The First Wave and Eminent Domain

Last night, I got my protein in the form of delicious raw fish at a local sushi place. Today, there was cheese and sour cream with the baked potatoes at lunch, which was a little more protein than yesterday. But before all of that, last night, I caught the end of the Hillary Swank movie about Alice Paul. I had seen clips of that at The Henry Ford exhibit about American women's suffrage. That was the first I'd ever heard of the movie, and my friends and I joked about what it must have cost The Henry Ford to cast an Oscar winner in their video. We then saw a "visualization" of a slave riots with nothing but recorded voices, timed lighting, and cardboard cut-outs. Obviously, they blew the budget on Hillary Swank.

Since then, the image of her playing Alice Paul, tied to a chair, with a tube in her throat, stuck with me. I'm not sure I would have her strength, but thanks to her, I don't need it. Not here, in the United States, at least. See, she and other activists were arrested for pointing out, in front of the White House, the hypocrisy of not allowing women to vote. She then went on a hunger strike in prison. When meeting with the prison psychologist, she said that the hunger strike was an old tactic of Ireland. Someone would starve themselves in strike on the another person's doorstep and if that person did not acquiesce to the striker's needs, that would result in a stinking corpse on one's front doorstep. When she encouraged other activists in the prison to strike as well, she was force fed. A leaked tale of her treatment made it to the press and it made news everywhere. The same thing today would barely bat an eyelash, but back before there were a billion people on the planet, it added to the changing tides in America after WW1.

I'm not sure if the movie captured the elation of the moment when the last necessary state ratified the 19th amendment or if it was me. I remember looking at old LHS yearbooks from before 1920, with all of the very relatable 17 and 18 year old women, thinking about how they could not vote. I don't think I remembered that the voting age was 21 until only a generation ago, but the feeling, much like the imagery, stuck with me. The thought of not being able to vote strikes fear in my heart. I guess that would explain why my potentially deadly near-miss on Super Tuesday didn't really hit me until the Friday afterwards. I just knew I had to vote.

Since the age of 7 and the 1988 presidential election, voting has been important to me. I've so-far only missed odd-year elections, which really, I shouldn't shirk the way I do. I'm voting on Tuesday, mainly because of the two state-wide ballot initiatives to do with eminent domain. The last statewide initiative about eminent domain did not go the way I wanted it to go. Obviously, Californians do NOT understand the "personal property right" of "crapping in your yard and sculpting with it."

Sun Signs and the Second Wave

I have an interest in astrological knowledge because I am interested in how the events surrounding our early brains shaped our lives. As far as I know, astrology is the body of knowledge with the most information about this. My co-workers know this, so last year, one bought me a copy of Linda Goodman's Sun Signs. Linda Goodman was a famous astrologer in the med 20th century, and this book has descriptions of different signs, including how to spot someone of a sign and understand a man, woman, child, boss, and employee of that sign.

Interestingly, the book describes Cancer women as having large upper bodies - having a sweater size larger than skirt size. A child born in July was conceived in October, just after the harvest, when food was plentiful. But as the year wears on, carbohydrates run out, and a mother will begin to eat more and more meat during a large part of her pregnancy. In the northern and western hemispheres (quadrisphere?), we have a lot of animal protein. I think this is accurate, and this dietary influence, which was much much more pronounced before this century, might be the reason for my "linebacker in drag" physique. But the assessment also describes a cancer as one who is not very open about "himself", which is not me, not at all. Its also not my dad for that matter, who is also a Cancer. Its also hard to know how much overlap there is between what the book says about a certain sign and a description of typical human behavior. Unlike global warming, I think we could do double blind studies with astrological information.

The book is interesting, but also infuriating, as it was written in 1968. Even though written by a woman, the sexism of American society before the second wave of feminism shines through free and clear. Someone is only called "she" or "her" and possessions/traits hers if the person has been specifically identified as a woman. Generic characters are always he, him, and the traits his. Female employees are secretaries, men anything else, and I haven't read the boss section, but I doubt that the words she, and her even appear in that section. Even the women's section is rife with sexism. The section on the Virgo woman warns the reader that "unfortunately" Virgo women are rarely virginal.

Reading the book makes me grateful for the work and sacrifices of all of the women in the second wave that allow me to realize this in the first place. Because of those bra-burners, I am free. Free to make my own decisions, earn my own money, and be my own person. Free from pandering, free from harassment, and free to enjoy myself. I am proud to carry on their spirit now, in the third wave, because we know there is still work to be done.

In other news, I just read that Sagittarius, the sign of my little sister, is very very incompatible with both Cancer and Capricorn, which might explain why she seems so distant. I'm going to see if taking this viewpoint for my sister improves my relationship with her.

Heat the $#^ing Pool!

I don't quite know why, I will attempt to explain, but if it doesn't make sense at the end of this post, just realize that I don't really know why I love America's Next Top Model. I can't keep my eyes away, I see it on MTV, VH1, or whatever channel it was on before those two, and I have to watch. But at the same time, I hate it, it pisses me off, and I don't understand what their problem is.

