Life and Its Relative Value

Oscar Grant was a father. He was a son and a brother. Oscar Grant did what a lot of young men do. He got into some stupid trouble. Then he got into some more stupid trouble. And he served his time, which is how things are supposed to work. Commit crime, pay your debt, go on with your life.

But Oscar Grant doesn’t have a life to go on with does he? He’s dead. Shot in the back in a tragic moment.
There are a lot of things that need to be said about this incident. A lot of them are broad social and/or political points that very much need to be made. I’m going to do my best to make some of them in a logical coherent fashion but while I’m doing that and whenever you talk or think about this incident I want you to remember two things.

Oscar Grant is not a political football. He isn’t some point to be scored in a debate. He was a man. This is what he looked like.




The child that he is holding in this picture is, I believe, his daughter. She was 2 years old when her daddy died. At that age, you don’t remember a lot of important things, like the way your father sounded when he told you that he loved you, the look in his eyes when he held his baby girl, the kind of person he was. Oscar Grant’s daughter will never know what it was like to hear her father’s voice, look in his eyes. She may form an idea of what he was like but that will be from stories. She will never know him.

That, more than anything else is what matters in this story; the lives that have been so irreparably damaged by these events. That’s what you need to keep in mind.
Now to the issues.

Here are the facts of the case as far as I understand them:
It was New Year’s Eve. Lots of people were on the street and in the subway. Lots of people were rowdy. Cops know that. Hell, everyone knows that. It’s just common sense.

Some people were fighting on the subway.

Grant and another man ran back onto the train after being detained, but Grant voluntarily returned to the platform when Officer Tony Pirone grabbed the other man and dragged him from the train.

Officers removed Grant and several other men suspected of fighting from the train and detained them on the platform.

According to Mehserle's motion for bail, Pirone confirmed with the train operator that the men detained were involved in the fight. However, this has been disputed by every witness who isn’t a police officer.

A cell-phone video broadcast on local television station KTVU on January 23 showed what appeared to be Pirone rushing towards Grant and punching him in the face several times two minutes before he was shot.

Witnesses testified that Pirone was the aggressor during the incident.

Additional footage from a cell phone was presented in court showing Pirone standing over the prone Grant before the shooting and yelling: "Bitch-ass nigger."
In his past, Grant had been tazed.

In the process of detaining Oscar Grant’s friends they threatened them with tasers.
More than one witness has stated that Grant begged the officers not to taze him and his friends.

The police officers bellied Oscar Grant, but could not apparently get control of his hands.

As a result Officer Mehserle grabbed what I honestly believe he thought was his taser.

He pointed and pulled the trigger.

One bullet entered Oscar Grant’s back, passed through his body ricocheted off of the concrete and entered Grant’s body again.

Officer Mehserle’s reaction clearly indicated that he did not intend to shoot Oscar Grant.

That does not, in my mind, change a damned thing.

There are several aspects of this case that are simply wrong.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS BART THINKING? Why the hell are they using trigger grip tasers?
Why did they pull those guys off of the train in the first place? There had been weapons found and taken from young Black men earlier in the evening but not from these men. The officers claim that it was confirmed that these were the men who were fighting but everyone who doesn’t have a vested interest in protecting the officers disputes that.

Why did the BART authorities act in the way they did after the fact, demonizing the victim and later the people who protested the event? Those protests were largely peaceful.

Why so many lies and attempts to abrogate responsibility?

Why, above all else, did the jury return a verdict of guilty only on the charge of involuntary manslaughter? While I believe that Officer Mehserle did not intend to shoot Oscar Grant the fact is that he did mean to do him harm. The man was begging for the officers not to taze him. After they had, as far as I can tell, already used excessive force, they decided to jump the shark and hit him with the taser too?
You can, and are in some cases mandated, to do more time for a property crime than the guilty party in this case will do.

Aside from the obvious legal issues there are the social ones. More than one person has mentioned the history of race related violence is San Francisco including one man, in the 1960s who was shot while surrendering, and several others more recently, including one person who was handicapped and in a wheelchair.

So, more than one person has had their life taken by police in Oakland. And a not small portion of those people have been something other than Caucasian. And today, a judge, as a direct result of the actions of a California jury told the whole world that this man’s life was worth less than many types of property in that state.
Why is that acceptable anywhere, ever?

Dear Tea Baggers

You fucking morons.

Please inderstand me, I don't mean that you disagree with my point of view and are therefor morons. I mean you voted for people who spent nearly a decade doing exactly what you say you hate and they're about to do it again.

Soon-to-be-Speaker Bohner thinks that the first item on the agenda in the new year should be extending the Bush tax cuts. In the same breath he insisted that the debt needs to be cut. Um...yeah.

If you take the deficit we have now $13,736,760,770,420.66 according to the national debt clock. And you add $700,000,000,000 hich is the cost of the Bush tax cuts according to the CBO YOU GET A BIGGER DEBT!

Why is this math hard for some people?

So yeah, you are morons because you took the same lies and idiocy that got into a huge financual problem in 2008 and decided that it was a great idea to try it again, and did so despite the fact that it stands in direct opposition to our stated goals.

You got took. You got hoodinked. You fucking morons.

Sue Me

I haven't blogged in a while. Yeah, I know. I've been busy. I work. I do school and then I work some more, only the second round of work is on the election.

What? You thought I was only going to fired up and ready to go in 2008? Yeah screw that noise. This election is as important.

Oh, you're diappointed in the president because he didn't buy you a pony and set up a big candy fountain in your front yard? Get over it. He had work to do and he did it well, not prefectly but well.

I've heard a lot about the enthusiasm gap, lately. I could lecture you about it but I won't. I'll let this guy do it for me.



Then watch this.



Then fucking vote, bitches.

Sister Wives, if I Must

People won't stop asking me what I think of the the show so here is my one big answer to which I am going to refer anyone who asks me from now on.

