St. Olms Observatory

6 Minnesota Politicians’ Homes Vandalized

“Police are investigating vicious graffiti written on the homes of six Minnesota politicians–a mix of both democratic and republican lawmakers. Now, one of them is personally offering a $1,000 reward to find the suspects.”

My letter to KSTP was featured on the actual news this morning, so if you want to hear my thoughts, I believe it sums it up well:

“This is an outright attempt to intimidate both them and their families, moreso since this is time where politicians are oftentimes away from home doing their final campaigning before voting day. While I hesistate to call them terroristic acts, they are certainly deplorable ones.
 
No matter their occupation, party affiliation, or even if their stances are morally opposite your own, they and their families should be able to feel safe in their own home.”

I’m tired of being told that I have no legitimate reasons to dislike Sarah Palin and the fact that all she is going to be, is the Vice President. This is clearly not a big deal, except for when it is. So, for your enjoyment and to all the people do seem to disagree? This is dedicated to you. Who knows how disjointed it will probably be, but that’s not the point. I am updating in pieces, and this is the first piece of… who knows how many. Eventually they will be joined together into one super thing which is why it reads a bit funny right now. This one touches on women’s rights and the teenage pregnancy issue:

Introduction

Sarah Palin has an interesting history as a politician despite her recent foray into politics. I hope to cover some of her more colorful squabbles that highlight why exactly I dislike her politics while also touching on why exactly Bristol’s pregnancy is an important thing to pay attention to in this election process. Most of my family is entrenched in neoconservative practice so from an objective point of view I’m able to explore it much easier than I’d like to.

First and foremost, the most common issue I’ve had among both liberals and conservatives alike is “the VP doesn’t do anything.” Did anyone ever bother to pay attention to Civics? Anyone at all? The Vice President’s main role is that of the President of the Senate. This is a huge deal because the Vice President acts as the deadlock breaker. My civics teacher back in the day told the class, almost foreboding, that with the VP is where the true power lies. With the Bush Administration, this has only become more evident. If any issue of important significance came through the senate and was deadlocked, with Sarah Palin as the VP, the issue would inevitably head to the right. That is a huge deal, frankly, since major issues would inevitably come to be in a McCain-Palin presidency. To give you an idea, they are both pushing the overturn of Roe v. Wade as one of their major points, but they try to keep it on the down low by choosing their words carefully.

Worst of all, an election with McCain involved opens the possibility of voting for a Vice President to replace him in the case of deah. Conservatives are more than aware of this threat and imposed a Vice President candidate to rally the radical base rather than further alienate it as McCain’s real choice, Lieberman, would have done. McCain is not popular with value voters - the neoconservative base - but Palin is. Unfortunately, Palin is an example of everything wrong with local politics and now she’s on that national scale. I said I’d provide examples as to why I, passionately I may add, oppose Palin and any advancement she may receive to a higher office.

Part One: Abortion, Rape & Why Bristol Palin’s Pregnancy Is Important To This Election

Let’s start simply on some issues, the one that keeps getting tossed around. Palin is pro-life. This is not automatically bad per say, but with the birth of her son with Down Syndrome, gives us an important thing to look at. Women over the age of 45 who have children are almost always having a high risk pregnancy. The chances of having children with serious mental and physical defects almost become a 50/50 risk. 1 in 35 of all pregnancies after the age of 45 run the risk of Down Syndrome, and this is the least worrisome of all of them. When Sarah Palin was pregnant with her son, Trig, she had a blood test to confirm or deny the presence of Down Syndrome in her child. Upon discovering yes, Sarah Palin was given a choice. As a pro-life woman, she made the only one she felt she could. This is vital, so pay attention.

This is a choice she would actively work to denywomen if she was allowed into office. Most women are not Sarah Palin and can afford the medical care of these children. This is evident in the fact that 9 out of 10 women in the same situation as her overwhelminglychoose the other option as her. They cannot afford the care. Some people call this eugenics but I call it people who know their own limits. Denying people this important option is anti-women and may even force families unable to afford care into poverty.

