Today is known as All Saint’s Day, or Dia de los Muertos, Samhain, the Day of the Dead, and lots of other interesting names. In my own religion, it is a day when we say a formal goodbye to those who have passed on in the last year. I would normally read names. I did so last night, for my personal family stuff.

This Saturday, I’ll be saying a prayer for all the innocents who’ve died in the Middle East this year, especially those in Israel. I have chosen to stand with Israel in this, for so many reasons I cannot count, but mostly because I am not willing to stand by and watch my Jewish friends be terrified for good reason. If that means we load up the Redneckmobile with lawn chairs and rifles, so be it.

But the prayers? Those are for all the innocent lives lost. I don’t mourn for people who chose to be terrorists (or even those few Israelis who chose to be assholes to the Palestinians before all this went down. But I do mourn for the infants and children and women of Hammas and its terrorist fiends…er I mean friends. Those children did not choose to be born into the horror they’re currently in. They didn’t choose to be trapped in Gaza, because their parents pissed off the only people who cared enough to help them out. There’s a reason that the other Middle Eastern countries aren’t willing to take in Palestinian refugees.

What I wish? That the women and young children could be allowed to leave. Would it mean innocent men and older boys were sentenced to death? Yes, yes it probably would. I, for one, could give that order. I think Golda could have done it. Her words are wise… even now. That wasn’t the clip I was looking for, but it gives an idea of who she was.

I’m sad. I’m a little scared. I’m angry. I’m worried. I have kids who could get drafted, if this turns into a World War. And this war would not be like the last two. I suspect they’ll be considered small beans if we go to a third war. I don’t want to be involved… and in a lot of ways, I’m NOT involved. I am very limited in what things I can actually DO to help, here in America. I do what I can, whenever I can. I teach, I educate, I listen, I comfort. Sometimes I berate. But wow… what a helpless feeling.

Whatever you believe… join me in a prayer or a mournful thought tonight. As the sun sets, wherever you are, take a moment to say goodbye to those good people who’ve lost their lives in the past year, and in the past two weeks.

Amen,
Hagar

Another report from the Left of center…

I received the following on FB from a friend. I haven’t verified it, but I don’t feel the need to. I’ve experienced the things mentioned in it, myself, personally, many times over the past umpteen years. If this one happens to be an amalgamation of other real things, it doesn’t matter, because it describes something that does, indeed, happen. All. The. Fucking. Time.

CBMT Tek said to Hagar:
Thoughts on this fiasco?
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/10/04/sunak-steps-in-it-a-man-is-a-man-and-a-woman-is-a-woman-n582395
.
If the left really wants to live in a Star Trek tolerance level of society, why the automatic leap to “hate” and “…phobe?” It is almost as if the left cannot imagine anyone can disagree with them unless they “hate” them. Someone misgenders you, and it is apparently the end of the world. Why? Because the allure of power is too overwhelming, and shutting down the UK PM over a statement he made is power.
Granted, I see that from the right as well, but not as frequently. (Then again, my personal biases may be at play)

So… I have a ton to say and I’m not entirely sure how to say it. Let me give it a go here.

Part the first: I don’t believe it’s as simple as, “A man is a man, and a woman is a woman.” According to Yale, there are two biological genders: male and female. According to some other scientists there are six genders, or 27, or some other odd number. Per the National Institute of Health, there are two main genders, male and female, and other outliers that sometimes happen, but that basically if there’s a Y in the mix of chromosomes, it’s a male, and if there’s no Y, it’s female. These biological genders may OR MAY NOT match the sexual organs exterior to the body. It’s possible, for instance, for a person with both Xs and Ys in their genes to have genitals that we perceive as female, but they are still male no matter whether they have breasts, ovaries, or even female hormones. Essentially, chromosomes are the only way to actually determine someone’s biological gender.

I personally believe that people under the age of 18 should be restricted from making irreversible life-altering changes to their bodies. That includes, but is not limited to, tattoos, piercings, circumcision, sexual organs, etc. Those changes should be made under only two circumstances. Either you’re 18 (old enough to vote, live on your own, and to give consent that is at least somewhat informed), or there’s a medical emergency that requires something happen (such as an emergency hysterectomy due to cancer, or something along those lines). I am somewhat okay with those 16 and older getting piercings with parental consent, but I’d be absolutely fine with it being 18, as well.