I think that show is to my marriage as The Craft is to my religion.

In other words, those morons are on a fucking TV show. They have nothing to do with reality. Yes, I know they call it “reality television.” They’re lying. Nothing that heavily edited and carefully produced can accurately be connected with reality.
The primary difference is that Mr. and Mrs. Potamus are equally my spouses. We are not “sister wives.” We’re just wives. She is my wife as much as she is his. That’s how our family works.

Lots of people take it upon themselves to pass judgment on us, especially Mr. and assume that we are in some sort of religious, repressive, freaksome, patriarchal relationship.

Those people have never met us.

Seriously, have you been reading anything I’ve written here? There’s no “man as the head of the household,” bullshit in my home. It just doesn’t work that way. I don’t work that way.

The people on Sister Wives don’t work that way either, not really. I mean, they may have their whole divided up house, sleeping rotation thing going but anyone who believes that these women are simply cow towing to their husband they have simply never been married, or met other humans. Relationships do not work that way long term and the more people that you involve in the relationship the less likely it is that any one person is really in charge.
The bottom line of this show is that they, like every other person on “reality TV,” is in it for the adulation and the money. Period. Don’t kid yourself. Whatever their claims of motivation are, that’s what it’s really about.

Never Forget?

So everyone knows what today is. Everyone knows that a bunch of people died due to extremism and today everyone is going to bombarded with two things; idiotic “Never Forget,” signs, images, bumper stickers and what not as well as multiple television shows and movies attempting to retraumatize the public for cash.

And all we’re going to be told today is that we should never forget. Yeah…thanks. I needed that reminder because the image of two people holding hands as they leapt to their deaths from the higher floors of the North Tower, so as to have some human contact in their last moments on earth, was going to go away any time soon; just pop right out of my head.

You know what we shouldn’t forget?

We shouldn’t forget that there were actually three planes that crashed that day. One took out a building full of soldiers. One crashed in a field after it was retaken by the passengers. One hit two buildings full of people.

Why do so many people focus on the building full of victims rather that the building full of soldiers or a plane full of ordinary Americans who stepped up when it was necessary and made themselves heroes? I think we should never forget the other two planes that crashed.

Guess what else we shouldn’t forget?

The terrorist attack on September 11th wasn’t random. It was the result of two things; religious extremism and global politics.

Notice that I didn’t say Muslim extremism. Yes, the people who attacked the U.S. were Muslims but that is peripheral. Religious extremism isn’t exclusive to Islam as evidenced by the idiot reactions to Park 51.

As a result of the religious extremism that led to the attack on September 11th we, the United States have responded with a level of extremism that makes no logical sense and is, in fact, pathetic and sad.

Somehow, in our strong, tough response to terrorism we’ve embraced the very worst traits of those people who attacked us and shown that what we as a nation mean by strong and tough is actually acting in the most cowardly, counter-Constitutional way possible.

Never forget that in the days after September 11th people who looked like they might be Muslims were attacked and in some cases were killed.

Never forget that fear and panic are exactly the reactions that the people flying those planes on September 11th wanted.

Never forget that religious extremism is what is happening right now in the United States. Go to any right leaning website and do a search for the word Muslim. You’ll see what I mean.

Never forget that September 11th is the event that led our nation into signing away our civil rights in the form of the Patriot Act.

Never forget that September 11th is the event led directly to a war we never should have fought in which 4400 American service men and women gave their lives and countless civilians died.

Never forget that the U.S. tortured people.

Never forget that part of the reason that the U.S. was targeted was our actions. That doesn’t, in any way, justify the actions of the terrorists but it’s something that we need to cop to.

The U.S. has been meddling in the Middle East for decades and doing so with little regard for the wishes of those in the region or the sovereignty of the nations therein.

Never forget that the events of September 11th are far more nuanced and complex than any t-shirt of very special episode can possibly cover.

You want to memorialize September 11th? Remember that real patriots respect Islam. Remember pluralism, the concept that two divergent ideas can and must exist in the same nation at the same time and each be equally respected. Remember that we the people have a responsibility to the nation and the Constitution to stand up for our fellow Americans, no matter what religion or nation of origin.

Remember that. While you're at it, remember that all of the memorials that are showing on TV are happening for profit and all the memorials that are happening in the media are too.

Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters

Many people will comment on Glenn Beck and his live action infomercial today.

I'm not going to be one of them.

Here's what I'm going to say.

47 years ago a group of people marched on Washington. It was one of many marches, boycotts, registration drives and bus drives that had been happening for years. It was hard. It was dangerous. Some of them, including the man whose speech became timeless as soon as he spoke it, died in the fight for equality.

So to all of them I say, thank you. Well done.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

The Best Part Of My Day

That's the prompt for the second day of the journaling project. I haven't decided if I'm going to post pics of the things that I put in the journal or not because it's kinda private.

But I did the first prompt and have just finished the second. So, yay me for following through for two days.


OK, subject change:

Dear M. Knight Shitty Director,

Nope. Sorry. You will not fool me again. I don't care how interesting the commercials for Devil look. It will suck. We all know it will suck. Everything you have gone near has sucked since Unbreakable.

No Love,
Me

There's been a lot going on in political idiocy lately but I need to research and reflect before posting about it so it'll be a couple of days.

Late to the Party

But I'm still gonna dance.

So there was this really interesting thing that happened a month or so ago called The 30 Day Journal Challenge.

I totally missed it. Had no idea it was happening until it was over.

I'm going to do it anyway. Starting today I'm going to take up the challenge, reading one prompt every morning and fulfilling it after work.

So here's today's assignment

Journal Prompt Number 1: Create a full page design introducing yourself :)
Highlight your name many times in the midst of your design.
I chose to use a lot of line design because I love it so much lately.
I also chose to draw some of the things that I like as well in there!!
Have fun, be creative, don't stress, just jump right in!!

