How I feel on this International Women’s Day . . .
This is gonna be a shorter one, with no audio, because it’s mainly to say that my Pussy Hat and I are not doing okay. Women’s rights are getting more flicked all the time. (And I think you know I don’t mean “flicked,” but I’m a lady. 🙂 )
To “celebrate” International Women’s Day, I’m just sending you to a fun post I did a while back on modern Ladyhood. Enjoy reading this throwback HERE.
I talk about Wonder Woman, thruples, good guys, bad guys, lady parts — and even include a few tweets from the dude who was President at the time. ‘Member him?? (As if we could forget.)
Luckily things have gotten so much better! NOT.
It’s old news that our Supreme Court made it possible last year for states that are almost the size of Western Europe (i.e., Texas) to force a woman — or girl — to have a baby, no matter who knocked her up, and without holding that male accountable for helping to raise the kid.
But now a court ruling on blocking nationwide access to a safe, medical early-pregnancy termination drug is expected to drop any day now. Decided by a Trump-appointed judge. Welcome to the USA. You’ve come a long way, baby.
In better news (for yours truly, anyway) . . . !
The audio from my Murder House post has been downloaded in both Hamburg, New Jersey and Hamburg, Germany. Also in India, Switzerland and the U.K. And the cuckoo-headed “United” States.
Hey, Happy International Women’s Day, my friends — male, female, or abstaining from either. Next time I’ll go back to my regular programming. (Maybe 🙂 )
New! LISTEN to this blog here.Or just read on . . .
Over and out.
Have I ever mentioned that, a few years ago, as part of a workshop, I created a “possibility” for who I am in the world?
After playing around with various options, I announced to the room:
“I am the possibility of contribution wrapped in fun.”
I often forget that. Or wonder if “contribution” was something I felt I should say. I do like fun, though, and think I’m pretty good at it. And come to think of it, I’m not bad at contributing, either. Some might say that’s an understatement, given my bossy-pants/know-it-all tendencies. At least I can say both come naturally.
I’d already created this blog, as an easily digestable way to help people get their heads around environmental issues, and what to do about them . . . between jobs, dentist appointments, $1 oyster nights at the pub, and so forth. And then I decided to create the book I’m now working on. Which is similar to the blog . . . but longer.
News flash: “Longer” takes longer. But you can read the latest excerpt HERE.
Oh, well, I guess the planet’s not going anywhere. And a new year always feels like a good time to regroup. Especially when December saw your full-time gig end, and your love life go up in flames. (I’ll cover the latter down at the end of this post, if you’re interested. Look for the gas can.)
Meanwhile I’ll take this opportunity to quickly get us all up to speed on the progress, setbacks, and downright insanity of our society’s planetary stewardship (and/or lack thereof), so you don’t have to.
It’s Thanksgiving weekend, 2020 style! I hope you didn’t get stuck with an entire boatload of Brussels sprouts all to yourself, while your brother and sister-in-law now have to figure out what to do with twelve pounds of uneaten turkey. (As happened with some friends who called their family gathering off rather late in the game.)
Meanwhile Citizen Deb herself (moi) has been trying to decide what to write about . . .
Should I do a special holiday-weekend romp about the Pilgrims and the “Indians”?
Do I create a QUIZ to test your knowledge on Trump’s myriad environmental rollbacks over the last four years?
OR do I just pour myself a large glass of wine and eat some leftovers?
Well, obviously the answer is all three.
See, as I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been listening to an audio book of Washington Irving’s seriously funnyHistory of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty by Deidrich Knickerbocker — which Irving wrote in 1809. I mean, anything that starts at the beginning of the world has Citizen Deb written all over it. (It also happens to be how my own book-in-progress starts.)
But then I was looking over all the envirollbacks [sic] that Biden is going to have to try to unroll come January 20th. Or maybe it’ll be the job of John Kerry, the just-appointed “Climate Envoy” — Biden’s newly created cabinet-level position.
What?? Yeah, baby!!! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!
Actually, Kerry’s job probably won’t involve EPA rollbacks, since the EPA (at least under the outgoing administration) doesn’t recognize the climate crisis or carbon emissions as part of their wheelhouse of protecting American citizens. The last four years they’ve been focusing more on protecting corporate billionaires’ profit margins, which meant a lot of undoing of regulations.
Remember the hamberders? It feels like a million years ago.
King Trump himself did (sort of) recognize climate change when he signed an Executive Order (EO) revoking Obama’s EO that set a goal of lowering the federal government’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent over 10 years. Even though it’s just a “goal,” King Trump didn’t think we needed that one . . . perhaps because his very good brain doesn’t comprehend “future”? I don’t know.
Each rollback is pretty bad. Like the one that loosened the offshore drilling safety regulations that Obama implemented after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. Whatever. I’m sure the honor system is fine.
But it’s when you read them all in a row that you think, “Why??? Why did they want to bring back over 100 practices that are clearly terrible for people?” Or perhaps you think, “Exactly how evil is this guy and his cronies?” Or is it that he and his cronies have some misconstrued view of the world and its inhabitants?
Actual size
After all, we’ve had misconstrued views of folks since the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, and the Pilgrims didn’t know what to make of the unexpected brown people peeping at them from behind the trees.
It’s old news that Europeans pushed the natives into practical extinction throughout the Americas. Even 200 years ago, the young Washington Irving was pointing it out, by creating a brilliant satirical defense from his fictional “author” Diedrich Knickerbocker, who dutifully rationalizes the colonial genocide. (I especially like when he compares our invasion of the natives’ America with the Moon’s inhabitants’ invasion of ours — so hang tight for that.)
In his so-called History of New York, “Knickerbocker” begins his defense with a question:
Citizen Deb 