First Impressions

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Utility companies are not known for being friendly towards environmentalists…

…so it was with some amusement this morning at the organic grocery that I noticed a couple of young guys in Carhart’s getting what appeared to be their lunch for the day–hummus and some other healthy stuff.

Obviously they were employed in a profession that required them to be outside. Farmers? Not likely to come all the way in town for just a few things. Street dept. workers?  Possibly.

I got my answer when I left the building and saw a utility company truck parked in the lot.

Yeah, so I’m not sure if these guys supported sustainable agriculture (which means a decrease in toxins in the environment if we’re to survive) or if there is a total disconnect and they’re buying organic/healthy food without a care of how it got there….

I’m left to ponder…

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One of our rightwing radio hosts was talking Friday about the return of the robins to the area soooo early.

He tried to say that these were Canadian robins, therefore they were *south* for the winter….

Um, yeah…

I’ve lived in Indiana all of my life, and it has always been a right of Spring for them to return.  We never saw them the entire winter. Never.  That’s why it didn’t make it for the state bird–because it didn’t stay here all winter.

We were always excited when the first robins returned–we’d “stamp” the first one we saw for *luck*.

Canadian robins….pshaw.

 

A Man’s View

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Continuing along the thoughts on Friday’s blog~~~

I don’t mind telling you that this blog brought tears to my eyes. Really stunning to read such honesty and depth.  And he’s not gay! (meaning that, as Patrick states, most gay guys “get” women and their perspective, but straight guys, especially straight white guys don’t.)

From the interview:

Growing up in my house, feminism was actually a positive word. My mother, who is a strong woman, has always identified as a feminist. Despite this fact, she found herself being mistreated by my father. This just goes to show that even strong women — even feminist-identified women — can find themselves involved with men who treat them badly.

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This was so powerful…because in the finger-pointing department, when blame is being handed out, it’s always the woman’s fault if she is mistreated.

This, too, was powerful:

Seeing the way she was treated, and experiencing mistreatment myself, showed me that boys who grow up in violent households do not have to follow the path of the abuser. Instead, we can follow another path — the path of empathy for our mother, and that we can become allies in the struggle for women’s equality, rather than just another violent enforcer of male supremacy.

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This is the thing that is so hard to understand:  why do some men recognize what was done to them and their mothers, but then go on to abuse others?  Why do some choose that path and others fight against it?

And this reinforces my thoughts on a previous blog on how some folks are abused but do not go on to continue the abuse.  I’m thinking there are more out there than is being acknowledged, because they aren’t the ones being arrested for committing acts of cruelty…they are the ones quietly living their lives without repeating the abuse…

…but that also doesn’t mean that all of those committing acts of cruelty are being dealt with by society…such as men who beat their mates, but the mates refuse to press charges (or never call police to report it.)

Further down the post, Patrick goes into what defines feminism–and how women themselves cannot agree on the definition. I know that I don’t.  As I’ve posted before, I believe in equality, but I don’t think abortions should be performed after six weeks’ gestation.  But feminists don’t see it that way–they feel a woman should be able to have an abortion any time she wants it–right up until birth.  I can’t in good conscience agree with that thinking.  In the feminist world, that automatically excludes me from being called a feminist.  This point of view wasn’t easy to come by, either, as I have seen the photo of the woman dead on a hotel room floor with a hangar protruding from her vagina.  I don’t want to see women in such desperate circumstances that they resort to that–it is much better to have safe, reliable contraceptives available to her. (Yes, men should be responsible for contraception, too, but since she is the one who will be most impacted by a pregnancy, and he could be unreliable, she needs to take responsibility for her own sake.)

Feminists in the 70s were so anti-homemaking that women who chose this route were treated as if they were mindless dummies.

It’s an odd circumstance that things that defined us as women–the home, childbirth and raising children, became so hated.  It’s as if they wanted us to become equal by embracing the stereotyped attributes of men.

In other words, we could only be thought of as valuable and therefore equal….if we became men…

…and the unintended consequences of that is the world tilted even more towards the masculine and diminished the feminine.

What we need to right the world is to once again embrace the feminine as valuable–to recognize that one can be soft as well as strong and that those two attributes don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  That we can prop each other up when one is feeling weak, instead of attacking.  That it’s okay for women to have an opinion different than a man’s and it’s just as valid and valuable. That taking care of the Earth is the feminine that needs to be honored.

There’s more to write, but perhaps for another day.  I’m out of time.

Rihanna

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I usually try not to comment on stars, but this is just too much and I have to say something.

I would think that community service would be better spent working in a domestic violence shelter.  Or some other service that actually would have an impact on him, because as the article states, he still has a violent temper and is not addressing it.  He just doesn’t get it.