Speaking of being anti-women, let’s talk about another policy of Palin’s that fits that category. Were you a resident of Wasilla during her mayor-ship? No? Then maybe you didn’t hear about her policy about charging rape victims $500 for their rape kits and exams if they wanted charges filed against their rapist. The state of Alaska had to pass a statewide law outlawingthis practice before it was finally put to a stop. I’ve talked to neoconservative men about this issue and they don’t it, but bring it up to any woman regardless of affiliation and political standing and the disgust the feel is registered on their face almost instantly.

The last issue I’m touching on for today is Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter. It’s a “off-limits issue” but it’s one that’s absolutely worth looking into. It highlights something dangerous about not only conservative ideas, but also points out the crumbling of the Republican ideas of the “perfect family.” Again, this ties in with Palin’s and the fundamentalist pro-life movement, but it’s broader than that. Ronald Reagan was big on the family unit and how important it was to American life. Reaganomics and his concept of a familial structure is a big thing for the conservative base; they embrace it oftentimes without much thought. “We need another Reagan” is a common statement. With that same mindset in place, teenage pregnancy was something to be mocked; parents blamed for not keeping their children in control. This was as recent as the now 17-year-old teen mom Jamie Lynn Spears. Neoconservative sources were abuzz with the news and insults towards her parents were commonplace. They were blamed for Spears’ inability to keep her legs closed, despite the fact that 60% of girls her age are sexually active. However, Bristol Palin’ pregnancy rolls around and the whole attitude changes. She’s getting married, you see, and that makes it okay.

Except for when it doesn’t.

Teenage pregnancy is a big deal, probably just as much as it is a bad one. Teenage mothers are oftentimes doomed to poverty. They usually don’t finish high school, only 2% of them go to college. Worst of all, when they are forced into early marriages when they are under 18, like Bristol, the odds of divorce are over 70%. Then custody battles ensue and Mom is just as worst off as she would have been if she and the father parted ways. The child probably doesn’t see one of their parents, most likely the father, and the family situation is completely broken. Flashing back to Jamie Lynn, she’s currently experiencing this situation. Bristol’s future may be different by circumstance, but it’s that variable that may save her. Even if it does, it sets a poor example and embraces a potentially dangerous idea to young girls that teenage pregnancy is a-okay. Via sex education, teenage pregnancies have been shrinking progressively every year. However, with conservatives embracing this almost always fractured family unit, what message will that send to their children? Especially among the neocon base that opposes that very same sex education that has been slowly been working to save them?

Next time why I dislike Palin, vendetta v. political policy: how to abuse your power to your personal benefit.

This song is stuck in my head. It drives me nuts. This is indicative or me being too much of a nerd. :(

This is crossposted from my LJ, so if any of it doesn’t click (namely “who wants cards”), that would explain it. I’m not in the mood for creative edits and naughty word clean-up. That said, enjoy my shitty day:

If you ever wanted proof of how being a good person gets you absolutely no where, I’m a good example.

We have a large Somali population up here. I try really hard to be tolerant of everyone, but no offense to them, they oftentimes they bring it entirely on themselves. I’ll gladly accept being a bigot or racist or WHATEVER even if it means calling someone on the carpet for being an asshole. Short and simple.

So. I was on the bus home. My friend Rachel had offered to take me out to lunch so I took up her offer. We had quite a bit of fun and I bought some cards I was excited to offer everyone. We went our seperate ways and I boarded my bus like I would normally. Everything was fine for all of about two minutes. The driver was Somali as you may have guessed. So along 86th and Cedar a blind woman with a seeing eye dog tried to board the bus and this guy like… FREAKED THE FUCK OUT AT HER. This dog couldn’t be allowed on HIS bus because it was against HIS religion and dogs are dirty animals and deserve to be killed, ect, ect so forth.

Dude, I got into this guy’s face (big deal, I’m normally not assertive). He has to let all people board, including those with service animals. And the asshole kicked me off the bus. At 86th and Cedar with the old lady and the service dog. Two miles from home. I just got in now, about an hour later than I should have. I have like… mildly deformed feet (okay, maybe not but I have a lot of foot problems) and I really shouldn’t be walking that far. Now I’m going to have mega!limp for the next few days.

