Election Watch - Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republicans Conference and former senator for Commonwealth Pennsylvania, has revealed interest in a potential race for the white house. I know 2012 seems like forever away, but the sooner we pick apart their bankrupts value system the better.

Rick Santorum is an anti-choice, anti-equality Republican who prides himself on socially conservative values. Or what he likes to call, "compassionate conservatism." The thought of calling his belief system compassionate is simply laughable. Parading around as morally superior because you have a record of discriminating against the GLBT community and denying women access to reproductive freedom isn't a requisite for compassion. Maybe Mr. Santorum made up his own definition for the term compassion. Let us refer to the dictionary definition just to set the record strait.

"a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering."

Seems awfully far from just about everything Santorum stands for as a politician. Having such an utter disdain for someone who loves differently then himself is not compassion. Vilifying and demonizing over 10 million people in this country by positing their lifestyle as dirty and subhuman is not the work of a compassionate person. I also don't find restricting women's bodily autonomy to be compassionate for the social and economic circumstances of women's every day lives.

Watch out for this guy. If he actually is a contender for a republican nomination in 2012 we will certainly have our work cut out for us. It is absolutely vital that we work tirelessly to keep our country out of the hands of the religious right. Many of our lives depend on this effort.

A journey through nature...

.....a golf course actually. It was probably one of the best experiences I have had in quite some time. From the way the sunlight seeped through the perfectly positioned clouds, to the breathtaking tree's, all the way to the seemingly whimsical lizard...it was a gorgeous day at the Dark Horse golf course in Auburn, California.

Incase your curious -- this is the list of super legit animals I ran into today:

1. Deer (8 of them running around and playing in the middle of hole 9). It was quite a site. There is something about the soft yet playful manner of a deer that draws my attention in such fascinating ways. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I was IN LOVE with bambi growing up. I have to admit to my particular intrigue with the foe (mother deer). I guess my obsession with Bambi's mother should have indicated early on that I have an unyielding love for women's lives, regardless of what species they are. Combine my love for the foe with my obsession for lionesses, and I think it's pretty safe to say: FLAMING FEMINIST.

2. Kill Deer. One of the most interesting birds on the planet. Seriously. They have these really long legs and small fat bodies. They prance around in the middle of large areas of grass, etc. It seems to me like they are always in a hurry somewhere. I wonder why that is. Interestingly enough I just read an article about them -- and apparently they are known for getting up and running around the minute they get out of the egg. How cool is that? Any time I need a little inspiration to get my shit together -- i'm going to think of the kill deer.

3. Wild turkey. They were everywhere, and they traveled in herds. I think this may have been the first time I have ever encountered a wild turkey in person, and I have to admit -- a lot tamer then I had worked up in my head. I guess I didn't have much interaction with them, so it's difficult to tell. But for the most part, they just hopped around looking for food.

4. Woodpeckers. They were everywhere. Seriously. Every tree on the golf course had hundreds of little woodpecker holes in them. As you drove from course to course through a myriad of beautiful tree's, you could hear them pecking away. It was really intense.

Those were pretty much the highlights of my day -- although I saw a flock of geese, blue birds, hawks, lizards, and a snake.

I also noticed one other species that dominated the golf course: rich heterosexual white men. Am I surprised? No. Was it a bit of a reminder of concentrated wealth and power? Yes. I'm sure I will rant more about this at a later date.....

For now, I have a plane to catch. Oh oh oh, on another note, how small of a world do we live in? For real. I ran into Claire's (policy debater from USC whose first statement to me before a round against her was "so what's it going to be, fem ir?") sister. Funny enough, Kristina and I weren't reading fem ir, we read normativity. Take that! This girl was totally chill though.

I hope shits easier for me when i'm looking to be employed. A boys gotta work.

Thank you Uruguay

Thank you for not only recognizing the LGBT community as viable human subjects, but also for realizing that millions of children in need of warm and loving homes around the world should not lose an opportunity at a better life under the pretense that willing gay and lesbian parents cannot provide a loving and nourishing home.

