In which I out myself as a communist and hold my tongue about rape

It is funny, I’ve always been firmly in the I’m not a communist camp while pushing for the redistribution of wealth. I’ve been stressing out all month and last month. Things are just crazy and hectic, but on Saturday night I took the afternoon off from all the stuff I had to do and went to a friend’s holiday party. I hate these kinds of things. I never know what to do, and there are always people there I don’t know and don’t know what to say to them. Instead, I stuck near the people I came with. And at some point my friends were talking about poverty and work.

Well, when you play my song. The solution offered had a lot of problems, mostly being rooted in the assumption that unemployed people could and should work. However, it also called for the government to supply jobs, which didn’t go over well. In fact my friend’s husband jokingly called her a socialist. But overall, I don’t interject too much with friends in settings like this. They aren’t particularly interested in the numbers or facts about poverty. I did note that most people on welfare now have barriers to employment, which my friend was like, “we’ll get them a social worker!” Well, that might help, but that isn’t going to solve the problem of a sick dependent or an abusive partner. However, when asked what I was thinking, I said I’m a communist and think we should start by redistributing wealth, and then see where we are. My friend was essentially advocating for a program similar to FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, which had flaws, but did employ a lot of men through the Great Depression, but on a smaller scale, specifically, a Baltimore size scale. Of course, we didn’t address the extrapolated consequences from a program like this, which is essentially round up unemployed people of color for manual service work that theoretically everyone benefits from, but most likely will benefit the wealthy. Or we can just do what several researchers have said, which is just cut a check instead of welfare to work programs which would save the most money.

The other strange conversation we found ourselves having was with our hostess’ family, which made things awkward. My friend brought up Bill Cosby and the Virginia rape scandal/Rolling Stone. Things were fine, and then someone begins a statement that can’t end well, “I don’t want to blame anyone, but what do you think a man wants at 10pm?” Pizza? Because that’s usually what I want at 10pm. See, saying the second part of this statement nullifies the first. You are putting the responsibility of the rape on the woman who experienced it because what do you expect. Well, I expect going to someone’s house at 10pm very little, but definitely I expect not to be drugged and raped. Just me? My friend did well driving this conversation back to the non-shamey/balmey side of things. This sort of argument, the women you need to think that every man you meet is a rapist or you’ll be raped and deserved it, makes women responsible for the actions of their rapists. Additionally, it means all women have to treat all men like rapists, when most men aren’t. Start the woe is me, it isn’t fair women treat me like a rapist swan song from men. Well, you don’t get to have it both ways, either rapists are responsible for their actions, the end or women are and we have to treat everyone like a rapist. I did get in one comment that you should always be able to withdraw consent, so even if you knew what he wanted at that hour, around the time he slipped something in your drink you lost your ability to withdraw consent. There was also a sub-discussion on who gets believed and who doesn’t, which was particularly troubling. It was very reminiscent of some women can’t be raped because she is unlikeable/her body is property of the public because she is famous/etc. It was awful.

Homelessness, still a problem, and it is going to get worse.

It almost feels like I can’t go a couple of days without talking about the homeless. Fairfax County’s public schools are likely to see more than 2,500 homeless students by the end of this school year. This is an impressive number for Fairfax County, which contains some affluent communities. T. Rees Sharpiro wrote an article on it for the Washington Post over the weekend.

Experts claim the increase in homelessness among students from kindergarten to high school is the after effects of the recession. Fun numbers fact, this year’s total of 2,500 students is 10 times the number of homeless students in Fairfax 15 years ago. Sharpiro says, “At least 400 of those students are ‘unaccompanied youths’ who live without parents or guardians, another record, school officials say.” 

Personally, that sounds low to me, but I supposed they get to drop any kids who drop out from the official count. Naturally, the schools are having trouble keeping up with the challenges from the communities.

As previously mentioned, the Washington, DC area is home to some of the nation’s most wealthy and most impoverished communities. Montgomery County has 825 homeless students enrolled in public schools last year. DC had 2,946 homeless students in their public and charter schools last year.

