Random Review Of Things

The first of a series of posts reviewing the year and looking forward to next year/this year depending on where you are. As always this will be a random stream of conscious process so expect no sense at all.

2010 brought the once resurgent Democrats low and the once moribund Republicans roaring back. This had nothing to do with the failure of Obama’s socialist policies because the weren’t socialist in the least. Obama on the domestic front was slightly to the right of Richard Nixon (my how old Trick Dick would have hated being called socialist). Nor was the Republican successful because American’s are basically conservative. It was due to the crappy economy; yes it’s still the economy stupid. The Republican strategy of unrelenting opposition to any thing and everything the Democrats wanted to do worked. The Democrats didn’t do enough over Republican opposition to revive the economy though they did manage to halt the slide to the abyss. If the Republican agenda of budget cuts, tax cuts and continued obstructionism can keep the economy from recovering or even get it to start sliding down again then their prospects in 2012 are so bright they’ll need to wear shades.

If they do succeed in 2012 then the Republicans will do what Regan and the shrub did, spend like drunken sailors with all talk of the evils of deficits conveniently forgotten. The problem for the Republicans is the sort of crony capitalism they practice has a short half-life and always ends in financial collapse.

Friday Random Thirteen

Let’s see what’s queuing up on iTunes

Fame by Duran Duran
King Nothing by Metallica
Sympathy for the Devil by Guns ‘n’ Roses
Shake Appeal by The Stooges
Violence Of Summer (The Story Mix) by Duran Duran
Let’s Loot the Supermarket by The Deviants
Celebration Day by Led Zeppelin
On With the Show by The Rolling Stones
Piece Of Your Action by Mötley Crüe
Grandpa’s a porn Star by Weird Al Yankovic
Toad [Live] by Cream
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp by Led Zeppelin
Meet El Presidente (Meet El Beat) by Duran Duran

What would your perfect day look like?

Not like any of the ones I'm having now

Ask me anything

Who's the sexiest man alive?

A tough one but for various reasons if I have to pick one it would be Alexander Yoo, the man just makes me melt and can play me like a musical instrument.

Ask me anything

Would you rather date a lot of different people, or be in a committed relationship?

I would rather be in a committed relationship and I am. It is possible for me, however, to be in a committed relationship with more than one person at the same time. Yes I am polyamorus but only in one relationship at this time.

Ask me anything

What was your first paying job?

Parking cars for a apartment complex on Sunset Blvd. over looking the Pacific Ocean

Ask me anything

Who's the smartest person you know?

Lyne, my significant other

Ask me anything

A Fund For Sofia

One of the major complaints voiced when Obama was pushing through his diluted version of health care reform was that bureaucracy should not stand between a patient and their doctor when it came to health care decisions. I totally agree with that, the one disagreement I have is that no bureaucracy, government or corporate should come between a doctor and their patient.

Sofia Benbahmed feels the same way, unfortunately her in case insurance company is standing between her and her doctor. Sofia has a eating disorder severe enough to require a residential program to treat. Sofia has health insurance; the problem is that her insurance company doesn’t want to pay the cost of a residential program. So Sofia is now fighting two battles, a medical one to regain her health and a legal one to get her insurance company to actually do what they should and pay for her treatment. So Sofia has set up a treatment fund to help pay for this double fight. The donations are tax deductable if made through FREED. Help stick it to a insurance company.

Things Horror Films Have Taught Me

Always listen to your pets. In how many horror movies have we watched someone ignore their pets unease at a situation and wind up getting killed and/or eaten? Famously Harry Dean Stanton ignored the cats warning and got snatched by the alien in Alien. Well not this little girl, nope not me.

I was out walking after midnight with a husky named Blue at our local park. As we started down a side path Blue became very alert and stopped. At first I urged him to continue thinking it was just a squirrel or some such that had caught his attention but he did not want to go forward. At that point all the horror movies and the stupid people who ignored their pets came to mind. So I started back up the path only to find that Blue did not want to turn his back on what ever was in the shadows. After a anxious few minutes Blue was finaly willing to back up the path but only with frequent glances back.

While I will probably never know what was in the shadows ‘m still glad horror films taught we to listen to my pets.

It’s Friday And Time For The Random Thirteen

Another trip through my head via a shuffled iTunes playlist

Four Sticks – Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
Pure And Easy – The Who
Send For The Man - AC/DC
Running Wild – Judas Priest
Thursday’s Child – David Bowie
Long Long Time – Linda Ronstadt
Ride On – AC/DC
Save A Prayer – Duran Duran
Outside Woman Blues – Cream
Screaming For Vengeance – Judas Priest
Too Many Hands – The Eagles
Mystify – INXS
Trinidad - Puya

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains. – Robert G. Ingersoll

Yet More Queer Thoughts Before I Sleep

I am non-binary in my gender and that can be a scary place. I am fully out to only a small handful of people most met through Gender Queer Revolution or though one of my gender queer friends. I present physically as very male as I have only been on estrogen for two months and on a very low dose at that. I am just staring to mix and match in my gender presentation. I am even using my chosen name, Natasha, at places like Star Bucks. I am lucky I live in L.A. where such ‘eccentricities’ are generally tolerated. Still I worry what may happen if I present more as the gender switching and gender fucking stone femme I am. There is a deep, ugly and violent misogynist streak in this country that gets feminine people killed no matter what they were assigned at birth. But I am old with not much time left so I think I’m going to risk everything to be who I really am before I die.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist believes that deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanishe- Justin Brown

More Queer Thoughts Before I Sleep

So fat white boy Glen Beck is going to hold a rally to ‘Restore Honor’ and ‘reclaim the civil rights movement’ on the 47th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I have a dream’ speech. A privileged self entitled white boy speaking to other privileged and entitled mostly white people. Yep that’s going to bring honor back to America the honor of genocide, slavery and empire.

Queer Thoughts Before I Sleep

I have always been an outsider except when with other queers. So in all my social situations over the years I have been more like an anthropologist then a native. So some reactions to straight bourgeoisie society from a queer observer.

