photo
photo by Sheri Dixon
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Some People Just Set An Alarm Clock
So we're minding our own business, enjoying "Up With Chris Hayes" this morning and I cannot fail to notice that Chris isn't there. Also that in the background was some sort of cartoon character looking in the imaginary window behind the faux-host.
OK, maybe I had just woken up and was still a little fuzzy.
A lot fuzzy.
My POINT is that one of the guests was someone from the Tea Party Express. Unlike (Name any show on FOX. Any of 'em.) "Up With Chris Hayes" is a round table discussion with both or all sides of an issue involved and they actually, yanno, listen to the opposing side with respect and politeness.
Weird. I know.
Almost like it's an actual discussion of ideas and not just a big ol' circle-jerk "lets show those dummies who don't think like us a thing or two and then kick 'em off the air when they start making sense".
Anyhoo.
They had a spokesperson there from the Tea Party Express.
On MSNBC.
For realsies.
The topic was the fiscal cliff debacle.
Her assertion was that we need to address the deficit, and that we need to do it not by just discretionary spending cuts but that we need to also look at 'entitlements'.
And that one of the biggest most dangerous entitlements out there will be the implementation of 'Obamacare'.
Those on the TV round table were respectful and though they didn't agree with her, they didn't verbally smack her upside the head.
The woman in our bed, barely not even out from under the covers, was not so kind. Ward has gotten used to weekend morning tirades (muffled a bit by quilts and flannel sheets) issuing forth from my side of the bed before, "Good morning, Gomez...I need coffee".
"Yes. Lets look at entitlements- lets start with the tax breaks for the very wealthy, move onto huge sums of cash thrown at already-obscenely bloated corporations and banks and then lets look at the goddamn military budget and finish up by TAXING THE CHURCHES!!! DEFICIT SOLVED!!!"
*Commercial break*
Generally, the commercial break is when I have a chance to catch my breath, do a little more waking up and the dogs are able to unclench their paws from terror and settle back onto the pillows and into that nice warm spot in the bend of my legs.
Not today.
Some financial company's idea of an excellent marketing strategy was to show a man (sort of a hispanic-looking man, but we will overlook that for now) on his first day at a restaurant. As a bus boy.
It states that this man goes from his first paycheck (as a BUS BOY, remember) to a financial consultant and sets up a plan for his future.
It shows pretty cleverly, by changing his hats and clothing and background around him while he remains standing in one place his rise from bus boy, to waiter, to chef, to restaurant owner to retired comfortably well-off old guy.
On accounta his wise investment choices from all those years.
As if all anyone needs to do is follow point A to point B and so on and everything will work out OK.
And juxtaposed next to the Tea Party Express chick talking about "entitlements" just hit me all kinds of wrong.
Because here's what she's saying and what the commercial is saying and what I've been hearing from the conservative side for damn ever now-
"If you 'just' follow the right course and do the right things, you will succeed. This is America- if you do not succeed it's your own damn fault and you must be lazy and therefore do not deserve any help."
Except that's bullshit.
Does that reasoning take into account any of the million or so things that happen to a family over the course of a lifetime? Things like abuse, divorce, cancer, job loss through company closure, car accidents, ANYTHING LIKE THAT?
No. It does not.
Life is not simple or straightforward.
People who go through it with no bumps in the road are not blessed, or have not chosen any more wisely than anyone else. They've just been damn lucky.
Nothing more and nothing less.
It's a crap shoot.
And that's the reason a civil society SHOULD be set up to care for those who need it, instead of shaming them into disappearing off of the radar in despair and hopelessness.
Because in a world of odds, the odds are much greater of needing help someday than being what our sick, twisted society calls 'a winner'.
The dogs skittered back to the far reaches of the king sized bed again in reaction to the muffled cursing coming out from under the covers.
I threw back the quilt, kissed Ward on the head, said, "Good morning, Gomez...I need coffee" and headed first to pee, then to get my coffee cup.
Ahhh....another day begins.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Danger- Parts Not Securely Attached
I'm getting old.
I think I've mentioned that before, but I can't remember.
Because I'm getting old.
Yanno, I don't really mind most of it. Most of it is actually pretty cool.
I don't mind the wrinkles- they remind me of the smile lines around my grandmother's eyes.
I'm making peace with the fact that I'll never weigh 125 pounds again, and am shooting for130 135 140 and will call it good.
I ache and pain and move slower than I used to. It sort of sucks that I can't leap out of bed in a single bound and I'm not as...limber as I used to be.
I don't despair at the gray hair. My Youthful Hair wasn't any color to write home about.
But I'm pretty sure I've already discussed all this here.
Pretty sure.
Here's what I'm (almost) positive I haven't shared, but have been goaded into action by the bravery of a fellow blogger discussing some personal yet apparently universal shit on her own blog.
The one thing I cannot abide about getting old is the crap that gravity has done.
Here's why I'm gonna share this. Not because it's time for a TMI moment, although it'll clearly be TMI for most readers.
*No- I'm not posting a photo of my kidney stone...again.
Back about a decade ago, shit started falling out.
I'd never heard of such a thing.
They did some surgery that tucked back in and tacked up front and back innards and removed my uterus...since I wasn't using it anymore anyhow.
While they were in there they scraped out (most of) the endometriosis that had become bothersome, if the definition of 'bothersome' is "severe pain every month from the bleeding into the abdominal cavity" that was going on. I haven't looked it up, but I'm pretty sure that's what Webster says it is.
This all took about 6 hours and 2 doctors and the recovery was grueling as hell and long as winter. At my 6 week check up I was still in jammies and my entire abdomen was so bruised it was black. It was 3 years before I could wear blue jeans again.
