TOTALLY guilty as charged!

Yes, this is how I buy my shoes. I bought another pair today, in fact.  They’re very comfy.

Money quote:  “While only 38 percent of men own more than seven pairs of shoes, the average woman owns somewhere between “a s***-ton of shoes” and “a number of shoes so f***ing vast it had to wait for scientific notation to be invented to be expressed on paper.”

(Asterisks are mine.  I can only aspire to such heights of comedic swearing as the Cracked folks achieve on a daily basis.)

Fort Hood

I could post on any number of lighthearted things right now, but it wouldn’t be right.

A few very random and muddled thoughts:

- Did anyone else close their eyes and whisper “Oh, sh*t” when hearing that the murderer’s name was Nidal Malik Hasan?

- I wish I knew for sure whether Hasan was the shooter or not.  They’re calling him “alleged” for now.

- This post by Sarah floored me.  Military installations are gun-free zones?  Really??

- Yes, really.  “Soldiers at Fort Hood don’t carry weapons unless they are doing training exercises.”

- I suppose, contrary to my initial thoughts, this does continue the long chain of shooting sprees in gun-free zones.

Thirteen people dead.  Thirteen families devastated.

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion,

et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem.

Exaudi orationem meam;

ad te omnis caro veniet.

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Why the emphasis on “the dark side”?

Someone asked me yesterday why I keep referencing the fact that I was a liberal and now I’m not.

Why, she asked, do you need to keep repeating that?  Why continually talk about going over to “the dark side”?

I thought about it.  Why DO I keep referencing my former days as a liberal?  Why not just state what I think NOW, and why, and leave it at that?

I muddled over it and came up with a few explanations:

1) Desire to define myself in opposition. Mike habitually rejects labels like Republican, conservative etc.; he’s more likely to look at the crazier liberal/Democrat initiatives or politicians and say, “Well, I know I’m not THAT.”  Perhaps I’m doing the same.

2) Desire to assure readers that “some of my best friends are liberals.” Only instead of “some of my best friends,” it’s “I was a liberal.”  One of the more common complaints for conservatives/Republicans/anti-statists is that liberals don’t just think we’re wrong, they think we’re evil. Since I held very different views in the past than I hold now, how I can I think that folks who currently hold my prior views are evil?  I don’t, anymore than I was evil for holding those views.  Which leads into. . .

3) Desire to assure readers that I don’t take things too seriously. I have some readers who stop by just for the kitty pix, and who think that all the stuff I write about politics and guns is flat-out wrong, if not plain crazy.  I’m okay with that.  I use the tongue-in-cheek references about going over to the dark side to wryly acknowledge that some folks think I’m nuts.  And who knows?  I might be.  *grin*

4) Desire to make it easier for disagreeing folks to dismiss me. This would be an unhappy tendency, but I think it does exist.  I don’t go seeking out conflict in my real life; the opinions I state in plain black and white here I wouldn’t say out loud in most common gatherings.  When I do end up in political discussions, I usually end up saying to the effect of, ‘Well, I feel differently, I think XYZ, but that’s just me (shrug).”  I have friends who disagree entirely with an anti-statist/conservative/whatever-you-call-it viewpoint, and I don’t want politics to interrupt our friendship; I’d rather laughingly call myself an “evil conservative” and brush it off, then get into a serious discussion of why I think what I do.  (Is this the coward’s way out?  Do I not want to make them uncomfortable, or am I afraid that I couldn’t effectively argue my views?  Hmmm.)

So . . . . I think all the reasons stated above hold true to some extent.  Would my writing be more effective if I left out the “I used to think X” part and just stated “I think Z and here’s why”?

I’d give you a definitive answer, but, well, only half a mug of coffee’s gone down my gullet.  Takes more than that to get a definitive answer from an evil conservative   BWAHAHAHA!!!!!

Chivalry versus condescension

I’ve mentioned before that the gunnies around here are some of the most courteous, friendly and welcoming people I’ve come across.

Some of it stems from the sheer difficulty of becoming a gunnie in this neck of the woods.  Anyone who wants to climb that mountain of regulatory hoops (how’s that for a mixed metaphor?!) is welcomed as a comrade-in-arms.  (Jay G’s written about this before — about how the burdensome laws make 2A folks band together, that when you find someone who shoots, you’ve likely got some things in common — but I couldn’t find the post.  Jay? UPDATE — this is the one I meant.  Thanks Jay!)

On the other hand, some folks feel it’s their duty to introduce new people, especially women, into the joys of shooting.  LawDog, for example, has written about the proper (and less-than-stellar) way to break in a newbie and feels that the future of the shooting depends on women.  And I wouldn’t exactly classify Texas as gun-hostile!

I’ve come across multiple essays explaining

- things to avoid unless you want your wife to hate guns

- chastising gun shop workers who ignore women or assume they can only handle .22

- warning against misogyny, even the well-meant kind, in the gunnie community

And the one time I’ve walked into a gun shop, the owner chatted me up in a friendly way then commented how nice it was to see a woman walk into the store.

In other words, I’ve found that the shooters around here are overwhelmingly chivalrous, not patronizing.

