Migrating

I’ve come to realize that there are two general topics that I cover in this blog. Politics, and my personal life. This blog is cluttered. It’s more or less a mess. So I’ve decided to migrate to two separate blogs; one dedicated to politics, one to my personal life. If you follow me here (I think there’s only one or two of you at best), then please instead go to follow me at Unfolding Fans and The Fashion of Politics.  Your follows will be so greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much, my invisible audience, and I hope to see better days.

Have you ever shut your mouth for fear of the unlikely happening. Have you ever been content with a lack of ambitious, preferring to just let it go than risk the shame or it not working out?

Have you ever been intimidated by someone’s kindness?

A Place Called Zen

And hence, the creation of a new kind of roleplaying website.

A PLACE CALLED ZEN.

“I will get involved because the states do not have the right to undermine the basic, fundamental values that hold this country together.”

Oh, oh really? You mean like those values that our country stands on like bedrock? You mean, like religious tolerance and freedom? (The ones that inspired our country to even be birthed, so to speak? That led us to flee from Europe and whatnot?) Really? Those ones? Well, that’s kind of funny, considering you’re basing your entire argument on your religious values, not the country’s as a whole. Believe it or not, this country is not a “Christian” country. Religion and politics should never mix. That’s what’s got America stuck in such an ethnocentric rut, with Europe and Asia laughing their heads off at us. Can’t say I blame them.

The United States have truly got to be one of the most ethnocentric nations out there. It’s even worse, though, because it’s the old timers versus the young people, our future generations, fighting this battle over change. Fear drives the republican party this election season, or so it seems. The conservatives are unwilling to accept that mass social change might not be such a terrible thing, many of them, including Santorum (despite his younger age), still under the appalling impression that homosexuality and pedophilia are even mildly related. The age-old argument of how accepting same-sex marriage will lead to legalization of polygamy, pedophilia, and bestiality was used back during the early ’60s, too, back when conservatives were fighting against the legalization of interracial marriage, and I still don’t see three-year-olds marrying their forty-year-old uncles and men fucking their dogs (except on television, but, hell,what haven’t we seen on television.) Seriously, guys, it’s been half a century. Come up with a better argument.

The young people of today are growing more and more accepting of the gay community, thankfully, far more blind to difference than our older generations. Though teenagers are still using the phrase, “That’s gay,” toward anything they don’t find interesting, as a whole they’re far more open-minded toward the idea of knowing people who actually are gay. Despite the fact that the phrase, “That’s gay,” is still mildly insulting if nothing else, it’s becoming more of a general term, rather than an actual attack. I mean, Germans use the phrase “That’s Russian,” (in German, obviously) as a way of expressing distaste, stemming from World War II and the Cold War, but it’s no longer a personal attack, rather just a figure of speech. I, myself, don’t use the term, “That’s gay,” and am liable to comment if I hear someone else use it, but I can accept that I know that most of the time, no harm is meant.

Technology aside, the U.S. is fairly primitive, at least regarding social structure. While rapid social change often results in a “crash and burn” scenario, it’s been long enough. We need more open-minded individuals in politics. It’s a shame that the smartest and least ethnocentric Americans would rather just stay out of things. (Perhaps they’re just smarter than politics.)

Simple Syrup

The thought of life without simple syrup is like the thought of life without liquidized sugar. It’s unbearable.
(Simple Syrup: 1 part sugar, 1 part water; bring to a boil, then stir a bit to make sure it’s not gritty. Great for when you need to stir sugar into iced coffee or iced tea.)

Hello again.

Wow.
Long time, no post. I’ve been away from WordPress far too long, and I’m glad I’ve kind of refreshed my mind and remembered to come back.
So much to say. I have a feeling that for the next couple weeks, this blog is going to turn into a politics-themed place to “vent”, so to speak.
Blechk. When you leave a pot of tea out for four days and then try to drink it…well, you don’t. Because it’s horrible.
Midterms coming up. Probably more posts after that, once my life has balanced out again, so to speak.
I don’t know. I’m glad to be typing what I care about again.

Portlandia: Feminist Bookstore

Dear messy room…

Dear messy bedroom,
Watch out.
Sincerely, my burst of motivation.

“Just don’t let the human factor fail to be a factor,
at all.”

-Andrew Bird 

Alexandra Luddy

A fifth-grader was killed the other day in an apparent murder-suicide. It appears that Alexandra Luddy, who attended Jeff Road Elementary School in Perinton, NY, and her grandfather were shot to death by the girl’s mother, who then proceeded to turn the gun on herself.

Her mother, Penelope Luddy, sent her husband out to check on an ill family member, and when he returned he was met by what most would see as any parent’s worst nightmare.

I think what gets to people most about this is just how, but lack of better terminology, “normal”, the woman was. Those who knew her remain in shock. Everyone’s been rattled, obviously. Mrs. Luddy seemed to be the perfect wife and mother; she was a room mom, a member of the PTSA, she helped out in the planning of school events whenever asked, she volunteered, and so on and so forth. So, as everyone seems to be thinking, what gave?

The local news service answered by saying plaintively, she was “distraught.”

So if she was, then, as the authorities so lightly put it, “distraught”, why didn’t anyone step in to do anything? There are only two explanations. Either no one noticed, suspected, say anything that could be tips toward her inner turmoil; or everyone knew and no one did a thing.

It’s happened in the past and it will happen again. Communities, parents, families, individuals don’t involve themselves, people look the other way, simply so that they don’t have to get involved. They don’t have to do anything. After all, there’s no self-interest in putting one’s self or family in danger just to help someone they may or may not even know all that well, right?

As may have been the mentality regarding this.

But that’s just a thought. It could have been, of course, that no one knew a thing. No one, absolutely no one, saw it coming. I don’t know whether I hope that’s the case or not. If it was, it goes to show just how little we know about each other as humans.

The nature of the crime suggests that it was premeditated. Mrs. Luddy asked her husband to leave the house, and then murdered her father, her daughter, and herself, which certainly would lead investigators to believe she was fully aware of what she was doing at the time.

But awareness does not imply clarity. I doubt there was any iota of clarity in her mind that morning.

“Maybe there were family problems…maybe it was self-loathing; she only killed from her own bloodline…maybe…perhaps…but it could’ve been…”

The point is, no one knows. People are terrified because they just don’t know. They don’t understand. And they’ll probably never understand, never get the opportunity to. I certainly don’t. I can only speculate.

My younger brother is in the sixth grade. He knows another boy who lives on Alexandra’s street. He was home that morning. He told my brother that he heard gunshots and a little girl screaming. My heart goes out to that boy, because chances are it’ll be years before he stops replaying those sounds in his head, if at all.

I hope his parents get him into trauma therapy or something. It would probably at least be good to look into.

I suppose that all in all, this whole thing just goes to show how very little we know about the human condition.