Blog Posts

I have to leave to practice parallel parking soon, but I thought that before I left I'd leave some links to some recent blog posts I found interesting. So here it goes:

Healthcare It's Personal from Womanist Musings is about how people misrepresent Canadian healthcare.

Obama on the Gates Arrest from the same blog is about exactly what the title suggests.

On Gendered Language from Finally, a Feminism 101 Blog has some connection to my last post.

I have to leave now, but I might post some more links later.

Edit: I'm back. Now I'll look for more interesting links.

Bechdel Test Roundup from Female Impersonator is about the portrayal of women in movies.

Stay Classy, Electronic Arts from Unapologetically Female is horribly depressing.

This post about Limbaugh from Think Progress is kind of amusing.

I think that's good for now. Feel free to post your own links in the comments.

Male as Default

I'm warning you in advance that this will be a very short post because I have to go to sleep soon. Anyway, have you ever noticed that whenever you have to select your gender on, say, a website to create an account, the one originally selected is male? Without exception. I honestly have never seen an instance when female was selected. There's not even a dubious excuse for it. I mean, female comes first in the alphabet. It's clearly just an example of all the sexist attitudes that still exist.

There are many similar instances of the same idea. For example, when talking about a postal worker, one usually refers to her/him (Notice how that looks unfamiliar in that order?) as a mailMAN. Mailman seems to include men and women, but if anyone said mailWOMAN, it would never refer to a man. Also, note the her/him example. Always, things like this are phrased him/her, him or her, or he or she. Each of these alone you could perhaps dismiss, but it's a recurring trend.

Veganism

Well, I've been eating entirely vegan since last Wednesday (not this most recent Wednesday, but the one before that). Well, technically Wednesday evening. I say eating vegan for a few reasons. First of all, I'm not considering myself vegan until I have proven that I can keep it up. Second of all, veganism isn't only food. I mean, my shoes are unfortunately made out of leather (which is really bad, especially given that I haven't eaten meat for a long time, but in my defense, I haven't bought a pair of shoes at all recently), I haven't made sure that my toothpaste, etc. is vegan, and I haven't even begun to research clothing. Still, it's a good start. I plan to work on the non-food front when I return home.

So now I've decided to use the rest of this post to engage in the quite probably futile effort to convince someone (I don't have anyone in particular in mind) to at least eat fewer animal products or less meat. I can at least try. As whenever I try to articulate my reasons, all that I end up coming up with is that "they're really mean to the animals", which isn't exactly the most effective way of communicating what I mean, I plan on mostly linking to things. I think I mostly do this because if I ever learn any of the details I quickly try to forget about them, which I feel that I'm justified in doing as I still reform my behavior.

My fear of conflict is whispering in the back of my mind for me not to do this, but in such a situation I am able to ignore it. My current motivation is powerful enough to overwhelm such. There are a few categories under which arguments for veganism tend to fall, the most common one being concern for animals. But veganism also benefits the environment and is healthier.

I figure I should start off with the bit I've already explained in the past: the vegetarian part. First of all, killing animals is wrong. That alone was enough to make me a vegetarian. Then of course, the animals are treated horribly. They're generally kept in tiny cages where they don't have room to move around, and that's only the beginning. The free range thing isn't a good copout, either. It doesn't actually mean that they all get to wander around. I've also argued in the past that becoming a vegetarian is so easy that there's no excuse not to, but that argument isn't quite as effective when it comes to being vegan.

I'm going to make one more point and then I'll just post the links. It's not that hard just to replace a few things. For instance, soy milk in my experience tastes better than regular milk. Ricemilk is okay, too. I didn't like almond milk as much. You have to be a little pickier about ice cream (soy ice cream is kind of bad, as is rice, but hemp and tofu- yes, tofu: it actually tastes good- make good ice cream). Pancakes taste the same without eggs and with soymilk. I can't say I've had good luck with cheese replacements. There are egg replacements. Vegan bread tastes the same. Seeing as I'm sure people have heard this before and that this won't really convince anyone, I'm just going to leave the links. Hopefully at least someone will look at some of them just to humor me. ...Just be glad I spared you the PETA links.

Vegan Action
Vegan Outreach
Vegan Wolf (Don't ask me where they got that title...)
Veganic (Okay, so this one's by someone working for PETA. It was inevitable.)
Viva

Perhaps this isn't the greatest time to mention it, but I just realized that Starbursts aren't vegan or even vegetarian. ...I should have known that by now.

