I might have emailed this to y’all a while back, but it’s worth watching over and over. Pluck, pluck, pluck away.

It seems to be local news day, and while it’s been good for the environment it’s been bad for those of us not making the median income in Seattle.

First I ran across this bit on the Stranger’s Blog:

City Calls $1,022 a Month “Affordable “
Posted by ERICA C. BARNETT at 03:48 PM
The city council’s housing committee just voted to put off a motion that would grant $1.5 million in tax breaks to a U District developer in exchange for “affordable” rental units that would cost nearly $200 more than the average rent for the neighborhood. In exchange for the tax break, the developer, Lothlorien Apartments, would make 30 percent of its units “affordable” to renters making up to 70 percent of the Seattle median, or $38,150 for one person. For a one-bedroom, that works out to $1,022 a month; for a studio, $953. The average rent for a one-bedroom in the U District is between $757 and $843, depending on whose numbers you believe. Although the postponement won’t likely change the deal offered to Lothlorien, the Seattle Displacement Coalition’s John Fox said today’s discussion “shows the council is serious about reconsidering the criteria” for the tax-break program.

Reconsidering the criteria for tax breaks is great, but they might want to reconsider the guidelines they put on the Section 8 housing program last year while they are at it. Seattle Housing Authority, in an effort to increase the number of people it serves, drastically lowered payment standards and changed minimum occupancy levels (that may be in violation of HUD guidelines) in August of 2005. Now that the economy is going again and rents are on the rise, the lowest income Seattle residents are going to be pushed out into the suburbs in an effort to find housing that is within the payment guidelines, or will find themselves struggling to stay in the city when their rents eat up a larger portion of their incomes. The new guidelines set the rent for a one bedroom apartment in Seattle at $762 including utilities. Knock off the SHA average of $34 per month if the only utility the tenant pays for separately is electric, and the real rental allowance for a one bedroom apartment is $728. If you use the lowball Seattle Times rents then the only areas that fit the voucher standards are White Center, Beacon Hill, Ranier Valley and North Seattle.

This isn’t the first time SHA has had a problem with keeping the guidelines too low. Tenants in 2002 claimed that they were paying far above the 30 to 40 percent of their income (the standard set by HUD) because SHA kept the voucher guidelines low and tenants had to make up the difference between what their landlords charged and what SHA would allow. The 2005 guidelines lowered the ceilings even further.

Expanding the Section 8 program so that more people can participate is good, but not if it pushes the poorest people in the city even further into poverty. Either more units need to be created that match the rental standard or the rental standard has to be increased. I don’t have a problem with giving a tax break to guarantee more low income housing access, but the guidelines used for those tax breaks should probably mirror the city’s own rental standards. Requiring developers to offer more units at SHA levels in exchange for tax breaks would increase the number of truly “affordable” units that are available.

King County is going to join the Chicago Climate Exchange. Yay.

The only negative thing I’ve got is make sure the standards aren’t set to low or the market won’t have any value.

From the Washington Post:

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves — and to be treated by the health care system — as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

That’s right chickies. Since you may someday get pregnant you should act like you are about to be pregnant all the fucking time.

No mention that a woman ought to be given advice by their doctors about how to stay healthy because it would be beneficial to her own health. No, it’s all about the health of a potential fetus.

Experts acknowledge that women with no plans to get pregnant in the near future may resist preconception care.

Ya think? Now why on earth would a woman with no plans to get pregnant possibly be resistant to being treated like a womb with legs? Just for that I am going to smoke an entire pack of Marlboro 100’s, drink a couple of vodka tonics and seriously neglect my folic acid intake. While I’m at it I’m gonna lick lead paint from walls and clean litter boxes with my bare hands.

So I’m not Peruvian, details smetails. But this story of an ancient female mummy discovered in Peru made me tingly. (Via CNN by way of Salon).

The presence of gold jewelry and other fine items indicates the mummy was that of an important person, but anthropologist John Verano of Tulane University, said the researchers are puzzled by the presence of war clubs, which are not usually found with females

Bone scaring shows that she gave birth at least once. So she was a kick-ass warrior mama. My kinda girl indeed.

While finding warrior women buried with weapons is not common in Peru, a few years ago some archeologists thought they found the origins of the Amazon warrior myth in eastern Europe and traced DNA from a burial site (complete with weapons) to a modern girl in Mongolia.

Archeology rocks.

The kid is at the end of 5th grade and will be going off to middle school next year. As part of “transitioning” he is getting 5 hours of HIV/AIDS education at school. So far I am not impressed with the quality, but being that I am hugely progressive on the issue of comprehensive sex education I doubt that any school program could include the kind of information I want my child to have.

I have a kind of no-censor policy when it comes to talking about sex with the kid. This doesn’t mean he gets graphic descriptions of my sex life, but that instead of doing that “shh, kids in the room” when non-personal discussions of sex come up I let them continue knowing that the kid is listening. I know that no matter how open I am about it, kids (particularly mine) are embarrassed about discussing this stuff with a parent. So I figure he’ll learn some stuff through osmosis of adult conversations and then I answer his questions honestly when he has them.

