The Kid has just informed me that they make an anime version of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple Mysteries. The Kid lurves watching Miss Marple on PBS, more than any other British mystery series.

So YAY! I love that a character written by a woman, who is a smart, non-sexbot grandma who solves mysteries is now available in cartoon form for the boy to watch.

She recently wrote that she will not support any Democratic men that have profited from misogyny.

I’m taking it a step further. I will not vote for any Democratic candidate who has used, condoned, or ignored misogyny used as a campaign tactic.

So I am not voting for Jim McDermott for congress critter this time around. But the only other option is a Rethuglican.

So quick kids- who should I write in. I prefer a woman, though I am more than happy to give a shout out to feminist friendly dudes.

I go vote at 5pm. You got until 4:55 to come up with the best suggestion.

Feminism.
What the fuck is feminism nowadays anyway?
When “feminists” find it perfectly OK to attack a woman because she belongs to the wrong party, because she doesn’t 100% agree with their views and because she is basically choosing to run her own life the way she sees fit, well then they can take that branch of feminism and shove it up their own hypocritical ass.
So, we have heard that Amagad, Sarah Palin charged victims for their own rape kits when se was mayor of Wasilla. Even people I used to respect like Shakes’ Sister and so on went along with this.
Guess what ?
it’s kinda not true.

As in “it’s a lie”

As in

“you have spread a lie in order to discredit Sarah Palin”

as in

“you fucking suck”

behold

Wasilla Police Chief Angela Long says:

I found no documents within the police department showing sexual assault victims
were billed for forensic exams. Nor have I been able to find any documentation
regarding a decision to bill those victims. Case reports don’t contain financial
billing information.
Financial records are retained by the Finance
Department, and the Finance Director was unable to find any records of billing
within records still being held.

The Wasilla PD can find no evidence that victims were billed for rape kits. The only other city government entity (the Finance Department) that would possibly have such information only keeps billing records for six years, and is therefore of little use, as it no longer keeps records that would have been created under Palin’s administration.
Outside of Wasilla, however, other government officials and experts have testified that there were no known instances of rape victims being bill for examinations, and the best evidence of this may be the minutes of the committee that helped draft the state legislation.
On March 6, 2000, Del Smith, the Deputy Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, testified in support of HB 270 (the bill outlawing the billing of rape kits) and the minutes noted:

He commented that he does not think that a victim ought to even see a bill
related to sexual assault whether it is on their insurance form or not. He
emphasized that a police agency investigating a crime should pay because that is
the cost of doing business in the collection of evidence no matter what the
crime; he does not know of any police agency that has requested payment.

Testifying in front of the same committee, Lauree Hugonin, Director, Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (ANDVSA) noted that “billings have not come from police agencies but have come from hospitals.” Trisha Gentle, Executive Director, Council on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault noted that police departments were willing to pay for the exams, but that it was an internal decision on the part of the hospital as to who pays the hospital bill.
Despite the spin recently being applied by astroturfing Obama supporters, there was never any evidence that victims were being charged by any police departments including Wasilla’s Police Department under Palin. Testimony instead indicates it was callous hospitals that attempted to bill victims on rare occasions of insensitivity.
It is also true that protective mechanisms were in place in Alaska that would have picked up the cost of such kits, even if State law had not changed in 2000.
The State of Alaska Violent Crimes Compensation Board (VCCB) was “was established in 1971 by the Alaskan Legislature to help bring financial relief to innocent victims of violent crimes in Alaska.”
Among the things the VCCB would pay for are the medical bills of victims of violent crimes (including sexual assaults), counseling, and transportation to medical and counseling services.
A former worker with VCCB notes via email:

Rape kits and other medical expenses of this type would be paid by the VCCB,
100% guaranteed. The City of Wasilla could have technically ‘charged’ the victim
but even if they did, the VCCB would have paid the bill in full. I still know
the a few of the Board members and the supervisor and I can tell you that they
are very liberal with the way that they pay the victims bills.
Despite
claims to the contrary, there is no record that the Wasilla Police Department
ever charged rape victims under Sarah Palin’s leadership, nor were State law
enforcement or sexual assault victim’s advocates aware of such attempts anywhere
in Alaska as the proposed bill was being discussed.

As committee minutes show, the offenders experts were worried about were hospitals, not police, and not Sarah Palin.

Yes this comes form a Republican Blog. Sadly, considering that the people who used to be our friends and allies ( KOS, TalkLeft, Taylor Marsh) are no longer to be truested, maybe it is time to look farther than under our proverbial noses. His facts are solid and doccumented.

