Thank Goodness, People are Saying It

After swallowing 30 years of small-government rhetoric, our infrastructure, once the pride of the developed world, is falling apart around us. We're reaping what we've sown.

Strib Editorial: Public Anger Will Follow

Howie Klein: With Republicans in charge, you get the inability for a society to act effectively and efficiently in the case of unforseen tragedies like Katrina or you get bridges with structural problems not being attended to.

On Wednesday, when I went to work out, I saw a news report about a part of America that most people barely know exists. There was a shot of a damagaed roadway - part of a broken bridge in Minneapolis. I thought, "thats not so bad," then the camera backed up, and I saw an entire bridge - a large bridge - on the ground, in the river, broken, with cars and trucks scattered about, overturned, and on top of each other. My eyes widened and I needed to know what bridge it was. Was it that bridge I used to cross from Hudson to Minnesota on I94 all the time? They mentioned Minneapolis and the Mississippi River. It wasn't until I actually saw the map and "35W" on the screen before I was sure. I keep forgetting that the river at the border at that point is the St. Croix, not the Mississippi.

So it wasn't a bridge that I crossed a lot, or one that my mom and sister might cross, but I knew people in the cities and Minnesota that could have been there, and I got nervous. When I got home, I send out a few messages and made a few posts to blogs, LJ, MySpace, and FaceBook to make sure that the people I with whom I am still in touch, along with their relatives and friends, were ok.

I didn't turn on the TV. I didn't want the innane commentary and commercials for getting it up or behemouth vehicles in my head. I just looked at the Google News results, picking my sources critically. Minnesota sources, the BBC, and, of course, Alternet. At one point during the evening, I noticed that the number one and two most read stories on the BBC News site were both about the bridge collapse. I checked Alternet to see if anyone was making appropriate political commentary, because it certainly is warrented at this point.

Bridges should not just collapse like that, not in the industrialized world. That they do is a sign of serious transportation department neglect, and who controls transportation departments? We do, through our elected officials who decide the funding for such departments. Proper funding allows proper payment and resources for departments. Higher paying jobs attract better applicants and we should have the best engineers working on our ever important highway system.

This isn't brain surgery or rocket science.

The multiple inspections missed something, and while we're all busy destroying and then fucking up the rebuilding of Iraq, our own infrastructure crumbles.

Anyway, I saw a Huffington Post feed article about the event and went to check out the commentary. The long and short of the little I saw were people arguing with Republican "Concern Trolls" reacting to people making knee jerk political commentary with bullshit responses like "wait until they fish the bodies out of the water."

Ugh, give me a fucking break. I'm 2,000 miles away, I can't do a damn thing to help anyone at this point. And what happens when they do fish the bodies out? "People died, blah blah blah, I don't want to admit that my ideologies support policies that have failed in every test and implementation because they actually do work to line my pockets and I don't give a shit about anyone but my own family." One of the trolls had the screen name of country club republican, but with a different spelling and combined as one word. What idiot is actually proud of that kind of detachment from the way of life for ordinary Americans?

Needless to say, I wasn't happy with what I read. By Thursday evening, I hadn't seen a major article or blog post on Alternet yet about the elephant in the room. But on Friday evening, people started to say it. Even evidence started to appear that contradicted the popular line. The bridge was just barely over the line in the last inspections. And the fabulous Republican government that suburban Minnesotans elected in 2002 erred on the side of saving money instead of saving lives. Of course, there weren't that many lives lost. Conservatives are probably going to get needlessly religious on us too.

But on Friday came what this city's fire chief called a miraculous turn of events: the prospect that relatively few lives were lost.
- Source

If you read the article, you'll see that it wasn't a damn miracle. The fact that so many people experienced the collapse without injury was due to many factors, mainly the bridge design and the status of the river on that particular day. Minneapolis and most of the drivers were lucky, just as I was lucky that my brain injury wasn't serious enough to permanently disable me.

But there is no guarantee that next time, and if we keep on the status quo [and I have no faith that our do-nothing-but-spend-money-on-war-and-iPhone society will do a damn thing] there will be a next time, we will be so lucky. We care more about Iraq's infrastructure than our own. How many more bridges need to collapse or aging pipes need to explode in America before we start to see some major capitol projects from the government in our own damn country? Maybe all the people that lose their jobs when we abolish the biggest and most bloated, un-healthy Health Insurance companies can get jobs in the improvement of our infrastructure.

Remember how The Jungle, one book, incited our nation, even our president to improve the quality of our national food supply? Now even flooded cities and kids dying from toothaches can't inspire change. How many more disasters and tragedies before we elect and pay taxes to a government that works?

