Friday, November 07, 2008

Two things that will inspire me to public rage

Bad manners and picking on my kid.

So last night when our extremely late bus finally showed up, the bus floor was drenched with water. And slippery. The kid got halfway back and fell hard. He hurt his back. It took him a really long time to be able to get up. Everyone on the bus was quiet.

Except the one asshole at the back. Who was laughing at a little kid getting hurt. My kid getting hurt. And not a little chuckle, but a big booming bwahahahahahahahahahaha that went on forever.

Mama Lion is not pleased.

So I looked up from helping the Kid up and said "You think it's fucking funny picking on a little kid who just got hurt. Didn't your momma teach you any fucking manners you asshole"

To which the doochebag responded with "didn't yours teach you any"

"Yeah, she taught me to fucking stand up for my kid, asshole!"

At this point the dooche start muttering about how I am a "fat assed bitch". Thank god for feminism. My fat ass- not something that is really going to hurt me. However, Dooche is a giant fat man. Not a big muscley man, but a big bellied, taking up 3 seats on the bus, fat man.

So I look back and say "It ain't like you're the skinniest thing at the back of the bus asshole."

At this point one of doochebags friends says "Dude she's mad and your being a dick. Shut up".

When we got home and I finished telling the story to Ruth, I asked the Kid if he was embarrassed by my public display of rage. He said "Oh no, the guy was an asshole" (note that cuss words are earned in my family, last night the kid definitely earned one). Kid has always said that he "Loves watching my mom yell at people". I figure it's the best way I've got of teaching him to stand up for himself and for others.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

So i'm looking at the names

being trotted out for cabinet posts.

And there are (surprise!) very few women on the list. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius appears a couple of times (what- there is only one qualified woman?) There are 9 total, with 3 of them being possible EPA heads.

So a maximum of 6 positions for women. If they get them all.

We ain't come that far yet, baby.

Now you may be wondering why would gender matter to say oh the Treasury department. See when you hire a fuckneck like Larry Summers, who thinks girls can't do math, and therefore doesn't staff the Treasury with an equitable number of women, issues like the feminization of poverty, the high rates of sub-prime mortgages pushed off onto single moms, ect. don't get heard.

We make up half the country. We need to make sure that our voice is heard along with the booming male voices that normally drown out our smaller representation.

If he's not good enough for fucking Harvard

then Lawrence Summers is most certainly NOT FUCKING GOOD ENOUGH TO BE PART OF THE CABINET.

Seriously, appointing him is one sure fire way to remind all us vagina voters why we thought Obama was an asshole.

Things I have learned from this election

So belly button gazing election postmortem:

1) It is not enough to support a party. For the first time in my life I did not vote for the straight dem ticket. You all know that I voted for McKinney for pres. What you don't know is that I took to heart what I said about not supporting Dem men who profit from misogyny. So I voted for the pro-choice, pro-pot republican woman for our state's lieutenant governor. While I will never vote for a woman simply because she has a vagina, I will choose to support any pro-choice woman over a dem dude. Note that I said pro-choice. I won't vote against my own self interest simply because someone shares my gender (See Sarah Palin).

2) Votes are earned. Obama did not earn my vote. McCain could never have earned my vote. To all the Nader voters I bullied in 2000, I have already apologized. If Gore didn't earn your vote, he didn't earn it. To both the Obots and the McCainiacs (you know who you are) who spent the last 10 months bullying me and anyone else who wouldn't share their delusions, kindly go fuck yourself.

3) There is a lot of work ahead of us. Obama+Pelosi+Reid means that progressive values are going to be shoved in the closet. Not if I can help it. We must be loud and unruly reminders that Republican policies failed this country over and over. We most not let the spirit of bi-partisanship squash the truth. Dissent is what makes democracy work. Not blind obedience to the party elite.

4) There is no voice speaking up for the poor and working class. The middle class is what we hear all about, but it is shrinking as more and more people join the bottom ranks. Obama don't give a damn about poor people (to shamelessly steal from Kanye West) but we must make him see us.

So my little chickadees- what election wisdom have you gained? Anything profound to share with the class?

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

More it's funny cause it's true


Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Dear California- Part 2

What. The. Fuck!

