My stepdaughter is in her mid-twenties. She never got a "participation trophy." When she was a kid, she didn't really fit in -- oh boy, do I have stories. Turns out, gay kids had it rough.
My oldest son graduates high school this year. Honors in math and engineering. Was nearly driven to suicide his first year in our very nice local high school because he is who he is, geeky and gentle; he got into an alternative school and blossomed, and if you see him and his nerd girlfriend together now your heart will just melt from the cute. He never got a "trophy."
The "participation trophy" lie is all about "bring the pain to the weird kids."
Last night MollyI, who has been taking this shite harder than I have, because (1) she is a nicer person than I am, and (2) because she knows from being a highly competent woman getting shafted from jobs for which she is eminently qualified solely because of yahoo sexism, told me that she's worried about going down to DC for the Million Woman March. This is because that protest is scheduled for the day after the inauguration, and "the city will be full of Brownshirts."
She's not so much worried for herself.
Since we raised her right, my step-daughter of course wants to go. She's 26, wants to march with her gay homosexual partner, and is mouthy and feisty and pissed off. Then our daughter, who is 12, wants to go, because she is already mouthy and feisty and pissed off -- because she's in fucking middle school and already every girl her year knows not to put anything on the floor of her locker, because some snotty little boy will ass-grab. And that snotty little boy will get away with it. And Donald Fucking Trump is now president.
The boys want to go because even if they would sooner gargle hot lead than admit it, they love their mom and sisters dearly, and also it would be an Adventure, and also because they are shrewd enough to know they will get fed and might have a day off school.
But this is the rub:
MollyI is terrified because she might not be able to protect her kids, if we go.
This is not an unreasonable fear.
Trump rallies are indeed Brownshirty. It is known. Trumpite fanatics are rapacious and currently feel themselves uncorked. This is clear.
And you'd have to be even dumber than a Trumpite Facebook troll to think the police would keep you safe.
On the other hand, well, we went to the Iraq war protests; we knew those would not have any effect, but what was the alternative? Sometimes, as an American, your duty is to stand up and say "no." You can't just stay home. And as Americans, you can't just stay quiet because of the threat of physical intimidation. As soon as THAT happens, well, the trigger on the fascist gun has just been pulled, hasn't it? And if that happens, well, they're coming for you anyhow.
So there's two sides.
Or not.
If we are in nation where one can very sincerely fear for the physical safety of their 12-year-old daughter as regards taking her along with you to a peaceful political event...
On a recent Saturday afternoon, a 10-year old Maryland boy named Rafi and his 6-year old sister, Dvora, walked home by themselves from a playground about a mile away from their suburban house. They made it about halfway home when the police picked them up.
Two kids got busted, the police took them home, then the parents verbally abused the cops:
Someone saw the kids walking without an adult and called the police. The police tracked down the kids and drove them home. The hitch* this time is, when the police got there, they discovered that they were meddling with the wrong family.
*They were all white so nobody got shot.
These parents should be in FUCKING JAIL.
First, they say they practice Free-Range parenting, which is a FUCKED UP METAPHOR. Because that means you refuse to factory-murder your children: you will only murder and eat your children after you let them have some exercise. WHAT THE FUCK.
Second, look, I'm a parent. Are you a parent? No? THEN SHUT YOUR FUCKING PIE HOLE. If you are not a parent you can't even TALK. Just because you had a parent and were perhaps parented in some fashion, that only puts you in the MINORITY. FUCK. YOU. APPARENTLY YOU are NOT A PARENT.
THIRD SAID. I said THIRD SAID. YES obviously if you let your children walk home from the park you are a subhuman monster. Speaking as a parent, these parents are just unbelievable garbage:
For starters, teach your children to walk to the playground alone.
There's a lot that smells fishy. It's utterly one-sided; the police had no time to respond, and CPS, quite properly, is not allowed by law to comment on specific cases. (Did you think social service agencies have PR people on staff capable of responding swiftly and with precision to very specific WaPo queries? Maybe they do!)
Who turned them in?
Cops really won't and don't stop kids from walking around -- but someone might like to pretend they do...
I have my problems with Common Core. As public policy I'm bothered by it for the reasons laid out in this New York Principals' open letter: the absence of sustained input from educators, the redirection of public money to prefab curricula prepared by private companies, the lack of evidence that the standards actually work before implementation, the perverse incentives high-stakes exit testing festers and fosters, and so forth.
As a parent I'm pissed off at how CC was rolled out in NY because the math homework the 9-Year-Old brings home sucks ass. I get that it's supposed to make the kids think through numerical logic, but the instructions are frequently badly written, counter-intuitive, and flat-out infuriating. Getting through what should be a straight-up fourth-grade fucking homework assignment is like dad & daughter trying to write a book report on The King in Yellow* every Tuesday & Thursday, the Math Homework Nights.
The House Appropriations – Education Committee cut deeply today into Gov. Jay Nixon’s proposals for public schools and higher education, slashing his planned increases by more than $200 million.
But committee Chairman Mike Lair, R-Chillicothe, found $8 to address a pressing problem. The money is to be used “for two rolls of high density aluminum to create headgear designed to deflect drone and/or black helicopter mind reading and control technology.”
