Disqus - Latest Comments for MeM

Re: Turning the Teaspoon Inward

Toonces (MeM) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:47:20 -0000

I've been thinking about what happened for a while now, and my role in it and, not to make it all about me, but I've been feeling like I accidently broke Shakesville. I'm afraid of commenting further because I'm not sure when/if what I'm saying is toxic but this is a good question…and well, I know it makes some people uncomfortable but I keep thinking of religious imagery for some reason and I've been feeling incredibly guilty, so maybe I can sort of repent and move forward with a better attitude.

And, I kind of see my role in the community as just being another in the "flock". Again, sorry about invoking religion, and I'm not saying Shakesville is a church or that I come here for spirituality but it IS a bit like 'Liss is the Pope (and it's a bit like the Pope up and disappeared, y'know?) and PD and other co-bloggers are her Bishops, and we're all here to get direction and look at our own sins and how we can be better people. And I think we all kind of look up to those who devote so much of themselves to helping us get to that place.

Anyway, if I can scrape something together to add to the "collection plate", maybe that's a first step in "repenting".

Re: Yes We Can

Toonces (MeM) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:47:59 -0000

Oh right, if I'm not 100% elated, if I'm able to have conflicting emotions and thoughts, it doesn't "matter" to me, or if it does, not enough or in the right way. Yeah....maybe I'm in the wrong place, too.

Re: Yes We Can

Toonces (MeM) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:38:55 -0000

I probably shouldn't have voiced my opinion, but I've been crying in joy for hours, too. And I think that CE and megankay and Helen and others are telling the truth, and I totally feel what they're saying while I'm happy and hopeful about America moving forward (while it simultaneously moves backwards). And maybe some people don't like hearing about it but no one called anyone else a bad feminist or a bad person. One "side" is getting heard in a BIG, BIG way tonight, and one "side" is feeling hopeless about getting heard and I don't think either "side" has more right to voice that, but it's not my blog and I didn't mean to say or imply people should leave or anything, just that y'know...most of the world is celebrating and some people are feeling left out of that and it sucks to feel left out of all that and they don't have the rest of the internet to go to to talk about it...and that doesn't make them bad people, either, that they see things through a less hopeful lense than others right now.

Re: Yes We Can

Toonces (MeM) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:19:33 -0000

No, CE, don't. You're making perfectly valid points. It's not all okay. If people need a place where they can celebrate (and obviously I can't speak for Melissa) without someone "raining" on their parade, they have a lot of other places to go.

Re: Yes We Can

Toonces (MeM) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:13:57 -0000

I was laughing out loud in joy over what the election of an African American says about the people I share this country with, and how it shows that we do in fact change and grow as a people.

Yup. And for me, I had this moment of zen tonight, where I realized that this is, in a way, an answer to the last few thousand years of human history in regards to race. It's been a painful road and I have a lot of reservations about Obama as a candidate and a person (he's an incredibly cynical politician IMHO), but I do feel like I witnessed something truly awesome tonight. And I am aware of so much more now than I was a year ago WRT feminism and women's issues, so I hope that there are many more like me out there who have been changed in that way by this whole mess of an election.

Re: Introducing...

Toonces (MeM) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:33:04 -0000

Yay@Boulder electing Jared....not so Yay@blaming a young woman for getting herself gang-raped (sorry, kind of OT but kind of not for Shakesville): http://www.dailycamera.com/...

Re: Introducing...

Toonces (MeM) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:15:22 -0000

Morehouse singing was what got me crying. Then it was Jesse Jackson. Then it was Obama. Then it was the news people getting all vaklempt.

Re: Introducing...

Toonces (MeM) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:44:03 -0000

This is like....the first time I've been able to really breathe in 8 years.

Re: Bizarre

Toonces (MeM) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:18:10 -0000

I see it as being different but not necessarily bizarre. Maybe it depends on what emotional weight the word bizarre has for you. Bizarre to me would be if, in response to the question, she made moose noises (what do I call that?).

Re: A Gripe and A Question

Toonces (MeM) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:13:49 -0000

I think it would be worth losing the scooter just to piss-off anyone who would get pissed-off enough at a friendly note to actually damage a scooter, but I'm kind of evil. You might try making the notes on baby-blueish colored paper as it is said to be a calming color.

Re: Bizarre

Toonces (MeM) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:01:55 -0000

Last I heard, Liss does not have a band of "roving reporters."

How cool would that be?

Also, welcome back, Betty!

Re: Bizarre

Toonces (MeM) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:14:10 -0000

Not trying to be snarky (at all), but maybe Palin thought this answer was "mavericky". Maybe she is sticking to her convictions in a way some find odd, but I can't really fault her for doing so.

Re: Question of the Day

Toonces (MeM) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:37:14 -0000

I was too young to vote for Gore *sigh*. I can't really regret not being old enough to vote but that would be the only one so far. Kerry was inspiring to me so I really enjoyed voting for him even if a good part of that was also voting against Bush, but I haven't yet felt the need to have a rockstar type of personality in a government official, so I'm kind of an anomaly.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about voting for Obama but I probably won't know if I regret it for a few years.