The easy part of the sex ed discussions is the biology. How are babies made, what changes is your body going to go through, what are std’s (after watching a commercial about HPV the other day I had to explain to the kid about the government withholding the HPV vaccine because they would rather see women die than have sex). But what is going to be more difficult is explaining the emotional and pleasurable aspects of sex.

I know one thing. When it becomes appropriate I am getting him this book. It’s a great how-to (and we all know that teenage boys, while having lots of enthusiasm, don’t often have a lot of skill).

But what about the emotional part? It would be hypocritical of me to tell him that he should only have sex when he’s in love (I don’t). But I don’t want him to discount the vulnerability of being naked in front of another person either. I’m gonna have to think carefully about how to present it to him so that he knows that sex is nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed by but is also not to be treated lightly.

It’s the day before payday. I have $14.00 to my name and I am out of smokes. I am standing in line at the store to get smokes (because someone will DIE if I don’t have nicotine- not a threat, just a reality) . Then this little Economist cover catches my eye.

I had to buy it. The article is ho-hum. Who will be the Decider’s foreign policy buddy when Blair is gone? No one except maybe Angela Merkel of Germany (blah). It’s lonely at the top, but that’s what you get for being the feeble-minded cobag standing on a heap of shit that you’ve created.

UPDATE: Preliminary skimming of the Economist shows that spending $4.99 on strength of cover is not a good investment. Would have been a fine investment if stuck on plane (I always read the Economist and Atlantic Monthly on airplanes). In depth thing on Poland could be interesting.

Tonight was the finale of the West Wing and like a good little blue-stater I watched. It was mediocre as far as finales go, but I was still reminded that this was one of the only places on television for the last 8 years where my opinions were reflected back at me. Not in the news, or the talking head shows on Sunday, but in a fictional television show about the White House.

On the finale tonight, as the super-fast moving crews were cleaning out President Bartlett’s personal items, the camera lingered on a book by the French philosopher Michel Foucault. I don’t know which particular text it was, but just the fact that this fictional president would read a dense and difficult philosopher like Foucault is what resonates with me the most. The show didn’t treat us like we are idiots. The current administration and even the real Democratic Party do.

The most timely Foucault tome that could have come off that fictional president’s shelf would have been Discipline and Punish, which is about the creation of the panopticon state. In the last few weeks we have become aware of the extent the current administration will go to monitor and spy on Americans through the domestic wiretapping and gathering of phone records. Foucault was well aware of the extremes the state (and a subdued society within it) would go to in order to keep constant surveillance and control.

So our fictional president reads Foucault-a French, Gay, one-time communist philosopher- while our real president seeks to create the nightmarish state that Foucault envisioned and feared, has insulted the French, and is working hard to keep gays from having the right to marry and thinkers from having the right to think. Reality bites.

Maybe now that there is nothing on television that reflects our idealism and intelligence we can get to the hard work of finding a president who does think and read (My Pet Goat not included).

One more for mother’s day- then I promise to quit.
Lyrics from Sleater Kinney’s Step Aside

Will you come knocking on my door?
Pull me pick me off the floor
I might need something to get me going
Feel it one time
IT ROLLS
dig it
When I feel worn out
when I feel beaten
Like a used up shoe or a cake half-eaten
There’s only one way to keep on feeling
Move it up one time
IN TIME
dig it
This mama works till her back is sore
But the baby’s fed and the tunes are pure
So you’d better get your feet on the floor
Move it up one time
TO THE BEAT
These times are troubled these times are rough
There’s more to come but you can’t give up
Why don’t you shake a tail for peace and love
Move it up one time FOR LOVE
JANET CARRIE
CAN YOU FEEL IT
Knife through the heart of our exploitation
LADIES ONE TIME CAN YOU HEAR IT
Disassemble our discrimination
When violence rules the world outside
And the headlines make me want to cry
It’s not the time to just keep quiet
Speak up one time
TO THE BEAT

It’s mother’s day. Why the fuck isn’t someone bringing me a vodka tonic and lillies in bed with a nice side of some fried salty meat product? The Kid did go to the store all by himself and bring me donuts, but he forgot the half and half for coffee so I am mostly caffine free today. Blahhhhh.

But is this what mother’s day is really supposed to about? One day a year where we offer sappy, craptastic platitudes ala Hallmark so that we can forget everything they do the rest of the year. Just thinking about it makes me need a vodka tonic more than ever.

How about we go back the original idea of mother’s day. “What is that?” you may be thinking. Originally started by Julia Ward Howe as part of the Women’s Peace Crusade, the idea was that mother’s would no longer tolerate the death of their children in war or the death of the children on the other side of the battle.

In her own words:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts, whether
your baptism be that of water or of fears!
Say firmly: “We will not have
great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
“Our husbands shall not come
to us reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
“Our sons shall not
be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity,
mercy, and patience.
“We women of one country will be too tender of those of
another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the
bosom of the devasted earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm,
Disarm!”
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice! Blood does not
wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often
forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all
that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them
meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then
solemnly take counsel with each other as the means whereby the great human
family can live in peace,
And each bearing after her own time the sacred
impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

I will arise, just as soon as the Kid makes coffee. Really, I’m gonna get to it.