You Know What's Fun?

Moderated comments.

Anyone who knows me, here or on the various sites where I spend time and thus debate (because if I'm spending time somewhere, I'm debating. It's a fact.) knows that I'm always up for a good debate. I love them. I live for that shit.

However

If you comment starts with "God says," or any variation thereof I probably won't care.

If your comment contains a screed in defense of FOX, I will mock you. And you will deserve it.

If you simply disagree with me I will research your point of view or point out the many, many ways in which you are wrong.

All of these comments will get published. Like I said, I love to debate.

What won't get published is this:

"I don't want to argue with you about this. I'm just expressing my opinion."

Hey moron. IT'S MY BLOG. If you just want to drop your opinion and do a runner get your own fucking blog.

You know what else is fun?

The democratic process.

This is what I did with my Saturday.




That's how I make my point; standing in the rain, getting screamed at and hated on by idiots because it matters. Somebody had to say no to these people. Their speaker is a hate monger who lies for a living.

It was just us out there in no small part because there had been rumors that they were going to change the venue or cancel the event and I didn't want to get a bunch of people together for nothing.

The Mrs. carried these two:




and



I carried this one in case you can't read it above.




Yes we got yelled at but you know what? Those people are fucking cowards. One woman, one had the courage to come up and talk to us. She was wrong and she didn't stay long enough to do much more than state her position, take our picture and bail but at least she didn't drive by in her car and shout.

That was the funniest thing. People would creep past us, accelerate slightly and then roll down their windows and scream.

Cowards.

Doomed to Repeat It

“Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.”

The above seems reasonable, doesn’t it? Isn’t it logical that someone, anyone, would want to live peacefully and free in the knowledge that the laws which apply to them apply equally to everyone else?

And yet...

The one thing that I’ve heard most often in the past few days in reference to the Muslim cultural center that is not at Ground Zero and isn’t a Mosque, is “It’s not about freedom of religion.”

YES IT IS!

THAT’S ALL IT IS ABOUT!

We’ve done this before, you know?

We’ve done this with smallpox infected blankets and the Triangle Trade and Alien and Sedition Acts. We’ve done this with the Chinese Exclusion Act and Jim Crow and legalized anti-semitism and Red Scares. And lest anyone forget, did it with internment camps.

We set up internment camps within living memory. There are still people alive today who were herded into stables and the like and held there with no cause and no charge, simply because we as American were so weak and frightened as to ignore our own founding principles.

We should be ashamed of ourselves because of these things.

Even more so, we should be ashamed of ourselves for even remotely entertaining the possibility of allowing it to happen again. We interred the Japanese because we, as a nation were so cowardly (yes I said it) that we could not abide by our own laws in the face of a group of citizens who were easy targets.

And we’re doing it again.

Every single time we do this; give in to our fear and our ignorant prejudice and our irrational hate we end up doing something shameful. Eventually realize our gross error and sometimes we even do something to fix it. But that doesn’t less the stain on our nation as a whole.

If we let this continue; if we allow our nation to fall into that same pattern of behavior we should all be ashamed of ourselves.

We know better.

We are better.


The quote at the top of the post comes from Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. We ignored him and destroyed his people and his culture. Let’s prove that we’ve learned something since then.

It’s time to step up people. When someone says something ignorant or intolerant or just fucking wrong you need to say something. I don’t care if it’s uncomfortable. Silence is assent. If you stay silent then you are agreeing with that ignorance or intolerance or wrongness.

It’s is the responsibility of the rational to stand against ignorance. It is the responsibility of the respectful to correct the intolerant. It is the duty of every American citizen who has read and understood and who loves the Constitution to not let this happen again.

I am not a coward and I am not going to allow fear and hate and ignorance to force the hand of the nation I love ever again.

Hallowed Ground?

Normally, I'm not all re-tweet, pass this along-y. But this is important.

You know all the idiocy happening around the "Ground Zero Mosque," which isn't at Ground Zero and is a community center not unlike a YMCA.

Look at this. Tell everyone you know.

I don't care what you actually think about the plans to build the facility because unless you agree with me, you're wrong.

Muslims died in the towers.

Muslims died defending the US in the subsequent wars.

Muslims are citizens of this nation.

This nation whose founding tradition is freedom of religion. Think about that. The people writing out the Bill of Rights decided to put freedom of religion right at the top. It's the first thing they listed. Freedom of religion.

Not freedom of religion if it's popular.

Not freedom of religion if it's the easy decision.

Freedom of religion, fucking period.

There's a reason we call these things rights; not just because they are accorded to us by law but because they are the right thing to do. Also because it doesn't matter if they are popularly accepted. THEY ARE RIGHTS. Everyone has them, no matter what.

Why is the ground only hallowed in the face of a house of worship and not in the face of a fucking strip club or off track betting or fast food? Is that respectful to the people who died? And seriously, how the fuck did a Burlington Coat Factory become "hallowed," anyway.

Trust me. I've shopped at one. Not that hallowed.

The answer to these questions is IT'S NOT ABOUT HALLOWED GROUND. IT'S ABOUT HATING MUSLIMS. Duh.

The right has been pumping this basic theme since the 1960's. They call it the Southern Strategy. It works like this:

Contact White voters.

Identify the group that White voters fear and upon whom they will readily lay the blame for their problems.

Make up problems if you have to, or if actual problems are your damned fault in the first place.

SHOUT AT TOP VOLUME that the group identified is, in fact, the cause of the problem.

Repeat final two steps as often as necessary.

Shit like that leads to this.

The Tea Baggers invited this woman to my town. She's coming to spew her venom and hate and lies where I live. And let's not get it twisted. We're not talking about some quirky political fringe member. She's the KKK in a better outfit.

She lies and in so doing she puts American citizens in danger.

