Librarian, Writer, Bon Vivant
Randomness
Tolerance Free Zone
Sep 3rd
Cory Doctorow over on BoingBoing points 
out this rage-inducing article about the ridiculousness passing for security in public schools.
I thank all the Gods that I graduated before Columbine. America went more than a little crazy (er?) after the terrible acts of those two kids.
That we entrap kids in the surveillance culture from such an early age is just sickening.
“Zero Tolerance” is a politician’s phrase. It sounds tough and gruff, the sort of thing that brings in the law and order/hang ‘em high crowd.
In practice, its devastating. It treats children like criminals and turns teachers into prison guards. A whole generation raised with metal detectors, pat-downs and panics over someone getting an illegal aspirin.
Of course there are schools in dangerous neighborhoods that need heightened security to keep kids safe. But that’s the thing, it’s about getting those kids into the school where they can be safe from the threats around them. Not treating every student like an unexploded IED.
We’re not raising citizens who know their rights and and understand their value. We’re bringing up a generation who accept security theater with apathy and passivity. Dark days.
Unfocused on the Family
Sep 2nd
I’m going to make a somewhat startling confession here. *Sigh*
It’s something I’ve given a great deal of time and thought to, and I hope you all understand the magnitude of what I’m about to say.
I’m…a…heterosexual.
I know, I know. “But MG, you’re bookish and love musical theater.” and “MG you volunteered in an AIDS hospice” and “You’ve been part of the gay rights movement since high school.”
Will no one think of the cows?
Yes, all true. But even so, I have remained…straight.
Don’t you dare judge me!
*Ahem*
It seems that Focus on the Family is now turning their hateful eyes to the issue of bullying. More specifically, the how “the gays” are using bullying as a way of recruiting
Yes, trying to stop kids from being harassed and bullied is a vile scheme to make people think that homosexuality is normal.
They’ve even created a website (filled with PDFs, because they are clearly living in 1994) filled with nonsense, hysteria and general twaddle.
Oh and did you know that kids are learning “homosexuality lessons” in schools now? Is
that before or after lunch? Is it an elective? I mean, I want to take Sappho 102, but I really need that period to study for AP Satanism.
Staring at that site for more than a few minutes may make your eyes bleed. At very least it will drop your IQ a few dozen points. Suddenly, you’ll start thinking Glenn Beck makes a fine argument and that the Jersey Shore kids are just delightful.
The real sinister agenda here is coming from the FOF people. They want to empower bigots with a bunch of fliers and tracts (instead of facts) to make life all that much harder for GLBTQ kids. Because, y’know, it’s already a cake walk to be a teenager. Let alone a gay teenager.
The FOF (say it “fohfuh”) nutters have the wonderful notion that being gay is something you can be convinced of. Well, allow me to serve as proof that that is nonsense.
Lets see. I worked in an AIDS hospice as a teenager. I worked in a restaurant in a gay neighborhood as a teen as well. Was even hit on by a number of customers. My Mom worked at a bank with many gay and lesbian people, a number of whom were her friends. One of them, a lesbian, took me to guitar lessons when I was in high school. I got involved in GLBTQ activism in college. Recieved death threats and had my dorm room and car vandalized for speaking up about discrimination on campus. I’ve been to Pride parades, Market Days, gay night clubs and bars. Have had any
Too many numbers
number of gay and lesbian friends over the years. My favorite tv talking head is Rachel Maddow.
Yeah, I should be gayer than Neil Patrick Harris singing a medley of Queen songs on Glee.
But, I’m not.
Cause, for all that gay by association, I like women. Well, I love women. Specifically one woman, but I maintain a general appreciation for the whole gender.
I’ve never felt any “homosexual urges”. I’m straight, and all the gay in the world around me isn’t changing my mind.
Nor is it trying to.
These FOF idiots are dangerous because their bile is going to hurt kids. For all their talk about “tolerance” their main interest is in promoting their very narrow, very dogmatic view of morality. A view that dehumanizes Gay and Lesbian people. Hate isn’t a family value.
September Again
Sep 1st
I remember back in 2001, when this lovely poem by Auden took on a whole new meaning. Now, nearly a decade, and two wars, later it rings out again.
Drawn Typewriters at Dawn
Aug 30th
The kerfuffle between Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Weiner and Jonathan Franzen is wonderful entertainment for those who read (y’know, both of us) fiction these days.