Unfortunately, other than the uterus, all that shit is once again falling out.
I was told it was on accounta gravity.
I was told it was because I actually, yanno...DO STUFF like lifting and so forth.
The doctor asked if I was going to continue hauling 50# feed sacks and wrestling goats and I said, "Hell, yes."
He said, "Well, then I'm not going to re-do the surgery because you'll just ruin it again".
I told him that's not a problem because there's no FUCKING WAY I was letting him near me with a scalpel again no-how.
But here's what I wonder.
My great-grandmothers all worked their asses off. They all lived to be within sight of or went beyond having 100 candles on their birthday cakes.
And they all died with their parts still inside 'em.
More and more women I talk to of my age (and remember, my age was early 40's when this all happened) are complaining of having their parts falling out and needing surgery.
What the hell happened?
Are human beings made with cheaper parts than they used to be?
Here's the only thing I can think of.
Women of my generation grew up in the "Drink a shit-load of milk for good health, kids!" marketing of America's dairy industry.
The cows were being given hormones to increase milk production.
Any woman who has breastfed an infant and tried feeding a few hours after consuming broccoli, or onions, or Mexican food will assure you that everything ingested by the mother will be transferred via breastmilk to the baby. That's why they have that big warning sign in the ladies room in every restaurant that serves alcohol. Although by the time you need to pee, you've already consumed alcohol.
Cow's udders are big mammalian breasts and human children who consume that milk are drinking everything that cow has eaten or has been fed (or injected with). That's why if you're worming or medicating a dairy animal it says in big letters how long to withhold the milk for consumption, meaning, "Dump it out and don't let anything drink this because it's full of the shit you just medicated the cow with and that might be...bad for something else".
I think my generation of women have falling parts because our mothers (unknowingly) gave us whopping constant daily doses of hormones while we were growing up.
But I'm just a crazy old lady, what the hell do I know?
I think I've mentioned that before, but I can't remember.
Because I'm getting old.
Yanno, I don't really mind most of it. Most of it is actually pretty cool.
I don't mind the wrinkles- they remind me of the smile lines around my grandmother's eyes.
I'm making peace with the fact that I'll never weigh 125 pounds again, and am shooting for
I ache and pain and move slower than I used to. It sort of sucks that I can't leap out of bed in a single bound and I'm not as...limber as I used to be.
I don't despair at the gray hair. My Youthful Hair wasn't any color to write home about.
But I'm pretty sure I've already discussed all this here.
Pretty sure.
Here's what I'm (almost) positive I haven't shared, but have been goaded into action by the bravery of a fellow blogger discussing some personal yet apparently universal shit on her own blog.
The one thing I cannot abide about getting old is the crap that gravity has done.
Here's why I'm gonna share this. Not because it's time for a TMI moment, although it'll clearly be TMI for most readers.
*No- I'm not posting a photo of my kidney stone...again.
Back about a decade ago, shit started falling out.
I'd never heard of such a thing.
They did some surgery that tucked back in and tacked up front and back innards and removed my uterus...since I wasn't using it anymore anyhow.
While they were in there they scraped out (most of) the endometriosis that had become bothersome, if the definition of 'bothersome' is "severe pain every month from the bleeding into the abdominal cavity" that was going on. I haven't looked it up, but I'm pretty sure that's what Webster says it is.
This all took about 6 hours and 2 doctors and the recovery was grueling as hell and long as winter. At my 6 week check up I was still in jammies and my entire abdomen was so bruised it was black. It was 3 years before I could wear blue jeans again.
Unfortunately, other than the uterus, all that shit is once again falling out.
I was told it was on accounta gravity.
I was told it was because I actually, yanno...DO STUFF like lifting and so forth.
The doctor asked if I was going to continue hauling 50# feed sacks and wrestling goats and I said, "Hell, yes."
He said, "Well, then I'm not going to re-do the surgery because you'll just ruin it again".
I told him that's not a problem because there's no FUCKING WAY I was letting him near me with a scalpel again no-how.
But here's what I wonder.
My great-grandmothers all worked their asses off. They all lived to be within sight of or went beyond having 100 candles on their birthday cakes.
And they all died with their parts still inside 'em.
More and more women I talk to of my age (and remember, my age was early 40's when this all happened) are complaining of having their parts falling out and needing surgery.
What the hell happened?
Are human beings made with cheaper parts than they used to be?
Here's the only thing I can think of.
Women of my generation grew up in the "Drink a shit-load of milk for good health, kids!" marketing of America's dairy industry.
The cows were being given hormones to increase milk production.
Any woman who has breastfed an infant and tried feeding a few hours after consuming broccoli, or onions, or Mexican food will assure you that everything ingested by the mother will be transferred via breastmilk to the baby. That's why they have that big warning sign in the ladies room in every restaurant that serves alcohol. Although by the time you need to pee, you've already consumed alcohol.
Cow's udders are big mammalian breasts and human children who consume that milk are drinking everything that cow has eaten or has been fed (or injected with). That's why if you're worming or medicating a dairy animal it says in big letters how long to withhold the milk for consumption, meaning, "Dump it out and don't let anything drink this because it's full of the shit you just medicated the cow with and that might be...bad for something else".
I think my generation of women have falling parts because our mothers (unknowingly) gave us whopping constant daily doses of hormones while we were growing up.
But I'm just a crazy old lady, what the hell do I know?
Monday, December 24, 2012
Of Politics and Powdered Sugar
I love sugar cookies. Hate making 'em. Love eating 'em.
Lest you have visions of perfectly decorated wonders of baked confectionary, lemme put your mind at ease.
