Macwriter

Mac kills PC in so many areas. I find that my workflow crashes to a halt when I have to go into the office and use their Windows systems. I hesitated in downloading any Microsoft programs onto my Mac because I don’t like anything about them, how they are organized. Even using Excel, which is still far more substantial than Apple’s Numbers program, I am quick to get in and get out. The one shining Microsoft program out there is Livewriter. It is great. I does everything that a blogger needs and wants. It has two-way communication with accounts and one can write, post, and draw from with ease.

So I am trying out MacJournal. I am hoping that the latest update will address some of the workflow problems that I had. We’ll see. A big problem for me was the lack of tag support. Not that the program doesn’t use tags, it does. But that it doesn’t draw from the list of tags one has already started on an external server. Livewriter does this well. But other programs, not so much. Instead of a seamless work environment I am forced to print out a list of tags and hang it on the wall. This. is. stupid. Either that or I am stupid and I cannot figure out a workaround.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell – gays in the military

The End of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell"?

AIR DATE: Wednesday, February 3rd 2010

Mike Francis, writing an Oregonian editorial, said it "reverberated from central Portland to military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan." Last Tuesday night, Barack Obama announced that after promising to do so in his presidential campaign, he’s ready to seek the end of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell":

I got a phone call from someone at the show who remembered me from an appearance a year ago on Veteran’s Day.  I was asked my opinion and experiences with DADT.  I told her that I was against DADT, was supportive of its repeal, and that one’s standing in the military ought not be linked to one’s sexual preference. 

On the website’s blog I posted the following comments.

 

I am prior Marine Corps and current Army National Guard.  I am in full support of the REPEAL of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (D.A.D.T.) and the allowing of members of the military to serve their country honorably without sexual orientation being an issue.  As the Admiral said yesterday, it isn’t about command control but about leadership.

Our military has many virtues that many of us hope to live up to.  One of them is integrity.  It is impossible pretend to have integrity when a person must lie about their sexuality, or the institution of the military tries to avoid dealing with the issue.

This is NOT a social experiment, as so many right-wing types deem to call it, it is justice.  I wonder if they would have also have termed some other advances in civil rights down the years as social experiments as well.

The downright truth of the matter is this.  The military has a deep core of misogyny.  The values that are culturally and socially supported within our branches are those of masculine traits.  We are ‘hyper masculine’.  The opposite of a good soldier/marine are also traits that are given to women.   Soft, emotional (any emotion save violence), empathy, submission, tenderness, collaborative, and others are all negative traits for us.

Keep in mind the job that we must do.  Kill.  We train for war and combat is not a time to lose your cool.  Emotional distancing can be very useful when patrolling a section of Iraq for a year. 

However what is acceptable in our military culture is not so much the professionalism as is often expressed in various creeds (the NCO Creed of the Army for one) nearly as much as the pressure to be more masculine. 

Never mind that women can be very competitive, goal driven, quick to anger, aggressive, take charge, decisive, and so on.  These are, in our still infantile masculine culture of misogyny, masculine defined traits.  Women in the military are not women, but lesser men trying to be as manly as the men are.  For their efforts they are admired as much as they looked down upon.  The mentality is ‘at least they are trying’. 

No man that I’ve ever met in over twelve years of military service as ever expressed any amount of concern if a woman in the military was a lesbian.  The problem comes from the notion of there being gay men.  And the reason for this is that the men, who can really BE men (that is all the qualities of masculinity thought to inhabit a pair of genitals) are giving up this in order to be like women, therefore they are worse than women who are at least trying to be something.  Gay men are an offense to the values of the imature masculine ideal and the misogynist culture that is predominant in our military fears and hates it.

A common sentiment among some of the men who are opposed gays in the military will often cite that they do not want men looking at them in the shower, or any unwanted sexual advances.  This sort of behavior is an epidemic in our military concerning our women service members.  Whereas a man can go jogging on a base in Iraq by himself, a woman is told to go with a buddy because of the elevated risk of being sexually assaulted.  She is more likely to experience MST, military sexual trauma, than she is to be shot at in a warzone. 