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This came across my feed today, from three different people. As some of you may have guessed, many of my friends and acquaintances are Left leaning to some degree. I see this thing come up every election season, basically. Today, I spent 20 minutes staring at it, trying to decide whether to reply. I eventually decided it wasn’t worth it, and moved on. Then I went back, snagged the image, and came here.

Let’s see. I personally have my human right to exist challenged fairly regularly. As someone who is pansexual (which is the new bisexual), for years I was put down by straight people as “just needing to find the right man,” and by gay people as, “just confused and unwilling to come out of the closet.” When you’re bi, everyone hates you. That challenge happens daily, for the most part, not just at election time. I wonder if some of the people who posted this have considered that.

As to watching people vote against my right to exist, well yes… it happens every election season. It happens on BOTH sides of the great aisle we’ve created. I see the Left voting down my right to free speech (their hatred of hate speech). I see the Left voting down my right to carry (second amendment). Both the Left and Right are guilty of raping the fourth amendment (that’d be the right to be secure in my person and against unwarranted and unreasonable searches and seizures, something both sides have eroded in their own ways). The fifth amendment is a mess, because (again for different reasons) Left and Right have decided some things are okay to “hold someone to answer for” without Grand Juries, and due process is a joke these days. The right to a speedy trial is not possible most of the time because of the ultimate mess of our legal system, so that’s the sixth down, though I don’t know that the gutting of the sixth is due to Left or Right… it’s just people in general. Excessive fines and cruel punishment seems to be the darling of the Right.

And the ninth… I don’t think anyone at all even remembers that one anymore. There are hundreds, thousands of rights. Not all of them are written down in the Constitution. Our Framers chose to highlight and protect certain rights because they were That Important, and yes, I recognize and appreciate that. But it doesn’t mean they granted me a right. No one grants me a right. If it’s something you were granted, then it’s a privileged, and it can be taken away. Women didn’t “win” the right to vote, they fought to have an already-present right recognized by a recalcitrant populace. Rights simply are. They exist because WE exist. No one can take them away, though if we don’t guard them, tyrants can restrict them and stop you from practicing them. But they don’t go away.

And on and on. Yes, I know the fear of my rights disappearing, not from the Right, not from the Left, but from both sides. From all sides! The pandering and downright bullshit mind twisting you have to do to think that only one side or group is guilty is mind boggling. I can’t even.

And as an aside, someone in commentary said they wondered why I said “sx” and “abse” instead of sex and abuse. That’s because on some social media, which I also write for, if you use those words you become censored, and can lose accounts. I sometimes forget that this is one of the places I can say things out loud. I won’t apologize for it, and you’ll probably see it again, if only because I will forget. But I do appreciate that here, at least, it is recognized that I have a right to free speech.

Hagar,
who’s angry today.

When Roe vs. Wade was struck down, the Right cheered, the libertarians nodded thoughtfully, and the Left went into a full on panic.

The Right said that abortions were originally meant to be safe, but infrequent. The exception and never the rule. An abortion takes a life, even if it is a “potential” life, and that should be thought through very seriously before going forward. With the advent of “abortion on demand,” things got out of control and there was so much push that we had some people advocating for “post birth abortions.”

The Left said that abortions belonged to all women, that it should never be questioned, and that a woman is not a walking incubator. Abortion gives power to a woman, so she can’t be trapped in a relationship, can’t be forced into child care that she’s either unable or unwilling to provide. When and how abortions are done should be the discussion of women, and men ought be excluded.

I’m left enough to say that I believe it’s important to have a certain level of abortion available to women. There are simply too many situations where pregnancy is used as a cudgel to beat women down, even today, that I’m unwilling to even contemplate taking it away entirely. There are also just too many times when extenuating circumstances get in the way.

Today, I learned about a group of court cases challenging the abortion laws in Idaho, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. I’ll let you read the legalese yourself; I know you’re all capable of that. I’ll provide the “feels” for you.