We don't have cookie cutters. I use a juice glass to cut out circles. No stars, no Santa's, no bells and no reindeer with ridiculous skinny antlers and legs that always burn before the body is baked.
They get baked, frosted and sprinkled.
My kids have always done the sprinkling.
On accountathey think it's fun and I don't wanna do it. it's a touching holiday tradition that everyone will always remember fondly.
So Alec's been sprinkling cookies since he was about 3.
From age 3 through about age 7, the sprinkles are tapped onto a plate and the cookies placed face-down in them for a second. Otherwise, all the sprinkles are gone after that first cookie.
Yesterday was my designated baking day. I started at 10:30am and finished up about midnight, with a few breaks to feed critters and ourselves interspersed.
I baked pumpkin cake bars, chocolate chip cookie bars, turtle bars...see a pattern here? I love smearing dough into a pan, sticking it in the oven and being DONE in one fell swoop.
About 8pm I could no longer put it off. The sugar cookies awaited.
Valiantly I decided to get out the star shaped cutter...just for fun. I cut out the stars, arranged them on the cookie sheet and popped 'em in the oven.
7 minutes later I took out...what resembled a herd of free-floating amoebas.
I tossed the cookie cutter into the sink and got out the juice glass.
I only burned one batch beyond recognition. I'm pretty sure that's a record for me.
They were all baked and cooled- about 7 dozen of 'em by 11pm.
Rationally, I would've waited till this morning to frost 'em. Realistically, my almost 13 year old son was awake and alert at 11pm. The same would not have been true this morning.
So we decorated.
I frosted and passed 'em to Alec.
I glanced over at him taking great care with the first cookie. Carefully, gently, precisely he placed ONE sugar sprinkle in the center of the cookie.
"Son? What the hell is that???"
"It's minimalist."
"PUT SOME DAMN SPRINKLES ON THE COOKIES!"
(Can you hear the carols in the background?)
A few dozen in, I noticed a cookie with red sprinkles on one side and blue on the other. *sigh*
"Son?"
"It's an ideological statement of the American political system...in cookie form".
This is the same kid who opened his Wednesday night frozen dinner because mom goes to watch a movie with Joe thusly-
"HEY! There used to be 2 enchiladas in these dinners! Now there's only 1! That goddamn Obama!"
He is definitely Ward's son.
Wishing all of you a Christmas filled with weird-ass moments that you can use against your offspring for years to come.
Because that's the Magic of Family.
Lest you have visions of perfectly decorated wonders of baked confectionary, lemme put your mind at ease.
We don't have cookie cutters. I use a juice glass to cut out circles. No stars, no Santa's, no bells and no reindeer with ridiculous skinny antlers and legs that always burn before the body is baked.
They get baked, frosted and sprinkled.
My kids have always done the sprinkling.
On accounta
So Alec's been sprinkling cookies since he was about 3.
From age 3 through about age 7, the sprinkles are tapped onto a plate and the cookies placed face-down in them for a second. Otherwise, all the sprinkles are gone after that first cookie.
Yesterday was my designated baking day. I started at 10:30am and finished up about midnight, with a few breaks to feed critters and ourselves interspersed.
I baked pumpkin cake bars, chocolate chip cookie bars, turtle bars...see a pattern here? I love smearing dough into a pan, sticking it in the oven and being DONE in one fell swoop.
About 8pm I could no longer put it off. The sugar cookies awaited.
Valiantly I decided to get out the star shaped cutter...just for fun. I cut out the stars, arranged them on the cookie sheet and popped 'em in the oven.
7 minutes later I took out...what resembled a herd of free-floating amoebas.
I tossed the cookie cutter into the sink and got out the juice glass.
I only burned one batch beyond recognition. I'm pretty sure that's a record for me.
They were all baked and cooled- about 7 dozen of 'em by 11pm.
Rationally, I would've waited till this morning to frost 'em. Realistically, my almost 13 year old son was awake and alert at 11pm. The same would not have been true this morning.
So we decorated.
I frosted and passed 'em to Alec.
I glanced over at him taking great care with the first cookie. Carefully, gently, precisely he placed ONE sugar sprinkle in the center of the cookie.
"Son? What the hell is that???"
"It's minimalist."
"PUT SOME DAMN SPRINKLES ON THE COOKIES!"
(Can you hear the carols in the background?)
A few dozen in, I noticed a cookie with red sprinkles on one side and blue on the other. *sigh*
"Son?"
"It's an ideological statement of the American political system...in cookie form".
This is the same kid who opened his Wednesday night frozen dinner because mom goes to watch a movie with Joe thusly-
"HEY! There used to be 2 enchiladas in these dinners! Now there's only 1! That goddamn Obama!"
He is definitely Ward's son.
Wishing all of you a Christmas filled with weird-ass moments that you can use against your offspring for years to come.
Because that's the Magic of Family.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Anti-Regulation Americans, My Fellow Americans
Yanno what would really be a big help to our country right now?
It would be a big help if every time the phrase "gun legislation" comes up you wouldn't start foaming at the mouth and screaming "NO ONE IS TAKING MY GUNS!"
Because honestly? Very, very few people want all yer damn guns- even in the wake of such a horrific tragedy.
I would consider it a tremendous favor if you could stop hollering "GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE- PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE!"
Especially when your leader gets up in front of god and everybody and says "Violent video games and movies killed those children". (I can't remember if that was before or after the douchebag-supremo comment about "You know who stops bad guys with guns? Good guys with guns" and offering the illegal as hell, vigilante services of his own private militia to protect our children. No thanks, asshole.)