That's while I'm going to protest the Tea Baggers and their venomous speaker this Saturday. If it were the idiot Phepls clan, I'd be there protesting. If it were the actual KKK, I'd be there protesting. I'm gonna be there on Saturday because it's long past time that someone told these people that their hate isn't welcome in decent communities.

And you know what the saddest thing is? The whole basis of extremist Muslim rhetoric is that the US is at war with Islam. So, basically, all this ignorance being thrown around about this mosque is reinforcing their point as much as humanly possible. Way to go morons.

Yeah, I know. It's been two months.

The 'Potamus has been working. Deal with it.

I've had a surprising number of people emailing me and asking when I'm going to say something about the oil spill. Apparently not a few people are waiting for me to rip into BP or expecting me to do the same to the administration.

I'm not going to do that.

Yes, BP fucked up. They were clearly negligent. Yes, the government has far less power that we would want them to have in this situation. Those things are true and they are problematic. But let's not pretend that if those things were magically solved, things would be significantly better.

This is our fault. Lots of (really stupid) politicians pay lip service to the need for the US to break its addiction to foreign oil.

Those people are saying what the voters want to hear.

The voters who want to hear that are uninformed.

There's no such thing as foreign oil There is only oil.

Every drop of oil in the world, no matter where it is drawn from or refined, is sold on the open market.

It's all the same price. That's how commodities work.

So the problem isn't the oil companies or the government. The problem is us. We're addicted to oil. Unless we commit to a course of action wherein we eventually make oil prohibitively expensive, we're never going to change anything and we won't have anyone to blame but ourselves.

I'm not interested in hearing or participating in rants against BP or the administration until Americans are ready to take responsibility.

You know what else I'm not interested in hearing ever again as long as I live? The term "reverse racism."

I know I've said this before but I'm going to keep saying it because if I don't I might have to punch someone.

There no such fucking thing as "reverse racism." The reverse of racism is respect.

I'm tired of this shit.

I'm tired of Andrew Breitbart. He's a liar. The end.

I'm tired of people who should know better tucking their tails and running at the first hysterical, bullshit accusation of "reverse racism." Yes, Obama administration and NAACP, I'm fucking looking at you.

I'm tired of everyone pretending that the Tea Baggers are motivated by anything other than racism. If they weren't willing to happily embrace the most heinous and hateful elements of American culture, they would, you know, stop fucking embracing the most heinous and hateful elements of our culture.

Most of all I'm tired of people pretending that equality is something that we should be ashamed of or that "overcoming racism," means pretending that blatantly racist shit isn't racist.

Dr. Laura, actually said, "I really thought that once we had a black president, the attempt to demonize whites hating blacks would stop, but it seems to have grown, and I don't get it," out loud in public.

Pause for just a moment and go read that quote again. Did you catch that?

Let me make this clear here and now. What that dumb cunt actually said was, "haven't we given you people enough? Can't you shut up now?"

WHAT IN THE HELL WOULD MAKE ANYONE THINK THAT THE ELECTION OF A BLACK MAN WOULD MAKE WHITES HATING BLACKS OK ALL OF A SUDDEN?!

That is some stupid, racist bullshit. America could elect Black people to every single office in the nation and stupid-ass racist statements would still be stupid-ass racist statements and they would still have negative social consequences. Anyone who can't deal with that should probably keep their stupid-ass racist comments to themselves.

She also said:

"If you're that hypersensitive about color and don't have a sense of humor, don't marry out of your race."

Um, because on planet Dumb-Bitch-With-a-Radi0-Show, all White people are eventually going to show their underlying racism? That is also some stupid, racist shit.

I honestly don't have a problem with the fact that she used the word nigger. I much prefer the use of the word nigger to the use of the term "the n-word." I'm not five. I don't need people to spell things for me. I have a problem with the other things she said, the stuff she didn't apologize for. That stuff matters and no one seems to care.

I Don't Mind The Sun Sometimes

Except when it's being used as an implement of torture.

I went to the Ft. Walton Beach Latin Salsa Festival today (which is ironic, seeing as it's Juneteenth and all.) and despite how small it was, it was fun. I got to watch the (armature, for fun) Salsa competition although my favorite couple, a woman in her fifties and a woman in her mid-twenties who was heavily pregnant, got knocked out early.

Given the fact that it was on the pier in Ft. Walton I obviously stopped by Unwind and snagged myself some Mango Moon Cotton Ribbon, with which to make yet another Calorimetry.

It was hot, like Africa hot, like people were melting as they walked down the street, hot. Yeah, I know it's Florida and it's supposed to be hot, but fucking hell this was over the top.

Aside from that I have discovered that working makes blogging hard to keep up with and that red is a better look for said blog than plain old white.

Nothing much to see here, at the moment. I'm sure I'll have something political to rant about after the Sunday morning shows.

What the Hell?

Stop watching FOX News. They lie to you.

That should be the end of your conversation. If anyone, ever, at any point during the next month or so claims either than the financial reform bill is a bank bail out bill or that net neutrality is somehow an administration attempt at censorship.

Those are lies.

They come directly from FOX.

Tell whoever is speaking to stop watching FOX because they are being lied to and if they are repeating those lies then they are making themselves into liars.

Don't bother to try to have rational discussions with liars.

Just don't. It's a waste of time and energy.

As I've said before it's a a function of laziness. Allowing those shills to form their opinions for them shows you that you're dealing with someone who is simply not smart enough to have a rational conversation.

Walk the fuck away.

Dear Tea Baggers,

You're a punchline. Embrace this fact.

I'm not going to go into the misspelled signage because that's just too easy and in my opinion criticism of spelling is the last resort of someone who doesn't have a good argument.

For a laugh I would suggest that anyone who does want to entertain themselves by mocking the sad, sad signage click here.

No, you, my dear tea baggers are a punchline because of some guy named Jinx on a motorcycle forum.

