Well...lets start that over again, shall we?
Wow four pages of entry deleted with a glitch in the computer. A ghost in the machine. What I want to know is...what button did I push to make all of that just disappear? Like poof!-Gone!
Sigh....
Well here we go. I started this blog as a diary for the travels my family has taken over the years, starting with our sabbatical to Northern Spain in 2012 (see previous posts). I then quite effectively I would say shared our daily schedule of our trip to China in 2015, three weeks in three cities in the country of China. I can honestly say, at risk of being tailed or followed or gaining a big fat unctious virus on my computer that I am glad I went to China, the people were lovely, but China itself is an unsettling place. There is a pall over the entire nation. I felt constantly like the views we were seeing and the stories we were being told were falsehoods.
To this day whenever I am outside working in the garden or going for a walk and I see a dragonfly I am reminded....the ONLY wildlife we ever saw in any city or countryside was either bugs or dragonflies. We never heard birds. We never saw birds at the seashore, seagulls were not to be found, and the only fish we ever saw were fat globolous koi fish, technocolored neon and dragon-faced. And planted, of course. Yes we saw fishermen, but the amount of debris and floating trash their fishing lines had to negotiate were depressing. All with the background of bulking massive boats and ships being constructed in huge shipyards. In every capable body of water.
So I can honestly say...with all of the experiences and all of the interesting things we saw in the Mysterious Orient...I don't really need to go back. Maybe it was the rampant case of C-diff or ectoplasmic diarrhea that I experienced...having to be within a few feet of a bathroom for the last ten days of any trip can color your experience-or that it took nearly six months to recover.
Or the fact that my eardrum shattered when I boarded our flight from Los Angeles to Denver. The air pressure on the China flight never seemed to correct itself, and as a result when I was on our short flight from LA to Denver I had a throbbing pain travwel the length of my left jaw and explode out of my left ear. Incredible pain and quite a bit of blood. Thankfully the gentleman who was seated to my right was a grandfather and he said he's used to seeing blood, and he and my other seatmate called the flight attendant over to take care of me. A hot towel compress later and I was able to survive the rest of my travel. The ear nose and throat doctor who saw me the following day dislodged a canal of clotted blood out of my ear, and I could instantly hear again.
So no, it is not on my list of places I need to return to again. But Spain and now Kenya?
Kenya I will have to return.
Kenya is in my heart for the rest of my life. I am forever grateful.
So yes I am going to finally recall the splendor and the beauty that is Kenya, and with the help of my cameras I can recall our trip.
If you wonder about the delay in writing about our journey well....the end of 2019 and then subsequently 2020 has basically kicked my ass.
So maybe a return to Africa is needed.
Ernest Hemingway said it best
"All I wanted to do was go back to Africa. We had not left it yet but when I would wake at night I would lie listening, homesick for it already".
Monday, June 22, 2020
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Little shocks
Are you like me and trying to remember what Life was all about prior to Coronavirus?
I remember meeting a friend for lunch on Feb 26th and we were just starting to talk about it. And it has been like a thousand little shocks since then.
The first one was when my eldest, Doe, who is now a nurse in a Level II hospital in Southern Colorado said that they were being told to start reusing masks. This was in February.
Scenes of rooms that are sealed off from the rest of the hospital. Ventilators being strained. Patients without beds. Trying to comfort a young newly graduated nurse who was thrown into quite possibly the biggest crisis she will ever have to face in her career? What do you say?
I remarked to Beloved this afternoon as we were walking outside to our local grocery store, one of a few stores in the shopping mall, that this felt like Spain in 2012. Storefronts empty or vacant, and no one out walking around during the day. It was at times eerie.
If you are like me you've been having your own series of aftershocks. Someone you know caught it. Someone you loved died from it.
We have had a strenuous 2020. It all began with the deterioration of my father-in-law's health and the subsequent death of him in March. His funeral was in his hometown, the one he lived in for 50-some years, raised a family in and buried a wife in. His wife's service was a bountiful presentation of friends young and old who were invited to come up to the dais and speak a few loving words about his bride.
His memorial consisted of only his sons, grandchildren and a daughter-in-law. No one in his community, his collection of life-long friends, was allowed to attend. One of his dearest friends sat in his car at the funeral home parking lot, and Beloved and his family were allowed to stand outside of his car and talk to this man and his wife. Mourning with six feet apart.
It continues...graduations being threatened, proms being cancelled, social distancing and Zoom and Facetiming with loved ones. Thousands upon thousands of people losing their jobs. Getting laid off. Restaurants closing. Its all little shocks. Or rather Big Shocks if you are personally impacted.
I had one of those today.
I've been feeling pretty 'proud' of myself, not panicking the way that I did on 9/11/01 or prior to that the Columbine shooting in 1999. I think probably because those instances were violence against us as humans, committed by other humans who did not want to do anything except destroy the American way of Life. The status quo. Also my own family was quite younger, and I've had time to negotiate a world with metal detectors at school entrances and taking off my shoes at the airport. It seems par for the course now to immediately not trust anyone.
This...virus... doesn't feel as personal to me. It doesn't seem like a direct attack, although some pundits might claim that China was behind this whoops, got ourselves a leak here, but the literature I've been reading tells me that it couldn't have possibly come from a laboratory, because it was animal in origin, and animal-to-human transmission wasn't being considered.
Sadly though, cases of sick humans transmitting the virus to their dogs and cats is becoming more prevalent.
But today was different. In the beginning of March I was one of those shoppers in the aisles of every supermarket, scraping every known canned vegetable I could find, never more than a quantity of 4 mind you. I do not hoard. Would I use canned potatoes? Do I use regular potatoes? Then yes I would I probably use canned potatoes. I was able to do all of this while Beloved was with his father, which is probably a good thing, seeing as he would be commenting on the quantities of bottled water or the boxes of mashed potato mix (again-potatoes). E'ventually I felt like the shelf-stocking in our (unnamed room of storage) was complete and I could stop running to the store daily to face more empty shelves more blue tape lines on the floors and fewer people I knew. THAT on top of the forthcoming death of my children's only known grandfather, and my daughter literally working on the front lines of this virus? And then the racks of empty shelves...that started to turn into a despondence I did not think I would easily get out of.
Standing in front of the canned goods section while a younger mom is reading the ingredients list of a dairy-free packaged milk product. Her expression? Sheer panic. Like she literally could not grasp what was going on in front of her. I felt like I needed to say or do something to help her anxiety. But sometimes people just want to be left alone.
