It ain't no use to vote in Broward County
(They don't count 'em anyhow.)
No, it ain't no use to vote in Broward County
(If you don't know by now.)

I'm a-thinkin' and a wondrin' on my way to the booth,
They say that they count 'em but, it ain't the truth.
I'm gonna cast another ballot in Duluth.
Just vote twice, it's all right.

If you are expecting a titillating description of erotic techniques sure to make you a hit with your lover, stop reading now.  You will be disappointed.

What whores know about sex is the difference between Theory Sex and Practice Sex, that is, the sex we say we do versus the sex we actually do. Theory Sex is mutual desire, arousal, and fulfillment enjoyed by equal partners without a power component.  This is the myth of heterosexuality.

 Practice Sex makes Theory Sex impossible.  It makes YES meaningless when NO is impossible.  Before you protest that no IS possible, suspend judgment for a moment.

The capture of her killer has yet again provided the opportunity to pornograph  "Murdered Child Beauty Queen", JonBenet Ramsey.

Obscene pagent photos, displaying her tarted up like a tiny sex worker, are plastered on screens and newsprint, lest we forget that females are defined by and valued in the currency of sex.

Poor little girl, used once again as the erotication of subjugation's poster child.

Is there no limit, no limit at all to equating dominance with sexuality ?  

There are serious issues connected with the outing of bloggers; several have been discussed here. This is the aspect that got me thinking:

If one is writing in a political forum, how far a field from one's stated principles can personal behavior stray before hypocrisy bubbles to the surface?  (That's not really a mixed metaphor; the big field is very wet.)

Where do you draw the line?  Can one call oneself a progressive and represent Walmart?
Own Halliburton stock?  Attend a homophobic church?  How far is too far for you?

I had to quit about half of the jobs I've ever held because I was pressed by my employer to commit fraud.  During the times I was responsible for only myself, this was an easy matter, but while widowed and raising a child alone, I often had to keep a morally repugnant job until I could find another.  That put me in the position of ducking, weaving and lying to the boss until I could get out.  

If, at that time, I had been writing about moral integrity, shouldn't I, in the interest of transparency and full disclosure, include this information? If my personal situation informs my opinions, am I being less than honest by holding that fact back?

Help me here;  is it the questionable conflict with progressive values, the secrecy about it, or both that is the problem?

My neighbour has guns.  Lots of guns. Lots and lots and lots of guns.  He has more guns than anybody.  He's so obsessed with them that some of his children don't have shoes and can't visit a pediatrician when they're sick, but that doesn't stop him from buying more and more and more guns.

I have told personal stories here in the past about a childhood of abuse, an unwed pregnancy beaten out of me by my own mother,  being screwed while I cried by men who didn't care about me, and a brief period  prostituting.  I don't think I've talked about the friend of my roommate's husband who insisted that I ride with him on a trip to Las Vegas where it was understood that my girlfriend and I would be sharing a room, since I didn't even know him.  He drove off into the desert, tried to rape me, got scared, I guess, when he knocked me unconscious, dumped me in the 110 degree heat, and left me there.  But that's not what this is about.

Because of that expirience, in the early seventies I was involved with a Rape Hotline.  In addition to helping the victims, we were determined to get some of these cases to court.  Rape prosecutions were very rare in those days.  Knowing how badly victims were treated, we offered support, but never encouraged anyone to go to the police.  Because I was the grind of the group, I studied everything I could find that would be of use to a woman reporting rape and going to trial.

Our first volunteer was a middle aged woman who had been repeatedly raped by her landlord.  This was and still is very common in low income and assisted housing.  It is talked about in support groups but almost never reported for reasons that are obvious.

She was willing to go to the police because she wanted it to stop, and because there were so many young girls in the complex that she feared were being abused as well.  

This man had keys to her apartment.  He would come in at night and get in bed with her, as if they were having an affair.  He said she couldn't tell on him because she was behind that month, and he'd just say that she was trading sex for the rent.  Nobody would take the word of a welfare whore over a businessman like himself.  Her nerves finally got so bad, after weeks without sleep, that she couldn't take it anymore.  I went with her to the police station.

We were walked back to a detective's cubicle hung with Playboy centerfolds. She took a long look at those naked women on the walls, and turned to me.  We stood there, looking into each others' eyes, and I knew she could never talk to this man, this representative of law and order, this man paid by our taxes to protect and serve.

She didn't report the rape that day.  I doubt she ever reported it.  I know she never went back to her apartment because I tried to find her for weeks.

