Another link babble post brought to you by yours truly!
for starters, a faux noise link. I KNOW. i can't believe i'm doing this. linking to faux noise? wtf??? however, it is an interview with a white catholic priest who sums up the whole reverand wright (non)issue beautifully. he schools the reporter who should NOT be a journalist for as much as he a) acts like a freshman in college working on his
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Well, the drift toward sensationalism--which, make no mistake, the non-stop coverage was--watering down of content, & slackening of research & investigation has been going on since at least the mid-70s. For a little while after 9/11 the journalistic community paused & questioned its priorities & standards, but that didn't last long. As for the gov stampeding everyone, I think certain *elements* took advantage of the situation to advance their own agendas, but the gov as a whole succumbed to panic--not least, I think, because 9/11 was the first time since the War of 1812 that the gov have themselves been in harm's way. They weren't prepared to be personally in danger, they panicked, & they let us down. So did the journalists. But we Americans let ourselves down by accepting poor journalism & complacent public officials. (OK, off my soapbox now.)
Well, I'm an atheist, though I'm not sure I know what you mean by hard-core. I don't believe in any deities or kind supernatural, I mostly look to the sciences, esp the life & social sciences, to understand my existence, & to history, philosophy, legend & myth to put it in context. Does that answer your question?
At risk of sounding patronizing, it pleases me to encounter a younger woman who grew up feeling she had no limits but those of her talents & willingness to work. That's the ideal that was only truly applied to all Americans, albeit imperfectly & haphazardly, within the last 40 years. Maybe naive, but more the difference between theoretical & empirical understanding. I wasn't so fortunate in my family environment, I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say that my experience has made me intensely aware of how precious our freedoms are...& how fragile. Since you'll probably be around after I'm long gone, allow me to be melodramatic & beg you not to let those ideals be crushed out of you, & never give up doing whatever you can to protect & defend them.
Networking isn't a bad thing per se; we are social creatures, it's one of the traits that make us such a successful species. But these closed, secretive, networks seeking to acquire power over others & to pursue undisclosed, unilaterally chosen objectives--oh-ho, yeah, bad, bad, bad.
Matter of taste, though I suspect it's mostly that Ten so often behaves like an ADHD teenager off his meds, & selfish, thoughtless, & arrogant besides.
Excuse me, mind if I continue later? There's a storm with freaking hailstones down here.
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and people wonder why i <3 KO, JS and SC. ;) i can hardly stand to watch most "news programs" (in quotes both for definition of news programs as well as the fact that technically, none of the three listed above are technically 'news programs') any more, but those three are the saving grace of news. cause while they might mock the hell out of news events, there's thought and criticism applied - and not of the bill o'really? kind.
good call on the gov reaction to 9/11 - i think part of it was the panic you talked about, and i think, part guilt. not that they were in any part -responsible- as conspiracy theorists might have it, but rather that they knew something was up and did nothing/ignored it, either with intention or not.
Well, I'm an atheist, though I'm not sure I know what you mean by hard-core.
eh, i tend to view religion et al as i do degrees of vegetarianism. ;) and vegans? hardcore. altho then there's your raw foods etc etc but that's veering wide my point. in the states, at any rate, we're exposed to so much by way of the religion de jour, it's almost ... engrained. moving past a specific religious doctrine, at whatever age, requires specific and almost analytic self-appraisal. and takes some dedication too - i'd say it's almost harder to be atheist in the US than it is to be a single 30ish/+ female who never intends to procreate. (just check out the opinions of an illinois democrat.) and not necessarily dedication like you're striving towards a goal, but it requires -thought-. research. exploration. draw your own conclusions instead of having conclusions drawn for you. and constantly battle the questions/accusations/disbelief/conversion attempts by those who prefer religion. at some point, maybe early, maybe later in life, you have to question the status quo (and continue to question), find your own answers, and toss aside normal for what is almost taboo (of course, i could have a completely biased view living where i live).