Beloved and I walked to our local small organic foods market near our neighborhood. We didn't really need anything, and didn't really want to go in anywhere, we just wanted to basically get out of the house. See how things were faring.
And if we could find a can of baking powder, buy that too.
The store was empty, but not stark empty. All the lights were still on there were fewer employees and stockboys but the shelves were being maintained well. I had a chat with the checker and he was encouraging me to come to the store on Tues at 9 am to get toilet paper. But to expect me to only get one package.
I turned to leave and there at the exit to the store was a table with a young man standing behind it. The sign said "Dirty Carts" and there was a stack of used cleaning towels and rags and bottles of bleach'd cleanser at the ready.
That was my little shock for the day. In my 50 years on this Earth, Ive seen a lot. A lot. But a young man with a spray bottle disinfecting carts after they had been used-"Dirtied"-that was a new one. Now not only were we infectious and dangerous and a risk to the elderly and infirm, we were also 'Dirty'.
I appreciate the candor. No really I do. I appreciate the honesty and the discipline and the safety measures we are all taking to keep ourselves healthy.
But I've never seen a station for dirty carts in my life. And that was my shock.
As were walking out Beloved said "I want to know who it is in our town that has all the toilet paper? Is there someone in town whose entire basement is full of toilet paper?"
And would I be willing to rat them out? Would I call the police on a neighbor who had a basement full of toilet paper? I couldn't do it. Larimer County is asking residents to call on businesses who are not following basic safe distancing practices during this quarantine. I just can't do it. It feels dirty.
I remember meeting a friend for lunch on Feb 26th and we were just starting to talk about it. And it has been like a thousand little shocks since then.
The first one was when my eldest, Doe, who is now a nurse in a Level II hospital in Southern Colorado said that they were being told to start reusing masks. This was in February.
Scenes of rooms that are sealed off from the rest of the hospital. Ventilators being strained. Patients without beds. Trying to comfort a young newly graduated nurse who was thrown into quite possibly the biggest crisis she will ever have to face in her career? What do you say?
I remarked to Beloved this afternoon as we were walking outside to our local grocery store, one of a few stores in the shopping mall, that this felt like Spain in 2012. Storefronts empty or vacant, and no one out walking around during the day. It was at times eerie.
If you are like me you've been having your own series of aftershocks. Someone you know caught it. Someone you loved died from it.
We have had a strenuous 2020. It all began with the deterioration of my father-in-law's health and the subsequent death of him in March. His funeral was in his hometown, the one he lived in for 50-some years, raised a family in and buried a wife in. His wife's service was a bountiful presentation of friends young and old who were invited to come up to the dais and speak a few loving words about his bride.
His memorial consisted of only his sons, grandchildren and a daughter-in-law. No one in his community, his collection of life-long friends, was allowed to attend. One of his dearest friends sat in his car at the funeral home parking lot, and Beloved and his family were allowed to stand outside of his car and talk to this man and his wife. Mourning with six feet apart.
It continues...graduations being threatened, proms being cancelled, social distancing and Zoom and Facetiming with loved ones. Thousands upon thousands of people losing their jobs. Getting laid off. Restaurants closing. Its all little shocks. Or rather Big Shocks if you are personally impacted.
I had one of those today.
I've been feeling pretty 'proud' of myself, not panicking the way that I did on 9/11/01 or prior to that the Columbine shooting in 1999. I think probably because those instances were violence against us as humans, committed by other humans who did not want to do anything except destroy the American way of Life. The status quo. Also my own family was quite younger, and I've had time to negotiate a world with metal detectors at school entrances and taking off my shoes at the airport. It seems par for the course now to immediately not trust anyone.
This...virus... doesn't feel as personal to me. It doesn't seem like a direct attack, although some pundits might claim that China was behind this whoops, got ourselves a leak here, but the literature I've been reading tells me that it couldn't have possibly come from a laboratory, because it was animal in origin, and animal-to-human transmission wasn't being considered.
Sadly though, cases of sick humans transmitting the virus to their dogs and cats is becoming more prevalent.
But today was different. In the beginning of March I was one of those shoppers in the aisles of every supermarket, scraping every known canned vegetable I could find, never more than a quantity of 4 mind you. I do not hoard. Would I use canned potatoes? Do I use regular potatoes? Then yes I would I probably use canned potatoes. I was able to do all of this while Beloved was with his father, which is probably a good thing, seeing as he would be commenting on the quantities of bottled water or the boxes of mashed potato mix (again-potatoes). E'ventually I felt like the shelf-stocking in our (unnamed room of storage) was complete and I could stop running to the store daily to face more empty shelves more blue tape lines on the floors and fewer people I knew. THAT on top of the forthcoming death of my children's only known grandfather, and my daughter literally working on the front lines of this virus? And then the racks of empty shelves...that started to turn into a despondence I did not think I would easily get out of.
Standing in front of the canned goods section while a younger mom is reading the ingredients list of a dairy-free packaged milk product. Her expression? Sheer panic. Like she literally could not grasp what was going on in front of her. I felt like I needed to say or do something to help her anxiety. But sometimes people just want to be left alone.
Beloved and I walked to our local small organic foods market near our neighborhood. We didn't really need anything, and didn't really want to go in anywhere, we just wanted to basically get out of the house. See how things were faring.
And if we could find a can of baking powder, buy that too.
The store was empty, but not stark empty. All the lights were still on there were fewer employees and stockboys but the shelves were being maintained well. I had a chat with the checker and he was encouraging me to come to the store on Tues at 9 am to get toilet paper. But to expect me to only get one package.
I turned to leave and there at the exit to the store was a table with a young man standing behind it. The sign said "Dirty Carts" and there was a stack of used cleaning towels and rags and bottles of bleach'd cleanser at the ready.
That was my little shock for the day. In my 50 years on this Earth, Ive seen a lot. A lot. But a young man with a spray bottle disinfecting carts after they had been used-"Dirtied"-that was a new one. Now not only were we infectious and dangerous and a risk to the elderly and infirm, we were also 'Dirty'.
I appreciate the candor. No really I do. I appreciate the honesty and the discipline and the safety measures we are all taking to keep ourselves healthy.
But I've never seen a station for dirty carts in my life. And that was my shock.
As were walking out Beloved said "I want to know who it is in our town that has all the toilet paper? Is there someone in town whose entire basement is full of toilet paper?"
And would I be willing to rat them out? Would I call the police on a neighbor who had a basement full of toilet paper? I couldn't do it. Larimer County is asking residents to call on businesses who are not following basic safe distancing practices during this quarantine. I just can't do it. It feels dirty.
