Where a Hispanic Catholic, and a Computer Geek write about Gun Rights, Self Defense and whatever else we can think about.
You wanted a Left voice. In this matter, I’m Left, I suppose. I don’t think my health records (or yours) should be available across state lines for prosecution. I don’t think that an AG in Tennessee should be able to prosecute you for something done in another state that is legal in that state. If that makes me a Leftie, well, then I suppose it’s time for me to just go full on blue. Damn it.
Angry rant with links below the cut.
“The Court’s decision most immediately affects institutions of higher education — and sends a clear message to the mostly Black and Hispanic students who have been shut out of elite schools.” – Forbes, Corrine Lestch.
The other day, the Supreme Court decided to effectively end the use of affirmative action for universities, an action which will trickle down into businesses and other areas. This is something that I’ve long felt was overdue. The ability for Blacks to force schools and businesses to accept and/or hire those who are not qualified for the job is racist to the Nth degree. It’s also not necessary, and harmful for PoC to be treated differently. That’s literally why we added the 13th Amendment.
You know the story of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse, right? The City Mouse comes to the sticks to visit his Country cousin, and makes a lot of disparaging remarks about the rural nature of Country Mouse’s life. So Country Mouse visits the big city, and discovers that it’s dangerous, dirty, and confusing. Sure, there’s food and entertainment, but he quickly realizes it’s much better in the country.
This story comes to mind every time I start thinking about big cities like NYC or Chicago, Boston or Baltimore.
The problem, as I see it, isn’t so much that the city is dangerous, dirty, and confusing. It’s more that the city has so many people jammed into it, like sardines in a tin, that there have to be Extra Special Rules to keep it all moving. In the country (rural areas, and even suburban areas), there’s more space. That space allows for more home-made “social lubricant” and less rules.
B.L.U.F.: Stop f*cking with the books, gezus.
The big news on the left right now (aka when I wrote this a couple of weeks ago) is the drama ensuing from “book bans” happening in Florida and other southern states. I want to talk about this, and other book stuff, because it’s important. Just to be clear, in this missive I am referring to book bans as “books removed from circulation and unavailable to anyone in a state/country”… books pulled from the shelves and being held, or simply held books, as books that have been flagged by someone and that are currently being vetted, but have not yet been removed… and removed books, which are books that have been vetted and deemed inappropriate in some way, and which will not be returned to the library.
I’m an author. I write a variety of things, but in the fiction world, I write occult and fantasy fiction. My books do not belong in schools. They are not child friendly, for the most part. While I’ve allowed my kids to read my books, because I know my kids and I know the books, that does not mean that all kids should read my books. That decision is best left to the adults in their lives, perhaps with input from the kids as they get older.
First and foremost, there are no book bans going on in this country that I’m aware of. There are a variety of books being removed from elementary, middle, and high schools because someone (and that “someone” is pretty vacuous, to be honest) has decided they aren’t appropriate. In many cases, I have no problems with it. Twilight doesn’t belong in elementary school libraries, nor middle school. I’d say it’s fine in high school, though. Harry Potter is much the same, though for different reasons. The first couple of Potter books are fine in the elementary setting, but the rest should be relegated to the high school library.
I know that AWA was looking for a patriotic song. But the way that he explained it was that he wanted a song, a tune, that spoke of my pride for my country.
I have always been a Dolly fan, and this song is a wonderful explanation as to why. Here she is, singing about the women that stood up and fought back, that refused to back down, the blocked the streets and were loud and had signs and got in people’s faces and wouldn’t take no for an answer, and secured the right to vote for women in America. I think it’s hard for the young women of today to understand that only a hundred years ago, we didn’t have the right to vote. We didn’t have a lot of rights. We couldn’t have credit cards, and I’m pretty sure that some of us still couldn’t on land at the time. And that lack of recognition of our sovereign rights as human beings was held back by people who were afraid of what women might do with their vote.
They should have been afraid. Women have been strong voters. That’s changed in the last few years however, and that’s a problem. It’s time for our young women to stand up, and our young men too, and make sure that the right to vote doesn’t cease to be recognized. People might say it’s never going to go away, but how many rights have trickled away because someone didn’t stand up for them? How many rights of disappeared because someone didn’t use them or educate themselves about them? Too many.
Welcome to America. In America, rights simply are. Some are recognized, because they are so important that it’s necessary for us as a country, as a free Nation, to outline them and clearly State them. They are protected rights, which is not to say that a piece of paper or an amendment created them. The right existed long before any piece of paper was written on. Rights are simply there, they are inherent to The human condition. I am extremely proud to live in a country where people can fight passionately to express their rights and their opinions, and where our rights that are protected are updated as we update our society.
B.L.U.F. – Let’s just stop sexualizing children altogether, hm? It’s wrong at all levels.
The big news out there right now is Target’s ill-chosen marketing of “tuck friendly” bathing suits for children. I have to admit, I lost it when I read that one. I went and checked it out, because that was beyond the pale, even for the woke side of things. The bottom line is, it’s both true and “not quite true”. The bathing suits are there, but only the adult ones are labeled “tuck friendly”. But as that article states, the kids’ bathing suits are MADE that way. Due to all the bathing suits in question being Pride oriented, the tuck friendly ones were displayed next to the children’s ones. (Please note, this is about the inappropriate for kids bathing suits, and not the Pride items themselves.)
I’ll go out on a limb here. I don’t care if someone who has male parts decides that they want to be female. You want that, go for it. But you do it as an adult. I don’t mind catering to kids who want to dress like the opposite gender, or no gender at all. I’m fine with kids wanting to change their names, or institute a nickname. But changes to a developing body are not cool at all, as the fairly significant number of people who transitioned as children are now talking about. If you want to take hormones or make surgical changes after the age of 18, that’s between you and your doctors. It is literally none of my business. Do not go changing your children, though. That’s WRONG.
I hang out with a lot of people who do outdoorsy stuff on a regular basis (most weekends from May through September), and we all go to outdoor stores. About half of us are female, and no one’s ever said they feel it’s a hostile environment. I rather like going into outdoor stores, because oftentimes they are attempting to pull in more female customers, and I can often get deals. 😀
I have never heard of this before. I even did a quick search and I’m not seeing anything online in the news or whatnot. Perhaps it’s something specific to your area? I’m up in the great NorthEast, and we have a huge amount of women outdoors experts and aficionados. 🙂
From a speculation standpoint, however, I wonder if this claim is being made by women and minorities in large cities? I find that “marginalized people” are only actually marginalized in large urban areas like NYC, Boston, or Chicago. In the sticks, it just doesn’t seem to happen as much, and it’s certainly not endemic.
There’s also a definite women’s movement that is against “women’s sporting goods”, though. I happen to be on that bandwagon. Marketing jeans for women versus jeans for men, for hiking, means that the women’s outfits have no pockets, are tight and “sexy” rather than utilitarian, etc. It’s like the industry believes that we are just all sex bombs waiting to go off. When I hike, I want comfortable, loose khakis, wide and well balanced shoes, socks that repel ticks, tee shirts that keep me from getting sunburns, etc. In other words, I want all the same things men do. And I do not want them in bright bubblegum pink.
I realize that last isn’t what you were talking about, but it’s all I know about that actually exists. 🙂