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Twenty-two years ago, some Bad People did a Very Bad Thing. That thing resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, some the day of the VBT, and some weeks or years after.

On the morning of 9/11, I had just gotten home from a night shift. I went online to chat with friends, after getting my kid off to school, and people started telling me someone was bombing NYC. I thought it was bull, but I went and turned the TV on. I tuned in just in time to see the second tower hit. It took a long time to register what I was seeing was real.

I had friends who worked at the Twin Towers. I had friends who had kids in the daycare next door. I had friends who were supposed to be on flights to NYC to be at the Trade Center that day. I had friends who worked in or near the Pentagon. I had friends who lived very close to where the plane went down in Pennsylvania.

People often ask, where the hell was “god” that day, when so many good people died? I try to explain, God (Goddess, The Many and The One) was busy. God was there with the people who took down the plane in PA, giving them courage. God was with those who stumbled blindly down smoke choked stairwells at the Towers. God was making sure some people were sick and missed their train, plane, bus, and weren’t there when they should have been.

One friend was supposed to be in the first tower, getting ready for a presentation. He missed his flight due to a sick kid. Another friend was supposed to be in THAT wing of the Pentagon that day, but she was home sick herself. Another friend was supposed to be driving under the bridge pretty much at the moment the plane struck the Pentagon, but he had pneumonia and was safe in bed. A couple of friends were supposed to be on one of the flights that hit the towers, but got bumped or missed flights.

I’m not trying to minimize what happened, but it could have been so very much worse.

Right now, half my social media is spouting “Never Forget!” and the other half is talking about how traumatic it is to bring up old news and trauma like this. I believe they’re both right.

I will never forget what I was doing, where I was, or the weeks after 9/11. It was a terrifying time.

There’s something else I’ll never forget, either. For a few days, we were One Country, One People. Everyone stood together. Differences were set aside. Religious leaders of opposing sects worked together to sort through the rubble. Medical professionals gave their all. Emergency services went above and beyond. Aid poured in from around the world.

For one shining moment, the Very Bad Thing had shown us what we could be, if we worked together. We weren’t ready to make that our reality, but it showed us. What has been seen can never be unseen.

And that’s why I tell my kids about it every year. That’s why I talk about it here and other places on social media. When I say, “Never forget!” I am referring to what happened after the dust settled, not the planes and the horror.

Never forget, we have the ability to work together, to set aside all our petty differences, if we really need to.

A number of years ago, I had the unfortunate responsibility of being the first person that a child told about sexual and physical abuse. I don’t regret one moment being the kind of person who that child felt comfortable (or at least less uncomfortable… such talks are NEVER comfortable) enough to talk to. I do regret that it was a talk that had to happen. That led to three years of horrible re-victimization of the child, as the courts wended their way through the course. The abuser ended up in jail (the Special Jail, way up north, and good riddance), and he’ll be there for the rest of his life. His sentence came to over 200 years. But I’d much rather the child never had to go through it at all.

I don’t know how many of you have ever been through a sexual assault or rape case (for adult OR child), but it’s a shit show. Basically, the person who was abused and harmed in one of the most intimate and trust-breaking ways ever, is forced to talk about what happened to them, in front of what amounts to an audience. Then they have to be questioned by their abuser’s lawyer, who brings up what they wore, how they acted, and what they said. They have to listen to their abuser tell them and that audience that they are just drama queens, liars, and sluts.

Did you know that if a rape or assault victim goes to therapy during the whole court process (anytime before the abuser is convicted), that their private therapy notes can be read openly in court, and used against them? It’s true. Did you know that their lawyer tells them that they are not allowed to emote in court? They’re supposed to simply sit there, with no emotion at all. Emotion can cause a jury or the judge to see things in a bad way, so they’re just supposed to be robots, basically. Did you know that their abuser’s lawyer can ask them questions like, “Did you ever get sexually aroused during the sexual activity?” and “Isn’t it true that you dressed that way to provoke sexual feelings in my client?” These are questions I have personally heard asked of someone who was 11 at the time her abuse began.

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