Thursday, July 19, 2018
500 Days and Counting
(Ed. Note---interesting to read this post nearly two years upon first writing it. It's been a tumultous season in our country, with a lot of violence against our citizens with gun violence, against our elected officials with rioting and protesting in front of their homes, and bigotry with people being kicked out of restaurants or refused service simply because of the hats they were wearing.)
Ballots in the mail. Regardless of who wins, I'm fairly certain we as a nation deserved what we ended up with. The lesson here for me is how did we get here and where are we going?
My thought is You can't legislate unity and nature despises equality. That my friends is what makes us unique.
I didn't vote for an ideal candidate. But for what matters to me I did the best I could. If you voted for what most matters to you then so be it. Therein lies the divisiveness of this season.
We each have ideologies moral compasses and priorities that differ.
The challenge for us is how will we treat those opinions vary from our own? What are the issues that will we face that we are staunchly opposed to or firmly embedded in? How will we respond to those beliefs being tested.
Ballots in the mail. Regardless of who wins, I'm fairly certain we as a nation deserved what we ended up with. The lesson here for me is how did we get here and where are we going?
My thought is You can't legislate unity and nature despises equality. That my friends is what makes us unique.
I didn't vote for an ideal candidate. But for what matters to me I did the best I could. If you voted for what most matters to you then so be it. Therein lies the divisiveness of this season.
We each have ideologies moral compasses and priorities that differ.
The challenge for us is how will we treat those opinions vary from our own? What are the issues that will we face that we are staunchly opposed to or firmly embedded in? How will we respond to those beliefs being tested.
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Bump Stock
I speak for many who feel such a huge sense of loss after the events of Sunday. The newsfeed and the Facebook posts are glutted with stories of heroism and abject bravery. I am continuously in awe of the goodness in people who helped complete strangers and who literally saved lives.
But I am numb. As my sainted mother used to say, Garbage In Garbage Out. And it really upsets me. Four days out I am aware of a hollow sensation in my chest. It's not unlike a splinter stuck under the fingernail. It's an actual physical pain that causes me pause. Is this what a change of heart looks like? Is this what happens when your heart is breaking?
All of the chatter about the Second Amendment and gun owner rights' and the citizen's Right to Bear Arms. I am not about to relinquish any legal citizen the right to bear arms.
But the argument that the Second Amendment was written to protect against government tyranny is bothersome.
Here's why....believing that we as everyday citizens will be able to protect ourselves against government tyranny is ridiculous. See St Louis...see Charlottesville...see any non-peaceful protest, anti-Fa or otherwise, in which the government has used automatic weaponry against its citizens. They have not.
What they have used these high-yield weapons against are: terrorists. Criminals. Those who threaten our safety in an immediate frame. The SWAT team who attacked the hotel room in Mandalay Bay used I am sure automatic weapons. I am not claiming to see into the government's capacity to overthrow the populace, and do believe that we are to be on guard against all threats, both foreign and domestic, but the belief that our cache of weaponry will protect us against our government tyranny is not valid. We are the most powerful, well-armed and well-protected federal government in the world.
Well except for North Korea, but those poor men and women are starved to indifference. Their hierarchy consists of where their next meal will come from, not from taking out Rocket Man.
Listen all they need is an armored-personnel carrier. I've seen those on our streets more than any agent with a high-caliber weapon. It just takes one armored-personal carrier to take out a mob of people. Currently there are laws on the books against ownership of said vehicle. Simply for that reason.
Maybe instead we should argue for more defensive measures such as these? Bulletproof windows on all vehicles? A registration for a tank, one that is capable of not only dispersing crowds, but of also busting through government-mandated barricades.
Okay now it's becoming more clear now why they have rules against such things. I could see that becoming an issue.
The police in every town own high-capacity automatic weapons. As they should. And as I have tried to teach my children as often as possible in this brief frame of education I possess...try with all of your might to avoid any contact with police officers. Avoid all interaction with police. When you're pulled over, put your hands on the top of the steering wheel in full view of the officer who pulled you over. Be respectful. Honor the law.
So as such I see no need to protect myself from the police. Sorry kneeling NFL athletes. It's just not on my radar to fear the patrolman.
So in that regard I hope they will never require a weapon to defend themselves against the police.
I own weapons. We possess weapons. Despite a calm demeanor, we have two ridiculously loyal hounds and we also possess the power of prayer. I do not believe I will ever need to own an automatic weapon. I see no need. Yes we own a gun, a glorious piece of engineering that we coddle and oil and clean and polish to its highest gleam, that we keep not only as a means of protection, but as a means of respect for ourselves. We are confident enough to know how to shoot a single-caliber weapon. Repeatedly.
I think the pain that I feel is the repeated stories of heroism from Vegas. The men who covered their wives...their girlfriends...the women who grabbed strangers and hid behind cars with them. The man who stole a truck to drive 30 people to the hospital. Even the man who was flipping the bird as the shots rang out. In a night full of brilliance and shining stars of compassion, this guy emitted an ironic sardonic gleam into the evening.
I am beyond impressed. I am beyond amazed.
What I am is despondent... over 500 people injured. Was this a plane crash? It's distressing that the loss of life 59 lost souls isn't horrific enough. It's the number of casualties who flooded all of the hospitals in Nevada. The rivers of blood.
While the speculation is still that this Paddock did act alone, I realize the investigation is still fluid. I am not one to believe that conspiracy theories are valid or worth my time, simply for the reason that I believe that the capacity to commit evil is a powerful force. When one is committing acts of atrocity, they are duly blessed with chemicals such as adrenaline, and emotions such as hate...bigotry...vengeance. Those emotions are all capable of emitting chemicals that empower evil. It is always easiest to be angry than to be happy. It's just a fact. Hatred and evil are not blessed with an easily deployed handbrake.
So do I believe a 64-year old man capable of carrying 10 bags of weapons up onto the 32nd floor.
Yes. He checked into the hotel on Thursday. He was there for 4 days. He could have brought bags of weapons on hotel baggage carts over four days. It's not an exhausting process.
(And to add some levity....remember in the movie The Hangover, members of the Wolfpack were able to haul a tiger out of Caesar's Palace. Without a second glance. Maybe Vegas has seen it all.)
A single white older man traveling alone is I am sure nothing new to hotel staff in Vegas. Records show he was in fact a popular guest of the casinos, well-known as a high-stakes gambler. Maybe they thought nothing of it.
