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Sep
29
Tina Fey Revists Sarah Palin on SNL
Admittedly not as funny as the first one, but still a great (and eerily spot on) skit.
Sep
29
Hounddog
I just finished watching the movie Hounddog; I received it over a week ago but because I’ve been working a lot lately, it took me a little while to get the time (and emotional energy) to sit down and watch it. On that note, waiting over a week to watch it was a big mistake because this movie is phenomenal.
Hounddog is about healing–From having to grow up way too early, from sexual assault and from betrayal; it shows life in its sometimes unpleasant and ugly, but also inspiring glory. Dakota Fanning plays a young girl in the American south who lives in a world where so much is expected from her and so much tries to destroy her; from a family who feels as if she is to grow up and even as a young child, expects her to be a woman of the house, to a sexual assault. Hounddog shows you the aftermath of sexual assault, how one can become so sick because of it, but it also shows you hope and a girl who is determined to save herself with the help of a friend.
Hounddog has had a very bumpy road thus far, from Sundance where it was criticized and deemed the ‘Dakota Fanning Rape Movie’ to online reviews that I read after watching it that tear it apart. As a survivor, I loved Hounddog and the only criticism I do have is that I wish it were longer and had a more solidified ending. I loved the hope that it gives to people watching it and most of all, a particular monologue in the movie was so powerful that one moment I was laying on my couch, taking the movie in and the next was sobbing because the words that were spoken were so dead on and were so profound that it really made the entire movie. Those words were exactly what I and what so many other survivors needed to hear and it is because of everything that is said in that one, short monologue that really sums up why no survivor can let their abuser destroy or take their spirit from them.
Every survivor of sexual assault should see this movie. It will stay with you and it will give you that gentle push that so many of us often need to speak up and break the silence surrounding sexual assault. Hounddog is a movie that exudes hope and infuses survivors with a resonating voice that says ‘I understand, it isn’t your fault, now take back what is yours.’
Cross-posted to Healing Yourself Heals the World
Sep
27
Fear No Fashion: Help Prevent Sexual Violence
PAVE (Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment) and Lather Chicago have teamed up to put together a night of fashion and fun. They are hosting a charity fashion show in an effort to raise awareness and prevent sexual violence in schools, enhance the empowerment program of PAVE and also to create a national network of affiliates all working towards preventing sexual violence.
The fashion show will take place tomorrow, September 28, in Chicago at the Cubby Bear Lounge located at 1059 W Addison St from 4pm to 8pm.
If you are in the Chicago area tomorrow and are over 21 years of age, please consider going out to support organizations dedicated to prevention and education of sexual violence. There will be complimentary drinks from 4-5pm, a fashion show featuring Evolve Intimates, Borris Powell and Christopher Anthony. In addition to the fashion shows, there will also be burlesque acts and a silent auction.
Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased here.
Sep
27
Miss the First Presidential Debate?
Or just want to watch it again to see if magically, McCain actually answers a question?
I, for one, am just delighted McCain decided the debate was worth his time and gave us this just hilarious performance.
Sep
26
What the Hell are You Talking About, Lady?
Not only does Sarah Palin not know what the Bush doctrine is, she is proving that she also has no clue whatsoever what’s going on with anything this country is up against and will have to be reformed during the next presidential administration.
Palin was recently interviewed by Katie Couric, who the next day said that Palin is “not always responsive when she’s asked questions.”
I just want to know what the hell this lady is going on about and towards the middle of this video, you can tell that Couric would also like to know what Palin is going on about and if she planned on answering the damn question she was asked in the first place. I just can’t believe you can see her looking at her notes; what did she need notes for? “I know, I’ll make a list of things to talk about when a question comes up that I don’t know how to answer!”
Makes you wonder why Palin just doesn’t go get herself a YouTube account and vlog for all of us about whatever the hell she wants to talk about so she can stop wasting the time of legitimate reporters and the American people who are conned into watching her interviews thinking that she will actually answer a question.
Sep
25
John McCain Can’t Hold Up During a Crisis
John McCain continues to assure the American people that he is not ready to become president and this time, instead of campaigning and assuring us that if he became president he would know how to take care of such a crisis, he is postponing his campaign and “focusing on the financial crisis.”
I wonder what “focusing” means, since we all know how he has focused on crises in the past (ie partying with Bush on his birthday while Katrina devastated the lives of thousands of Americans.) By showing up for the presidential debate against Obama, continuing with his campaign and focusing on the financial crisis is what we call multi-tasking and I believe that as president, you will be expected to multi-task pretty much every day of your presidency and McCain has just proven to us that he can’t. Not only that, but he is refusing to speak about the issues and refusing to defend his could-be presidential agenda; he is downright refusing to speak to the American people.
