I'm currently reading this book, I've read a few chapters so far but the part that has struck me the most has been the preface. It's a book, written towards men (obviously, I know I am not a man), about "domestic violence" (I put domestic violence in quotation marks with a smirk on my face, because I don't think it should be called "domestic violence" or "partner abuse," I think it should be called what it is, "wife beating," "sexual abuse," "marital rape," et c.) and how it's been cast fallaciously as a "women's issue." Untrue, untrue, untrue. Sure, most women are the VICTIMS of domestic violence, but men are the PERPETRATORS. Okay, I'm not saying that 100% of domestic violence is perpetrated by men, but it's up there in the 90%. I digress, it should be called a men's issue because we need to figure out what the heck is going on in men's minds and lives that make them abuse their partners.


From Jackson Katz book "The Macho Paradox - Why Some Men Hurt Women And How All Men Can Help."

Americans like to boast that we're "the freest country on earth," and yet half the population doesn't even feel free enough to go for a walk at night. Unlike the status of women in Afghanistan under the ghastly Taliban, women in the United States are allowed to go out. Fanatic men in government don't issue edicts to prevent them from exercising their basic freedom of movement. Instead, the widespread fear of men’s violence does the trick.

Women in the United States have made incredible and unprecedented gains over the past thirty years in education, the professions, business, sports, politics. The multicultural women’s movement has utterly transformed the cultural landscape. But at the same time, restrictions on women's ability to move about freely are so pervasive -- such a normal part of life in the post-sixties generations -- that many women don't even question it. They simply order their daily lives around the threat of men's violence.

( Continue reading ... )

goodbye to summer = more reading. a trade i consider fair most of the time. on the list of currently reading is a mix of school required and whitney required. and no, i do not count reading marx or engels in this list as they are definitely NOT PLEASURABLE TO ME.


animal, vegetable, miracle. by barbara kingsolver.
am currently 1/4 into this book and enjoying it a lot, it's an easy read yet i find myself learning a lot and remember things i've learned before - such as the deplorable methods of Monsanto. i am shaking my head. pfft!


honkey. by dalton conley.
hmm i think i am almost done with this book, a few more chapters.
an insightful, and often funny, look into the blurry lines of race and ethnicity - from the perspective of a white kid growing up in the projects and who now kindly refers to his life as a social science experiment.


jesus for president. by shane claiborne and chris haw.
1/2 done - it's a dense read, but so entertaining for my eyes! :)
i guess it's like ... a look at the political world when Jesus was alive, and also a prompt to realize that "christian" and "republican" are not synonyms.



on the TO READ list...


the time traveler's wife by audrey niffenegger


the year of living biblically, by a. j. jacobs


in defense of food, by michael pollan


traveling mercies, anne lamott

herro summer. you are going pretty well so far, i approve. pix 2 come.

sherwood, copeland, sara watkins, maylene and the sons of disaster, blink 182, JOHN LEGEND. OH YES YES PLEASE.

things in the future i am looking forward to: MY BIRTHDAY, LAKE TAHOE, ROADTRIP TO PORTLAND.


thanks natalie dee, for making my morning infinitely better.

2 more GB of ram for my macbook



wild sweet orange tazo tea. my current favorite brewed tea. they only have it at starbucks and i don't like going there >:|



more of these. juicy pear jelly bellys. yomyom.



this person.

noah is gone for two weeks and i am sad and lonely. wah wah wah.

i want this purse.

So basically it's late, yet I am not tired. This probably has to do with the fact that I didn't wake up until 10AM. I thought I'd barf out a bunch of pretty things I like to look at.

PRETTYPRETTYTHINGS


Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World


Mark Ryden, Girl Eaten By Tree

( oh ... you want more? )

HBO pre-apologizes for sacred Mormon ceremony on Big Love

HBO Vs. The Mormons In Battle Over Temple Ceremony


"News of the episode has angered many Mormons, who have called for a boycott of the network and calls to cancel subscriptions to AOL, part of the Time Warner Inc. conglomerate that owns HBO." Hmmm ... Mormons are getting all perturbed at HBO's show Big Love broadcasting an endowment ceremony on television. This temple ceremony is super sacred and secret apparently, and many Mormons don't even know what the ceremony entails until they participate in one themselves.