Regardless...the idea that one man could commit such a horrific crime, killing 59 people and injuring over 500...that is unconscionable. It's unconscionable. It appears that after he moved the couches around to support himself against the windows, he broke the windows out and began to spray the crowd of 21,000 directly below. Do you need much strength to hold a weapon against a couch cushion and point it down? Was there any signs of him aiming? In my estimation so far there is no evidence of him using a gunsight or any accessories to make the weapon accurate.
It was indiscriminate. He picked his audience (country fans) and didn't even choose his target. He just began to shoot. One man injuring, some mortally, nearly 600 people.
600 people. Do I think one man can injure that many?
With a bump stock? Yes I do. Now that we've seen what it can do...what are we waiting for? Is 59 people still too diminutive a number to register?
For a police agent of the government, who is in legal possession of automatic weaponry, to prop up its gun and begin shooting, there is a point in our lives where we need to question how we got there. It has not happened in our nations history, against its citizens. And it won't.
What should happen is this...the local police departments and law enforcement of venues who are going to host large events, need to protect its citizens better. We need to tighten barricades, check accreditations, make these festival events in open air settings a thing of the past.
We need to post police officers in sniper positions at all venues. We need to post police presence more openly and freely.
We need to protect our populace in the same manner that we do our banks. Our federal government. Our federal treasury. While these concrete buildings are all possessors of items that criminals desire, mostly money or treasure, concert venues and train stations, and boardwalks and sadly, even elementary and high schools, possess our greater treasure...our loved ones. We need to protect these priceless treasures even MORE than we do our government offices. Because they are irreplaceable. Souls are irreplaceable.
I think if we as a nation were to answer back with a renewed respect for our police, giving them MORE weapons and higher-powered guns, then those who would wish us harm may think again. The idea that a police sniper posted on a hotel at a point could have seen the window break and watched the gun fire, from a clear vantage point, and could have killed him sooner than he was taken out, makes me feel that maybe all is not lost.
So No, I don't think that anyone in the general public should have the capability of killing 59 people and injuring 600 more. I don't think one man should have more authority than the US government to kill innocent citizens. We should reconsider a ban on bump-stock machinery modifications for guns sold in the US and make it painfully illegal for someone to be caught in possession of one. No one needs to injure 600 people.
Because we didn't get to elect Steven Paddock. He didn't go through a rigorous background check. We didn't get to vote as to whether or not he should own an automatic weapon.
And we vote for our government every two years and every four years. And so far they've not killed any innocents at a country concert.
Praying for the victims and families of victims.
#LasVegas Strong
But I am numb. As my sainted mother used to say, Garbage In Garbage Out. And it really upsets me. Four days out I am aware of a hollow sensation in my chest. It's not unlike a splinter stuck under the fingernail. It's an actual physical pain that causes me pause. Is this what a change of heart looks like? Is this what happens when your heart is breaking?
All of the chatter about the Second Amendment and gun owner rights' and the citizen's Right to Bear Arms. I am not about to relinquish any legal citizen the right to bear arms.
But the argument that the Second Amendment was written to protect against government tyranny is bothersome.
Here's why....believing that we as everyday citizens will be able to protect ourselves against government tyranny is ridiculous. See St Louis...see Charlottesville...see any non-peaceful protest, anti-Fa or otherwise, in which the government has used automatic weaponry against its citizens. They have not.
What they have used these high-yield weapons against are: terrorists. Criminals. Those who threaten our safety in an immediate frame. The SWAT team who attacked the hotel room in Mandalay Bay used I am sure automatic weapons. I am not claiming to see into the government's capacity to overthrow the populace, and do believe that we are to be on guard against all threats, both foreign and domestic, but the belief that our cache of weaponry will protect us against our government tyranny is not valid. We are the most powerful, well-armed and well-protected federal government in the world.
Well except for North Korea, but those poor men and women are starved to indifference. Their hierarchy consists of where their next meal will come from, not from taking out Rocket Man.
Listen all they need is an armored-personnel carrier. I've seen those on our streets more than any agent with a high-caliber weapon. It just takes one armored-personal carrier to take out a mob of people. Currently there are laws on the books against ownership of said vehicle. Simply for that reason.
Maybe instead we should argue for more defensive measures such as these? Bulletproof windows on all vehicles? A registration for a tank, one that is capable of not only dispersing crowds, but of also busting through government-mandated barricades.
Okay now it's becoming more clear now why they have rules against such things. I could see that becoming an issue.
The police in every town own high-capacity automatic weapons. As they should. And as I have tried to teach my children as often as possible in this brief frame of education I possess...try with all of your might to avoid any contact with police officers. Avoid all interaction with police. When you're pulled over, put your hands on the top of the steering wheel in full view of the officer who pulled you over. Be respectful. Honor the law.
So as such I see no need to protect myself from the police. Sorry kneeling NFL athletes. It's just not on my radar to fear the patrolman.
So in that regard I hope they will never require a weapon to defend themselves against the police.
I own weapons. We possess weapons. Despite a calm demeanor, we have two ridiculously loyal hounds and we also possess the power of prayer. I do not believe I will ever need to own an automatic weapon. I see no need. Yes we own a gun, a glorious piece of engineering that we coddle and oil and clean and polish to its highest gleam, that we keep not only as a means of protection, but as a means of respect for ourselves. We are confident enough to know how to shoot a single-caliber weapon. Repeatedly.
I think the pain that I feel is the repeated stories of heroism from Vegas. The men who covered their wives...their girlfriends...the women who grabbed strangers and hid behind cars with them. The man who stole a truck to drive 30 people to the hospital. Even the man who was flipping the bird as the shots rang out. In a night full of brilliance and shining stars of compassion, this guy emitted an ironic sardonic gleam into the evening.
I am beyond impressed. I am beyond amazed.
What I am is despondent... over 500 people injured. Was this a plane crash? It's distressing that the loss of life 59 lost souls isn't horrific enough. It's the number of casualties who flooded all of the hospitals in Nevada. The rivers of blood.
While the speculation is still that this Paddock did act alone, I realize the investigation is still fluid. I am not one to believe that conspiracy theories are valid or worth my time, simply for the reason that I believe that the capacity to commit evil is a powerful force. When one is committing acts of atrocity, they are duly blessed with chemicals such as adrenaline, and emotions such as hate...bigotry...vengeance. Those emotions are all capable of emitting chemicals that empower evil. It is always easiest to be angry than to be happy. It's just a fact. Hatred and evil are not blessed with an easily deployed handbrake.
So do I believe a 64-year old man capable of carrying 10 bags of weapons up onto the 32nd floor.
