Is this two wrongs don't make a right? If we throw Camile Paglia in with them, could we have a 3-way shitface death battle? Cause I'd pay money to see that.
Seriously, real money. I'd pay it. But it has to be actual death and not the winner gets to show mercy instead of treppaning her opponent with a stiletto. Treppaning will be done!
Friday, January 13, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Remember when I said rich people fucking suck
because they lack empathy and generosity and a sense of community that the rest of us have to have because we have to learn that shit in order to live and they don't?
Yeah- fucking rich dude breaks waiter's finger because he fucking can.
Yeah- fucking rich dude breaks waiter's finger because he fucking can.
Let's Play Connect The Fucking Dots!
Recently, a study was published that showed that marriage equality had significant health benefits for gay and bi men.
14% cost reduction- DAYUM! These results hold true even for men who had no plans to marry.
Color me shocked, SHOCKED, that removing (one, major) form of institutional oppression results in improved health for oppressed people. Shocked! (Of course by shocked I mean not surprised at fucking all.)
Now lemme extrapolate a little. Women experience depression at twice the frequency of men. Twice. Double. I can't imagine why living in a world full of fucking gender based violence and oppression might cause women to be more at risk of depression as men are, can you? Nope, must be that us ladies are weak or hysterical or something. I don't know. I have a lady brain and have to pause while I cry over a video of baby kittens.
Lemme extrapolate again. 41% Blacks suffer hypertension, while only 27% of Whites do. And when Black people are more likely to have hypertension at a younger age and with more severe effects than whites. Hypertension is known to be caused by stress. You don't think it might be the fucking stress of racism? Nooooooooooooooo that would be silly. It must be because Black folks don't know how to eat healthy and exercise like good white folks do.
Oppression is hard on the body and hard on the brain. And it turns out that even people who benefit from oppression in highly stratified societies have poorer health than those in less oppressed societies, i/e the rich in the U.S. aren't as well off health-wise as the rich in somewhere like Finland.
So the next time some douchecanoe wants to whinge on about poor people on medicaid using up all the resources, smack that person in the head and tell (most likely) him to shut his pie hole. If he wants oppressed people to be more healthy he can stop fucking benefiting from undeserved privilege.
In the 12 months following the 2003 legalization of same sex marriage in Massachusetts, gay and bisexual men had a significant decrease in medical care visits, mental health care visits, and mental health care costs, compared with the 12 months before the law change. This amounted to a 13 percent reduction in health care visits and a 14 percent reduction in health care costs.
14% cost reduction- DAYUM! These results hold true even for men who had no plans to marry.
Color me shocked, SHOCKED, that removing (one, major) form of institutional oppression results in improved health for oppressed people. Shocked! (Of course by shocked I mean not surprised at fucking all.)
Now lemme extrapolate a little. Women experience depression at twice the frequency of men. Twice. Double. I can't imagine why living in a world full of fucking gender based violence and oppression might cause women to be more at risk of depression as men are, can you? Nope, must be that us ladies are weak or hysterical or something. I don't know. I have a lady brain and have to pause while I cry over a video of baby kittens.
Lemme extrapolate again. 41% Blacks suffer hypertension, while only 27% of Whites do. And when Black people are more likely to have hypertension at a younger age and with more severe effects than whites. Hypertension is known to be caused by stress. You don't think it might be the fucking stress of racism? Nooooooooooooooo that would be silly. It must be because Black folks don't know how to eat healthy and exercise like good white folks do.
Oppression is hard on the body and hard on the brain. And it turns out that even people who benefit from oppression in highly stratified societies have poorer health than those in less oppressed societies, i/e the rich in the U.S. aren't as well off health-wise as the rich in somewhere like Finland.
So the next time some douchecanoe wants to whinge on about poor people on medicaid using up all the resources, smack that person in the head and tell (most likely) him to shut his pie hole. If he wants oppressed people to be more healthy he can stop fucking benefiting from undeserved privilege.