Re: The Most Hyperbolic Person...IN THE WORLD!

Toonces (MeM) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:27:46 -0000

I've had to talk myself out of conspiracy theories more this year than I ever have before.

Oh yeah, me too. I feel pretty nuts wondering if McCain is throwing this thing to get back at the Republicans for all they've done to him, or if it's all just some big show to pretend like we have a democracy, but then I think about how we got Bush and the war in the first place, and there was obviously a coordinated effort on the part of many people with a complicit media, and then impeachment was off the table, and the way the media treated Kucinich, Edwards, and Hillary, and on and on and on (UHC is baaaaad according to Obama) and I don't think it's actually all that crazy to wonder. I'm not saying I know it to be the truth or that just because the media likes Obama he is just a corporate puppet who is going to continue to fuck us over, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. And I deeply hope that I am completely wrong (because I can't move to France, yet). The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Re: The Most Hyperbolic Person...IN THE WORLD!

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:05:08 -0000

I just want to say one more thing: Objectivity in journalism may be a lofty goal (certainly perfect objectivity is), but it used to at least be a goal. It used to be THE goal, in fact.

Re: The Most Hyperbolic Person...IN THE WORLD!

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:52:47 -0000

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: we look at the right wing's successes and we learn precisely the wrong lessons, every single time.

*nod* *sigh*

Re: The Most Hyperbolic Person...IN THE WORLD!

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:51:11 -0000

I don't buy that MSNBC/GE had a change of heart and became something altogether different when Obama came along than what it was before. I don't buy that the people pulling strings have suddenly given up a greed-centered ideology because they caught The Hope. I don't think it's okay to stump for a candidate from a program that calls itself news.

I won't have hope for this country until we get media ownership laws back. It doesn't matter who is at the helm when the ship has a big hole in it.

Re: The Most Hyperbolic Person...IN THE WORLD!

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:57:28 -0000

They may spout some progressivisms, but blatant propaganda in place of objective observation is not progressive/liberal, at least by my definition. It's dangerous and it's how we got Bush two times, the Iraq war, a resurge of McCarthyism, no discussion of global warming for 6 years, no impeachment, etc. Even if it's just infotainment it's destructive (how much news did we miss while we were hearing about the Lewinsky scandal?). Without an informed populace, democracy, despite the appearance of functionality, dies. I can't even believe it's a point I have to argue with (many) people after the last 8 years.

Re: Sunday Book Club

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:46:20 -0000

Thanks, ThedaBara. That's fascinating.

Re: The Most Hyperbolic Person...IN THE WORLD!

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:23:19 -0000

I'll take it as long as 1) it's not named (or thought of) as news 2) it's not named (or thought of) as a liberal or progressive voice. As long as everyone watching knows it's candy, I don't care if they watch, but I don't believe that to be the case because there aren't many alternatives with more substance (PBS airs BBC news but people think it's boring).

Re: The Most Hyperbolic Person...IN THE WORLD!

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:07:47 -0000

Exactly, wiggles. People forget that GE owns MSNBC. They're not going to put any real liberals on the air. They're just pandering enough to get into the "fed-up with Bush" demographic.

ETA: And they sure do like Obama for whatever reason.

Re: The Most Hyperbolic Person...IN THE WORLD!

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:49:08 -0000

FlipYrWhig, if she came out and said "Obama's totally going to win!" no one would watch her. It doesn't mean she doesn't sit there for an hour talking up Obama and making fun of McCain. All the nooz channels have been trying to make a huge story about how OMG tight the race is since the primaries began. It's like a boxing match but with commercials. No one wants it to be a 1st round knockout. If you watch it for infotainment, fine. But there needs to be mainstream alternatives where they actually report the news.

Re: The Most Hyperbolic Person...IN THE WORLD!

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:29:44 -0000

I think I've become post-partisan. Change I can believe in!

I guess I have, too. It's awful lonely. I usually watch BBC news and I've gotten used to that kind of reporting, where you barely notice the reporters (Katy Kay is the only name I know of because it's a cute name), they're understated and don't inject their opinions AT ALL, and so when I catch CNN or MSNBC I am just sitting there, mouth open, in complete disbelief that people don't notice how crazy it is.

Re: Sunday Book Club

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:24:04 -0000

I remember reading something about research on at least one culture where there was no rape (and I tried to find some info on it but I'm mostly just finding sites talking about how most rape accusations are false and that kind of thing so I'm giving up for now) and part of it was because they valued women and men the same, and weren't big on war and violence (or something along those lines). And I know I've read things about matriarchal societies and great queens in the ancient world, etc. I'm always fuzzy on details but I am suspicious of that assertion as well, Astraea. I would bet someone on Shakesville knows the answer :)

Re: Sunday Book Club

Toonces (MeM) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:23:13 -0000

Every culture, from every part of the world, that's been studied in depth considers women 2nd class citizens.

Hmm, I've heard/read different information, but for all I know you're correct. Anyone have any data either way?