You know when I was a little boy, there was an old negro farmer that lived down the road from us, named Monroe. He was … (subtle laugh), I guess he was just a little more luckier than my daddy was. He bought himself a mule.

It was a big deal in round that town. Now my daddy hated that mule. Cause, his friends were always kidding him about, “They saw Monroe out plowing with his new mule and Monroe is going to rent another field now he had a mule.”

One morning that mule showed up dead. They poisoned the water. After that, there wasn’t any mention about that mule around my daddy. It just never came up. One time we were driving down that road and we passed Monroe’s place and we saw it was empty. He just packed up and left, I guess, he must of went up north or something.

I looked over at my daddy’s face, I knew he done it. He saw that I knew. He was ashamed. I guess he was ashamed. He looked at me and said, “If you ain’t better than a nigger son, who are you better than?”” - Agent Anderson, Mississippi Burning

And welcome to the Tea-hadist mindset. With Barack Obama in charge…who are you going to be better than?

And don’t think some of us recognize the symptom because we are a pack of condescending know-it-all asshats. We are…but that has fuck-all to do with the observation.

It’s just that we have seen this before. Up North…in our so-called “enlightened” neck of the woods.

Want to know the difference between North and South? Well, a man once told me that up North, it is OK to have a Black as your boss, but you will be damned if you will have one for a neighbor. Down South, it is OK to have a Black neighbor…but you will damned if you will have one as a boss.

So we went through all this Tea Party nonsense up North, about 20-30 years ago. And the reaction was just as vehement, inarticulate, and dumb as what is being spewed now. If you want to see hate and spittle, you should have seen how South Boston reacted to school integration.

But you would not have seen it 24/7 as you do today. It happened…but not in a perpetual echo chamber. And thank Christ for that.

And if you think the enlightened liberal North embraced integrated housing with open hearts, think again, It was called “white flight” and it damn near emptied some cities. “Sure, we support integration…now excuse us while we move to the suburbs where those Zulus won’t be able to spear us with their assegais.”

But white flight was a safety valve. It kept the pressure at reasonable levels. It also prolonged it and led to new levels of stupidity, but you could, after all, vote with your feet. Many did. Many still do.

OK, the job front was a bit stickier. Northern Industry has always been (at least since the 1950’s) largely integrated. Steel Mill owners don’t give a fuck what your skin color is. Besides, you could only tell on the way into work, on the way out everybody pretty much looked the same.

But you always knew what hand you were playing, because the cards were mostly dealt face up. Your boss was still white. Your union steward was still white. Your mayor and your chief of police were still white. And, as much as it pains me to tell you this, Michael Steele did not run the GOP. And even if he did, at least up north, you went home at the end of the day to your own private Idaho in the suburbs, and played golf on the weekends at a club where Michael Steele was never going to get in. Well, not the front door

The workforce may have been integrated, but you still knew who you were better than. Nobody dared yell “You Lie!!” at a white boss.

Over time, most of that has changed (but if you take a shot every time you can name a Black mayor of a predominantly white New England city…you are going to bed sober). But it took a very conscious effort to change it. Acceptance of diversity does not come easy when the question is: “who are you better than?”

And now the way the cards were dealt 18 months ago has upset a huge segment of the population. They no longer know who they are better than. They are lashing out. And there is fuck-all for a safety valve and it does run 24/7 in a perpetual echo chamber.

They say it is about “freedoms”…but they can point to no freedoms that have been lost over the last 14 months.

They say the Constitution is being destroyed, but when you ask them what parts of The General Welfare Clause or Congresses’ power to regulate Interstate Commerce are being violated…they stand mute with rage

They say it is about taxes…but they can find no drastic tax increases in the last 14 months.

Come to think of it, I don’t really remember anyone getting speared with an assegai thirty years ago either. But that didn’t stop people screaming about the danger.

And they say they want their Country Back.

Well, Bing-fucking-O.

Now we have it. They want to return to a time and place where they at least knew who they were better than.

And the fact that most of this spittle is flying from the mouths of the poor, the semi-educated, the low information voter, and from By-God Dixie…well, that is only because it is your turn. A lot of the rest of the Country has already gone through this exercise 20-30 years ago. And the same spittle flew from the same confused lips when it was our turn.

So we don’t look on Tea-hadists with scorn because they are alien and unfathomable. We do so because we recognize these very traits as ours and those of our neighbors.”All in the Family” wasn’t the most popular show in the Northeast because Archie Bunker was despised. It was popular because he was comfortably familiar. But at least he was a character. Nobody tried to run him for President.

And it ain’t just President Obama. It is a lot else: If your job can be done on the Indian sub-continent, who are you better than? If China can launch a spaceship, who are you better than? If the world looks at the mighty Dollar as little better than an American Peso, who are you better than? If an immigrant can work your ass into the ground, and do it smiling for a lot less money, who are you better than?

A whole lot of life has been shaken and stirred the last couple of decades.

This whole Tea-Party nonsense will eventually pass. Because there is no “going back”. OK, you can move to Idaho, or Montana, and it will feel like you have found what was missing. And you might even be happy. As long as you never watch the POTUS on the national news while you are trying to answer the question: “Who am I better than?”

But Jesus wept, people are going to keep asking that damned question. Soccer may be watched for it’s beauty…American Football is about who is better. We are more of a class society than people want to admit. There is still a very strong vein of Scotch-Irish pride that runs through this Country’s character. Unfortunately that pride is seldom based, at least lately, on personal or collective achievement…just who you are better than. You can hear it every time a factory closes in this Country and people cheer. No, they really don’t believe that closing the Auto Factories will make America stronger. But it adds a whole bunch of people to the list of those they are better than.

Still…what the fuck. 600 years of violence and oppression was bound to warp the Scotch-Irish a bit. Hell, you can even consider them heroically well adjusted given their, and my, history. And history will eventually change us again once all the dogs adjust to the new Alpha Male reality and find their place again in the pack. Until then we live in the land of flying angry spittle.