Frankly, I believe that McCain just can’t hack a debate; he’s scared. Scared that Obama would wipe the floor with his dementia-ridden, bigot, anti-woman, can’t make up his mind about anything ass on national television. This is just another notch in the bedpost that says McCain is not ready, nor will he ever be ready (or qualified) to be president of the United States. It is for that reason that McCain refused to take questions after issuing his statement that he would be backing out of the debate. This belief can also be backed up by the fact that while he is too busy “focusing” on the financial crisis to attend the debate and to appear on David Letterman, he still had time to sit down for an interview with Katie Couric.
David Letterman, of course, caught wind of the news that McCain was being interviewed by Couric and just down the street from Letterman and so he handled the situation in a fashion that only Letterman could:
I also find it a little odd that McCain wants to go and “save the country” yet skipped the Senate’s vote on the economic stimulus package. McCain doesn’t give a shit about “saving the country” or the financial crisis we’re in right now because obviously, that doesn’t apply to a man who makes over $6 million a year and he has proved time and time again that he either has no opinion on something that could stimulate or fix the economy and give people a break here and there or he is dead set against it. No, this is all because McCain’s numbers are dropping and the “Maverick” saw an opening to make it look like he is working towards doing a good thing when really, he’s just leading the people on, denying to talk to them, crushing his own campaign and I am willing to bet that in a few days, he won’t even remember that he “suspended his campaign.”
But what does this whole “suspension” thing mean? It seems as if McCain’s campaign is not suspended in the least, thus confirming that this whole thing is merely a ploy for him to skip out on the debates because he just can’t hack it.
McCain also contacted Barack Obama urging him to also postpone the debate, to which Obama replied, the next president needs to “deal with more than one thing at once.”
Exactly.
You can vote on McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign here.
Sep
22
Congratulations, Did You Pray Today?
I went to the Bloomsburg Fair two days ago with my family. (My legs and feet have been healing for the past day after over 8 hours of walking and eating) The fair is something I look forward to every year and it’s also the best place to stock up on religious fliers from Baptist and Catholic churches which you can find tents and booths for every five booths or so. I have made a habit of collecting miscellaneous fliers, brochures, pamphlets, posters, bibles and basically anything I can get my hands on that I don’t have to pay for and since (as I mentioned in my previous post) religious people are all about “informing” (*cough* converting) people over to “their side,” they usually give a great deal of stuff away for nothing. So I go through the fair, having a great time, collecting all my religious literature that I usually end up doing some sort of collage or painting around throughout the long winters here in Pennsylvania, and eating as much as humanly possible; it’s a time that should not be missed, that’s for sure.
This year was no different, except for the fact that I got to show my boyfriend what the Fair was all about and why his past 31 years on Earth have meant nothing since he has not enjoyed the essence that is the Bloomsburg Fair. Towards the end of the day I came across this huge booth for something-or-other-church-of-somewhere where I scored big time in the flier department; so much so that I couldn’t get all of my new literature into my purse before everyone started walking away and I had to catch up. Best of all, I got a free, plastic rosary that I immediately had about one-hundred different ideas for, so I wrapped it around my hand until I could get all of my fliers into my purse.
I was walking merrily along, minding my own business, trying to catch up with the rest of my family that had obviously grown tired of my collecting process by then, when all of a sudden I hear a woman’s voice squeal with delight “I see you have a rosary! Congratulations, did you pray today?” I, of course, stop and look around because by then my head has been down for far too long trying to organize everything I was carrying and who knows where this woman came from. So I look up from my loot and I am greeted with this middle-aged woman’s face, staring at me with a polite smile on her face and I look up a little more and see little baby fetuses among a table in the biggest pro-life tent I have ever seen in my life.