Seriously, you people are off the list. We forgave you for bringing us Reagan since you've been pretty good generally about social issues. But enough is enough.

You no longer get to be the proggy capital of the country. You no longer to be the bellwether of social tolerance.

You were skating on thin ice with that whole Schwarzenegger thing, but since we forgave Minnesota for the Jesse Venutura thing, we had to just raise an eyebrow at your gubernatorial choices.

But Prop 8- seriously. You passed fucking Prop 8? You are going to write NEW discrimination into your laws. Do you know what century it is?

You are off the list. Done, finished, kaput. No longer the bringers of casual style and civil liberties. You are assholes in flip flops from this point on.

That is all.

I have only just begun to fight

Last night I explained to the Puppy the difference between liberal and progressive. Obama is a liberal, I am a progressive.

The Dems need us, the progressives, to keep at them.

Last night I watched as a huge barrier to power came down in this country. This morning, as I do every morning, I took the bus back into my old neighborhood and was hit fresh in the face with all the work that still needs to be done. The bus went past the tent city in the U-District that our liberal, Democratic mayor is desperate to to get rid of without actually having to do anything for the homeless people that populate it.

I got to the Central District, and while the faces on the black men that hang around on the corners were decidedly more smiley than normal, I notice that they still don't have jobs to go to.

And I think back to the ads that kept running on CNN from AARP. The first thing Obama put on the chopping block, before he was even elected, was health care. How brilliant of AARP to run their Divided we fall commercials in between news snippets of the country turning blue all around us. Thank you for reminding me that there are many many many more battles to be fought.

And while watching Obama make his acceptance speech, I couldn't help but growl a bit when he got a too hypocritical. While i was toughed by the 106 year old black woman who got to vote, hearing Obama talk about women getting the vote grated on my nerves like sandpaper. Obama says he will be the president to everyone, not just those that voted for him. And that he will listen to the voices of his dissenters. Will he really? Will people like me, people he used as fodder for the election, people like my black neighbors who ain't got a dime in the world let alone a stake in to stock market, will we be heard? Will our needs be met? Or will we be the first sacrifice to political expediency?

I have to remember that our greatest presidents had people like me pulling at the edges to make them do the right thing. Roosevelt had the bonus marchers and the Socialists and the Anarchists to rile up the public. They were the reason that progressive policies were the rule of the day. The elites needed to make concessions to the rabble rousers.

So I have only just begun to fight.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

There was an angel who was a Maverick once...

He built his Heaven underground.

Don't Fuck This Up, America!

Get Your Girly On

I have been much heartened to see the number of McKinney voters coming out and proud today. And while I'm not gonna beat anyone up for voting for Obama, and I'm only gonna raise an eyebrow and question your intelligence for voting for McCain, I thought I should give a little prize to the Green voters out there.

So I give you Le Tigre videos.


Hot Topic (I freely admit to needing to google many of the awesome feminists they name in this song. But I do know who Vaginal Cream Davis is)


Deceptacon



New Kicks!

Totally un-election related news

The Kid has just informed me that they make an anime version of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple Mysteries. The Kid lurves watching Miss Marple on PBS, more than any other British mystery series.

So YAY! I love that a character written by a woman, who is a smart, non-sexbot grandma who solves mysteries is now available in cartoon form for the boy to watch.

Following BlueLyon's lead

She recently wrote that she will not support any Democratic men that have profited from misogyny.

I'm taking it a step further. I will not vote for any Democratic candidate who has used, condoned, or ignored misogyny used as a campaign tactic.

So I am not voting for Jim McDermott for congress critter this time around. But the only other option is a Rethuglican.

So quick kids- who should I write in. I prefer a woman, though I am more than happy to give a shout out to feminist friendly dudes.

I go vote at 5pm. You got until 4:55 to come up with the best suggestion.

Monday, November 03, 2008

How Bloggers Waste Time- Richard Simmons Version



OuyangDan: does richard simmons really still love me?

me: yes, yes he soes
does

OuyangDan: oh good

me: just so you know

OuyangDan: maybe richard simmons is really The Christ
lolz

me: could be. Have you seen an image of the Richard show up in your toast?

