26 July 2011

Render unto Caesar... But it's MINE! MINE!

"Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice." Proverbs 16:8

But you keep right on fighting against higher taxes for the rich, right-wing Christians.

Gotcha? I'll give ya gotcha...

One of my favourite political bloggers, the completelytotallysuperawesome Fern Hill at Dammit Janet was insulted in The Star this morning by a whiny little sucky baby who fails to grasp the difference between one's political record and a meaningless offhanded comment. The Star won't let her rebut without giving up her anonymity, which she's not willing to do (with good reason). So, go read it.

My thought? Gotcha politics is when a politician says one thing, and someone dredges up a quote (usually out of context) showing otherwise and uses it to say "GOTCHA!" This isn't that. This is, "Hmm, you said this. Could you please clarify your position?" The difference is rather important, but clearly too much for Mr. Stupid OpEd. Typical of the right.

25 July 2011

It's beginning to get to me

You know, there are days when the news really really gets to me. Today is one of those days. I may have to take a political break and just focus on my family, because I'm getting too overwhelmed by the world.

I can deal with tragedy. I can handle that. It's the sustained hatred that I see in various places that makes me tic like an addict in need of a fix. And the abject stupidity.

The tragedy in Somalia (people say "deal with it" and "we can't afford to help", sentencing them death). Jack Layton announces he's got cancer again (people cheer!) A terrorist kills more than 80 people in Norway, most of them youth (Glenn Beck says they're like Hitler Youth. Other people argue about whether he's a Christian.)

Bleh. I'll have to write something about autism or something. It's far less painful than the political shit lately. :(

22 July 2011

God hates your politics... Wait, what?

The mass murdering terrorist son of a bastard in Norway called himself Christian. Lovely. Notice that unlike the media, now that I know he's Christian, I still refer to him as a terrorist. Because he is. My husband points out that 'madman' also fits, because he's not a member of a terrorist organization, and so he can understand why the label changed. However, he also agrees that the guy was most definitely a terrorist, as the action was clearly politically motivated. The asshole shot a bunch of kids at a socialist party camp. Those poor kids. Their poor parents. :(

Now, I'm a socialist, so this sickens me on more than a human level. This infuriates me on a political level. You can bet that if this were a leftist, the rhetoric would be far different. The guy is a "madman" now. Or a "crazed hunting fan" (if you read The Sun. Don't read The Sun.) What if he were a lefty? Then what? Socialist! OMG! 

And OMG. If this had been a Muslim... Hell, the racist shit started immediately. I even assumed it was Islamic terrorism, simply because of the timing. (Norway arrested a Muslim man last week for terrorist threats). That being said, I'm an individual. I don't have a responsibility to the public not to shoot my mouth off about these things. And I didn't change my label of him after I found out I was wrong.

So, he's Christian, is he? Great. So if I say he's not a real Christian because Jesus preached love, not hate, the atheists will get on their high horse (that horse must have some awesome hallucinations, because it is really fucking high) about Christian extremism being the root of all evil and how when Christians disavow themselves of this, we're being hypocritical asshats, blah blah blah (see Pharyngula's site, for examples). Okay... so I have to own it. I can deal with that. The guy called himself Christian. I cannot for the first second fathom how one can follow Jesus and then go on a killing spree, but it's happened before and it'll happen again. I abhor this behaviour, and so does every mainstream Christian church. It's not the No True Scotsman fallacy to say this man wasn't a true Christian, btw. Because being a Christian isn't someone one is born to like being a Scotsman is. It's how one lives one's life. I can call myself vegan all I like, but if I eat meat and wear leather, I'm not a true vegan. 

Seems to me that the problem isn't his religion (and yeah, I'd say that for a Muslim. In fact, I have said that.) Seems to me that the problem is the politics and that religion is somehow, mindblowingly, used to justify it. Extreme ideas of right-wing politics backed up by religion (any religion) is a recipe for disaster. The same could be said for left-wing politics, but I've not seen any religion-backed left-wing extremist violence. Left-wing violence seems to be atheistic. Please, if you know of examples where the left uses God to justify their violence, I'd like to hear about it. I don't claim it never happened, just that I don't know about it. When one starts thinking that God is on their side of the political fence, it seems a bit weird to me. Of course, I joke that Jesus was a socialist, what with the sharing and healing and feeding people who couldn't remember to bring their own fish and bread to the picnic. But to actually say that God wants me to commit acts of violence to weaken the strength of a competing ideology is just absurd.