The article states that he had logged 701 hours in seven months.  701 divided by seven means he had to have performed 100 hours of service in each month–the equivalent of three hours per day, roughly.  Yeah, I’d be a questioning the truth of that, also.

The article goes on to say that peace officers had verified the work done.  So there’s obviously a disconnect somewhere…

Going on to the bigger issue of domestic violence~~

Report on Rihanna. This report says “Robyn” so I presume that Rihanna is a stage name? Photo of her face after the beating.

Rihanna has probably convinced herself that he “didn’t mean to do it” and “he’ll never do it again” and “he said he was sorry and it was because of blah, blah,blah that he got so mad….”  (You can tell this by the above link to his demanding respect that he is playing the victim and blaming everyone and everything else for his behavior.  He is in no way taking responsibility for his actions.  )

Like every woman ever subjected to domestic violence, she is probably blaming herself.

She tries really hard to please him.  He calls her stupid, lazy, worthless.  She tries harder to please him, but every day he finds something to criticize about her.  She tries harder and is walking on egg shells trying not to displease him.

But she can never achieve that because he will always find fault with her.  It’s his way to control her.

And if she does find even an ounce of self-worth and begins to stand up for herself…

…that’s when the beatings begin…for backtalking him.  For telling him, no, I don’t want to cook that meal again, or I don’t want to watch that movie or I don’t want to spend money on that or whatever the circumstance is…

And he’ll justify the beating for her disobedience.  And she’ll think that he’s right because she got out of line…

Sadly, I don’t have a lot of hope for Rihanna because the flags are up all over the place.  I am afraid for her.

It is a very difficult situation.  He may have a good side and that’s the side she loves, which makes it hard for her to leave.

It is said that it often takes several times for a woman to leave a relationship for good.  And it’s also the most dangerous time for her.  Women have been killed trying to leave their abuser.

And he won’t change unless he sees that his controlling behavior is a problem.  He won’t change unless he wants to.  No one can make him–it has to come from within.  He has to want to change.  Most abusive men don’t see that they are the problem.  They see *everyone else* as the problem.

And this cuts across all socioeconomic levels–professionals as well as blue collar; whites as well as blacks; judges, doctors, police, and politicians….there are no boundaries.  And someone who could seem so “nice” in public can be a monster in private….

Here’s the national domestic violence hotline.  800-799-SAFE.

Domestic Violence Statistics.

Here’s a recent story on a young boy who shot his father as a result of domestic violence.  Incredibly, they aren’t seeing this as self-defense, even though the father was beating the children.

And another story that may not seem related to this, but is–a young 5 year old girl in a California day care was having oral sex with the boys there.  That child had to have seen that somewhere because five year olds are too young to engage in that behavior unless they had exposure to it via p_rn or,  as I suspect, being molested.  I fear that she was subjected to this at home, and was acting out.  I can only hope that someone recognizes this and will get to the source of her abuse and get her the appropriate help.

What a troubled world.

 

Slamming the Poor

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Our local station, at wane.com, had a slam piece on the poor this week (I was just on their website, and there is nothing up for me to reference).  They were running promo ads all last week…and I was dreading what was to come, but I held out hope that the promos were just to draw people in, but the story would present both sides of the issue without judgment.

Ha.

Adam Widener, the reporter, is probably patting himself on the back for the “outstanding” piece of *cough* reporting he did.

Okay, I’ll start from the beginning segment:

Widener doesn’t present himself as a reporter, rather, he walks up with hot cocoa and a fast food bag to these folks who are standing on street corners  holding up signs: at shopping malls:   “Disabled, need money” or something like “unemployed” or other messages.  He gets information out of them without telling them he’s a reporter and there is a concealed camera taping the whole conversation.

Next, he asks them about how much they make in a day, why they’re begging for money, etc.  He also follows them to their homes without their knowledge or consent.

One man claims to be disabled and walks with something of a limp.  He stands out in the rain begging for money from strangers.  Widener follows him as he walks home:  three miles and he walks without a limp as he’s going to his home.  Widener finally identifies himself and asks about the disability and about how many beggers are scamming.  The guy is probably the worst example of those folks–he probably isn’t disabled, and then he characterizes the others as being fakes, with only 5% of people begging being legitimate.   He is the poster child for the repub party, who *love* to point to people like him as a reason not to give to anyone.

Which is what Widener does in his *cough* reporting…even though the other folks he interviews have legitimate reasons for begging:  one guy is unemployed and trying to hold onto his house; another is also unemployed (probably 60 years old) and also in need of money.  He does interview a man who works in a convenience store that one of them frequents and the man says in a sarcastic tone, “He always has wads of cash…I’m going to quit my job and start begging on the corner.” (Widener states during the piece that the most they make is $50 a day…this is while standing for at least three hours and sometimes eight hours in the cold and rain.)