One thing you quickly become aware of as an outsider is the assumptions of a culture when you cease to share them. As an atheist I notice the ‘everyone is a Christian’ assumption, especially when I get invited to someone’s church. As a queer there is the ‘everyone is straight’ and its flip side ‘if they make me uncomfortable they must be a fag/dyke’. The last one is especially common among the more self entitled set.

That was fun, I must do some more soonish.

I Am, However, Queer

Unlike the accommodationist gays and lesbians I revel in being queer and not fitting into mainstream anything. I’m consciously altering my appearance t please me not societies standards. I have 5 ear ring piercings, I ware polish on finger and toenails and light makeup. I am taking hormones to alter me mentally and physically while still presenting as ‘male’. Do I project gender dissonance? I don’t care, my gender is my own and I will express it as I please.

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

n the United States, the political system is a very marginal affair. There are two parties, so-called, but they're really factions of the same party, the Business Party. Both represent some range of business interests. In fact, they can change their positions 180 degrees, and nobody even notices. In the 1984 election, for example, there was actually an issue, which often there isn't. The issue was Keynesian growth versus fiscal conservatism. The Republicans were the party of Keynesian growth: big spending, deficits, and so on. The Democrats were the party of fiscal conservatism: watch the money supply, worry about the deficits, et cetera. Now, I didn't see a single comment pointing out that the two parties had completely reversed their traditional positions. Traditionally, the Democrats are the party of Keynesian growth, and the Republicans the party of fiscal conservatism. So doesn't it strike you that something must have happened? Well, actually, it makes sense. Both parties are essentially the same party. The only question is how coalitions of investors have shifted around on tactical issues now and then. As they do, the parties shift to opposite positions, within a narrow spectrum. – Noam Chomsky

Given today’s situation can any one doubt this is true?

Yes I am an Anarchist.

No I Am Not Gay

I notice that Shaman of Hedon is re-fighting yet again the “your just a confused gay man’ battle. Cis gay men seem to love claming trans women don’t exist, that we are really just confused gay men. Well my answer to that is bullshit, there are a lot of trans women who are lesbians, many are bisexual and others like myself are spectra sexual. The point being that NONE of us are confused gay men. We are a diverse group of women who do not appreciate being erased by a bunch of clueless gits.

Yet More Movies I Like

It’s all Jerry Coyne’s fault. He put together a list of his 20 favorite movies and invited everyone to join in. I have not forgotten I only got half way through, so here are the third group of five that are favorites of mine.

Performance

This movie altered my view of reality and gender. It starts as a gritty British gangster movie and then, after a homoeroticly charged fight and killing, veers off into a exploration identity, gender and performance. James Fox is the gangster on the run who finds shelter with Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg. Jagger is a musician looking for his lost demon/muse who pulls Fox into a radical self-examination of who he is.

If... (Criterion Collection)


The movie that introduced us to Malcolm McDowell in a look at the British private school as a microcosm of the brutally conformist society at large with McDowell as a anarchic rebel. Like Performance this movie blurs the line between fantasy and reality and never gives you a definitive answer to which is which.

Blow Up

A look at swinging London in the 60’s and a murder mystery or is it? David Hemmings stars, as a fashion photographer who may, or may not, photographed a murder. A deceptively leisurely paced but totally sucks you into it’s world.

Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy

OK this one is pure fantasy. A very fun and quintessentially ‘60s fantasy of space ace Barbarella played by Jane Fonda. You have drugs, sex and angels, what’s not to like?

Vanishing Point

The perfect nihilist road movie. A super charged Dodge Challenger, a handful of speed, and fifteen hours to get to L.A. The hero, played by Barry Newman, is doomed from the start and there is no real reason but amphetamine fuelled monomania for the chase. For a veteran street racer like myself it’s the perfect movie.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.- Robert Heinlein

I know easy wasn’t it? Yes the common thread is all three of the last atheist quotes were from Robert Heinlein the Dean of Science Fiction.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent - it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills.- Robert Heinlein

There is a theme to this set of posts and it’s not that they are all atheist quotes.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

The most ridiculous concept ever perpetrated by H.Sapiens is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of the Universes, wants the sacharrine adoration of his creations, that he can be persuaded by their prayers, and becomes petulant if he does not recieve this flattery. Yet this ridiculous notion, without one real shred of evidence to bolster it, has gone on to found one of the oldest, largest and least productive industries in history. - Robert Heinlein

A Cry From A Gnu Atheist

As atheists have become more vocal we are being accused of wanting to suppress religion. While I can only speak for myself this atheist does want to suppress religion but zie does want to de-privilege it. For instance I don’t care what a priest or imam preaches rather it is peace and love or all too often hate and bigotry. I just don’t want them doing it on my dime so no more automatic tax breaks for churches. If they are doing charitable work then they can apply as a non-profit if not they can damn well pay taxes like any other for profit enterprise.

When preachers step out side to pronounce on the issues of the day they don’t get to hide behind their holy book, justify their policies on their own merits if they can. And no more special exemptions from civil rights laws for them or from any other law at all for any church.

Maybe a couple of videos can express this best



and

Weeping In Depresion

I suffer from depression. Depression is no joke it can paralyze you and drive to you despair and self destructive behavior. I’m lucky that I have, with the help of my therapist, learned to control it. Still today my depression caught me and left me crying in my bed and wondering if living was worth the trouble. I recognized what was happening to me and worked through it. Without the training and work I have done I probably would have been down for the week at the least.

The point of this little tale is if you are walking in the shadows of depression get help. I know that’s easier said then done under our idiot health care system but seek what

On Being Queer

As I said recently I like being Queer and am proud of it. But what does it mean to be queer? I can only answer for myself, as the beauty of being queer is it is a different experience for every one of us. For me my Gender Queerness means my gender identity is more of a probability cloud then a point on a line. You might know where I am on the Butch/Femme, Male/Female, Queen/King line but not all at once. My fashion sense is more mix and match then men’s or women’s. I can be and have been sexual attracted to cis men, cis women, trans men, trans women and those like me who don’t fall into any of these categories. It is realizing that while our sense of gender is innate and part of who we are gender roles are societal constructs. For me it is walking in the spaces between.

