In My Mind's Eye

I saw this cartoon this morning on Facebook, and I thought "wow, what a bunch of fallacies."  This cartoon embodies the majority of Democratic Talking Points since 2008 (with a notable absence of the "War on Women" theme... hmm... wonder why).  The thing with this cartoon is, many of these arguments can't be boiled down into signs.  They aren't bumper sticker slogans.  They are real issues, with much deeper thought processes.  I'm going to take just a few. 1) We want dirtier air and water so CEO's can make more money. This issue has to do with the Environment.  It stems from things like the Kyoto Protocol, and various other internationally pushed treaties to help prevent Global Warming, er um... sorry, Climate Change.  Recently our President made a deal with China, whereby we cut our Greenhouse Gas Emissions, while they commit to maybe, possibly, making changes 20 years down the road.  The problem with all of these solutions is that they cost

I am not a Gamer.  I have to put that disclosure up front.  I play Candy Crush Saga on my phone.  Occasionally I play Guitar Hero or Need for Speed on the Xbox.  However, video games do not hold my attention.  I just happen to the mom of several gamers.  Two of those gamers happen to be female.  Now with all the disclosure out of the way, I am going to write about #GamerGate. Wait, one more disclosure.  I had someone recently tell me that the entirety of #GamerGate was about a bunch of misogynistic, racist, MRA pondscum, or something like that.  I agreed to disagree with him, because frankly, he's a blogger who I generally like reading his things, and I didn't want to start a war in which I would wipe the floor with him.  His entirety of the subject came from a few feminist-centric gaming journalism sites, and the real point of #GamerGate is a knife in gaming journalism.  He's not about to get an unbiased opinion from them. Towards the middle of August, I was reading my

No one should be surprised that I decided to weigh in on this subject.  I love football, and I've probably read more on the Ray Rice controversy than I'm willing to admit. Ray Rice was caught on video dragging his then fiance out of an elevator.  She appeared to be unconscious.  There was no doubt there was an altercation and that Mr. Rice had done something that had rendered this woman unable to walk. As the crime took place in New Jersey, that is where he was charged, and was later accepted into a first time offender's program.  He was indicted, there was a police file, and he admitted to hitting her.  The NFL's Roger Goodell handed down a two game suspension. Baltimore's coach, John Harbaugh,  asserts that Ray Rice is a great guy.  He knocked her unconscious.  Unconscious.  Fast forward a few weeks to the release, by TMZ, of a video from inside the elevator.  A video that showed him cold-cocking Janay Palmer in the face.  Well, now we know the exact act

On October 2, 2002, a man killed crossing a parking lot in Maryland would be the beginning shot in a 22 day long terror-filled shooting spree for residents of the Beltway. (For those of you who are unaware, the Beltway includes Washington D.C. and sections of Maryland and Virginia.)  Ten people were killed, three more were critically injured, and the only thing they were doing was going about their daily lives.  The rest of the country watched in horror, and the residents of the Beltway lived in fear.  On October 24, the FBI apprehended the two men responsible for all that terror.  If you lived anywhere near the Beltway it was a scary time.  Frankly, just a year after 9/11, it was still a scary time for everyone.   Now imagine that instead of using a Bushmaster Rifle, Muhammad and Malva had been using bottle rockets, rocket propelled grenade launchers and missiles.  Imagine spending the day waiting for the sirens to go off so you could dash for your local bomb shelter and sit in fear

America is not perfect.  As a country, we have made our fair share of mistakes.  Some of those mistakes were egregious, like slavery.  Some of them were mistakes of necessity, like the Civil War.  (Yes, I realize that many people would argue with me on the point of the Civil War.  Just hear me out.)  Whenever necessary, we seek to correct our most horrendous mistakes.  However, America cannot correct her past mistakes, by throwing out the rule of law in the present or the future.  Recently, President Obama and other Administration Officials made it very clear that, since Congress was refusing to pass "Comprehensive Immigration Reform", the President himself would enact certain Executive Orders to accomplish that reform on his own.  I do not wish to discuss the legality of the President essentially re-writing laws, or writing his own laws, or refusing to enforce already written laws.  I am not a legal scholar.  However, when the President made it clear that he wanted to a