It is gestures like these that give me a glimpse of hope for the future of humanity.

And... on top of all that equality and shit -- it's probably a good idea for the planet in general if we incentivize adoption for those who are thankfully not producing biologically.

The far right goes ape shit over Obama's education speech

I think i'm going to move to Canada. Or maybe France.

But for real, this shit is getting out of hand. For someone to be so afraid of our president discussing education and the possibilities that lie ahead for their children, requires an awful lot of hatred, confusion, and flat out racism.

It wasn't all that long ago that George W. Bush was giving a similar speech to students around the country, and I don't remember crazy leftist nuts losing their sanity over it. Can we disagree with the political views of the politicians that represent us? Absolutely. Is it productive for democracy and for the future of our country to demonize and ridicule Barack Obama for encouraging children to stay focused and stay in school? Of course not.

This isn't a random case of insanity though. The outcry over President Obama's speech is a manifestation of the culture that conservatives in this country have created. They have utilized fear tactics and lies to manipulate uninformed people into a shit storm of racist opinions about Obama. He's a nazi? Seriously? Not only is this a complete slap in the face to any Jewish person who was tortured and dehumanized in the Holocaust, but it also serves to create an abstract idea of a faceless enemy. Of course this is strategic for the Republican party, if it weren't the party representatives would be condemning these kind of outrageous accusations, which they aren't. Are we surprised?

Is it really that radical to want every american to have health care insurance? Is it really that radical to want people to have access to knowledge and higher education? If these things are what qualify as "socialist" -- then call me a socialist and call it a day. The Democratic party needs to take this shit head on. Rather than spend all of their time reshaping their image to appease fringe Republicans, they should expose Republicans for exactly what they are: fear mongering deductions.

Gender Conformity

I'm sure everyone's pretty familiar with the recent buzz over Caster Semenya, an exceptionally talented female athlete from South Africa. This entire discussion of sex-determination testing brings up a lot of important questions about gender conformity and the fluid nature of both femininity and masculinity. Caster Semenya has become victim to international ridicule and isolation because of her inability to meet social expectations about what her gender is suppose to be, and better yet, how she's suppose to perform it. I know that Caster Semenya must be in unscrupulous amounts of pain because of this entire ordeal, and I can say that because I know how she feels. Growing up as a closeted gay man who happens to be on the flamboyant side -- I know exactly what it means to be pressured into standards of social acceptability.

The optimist in me was hoping that this debacle could be transformed into a progressive conversation about how not to behave like this in the future. Unfortunately, what seems to be happening is that rather then challenging and breaking down the notion that "real" women have to be feminine, instead we are scrambling to mold Caster Semenya into the very caricature of what she has been accused of not embodying.

This move to conform to traditional beauty standards does very little to change the atmosphere that fostered a witch hunt to determine the biological sex of Semenya. What is needed is a radical change in the way that we value the bodies of men and women. The photo op seeks to prove Semenya's status as a female by dolling her up and putting lip bomb on her. As if make up is what determines the sex of a person. Trust me, I know plenty of fabulously flamboyant gay men who love a little make up here and there. Thats the truth.

The Buzz about Abortion & Health Care

It's all crap. It's the right wing nuts in our country attempting to control women's sexuality by shackling them to unwanted pregnancy's. Recent attacks have been made, from the fringe of course, that health care reform (better yet, the public option) will make it so that federal tax dollars will be utilized to cover abortion procedures. Not only is this blatantly untrue (no thanks to the hyde amendment), but it totally ignores the fact that a majority of private health care plans already afford coverage to women seeking abortion services. This isn't to deny the inaccessibility of those insurance policies, but we can at least agree that what the anti-choice nuts are causing a fuss about is completely illegitimate and non-unique to the status quo.

