A fine birthday fuck you from America

You know, i'm still super peeved the Bush2 started the Iraq war on
MYFUCKINGBIRTHDAY 8 years ago. It was the one thing the Obama actually
had over Bushy. He didn't start any wars on my birthday. Till today.
But really, I don't need bombs over Libya to celebrate 36. A nice
bottle of spanish cava, gift certificates for bedding and cookeware,
or if you really want to be extravagant a jobs program, but bombing
yet another fucking country for humanitarian( read oil) reasons is a
gift I can neither use nor return. March 19th really needs to stop
being your go to date for bombing.

It's funny cause it's true

seen on facebook this morning: What's the difference between our big
interstate banks and a mafia skimming organization? The mafia doesn't
have atms.

We've always been at war with East Asia

In my addled brain I managed to forget the other big important thing
that today represents.
It's the anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war. 8 years in, no
end in sight. Shock and awe and mission accomplished. Do you think at
the Democratic convention in 2012 that the Obots chanting 4 more years
will be chanting it for Obama or for MOAR WAR!!!!!!!

You say it's my birthday

babowdadump
It's my blogs birthday too
babowdadump

Seriously, it's been 36 years on this planet, but the last 5 have been
vastly improved by my friends in bloglandia. Thank you all.

next it will be illegal for us poor folks to breathe the air

go read the So That's What They Meant By The War On Poverty link in my reader.
Hey you know who would be going to jail right fucking now if that law
happens? ME! I get food stamps and medicaid and I have $22.19 in my
purse right now. Omg peeps, I'm a criminal. I'm worser than rapists
and murderers and CEOs. I deserve jail. I totally do, because I am
obviously defrauding the government (though i report all my income to
both the Irs and DSHS and the numerous assistance programs that
require not just proof of income but for me to sign away my right to
privacy and allow them to monitor any bank accounts I have AND I pay
15.2% taxes on all of it) but I have cash so I must be doing something
illegal. Won't someone think of the child(ren)? It's so obvious that
the kid would be better off in some Dickensian group home than living
with a hardened criminal like myself.

The joy you miss out on by not being poor

A few days ago I went and looked at the most perfect apartment. great
location, 2 bedrooms, washer/dryer, dishwasher, and killer views from
the back deck. But it's a little pricey. Well, actually for what it is
in Seattle it's below the market average, but a little pricey if
you're poor. I told the owner I'd get back to him after I talked to
the 'program lady' (i/e my caseworker). I dashed off a quick email and
waited. And waited. And waited. I finally got a call a few minutes ago
and instead of getting a straight up answer, i got a fingerwaging
paternalistic, 'now Elizabeth do you really think that's an
appropriate amount of your budget to spend on rent'. I was the told to
go look for something cheaper in 2 neighborhoods I wouldn't feel safe
letting the Kid walk around in. She could have said 'the top end of
what our program will cover is X' without the fucking condescension,
but I'm poor so heaven forbid I go a day without someone condescending
to tell me how to live.

Watch Your Language

If you are a girl, or a member of any oppressed class, and have a
tendency to use forbidden words like shit, damn, fucking douchebag is
going to be wearing his ass as a hat if he keeps it up, etc. then you
have probably also been told that your filthy talk is not okay. Here's
why it's not just okay, but necessary to cuss like a sailor. Cuss
words serve as a type of social bonding glue. Using them in common
conversation means you think the people you are talking to are your
equals, not people who are less than you who you must appear more
refined than, or better than you who you must impress. Women aren't
supposed to use that kind of language because we are not equals. We
are less than men andare supposed to set a good example for the
children. So a quick, easy, dirt cheap method of social equalization
is cut off from us when we are told to mind our dirty mouths. Of
course the only proper response to that kind of thing is 'fuck you and
the horse you rode in on'.

The Hunger Games

I just finished the final book in the series (thanks to the Kid who go
it for me as a bday present) and OMG I am so jealous that teen fiction
seems to get the best stories (and the worst- twilight, blah) See
also Tamora Pierce. everytime I think I know where the story is going
the main character gets ripped out of whatever chaos and dropped into
a new fresh hell of figuring out just whose pawn she is. So on the
same day I finish the books, i also read about the whitewashing of the
hunger games that hollywood is doing, first by (maybe) casting
Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, the main character. Does Lawrence have
the chops to pull off thise role, abso fricken lootely. But only in
brownface and a black wig. Katniss, being from appalachia, looks like
my relatives, black haired, grey eyed, olive skinned. Perhaps I'm
projecting, but she sounds like the Cherokee, european mixed race
peeps whose ancestors hid in the hills and married whites rather than
be marched off to Oklahoma.