From the Twitterverse: Cecil Richards: Birth Control is basic health care used by 99% of women - unbelievable that we're fighting for it in 2014. #NotMyBossesBusiness Lena Dunham: Women's access to birth control should not be denied because of their employer's religious belief. Nancy Pelosi: Allowing CEO's to limit the medical procedures available to employees is a gross violating of workers religious rights. Elizabeth Warren: Can't believe we live in a world where we'd even consider letting big corps deny women access to basic care based on vague moral objections. I could go on, but it's not necessary.  Just those four tweets alone give me enough to write about, and that doesn't include all the facebook comments I had the pleasure *cough cough* of reading today. I am simply amazed at either the wholesale lying, complete disregard for facts, or just plain low-information idiocy that has been connected to the Supreme Court decision today in

Abortion is a passionate topic for me.  I am very anti-abortion.  I refuse to use the terms "pro-life" (because I am also pro-death penalty) or "pro-choice (that term is innocuous and wrong.  So many pro-choice people are only pro-choice about abortion).   I think if we are going to have an honest discussion about abortion, we have to be honest about the whole thing.  Throw off the pretty terms and state the truth.  So, I am very much anti-abortion.  If someone on the other side wishes to call me anti-choice, so be it.  They won't hurt my feelings. (I am totally pro-choice in a whole lot of other areas that don't include killing innocent unborn children.)  I tend to get loud when discussing abortion, and specifically Planned Parenthood.   My problem with Planned Parenthood is that they are billed as a women's health services organization, but really, they are mostly concerned with women's reproductive systems.  In all fairness, that makes them about the

I am almost positive that part of this post will make a lot of people angry.  I was involved in a discussion on another site recently where the topic was "Rape Culture".  I will start off by mentioning that I hate that term.  Part of the reason is, because until last night, I failed to fully understand the term.  Seriously, what the heck is "rape culture"?  Who determines what the definition is?  I have found several definitions, but I will post the one from Marshall University.   Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture.  Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety. I can admit that in times past, and still in other countries, rape is not treated as a crime.  Howev

Adam Weinstein, a blogger at Gawker, thinks that anyone who is not on board the Climate Change Train should be imprisoned. Katherine Timpf, a reporter for Camus Reform, was told that a feminist leadership conference was "inclusive" and she was "not welcome here".   Charles Murray is a white supremacist for holding views on Education that don't fit within the platform of the Texas Democrat Party. It's anti-free speech to allow people to contribute as much as they want to political campaigns.   The very people who passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act now want us to forget they ever passed it. Lois Lerner faces contempt charges for refusing to speak (after already giving testimony, which is what she did when she proclaimed her innocence) on the IRS targeting certain groups.  Mostly conservative groups. The Anti-Koch Harry Reid funneled thousands upon thousands of dollars, illegally, to his granddaughter. And there is that California State

I should probably not be adding to the noise today, but shutting up has never been one of my better qualities. I posted a minor status on facebook about a recent Supreme Court case, because there are a lot of uninformed people out there.  The case: Sebelius vs. Hobby Lobby.  All you had to do was listen to the protesters outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, and you got a very...interesting... take on this case.  You see, they are claiming that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood are standing in the way of women's rights.  Their rights to contraception.  That these two businesses, by refusing to subsidize certain forms of contraception, are actually forcing women back into the 1960's, or something like that. “The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in a case that pits religious liberty against women’s rights.”  ~Adam Liptake, New York Times, March 24, 2014 So, we'll start with this premise.  Hobby Lobby would like to be exempt from Plan B and IUDs.  Both met