OuyangDan: no...but there was a fatty swirl of grease from last night's pot roast that was a strange resemblence

me: there ya go. You need to start saying "Our Richard, Who are in hot pants, hallowed be thy name"

OuyangDan: thy thighs crush evil from the heads of demons

me: Yay though I may walk through the valley of chubbie I shall not fear fat

OuyangDan: for thine sweatin' to the oldies are w/ me

me: and thine calorie counters are ever present

OuyangDan: :P but nay will they judge me

me: For I am the Simmons and the Power and The Sweaty!

OuyangDan: forever and ever, amen

me: nooooo Forever and ever Raamen!

OuyangDan: Doh! I figured that was FSM specific and carbohydratically offensive to our simmons deity

A Scene from Casa Nueva

Ruth, me and the Puppy are all sitting on the couch last night

Puppy (who I tease mercilessly for being a dork): I think I finally figured something out about you.

Me: What?

Puppy: All this freedom and choice stuff you talk about is just a cover. Really you want to rule the world and you think you could do it better than everyone else. That's why you were a cheerleader and you need to be the boss.

Ruth: I totally see that!

Me: What! No! This isn't fair! Besides I would make a damn fine benevolent dictator.

Ruth: You'd make a better benevolent dictator than just about anyone, but what he said is still true.

Later that evening.....

Puppy: See everyone thinks that they would make the best leader.

Me: But I actually would. People would have way more fun AND work would still get done.

Puppy: Everyone says that.

Me: Did you have fun this weekend?

Puppy: Yes

Me: Did we get a whole lot of shit done? (note we moved a 300 pound TV between the two of us)

Puppy: Yes

Me: Point proven

Puppy: I can see Alaska from my house!

Since the Puppy has insinuated that I have the same level of qualifications as Sarah Palin to run the country (in my case, the world- I'm ambitious) I think I am going to break down the multitude of ways that coordinating this move qualifies me to be the benevolent dictator of the world.

1) The first step in world domination is land acquisition. I have certainly moved up from my little townhouse in the ghetto to the ginormous. This move required diplomatic relations with Ruth and Bernard, first in negotiating my exile from the ghetto into their bedroom. From there we needed to acquire a space big enough for real conquering to take place without any unwanted border crossings (bedroom doors that close go along way in border protection people!)

2) Money- no government can function without it. I think I did pretty well at rallying the loyal readers to raise the money for land acquisition (I/e new house fund)

3) Coordinate the invasion- well i could have been better at raising troops, but I did end up making diplomatic promises to one friend to help her move out of her 3rd story apartment in July. I also did as most leaders do and over taxed the army (i/e the Puppy) with promises of a GIANT Bonus if he played muscle man. I did in fact follow through on the bonus payment, I think that makes me better than many former presidents who promised things to the military. I also promised the youth his own WOW subscription if he helped all weekend without whining.

4) Make moving speeches: I have been doing my damnedest to make sure everyone knows just how grateful i am for all the help.

5) Delegate: See getting the Puppy to do things like move Bernard's bowflex machine up 3 flights of stairs.

So that's just the moving stuff. Additionally I've been to more countries than Sarah Palin. I've gotten to Level 12 on Know your World (Even McCain thinks we're still in a world where Czechoslovakia is a country). I've actually studied International Relations, Political Economy, macro Economics and history enough to know that current plans for saving the economy are crap.

And most importantly- I would only be ruler of the world if a majority of the world voted for me to take office. I guess that kinda does in the dictator part, but wevs.

womanhating


I do not like Michelle Obama. I hated her hypocrisy in the primary, her lies about her and Barack growing up poor and her attacks on Hillary. I disliked her convoluted discourse at the DNC Convention in which she went quite a logn way to insert the racially charged "brother" and "sister" in her speech. Dogwhistling is an art, and that wasn't particularly subtle about it.

I dislike her chanelling of Jackie O, and her very obvious submissiveness. I dislike the fact that a woman who is so proud of her race still feels the need to burn and straighten her hair in order to make it "look white" (this was pointed to me by a woman of color I used to work with- who also straightened her hair. She said " you know, I HAVE to straighten my hair, I need the job. She doesn't. She's rich. If she was so proud of her race she should have at least accept her hair". ABB, whose hypocrisy I decry since turning Obamazoid, had a long time ago a good piece of writing about the politics of black hair).