Yes. He checked into the hotel on Thursday. He was there for 4 days. He could have brought bags of weapons on hotel baggage carts over four days. It's not an exhausting process.
(And to add some levity....remember in the movie The Hangover, members of the Wolfpack were able to haul a tiger out of Caesar's Palace. Without a second glance. Maybe Vegas has seen it all.)
A single white older man traveling alone is I am sure nothing new to hotel staff in Vegas. Records show he was in fact a popular guest of the casinos, well-known as a high-stakes gambler. Maybe they thought nothing of it.
Regardless...the idea that one man could commit such a horrific crime, killing 59 people and injuring over 500...that is unconscionable. It's unconscionable. It appears that after he moved the couches around to support himself against the windows, he broke the windows out and began to spray the crowd of 21,000 directly below. Do you need much strength to hold a weapon against a couch cushion and point it down? Was there any signs of him aiming? In my estimation so far there is no evidence of him using a gunsight or any accessories to make the weapon accurate.
It was indiscriminate. He picked his audience (country fans) and didn't even choose his target. He just began to shoot. One man injuring, some mortally, nearly 600 people.
600 people. Do I think one man can injure that many?
With a bump stock? Yes I do. Now that we've seen what it can do...what are we waiting for? Is 59 people still too diminutive a number to register?
For a police agent of the government, who is in legal possession of automatic weaponry, to prop up its gun and begin shooting, there is a point in our lives where we need to question how we got there. It has not happened in our nations history, against its citizens. And it won't.
What should happen is this...the local police departments and law enforcement of venues who are going to host large events, need to protect its citizens better. We need to tighten barricades, check accreditations, make these festival events in open air settings a thing of the past.
We need to post police officers in sniper positions at all venues. We need to post police presence more openly and freely.
We need to protect our populace in the same manner that we do our banks. Our federal government. Our federal treasury. While these concrete buildings are all possessors of items that criminals desire, mostly money or treasure, concert venues and train stations, and boardwalks and sadly, even elementary and high schools, possess our greater treasure...our loved ones. We need to protect these priceless treasures even MORE than we do our government offices. Because they are irreplaceable. Souls are irreplaceable.
I think if we as a nation were to answer back with a renewed respect for our police, giving them MORE weapons and higher-powered guns, then those who would wish us harm may think again. The idea that a police sniper posted on a hotel at a point could have seen the window break and watched the gun fire, from a clear vantage point, and could have killed him sooner than he was taken out, makes me feel that maybe all is not lost.
So No, I don't think that anyone in the general public should have the capability of killing 59 people and injuring 600 more. I don't think one man should have more authority than the US government to kill innocent citizens. We should reconsider a ban on bump-stock machinery modifications for guns sold in the US and make it painfully illegal for someone to be caught in possession of one. No one needs to injure 600 people.
Because we didn't get to elect Steven Paddock. He didn't go through a rigorous background check. We didn't get to vote as to whether or not he should own an automatic weapon.
And we vote for our government every two years and every four years. And so far they've not killed any innocents at a country concert.
Praying for the victims and families of victims.
#LasVegas Strong
Monday, October 24, 2016
Expect the best
Bought Tank an LED flashing light bracelet that he can wear at night so he's more visible to cars. It's activated by motion and so it flashes when you wave your arm.
This evening as he was heading out for a short trip to his favorite skating spot I stopped him.
Tank where is your bracelet?
WHAT BRACELET? He roared, knowing full well of what bracelet I was speaking of.
The light-up one! I reminded him. I think it's in your room.
"What are you KIDDING? Mom what are we, LIBERALS?"
As I was choking back the laughter I said No...not Liberals. But you're not going skating without it on.
"MOM! Get real. I hope you know as soon as I leave I'm putting it in my pocket."
That's fine I just want to see how it works.
"Mom it's motion-activated! It's not going to work unless I wave my arms like this (waving arms emphatically on cue)"
Laughing I said, just put it on.
Because he's my son and therefore the sweetest soul on the aplanet, he acquiesces and wears the bracelet.
As he recedes into the black night I see two parallel green lights flashing rapidly on his right wrist.
"Way to go Tank! It looks really cool! Woo hoo you're such a great kid!"
Amazingly when he returned he still wore the LED bracelet. Maybe he took it off in the street around the corner.
But my job is to believe and trust that he kept that bracelet on the whole trip. Because I want to expect the best from kids.
This evening as he was heading out for a short trip to his favorite skating spot I stopped him.
Tank where is your bracelet?
WHAT BRACELET? He roared, knowing full well of what bracelet I was speaking of.
The light-up one! I reminded him. I think it's in your room.
"What are you KIDDING? Mom what are we, LIBERALS?"
As I was choking back the laughter I said No...not Liberals. But you're not going skating without it on.
"MOM! Get real. I hope you know as soon as I leave I'm putting it in my pocket."
That's fine I just want to see how it works.
"Mom it's motion-activated! It's not going to work unless I wave my arms like this (waving arms emphatically on cue)"
Laughing I said, just put it on.
Because he's my son and therefore the sweetest soul on the aplanet, he acquiesces and wears the bracelet.
As he recedes into the black night I see two parallel green lights flashing rapidly on his right wrist.
"Way to go Tank! It looks really cool! Woo hoo you're such a great kid!"
Amazingly when he returned he still wore the LED bracelet. Maybe he took it off in the street around the corner.
But my job is to believe and trust that he kept that bracelet on the whole trip. Because I want to expect the best from kids.
Thursday, October 20, 2016
No my name ain't Baby
The brouhaha after the utterances of one Donald J. Trump directed at Hillary Rodham Clinton at the close of the final Presidential debate is not unexpected. For those who missed it he said to Clinton "What a nasty woman".
The Slate.com article written by one pissed-off woman is entitled "Women are reclaiming their nastiness after Trump comment".
The truth will you set you free but first it will piss you off
Shoot I thought that was the high point of the entire debate. Granted, he shouldn't have lowered himself to the name-calling, but honestly a lot of realistic, honest, integrity-driven, and moral women agree with his nomenclature.
If lying to the American public, standing in front of four flag-covered caskets in an airport holding bay and lying to victim's families, taking hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from countries who not only disrespect women, but kill them at will (see Qatar, Saudi Arabia) is not nasty than I don't know what is. Oh I know what else is nasty. Calling the 14 or so women who charged her husband with rape "bimbos" is pretty nasty.
Way to stay above the fray, Hillary.
Maybe Trump's mistake was using the word nasty. Maybe evil. Devious. Deceitful. Dishonest. Deplorable (I stole that one from the Clinton campaign).