I called on the way home to the MTA who own the buses and they laughed at me and hung up. It was really professional behaviour, let me tell you. Dave called them when I called to bitch at him and they told him basically to fuck off in legal terms.

I’m really not happy. And I wanted to come home and be like “I HAVE CARDS THEY ARE DELIGHTFULLY MORBID WHO WANTS THEM” but instead I have to talk about how absolutely pathetic and inhumane some people are. Good job for reinforncing my opinion of humanity

This is my lovely creature that I created in Spore and have been playing on and off since it came out. I finally passed the tribal stage but some of the gameplay is still confusing. What I find funny is the uproar about it, especially since anyone who knows the history of Maxis, knows that these sorts of games are mostly what they do. Sims anyone?

So, tonight I was helping my mom with her work because she wasn’t feeling well. My mom works in the local public school system so I figured while I was going about, I’d check out the names of the students in each of the classrooms. Some of the names were pretty awful (De’Favverite, Oyleeivea) and some made up for their shortcomings (Theodora, Sophia), but this name took first prize. I honestly don’t think I will ever find a more unusual name. It’s also so horrid that I feel sorry for anyone cursed with it. Without a name change, I doubt a future is to be had.

Misdermeaner. Misdermeaner. Misdermeaner. 

How many times do you have to bash your head against a wall to be able to come to the conclusion that that’s a good name? First off, if you’re going to be irresponsible enough to name your children after a level of criminal offense, don’t you think you’d want to spell it right? While you ponder that, allow us to hit you with rolling pins as retribution for all the torment you’ll inevitably end up raining down your poor child.

Sorry guys, I recently purchased a new a new DSLR camera that I’ve been messing with constantly. It’s a Sony A100K and I’ve been having a lot of fun. Setting up a photoblog but it hasn’t been very eventful. I’ll share some pictures at some point, though, certainly.

Life has been dull, and I’m busy tomorrow with wonderful overloads of work. I currently only have two coworkers and the workload has nearly tripled. It’s not fun, not at all. But hopefully I will update this again frequently again.

I finally got around to watching Nat Geo’s documentary about the Strong City Cult/Lord Our Righteousness Church and was deeply upset over it. I want to collect my thoughts over it properly, but the “talk” between Esther and Danielle in this clip highlights one of the reasons why. It is one thing to have an adult willingly (but stupidly) join a cult and then unfortunately suffer from sexual exploitation, but it is entirely another notch on the scale to sexaully exploit minors and then raise them to think it is okay because you’re the messiah (and that is how the messiah acts, you see). How utterly foul.

If you have a chance to see the documentary Inside A Cult, please take it. These people essentially paint themselves and the light they chose to do it in is unfortunate. They all are really a group of poor, brainwashed people suffering a combination of Stockholm and True-Believers Syndromes.

Today, while working (cleaning squalor, of course), Pam ended up giving herself a rather nasty blow to the head. It actually started because my mom asked me to sing a rendition of “I Can’t Decide” by Scissor Sisters. I associate that song to The Master inevitably since that was the first time I heard it, and it was pretty funny because we also both make those quirky, overly-emotive facial expressions. But in the middle of “don’t hang your head” part, Pam flew up and smashed her head  into the freezer door hovering above her. She then dropped to the floor in a split second, gripping her head.

I am horrible for it, but I am one of those people who laughs when other people get hurt. I really try to keep myself in check because its an ass move, but this woman knocked a damn fridge halfway over on top of the most perfect timing given the rendition I was doing. So I’m standing there trying so hard not to crack up laughing and I failed. Spectacularly, even. Then Jason comes out of whatever hole he’d hidden himself away in and says, “Look into my eyes… Oh wait, I meant I’m a paramedic.” Good job, Jason.

I will actually have a serious entry tomorrow sometime about squalor. It should be interesting. Especially since I swear I’ve been cleaning up the apartment of a woman who was probably a shut-in Sasquatch.