anger and Sex are the major influences in Communications and the media uses them well to influence the public.

Music has been a part of my life since I could remember, and the Grammy’s were one of the shows I used to watch regularly, but last night was a reminder of why I quit watching the awards show…it’s more about promotion of artists than promotion of music as an art.  Because I don’t see that Robin Thicke and the others (including women) that sexualize women to promote their songs have a load of talent.

If one has talent, their music speaks for itself.

Good music stirs the soul….speaks to the soul…bad music is just noise to fill the airwaves.

And on a personal note~  I really wish Ringo would have sung “It Don’t Come Easy”…I requested this song for Christmas one year, and my thirty year old son liked it…it could have been a way for Ringo to reach the younger crowd, if he had introduced them to it….

The opening notes as they are played on the recorded version are beautiful and stirring.

**edited to take out video–oops, thought it was official. Apologies.