"Certainly church members are offended when their most sacred practices are misrepresented or presented without context or understanding," the church statement said. Maybe we don't have this higher level of understanding that the Mormon church has ... but that's probably because they don't tell anyone what they do! Big Love producers said they recreated the temple and have made the presentation of the ceremony as accurate as possible, using non-practicing Mormons for validity.

I'm not really sure I understand why they are getting so butthurt about it. Everything is televised now; birth, sex, death, marriage ... why not this ceremony? Just because something is televised and made public doesn't make your personal experience any less sacred. idk, are they just getting miffed because all their ~~secrets~~ are being made public?


PS.

The Mormon Church, based in Utah, has some 13.5 million members around the world.

Founded in 1830, it officially banned polygamy in 1890. But polygamy is still practised by some breakaway sects.

this is what i look like when i study for global society midterms


just WHAT was the prime interest rate in 1980? WHY did it happen? and WHAT were the consequences? All i have to say about that is paul volker was a stupid stupid man.



how do you make the last.fm thing tell lj what music you're listening to?

i am forgoing this studying business for right now and going to a thrift store.

maybe and hopefully i will find something cute (or potentially cute) and use my ample free time to liven up my old and forgotten love of sewing.

i am a busybee, school wise ... only 2 more weeks of school and then SPRING BREAK, where i will be relaxing in the warm confines of MEH-HEE-COHH!! (that is mexico, duh) with my biffer Hannah.

It feels really sorority of me to say that i'm "going to mexico for spring break" but it's totes not like that ... her parents are missionaries in Ensenada and we're flying down to san diego and driving the rest of the way to stay with them for a week. hopefully i come back with lots of useful (i mean the opposite) trinkets and don't get kidnapped in the meanwhile.

listlistlistlistlist

close reading assignment for 100W
#18-21 homework for stats
reading for p&s
research log #1 for 100W
complete study guide for stats
complete study guide for global soci
write 1pg on environmental factors of haiti
come up with design for haiti project

/listlistlistlistlist

rar, i am in starbucks trying to studying (obviously not trying that hard since i'm typing up an lj entry) and it's getting loud and annoying. i left the tea bags in for too long and my tea got bitter and then cold. and now all i want is a slurpee from the 7eleven across the street.

i felt an earthquake. i am not crazy, mom!

okay. now it's time to ...

- possibly dye my hair
- stats project
- decide on research paper topic
- make my cute hot boyfriend a spectacular dinner

Last night while I lay thinking here
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
And pranced and partied all night long
And sang their same old Whatif song:


Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?

I've been sick for about two weeks, kinda sucks. Apparently I have the illustrious "mononucleosis" SUPER. I am getting ready to go get blood work done right now!! hoorah!!

Started school amidst this lovely illness and am taking hard classes!! another hoorah!!! lots of reading for Whitney this semester and even more writing, my favorite :)

The dumb Cardinals lost the Superbowl which means I have to make Noah dinner ... actually I'm not so sad about that, I've been looking at vegetarian recipes online all morning ;)

Have become good friends with my bed and fruit punch Gatorade.

I lost a friend, a comrade, someone who has been with me for as long as I can remember ... the fourth toenail on my right foot.

Currently annoyed that I've only lost 3 pounds after suffering for 2 weeks and hardly eating anything.

Okay I understand it's only the 12th of January and I'm already sucking big time with this "resolution" but I GIVE UP. New resolved resolution is to update semi-regularly with all the big news of my life. Seeing as how my life is full of non-stop action and fun this should be no problem.

I actually don't have much to say at this point except that my lovely older sister has made a ridiculously awesome blog that includes some ten year olds letter of sisterly frustration.



click here
click here
click here
click here
click here

noah and whitney


today was a fun day. daaang though it's 12:01AM!! I keep missing this ~~ONEPOSTADAY~~ thing. At least I am posting a bit. Noah decided it was necessary to make a hat rack from scratch (for all of his TWO hats) and that ended up taking all afternoon + it's not even finished. Somehow this paint war started (I swear I'm the innocent one) and well ... Noah's got some cute tribal markings on his face, Josiah's got some newly painted black ear hairs and I ... I some how have paint on my shirt, my stomach, my arms, my chest, my neck, my face, and in my mouth.

Oh, and I'm also pretty sure there's a masterpiece of a penis on my arm.

fail.