Wow. it’s like… so this was a lie that many people I used to trust and respect spread willingly without even bothering to check it?

Really?

WTF world do we live in?

Were you so fucking eager to smear her that you’d believe any fucking lie? Really?

What the fuck kind of womanhating scum are you then?

OuyangDan: does richard simmons really still love me?

me: yes, yes he soes
does

OuyangDan: oh good

me: just so you know

OuyangDan: maybe richard simmons is really The Christ
lolz

me: could be. Have you seen an image of the Richard show up in your toast?

OuyangDan: no…but there was a fatty swirl of grease from last night’s pot roast that was a strange resemblence

me: there ya go. You need to start saying “Our Richard, Who are in hot pants, hallowed be thy name”

OuyangDan: thy thighs crush evil from the heads of demons

me: Yay though I may walk through the valley of chubbie I shall not fear fat

OuyangDan: for thine sweatin’ to the oldies are w/ me

me: and thine calorie counters are ever present

OuyangDan: 😛 but nay will they judge me

me: For I am the Simmons and the Power and The Sweaty!

OuyangDan: forever and ever, amen

me: nooooo Forever and ever Raamen!

OuyangDan: Doh! I figured that was FSM specific and carbohydratically offensive to our simmons deity

Ruth, me and the Puppy are all sitting on the couch last night

Puppy (who I tease mercilessly for being a dork): I think I finally figured something out about you.

Me: What?

Puppy: All this freedom and choice stuff you talk about is just a cover. Really you want to rule the world and you think you could do it better than everyone else. That’s why you were a cheerleader and you need to be the boss.

Ruth: I totally see that!

Me: What! No! This isn’t fair! Besides I would make a damn fine benevolent dictator.

Ruth: You’d make a better benevolent dictator than just about anyone, but what he said is still true.

Later that evening…..

Puppy: See everyone thinks that they would make the best leader.

Me: But I actually would. People would have way more fun AND work would still get done.

Puppy: Everyone says that.

Me: Did you have fun this weekend?

Puppy: Yes

Me: Did we get a whole lot of shit done? (note we moved a 300 pound TV between the two of us)

Puppy: Yes

Me: Point proven

Puppy: I can see Alaska from my house!

Since the Puppy has insinuated that I have the same level of qualifications as Sarah Palin to run the country (in my case, the world- I’m ambitious) I think I am going to break down the multitude of ways that coordinating this move qualifies me to be the benevolent dictator of the world.

1) The first step in world domination is land acquisition. I have certainly moved up from my little townhouse in the ghetto to the ginormous. This move required diplomatic relations with Ruth and Bernard, first in negotiating my exile from the ghetto into their bedroom. From there we needed to acquire a space big enough for real conquering to take place without any unwanted border crossings (bedroom doors that close go along way in border protection people!)

2) Money- no government can function without it. I think I did pretty well at rallying the loyal readers to raise the money for land acquisition (I/e new house fund)

3) Coordinate the invasion- well i could have been better at raising troops, but I did end up making diplomatic promises to one friend to help her move out of her 3rd story apartment in July. I also did as most leaders do and over taxed the army (i/e the Puppy) with promises of a GIANT Bonus if he played muscle man. I did in fact follow through on the bonus payment, I think that makes me better than many former presidents who promised things to the military. I also promised the youth his own WOW subscription if he helped all weekend without whining.

4) Make moving speeches: I have been doing my damnedest to make sure everyone knows just how grateful i am for all the help.

5) Delegate: See getting the Puppy to do things like move Bernard’s bowflex machine up 3 flights of stairs.

So that’s just the moving stuff. Additionally I’ve been to more countries than Sarah Palin. I’ve gotten to Level 12 on Know your World (Even McCain thinks we’re still in a world where Czechoslovakia is a country). I’ve actually studied International Relations, Political Economy, macro Economics and history enough to know that current plans for saving the economy are crap.

And most importantly- I would only be ruler of the world if a majority of the world voted for me to take office. I guess that kinda does in the dictator part, but wevs.

I do not like Michelle Obama. I hated her hypocrisy in the primary, her lies about her and Barack growing up poor and her attacks on Hillary. I disliked her convoluted discourse at the DNC Convention in which she went quite a logn way to insert the racially charged “brother” and “sister” in her speech. Dogwhistling is an art, and that wasn’t particularly subtle about it.