When I’ve asked these men, at other times, if they would object a woman seeing them in the shower, or their sexual advances, it rarely makes a difference if the woman is ‘attractive’ or not to the male.  He has the power and is not threatened by it.  He doesn’t care.  But when I ask how does this differ from a gay man and he becomes defensive, angry, irritable, and falls back on the same tired excuses of ‘its just wrong’. 

I am of the strong opinion that there should be seperation of church and state.  We are not a white nation, but a nation of many peoples.  We are not a Christian nation, but one of many religions and  faiths.  We share a dream of equal protection under the law, that no race or religion can dictate to the others what is moral or immoral, or holy or not.  Marriage is not only a Christian idea and should not be legislated according to this.  Freedom of religion also means freedom FROM religion. 

I do not care if the person beside me is white, black, atheist, Christian, Muslim, homosexual or heterosexual or bisexual.  I care only that they are competent in doing their job, that they love the higher ideals of liberty and equality that this country is still trying to aspire to and, hopefully, someday more fully achieve, and that this person has my back. 

Concerning sexual assault in the military, it is underpenalized.  We have women soldiers who are leaving the military from their ordeals, while the perpetrators are kept in because they are a ‘good soldier’ and that’s what men do.  I am very proud of my uniform and this country for which I’ve fought in two wars.  Yet our military, like our country, is not perfect and knowing this with humility we ought to take strides to ever keep working toward the achivement of those ideals which this country is founded upon…

…Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

passing thoughts

I turned on the t.v. yesterday and saw the whole Imus story about his references to the Rutger’s womens basketball team.  I didn’t think I’d agree with the dumbass known as Al Sharpton, but he was correct regarding Imus.  What a complete dumbass.  Are you telling me that he didn’t know better?  That with the years of experience he hasn’t honed a sense of what is appropriate to say and/or how to say it?  He hasn’t developed rhetoric?  Politicians certainly develop this skill… don’t radio talkshow hosts as well?

Two weeks is too short for this guy.  If not a firing… then I’d say at least a month’s leave. 

(later follow-up)

A week has come and go and Imus has lost his simulcast. I watched a group of people debate about this on MSNBC and all made good points. I agree with lots and disagree with lots of things said by the debaters. The hypocrisy of popular Black culture does not lessen the wrongness of Imus’ comments. Yes, I agree that hip-hop is grossly wrong in their many characterizations of women. No, I do not think that rappers are the ‘poets of our generation’ save for a small few, just as I do not think that country singers, punk rock artists, and dancing divas are the poets of our generation… save for a select few. There are a handful of rappers that have things to say. However, being a thug that glorifies violence and degrades women does NOT make you legit, true, a voice of the streets, a poet, thoughtful, or any such thing. You are simply a thug trying to make a buck, playing off of the financial systems that reward you for your atrocious behavior.

Yes, it is hypocrisy by the media types in firing Imus. No, this does not lessen the rightness of it. If something should be changed, it should be the images that we choose to support. No, I am not or a censorship of rappers. I am for a change of values in our society that will reflect itself by their monetary purchases. I support the women’s college (I forget the name) that refused Nelly in speaking at their school. Good for them.

Mother loses bid to ban Harry Potter books

Georgia mom vows appeal after Board of Education rejected request

These books promote withcraft?  Really?  Where?  I don’t see any promotion of witchraft in the books.  There is more witchcraft in fairy tales than in Harry Potter.

But this isn’t what angers me about this.  This woman might not argue agains having a book that has Jewish themes in it and it encouraging Judaism… so what gives her the friggin right to do so against witchcraft? 

I feel like the caveman on the Geico commercial.  For crying out loud people.  It’s called “Freedom of Religion”… look it up! 

Again, there aren’t any withcraft themes in the Harry Potter books.  But there is a lot on trust, loyalty, growing up, discovering that girls are different than boys, the void between adults and kids, fear, and more… all the things that kids are looking for.  As far as the death… kids are a hell of a lot more resilient than you give them credit for.  I don’t argue, or take you to court for child abuse on a psychological level for teaching your kids at an early age that they could go to some place called hell.  This is a mind-warping notion!  Yet we can go along with this but pull our hair out and scream when a kid comes upon the issue of death, something that is very real,  in a book. 