Before I Sleep

It’s hard times baby, even China is starting to feel the pinch. Of course this is nothing new to those of us who are queer, gender queer and or transgender. For us it’s always hard times. Maybe that’s why we can deal with the current times better then a lot of people. If freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose then we’ve been free for a very long time.

Night Thoughts

Late, for me, and random thoughts run through my head.

Afghanistan is supposedly our longest shooting war. True if your counting overseas wars but we have been waging war on ourselves for nearly 80 years now. It is called the War On Drugs. It got rolling under Harry J. Anslinger who demonized Marijuana to give his Federal Bureau of Narcotics more power. The war was formally declared by Nixon in 1971. The U.S. Government has been losing ever since. Of course fighting a war against its own citizens has lead to high casualties such as the largest prison population in the world. It has also created a lot of very rich criminals. Way to go.

Well Prop 8 has been ruled unconstitutional for the moment so gays and lesbians are free to marry again in California. Hopefully this is a step on way to recognizing all forms of family. A girl can dream can’t she?

An Apology To The Shrub.

It seems I owe an apology to G.W. Bush. As much as it pains me to admit that smirking drunken frat boy can actually learn from experience I am forced to admit he did. He apparently learned from the disaster that is Iraq and when Cheney and the neocon’s wanted to bomb Iran in 2007. The shrub actually was bright enough to realize what a unmitigated catastrophe that would be and refused to sanction it. So props to G.W. for doing one reasonably intelligent thing as president

Another Late One

It's late again and I'm still shattered. I'm fiercely proud of being queer but don't really show it externally. So a request, I want ideas on presenting as queer. Not necessarily gender queer but queer in general. So all ideas appreciated.

Broken

It takes a lot of strength to be a trans man or women. Strength I don’t seem to have right now. Maybe I’ll feel more up to this in the morning but maybe not.

To anyone who doesn’t want to give trans women there due as women, Fuck Off And Die!

Fuck it all I can’t even achieve incoherence tonight

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

We were not talking about the average white person: we was talking about the corporate money rich and the racist jive politicians and the lackeys, as we used to call them, for the government who perpetuate all this exploitation and racism.” – Boby Seale

Yes I am an Anarchist.

The Return Of The Random Saturday 13

Thirteen songs as served up by iTunes. A look inside my head via songs I like

Goliath And The Vampires by Monster Magnet
The Guns of Brixton by The Clash
Locked And Loaded by Halford
I Wanna Grow Up To Be A Politician by The Byrds
Some Heads Are Gonna Roll by Judas Priest
The Best Is Yet To Come by Scorpions
Take Hold Of The Flame (Live) by Queensryche
Anarchy In The U.K. by Sex Pistols
I Was Made For Lovin’ You by Kiss
Get Up And Get Out by Iggy Pop
You Can’t Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones
Black Velveteen by Lenny Kravitz
I Think Of… by Afro Celt Sound System

A Terrible Anniversary

65 years ago to day the first nuclear bomb was used operationally on the city of Hiroshima. The bombing killed 80,000 people outright. The lingering effects have brought the death toll up to 125,000 eventually.

My father was a aircraft engineer during World War II and worked on the design of the tail of the second bomb Fat Boy. He never talked about his work at Los Alamos and considered nuclear weapons pure evil. He was right they are.

The Japanese, by all accounts from their side, were as motivated to surrender by the Russian entry into the war as by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I can think of only one good thing that came out of these bombings, they were the perfect horrible example. 65 years later and no one else has used a nuclear weapon. So keep the memory of the evil that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represent and hope that is enough to keep nuclear weapons from ever being used again.

Late Again

As in too late to do the post I wanted so you get some late night ramblings again.

Drop Dead Diva had a great episode last Sunday featuring a trans woman in one of the story lines. Not only did a trans woman play a trans woman but she wasn’t either a villain or a victim. It was the best & most realistic treatment of a trans person I have seen on TV ever.

I hate elections when neither choice can be called good. In California the governors race is between Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman , neither are even vaguely good and both will sell out to the highest bidder at the drop of a hat. All that being said Brown is still the better choice. I really whish the Green Party or the Peace and Freedom Party had any chance at the ballot box.

I leave you with this song that tells what we really need;



Peace and Love to you all

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.– Friedrich Nietzsche

Reflections On A Month Of Estrogen

I am only taking a very low dose of Estrogen, only 0.05 mg a day. This compares to the 4 mg a day my friend Carla is taking. For the moment I am more interested in the effects on my mind then my body.

I have been generally euphoric and laughed easier and more then before. While my breasts are even more sensitive then before I haven’t seen much development so far despite what Alexander and Carla say. Mostly I feel more balanced then before. I still have episodes of depression but they are far milder then before. I am still exploring the changes but so far so very good.

The Nuremberg Laws Revisited

In 1935 the Nazi Nuremberg Laws striped Jews of their citizenship in the Third Reich and also defined who was a Jew. Jews had only gained their citizenship rights in 1870 in Germany and had never been accepted by large parts of the German population like the Volkisch movement .

The British Equality Act 2010, while far more noble in purpose, does something similar to the Nuremberg Laws to trans women. In the Gender Recognition Act 2004 trans women finally got official recognition of their gender and full rights as women. The Equality Act 2010 now strips them of their true identity as women and redefines them as transsexual women whom it is legal to discriminate against in certain circumstances. Given the long history of violence and murder against trans women and men this is a very disturbing law.

We need to rally and fight this before it spreads and undoes what progress we have made. It is bad enough to have no legal protections against discrimination but it is worse by far to be picked out as a class of people who it is legal to discriminate against.

Update: As pointed out in comments I left out a vital links that explain why I find the Equality Act 2010 so problematic.

Take 357 - Back to first Principals

OK the last attempt at regular blogging failed miserably so back to the beginning I thin k. A few posts to re-introduce myself to start, then on to other things.

To those of you who have continued to come back in the until now, forlorn hope of new content thank you.

Stay tuned the queer girl is just getting warmed up.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.. – Stephen Hawking

A Few More Movies I Like

It’s all Jerry Coyne’s fault. He put together a list of his 20 favorite movies and invited everyone to join in . So here are the second group of five that are favorites of mine.