I dislike her chanelling of Jackie O, and her very obvious submissiveness. I dislike the fact that a woman who is so proud of her race still feels the need to burn and straighten her hair in order to make it “look white” (this was pointed to me by a woman of color I used to work with- who also straightened her hair. She said ” you know, I HAVE to straighten my hair, I need the job. She doesn’t. She’s rich. If she was so proud of her race she should have at least accept her hair”. ABB, whose hypocrisy I decry since turning Obamazoid, had a long time ago a good piece of writing about the politics of black hair).

However, I do not HATE her. It was pointed to me by some people that, by virtue of looking somewhat Caucasian, I enjoy privilege she didn’t have. I don’t know about that- it might be. I don’t know what it’s like growing up black in the USA, but I’m pretty sure growing up Jewish in communist Romania is not quite what some third wavers understand by “white privilege”.
Living as an immigrant who has to put up with being regarded as “not white enough to be white in the UK” might also be a bit out of their area of experience or expertise. In the USA I was labelled Latina and that was that.

But that’s not the point. The point is that while I dislike her, I do not hate her.

At my blog I wrote extensively about my recently departed aunt. I remember being about 14, and one of her daughters had somekind of argument at school with another girl. said daughter manipulated the guys in her class to attack that other girl with the most vile and disgusting insults, to the point where the poor girl had to change schools to escape.

Upon finding out what was going on, my aunt gave both her daughters and me ( just by virtue of being there I guess) a speech. She had a raspy voice from smoking 3 packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day, she was tiny and her face wrinkled and she was strong like old trees are strong.

” Do you think these boys like you? Do you think you’re special and you’ll never be treated like that because you’re cute? You’re a fool. Anyone who thinks of one woman like that thinks it about ALL women. They won’t tell it to you while they find you useful, but don’t you ever forget that these boys hate women, and they hate you too. When you won’t be useful to them you will find it out.

You’re not special, and you’re not even human to them. For these boys, hating women is like a drug- they tasted it once and liked it because everybody likes to feel that they are inherently better than someone else. That girl is not in your school anymore, but they will find someone else to hate, and one day that person will be you.

They don’t hate ONE woman, they hate ALL women. We’re nothing but cunts to them, to fuck and throw away and nothing more, or maybe if we’re good enough and meek enough to clean after them and put up with them and wash their shit streaked pants and stinky socks.

What they said to that girl? That is what they think of you, and me and every other woman on the planet. And they’re gonna think that until the day they die, because that’s how life is. “

The women who indulge in hating Sarah Palin the way Michelle indulged in hating and attacking Hillary or worse? They should know better. They are just fanning the fire that will one day burn them as well.

I don’t hate Michelle Obama. She is rich and married to a guy who might just become the president of the USA. I’m a poor white collar immigrant living from paycheck to paycheck. I live in a small flat that gets so cold at night that water freezes in the ducts. Sometimes I have to make a choice between a buying a bus ticket or getting lunch.

However, I have it better than she does. I can go out and speak my mind. She did that in the primary. She isn’t allowed to do that anymore. I’m not forced to look like a dead woman and act like a demure little thing to serve a man’s political ambition. Also, unlike her, I didn’t have to have a man accompany me to a job interview to supervise it.

I wonder if she realizes that the same people who attacked Hillary like rabid dogs- for her husband’s profit- will attack her in the same manner without one second thought. I wonder if the alleged feminists who indulged in Palin and Hillary bashing understand that when they allowed and contributed to that, they smacked in the face any woman who may have considered entering politics.

I wonder whether they understand that the message they sent out- that it’s OK to drag a woman through the mud if we don’t like her, translates into it being OK to harass and drag through the mud any woman that someone doesn’t like. Which is all women.

Because Ruth and Bernard have been so awesome to me, and because they both have midterms on Monday (and Bernard is just getting over pneumonia) I told them I would move everything.

Well, almost everything anyways.

And I am fucking tired y’all. Though the Puppy, the big, gorgeous, muscley Puppy, did come over and do a lot of the heavy lifting last night. (OMG- after years of dating eggheads with giant brains who lift nothing heavier than a laptop- can I tell you how sexy it is to see a guy just pick up an entire heavy dresser by himself and carry it upstairs. HOTNESS!) And the Puppy is coming over tonight to help move some more (and to make me french toast for breakfast tomorrow- yum!)

But in the mean time I have mountains of books to move, a headache, and there are unmentionable parts of my body that are sore.

So consider this an open thread- wanna bitch, blogwhore or just babble at me- have at it.