Monotheists get me angry.  Every single one of them, whether it is the Church Lady or the Islamaterrorist, are so damn sure that their way is THE way, that all other ways are lies.  Every fundamentalists out there would be a fundie of another religion if he/she ahd been born into that religion.  Take out all the Right Wing Christians and put them in Saudi Arabia and they’d all be on prayer rugs right now. 

“Oh no!” one might say… “I changed from my parents”.  Yeah?  Going from Pentecostal to Southern Baptist isn’t a heckuva big change in the openness of your mind there buddy.

Stories like this really get my goat.  They encourage me to wear my pentagram every day… out in the open… and to spead the perception through word and deed that witches are people too and DEMAND the same freedoms that we’ve fought to give to others.

craigslist rant on Iraq

Looking around Craigslist (Portland) on the Rant and Raves section I see a lot of post by liberal and conservative about the Iraq war.  Lots of name calling, lots of stupidity on both sides.  So I replied a short reply.

Reply to: pers-167036905@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-06-01, 4:16PM PDT

Going to college at U of O when I saw the Nick Berg video. He was a dumb shit for being over there, but he didn’t deserve to die in the manner he did. It also showed me the fanaticism (as if 9/11 wasn’t enough) of some of the elements involved. I’ve got three such videos on my computer to show people who think that everyone in the world just needs a handout, a hug, and some education to become a European-type liberal. Evil exists and it lives in the heart of man. But so does good, and it is good that causes people to go into harms way to, to draw a line in the sand, and to say ‘no further’.

I am a former Marine and had been out ten years. I joined again, asked for a rifle, and flew over to Iraq to join the Oregon unit already in Baghdad. First day outside the wire, we got mortared and in a short three hour firefight.

Nobody on this friggin list knows everything that is going on over there. Not the candy-ass liberals that want to give the world a hug, or the foaming-at-the-mouth conservatives that want to invade anyone that disagrees with them.

Guys in my squad were all shades of politics, from far out (man) liberal to Christian Coalition conservative. Some hated President Bush, some loved him. One thing for sure, they love their country and they love the brothers they were fighting next to, and they all believed in doing their job, in why we are there.

Is it possible, just for a second, for those of you stuck in your political spectrum, to think outside of the friggin box for a moment and to see Iraq as the insanely complex event that it is? You can’t say that it is all oil, or all humanitarian, or all staegic interest, or many more things. By sticking to your conservative/liberal bias, the lens that you see the world, you limit your understanding. The elements involved in all the different sociological, political, historical, economic, and religious influences on what is going on are enough to study for years and is ample ground for scholars to study. You think that some body on Craigslist, sitting at home, knows anything about Iraq? Get out of the coffee shop and get into a library. If some of the flame posts are from scholars, then they are not posting as such and have lost their academic standards.

Is it possible for the Iraqis to love the American troops and yet want them to leave at the same time? To appreciate them and yet be insanely frustrated by them? What about your local police department. Chances are you are nervous when you see them behind you in the rear view mirror, and perhaps you think there are too many of them. But I bet you are happy to see them when you’ve been robbed, or you’re glad to see one cruise by when you are walking home late at night and see some shady characters watching you.

If you think it is easy to patrol an area the size of Los Angeles, to be friendly to everyone, yet keep ready for car bombs and roadside bombs that are ready to take you out, piloted by people that look like everyone else, you try it. You get jaded and you get complacent and you get paranoid all in one big ball of wax.

Support the troops over there doing the best they can. Mistakes happen, yes. But there are two types of error, one where you die and one where others die. Think it’s easy to always act in accordance with the last one? It aint.

Both sides of this debate should reaize that truth in an argument lessens in proportion to the yelling and name calling involved. The more you show your ass, the less you show your brain.

Try being thoughtful and intelligent for a change.