Kiss Me Deadly

Very probably the best noir and Mike Hammer movie ever mad. Ralph Meeker plays Mike Hammer as a sleazball private eye with no morals whatsoever. His only redeeming virtue is his loyalty to his friends. Capturing Los Angeles in its fifties seediest best this movie defines noir.

Touch of Evil (Restored to Orson Welles' Vision)

Orson Wells had a contract to fulfill so he made this noir masterpiece. Despite the questionable casting of Charlton Heston as a Mexican narcotics cop this movie when it’s good is simply brilliant. Wells not only directed and wrote the film he also stars as the corrupt detective at the hart of the plot. Shot in Venice California mostly at night as befits a true noir this is a magnificently shot movie. A true must see film.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre

A great and badly underrated gangster film by Roger Corman that deserves recogniton as a classic of the genre. In this film Corman shows his rather considerable directorial clients telling the largely accurate story of the events leading up to the bloody massacre at the Chicago garage. Shooting his first movie for a major studio with a great cast Corman delivers a crisp, riveting gangster thriller.

Frankenstein (Universal Studios Classic Monster Collection) and The Bride of Frankenstein (Universal Studios Classic Monster Collection)

Two films made four years apart but they work as one. James Whale, Boris Karloff, Colin Clive and makeup artist Jack Pierce combine to create two of the greatest horror films ever made. What are now clichés of the genre were created here. Whale and his cast go far beyond the demands of the genre however and create characters with a depth that still resonates today.

The Maltese Falcon (Three-Disc Special Edition)

Yes this is a predictable film to list but it so deserves to be on everyone’s top whatever list. The third time the book had been filmed this one became the definitive version. In Sam Spade Humphery Bogart created the quintessential Private Eye.

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

There are many terrorist states in the world, but the United States is unusual in that it is officially committed to international terrorism.. – Noam Chomsky

Yes I am an Anarchist.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death. – George Carlin

A Few Movies I Like

It’s all Jerry Coyne’s fault. He put together a list of his 20 favorite movies and invited everyone to join in . So here are the first five of mine.

King Kong

The original only, both remakes were monumentally sucky. The original though was a fast paced adventure with a working class hero and ground breaking special effects. Yes it is of its time and is thusly not so subtly racist though not as racist as Peter Jackson’s remake. Study the pacing and editing tough, they are brilliant. For a pre-teen kid they opened my eyes to what a movie could be.

His Girl Friday (1940) [Remastered Edition]

Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell at their finest with a brilliant screen play expertly directed by Howard Hawks. While making you laugh until you can’t breath it the film makes some very trenchant social commentary. I so wanted to be Hildy Johnson.

The Philadelphia Story

Cary Grant, again, Katherine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart give diamond sharp performances under George Cukors direction. A lot more master class the ‘His Girl Friday’ but much can be forgiven a film with such brilliant and wicked dialogue. A film about being true to yourself if you can find your true self.

Heat

The first time Al Pacino and Robert De Niro were in a scene together in a film. Also quite possible the best crime drama ever filmed and maybe Michael Man’s best film ever. Over two and a half hours long but you will find your self wondering where the time went because this film will suck you in and never lets up.

Night of the Comet

OK not a great movie but a damn fun one. A comet destroys civilization and two valley girls and a pachuco are left to rebuild the world and you will never be happier that they are the ones doing it.

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists. – Abbie Hoffman

Yes I am an Anarchist

The End Of The World As We Know It, Part 1

Our current industrial civilization is built on the foundation of cheap fossil fuels, not just oil this started with coal in the mid 18th century. Those early steam engines where powered by coal it was only later that oil became the prime mover of the Industrial Revolution. Now the era of cheap fossil fuels is ending. We are near or have already hit peak oil production and while we are supposed to have a century or more of coal that is a estimate based on a false one to one energy equivalent. While coal can be made into synthetic oil it takes a lot of energy and water, fresh water being another thing we are getting short on. Besides the direct costs of coal there are huge indirect costs in drastically increased pollution and extraction costs.

No, no matter how you cut it the age of cheap fossil fuels is over. The resource wars have already begun for that is what the ‘War On Terror’ really is. Energy, transportation, materials and agriculture are all dependent on fossil fuels and as their costs raise so will the cost of everything else. The mini food crises touched off by the Ethanol craze is just one example of the dislocations to come.

While this does mean the end of our current pattern of civilization it does not have to mean the end of all civilization. New patterns of civilization will arise out of the old it just won’t be easy.

A Quick One While I'm Awake

My but I've been a failure as a writer lately. There are many excuses, some of them good and relevant but I'm trying to get beyond that now.

I'm also trying to get beyond societies gender definitions but you know that already. I5 comes down to me being a stone femme gender queer trans woman. I obviously don't fit into this society we live in nor do I want to. We need something new and hopefully better, easier said then done. Revolution after revolution has filed to do anything but recreate the old order with a new face. I think that is in part because the revolutionaries have been the same uptight cis straights as the ones the overthrew. I think it';s time we radical queers took a shot at it.

Fuck the system until it bleeds.

A Simple Request

A fully gender inclusive Employment Non Discrimination Act is very important to me and all in the transgender community. It is literally a matter of life and death to most of us. So I would like to ask you to call and snail mail your Senators and your Congress Person and urge them to support and vote for a fully inclusive ENDA. It’s easy to find the contact numbers for your Congress people so want you please do this?

Thank You

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

The world holds two classes of men -- intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence – Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri

Random Thoughts On A Sunday Night

I’m back, seems I’ve said that before. But I’m going to try and keep up a real post a day for the next year. Yes this is inspired by Julie & Julia which I just finished watching (great movie by the way). I need the writing as therapy and discipline.

Veering off on another tangent I’m really going to see Dr. Maddie Deutsch at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center . Yes I really am going to explore the possibility of HRT. It’s late in life and a long time coming but I think I may be growing up at last.

It’s A Vile World

The Roman Catholic Church has been covering up and abetting child rape for at least a half a century at the highest levels. Yet you have flabby scumbags like Bill Donohue defending the church with basically a 'they did it too' approach. If there were any justice in the world this would mean he end of the Catholic Church, but there isn’t so it won’t. Oh this Pope might go down but the church will go on spreading it’s evil. So what evil you ask? The church opposes condom use and by doing so condemns thousands to disease and death and that is evil.