It would be great if you didn't read or listen to someone who gives 'street cred' to their comments in favor of regulations of firearms- credentials like being members of the NRA, or being current or former active duty military, or being current or former law officers, or just having grown up hunting with their dads and granddads- things that show they DON'T hate guns...but since they utter ONE word in favor of tightening gun ownership regulations you scream, "HE'S NOT A 'GUN GUY'- HE'S A TOOL FOR THE LIBERAL AGENDA".
It would be awesome if you didn't insist that the MAIN REASON for the un-registered and un-traceable armaments you've got stored up secretly is so you- the Armed Citizens- can band together and overthrow a tyrannical government and its nefarious plans.
Really?
When ya'll gonna start???
When Wall St. tanks the economy?
When Monsanto poisons all of us??
When foreign companies take American land for a pipeline that won't do a damn thing for America???
Oh, wait- TOO FUCKING LATE on all counts!!!
And when American citizens- hundreds of thousands of 'em- mothers, fathers, veterans, children and grandparents, took to the streets to protest those very-real dangers to everyone's life, liberty and justice ya'll sat on yer guns and growled, "Damn dirty hippies- they need to take a shower and get a job".
Leaving me to deduce that the only tyranny MOST 'gun guys' are worried about is from SOMEONE THREATENING TO TAKE THEIR DAMN GUNS.
It pisses me (an American citizen, remember) way the hell off when I can't have a rational discussion about the 2nd Amendment and its INTERPRETATION- because the anti-regulation people will NOT listen to anything but how THEIR interpretation is correct and everyone else can get fucked.
On accounta it's sort of in MY constitution as well.
It REALLY pisses me off (still being an American citizen) when I'm told "IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE CONSTITUTION- GET THE HELL OUT OF AMERICA".
Because I do like the constitution just fine, thank you. And I happen to love America (again- MY country, too) and it angers me to see it turn into a dangerous third world shit-hole (you know- like you say the rest of the world is...but it's not).
And just like the bible is interpreted in many different ways, so is the US Constitution. By Americans.
Like me.
Who live in America and love it just as deeply and strongly as you do.
Because it's OUR FUCKING COUNTRY, TOO.
We live in a democracy. That means that
-NO, we will NOT use the holy bible as our book of law- that would be a THEOCRACY
and
-NO, we will NOT allow your perceived "Right" to own an un-registered weapon that's sole purpose is to kill a lot of people in a short amount of time to stand in the way of, I dunno- my right to NOT BE KILLED BY YOUR DAMN GUN or one just like it. Because thinking that THAT is freedom is not democracy, either. It's lunacy.
No other civilized country in the world has such lax regulations on firearms- none. And yet not a one of them has a fraction of the crime, the violence, the incarceration rate that we do. It's not because they're oppressed and their freedoms are stifled. It's because they don't have the same weapons fetish the NRA has foisted on the American gun culture since the mid '70's.
Before then, the NRA was PRO-regulation. It was a hunter support and training organization. You won't see a single mention of the 2nd Amendment in their monthly magazine till then.
Yes. 50 years. Not 200 years. That's how long Americans have screamed "2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS- TAKE MY GUNS OUT OF MY COLD DEAD HAND!" It's a marketing ploy.
Just like "In God We Trust" and "One Nation Under God" was added to our currency and Pledge in the '50's. During the Red Scare. Not 200 years ago.
And it's worked fabulously. We have a nation of apparently amnesia-ridden religious zealot, heavily armed gun fanatics. Hooray.
I refuse to get into a semantics pissing match about how "when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns" because see above about NO ONE WANTS ALL YOUR DAMN GUNS.
I'm sorry, really sorry that you feel like your personal arsenal will someday wing the USA to freedom, that somehow you've fought tooth and nail to preserve what you feel is a god-given right (funny, because god's not in the constitution, either).
IF the 2nd Amendment guarantees citizens to own the same weapons as the military (which it doesn't) then we all need drones and missile launchers and tanks. Because no way anything you got will be able to stand against the wimpiest thing the US military can toss your way.
Just ask (fill in the blank with the name of any nation we've bombed the shit out of for no good reason).
IF there's really a conspiracy to get the entire planet on a one-world order ticket to slavery and submission, whatever you got will not stop it. I suggest that you've been feeding that beast by buying up all those weapons and ammo since most of the gun manufacturers are owned by just one or two corporations.
They're LETTING you have them. They're encouraging you to buy them and pocketing your money. When it's no longer profitable for you to have them, they'll come and take them. With the flick of a switch, America can be without fuel, power, internet, water. How are you going to fight THAT?
IF there's really a conspiracy so that "every time gun legislation comes up there just 'happens' to be a mass shooting and isn't that strange?" I've got horrible and chilling news for you. Who profits most from such a tragedy? The liberals? The gun control lobby? Or whoever gets all the cash from the run on all guns and ammo when the call goes out to "GET IT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!"?
Stop feeding the beast.
Stop feeding the main beast who is not the NRA, not the government, not the CIA and not the goddamn liberal patchouli-smelling hippies.
The main beast is fear.
Fear breeds division, hatred, suspicion, insanity. We're there, in case you haven't noticed.
You are my fellow Americans. I am your fellow American.
This is OUR country.
Don't listen to the man behind the curtain who hisses, "ANY REGULATION IS THE BEGINNING OF THE SLIPPERY SLOPE INTO SLAVERY! LIVE FREE OR DIE!"
We're a democracy. Looks to me like a whole lot of us want to be at least as civilized as the rest of the world...and this is OUR country, too.
Really.
OUR side is not telling YOUR side to hand us all your guns. We're not. Listen to US and not FOX News, not World Net Daily, not the NRA and for gawd's sake not that ridiculous Alex Jones. That way madmen lie and madness lies.
