I Pithed All Over

First about how I spent yesterday.

And then about how I spent today. I left out the crying part, but did a little more feministing.

In Which I Fail

The truth is that Mike Turner made me cry. And now I’m hiding in the bathroom to type about it, so that, if I die of mortification, the Butcher can at least tell people I went out like the King.  I wasn’t upset; I was mad.  But as you know if you are a woman, sometimes the old body does not cooperate with the brain, so basically, even though I was pissed off, it all came out like I was a hysterical mess.

And I am deeply mortified.

And I am embarrassed to be deeply mortified.  I just know that among the reasons that women aren’t taken seriously in this society is that there’s a perception that we’re too emotional, that we’re not tough enough to cut it.  And I, myself, was too emotional and not tough enough to cut it.

The thing is, though, that I cannot let go of the fact that we are real people here in this state, and that the things the legislature does really affects people and, in some cases, really hurts them. I intellectually understand that people make strategic decisions for all kinds of reasons, but sitting there listening to Mike Turner talk about how folks have to vote how they do in order to keep getting reelected and how he never sees women’s groups up on the Hill for any reason other than abortion and dogging on women’s groups for not supporting this piece of legislation or that just upset me so damn much.

Because you know a phrase you never hear out of a politician’s mouth?  Men’s groups.

But we, we’re supposed to get with the program, to learn to act like any other motherfucking special interest group.

More than half of the god damn population and we’re doing it wrong because we’re not acting like the NRA or the National Association of Podiatrists.

So, yeah, it pissed me off. And the big bad feminist proved herself to be a typical woman.

God, it just fucking sucked.

In other news, it was good to see everyone, though, and on my way over I got to meet Dianne Stevens and her family and they were charming and wonderful and they gave me succulents!  So, that was nice.

Monday Morning Coming Down

1. I read this over at Andrew Sullivan’s and I think it sums up what scares the shit out of me about discourse in this country–“The second point is the fact that despite the fact that his material is so readily available at the click of a Google button, so many people rely on ideologues to filter the information they take in and who treat that information as fact (which it is not) rather than advocacy (which it is).”–with the advent of the internet, you can find stuff out for yourself.  But instead, we’re still playing politics like it’s a game and we’re all just fans who take soundbites as our rallying cries.

2.  Seriously, I was watching CNN last night trying to learn more about the guy they’ve arrested in the Tiller murder and the talking head said something like “Will the murder of a controversial abortion doctor affect Obama’s Supreme Court nomination?” in that big serious voice way talking heads have and then the very next thing he said was “Was Susan Boyle robbed of a victory in [whatever show she was on, sorry, I forget]?” in that same serious voice.  As if those two things have equal weight, as if one subject is just as serious as the next.  It was so disgusting and I think that kind of shit probably happens all the time, but you just are so used to it, you don’t notice it.  It takes something to jar you for a second to make you aware of just how trivializing and stupifying our news is.

3.  I mean, for gods’ sake, there is an E! network.  So, if I want news about entertainment, I can go over there and watch.

4.  HB0238 prevents felons from knowingly owning vicious dogs.  I have mixed emotions.  On the one hand, I’m concerned that folks will just decide that there are certain breeds we all just “know” are vicious and that will be the standard they use.  On the other hand, I welcome legislation that will keep fighting dogs out of the hands of dog fighters.

5.  I think GoldnI’s post is very good, especially how it gets into the broader implications of why someone would choose to murder Dr. Tiller in his own church–that it, like the Knoxville incident, is about religious fundimentalists sending a message to ordinary religious folks.

6.  Via S-Town Mike, I learned that the Tennessean thinks that a development like the May Town Center is a good idea, but questions putting it in such an out of the way location.  I have to admit that the more I read up on MTC and learn about it, the more I have to agree.  It is a very cool idea.  Putting it in Bell’s Bend is just butt-ass stupid and the insistance upon putting it in Bell’s Bend even in the face of how stupid it is seems to just be about making the Mays some money.  Doing something like this at the fairgrounds is an interesting idea worth discussing.  Or shoot, look at the land between White’s Creek Pike and 24 along Briley.  That’s already got good access.