Someone on Twitter, I think it was DeBeauxOs of Dammit Janet! wanted to know why people who commit violent acts like this are called "cowards". That one got me too, so I asked MrFCS who asked, "How brave is it to gun down a bunch of kids? He was too cowardly to go after those who are actually the problem. Or, the problem as he sees it, that is." Makes sense I guess. My thought was that his rationale was that he'd stop dozens of young people from growing up to be socialists. Never mind the bit about dead martyrs... Stupid more than cowardly. But I guess I understand the label better now. I still don't think it fits quite right though.

Anyway, I'll be praying for the victims, their families and friends. And I'll be praying for the shooter. Because he is one twisted son of a bastard. But I'll be praying for the victims and their loved ones first.

20 July 2011

Comments Please

I'm trying something new with the comments. Please say something stupid (other than "something stupid") in the comments. Also, if some of you could reply to comments already there, I'd appreciate it.

Let's call this an Open Thread of Stupidity.

Feast or famine

UPDATE: The United Church has launched an appeal for help for Africa. Please donate. Either there, or with another reputable charity.

I don't know why I'm such an idiot. I keep reading comments on news stories. I think I must subconsciously want to get mad. I am so infuriated about the lack of response to the famine in Africa. I see so many asshole comments like, "We have our own problems. We can't help them." WHAT?! Seriously? They're literally starving to death and your problem is what? That you can't afford a latte every single day, but only every other day? Yes, we have homelessness and poverty, but we have food banks and shelters. They're not a solution, but they're something. These people have no back up plan. No safety net. It's not a matter of there's no money to go to the grocery store. It's a matter of there's no grocery store. There's no garden because there's no rain. There's NO FOOD. We are obliged to help them.

It's a colossal lack of understanding, I'm sure. Oh sure, there are some apathetic asshats, but I think mostly people simply do not grok the situation. I mean, money flows when there is a disaster like an earthquake or tsunami. We get natural disasters of that sort. But famine? That's so far out of our realm of comprehension that there seems to be a collective head-in-the-sand approach to it. I actually heard someone say, "This is just par for the course for Africa." Um. Okay. I think people here think they can just adapt, or that because this is nothing new (it is though, because of its severity) that people will somehow get through it. I know, it wasn't sudden or unexpected, which can truly make things worse, because there's no time to do anything (like get to refugee camps where they could still starve) or fly in some food and water, but at this point, there's nothing more they can do. They're at the end of their options. It is on the rest of us as human beings to help. There's not a religion in the world that doesn't have some version of the golden rule. We must help.

So... further to yesterday's saga of me losing my mind trying to look after the kids without help, now I'm sure He's screwing with me. :) After I wrote my epic whingefest, I went to pick the kids up. Pop started crying for a bar (sunbutter bars are his favourite thing ever). We were out. I looked up at the sky and said, "SERIOUSLY?!" Told Pop sorry, and then put him in his car seat. And promptly found a bar, still in the wrapper, between the two seats. HA! Then, Pop refused a nap, but went to sleep at 7 last night and slept through until 6, at which point he nursed and went back to sleep until 7:30. Crackle went to sleep at 9 and slept through until 8. I got to go to bed super early. Then, this morning, I got to go sit in that quiet cathedral and just do nothing. It was glorious.

So, having been raised with a healthy dose of Catholic guilt, I've been feeling terrible about how I have so much and people are literally starving to death. I've also been feeling terrible about how overwhelmed I am, given how much worse things could be. Well, I got a little answer on that one. Have you ever been burned? Like a small, first degree burn? It hurts like hell, right? Does it hurt less when you think "Well, I could be scalded all over. I should be grateful that I'm not". Hell no it doesn't. It still freakin' hurts. Same deal.