The theme of this Slate article is how women are 'reclaiming' their nastiness after Trump's insult. Well first of all, I'd like to know who took the mantle of nastiness from me in the first place. Shoot who do I register a complaint with? I am woman hear my roar. My nastiness was never taken from me. Again, male-dominated newsmedia declaring that men took women's moral compasses, and we are kicking and clawing and seizing them back.
If there is some upheaval about him calling a woman nasty, let's revisit the Progressive Liberal Democrat philosophy on the gender politic over the last year.
The introduction of the non-specific gender pronouns "hir" and "ze" at college campuses. You can read the protocol here.
The appeal of transgender equality. Males and females identifying as whatever gender they choose.
men in women's locker rooms
While I am at no place to judge the sexual identity of any one individual, the reality is the protocol for gender self-identification was spear-headed by the Progressive Left. They are the ones who invite and welcome gender-confused individuals, welcoming them with open arms and hearts, identifying them primarily as human and then secondary by gender (if that's been chosen at the time).
The Left cannot in good conscience fall back on Clinton's female gender as a defense. You're not identified by male or female in the Democrat party. You cannot pull the "gender card" as a defensive tactic against someone who identified you as the gender you profess to be. To even bring that up as being demeaning or derogatory to gender is in fact desultory. You can't be offended if he calls you a woman.
You can be offended if he calls you nasty, but no one needs to look far into her political dealings or her Clinton Foundation Charity donations to charity (some watchdog groups claim only 3-5% of their donations go to charitable organizations outside of the Clinton Foundation fund) to find the nasty. Even more than nasty but also deceitful is the reality that the Clinton Foundation refused to disclose over 1,100 donors to their charity. You can find that nastyness here
No he probably shouldn't have called her names, but I think the bigger issue for me as a woman is why again are Progressive Liberals upset that he called her a woman, and why are women suddenly up in arms about his derogatory insults about a woman?
Is there no longer equality in America? Had he been debating Obama, and called him 'nasty', there wouldn't have been a second thought. Twitter wouldn't be trending with males 'reclaiming their nastyness'.
That would be sexist.
Monday, October 10, 2016
Mine is Fine.
I know the Progressive Liberal Democrats are waiting with bated breath to hear the news. From the depths of the Basket of Deplorables, I want to affirm that
mine is fine.
I'm always utterly fascinated with the Progressive Liberal Democrat obsession with female genitalia. Be it the constant full front nudity on the movie screen, the obsessive use of the word C U Next Tuesday, the images of women being debased demoralized and dehumanized on laptop screens in Middle America everywhere. We are a nation of lap dogs. Srsly.
If the saying is true, people in glass houses should not throw stones, I know personally of a large number of Liberal Progressive women whose husband's laptop screens would be shattered. Your hypocrisy of feigning insult at words, when your partner is downstairs watching-in live action-what Trump had joked about saying, would be comical if it is not at its core terribly, terribly sad. Your insecurity is showing! My heart breaks for you and how your definition of your self-worth is based on what society is telling you it is!
These same women who act upset at the words of Trump stand and defend the women who act in porn movies. They refuse to read the history of the porn industry, that it is inextricably tied to human trafficking, and idealize that whatever is done in the privacy of your own home between consenting adults is not fair game. They rejoice n the fact that their male partners are able to satisfy the 'male urges' (also sexist) and that they, their worn-out female counterparts, don't have to submit their own 'piece of value' to their man. Because really, we've been taught that this 'piece' is all we are worth.
In that regard, the conversation between two adult males is as much not fair game. The giggling encouragement of the reporter, Billy Bush, was a flyspeck on the conscience of those who sat in judgment.
Yet the difference is one party apologized and accepted responsibility. The other still claims that watching what a man does to a woman onscreen in porn is perfectly acceptable. The hostility comes from Trump saying out loud what so many men in modern-day society talk like. Locker room? Maybe not. But don't do yourself a favor and Google "pussy revolt". Beyond the fleshy-colored obscured images of Godknowswhat, there are hundreds of pictures of men and women, of all shapes and ethniticities, using the "P word' as so much advertisement.
So much hypocrisy.
Your concern for mine is unwarranted. No, I don't think what Trump was okay. But let's be abundantly clear, nor is the majority of any representation of women in modern day society acceptable.
Leo DiCaprio sniffing a line off Margot Robbie's backside.
But let's not side-tracked in minutae, shall we?
I say only those two because those are the two of the litany of Hollywood who come readily to mind.
What is this Liberal obsession with the vagina? You don't care about women who are educated or opinionated or honest. Oh wait yes you DO because those are always the Lesbians in your film! Again, THEIR vagina is of no use to you, so you can make them the bookish intelligent ones. Who are also unrelentlessly psycho.
You don't want women to think with their brains about certain issues. You want them to dumb themselves down to a small area of the female anatomy and then fill their heads with concerns about the government controlling your vagina and the government not respecting the vagina.
In 2012, this ideology was so rampant during the election season that women were crowing on Election Day how they "voted with their vaginas". What? How does one DO that? It sounds sort of...messy.
I am all about empowering women and I appreciate the feigned Liberal Progressive concern for my gender. You want me to have as many sexual partners as I want. You want me to have free birth control to maintain that level of sexual brevity ad nauseum. You want me to have access to abortions that remove all intelligent cognition about life, conception, DNA. You want me to focus on my vagina. Because that is where my real value as a person lies.
Wrong. My real value as a woman lies in the fact that I have an intelligent, inquisitive, curious and driven mind. That I want to learn about everything-Libya, Aleppo, the Ukraine-not just below-navel-gazing that the Left deems that area paramount of all concern.
Thank you, Liberal Progressive women, for being offended at Donald J. Trump. Thank you. But no thanks to the "P*ssy Revolt Nov 8" memes that are flooding the Interwebs meant to empower all intelligent women. I have seen the "P" word more times than I count from Liberal Progressive women who titter and giggle at their 'ownership' of the word. Could you have chosen something else? Could you have called it the Vagina Revolt? No? Oh, that's right, because you want to use the same insulting derogatory term for vagina that your accused uses.
Donald Trump said it once. You're repeating it daily in your protests. Get over it. Your 'ownership' and entitlement of the coarse word doesn't make any more powerful or liberated. It just makes you look uncreative, unimaginative, desperate and well, sad. You are really the definition of desperation. You're so much more than the cat.
I am here to tell you.
You are so much more than the cat.
Had he insulted your intelligence you wouldn't have been so vocal (because let's face it-he has. Just like every other sitting President.)