On the summary sheet handed out to lawmakers, the money is slated for “tin foil hats” and was tied to an amendment removing language barring the state from accepting federal grants to implement Common Core standards for public schools.
Controversy and Porn Pervade Common Core Curriculum
For the love of fuck.
When schools rely on Common Core (CC) Appendix B to develop literature courses for high schools, students will read books that some consider pornographic. When districts use curriculum that is “Common Core aligned,” students are encountering a variety of politically charged books to which some parents may object.
So, CC represents the attempt of the tyrranical Obama administration to propagandize America's fresh-scrubbed youth into porn and communism by developing an appendix detailing a non-exclusive, non-mandatory reading list.
If only Stalin had thunk it.
You can sewage spelunk in that last link's sewage-cave if you like; it contains many a Golden Treasure. But what strikes me the most about this particular wingnut eruption is that provokes faux-evenhanded bullshit like this:
In recent months, we have been puzzled by the small but vocal minority of conservatives who have joined forces with some on the far left to oppose the Common Core.
Which is from an NY Daily News op-ed emanated by these people.
CC is not a plot, and cannot be explained away via simple conspiracy theory. It's too complex and has too many actors. Which is to say, as an upshot, is that I don't think the loony right are the stalking horses for the evil right as regards CC. That op-ed is panicky. The think-tanky right has created a monster and then lost control of it. To the extent that CC does represent a challenge to the autonomy of primary and secondary teachers as a field, this regressive goal of shitheads like these op-ed writers is imperilled by the rubes who've swallowed long-term wingnut propaganda.
Which is darkly funny, but still a shite situation overall.
Because of the false balance thing. "The right is aainst CC... and so is the left! Therefore, it is perfect."
I'm almost done with the Goldberg book, and reading it is like slurping a heroin-flavored Robitussen stew featuring cabbages, poppies, vodka, and Nyquil. With a blunt instrument chaser.
I’ll focus on a fine point about shot construction in Game of Thrones. Before I do, however, I should note that I’m by no means endorsing the more problematic elements of the show—the racial politics foremost among them—because those strike me as endemic to sword-and-sorcery as a genre, so anything I write about them will inevitably be general and uninteresting to a fault.
I have always found it a difficult pancake as to whether the adjective "problematic" were good or bad.
It is I think central to the point of GoT that all of the politics are horrible. It's very difficult to choose whom to root for.
Is there an established consensus that the show contains "problematic elements"? If so, beg pardon.
The link goes to, of course, Jim Hoft pretending he's aghast at random impolite, sexist Twitter posts. Hoft's commenters behave with more than their usual intelligence, meaning, you have to read down all the way to Comment Number Three to discover this sort of Wisdom:
Both of these Twits moms did and still do work, every day, turning tricks down at the Interstate truck stop to keep them in Doritos and Diet Pepsi (with an occasion bag of weed) so that they don’t have to leave their basement wombs.
Shazam!
The next Idiocy is more impressive:
For the last many years, I have been the single most important influence on my children. Yes, they go to school (public school, yet); and yes, they both have thriving social lives; and yes, I’ve been unable to insulate them from a Leftist pop culture that is hostile to traditional norms and to conservatives generally
A Leftist pop culture?
It's a capitalist pop culture. Sorry it bugs you, commie.
But this is the Deepest Idiocy.
I am the counterweight to the state. Therefore, I am dangerous. I am subversive simply by existing. My love for my children is a dominant force that works its way into their psyches and that trumps the state-run schools and the state complicit media world. Some mothers, of course, are entirely in sync with schools and media. They happily reinforce the statist message. But those of us who don’t are a powerful anti-statist force and we must be challenged.
The Left’s problem with Ann Romney transcends her husband’s wealth, her (and his) Republican identification, and her decision to work for her children, rather than for a paying employer. The Left’s problem with Ann Romney is that she represents the triumph of the individual. No wonder they hate her so much.
Hahahaha.
Ann Romney represents the triumph of the absurdly privileged. Or, of a certain class of "individual."
The state -- our democracy, what's left of it -- is the counterweight to you.
Glad you love your kids. We love ours too.
You fear communism, which is batshit. We fear plutocracy, which is actual.
So the other day we discussed a Canadian woman who bills herself as a Sassy Christian Wife who offers Sassy Sexy Christian Wife Sex Talk about Sexy Sassy Christian Wife Marriage Sex-Talking, and also Jesus. She's written books about these sorts of things, and these books allegedly appeal to people who pay cash money to hear these sorts of things. Hence, she is an Expert. Sort of precisely like St. Augustine, only sassy.
We were hardly the only site with nothing better to do than to take a bazooka to this low-hanging pinata filled up with sassy Christian sex talk about why even though modern sex toys can give women fantastic orgasms because of anatomy, as our Canadian friend conceded, scientific studies show by science that you have to be married, ladies, to truly enjoy a right proper orgasm. And Jesus approved.
But we are the first site to actually have the patience (I was procrastinating) to try to figure out just what Our Canadian friend meant by a Scientific Study.
