wildflowersoul

I have to put this somewhere or I'll explode, and I have a personal policy to never engage in arguments on Facebook in comments on a friend's post if I don't know the commenter. A FB friend posted about an Elizabeth Warren canvasser coming to the door at 9 pm (admittedly, that is super late, I'd be pissed if someone rang my doorbell at 9 pm, OMG some people have sleeping children!). Anyway, totally ok to complain about on FB. A commenter, though, had this to say "I would also suggest calling the cops next time. Unless I recognize the person, there is now way I'm opening the door unarmed."

Wait. Just wait a minute. Seriously? Is that we are coming to in our society? You have to go to your door armed?! If I were home alone and it was night I might not answer the door if the person looked wholly sketch, but come on. What the F is wrong with people that it's a first instinct to be armed when dealing with strangers. It doesn't help that I just read this article in today's NYT, about a guy legally being able to shoot a neighbor who was in his garage (said neighbor was potentially about to assault the guy for cheating with neighbor's wife, but unless the guy was threatening murder himself, it's not a circumstance that warrants being able to stone-cold murder somebody and get away with it). Grar. Also, surprise of all surprises, said FB commenter is a Scott Brown supporter. 'Nuff said. I just... I don't think there's anything that will allow me to comprehend where these people are coming from.

Oh. My. God. this is one of the many reasons why I really dislike many of fellow denizens of Somerville.

There is a ballot initiative in Somerville (and from what I understand, it only has a number in Somerville). It reads: "Shall the state representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a proposal to amend the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to replace the state Legislature with 100 randomly selected adult residents of the Commonwealth, each serving a one year term, to be called the Commonwealth Jury and to have all the legislative and other powers of the current Legislature?"

This is possibly an even worse idea than the inane "repeal the state income tax" ballot question. I say possibly because I just can't wrap my head around this friggin' nonsense. What the hell is up with this election this year?

First of all, hi, many of us regular citizens have jobs that we can't, like, leave for a year. Next, how about understanding that technically your state legislature is already comprised of regular people, they are people who are elected by the populace. Now, I am aware of voter fraud problems, campaign money problems, and a host of other issues that do exist, and I'm not really getting into that right now. But if you don't like how your government is run, you can do something about. Run yourself! Get involved on the local level! Help people who actually want to run for office make it if you believe in them. Goddamn hippies.

Oh, and also- just because a ballot initiative passes doesn't mean that the legislature has to actually abide by it.

18 more days!

In which I shake my tiny fist: How is it that in all the belly aching and complaining about taxes in this country that no one ever complains about the craziness of treating urban salaries like their rural counterparts? Of course I make more money than a librarian in Oklahoma, I live in Boston and I need to make this money to pay living expenses. But according the federal government, I make a lot of money. No, I don't, it all goes out to the high rent, the T pass that only gets more expensive, the food that costs more here than elsewhere.... I don't see why people in Boston/NYC/DC/San Fran/LA/Chicago don't complain more about this, we get shoved into tax brackets we don't deserve to be in. And it's not like many of us city dwellers can afford a mortgage, so we get no special home owning deductions.

Also, I propose that rent should be payable pre-tax. Why not have it possible to arrange with your payroll department for them to send out your rent to your landlord from your paycheck before it's taxed? Electable, not mandatory, of course. That would be super helpful for those of us who live in places where rent eats up a third of your take home pay. Health care is important enough to be treated this way, but a roof over your head isn't?

In non-piss-and-vinegar-news, I feel like I've been rocking the kung-fu lately. My goal is that by the fall I'd like to be able to go up to the advanced class. Maybe. It might be more realistic to hope for that for a year from now.

Tonight we see The Smashing Pumpkins!! Rock!


Alright, I hate to admit this, but I actually agree with Ron Newman on something in the Davis Square community. There's just so much asshattery going on in this thread, I have to bring it to your attention. OMG. Let's harass people who are just doing their job, get angry when they are not friendly because they are working while you ask asinine questions, and then proceed to make wild assumptions about what's going on and suggest "running them off" to prevent "atrocities" of urban development from happening. What a great idea! *headdesk*

Ranty, Ranty, Ranty.

