Last night I watched the Barbara Walters special on transkids with my Kid. These kids were so cute and so brave, I just wanted to bundle them up and keep them from everything mean in the world. And I'm not even *that* maternal. Kid, as usual, handled it exceptionally well. He hated that people were mean to them, and he was all "If I had a trans kid, I'd let them pick who they wanted to be".
Contrast to a few friends from the other night who think "it" is the appropriate pronoun to use for people who just won't pick a gender and stick with it. Ughhhh. When I pointed out that it is just good manners to use the pronoun that the person uses for themselves, they seemed to get it a little. But with exceptions.
"Except for V_____, it doesn't know what it is."
"It" is not a word used for human beings. "It" is the ultimate in othering. "It" is how we describe lifeless things like toasters and sweaters. And when you turn a human into an "It", it's no wonder that violence and murder of trans people is high. Can you murder a toaster? I hate "It".
Is it so hard to ask? If someone is skewing the gender binary, and you are not sure how to address them, I am pretty sure that they would prefer to be asked rather than to be treated like a household object.
Words mean things. And how could anyone ever want to hurt this sweet, sad girl is beyond me.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Just in case
Since there are growing numbers of Pro Hillary blogs getting locked out as spam I went ahead and created a backup blog at wordpress.
I am not ready to move to Word Press entirely (though I love love love their comment mod system)because A. this started as a group blog (and sometimes still is) and I haven't figured out how to change the post authors over there yet. So far it looks like i wrote everything- and I don't want to take that kind of credit. Also, I don't have the money to pay to upgrade Haloscan comments so I can export them to Wordpress (and I'm not 100% sure that can be done. ) and I don't want to lose them.
So I'll keep posting here for now. But should something horrible happen, plan b is in place.
I am not ready to move to Word Press entirely (though I love love love their comment mod system)because A. this started as a group blog (and sometimes still is) and I haven't figured out how to change the post authors over there yet. So far it looks like i wrote everything- and I don't want to take that kind of credit. Also, I don't have the money to pay to upgrade Haloscan comments so I can export them to Wordpress (and I'm not 100% sure that can be done. ) and I don't want to lose them.
So I'll keep posting here for now. But should something horrible happen, plan b is in place.
Friday, June 27, 2008
RQ Cooks- Poverty Fried rice
That giant pork roast is still alive and kicking, though I think for just one more day. By the time payday rolls around next week I think the kid and I will be so sick of pork products that we may even eschew bacon for a while (Not Bacon!!!!).
When I was in high school I learned a super easy recipe for fried rice that I have modified over the years so that it can be made with damn near anything that is left floating in the fridge (including bacon!). The trick, for the meat eaters anyways, is to cook everything in some kind of meat fat if you can. Bacon grease works very well. I used fat from the pork roast.
First, start the rice. Basic white rice is fine. I throw in a tablespoon of this Croatian soup starter that I have called Vegeta, but you can substitute some chicken of beef bullion (or leave it plain) if you like. While the rice is simmering you cook everything else.
So I took some of that congealed jelly/fat stuff that's coating the bottom of the roast pan and melted it in my giant skillet/wok. Mix with a little regular vegetable oil (olive oil is too strongly flavored) to keep from burning. Then add your chopped veggies. Carrots (sliced on the diagonal so that there is more surface area getting heated and they cook fast)go first cause they are hardest. Then white onion sliced into long thin strips and some celery. You can also throw in whatever other veggies may be near death in the fridge, even thin strips of cabbage. Just remember that the veggies go in the pan in order of hardness so that nothing gets over cooked. Lastly I added some shredded bits of the pork roast and a few dashes of soy sauce. Then I turned the pan to low while waiting for the rice to finish.
If you have an egg or two, now is a good time to give it a quick scramble. If you have the space in your pan- just push all the veggies and meat to the side and scramble the eggs in the middle. If not, use a separate pan and add back into the veggies when they are cooked. Or skip the eggs if you're out of them or don't like them (we were out).
Once the rice is done, add a little extra fat to the meat and veggies, turn the heat up and dump the rice into the mix. Stir and heat till the rice gets that lovely brownish fried color, adding a bit more soy sauce to help the process. The viola, poverty fried rice. You can garnish with some chopped scallions if you like.
(When I learned to make this in high school it was with bacon and scallions and Chinese 5 spice. I don't like the combo of 5 spice with savory dishes, so I changed it. But if you want to try something a bit different, give it a go)
ETA: Yes, you could even put cauliflower in this if you are an evil evil bastard.
When I was in high school I learned a super easy recipe for fried rice that I have modified over the years so that it can be made with damn near anything that is left floating in the fridge (including bacon!). The trick, for the meat eaters anyways, is to cook everything in some kind of meat fat if you can. Bacon grease works very well. I used fat from the pork roast.
First, start the rice. Basic white rice is fine. I throw in a tablespoon of this Croatian soup starter that I have called Vegeta, but you can substitute some chicken of beef bullion (or leave it plain) if you like. While the rice is simmering you cook everything else.