Now, I know, I'm being a bit inconsistent, because earlier I was mocking someone else's first world problems. But I don't care. There's a difference. My being overwhelmed by my first world problems don't prevent me from donating money to help. I'm not hung up on my need for wealth so much that I can't give to others. In a nutshell, I don't think anyone has a right to be part of the privileged class. If your biggest problem is that you might have to give up some of your luxury for someone else to have their necessities, that's pretty petty. And that's not a burn. That's a cool shower instead of a hot one.

I think this is why I'm so very angry: greed is making the plight of the people in Africa so very much worse. We could alleviate their suffering but we choose not to. We're part of the problem. And that just utterly infuriates me.

19 July 2011

Insert witty post title here...

Sometimes I think God is just screwing with me. Or I would if I believed that God worked that way. I'm pretty sure God's not just thinking of ways to drive me insane, and I'm virtually positive that God can't work in this world without using people to do it, but every once and a while, when I'm dead tired and feeling paranoid, I wonder. :)

So, as I've mentioned elseweb, MrFCS is in Toronto this week (HAHA Sucker! Hope you're enjoying the heatwave!) and I'm alone with the kids. Now, the vast majority of the vast majority of days, I barely make it through without tears. And that's with my darlin' husband there to help. So, what happens? Crackle decides sleep is bullshit and stays up until midnight wrecking up the place. Snap, who swore up and down that she would be so very much help, lost it. And this morning we had to be up extra early to go to their groups. No sleeping in. Okay... so I managed to get through that with some crying and swearing, but no major meltdowns. I kept telling myself I could go sit in my favourite place and just soak in the quiet. So this morning, I dropped the kids off and beelined for the open sanctuary at one of the cathedrals downtown. Sat down, took a few deep breaths, started to say a bit of a thank you, and WTF?! Someone started tuning the organ. The enormous pipe organ. The sound was awful. Deafening discordant notes. The same horrible scale a few times over. I waited a few minutes until it became apparent that it was not going to stop any time soon and I got up and left, even more frustrated than I went in.

Okay, so some deep breaths, some fist shaking at the sky, and I figured, Okay... go to the library. Chill. Rant about it to your poor readers. Sat down and got all the way to the WTF in the paragraph above and FUCKING WINDOWS 7 THAT PIECE OF SHIT REBOOTED without warning me. Oh sure, there was a flashing icon on the bar, but nothing that stole focus and actually gave me warning. As soon as I'm finished the video game I've been playing on here, Windows is GONE and I'm putting Linux on this beast.

Now, back to that church I mentioned. I really like that place. I don't go in there and pray (much), but I do go in, sit down and soak up the quiet and peacefulness of the place. What I really like to do is just sit and let my mind go. I allow my brain to go whatever way it wants, meandering around, coming back to whatever is bothering me as much as I need to. I don't stop it, I don't constrain it, I don't try to think of anything. I just let it go. And when it's almost perfectly silent in the room, that is golden for me. I can figure so much out in that time.

So, I'll try again tomorrow. Because my brain is too full. I've got too many things I need to let go of. Like all the suffering in Somalia. There's pretty much nothing I can do about it except pray and donate some money. By the way, if you're looking for a good charity, the United Church's Mission and Service Fund is excellent. I know, it's a Christian charity and they have some bad history, but the UCC's help is not conditional. We help anyone, Christian or not. If you're still worried, try UNICEF. More of their money goes to advertising than the M&S fund, but it's still a good charity doing good work.

So, I have a half an hour left before I have to go pick up the kids. I think I'm going to go find a mindless novel and chill.

LOL! I just looked at my scripture quote for the day:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

Yeah yeah, I know. But the reminder is nice.

18 July 2011

Your perspective might be broken when your head is in your ass

I love a sermon that gets me thinking, and today's yesterday's was no disappointment. The scripture of the day was one part of the Jacob and Esau story, the part where God came to Jacob to tell him that he was chosen. The night when he was sleeping with a rock for a pillow. Cynical me wonders if the dream wasn't all just the result of sleeping on such a hard pillow. That kind of headache would give me quite the dream indeed!