Monday, January 02, 2012
Eye of the needle and all that shit
Boyfriend and I keep having bits of this discussion but never quite get around to hashing it out because a)neither of us really enjoys disagree or debating with each other (or at least I don't- I don't think he does either, but I don't speak for him) and b)dude is just too dead fucking sexy and I find myself all unable to form coherent sentences on the regular around him.
So what is this discussion that we keep not having about? Does being rich automatically make you a bad person. I say yes (EAT THE RICH!!!!!!!!!!!) and he says no.
Now, the act of having money doesn't necessarily make someone bad. Instead it is the actions required to get, keep and increase one's wealth that make someone bad, or more properly, amoral.
For example, if you were the CEO of a company and you needed to increase your company's profit margin then you would need a certain lack of empathy to rationalize laying off a large number of employees. You would have to either not have, or be able to ignore any pangs of conscience over the welfare of your soon to be ex employees and their families.
And what do you know, science actually backs up the idea that wealthy people are less empathetic than poor people.
It also turns out that the rich aren't quite as charitable as they are made out to be. Turns out the bottom 20% gives away one and a half times more than those in the top 20% do.
That all goes to the getting, keeping, and increasing of their income that I mentioned before.
Of course there are companies that start out with the idea that they can be the ethical exception to the rule. But again when greater profit margins are in competition with those ethics, the profit margin will win. See Google's Don't Be Evil mission statement versus China's censorship laws or even Google's own giant clusterfuck of privacy issues regarding Buzz. See Amazon fuck every one over again and again. and again
Hell, even the do-gooder Gates Foundation has issues because it is funded with monies made by creating the problems that the foundation is trying to ameliorate.
Now we could go around all night with the chicken/egg question of does capitalism make people amoral or did amoral people make capitalism, but I think that's a red herring. Because I am a structuralist (yes how out-dated and 70's of me, and yes like Foucault I am veering more and more post-modern by the day. Problem for another day folks) I don't really give a flying fuck about that and prefer to look at how the system reinforces and encourages the behavior that perpetuate the status quot of the system. Capitalism is an amoral system that ALWAYS breaks down to profits over people. It is amoral. It has no ethics. Ethics of any sort would interfere wit the one mail goal of the system - profit.
But capitalism isn't a mechanical system. There are no gears or levers or belts or buttons. There is no invisible hand. It is a system comprised entirely of the actions of the people involved in it. But we obscure that with passive voice and theoretical discussion instead of looking at the people who control the system and benefit most from it. We are committing the cardinal sin of removing agency from those lofty individuals. The system is amoral because its operators are amoral. Just read what they have to say about current grievances from the bottom 99. The rich are very, very different from us. And they really don't give a flying fuck. They don't have to.
Re: The title of this post is part of an oft quoted bit of Jesus speak. It is no coincidence that most religions have strongly worded bits about kindness and generosity towards the poor. If you were trying to get a whole bunch of people to follow you, you aim your message at the masses. It's much easier to convert people who are suffering than it is to convert the comfortable. Not that there is anything wrong with those messages. I just don't need a sky fairy telling me I'll be rewarded when I'm dead so what injustices that happen to me now don't need to be rectified.
So what is this discussion that we keep not having about? Does being rich automatically make you a bad person. I say yes (EAT THE RICH!!!!!!!!!!!) and he says no.
Now, the act of having money doesn't necessarily make someone bad. Instead it is the actions required to get, keep and increase one's wealth that make someone bad, or more properly, amoral.
For example, if you were the CEO of a company and you needed to increase your company's profit margin then you would need a certain lack of empathy to rationalize laying off a large number of employees. You would have to either not have, or be able to ignore any pangs of conscience over the welfare of your soon to be ex employees and their families.
And what do you know, science actually backs up the idea that wealthy people are less empathetic than poor people.
It also turns out that the rich aren't quite as charitable as they are made out to be. Turns out the bottom 20% gives away one and a half times more than those in the top 20% do.