My aunt started yelling my name and “no” as if she is shielding me from fire, protecting me from something that has come to take me away never to return. I was still a bit shocked as I didn’t think my beloved fair would be so cruel to me, but alas I replied with a simple “Um no, I’m going to use it for something.” Of course this woman prods me and asks what, I tell her art and she looks at me like I just told her I had a bomb in my purse and says “Well it isn’t art,” to which I reply “Well, it will be.” She keeps right on talking to me in the most condescending tone I have ever heard in my life and then when I make it perfectly clear that I will not be joining her on her crusade to convert the pro-choicers by telling her I am an atheist and a feminist and that I have to be going now, she starts asking me more questions and I swear this woman was specially trained in what questions one should not ask even acquaintances or someone who was on her side of the playing field. As soon as the word feminist came out of my mouth she jumped all over it and asked me if I was gay. Not a lesbian, not homosexual, but ‘gay’ with such venom I swear her eyes turned red, smoke came charging out of her ears and she was probably trying to get god to strike me down to hell where I stood. And even after I made her fully aware that that is not a question to ask someone and it would not matter if I was gay or was a married Mormon wife with eight children she kept right on going asking me if I had ever been pregnant and why I believed it was perfectly fine to destroy children.
So I gave in. YES, I GAVE IN! I humored her in debate I knew that she couldn’t handle and I was right. By the time I was through talking to her and told her for the eighth time or so that I had to go and was through with her and this nonsense she was preaching to people who I hope know better than to listen to her, I went in for the adoption stance. “So yeah, sure, a woman can give that child up for adoption…and that child would be put into a system so crowded that they would come out of it, property of the US government at 18 years old with no life experience, no proper parenting and no real idea on how to make a life for themselves.” I really wish I was surprised by her answer, but I saw it coming five miles down the street and I see it coming every time an anti-choice person tries to get me to think religiously–She said “What happens to that child is no concern of yours, you gave them life and you are not responsible for that child after giving it up.”
So according to the book of pro-life, this means that every unwanted pregnancy should be carried to term, that child should be given up for adoption and then after that, fuck them. Who cares, they’re gone, out of your life and sitting in foster care somewhere where they are still unwanted and more than likely, with the ridiculous amount of qualifications a family must pass in order to adopt, live int hat system until they are 18 years old and are hopefully so poor that they have to join the military. According to the book of pro-life, the child that you give life and then give up for adoption will HOPEFULLY become a dead soldier.
So for the record, every child should be a wanted child and I’m sorry, but I think women are more intelligent than they are often given credit for; I believe that they have the ability to make an informed decision for themselves without having to be guilted into carrying a pregnancy to term because it would make a group of people feel better.
Her parting words to me were to be careful of what I wrote on my website and hopefully I will learn to be a slave to god.
Sorry, but I got bigger goals than that.
I refrained from getting stuck in front of the McCain/Palin booth that was down the road from this one, which I think was a wise decision.
Sep
22
Vote No on Prop 8
Same-sex couples are currently being treated equally as heterosexual couples when it comes to marriage in California, as most of us already know. Apparently many, many people are not happy with equality and have already tried to attack the legislature; over $16 million has gone in to denying same-sex couples the same, basic right as heterosexual couples in California.
A proposition being called Prop 8 is aimed to eliminate marriage equality and Californians will be voting on this proposition this fall. Go to No On Prop 8 to learn more about this.
I think it is so incredibly close-minded to think that someone can choose who they will love and spend the rest of their lives with. It is such a momentous occasion when someone finds that person out there who will love them because of their faults and not despite them; who will love them when they are sick and take care of them when they are dying, someone to share the good times with and personally, what gender that other person is does not matter.
While looking up more information on Prop 8, I came across this website. It contains nothing but bigoted, right-wing word vomit but what struck me as incredibly horrid is the header image–”Restoring Marriage & Protecting California Children” The first thing that popped into my head was, of course, “What the hell!?” followed by “And what do California children need protecting from?” Of course I could answer this question myself; just because right-wingers believe that they have to convert every other human on Earth who may think differently or have different backgrounds, lifestyles, opinions, etc. they believe that it is their duty to spread the “truth.” This is what religious people are great at–Wherever they go they seem to have a bible in hand and others in their backpacks, purses, etc. to hand out to passersby and if you so much as make eye contact with them, they will jump on you like a bat out of hell and make you wish that when you were thinking about leaving the house that day you just said “Screw it, I’ll stay home, watch TV and order take out.” Here’s a little tip: Children raised by homosexual parents do not always turn out to be homosexuals themselves; it’s a predetermined thing–Just in case you needed some clarification on that. Homosexuals do not come solely from homosexual parents.
Vote no Prop 8–Discrimination isn’t cool and no one has the right to tell someone else that they are wrong for who they love and wish to marry. Using the word “civil union” or “contract” is exactly what segregation was. “What do you mean you want to sit in the front of the bus?”
You can help the Human Rights Campaign get the word out about Prop 8 by donating here or right on the No on Prop 8 website.
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