Widener goes to the local Christian Rescue Mission, to one of the coordinators, who—even though she did not meet these people—was quick to judge them and say that beggers use the money for drugs or alcohol.  And to drive the point home, Widener interviews a man staying at the Mission who used to beg and use the money for drugs and also automatically assumes these folks are using the money for things other than food or shelter or other basic needs. Widener repeats many times that these folks are using the money for cigarettes.

The Mission coordinator stated that people should not give money to these folks for the above reasons.

It never ceases to amaze me how people who claim to be rescuing people in Jesus’ name are mean, judgmental and punitive.–which goes against what Jesus taught.

It also never ceases to amaze me how shortsighted folks are—the poor need cash for toilet paper, shampoo, bath soap, dish detergent, trash bags, laundry soap, and even money for the laundry because, and I know this is hard for repubs to believe, but these items are not covered on food stamps.  And even if it did, people still wouldn’t be able to afford them and pay for food on the amount given per month.  (For me, I wash most of my clothes in a bucket in the bathtub to save money–it’s economical and I’ve gotten it down to a science where I do a pretty darn good job.)

But our friend Widener isn’t done yet….

Next he goes to the FW police and talks with the public relations director, who informs him that unless a property owner calls her, the police generally do nothing about it.

Widener can’t get over that.

He goes to a city councilman, Tom Didier, who bless his heart, actually shows compassion and says that there was a law on the books that made begging illegal, but they dissolved the law in 2010.

Widener brought up that another town (forget which one he said) had made it so that a person would have to register in order to beg.

Widener was aghast that Didier laughed when this was told to him.

This story is evil in that it actually twists things around so someone feels self-righteous about not helping the poor–they’re “helping” this person by not contributing to their drug or alcohol problem.

Even alcoholics and druggies need to be warm and safe and dry with food on the table.

This story fell soooo far short of the depth that this story requires.  Why did these people beg?  What circumstances in their life brought them to this place?  Were they working in a job that didn’t pay enough so they could have something to fall back on when hard times hit?  Did they have health issues that contributed to job loss?  How can we help, besides the immediate cash?

Speaking of Scam Artists

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PR Watch.org has this up on the gerrymandering in Wisconsin.

From the article:

In early February of 2012, GOP legislators released multiple documents, but continued to keep around 84 emails confidential. The three judges — two of them appointed by Republican presidents — again criticized the Republican legislators for “an all but shameful attempt” to keep documents secret, writing:  “Without a doubt, the Legislature made a conscious choice to involve private lawyers in what gives every appearance of an attempt — albeit poorly disguised — to cloak the private machinations of Wisconsin’s Republican legislators in the shroud of attorney-client privilege.”

And…incredibly:

According to the documents that were released, Republican legislators signed a pledge of secrecy during the redistricting process and were told to ignore what GOP leaders said publicly about the new election maps.

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What is this, high school or college where you make secret pledges?  Seriously?? Does this mean they get double secret probation?

Note that some emails obtained by Center for Media and Democracy  were not released to the lawyers challenging the maps.  Just incredible!

I think this is why Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the tea partiers are so baffled that they lost the election….how could they lose when they’ve worked so hard against the democratic process??

 

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More on ALEC sponsors here.

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And, lastly, ALEC and the electoral college here.  They just can’t figure out enough ways to demolish the democratic process….

 

 

The political dynasties

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I’ve posted this years ago, and it popped into my head this morning, so I thought I’d re-post.

Doing a quick run-through, I saw this of the Bayard and Clayton family, which morphed into the Duponts.

Also, take note of the Baldwin, Evarts, Hoar, etc., families….There should be some law that families cannot monopolize politics—some sort of limit, eh?

And, this I never knew:  P.T. Barnum, of circus fame, was a politician….note the label of a “scam artist”.  Heh. politicians haven’t changed much, eh?

Enjoy the read.

Whales

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So, I finally got around to turning my calendar over to the month of February this morning.  It’s a nature based one, and this month has a whale majestically propelling itself out of the deep blue, much like this one.

A cool event here with a whale.  Playing hide-and-seek…gotta love it.

This once again proves that we know very little about wildlife and how they can display compassion.

Greenpeace is still fighting the good fight. 

This bears repeating:  the sad story of seagulls attacking the whales. Argentina has this plan to thwart them, but I think it’s not really addressing the reason behind the gulls’ attacks.  Something has caused them to begin attacking eight years ago…I hope that they’re going to test the dead gulls for mercury and other toxins, since it’s been documented that the birds are pretty messed up with mercury.  This would explain why they suddenly began this eight years ago–the rubbish aspect doesn’t really make sense to me because we’ve had garbage around for decades…why now?

Finally, a wonderful story here. The will to survive never ceases to amaze me…no matter how we screw up, nature still tries to come back.  Awesome.