me? i'm still out there floating around, unattached to any particular notion. most the time my diet is vegan, however i do enjoy my dairy and occasionally i eat fish. however, for the most part, i'm completely turned off meat and not for PETA reasons, but cause I find meat so unappealing and distasteful.
how's that for an analogy?
and yup. it does. and to me, makes complete sense.
allow me to be melodramatic & beg you not to let those ideals be crushed out of you, & never give up doing whatever you can to protect & defend them.
oh, i'm an idealist at heart. it'll take a lot to crush that, and that's even with my growing political interest and the horror/shock of the past 7 years of theocons/neocons in power destroying the bill of rights, devaluing human beings based random qualities and disgusting dominionism creating an upheaved world. so don't go worrying about this idealist yet *g*
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I don't know about that; I think I just subconsciously concluded that there was no evidence for the existence of deities or anything supernatural, I just became aware of it when the subject happened to come up one day. Though understanding my existence & figuring out my own moral/ethical code, yeah, that was/is a lot of work.
I'm sure some people in gov felt guilty, whether because they knew something was afoot or not, but I'm also sure there are plenty who didn't, however greatly at fault a thorough investigation would show them to be.
I'll pass on looking at the Illinois...person's...opinion, thanks. I've already encountered the opinion that Boomer women who pursued a career--or presumably, just worked to survive, as I did--instead of having children were parasites upon the American economy who didn't deserve Social Security benefits, yadda yadda yadda. & I also back in the late '60's & '70s that women who didn't want children were psychologically unhealthy, unnatural, selfish, yadda yadda yadda. On top of that, I was an SF fan, & there was a *very* strong eugenics ideology in the community at that time, such that a number of writers flat stated that women owed it to the race to breed. Mostly, they stopped short of directly advocating that women who didn't want children be forced to have them, but indirectly... Totalitarian, much?
You relieve my mind. So many people, particularly of my generation, either turn bitter & hateful when reality doesn't live up to their ideals, or abandon them. I fear you younger feminists are going to have a much harder time of it than we did.
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there are other countries other than the US? no shit? /snark
that women who didn't want children were psychologically unhealthy, unnatural, selfish
i've gotten similar responses, especially from my own mom, but more in a guilt-trip sense. "why don't you want kids? was i not a good enough parent?" like it was a personal offense that i didn't want kids despite my choice having nothing to do with her, how i was raised, etc...
i'm glad SF has grown out of that line of thought. for the most part. at least most of what i've read recently has not been inclined along those lines.
oh, i'm bitter. but i still retain hope. and now i sound like a campaign slogan for the obama campaign. but i do, for the most part, believe that people are moving away both from the prejudice and the sexism wiht every generation, though there are still your idiots out there. of course, that doesn't mean the objectification hasn't slowed, in fact, i think it's gotten worse. but i can deal/ignore objectification. it's hard to ignore prejudice/sexism.
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I didn't get that response from my mom--she thought I didn't think anyone would marry me. (Mom has a long history of grabbing the wrong end of the stick.) What really pissed me off were the damn men, who were just as promiscuous as they could manage while also rejecting any responsibility for consequences, yapping that there was something wrong with women who didn't want children.
Oh, damn; I have to break off. There's a storm front coming in, there was hail the size of baseballs to the west, & tornado warning.
Later?
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i thought that was the whole point of men regulating birth control access and denying the right of the woman to make choices for her own body...in favor of abstinence-only programs. because then, poor men, don't have any consequences to deal with! /snark
stay safe! tornados are a PITA. yay, welcome tornado season. urf. *remembers to buy batteries for her flashlight next time she's at the store*
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Yeah, tornados are PITA; hail & flooding are no joy either. I don't like to break off in mid-comment, I feel it's rude, but my mother can't hear disaster sirens, so I need to be alert to grab her & run to shelter.
