cry havoc

I don't know who originally said it, but the current furor in USian politics over abortion, rape, and federal assistance reminds me of some wise words my mother once told me, when I was still too young to understand the depths of it all:

"If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."

If you figure unions have had their days and come and gone, well, think again. Every single day you work, you're going to experience at least two benefits, and probably more than that, that you're getting thanks to a union.

If you like getting a half-hour for lunch every day, thank a union.

If you're glad your employer can't make you work 10 to 16 hour days, 6 days a week, thank a union.

If you think an 8-hour days for 5 days a week is a sane limit (and enjoy weekends), thank a union.

If you like getting time-and-a-half when you do have to work overtime, thank a union.

If you're under 16 and don't like the idea of being worked until you literally pass out, thank a union.

If you're black and appreciate getting the same pay a white person would get doing the same job, thank a union.

If you're a woman and appreciate getting the same pay a man would get doing the same job, thank a union.

If you're hispanic and appreciate getting the same pay a white person would get doing the same job, thank a union.

If you're over 40 and glad that a company can't deny you health benefits because of your age, thank a union.

If you're over 40 and it matters to you that you be offered the same training options and advancement as younger employees, thank a union.

If it matters to you that your employer can't pay you $1.50 an hour or some equally unlivable low wage, thank a union.

If you attended a public secondary school, thank a union.

( And ten more reasons... ) ( Now that we have that clear, here's a rudimentary overview of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA): the current system vs the proposed changes, pluses & minuses... ) ( ...and a short history example of what our forefathers and foremothers went through to get us these benefits. )

---

Unions are the workers, and if we as worker bees can be productive, safe, well-treated, respected, and paid a fair and livable wage, this will benefit the companies in the end, just as much, because we are the companies, too.

( Last, a few words before opening to comments. )

Lastly, from emptywheel, Flight 1549: this miracle brought to you by America's unions.

California (and several other states, I think?) has something called a civil union. I've heard this over and over, during the Prop-8 ramp-up, and always followed with "but this is not equal, we want marriages".

Uhm. What's a civil union?

No, I don't mean that sarcastically. I really am not sure. I mean, when I got married, we did not see a priest, and did not get consecrated by a church, and just had a secular JP do the schtick. If our state had allowed the judicial version -- where you go stand in front of the judge and s/he says, "okay, you're both agreed and neither are chewing the scenery so here's your paperwork, move along now," I would've been fine with that. My understanding all this time has been that if you do not get married in a church, but get married by the civil arm of the judicial system (since creating a union in the criminal system would be, well, less than thrilling), then you have a civil union. We even say it that way, too: "we had a civil ceremony," as opposed to "we got married in a church."

So what is a civil union, if that's not it? And are civil unions something you only get if you're unionizing with someone of the same gender? If Cali has civil unions, is this something that's an option to anyone, regardless of the combined genders of party A and party B? Or is a civil union some kind of 'mini-marriage' where you get benefits A, B, and C but not D, E, and F? Say what?

( In some ways, sometimes I feel rather baffled as to why the churches and/or religios are so up-in-arms, outside the knee-jerk homophobic OMG EVULLL reactionary crap. )

Then again, I'm of the opinion that it's good the state can't tell a church what it can or can't do. What I can't get behind is this notion on the part of churches that it's perfectly reasonable for a religion to turn around and tell the state what to do. I guess some religions (you can insert exactly which religion is the most recent egregious violator) seem to think the wall separating church and state is permeable, if uni-directional, which makes for an odd lead-in to a concluding remark that you can't have it both ways.

( And about Obama's statements about gay marriage... )

My god. Even I'm better at staying on topic than that woman.

[unlocked once I felt more confident that I'd managed to avoid unintentional inflammatory speech]

No matter where you stand in the political spectrum, there's no doubt that right now, as Americans, we really are seeing our world change. I remember visiting a friend, hanging out in his room when we heard his roommate yelling for us to get into the living room. There, we watched a live news feed of the citizens of Berlin pulling down the Wall. I felt like my legs had gone out from under me. To see something that had existed my entire life, crumbling under the force of people willing to say: no more. Amazing. Awesome. Breathtaking.

At the start of the Democratic primary, as the potential nominees dwindled down to two, at times it no longer mattered whether I agreed with both or neither or even the political positions. It was the simple fact that a major party, one of the major parties, could have a black man and a woman neck-and-neck. One way or another, this country would no longer be the same. No longer just white men lined up on the ballot sheet to command our highest offices. For the first time in my life, there was the potential, that the potential of "anyone can be president" would become, finally, an actuality.

In that sense, I find myself marveling at McCain's pick of VP. No matter how you look at it, one way or another, in November, this world I know will no longer be the same. That children across this country -- and those watching us from across borders and oceans -- will see that when this country tosses around the ideal of "any citizen could one day be president" that it's not hollow, it's true. Anyone, black, white, male, female, could achieve a high office of this land.

( That said, over the past few days I've also found myself increasingly frustrated, but the only way to express that is to divide the politics from the personal. )

(Normally I would be more diplomatic and less partisan, but this is one issue that really steams me.)