Great

Increase in aid to Israel

We can give billions to Israel, but we can't afford to give health care to kids, or anyone, for that matter.

Washington is reportedly preparing a package of major arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states because of concerns over Iran's nuclear programme.

Saudi Arabia, I heard a third of the insurgents in Iraq are from there, and come to think of it, weren't most of the 9/11 hijackers from there?

Here come the progressive politics

This blog post about one of the biggest roadblocks to Israeli-Palestinian peace, from AlterNet's blog feeds, was very, very interesting.

Ha ha ha ha ha. They come RIGHT OUT AND SAY IT! We can do it, but we don't want anyone doing it to us. Wow.

How Macho are You Now?

Long ago, doctors used to not treat prostate cancer right away because it was a slow growing cancer. In this environment, my grandpa got prostate cancer. But later, in about 1987, they reexamined the cancer and found that it had spread. It spread to his testicles. The doctors had to remove his prostate and his testicles. He lived for 12 more years after that, if you can call that living. I only learned this last November, when my dad told me, because he just learned. He had also just been diagnosed with prostate cancer and had his prostate removed in January. He talks about it all the time, and I'm really glad.

According to the BBC, men don't want to get checked for prostate cancer because they are worried that it isn't "macho." Just a bit of how our idiotic gender norms harm everyone.

In a related story, we are first led to believe that having daughters leads to prostate cancer, then told that the results are inconclusive, but not until the end of the story. The media just can't seem to help itself when it comes to the birth of girls and negative consequences. Then again, maybe I'm just sensitive. I wouldn't be if so many places in the world didn't see the birth of a girl as a disappointment.

Goodness, it has been a while

It has been 8 whole days since my last post - far too long. I have been in a bit of an emotional slump, and Rock is busy preparing for the bar. But as I feel someone alienated from my [now] old political forum. I would like to extend the scope of this blog to progressive politics in general, but still with a decidely feminist bent.

Speaking of feminism, I heard a sound bite on NPR this morning, that "dog fighting is no worse than legal abortion"

I assume that it is something about Michael Vick's dog fighting thing. First of all, what I think is more reprehensible than dog fighting were the cruel punishments of dogs that lost. One of which was to wet down a dog (which was needlessly identified as female, did that really need to be pointed out?) and electrocute it. Cruel, horrible, and UTTERLY POINTLESS.

As for if it is no better or worse than abortion. The human body rejects certain fetuses, biologically. It can be traumatizing, not to mention frustrating, especially for those having trouble concieving in the first place. Call me cold and cruel all you want, but we need to remember that mistakes happen. MISTAKES HAPPEN, even in biology.

So how does this relate to abortion? Well, miscarriages are, basically, abortions by one's own body, and for very good reasons - maybe your body isn't ready for a baby yet, maybe it never will be, maybe it has passed that time [my mother had a miscarriage in her 40s]. Maybe the baby hasn't been formed right. For whatever reason, the body aborted the baby. Abortions are what happens when the unconcious human processes can't detect any problems, but the concious human process can. Maybe a woman is not financially stable to even reliably support herself, maybe she is not at a point in her life when she could give the best care to herself for 9 months of pregnancy. Why is this such a problem? Well, duh, women are the ones best able to know when the pregnancy isn't right, and men get uptight when women have control over anything. Well, not "men" (though traditionally, that has been the case), just sexists.

In the Namib Dessert, one of the most arrid deserts in the world, a culture of people evolved that could only support a certain number of dependents. If a woman got pregnant and gave birth to a kid it couldn't support, after birth, the mother would quickly and quietly kill the newborn infant. This was a normal and accepted practice. I'm not sure if the practice still happens, but as with much in Africa, it probably still does.

So many like to paint the decision to have an abortion as frivolous, but, damn, it couldn't be further from the truth. Just another smear tactic from sexists who are afraid when women make decisions on their own.

So is legal abortion like dog fighting? Is legal abortion like an activity to starve and abuse animals so as to make them angry? Is the decision to not bring a baby into the world that one cannot or will not support adequately (even during pregnancy) the same as getting enjoyment out of dogs brutally killing each other? The answer should be apparent.

Queen Hatshepsut

Mummy Reveals Egyptian Queen Was Fat, Balding and Bearded

My favorite quote from this article was

"More startling, the descriptions of Hatshepsut suggest that women haven't changed all that much over the centuries."

It makes me wonder if women haven't been struggling against misogyny all this time, and only now have the free time to be effective? A friend just told me that Ancient Egyptian women may have been better off than many women of the past.

