Posted in 51 Percent, Feminism, Feminist Majority, NOW, Politics, women, tagged Harkin, Health Care Reform, Senate on November 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
The Iowa Independent reports that The GOP is threatening a filibuster of the health bill, by reading the entire thing. It makes me wish I could get C-Span all over again. Senator Tom Harkin is promising that if they do the Dems will maneuver to delay Thanksgiving break. How many 24 hr. days to you need to read 2000 odd pages?
Harkin thinks they have the 60 votes, expects a motion to proceed by Friday and have it all over but the shouting by the Christmas Holiday. Lovely. Read the link:
Posted in 51 Percent, Feminism, Feminist Majority, Media, NOW, photography, Politics, The New Agenda, women, tagged ethnobotany, Indigenous, Luiseño, native plants on November 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
My ethnobotany calendar arrived today from WaterTurtleWeaver and it’s great!! The photos are sharp and luscious. They are placed around a smallish black calendar page that is without holidays and such. I think that was a wise choice, because it reinforces the idea of the rhythm of seasonality of the plants and activities shown in each month.
I was always interested in plants, I think, from the time Mom first started carting my brother and me around to the various landscaping centers in Southern California. (There were some pretty amazing ones there in the late fifties.) Later in an Oregon college, I studied botany with an interest in native plants.
Little did I know that my brother would be the one to experience a botanical life, with my sister-in-law. Her exploration and development of her heritage as a weaver, and teacher are admirable.
In any event, based on the acknowledgements at the back of the calendar, it’s clear that it was the result of a huge collaboration of people and organizations, dedicated to the idea presenting native plants and indigenous peoples’ use of them.
If you want a calendar, or to see some of her projects go to the WaterTurtleWeaver website HERE. If you are interested learning more about ethnobotany, especially in Southern California, try Deborah Small HERE.
Posted in 51 Percent, Children, Feminism, Feminist Majority, NOW, Politics, The New Agenda, tagged Abortion Rights, Health Reform, HR 3962 on November 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Sorry. No time to get this out today. I’m still reading the health bill. If you also want to read it, HERE is the link Nancy Pelosi’s website. The House Version of the Bill H.R. 3962 is available in a .pdf download link on the upper right hand corner, under Issue Spotlight. H.R. 3961 is now part of the bill and won’t download, so I think It’s attached somewhere.
Posted in 51 Percent, Feminism, Feminist Majority, Media, NOW, Politics, The New Agenda, women, tagged Botnet, Dark Reading, Email, FBI, InformationWeek, Malware, NetWorkWorld, Spam, Virus on November 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Last year around this time I was sending out a post on holiday email viruses. While I haven’t seen any outstanding holiday items yet, I did have one possible scam in relation to a just completed online bank transaction. Their email displayed the bank’s logo and looked pretty official. (more…)
Posted in 51 Percent, Feminism, I Own My Vote, just say no deal, LGBT, Politics, PUMA PAC, The New Agenda, women, tagged Bigotry, Ethnicity, Ft Hood, Human Rights, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, Race, Religion, Women's Rights on November 15, 2009| 1 Comment »
Last week I found this older item in the BBC news. I had thought to do a little post around it. I would ask, what is religion, and how is it defined? Is it defined as Abrahamic, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Iranian, Kurdish, Western, Folk or Far Eastern? Or do we take the religious edifice we have constructed, break it into shards, pick up one to admire and kick at the rest?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8327636.stm
After asking those questions, (more…)
Posted in 51 Percent, Children, Feminism, I Own My Vote, just say no deal, LGBT, Politics, PUMA PAC, The New Agenda, women, tagged Biden, Bolton, Boxer, CEDAW, ERA, Leaque of Women's Voters, NRLC, Obama, Patricia Smith, UNIFEM, United Nations, US Senate Committe on Foreign Relations on November 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »
ERA TODAY!!!
On December 3rd, the United Nations as part of the “30th Anniversary Celebration Event” will hold a global celebration recognizing the adoption of “Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women”(CEDAW) in 1979. I don’t know if you recall, but the United States, in it’s “great” role as a women’s rights advocate, still hasn’t ratified this UN measure.
Briefly, CEDAW treaty signers (more…)
Posted in 51 Percent, Election, election reform, Feminism, I Own My Vote, just say no deal, Politics, PUMA PAC, The New Agenda, women, tagged Berg, Lawsuit, Obama on November 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »
The FEC reports that the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, on November 12th, affirmed Pennsylvannia’s Court decision regarding Berg V Barack Obama, et al. For all the documentation regarding this, go HERE.
Lest you have forgotten, this case attempted to present evidence regarding Obama’s ineligibility to run for and serve as president, However, the lower court determined that Berg was not personally injured, and therefore had no standing to bring the suit.
Having taken a brief gander a the appeals court’s opinion, as a non expert, it looks like Berg’s suit was a mess. See what you think.
Posted in 51 Percent, Children, Feminism, Great American Women, I Own My Vote, just say no deal, The New Agenda, women, tagged NIHI, Solano Co. Cat on November 13, 2009| 1 Comment »
If you haven’t got your H1N1 shot yet and you aren’t allergic to eggs, go get your gal-durn shot. If you are allergic to eggs and don’t have medical insurance with which to get medical advice, contact these people:
Solano County CA. has now confirmed the death of a six year old. A forty-year old man died recently, 80 people have been hospitalized and we have had one school dismissal. Maybe that doesn’t seem like much in a population of more than 400 thousand. Why do you want to be one of the lucky ones that got it?
Then, there is this, a now confirmed case of H1N1 in a cat. If yours aren’t feeling well, get it checked out.