( The Somerville Parking Dept. Can Suck It )

You know what sucks? Trying to get to JP and ending up in Newton.

You know what fucking sucks ass? Trying to get home from JP and ending up in Mattapan and then the back roads of Roxbury. After midnight.

JP, you and I are not going to be cool for a while.

The worst part of the drive, though: seeing two or three lights in a weird formation in the sky ahead of us. The lights kind of twirled, then blinked out. I swear to god, if we hadn't been so lost I would have lost my shit right there. I was convinced it was a ufo. Then a minute later, about 200 yards from us I saw weird lights again, this time they kind of fizzled down, and I realized it was just some jackass setting off firecrackers.

So well over a week I asked my mom what I thought would be a pretty easy question. I asked her why she voted for Bush. I asked without judgment, promising that I would neither sneer at her views nor try to correct them. Today I get ( a response )

Wow. This invective and rage against Europe is just...crazy. Not the mention some good old-fashioned racism thrown in, with some jingoism sprinkled liberally atop.

Well, in other news, my work's kitchen is awesome. They gave us strawberries!

For the past five years (good lord, has it been that long?) I have been receiving various and sundry email forwards regarding how great God is, how bad democrats/left wingers are, and how cool Republicans/right wingers are. These come from my mom and her illustrious new husband. Now, normally I either skim and chuckle, delete without reading, or smack my forehead and roll my eyes. Rarely, one will come across me that I feel the need to respond to. I believe the last was a particuarly bad gay joke that got my ire up, I simply responded that I would appreciate it if he (new husband guy) didn't send me anything homophobic ever again. I also thought it would be a good time to try some remedial education along the lines of "gay people aren't bad" and threw in the "Hey, you know, I'm bisexual, you've spoken to me, I'm not so bad am I." What I got back was something along the lines that he just didn't want to have anything to do with "those people." So anyway, today I got a forward about a quote from a recent speech of Hillary Clinton's, something about taking back the tax cuts. I wrote back to everyone on the forward list that the ellipses in the quote indicate that it's somehow been manipulated (i.e. words are missing!). Ok, so I might have added that the tax cuts didn't benefit any of us, so I didn't see why they (the Southern gentleman and his clan) should be upset. I may also have tried to dispel the myth that democrats are Robin Hoods who just want to steal money to give to crackheads and homeless people (adding some embellishment here). So now I'm getting emails from Southern Republicans along the lines of this: "Jen, it's not your money and you are not entitled to a penny of it to support the causes you happen to like!":
Whaa? I'm not asking for it! I...but...if it's not my money, then how is it this guy's money? I need to go back to just smacking the forehead and deleting. Why can they not be reasoned with??!! I would actually enjoy the political discourse if they would take their fingers out of their ears and obey the rules of basic logic.

As seen in this week's MA Lawyer's Weekly re: gay marriage: "three reasons offered by the state for restricting marriage to heterosexual couples, to wit: that it made for a favorable setting for procreation; ensured an optimal setting for child bearing; and preserved scarce state and private financial sources."

Because as soon as gay people get married, all straight folk will immediately cease to fuck, marry, and divorce. Of course. Wait a second...so if crazy homophobes stop procreating out of protest, maybe we'll have a few less ignorant assholes in the world... yes....*rubs hands in a Mr. Burnsian fashion*
Oh, and last I checked marriage tends to bring in tons of money, especially for private financial interests. Try ordering flowers for no reason. Then try ordering flowers for a wedding.

The whole procreation argument is so patently stupid that it's hard to argue against, it's like arguing with a two year old.

Homophobia makes me want to kick things people.

Overheard at the bar where we were eating dinner tonight: lame-o college girl saying she was hungry & that the food at a nearby table looked good- when her friends told her she should order something (as they were getting food, too), she said "I can't eat anything! I can't drink anything other than water!" Girl's friend then said "you can eat and puke it up later."
Girl seriously did not get anything other than water.

Oh my god.

Food is not an enemy, people! Seriously, you have to actually take in calories for your cells to function. I know I'm not the only one who eats three meals a day and also believes that snacks that involve fruit (and lately cottage cheese for the protein) are good for you.

Ahem. Rant over.