No An Anarchist Is Not The Same Thing As A Libertarian.

I see the oh so clueless libertarians are trying to rip something else off from we anarchists. This time it’s Punk Rock . They seem to think that because the Dead Kennedys went after Jerry Brown when he was governor of California that they were some how com ing from a conservative position. This ignores songs like ‘Moral Majority’ and ‘Stars and Stripes of Corruption’, not exactly Tea Bagger approved stuff. The libertarians always seem to forget that anarchists are opposed to any power elites, liberal, conservative, corporate or government. Libertarian wankers are only opposed to government power were it inconveniences them but are fine with it when it can help them. That is why they will never understand the true spirit of punk.

All You Need To Know About The Economy

I was in the check out line at the local market this afternoon and doing my usual eves dropping. A woman was talking about her daughter who had gotten two degrees in five years at a UC campus while on a full scholarship. Her daughter was now flipping burgers at the local deli. I think that about says it all.

It’s Friday Random Thirteen Time Again

A ramble through the iPod shuffle

Shake A Leg by AC/DC
Always On The Run by Lenny Kravitz
None Of The Above by Duran Duran
Dr. Livingstone, I Presume By The Moody Blues
The Last Wall Of The Castle by Jefferson Airplane
I Dream In Infrared by Queensrÿche
Again by Alice In Chains
Bummer by Monster Magnet
Ferris Wheel by The Deep Fix
Cure by Metallica
Waiting For 22 by Queensrÿche
Johnny B. Goode by George Thorogood & The Destroyers
Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles

Random Atheist Thoughts

Theists always seem to think that we atheists reject their particular god because we are angry at it or don’t want to submit to its arbitrary ‘moral’ laws. They never seem to get that we are rejecting all gods and goddesses because we see no real evidence for any of them. The entire elaborate theological structures the theists have built up rest on the twin shaky pillars of various holy texts and ignorance. The holly texts are taken as the True Word Of God because they say they are the True Word Of God, a nice bit of circular reasoning. The ignorance is along the lines of ’I don’t now how this happens therefore a god did it’. As science has advanced that has become an increasingly untenable position. As a result many atheists decided that the concept of god just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

This s the same reason that most of us don’t bother to refute the oh so sophisticated arguments of theologians, if the basic premise fails so do all the arguments based on it.

Would That It Were That Easy

This Dilbert cartoon offers a counter for incompetence



Would that it were that easy. Unfortunately evil organizations are usually even more incompetent than more benevolent ones. Add greed, pride, anger, and the other seven deadly sins to the naturally rivalries inherent in any human group and you get the sort of factionalism and infighting that can truly screw things up on a grand scale. Read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, the viscous infighting for influence and power contributed greatly to the eventual fall of Nazi Germany.

So I’m afraid the only real defense against incompetence is still intelligence and reason.

I Need Rest

Physically and emotionally I need rest. Natasha most specially needs rest; ze needs time to figure out who ze really is. So in the meantime I will be in boi mode which I have been swinging closer to lately anyway.

If you haven’t already guessed I blew my new appointment with Dr. Maddie off. It just didn’t feel right this time.

So until the Solstice Natasha will be meditating and resting, So who is righting this right now? Just someone who wants to put a smile on your face.

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.. – Martin Luther King

Yes I am an Anarchist.

I’m Almost A Manic Depressive.

I’m in a better mood this evening in part from watching my friend Alexander Yoo fight to save one of his patients from self-destruction. Dedication like his is always inspiring. Things like that make me think we can get a fully inclusive ENDA passed this year ad thusly save oh so many trans peoples lives. Maybe Martin Luther King was right when he sad ‘Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.’. Just maybe nothing can change the shape of things to come..

It’s Always Darkest Just Before It Goes Pitch Black

Are you one of those deluded people who believe in progress? The kind that thinks things will always get better and that everything if for a good purpose? Well you are a deluded fool. There is no grand design or purpose for this world. Nothing lasts forever and everything dies eventually. You are NOT the crown of creation or anyone special. In a thousand years or so 99.999% of everyone living today will be totally forgotten. Taken in the proper perspective the human species amounts to nothing and our \only mark on the world will be helping trigger a mass extinction.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma – Abraham Lincoln

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

This is an empire which is on the one hand the most powerful empire that ever existed; on the other hand an empire that is crumbling -- an empire that has no future because the rest of the world is alienated and simply because this empire is top-heavy with military commitments, with bases around the world, with the exhaustion of its own resources at home. – Howard Zinn

Yes I am an Anarchist

The Winds Of Limbo

I have been living in Limbo between the cis and trans worlds for so long it’s beginning to feel like home. I have a new appointment with Dr. Maddie Deutsch this Thursday and now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t cancel it. Maybe Limbo is my home now. To walk forever between the worlds not really part of any of them, I wonder f this is such a bad existence? I have, after all always been a misfit of one sort or the other and have always felt the call of the abyss. Or maybe this is my natural cowardice asserting it’s self and I’m just afraid of the changes this could entail in my life. Or on the third hand maybe I just like not fitting in. I do fnd the winds of Limbo comforting in their own way.

Late Nigh And Random

As I’ve mentioned I have two huskies. Because of this I sleep on the edge of a California King bed. The Huskies have the rest.

Why are most straight cis men so anxious that they might not be perceived as sufficiently masculine? The merest hint that of any thing feminine in their behavior or appearance is enough to set off an apocalyptic rage.

I have a number of particularly slimy S & M sexual fantasies running around my brain. If any ones interested I will write a few out. I may do it even if you, my dear readers, aren’t interested.

I, Pansexual

I identify as a Pansexual gender queer trans woman. So what you may ask is a pansexual, just a fancy word for bisexual? No, a bisexual conforms to the gender binary in being attracted to men or women. This usually, but not always, means cis sexual men or women. As a pansexual I can be and have been physically attracted to cis men and women, trans men and women as well as to those gender queers and androgyne’s who are neither/both.

