Help for Haiti/Links of Interest

Here are a couple of links to charities active in helping out the Haitians:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34835478/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-help-and-info-open-thread.html

Have you heard the ridiculous victim-blaming Pat Robertson has assigned to the Haitians, specifically their "pact with the devil"? Here's a post from Shakesville regarding the lukewarm non-apology the 700 Club offered:

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-dare-you-question-me.html

I appreciate the note about disablist comments Paul the Spud includes. Although there are elements of self-delusion involved with Robertson's comments that are completely divorced from reality, it's not fair to write these off due to him being a "nutjob." Obviously, any person so caught up in their own privilege is capable of making such ludicrous claims like the victims being at fault for their own disasters. Oh, that reminds me of another link that details some of the reasons Haiti has been so disaster prone in recent history (and it ain't no curse):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_disasters

Sidenote: My xian auntie, whom I have blogged about before, was on a mission in Haiti and escaped just in the nick of time before the earthquake struck. I've been paying close attention to her FB page, somewhat salivating at the opportunity to mock her and her God if she mentions how much God was "looking out for her" since she escaped the disaster unscathed. This is wrong, I know! I am happy that she is okay, but I'd be even happier if this shook some of the foundations those missionaries believe in, as in, there is no robed figure looking out for us--we have to look out for ourselves. Yet, she calls for prayers and posts links to the missionary that "needs to do some more work" in the region. I just want to know why a just God would look out for the white missionary woman and not all those brown people...I'm really hoping she and some of my other religiously zealous family is not considering this "curse" as real.

Oh, ennui

Often, when I'm bored and not feeling motivated enough to spend some time reading something more enlightening, I'll click on different groups on Facebook and consequently different members of those groups, mainly out of curiosity to see what people allow as public information. So I clicked on an anti-Obama group, and on its wall were ridiculous postings of how Obama's liberal agenda is going to detract from the "average American's" (read: male and white) liberties as granted by Constitution. Hehe. Here is a screen shot of one of the more vocal members of the group's political and religious beliefs:



I find myself hoping, during various dealings with strangers, friends, and acquaintances, that what they are saying is a psychological test to see what kind of person *I* am. So, naturally, I'm hoping this is a clever troll's work. My mind does not want to concede to the fact that I'm closer in proximity to these types of people at all times while we languish in Kansas...not that there aren't fanatics everywhere, but we've got a nice little concentration I'd rather do without. So was this guy thinking these are admirable stances to take? I'm so confused.

Screw the Times

As Noam Chomsky has said, the New York Times does indeed produce all the news it deems as "fit to print," which conveniently fits into other agendas as well. (Even with its supposed "left bias" (I'm fairly certain I've only heard that from those who gravitate toward the right).) At one time I put a little more stock into it, even after having read and watched Chomsky's arguments against this tool that is advantageous for those interested in maintaining the status quo. I've been trying to ignore it completely, but will read a few articles here and there when I see them bookmarked on my network on Delicious. What's evident now more than ever is how much one has to slog through in order to get to the main points. In two of the different articles I just attempted reading, the whole of the paragraphs outlining the main points don't contain any actual information. No supporting arguments (or presentation of conflicting arguments for rebuttal), just cliched idioms begging you to finish the article. And the main point? Eh, sorta banal--a news product more than actual news. So yeah, nothing much different than any other "major" news source.

Edit: Despite the Times's overall quality of journalism, I really appreciate Bob Herbert's contributions. There are a couple of other good'uns in the mix too, but his pieces are ones I always look out for.

!*&(^)@(*#&@!

Will the Tiger Woods thing ever die? Maybe I should know a little more about it; I'm not sure what all happened to his wife. There's always something to reflect on when these kind of stories hit the headlines, as far as how they represent gender roles in society. But really, you're 30 and think it's funny to join the "I didn't sleep with Tiger Woods" group on Facebook? Give me a break.

And the weather!!!!!!!! OMG it's fucking cold and there's snow on the ground agggghhh

Lenin over at Lenin's Tomb made me chuckle with their satirization of the dreadful weather apocalypse...that oddly enough strikes every fucking year, people, sheesh.

In other news, one of my doggies is missing. I scoured the roads for a few hours this morning, and I'm now trying to decide whether it's worth it to go back out. He stays outside, and takes shelter in a barn across the road and our garage/shack type thing. He's been gone for a couple of days before, but he now has a buddy that tags along with him (White Dog) and he is here, without our baby Leo. So I am a little on edge. A couple of good signs, though: I stepped on fresh dog shit in the yard that only a dog his size would be capable of creating, and there is a freshly-dead killed (as in hunted down) mouse out front too (he's a mouser). Looking and waiting for now.

Also, got some ideas churning...it's the closest I've come to sitting down and writing anything fictional since March of last year, when I had a little break with reality. One would think that type of slip would lend to some creativity, but alas. With saying that, I am reminded of those peeps out there (out where? in cyberspace mostly, I s'pose) who consider their bipolar disorder as a "gift." Ah ha. Now that's crazy.