Of course Fairfax County starkly demonstrates the inequity with a median household income of more than $100,000 and more than 47,000 students eligible for free and reduced lunches (this is being used as a measure of poverty). That is an increase of 38% since 20008. Bananas.

According to Project HOPE Virginia, the number of homeless students in Virginia grew by 58% between 2005 and 2011. Patricia Popp, the state coordinator for Project HOPE Virginia says, “The numbers in Virginia have consistently gone up, and they show no signs of slowing down. This really is a serious, serious concern for schools and families.”

Sharpiro includes some quotes from homeless students traveling from shelter to shelter with families. All of these are seriously depressing with a shout out to low-wage non-union employment, holler Target.

Fairfax public schools have a homeless student liaison, Kathi Sheffel. Her office aims to provide parents with transportation options to help get children to school when families have moved into shelters or other temporary homes. Sheffel says, “We recognize that for families with housing problems, school may be the only stable thing for these kids. We’re sure that getting homeless kids a good education will keep them from becoming homeless adults.”

That’s optimistic. The Department of Education estimates there are more than 1 million homeless students nationwide. This is attributed to, like the rise in homelessness across the board, to the Great Recession and the housing crisis. Michigan was hit hard, and the homeless student population grew by 64% between 2008 and 2011 according to the National Center for Homeless Education. The federal government spends about $60 million on programs for homeless students.

Fairfax County provides access to organizations like Alternative House, which provides supplemental assistance for homeless teenagers without guardians. Judith Dittman, the executive director of the Vienna-based Alternative House says, “We were finding an increasing number of these kids who couldn’t work enough hours to keep a roof over their heads, so they dropped out of school. Nobody wants to see these kids sleeping on the street. No matter how bad the economy is, we don’t want to see 17-year-olds sleeping in the doorways at libraries.”

To be honest, I’m not convinced that the collective “we” doesn’t want homeless kids sleeping in doorways. The conservative right panic last week that programs to help the poor received increased funding during the last four years should indicate exactly what we think about the poor. Or actually, don’t think about the poor.

Imagine my surprise when Mittens threw out that “more women in poverty” line about President Obama. Well, yeah. More people are in poverty now than since the Great Depression. But these women must be the deserving poor because they can’t be those violence encouraging single mothers. Oh, I know how you can tell the difference, skin tone. Mittens and the conservatives are pushing the same old garbage myths about the “welfare queen,” poor black mothers are bad and expose their children to violence.

Essentially, when you subscribe to the religion of self-reliance the way so many US citizens buy into it you get homeless kids. Actually, you get homeless people. There shouldn’t be homeless children, but there shouldn’t be homeless people either. We have the resources to help them, but we choose not to. 

Pennsylvania upholds voter ID law, disenfranchisement rules you guys

A Pennsylvania court has upheld the voter ID law, which will probably disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters. Who will be affected? The same targets as always: poor people, people of color, and the elderly (welcome to the party). PA isn't the only state with laws like this; another notable one is Ohio. I think Virginia, too. So you know battleground states.

Republican legislatures in swing states are pushing voter ID laws; their argument is voter fraud, but the reality is voter fraud is mush less of a problem. What we should call these laws is "return to only white landowning men being able to vote" laws." Essentially these laws require voters to demonstrate their IDs on site when voting. Some people think this is no big deal, and they would be wrong. This is a manifestation of privilege; the people not affected thinking that it is no big deal because 'who doesn't have a state issued ID'? The people being targeted by the legislation...

This surprises absolutely no one.

Happy Valentine's Day, Virginia would like embryos to be people now.

I know, I wasn't going to post today because I'm going to celebrate a holiday that justifies my obsession with rom-coms and chocolate, but then Virginia gains some traction in this embryos are people too debate.

Yesterday, the Virginia House of Delegates advanced a personhood bill that gives legal rights to a fertilized human egg, but they rejected the amendment that ensured contraception remain legal once the bill goes into effect.  Yes you read that right, embryos are people, contraception may not be allowed.

Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) defined the word personhood as the moment of fertilization in the Code of Virginia. Marshall has been pushing for a bill like this for 20 years, and promises that the bill will not "directly" affect contraception or abortion.  It just provides the legal framework for mothers to sue if anything happens to their unborn baby (hide under the beds doctors and healthcare providers).

I'm pretty sure when they rejected the amendment that protects contraception they were telling you what they think of it.  Personhood bills are being considered in at least 12 other states as ballot measures or bills.  These would lead to a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade.  I think we should remember that Mississippi rejected a personhood measure because of how it complicated the legality of stem cell research, in vitro, abortion, and some birth control.

Remember the good old days when conservatives just wanted to take away abortion?  Is it wrong to miss that?

I'll once again go over my argument against personhood: it only counts as a person if it isn't female, gay, or brown. Then this whole legal protects thing goes out the window.  Because women, gays, and minority groups find themselves fighting for legal rights all the time.  I say make these little parasites fight for themselves too.

Finally, I reserve the right to kill anything inside me without my consent.  It seems fair.

Hello Earthquake!

So at 1:53pm Tuesday August 23, 2011 DC had an earthquake. The official measure from the US Geological Survey are saying it was a 5.9. At last check, the Capitol, the Pentagon, and various federal buildings are being evacuated. Additionally, I've heard that DC students are fine.

The last earthquake recorded in the DC area was in Gaithersburg on July 16, 2010; it measured 3.6. And according to CNN Virginia has only recorded 25 earthquakes since it became a state.

The director of the US Geological Survey, Marcia McNutt, is warning that this might not be over yet:

“What the concern is, of course, is that this is a foreshock. If it’s a foreshock, then the worse is yet to come.”

All and all it was pretty scary. We don't have many of these in the Cleve. My co-worker and I looked to see if it was a metro train (we work right on the red line), and saw no train. Then it started to intensify a little at which we decided it was an earthquake.

The DC Metro is running, but at reduced speeds. Who has two thumbs and is bussing it home? This girl.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/alert-earthquake-rocks-central-virginia-dc-region/2011/08/23/gIQAMwvEZJ_blog.html

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/37.39.-79.-77.php

Fornicating Feminist

Sorry, one occasional reader. It appears the fates have aligned and allowed both Cari and myself to go back to school resulting in my inability to blog. I can assure you that we will be back, and be better about frequency in the future.

It has been a pretty exciting time for women in the news too. Apparently, McDonnell (the GOP nominee in Virginia for Governor) hates gays, women, and fornicators just to name a few. He work a thesis in his thirty's which is coming back to bit him in the ass right now. I don't know about you, but anyone in the DC area who wants to join a fornicating feminist who is bringing about the end of traditional families and go to one his rallies let me know.

Stupidity Spotted in Virginia

Spotted stupidity! Oh Virginia, why do your citizens do such things? Jezebel.com posted this morning that a Virginia Pharmacy Proudly Refuses to Stock Birth Control. The article points out that in Northern Virginia this doesn’t matter on a large scale because inside D.C. you trip over a Pharmacy every few feet, and as the McCain campaign let us know: D.C. is not pro-American. And not pro-American people kills babies and use birth control as one of many ways to destroy the fabric of the American way (this is accompanied by abortion, equality, the resistance to censorship, I could go on).

What is truly scary about this article is that this is the seventh pharmacy in the United States to do so! Did you know that in parts of Montana women have to drive 80 miles for find a pharmacy that sells birth control? I didn’t and that bothers me. What about denying women their prescriptions? Isn’t that illegal? Sometimes! Just depends on where you are. Well, I’m glad none of the current candidates would hinder women obtaining their prescriptions…wait McCain supports insurance companies paying for Viagra, but not birth control, but it doesn’t really matter if your pharmacy won’t give it to you anyway.

FYI, I may make Stupidity Spotted a regular feature.