However, I do not HATE her. It was pointed to me by some people that, by virtue of looking somewhat Caucasian, I enjoy privilege she didn't have. I don't know about that- it might be. I don't know what it's like growing up black in the USA, but I'm pretty sure growing up Jewish in communist Romania is not quite what some third wavers understand by "white privilege".
Living as an immigrant who has to put up with being regarded as "not white enough to be white in the UK" might also be a bit out of their area of experience or expertise. In the USA I was labelled Latina and that was that.

But that's not the point. The point is that while I dislike her, I do not hate her.

At my blog I wrote extensively about my recently departed aunt. I remember being about 14, and one of her daughters had somekind of argument at school with another girl. said daughter manipulated the guys in her class to attack that other girl with the most vile and disgusting insults, to the point where the poor girl had to change schools to escape.

Upon finding out what was going on, my aunt gave both her daughters and me ( just by virtue of being there I guess) a speech. She had a raspy voice from smoking 3 packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day, she was tiny and her face wrinkled and she was strong like old trees are strong.

" Do you think these boys like you? Do you think you're special and you'll never be treated like that because you're cute? You're a fool. Anyone who thinks of one woman like that thinks it about ALL women. They won't tell it to you while they find you useful, but don't you ever forget that these boys hate women, and they hate you too. When you won't be useful to them you will find it out.

You're not special, and you're not even human to them. For these boys, hating women is like a drug- they tasted it once and liked it because everybody likes to feel that they are inherently better than someone else. That girl is not in your school anymore, but they will find someone else to hate, and one day that person will be you.

They don't hate ONE woman, they hate ALL women. We're nothing but cunts to them, to fuck and throw away and nothing more, or maybe if we're good enough and meek enough to clean after them and put up with them and wash their shit streaked pants and stinky socks.

What they said to that girl? That is what they think of you, and me and every other woman on the planet. And they're gonna think that until the day they die, because that's how life is. "

The women who indulge in hating Sarah Palin the way Michelle indulged in hating and attacking Hillary or worse? They should know better. They are just fanning the fire that will one day burn them as well.

I don't hate Michelle Obama. She is rich and married to a guy who might just become the president of the USA. I'm a poor white collar immigrant living from paycheck to paycheck. I live in a small flat that gets so cold at night that water freezes in the ducts. Sometimes I have to make a choice between a buying a bus ticket or getting lunch.

However, I have it better than she does. I can go out and speak my mind. She did that in the primary. She isn't allowed to do that anymore. I'm not forced to look like a dead woman and act like a demure little thing to serve a man's political ambition. Also, unlike her, I didn't have to have a man accompany me to a job interview to supervise it.

I wonder if she realizes that the same people who attacked Hillary like rabid dogs- for her husband's profit- will attack her in the same manner without one second thought. I wonder if the alleged feminists who indulged in Palin and Hillary bashing understand that when they allowed and contributed to that, they smacked in the face any woman who may have considered entering politics.

I wonder whether they understand that the message they sent out- that it's OK to drag a woman through the mud if we don't like her, translates into it being OK to harass and drag through the mud any woman that someone doesn't like. Which is all women.





Sunday, November 02, 2008

Newsflash- Moving is hell.

Because Ruth and Bernard have been so awesome to me, and because they both have midterms on Monday (and Bernard is just getting over pneumonia) I told them I would move everything.

Well, almost everything anyways.

And I am fucking tired y'all. Though the Puppy, the big, gorgeous, muscley Puppy, did come over and do a lot of the heavy lifting last night. (OMG- after years of dating eggheads with giant brains who lift nothing heavier than a laptop- can I tell you how sexy it is to see a guy just pick up an entire heavy dresser by himself and carry it upstairs. HOTNESS!) And the Puppy is coming over tonight to help move some more (and to make me french toast for breakfast tomorrow- yum!)

But in the mean time I have mountains of books to move, a headache, and there are unmentionable parts of my body that are sore.

So consider this an open thread- wanna bitch, blogwhore or just babble at me- have at it.