TiG Rants

CAUTION: GRAPHIC CONTENT - I could not even finish reading this.

http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,2000991,00.html

The Nation -- Many Nation readers know that the inimitable, invaluable, iconoclastic columnist Molly Ivins has been battling cancer. It started in her breasts and now has spread throughout her body. This past weekend she was back in the hospital for the third time since the disease was first diagnosed in 1999.

In the second-to-last syndicated column she's been able to write she declared herself on an "old-fashioned newspaper campaign" and vowed to use every column she had to "write about this war until we find some way to end it."

But since then she's only managed to write one more column. That one ran on January 11 and opposed

President Bush's proposed "surge" escalation of the war. In strong language -- even for a writer famous for plain talk -- Ivins stated: "We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war."

At the Washington peace march this past Saturday, which Ivins had promoted in her latest column, actor Sean Penn echoed her refrain: "We are the deciders" to the delight of tens of thousands of protesters.

And now, with Ivins too sick to write, the rest of us will have to carry on her "old-fashioned newspaper campaign" forward.

With that in mind, the Berkeley Daily Planet is hereby launching what it is calling the "Molly Ivins Festschrift." As executive editor Becky O'Malley wrote in today's edition:

"A festschrift is defined by Merriam-Webster as "a volume of writings by different authors presented as a tribute or memorial especially to a scholar." Academics are wont to create festschrifts on the occasion of a revered colleague's sixtieth birthday, for example. Molly's already sixty-two, but no time like the present to catch up with what we should have done two years ago. And we might call it festschrift if we could reliably remember how to spell or pronounce that German word, but let's just call it the Molly Ivins Tribute Project."

O'Malley's idea is that Ivins colleagues in the journalism world should take over and intensify her campaign to make every effort to end the war. "It would be nice," O'Malley adds, "if a lot of these columns could be funny, since skewering serious subjects with humor is what Molly does best, but that's not required." Who, after all, can write about serious subjects as amusingly as Ivins without trivializing them?

The Berkeley Daily Planet has created a special mailbox to receive the offerings. Please send submissions to tribute@berkeleydailyplanet.com. The paper will publish them as they come in at berkeleydailyplanet.com. The best ones will also be published in the paper's Tuesday and Friday print editions. The suggested length is 600 to 800 words. Please also forward this call for contributions to any columnists you read regularly, and to any publications which might circulate the results or highlight the project.

Yanagisawa calls women 'birth-giving machines'


So Japan's population is dropping all the time. I wish ours would~! People complain about the problems associated with crowded cities, biologically-modified food to feed the masses (and enough pesticides to choke them), poverty, and crime. Why not drop the fucking population? Work with what you've got, and go from there.

And uh...this Yanagisawa. He's 71, but then I know other 71 year olds who aren't complete gonads.

I'm horrified. H/T to Amanda at Pandagon for posting this link so I could check it out. I'm a D20 gamer, and also a pro-choice advocate. That someone thought of this was inevitable, and apparently the makers come from a Pro-Choice standpoint, but I'm still horrified.

"This supplement has all new materials including:

• History of Abortion in America
• Protest tactics and strategies for Pro-Life and Pro-Choice supporters
• New Advanced Class: The Abortion Provider,
• New Intermediary Classes: Clinic Defender, Sidewalk Counselor, Blogger, Irregular and ER Intern,
• Campaign Styles: The Medical Campaign vs. the Abortion
• Nearly 20 new medical and political feats including Flash Mob, Medical Immortality, Reconstructive Surgery and Street Demonstration."

Reconstructive Surgery? Ack!

To whom it may concern: 1-25-07

On December 4^th, 2006 I went to a tanning bed and as I got dressed was spied on over the wall. I looked up and saw someone there and screamed. He got down and went about using his own bed like nothing had happened, and when the women of the salon confronted him he treated it like a joke. Well it's not a joke to me.

I am using chemotherapy treatment for chronic illness. Tanning improves my health by easing the pain caused by medical side effects. I haven't been able to go back to the salon since December 4th because I've been scared that the defendant will be waiting there to get revenge, and I can't go to another salon because I'm scared that this will happen again with someone else spying on me. I've lost money because I haven't been able to use my tanning package, and I've lost my sense of well-being because I don't feel safe doing my regular activities. I hope that one day I can feel safe enough to use a tanning bed again, because it is so helpful to my recovery and my state of mind.