Edit: I'm sure race was also a factor in calling out Tiger Woods on his infidelity. What would happen if a white big-shot athlete got caught? I'm guessing it would just be any other ol' day of the week.

My top tracks in 2009

Thought I would just add on to my music video theme I started today. Here are the videos for some of my top tracks per my last.fm account (it's kind of a mish-mash of them; I went through all the top tracks I had and picked out my favorite out of ten to twenty). I listen to a lot of vinyl, so I don't have those factored in. Maybe determining my record-listenage for 2009 is a decent idea for another blog, hmm.

Anywho, from least listened to most, here they are. Some of them are pretty much just the music with a background, some are live, and some are scripted videos. Enjoy...you know, if we have similar music tastes and stuff.

10. Muslimgauze - Hab Al-Zeitoun



9. John Coltrane - Locomotion



8. Television - Prove It



7. Ra Ra Riot - Too Too Too Fast



6. Ben Harper - Black Rain



5. Pixies - I Bleed



4. Zero 7 - Waiting to Die



3. Talking Heads - Life During Wartime



2. Josef K - Sorry for Laughing



1. Essential Logic - Fanfare in the Garden

Apropos of Nothing Unusual

This ring!

Just last night I was chatting with an e-friend and I mentioned how my brain's development wasn't too much of a worry for my parents while I was growing up; more focus was placed on my appearance...which it is for many young girls, but more so for the girls of parents who were scared of doing their own thinking and had most of it done for them, straight out of the pulpit. But that is another post. As a sidenote, I also have a brother and he was never urged to anything brainy as far as I can recall--he was tall and athletically inclined, so naturally, they encouraged his sportsmanship. It didn't work out. Anyway.

So my brain is not usually far from pondering traditional gender roles and their impact on us ladies as we make it in this world, but I really hadn't given much thought to how my parents really fostered these outdated ideals. Granted, I don't think it was done intentionally and they meant to rob so much of my life of more meaningful development as a human and I'm not really bitter. However, I'm sick of ignorance being an excuse for everything from harmful gender stereotyping to racism. It's a reason, but I don't think it's an excuse and people don't get a free pass because of their ignorance as far as I'm concerned. But I digress.

Over the holiday season, I was forced to realize how much these stereotypical roles are expected of me still from my parents. I thought that my parents were both comfortable with the fact that C and I do not plan on having any children. They have three as it is (so get off my back!) with a couple of step-grandchildren thrown in for good measure. My mom refers to our dogs as her granddogs, so I assumed all was well.

I tend to keep my parents at arm's length, so we had not seen them since July and my 30th birthday passed during that time. So my mother had a birthday gift waiting for me. I opened it once we visited, and I was a little crestfallen to see that she had given me yet another porcelain trinket box with an inscription on it lauding our mother/daughter "friendship." I have a problem with this term, first of all. Do you really want to be friends with your daughter? I'm not saying the parent/offspring relationship should be strictly authoritative (or authoritarian), but friendship is something I'm not comfortable with assigning to this relationship. Alas, I did not break it to my mother that I don't consider her my friend because that would just make me a huge ass, wouldn't it? But I don't confide in her, I don't share things with her that I do with my friends, and I don't know that she would really want me to. If I did, I think she would be sorely disappointed in the person she raised and part of it is largely because of my rejection of the roles she wants me to take on (I'm getting there...).

Inside the trinket box is a jewelry box, and inside of that is the ring my father gave her when she found out she was pregnant with me. It took them 14 years to conceive successfully (there were a few miscarriages), and mom sometimes likes to refer to me as her "miracle baby." Sigh. No miracle there, just stubborn determination on their part. It's a pretty ring; the outer jewels, rubies, are arranged in a floral pattern around a small central diamond. I admired it when I was a child. But I had no feelings of envy or that I eventually wanted to wear it myself. It is also in their will that I should receive this, but no, I get it now so that I can "eventually give it to my daughter as a gift when she is long gone."

Good grief. Talk about guilt, and I always go along for the ride when she forces these trips on me. I will finish this post at a later date, because I'm late for a date right now!

Edit: What bothers me most is that my mother completely ignored anything I have said to her about my decision not to have kids. She, like some friends I have, is probably under the assumption that I just might change my mind, me being an indecisive, scatterbrained woman and all. FFS, I'm 30, and I don't consider myself to have it all figured out or even a good portion of it, but I've been fairly rooted in my decision since I was 26. First, I would feel irresponsible bringing yet another child into this world that would aid in our over-consumption. If I really feel the urge to care for another human, I will adopt. Second, there is no way I'm putting myself into the "mommy" culture. All those expectations and playdates and people who would try to get my kid to follow a religion--no, no, no. However, I don't blame my mother fully for ignoring my interests; I blame the patriarchy that has imbued my mother with its expectations of woman existing to please Man and procreate as the most fulfilling function of womanhood. I'm not shooting down anyone's choice to have children, it just ain't for me, and I wish people were more accepting--especially my own family!