She wanted to go to Law School
She knew she was meant to go to Law School
She put everything on hold to get in to Law School
She is sitting on the couch eating croutons straight from the box.
This is not how you apologize when you are responsable for the death of thousands. This is how you apologize when you were late picking someone up from the train station. And you're defensive about it.
posted by Lazyqueer @ 10:56 AM
But when he started talking about changing poverty in NO, I thought he might talk about more money for underfunded schools and for assistance programs and health care.
But no, apparently, the problem with poor people is that they don't know how to act right, like middle class people do. They don't expect to go to college, so they don't. They expect to have children as teenagers, so they do. While I admit that expectation plays a real and tangible role in oppression, David Brooks gets entirely turned around. He talks about a "culture" of "dysfunctionality" that just needs to be broken up and integrated into "functioning" society. Instead of characterizing these "expectations" with the complexity they deserve, acknowledging that they are the effects of long-standing oppression that must itself be addressed, he says we just need to shuffle the lower-class into the middle-class.
He clearly has these expectations himself. He expects "failure" from the lower-class. He thinks only the middle class can "save" them. He is part of this machine that says that there is something wrong with people below the poverty level that puts them there. If these expectations exist, they do so only because they have been put there by decades of laws and rhetoric that have been saying the same thing.
And, of course, poor people don't care if they have to be uprooted and move somewhere new, away from their neighbors and family. They're just happy for a "blank slate".
I think it's amazing how success is defined as getting a high level of education, making a lot of money, and acting "middle class", which I'm guessing all classes above "middle" do as well. So, basically, success means not being born poor. Huh. So the classes in power set the rules, give everyone their starting chips, and then blame people for not winning.
And I am still interested in who exactly the "middle class" are. As far as I can tell, they are a fictitious group that exist solely so that politicians can pretend that they care about "good, regular people". Do they exist?
posted by Lazyqueer @ 12:12 AM
Can you believe this? This is the next step, from gathering news to writing it. Will the blogs become newspapers? Will we finally have access to news that isn't produced by one of a few giant corporations? Will it make MSM finally shape up and use the facts?
My Mom told me about this post from MyDD. The top 6 leftist blogs each have more readership than the top conservative blog. Tides are changing. They have power. This is where a lot of people are getting their news. How long until they stop sifting and start straight-out creating?
On another note, my Mom and I went canvassing on Labor Day to find out about what people think about same-sex marriage, since there will be a ruling on it this fall or early winter from our Supreme Court. Mom was awesome and totally got everyone to talk to us and finish the entire survey. I just stood there, looking gay but non-threatening. We're a good team.
posted by Lazyqueer @ 11:15 PM
I finally stopped crying. I don't know how Bush does it.
Why is there this focus on supposed "looters" and blame for people who couldn't evacuate?
Why are people locked in the convention center?
Why are there security checkpoints that don't allow anyone to leave NO?
Why weren't we prepared?
Why doesn't the relief effort have any of the intelligent, focused strategy Bush reserves for his political efforts?
Why doesn't Bush know how to do anything except go to war?
Why is Bush wasting our fucking time claiming that he couldn't have known?
Why did Bush stay on vacation for two days after the biggest natural disaster in our history?
Answer: Bush doesn't care about black people. - Kanye West at the concert for Hurricane Relief.
Bush cares about power. Everyone in Bush's team cares about power. Maybe so much that he will now lose it.
posted by Lazyqueer @ 11:40 AM
Read America Blog.
Why weren't we prepared? We knew this was coming. Why did Bush wait 2 days - 2 days - to come back from vacation? I guess when there aren't any "terrorists" to blame, Bush is at a loss. Or, more accurately, New Orleans is.
Why is Bush so dedicated to leaving a legacy of unnecessary death?
By the way, the victims of Katrina will be amoung those "credit deadbeats" who will be facing the new-and-improved bankruptcy bill going into effect in October. For background, Chapter 7 is a form of bankruptcy where all your debts are forgiven. Chapter 13 requires a repayment plan lasting up to 5 years. Those affected by the hurricane will have to:
- Get the required couseling by an approved credit counseling agency six months in advance of filing.
- Face a prohibitive means test makes it much more difficult to file Chapter 7 and get a fresh start, and judges who can request a switch to Chapter 13 instead.
- Pay more money for filing costs (including lawyer fees, which will increase because lawyers now have personal liability if the client is rejected)
- Pay for and attend a mandatory financing and budget class before the debt is discharged.
They can join the masses of people filing for bankruptcy because of medical expenses (50% of the total in 2001, when dependents are included).
Looks like the Credit Card and Oil companies will profit, as usual, from disaster. An embarrassment of riches, except no one seems to be embarrassed. Who exactly is Bush protecting here?
posted by Lazyqueer @ 11:04 AM
Today I:
1) Made 55 servings on yellow curry with onions, cabbage, pepper, mushrooms, and free-range chicken and froze them in 55 separate plastic bags. They all go in the fridge of my wonderful mother who insists she has not gotten tired of it yet.
2) Argued and emerged victorious against a business that was trying to stop Stef from getting a promotion she had earned. This is the culmination of a 2-month-long battle my mom, sister, and I have been having with them over various promotions that they have unfairly denied us and we have had to email and email and email just to get. Luckily, we are obsessive and stubborn, so it wasn't a problem.
This is without a doubt the most productive day I have ever had, beating the previous front-runner when I managed to eat an entire bag of cheetos and a pint of Ben and Jerry's "Pistachio Pistachio" while watching the entire season of The L Word. A show, by the way, that will be guest-starring the venerable Alan Cumming for 6 episodes.
A head's up for all you people who like good TV (I found this great list of TV premieres:
Monday, Sept 19th @ 8PM on Fox - Arrested Development
Tuesday, Sept 20th @ 9:30PM on NBC - The Office
Thursday, Sept 23rd @ 9PM on CBS - CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Sunday, Sept 25th @ 9PM on Fox on ABC - Desperate Housewives
I didn't even mean to have one on each network, I'm just cool like that. If you consider cool to be looking forward to a TV show on each of the major networks and don't pretend you don't.
That is going to be one good week. And the last before I will, supposedly, start law school at UW. So I won't be doing ANYTHING.
The OC premieres on the 8th of September, but last season was either boring or horribly upsetting, so I think they're off my DVR. Okay, maybe not off, but I am not giving them a high priority. Oh no. They will be below even those design shows that Stef tapes on HGTV.
posted by Lazyqueer @ 2:42 AM