I'd like Mr. Stevenson to pay for my unused tanning package, which was approximately $60. I'd also like for him to be on probation, so that he will not be tempted to spy on anyone else. I also feel that he could benefit from community service or counseling because he didn't seem to think this was very serious, and that indicates a problem or maybe just a general disrespect for women. What if this had been his mother? What if this had been his sister?

Spying on women while they are naked and vulnerable isn't a joke. Mr. Stevenson is not a child and needs to understand that what he did has been very upsetting to me and detrimental to my health. I want Mr. Stevenson to know that I hope he has learned from this situation and will never do anything like this again.

Thank you.

I am so jealous! My dad and Bill, hanging out in sunny SoCal together, while I'm here in the frozen north missing and loving them both.

Of course, they are ON the phone to me in this picture, so at least I'm in there someplace!

Back on December 4th there was a peeping tom at my tanning salon and I sent him to jail. Well, the district attorney is pressing charges, and I received the paperwork today in the mail. I can give a statement to be read at trial, or I can present in person. I can't do that in person, but I'll definitely give a statement! I can also ask for restitution, which I will, for the cost of my tanning package. I've been unable to go back because of the ick factor. The tanning company probably would offer to give my money back, but I want this CREEP to pay. I get to offer my suggestions about his suffering, and I will choose probation, fine, and restitution.

I'm so fucking brain dead. TWO meetings and one doctor's appointment were spaced. Both meetings were saved because I was "reminded" through accidental bumping - into with the people I'm meeting with, but the appointment is gone forever. :P It was only an eye appointment so that wasn't so bad.

I think today was too freaky for me to keep everything in order.

I went to get coffee before one meeting (not one I forgot), and was bogusly (is that a word?) pulled over for a speeding ticket. I wasn't speeding in the first place, and in the second place my car looks exactly like everyone else's. Black Nissan Altima, 1994 model. I can't even find my own car in a parking lot. I've gone to any number of Toyotas and Hondas and tried to stick my key in. Of course the police are going to have the same problem. I'm going to court on February 20th to fight it. The cop couldn't even keep his story straight when he was giving me the ticket, so I know I've got the upper hand there. Besides that, even if I had been speeding (which I hadn't), then most judges go easier if you show up to court. Ack.

Something good did happen, however. My ETO bank got bumped up. It got bumped up in August, but no one told me. Now I get an extra hour of earned time off per pay period, of which there are two. That works out to 24 hours a year, or an extra 3 days per year of time off. I'm okay with that. ;) I now have an extra 6 hours to spend like a crazy madwoman. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

--
"If you do not speak up when it matters, when would it matter that you speak? The opposite of courage is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow." -His Excellence, Jim Hightower

When NARAL asked me to volunteer again...This was my response.

I'm sorry, but because of the actions of Nancy Keenan and NARAL's continued support of anti-choice legislators and policies I won't be able to volunteer any more time. I recognize that you and Kelda do great work locally, especially with regard to EC. I wish your efforts weren't being undermined on such a large scale by the organization to which you have pledged yourselves.

I can't support an organization so deeply flawed and that hurts all of us by bowing down to anti-women politicians like Rape Gurney Joe Leiberman and Lincoln Chafee, who voted to support Supreme Court Justice Alito.

Another strong reason is the more recent Fetal Pain bill that devoutly Catholic (and self-proclaimed pro-lifer) Nancy Keenan was at best, neutral about. The actions of NARAL are undermining the rights of women everywhere, while proclaiming something else entirely. It's hard for me to think about that without my stomach turning over.

I will remain strongly pro-choice, and that now means not contributing money or time to NARAL. If things change drastically within the organization I would be more than happy to support its goals once again. Good luck to both you and [the other woman at the center]. It was a pleasure to work with you and I respect you both immensely.

I read my share of blogs. I see some that are crap, and I also read the good ones.

An important part if these online journals are of course the comments, which wouldn't be that special except for of course, the commenters. I like to scroll down, read the thoughts of others who have read the same story I just did, and felt strongly enough to leave a note for the writer. It's great.

 

However.

 

Why in the hell do so many people set themselves up as the blog post police? The most common offenders are the ones who say, "Why did you pick this subject? Why not this one? Or this one? Or this one?" In the fucking comments. If he or she is so damn set on seeing a post about a certain subject, then fucking WRITE one. Don't sit there and bash on a very good post because of the angle. Armchair fucking losers.

--
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. - Camus

Excellent!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4327136.stm