Of course I have seen cis gays proclaim that being pansexual is impossible as there are only men or women. These narrow minded assimilationist little twerps have not a clue and are blinded by their own cis privilege. Many cis gays and lesbians will even deny that bisexual is a real sexual orientation and that bisexuals just haven’t come out of the closet yet. That is more assimilationist crap, they really may as well be straight.

As for me I prefer to leave myself open to the possibility of love with humans in all their glorious and messy diversity.

A Day Of Fail

Wednesday was not a good day for me at all, at least on a personal level. It was not too bad on a business level but personally a disaster. To start I ran long at a customer ste and had to cancel my therapy appointment, a very bad thing given the stress in my life at the moment. The big disappointment of the day was an appointment I kept however. I was seeing Dr. Maddie Deutsch at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. It had taken a long time to save up the money and work up the courage to go see her regarding starting HRT. I got there at 1:00 PM to finish paperwork and do a orientation with the actual doctors appointment at 2:15 PM. At 2:00 PM I was still sitting in the waiting room with no paperwork to fill out. There was work backing up so I left. I felt both sad and relieved. Sad at the wasted time and money, parking in Hollywood is expensive, as well as the failure of my dream of transition. Relieved at not having to have the ‘talk’ with Lyne about why HRT was so important to me. But the part of me that is desperate for HRT and the changes it will bring has not gone away or shut up. So I will take the advice if the great W.C. Fields, ‘If at fist you don’t succeed try, try again. Then give up before you make a damn fool of yourself.’ So I will try twice more than give up because the Universe is trying to tell me that transition is not for me.

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

The character of a bourgeois government isn’t determined by the personal character of its members, but by its organic function in bourgeois society. The government of the modern state is essentially an organization of class domination, the regular functioning of which is one of the conditions of existence of the class state. With the entry of a socialist into the government, and class domination continuing to exist, the bourgeois government doesn’t transform itself into a socialist government, but a socialist transforms himself into a bourgeois minister.. – Rosa Luxemberg

That should tell you everything you need to know about Obama in particular and the Democratic Party in general. .

Yes I am an Anarchist.

A Tuesday Random Thirteen Because I Need To Remember How To Blog

Khanada by Duran Duran
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath by Anthrax
Sal Pa’ Fuera by Puya
L.A. Woman by Billy Idol
Behind Blue Eyes by The Who
Dust Of Time by Hawkwind
Country Honk by The Rolling Stones
Pure And Easy by The Who
Feed On Me by Judas Priest
Notorious by Duran Duran
Sleepy Time Time by Cream
Jam Stew by Deep Purple
Love Unchained by Billy Idol

A Quick One Before I Go

Going to be traveling tomorrow so I only have time for a quick reflection. As much as I love civilization it has been since the beginning all about control. Religion was a major aspect of that. It represented an attempt to control a world humans did not then understand and was a excellent way to control the population by offering them eternal reward or punishment depending on how well they obeyed the dictates of the power elite. Religon also gives you sin a neat way to control many of life’s pleasures as well as curb some of humanities darker and more destructive urges. Then there is my least favorite means of control, strict gender roles. Authoritarian states tend to brutally enforce very strict and quite limited gender roles. They have no tolerance for sexual or gender ambiguity or non-conformance. So if you’re Gender Queer or Transgender mearly by living your life you are rebellion.

And A Good Night To All

Have some sympathy and some taste

Total Randomness

Screw it, I don’t need to make sense.

We could make our world a paradise if we really wanted to. There really is no need for war and oppression. We just need to throw out the religions and ideologies and get down to it.

The U.S. is a colonial settler state. We Europeans came here and committed genocide against the first nations to steal their land.

I’m Gender Queer so I try to embrace all gender expressions by all people. Let a thousand genders bloom!

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. - Hermann Göring

And that is how we got dragged into two losing wars so far this century.

Yes I am an Anarchist.

A Musical Interlude

It gets depressing blogging about the hate and violence directed towards Gender Queer and Transgendered people. On the other hand enus De Mars and hir band All The Pretty Horses always makes me feel better so here a re a couple from the band.

They Hate Me, They Really Hate Me!

Well not me personally just any one like me, you know transgender people. The ‘they’ in this case are cis gay men. Don’t believe me? Well how about this quote;

Ron Gold wishes the State to intervene to forbid "discrimination against cross-dressers or post-op transsexuals in employment...." I disagree. Employers should not be forced to hire individuals who are delusional or otherwise inappropriate for a job. A man who believes that he is Napoleon or Jesus Christ, or that castration has changed him into a woman, may not make a desirable employee

Nice isn’t it. We are being compared to the clinically delusional not to mention the old ‘they’re juts castrated men’ trope when referring to trans-women. But wait there’s more!

Who gives a sh*t? Stop pretending like there is some equivalence between gay and "trans". One is a sexual orientation, the other is a gender. They are 2 different things, but we have been forced to consider them as part of one "LGBT" whole because of a politically correct gay leadership. I don't have gender issues and I don't want to wear dresses or cut off my d*ck. Stop lumping me and millions of other men and women with trannies.

Hateful scum the lot of them. It’s almost enough to make me rethink my ‘A injury to one is a injury to all’ philosophy that leads me to fight for their rights as well as my own. But I refuse to let these vile little bigots drive me off my principals.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o, and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have – Penn Jillette

Friday Random Thirteen Strikes Again

Hey Hey What Can I Do by Led Zeppelin
Pilate And Christ by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Down To The Sea by Robert Plant
The Black Angel’s Death Song by The Velvet Underground & Nico
Black Magic by Slayer
The Night Time Is The Right Time by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Bring Her Down (To Crippletown) by Rob Zombie
Just You And Me, Darling by The Who
Down On Me by Big Brother & The Holding Company
The Day Begins by The Moody Blues
The Hell of it by Paul Williams
Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy by Queen
Sing This All Together (See What Happens) by The Rolling Stones

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe? – Quentin Crisp

Religion is like a huge dog. When it's yours it feels comforting and safe, but it scares the hell out of everyone else and the least you can do is keep it away from the kids. - Nick Doody

Another twofer

I Am Not A Good Person

I do try to do the whole forgive my enemies thing but it just isn’t in me. But at hart I’m a vindictive bitch who would happily kneecap most of the trans-misogynist bastards out there. Hatefull scum like Paul Scott a candidate for Michigan Secretary of State who’s number three priority if elected is to

..ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver's license in any circumstance

Well fuck you Scott, I would happily kick you in the balls hard enough to rupture them.