It isn't about watching "skinny bitches" in awkward situations, because I tend to sympathize with all of the contestants. What I get infuriated about is the seemingly arbitrary judging and the dangerous working conditions. At least two contestants have been hospitalized for dehydration, and one was essentially kicked off the show for being too ill to work. She was compared to the other contestant that either wasn't as sick or wasn't facing as daunting a task as this one was. The working conditions are such that if the contestants really had a choice, they would turn down the job offer.

The best example of this in my mind is the pool photo shoot in Barcelona. The contestant Caridee, who is obviously much thinner than the other contestants, experiences hypothermia. The other contestants assume that she is "overreacting", because the water was cold. Caridee was told "you have a problem with cold" and to make sure she "doesn't waste the client's money" by letting them know this up front. Obviously, "the client" is too poor to provide a safe working condition. Frankly, I think ANTM does many shoots outside of the United States in order to skirt labor laws, and it pisses me off. Models are already held to extreme physical standards, to expect them to work while sick, in water so cold it causes hypothermia, is abuse. If that is how the modeling industry "is", then the industry has a serious problem.

Once Again, Nothing New

Oops!

Well, I'm getting more visitors, it seems, and hopefully more than just my parents. But to keep everyone coming back, and maybe, someday *gasp* leaving a comment, I must post. Post. Post. Post.

I have tons of drafts saved up, some that will never be public, some about race, some about TV, at least one very important MST3k post, one about life in California, and a few other random things. I wrote one after my trip to SFMOMA. I'd love to publish it, but its kind of crappy. It is supposed to be about how I have an eye for beauty, and then how being surrounded by beauty reminded me of someone I find rather special. I came up with what seemed like great lines, encompassing one of my newer theories. This theory is actually inspired by a line in an Ani DeFranco song about how men are like delicate flowers. A couple of readers should recognize that one.

I guess its more like a hypothesis? I am becoming cognizant about how I misuse the word theory. I want to help retain its scientific importance. The atheists sent out the peanut butter and bananas creationist videos the other day. My brain cells are hurting so much, even from about 20 seconds of the peanut butter one. Peanut butter jars can not create life from non-life, but some scientists in not America are on the verge of creating life from non-life. Science has some very good approximations about how life was created on earth and are testing them on a daily basis. Assuming some entity did it inhibits creativity, intelligence, and yes, an improved standard of living. Just because a creationist doesn't understand science doesn't mean that no one else can either.

Hmm, I promised not to make this blog bitchy, does this count?

Putting the Stimulus to Good Use

I thought the "Stimulus Package" was a dumb idea as soon as I heard of it. "Throw a bunch of money at low to middle class Americans, they'll go out and buy some crap and save the world" - yeah right....

I mean, even if I got the highest amount possible, it isn't enough to really affect my spending habits. I mean, sure, I could use it to offset the cost of my trip to Alaska, or my addictions to World Market and Whole Foods, but really, $600? My rent is more than twice that.

But I knew the money was coming my way anyway, so for months now, I've been trying to figure out what I could do with the money. I wasn't about to play their game of bribery with the American public, but I didn't want to let the money go to waste. That made both spending and saving the money out of the question. I thought about just not cashing the check, but that was throwing the money away. The best I could think of was donating it to charity.

The only problem with that is it feeds into the whole "private charities can do better work than government programs" which is only true when we underfund those government programs, like we do now. Then it hit me - give the money to one of the hundreds of underfunded government programs! Finally, and just in time too, the checks are arriving this week. I still think the stimulus package is a bunch of bullshit, but at least I'll know that those tax dollars were well spent.

Note: Bear in mind, that this is my situation. Most people that don't need the money won't be getting any anyway, I just make the cut. I just wanted to share my idea.

The Moth

It might as well have been Mothra. Sunday night around 10pm, I saw a big ol’ moth on the wall, near the ceiling, above my bed. It had to go – I wasn’t about to sleep with a moth that big just sitting there – but it was huge. Smacking it with the fly swatter would kill it, but it would also produce a giant moth corpse that would fall to my bed. This was also not acceptable. So I slept on my couch Sunday night, but not before opening my bedroom window shade to let in the most amount of light so the moth would move.

I realized that moths, big moths, are more like small animals than bugs. A bug can be smashed, wiped up in a tissue, but a moth will leave a corpse. It is like having a tiny bird in my room – I can’t kill it, yet I am too afraid of it to get that close to it. Around 5am, I saw that it had moved to the vent above the door into my bedroom. At that point, I could swat it with the fly swatter. It did fall, but on the ground, and I scooped it up with the swatter and put it in the garbage. I don't like big bugs, and though I did grow up out in the country, they were thankfully a rarity back home.

A Basic Science Primer

As an educated person, I should know all of the scientific data presented in this series of videos. The only critique is that we might not be using the best tone when we explain this stuff. I do not know what kind of tone we need to use, but we should be experimenting with different tones and strategies.

Why do people laugh at creationists?

The only people so stupid as to not understand the answer are the creationists themselves.

Their claims are just plain stupid. They wouldn't be able to make these claims if they knew anything about science or the scientific facts. Scientific speech is not the same as free speech.