Work Your Brain — 09/04/06

Women’s Rights

• Class warfare at Starbucks — lambert @ CorrenteWire writes about how class warfare starts over breast milk. Companies are far more likely to be accomodating to executive mothers who need breaks during the day to pump breast milk, but the women who work in the stores and “on the line” have to “barricade themselves in small restrooms intended for customers, counting the minutes left in their breaks.” There’s a lot of pressure to breast-feed in this day and age, but it’s easy to get discouraged and give up under less than ideal conditions.
• A Mystery From the Time When Abortion Was Illegal and Dangerous — olvlzl @ ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES remembers a horrible, deadly practice from the pre-Roe era — infanticide.
  

  The woman who owned the trunk was in her 60s in 1983. The papers say she was called a “pillar of the community” when she lived in the area. People who remembered her said that at the time the babies had been killed she often appeared to be pregnant but she never had children. The authorities found her but she wouldn’t say anything about the trunk. I don’ t know of any legal pressure put on her to talk. The fact that there were five corpses of infants wrapped in newspapers from different years certainly suggests serial infanticide, not a misdemeanor in anyone’s book.

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Tags: Starbucks, Women's Rights, breastfeeding, class warfare, abortion, baby snuffer, infancticide, Islamofascism, propaganda, War on Terror, WWII, Osama bin Laden, Donald Rumsfeld, Iraq, Domino Theory, Hitler, whistleblowers, Russell Tice, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Department of Justice, 101st Fighting Keyboarders, Fox News, David Warren, Debbie Schussel, Kathleen Parker, Mark Steyn, Glenn Greenwald, hypocrisy

Leak Hypocrisy

169: Number of days that elapsed between Dana Priest’s article on secret prisons and the firing of the supposed leaker. 1,014 and counting: Number of days that have elapsed since Valerie Plame’s identity was published without anyone having been fired. [“Leak Hypocricy”(Think Progress)]

Tags: Conspiracy Theories, politics, Valerie Plame, Dana Priest, secret prisons, CIA, leaks, hypocrisy

Bush Remains Untouchable

Well, apparently there isn’t going to be an investigation into Bush’s post-9-11 warrantless wiretapping. It pisses me off becauce I know that if the roles of the parties were reversed Rush and O’Reilly and the Republicans would be calling for an investigation and an impeachment and saying it was the American public’s right to know.

It’s even more suspicious after all the threatening and posturing Frist did last week when it looked like the committee in question might indeed vote to investigate.

Instead, as a compromise, a new seven-member subcommittee is being formed to scrutinize the eavesdropping under a plan approved by the White House. The proposed plan would authorize the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without a warrant for 45 days but require the White House to justify every decision to continue beyond that timeframe. The legislative proposal, titled the Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006, also would force the eavesdropping program to cease after five years unless renewed by Congress. [“Senate panel rejects bid for NSA inquiry” (Reuters.com)]
I’m telling you there is something very wrong going on in Washington D.C. Some very bad mojo indeed.

Tags: politics, warrantless wiretapping, George W. Bush, Republicans, hypocrisy, Terrorist Surveillance Act

Political Hypocrisy

I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on the crime so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation were not a waste of time and dollars.

– Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Meet the Press, October 2005

Quite a few Americans thought the same thing during Clinton’s administration and were highly disappointed that the huge amount of tax dollars Ken Starr spent went to nothing more than a perjury charge, which by the way, could have led to five years in prison. Clinton was never indicted on a “more serious charge”other than his “perjury technicality”. Apparently, perjury is o.k. as long as you are a Republican.

Tags: hypocrisy, politics

More Discombobulated Apathy

I know that I’ve been kind of quiet the last week or two on the subjects of politics and causes and world events. To be honest, I’m feeling kind of numb about it all.

There’s been stories from New Orleans about white cops beating an old black man and people being arrested on minor or trumped up charges, jailed in fenced areas of the open areas of the train station over night with no beds, blankets, or other accomodations, and then forced to plead guilty and work in chain gangs cleaning up New Orleans. There’s been stories of corruption. There’s been stories of FEMA still fumbling about down there and people still in need. There’s been not-so-pretty stories of the place I used to call home sweet home and I’m not so proud of them, though some of them don’t surprise me. I guess I feel like here’s our chance to show the world we aren’t as bad as the rumors and stereotypes and here New Orleans is living up to it all. So, I’ve been watching and reading the news and the blogosphere with quiet frustration.

And then there’s the indictments and Rove and the dissatisfaction of the conservative Right and Meirs and Bush slipping in the polls and you’d think I’d be excited, but once again I’m watching with some apathy because I really do believe that this administration is untouchable and not because they have that much power but because the Democrats are fumbling about happy to point fingers and blame the Republicans for all the bad in the world instead of doing something, anything about it. Even the press that seemed to be walking on eggshells so long seems to be waking up from their glassy-eyed-see-no-evil stupor and yet, it’s really not enough and maybe it’s too late. And all those polls out there…what do they mean? If no one acts on them, then what’s the point? I sometimes wonder if people aren’t acting because it means they’ll have to admit that maybe they made a mistake in believing something wrong. Who wants to admit they were wrong? Even to themselves?