So I took some of that congealed jelly/fat stuff that's coating the bottom of the roast pan and melted it in my giant skillet/wok. Mix with a little regular vegetable oil (olive oil is too strongly flavored) to keep from burning. Then add your chopped veggies. Carrots (sliced on the diagonal so that there is more surface area getting heated and they cook fast)go first cause they are hardest. Then white onion sliced into long thin strips and some celery. You can also throw in whatever other veggies may be near death in the fridge, even thin strips of cabbage. Just remember that the veggies go in the pan in order of hardness so that nothing gets over cooked. Lastly I added some shredded bits of the pork roast and a few dashes of soy sauce. Then I turned the pan to low while waiting for the rice to finish.
If you have an egg or two, now is a good time to give it a quick scramble. If you have the space in your pan- just push all the veggies and meat to the side and scramble the eggs in the middle. If not, use a separate pan and add back into the veggies when they are cooked. Or skip the eggs if you're out of them or don't like them (we were out).
Once the rice is done, add a little extra fat to the meat and veggies, turn the heat up and dump the rice into the mix. Stir and heat till the rice gets that lovely brownish fried color, adding a bit more soy sauce to help the process. The viola, poverty fried rice. You can garnish with some chopped scallions if you like.
(When I learned to make this in high school it was with bacon and scallions and Chinese 5 spice. I don't like the combo of 5 spice with savory dishes, so I changed it. But if you want to try something a bit different, give it a go)
ETA: Yes, you could even put cauliflower in this if you are an evil evil bastard.
Annoyance of the day
They are power washing the outside of my house. It's very very noisy. Teeth grindingly noisy. It was okay at first, but it's been going on for hours now and I have a headache and I'm cranky.
Noise pollution sucks.
That is all for now. I am going to go hide my head under a pillow and weep until it stops.
Noise pollution sucks.
That is all for now. I am going to go hide my head under a pillow and weep until it stops.
Male Privilege, Cyberstalking and The Election
A little over 80 years ago, one of the dominant reasons for not giving us ladies the right to vote was that politics would sully our pure spirits. But really it was just another excuse in a long line of excuses used to shut the bitches up.
Now we have the vote(to the lament of many) and after decades of trying to find a public voice and being shut out of traditional arenas (or given token membership if we are willing to disparage our own sex), women have found the internet, just like dudes did. And we use it speak clearly and freely without being hindered by the old standards that kept us not silent, but unheard.
Of course that drives the tools of the patriarchy mad! Mad I tell you! And just how mad is clearly seen in the cyberstalker and trolls. No, not all all men are cyberstalkers and trolls but nearly all cyberstalkers and trolls are men. It's the Catholic/Christian thing (All Catholics are Christians but not all Christians are Catholics).
Recently, the mad boyz of the Obama campaign have reported several Pro Clinton blogs as spam in an attempt to shut them up. Including our favorite Blue Lyon. It's not a coincidence that the bloggers they are trying to quiet are women. I mean, they aren't getting Pro McCain blogs locked up, now are they?
Why would it be more important to silence women than to silence men of opposing viewpoints is the question. Why are these mad boyz so desperately afraid of women speaking freely about their political opinions? I don't think it's just because they think our voices are too shrill or our laughs so cackling that we make their eardrums bleed just by speaking near them. I think they have more pragmatic reasons for trying to keep us quiet.
A little while back, Feministe reported on an awesome Latina teacher in LA who got fired for teaching her mostly minority students about their own histories instead of the regurgitated white bread crap that has been forced down most of our throats. We can't have that. OMG, POC finding out that their entire history is not one of mere oppression/subjugation! If they learn the histories of successful movements against the oppressors, they might get ideas! They might not be willing to accept the lives of poverty that we have planned for them. Shut that teacher up before she undoes centuries of patriarchal brain washing by letting students read about Malcolm X.
And the same principle applies to women. Shut those uppity bitches up before other women (and sympathetic men) catch on and ruin it for all of us. That's why the hopium smokers keep trolling Hillary blogs. Hillary reminded us that there is still a lot of fighting to be done. And she woke up a giant community of women who are tired of being quiet for the good of the party. Hillary may have suspender her campaign, but the spirit of possibility and the drive to create something better has been awakened in many of us. And for those of us who have never been quiet, we now have much larger audiences of willing and enthusiastic listeners. That is what the trolls fear most. That people will hear us and agree.
It is easy to attribute the abuses of privilege to evilness or ignorance. But like I've been saying for a long time, privilege is pragmatic. Rape exists and is allowed to flourish as a means of keeping women in fear. The motherhood ideal exists as a way to keep women doing necessary labor for no wages. And misogynist trollson feminist blogs
But it ain't gonna work this time.
Now we have the vote(to the lament of many) and after decades of trying to find a public voice and being shut out of traditional arenas (or given token membership if we are willing to disparage our own sex), women have found the internet, just like dudes did. And we use it speak clearly and freely without being hindered by the old standards that kept us not silent, but unheard.
