I was also struck by how he seemed to have more patience with the the KKK members than with other black men.

That’s what struck me as well: each in their own way is participating in a critical component of this movement.

It’s a nice hobby in the micro, but we need this addressed on a macro level. Education from an early age, a healthy dose of public shame, and a universal deafness to the opinions of bigots. In college, I had a laptop with anti-nazi stickers (real cute, honestly, like Susie Derkins punching a swastika) but at the…

I think Davis’ approach works best for white people who’ve never really been around a black person. My elementary school had like one black kid, and my middle school had none. So while we read about MLK and Ruby Bridges (and yes, it is weird to read about her while in an almost entirely white school) black people…

It reminds a little bit of the idea behind Germany’s Rent-a-Jew program, basically just introducing people to people for a minority group and connecting on a human level. We need more of that in the US, and someone much more patient than me should do it.

So basically, if you announced you made the decision to not watch Lady Gaga’s halftime show because you assumed she was going to be political, you ended up turning off God Bless American and This Land is Your Land. Not so patriotic now are ya, conservatives?

I get this, I really do! You have a life that is unaffected by this, and you are incredibly fortunate this is so. I hope that you and your family will never worry the government will deny you entry to your home, or hold you in violation of the law. I hope you grow old healthy and safe, your children have great…

Tangentially related but how cute is Ian mckellen’s sign for the women’s march?

You nailed it. Not to mention knitting is a valuable skill practiced for centuries and represents self-reliance in an overly capitalist society- but because its primarily done by women, that automatically makes it “frivolous”.

It seems to me that the notion that female-coded things are infantilizing and not to be taken seriously is itself steeped in patriarchal ideals.

Also, and I’m only half joking here, since when have white men ever asked if they were welcome before barging in on something?

Oh, I think that’s the case myself. But dipshits can say racist things without being a racist. I think that’s the distinction some people are failing to make in defending him, and some others also make in denigrating him and others who say racially insensitive things.

I don’t think anyone is saying it’s his intentions that are primarily the problem, here, though. Words always exist in context, especially when they’re spoken by a public figure in a public forum. Allowing intent to trump impact when a person’s words have the ability of reaching a wide audience puts one person’s…

Yeah, yeah, if he’d just held it to sexist bullshit, that would have been fine. Are you shitting me? Big no. He was at work, addressing the public. Big, big no.

It’s full on over-the-line sexist, though, so maybe we don’t need to equivocate over it being inappropriate?

People in the middle of the country feel marginalized and forgotten.

Alright, some mug shots.

Pete was quite unwell in September. He had a few days of throwing up intermittently, so we trotted off to The Veterinary Cat Clinic, where we saw Simon. Simon thought Pete might have a bowel inflammation, and treated him with a steroid injection, which seemed to do the trick and the vomiting stopped.He was a pretty…

Did you get an urostomy (sp?) for Ivan? I got one of those for my cat Cooper and there could have been no better money spent, but man, did it topple me over financially for a while.

Whoa, those are some serious investments indeed. Did writing it all down make you realize just how much you’d invested? I know it did for me- and then, of course, I had to shrug and laugh, because face it, cats don’t exactly ooze gratitude.