That all goes to the getting, keeping, and increasing of their income that I mentioned before.
Of course there are companies that start out with the idea that they can be the ethical exception to the rule. But again when greater profit margins are in competition with those ethics, the profit margin will win. See Google's Don't Be Evil mission statement versus China's censorship laws or even Google's own giant clusterfuck of privacy issues regarding Buzz. See Amazon fuck every one over again and again. and again
Hell, even the do-gooder Gates Foundation has issues because it is funded with monies made by creating the problems that the foundation is trying to ameliorate.
Now we could go around all night with the chicken/egg question of does capitalism make people amoral or did amoral people make capitalism, but I think that's a red herring. Because I am a structuralist (yes how out-dated and 70's of me, and yes like Foucault I am veering more and more post-modern by the day. Problem for another day folks) I don't really give a flying fuck about that and prefer to look at how the system reinforces and encourages the behavior that perpetuate the status quot of the system. Capitalism is an amoral system that ALWAYS breaks down to profits over people. It is amoral. It has no ethics. Ethics of any sort would interfere wit the one mail goal of the system - profit.
But capitalism isn't a mechanical system. There are no gears or levers or belts or buttons. There is no invisible hand. It is a system comprised entirely of the actions of the people involved in it. But we obscure that with passive voice and theoretical discussion instead of looking at the people who control the system and benefit most from it. We are committing the cardinal sin of removing agency from those lofty individuals. The system is amoral because its operators are amoral. Just read what they have to say about current grievances from the bottom 99. The rich are very, very different from us. And they really don't give a flying fuck. They don't have to.
Re: The title of this post is part of an oft quoted bit of Jesus speak. It is no coincidence that most religions have strongly worded bits about kindness and generosity towards the poor. If you were trying to get a whole bunch of people to follow you, you aim your message at the masses. It's much easier to convert people who are suffering than it is to convert the comfortable. Not that there is anything wrong with those messages. I just don't need a sky fairy telling me I'll be rewarded when I'm dead so what injustices that happen to me now don't need to be rectified.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
cough*ovaries*cough
"[A] one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of this country, much better. . . People are literally without any focus or leadership, just wandering out into the streets to yell right now because they are so pissed off. Imagine if they had a leader."
-- Matt Damon
Matt Damon, I love you. I really do. But we had an option for a president with, well for the sake of equality let's call it spine or gumption or hutzpah or any name you can think of for gutsy fearlessness in the face of Republican fuckery. But you liberaldoodz couldn't bring yourselves to vote for the bitch (in the best sense of the word) in the pantsuit.
Now would Hills have been much different? Well we'd have a better healthcare plan, us ladies wouldn't need extra insurance in case of unwanted parasites, and that brief window when Dems had the Senate and the House would have be a magic hour of Bitches Getting Shit Done.
We'd still have multi-wars and drones and a good deal of corporate fuckery. But I'm realistic in who runs shit. The Obama fanboys are less so.
via Tennessee Guerrilla Women
-- Matt Damon
Matt Damon, I love you. I really do. But we had an option for a president with, well for the sake of equality let's call it spine or gumption or hutzpah or any name you can think of for gutsy fearlessness in the face of Republican fuckery. But you liberaldoodz couldn't bring yourselves to vote for the bitch (in the best sense of the word) in the pantsuit.
Now would Hills have been much different? Well we'd have a better healthcare plan, us ladies wouldn't need extra insurance in case of unwanted parasites, and that brief window when Dems had the Senate and the House would have be a magic hour of Bitches Getting Shit Done.
We'd still have multi-wars and drones and a good deal of corporate fuckery. But I'm realistic in who runs shit. The Obama fanboys are less so.
via Tennessee Guerrilla Women
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Christmas Music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are y'all ready for some fucking Christmas cheer? Are your eggs nogged? Gifts wrapped? Do you need some inspiration because you have 9 dozen cookies to bake and wrap into adorable gift baskets in the next 32 hours and they have to look and taste fucking awesome because their for your boyfriend's family who you haven't met yet? And OMG you still have presents to wrap and laundry to do and packing and a real job and and and and and.