retro movie review

They keep playing The Legend of Billie Jean on one of the retro
channels and damn how did I not love this movie when I was younger.
It's a smogersborg of awesome featuring blunt critiques of classism,
lookism, rape culture, and the idea that teenagers are wild and
dangerous animals. And it passed the Bechtel test long before there
was one. (What is missing from this movie is any person of color, the
movie's only flaw). Here be spoilers, so avert your eyes if you don't
wanna know. Pretty blonde Billie Jean and her younger bro Binx take
Binx red scooter to go swimming. resident douchebag steals Binx'
scooter. Billie Jean goes to cops, cops ignore her. Binx gets beat up
by douche getting the scooter back which is now damaged. Billie Jean
goes to dad of douche to get $ to repair the scooter and dad tries to
rape her. Then Binx accidently shoots rapey dad and the rest of the
movie is about their life on the run, trying to get justice. The
lookism and classism are things you just don't see exposed in modern
movies.

Warmongering for Humanity

Corrente has a great link up about 10 reasons not to militarily
intervene in Libya. Go read that. Now just a few things to add.
Democracy through tyranny is still tyranny. Lather rinse repeat. The
corrente link mentions Iraq (1st gulf war) and the balkans, but having
just read Haiti's Lazurus in the nytimes let's throw that in to. To
recap- aristide, man of the people, lives in exile in us after a
military coup. Makes so many fucking deals just to get back to Haiti
that he's no longer a man of Haiti's people, but of US imperialist
interests. And 15ish years later, the UN is still in Haiti and was
before the earthquake. (And ask yourself why Bush2 added Haitian
Patois to the critical language list during his reign). Beware of
warmongers for humanitarian reasons, they never ever ever have the
best interest of actual people in mind. (this includes the
fauxgressives chearleadering for moar war in Afghanistan 'because of
all those poor women' while ignoring all the poor women at home).

You're not paranoid if they are really out to get you

so a new pew poll shows that Americans are more tolerant of gay
families than of single mothers. Yay gays! But seriously folks, it is
time we recognize mothers as an oppressed class. you all know that
women make so many cents for every dollar a man makes, but did you
know that when you make that woman a mother her paycheck gets even
skintier while her expenses (daycare, diapers,healthcare, food,
housing and clothing for a start) grow. but we loooooove mothers. we
have a whole holiday just for them. blah blah blah, bullshit bullshit
bullshit. Single moms and kids are the people getting beat hardest
with the government austerity stick as states balance their budgets on
our backs. perhaps they think we're so good at making do with less
that we won't notice the cuts. whatever, right now i am disgusted by
2/3rds of the country.

If you take my kid to Hooters

I will take your nads to my knee.
There's a point/counterpoint up at The Good Men blog where a dad is
upset that another dad took his kid to lunch at Hooters. I've spent
the kid's entire life teaching him that women are people, not objects
to be purchased, and if some fuckface decided that it's totes cool to
introduce boys to the soft side of prostitution and objectification
over cheeseburgers and bad wings I'd be just as pissed off as if the
parent had offered the kid his first taste of alcohol. Not fucking
cool. Not an appropriate right of passage. Not a funny boys will be
boys moment. And if you introduce my underage kid to that kind of
toxic shit, i will hurt you. What kind of arrogant shithead thinks
that's ok without consulting the parents first? I don't want the idea
that women's bodies are for sale normalized in any way for the kid,
even if it's just big tips for tight tanktops and short shorts.

Holy Shit

today i am the mother of a 16 year old. The kid is now old enough to
get a driver's license (though our lack of a car means I can't teach
him to drive, but he could get one). It's surreal, being near this
person who was once so small he hugged my knees and is now so tall he
towers over me and treats me like his little pet mommy. I am so proud
and tickled at the person he's grown up to be. He is kind and
thoughtful and funny and smart. He is a giant goofball, ready to act
silly whenever the mood strikes. And because of him, and how much i
love him, i've been given the gift of self-love. Protecting him makes
me stronger, but it also made me realize that I deserved protection
too. knowing how much i love him, and how i would gladly throw myself
in front of a bus for him, i can see clearly how that is not at all
true of my own parents. it's a big gift, i don't know that i can ever
repay it. but i am going to keep trying. So happy birthday, my
beautiful monkey boy. you're the best present i ever got.