Which is more than I can say for the range officer who told Shoothouse Barbie she would have to wear ear protection “because guns are loud.”

Pissant.

Thoughts on “hate crimes”

“Hate crimes” –  yet another area where I’ve changed my opinion as a result of migration to The Dark Side.

Ten years ago I was in favor of hate crime legislation.  My young, dewy-eyed self earnestly wished to protect “victimized” groups such as gays, bisexuals, people of color, etc.  I thought that members of such a group were endangered simply by who they were, and therefore deserved an extra measure of protection from a society that had failed them.

As you can tell, I see things differently now.  I think that hate crimes legislation creates favored groups, the members of which are placed above the ordinary members of society.  Why is it worse to sucker-punch a black man than to sucker-punch a white man?  Why is it more evil to rape a lesbian than a heterosexual woman?

Why is more evil to beat up a fat woman than to beat up a skinny woman?

Tell me how, exactly, the victim was “discriminated against” for being fat.  Some poor excuse for a woman beat up Marsha Coupe while screaming “Fattie.”  True, I didn’t see that the perp was arrested and charged, but do you really think that has anything to do with Ms. Coupe’s size?  Or do you think there’s a rampant culture of thuggery in which bullies do not get punished?  (Or at least, they rarely get punished, and then whine about it.)

Furthermore, how does one tell if the perpetrator did so with “hate” in his/her heart, foremost?  What if she did it out of rage?  Out of depression?  Out of greed, or lust?  Out of laziness in selecting what looked like an easy victim?  Would it be less of a crime if the perp screamed “Gimme your wallet!” while beating Ms. Coupe?

True, we do try to divine intent when a crime is committed, but that is to differentiate between accidental and non-accidental incidents.  A woman who accidentally hits her neighbor with a car is very different from a woman who has studied the neighbor’s habits, has a schedule of his entry and exit from work, and who trailed him for three blocks before making contact.

So there are my thoughts on my subject.  It boils down to this:

Why is my life and person less worthy of protection than someone with darker skin or a different sexual orientation?

(Breda had similar thoughts)

The Domestication of Lissa progresses apace

Dinner last night:

Delicious, drool-worthy pulled pork sandwiches on Italian bread.  (We used a fancier brand of barbecue sauce than normal — Kansas City Style — and you could TASTE the difference.)

With steamed broccolini.*

For dessert:

Made-from-scratch pumpkin pie.**

With homemade whipped cream.

Holy COW I’ve come a long way from Velveeta Shells ‘n’ Cheese!

That is all.

 

*The real stuff, not that broccoli rabe shyte.

**No, I didn’t stew my own pumpkin, I used the canned kind.  I also didn’t grow my own cane sugar.  I still consider this made-from-scratch!

Happy Caturday: Halloween Edition

“M-I-C

K-E-Y

Guess-my-mom-hates-me!”

And okay, yeah, he doesn’t really fit into the costume, but the size was “Small” . . . for a DOG.  I didn’t think he was bigger than a small dog!

Happy Halloween, everyone!!

These are your eyes

Well, not your eyes; these are MY eyes*:

And these are my eyes on dilating drops:

Can you SEE how huge my pupil is?

No seriously, look:

I hate going to the eye doctor.  I come out looking like — well, I’ve no idea what my pupils would do on LSD, but popular culture leads me to believe they would look something like this.

And, of course, that made the hour-plus drive back to Lissaville an absolute joy.

*grumble, grumble, snarl*

Three things, though, made it bearable:

1) I’m not sensitive about my eyes.  The doctor can poke ‘em, prod ‘em, drip nasty potions into ‘em, and I just sit there phlegmatically.

2) Today’s Friday, and Mike’s coming home!

and 3) it was a consultation for maybe doing Lasik.  SQUEEE!!!

*No, I haven’t had to pull out the fleece hoods yet.  I don’t look forward to it.

I will give you twenty bucks

. . . if you will drink my coffee, take my shower, do my makeup, put on my suit, and button up my coat.

In other words, if you’ll let me sleep another hour.

Pretty please?

Weird stuff my cat eats

In addition to the completely expected items — such as tuna, chicken, cat food, etc. — Rajah has several un-feline food-likings.  Examples being:

- Beans (baked or canned black)

- Corn (canned; Mike, did we ever try him on fresh corn?)

- Goldfish crackers (the fish shape makes it extra cute)

- Triscuit crackers (I assume just for the salt?)

And a new addition:  Canned pumpkin!

I was trying out a delicious-sounding pumpkin oatmeal recipe from Lyn, while also packing and prepping for my NYC trip.  Turned my back for FIVE SECONDS and the little bugger took full advantage.

Hmph.  Luckily for me, we’ve used canned pumpkin a time or two at the Lissaville (Home of the Evil Conservatives) Animal Shelter –  to tempt kitties’ appetites — so I knew it wasn’t bad for him.

Still — naughty kitty!!

UPDATE:  Mike recommends that I mention the can opener — it’s a high-faultin’ fancy kind that bends the edges of the can up, rather than cutting through them, so no sharp edges for kitty tongues!  (Or human fingers, which is the reason we bought it.)