What you (I) need is some inspiration ( or a nice Valium Adderal cocktail) so here is some music to get through the holidays with.
My favorite all time Christmas song (it has nothing to do with my dysfunctional childhood at all. NOOOOOOOO. It has absolutely nothing to do with the screaming tantrums thrown by the only adult member of the family when holiday pressures inevitably got to be too much. NOOOOOOO. Stop head shrinking)is The Ramones- Merry Christmas (I don't want to fight tonight with you)
It's just not Christmas without the Waitresses
Or the Kinks
Or Erasure
Or XTC
I used to include the Pogues' Fairytale of New York in this list. I mean common, Kristy MacColl sings on it. But there is a homophobic slur right in the middle of the song that jolts me every time I hear it. And if I won't let people make excuses for the stupid racism in Breakfast at Tiffany's then I really can't let homophobia slide even if I love the dead singer of the song super hard. So no more.
Now the worst Christmas song ever, hands down, is Do They Know It's Christmas. That colonial sack of bullshit- ugh. Boyfriend and I were in the grocery store last night and I pointed out that song was playing. His response was "Oh is that why I suddenly feel sad and angry all at once?" (That dear readers, is one of the reasons why I love him.) Anyways- enjoy this hilarious line by line take down of the song.
Your turn- hit me with your Christmas songs, best and worst.
What you (I) need is some inspiration ( or a nice Valium Adderal cocktail) so here is some music to get through the holidays with.
My favorite all time Christmas song (it has nothing to do with my dysfunctional childhood at all. NOOOOOOOO. It has absolutely nothing to do with the screaming tantrums thrown by the only adult member of the family when holiday pressures inevitably got to be too much. NOOOOOOO. Stop head shrinking)is The Ramones- Merry Christmas (I don't want to fight tonight with you)
It's just not Christmas without the Waitresses
Or the Kinks
Or Erasure
Or XTC
I used to include the Pogues' Fairytale of New York in this list. I mean common, Kristy MacColl sings on it. But there is a homophobic slur right in the middle of the song that jolts me every time I hear it. And if I won't let people make excuses for the stupid racism in Breakfast at Tiffany's then I really can't let homophobia slide even if I love the dead singer of the song super hard. So no more.
Now the worst Christmas song ever, hands down, is Do They Know It's Christmas. That colonial sack of bullshit- ugh. Boyfriend and I were in the grocery store last night and I pointed out that song was playing. His response was "Oh is that why I suddenly feel sad and angry all at once?" (That dear readers, is one of the reasons why I love him.) Anyways- enjoy this hilarious line by line take down of the song.
Your turn- hit me with your Christmas songs, best and worst.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
This shit is what I mean when I say I hate Volunteerism- Butchy Feminist Mom edition
Like there's any other version of me besides Bitchy Feminist Mom.
Fair warning- links to Jezebel.
Women, mothers in particular, but women generally, are the people expected to fill the hole when the state fails. And the state fails when it comes to educating children All.The.Fucking.Time.
So if you have a child, you're all ready familiar with the barrage of (3rd shift?) work, called "volunteering", that's required (not so voluntary- is it). When kid was still in public elementary school it was the annual fundraising auction that raised enough money to keep class sizes small. Think about that. Parents, mostly mothers, performing enough unpaid work and donating enough hard earned dollars to do a thing that education experts have been saying since time began is necessary to properly educate children. There are also the "harass your friends, neighbors and coworker" campaigns of selling popcorn or cookies or candybars or wrapping paper. And then there's the "make something for the bake sale, arts and crafts fair, auction" where it's again women's labor, time and cash required to fill a hole left by the state.
FUCK THAT.
You will notice, in the link above, that no one is chastising dads for bringing store bought cookies. On the few occasions I've seen dads show up to these things, they are heaped with fawning praise and batted eyelashes for doing the same, or less, than the women have by the same women who've done the fucking work.
