Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Sun Shines Our Your Ass

I can't help but love, it is who I am. I feel empty when I don't. And when I love, yes, for me the sun does shine out of your ass.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Chronicle This

Okay, so I'm ending a chapter in my life. I am no longer in poisonous relationships with duplicitous, harmful, egotistical, self-indulgent, and dramatic people. Whew.


I fell in love with the soundtrack of Juno.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Feminism

Why is there still a war among women? Why must we be forced to choose between family and career? Why is there this stigma still? Why do "stay at homes" frown on "career women"? Why do "career women" think the "stay at homes" are out to get them? Why can't we, as a single sex, understand that the feminist movement gave us the right to choose, to make this choice, and not to prescribe one avenue for females to take?

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The Psychological Kevlar Act

"But is it moral to weaken memories of horrendous acts a person has committed?"

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/72956/?page=entire

Excerpts:

The Psychological Kevlar Act "directs the secretary of defense to develop and implement a plan to incorporate preventive and early-intervention measures, practices or procedures that reduce the likelihood that personnel in combat will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other stress-related psychopathologies, including substance use conditions. (Kevlar, a DuPont fiber, is an essential component of U.S. military helmets and bullet-proof vests advertised to be "five times stronger than steel.") The stated purpose of this legislation is to make American soldiers less vulnerable to the combat stressors that so often result in psychic injuries.

...

What they have come up with has already been dubbed "the mourning after pill." Propranalol, if taken immediately following a traumatic event, can subdue a victim's stress response and so soften his or her perception of the memory. That does not mean the memory has been erased, but proponents claim that the drug can render it emotionally toothless.

If your daughter were raped, the argument goes, wouldn't you want to spare her a traumatic memory that might well ruin her life? As the mother of a 23-year old daughter, I can certainly understand the appeal of that argument. And a drug that could prevent the terrible effects of traumatic injuries in soldiers? If I were the parent of a soldier suffering from such a life-altering injury, I can imagine being similarly persuaded.

Not surprisingly, the Army is already on board. Propranolol is a well-tolerated medication that has been used for years for other purposes.

And it is inexpensive.

But is it moral to weaken memories of horrendous acts a person has committed? Some would say that there is no difference between offering injured soldiers penicillin to prevent an infection and giving a drug that prevents them from suffering from a posttraumatic stress injury for the rest of their lives. Others, like Leon Kass, former chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, object to propranolol's use on the grounds that it medicates away one's conscience. "It's the morning-after pill for just about anything that produces regret, remorse, pain or guilt," he says. Barry Romo, a national coordinator for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, is even more blunt. "That's the devil pill," he says. "That's the monster pill, the anti-morality pill. That's the pill that can make men and women do anything and think they can get away with it. Even if it doesn't work, what's scary is that a young soldier could believe it will."

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

I wish I had night vision.

I can hear an owl outside my window.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Debates

Watching these debates feels like window shopping for a relationship that I'll be in for the next four years. What do I want out of this union? What am I looking for in a significant other? Which are the bad apples to steer clear from? Which are the future heartbreakers, those that come to the relationship touting more than they could possibly accomplish?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-eetQ9Nydg

If you ask me, he's the only one not flawed.

"You're reading their propaganda." Oi! Poor Ron, having to defend himself right and left, but good for him.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FFQz_tCwMw

This debate just had me go back to being undecided. Actually, if I were to choose a candidate based on the debate alone, I would go with Richardson. While certainly Hillary employed questionable tactics in attacking Obama, I appreciate the image that she is projecting to the American public - a sharp-tongued high-powered woman that is not afraid to fight her necessary battles.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

I am a Gobbler of Books

I returned from Florida last night, and I must say I would be quite happy not to fly again for at least a year. BUT this will not be the case, as I shall be flying to Florida in two months time on a one-way ticket, and will be returning by Toyota Corolla, c. 2001, courtesy of Mama Toby. It's big, and tan, and my granny glasses match it perfectly. That's right, I'm gettin' a car.

I was in Florida for four days and finished two books while I was there. It would have been three, but my Autobiography of a Geisha was in the mail as I left it in Seattle. Sedaris' "Dress your Family in Corduroy" was quite amusing, laugh out loud in some parts. I liked his nonlinear story telling. The other one was H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds," which definitely burned its imagery in my brain so that on the drive home form the airport I kept envisioning a burning red sky. Really vivid imagery, that one. Beautifully told, "ahead of its time," etc. The movie failed I feel to drive home the whole factor of solitude felt by the narrator during the course of his tale, as well as the main point of our connection to "lesser" animals (i.e. rabbits).

And now to turn my attention back to the geisha.

Friday, January 4, 2008

That's Hilary with one "L"

I'm getting back into politics. That is, staying abreast of the goings on in this tumultuous world of ours. Yes, yes, I may get too into it again, I may start to get angry at people for not having heard of the same things I have, may preoccupy my time with C-Span and newspapers, but ignorance isn't bliss. This also will help fill that void that is now so empty.

Michael Moore I believe sums it up quite well:

"If you're a candidate for President, and you voted for the war, you lose. And if you voted and voted and voted for the war -- and never once showed any remorse -- you really lose.

In short, if you had something to do with keeping us in this war for four-plus years, you are not allowed to be the next president of the United States."

I didn't think I knew who I wanted to vote for, thought I would wait around until later in the year to decide, but I am certain now as to who I want to become the next President. And it ain't my namesake.