Our original Pledge of Allegiance was a thing of beauty, and it's what I personally recite when people all around me at some event put their hands over their hearts and stare at the flag. It was written by a Baptist minister, who PURPOSELY left out any mention of god. It's simple, and powerful, and perfect
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
And To the republic
For which it stands
One nation
INDIVISIBLE
With liberty and justice for all.
We're divided, ya'll. It's only taken 60 years or so to crush this nation from within. God and Guns.
Those two clarion calls those on the Right hold so dear are flat NOT supposed to be what they are right now.
They were NOT what they are right now when the founding fathers penned the constitution.
We are living the collapse the founders feared.
And we're being told that it's from a lack of the very things that will be our destruction.
Put down the bible. Lay down the gun. Stand up for America.
It would be a big help if every time the phrase "gun legislation" comes up you wouldn't start foaming at the mouth and screaming "NO ONE IS TAKING MY GUNS!"
Because honestly? Very, very few people want all yer damn guns- even in the wake of such a horrific tragedy.
I would consider it a tremendous favor if you could stop hollering "GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE- PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE!"
Especially when your leader gets up in front of god and everybody and says "Violent video games and movies killed those children". (I can't remember if that was before or after the douchebag-supremo comment about "You know who stops bad guys with guns? Good guys with guns" and offering the illegal as hell, vigilante services of his own private militia to protect our children. No thanks, asshole.)
It would be great if you didn't read or listen to someone who gives 'street cred' to their comments in favor of regulations of firearms- credentials like being members of the NRA, or being current or former active duty military, or being current or former law officers, or just having grown up hunting with their dads and granddads- things that show they DON'T hate guns...but since they utter ONE word in favor of tightening gun ownership regulations you scream, "HE'S NOT A 'GUN GUY'- HE'S A TOOL FOR THE LIBERAL AGENDA".
It would be awesome if you didn't insist that the MAIN REASON for the un-registered and un-traceable armaments you've got stored up secretly is so you- the Armed Citizens- can band together and overthrow a tyrannical government and its nefarious plans.
Really?
When ya'll gonna start???
When Wall St. tanks the economy?
When Monsanto poisons all of us??
When foreign companies take American land for a pipeline that won't do a damn thing for America???
Oh, wait- TOO FUCKING LATE on all counts!!!
And when American citizens- hundreds of thousands of 'em- mothers, fathers, veterans, children and grandparents, took to the streets to protest those very-real dangers to everyone's life, liberty and justice ya'll sat on yer guns and growled, "Damn dirty hippies- they need to take a shower and get a job".
Leaving me to deduce that the only tyranny MOST 'gun guys' are worried about is from SOMEONE THREATENING TO TAKE THEIR DAMN GUNS.
It pisses me (an American citizen, remember) way the hell off when I can't have a rational discussion about the 2nd Amendment and its INTERPRETATION- because the anti-regulation people will NOT listen to anything but how THEIR interpretation is correct and everyone else can get fucked.
On accounta it's sort of in MY constitution as well.
It REALLY pisses me off (still being an American citizen) when I'm told "IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE CONSTITUTION- GET THE HELL OUT OF AMERICA".
Because I do like the constitution just fine, thank you. And I happen to love America (again- MY country, too) and it angers me to see it turn into a dangerous third world shit-hole (you know- like you say the rest of the world is...but it's not).
And just like the bible is interpreted in many different ways, so is the US Constitution. By Americans.
Like me.
Who live in America and love it just as deeply and strongly as you do.
Because it's OUR FUCKING COUNTRY, TOO.
We live in a democracy. That means that
-NO, we will NOT use the holy bible as our book of law- that would be a THEOCRACY
and
-NO, we will NOT allow your perceived "Right" to own an un-registered weapon that's sole purpose is to kill a lot of people in a short amount of time to stand in the way of, I dunno- my right to NOT BE KILLED BY YOUR DAMN GUN or one just like it. Because thinking that THAT is freedom is not democracy, either. It's lunacy.
No other civilized country in the world has such lax regulations on firearms- none. And yet not a one of them has a fraction of the crime, the violence, the incarceration rate that we do. It's not because they're oppressed and their freedoms are stifled. It's because they don't have the same weapons fetish the NRA has foisted on the American gun culture since the mid '70's.
Before then, the NRA was PRO-regulation. It was a hunter support and training organization. You won't see a single mention of the 2nd Amendment in their monthly magazine till then.
Yes. 50 years. Not 200 years. That's how long Americans have screamed "2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS- TAKE MY GUNS OUT OF MY COLD DEAD HAND!" It's a marketing ploy.
Just like "In God We Trust" and "One Nation Under God" was added to our currency and Pledge in the '50's. During the Red Scare. Not 200 years ago.
And it's worked fabulously. We have a nation of apparently amnesia-ridden religious zealot, heavily armed gun fanatics. Hooray.
I refuse to get into a semantics pissing match about how "when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns" because see above about NO ONE WANTS ALL YOUR DAMN GUNS.
I'm sorry, really sorry that you feel like your personal arsenal will someday wing the USA to freedom, that somehow you've fought tooth and nail to preserve what you feel is a god-given right (funny, because god's not in the constitution, either).
IF the 2nd Amendment guarantees citizens to own the same weapons as the military (which it doesn't) then we all need drones and missile launchers and tanks. Because no way anything you got will be able to stand against the wimpiest thing the US military can toss your way.
Just ask (fill in the blank with the name of any nation we've bombed the shit out of for no good reason).