Of course that drives the tools of the patriarchy mad! Mad I tell you! And just how mad is clearly seen in the cyberstalker and trolls. No, not all all men are cyberstalkers and trolls but nearly all cyberstalkers and trolls are men. It's the Catholic/Christian thing (All Catholics are Christians but not all Christians are Catholics).
Recently, the mad boyz of the Obama campaign have reported several Pro Clinton blogs as spam in an attempt to shut them up. Including our favorite Blue Lyon. It's not a coincidence that the bloggers they are trying to quiet are women. I mean, they aren't getting Pro McCain blogs locked up, now are they?
Why would it be more important to silence women than to silence men of opposing viewpoints is the question. Why are these mad boyz so desperately afraid of women speaking freely about their political opinions? I don't think it's just because they think our voices are too shrill or our laughs so cackling that we make their eardrums bleed just by speaking near them. I think they have more pragmatic reasons for trying to keep us quiet.
A little while back, Feministe reported on an awesome Latina teacher in LA who got fired for teaching her mostly minority students about their own histories instead of the regurgitated white bread crap that has been forced down most of our throats. We can't have that. OMG, POC finding out that their entire history is not one of mere oppression/subjugation! If they learn the histories of successful movements against the oppressors, they might get ideas! They might not be willing to accept the lives of poverty that we have planned for them. Shut that teacher up before she undoes centuries of patriarchal brain washing by letting students read about Malcolm X.
And the same principle applies to women. Shut those uppity bitches up before other women (and sympathetic men) catch on and ruin it for all of us. That's why the hopium smokers keep trolling Hillary blogs. Hillary reminded us that there is still a lot of fighting to be done. And she woke up a giant community of women who are tired of being quiet for the good of the party. Hillary may have suspender her campaign, but the spirit of possibility and the drive to create something better has been awakened in many of us. And for those of us who have never been quiet, we now have much larger audiences of willing and enthusiastic listeners. That is what the trolls fear most. That people will hear us and agree.
It is easy to attribute the abuses of privilege to evilness or ignorance. But like I've been saying for a long time, privilege is pragmatic. Rape exists and is allowed to flourish as a means of keeping women in fear. The motherhood ideal exists as a way to keep women doing necessary labor for no wages. And misogynist trolls
But it ain't gonna work this time.
I own my vote
It seems that the hard press is starting to come from the party now (and not just the stalker bots). Every morning when I wake up there is a slew of new emails in my inbox from people like John Kerry trying to get me to "Unite for change" (i/e give my money to Obama)
Uhm, no.
But rather than feel useless and mute in the face of the sleazy salesmen of the Democratic party, I pledge to keep fighting to bring reason and ration back to politics. So when Dr. Socks posted this pledge from I Own My Vote, I had to sign up.
And that my friends is the most basic truth of this election. Obama has not earned my vote, and intimidation tactics will not get me to vote for him. Extortion will not get me to vote for him. Abusive behavior will not get me to vote for him. Disenfranchisement will not get me to vote for him.
Uhm, no.
But rather than feel useless and mute in the face of the sleazy salesmen of the Democratic party, I pledge to keep fighting to bring reason and ration back to politics. So when Dr. Socks posted this pledge from I Own My Vote, I had to sign up.
I stand together with Hillary Clinton’s 18 million voters to demand that Senator Obama and the Democratic Party:I own my vote. It does not belong to any party. It does not belong to any candidate. It does not belong to any mob that would impose its will on me. Only I can decide how to use my vote, and I can decide based on any criteria I choose. Therefore I pledge not to give my vote to anyone who does not earn it.
- Bring us together by seating 100% of the Florida and Michigan delegations in Denver with 100% of their votes, allocated in accordance with the popular vote of each state.
- Bring us together by adopting policies on the Platform Committee that Hillary Clinton has championed.
- Bring us together through reform of the primary and caucus system to reflect the basic principle of one person/one vote.
- Bring us together through outspoken denunciation of all gender bias, racism and other forms of discrimination.
- Bring us together by fairly and respectfully including Hillary and her supporters at the Democratic National Convention in Denver by, among other things, placing her name in nomination for President, conducting a roll call vote, and providing her a prominent speaking role during prime time on August 26th, the 88th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
And that my friends is the most basic truth of this election. Obama has not earned my vote, and intimidation tactics will not get me to vote for him. Extortion will not get me to vote for him. Abusive behavior will not get me to vote for him. Disenfranchisement will not get me to vote for him.
Happy Birthday!
To My Darling Soopermouse:I can't be there in person to make you a real cake, so this will have to do. I am so happy that we have become friends. Because of you, I have spent mountains of hours watching holocaust documentaries just so I can keep up with you in our epic debates. You are also my best insight into the minds of Eastern European boys and heavy metal music, and weird YouTube videos.
Happy birthday. Maybe I'll find a way to be there in person for your next one.
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