FUCK THAT
Now for the historical. You know why the nuclear family became the ideal instead of inter-generational families or matriarchal families or any of the other thousand versions of families that exist. Nuclear families leave the ladies free to volunteer their unpaid labor when the men are around to get paid. Period. Unpaid labor is required for a functional capitalist society (cause let's be honest- a good fucking giant portion of the labor that is paid isn't necessary to society. Making copies and mastering spreadsheets doesn't do a god damn thing for society. If it did, it would be paid at the same levels that daycare workers and CNAs make).
FUCK THAT
So when some deluded little shitface whines about mothers not making cookies from scratch to fill the state shaped hole left at her kid's elementary school- IT'S THE FUCKING PATRIARCHY using that deluded little shit face like a puppet.
And fuck her for letting it. No- I don't have to be nice about that. She gets all the little head pats she wants form the patriarchy all ready.
Just FYI- it ain't no joke that unpaid internships are becoming a giant drain on society. Once the kyriarchy has mastered getting half the population to do for free the necessary jobs to maintain society, what's to keep you white, middle class, middling boys from the same fate? Free labor is good for the bottom line, after all. This shit is all related and it all comes from the same rotting sewage dump of OPPRESSION! If any one of us and out labor is not considered worthwhile, then all of our labor can be considered worthwhile. No one is safe unless they have the money to buy their way out. If you're reading this- you don't have that kind of money and you never ever will.
Fair warning- links to Jezebel.
Women, mothers in particular, but women generally, are the people expected to fill the hole when the state fails. And the state fails when it comes to educating children All.The.Fucking.Time.
So if you have a child, you're all ready familiar with the barrage of (3rd shift?) work, called "volunteering", that's required (not so voluntary- is it). When kid was still in public elementary school it was the annual fundraising auction that raised enough money to keep class sizes small. Think about that. Parents, mostly mothers, performing enough unpaid work and donating enough hard earned dollars to do a thing that education experts have been saying since time began is necessary to properly educate children. There are also the "harass your friends, neighbors and coworker" campaigns of selling popcorn or cookies or candybars or wrapping paper. And then there's the "make something for the bake sale, arts and crafts fair, auction" where it's again women's labor, time and cash required to fill a hole left by the state.
FUCK THAT.
You will notice, in the link above, that no one is chastising dads for bringing store bought cookies. On the few occasions I've seen dads show up to these things, they are heaped with fawning praise and batted eyelashes for doing the same, or less, than the women have by the same women who've done the fucking work.
FUCK THAT
Now for the historical. You know why the nuclear family became the ideal instead of inter-generational families or matriarchal families or any of the other thousand versions of families that exist. Nuclear families leave the ladies free to volunteer their unpaid labor when the men are around to get paid. Period. Unpaid labor is required for a functional capitalist society (cause let's be honest- a good fucking giant portion of the labor that is paid isn't necessary to society. Making copies and mastering spreadsheets doesn't do a god damn thing for society. If it did, it would be paid at the same levels that daycare workers and CNAs make).
FUCK THAT
So when some deluded little shitface whines about mothers not making cookies from scratch to fill the state shaped hole left at her kid's elementary school- IT'S THE FUCKING PATRIARCHY using that deluded little shit face like a puppet.
And fuck her for letting it. No- I don't have to be nice about that. She gets all the little head pats she wants form the patriarchy all ready.
Just FYI- it ain't no joke that unpaid internships are becoming a giant drain on society. Once the kyriarchy has mastered getting half the population to do for free the necessary jobs to maintain society, what's to keep you white, middle class, middling boys from the same fate? Free labor is good for the bottom line, after all. This shit is all related and it all comes from the same rotting sewage dump of OPPRESSION! If any one of us and out labor is not considered worthwhile, then all of our labor can be considered worthwhile. No one is safe unless they have the money to buy their way out. If you're reading this- you don't have that kind of money and you never ever will.
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