Miscellaneous Details

I haven't posted anything this week, mostly because I've been extremely busy. My camp started (I'm basically a CIT) and it runs from 8 AM to 5 PM. Plus the bus ride takes a while. So I haven't had time to do much of anything else. Now it's the weekend, though, so I have more free time.

So this morning I was catching up on the news, etc, and I found it interesting that I didn't see much of anything about the whole prosecution thing. I think I'm taking that to mean that there definitely isn't any real investigation of the Bush administration about torture going on any time soon.
However, there's been a lot of work on healthcare that I was mostly unaware of this week due to my busy schedule. I've been having trouble finding too much detail on this, other than all the ridiculous claims the Republicans are throwing out. (Like this, for example). There may or may not be some willingness to just pass it without worrying about the Republicans, which would be good. I'll have to look around for more information later.

Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings have started. Apparently they have gone pretty well. It looks she'll be confirmed.

I seem to be unable to say anything much so I'll just link to some things. Think Progress points out that Obama should just issue an executive order preventing the further application of Don't Ask Don't Tell, which is a very good point. I don't understand why the Obama administration is acting like it can't really do anything. This piece of news about how the conservatives don't think civil rights leaders are important enough for students to learn about bothered me. This, about some of what Obama is doing with infinite detention, was troubling. This (about Obama's faith based initiatives thing) upset me, too.

Tentative Relief- Never mind

I'm assuming that anyone who reads this already knows that I really think that Bush and others who were responsible for the whole Guantanamo Bay situation really need to be prosecuted. If anyone didn't at the very least suspect this of me, I will be completely shocked. Well, lately I've been feeling disappointed and frustrated because it was looking like that wasn't going to happen. But luckily, there's some good news on this front!!!

Think Progress (not just Think Progress, but that's what I'm going to link to) is reporting that attorney general Holder is "leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate Bush admin's torture policies".

...Curses! So much for that! Look at this. Basically, he's only prosecuting interrogators who went beyond what the evil John Yoo did. ...If you're looking at the link, read through the whole thing: through update two. ...I almost didn't read that part.

Basically, information is very tentative at this point, but it looks like there will be an investigation so limited and so badly targetted that it would have been better not to have it at all. All of this is extremely discouraging, and what's truly awful is that it appears that Holder's trying to trick us or something. I'm most confused about all this.

Edit: For once my giant folder of politics-related bookmarks came in handy. A lot of websites don't have anything about this yet, and even fewer actually include the bit about the discouraging details. Sites that actually do have something about this include TalkLeft, ... and other than what I already linked to, that's it. Plus a few had the first bit, but the second part's kind of important. Hopefully all that means is that no one has managed to write anything about it yet.

Progress So Far

I know I haven't posted in a while. I have a number of excuses, including that I went on a long hike, I wasn't feeling well yesterday, and I couldn't think of anything to write. Luckily, I don't think I have to come up with a reasonable excuse (not that all of those weren't true). I'm not going to have too much time to write today because I have a lot to do. I also need to pack because I'm going away for three weeks.

I'm slowly making progress on my goal. I'm still drinking soy milk. I even tried soy ice cream. I've known since I started considering this that giving up ice cream would probably be the hardest part. Ice cream's my very favorite food... I have a sweet tooth. Well, the ice cream situation will be a little harder than switching to soy milk was, but I think I may be able to manage.

There are a few difficulties with soy ice cream. First of all, it doesn't taste quite as good as regular ice cream. It's still good, but I suppose it's hard to compete with regular ice cream. Secondly, the number of flavors is very, very limited. In fact, when I went to Whole Foods to procure some, the only flavors I saw were, I believe, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. So I got vanilla.

The thought of giving up cookie dough ice cream is very depressing, though. Someone needs to invent the equivalent of Ben and Jerry's for soy ice cream. Then again, cookie dough, for instance, isn't even vegan. Still: there has to be some sort of fake cookie dough that could be invented. ...Well, I guess it wasn't very healthy, anyway. But that doesn't make giving it up any easier.