And maybe it’s just the new migraine painkiller, but I’m feeling kind of like I’m watching a drama of hypocrisy play out in the world…hypocrisy from all sides and short-term memory must have a hand in it. And I’m helpless to do anything. Writing letters and calling representatives doesn’t seem to make a difference.

I almost hope Nader wins in 2008. That would show everyone, wouldn’t it?

Tags: discombobulated, hypocrisy, apathy

What Hypocrites These Mortals Be!

Remember back in August when I wrote how my friend made annoying comments implying that the Red Cross was somehow communist or whatever. Mind you this friend is one of those rhetoric spewing Republicans who are always talking about how people should take care of themselves and not live off of government money, etc.

It occurred to me last night that he said this about a week before Hurricane Katrina hit. Of all my friends, he probably lost the least but he was the first to get his grubby hands on the Red Cross money and aid and the first to get himself and his live-in girlfriend each $2K from FEMA.

His girlfriend sent me an email telling me to thank my mom for all her hard Red Cross work because they never realized how much Red Cross did for people.

Hmmmm.

Tags: hypocrisy, Red Cross, Hurricane Katrina

Another Blue Day

I’m having one of those blue days, I guess. I woke up with one of those morning migraines, which is still nagging at me. My cat had thrown up all over my bathroom counter. My pants are too tight. The news is depressing me and quite frankly I didn’t want to go to work today. I certainly dont’ want to take the cat to the vet.

I feel like I’m on the verge of tears and for no particular reason or perhaps for every reason. Reading/Listening to the news is certainly no help. It just all seems so pointless today. I am so depressed by the current news — the missing people, the dead marines, the Bush administration’s lies, the trapped submarine, the slain toddler, hate crimes against Muslims, hypocrisy everywhere, the fact that nothing seems to be getting better and the blind are still following blindly like the lemmings they’ve been trained to become.

I want to do something but where to start?

It’s sort of like how I feel about my apartment. It’s such a mess and I feel so overwhelmed by the mess that I’m paralyzed by it all. I don’t know which part to attack first so I sit and watch the outside from my rocker and ignore the mess so it gets messier.

I don’t know if I should join Green Peace or the Peace Corps or donate my savings to feeding the starving children in Niger or just get a new hairstyle. Should I try to start a recycling collection at my apartment complex or volunteer to help protest the war — there are these people who stand on street corners in black all day here holding signs in silent protest of the war.

And worse, all of it is so overwhelming that I don’t even want to blog about anything in particular — no snarky, smartass observations, no pointing out what should be obvious. I don’t want to talk about it…but I can’t help but feel like I need to do something.

Anything.

Tags: migraine, depression, Me, hypocrisy

Get Over It Already

I am so over the mistruths, untruths, rumors and mudslinging. I’m over the people (on both sides) who appear to have no real sense of humor and who will believe anything true or not that agrees with what they want to be true. I’m tired of people being nasty and rude to each other just because of a difference of opinion.

Get over it all already; neither candidate is perfect, certainly neither is God, and neither is the devil incarnate.

If you aren’t willing to have an intelligent conversation without spew hatred, negativity, rhetoric, and propoganda, take heed to the old adage that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

That said. Get informed, get an opinion, and vote for something, but don’t try to ram your opinion, informed or uninformed, down anyone’s throat. It doesn’t help anyone’s opinion of you or your candidate and could have the opposite effect you wanted.

Tags: politics, hypocrisy, mud-slinging

Horrors of the Day

More horrors coming from the Middle East today as video feed from a website shows a non-military American being beheaded in retaliation for the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq.

Someone on a message board I’m on had the nerve to claim that Americans would never do something so horrible! Of course, she was verbally attacked because most of us are certain that there are Americans who would do something like that — even to other Americans. That sort of nightmarish thing doesn’t just happen in other countries and movies.

But I guess the question is: When is all of this evilness going to end? What will stop the chain of revenge and resentment and retaliation?

I’m not surprised at all that other countries want out of this nightmare.

***So, day four without caffeine. I had meant to exercise yesterday via The Firm Body Sculpt system’s “CardioSculpt” workout, but something snapped in me yesterday afternoon. I felt miserable and headachy and muscle achy and I was craving high-fat foods on top of feeling flushed and warm. So I had a Snicker bar and a Wendy’s chicken sandwhich and Wendy’s medium fries which unfortunately weren’t salted to my satisfaction. I then went home, unpacked a few boxes, went to bed and ate 2 rice krispy treats while I watched Wrinkle in Time, which was somewhat of a disappointment.Anyway, last night I woke up at least twice feeling all hot and sweaty but woke up comfortable this morning. I hate having those nights where I keep waking up as I don’t feel like I slept well at all.This afternoon, I’m feeling warmish again and headachy, particularly in my forehead. However, today I don’t have quite the craving to cure this with caffeine like I did the last few days. I am still craving chocolate for some reason. ***Saw a funny ad: “$167.00 is all it takes to buy Bush a One Way ticket home. Chip in $50 now.” It was paid for by John Kerry’s people. Funny.

Tags: Middle East, innocent, hypocrisy, politics, George W. Bush, discombobulated, humor