Then there are perennial idiots and hate mongers ‘Porno’ Pete LaBarbera and Matt ‘Bam Bam’ Barber two men who will hopefully die of cholesterol induced hart attacks soon.

And let’s not forget cis gay jerk off Ron Gold who says I don’t exist. Well I’d say fuck him but he would probably like it.

See, I am not a nice person and do not wish my enemies well. I am tired of them shitting on me and telling me it’s for my own good. So Fuck Off And Die the lot of you.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. – Mark Twain,

How To Speak Tea Bag

Hey learn a new language kids!



Be careful though, watching this may get you death threats just like the artist has. Seems like the tea bagers and radical Muslims have something in common, they hate any criticism.

Friday Random Thirteen

The Arrest by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Shout At The Devil by Mötley Crüe
Raw Power by The Stooges
The Last Merry Go Round by The Deep Fix
Green Instrument by Afro Celt
Serenade #10 by Mozart
Angry Again by Megadeth
Nobody’s Fault But Mine by Page & Plant
Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath
Welcome To The Jungle by Guns ‘N’ Roses
The Ocean by Lead Zeppelin
The Kids by Bob Rivers
Violence Of Summer by Duran Duran

Running Scared

As proved by Brown’s win in Massachusetts people are running scared right now and with good reason. The economy may have recovered for Wall Street but it most defiantly has not for Main Street. Unemployment is still at an official rate of 10% with the real rate at nearly twice that, that’s enough to scare any but the very rich. When people are scarred they will follow any one who offers them hope of a solution. That is what, as the economy plunged into deep recession, propelled Obama into the white house. The problem is that while Trillions of Dollars where thrown at Wall Street workers got a watered down to uselessness stimulus bill. Now people watch as any hope of real health care reform is compromised to the point of making things worse. Is it any wonder that desperate people will vote for any yahoo who promises them a quick solution? Even when those solutions are a repackaged version of the polices that got us into this mess in the first place. It’s discouraging that people will fall for this shallow crap but not at all surprising.

Random In The Night

So the Democrats lost a Senate race in Massachusetts to a vapid pretty boy Republican. Now their health care reform legislation is in danger of crashing and burning and they have only themselves to blame. If they had been anywhere as focused and ruthless as the Republicans under Bush were they could have had some sort of health care plan passed by now. But they dithered and tried to comprise with people who only wanted their failure and fail they have.

Firefox used to be my favorite browser but the latest version is slow and buggy. It is constantly locking up and to get Gmail or Yahoo mail to work requires constant page reloads. I use Google Chrome for work because we have Google hosting our email and It’s pretty good. I may have to make it my primary browser.

The shuttle stops flying this year and it will be 2015 before the U.S. can put people into orbit if then. The Aries rocket is way behind its original schedule and needs lots more money if it’s not going to slp even further behind. With the deficit hawks stiring up a stink and the privatization mania still in vogue I would say the chances for the Aries do not look good. If the Chinse economic bubble bursts we may see the end of the space age. It was a nice dream while it lasted.

Some Thoughts On Haiti

Haiti is the only nation that gained its independence as a result of a successful slave revolt. It also gained its independence from its European overlords with out outside help. Haiti then went on to provide arms and soldiers to Bolivar in his fight to oust the Spanish from South America. For all this the Haitians have been punished ever since. They have been plagued by trade blockades and armed intervention time and again. The U.S. Marines, ever the U.S. imperial enforcers, supported a coup in 1888, occupied the country from 1915 to 1934 and kidnapped the elected president in 2004. France, Germany, Great Britain and the U.S. have all literally looted the Haitian national bank at one time or another.

So when you see the awful poverty in earthquake ravaged Haiti where U.S. troops are once again occuping the country and shooting Haitians for the crime of trying to survive think of the history of imperial violence Haiti has had to endure.

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A twofer for today

I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence– Doug McLeod,

Let me make the superstitions of a nation and I care not who makes its laws or its songs either– Mark Twain,

Fear Is The Key

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. – Frank Herbert

A very true saying from mister Hebert, fear is the mind killer. Fearful people do stupid things and are easily led by someone who seems to have the power to make what they fear go away. Fear is the weapon wielded by terrorists and is so effective that even a botched attempt like the Christmas crotch bomber can through the U.S. into a tizzy. Fear is also the major weapon used by theocrats against queers, fear that we will rape their follower’s children and then recruit them into our ‘lifestyle’. Fear that our very existence will somehow bring society crashing down. Fear is irrational so rational and reasoned arguments will not stand against it. Fear most of all is the weapon of the coward and the bully.

Dancing With The Green Fairy After A Long Day

I always seem to be tired, I think I need rest but first I must write.

Why does any one give a loon like Pat Robertson any credence when he constantly makes statements like this ? The man is a hateful lying idiot but because he is a pastor people actually listen to him. Robertson is another reason I’m glad I’m a atheist.

Have you noticed that being gay or transgender is a very seductive thing? Well at least according to theocratic idiots it is. They say again and again that if we queers are granted any legal rights it will open floodgates and people will be seduced into the ‘homosexual lifestyle’. Isn’t nice to know we are so damned seductive?

Thoughts For A Dying Empire

An occasional series, which I hope, will illuminate the twilight of the American Empire

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it. - Noam Chomsky

Yes I am an Anarchist.

Late Night Headache Thoughts

Tired and have a headache so this should be fairly incoherent.

The U.S. has something like 750 plus overseas military bases and yet has the gall or self-blindenes to say we are not an empire. We spend nearly as much as the rest of the world combined on arms. We want to be the world hegemon and have bankrupted ourselves doing it. Welcome to the decline and fall part of our history, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

I Need Some New Terms

I used to consider myself a feminist, after all the basic premise of feminism that woman are human beings entitled to full human rights and opportunities seems uncontroversial to me. All right there are some right wing trolls like Limbaugh and Vox Day who seem to view women as a alien species not deserving of any rights but they and their followers are fucking idiots. The problem is a lot of feminists seem to want me to disappear or die, whichever would be more convenient for them. They are willing to deny women like me any services and indeed any rights at all. So I need a new term for the fight for full rights for all women, no make that all people.