Egyptian women owned property, were equal to men under the law (could file divorce, sue, appear in court. etc.), could become literate and professional (there were female doctors and office workers), seem to have been sexually empowered, and had the right to rule (right of rule was matriarchal, but the queen usually transferred power to her husband--a Hatshepsut and other ruling queens refused to transfer power or refused to marry).

And that is why the fight for women's rights will never end - women had rights then, but we lost it.

But this article is more about the Queen's physical features. You'd have to be an idiot or complete misogynist to actually be surprised that human women have not changed in such a short span of time. But if you can't make women feel bad that they aren't as great as they used to be, and you reveal that obesity and hair loss are normal, then suddenly, women might stop starving themselves. No one wants that.

Wikipedia's article on Malnutrition has this to say:

An array of afflictions ranging from stunted growth, reduced intelligence and various cognitive abilities, reduced sociability, reduced leadership and assertiveness, reduced activity and energy, reduced muscle growth and strength, and poorer health overall are directly implicated to nutrient deficiencies.

Women are accused of not being good leaders, they are traditionally shorter and have less muscle mass than men. They did not participate in sports, and our capacity for rational thought is put into question all the time.

Women and men may not be that different physically after all. I read, in my second Women's Studies class, that our society has systematically malnourished women (and here, when I say society, I mean world society) - first due to lack of resources, and now as a way to keep women buth "fuckable" (want to be a size 0?) and suffering the effects of hunger.

Note the attempts to erase this woman from the history.

Who is emotional now

This video clearly demonstrates that the Republican party has been playing on emotions since at least 1984. Oddly enough, this is the party aligned with the ideas of conservatives and anti-feminists - aka sexists. As I read on pandagon, sexists do not believe that women make rational decisions. Well, I knew this tenant of sexism before reading that, but the line really hit me, probably because of the story I'm about to tell.

Back during second wave feminism, consciousness raising groups came together and realized that the anecdotes of ordinary women came together to form real evidence of oppression. So in that spirit, I will offer some anecdotes of my own.

Recently, I had a guy working for me that I found interesting, and we seemed to get along. But oddly - to me - he never seemed to want to communicate with me outside of work. About a month and a half ago, I learned from his co-worker (my other employee), R, that he is a cookie-cutter sexist, except he claims to be liberal. His parents married in the late 1950's and his mother never had an outside job, save a waitressing gig at 16. She also never had a driver's license and raised two boys. One of whom is the 27 year old I employed who has never had a job that paid more than $13 an hour [in Northern California, no less], and has been working on a 2 year degree for the past 7 years. Oh, and he lives at home too. From what I've heard, I seriously I doubt that he has any appreciation for the isolation his mother has endured her whole life out here in the California suburbs.

Apparently, the type of woman he prefers is just like his mother - a woman who wants to devote her whole life to the service of men. One that will take care of him so he doesn't have to take care of himself. Last week, R told me a story he learned about one of this guy's ex's. After they broke up, she began to date his friend. He was very angry with his friend, but not with his ex. When R asked him why he wasn't rightfully mad at his ex, he explained that "women are too emotional" and he couldn't blame her. It is really too bad that nobody stood up to him and told him the truth. She probably realized that he was an asshole and a loser, then dumped his ass to date a more interesting guy - one that might have even thought of her as a person, his friend. His friend is the one that can't be blamed - if anyone can't be blamed for a situation like that. The long and short of it is that this guy doesn't think that women are full people. He even argues that lesbians aren't really attracted to women, they just couldn't get a man. IRONICALLY - R once told me, in an email conversation, about the sexist employee, that "It is difficult working with someone who is so emotional."

So now, my assignment supervising people has come to an end, and I'm free to pursue my former subordinates as friends. As a newcomer to this state, and a 20-something myself, I was eager for this moment, and before discovering the vile reality of my employee, I was hoping to really get to know him. In a good twist of events, I managed to actually befriend R. He, unlike the first guy, has an effective career plan and a healthy understanding of women. So I realized, in the end, why the other guy never wanted to talk to me outside of work - I don't have a y-chromosome, rendering me - to his tiny brain - not human. Furthermore, I have no desire to become a subservient housefrau. If he was to actually date me, he would need to grow up and begin taking care of himself. PATHETIC

So there is "women stereotyped as too emotional to make rational decisions", now my anecdote about "rational women stereotyped as heartless bitches"

Oddly enough, when I dumped my own boyfriend just last month, I realized how men developed the stereotype of women as heartless bitches. I made a very rational decision. I didn't do it as well as I could have, admittedly, but I had never done anything so mean before in my life. It was difficult for me to take the rational action I needed to take, especially in the face of my ex's reaction, but in the end, I buckled down and did it.