The following is an excerpt from  Michael Lerner's "The Left Hand of  God: Taking Our Country Back From the Religious Right".  I have not bought his book yet, but I heard him speak this weekend.

"The unholy alliance of the political Right and Religious Right threatens to destroy the America we love. It also threatens to generate a popular revulsion against God and religion by identifying them with militarism, ecological irresponsibility, fundamentalist antagonism to science and rational thought, and insensitivity to the needs of the poor and the powerless.

By addressing the real spiritual and moral crisis in the daily lives of most Americans, a movement with a progressive spiritual vision would provide an alternate solution to both the intolerant and militarist politics of the Right and the current misguided, visionless, and often spiritually empty politics of the Left."

We have been discussing our dissatisfaction with the strategies of our Democratic candidates: clever framing vs. plain truth, civil discussion vs. all out attack, strong statements of liberal values vs. courting of moderates.

We have complained that the Democratic message isn't clear, that our leaders are lukewarm or unfocused. These problems will persist until we deal with a conflict of interests that cripples all our efforts.

America is represented by the Enthusiastic Big Business Party and the Reluctant Big Business Party.  While the Republicans gleefully shovel our country's wealth from the poor and middle class into the pockets of the rich, the Democrats passively queue up at the troth.  

Democrats cannot credibly campaign for the reduction of poverty, support for unions, fair wages, worker protection, comprehensive safety nets, equal opportunity, social justice, universal health care, fair taxes and peace unless they are willing to forego corporate  support, and honestly work to redress the terrible imbalance wrought by unchecked, rapacious capitalism.

As my grandmother used to say, you can't lie down with the cattle and the corn.  Well, you can, but nobody will believe that you represent the corn's best interests.

OK, I'm not THAT good at it.  I always want to say, "What are you, NUTS ?  How can you continue to support that stupid, hypocritical......" etc., etc.

But while discussing torture in Steven D's excellent diary, I realized that I have actually had some successes by contrasting the values I know my Republican co-workers hold with the behavior of the current administration:

Those people in the White House aren't Republicans.

  Republicans have moral clarity. They don't condone torture. Republicans believe in the rule of law. They don't have one set of rules for us and another for everybody else. Republicans are honorable.  They don't disgrace and shame America. Republicans support the military. They don't jeopardize our troops by violating the Geneva Convention.  Republicans are logical. They know not to trust information obtained through torture. Republican are civilized.  They do not stoop to embrace the tactics of our enemies. And Republicans don't squander tax payers' money on foreign adventures.

These folks in the White House are NOT Republicans.

 

There was an interesting diary recently, equating the vicissitudes of of being male in "post feminist"  America with women's on-going struggle for equality. The diarist blamed "female liberation" in part for forcing the sexes apart in an unnatural way, and contends that this makes being a man in America just as difficult as being a woman.

It has never escaped me that rigid male roles are uncomfortable, limiting and dangerous for the men that adopt them, and for everyone they affect.
I am not totally unsympathetic, although I reserve the bulk of my respect and empathy for the brave men who dare to defy the stereotypes.  Because rejection of inflexible, traditional roles is at the heart of feminism, I was at a loss to understand how we could be blamed.  The complaint seemed to be: "The women these days don't respond well to the way I behave, and I resent it."

Maybe I've been missing something. Perhaps my femicentrist viewpoint has blinded me to the real pain of the privileged when their entitlement runs out.

For instance, I have always felt great outrage at the institution of slavery, but I have identified only with the slaves.  I never thought about how hard it was being a master in a changing world.

I Am a Masterist

Nobody appreciates the difficulty of owning people.  For one thing, you have all this responsibility and the burden of command.  I have to make all the decisions and see to it that everybody acts right.  That is a lot of work.  The other thing is, I know in my heart that I, personally, would hate being a slave, so even when they act all content, sometimes I have my doubts.  I even imagine occasionally that they may hate and resent me even though I take care of them.  That's very stressful.  Luckily, they are NOT like me because they're black.  Well, most of them are pretty black, except the ones whose daddies are white.  Some of them are even my own children, and I can't tell you how hard it is to remember that even though they are my blood, that blackness keeps them from being like me.  That's the part I hate worst, because it's natural to love your children and want what's best for them.  Keeping all slaves in their place is a necessary but painful sacrifice a master has to make to keep the system going.  No, it's a good thing that blackness makes them like the opposites of whites, or I'd be even more uneasy and afraid.  Those people cook my food, wash my clothes, care for my children and sleep in my bed.  If I believed that they had the same feelings as white people, I'd be afraid all the time, and maybe even ashamed.  
Now, what really gets my goat is that some the masters have got religion or something, and went and freed their slaves.  This is a very bad precedent which might give my slaves dangerous ideas.  Besides, I have to see these "free men of color", and they don't act right.  What's worse, I don't know how to act with them.  How do you talk to a slave who's not a slave any more, that's what I want to know.  Suppose they were all free, and I had to figure out a way to get along with them as equals.  That is sick and unnatural.  I will not be dragged down to the level of slaves who were intended by God to show me service, deference and respect. We need legislation that will invalidate all manumission, because I am just as entitled as any white man to the respect I've always enjoyed, and nobody is going take that away from me.