Sgt Black
2-162 C Co Infantry

• this is in or around Beaverton
• yes — it’s ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

future apartment

Too much reading.  Time to stop, call it a night, get some sleep.

Time to switch the mind to new thoughts before bed.

In four days I will be buying paint and preparing my new apartment.  As I wrote earlier, this Spring Season will be a Renaissance for me, personally, in areas of art, music, cooking, and more.  I will not be as poor as as I was before, when buying a bottle of wine, caeser salad and chicken breasts, was a big deal for me.  I am in much better shape than I was a year ago and certainly more than two years ago.  So, here are some thoughts…

My apartment will have a deep, mossy green wall in the living room.  In the dining area I am leaning toward a burgundy color with hand-drawn gold spirals.  In the bedroom I am thinking of rich plum color, or perhaps a rustic red. 

On the inside of my door, leading outside, I will have quotes painted on the door.  In the dining area I will put a table that I’ve bought, an old wooden table, and will paint it in a manner similar to an artist who paints furniture prevalent in some shops at the 5th Street Market in Eugene (I may have to go on a road trip to take pictures).  The are whimsical, carefree, wonderful, and rich in liveliness.

On the couch (Eliza is giving me the couch) I will put a good fleece throw.  On the floor, a thin, but sturdy rug of earth tones.  Beside the couch is an end table with a lamp on it.  Before me a coffee table.  Off to the side is an easle, or an artist’s table, where I can do my watercolors and pencil drawings. 

In the kitchen is a new coffee maker with a thermal mug so I do not have to nuke my coffee after twenty minutes.  I’ve added a few more pots and pans to the mix, some bolder plates and utensils, getting away from white and beige.

In the bedroom, a dresser.  Also a standing mirror.  Heavy curtains on the window to shut out light on days that I need sleep.  A sound machine that plays all manner of relaxing noises next to the bed.

The loft, a gargoyle perched on the edge, looking down onto the living quarters.  The bookshelves, but I must add a few more as I do not have enough.  A small table of suitable height for use as an altar.  My computer desk set off to one corner.  My guitars and amp.  I am debating whether or not to get a keyboard that I played around on today also… but that will wait.

On the patio, a table and two chairs, weather proof.  A tree or some sort of plants. 

Good start… with my tax return check coming… I’ll be able to make a lot of this happen.

Time for bed.

Male Student Wins Fight to Wear Skirt

Male Student Wins Fight to Wear Skirt

The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 25, 2006; 9:57 AM

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J. — A male high school student can wear a skirt to school after the American Civil Liberties Union reached an agreement with school officials.

The ACLU announced the deal Tuesday. It will allow a Hasbrouck Heights School senior to wear a skirt to protest the school’s no-shorts policy.

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The district’s dress code bans shorts between Oct. 1 and April 15, but allows skirts, a policy 17-year-old Michael Coviello believes is discriminatory.

“I’m happy to be able to wear skirts again to bring attention to the fact that the ban on shorts doesn’t make sense,” Coviello said in a statement.

The Hasbrouck Heights superintendent, Joseph C. Luongo, did not return telephone messages left Tuesday seeking comment.

Coviello first wore a costume-style dress but high school officials told him to go home and change. The district’s superintendent then advised the Coviello to purchase everyday dresses and skirts at a retail store, which Coviello did, the ACLU said.

But after a few days, he was sent home with a note from his principal saying if he wore a dress, kilt or skirt, he could no longer attend school.

Okay, so this guy thinks that it is unfair that girls can wear skirts and guys can’t wear shorts.  I applaud his bringing attention to this issue by the way he is.  However, his logic is flawed, for the wearing of skirts and shorts is not the same.  Women can wear a skirt to a job interview, yet I would caution anyone, male or female, from wearing shorts.  The definition of skirt was not given, as not all skirts are the same, nor do they give the same sense of identity of a person.  However, the equivocation of one with the other simply because a little leg is showing is problematic.

Entertaining  news though.