So the lovely minister (hi!) talked about how God chose Jacob, even though he'd been a greedy, conniving, sneaky prick (my words, not hers, believe it or not.) He couldn't handle the idea of getting less than his brother, the first born son, and was even pulling at his heel when they were born. He wasn't satisfied with being the younger son. Growing up, not knowing how the laws worked in the time of Jacob and Esau, I had a different take on it. I thought that God was rewarding Jacob for at least trying to make things right in his family. After all, the way I saw it, twins were born at the same time, and one minute didn't matter for anything. The birthright should have been split evenly between the two. If his father was too much of an idiot to see that, well, then Jacob was right to at least try, and God was giving him what should have been his in the first place. It's amazing what a little perspective and education does to a story!

The lady who comes over to clean for me on Fridays (don't judge me!) is a darlin' old lady who insists that there is no interpretation in bible reading, and that the Holy Spirit always guides us to the right meaning. I laugh. Because very good people come up with very different readings of the same passages regularly. Of course, she thinks she's completely right, because the Holy Spirit tells her so, and anyone who disagrees, well, they're letting their prejudices get in the way. I cannot help but laugh. She laughs along with me, but I'm pretty sure she's praying for my soul.

Another example of how education changes the reading: Did you know that male homosexuality was considered to be a weakness, something one engaged in if there were no women around and one was just really horny? There was a large trade in young, male prostitutes, and the laws, at least in the times of Paul, were really meant to say, "Um, no... keep it within your marriage". And I think that's pretty good advice. But people have terribly twisted the passages, based on their limited knowledge, and have done an awful lot of damage with it. Just today, I was reading about some christofascist who was saying that it is a moral thing to kill gay people. And this isn't just some wingnut with no power. This is someone whose group is supported by Michelle Bachmann. I mean, really, this is disgusting. First of all, even if you do believe homosexual behaviour is sinful, Jesus himself saved a woman from a legal death by stoning for a "sin" of a similar nature. So where do these asshats get off acting like they know better than Jesus? It's absolutely infuriating.

Anyway, this was meant to be a much better post with a much better ending, but MrFCS is in Toronto (haha! of all the times to have to go down east, they picked a heatwave), and the kids are driving me NUTS.

14 July 2011

Exercise your right to shut up

There's a video game camp in Fredricton, NB that is under fire from glorified PE teacher (i.e. kinesiology professor), Gabriela Tymowsky. Apparently OMG! FAT KIDS might not be made miserable with the running for every hour of every day until they're appropriately thin!

Bite me, Gabriela. Bite my fat, video game playin' ass. Are you going to whine and bitch about drama camps? Art camps? Music camps? Kids there don't run all day. Or is it just video games that have your panties in a twist? How dare kids have fun doing what they like for a few days in the summer?! No no no. Not if Gabriela has her way. Those kids should be shamed into exercising themselves thin!

I have a question for you, Gabriela. What if the kids are already thin enough for your idea of healthy? Or maybe there isn't thin enough. Do they get to take a break from the exercise then? Or are video games on the list of Things That Make You FAT and therefore must never be done?

A quick search of the website shows that video games are only a part of the day. It's not like you show up at camp and play games all day. FFS, lady. Shut up. And CBC can go to hell for reporting it too. What's next? Old Man Angry at Kids on his Lawn? Because that's what this stinks of. A nosy, busybody who doesn't want kids to have any sort of fun that she doesn't approve of. I'll send my kids to any bloody camp I like, and I don't need a glorified PE teacher telling me whether or not it's good for them. Neither do the parents of the kids there.

I'm terribly sick of the attitude that fat people should be allowed to do nothing at all if it isn't part of their weight loss plan. I was in a Robin's Donuts once and a bunch of young assholes started harrassing a large woman for eating a doughnut. No one was stopping them. I was too afraid to (it was late, I was alone, I'd recently had a run in with some other young assholes). Finally she said, "JESUS CHRIST! I GET ONE FUCKING DOUGHNUT A MONTH IF I STICK TO MY DIET AND YOU'VE JUST FUCKING WRECKED IT FOR ME!" One of the assholes said, "It looks like it's one too many." She started to cry and they left laughing. That's what this reminds me of. Kids want to play video games over the summer and some asshole pipes up with, "You're too fat to play video games! That's not healthy!"