Posted in 51 Percent, Children, Feminism, I Own My Vote, just say no deal, LGBT, Politics, PUMA PAC, The New Agenda, women, tagged Rape, Sexual Grooming, Sexual Predators on November 12, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Previously titled “A Marin County Ghost Story”. (what can I say; I was tired, this sounds better.)
Long ago in a faraway place called Marin County, I took a job selling Champion motor homes. My husband and I hadn’t been married that long, maybe 3 years. We had two toddlers. Money was tight. Because we were living in SF at the time and had only one car, my husband, who had met the man and found me this job, drove me there for what was supposed to be the first day of many, with idea I would take the bus back, a trip of at least an hour.
As many of you more savvy people might anticipate, after my husband left, the sexual innuendos began. So well ok, the guy is a jerk. It was the 70’s, free sex was all around, and I was 22. Pretty much for the entire day the sexual advances continued. I’m thinking I’ll just handle it and not come back. The lot closed and others left, one coming to say goodbye with an odd look.
It was time for me to go and catch the bus. He blocked the entrance to the motor home I was in. He was friendly, but blocking the entrance saying it’s too far to take the bus and he is going to give me ride home. So now the question, do I attempt to push by the guy or will this get worse? The lot was dark, my husband was an hour away, it was before cell phones, and he wasn’t going to let me in the office to make a call. He was pretty insistent at this point that we should have sex.
It was all so friendly and calm, it was the 70’s and sex wasn’t a big deal, HIV/AIDS wasn’t known yet. Even so, I didn’t want to have sex with this asshole. Was it better to keep it calm and friendly or could it escalate? So I made a bargain. I gave him a blowjob. Yes, it was still sex, but I didn’t have to get naked, I didn’t have to lie down. He didn’t touch my body. I could have bitten him, and run out, but in the 70’s in Marin County, in the dark, I might not have made it anywhere whole.
Afterwards he took me home. The next day he called my husband and apologized to him, not me. ( Had he thought my husband was offering me up?) I wouldn’t talk to him. He tried to tell my husband that he had a good wife and family and didn’t know why he did this. (Meaning he did it more than once?) He wanted my husband to feel sorry for him. In thinking about it, this incident may be one reason why I prefer to drive myself places.
Today in 2009, a lot of us, including me, would handle this kind of thing differently. However, even when we do our best to protect ourselves, there are times when we just don’t recognize the pattern until it is too late.
Why am I telling what will certainly be an icky story for my granddaughter to read? The answer is that I never told my older daughter. Now, as she is beginning a sexual harassment lawsuit against her former employer, I realize I have left out some important information to pass on. We are strong women; we can survive just about anything.
However, don’t assume a sexual harasser can be managed. You shouldn’t have to. Just because you make it one day or the next doesn’t mean that if an opportunity arises a predator will refrain. After the second time you have to say no, start a journal. Complain to Human Resources. Don’t think sexual grooming happens only to children. If a sexual predator attempts to groom you and fails, don’t assume he will just leave you alone. Expect retaliation. The jails are full of people, mostly men, who are incredibly personable and have spent most of their years planning how to get you, and are very patient. Don’t manage, do what it takes to stop it. Whatever that is.
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The Silent Majority: Adult Victims of Sexual Exploitation by Clergy
EMOTIONAL ABUSE in the workplace.
Communication Tactics Used By Sexual Predators To Entrap Children Explained
Posted in 51 Percent, Feminism, Great American Women, I Own My Vote, just say no deal, Politics, PUMA PAC, The New Agenda, tagged Alaska, Arlington, baskets, CA, Endangered Sites, ethnobotany, Fairfield, Ft Hood, Homeless Vets, Indigenous, Keith Little, Library of Congress, Mills College, National Native American Heritage, National Park Service, National Trust for Historic Preservation, New Hampshire, Obama, parade, Patriot, Peterboro, Tammy Duckworth, weaving on November 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »
WAPO is commemorating Veteran’s Day, with an article on Tammy Duckworth and the new generation at the VA.
Today’s Christian Science Monitor’s article discusses new attempts to help homeless vets. I have to say I don’t think there has been this much Federal activity in this direction since Governor Reagan. You may remember him. He’s the one that did so much in aid of the population’s growth in CA when he shut down thousands of hospital beds as a cost cutter.
President Obama was busy speechifying at Arlington, as he did yesterday in Fort Hood, Texas.
New Hampshire’s Peterboro, the company that has been making USAn made baskets since 1854, is offering a few patriotically themed baskets in celebration of Veterans Day. You know the ones; they make picnic, pie and bicycle baskets.
My hometown is having a parade in just a few minutes, and I’ve been searching for my display flag, the one my mother gave me, all day. I haven’t been able to find it since we packed a few things into storage.
Elsewhere around the Bay area, these VA events are happening.
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On Oct 30 Barack Obama proclaimed November as National Native American Heritage Month. (NNAHM)
Indigenous peoples in Alaska are giving informative lectures on various tribes and nations.
As well, in Alaska, the Juneau Empire is featuring daily, a different member of the Juneau native community.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is taking applications for their 2010 list of Endangered Native American Places.
The Library of Congress has put together an interview and web page on Keith M Little, Navajo code talker during WWII.
The National Park Service has nicely featured in their National Register of Historic Places, properties relating to “American Indian Heritage Month”.
Mills College, in Oakland, CA is commemorating the month with various activities. The next will be an evening of music and dinner on November 19th.
WaterturtleWeaver has a new 2010 ethnobotany calandar on sale, that looks scrumptious! The project was a cooperative effort including well known artist-ethnologist Deborah Small and photographer-weaver Rose Ramierz.
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Grab and Keel 