You're protesting today because you think your taxes are too high. But 90% of people saw their taxes lowered. It took me like, 10 seconds to Goggle that piece of information.

As I mentioned in my last post, it's important, if citing the Constitution, to have actually read the document. Nothing in the health care bill, the financial reform bill or any other aspect of the president's term so far has been unconstitutional. It took me almost a whole minute to Google that one 'cause, you know it's the Constitution and anyone who can read this post has access to it. Commerce Clause. Look into it.

You haven't lost any rights. As you may have read, you don't have the right to say whatever you want without consequences. Sure, say what you want but you accept the consequences. I mean, seriously, grow a pair. I'm tired of the whining.

You call the president a Nazi and you don't even understand the irony of standing at Nuremberg-esque rallies and spewing Kristallnacht levels of hate.

You're a punchline; not because of your stupid signs.

You're a punchline; not because of your unrealistic view of the world.

You're a punchline because you've allowed yourselves to be duped to the point where you can't think. You simply repeat the talking points that Fox has gotten from the GOP.

We don't have to agree but you have to think are you're not allowed to talk to me anymore.

Free Speech, Censorship and Reality

Fred Phelps is scum. I mean, I (hope) I personally don't know anyone who feels it is morally or socially acceptable to picket the funerals of dead soldiers or murder victims.

He's scum and the church he runs has so little to do with any rational understanding of the teachings of Christ as to make it unrecognizable.

But he's also a great example. Yes, he's a great example of crazy run amok and how it can infect the people around it but he's also a great example of how very, very wrong the far right is about their claims of censorship. Fred Phelps is allowed to go on doing what he does, teaching his children and his grandchildren his hateful ways and showing his ass (metaphorically) to the whole universe.

His idiocy is protected so all those people whining about the Fairness Doctrine and claiming that they're being censored need to shut the fuck up.

I've been thinking on this issue based on something that happened on one of my favorite websites a while ago. Long, really long, crazy long story short; one of the groups on the site had some really crappy mods and they didn't do their jobs at all. All sorts of racist, hateful, violent things were posted and let stand. Eventually the people who own the site decided, in the best interests of the site and the rest of the community, to shut the group down.

I will admit to some amount of private rejoicing. There's only so much misinformation I can take and they were a font of it.

Then some people were banned for continued asshattery and they started screaming that their right to free speech had been violated, essentially they repeated the word "censorship," a lot inaccuratly and to no purpose. I'm not going to go over their side of the story because, for the most part it's bullshit. You can just Goggle the name of the site + censorship and you'll find it.

Here's what irritates me about the claim. THERE IS NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH ON THE INTERNET. None. You don't have it. Neither do I. None of us do. We have the freedom to follow the TOS of whatever website you're on, the freedom to get your own damned server and make your own rules or the freedom to not act like an ass in public.

Let me repeat that as it's important. Don't act like an ass in public. As pretty much everything you post or have ever posted on the internet is avalible to the public. If you say things that are racist, sexist or just plain ignorant try very hard not to waste everyone's time pretending to be surprised when someone points out that what you said was racist, sexist or ignorant.

You don't have freedom of speech on the internet and you don't have the freedom to speak without consequences. And that's what the people I'm talking about, and a host of other people, are looking for.

They want to say whatever they want, no matter how false or stupid or mean-spirited the things they say are and then they want to go on their merry way with no consequences. they want to say racist things but they don't want to be called racists and they don't want to hear that the things they said are racist. They just want to say them. It's so very, very childish. I'm tired of it.

“Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. education and free discussion are the antidotes of both.” Thomas Jefferson

We really need to stop making excuses for bigots and call them on their shit.

Article 2 Section 1

And back to the politics.

I'm finding myself ridiculously entertained by the far right, crazy, wingnuts and the hate they have going for the census. Seriously. It's funny. I mean, aside from the reality that the more of them who refuse to fill out their forms the less representation they'll have; every citizen is Constitutionally mandated to participate in the census if polled.

It's the law. It's clearly written in the Constitution and for a group of people who claim to be so loving and respectful of said document you would think they would, you know, do what it fucking says. Always assuming that they've read the thing.

Article 1 Section 2 of the US Constitution is pretty clear on the rules.

The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

So, basically, whatever Congress says is a lawful way to conduct the census is a lawful way to conduct the census and we the people need to shut up about it.

So all of those people who are waving the flag and claiming to be "real Americans," while draping themselves in the false clothes of what they call patriotism while refusing to fill out the census? Yeah, they're criminals.

Which is fine. I mean there are lots of criminals in this nation. I have no problem with someone choosing to commit crime. I have a problem with them whining and lying about it. That needs to stop.

Out of Character

For me at least.

I've been on a makeup binge lately. If you know me you know that I'm the girl who will wear makeup to important events and then wipe it off as soon as said event is over. Not a makeup girl am I.

That said, I've been having cosmetic needs lately. But cosmetics, good ones are expensive. Unless you, like me are geeky enough to search out dupes of the best and most popular brands.

I offer them to you now, for your edification and budget saving needs.

I know MAC is the big dog of makeup hotness. It's also expensive to the point of stupidity. The drugstore is your friend.

MAC brushes are great. They're hand made and soft as hell. They're also crazy expensive, like I said before. Why waste you money?

Here's where being a crafty bitch comes in handy. Rather than spending $42.00 on a blush brush just go to the craft store. The art section of your local craft has every type of crush in every texture, made of every material in the world and they won't cost you a ridiculous amount of money.



The itty, teeny, tiny MAC lip brush is $20.00. Or you could stock up on a bunch of artist's brushes and save your money for fun stuff.



Next up is foundation primer. Especially those of you who use the mineral foundation; you want primer. MAC primer, and every other big name brand primer, honestly, is upwards of $20.00. Buy this instead.