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Well, eugenics is an idea mostly discredited during the last couple of generations, along with other deterministic sociobiological & psychological theories, not to mention the much larger female readership of SF these days, writers would hardly come right out & state those ideas baldly, even if they had them, & if they did, they wouldn't get past the editors. That being said, though, it seems to me that most SF these days seems to be more general adventure/thriller/drama using the tropes of SF rather than even the most superficial speculation of how contemporary ideas & developments in the sciences could effect people & societies.
You can be bitter without becoming cynically self-serving, which is, I'm afraid, what all too many of my generation has done. As for moving away from the sexism, I remember a quote from George Washington: "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom"--& all too many women are quite happy with sexism, as long they're getting what they want. As for objectification, I suspect that the world today, & very likely American culture particularly, is generally prone to that.
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experiences shape us, no matter how great or tragic. and seriously, not everyone has to grow up in quiet ol' nebraska to become the outspoken liberal like i am. ;)
Networking isn't a bad thing per se; we are social creatures, it's one of the traits that make us such a successful species.
see, i have issues with networking. and maybe it's just the word itself has become so distasteful to me through experience. social acquaintences? friends? i suppose that's networking - but to me, networking implies the deliberate attempt to make connections in order to gian something. and i hate that. with a passion.
But these closed, secretive, networks seeking to acquire power over others & to pursue undisclosed, unilaterally chosen objectives--oh-ho, yeah, bad, bad, bad.
v. v. bad. of course, that's US 'democrazy' in action for you. and we tell other nations how they should run their government...
Matter of taste, though I suspect it's mostly that Ten so often behaves like an ADHD teenager off his meds, & selfish, thoughtless, & arrogant besides.
see, now that's how i'd describe the doctor in general. (as a char)
hail? ugh. hopefully you survived the hailstorm with minimal damage!
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All human relationships are forms of networking, & formed to gain something. But that isn't inherently bad, so long as the gain is mutual, or to the detriment of one party. The term networking has acquired negative connotations exactly because of the type of dishonest, manipulative "networking" of such groups as the Fellowship/Family.
...& a good part of our problems abroad is America's condescending, paternalistic attitude toward other countries & cultures.
Except for Five, & possibly Eight--I only saw that *dreadful* movie once--selfish, thoughtless & arrogant is a constant of every avatar, though they vary as to degree of eccentricity & erraticness. I was going on to say (before the damn hail started hitting the windowpanes & roof--followed by lightning storms) that I can see myself finding a less selfish & arrogant, more thoughtful--& less hyper--character played by DT attractive; strictly from an aesthetic standpoint, DT is a very comely specimen of that boyish, ectomorphic type Britain produces. & he has great big pretty brown eyes & a tight, firm shapely little butt. Perhaps if Ten were to be tied up & gagged...hm...there's a naughty fic in there somewhere...
We're fine, but with the type of storms we've been having, I keep an eye & ear out...& it looks like we're going to have storms again tonight, dammit.
By the way, since it's clear I'm going to be following your writings, do you mind if I friend you?
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*giggles lots* see, at first, i didn't find DT attractive at all. and then he grew on me. but the idea of a gagged and bound doctor is really....a naughty (nice) thought. don't suppose the TARDIS would ever just....get tired....of the doctor's hyperactive spasticness? i mean - i don't know enough traditional who-verse, but i've always enjoyed the fics/ideas that the TARDIS has a (feminine) personality. and well, the idea that she might just get tired of the doctor...at some point...and seeks her revenge makes me giggle.
and that wouldn't even be naughty. unless jack was there and got ideas.
and sure! feel free to friend. i'll return ;) i don't post often, and a great deal of it's rants - so be forewarned. *G*
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...what do you mean about Jack *getting* ideas? Jack *always* has ideas. You could power a major city with the amount of energy Jack expends having ideas!
Hey, I enjoy your rants, they make me feel that my sign-waving days weren't for nothing. You'll more likely be disappointed by my posts. I'm afraid that these days, at my age & with my health issues, my focus is pretty much on personal worries--one reason the net has been such a boon to me.
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