But the soymilk and soy ice cream were more or less successful. The thing that didn't work out so well was the vegan yogurt. It didn't taste very good. I'm hoping that was just because when I tried it, I had a really bad stomachache. If not, I guess there are other brands. I'm still determined, though. Even if people do persist in pointing out how hard it will be to give up some of this stuff. Stubbornness does come in handy occasionally.

Well, at least if anyone tries to convince me it'll be bad for my health to attempt to go vegan, I can easily refute the claim. A lot of the unhealthy food I enjoy isn't vegan. So my health can really only improve from this. Also, just in case anyone brings this up, most Americans get too much protein anyway. ...But that's all I'm saying on the topic because I have to go.

Not Joe the Plumber Again

Does anyone remember Joe the Plumber? Or, as I generally like to refer to him, not-Joe the not-plumber? Well, look who decided to embarrass himself again. Not-Joe the Not-Plumber completely perplexes me. Just in general. As in, everything he's ever done that's been publicized. Then again, I never have been able to completely understand any of these right-wing people. But Not-Joe the Not-Plumber in particular is very, very perplexing.

I'll get to the point already. So, you know how all the crazy Republicans decided to do the whole "teabagging" thing? ...That never made sense to me either, of course. So, first of all, Not-Joe decides that he is exactly the right person to tell us all what to do since we're clearly all dissatisfied by intrusive government (I sort of am, but it's about completely different things, such as wiretapping...). I'm going to start quoting from this article: he "said the best advice he can give to citizens who are frustrated with intrusive government is to stop voting along party lines and begin electing leaders who will abide by the nation's founding document.

"Learn the Constitution," he said. "Then when someone wants to be elected, hold their feet to the fire and make them follow it because that's what we need to get back to. It works so well when we follow it. Forget party politics. Learn the Constitution and vote the best American in, not the best Democrat or Republican.""

...He says as he prepares his ballot to vote for another Republican. I find it terribly ironic that the guy who's so in favor of the tea parties and other Republican nonsense is telling us that we need to "learn the Constitution". I, for one, already "learned the Constitution".

Don't worry, I'm not nearly at the best part yet. So another thing mentioned was that "I'm cynical by nature, but I am also very hopeful because I see people from the Left and the Right showing up to these tea parties," he said. "You have people, bikers, union members and guys in three-piece suits showing up to these things." ...Because bikers, union members, and guys in three-piece suits are CLEARLY not people. ...I suppose that wouldn't have amused me so much if I weren't so grammar-obsessed, but I found that really funny.

THIS is the really great part: "Asked if he has plans to run for public office, he replied, "I hope not. You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, 'No.'"" That's the epitome of stupidity. Is this guy mentally ill? Then again, I suppose a lot of people think that this "God" character exists, so this is only a small step from the unfortunate norm. Still, though. I thought only the really crazy religious wackos (not that they aren't all, but those that stand out) thought God actually talked to them. What did he do? Just call God up on the phone? Where do people get this nonsense?

This last bit's sort of amusing, too. "He continued, "I believe he's gotten me on this grassroots movement. If I can encourage leaders to step up, that's what I would like to do. That's a heavy role. That's something I don't know if I am prepared to do yet."

But Wurzelbacher said he will keep that door open if God ever calls him to be that leader.

"I just know whenever I fall off his path, things get really hard," he said. "So I just stick with what God tells me to do.""

I swear this guy must be delusional. Maybe he hears voices, actually. Which wouldn't be any of my concern, except that this guy somehow presumably has some sort of credibility with the crazy Republicans. Also, the very idea of not-Joe being elected is a mix of amusing and horrifying. I want to say it would never happen, but we've elected some pretty stupid people before. Bush is the example that comes to mind, of course. You know what the Republican ticket should be for the next election? Sarah Palin and Not-Joe. The question is who would be president and who would be vice-president. Candidates, I mean. I think Palin would have to be the presidential candidate. SNL could do some very funny stuff with the two of them. Of course, if they got elected it would be a nightmare.

I just re-read the post about it at Think Progress, and the bit about him actually considering being in public office last year surprised me. Mostly I was surprised because I don't think I ever heard about that. ...I don't want to link to anything that awful, but click on the link at the Think Progress post. It's really pathetic. Well, at least this is a sign that the Republican party still isn't doing too well. Not that it wasn't already obvious.

Edit: speaking of Republicans who are so crazy it's surprising even the Republican party takes them seriously... look at this about Michael Steele (also referred to as work-not-jobs for obvious reasons).