Yes, it's Monistat anti-chafing gel. Get over the intended function. It's exactly the same thing and it's $7.00.

The thing that everyone loves so much about MAC, aside from the smooth texture of the product itself, is the high pigment content. Here's a tip; Black Lady makeup.

We women of high melanin need higher pigment makeup. Go buy some. I suggest Milani and Loreal HIP. Both of them have a high pigment content and you can always blend it into a more subtle look if that suits you.





Buy pretty. Buy smart. Spend more money on yarn.

The Best Gifts Are Those That Come From The Heart

There are a lot of great things that come from living in a military town, not the least of which is the ability to meet great people more often than in other towns. The necessary drawback of this ability is that those people leave.

One of the very best Friends I have ever had left town last week and I miss the hell out of her. I'm really glad I got to know her and I hope that we'll get to spend time together again. I have a slight hate on for Colorado, even though I love it there, because she's there and not here being funny and smart and cool where I am.

Because sometimes I am not grown up.

Before she left she gave all of us wonderful handmade gifts, because she amazing and thoughtful like that. Originally I thought to use this little lovely as a small project bag but then I realized that I had nothing to put my new tarot deck in. So that's its function now.

I love it and I miss the hell out of the person who made it. Happy trails Rox Star and I hope I one day have the privilege of having you in my daily life again.

Friday Fact Check

I've decided to implement a semi-regular category in this blog. We're calling it Friday Fact Check, as evidenced by the title of this thread.




The reason for this should be fairly clear to anyone who has been paying attention to politics in America for the past couple of decades or so. Conservatives and the rest of the country are functioning with two entirely separate groups of facts. Normally this would be a cue for any liberal blogger to start in on a rage about the FOX network and their lackadaisical attention to the truth.

I'm not going to take that cue. It's not FOX's fault. It's the viewer's fault. No one forces viewers to listen to those lies and no one forces viewers to believe those lies, especially when the truth is accessible through the not particularly taxing method of using a search engine or accessing one's own long term memory.

Seriously, people, this is not complicated. Here.

If we're going to have intelligent conversations on the issues of the day there are some facts we all need to stipulate as, you know, factual. Anyone unwilling to stipulate to certain facts is a liar. There's no reason to soften that statement or pretend otherwise. If you're not willing to look at clearly documented facts when they are presented to you and you continue to spread non-factual information after clearly documented facts are presented to you, you are a liar. Stop doing that.

Fact From Recent Days That Need to Be Recognized:

On The Verdict in the Roeder Trial:

Dr. George Tiller did not offer later term abortions to any and everyone who came in off the street. Kansas law is very clear and very strict when it comes to this issue. A viable fetus cannot legally be aborted and Dr. Tiller was consistently found to be complying with the law.

On One Small Aspect of the State of the Union Speech:

Presidents publicly disagree with the Supreme Court all the time. Unless someone is claiming that every president since 1973 has been ardently pro-choice, (in which case, stop talking to them because they are clearly too delusional to function) every Republican president has mentioned Roe v. Wade in at least one of the State of the Union speeches. Guess what? That counts as publicly disagreeing with the Supreme Court.

And finally, a specific response to the GOP rebuttal of the State of the Union, which was painful and sad in it's gratuitous attempts at both stagecraft and statecraft. The painfully obvious way in which you had both a Black lady and an Asian man front and center for the speech DID NOT FOOL ANYONE. How about, rather than try to convince people that you are diverse and accepting of many types of people you actually work on being diverse and accepting of many types of people? You can start by dropping the ridiculous purity test thing.

As to the content of the actual speech...

Trust Women

Happy national Blog for Choice Day.

Happy Roe v. Wade anniversary.

Trust Women.

That's what used to be printed on a button frequently worn by the late Dr. George Tiller used to say and this year's Blog for Choice question is: What does "Trust Women," mean to you?

In truth, my first answer is, "I don't know," followed closely by "Why wouldn't you trust women? What possible, logical reason could anyone have for not trusting women?"

I'd like to pause here to thank Dr. Tiller and all the other doctors who offer women abortion services, and the people who fought that women might have the right to safe, legal abortions, and people who are still fighting. Thank you. I value you and the work that have done and are still doing.

But back to the point. I've spent all day asking myself these questions; what does trust women mean to me? Why wouldn't you trust women? What reason could anyone have for not trusting women?

Why goddammit?

Why is it that women's choices have to be examined,and justified? Yes there is a moral aspect to the question. That's fine. They're my morals and I'm willing to take whatever possible ramifications come from them. I'm just not willing to die, not willing sit by while other women die.

Because let's be clear here. Anti-choice crusaders aren't fighting for fewer abortions. They're fighting for fewer safe, legal abortions.

Making abortion illegal won't stop abortion and it won't lower the number of abortions one bit. It never has and it never will. that's a fact that America needs to deal with.

This debate is complex and has many valid perspectives but it isn't a debate about the fact of abortion. It's about access to abortion without harassment. It's about not having to deal with assumption that women don't really know what we want and if we were just forced to sit through enough anti-choice, science impaired, rhetoric we'll realize that our destiny is to breed. It's about the need to force everyone to live by an arbitrary set of morals in an effort to validate some bizarre sense of superiority. It's bullshit and I'm not having it.

The Return of the Political Commentary: Change and the Modern Voter

"How's that change so far?"

"The President has done nothing!"

"Keep the change."

"I'll keep my liberty you can keep the change."

These are things that I hear all too regularly. I'm not talking about valid, rational criticism of the president. I'm talking about people who can't articulate thoughts more complex than can fit on a bumper sticker.

I love when people disagree with my political position. I live for it. It helps me learn. I hate ignorant people and I've found that the ignorance is spreading. The Civil Rights movement started, arguably, shortly after the Civil War and ended...never. Don't kid yourself. We're still working toward equality. The Women's Movement, the Gay Rights movement every attempt to engineer major social change in this nation is the work of decades. Yet all I'm hearing lately is "Why isn't the change happening? Why isn't it happening faster? WHHHHHHAAAAAAAA!!"