There was an interesting diary recently, equating the vicissitudes of of being male in "post feminist"  America with women's on-going struggle for equality. The diarist blamed "female liberation" in part for forcing the sexes apart in an unnatural way, and contends that this makes being a man in America just as difficult as being a woman.

It has never escaped me that rigid male roles are uncomfortable, limiting and dangerous for the men that adopt them, and for everyone they affect.
I am not totally unsympathetic, although I reserve the bulk of my respect and empathy for the brave men who dare to defy the stereotypes.  Because rejection of inflexible, traditional roles is at the heart of feminism, I was at a loss to understand how we could be blamed.  The complaint seemed to be: "The women these days don't respond well to the way I behave, and I resent it."

Maybe I've been missing something. Perhaps my femicentrist viewpoint has blinded me to the real pain of the privileged when their entitlement runs out.

For instance, I have always felt great outrage at the institution of slavery, but I have identified only with the slaves.  I never thought about how hard it was being a master in a changing world.

I Am a Masterist

Nobody appreciates the difficulty of owning people.  For one thing, you have all this responsibility and the burden of command.  I have to make all the decisions and see to it that everybody acts right.  That is a lot of work.  The other thing is, I know in my heart that I, personally, would hate being a slave, so even when they act all content, sometimes I have my doubts.  I even imagine occasionally that they may hate and resent me even though I take care of them.  That's very stressful.  Luckily, they are NOT like me because they're black.  Well, most of them are pretty black, except the ones whose daddies are white.  Some of them are even my own children, and I can't tell you how hard it is to remember that even though they are my blood, that blackness keeps them from being like me.  That's the part I hate worst, because it's natural to love your children and want what's best for them.  Keeping all slaves in their place is a necessary but painful sacrifice a master has to make to keep the system going.  No, it's a good thing that blackness makes them like the opposites of whites, or I'd be even more uneasy and afraid.  Those people cook my food, wash my clothes, care for my children and sleep in my bed.  If I believed that they had the same feelings as white people, I'd be afraid all the time, any maybe even ashamed.  
Now, what really gets my goat is that some the masters have got religion or something, and went and freed their slaves.  This is a very bad precedent which might give my slaves dangerous ideas.  Besides, I have to see these "free men of color", and they don't act right.  What's worse, I don't know how to act with them.  How do you talk to a slave who's not a slave any more, that's what I want to know.  Suppose they were all free, and I had to figure out a way to get along with them as equals.  That is sick and unnatural.  I will not be dragged down to the level of slaves who were intended by God to show me service, deference and respect. We need legislation that will invalidate all manumission, because I am just as entitled as any white man to the respect I've always enjoyed, and nobody is going take that away from me.

Torture works, but not to extract intelligence.

For the Bush White House, torture has been just one more facet in a fear campaign  designed to create anxious, compliant Americans who will acquiesce to anything.

First comes the false or exaggerated threat.
"We are surrounded by numerous secret (terrorists, communists, anarchists, immigrants, witches, counter-revolutionaries, atheists, elitists, foreigners, royalists, insurgents, race traitors, turncoats, spies,  feminists, homosexuals, scary black men, scary brown men, secular humanists, possessed children,  dual citizens, non-Christians, reactionaries, extra-terrestrials in human guise, enemy sympathizers, Marranos, apostates, etc.) who hate us and are hell bent on destroying us."

Next, pick up rootless, powerless people and detain them secretly without a trial or due process. Threaten and vilify anyone who objects. Torture them until they "confess".

Finally, use the coerced confessions to prove that we are all in much more danger from many more hidden evil doers than any of us could have imagined. Use that fear to justify even harsher treatment of the enemy and more authoritarian control of everybody else until the line between them blurs.