IF there's really a conspiracy to get the entire planet on a one-world order ticket to slavery and submission, whatever you got will not stop it. I suggest that you've been feeding that beast by buying up all those weapons and ammo since most of the gun manufacturers are owned by just one or two corporations.
They're LETTING you have them. They're encouraging you to buy them and pocketing your money. When it's no longer profitable for you to have them, they'll come and take them. With the flick of a switch, America can be without fuel, power, internet, water. How are you going to fight THAT?
IF there's really a conspiracy so that "every time gun legislation comes up there just 'happens' to be a mass shooting and isn't that strange?" I've got horrible and chilling news for you. Who profits most from such a tragedy? The liberals? The gun control lobby? Or whoever gets all the cash from the run on all guns and ammo when the call goes out to "GET IT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!"?
Stop feeding the beast.
Stop feeding the main beast who is not the NRA, not the government, not the CIA and not the goddamn liberal patchouli-smelling hippies.
The main beast is fear.
Fear breeds division, hatred, suspicion, insanity. We're there, in case you haven't noticed.
You are my fellow Americans. I am your fellow American.
This is OUR country.
Don't listen to the man behind the curtain who hisses, "ANY REGULATION IS THE BEGINNING OF THE SLIPPERY SLOPE INTO SLAVERY! LIVE FREE OR DIE!"
We're a democracy. Looks to me like a whole lot of us want to be at least as civilized as the rest of the world...and this is OUR country, too.
Really.
OUR side is not telling YOUR side to hand us all your guns. We're not. Listen to US and not FOX News, not World Net Daily, not the NRA and for gawd's sake not that ridiculous Alex Jones. That way madmen lie and madness lies.
Our original Pledge of Allegiance was a thing of beauty, and it's what I personally recite when people all around me at some event put their hands over their hearts and stare at the flag. It was written by a Baptist minister, who PURPOSELY left out any mention of god. It's simple, and powerful, and perfect
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
And To the republic
For which it stands
One nation
INDIVISIBLE
With liberty and justice for all.
We're divided, ya'll. It's only taken 60 years or so to crush this nation from within. God and Guns.
Those two clarion calls those on the Right hold so dear are flat NOT supposed to be what they are right now.
They were NOT what they are right now when the founding fathers penned the constitution.
We are living the collapse the founders feared.
And we're being told that it's from a lack of the very things that will be our destruction.
Put down the bible. Lay down the gun. Stand up for America.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
...Till the End of Time
Which is tomorrow, if our Mayan friends are to be believed.
Of course, not really. The actual translation is "end of the age" meaning a NEW age is coming.
But lets just consider the alternative for a sec.
Because a lot of folks are actually preparing for the End of the World, be it financial collapse, terrorist attack, EMP, meteor, zombies...whatever.
All very serious stuff (except the zombies- that's just stoopid) and so the SERIOUS preppers tend to be really...serious.
Seriously.
They hoard the food and dig the shelters and plan for a really lackluster grueling existence after _________________________ happens. I guess their theory is at least they'll still be alive.
Here's what I think, and what I was thinking about over a glorious weekend in October.
We were at a 'homesteaders' reunion- some 15 or so of us from all over the country. A small group, to be sure. Cozy, if you will.
The surroundings were idyllic, the weather perfection.
Ah, but the company.
Every one of us knows how to grow stuff, how to cook stuff over a fire. Most of us know how to kill and prepare meat. We're all frugal as all get-out and generous to a fault. No knowledge is secret and the more who know how to do shit the better it is for everyone.
We're all more than passable campers not as a test of how tough we are, but because it's a way to be closer to Mother Nature.
Not a one of us is too good to pee in an outhouse.
Some do not own weapons, some own and use guns and some are adept at all sorts of scary shit...yet I trust the life of my family with each and every one of them.
We have several honeybee whisperers.
More than a few are really gifted vintners.
There was music being played on guitars, banjos and dulcimers, a belt-busting array of homemade from scratch food (not an MRE in sight), and absolutely never-ending laughter.
Not because of the wine, or because we're all blooming idiots who have no idea how horrifyingly dangerous the world is or how genuinely fucked up society is.
But because we know. We're not God's golden children. I'd wager that every single one of us has been kicked in the teeth by life more than a few times- some pretty severely.
We know that just the act of being alive isn't enough.
That it's not bravery to sequester yourself away from everyone and everything in some desperate attempt at security.
The truly brave don't push away because they might get hurt or worse.
The truly brave face the world and welcome it in.
They don't hide behind God, or fear, or prejudice.
This is OUR world, and we will not be afraid in it.
In my mind I hear the music, and the birds, feel the soft autumn breeze, smell the coffee and the breakfast being made, can see each truly beloved face on the long wooden porch, mentally add the rest of my family and every single homesteader we've met from Canada to Mexico and LA to DC (it's a REALLY big porch- for real) and I know-
These are the people I want to spend the end of the world with.
Of course, not really. The actual translation is "end of the age" meaning a NEW age is coming.
But lets just consider the alternative for a sec.
Because a lot of folks are actually preparing for the End of the World, be it financial collapse, terrorist attack, EMP, meteor, zombies...whatever.
All very serious stuff (except the zombies- that's just stoopid) and so the SERIOUS preppers tend to be really...serious.
Seriously.
They hoard the food and dig the shelters and plan for a really lackluster grueling existence after _________________________ happens. I guess their theory is at least they'll still be alive.
Here's what I think, and what I was thinking about over a glorious weekend in October.
We were at a 'homesteaders' reunion- some 15 or so of us from all over the country. A small group, to be sure. Cozy, if you will.
The surroundings were idyllic, the weather perfection.
Ah, but the company.