Had he insulted your capacity to mother you wouldn't have been so vitriolic(because let's face it-you're taught all the time how you're not ready to be a mother. The abortion industry thrives on that religion.)
But because he talked about what you deem defines YOU as a HUMAN-your vagina-you're apoplectic.
I'm not concerned about men sexually assaulting me. Particularly Donald J Trump or for that matter William J Clinton. I'm just not. I'm also not concerned that the words or actions of two old rich men are going to hold any weight on how I live my life.
What DOES concern me, both as a woman, and a mother, is that the society who looks askance at Trump but glorifies the objectification of women. Who scolds Trump but blanks out their tween daughter singing along to how "whips and chains excite" her. Who defends books like Fifty Shades of Gray (I read the first novel, btw, in full disclosure. If you can call it a novel. I never read the second one because there were two things that kept coming back to me: one, the main character spoke as if she was a 12-year old girl (ew). The writing for an adult female was appalling. The second thing was this was such an overexaggeration of how tolerant the female anatomy can be to abuse. Having rapid-fire sex five days out of seven doesn't take into consideration the strong possibility of a whopping case of cystitis. I'm just too well-read in human anatomy and physiology to get past the fact that the main female character would be doubled over with a raging kidney infection for the second half of the book. )
Yep. I went there. I talked about the female sexual health. I am a sexually active heterosexual female. I can "go there". Because I am woman.
Want to know who "can't" go there? Men.
Unless of course you are a male Doctor of Medicine in the fields of Obstetrics, Gynecology, Nephrology...
The greatest insult of all though was the beaming face of our fearless Leader, Barack Hussein Obama (you remember him-of the Cambridge 'ribs and p*ssy fame) who is pictured sitting with his two beautiful daughters Sasha and Malia. Papa Barry is going to tell you what a real feminist looks like.
No. You're not. I'm not going to take a lesson in gender equality from a male. I'm just not. I'm not going to break out the notebook and take copious notes on female empowerment and feminism from a person swinging d*ck. Excuse me. Such irony that we are continuing the pattern of patriarchy and male power and male dominance by giving Obama air time to teach us all on what being a woman is. How could we ever as women know what it means to be a feminist without a man telling us what that looks like? We need a man to tell us what that means? Hardly. That my friends is the most powerful tool (pardon the pun) that men in this society have hold over us. They are given the ownership of definition. They produce the films, teach the classes, hold the seminars, give grants to the abortion clinics, all of them empower themselves to keep women under their thumb. We look to the manchild to give us knowledge.
But just like Eve did way back in the day, we seek wisdom. But our male-dominated society gives us only knowledge.
You know you want it.
It makes things complicated for men when women are wise. We can be all-knowing, but to be wise is a weapon that men cannot defeat.
Men have always defined what our role is. Sadly, in increasing manner, our role is to be the "p*ssy"...the "box" that the "d*ck" can go in for Christmas. Now we seek the male paterfamilias to teach us about ourselves?
Feminist to me means this: No one having to die for your mistakes. Owning up to your capacity to think, to feel and to breed at times which are the best times for your life. Thinking not JUST with your vagina, but with your brain and your heart and your soul.
Choosing a mate not just on his sexual prowess (thanks, porn) but on his capacity to view you as an equal partner and a lifemate. It means being respected by other women for the choices you make on how you want to raise your family. If you want to work outside the home. If you want to stay in the home and work. All of the different angles of this feminist cube we call woman.
So come November, I'm not going to host a P*ssy Revolt. I'm not going to vote with my vagina. I'm going to think long and hard about what the best thing for our country is and I'm going to vote accordingly.
Not based on what any man told me to do. That, my friends, is why words about my female genitalia do not cause me a second thought. Men who use that language and women who support men viewing other women's have nary a second thought in my daily living. They are just reflections of a society (11 years old now) that is broken and continues to be broken. The society that teaches my daughters that they aren't thin enough or that they needed padded black bras in seventh grade, and thong underwear to avoid panty lines in middle school. The society that teaches our boys that words like "Bitch" and "Cunt" and "Pussy" are all appropriate names to call the girls we are in love with.
So Yes in case you were wondering, Hillary and Michelle, and Lena and Amy and Sarah and all of you other true 'feminists' who are acting as champions of the modern societal ethos---mine is fine.
And I am wise enough to know how to keep it that way.
mine is fine.
I'm always utterly fascinated with the Progressive Liberal Democrat obsession with female genitalia. Be it the constant full front nudity on the movie screen, the obsessive use of the word C U Next Tuesday, the images of women being debased demoralized and dehumanized on laptop screens in Middle America everywhere. We are a nation of lap dogs. Srsly.
If the saying is true, people in glass houses should not throw stones, I know personally of a large number of Liberal Progressive women whose husband's laptop screens would be shattered. Your hypocrisy of feigning insult at words, when your partner is downstairs watching-in live action-what Trump had joked about saying, would be comical if it is not at its core terribly, terribly sad. Your insecurity is showing! My heart breaks for you and how your definition of your self-worth is based on what society is telling you it is!
These same women who act upset at the words of Trump stand and defend the women who act in porn movies. They refuse to read the history of the porn industry, that it is inextricably tied to human trafficking, and idealize that whatever is done in the privacy of your own home between consenting adults is not fair game. They rejoice n the fact that their male partners are able to satisfy the 'male urges' (also sexist) and that they, their worn-out female counterparts, don't have to submit their own 'piece of value' to their man. Because really, we've been taught that this 'piece' is all we are worth.
In that regard, the conversation between two adult males is as much not fair game. The giggling encouragement of the reporter, Billy Bush, was a flyspeck on the conscience of those who sat in judgment.
Yet the difference is one party apologized and accepted responsibility. The other still claims that watching what a man does to a woman onscreen in porn is perfectly acceptable. The hostility comes from Trump saying out loud what so many men in modern-day society talk like. Locker room? Maybe not. But don't do yourself a favor and Google "pussy revolt". Beyond the fleshy-colored obscured images of Godknowswhat, there are hundreds of pictures of men and women, of all shapes and ethniticities, using the "P word' as so much advertisement.
So much hypocrisy.
Your concern for mine is unwarranted. No, I don't think what Trump was okay. But let's be abundantly clear, nor is the majority of any representation of women in modern day society acceptable.
Leo DiCaprio sniffing a line off Margot Robbie's backside.
But let's not side-tracked in minutae, shall we?
I say only those two because those are the two of the litany of Hollywood who come readily to mind.
De Niro said "I want to punch Trump in the face"
for the offensive words he said against women.