Picoult and Weiner’s point, in sum, that when a white guy writes about feelings and family and love and stuff it is SERIOUS LITERATURE but when women do the same it is “chick lit” is well observed. Franzen’s “The Corrections” is an excellent work, and his memoir “The Discomfort Zone” is one of the more carefully observed books on American life I’ve ever read.
But if he was a woman, would his work be given the same gravitas? Would he be held up as such a keen observer of the human condition? I don’t know, no one can.
It’s the vestigal idea that women are better suited for “feelings” and “emotions”, especially when related to familial relations. Where as when men dare enter the territory of emotion they are hailed as viking explorers daring the unknown wastes marked “here there be dragons”.
All this feels like a bit of a generational thing. In my writing I’m perfectly comfortable getting messy with feelings. I don’t feel that it makes me especially perceptive to write female characters who are fully-realized, not idols or mockeries. Writing about families feels natural to me. Though as someone whose parents are deceased, is an only child and maintains no contact with my extended family, much of my work relates to the speculative.
Reviews are nice, and lovely, but good writing will outshine bad reviews, and bad writing will not be sustained by good sales.
(apologies to Neil Gaiman for stealing the title of this blog post from his wonderful short story “Being an Experiment Upon Strictly Scientific Lines” from “Angels and Visitations”
I need to buy a coat
Aug 26th
The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine
Aug 25th
I loved this song as a kid. One of those rare pop songs that showcase a deep male voice (not falsetto or fakey-shakey tenor). It’s kind of bleak and oddly scary. Probably why they used it for the “Walking Dead” trailer.
Learning
Aug 25th
Hard to tell because they were fighting but I think Capote learned to hiss, he is taking lessons from my cat.
Elise Miller
pixie102
Words Mean Things.
Aug 23rd
“Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Islam I Learned on 9/11.”
This was one of the charming signs held up by the people chanting “No Mosque” while protesting the proposed Cordoba House Community Center.
Let’s pick that apart. What did we learn on 9/11 about Islam? First, that dozens of Muslims were among the victims. In Iran, candlelight vigils were held to honor the dead. Oh yes, some idiots in Palestine “celebrated” but the Palestinian government denounced them and immediately denounced the attacks.
Some other signs:
“Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all the terrorists were Muslim.”
This is handy logic. Say you get mugged by a Latino guy. I mean, not all Latinos are muggers, but all the muggers were Latino. That should justify your bigotry nicely.
“This is Sacred Ground to New Yorkers.”
What better way to honor people killed in an act of hatred than to engage in the very worst kind of xenophobia and bigotry? Again, I think those Muslims who died on 9/11 would have something to say on that. Of course all 9/11 families are in perfect agreement on this issue.
SHARIA [in bloody letters]
Ah, the threat of Sharia in America. At 0.8 percent of the population clearly the rise of the American Caliphate is at hand. Though they’re going to have a rough time of it, since at 6.6 percent of the population, Jews are clearly a force to be reckoned with. I mean, everyone follows the 613 Commandments right? Otherwise the local Rabbi comes around and takes you away to jail, or Shul or something.
And finally there’s this sign to the right.
Besides being a bit wordy (really can’t you just put “INSENSITIVE!” Or “BAD!” perhaps in letters dripping blood?) and overusing exclamation points!!!! the bearer makes a fine point. How insensitive of Muslims to build a mosque (community center) near ground zero. Where there were only two mosques already. Have they no shame? I mean, really, next thing you know the Muslims will want a mosque in the pentagon.
The Islamization is obviously underway. That commie socialist (and secret Muslim) Obama hosted a Iftaar dinner in honor of the holy month of Ramadan. But a Republican President would never stand for that! A conservative President would never stand with Muslims and their claims to be a religion of peace.
*Ahem*
Had to clear the sarcasm from my throat.
Bigotry is bigotry. The irrational claims of hysterical fear-mongers like Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin should be ignored. Both of those chuckleheads are trying to raise money for their political causes by feeding into hysteria and demonizing a whole religion.
A Muslim community center, modeled on the 92nd Street Y and the Jewish Community Center would be just the kind of place where dialogues between people of every belief (and non-belief) could take place. It would be the antidote to just this kind of vile behavior.
When you allow the acts of a few crazed lunatics to define a whole people you’re surrendering to bigotry. That’s true of the 9/11 hijackers, and it’s true of the hateful bigots and opportunists using this mosque to spread their vileness today.
Quick, to the Schmuck-mobile
Aug 22nd