And that’s where I feel sorry for people, because as much as they may think Christians are boring, the truth is that we’re having more fun. In the largest scale studies of relationships ever done, Maggie Gallagher and Linda Waite found that married people had better sex than any other category of relationship, including cohabiting couples. Cohabiting couples had more frequent sex, but they didn’t enjoy it as much. Marriage matters.
SCIENCE!
Anyway, here is our Canadian friend explaining why -- as part of, I shit you not, "Wifey Wednesdays" -- if you are a Christian wife, and your husband wants to fuck, and you don't want to fuck, you are a selfish shit and you should fuck anyhow, you nasty teasing whore: "if you don’t have a good reason for saying no tonight, why not say yes? You’ll sleep better, your relationship will improve, and you’ll be happier. So jump in!"
Here is a FUN Mental Exercise CHALLENGE. Play along at home, or at work, or even while driving! It is not only fun, this fun mental exercise challenge, but also challenging, and exercisingly mental, plus fun. Also it involves orgasms. And Jesus.
STEP ONE.Imagine that you are a woman.
Note. If you actually are a woman, this part of the Mental Exercise Challenge ought to be relatively easy. But these are early days yet. Don't get cocky. As it were.
Note. If you are not sure whether you qualify as a woman according to Established Professional Standards, examine the picture below, which Top MIT Research Scientists agree constitutes a woman. Procure a mirror. Compare!
STEP TWO. Imagine that you are a woman who enjoys fantastic orgasms.
Note. "I got this covered!" you may be saying to yourself, be you an actual or imagined woman: "Categorically, NO! Fantastic Orgasms suck! As do fantastic orgasm sucking related activities!"
If, uh, if this is your response, you can, like, stop reading. The rest of the Fun Mental Exercise Challenge is sort of biased towards the debauched minority amongst us of fantastic-orgasm-enjoyers. Just thought you should know.
So, surely, most of youse don't much care for fantastic orgasms and have thus quit reading this post. However I shall soldier on. Such is my dedication to my craft.
Note. We hates fantastic orgasms, Precious.
STEP THREE. Imagine that right up there with fantastic orgasms, you enjoy Jesus. It's, like, a tie.
Note. Who doesn't enjoy a tasty Jesus every now and then? It's been a rough week. Come Friday night, all you want to do is go out for cheeseburgers and just unwind with a tall, cold, delicious Jesus.
Note. Sweet frosty Christ, yum.
STEP FOUR. Who is going to win, ladies -- your desire for a fantastic orgasm -- or your fear that IF YOU USE SOME SORT OF ORGASM MACHINE TO HAVE AN ORGASM, THAT MIGHT PISS OFF JESUS, WHO IS YOUR BOYFRIEND? IT IS A FIGHT!
Note. Uh, what....?
STEP FIVE. YOU FUCKING HEARD ME.
Note. No, you lost me.
STEP SIX. If you are a WOMAN, Jesus should be your boyfriend. ONLY HE SHOULD DELIGHT YOUR LADY BITS, and His Instrument is your Husband.
Note. Holy shit, you've been reading that crazy Canadian goof!
Note. Have you noticed the Amusing Contradictions here? Observe:
Yes, God designed us to be orgasmic
Note. And... interestingly...
And interestingly, studies have shown that the people who actually enjoy sex the most, and the women who are most likely to orgasm during sex, are those in committed, religious marriages.
Note. (STUDIES! Magical studies published by Sexy God Unicorn Press!) But...
Most guys aren’t that big. And they can’t vibrate like that. Do you really want to get reliant on something your husband can never be for an orgasm?
So, uh, the clear conclusion is, non-cited citations of "studies" aside...
STEP EIGHT. Exactly! Jesus wants women to get married so as to have orgasms inferior to those they can get through inexpensive sex toys.
Note. Jesus sounds like kind of a jealous, insecure asshole.
Note. But let us be charitable. Shorter Jesus: "I could totally make your pubes quake, Mary M, if I weren't NAILED TO THIS FUCKING TREE."
Note. "But actually that feels kinda nice, honey... er, yeah, it's, uh, part of My Plan...
A little more to the left...
Oh yeah...
That's it...
Sweet... fucking... ME....!!!!!"
[I'm almost halfway 100% ashamed of this joke, but not quite. --Thers]
STEP NINE. Clearly, Jesus wants you to come, if you are a woman. Just only when hubby induces it. On the three or four occasions, lifetime, when you''re trying to make babies.
Note. Here is why, according to this Canadian loon, Christian women have orgasms:
Because they’re the least likely to feel divorce is an option, so they’re with this person for life. And commitment is the best aphrodisiac!
STEP TEN. Oh, baby, you are so the only choice for genital pleasure I have before Death's Sweet Carress.
Note. Uh... yeah... Lou Rawls ain't got shit on that...
The 4-Year-Old has been gleefully indulging in his idiosyncratic version of potty training (omigod), the 10-Year-Old has by some gruesome mistake been allowed to learn about chemistry and physics as applied to an otherwise uneventful summer vacation, and the 5-Year-Old -- she has discovered how to be fearless in the water without the intervening step of "learning how to swim."