Well Mr. DeNiro I think you might
need to take your thumb
out of Juliette Lewis's mouth
before you start hitting people
who say mean things against women.
(I mean...seriously?!) What is this Liberal obsession with the vagina? You don't care about women who are educated or opinionated or honest. Oh wait yes you DO because those are always the Lesbians in your film! Again, THEIR vagina is of no use to you, so you can make them the bookish intelligent ones. Who are also unrelentlessly psycho.
You don't want women to think with their brains about certain issues. You want them to dumb themselves down to a small area of the female anatomy and then fill their heads with concerns about the government controlling your vagina and the government not respecting the vagina.
In 2012, this ideology was so rampant during the election season that women were crowing on Election Day how they "voted with their vaginas". What? How does one DO that? It sounds sort of...messy.
I am all about empowering women and I appreciate the feigned Liberal Progressive concern for my gender. You want me to have as many sexual partners as I want. You want me to have free birth control to maintain that level of sexual brevity ad nauseum. You want me to have access to abortions that remove all intelligent cognition about life, conception, DNA. You want me to focus on my vagina. Because that is where my real value as a person lies.
Wrong. My real value as a woman lies in the fact that I have an intelligent, inquisitive, curious and driven mind. That I want to learn about everything-Libya, Aleppo, the Ukraine-not just below-navel-gazing that the Left deems that area paramount of all concern.
Thank you, Liberal Progressive women, for being offended at Donald J. Trump. Thank you. But no thanks to the "P*ssy Revolt Nov 8" memes that are flooding the Interwebs meant to empower all intelligent women. I have seen the "P" word more times than I count from Liberal Progressive women who titter and giggle at their 'ownership' of the word. Could you have chosen something else? Could you have called it the Vagina Revolt? No? Oh, that's right, because you want to use the same insulting derogatory term for vagina that your accused uses.
Donald Trump said it once. You're repeating it daily in your protests. Get over it. Your 'ownership' and entitlement of the coarse word doesn't make any more powerful or liberated. It just makes you look uncreative, unimaginative, desperate and well, sad. You are really the definition of desperation. You're so much more than the cat.
I am here to tell you.
You are so much more than the cat.
Had he insulted your intelligence you wouldn't have been so vocal (because let's face it-he has. Just like every other sitting President.)
Had he insulted your capacity to mother you wouldn't have been so vitriolic(because let's face it-you're taught all the time how you're not ready to be a mother. The abortion industry thrives on that religion.)
But because he talked about what you deem defines YOU as a HUMAN-your vagina-you're apoplectic.
I'm not concerned about men sexually assaulting me. Particularly Donald J Trump or for that matter William J Clinton. I'm just not. I'm also not concerned that the words or actions of two old rich men are going to hold any weight on how I live my life.
What DOES concern me, both as a woman, and a mother, is that the society who looks askance at Trump but glorifies the objectification of women. Who scolds Trump but blanks out their tween daughter singing along to how "whips and chains excite" her. Who defends books like Fifty Shades of Gray (I read the first novel, btw, in full disclosure. If you can call it a novel. I never read the second one because there were two things that kept coming back to me: one, the main character spoke as if she was a 12-year old girl (ew). The writing for an adult female was appalling. The second thing was this was such an overexaggeration of how tolerant the female anatomy can be to abuse. Having rapid-fire sex five days out of seven doesn't take into consideration the strong possibility of a whopping case of cystitis. I'm just too well-read in human anatomy and physiology to get past the fact that the main female character would be doubled over with a raging kidney infection for the second half of the book. )
Yep. I went there. I talked about the female sexual health. I am a sexually active heterosexual female. I can "go there". Because I am woman.
Want to know who "can't" go there? Men.
Unless of course you are a male Doctor of Medicine in the fields of Obstetrics, Gynecology, Nephrology...
The greatest insult of all though was the beaming face of our fearless Leader, Barack Hussein Obama (you remember him-of the Cambridge 'ribs and p*ssy fame) who is pictured sitting with his two beautiful daughters Sasha and Malia. Papa Barry is going to tell you what a real feminist looks like.
No. You're not. I'm not going to take a lesson in gender equality from a male. I'm just not. I'm not going to break out the notebook and take copious notes on female empowerment and feminism from a person swinging d*ck. Excuse me. Such irony that we are continuing the pattern of patriarchy and male power and male dominance by giving Obama air time to teach us all on what being a woman is. How could we ever as women know what it means to be a feminist without a man telling us what that looks like? We need a man to tell us what that means? Hardly. That my friends is the most powerful tool (pardon the pun) that men in this society have hold over us. They are given the ownership of definition. They produce the films, teach the classes, hold the seminars, give grants to the abortion clinics, all of them empower themselves to keep women under their thumb. We look to the manchild to give us knowledge.
But just like Eve did way back in the day, we seek wisdom. But our male-dominated society gives us only knowledge.
You know you want it.
It makes things complicated for men when women are wise. We can be all-knowing, but to be wise is a weapon that men cannot defeat.
Men have always defined what our role is. Sadly, in increasing manner, our role is to be the "p*ssy"...the "box" that the "d*ck" can go in for Christmas. Now we seek the male paterfamilias to teach us about ourselves?
Feminist to me means this: No one having to die for your mistakes. Owning up to your capacity to think, to feel and to breed at times which are the best times for your life. Thinking not JUST with your vagina, but with your brain and your heart and your soul.
Choosing a mate not just on his sexual prowess (thanks, porn) but on his capacity to view you as an equal partner and a lifemate. It means being respected by other women for the choices you make on how you want to raise your family. If you want to work outside the home. If you want to stay in the home and work. All of the different angles of this feminist cube we call woman.
So come November, I'm not going to host a P*ssy Revolt. I'm not going to vote with my vagina. I'm going to think long and hard about what the best thing for our country is and I'm going to vote accordingly.
Not based on what any man told me to do. That, my friends, is why words about my female genitalia do not cause me a second thought. Men who use that language and women who support men viewing other women's have nary a second thought in my daily living. They are just reflections of a society (11 years old now) that is broken and continues to be broken. The society that teaches my daughters that they aren't thin enough or that they needed padded black bras in seventh grade, and thong underwear to avoid panty lines in middle school. The society that teaches our boys that words like "Bitch" and "Cunt" and "Pussy" are all appropriate names to call the girls we are in love with.
So Yes in case you were wondering, Hillary and Michelle, and Lena and Amy and Sarah and all of you other true 'feminists' who are acting as champions of the modern societal ethos---mine is fine.
And I am wise enough to know how to keep it that way.
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