While the progressive movement champions many of the causes I support I can’t really use the term progressive. There are too many progressive’s willing to use trans women's bodies/lives/identities to take cheap shoots at Ann Coulter showing a complete lack of concern for my life or safety. That really doesn’t surprise me because the progressives of the early Twentieth Century were incredibly racist. Noted progressive Jack London wrote an approving novel about the genocide of the Chinese. So I can’t in good conscience use the term progressive.

So I need some new terms, any ideas?

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

Religion easily has the best bullshit story of all time. Think about it. Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man…living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money – George Carlin,

Late Night Randomness

Just saw Avatar, the plot is beyond predictable but the visuals are like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It really needs to be seen in 3D preferably on a IMAX screen, it will submerge you in another world. As this technology gets down to a reasonable price I would love to see what a director like Guillermo del Toro could do with it.

Privilege, You’re Soaking In It

I know I went on a rant recently about how oppressors don’t get to define what is an appropriate response by a oppressed group to some remark or action by a member of the oppressor class. I now have to add being a member of an oppressed group does not give you the right to tell another oppressed group that they are overreacting.

I bring this up because of a dust up on twitter today, an atheist told some trans-woman they were over reacting to a routine by Colbert on his show. I have not seen the bit and only followed part of the conversation but the content of the bit is not the point. You do not get to tell a member of an oppressed group they are over reacting and then fall back on the ‘but I’m oppressed to!’ whine when called on your lack of knowledge of the other person’s situation. But that is exactly what happened.

The atheist should have been able to empathize with the trans-women given all the shit atheists take from the theists. But he was blinded by his white male privilege. As a white former male person I recognize the arrogance that comes from having your ideas and opinions valued over all others. No life experience or ideas are valid unless you validate them. I took me a long time to figure out how to take the blinders off and really see the world. Being a progressive or a would be ally does not absolve you from confronting your own privilege. A white, straight cis-male, no matter how good his intentions, is still a total jerk when insisting he knows what should or should not piss off trans-women.

From The Lavender Menace To Trans Misogyny

When the National Organization of Women had just been founded in 1969 Betty Friedan called for expelling lesbians from the organization calling them a Lavender Menace who would stand in the way of NOW achieving it’s goals. In her 1978 book Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism Mary Daly called trans-women ‘Frankenstein’ while ignoring trans-men’s existence entirely. This to me is not progress. It is a formally excluded group deciding to exclude a even more marginalized group. This sort of crap happens all too often and I’m sick of it. We either liberate everyone or we’re all still trapped in a hierarchy of oppression.

The Return Of The Friday Random Thirteen

Because I have a fascination with Music and Prime Numbers

Space Oddity by David Bowie
Stupid Girl by The Rolling Stones
Hurry On Sundown by Hawkwind
Shout It Out Loud by Kiss
Bad Reputation by Joan Jet & The Blackhearts
Dragons & Fables by Hawkwind
Flight Of The Rat by Deep Purple
Bottom Of The Sea by George Thorogood & The Destroyers
Words by Missing Persons
City Don’t Cry by Page & Plant
Is There Something I Should Know by Duran Duran
God Save The Queen by Sex Pistols
Charles Atlas Song (reprise) by Tim Curry

The last thirteen songs that iTunes DJ mode called up

What Some Feminists, Gays And Theocrats Have In Common

What you may ask could feminists, gays and christian theocrats have in common? A refusal to view trans-men and women as anything other than mentally ill people who should be denied any medical help but coercive therapy to ‘cure’ them of their delusions. What with Ron Gold claiming we don’t exist, the late Mary Daly calling us ‘Frankensteinian’ and the Family Research Council throwing a snit fit over Federal Government banning employment discrimination based on gender identity this attitude has been more obvious than it usually is. They all ignore the growing medical consensus that transgender identity is a medical condition not a mental illness. The other thing they all have in common is that sense we are mentally ill we need NO legal protections. That this is a death sentence for many of us doesn’t bother them in the least for none of them consider us really human. I would just like to say to them in the kindest way possible FUCK OFF AND DIE

Genderqueer 101 A Definition

I can only give the definition that works for me. The clearest is that gender queer is not fitting into even the broadest definition of the gender binary of male/female as the only choices. For me personally it means that I am currently male bodied but my sense of self is far more female but there are aspects of me that are still quite male and others that are gender neutral. My sense of gender is not fixed and though I would love to use hormones to alter my body my sense of my gender does not depend on my physical appearance. For me gender identity is not a point on a line but a probability cloud like a electron.

Does thus definition help or is it too ambiguous

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

If God kills, lies, cheats, discriminates, and otherwise behaves in a manner that puts the Mafia to shame, that's okay, he's God. He can do whatever he wants. Anyone who adheres to this philosophy has had his sense of morality, decency, justice and humaneness warped beyond recognition by the very book that is supposedly preaching the opposite. — Dennis McKinsey

With a hat tip to Doggy Style

A Injury To One Is A Injury To All

That is a motto of my union, The Industrial Workers Of The World. It’s a motto I believe in and try to live by. Unless we stand up for the rights of everybody, even those who do not support us, we open ourselves to a dived and rule strategy. If the bosses can get us competing with each other for position in a hierarchy of oppression and some recognition and legal protections they know we will be too busy to fight them.

So I will always strive to practice solidarity. That does not mean I won’t call out groups and individuals I see willing to sell out others for some small gain for themselves. Also while I might actively support your goals I won’t support your organization if I see you practicing exclusionary bullshit *cough hrc cough*

So if you call yourselves a social justice group fucking fight for EVERONES rights or admit you’re a bunch of privileged wana be’s

Atheist Quote Of A Random Day

A continuing feature of this blog brought to you by just another atheist

The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter..- Thomas Jefferson,

And for the New Year a tripple header

In the affairs of the world, men are saved, not by faith, but by the want of it.- Benjamin Franklin,

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.- John Adams,

All from our founding fathers, a ‘Christian’ nation indeed.