I've seen it from friends too. They see a fat kid eating something fattening and assume that's all he ever eats. They see a fat kid playing a video game and they make snarky comments that he never exercises. It's not fair. And it's not okay. Nor is shaming their parents. I've heard people I generally respect say that obese kids are victims of child abuse (and their idea of obese is a bit sketchy, at best). They claim that genetics are irrelevant or outliers, and feel completely justified in blaming parents for their kids' weight, not knowing for the first second what goes on in their homes. It drives me crazy.

And do you really think that depriving kids of the things they want to do in order to make them exercise is a "healthy choice"? Hell no, it isn't. I hated exercise when I was in school. They pushed and pushed us to do it. It was awful. I still hate it when I realize it's exercise. I like to do physical activity if it's for something else - like a long walk to the store. For the sake of it alone? GAH. It's tedious, it's infuriating. It makes me feel like crawling out of my skin, just thinking of it.

In a nutshell, STFU, Gabriela; you're making things worse.

13 July 2011

Little Things, again

I've done a lot of complaining lately, so this post is going to be about things I love.

Lately, I've noticed some things about my loved ones that I particularly love:
1) Snap - proudly out and not takin' crap from anyone. She has a date on Saturday with someone she met at the Pride parade last weekend. (OMG! This is me, NOT freaking out.)
2) Crackle - his hatred of certain ads cracks me up endlessly. He loses his freakin' mind if he can't shut the TV off when there's one of the following products being advertised: a) iPhones, iPods, iPads; b) Tylenol; c) Home Hardware; d) Subway; e) Dairy Queen if it's with the disembodied mouth. When these ads are on, he FLIES for the TV to shut it off. If he happens to be strapped into his booster seat, he goes utterly insane with the screaming to get it shut off. Those ads are like nails on a chalkboard to him. I find it hilarious.
3) Pop - When I blow bubbles for him, he runs around hitting them yelling "POP!" It's adorable.
4) MrFCS - When I ask for something, instead of saying "absolutely" he says "absosmurfly". This started well before the new Smurfs movie was announced.

Other shit I love:
Futurama reruns.
Sex dreams (Something's up with my hormones, my dreams are on FIRE! Damn.)
The weather - I freakin' love a summer that never hits 25.
Jumping on the trampoline with the kids, especially when Pop is demanding "RIAW!" (rhymes with Meow) which is PopSpeak for Ring Around the Rosie.
Crackle's way of telling me he's ready for bed - he grabs me and pulls me up the stairs. I MUST hold him until he sleeps. It's one of the best parts of my day.

"You can't argue with the little things, Homer. It's the little things that make up life." Hank Scorpio in The Simpsons episode You Only Move Twice

11 July 2011

Terrible News

Dear Local News Channel,

It is extremely crass to go from a story about drought, refugees, and the worst humanitarian crisis facing the world right now to a story about how the weather here is going to be cooler than seasonal with a bit of rain (OMG! RAIN! On the Westcoast?!) by saying, "And now for some not so good news for those of us here on the island..."

SERIOUSLY?! Like the previous news was just GREAT news for us, right? WTF! And that our 'not so good news' is that we're going to get rain? One of the things they need most? C'mon! What's next? A follow up to famine with the "not so good news" that we're going to have so much food we have to throw it out?

Disgusted,
Luna

10 July 2011

Don't be That Guy

How hard is it to figure that out not have sex with drunk women? Apparently many men still need to get the message. There's a poster campaign in Vancouver now, warning guys not to be "that guy". The guy that takes home the drunk girl and then rapes her. You know, that guy. According to cbc.ca, the posters say, "Sex without consent is assault." Another says, "Just because she's drunk, it doesn't mean she wants to f**k."


Okay, good. I'm all for reminding men not to be rapist douchebags. I don't know how much this will help, but it's about damned time that the onus was put on men. Because women don't bring on their own rapes. Not if we're drunk, not if we're dressed provocatively. Never. It is not our responsibility to "not get raped". It is the responsibility of men to not rape us.


DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS at cbc. This is good advice for always, but it's particularly important for this article, as the rape apologists, men's rights activists, and other douchecanoes are out in spades. I swear, the very first comment I read was, "Yeah? But what about the men who get preyed upon by women?" Yeah, OMG. What about the menz?! Jesus wept. Another one said that it was too one-sided of a campaign, that women need to be responsible for their actions. Yes, because having one too many drinks totally means fuck me without my consent. Another yet  equates being hit on by "ugly girls" to being raped while drunk.


Clearly, we still need feminism. 

09 July 2011

Autism is kicking my ass

Crackle and Pop take a "Verbal Behaviour Through Music" class for children with Autism on Saturday mornings. It's parent participation (ugh). What it ends up being is parents singing the songs, desperately trying to get their kids to participate in some meaningful way. Any parent whose child cooperates wins the day. At least that's how it seems to me. I heard one mother mutter, "Just open your mouth. That's all I ask. Just open your mouth." We were trying to get the kids to make various sounds and do various mouth exercises (chomp teeth, stick out your tongue, puff your cheeks). Hahaha. Pop cooperated more than all the other kids combined, but that's only because we had bubbles to blow at him. Still, I'll pretend I'm just a better parent that the others. It'll give me the boost I need to get through the day. :)

I like going to those classes. I like seeing that I'm not the only parent going insane trying to teach my kid the things that come naturally to other kids. MrFCS and I have noticed The Look. The Look that all parents of kids with moderate to severe autism have. The utterly exhausted, totally frustrated, helpless desperation.

Today, I'm sporting that look. Usually I can fake it pretty well. But today... eesh. Crackle has had me hyperfocused for a long time. In a nutshell, no matter where I am, or what I am doing, I have to know exactly where he is and listen for what he's doing. Everything in my house is locked down. Everything. Bathroom doors, cabinets, drawers, bedroom doors, closets. God forbid anyone leave a door open. I've got the monitor velcroed to the computer desk, and the case velcroed to the wall. Anyway, having to be that constantly aware is really exhausting. And lately, he's taken to peeing on his floor again. He'd stopped doing it for a while, quietly lulling us into a false sense of security. And now? Two to five times a day I have to shampoo part of the rug in his room. I wish we could pull up the rug and put in something else, like cork or something. But that is not happening any time soon, if ever.

Today? Crackle peed on the floor 3 times. Stuck his head in the toilet once. Peed in the sink once. Had a screaming fit 3 times. Got into the fridge I dunno how many times. Stuck his hand into my shirt more times than I can count. Pop demanded to eat, refused to eat, demanded to nap, refused to nap, refused to take his medicine, demanded to eat again, refused to eat again, pushed Crackle, cried when I got him dressed, cried when I got him undressed, ate, and then broke out into a rash and fell asleep. Snap? Screamed at me when I called her name because she was already downstairs, called her brother a retard (a huge huge HUGE deal here), told me to fuck off, did a half-assed job of her chores, repeating the same mistake she always gets shit for, and then asked me for a favour.

SO HELP ME GOD if anyone tells me that any of this shit is normal. Do you go up to a mother whose child is in a wheelchair and say, "Sometimes my child won't walk either"? Listen pal, your kid acts up sometimes. This is my kids' normal. And mine aren't choosing to do this. It's how they are.

All this is why parents need more support with our kids with autism and other special needs. Autism treatment isn't covered by medicare. Their medical needs are ignored. The respite is laughable, and if you are lucky to have some money for it, you're on your own to find someone who can help. "Just get a babysitter!" a former friend told me. Really? You think I can find someone who can keep the boys safe, just like that? I RUN, regularly. I'm forever screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! as I'm running toward them, keeping Crackle from pulling down something on his head or drowning in the toilet. Going out with both of them is virtually impossible without leashes and OMG the dirty looks (especially in hippie Victoria). If I could get all the treatments they need, they still wouldn't be neurotypical, but maybe I could find someone whom I could trust to look after them for a few hours.

Write your MP. Ask them to support Autism treatment under medicare. Because we need the help.

(p.s. What the hell is with the new compose thing in Blogger? AGAIN? Grrrrrrrr.)

07 July 2011

United Church WIN!