This ad nails the one reason I just can't believe McCain has any comprehension of what it's like for those of us with mortgages, with incomes that pay for that mortgage with only just enough left over, let alone what it's like to know that your 401K is only barely going to be enough and that social security may not be much but at least it's something you can count on, eventually. Or what it's like to know that your choices are between paying off bills and having groceries or not doing that and being able to see a doctor. Or what it's like to buy disposable contact lenses in sets of six because that way you can wear one pair for six months and make the sets last for three years and save the cost of annual eye appointments -- you can see well enough out of glasses that are six years old, so it's not perfect, so sometimes you get headaches or your eyes hurt, the cash just isn't there so you deal and you know you're dealing but you deal.

I just cannot believe, deep down, that someone who says to be rich you're making "five million or so" is someone who has any comprehension of what the rest of us are facing, day-to-day, trying to make ends meet.

Okay, so maybe someone of the so-called "rich" (and I'd say, myself, that "rich" is a household income over 300K or so) might be able to sympathize with we of the lesser incomes, but I can't believe that someone could empathize. And frankly, I don't want anyone's goddamn sympathy. I'd just like some freaking health insurance that I can freaking afford.

(If I'm critiquing a neighbor, does that count as a review?)

Yo, neighbor, you suck.

Last night I drove past your house after sunset. Apparently you seem to think you're quite patriotic, but tonight I shall probably be arrested for spray-painting across your house, lawn, and truck that you're not patriotic but an OVERCOMPENSATING IGNORAMUS.

( I could pretty much guarantee that you've never been in the armed forces, sir. )

Rather than get into this on anyone else's journal -- especially anyone patently against my position -- I'll say it here. I made no attempts to be civil, because I'm pissed. Do not think for even a heartbeat that this means I feel no remorse for the dead: I am not heartless, I am furious. I am angry that those children were fish in a barrel, and thus, with all due caveats of this being my opinion...

The argument that outlawing guns will prevent murder is absolutely moronic.

I got a newsflash for you. Murder is illegal regardless of means, and it don't make even a speck of difference how it's done. I can kill you with a knife, and if we're in a district that's outlawed any knife whose blade is over 11", then I put away my chef's knife and I could murder you with a paring knife, if I get you in the right spot. I could slide a screwdriver between your ribs in just the right angle and skewer your heart. I could beat you over the head with a broken chair leg. I could drown you, I could suffocate you, I could throw you out a window. Or, I could go cheaper by the dozen, and still not need a gun.

Timothy McVeigh didn't use a gun. He used fertilizer.

It's still murder.

In fact, it's a fuckload easier for me to get ahold of a paring knife, a screwdriver, or even fertilizer, than it is to get a gun. And I don't just mean the background check or the three-day waiting period, I mean also that guns are damn well expensive. But I don't see anyone outlawing fertilizer, or paring knives, or screwdrivers, or even windows more than ten feet off the ground that don't have bars to prevent a body being thrown through them. No, I don't think that's a ridiculous response. Frankly, I think it's a good analogy because it reveals just how ridiculous it is to say that outlawing guns will cut down on murders. Bullshit. You know the old adage about the better mousetrap? It works for human vice, too: it doesn't matter what you allow or outlaw.

People determined to kill, will find a way.

Okay, so you take away our right to private gun ownership. Do you realize what this means? How much empirical evidence do you need? Look at Chicago, New York City, Washington DC: they have the highest murder rates of any cities in this country... and, curiously, they're also the cities in which private gun ownership is outlawed. The second amendment does not exist in those precincts; private citizens have no means nor right to defend themselves and their homes. And of course the criminals still have guns: if they gave a shit about the law, they wouldn't fucking be criminals.

( Face it. People will commit murder. One way or another. Nothing you can do will change this. )

Don't you feel safe now?

Gee. I sure do.

Remember the stink about Ellison (the first Muslim elected to Congress) opting to be sworn in on a Quran rather than the xtian Bible? Well, he's clearly not just an articulate and thoughtful person (judging by his track record) but also pretty damn savvy...

Ellison to be sworn in using Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson
by Fred Frommer, Associated Press, January 3, 2007

Washington D.C. — (AP) - Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, will use a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson during his ceremonial swearing-in Thursday.

( Read more... )

from minnesota public radio

I seriously heart the Rude Pundit. Today he's writing about the random searches in NYC [read more about what to do if you walk into one], and observes:

This is the warped logic of our discussions of civil liberties: if you are a good, lawful person, then you shouldn't mind having yourself probed, spied on, and frisked. Principles like the Fourth Amendment are merely covers for the guilty.

Read the whole thing.

And this, I want stapled on the forehead of every politico on the hill, right where they can see it and can't frickin' miss it, no matter what:

In an ideal America, government should be open to the sunshine and air, and citizens' lives should be private. But the Bush administration has reversed this foundational principle.

Which in a nutshell sums up the majority of what has me so uncertain about the state of our nation, these days.