Every one of us knows how to grow stuff, how to cook stuff over a fire. Most of us know how to kill and prepare meat. We're all frugal as all get-out and generous to a fault. No knowledge is secret and the more who know how to do shit the better it is for everyone.
We're all more than passable campers not as a test of how tough we are, but because it's a way to be closer to Mother Nature.
Not a one of us is too good to pee in an outhouse.
Some do not own weapons, some own and use guns and some are adept at all sorts of scary shit...yet I trust the life of my family with each and every one of them.
We have several honeybee whisperers.
More than a few are really gifted vintners.
There was music being played on guitars, banjos and dulcimers, a belt-busting array of homemade from scratch food (not an MRE in sight), and absolutely never-ending laughter.
Not because of the wine, or because we're all blooming idiots who have no idea how horrifyingly dangerous the world is or how genuinely fucked up society is.
But because we know. We're not God's golden children. I'd wager that every single one of us has been kicked in the teeth by life more than a few times- some pretty severely.
We know that just the act of being alive isn't enough.
That it's not bravery to sequester yourself away from everyone and everything in some desperate attempt at security.
The truly brave don't push away because they might get hurt or worse.
The truly brave face the world and welcome it in.
They don't hide behind God, or fear, or prejudice.
This is OUR world, and we will not be afraid in it.
In my mind I hear the music, and the birds, feel the soft autumn breeze, smell the coffee and the breakfast being made, can see each truly beloved face on the long wooden porch, mentally add the rest of my family and every single homesteader we've met from Canada to Mexico and LA to DC (it's a REALLY big porch- for real) and I know-
These are the people I want to spend the end of the world with.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Dante's Inferno? A Day at the Damn Park
What will it take?
I can't get the sound of crying out of my ears- my own.
I can't get the shards of sanity to re-knit, my own and my country's.
I can't.
What will it take?
It's too soon to talk, too soon to decide, the edges of our reason are too sharp, too volatile.
It's too late to talk, too late to act, too hideously horrifyingly fucking late.
Why? The word, three little letters explode from my brain and pummel my consciousness over and over and over again.
Why not? A tiny cold and fatigued answer echoes in my head.
Why not?
Babies die every day, every where, every place deaths just as awful (as if the death of babies is ever not...awful).
We are a violent society, a sick society, we're acting out in very unnatural ways to a very unnatural life that we've embraced en masse, welcoming the cancer of our twisted visions of progress and rejoicing in the smothering of our spirits.
FIX IT! every fiber in my motherly being screams.
Fix it. Make it stop. Let me stop thinking about mothers who will never hold their children again, not just here and now but all those before and all who will come after. Let me stop thinking.
Let me never forget. The moments I stop thinking about it are followed by tidal waves of nauseous reminders, survivors' guilt, shame.
How? Another tiny word oozes like blood down my brow, gets in my eyes, burns and burns.
How did it happen? How did 'they' let it happen? Every person involved from the moment of that young man's birth-
How did our society fail him? How did we WE WE not see, not recognize how sick we are and how we contaminate everything and everyone with the sickness of us.
How did we fail his mother? How?
How?
How do we make sure it never happens again? Any where to any one. Ever.
Cold as ice the answer comes, hard as steel and sharp as glass...we can't.
Life is not pre-ordained or orderly. It's a messy, terrible, wonderful brilliant crap shoot. We are all tiny fragile specks whirling together alone on a microscopic rock plummeting through space.
So we can't.
But we CAN look at every aspect of this thing we call 'civilization' and figure out why the hell it's everything EXCEPT civil.
How the hell did we get here? What were we thinking? Why did we lose our humanity so eagerly, lemmings over a cliff we fall and fall.
It's a daunting and grueling proposition, and will mean everyone everywhere will have to be willing to listen more than talk, to give more than take, to offer much and demand nothing but...life.
Not "life as *I* want it" but "life with liberty and justice for ALL".
It involves so much more than placing a lethal yoke on all the teachers in the country, in the world, the same tools of death used to kill babies in an insane gesture of false safety.
More than collecting all the guns and destroying them- we are sick and the illness itself needs to be cured or we're just masking the symptoms.
More than re-evaluating everything from our unofficial but very real caste system, our stifling and violent religious dogmas, our brain-numbing technology, our family-destroying schedules in our quest to be 'successful people'.
More than the foods we eat and the air we breathe, the medicines we take to make us better when we're not ill, we're just human but our society no longer values that in a person.
We must, as an entire planet, STOP.
We must call in 'human' and not participate anymore in the madness.
Since Friday morning I've had chest pains. I go to bed early and rise late and rise exhausted and every muscle stiff and sore from not relaxing them even in fitful slumber.
I'm afraid.
I'm afraid that we can't do it.
I'm afraid of what would happen if we did do it.
Think of the societal breakdown, the people who would resist- cling to their old ways and ideals and beliefs, clutching their fiery totems ever closer as the flames engulfed them.
But we're already there- our culture gangrenous and rotting around us and we either do something NOW or die.
There are people (many people) who will say I'm overreacting. I'm upset. I'm over-wrought. This has been a trying few days, but...
What?
Exactly what will it take before We the People of the Planet Earth demand our humanity back?
Exactly how many children lying dead all over the world will it take?
We're soaked in their blood. All of us, soaked in their blood. And it burns.
More strength. Less force.
The time to be human is now.
I can't get the sound of crying out of my ears- my own.
I can't get the shards of sanity to re-knit, my own and my country's.
I can't.
What will it take?
It's too soon to talk, too soon to decide, the edges of our reason are too sharp, too volatile.
It's too late to talk, too late to act, too hideously horrifyingly fucking late.
Why? The word, three little letters explode from my brain and pummel my consciousness over and over and over again.