Let's debunk some of the rumors. Tax dollars aren't going to be paying for abortions. The feminist in me thinks thats crap -- because women, particularly one's living in poverty, absolutely need assistance in obtaining a health service that is so vital to their reproductive freedom. That is beside the point though, because federally funded abortions are restricted by the Hyde amendment, a piece of legislation that was passed in 1976; one of the major victories for the anti-choice right after the ruling in Roe v. Wade.

I guess thats also beside the point, because it's much easier to dupe the american public into restricting women's rights with false information and scare tactics.

Here's a little reality. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) has proposed a variation in the approach to health care reform, one that would uphold restrictions on federally funded abortions, but eliminate the possibility for restrictions on private insurance companies. With the Republican themes of "small government" & "free market" you would assume a leap of joy at the idea of private industries making their own private decisions. On the contrary. The fuss has definitely been created, and it isn't going away any time soon.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) made the following statement (or what I like to call...scare tactic).

"no matter what your views are on abortion, you shouldn't ask people to use their tax dollars if they think that abortion is taking a life — to use their tax dollars for those purpose — for that purpose….I would hate to see the health care debate go down over that issue. We do really need health care reform, and it has to be substantive, and it has to bend that out-year cost curve, and it has — and we've got to get a — and we have to have a system that covers everyone. So hopefully we won't get ourselves wrapped around the wheel of abortion in this debate."

This logic strikes me as pretty asinine. I don't want my federally taxed dollars paying for illegitimate wars where thousands of innocent Iraqi people die at the hands of the U.S. military. Not to mention the military drones in Afghanistan that killed hundreds of innocent civilians. Cherry picking what we do and do not wish to fund seems awfully circular. It also assumes an uncontested majority on the question of abortion and choice. According to a USA today gallup poll, about 21% of people in the United States believe that abortion should be legal in all instances, 57% believe abortion should be legal in certain instances, and only 18% actually believe abortion should be illegal. I realize this doesn't give us a definitive answer on the question of taxpayers affording abortion procedures, but it does debunk the idea that the majority of americans fear abortion and want to restrict women's access to it.

Let me wonder back to the actual health care bill for a second. If anything (and a queer feminist can hope) health care reform would force private insurers to go further to fund and account for pregnancy terminations. Seeing as Republicans are all about retaining the "choice" to cherry pick their health care providers, the idea should be viewed as a victory. Women with private health insurance plans can retain the option of seeking funded abortion procedures. If some ass-hole thinks thats morally reprehensible, then they can choose an alternate health care provider. However, this brings us back to the age old hypocrisy amongst the conservative right in this country. They are all about small government when it's convenient. Women's health and private reproductive choices on the other hand, send Republicans off the deep end, screaming for bigger government.

In the end, it's really all about the same thing. Sacrificing women's health concerns for the bigger political picture. It's okay to disregard an enormous portion of the country (i think it's about 1/3 of all women in the U.S. have abortions) for a political agenda. In the case of the conservative right, the agenda is clear; control women's sexuality and keep them in their place. Whether that means restricting their access to the work place, economic prosperity, a life free from unwanted motherhood, or flat out dehumanizing pregnant women and mothers. The message is that women are not smart and do not deserve to be self-determinate human beings.

Youth is most vulnerable to H1N1

I was surprised when reading this article this morning. According to the World Health Organization, the virus has significantly worse reactions in youthful bodies, particularly healthier ones. 

Flinstone vitamins anyone?

I'm not sure exactly how to react the recent buzz over the swine flu. Part of me (the pragmatic policy hack) is looking at this through a less optimistic lens. The other part of me (crazy leftist) wants to believe that this is nothing more then a securitization tactic to demonize and isolate Mexico. It's no coincidence that despite the world wide cases of swine flu (over 2,100 deaths at this point), the narrative used to construct this virus as a threat is all about Mexico. It's easy to shore up anti-mexican sentiments when you can paint their country as the epicenter of disease and chaos. 

Who knows. I'll post on this a bit more later on. 

As for now -- it's off to see Inglourious Bastards! I'm super stoked to see it.