OK

Yeah.

You have fun with that. The grown ups are going to have a conversation now 'cause it's hard to concentrate while you're screaming and kicking your feet like that.

In case you hadn't figured it out, I'm tired of people pretending that the president has done nothing at all and that the exact change they envisioned hasn't happened and as such they president is a failure and evil and WHAAAAAAAAA!

Stop it. Your ignorance is taking attention away from the actual issues that still need solving. Your millisecond, MTV, goldfish length attention span and your childish desire for instant gratification without any actual, you know, work is a waste of time, yours and mine.

(The next section is full of irony given the fact that I'm blogging. Yes, I'm aware.)

I spend a lot of time involved in various political/social groups. The key word in that last sentence is "involved." Now, I realize that people have jobs and lives and so on but it can't be denied that the Tea Baggers have jobs and lives too. They also have to desire and will to get up and go do something.

The aides at my Senators and Representatives offices know me by name. Some of them recognize my voice. I call them at least once a week and I've spent a not small amount of time debating them in an effort to get them to advise their bosses properly. I've had more than one conversation with my congressperson for the same reason.

During the election we had the time to get out on the streets and act in an attempt to get what we wanted. Guess what? It worked. Well done. That wasn't the end. It was the beginning. Sadly, what I see most often lately is people who aren't involving themselves any farther than whining about how things aren't going their way and exclaiming that they are not going to vote for Obama next year.

Stop for a moment and think about that. Progressives, who for some inexplicable reason convinced themselves that Obama was a Progressive, when he gave no indication of being one, feel that their best plan for actually getting the change they want is to wait until 2012 and then not vote for the incumbent Democrat.

See what I meant about the screaming and kicking their feet? Grow up people, change doesn't happen because you want it to happen. It happens because you force it to happen and it doesn't happen fast. Get to work or shut the hell up. I'm tired of listening to you. your temper tantrums keep getting in the way of my attempts to make change happen.

Second Entry of Non-Political Content

Although not knitting related but deal with it.

So one of the many things that people would not guess about me is that I love to make my own beauty products. No really. I am never happier than when I am mixing shit from the kitchen in anticipation of slapping it on my face. OK, sometimes I'm happier, but not often.

One of the best gifts I've ever gotten was a group of heavy clear plastic containers with screw on lids. Sadly I lost them in the move but they were a great place to store my beauty products.

So I found two new recipes for body scrubs and decided to try them both out in a head to head death match.

Dun DUHHHHH!!

So one is a brown sugar scrub and another is a raw sugar scrub. They are very similar except instead of using brown sugar in one you use raw sugar.

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup of White Sugar
1 Cup of Raw Cane Sugar (also called Sugar in the Raw)or brown sugar
3 or so Tablespoons of lemon juice
2 or so Tablespoons of oil. (I use extra virgin olive oil but any food grade oil will do)

Mix dry ingredients then add in wet ingredients until you get a paste. You're gonna be mixing for a while. It's almost impossible to keep this shit mixed. Take it into the shower and scrub it on dry. That allows for the most exfoliation.

You're gonna end up sticking to yourself, and the walls and your shower curtain. Also, the olive oil will not wash away as quickly as the sugar and can make things a little slippery so be careful. Sticking to yourself plus slippery tub floor has the potential to seriously hysterical and possibly emergency room visit resulting antics.

So I tried the brown sugar scrub on the left side and the raw sugar scrub on the right and to be honest there isn't much difference. The brown sugar version, with the lemon juice kinda made me smell like a Snickerdoodle which was cool I guess. The raw sugar scrub has less of a smell and the larger crystals of the raw sugar seemed to exfoliate more effectively. I would recommend the raw sugar scrub simply because of that but if you have super delicate skin I would go for the brown sugar.

OK, so that's not much of a death match. It was fun for me though.

Wash out your shower after you're done to get rid of the oil residue and wash your body as normal.

One of my other favorites is my aspirin facial mask. Take two or three uncoated aspirin some warm water, white sugar and a few drops of raw honey. Drip the warm water onto the aspirin until it starts to dissolve. Add a few drops of raw honey and a tablespoon or so of white sugar keep slowly adding water and honey until a paste is formed. Massage the paste onto the face, avoiding the eyes. Then get in the shower, scrub on your home made body scrub and do whatever for a few minutes. Your shower is your private time. I don't want to pry. Then scrub the mask gently off your face. The aspirin has a mild acid in it which can help the skin and I've found it help if you've got a zit or some inflammation.

Finally, olive oil = magic. I use it after my showers as a moisturizer, a base for most of my beauty products and , you know sometimes on a pizza or something. Try it. You'll like it.

Yeah, I had a little beauty day today. Now I'm feeling all pampered. It's loverly.

Look! Knitting Content!

So, I'm a knitter. I may have mentioned this previously. For the first time I have a knitting plan for the year. How is this different from previously years? Well, I have a plan. Last year I didn't have a plan. Yeah, Ok shut up, the plan is meaningless and will probably be abandonded by February. But for now, I have a plan.

I plan to knit from stash this year and let me tell you, as soon as I made that decision the whole world put every fucking skein of yarn I could possibly love on ridiculous sale. The universe likes to tempt me.

First I'm knitting this hat for my sister.

Then I'm going to finish my Clapotis.

After that's finished I'm going to knit myself a new Headline News because I lost my old one. I'm probably going to end up making some mitts to go with it. Those will be finished just in time for it to get insanely hot here in Florida. (OK, the plan may have some flaws.)

At some point I'm probably going to finish my Groovy Socks.

After that I'm felting myself a knitting bag because the only ones I've seen that I like are hundreds of dollars and, just no. that isn't going to happen.

So that's the plan. Let's see how long it lasts.