Okay, so pissed off as I am about the world right now, at least there's this. My chosen church, the United Church of Canada, has ordained a MtF minister. This is a picture of her (on the right) at in the trans march in Toronto.

(Photo was tweeted by @Christarchy and can be found here: http://twitpic.com/5mllzu Should you want it down from my site, @Christarchy, say the word. I just didn't want to hotlink your pic)

This is why I'm always saying "Not all Christians are homophobic!" We're not the exception. We're the largest Protestant denomination in Canada. We're just not as loud and angry as the ones you're used to hearing. I pray for those people.

Sick and tired. Literally and Figuratively.

It's been over two weeks since I've managed to bang out a post. Unacceptable, Luna. Unacceptable.

I'm feeling really down about politics and feminism lately. And socialism is halfway into the ground. Autism is kicking our asses over here, and to top it all off, I have a cold.

The DSK case was the first big piss off. What the fuck is the New York Post doing, citing anonymous sources that the victim was a prostitute? Seriously. 1) Not relevant. Anyone can be raped. 2) At the time of the assault (alleged or otherwise), she was working as a chambermaid, not as a prostitute. 3) Isn't the Post usually a right-wing rag? Why are they protecting DSK? The implication is clear: Man > Woman. Or is it White man > Black Woman? What if the maid had been a white Republican woman? OH! WAIT! She'd still be poor, because otherwise, she wouldn't be working as a maid. So, she's still fucked.

And then it was Canada Day, and someone told me that if I wanted to "bash" Canada, I could gtfo. Door's over there, she said. Yeah, you know what? If I could swing it, I'd be on my way to Sweden, Norway, or Denmark in a flash. But I can't. Not with 3 disabled kids in tow and no grasp of the languages. So, PARDON THE FUCK OUT OF ME if I bitch and complain about what this country could do better. Let's start with medical care for kids with Autism. Autism treatment is not covered by medicare. Why in hell not?

And then there was the Casey Anderson case. Oh. Your. God. That poor little Caylee. No, I'm not outraged about the verdict though. Because, 1) I wasn't there. I don't know what prosecution presented; 2) I'm not hellbent on getting revenge for crimes. Yes, I'd like to see the perpetrator go to jail and stay there forever. Murder a child and go straight to jail. Do not pass go. Certainly do not collect $200. But she wasn't convicted, so I"m not going to scream for revenge. And that's what this shit is. It's NOT a call for justice. There is no justice when a child is murdered. No matter what happens. And you know what else? It is disgusting to call for this woman's torture and cruel and unusual punishment when at the same time decrying the inhuman murder of a little kid. No. No one should be tortured. Ever. Not for anything.

And finally, Lush Limbaugh, that piece of shit, compared her murder to abortion. He went on about how liberals seem to care so much about this kid now, but if her mother had killed her three years earlier when she was in the womb, the mother would be a hero. UM... WTF? First of all, no one is a hero for an abortion. No one anywhere claims that. Lush doesn't care for facts though. Furthermore, he doesn't care for children. At least not once the umbilical cord is cut. He and his band of asshole Republicans have consistently voted against every single program intended to help children. So I'm thinking he's saying, "No one cares about kids, we certainly don't. So the liberals are just full of false outrage and need to STFU." And it makes me sick.

Speaking of sick, I have a cold. It started in my chest and moved up. I'm miserable. And I have no one to help me, which means I have to look after little kids while I'm sick. It's a serious pain. At least my husband works one of those cushy government jobs that allows him to take a bit of time off here and there, so he took the morning off yesterday so I could sleep.

And that's another thing. The consistent attempts to destroy the benefits of workers via union busting is INFURIATING. I am so sick of the teacher bashing. And I can't stand the vast majority of teachers. They're annoying, self-righteous, condescending know-it-alls. But I don't hate them for their salaries or benefits. Shit, they're underpaid for what they do. So I don't begrudge them their benefits, even though they piss me off on a personal level. (And this work-to-rule shit may seriously fuck up Snap if I can't get an IEP meeting in September - I'd rather they just went on strike).

So yeah, that's where my brain's been at for the last few weeks. Too sick and tired of it all to blog coherently. Maybe I'll just tell some cute stories about my kids for a few days. :(