Why not? A tiny cold and fatigued answer echoes in my head.
Why not?
Babies die every day, every where, every place deaths just as awful (as if the death of babies is ever not...awful).
We are a violent society, a sick society, we're acting out in very unnatural ways to a very unnatural life that we've embraced en masse, welcoming the cancer of our twisted visions of progress and rejoicing in the smothering of our spirits.
FIX IT! every fiber in my motherly being screams.
Fix it. Make it stop. Let me stop thinking about mothers who will never hold their children again, not just here and now but all those before and all who will come after. Let me stop thinking.
Let me never forget. The moments I stop thinking about it are followed by tidal waves of nauseous reminders, survivors' guilt, shame.
How? Another tiny word oozes like blood down my brow, gets in my eyes, burns and burns.
How did it happen? How did 'they' let it happen? Every person involved from the moment of that young man's birth-
How did our society fail him? How did we WE WE not see, not recognize how sick we are and how we contaminate everything and everyone with the sickness of us.
How did we fail his mother? How?
How?
How do we make sure it never happens again? Any where to any one. Ever.
Cold as ice the answer comes, hard as steel and sharp as glass...we can't.
Life is not pre-ordained or orderly. It's a messy, terrible, wonderful brilliant crap shoot. We are all tiny fragile specks whirling together alone on a microscopic rock plummeting through space.
So we can't.
But we CAN look at every aspect of this thing we call 'civilization' and figure out why the hell it's everything EXCEPT civil.
How the hell did we get here? What were we thinking? Why did we lose our humanity so eagerly, lemmings over a cliff we fall and fall.
It's a daunting and grueling proposition, and will mean everyone everywhere will have to be willing to listen more than talk, to give more than take, to offer much and demand nothing but...life.
Not "life as *I* want it" but "life with liberty and justice for ALL".
It involves so much more than placing a lethal yoke on all the teachers in the country, in the world, the same tools of death used to kill babies in an insane gesture of false safety.
More than collecting all the guns and destroying them- we are sick and the illness itself needs to be cured or we're just masking the symptoms.
More than re-evaluating everything from our unofficial but very real caste system, our stifling and violent religious dogmas, our brain-numbing technology, our family-destroying schedules in our quest to be 'successful people'.
More than the foods we eat and the air we breathe, the medicines we take to make us better when we're not ill, we're just human but our society no longer values that in a person.
We must, as an entire planet, STOP.
We must call in 'human' and not participate anymore in the madness.
Since Friday morning I've had chest pains. I go to bed early and rise late and rise exhausted and every muscle stiff and sore from not relaxing them even in fitful slumber.
I'm afraid.
I'm afraid that we can't do it.
I'm afraid of what would happen if we did do it.
Think of the societal breakdown, the people who would resist- cling to their old ways and ideals and beliefs, clutching their fiery totems ever closer as the flames engulfed them.
But we're already there- our culture gangrenous and rotting around us and we either do something NOW or die.
There are people (many people) who will say I'm overreacting. I'm upset. I'm over-wrought. This has been a trying few days, but...
What?
Exactly what will it take before We the People of the Planet Earth demand our humanity back?
Exactly how many children lying dead all over the world will it take?
We're soaked in their blood. All of us, soaked in their blood. And it burns.
More strength. Less force.
The time to be human is now.
Friday, December 14, 2012
All I know
All I know is that we are sick
We're sick with fear
Sick with worry
Sick with fatigue
Sick to death.
Our children drugged
To make them manageable
Then schooled
To "just say no".
Our old people
Abandoned
Discarded
In "homes"
After being dragged
From their own.
Everyone fed
Food that's been poisoned
Mutated
Irradiated
For safety.
We're overweight
Undernourished
We're overworked
Underpaid
We're afraid
So afraid
Of each other.
We blame the weak
Defend the strong
And never think
We're all weak
Hate anyone different
But we're all different
To someone.
The answer is more family
Less peer pressure
More real food
Less fast food
More love
Less hate
More humanity
Less religion
More community
For everyone
Less segregation
For any reason
More nurturing
Less violence
Until we learn that
No amount of gasoline
Will extinguish a fire
We'll burn
And burn
You don't fight fire
With fire
More water
Less gasoline
Hold your loved ones tight
Tonight as their shield
And work for a tomorrow
Where shields are
Unnecessary
Obsolete
More strength
Less force
More strength
Less force
More strength
Less force
The cure for violence
Is not more weapons
More healing
Less sickness
I'm sick to death
With how sick we are
We're sick with fear
Sick with worry
Sick with fatigue
Sick to death.
Our children drugged
To make them manageable
Then schooled
To "just say no".
Our old people
Abandoned
Discarded
In "homes"
After being dragged
From their own.
Everyone fed
Food that's been poisoned
Mutated
Irradiated
For safety.
We're overweight
Undernourished
We're overworked
Underpaid
We're afraid
So afraid
Of each other.
We blame the weak
Defend the strong
And never think
We're all weak
Hate anyone different
But we're all different
To someone.
The answer is more family
Less peer pressure
More real food
Less fast food
More love
Less hate
More humanity
Less religion
More community
For everyone
Less segregation
For any reason
More nurturing
Less violence
Until we learn that
No amount of gasoline
Will extinguish a fire
We'll burn
And burn
You don't fight fire
With fire
More water
Less gasoline
Hold your loved ones tight
Tonight as their shield
And work for a tomorrow
Where shields are
Unnecessary
Obsolete
More strength
Less force
More strength
Less force
More strength
Less force
The cure for violence
Is not more weapons
More healing
Less sickness
I'm sick to death
With how sick we are
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