Tookie

AP file Albert Owens Feb. 28, 1979 Albert Owens, 26, is slain during a robbery at a 7-Eleven store in Pico Rivera, a town east of Los Angeles. Owens is found dead in a store room, shot twice in the back with a 12-gauge shotgun. The robbery nets $120.

March 11, 1979 Motel owners Tsai-Shai Yang, 63, her husband Yen-I Yang, 63, and their daughter Ye-Chen Li, 43, are killed during a robbery of the Brookhaven Motel on South Vermont Street in Los Angeles. The victims are shot at close-range with a 12-gauge shotgun. The robbery nets around $100.

August 1979 Crips founder Raymond Washington is slain. No one is arrested.

March 13, 1981 Williams is found guilty for the first-degree murder and robbery of Albert Owens, the first-degree murders of Tsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang and Ye-Chen Li, and the robbery of Tsai-Shai Yang. The jury also finds true the allegation that Williams personally used the shotgun in each murder. Okay… so here are the murders.  In watching all the media coverage of the Tookie Williams case, there is a lot of attention given to the fact that he has written children’s books and has helped to start anti-gang programs.  The question has not been raised as to how wide these programs reach, how many of these books are published, and if there were any influence at all.  I could be a writer and publish… yet has my writing changed the world?  And would it be to the effect to have me to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.  President Bush was nominated, so was Arafat… neither of whom, to me at least, fit the billing for someone to win the Nobel Prize, though I admire the President and am glad that Arafat is dead. The man has committed heinous murders and deserves to pay for those murders.  Everyone sings a tune of redemption while ion prison, of finding Jesus, or of changing their ways.  Too late.  This isn’t “holding” in an NFL football game, where the crime isn’t permanent.  Murder is permanent… those people are not coming back… such a magnitude demands that people be held accountable for their “slips of judgment”, even though they may be sorry later. Tookie should pay for his crimes.

overspending

I have friends that I was in Iraq with who are now working for various security contractors along the Gulf Coast of the U.S.  They have called me to tell me that they are making very good money, $300 a day plus a $1000 bonus on holidays.  I’ve been told that I could get on with one of the groups quite easily, that I could wait until the Spring after school, and I could work a couple of months.  The thought of working three months, paying off all of my bills, paying off my truck, and paying off Eliza’s bills… is very tempting.  Yet I asked the question… who is paying this crazy bill?

F.E.M.A.

This bothered me.  I’ve weighed it on my mind and heart and after consideration I cannot do it.  I cannot complain about the government having wasteful spending and then take advantage of the same.  It would be nice to have some things taken care of, but the principle of the matter bothers me.

This is an example of why we need to ask where the money is going instead of just writing blank checks.  Need money for education?  Need money for social services?  Can’t find it?  Chances are there is overspending someplace, somebody is making a lot of money.  It isn’t a choice of more jails or more schools… it is aligning the goals of the society with it’s government spending and asking the questions of where is every dollar going.

Look at Portland, yet again we hear requests for jail space and school funding.  Yet look at the Tram project, something that will have a limited impact on anything, and yet is costing millions and millions of dollars, I think it is in excess of $40 Million now.  What gives?

We’re Spendrift Environmentalists… and Constance Hilliard is a looney

I read an article from Constance Hilliard today. We’re spendthrift ‘environmentalists’ Americans are Consumed by Shop-til-U-Drop-Consumerism.  It is an Op-Ed piece written for USA Today and she is a professor out of the University of North Texas.  I’ve googled her name and have read a couple of her other Op-Eds and I come away with the conclusion that she is an idiot.  I don’t feel bad for saying so, she calls the American People “simpletons” and she laments that the Iraqis have lost their heritage and is deeply troubled that the President of the U.S. says “God Bless America”.  But she is a professor and we must automatically give her kudos for her speech, for her brilliance, for her insight.  Such a pass is too often given to professors.  They too have political axes to grind and Hilliard does as well.

I wrote a paper attacking the above article.  It is a rough draft and I need to tone down the language.  Years of writing on blogs and listening to debates on t.v. (which aren’t debates but yell matches) have altered my writing style.  Pass the coffee!!!