My mother then told me of an instance when, as a teenager, she kept dating a guy she didn't like just so she could have a date to the Christmas dance. After the dance, she told him that she never wanted to see him again. Her reaction, even 40 years later, was "someone once told me that was a very cruel thing to do." Of course it was cruel, but my mom only told me that she "didn't like" the guy. He could have been a complete asshole, or a total loser and my mom could have just been too busy to bother finding a better guy for just one dance.

But my point is that both of these guys probably think of us as bitches for our rational decisions. My own ex didn't understand what he had done wrong, when the reality was that I realized that we weren't a good match after all. I can't accuse my ex of being a traditional sexist, he wasn't. For the most part, he just didn't want to have political conversations, which included sexism and feminism, even though we completely agreed on nearly everything.

For traditional sexists, women are either blameless animals, driven by emotion, or cold, heartless bitches, completely devoid of emotion. That dichotomy is a lot easier than accepting us as adult human beings, who strive to use our rational and emotional minds to make the best decisions possible.

Then again, rejecting women's humanity is an easy way to reject one's own responsibility and remain a child. My former employee obviously had no handle over his emotions. A traditional sexist begins his life watching his father exploit his mother's labor, and is encouraged to do much the same. After all, he is the posessor of the magical penis, and women "don't have the mind" for anything else. I use quotes because my former employee actually once claimed that women "don't have the mind" for music simply because the wife of a friend of his wasn't as into tooling around in their basement with guitars as they were.

That has to be the most disgusting thing about this whole pile of bullshit. That the people refusing to be responsible think they are "better" than the women with whom they live. Not only that, but their deluded minds make them think that they are better than ALL women, even with their unfinished humanities degree and that 980 on the SAT. Heaven forbid a sexist is actually good at something, then it just gets worse.

But back to the video at the head of this post. I found it very ironic that the party of most sexists - certainly the party of the most vehement anti-feminists - has been manipulating people's emotions for more than 20 years now. Meanwhile, the party of the feminists is the party of rational explanations. Even reading feminist reactions to the gutless sexist comments on a few blogs has shown me that sexists do nothing more than spit out unfounded rhetoric* and feminists respond, attacking every paragraph with logic and evidence.

I'd participate, really, I would, but like my father, I get too passionate about things and I don't have the patience to engage in online arguments with sexists/idiots.

*On Alternet, one actually insinuated that feminists don't realize that men work because they have to - like women just sit on their asses all day too. Thank goodness I grew up in a matriarchal family where the head of the family was a woman who taught us all that hard work was essential to a good life. In the early 1990's, when my uncle was shirking his responsibility to milk the cows, she would trudge up that icy driveway to the barn - even with her osteoporosis and arthritis - to milk the cows herself. Furthermore, we live in a system that has been built around the unpaid labor of women as a given. But I digress - I don't have time to get all the sources for you, so do it yourself. Start with Alternet.org

That wrestler that died

Last night, I decided to check out the LJ Pics generator and saw a few RIPs to a wrestler - Chris Ben-something or other. I figured he'd had a heart attack or something. But today, I learned that he had some kind of emotional issues, and actually killed his wife and kid and then took himself out. Why don't these men just kill themselves first? Why do they need to take their adult female partners out with them?

I'll tell you why - its because for thousands of years, society has taught men that their wives are their property, and not full, independent human beings. Yes, I think this guy was mentally disturbed, but his wife wasn't [necessarily]. But now she is dead because of HIS mental illness. He could have just killed himself, but because he assumed that his wife was a part of him, he had to kill her too. Of course, the other possibility is that he was abusive in the first place, and killed her accidentally, then saw what he did and killed himself to avoid accountability (granted, he's dead, the ultimate accountability).

On an individual level, all domestic violence is a mental health issue, but when combined with a patriarchal society that teaches men that they hold dominion over the female adults with whom they live, it becomes about sexism.

From the BBC: Argentine Prostitutes Fight Back

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6234620.stm

Prostitutes in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, have launched a campaign to raise awareness about the difficult circumstances in which they work.

On the ground by the main statue they have daubed the words "No woman is born a prostitute".

It is the title of a book published by two women, Sonia Sanchez and Maria Galindo, which looks at Argentine society and the role prostitution plays within it.

"We're taking control of the streets," said Maria.

"It's a small but important step."

Sonia said: "We're saying enough is enough. Prostitution isn't a job. It's sexual exploitation and it's big business."

Other slogans daubed, then painted over, around the square read: "The pimps rule here" and "Here they exploit the bodies of girls, and the police do nothing".